Bengal Can't Change Its Stripes

Brian Pillman VS Shane Douglas - WCW 10/17/1992 

CJD: Can you believe in 6 years we haven't featured a single Shane Douglas match? Or a single Pillman match before this run as our MDTSOCWWKD Champion! The wild thing about that to me is back when I was working on a print PIF zine in our early days (maybe in another 6 years...) I was writing a match review series chronicling the Steamboat/Douglas VS Hollywood Blonds feud. It's one of the series of matches that bridged the gap between my childhood fandom to obsessed teen smart mark. So in some ways it feels like this match was always here waiting for me! I've never seen it before, and babyface pre-ECW Douglas doesn't always hit the same way he did when I was 10/11 years old, but this match still has some great stuff going for it. Mainly Pillman who I think I under rate sometimes, a really satisfying build to a well done finish, with a great little post match angle. This is the prequel to one of my personal favorite minor feuds in pro wrestling history. And I'm so glad our blog lead me on the winding road to find it after all these years!! Now where did I leave that .txt file with the other match reviews...

JJZ: Man, I would've went for this match right away baby! I'm stoked for this one. I always get a kick out of watching babyface Douglas since I'm so used to his heel ECW run. I always appreciate watching older wrestling when things that should be sold bigger are. Like a dump out through the ropes or a dropkick to the outside. That ground don't have no give. Can't really learn how to fall on concrete. I remember talking to my wrestling teacher about bumping on the outside and he said you just gotta suck it up and take the pain. Shane is playing a great pup in this match and Pillman is such a good dickheaded heel. I fully agree the ending is well done too. Great match baby cakes!

Forever Forward Fridays

War Marchine VS Pretty Boy Killers - ROH No Rules Tag Match 11/4/2016

CJD: This is, for my money, a really good match that has a few extra factors that make it great. I can't say I've watched a lot of wrestling from Texas outside of the territory days, and there's an unique atmosphere here for ROH I was way into. This is the earliest I've seen Lee and Taylor and they exceeded my expectations going this far back. I especially liked watching our FFFriday Champion, the Limitless One, as more of a roleplayer this week. I thought he was awesome as the breakout "heavy" on the Pretty Boy Killers. And the last bit of extra pizazz this match had going was the way this feud was portrayed and the way these two teams carried it. They were larger than life in every sense, much more than just their stature. All that wrapped up in a damn good plunder blowoff kind of match made this choice an easy one. Dig into a meat platter this Friday my man!!

JJZ: Talk about a hoss battle. This match was big in every sense of the word. Big spots, big strikes, and big men. Big men doing things that they had no right doing. I got a ton of ECW feels (minus the blood). It was like they had a BOGO sale on tables at Home Depot. They went through them like tissues when you have a cold. Honestly I've never been a Shane Taylor fan, so this match is definitely the best one I've seen from him so far. Lee and War Machine did their expected ridiculousness that they always do. This was a great blowoff for a feud. I'm sure they had some other bangers a long the way too.