Match of the Day - The birth of the streak!

The Undertaker vs. Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka - Wrestlemania VII (1991)

Only a few months after the fresh (yet dead) new competitor known as The Undertaker made his debut at Survivor Series, he was thrown into a match at the biggest WWF PPV of the year against Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka. While challenging Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka is never a walk in the park, you can see here that this was boot-era Jimmy Snuka and therefore lacked the "Superfly" powers that he once possessed.

'Taker would go on to win 20 more of these WM matches, and is looking for his 22nd win this Sunday against "The Beast Incarnate" Brock Lesnar. Many people on the internet say that the only wrestler that can really put an end to the streak is Kane - who has failed two times already. I, on the other hand, believe that it takes someone who can tie the whole streak back together, and since Jimmy Snuka is well passed his glory days to return, it looks like it's up to another Snuka; it looks like it's up to Tamina "The daughter of Hall of Famer Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka" Snuka to put an end to the streak!

Song of the Day - O.P.P.

O.P.P. - Naughty By Nature from Naughty By Nature (1991)

Are you down wit O.P.P.?

Yeah, you know me.

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Match of the Day - The WCW Halloween Havoc phantom!

The WCW Halloween Havoc Phantom vs. "Z-Man" Tom Zenk - Halloween Havoc (1991)

The masked and mustached WCW Halloween Havoc phantom squashes Tom Zenk before relieving his true identity to the WCW audience in 1991.

Enjoy and Happy Halloween!

Match of the Day - Duggan/Slaughter flag match for Flag Day

Hacksaw Jim Duggan vs. Sgt. Slaughter - Flag Match - 2nd Annual Battle of the WWF Superstars (1991)

Hacksaw defends Old Glory against the ultra-heel Sargent Slaughter in his 1991 pro-Iraqi run; a time we'd like to forget.

It's a crazy match filled with lots of interferences, lumber, and camouflage.

Happy Flag Day!

Match of the Day - The WM7 Blindfold Match

"We always do it better in the dark" - Jake Roberts

Jake "The Snake" Roberts vs. "The Model" Rick Martel - Blindfold match - WrestleMania VII (1991)

Many consider this little gimmick match at the All-American/Undertaker streak debut WrestleMania to be a pretty crappy match. Yes, it does feature two athletes who could wrestle the hell out of each other with bags over their heads, but that's looking at the whole scheme of things out of context. Without the knowledge of the feud these two had between each other in 1991 and the back story, a back story literally built months in advance, one should not assume this match was picked from a raw roulette wheel in the back featuring two guys Vinny Mac forgot to put on the card that year. 

Okay then... the back story: 

Some time after "The Model" Rick Martel introduced his very own line of cologne - properly named: "Arrogance", which was kept in a large atomizer, Martel began using it arrogantly on his opponents by spraying it into their eyes. One night during The Brother Love show with special guest, Jake Roberts, Martel sneaked up behind Roberts while he was dropping a stunning promo about love or something and sprayed his pet snake, Damien with the perfume. Before Roberts could retaliate he was sprayed directly into his eyes, blinding him! Eventually Roberts appeared to be healed, but only to reveal that he had snake eyes! Dun dun dun. Roberts and Martel would feud with one another all throughout 1991, including facing off at Survivor Series with their own respective teams (Robert's team was called The Vapors and Martel's team was called The Visionaries, a rib on Roberts and his blindness). Eventually, the two would settle their differences once and for all at the WM in a match right up Roberts alley. Seeing as Roberts now had an extra sense because he was some sort of blind snake metaphor, it was only fitting that he challenge Martel in a blindfold match where The Model would have to experience the darkness that Roberts was living in for months. 

Now don't get me wrong, this is a silly match for WrestleMania. If you look at the events leading up to this match, however, it really does make sense. Hell, I think it would have been even more interesting if the whole arena was pitch black so everyone could see what it was like to be blind. Image that: a blindfold lights out match. Genius! 

Theme results:

WreslteMania: WM IV

Match of the Debut - The debut of Oz

Oz w/ The Great Wizard vs. Tim Parker - WCW SuperBrawl (1991)

In honor of the new Oz movie coming to theaters near you, I present wrestling's answer to the classic tale of The Wizard of Oz: a young 7 foot tall and very green (both in attire and experience) performer named, yep, Oz.

If you are thinking this is one of those gimmicks where the wrestler behind the old wizard mask and cape was eventually phased out of television and never seen again, you would actually be very, very wrong. Yes, Oz flopped like most of Dusty Rhodes's wildly bad ideas, but the man behind the wizard gimmick actually ended up becoming quite the star in both the WWF and WCW after a few more failed attempts at superstardom. Turns out, Oz is one of Kevin Nash's earliest gimmicks in his first run of WCW.

Kevin Nash, like a lot of other wrestlers around his time, recovered from a lot of bad gimmicks to become big name stars. Nash might be the biggest success story as no one else can say that they had to play the wrestling equivalent of Oz: the Great and Powerful.

Hopefully James Franco will have the same luck as Nash and start getting good roles eventually. And hey, I never said Nash was any better at wrestling after this...

Also, why was Nash's manager Merlin the Wizard? This is a question a see a lot online and something that still baffles me today. Maybe the new movie will explain it...

But probably not.

Kinda fun fact: Timothy (Tim) (Britten) Parker is also the name of a stage actor who played Doctor Dillmond in the Broadway production of Wicked, a musical about The Wicked Witch and other pre-Dorothy Wizard of Oz themes.

Song of the Day - Don, Aman

Slint - Don, Aman from Spiderland (1991)

Perfect for a cold night walk around a ghost town neighborhood.

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