Match of the Day - The first triple threat match on Raw

Goldust vs. Owen Hart vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley - Intercontinental Championship match - Raw is War/War Zone (1997)

Aside from a few three man matches at house shows, this was the first televised triple threat match to take place in the WWF. The match is for the Intercontinental title and features two individuals whom had held the title previously gunning for the scrap - held at the time by Owen Hart.

To add to this match of firsts, Pat Patterson -  the first Intercontinental champ - plays the roll of the blind guest referee. 'Must be because he's Canadian', Jim Ross says. Why a Canadian would miss a foot on the ropes for a fellow Canadian in kayfabe is beyond me...

Match of the Day - The Rhodes Dynasty all or nothing match against The Shield

Cody Rhodes & Goldust vs. The Shield (Roman Reigns & Seth Rollins) - The Rhodes Family's careers on the line - WWE Battleground (2013)

Out of the weakest WWE PPV of 2013 comes one of the best matches of the year, it's the Rhodes brothers taking on the most dominant tag team in a long time, The Shield. If Cody and Goldie lost the match the Rhodes, including Huckleberry Dusty who works for NXT, would have lost their jobs and could never work in WWE again (because the Authority (Stephanie McMahon and Triple H) didn't like them or something (citation needed)).

This match and the whole storyline really was one of the most surprisingly good things to come out of WWE in the past twelve months. It's also the only good thing to come out of the Authority angle. Plus, it jump-started Goldust's withering career, gave us a chance to listen to Dusty Rhodes's insane ramblings, and gave Cody Rhodes something to do now that he has no mustache. The Shield on the other hand, gained more traction as a tag team and all in all just stayed relevant.

PS: This match is also the debut of Goldust's Darth Vader makeup.

Match of the Day - Brian Pillman faces his fellow comrade in his last match on Raw

Brian Pillman vs. Owen Hart - Intercontinental title tournament semi finals match - Raw is War (1997)

The Loose Cannon takes on his friend and fellow Hart Foundation comrade, Owen Hart in what would become his last televised match. The match was a semi finals tournament match for the vacant Intercontinental title against the two - who had both won their opening match of the tournament, but Pillman had other plans as he did not want to fight his friend, Owen. So, Pillman came out with a sling on and informed the crowd that he had slipped in the shower and broke his arm while doing non-PG things with Goldust's wife, Marlena (Terri Runnels).

Commissioner Slaughter, however, didn't buy the whole arm injury excuse and forced the two Stampede Wrestling alum to fight it out regardless of their partnership in the Hart Foundation.

Around this time, Brian Pillman was in a heated feud with Goldust, who had beat him at Summerslam with the special stipulation that Pillman had to wear one of Marlena's gold dresses if he lost. Pillman eventually got his revenge on Goldust at In Your House: Ground Zero when the Loose Cannon defeated Goldust to win the services of Marlena for thirty days. This was day 16.

Brian Pillman's next match on WWF TV was scheduled to be against Dude Love at In Your House: Bad Blood, but Pillman did not make it to the event. It was later revealed that Pillman had passed away from an unknown heart condition that day.

Owen Hart would go on to win the Intercontinental title tournament when he defeating Faarooq in the finals at Bad Blood that night.

Theme Results:

Final match: Owen Hart

Song of the Day - Hairspray Heart

Black Moth Super Rainbow - Hairspray Heart from Cobra Juicy (2012)

Speaking of Goldust's not so PG antics in Japan from the match of the day yesterday, here's the gold one playing 'The Pink One' in Black Moth Super Rainbow's new music video for "Hairspray Heart".

Yep, that's a pink Goldust doing unmentionable things to a mask in a Jacuzzi.

"Like a fuckin' diamond"

Last.fm

Match of the Day - Muta/Tajiri vs Goldust/Hakushi

The Great Muta & Yoshihiro Tajiri vs. Goldustin & Jinsei Shinzaki - AJPW (2007)

Some really nice contrasting styles in this All Japan Pro Wrestling tag team match featuring Great Muta, Yoshihiro Tajiri, Goldust as Goldustin for copyright reasons, and Jinsei Shinzaki AKA Hakushi.

Speaking of styles, it appears that Goldust seemed to be a little more homoerotic, if you will, here in Japan than he would in the states. My guess is that those sort of old school sexual mind games that Goldust puts on his opponents are more acceptable there than in America. It's definitely not acceptable on a product like the G rated Saturday Morning Slam on The CW where Goldust will most likely end up wrestling on now that he's back in WWE after making his 3rd or 4th Royal Rumble return.

This match is all fun and games until Muta and Tajiri gang up on Dustin, giving him a double dosage of mist while Shinzaki was known out of the ring, followed up by a shining wizard for the win.

PS: I would have loved to see the oddball team of Goldust and Tajiri in WWE. I'm quite surprised now that they were never a tag team...

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.