Throw The Dice, Cold As Ice

Raven VS Dean Malenko - WCW 2/11/1998

JJZ: Threw this match on and didn't really know what to expect. Technically I always thought Raven was a little underrated and wanted to see if he'd be able to have a nice back and forth with Dean. That didn't happen at all! This was right in that ECW vein and both guys did a really nice job with a smash mouth match. I always enjoyed Raven's run in WCW. It was a good change of pace on the shows. I wouldn't call anything Malenko ever does sloppy so I will say that the execution of the moves were a little wild and more aggressive than normal. Even with the short run time the ending had me bitting a couple times. Just good TV overall. Enjoy homie.

CJD: Very fitting to watch this match right after the Raven documentary came out. I wouldn't be surprised if both of us watched this live with how dialed in we were in this era. And man this takes me back to how frustrating WCW was in this time period. Commentary a total trainwreck with Tenay trying desperately to keep it on the tracks. Enormously bloated roster shoehorned into every angle to try to justify having them all on the payroll. And buried beneath all of it, somehow still shining if you look hard enough, some shockingly good wrestling! These two worked so well together. And every time they pushed Malenko I was surprised how much he'd run with it, with consistently great crowd reactions. I do remember hating the "Raven loves pain" angle they were working at the time, although I could easily see that being his own invention. I'm curious if he ever mentioned it in any shoots. This match was not at all what I expected from you this week but it's such a fun detour. A perfect time capsule of the undercard of 1998 American TV pro wrestling, with all the highs and lows that came with it.

We'd Catch The Rainbow, Ride The Wind

Shinjiro Otani/El Samurai VS Black Tiger II/Dean Malenko - NJPW 9/24/1993

CJD: Huge shout out to the guys over at Segunda Caida for unearthing this fan cam on their Found Footage Fridays. Holy guacamole, you want to talk about white whales. This match speaks to our teenage tape trading fandom moby dick days. This was a dream come true. Now my bff, I'm warning you right away. There's some moments we miss out on, given the nature of how this was filmed. And there's some missed moments that are really heart breaking. I'm sorry in advance. But just remind yourself: we could so so easily live in a timeline where this match was lost to the sands of time. Yet here we are. I'm so glad this niche of a niche hobby brought me to this moment in time.

I'll say a few things about the actual match. After watching an all out war with Murakami where there was some filthy alley fighting legwork, it was fun to travel back to this heated technical clinic where Otani's still taking and giving and stuffing nasty leg picks and holds. And, god almighty, I love the energy that was in this arena. This crowd knew then what we know now. It's special that we got to bear witness to these kind of performers practicing their craft at this level with this kind of platform. I'm so glad you sent us on an Otani Odyssey!!!

JJZ: This match is a dream come true man. Like if we were booking a dream card from this era I would've booked this match. The fact it's a fan cam with a few hiccups makes it even more of a unicorn in my opinion. Hearing the crowd from this point of view is so cool and adds a little ambiance. Chris. Just watching all these guys hit their moves is like comfort food. I'm getting so much happiness from it. Watching this is reminding me why we hold these guys in such high regard.  It is funny though, because if we watched this match back in the day I wonder if we would have appreciated it. We were so knee deep in matches of these four back then. Finding something like this now though I know I don't take it for granted. Thank you my friend.

The Iceman Cometh

Dean Malenko (c) VS Yuji Nagata - WCW Saturday Night United States Championship 5/24/1997

CJD: I have a confession to make. Even though now he's a personal favorite, in the 90s watching him in WCW I hated Yuji Nagata. I'm sure it was the presentation because watching him here he's very, very good. I remember him being "Token Japanese Wrestler #5" but he really gets a chance to shine here on Saturday Night. And man is Dean game defending the US title. This is one of those rare matches too where Schiavone and Dusty balance nWo and Kevin Greene (RIP) talk with giving the action its due. Schiavone talked about this on AOW, how it was totally up to them to tie the Saturday Night stuff into regular WCW continuity, because everyone else in the company basically ignored it. So kudos to them and to Jimmy Hart who I'm pretty sure booked it most of the way through. Also it's interesting hearing Dusty lay back on his gimmick so much. I cannot wait to see what you come back with from Blue Justice!

JJZ: I wasn't a fan of Nagata's WCW run  at the time either. I don't even remember why to be honest. Based off this match alone I was dumb. I definitely don't remember him ever wrestling in red pants before. I expected a tight mat based match and that's what I got. Watching these guys go back and forth was great. Matches like this are what made WCW Saturday Night special and turned me around on a bunch of guys in wrestling. I think both Dean and Yuji are wrestlers that everyone talks about being great but neither are in the forefront of a wrestling fan's mind when thinking about top guys. After watching this match I wonder why? This was almost a perfect TV match. When given big chances these guys always delivered. I guess some are just missing an it factor? I dunno I feel like I'm rambling. Loved the pick. Excited to showcase Nagata next week.

CJD: With Dean I think it's a relatively short peak. With Nagata I really don't know. The black mark of his failed MMA crossover haunting him as they tried to make him the ace? He has done nothing but climb my all-time rankings as I explore more footage over the years

JJZ: Solid points. The MMA thing always hurt Nagata. Thinking more about the Dean stuff I guess it's pretty simple about his size and lack of mic skills.

CJD: I'm not the first person to say this but imagine if Dean had physically been able to have a Jamie Noble type mid 2000s indy run.

JJZ: JESUS! That would've been spectacular.

Whoomp! There It Is

Dean Malenko (c) VS 2 Cold Scorpio - ECW TV Championship 3/21/1995

JJZ: Please forgive me for the playing a match forward that has the Long Island Ice Z introducing and interrupting these great wrestlers. I started watching this match because how the hell could I not watch a Dean Malenko versus 2 Cold Scorpio ECW TV Title match. But while I was watching I saw a match unfold that was 180 different than your Sabu 2 Cold match, and I knew that this was my pick. Whenever I can get a match that showcases the depth of wrestler I always lean towards it. Watching Dean being Dean and 2 Cold selling very well while building to the highspots was just plain fun to watch in an ECW ring. I probably have seen this before but I don't recall off the top of my head and who cares. I had a blast watching this.

CJD: I'll say this. I'd much rather see Ryder in this capacity than see him wrestle. It suits the superfan in him. Scorpio did sell really well in this and Dean did too. He had a great ability to seem like a world beater while still showing vulnerability. This is our third straight Misawa Dick Togo Santo OuterContinental Championship match commentated exclusively by Joey Styles, so let me take a minute to sing his praises. Joey had cliches he'd fall into at times. He knew what he did well and he milked that. But his positives really can't be taught. He knew when to let a match breathe. He knew when to slide into analysis and when to call the action. He knew how to make me question the outcome of a match. And most of all, he knew how to sound sincere in his reactions even when he's seen the same stuff over, and over, and over. Back to the action, I was going to joke after the headlock held out of and back into the ring that Kobashi and MiSu clearly were inspired by this match. But by the end I really did get a little bit of a Kobashi babyface vibe from Scorpio. Way less fire but still a very determined, sympathetic performance here. And man am I happy to dig back into some Malenko next week.

I Used To Be An Iceman, Living In An Iceman Town

Steven Regal (c) VS Dean Malenko - WCW Television Championship 12/23/1996

JJZ: Yumma dum dum. Fun fact about JJZ. I used to fucking HATE Regal. I thought he was flat out boring when I was younger. In this match alone I see how much he influenced Chris Hero. And I fucking LOVE Chris Hero. So this match is exactly what I thought it might be and I'm so happy it was. Ever since Danial Bryan VS Drew Gulak from Elimination Chamber, I've been in the mood for some gritty technical wrestling. And these two bring that in spades. This is a TV title match and at one point they mention it's only a ten minute time limit. Now Chris, wasn't it always a 15 minute time limit? Maybe I'm wrong. Either way, this match was exactly what I was looking for.

CJD: 15 minutes on PPV I'm pretty sure. Heenan sounds like he's on his fifth or sixth scotch of the night, and still gives better insight into this match than Schiavone. And sneaks a choice dick joke in there. I'm not going to lie, I wasn't big on Regal until I was older either, and it's safe to say we both had our heads up our collective teenage asses on that one. I did love Stinko Malenko though, and one of the things I loved about WCW in general in this time period was how the Cruiserweight, Television, and United States titles always produced such under the radar high quality matches. So a Champion VS Champion match between those titles like this would have been right out of my *Prodigy message board fantasy booking playbook, but I have no recollection of this match. And it's not the most memorable, but damn it's good. This is one where they are so similar stylistically I wasn't sure how it would play out. It made for some awkward moments in a good way. It always felt like they were fighting each other for control, even when they were trading flips and cartwheels. They fit a lot into this match and I liked they way they finished it as well. Very nice find.

(SPOILERS below...)

Mr Mysterious Is Serious And Delirious

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1ba2bl

Rey Mysterio Jr VS Dean Malenko - WCW 6/21/1997

CJD: You know I have weird wrestling dreams pretty often. And I completely forgot until I was awake for a few hours this morning that I had a dream about a Dean Malenko shoot interview last night where he talked about a match (that I'm sure never took place) he had VS Jerry Lawler once. But the dream came back to me as I sat down to find the Rey match I was going to play forward to you. I don't think we'll ever find that Dean VS Lawler match, but it did motivate me to try to find a great Mysterio VS Malenko match we hadn't seen before. Well sometimes dreams do come true John. This had ups and downs and some of Rey's execution wasn't perfect. Those German ropes and all. But what was perfect was his selling, as he used every inch of his body to tell the story of his heart and spirit refusing to let him quit when Malenko had beaten him well past the point any of us would keep fighting. I love the chemistry these two had (especially with Hildebrand in there with them) and I love that we have footage of this gem of a match.

JJZ: This match was very different for a WCW cruiserweight match but not in a negative way. Usually it's a fantastic car crash but not this match. I think they knew the crowd wouldn't get bored with the layering and build to Rey's hope spots. I don't think Dean was a heel around this time but he wrestled with such aggressiveness that it came across that way. He didn't do anything underhanded but just worked like the baddest mfer in the room. I can't imagine someone watching this and not pulling for Mysterio when he sprung to life. The commentators mixed with the way it was filmed made for a hidden gem feel indeed. Loved the pick baby. Excited to see where this takes me.