It Was A 2 Cold Chill

Sting/Ricky Steamboat/2 Cold Scorpio VS Rick Rude/Hollywood Blonds - WCW Elimination Match 5/6/1993

CJD: The FanCam Connection doing FanCam Connection things! This match has less than 1k views and has only been up for a year which tells me there's a good chance it might not stay up for long. So drink in this 1993 house show goodness while you can. There's a lot of table I need to set for this match. First of all it's an elimination tag. Second of all this is a high school show in Terre Haute Indiana in 1993, and the crowd is every bit as homophobic as you'd imagine. Watch with the sound down if necessary. And third of all, the actual finish to this match is such a classic horse shit house show finish that I'd probably skip sharing it if there wasn't so much other excellent content otherwise. It's kind of a glimpse of how awesome WCW was in this era but all the reasons why they never realized their full potential in one tiny homophobic high school gym in Indiana. I thought everyone did some really great stuff in this match. Some unusual spots, great crowd work, and great apron work while guys weren't in the match. Not a lot of bumps punched on the bump cards as you'd expect, but nobody was taking the night off by any means. And yeah the finish was, well, you'll see, but at the end of the day there was no way I wasn't playing this one forward.

JJZ: So right off the bat, I loved the finish. It perfectly fit the tone of the match. If this was a PPV I would have a problem with it, but with all the gaga it worked. The fucking star talent in this match was insane CJD. Just wow. Six generational talents sharing the mat and all of the them showing the depth in their game. This would've been a perfect match for sharing with all of our wrestling buddies. I fully agree that the punch card wasn't hit too hard in this one, but that's to be expected with a house show like this. But that doesn't mean it wasn't entertaining and that the people didn't get their money's worth. 10 out of 10 fury cakes. Would watch again.

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.

He's Middle Aged Crazy, Trying To Prove He Still Can

Sting/"Dr Death" Steve Williams VS Terry Funk/Terry Gordy - NWA 8/8/1989

CJD: I started watching WCW regularly around 1992 when I was 10 years old, but I caught glimpses of it here and there when I was younger. This reminds me so much of those earliest memories watching when it was transitioning from the NWA. The college sports influence, the serious presentation, the physical style, the larger than life personalities with an edge of realism. Singles stars mashed up in a special attraction tag match. The unsavory crowd, unflattering venue, and less than stellar production values. The shitty finish that still leaves you wanting to tune back in. I wish this match had another 10 minutes but I hope you enjoy what we got as much as I did.

JJZ: Holy crap this is great. Never thought I'd see these pairings. This is my personal favorite era of Funk. Interesting for me to see Dr. Death and Gordy not tagging together. Before I knew Gordy was a Freebird I knew him from the MVC. Great interaction and crowdplay with all four wrestlers. Matches like this are why Play It Forward exists. I never would have seen this match otherwise. Funk's selling is so spectacular that if I were a wrestler today I'd copy as much of it as possible. And this is a great match to build Funk/Flair, it showcases what a madman Terry is. Super fun stuff baby, I could have watched this for another 20 minutes!