Match of the Day - The Nash/Hogan vs. Piper/Giant bat match?

Kevin Nash & Hollywood Hogan vs. Rowdy Roddy Piper & The Giant - Baseball Bat on a Pole match - WCW Spring Stampede (1998)

It's the first day of Spring and that can only mean one thing: A Spring Stampede match is in order for today.

This match here is from Spring Stampede 1998, the year I started collecting WCW action figures apparently because every wrestler in this match looks exactly like the plastic form of themselves I had when I was growing up.

Despite the rules of the match, a tag team pole match where anyone who pulled down the baseball bat could use it anyway they wanted, Vince Russo was not working for WCW at this time. Even with the painfully bad "bat switch" towards the end of this match, I must remind everyone, Vince Russo was not working for WCW yet.

If you don't know who Vince Russo is, look up the San Francisco 49ers match, or the Viagra on a pole match, or the leather jacket on a pole match, or the Judy Bagwell on a pole match. The man loved his object(s) on a pole matches. Except for the last one there on the list, the Judy Bagwell one, she couldn't fit on a pole so they used a forklift instead. 

Match of the Day - The first time Big Show breaks the whole ring

Big Show vs. Brock Lesnar - WWE Championship match - Smackdown! (2003)

So here it is, the first time in the history of WWE that a slam was so powerful that it literally broke the ring.

To be quite honest, this was actually really awesome for my young elementary school mind at the time it took place. I remember going to school the next day, SD! was still on Thursdays, and telling everybody and anybody willing to listen. This was a big fucking deal. So, when I came back to wrestling after taking some time off to learn that this same exact spot was redone in 2011, I was furious! Now hear me out, when I say that the same exact spot was redone, I don't just mean that Big Show was in a match where the ring completely collapsed again, I mean Mark Henry (playing the role of Brock Lesnar) got Big Show up on the top rope and superplexed him in such a incredible fashion that the ring implodes.

Looking back on things now, I guess it makes more sense that Mark Henry could break the ring from superplexing Big Show since Brock Lesnar, a smaller individual compared to the 400+ pound World's Strongest Man, was able to in this match.

Theme results

Ring Destruction: The ring collapses. 

Match of the Day - Oh hey look, Brock Lesnar vs. Big Show at the Royal Rumble...

Happy Royal Rumble weekend! All match of the days this weekend will be Royal Rumble PPV matches!

Brock Lesnar vs. Big Show - Royal Rumble (2003)

Recently, WWE has gone back in time to relive all sorts of things from its past. From Randy Orton attacking John Cena's Dad like in 2007, to Batista being back, to just having The New Age Outlaws around to talk about 1998 and that better era; everywhere you look, there is things that have seeming already happened - like, for instance, this match. Did I mention Batista's back? Oh right, I did.

Yep, "The Beast Incarnate" Brock Lesnar and the "World's Largest Athlete yadda yadda" Big Show are at it again just like here in 2003 when the two took on each other for a spot in the Royal Rumble match later that night. For what it's worth there is one small difference to the match we'll see on Sunday, and that's that Paul Heyman was in Big Show's corner. Will this benefit Brock Lesnar now that he's got Paul by his side once again? Will Big Show punk out the beast because he's bigger? Tune in to the Royal Rumble this Sunday on PPV (and the internet) to find out.

Match of the Day - May 19th! It's happening again!

Kane vs. Big Show - Backlash (2006)

What's going on inside Kane's head?

May 19th may have been the release date for WWE's first film released by WWE Films that starred Kane as   the slasher, Jacob Goodnight, but it was also a date that Kane never wanted to be reminded of ever again. What was so significant about May 19th? Why was it such a traumatic remembrance?

Clearly the date was enough for Kane to turn on his tag team partner, Big Show just for mentioning it. The attack on Big Show, which damaged his eye*, resulted in one of the most dominate teams to split and led to this match at Backlash.

As it turns out, May 19th was the day that Kane's brother, The Undertaker burned down the funeral home which killed his parents and left Kane permanently scarred! So, yeah... pretty heavy stuff.

Unfortunately, the voices in Kane's head did not stop after May 19th had passed that year and it was later revealed that the voices were of impostor masked Kane... an angle that was quickly dropped soon after Drew Hankinson (Festus/Luke Gallows) debuted with a god-awful wig on.

*Kane damaging Big Show's eye was also a little jab at the release of Kane's movie, See No Evil, clearly.

Match of the Day - Wrestlemania X-Seven's triple threat hardcore title match

Hardcore Wednesday:

Raven vs. Kane vs. Big Show - Hardcore Tile match - WWF Wrestlemania X-Seven (2001)

In one of the most memorable hardcore Wrestlemania, the hardcore champion, Raven must battle the two biggest wrestlers WWF had in 2001, Kane and the Big Show. 

This hardcore match lasts about a minute in the ring before making its way to the backstage area where many  memorable spots are performed including: Raven getting thrown through a glass window, Raven slipping and almost getting run over by the cart, and Kane and the Big Show going through a door then through a wall. The match ends at the entrance way when the Big Show and Raven both fall off the side of the entrance ramp into a cloud of smoke giving Kane the chance to perform what looks like a blind flying leg drop into the carnage to the side of the ramp. Kane ends up landing on the Big Show and gets the pinfall to become the new hardcore champion at the seventeenth annual Wrestlemania.

Overall a very enjoyable worked match!

During this match we also learn that Paul Heyman's favorite type of snapple is diet peach.

Match of the Day - WWE's first "real" handicap match

Big Show vs. Zack Gowen & Stephanie McMahon - No Holds Barred Handicap match - WWE Smackdown! (2003)

In Zack Gowen's first official match on Smackdown!, the youngster had to prove that he had just what it takes to be a true competitor in WWE by defeating the 500 pound Big Show and seizing an official contract out of Vince McMahon's cold dead hands. Throw Stephanie McMahon, the General Manager at the time, in there and you got yourself a classic pro wrestling Cinderella story.

Did I mention Zack Gowen is a one-legged wrestler? Oops, that was important.

Anyways...

As Zack Gowen was a legitimate amputee and Stephanie McMahon couldn't wrestle to save her life, this truly was WWE's first "real" handicap match.

Get it?

Thanks to face Kurt Angle, face Brock Lesnar, and a steel chair, Gowen's Cinderella story comes true and he gets his contract. The icing on the cake? A combination of Gowen's rival and soon-to-be boss, Mr. McMahon getting knocked on his ass and Gowen's perfect one-legged moonsault onto Big Show for the win!

Gowen's time in WWE was very short-lived despite making it to Vengeance of that year in a match against Mr. McMahon and a short rivalry with Matt Hardy Version 1. I remember him having a broken leg (that's right, the one leg he has) courtesy of Brock Lesnar (heel again) and then never really seeing him on Smackdown! much after that. I guess once you break a one-legged man's only leg you really can't do much else with him. His character was pretty much dead from that point on.

Match of the Day - Rock 'n' Sock Connection are in grave danger!

The Rock & Mankind (c) vs. The Undertaker & The Big Show - WWF Smackdown! (1999)

In yet another interesting tag team confrontation, the ever-popular, Rock 'n' Sock Connection of The Rock and Mankind took on the ever-evil team of pony-tail era Big Show and The Undertaker in the very first tag team "Buried Alive" match. That's right! A tag team member buried alive match.

The first and only tag team Buried Alive match in WWF/E was unlike other specialty tag team matches like a tag team cage match or a tag team tables match in that only one man from either team needed to be buried AKA thrown in a rectangular hole and "completely" covered by dirt. This is contrary to the cage and table matches where both team members must escape the cage (usually, if they don't want to go for a dumb pinfall or something like that) or both team members must be put through a table for the win.

The result of the match comes out to be a shocking turn of events as super heel, Triple H hits The Big Show in the "back of the head", as Michael Cole puts it, with his signature sledgehammer but then buries Mankind by himself for the team of The Big Show and The Undertaker to win the match and Mankind and Rock's tag team titles. An Ambulance immediately appears at the dirt mound to pick up Mankind, but as Triple H goes to help the EMT's by opening the Ambulance doors for them - a real jerk, let the EMT's do their job - out pops the Texas Rattlesnake, Stone Cold Steve Austin! Austin then throws HHH in the back of the Ambulance and drives it out to the parking lot where Austin would then "commandeer" a semi and rams it into the Ambulance with HHH still inside...

Yeah, I know... all that on Smackdown!

This was back when SD! was essentially the blue version of Raw on Thursday nights.

Overall reaction: First, the bump that Mankind takes after being thrown from the stage to the grave looks super painful. Mick Foley was and forever will be known as the guy who could take the most punishment to his body and get right back up, but I honestly do not think that that poor man had to take so many falls to live up to the reputation he made for himself after Hell in the Cell #2. I mean we got it, Mick was unbreakable, but was repeatedly having him fall or thrown off of something really worth it at this point? Some may disagree. I however feel that Mick proved himself a worthy competitor even without the the scientific wrestling ability at this time in his career and didn't always need to be getting handcuffed and hit with a dozen chair shots or, in this case, taking a super hard bump for no reason. Yeah, no reason; the bump wasn't even necessary as the show was going to end with Triple H getting killed by Austin via vehicular manslaughter anyway.

Secondly, this is The Undertaker's first and only Buried Alive match where he is not buried alive. Undertaker, the only person who has wrestled in every one of this type of match in WWF/E (currently), was 1-1 coming into this match but thanks to HHH and only HHH, who wasn't even in this match to began with, buries Mankind for Taker's second win (believe it or not) and the only time Taker escaped un-buried.

Thirdly, no Buried Alive match has ever been won cleanly. What I mean by this is that almost every match out of the five Buried Alive matches that have taken place, an individual/individuals has interfered and buries the loser completely. In the first Buried Alive (officially won by The Undertaker but often forgotten), The Executioner played by masked Terry Gordy comes out to save Mankind from the grave and buries The Undertaker all the way to the top with the help of the heels (including HHH no less); in the second Buried Alive match, Taker vs. Austin, Austin gets help from Taker's baby brother, the Big Red Machine, Kane; in this Buried Alive match, Triple H buries Mankind (who was already buried in the first BA match) all by himself; in the 2003 Buried Alive match between Taker and Mr. McMahon, Kane (now unmasked kane) once again interferes and buries Undertaker whole with the crane digger; and in the last Buried Alive match at Bragging Rights 2010, Kane buries Undertaker for the third time with the crane thanks to the interference by NEXUS.

Just thought I'd spread a little history today, I guess.