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 - WCW's ill-fated hardcore division

Hardcore Wednesday

Norman Smiley vs. Brian Knobbs - WCW Mayhem (1999)

In the height of hardcore wrestling in the mainstream, WCW tried to cash in on this new brand of weapon-based wrestling like WWF had successfully done by creating their very own hardcore division. And as the hardcore division was a great way for wrestlers who couldn't really wrestle to prove themselves in a Mick Foley sort of fashion, wrestlers like Brian Knobbs, Hardcore Hak (Sandman in WCW), 3 Count, Crowbar, Carl Ouellet and many others finally had a purpose in life.

So, what better person to win the title during the official crowning match at Mayhem 1999? Fit Finlay? Nope. Hak? Nah. Terry Funk? Not yet...

Turns out it was Screamin' Norman Smiley, the flamboyant, Santino Marella of the late-90's/early 2000's (since he also appealed to kids), wiggly black wrestler who always wrestled in different sports equipment (this match in particular as a Toronto maple Leaf hockey player). I guess that was his thing, I don't remember. And by his thing, I'm talking about the sports equipment gimmick...

Norman Smiley, the unlikely suspect for the hardcore division, actually became the first WCW hardcore champion after defeating Nasty Boy Brian Knobbs thanks to Jimmy Hart who hit his own Managee with a trash can as he was coming out of an elevator backstage. Silly as it may seem though, did it really matter who was hardcore champion at this point? It was already a gimmick division and was already being perfected by WWF anyways.

I still think these sort of hardcore matches are fun to watch regardless of how dumb they may look in retrospect. WCW's hardcore division is still better than watching people whack each other around with fluorescent light tubes any day...