Kevin Nash vs. Goldberg - WCW World Heavyweight title match - Starrcade (1998)
Undertaker's streak may be over, but at least he wasn't tasered by Paul Heyman for Brock Lesnar to pick up the unexpected win. How about being tasered by Scott Hall? Well, that's exactly what happened to Goldberg while defending not only his World Heavyweight title but his 173 win streak (despite most of those wins being squashes) here at Starrcade '98.
Goldberg would eventually try to duplicate his streak in the later half of 2000 in order to earn himself a title shot at the World Heavyweight title. Unfortunately, he only made it into the double digits, 35 to be exact, before being defeated in his last match in WCW at Sin 2001.
Daniel Bryan vs. Sheamus - World Heavyweight title match - Wrestlemania XXVIII (2012)
I can't say I expected this World Heavyweight title match featuring the indy sensation, Daniel Bryan and the Celtic Warrior, Sheamus to be as shocking as it was. For such a prestigious title to be shoved so far down the card as this was, Bryan and Sheamus made the best of it with their amazingly athletic abilities, honor for the title, as well as their wonderful showmanship. No one expected Sheamus to go all PWG, three shooting star presses in a row, no-selling a piledriver on the apron, and perform a Johnny Saint Special, but the big guy from Dublin, Ireland really impressed the crowd, everyone watching at home, and even myself that night.
Abyss vs. AJ Styles - TNA Heavyweight Championship match - TNA Destination X (2010)
While there have been good encounters between Abyss and AJ Styles ( i.e. Lockdown '05), this is not one of those encounters. No, this encounter is in the thick of Hulk Hogan's takeover of TNA in 2010 starring heel AJ Styles taking on face Abyss. During this glorious downward spiral of TNA, "the future of TNA" AJ Styles was put under the wing of wheelchaired Ric Flair, while Abyss, you know - "The Monster" Abyss - was given the powers of Hulkamania by Hulk Hogan in order to dethrone Styles of Fortune (TNA's try at the Four Horsemen, I guess) and eventually become champion. Abyss's Hulkster power-up included a new Real American mash-up theme, a few bits of ketchup and mustard on his attire, and Hulk Hogan's Hall of Fame ring. Yep, Hogan gave his ring to Abyss rather than pawning it for some quick cash. Silly Hogan... it's not like he can get another one. Oh, just you wait.
Abyss and AJ have a pretty alright match that could have just been done and forgotten about. Instead, Abyss with his new found Hulkamania powers takes a page out of The Big Show (who also once pretended to be Hogan) and Undertaker's book and chokeslams AJ Styles through the ring. Technically, AJ's body just collapses the ring, but as the camera mistakenly looks down at AJ in the hole we see that he is being cut through the mat by some mysterious scissor people that reside under the ring.
So that's it, right? Abyss chokeslams AJ through the ring and wins the belt for the sake of Hulkamania? Actually no; since AJ is sucked down into the abyss, hah, and was unable to return, the match was thrown out just like when a champion walks out of the match in a last ditch effort to retain their title. Abyss wins the battle and AJ Styles retains his title, but the nonsense doesn't end there. As Hogan himself comes out to celebrate with Abyss, Ric Flair gets wheeled back out to confront Hogan who had kicked him out earlier in the match. The wheelchair bound Flair is then dragged into the ring by Hogan's monster, gets sprayed by some pepper spray, and flops around on the mat for a while until Desmond Wolfe comes out to save him. Wolfe does not save Flair, instead he gets beat down by Hogan and Abyss, pepper sprayed, and finally, trips over the selling-like-it's-gonna-win-him-another-Hall of Fame-ring, Ric Flair into the hole in the middle of the ring. In one final act of total nonstop acting, Flair does his best Shawn Michaels impression from Summerslam '05 and overly sells a fall into the hole with the already buried Desmond Wolfe and AJ Styles.
Theme results
Ring Destructions: Abyss hulks up and chokelsams AJ "through" the ring.
Shawn Michaels vs. Rob Van Dam Vs. Kane vs. Booker T vs. Chris Jericho vs. Triple H - Elimination Chamber match for the World Heavyweight Championship - Survivor Series (2002)
Whether or not you are watching Elimination Chamber, or No Escape as it's called in Germany, here is look back at the very first Elimination Chamber match from 2002.
The match includes HBK's hella god awful "returning after four years" ring gear, RVD destroying Triple H's throat from the first "top of the pod" shot ever performed, and an overall good first Elimination Chamber.
Lance Storm vs. Booker T - WCW Heavyweight title match - Monday Nitro (2000)
Lance Storm takes on the WCW Heavyweight champ, Booker T in hopes to become a four title champion.
Storm at the time held the WCW Crusierweight title (which he renamed the 100 kg and Under title), the WCW United States Heavyweight title (renamed the Canadian Heavyweight title), and the WCW Hardcore title (renamed the Saskatchewan Hardcore International title AKA S.H.I.T.) - all he needed was the Heavyweight title and, after less than a year into WCW, the Canadian native would have had possession of all the singles titles in the company.
Despite this match being mostly a warm-up for Booker T as he headed into the New Blood Rising PPV to defend the title against Jeff Jarrett, this is still a pretty good match and far better than said match with Jeff Jarrett that summer.
Chris Jericho vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin - Match to unify the WWF Championship with WCW's World Heavyweight Championship and to crown the new Undisputed Champion - WWF Vengeance (2001)
WWE may be labeling Randy Orton and John Cena's TLC match to unify the WWE title and the World Heavyweight title as the first unification match of its kind, but as someone who watched WWF buy out WCW, the eventually Invasion angle, and the final unification match with both companies top titles, I would have to beg the differ on that. Yes, I am aware that Jericho and Austin were wrestling to unify the WWE and WCW titles, but that same WCW title is being considered the same title still used today (or was, we'll see what happens) as the World Heavyweight title when it was reintroduced in 2002. Saying that this title here is not the same as the one John Cena held before TLC, yet saying that the title that Booker T won in WCW is the same, is completely ridiculous. By the way, if you go back and watch Jericho's entrance from the previous match you can clearly see Jericho is labeled as the "World Heavyweight" Champion; not just the WCW Champion.
Clearly someone just wants to make this Orton/Cena showdown huge by calling it the first of its kind.
The context behind this Austin/Jericho unification match is that there was a mini-tournament of sorts to crown the first undisputed champion by combining the WWE title with WCW's World heavyweight title. The first match was Kurt Angle taking on the WWF champ, Steve Austin, then The Rock (unsuccessfully) defended the World Heavyweight title against Chris Jericho. Jericho, just hot of winning the WHC had to take on Austin in the match above to crown the very first Undisputed Champion. The rest is history.
The Ultimate Warrior vs. Orlando Jordan - NWE Heavyweight title match - Nu-Wrestling Evolution (2008)
More like the Ultimate Wind.
I mentioned a couple of days ago how good the legends who returned to the WWE to promote the 1000th episode with Heath Slater surprisingly looked. Well, compared to most "legends" of wrestling returning to the ring, there really is a point in time where it's best to just let your character go and never be seen again. The perfect example of this would be the one and only, Warrior. As you may or may not know, the man behind the Ultimate Warrior, Jim Hellwig, legally changed his name to Warrior in 1993. Wait what? He changed his name to the Warrior... not the Ultimate Warrior, but just 'Warrior'. He also had kids and they now have the surname of Warrior which is a whole other can of worms we don't need to get into.
Along with taking the name Warrior, Hellwig also took the attire, the face-paint, and the crazy Warrior ramblings and basically molded his life around his wrestling persona. The only thing I really see that's wrong with that is he left the wrestling part out. After Warrior's success in the early 90's of being the next Hogan, he just sort of disappeared. When he returned the first time it was clear that he had lost the energy he possessed in his first big run. He still had this "Ultimate Warrior" look to him, but he was not the same Warrior that we say dethrone Hogan and prophesied to his little warrior followers. And then he disappeared again... and again.
Eventually Warrior was completely gone for wrestling. That was, until 2008 when an Italian wrestling promotion had enough money to pay for the Ultimate Warrior to once again reappear. So, Warrior suited up and went to battle. This time however, it wasn't against the likes of Randy Savage, Triple H, or Hulk Hogan, but rather, a young sport named Orlando Jordan (remember him?) who happened to be Nu-Wrestling Evolution's heavyweight champion at the time. It also wasn't the 90's anymore.
The match is pretty ehhh. I'd rather not go into to detail on the whole thing as I've already written too much on the matter, but really it can only be described as a man who is a shell of himself trying to have a 15-20 minute match after not wrestling for 10 whole years. That being said, it's really not too fun to watch and I don't blame you if you can't get past Warrior trying to run his way to the ring like his legs remembered how bad his last match was. It was almost like his legs were trying to cripple him from ever getting back in that ring with every awkward stride.
Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Ric Flair - World Heavyweight title match - WCW Nitro Spring Break-Out (1999)
What better way to kick off my Spring Break then with a little blast from the past featuring Ric Flair taking on the unmasked Rey Mysterio Jr. in Rey Rey's first World Heavyweight title shot (according to Michael Buffer) at WCW's coverage of Monday Night Nitro at Panama City Beach, Florida for their annual Spring Break-Out special. AKA the WCW with the swimming pool around the ring!
This match isn't so much a blast from the past as much as it just reminds me of how much MTV and other teenager-friendly channels on TV used to broadcast Spring Break related events like this one at Club La Vela.
Greg Valentine vs. Wahoo McDaniel - Heavyweight Championship Match NWA Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling (1977)
Happy National Pro Wrestling Day, everybody!
In this heated battle between Greg "The Hammer" Valentine and Wahoo McDaniel in the Mid-Atlantic territory, not only was the heavyweight title up for grabs, but two thousand silver dollars! Apparently silver dollars were all the rage in the 70's and meant for a good ol' slobber-knocker because that's what this match is!
Though not the most brutal or intense matches, it did feature a lot of heat for its time as the match that Greg Valentine "broke" Wahoo McDaniel's leg. As the story goes, Wahoo's legs were too big for the Finger Four Leglock, Valentine's finisher just like his friend The Nature Boy, and so Valentine instead torqued on Wahoo's leg enough for Wahoo to surrender. Instantly, on national TV, it was determined that the leg was broken. Whether or not the leg was really broken is not what matters here but rather that Valentine was now champion and would forever have the reputation of a man who could break any opponent's leg.
Greg Valentine also must have had enough silver dollars to spare himself a sweet custom T-shirt after this bout with Wahoo that read, "I Broke Wahoo's Leg" on the front and "No More Wahoo" on the back (at least that's what I've heard; I've never actually seen the back of the shirt).
"And Still Have a Bunch of Silver Dollars I Don't Know What to Do With!"
A similar situation like this one where a wrestler makes a T-shirt stating his pride of injuring his opponent would be Owen Hart and his parody of Steve Austin's Austin 3:16 shirt (which was a mockery of its own) and on it it said, "Owen 3:16" and on the back, "I Just Broke Your Neck". The thing about Owen Hart's shirt though was that he legitimately broke Austin's neck (which shortened his career) and didn't intend to.Valentine on the over hand, was out for broken Wahoo bones!
More recently, CM Punk has also made light of the "I Broke Wahoo's Leg" after breaking Big Show's hand back in 2010 which led to him donning a "I Broke Big Show's Hand" tee in the same fashion as Greg Valentine's.
