Burning Hammer Tape Review #7

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WCW: Hog Wild 1996
August 10, 1996

--Taped from Sturgis, SD

--Your hosts are Dusty Rhodes, Tony Schiavone, & Bobby Heenan

--WCW Cruiserweight Championship Match: Ultimo Dragon (W/Sonny Onoo) V. Rey Mysterio Jr.. The dumb fucks at WCW may call him Ultimate Dragon, but there's no way in hell that I'm going to call him that. Nice matwork to start, which includes Mysterio busting out a Legbar, and a Seated Texas Cloverleaf for those who say he never uses any submissions. Running Lyger Bomb by Dragon. Inverted Torture Rack Drop by Dragon. Springboard Dropkick to the back of the head by Mysterio sends Dragon outside, and Mysterio follows with an insanely SWANK~ Springboard Plancha. Back in the ring, Dragon counters another springboard move with a Dropkick to the stomach. German Suplex by Dragon gets 2. Moonsault Press by Dragon gets another 2. Mysterio gets the pin at 11:36 with a Springboard Avalanche Hurricanrana. ***3/4 The psychology wasn't exactly perfect here, but the effort and crispness with which they hit all of their moves more than made up for it.

--Scott Norton V. Ice Train. Train's arm is heavily taped due to Giant kicking the shit out of him on the pre-PPV hype show. Norton wins the match at 5:05 via ref stoppage after putting Train in a Fujiwara Armbar. * Nothing spectacular, but the match was psychologically sound. Big kudos to Train for selling, and not using, the injured arm the entire match.

--Battle Of The Bikes Match: Bull Nakano (W/Sonny Onoo) V. Madusa. Winner gets to smash up the losers bike. Hmmm, we're at a Harley rally, and Nakano drove a Honda to the ring while Madusa drove a Harley to the ring, I wonder who's going to win? This would be Madusa's first push, and one of her first matches after having her magic funbags installed, and you can really see them affect her ring work. Nakano goes to the Swinging Sharpshooter real early, and that's a definite sign that this will not be a long match. Hurricanrana by Madusa gets 2. Madusa gets the pin at 5:23 after lifting her shoulder up following a Nakano Backdrop Driver where both ladies shoulders were on the ground. 3/4* Definitely not Nakano's best work, and Madusa was sloppy as could be here.

--Dean Malenko V. Chris Benoit (W/Woman & Miss Elizabeth). The story here was that the Dungeon Of Doom was paying off Malenko to take out Benoit, and this was the match he was going to accomplish the deed in. Lots of awesome matwork to start. The announcers are really bad in the match, focusing on the main event later on. Shit, if the people are already watching this match, then they've already bought the PPV, so stop trying to sell the damn PPV already. Both men collide on duel Crossbodies. Benoit hits a vicious Kamikaze Headbutt, which knocks him out as well as Malenko. Tombstone Piledriver by Malenko gets 2. Malenko hit a Running Crossbody on Benoit that sends both guys up and over the top-rope and tumbling to the outside. Superplex by Benoit knocks both guys out. German Suplex by Malenko gets 2. Overhead Belly-To-Belly Suplex by Malenko gets 2. Benoit counters another one with a Northern Lights Suplex for 2. Torture Crab Hold by Benoit, but Malenko fights his way to the ropes. Plancha to the outside by Benoit. Wildbomb by Benoit only gets 2. Time-limit expires at 19:51, but referee Nick Patrick declares that there has to be a winner, so we go to a 5 minute overtime. Tilt-A-Whirl Backbreaker by Benoit gets 2. Benoit applies a Texas Cloverleaf, but Malenko refuses to submit, so Benoit lets go of the hold. Benoit switches tactics and goes after Malenko's knee, working it over to set up a Kneebar. Time-limit once again expires at 25:43, but once again Patrick sends the match to a 5 minute overtime. Dragonscrew Legwhip by Malenko, who can barely walk now because of all the work Benoit did on his knee. Dragon Suplex, Benoit's finisher at the time, only gets 2 for Benoit. Malenko goes to his finisher, the Texas Cloverleaf. He switches to an STF in mid-move to stop Benoit from making the ropes. Woman distracts Malenko, which allows Benoit to get a Rollup for the pin at 28:11. ****1/4 Great match, with both guys busting ass for the whole 30 minutes, and only a stupid finish hurts the match.

--WCW Tag Team Championship Match: Steiner Brothers V. Harlem Heat (W/Col. Parker & Sister Sherri). The Steiners are of course Rick & Scott Steiner, and this was around the time that both Rick's age and Scott's rampant steroid abuse caught up to their ability to be good performers in the ring. The Heat are another real-life set of brothers, Booker T & Stevie Ray. Stall-o-mania to start, with the Heat inducing the rednecks in the crowd into a frenzy, and they keep on revving their damn engines for the rest of the match. Booker gets the pin on Scott at 17:53 after Parker broke a cane over Scott's head. **1/4 Match was getting good in the middle, but then the match turned into a contest between Booker & Stevie over who would be the first to bore me to death, Booker with his Chinlock, or Stevie with his Nerve Grip. I'm calling it a tie since both guys made me want to claw my eyes out from pure boredom.

--WCW United States Championship Match: Eddie Guerrero V. Ric Flair (W/Woman & Miss Elizabeth). Shoving match & slapfest to start, so Flair bails to the outside. Guerrero Irish Whips Flair into the corner, which allows Flair to deliver the patented Flair Flip, but in a nice change of pace Eddie cuts off his path to the other turnbuckle with a Dropkick instead of the usual Clothesline. Figure Four Leglock by Eddie, but Flair makes the ropes. Hurricanrana by Eddie gets 2. SWEET~ Tornado DDT by Eddie gets another 2 count. Eddie hits the Frog Splash, but he hurts his knee and can't make the cover. Hurting your knee is not something you want to do in a Flair match, and as expected it leads to Flair applying the Figure Four Leglock with some added leverage from Woman pulling down on FlairÔs hands. Flair gets the pin at 14:17 when Eddie's shoulders are counted down while he's caught in the Figure Four Leglock. ***1/2 Good match & the interaction between Flair & Eddie in this match was priceless. Still, the possibilities with these two in the ring together are endless, and this match was only the tip of the iceberg.

--Outsiders V. Sting, Lex Luger. The Outsiders are Kevin Nash & Scott Hall for those of you who weren't aware of that. Hall gets the pin on Luger at 14:36 after referee Nick Patrick clipped Luger in his knee, and delivered a fast count. That was the not so subtle start of Patrick's evil NWO ref heel turn. 1/4* One very long, and very boring heel beatdown session.

--WCW Heavyweight Championship Match: Hulk Hogan V. Giant (W/Jimmy Hart) Hogan had just turned heel in the month previous to this, and was using the Hollywood gimmick as a member of the New World Order. Giant, who was quite the athlete at this time, would later become the useless slug known as the Big Show in the WWF/E. Hogan wins the match and the title by pin at 14:56 after hitting Giant in the head with the title belt. -** Ugly, brutally bad match. It was all stalling & restholds, and whoever in their fucking mind came up with the idea of giving these two guys 14+ minutes to wrestle with needs to be taken out back and flogged.

--Final Flash: This was the blue print for just about every WCW PPV during the NWO era. Decent to really good under/mid-card matches, followed by some truly shitty upper-card matches. There was still some primo wrestling on this PPV, no matter how bad some of the matches were.

Recommended.

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