This Week In WWE Vintage Collection History: Miss Alicia, Wadey Boy Smith, Evan Mysterio And The Million Dollar Man Christian DiBiase
By Aaron Wood Dec 4, 2011 - 3:28 PM
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COLLECTION #184 Mean
Gene opened up noting we'd be continuing our Inspiration shows, as in
case you missed last week, we'd be throwing things over to the
current WWE roster to tellus who inspired them to become the
Superstars they are today. We started with our first Diva as we
heard from Alicia Fox. Alicia, who was dressed and looked in her
pre-tape like a housewife from an early-90's African American family
sitcom, said she always idolised Miss Elizabeth because she was like
a delicate flower and behind every great man was a great woman.
So,
which Randy Savage match did we watch to see Miss Elizabeth who never
really got physical, never really did anything sexy and never really
talked at all, indeed, other than be hot never did anything?
Actually, we didn't! We sent ti to WCW Starrcade 1999 as Sting,
accompanied by Miss Elizabeth, as he took on "Good Friend and
Better Enemy" (CALLBACK!) Lex Luger. Gene only said that this
bout was for Elizabeth's freedom. Basically, Luger had Liz under
contract to him, and was, at this point, making her do shitty things
such as booking her with "The Powers That Be" to wrestling
Meng/Haku and to mud-wrestle. So she had gone to Sting for help.
This being WCW Written by Vince Russo, take a flying guess at what
happened with thsi damsel in distress...
After
the break, we went to a pre-tape for the inspiration of Wade Barrett.
Now, who could this person, who is not only a Brit, but from
Manchester, England possibly select as his inspiration? Yeah, no
swerves here. It was British Bulldog. He loved that he was so big
and strong and powerful and he felt patriotic he was from his
country.
We
cut to the Toronto Maple Leaf Gardens on April 21st 1991 as Bulldog
came to the ring for a match against Haku, a match that would air on
the Prime Time Wrestling episode o0f the 7th of May, with an
announcing team here of Sean Mooney & Lord Alfred Hayes. We
picked things up right at the start as Haku, in a dick move, decided
to take a rest on the top turnbuckle. Like he was friggin' HBK or
something. However, we quickly took a pair of slams to point out how
pointless being a knob was.
Haku
hit some strikes in the corner, but Bulldog whipped Haku across and
caught him in a sleeper for a little bit coming out, although Haku
escaped. Bulldog worked the arm, but had a monkeyflip out of the
corner blocked, which was when Haku took control of the match. Haku
hit a nice piledriver for a 2 count as we took a break. We returned
with Haku applying not so much a camel clutch but more childish hair
pulling as he was yanking back on Bulldog's white-boi braids.
Haku
hit a big backdrop for a 2 count before going to a chinlock. Bulldog
elbowed his way out of it and Bulldog hit a running crossbody for a 2
count. However, Haku, this time, got Bulldog in a sleeper. This
brought Bulldog down to the mat. He rallied and got out of it but
ran into a knee and a couple of striking elbows. However, Bulldog
blocked a suplex attempt and hit it himself for a 2 count. They
traded a whole bunch of headbutts, before Haku picked the legs. He
hit a slam, but a flipping senton missed.
This
spurred Bulldog into a comeback with a backdrop and then a back elbow
and clothesline for a 2 count. Haku telegraphed another backdrop.
However, when he whipped Bulldog off the ropes, Davey Boy came back
and hooked on a crucifix for a pin and the three count. I should
note, there's another match online from April 1991 with the same
finishing spot, with the same announcers but it is a different match.
And the other one is probably better...
Our
next person to be inspired was Evan Bourne. So was his pick a
legendary high flyer or a legendary pot smoker? Well, since I don't
know if Rey Rey does any kind of weed and I wouldn't like to
speculate, I'm going to assume his pick of Rey Mysterio is due to his
high flying. Indeed, as Evan himself explained, he was so many he
looked up to, but one resonated more with him in Rey. He used his
size to his advantage and wrestling was in his blood. He wanted to
become someone as passionate for the business and he owes a lot of
his career to Rey. That was the best one of these yet, because it
didn't just feel like a bunch of buzz words and while I'm sure
everyone is truly making these picks, this was an explanation that
sounded like they truly, truly meant it..
We
sent it to the WWE Smackdown of January 1st 2004 (taped 2 days
previously) as Rey challenged for the Cruiserweight Championship of
Tajiri's, the Japanese Buzzsaw with the Kyo Dai at his side.
Our
main event segment was next and our main event inspiree was
Christian. He had so many inspirations when growing up as a kid, but
to pick on there and then, it would be the Million Dollar Man, Ted
DiBiase, one of the most technical superstars inside the ring, a man
he always enjoyed watching perform. We went to Boston Garden on
September 12th 1987 as DiBiase faced Brutus "The Barber"
Beefcake.
Back
with Gene, he rounded things off for the week, noting that like
DiBiase, Christian has shown plenty or technique and charisma in the
WWE ring, wondering if Christian would one day join Ted in the Hall
Of Fame, before noting we'd have more Inspirations next week. With
three more shows before the new year, I'd be surprised if there
wasn't three more weeks of this. But that's not a bad thing...
That's a good thing...
Epilogue With
his wrist broken, Sting was "out" for a couple of months,
coming back to face Luger in a "Lumberjack with casts"
match as a blowoff for both that angle and Luger's gimmick of
breaking hands at Uncensored 2000, truly one of the worst PPV events
ever that I'm sorry to say that I own on VHS. I dunno. Maybe it's
just a reminder from history of when things are TRULY bad in
wrestling.
As
noted Luger would start a run of breaking people's arms in chairs,
ranging from the likes of Brian Knobbs, Vampiro, Curt Hennig, Jimmy
Hart and even WCW's security guy, Doug Dillinger. He also aligned
himself with Ric Flair to combat Hulk Hogan. However, all of this
was rendered moot in April when WCW was once again completely reset
and they started the New Blood/Millionaires Club storyline. And
indeed, at this point, Luger disappeared until September.
British
Bulldog wasn't in a major angle during the period of his match here
with Haku (who himself was doing literally nothing of note).
However, the WWE was discovering his abilities as a drawing card in
the UK, making various trips with various shows prominently featuring
Smith, even if not in the main event, in a move that would see
Summerslam brought to the UK in 1992.
This
Crusierweight Title win would be Mysterio's seventh victory for the
belt. However, he would only hold it for just over a month, losing
at No Way out to Chavo Guerrero. The title then went from Chavo to
Jacqueline to Chavo again, then to his father, Chavo Classic. It was
then on the June 17th Smackdown that Rey defeated Chavo Classic to
win the title once again.
After
Wrestlemania XX, on the draft show that followed, Tajiri was moved to
RAW, where he turned babyface again (since he had lost Kyo Dai in the
process of drafting) and was part of feuds ongoing with the likes of
Bischoff, Coachman and Evolution before winning the Tag Titles with
William Regal at Unforgiven later in the year.
Ted
DiBiase would soon engage in his first really major storyline in the
WWE when a couple of months after this match, on an episode of
Superstars Of Wrestling, DiBiase announced his intentions to buy the
WWE Title. This, of course, led to the famous Andre title win at the
Main Event in early-1988, with Andre handing over the title to
DiBiase. However, this of course saw the title vacated by Jack
Tunney, setting up the Wrestlemania 4 tournament.
