Theme Week - Triple Threats

Plain and simple, every match this week will involve three people taking on each other. In honor of Sabu vs. Shane Douglas vs. Terry Funk from ECW's The Night The Line Was Crossed (1994) which took place 20 years ago this week.

Enjoy.

Match of the Day - Mr. T in his referee pj's takes on Kevin Sullivan + Santamania

Kevin Sullivan vs. Mr. T - WCW Starrcade (1994)

Tis the season for a Christmas disaster.

Part way through the match Mr. T gets his zebra shirt stuck on his hands rendering the toughest man in Chicago useless. Then the camera man falls over and T tries to pin him or something before Santa Claus comes out and stands around for too long. Eventually someone in the crowd takes Santa's hat off and reveals that he is Kevin Sullivan's wannabe Hulk Hogan brother, Dave. Dave then stuffs his Santa sack with Jimmy Hart's megaphone and clubs his brother over the head with it to help our handless hero, Mr. T win the match.

The segment ends with the crazed Kevin Sullivan seeking retribution on his jolly clad brother by beating Dave with his pants down, piledriving him, and smacking him around for a bit with the leather Santa belt. No run-in from the real Santa Claus to help Dave, no run-in from Hulk Hogan, no run-in from Hulk Hogan as Santa with muscles, no nothing. Merry Christmas.

Match of the Day - "The Nasty Boys are Cactus's toys"

The Nasty Boys vs. Cactus Jack (w/missing ear) & Maxx Payne - Chicago Street Fight for the WCW Tag Team Championship - Spring Stampede (1994)

Another one of those Nasty Boy street fights that goes out into the merchandise stand. According to WWE.com it's one of the best WCW matches of all time. What makes it better than the other street fights like this one in 1994? Was it Cactus & Payne? Was it the sheer brutality for '94? Was it the stiffness? Was it the table spot?

Maybe it was the Cactus Jack bump in perfect Mick Foley fashion (that has been well documented on this site) at that end there -  from the ramp to the floor - before getting whacked in the head with the shovel against his missing ear (Cactus lost it a month prier in German in his infamous match with Big Van Vader).

I didn't know the Nasty Boys were from Maine... It's spring time and they're still using snow shovels.

*Badabum tsch*

Match of the Day - That match where Steve Austin wrestles in a tuxedo

"Stunning" Steve Austin  vs. Johnny B. Badd - Tuxedo Match - WCW Worldwide (1994)

Part of Dust Rhodes's "Dream Match" during "May Mayhem". Sort of like an early Raw Roulette concept where wrestlers pick a gimmick match out of a hat to wrestle in that night. The object of a tuxedo match, if you haven't witnessed one before, is: the first person to strip their opponent of their tux wins.

"Ever seen a guy in an otter suit?" - Bobby Heenan

Match of the Day - That time Owen Hart won the World Title

Owen hart vs. Bret Hart (c) - WWF Coliseum Video Exclusive Lumberjack Match (1994)

Remember when Owen Hart won the WWF World Heavyweight Title?

No? Well don't worry, I don't either. Not just because this was a Coliseum Video exclusive (usually matches that were taped only to be released on special video packages) but because he actually doesn't.

Turns out even though this match looks like it ends with Owen Hart getting the pinfall on his older brother, Bret thanks to Jim Neidhart hitting "The Hitman" in the back with his anvil-tough arm, the decision is soon called-off thanks to the interference and the match is restarted and officially ends with Bret retaining his coveted gold. However, you don't see that part of the match as most of the "Owen Hart wins the WWF Title" videos online have this important part of the match cut out.

It's a shame that Owen didn't ever win the title though. Maybe not so much this way, but it would have been a really nice change from super face champion to bitter heel shadow-of-his-brother-no-more champion. Maybe this would have led to an earlier Attitude Era? I doubt it though. If anything Bret would have just won the title back at Survivor Series (where Bob Backlund beat "The Hitman" via submission) of that year.

Anyways, here's Owen Hart versus Bret Hart, brother versus brother, in a Lumberjack match featuring the oddball characters of 1994 and the closest time Owen Hart ever got to becoming a World Champion.

Oh yeah, and this happened in Portland, Maine.

Match of the Day - The Puerto Rican Ninja, Kwang!

Debut Monday:

Kwang vs. Ray Hudson - WWF Wrestling Challenge (1994)

In yet another attempt to package someone up as something they are not - as the WWF loved doing around this time - management decided to place Savio Vega under a "ninja" mask and send him off as a martial arts specialist, Asian wrestler. And while Vega did the best he could with the gimmick, including the green mist and having Harvey Wippleman in his corner, it just wasn't enough and he was soon phased out.

Phased out to become Savio Vega, Razor Ramon's friend of course.

Also, I'm aware that Savio Vega previously had a sort of "oriental" martial arts gimmick when he was TNT in WWC, but if you look at him there, were he actually got to speak his native language and show his face (just with facepaint on), it's a lot different than just being just dressed up as a ninja warrior with no character of his own.

Anyways, here's Kwang in his first match against a jobber named Ray Hudson according to Jim Ross.

Match of the Day - The Underfaker fakes out a ham & egger

Ted Dibiase's Undertaker vs. Mike Bell - Raw (1994)

Not too soon after Undertaker's demise at the hands of Yokozuna (with the help of Mr. Fuji's men of course) in the casket match at the 1994 Royal Rumble, The Undertaker would again resurface by his new manager, "The Million Dollar Man" Ted Dibiase. This Underatker was a little different than the last time we saw him however as he was now being controlled by money rather than the power of The Urn.

Eventually Paul Bearer would bring back the real Undertaker, now donning a sweet purple and black look, to destroy this impostor 'Taker and once again be WWF's only dead man.

Before The fake Undertaker or "Underfaker" took on The real Undertaker at Summerslam, he beat up a few jobbers on Raw to prove that he was definitely not the real Undertaker.

Mike Bell is the victim in this early sighting of The Underfaker played by Brian Lee who later wrestled as Chainz in the Disciples of Apocalypse (with a biker look before The real Undertaker did that too) and also as that guy who was pushed off a scaffold onto a dozen tables in ECW.

Mike Bell also wrestled in ECW under the nickname "Mad Dog". Bell can be seen in the film, Bigger, Faster, Stronger a documentary about drug and steroid abuse - a problem Bell had that led to his death at age 37.

Some may also know Bell as that guy Perry Saturn dropped on his head.

For Lee, the whole Undertaker deal didn't work out after Summerslam, but he did get to play The Undertaker in a Bollywood film called Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi where he "kills" Crush (Brian Adams) in a wrestling match on top of a building(?).

I've also heard that Brian Lee is Mark "The Undertaker" Calaway's real life cousin and that he once had an affair with Calaway's first wife. Whether or not the latter is true, Lee is a real life cousin to the Harris Brothers (who also wrestled in DOA along with Crush no less).