The Horseman Turns, The Wound That Burns

Dusty Rhodes/Magnum TA/Manny Fernandez VS Ric Flair/Arn Anderson/Ole Anderson - NWA 12/28/1985

CJD: You want to talk about shine. I thought the sun was so blinding it was never gonna burn out in this one. It's so fun how matches like this give someone like Manny Fernandez a chance to show he's right there with these marquee names. Everyone brings something to the table in this match, although our MDTSOCWWKD Champion of the week AA (after a long layover) probably puts in the hardest shift of work making this well oiled machine hum. And boy is it singing. This match has a couple of cool moments you could break down, but more than anything it's a great watch and a great moment in time. Talk about building a feud with players. This was a lasagna of 80s NWA goodness!

JJZ: Damn homie. This match was wild. Especially that chair shot Arn cracked to the back of Manny's head. Wow. Really quality stuff here! The heels took an ass whooping two thirds of this match but got their licks in in the last third. This would've been a perfect match to watch with our other wrestling like-minded friends. I agree that I did come out of this really thinking Manny stood right with all of these guys. The crowd and the feel of this match made its way right through my TV screen. Great stuff!

Wipe Out!

Arn Anderson (c) VS Shane Douglas - WCW TV Title 2/15/1990

JJZ: Yes. Yes yes yes. This was a no brainer of a pick for me baby cakes. Holy hell. Talk about a perfect pairing to create such a fantastic story. Off the bat I wish the finish was stronger, but what a body on this hunk of a match. Sometimes you forget how athletic Douglas was during his first WCW run. I remember him jumping off the top rope in '97 during in ECW and sinking like a stone in a lake. Shane is flip flopping and flying all around that ring. AA. The Enforcer. You know that I know that you know I'm a mark for Arn. I feel like he is a timeless wrestler and really does no wrong in that ring. I wish I could clone him and have him wrestle during every era. I so enjoyed this. Hope you do too.

CJD: Is there a wrestler that was better at doing more with very little than Arn Anderson? I know there are some candidates, but he's definitely way up there. I was so irrationally excited for this match and it didn't disappoint. Maybe the first Dynamic Dudes era Shane match I've watched as an adult. I'm surprised you were wishing for a better finish, on first watch I assumed the unusual nature of the booking on the finish was part of what hooked you on this match! This was awesome, Douglas was game, but AA really went above and beyond to put everything you needed to make something memorable out of an opportunity that many would have seen as a night off.

Those Hollywood Nights

Ric Flair/Arn Anderson/Paul Roma VS Barry Windham/Hollywood Blonds - WCW 7/3/1993

JJZ: Alright cutie pie. So we've done a fantastic job of playing forward matches showcasing wrestlers at different point of their career. For this one I wanted to play a match that showcased wrestlers around the same time frame and same type of match. To see how much they lifted from the matches. I did notice a few thing but nothing crazy. Both are six man tags but these six man tags are extremely different. The last one was a fantastic house show match while this one was a fantastic, heated feud building match. Also, I recently played forward a match with fucking horrible commentary. This bout totally makes up for that one. Tony and Jessie absolutely killed it on the mic. Great back and forth. But! These guys absolutely killed it in the ring. They focus on the things that really make you want to see the payoff at Beach Blast. Big props to the ref who's name is escaping me at the moment. They had him running all around, plus he took one hell of a ref bump. Timing in a match with so many wrestlers is so key and they all execute it very well. I'm loving this tag team heater we are on right now. But most importantly about this match Chris. Very little Paul Roma. Hope you like it sir.

CJD: I love how right down to the way it's shot, you wouldn't know Roma was even in this match for about 75% of it without someone reminding you. I think we both have a soft spot for Pretty Paul but wow did he look painfully uncomfortable in this match. Couldn't agree more that Jesse & Tony were firing on all cylinders for this one. Master class in play by play with heel color commentary. I really liked this match sweet pea. Maybe even more than my house show 6 man. The way they built the heat up over and over here was so nice. I've got to say in both matches, I thought Austin was low key the star. Always giving the spotlight to someone else but every little thing he does both looks great and adds purpose. With what he became that's not a hot take or anything, but this era of his career is still severely underrated. Last but not least. I know the days of us keeping close track of our fictional MDTSOCWWKD Championship are long behind us. But we've had two tag team champs in a couple of weeks here between MaruKEN and now the Blonds. And even after all these years I know we've only successfully had a small number of tag teams retain the big gold imaginary belts. Just a little tidbit that I enjoyed!

DDT Did A Job On Me

Arn Anderson VS Chris Jericho - WCW 9/30/1996

CJD: I feel a little bad playing this one forward, I know I could find a hundred better Arn matches. But when I saw this match happened I popped big time. Our IRL circle of wrestling friends recently debated which one of these two was a better in ring performer. And I think that ties right in with you picking AA to play forward a few weeks back. So why not feature him VS Jericho this week?? This match is honestly better than a lot of guys could do in this position, being buried by all the focus on the red hot new nWo angle. They kept it simple, built the young babyface up big, and ended the match at its highest point. The more I think about this match, I watched it a few days ago and a lot stuck with me. Heenan putting Jericho over even though he was probably a few (or more) into his night and often could be less than complimentary to a young babyface in this position. Woman adding a lot running interference on the outside. Miss Elizabeth solemnly watching pro wrestling in the back. And that finish. There was a lot packed into this kind of throwaway match. I'm really glad these were the two guys tossed out there to kill a little time.

JJZ: Ms. Elizabeth has a bad case of turnaround disease. She just keeps going in circles, it was fucking gold! So after intros this was actually a six minute match and man did they not waste a second. Talk about everything having meaning. I just wish it meant more to the announcers. I couldn't care less about Bischoff going to the hotel! Why are you taking about several other story lines during a 6 minute match? I would've killed to just have Bobby's color. At least he made me laugh. That finish man. The split second stall that said, this shit is over, was a fantastic touch. This match reminded me of a young pup bouncing all around and trying to tire out the older dog but in the end the young pup gets slapped down. Fun match. AA all day, everyday.

Oh When This Kid Hits Alabama Jam

Bobby Eaton VS Arn Anderson - WCW Worldwide 1/26/1991

JJZ: Right off the bat I wasn't happy with the finish of this match. But that is literally the only thing wrong with this. I know the finish is a big part of a match but this one told such a great story and had so much aggressiveness to it I had to share this with you. Thinking back on it a heel vs heel match kinda works with this ending but I dunno. Maybe I'm just trying to talk myself into the ending because I loved the journey so much. Getting to watch so much Eaton while finding this match I can confidently say he knows when to get a spot in to pop the crowd and how to throw a punch. Man does he got some hands. Not sure if you knew this about me Chris but I'm kinda a fan of Mr. Anderson. Arn did what Arn does in this match. I had a blast watching this one baby, hope you do to.

CJD: Ha Ha Barry Windham, domestic violence is funny! I guess he was a heel and all was fair game in the name of getting heat back then. Credit to Tony for playing it straight. He really sounded like he enjoyed calling this match. Handshake to start was unexpected. Was this heel vs heel? It felt like Eaton was getting a face push which I don't remember at all. But he definitely worked this one like a blue eye. It was a different facet for him than I'm used to and I was happy to see it. Arn was terrific here. Great back and forth action and besides the finish really good stuff all around.

The Horsemen Are Drawing Nearer

Ric Flair/Arn Anderson VS Big Van Vader/"Stunning" Steve Austin - WCW 11/13/1993

JJZ: The amount of great matches from WCW Saturday night seems endless. Now this match was billed as Flair and Sid vs Vader and Austin. Vader attacks Sid before the match starts and hurts him to the point that he can no longer compete in the match! Flair says he's hardcore he'll take them both on! But former friend apparently AA comes to join the fight! Now seeing all of this I had a zillion questions. I guess I always thought Flair and Arn were in the Horsemen when they were in WCW. Never knew Sid had a feud with Vader. Also never realized AA was a babyface at any point during the early 90s. All of that being said. This match was straight fire. Killer crowd, great heat between the four wrestlers, good tag team psychology and four men beating the shit out of each other! I had to check twice to make sure this was a WCW Saturday Night and not a Clash of Champions. This is one hell of a TV main event. And according to the commentators this is Arn's second match of the night. The MDTSOCWWKD champion was pulling double duty that night!

CJD: What a match! There's so much going on that I had to drop watching it twice to make sure I didn't miss anything. After finally giving it my undivided attention I loved it, but would have loved it even more if WCW hadn't given it away for free as an afterthought. But what else do we expect? This is where the big boys play and these are some big boys. Arn must have been having flashbacks to staying on the Road Warriors to get them to sell. By the same token, Flair really made Austin work for everything in this match and it added great realism. This match would be a great pick in wrestling school on a day where you're learning how to throw back elbows and take gnarly bumps over the ropes to the outside. The non-finish knocks this down a peg and it definitely went to the Well of Vader Corner Punches among other spots  one too many times. However we did get one of the all time great Flair post to post spots, straight out of a ROH match. Someone steal that superplex sequence!

Oh yeah, and Arn was great! That spinebuster! This was such a blast, thanks for sharing baby.

On The Throne Of The Regal Zone

Steven Regal (c) VS Arn Anderson - WCW Television Championship 10/9/1993

CJD: I know you have a great Regal VS AA match on an Anderson comp you got from Good Ol' Will. But I also know it ain't this one. And I hope you haven't seen this one, because it's a treat. This reminded me of your Rey/Tajiri match in a weird way. These two are such great opponents for each other but it's still almost a pleasant surprise to see them matched up with something substantial to work with like this. There are moments here that I had to rewind, tight hold for hold counters and transitions that are on par with any great UWF match. But with a heavy dose of the jingoistic Americana TV pro wrestling that we know and love. They also talk about your point of the 10 minute VS 15 minute TV title time limit which was a happy coincidence. Watching a match like this makes me think about star ratings and how they're irrelevant when watching pro wrestling purely for what entertains you. I wouldn't call this a five star match but at the same time I think Steven Regal and Arn Anderson were the perfect opponents for each other this Saturday Night.

JJZ: This is the second match I've watched with these two and I wish it was my 22nd. I'm not really surprised that they work so well with each other, I just never would've thought to have them matched up. The first thing I want to highlight is Arn's selling. You'd think he was having internal bleeding with the way he was selling his ribs. All the way till the end even playing into the finish. Second, Regal's facial expressions were fantastic. It looked like he was sucking on something sour for the entire match. Also they were able to take little turns that I didn't see coming. There were times that I thought Arn would get his shine then Regal would pop out with something to cut him off. And then there were times I thought Regal would keep his heat and Anderson would cut him off. Just a great television match.

Also! Sir William added some great heat that pissed you off, but since this match seemed like a one off Arn got his receipt afterwards. I liked that booking. Gotta stay strong brother.