LET’S SPREAD SOME LOVE AROUND
I was really pleased with the response to last week’s column. Thanks again to everyone who took the time to write in.
It seems that I’m not the only one who is a big fan of great technical wrestling, stiff strikes, crazy bumps, solid psychology, long matches that tell a compelling story, and gifted athletes who give their all in the ring. Some people wrote to tell me about matches that they feel fit all of the above criteria. Others wrote asking me to recommend more such matches.
There are few things I enjoy more than helping to spread the love of great wrestling, so over the next few weeks, let’s do exactly that. I’m going to pimp a bunch of matches that combine all of the things I love about Pro Wrestling, and I’m going to ask you to write in using the link below, or to post on our forums, and add your recommendations to mine.
IT HELPS TO START WITH GREAT WRESTLERS
This is not the last we’ll hear of Vader this week
Szulczewski will disagree with this one, but i’d have to say that Bret Hart was one of the very few WWF workers who regularly wrestled the kind of match that I enjoy. I think that the most compelling counter-argument to Eric’s column is the simple fact that Bret wrestled genuinely great matches against a wide variety of opponents. I wrote about his match with Piper at WrestleMania VIII last week. Over the last few months, I’ve watched several awesome Bret matches against such wrestlers as Mr. Perfect, Steve Austin, Ricky Steamboat, Bad News Allen, Ted DiBiase, and especially The Dynamite Kid.
The Coliseum video “Best of The British Bulldogs” tape had a Bret vs. Dynamite match that remains one of my all-time favourites to this day. The two have an amazing ring chemistry dating back to their days in Stu Hart’s Stampede Wrestling promotion. Their little-known singles match is astonishingly fast paced, stiff, and exciting compared to the typical lumbering standard of the WWF in those days. Dynamite twice drops knees that look very much like they should have caved Bret Hart’s face right in. Hopefully the match will make it onto the three disc set that will be released this November 15.
In fact, no offense to Eric, here’s a whole list of matches that I’d love to see on the set:
From Stampede:
Bret vs. Duke Myers (Coal Miner’s Glove)
vs. Dynamite Kid (Ladder)
vs. Archie Goldie
Bret & Keith Hart vs. Kiwis
Bret vs. Davey-Boy Smith (Stu Hart Tribute Show)
From Japan:
vs. Tiger Mask II (Misawa)
Hart Foundation Matches:
vs. British Bulldogs (SNME 2/3 falls)
vs. British Bulldogs (MSG July 1987)
vs. BrainBusters (SS ’89)
vs. Road Warriors
vs. Demolition (SS ’90)
vs. Nasty Boys (WM VII)
Bret in the WWF as a singles star:
vs. Ricky Steamboat (from the Coliseum Hart Foundation video)
vs. Dynamite Kid (From the Coliseum British Bulldogs video)
WM II Battle Royal (Bret is the last man eliminated, by Andre)
vs. Mr. Perfect (SS ’91)
His matches from KOTR ’91
vs. Roddy Piper (WM VIII)
vs. Davey-Boy (SS ’92)
vs. Flair (Bret wins title, Saskatoon house show)
vs. Michaels (SS’92)
vs. Flair (Boston Garden Iron Man match)
His matches from KOTR ’93
vs. Owen (Iron Man match – They had three in the summer of 1994, any of which would do)
vs. Owen (WM X)
vs. Nash (SS’95, Bret wins the World Title for the third time)
vs. Davey-Boy (IYH Dec. ’96)
vs. Austin (SS ’96)
RR ’97 Austin cheats Bret out of the win
vs. Terry Funk (One of Funk’s many retirement matches)
IYH Final Four
vs. Austin (WM XIII)
IYH Canadian Stampede!!!!
Montreal Screwjob redux
From WCW:
vs. Flair (Souled Out ’98)
vs. Perfect (Uncensored ’98)
vs. Sting (HH’98)
Bret knocks Goldberg out with a shovel and quits the WCW.
WWA:
Bret the Commish shoots on everybody
Most of us already own the Cage Match vs. Owen, which is on Bloodbath, and the Owen Tribute match, which is on Hard Knocks, so I hope they will not be reissued on the Bret DVD, even though they are obviously among his best matches. I also have the British Bulldog IC Title match and the infamous Montreal match against The Heart Break Kid on a Best of Confidential DVD, but I’d like to see them with alternate commentary.
ON A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT PLANE
When I’m burnt out on RAW and SmackDown! it sometimes helps to turn to old school WWF wrestling. Other times, I find myself in need of something completely different. When I find myself growing fed up of the Sports Entertainment aspects of the current corporate product, and I feel the need to watch some wrestling that’s presented with dignity and respect, nothing hits the spot more precisely than a little UWF-I.
Takada vs. Severn
The Union of Wrestling Forces International was formed by Nobuhiko Takada in 1991 after the dissolution of the Universal Wrestling Federation. The UWF, UWF-I, and other promotions like Akira Maeda’s RINGS, Fujiwara’s PWFG, BattleArts, and the currently active U-Style, all traffic to a greater or lesser extent in what is known as shoot style. Generally speaking, shoot style wrestling matches have predetermined outcomes, but the strikes, holds and suplexes that make up the bulk of most shoot style matches are applied with full force. There is no running the ropes, no flippy floppy high flying, and no outside interference in a shoot style match. Every UWF-I bout that I’ve seen has ended cleanly with a submission or a knock out, and not even the top stars of the promotion were immune from doing clean jobs.
UWF-I title matches are presented with all the solemn ceremony of an Olympic contest. In the match that I’m going to recommend you all seek out if you haven’t already seen it, Lou Thesz personally presents the victor with the NWA Undisputed World Championship belt that he himself once wore.
Veteran Shoot Style wrestling fans are probably rolling their eyes that I’m pimping such an obvious match, but there is no doubt in my mind that the series contested by Vader and Takada from ’93 through ’95 is the best starting place for any North American pro wrestling fan interested in exploring this very realistic and hard-hitting style.
The middle of their three matches, from August 1994, is an absolute classic of the genre. It has been called the stiffest worked match of all time, and with good reason. Still, I slightly prefer their December ’93 battle, partly because of the insane crowd heat (the match drew 40,000 people), partly because of the presence and involvement of the legendary Thesz, and partly because it was the first great shoot style match that I ever saw and the match that got me hooked on this style of wrestling.
Mostly, I love this match and recommend it to you because there is almost nothing in the annals of Pro Wrestling that is further removed from the Diva Searches and male soap operas that so many of us have grown tired of.
Thanks for reading!
