Purely Joyful Movie!

one of my absolute favorites!

Did you people see the same film I saw?

It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

1st Match: Jushin Thunder Liger vs Chris Benoit. So the first 7 matches of this show are part of a "Best of 7 for the World Cup of Wrestling". Just so you know. This match is really good, as you'd expect given the two men involved, but then Kevin Sullivan shows up and screws Benoit out of a win. I know it's for storyline reasons, but I hate Sullivan so much at this point, that I don't care, it's lazy, stop doing it. Rating: 3.5/5 2nd Match: Alex Wright vs Koji Kanemoto. Another solid match with good back and forth action. Both guys put in some good work here. Rating: 3.5/5 3rd Match: Lex Luger vs Masahiro Chono. A decent match, not much happens. Luger wins though, which brings the score to 2-1 NJPW. Is it sad that this is the best solo Luger match I've seen in 2 years? Rating: 2.5/5 4th Match: Johnny B. Badd vs Masa Saito. Sonny Onoo must be getting a heck of a leg workout walking to and from the ring for the first 90 minutes. Another match that could've been decent had it not ended in a lazy DQ. I will say this though, the matches that are less than decent on this show are really short, so it's not that bad. Rating: 2.5/5 5th Match: Eddie Guerrero vs Shinjiro Otani. Fantastic match, both guys do a great job, and for Eddie's first official PPV match he's great. I have to adjust my "Match of the Year" list to include this now. Rating: 4.5/5 6th Match: Randy Savage vs Tenzan. An OK match, but I feel like they played their best match too early. Had this been like the first match, I think it would've gotten a better reaction out of me and the crowd. Rating: 3/57th Match: Sting vs Kensuke Sasaki. The finale of the World Cup of Wrestling. The match is good, WCW winning was inevitable, but the matches leading up to this were good build-up. Rating: 3/5 8th Match: Sting vs Ric Flair vs Lex Luger, Triangle match to determine the #1 contender to the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. In the days before Triple Threat matches, there were matches like this, where people had to be tagged in. I understand why they did it this way, but the way the match is set up does drag it down because the match is 30 minutes long. There are some good moments, and Flair stealing the win was right up his alley, but the match is way longer than it should've been. Rating: 3/5 9th Match: Randy Savage vs Ric Flair, WCW World Heavyweight Championship. The match is OK, but it feels rushed because the match before it was 30 minutes. Also Jimmy Hart is with Flair for some reason now. Why? I don't know, I was a year old when this aired. The match devolves into overbooked chaos when Flair gets hit with the sharpest megaphone in history and starts bleedin' real bad. Then Pillman, Benoit, and Anderson run in to screw Savage out of the title. Was there a storyline point to this? Probably. Will it be explained in 1996? Probably. Am I glad to be done with 1995 WCW forever? Absolutely! Rating: 2.5/5 Final Rating: 6 out of 10. Not the best way to end the year for WCW, but giving Hogan the night off was a great idea as it let new talent shine, if only for an evening. Do you have any idea how much I loved not hearing from the Dungeon of Doom for 3 hours? Up next are the Best and Worst lists. Look for them some time in the next couple of days.R.I.P. Chris Benoit&R.I.P. Eddie Guerrero

(12.26.95)Live from Nashville, TNAttendance: 8,200Your hosts are Tony Schiavone, Dusty Rhodes, and Bobby HeenanThis is all about the World Cup! It's New Japan Vs WCW in a best of 7 series.Chris Beniot Vs Jushin "Thunder" Liger (W/Sony Onoo)Liger pins Beniot with a huricarana after Kevin Sullivan comes down and distracts Beniot. Japan leads 1-0. This was a good match, but not exactly a "great" one. Both wrestlers gave us an array of exciting maneuvers, but it just felt like there was something majorly missing. ***1/4Koji Kanemoto (W/Sony Onoo) Vs Alex WrightKanemoto wins with a jackknife roll-up. Japan leads 2-0. This match was above average for the most part. Kanemoto's style was hard to get used to at first, but they eventually got it rolling. Too bad the crowd didn't care that much about it.**3/4Lex Luger (W/Jimmy Hart) Vs Masahiro Chono (W/Sonny Onoo)Luger gets a huge face pop, even though he's a heel. Nashville, you disappoint me. Luger wins in relatively quick fashion with the Torture Rack. It's 2-1 for Japan. WCW needed a dominant win at this point and this kind of fit the bill. For some odd reason, Luger was way over with the fans. *1/4Johnny B Badd (W/Kimberly) Vs Masa Saito (W/Sonny Onoo)Kimberly (Looking mighty fine, I might add) owns Sonny Onoo on the microphone before the match after he implies women have no place in wrestling. Badd wins by DQ after Saito throws Badd over the top rope. It's tied 2-2. This is the weakest match on the PPV so far. Saito was past his prime at this juncture and couldn't move all that well. *Shinjiro Ootani (W/Sonny Onoo) Vs Eddie GuerreroOotani wins by reversing a roll-up from Eddie. Japan leads 3-2. This ended up being a pretty good match overall. It was similar to Liger vs Beniot, but these two managed to make it really exciting when it counted. ***1/4Randy Savage Vs Tensan (W/Sonny Onoo)Savage wins with the flying elbow drop. Japan and WCW are tied at 3 now. Savage gets his ass kicked for most of the match and comes back with basically one move and wins the entire match. Since it's Savage, you can chalk it up to resiliency. With anybody else, it's stretching major credibility.*1/4Sting Vs Kensuki Sasaki (W/Sonny Onoo)This is for the World Cup. Sasaki is also the United States Champion, but the title is not up for grabs. Sting makes Sasaki submit with the Scorpion Deathlock. This was a pretty mediocre match for the most part. Sasaki had a couple of cool moves, but it was smooth sailing for Sting.*1/2The WCW contingent comes out to celebrate with Sting for the World Cup presentation.Triangle MatchSting Vs Lex Luger Vs Ric FlairThe winner advances to face Randy Savage for the WCW title, immediately following this match. Ric Flair wins with some heel shenanigans, proving why he's the dirtiest player in the game. This match was highly inconsistent. It had moments of excitement, but they were negated by many moments of sheer boredom. The crowd got restless at one point and started booing loudly. The booking is also very confusing. Luger acted like a face AND a heel in this match. If WCW didn't care, why should I?**WCW Heavyweight ChampionshipRandy Savage (C) Vs Ric Flair (W/Jimmy Hart)Ric Flair wins the title for a 12th time, thanks to outside interference from Beniot, Pillman, and Arn Anderson. I'm always shocked when I see a match between Savage and Flair that is sub par. Unfortunately, this one falls under that category. Flair winning the title is a cool moment, but it was somewhat anti-climatic. Savage being protected in defeat was the right call, but it was still anti- climatic. *3/4Overall, this PPV is extremely average, if not below average. There were a couple of ***1/4 matches, but nothing that was truly memorable. The World Cup was pretty inconsequential and didn't feel nearly as important as WCW made it out to be. As I've stated in my Nitro reviews, WCW was suffering from overexposure. Your main stars were wrestling 2 to 3 times on one night, not to mention segments as well. Obviously, WCW would change the business in 1996 and revitalize wrestling with The NWO. 1995 definitely tested my patience, though.

1. Chris Benoit Vs. Jushin Thunder Liger - Good match, thanks to Sullivan Liger roll over Benoit. 8/10 2. Koji Kanemoto Vs. Alex Wright - WCW ate another lost in this WCW vs Japan matches. 7.5/10 3. Masahiro Chono Vs. Lex Luger - Quite normal match, even on Luger 6/10 4. Johnny B. Badd Vs. Masa Saito - Average match with silly "Over top rope DQ" ending 5.5/10 5. Shinjiro Ootani Vs. Eddie Guerrero - Eddie is God! But Ootani clearly won in great match! 8.5/10 6. Tensan Vs. Macho Man - Tensan dominated almost whole match and Macho sold one really nice move. But Macho "miraculously" won with elbow. 5.5/10 7. Sting Vs. Kensuki Sasaki - Solid match with clear victory and really well done Scorpion Death Lock. WCW won, of course. Btw. Funny that sting clotheslined Sasaki over top rope and no DQ approached like in Massa/Badd match, erm. 7/10 8. Triangle: Lex Luger Vs. Sting Vs. Ric Flair - Solid match, Flair doublecrossed both of them and Luger catch Sting's arm, so he was counted out either like Luger was. 6.5/10 9. WCW World Heavyweight Title Match: Champ-Randy Savage Vs. Ric Flair - Classic from these two, but this time Flair won. 6/10