Match of the Day - The Raw Bowl

The Smoking Guns vs. Yokozuna & Owen Hart vs. Savio Vega & Razor Ramon vs. Sid & 1-2-3 Kid - The Raw Bowl - Monday Night Raw (1996)

Here's a match with just as many rules and regulations as the big game tonight.  All that is missing is a Bronco Buster and Sid wearing a number 22!? jersey. 

The rules to this match are actually pretty simple; it's just a tag team elimination match were if one member of the team gets pinned/submitted, that team is out of the game... err, match. Also, any wrestler can tag in any other wrestler whether it be their teammate or not - a stipulation that saw Owen Hart tag in Bart Gunn's own tag team partner, Billy, etc. Throw in Earl Hebner with a whistle and a yellow flag, cover the green canvas with yard lines, give the teams one time out, and voilà, you got the first and only, Raw Bowl.

Match of the Day - The one where Diesel tries to use Mad Dog Vachon's fake leg as a weapon

Diesel vs. Shawn Michaels - No Holds Barred match for the WWF Championship - In Your House 7: Good Friends, Better Enemies (1996)

Today, Canadian wrestling legend, Maurice "Mad Dog" Vachon passed away at age 84. Maurice, along with being part of the Vachon family, was also a multiple time heavyweight champion in AWA and WWE Hall of Famer. No disrespect to the man what-so-ever, but - despite all these accolades and accomplishments and rivalries with guys like The Crusher or Dick the Bruiser - I will always remember him most for his participation in the Diesel/Michaels match at In Your House 7 in 1996.

The match between Diesel and his former tag team partner, Shawn Michaels is a notable match in of itself as it serves as the last match that Kevin Nash ever played the character of Diesel in WWF before jumping ship to WCW (not counting a couple of years ago where Nash was dressed in the Diesel gear during his Royal Rumble return). The match was also a "No Holds Barred" match for Michaels' WWF championship and the first PPV or televised match Mad Dog Vachon ever got involved in. Well, a part of him got involved at least. See, Mad Dog Vachon was just a spectator in the audience that night until Diesel got out of the ring mid-match and threw the 67 year old man over the guardrail. Diesel then grabbed at Vachon's leg and ripped it off revealing an artificial leg that Vachon had from losing his real leg in a hit-and-run accident. That's when Diesel took Vachon's prosthetic leg and brought it into the ring to use against Michaels.

Unfortunately for Diesel, the leg was snagged away from him by the Heart Break Kid - who ended up using it to tune up the band and harness super "Mad Dog" powers for a devastating Sweet Chin Music. So devastating in fact that Kevin Nash was never seen in the WWE again until 2002. In a way, one could argue that it was the power of Mad Dog Vachon (and his fake leg) that drove Kevin Nash away all along.

Match of the Day - The man with 1000 holds vs. The World Class Olympic bobsledder

Dean Malenko vs. Chip Minton - WCW Worldwide (1996)

Dean Malenko takes on the "downhill scooter runner" Chip Minton in a Saturday morning squash.

Highlights of this short match include Bobby "The Brain" Heenan commentary and the solid ring work of Malenko.

Minton would later place fifth in the four-man bobsled race at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan and return to WCW much larger than before. Guess he was really ready to jerk the curtain some more.

Song of the Day - Hay

Crucial Conflict - Hay from The Final Tic (1996)

Smokin' on that hay. 90's hip-hop featuring the sample, "I'll Stay" by Funkadelic.

Last.fm

Song of the Day - El Scorcho

Weezer - El Scorcho from Pinkerton (1996)

"Watching Grunge leg drop New Jack through a press table"

Last.fm

Match of the Debut - JBL debuts as JHB on WWF Superstars January '96

Justin "Hawk" Bradshaw vs. Bob "Spark Plug" Holly - WWF Superstars (1996)

Before becoming a wealthy Fox News bigwig with a white cowboy hat, John Layfield was a rough and tough cowboy with Yosemite Sam as a manager. The JBL that I'm referring to is Justin "Hawk" Bradshaw, and that Yosemite Sam character I'm referencing would be good ol' Uncle Zeb Cotler.

In Bradshaw's first match in the Fed, the relatively green Texan takes on Bob Holly, who at this point was not called "Sparky" but was no where near "Hardcore". Holly does a good job of getting Bradshaw over while Bradshaw showed that someday, say eight years from this match, he could have a run with the World title.

Bradshaw's time as Justin "Hawk" Bradshaw, while short, had a few high points including his eight second match with Fatu, his gimmick of branding his initials into his opponents bodies after matches, and his strap match against Savio Vega. I guess it's also worth noting that both Bradshaw and Jack Swagger have had Zeb (Dutch Mantel) Colter as managers and both had some sort of anti-immigrant gimmick. See: JBLKicksOutIllegalImmigrants.avi.

Match of the Day - The Marty Garner Pedigree incident

Hunter Hearst Helmsley vs. Marty Garner - WWF Superstars (1996)

Everything was going well and dandy in this 1996 Hunter Hearst Helmsley match against a ham & egger named Marty Garner to promote Helmsley's match against Jake Roberts in the opening round for the King of the Ring tournament. That was until the "Conneticut Blueblood" delivered his trademark finisher still used on a part-time wrestling basis, the pedigree to put away poor Marty Garner. Garner being the inexperienced  rookie that he was mistook the pedigree as something else (like a double underhook suplex or powerbomb) and therefore jumped as if he was going to be lifted up and flipped over. The result: the deadliest looking pedigree of all time!

Marty Garner "fun" facts: He is good friends with Matt and Jeff Hardy as he got his start with them in their North Carolina wrestling promotion, OMEGA as "Cham Pain". He also wrestled as one of the Dupp Brothers in ECW as Puck Dupp and was The Rock's assistant in Walking Tall according to IMDB.

Match of the Day - Johnny Saint's retirement match

Johnny Saint vs. Naohiro Hoshikawa - Johnny Saint's retirement match - Michinoku Pro's These Days (1996)

While not a household name here in the States, Johnny Saint is a super icon in the UK where he performed for the World of Sport-era wrestling company, Big Time Wrestling. Saint is well known for his superb realist approach to the sport of professional wrestling and his uncanny reversals. He may not look like much, especially for American wrestling, "bigger is better" standards, but Saint is one hell of showmen with the mat skills to back it up. 

In 1996, Saint took on Naohiro Hoshikawa in his first ever match in Japan at Michinoku Pro Wrestling's event known as These Days. Along with his debut in Japan this would also be his last match for about 10 years. Saint would not return to in-ring action again until 2007 when he competed against another World of Sport-era wrestler, Johnny Kid in the British wrestling company, LDN.

Johnny Saint also wrestled for the first time in the States in 2009, teaming up with Jorge "Skayde" Rivera and Mike Quackenbush at Chikara's 2009 King of Trios Tournament. 

Take a look at this match and many others by Johnny Saint. They are usually a bit longer and contested under World of Sport rules with rounds and little breathers to give the matches a more sport-like feel. Because, you know, wrestling was/is a sport.

Match of the Day - Yep, Braun the Leprechaun.

Braun the Leprechaun vs. Todd Morton - WCW Pro (1996)

Happy St. Paddy's day!

I can't resist...

That's right, that leprechaun that briefly appeared in WCW in 1996 as a member of the Dungeon of Doom actually had a name: Braun. It rhymes with, well, leprechaun.

Looking back on it now, this gimmick wasn't so bad after seeing Little Bastard - errrr, I mean, Hornswoggle continually get put in godawful storylines after storylines in WWE. Don't get me wrong, I loved leprechauns as a kid; but the best part of a leprechaun is that they are rooted in mystery... Hornswoggle's mysteriousness was lost as soon as he left his home from under the ring. Braun the Leprechaun on the other hand will forever be one mysterious little man with a few matches like this one on WCW's c-list show, Pro.

That is, of course, until you realize that Braun was Sarge, that tough guy from WCW's Power Plant who once tagged with his top trainee, Bill Goldberg.

"You red-headed booger, you!" - Insane Dusty commentary included.

Song of the Day - Seasons In The Sun (Television Personalities version)

Television Personalities - Seasons In The Sun  from Fashion Conscious (2002)

Television Personalities take on Jacques Brel's (Though clearly perfected by Terry Jacks) beautifully twisted medley about death and twist it even more into a disoriented psychedelic track.

This cover was originally released in 1996 as a single.

Eff Westlife.

Last.fm

Match of the Day - The young and the ridiculous

Konnan vs. "Dangerous" Devon Storm - WCW Monday Night Nitro (1996)

One year before having a short run with WWF in their short-lived light heavyweight division, Devon Storm took to the skies, ropes, chairs, stairs, and what ever he could jump off of as the spot hungry, "Dangerous" Devon Storm in WCW to take on Konnan, the current US heavyweight champion at the time.

Both of these athletes would later reinvent themselves in WCW many years later as Konnan made a name for himself again as a member of NWO Wolfpac and eventually with The Filthy Animals while Devon Storm went on to be a bet more of an uncanny competitor as he donned the ripped jeans and went by Crowbar as he aligned himself with Zombie-hot but screams like a banshee Daffney and the Nature Boy's dysfunctional son, David Flair.

Konnan defeats Devon Storm with somewhat ease as he clearly was a very capable and skilled wrestler. Being a well-trained wrestler is not what get's you big in pro wrestler believe it or not, however, and Konnan would pretty much get overlooked through most of his career in WCW up until about the point where he just started wearing the street clothes and all that. One place he definitely wasn't overlooked at was Mexico considering Konnan was basically the John Cena of his day in Mexica.

That's a big deal I've heard.

Match of the Day - Masked Team of Snow/Credible take on Heel 1-2-3 Kid and Sid

Avatar & Aldo Montoya vs. 1-2-3 Kid & Sid - WWF Superstars (1996)

For the first time ever, The Portuguese Man O' War, Aldo Montoya - later Justin Credible - teams up with Avatar, the first airbender - later Al Snow - against The Money Corporation's freshly turned heel, 1-2-3 Kid and not so psych, vicious or justice, Sid.

Both Al Snow and Justin Credible (PJ Polaco) would have very unsuccessful gimmicks at this time in their career which led them to seek success in ECW. Why didn't their masked characters work out, you  ask? Let's just say that while The Portuguese Man O' War sounds kind of badasss, it's actually a name of a jellyfish, a not so badass jellyfish either. Oh yeah, and that their costumes were a little ridiculous at this time. Remember that this was the beginning of the transition period for WWF - when flashy gimmicks and colorfully characters were no longer making it and new, realist, "attitude" characters were soon to be taking over.

They weren't the only characters begging for a realist makeover, though. No, most of the wrestlers in this video were eventually stripped of their ill-fated gimmicks and given a much more real, or at least workable, persona. For example, "The Ringmaster", who was said to appear later in the program, became, of course, Stone Cold; The rooted-teeth dentist, Isaac Yankem D.D.S. who would become the replacement to Diesel ironically as well,  later became The Undertaker's burn-victim brother, Kane; Even Skip from the Bodydonnas would eventually lose the "yeah, I lift" 90's get-up and become himself, Chris Candido, later on in ECW.

Whether or not Aldo Montoya and Avatar were meant to be, I sill think they made a cool tag team. I'm not sure if they made anymore appearances together, but I think it would have kept their characters alive for a little longer if they stuck together...

P.S. Avatar and Aldo's double flipping clothesline was way cool! What a maneuver that was.

Match of the Day - Bart vs Billy: the Gunn family feud!

Bart Gunn vs. Billy Gun - WWF Monday Night RAW (1996)

In this gripping brother versus brother bout, we see Billy Gunn in the darker jeans taking on Bart Gunn in the lighter jeans on RAW late 1996.

Though this match looks like the works of a long running feud a la Shawn Michaels/Marty Jannetty Rockers split, the outcome of Bart Gunn inadvertently injuring Billy Gunn's neck (causing the kayfabe wives of both Gunn's to run out of the crowd in hysteria) and pretty much ending the storyline right there dead in its tracks.

The wives were never seen or mentioned again and the Gunn's pretty much were never brothers again. While Billy was taking some time off after getting written off RAW for a while due to this incident, Bart would become "Bodacious" Bart in the new Midnight Express with Bob Holly ("Bombastic" Bob). Billy would eventually return as The Rockabilly which lasted just about as long as The New Midnight Express and the whole NWA invasion storyline.

...And the rest is history.

Theme results:

Jeans: Billy Gunn and Bart Gunn.

Match of the Day - Rocky's debut

In honor of The Rock's win last night at the Royal Rumble while he takes a short break from making Disney action adventure movies and shitty sequels to mediocre franchises, here's Rocky's debut way way back in the year 1996.

"Wildman" Marc Mero's Team (Mero, Rocky Maivia, Jake Roberts, and "The Stalker" Barry Windham) vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsely's Team (Helmsely, Goldust, Crush, and Jerry Lawler) - Survivor Series match - WWF Survivor Series (1996)

Shortly after Dwayne Johnson showed off his agility and awkward dropkicks at USWA, owned by Jerry Lawler at the time who happens to be in this match, the first 3rd generation superstar was ready to grace the squared-circle deep in the belly of Madison Square Garden where his father and father's father had previously made a name for themselves.

And since Rocky Johnson and Chief Peter Maivia had made a name for themselves, it was decided that Dwayne Johnson take the name of Rocky Johnson and mash it together with Peter Maivia to create - Rocky Maivia. Honestly though, it really didn't matter if he had named himself Peter Johnson at this point, he was a 3rd generation superstar; he was going to be used whether he could wrestle or not.

Whether or not he was going to eventually break out of the spotlight of his elders and become his own on star is another story for another day. Many people can argue when exactly Rocky Maivia became The Rock, the people's champ, but this match is no way near that time. This was the blue chipper era for Dwayne Johnson - long before he could ever image starring in Walking Tall remakes or Mummy spin-offs...

This match consists of a team made of heels captained by Marc "I don't know how to be anyone except Johnny B. Badd" Mero and his rival at the time, Hunter Hearst Helmsely and his team of stalkers, drunks, and Rocky Maivias. Along with Rocky in this match, there are three other 2nd generation wrestlers: Goldust, son of Dusty Rhodes, Barry Windham, son of Black Mulligan, and Jake Roberts, son of Grizzly Smith. 

Side note:

Also at this time, Jake Roberts was having a small feud with Jerry Lawler in an angle where Robert's "Demons" were openly discussed and paralleled his real life battles with alcohol and cocaine (which they didn't mention of course). This sort of art imitating reality type situation was an early element of the Attitude Era and the more Jerry Springer/soap opera style of wrestling we say from the late 90's (onward basically). The "demons" angle where a wrestler legitimately has a problem and it is thrown into their onscreen character has also been used on Road Warrior Hawk and his much more exploited drug/alcohol problem in the heart of the Attitude Era as well as Scott Hall's drinking problems all throughout his WCW/NWO career. I want to say there was also a small bit where Rowdy Roddy Piper would just get drunk on the Smackdown Brand revamp of Piper's Pit every week, but maybe that was just me subtly wishing I had something to take to get through that Mr. America gimmick. Ayeyeye.

Anyways, here's Rocky Maivia's debut. He wins the match and no one really hates the guts of his gimmick yet.

Enjoy.

Match of the Day - Stone Cold takes on pre-Triple H and JR has some microphone troubles

Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley - WWF In Your House: Buried Alive (1996)

Long before Triple H hit Stone Cold with a car in an attempt to finally get the spotlight Stone Cold was robbing him of, Triple H was just Hunter Hearst Helmsley, a rich snob from Connecticut who was never going to get over as long as Stone Cold Steve Austin was around.

I don't know if this was ever true or not but rumor has it that Hunter was originally going to win the 1996 King of the Ring - but after losing to Jake Roberts in the first round, it was Stone Cold Steve Austin who would go on to win it all and begin his era with his famous Austin 3:16 speech. Triple H would go on to win the next years King of the Ring tournament but didn't really get over the way Austin did until he took over D-Generation X after another spotlight stealer, The Heart Break Kid Shawn Michaels lost his smile... I mean hurt his back or something... a few years later.

This is also at the height of Good ol' JR's "microphone difficulties" which eventually was worked into an angle where he blamed all the messy headphone activity he was getting at Vince McMahon as some sick joke. This then led to the short-lived JR heel-turn remembered mostly by the fact that he brought in Fake Razor Ramon and Diesel, but that a different story for a different day.

Here's the very first PPV match-up of HHH and Stone Cold Steve Austin.

Match of the Day - Megumi Kudo the former kindergarten teacher retires Combat Toyoda

Hardcore Wednesday:

Megumi Kudo vs. Combat Toyoda - No-Rope Exploding Barbed Wire Deathmatch - FMW (1996)

In what is said to be one of, if not, thee first female wrestling hardcore matches, Megumi Kudo (in the pink) takes on Combat Toyoda (the bigger one) in a deathmatch featuring exploding barbed wire rather than traditional ring ropes, and it's not a pretty sight.

For any of you at home who are unaware of this sort of "deathmatch"-type of match, it's essentially the most violent matches conceived, so take "Extreme Rules" and times the violence/weapons/bloodiness by 100%. This deathmatch in particular took place in Frontier Material-Arts Wrestling (FMW) founded by Atsushi Onita, the guy who brought the deathmatch-type hardcore-based wrestling to Japan after spending an early part of his career touring Memphis.

Japan always has a way of taking a good thing from America to the extreme whether it's hardcore-style wrestling, horror movies, reality shows, or music. So much so actually, that we go and copy them right back...

Unfortunately though, the copycats we make here in the states turn out to be The Hunger Games, Wipeout, and Combat Zone Wrestling.

Anyways, this brutal deathmatch has to be one of the most tastefully violent female wrestling matches I have seen. It has emotion, it makes sense, and it also features wrestlers - female wrestlers, I may add - that could actually wrestle. Combat Toyoda is by no means a "diva" and Kudo, who may look like a little pink power ranger, is one pretty face you didn't want to mess with... and this match proves it.

This match is also noted as Combat Toyoda's last match as she would retire right after this match. Kudo, the victor of this barbaric match believe it or not, would continue to fight in such matches until her retirement match in 1997 against Shark Tsuchiya in the longest titled match: a "No ropes 200V double hell double barbed wire barricade double landmine glass crush death match".

Also, Megumi Kudo was supposedly a kindergarten teacher before making her return to wrestling via FMW. I really don't know if this is true or not.

Match of the Day - After 400 years, Glacier finally arrives!

Debut Monday:

Glacier vs. The Gambler - WCW Pro (1996)

After weeks and weeks of mysterious "Blood Runs Cold" vignettes on WCW, Glacier - a half karate, half pro wrestling Sub-Zero - finally made his over-the-top debut on WCW Pro against the card-playing, bad-better, The Gambler.

Glacier's debut, set back a bit due to the introduction of the nWo, featured blue lights, a circle of light in the middle of the ring for him to pose in, snow, and even an extravagant back story featuring a 400-year-old helmet and many years of "Kung-fu-y". All-in-all, Glacier's real purpose in life was to cross-advertise with the Mortal Kombat TV series, MK: Konquest which aired right after Monday Nitro (a very prestigious honor) on TNT.

Soon after Glacier displayed his amazing martial arts background (the reason "Sugar Ray" Llyod was repackaged by Eric Bischoff) with a few arm-drags and a top rope super-kick, a move we didn't see again until Sid Vicious tried it years later, the cold and calculative Glacier would make his first appearance on Nitro versus Big Bubba Rogers (Big Boss Man) in a feud that began due to Glacier's long-anticipated debut. The feud was scrapped right after Glacier's win on Nitro however and Glacier didn't do too much until the "Blood Runs Cold" angle featuring other Mortal Kombat-looking wrestlers in '98.

Personally, I always thought Glacier came out with his million-dollar entrance, an entrance only rivaled by Goldust's at the time in the Federation, wrestled this one match and never appeared again because there wasn't any room for him when Big Kev and Scott Hall were running the show. Turns out Glacier was around until 1999 and then for one more run in 2001 with Norman Smiley as Ralphus's replacement or something.

Should have named him Iceberg.

I guess Glacier's gimmick was so big it couldn't just be canned right away... Like The Great Khali.

My God, that guy is still employed by the WWE...

Match of the Day - Taker and The Executioner tear down the house!

The Undertaker vs. The Executioner - WWF In Your House: It's Time (1996)

In yet another incident of The Undertaker taking on whoever and whatever WWF had to throw at him, this time in the form of Terry Gordy as The Executioner, things got almost extreme in '96 when Taker decided to take the house down...

Literally.

This was also an Armageddon rules match AKA a last man standing match where you must pin your opponent before the ten count is started.