Match of the Day - The king of extreme triangle hardcore match

Hak vs. Raven vs. Bam Bam Bigelow - Falls Count Anywhere Triangle match - WCW Uncensored (1999)

Three guys who made a name for themselves in the extreme promotion known as ECW going head to head to head in a WCW style hardcore match. As an early precursor to WCW's Hardcore title division (a cheap imitation of the hardcore wrestling that had become popular through WWF), all it really was was taking the weapon-oriented style that ECW was using (but not limited to) and cranking it up to 11. So, as you can see from the video above, this match is more about how many things Hak (Sandman), Raven, and Bam Bam Bigelow can hit each other with than it is about being hardcore. Granted, these guys are/were hardcore at one point or another, the match is still just one big mess.

Many people call the backyard wrestling, ultraviolent, sleazy hardcore wresting of today "trash" wrestling, but this match literally looked like trash wrestling with all the crap that littered the ring.

PS: sorry for the sketchy video... it was the best I could find just of this match in its entirety.

Match of the Day - "The Nasty Boys are Cactus's toys"

The Nasty Boys vs. Cactus Jack (w/missing ear) & Maxx Payne - Chicago Street Fight for the WCW Tag Team Championship - Spring Stampede (1994)

Another one of those Nasty Boy street fights that goes out into the merchandise stand. According to WWE.com it's one of the best WCW matches of all time. What makes it better than the other street fights like this one in 1994? Was it Cactus & Payne? Was it the sheer brutality for '94? Was it the stiffness? Was it the table spot?

Maybe it was the Cactus Jack bump in perfect Mick Foley fashion (that has been well documented on this site) at that end there -  from the ramp to the floor - before getting whacked in the head with the shovel against his missing ear (Cactus lost it a month prier in German in his infamous match with Big Van Vader).

I didn't know the Nasty Boys were from Maine... It's spring time and they're still using snow shovels.

*Badabum tsch*

Match of the Day - Bob Holly becomes the "Hardcore championship"

Al Snow vs. Bob Holly - St. Valentine's Day Massacre: In Your House (1999)

It was either this or Al Snow wrestling himself.

Seriously though, this match actually came about because Al Snow decided to wrestle himself for the Hardcore title one night on Raw. It wasn't too long after Al had smacked his head with the microphone, hit himself with a chair, fire extinguished his face, broke a broom over his dome, and moonsaulted a table did his J.O.B. squad teammate, Bob Holly come out to talk some sense into him.

Sense was something Al could not grasp at this time however, and a hardcore match was set up at the Valentine's Day themed In Your House PPV between the two teammates, thus ending the J.O.B. Squad and turning Bob Holly into 'Hardcore' Holly.

Also at this time, Al Snow and Road Dogg were co-holders of the Hardcore title. Since Road Dogg was "injured backstage" and couldn't compete, the title was stripped of him and up for grabs in this match.

Al Snow vs. Hardcore Holly by Stinger1981

This match is pretty much a lost gem brought back to life by the WWE after they put it on their Falls Count Anywhere compilation DVD released earlier this year. It features Al and Bob fighting all over the arena, even outside and into the Mississippi River where Bob ends up wrapping Al in some wire fencing for the win.

Overall reaction to the match: While I remember renting this event on VHS at a local Blockbuster by my house as a kid, I truthfully can not recall watching this match. I remember the Blue Meanie/Bluedust/Goldust match, The Last Man Standing match between Mankind and The Rock, and, more clearly than the rest, the steel cage main event match between Mr. McMahon and Stone Cold where Paul Wight (Big Show) climbs out from under the mat and slams the rattlesnake right out of the cage... But I do not remember this match. 

It happened though, and this is proof. 

This is the match that Bob Holly really cemented himself as "hardcore". Before this he was a jobber/NASCAR driver named Thurman "Sparky" Plugg, a member of the failed attempt at a new 'Midnight Express' as "Bombastic Bob", or just a midcard wrestler in a jobber faction. So after winning this match and proving himself to be hardcore material, Bob became actully became somebody. he became Hardcore Holly, a very rough and tough SOB. 

Here's to two of the most underrated superstars in WWE history.

Bonus: "Bob Holly becomes the fourth hardcore "CHAMPIONSHIP" in WWF history." - Thanks Michael Cole for that wonderfully botched analysis.