WWE – Unreleased: Never Before Seen Matches
1986-1995
Disc Two

AT FIRST GLANCE: NOW WE’RE TALKING. We begin disc two post-WrestleMania VI and while maybe the first half of this disc doesn’t really grab me, the Ric Flair era of the WWF is really fun for me. Flair’s matches with Roddy Piper and Hulk Hogan should be interesting, but what I’m super interested in are the Bret Hart matches. Undertaker and Bam Bam Bigelow could be a hidden gem as well. Work-wise, this should blow the first disc away.

Your hosts are Charly Caruso and Sean Mooney.

An Aftershock on Hulkamania: Mooney makes a joke about a “God Save the Queen” party set up by Lord Alfred Hayes and then recalls his moment in the sun grabbing a word from Mary Tyler Moore. Naturally because she’s some sort of millennial, Charly has no idea who that is.

• Hulk Hogan vs. Earthquake (w/Jimmy Hart) – (4/3/90 – Syracuse, NY)
  

Earthquake is smart enough to BUM RUSH THE SHOW on the Hulkster. Hogan avoids an elbow drop and rips off the t-shirt, brother. He pounds Quake into the corner for the running clothesline. Hogan takes forever to get Earthquake down to one knee. Hogan goes after Jimmy only to be shoved into the ringpost. Back in, Quake forces Hogan into the corner. He gives Hogan a backbreaker and then applies a bearhug for a few minutes. This crowd is HOT. Hogan punches out, but runs right into a shoulderblock. Here comes the EARTHQUAKE SPLASH, but Hogan kicks out at two and hits the usual for the win. (8:37) Pretty standard Hogan match. This had to be one of their first meetings so you can’t be too hard on them. Check out the SummerSlam match though for a better encounter between these two. *½

• Ted DiBiase (w/Virgil) vs. Big Boss Man – (4/3/90 – Syracuse, NY)
  

DiBiase jumps Boss Man at the bell, but Boss Man punches back and lands a back drop. Virgil trips up Boss Man allowing DiBiase to go flying out of the ring into the guardrail for a nice bump. Back in, DiBiase hits a flying double sledge for two. Here comes the slam and the Million Dollar fist drops, but again Boss Man finds a way to kick out. Double-KO ensues. Boss Man catches DiBiase coming off the second rope signaling his comeback. After a Spinebuster, Virgil jumps in the ring and starts stomping on Boss Man for the DQ. (4:55) Afterwards, Boss Man starts cleaning house with his night stick. Of course DiBiase exits the ring before any real harm can come to him, but Virgil gets the stick and the handcuffs. KINKY! *½

• Ultimate Warrior & Texas Tornado vs. Mr. Perfect & Rick Rude (w/Bobby Heenan) – (8/8/90 – Providence, RI)
  

Here we get the two title feuds going into SummerSlam in one match. Pretty cool seeing Perfect and Rude teaming together here. Kerry Von Erich has been taking Brutus Beefcake’s dates since the parasailing accident and of course goes onto SummerSlam to win the IC title. After stalling for a bit, Perfect and Rude then take some great bumps over the top rope to the floor thanks to the Texas Tornado. Warrior reaches out through the ropes and runs their heads together. Back inside, Perfect sells for Kerry’s punches, but gets stuck in the wrong corner. He avoids a backdrop from Rude by leaping over him and tags in Warrior. He atomic drops Rude into an oncoming Mr. Perfect to send him to the floor. Rude gets tossed around some more by Warrior. Back over to Von Erich, he hits a suplex on Rude for two. Perfect brings up the knee up to nail Kerry in the back. He follows up with the Rolling Neck Snap and sits down on a chinlock. Rude hammers on the lower back and applies a bearhug. Von Erich earclaps out and atomic drops Rude, but Perfect pulls him back on their side of the ring to get the crap stomped out of him. Now they go after his knee. Once that’s over, there’s more chinlockage. Over to the corner, Rude uses the tag rope to choke on Kerry. Warrior can’t control himself and tries to help out, but Von Erich winds up getting double-teamed again. Heel miscommunication ensues as Perfect dropkicks the crap out of Rude. HOT TAG TO WARRIOR! He goes CLOTHESLINE CRAZY as you would imagine. The Jumping Shoulderblock sets up the WARRIOR SPLASH for the three-count. (11:26) It’s a missed opportunity not putting Rude and Perfect together more during their WWF run, but the WWF thinks the money is only in singles matches, so there ya go. Good match! ***¼

• Legion of Doom vs. Demolition – (10/30/90 – Ft. Wayne, IN)
  

Speaking of tag matches, this is from the same taping where they tried to switch the WWF tag titles from the Hart Foundation to the Rockers, but they had way too many technical difficulties and decided not to air the match. We have entered the Smash and Crush era for Demolition. It’s only a matter of time until even the company doesn’t give a crap about this team anymore. After a short beatdown on Animal, Hawk interrupts the Demolition Decapitation and hits Smash with the Flying Clothesline for the win. (2:28) Nothing match. Now that Vince had the Road Warriors, he didn’t even need to try to pretend he needed Demolition. ¼*

• War Eagle vs. Dale Wolfe – (1/8/91 – Chattanooga, TN)
  

War Eagle will become known as Tatanka. This is just a tryout match for the guy. He comes out to some really rockin’ tune though which doesn’t fit his American Indian character whatsoever. He is JACKED and looks great, btw. Wolfe seems pretty intimidated by War Eagle and ducks out several times to avoid contact. Bad angle on the PAPOOSE TO GO there. (4:56) Tatanka comes back in the fall to debut the character that makes his career.

Yes, He Is A Model…: Mooney has to explain who Rick Martel is to Charly, but then in the next breath she admits she knows he had a blindfold match at WRESTLEMANIA 7? Whoever produced this is trying way too hard to make millennials not feel stupid for not knowing everything that has happened in WWE history. Btw, Sean Mooney looks a lot like Alec Baldwin these days.

• Blindfold Match: Jake Roberts vs. Rick Martel – (1/29/91 – Savannah, GA)
  

They put on the hoods and Jake uses the crowd to help him figure out where Martel is just like at WrestleMania 7. Martel runs into the ropes and falls down. He trips over Roberts. He whips Jake into the ropes and all Jake has to do is walk to the side to avoid the contact, which really would work when you’re not blindfolded, but whatever. Martel finds himself on the floor and grabs hold of Damien to freak himself out. He pulls Roberts out to the floor and tries to poke him with a steel chair. Martel ends up hitting the ringpost and hurting his hands. Once Martel finds himself back in the ring, Jake uses the fans to find him again. Martel slugs him first and slams him down, but Jake stands up avoiding an elbow drop. Now Martel is MAD! He’s had enough and rips off the hood. He ties Jake up in the ropes and grabs his atomizer full of Arrogance. While Hebner tries to get it away from him, Roberts breaks loose and finds Martel to spin him around for a DDT. It takes Jake a minute to find him, but he rolls on top of Martel for the win. (7:27) Maybe time has mellowed me out, but this was much more fun than I remember the WrestleMania 7 match being. **½

• Sid Justice vs. Ted DiBiase (w/Sensational Sherri) – (7/8/91 – Calgary, AB, Canada)
  

From what I understand, this is the debut match in the WWF for Sid. He’s not phased by DiBiase’s attack to start. An atomic drop sends DiBiase flying over the top rope. DiBiase pulls him out to the floor, but Sid pushes him off into the ringpost. Back inside, DiBiase whacks Sid in the face with Sherri’s purse to get a moment’s peace. He hammers Sid down and delivers the Million Dollar Fist Drops. Sherri is absolutely crazy here. Sid keeps kicking out of DiBiase’s stuff and avoids the elbow drop from the second rope and hits the POWERBOMB for the win. (5:41) CALGARY LOVED SID. It’s sad to see DiBiase job clean that quickly though. ¾*

• Casket Match: Ultimate Warrior vs. The Undertaker (w/Paul Bearer) – (8/19/91 – Rochester, NY)
  

One of the earliest casket matches for the Undertaker as this match occurred just weeks after Jake Roberts and the Undertaker locked Warrior inside a casket on Superstars. Warrior pulls Taker out to the floor for some ringside violence. In the ring, they start clotheslining each other. Taker grabs Warrior and gives him the TOMBSTONE. He rolls him into the casket, but man is he having a hard time shutting that lid for some reason. Warrior eventually WARRIORS UP (with the lid coming more and more ajar without even touching it) and hits Taker with the urn. This KO’s UT to the point that Warrior simply rolls him into the casket and shuts the lid for the win. (5:41) Worst casket match ever? ½*

• Roddy Piper vs. Ric Flair – (10/1/91 – Huntington, WV)
  

Being the REAL world’s champion, Flair shows off the Big Gold Belt to all of us marks. Piper grabs the mic and promises to kick Flair’s butt any way he can. He’s sure a HOUSE OF FIRE to start. Flair baits him to the floor, but that backfires as Piper continues to abuse Flair. Back inside, they get to chopping each other. Piper wins a slugfest and Flair flops. There’s the Flair Flip and Piper catches him running down the apron. When the ref has enough of Piper punching him in the corner and grabs Piper by the arm, Flair goes low on Piper to take control. WOO! He takes Piper to school, but then Piper starts NO-SELLING his chops and comes back on him. Flair gets slammed off the top rope and takes a swinging neckbreaker from Piper, but once again Flair goes low. Flair finds a chair and knocks the ref into the corner. Piper catches Flair with a pair of inside cradles, but no ref. Another ref comes out to check on Hebner, but Flair doesn’t care. He rolls up Piper with a handful of trunks and gets the three-count. Apparently it didn’t count because it wasn’t done by Hebner, so they do the spot again once he wakes up and Flair gets the REAL three-count. (6:52) Afterwards, Piper hits Flair a few times with the chair and scares away refs and agents. WOO! I do love me some Roddy Piper. **

Who Is Mr. Madness?: More explanations from Sean Mooney. He tells Charly that Randy Savage occasionally wrestled at house shows as Mr. Madness after he lost the retirement match to the Ultimate Warrior at WrestleMania 7.

• Jake Roberts vs. Mr. Madness – (11/12/91 – Springfield, MA)
  

This time Randy Savage is subbing for Sid Justice. Savage knocks Jake silly to start and lands a flying double sledge. Jake goes low on Savage and throws him out to the floor. As Savage comes back in through the ropes, Roberts catches him with a knee lift. Jake delivers an inverted atomic drop and abuses Savage on the apron. Back in, Jake slugs him down. He’s wearing a snake handler’s glove on his right hand. Roberts finds the Short-Arm Clothesline and calls for the DDT, but Savage shoves him into the corner. Jake dumps him on the floor, but Savage reverses a whip into the guardrail. Back inside, Savage lands another flying double sledge. He considers the Macho Elbow, but tosses a chair in the ring instead and delivers a few really good chairshots to send Jake running to the dressing room. (4:45 or so) Not sure if this was a DQ or a countout, but either way there was no real winner. **¼

• WWF Championship: Hulk Hogan (c) vs. Ric Flair (w/Mr. Perfect) – (11/12/91 – Springfield, MA)
  

The crowd cheers the WWF title while booing the Big Gold Belt because we’re in Massachusetts. Hulk seems to be stalling. Flair seems to be playing mind games. WOO! Flair finally grabs a headlock and really grinds on that hold. Hogan escapes and shoulderblocks Flair down before mocking his Fargo strut. Now Flair escapes a headlock and Hogan shoulderblocks him down. Hogan blocks a hiptoss and clotheslines Flair out to the floor. Back inside, Hogan wants a test of strength. WHY? Flair pokes him in the eye and chops him one good time. Hogan NO-SELLS the Wahoo Chop though and clotheslines Flair down. As Flair begs off, Hogan comes at him with the ten-count corner punch. There’s the Flair Flop and the Flair Flip as Hogan clotheslines him running down the apron. Flair tries running away, but Hogan brings him back into the ring only for Flair to jump him. The Rolling Knee Drop connects and boy does Hogan sell that one. Hogan NO-SELLS chops though and comes back slugging Flair, but Mr. Perfect hops up on the apron allowing Flair to kick him on the back of the knee. With Hogan pulled to a corner, Flair whacks his knee with a chair. WOO! Time to take Hogan to school, but he kicks away the Figure-Four. Flair goes up top and gets slammed to the mat. Hogan covers him and Flair gets his foot on the bottom rope. Hulk limps away thinking he’s won. Meanwhile, Perfect hands Flair some taped knucks and punches Hogan down. He’s deader than a doornail. OH WAIT! HE’S ACTUALLY NOT! There’s the Hulk Up and the Big Boot, but Perfect helps pull Flair out to the floor to prevent the Legdrop. Hogan chases after him and slams his face off the steps. That allows Hogan to get back in the ring just in time to win via countout. (14:44) Flair jumps Hogan again, but he’s quickly clotheslined down and heads to the back leaving Hogan to celebrate. A little too much no-selling from Hogan, but what do you expect. **½

Piper’s Pit with Brooklyn Brawler – (4/7/92 – Toledo, OH)

This is Roddy Piper’s first appearance since losing the IC title (fair and square!) to Bret Hart two days earlier at WrestleMania 8. Piper mentions the sports scandals of the day and wants the Toledo crowd to do the Arsenio Hall fist pump anytime anybody on the Pit starts to lie. The Pit is all about truth and honesty and brings out his first guest: THE BROOKLYN BRAWLER. He comes out and lies about taking baths, being a millionaire, and promises to be the next WWF champ. Brawler brings the ring bell into the ring to prove he wouldn’t have lost to Bret Hart because he would have knocked Piper’s block off. Piper pokes him in the eyes Three Stooges-style and KO’s Brawler with the bell. Piper would continue to do these untelevised Piper Pit segments throughout the month of April before leaving again.

• Bret Hart vs. Davey Boy Smith – (6/30/92 – Binghamton, NY)
  

They shake hands before the match. Bulldog shows off his power advantage to start running through Bret and sending him flying out to the guardrail. Back in, Bret tries to keep Davey Boy down on the mat with a headlock. Bulldog manages to slip out as they play around with an armbar. Bret cuts him off with the kitchen sink knee and the crowd gives him crap for it. Maybe they just really like Bulldog. Bret delivers an atomic drop and knocks him silly with an uppercut. He grabs a chinlock. When Davey Boy fights out and tries a crucifix hold, Bret sees it coming and slams him down. Beautiful looking Piledriver gets two. Bret follows up with a suplex and a backbreaker to set up the Flying Elbow for a nearfall. Bulldog avoids the Sharpshooter though and delivers an enziguri. He catches Bret and gives him a catapult into the corner. Bulldog staggers Bret with a running clothesline for two. Hourglass Suplex scores a nearfall as well. Bret cuts him off with a sleeperhold. His arm drops once, twice, BUT NOT THREE TIMES! Bulldog wakes up and backs Bret into the corner to break up the hold. They both take a tumble out to the floor, but Bret counters a suplex back inside and gives Bulldog a bridging German suplex for the three-count. (13:21) After the bell, they shake hands and embrace each other. Really good match as they prepare for SummerSlam. ***½

• Bret Hart & Ultimate Warrior vs. Papa Shango & Kamala (w/Harvey Wippleman & Kim Chee) – (10/13/92 – Regina, SK, Canada)
  

This match takes place the day after Bret beat Ric Flair for his first WWF title. Warrior is subbing for the Undertaker here. Bret outsmarts Kamala to start and steps on his toes to send Kamala running to tag out. Shango pummels down Bret for him instead and slaps Kamala on the shoulder to tag him back into the match. Is Kamala pretty much the Ugandan Chewbacca? Anyways, the freaks of nature continue to beat up Bret until Shango misses a corner charge that allows Bret to reach the hot tag. He goes CLOTHESLINE CRAZY, slams Kamala, hits the Jumping Shoulderblock on Shango, and delivers the WARRIOR SPLASH for the win. (7:08) Well, that really made your new WWF champ look strong. Believe it or not, Kamala was the most entertaining character in this match. *½

• The Undertaker (w/Paul Bearer) vs. Bam Bam Bigelow – (1/26/93 – Fresno, CA)
  

This is from the Wrestling Challenge tapings after the Royal Rumble. It’s HARD CAMERA ONLY! Taker NO-SELLS Bigelow’s punches and chokes him back into a corner. He hits Old School, but missing his Jumping Clothesline allowing Bigelow to stomp him out to the floor for a slam on the concrete. Bigelow then whips him into the steps for the knees first bump. Back inside, he slams Taker for diving headbutts. When he goes for the Flying Headbutt, Taker sits up and delivers the Chokeslam for the three-count. (5:19) Hmm, no Giant Gonzalez. Bummer. Anyways, criminally short, but how can you really criticize when it’s just a house show match at a really long TV taping? *½

Radical Dudes: Charly shows Sean Mooney a tape and tries to jar his memory about a one night-only Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles gimmick. Sean barely remembers even with all of Charly’s clues and can’t believe someone thought this would work.

• The Toxic Turtles vs. Tommy Stevenson & Ron Preston – (3/9/93 – Augusta, GA)
  

Barry Hardy and Duane Gill are Timmy and Tommy Turtle. Yes, they are dressed up like Donatello and Michelangelo. There’s got to be an interesting story to this one. The crowd is actively booing this right out of the gate. The Turtles win with a slingshot senton on Preston. (2:20) WRESTLECRAP.

Final Thoughts on Disc Two: You can certainly see the lack of star power on this set. Much less Hogan and way more Warrior which doesn’t really interest me. The Flair stuff was fun. Bret Hart and Davey Boy Smith never disappoint. The biggest disappointment for me was the short Taker/Bigelow match. I really hoped that was going to be a hidden gem, but you can’t really fault anyone for how it turned out. There are better matches on this disc than the first one for sure though. However, nothing earth shattering yet. Next up, we’ll finish up this set tackling disc three which covers post-WrestleMania 9 through the summer of 1995. I’m feeling like this set is heading in the right direction after disc two, but I’ll see how disc three goes before making my final decision here.