Great Muta vs. El Gigante - NJPW Fighting Spirit: Day 8(1995)
Yes, El Gigante, better known as that guy with the furry body suit, Giant Gonzalez took on one of the greatest Japanese wrestlers of all time, the Great Muta. The match includes El Gigante performing no real offense, Muta standing on a chair to spew his green mist in Gigante's face, and a very awkward looking finish to one odd match-up.
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.
In 2005, "The Alpha Man" Monty Brown was being stalked by an unknown man who may or may not have possessed supernatural powers. This mystery man was eventually revealed as "Trytan", a man who may or may not have had supernatural powers. So, as all storylines should go, this stalking of sorts by Trytan led to him getting a match with Monty Brown at Destination X.
Whether or not this Trytan guy had special powers or was some Terminator reject, one thing was more unclear than the rest, and that was: could this guy even wrestle? Well, as it turned out, he could - just not very well. Monty Brown carried the match until it came time to deliver his signature move, a move I'll forever miss, the POUNCE! Unfortunately, as Monty Brown is running the ropes to set up his explosive shoulder block, the lights go out and when they turn back on a man dressed from head to toe in black is in the place of Trytan. Monty Brown then takes this masked person and Pounces him and even gets the pinfall when it clearly wasn't Trytan. As Monty Brown is getting his hand raised in victory for defeating a man that wasn't even his opponent, Trytan appears and then disappears into some smoke back to the locker room.
Despite Monty Brown getting the win but not a victory over Trytan, the storyline, just like Trytan throw the tunnel at the end of this match, disappeared into obscurity. Later that night, Monty Brown would turn heel and aligned himself with Jeff Jarrett after helping Jarrett in his match against DDP, thus giving Brown something to do other than chase around a walking disappearance act.
Trytan apparently stayed with the company for some time after this match but never really did anything worth noting. As for the masked man, well, he was never seen again. At least we know who played him, and that was Dennis Knight - better known as Phineas I. Godwinn, Mideon, or "Naked" Mideon .
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.
Epico vs. Sin Cara - Friday Night Smackdown! (2011)
I'm really curious where Epico went. These new Los Matadores characters could give the Puerto Rican team of Epico and Primo a serious run for their money.
Anyways, here's Epico's 2011 debut against the one and only, Sin Cara.
John Cena vs. Kevin Federline - No Disqualification match - Raw (2007)
Battle of the "rapper thugs"
Today was the day someone reminded me about Kevin "K-Fed" Federline, that guy who was once married to Britney Spears and apparently was a... nope. That's really it.
Thanks to my rediscovery of this forgotten "mogul", I remembered this longing-to-be forgotten match that took place on Raw back in 2007. The only reason I actually watched it was to make sure there was any fighting at all in the match, for better or for worse. And well, there sort of is.
Tom Magee seemingly had it all: a great look, super strong, agile, and even a martial arts background right up there with his multiple strongman and powerlifting accomplishments. It only made sense that he would be the next big thing in the WWF.
But the man they called "MegaMan" became mega-flop just after a couple of years in the business. As legend has it, Tom Magee had everything going for him and more that he was going to the next Hulk Hogan in no time. But as time went by, it was clear that Magee had what was called Warren Harding Syndrome in that Blink book I had to read in high school - he had the look but just wasn't a good president, or in Magee's case, a good professional wrestler.
In this match from All Japan in 1988, Tom Magee shows us that cartwheels and being ripped to the moon doesn't make you a good worker. Magee eventually finds himself in a Boston crab by his opponent Hiroshi Wajima that he can not bear and calls it quits. Less than three minutes into the match.
