Goody Bag 84: Opening the Vault

 

Football Match: Lex Luger v Curtis Hughes: From a WCW live event on January 11 1991 in East Rutherford New Jersey. The idea here is that both guys are in full football gear, and you win by knocking your opponent over the top. Plus Lex even has Lawrence Taylor in his corner. Both guys go down into a three-point stance to start, and Hughes nails him. Lex responds by going over to Taylor for advice, and a second go around sees Lex push him into the corner for a rope break. Third go sees Hughes get him into the ropes, but Hughes takes a cheap shot on the break, and dumps Luger over the top. It’s not considered a ‘knock’ over the top, though, and Lex hustles back in to clothesline Hughes over the top at 1:50. Just a gimmick, but certainly unique. DUD

Hair v Masks Two-Out-of-Three Falls Match: Eddie Guerrero and Art Barr v El Hijo del Santo and Octagon: From AAA When Worlds Collide, November 6 1994 in Los Angeles California. This is 2/3 falls, but each member of the team has to lose in order to drop a fall. Eddie starts with Santo, and they do a little posturing. Eddie gets control with a chinlock, but Santo shakes him off with a snapmare, and Guerrero ends up on the outside. He immediately complains of hair pulling, but the referee isn’t buying it, and both guys tag. Barr takes a cheap shot ahead of a lockup with Octagon, triggering a fast paced criss cross and reversal sequence that’s won by Octagon. Eddie responds by coming in, but Santo looks to cut him off - which ends badly. The heels dump Octagon, and Barr scoops Santo onto his shoulders for Guerrero to dive off the top with a flying rana on at 2:41. Octagon rushes in, but Guerrero grabs him for a vertical superplex, and Art adds a flying frogsplash at 3:07. So, with both guys eating pins, that puts their team down one fall. The dust settles on Guerrero and Santo, and Eddie hits a blockbuster for two. He adds a hanging vertical suplex for two, but Santo is able to get away for a tag. Eddie taunts him, and takes a cheap shot, before passing to Barr for a standing dropkick. Barr adds a second one, and a bodyslam sets up a slingshot somersault senton splash. That draws Octagon in, and the babyfaces manage to dump Eddie out, and double up on Barr. Santo hits Barr with a 2nd rope elbowdrop, as Guerrero comes back in, but the babyfaces clean house, and hit the heels with stereo planchas. Inside, Santo hooks Guerrero in a sunset flip for two, and an electric facebuster follows. Santo goes up, but Eddie grabs him with a rana off the top for a pin at 8:22. The heels double up on Octagon, but a tandem backdrop gets countered with a double facebuster, and Octagon hooks Eddie in a rana into a cradle at 9:22. Octagon stays on Barr with a Russian legsweep into an octopus hold, and Art quickly submits at 9:31 - putting them at one fall per team. Back to Eddie and Santo, and Eddie tries a powerbomb right away, but Santo counters to a rana into a cradle for two - saved by Barr. Eddie capitalizes with a camel clutch, but Octagon saves to even that game up. Santo locks Guerrero in a camel clutch, but not Barr saves. Art tries to bodyslam him, but Santo counters into a cradle, with Guerrero saving at two. Barr slaps on an STF, so Octagon saves, and beats on Barr with a series of kicks. The babyfaces double up on Art, and Santo vertical suplexes him, so Eddie comes in to kick Santo out of the ring. Octagon rushes in with a headbutt to knock Barr silly, so Eddie grabs Octagon with a gory special. Santo saves, and hits Eddie with an electric chair for two. Barr dumps him, and he and Guerrero hit them with stereo topes. Santo fires back with a sunset bomb on Eddie, but Octagon misses a dropkick on Barr, and Art tombstones him at 16:02. Ah, but it needs to be consecutive falls, so that doesn’t end the match. Barr drags Santo in to finish off, with Guerrero joining. They hit him with a combo for two, and Eddie adds a vertical superplex to set up a flying frogsplash from Barr for two, as Octagon does a stretcher job to sell the tombstone. Another combo, but Santo ducks it, and dropkicks Eddie out of the ring. He adds a dive out there, so Barr goes to the top, but Blue Panther pulls him down. He hits Barr with a piledriver to keep him away from Santo, and Santo crawls in to cover at 18:41. So it comes down to Guerrero and Santo, and Eddie drills him with a sitout powerbomb for two right away. Eddie with a belly-to-belly superplex for two, and a rana off the top is worth two. Eddie with a bridging dragon suplex for two, but a second one gets countered by Santo with a victory cradle at 21:07. Not really the all time classic that its reputation suggests, but still a very good match - full of hot moves, drama, and great storytelling. I really appreciated how the energy of the match changed as it went along, with the heels becoming decreasingly arrogant, and increasingly desperate. *** ¾  

Cage Match: Bret Hart v Hakushi: TV taping dark match in Evansville Indiana on July 25 1995. Hakushi attacks as Bret climbs into the cage, but Hart fights him off, and pounds in the corner. Hart ropeburns him, but gets punched in the throat, and what’s up with Bret’s odd elbowpad here? A criss cross ends in a double knockout spot (at a minute in?!), and Bret staggers up first, making a climb attempt. Hakushi grabs the leg to pull him back in, and a kneedrop connects for him. Hakushi climbs, but Bret pulls him off. Hart climbs, but Hakushi climbs to the top rope to catch him, and they slug it out on the top rope - won by the Hitman. That allows Hart to continue his escape attempt, but Hakushi cuts him off again. He cracks Bret with some chops in the corner, and a cross corner whip rattles the ring from there. Hakushi climbs, but Bret quickly cuts him off, and delivers a bulldog. Bret goes for the door, but Hakushi holds his ankle, and stomps on the knee to slow the Hitman down. Hakushi with a bronco buster, and he makes a climb, but Bret punches him in the back of the knee to cut it off. Hart adds a DDT, and he goes for the door, but Hakushi stops him. Hakushi wrenches the knee again, and a bodyslam allows him to try for the door, but Bret cuts him off. Bret with a headbutt drop to the groin, and he climbs, but Hakushi stops him at the top of the cage. Hakushi pounds him back into the ring, and he hangs Hart in a tree of woe. Bret tries to sit up out of it, so Hakushi dropkicks him, and goes for the door. Very, very slowly. Hart pulls him in, and he delivers a backbreaker to set up a 2nd rope pointed elbowdrop, but Hakushi moves. That’s one of the few times I’ve ever seen him miss that one. Whenever he’s going to miss, he almost always does a standard elbow off the middle, instead of the pointed version. Hakushi capitalizes with a flying headbutt drop, but Hart dodges. That allows the Hitman an inverted atomic drop to set up a clothesline, and he climbs. Hart makes it over the top of the cage before Hakushi cuts him off, and he puts the boots to the Hitman. Hakushi climbs, but Bret swipes at the knee again to save. Cross corner whip, but Hakushi reverses. That allows him to climb, again, very slowly. Hart makes it up the side of the cage with a vertical superplex off the top, and he hustles for the door, making it out at 12:30. I wasn’t expecting their best effort for a dark match, and I wasn’t disappointed. I was surprised that they didn’t even ram each other into the cage once, though. I think this may be the only cage match in history. * ¼ 

Kurt Angle v Christian Cage: From a WWA event on August 22 1998 in Quincy Massachusetts, in what is Angle's fourth match as a pro (and only his second day). He’s got Dory Funk Jr in his corner, while Christian has Jim Cornette. Christian stalls to start, and Kurt wins the initial lockup with a takedown, so Christian gets into the ropes. Angle with another takedown, so Christian scraps into the ropes. Christian tries a waistlock, but Kurt reverses - reversed back by Christian into a takedown. Christian holds the waistlock, but Angle counters to a hammerlock, then shifts to a headlock as Christian takes it to a vertical base. Kurt uses a shoulderblock to put him back down for another side-headlock, but Christian gets into the ropes - and throws a cheap shot on the break. Irish whip, but Angle reverses, and uses a drop-toehold into another headlock. Christian makes it into the ropes, and again throws a cheap shot on the break, then follows with a suplex. Christian dumps him to the outside, and Cornette is quick to take a swipe with the tennis racket out there. Angle beats the count, so Christian bodyslams him, and adds an elbowdrop from there. Christian goes to a chinlock, but Kurt fights free, so Christian drops him with a modified inverted DDT for two. I’m honestly surprised no one during the Attitude Era ever used an inverted DDT that they called the ‘perverted DDT’ as a move. Anyway. Kurt comes back with a pair of German suplexes, and an overhead belly-to-belly suplex gets him two. Christian fights back with a front-powerslam, but a flying splash misses, and Angle cradles at 8:15. This wasn’t some hidden gem, but it’s definitely interesting in retrospect. Watching this, I can’t say that ‘I would have known’ both guys were going to be huge stars, though both looked good through this very basic match. Christian had a few years of experience under his belt at this point, but Angle was literally in his fourth professional match. It truly is hard to believe that both guys would be top stars for the WWF within two years of this. *