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!

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!

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.

The Stars At Night Are Big And Bright

Ric Flair VS Kerry Von Erich - World Class NWA World Championship Cage Match 12/25/1982

CJD: Two weeks ago you talked about those hidden gems that are the reason Play It Forward needs to exist. But there are other types of matches that we play forward from time to time that I think are equally important to this project. Those are the essential matches in pro wrestling history that for one reason or another, we know it's just hard to make the time to watch. Matches like Punk/Rave, Nakajima/Kiyomiya, Misawa/Kojima, etc. I know some wrestling fans would debate mentioning those as being on the level of the match that gave birth to the golden age of Texas wrestling. But let's all just relax and remember we're obsessing over pro wrestling on the internet.

One of the reasons I think we don't go to this well too often is our unwritten rule to keep PIF light and breezy, more of a product of the immediate gratification times. Another is because the spirit of PIF is more focused on those new revelations. Well I hope this match is a new revelation to you. I know the playtime is daunting in 2019, but a lot of that is the pre and post match stuff, which is masterful. This match is often referred to as one of the greats. I'm more of the opinion it's one of the greatest pieces of pro wrestling booking and character work than one of the best matches. But it is certainly a doozy. Kerry isn't often mentioned as such, but in my opinion he was one of the top 3 Flair opponents ever.

JJZ: The promos to start out are a nice touch to this match. The way they're filmed reminds me of the first Rocky movie. Both Kerry and Ric's robes fit fine though. The feel of this match is so big time I wish I'd have seen it sooner. Flair looks to be in the best shape of his career. I was surprised by the slower start to this match. I thought it being in a cage it would be go go go at the sound of the bell. That being said, the pop at the application of a sleeper hold was insane. The build is great, making everything feel important and that it has a purpose. The match kind of comes off the rails at the end but I'm really just along for the ride at that point.

He Loves His Honey, He Loves The Rock, But No Opponent Loves The Scorpion Deathlock

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8apmz

Sting VS Ric Flair - WCW 11/6/1995

JJZ: So this is a feud that I went out of my way to watch a lot of a few years ago. Their dynamic together is special. Sting is working with extra heat in this match that boils over by the end. For a TV match that is building to something bigger down the line this is perfect. Add in a super hot crowd and I couldn't not play this forward.

Flair is definitely the heel in this match but gets louder pops than Sting at points. I know Austin gets credit as the first like face/heel but honestly after watching so much Flair I think he should get consideration for that.

CJD: This is a PPV style marquee match condensed into a TV main event on the 10th Monday Nitro ever. This is exactly the sort of match and style of booking that helped differentiate Nitro from Raw at the time. To give context the competing Raw main event on this evening was Bret Hart/Hakushi VS Jerry Lawler/Isaac Yankem. Which does sound kind of amazing but you get what I'm saying. I loved what Sting and Flair did in this match. They had me hanging on every second and Heenan was pitch perfect on color commentary. "Who cares?!" You can see the seeds of the Crow gimmick being planted and all around this is a great snapshot of US wrestling transition from the mid to late '90s. We've almost arrived at the era of the antihero. But you've got a great point that Flair had made being bad look cool for decades before Stone Cold and Sting made being bad being good.

Nobody Gets Higher

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4isctf

Rob Van Dam/Booker T (c) VS Ric Flair/Batista - WWE Tag Team Championship 3/22/2004

CJD: This match might seem like it's out of left field, especially when you give me a wrestler we spent a huge portion of our teenage years watching, but I think it's a pretty Chris Pick. Good tag team wrestling, clear hierarchy, everyone plays their role well, and definitely a "huh, never knew about that one" or "huh, totally forgot that happened" kind of match. I didn't appreciate the Flair/Batista team anywhere near enough at the time, it's such an effective use of both guys at that point in their career. RVD & Booker are a fun team that I'm a little surprised they didn't get more life out of. Also when you're picking the next MDTSOCWWKD champ, keep in mind a few weeks ago we were transitioning from Martin Stone to Jon Davis.

JJZ: Outta left field is an understatement my friend. At one point in my life I literally would have said I hate Dave Batista. But after a little help from our mutual friend Mr. H I have learned to appreciate him for his better qualities. Those were on display in this match, good psychology, pacing, and old school power wrestling. Flair is Flair which means tons of flavor to this match. The teaming of these two are such a compliment to each other and kinda make for a perfect team. Experience, youth, energy, psychology, power, technical ability. And across the ring! Had no clue this ever happened! Fun ass team. Booker T is someone I really need to focus on a little more. I know his WCW run but not so much WWE. Good stuff babycakes. Curious where this road will lead me.