Goody Bag 38: World Tour

NWA World Title Match: Masahiro Chono v Rick Rude: This is a tournament final to crown a new champion (this first since Flair vacated it nearly a year earlier), from NJPW G1 Climax on August 12 1992 in Tokyo Japan. Rude talks down to Chono at the bell, and gets absolutely blitzed. Rick ends up on the outside following a series of clotheslines, and Chono mocks the hip swivel, as Ravishing Rick fumes on the floor. Back in, Rick attempts to take control, but misses a charge in the corner, and Chono grabs a front-facelock. Rude tries to escape with a backdrop, but Chono hangs on with the hold, then slaps on a sleeper. Rude quickly escapes with a stunner, but ends up in another sleeper during a criss cross. He again tries a stunner, but Chono expects it this time, and release the hold just as Rick drops down - Rude falling on his ass, and ending up right back in the sleeper! Chono tries a bodyscissors while holding the sleeper, but it backfires when Rude leverages it into a pinning predicament for two. Rick works a mat-based side-headlock, but Chono counters to a headscissors. He fights off several escape attempts, but Rude manages to get him in a stepover-toehold, then into another side-headlock. Chono uses a kneebreaker to escape, and he pounds on the leg a bit to set up a toehold, then shifts into a leglock. Another kneebreaker sets up a figure four, which (intentional or not) is a nice callback to the last champion. Rude reverses, and manages to drill Chono with a clothesline in the corner, but is slow while climbing the ropes, and gets slammed off the top. Chono keeps after the leg with an elevated half-crab, then down into another stepover-toehold. Rude keeps trying to power out, so Chono tries a cross-armbreaker, which is actually pretty great strategy, since Rude's bad leg would make it difficult for him to counter/escape. Rick manages to escape by stomping him in the face, and a fistdrop follows. Piledriver gets two, so Rude dumps him to the outside for a whip into the guardrail, then back in for a flying axehandle - Chono nearly slamming him off the top again because Rude is slow to climb. Rick grounds him in a reverse chinlock, but Chono powers out with an electric chair, and he throws a standing dropkick at the American. Chono goes up for a flying shoulderblock, but Rude sidesteps, and Chono wipes out. That allows Rude to go up with a missile dropkick for two, which may be the first time I've ever seen him pull one of those out. DDT gets two, and a swinging neckbreaker follows for two. He goes up again, but this time Chono brings him down with a vertical superplex for two. Chono goes up, so now Rude takes a turn at bringing him down with a vertical superplex of his own for two. Tombstone, but Chono reverses for two, so Rude tries hanging on with a sleeper, but Chono pushes off the ropes to topple him for two. Rude tries whipping him into the ropes, but he's dazed, and gets blasted with a series of three big boots after telegraphing a backdrop. Speaking of backdrops, Chono hits one of his own, and that's enough to allow him the STF, but Rude is in the ropes. Rick guts out a piledriver, and he goes up to add an exclamation point with a flying kneedrop, but the referee is out of position, and it only gets one. Chono reverses a whip into the ropes to allow him another backdrop, and it's STF time again, but Rude makes the ropes to save himself. He wisely rolls to the outside as soon as the hold is released, but Chono forces him back in, and pops him with an enzuigiri for two. Abdominal cradle gets two, and Chono is visibly frustrated now, which Rude capitalizes on by dumping him to the outside. Unfortunately for him, it backfires, as a fired up Chono bolts to the top rope, and hits Rude with a flying shoulderblock for the title at 29:44. This was good, and certainly a knockout compared to its ugly sister from Halloween Havoc, but I didn't quite see the same all time classic I've heard people refer to this as over the years. *** ½

Tito Santana v Papa Shango: One of the dark matches from SummerSlam 1992 in London England on August 29 1992. The English seem as perplexed by Papa Shango as we were. Shango jumps Tito before the bell, and he hammers him in the corner, then cross corner whips him to set up a stinger splash. Another cross corner whip, but the splash misses on the second go-around, and Tito sends him over the top with a dropkick. Back in, Santana dives with a nice flying clothesline for two, and a bodypress hits for two. Sleeper, but Shango drops him head-first into the turnbuckle to escape, and follows with a bodyslam to set up an elbowdrop for two. Shango with a sidewalk slam, but a 2^nd rope flying elbowdrop misses, and Tito starts mounting a comeback. Jumping forearm hits, but only gets two, and a frustrated Santana misses a charge. That allows Shango his overhead inverted shoulderbreaker, and we're out at 6:12. Perfectly fine as background noise while the crowd gets to their seats. ¾*

18-Man Royal Rumble Match: From a WWF event in Osaka Japan on May 9 1994, this is one of only two non-televised Rumble matches in history. Two minute intervals for this. Rick Martel gets #1 and Bob Backlund draws #2. Hey, two longevity record holders! Bob dominates, but running into a cheap shot, and nearly getting tossed. Martel celebrates too early, and runs into an airplane spin, and Bob nearly gets him out, as #3 entry Jinsei Shinzaki (the future Hakushi) joins the party. He initially hangs back to let them fight it out, but goes after Backlund when Bob is trying to get Martel out, and they double team the Bobster. Man, how I wish I had a time machine, just so I could go back to this show, and see the looks on everyone’s faces when I tell them that Backlund would be WWF Champion again before the year is up. Of course, the looks of confusion on their faces might be more because I don't speak any Japanese than anything else. Adam Bomb gets #4, and goes after Backlund, as Shinzaki fights Martel. The balls on them booking a guy named 'Adam Bomb' in Japan. #5 is 1-2-3 Kid, and he piles onto Martel with Shinzaki. Masashi Aoyagi is #6, and he teams up with Shinzaki to hit Kid with a tandem knife-edge chop. They team up on Bomb next, but that predictably doesn't go well for them. Tatanka gets #7, as Kid teases an elimination via Martel. #8 is Billy Gunn, and he saves Backlund from Shinzaki, then goes after Bomb in the corner. This has been a pretty terrible Rumble thus far, without any cutesy spots, or anything beyond very basic battle royal fare. Compare it to the one they did at the Garden a few days before the pay per view version in January, which was actually a pay per view caliber Rumble. Nobukazu Hirai gets #9, as Kid and Shinzaki trade kicks. Shinzaki tries a big charge, but Kid ducks, and Shinzaki is done. Bart Gunn draws #10, but doesn't really add anything. Owen Hart gets #11, and goes after Kid, but fails to dump him. Bam Bam Bigelow is #12, as Owen does a cool elimination tease where he ends up standing on the top rope as a method of blocking a suplex from Bart, but then dives at Gunn with missile dropkick from there before Bart can knock him to the outside. That was really unique, and I'm actually surprised Owen never busted that one out on a bigger stage. Billy Gunn tries to superplex the Rocket, but Owen manages to ride him down to the mat to block, as Randy Savage draws lucky #13. Owen has been pretty much the lone bright spot of this thing thus far. He teases an elimination from Savage next, but Martel saves, and they double team the Macho Man. Both Smoking Gunns are still in there, but aren't bothering to work together at all... oh, too late. Both are gone. One courtesy of Savage, one via Bigelow. Samu draws #14, and holy shit, both Martel and Backlund are still in this thing. #15 is Undertaker, and it's goodbye Martel! Quick, someone call Leslie Nielsen! Martel a nice backdrop bump on the way out, too. Bigelow and Samu double up on Undertaker, as Owen skins the cat to save himself from a Savage elimination. Fatu gets #16, as Tatanka goes to town on Owen. #17 is Bret Hart, and you can guess for yourself who he goes right after. Backlund is still in this! Doink the Clown rounds out the field at #18, as Bret dumps Bomb. Tatanka makes a fiery attempt on Bigelow, but ends up getting reversed, as Owen finally ends Backlund's night. Bret and Owen then do a double elimination, as Undertaker gets rid of Samu. That leaves Bigelow, Savage, Undertaker, and Fatu as the final four, and Macho tries diving at Bam Bam with a flying axehandle, but gets caught, and run into the corner. Bigelow then whips him right into a backdrop from Fatu, and that's the end of Randy's night. Last Rumble match he'd ever compete in, too. They gang up on Undertaker next, but unlike that other Royal Rumble ‘94, it doesn’t work out so well for them. Bigelow accidentally dropkicks Fatu out, and Bam Bam's a goner at 46:15 after Undertaker dodges the flying headbutt. Kind of funny to think that this was actually a longer Rumble than the 1995 pay per view version ended up being, despite the significantly smaller field. This is far (far, FAR) from a good Rumble, but it's kinda worth a look just for the sheer novelty. ¾*


I Quit Match: Rick Rude v Sting: From WCW Worldwide on May 14 1994 in Orlando Florida. I'm not sure when it was taped, but History of the WWE believes it to be sometime in February '94. Given the insanity of their taping schedule at the time, I wouldn't be surprised. Rude is the WCW International World Champion here, but this is non-title. The screens in the background have 'dream match' written on them, which is kinda laughable given how many times we'd seen them wrestle by this point. Sting with a four backdrops in a row to fight off a Rude blitz, and he corner whips the Ravishing one a couple of times - Rick doing a great job of selling it all. Sting with an inverted slam into the turnbuckles, and he wrenches Rude in a reverse chinlock. The crowd is actually really hot for all of this, especially considering that I believe they were all tourists who got in for free. Though, to be fair, this was the venue that had studio signs that told people when to cheer and boo, wasn't it? Rude escapes the hold and drops Sting with a DDT, still selling the back like crazy as he hobbles over to apply a nervehold. Sting starts to power out, so Rude goes to a sleeper, and uses the ropes for leverage. He shifts to a reverse chinlock, but Sting powers out with an electric chair, so Rude goes up - only to get gut-punched on the way down! That allows Sting another backdrop, and an inverted atomic drop follows. Dropkick, but Rude manages to dodge, and he drills the Stinger with a clothesline. That allows him to grab a chain covered glove, but Vader shows up on the video wall before he can use it, and the distraction allows Sting to clothesline him over the top - Rude walking out at 10:02. Um, was this not an I Quit match? I guess walking out counts as giving up, then? And this would serve as Rude's last ever televised match, save for a one off in ECW in 1997. And what a terrible way to go out. The taping cycles led to all kinds of problems during this era, this not the least of them. The match wasn't reinventing the wheel, but it was solid for what it was. ** ¼