1992 WCW -- That Well is STILL Not Dry

Brian Pillman v Jushin Liger (Superbrawl, 2/29/92)

I'd kind of been putting off re-watching this for a while. Last time I watched it I thought it was good, but I just had very little desire to sit and actually watch it again. It came off this time about as well as I thought the last time, but I'll probably go another 10 years before feeling the need to watch it again. They work even at the start and it's decent enough, then Liger takes over and starts working Pillman's leg. They do a nice struggle over the surfboard and Liger putting on the figure-four gets everybody wooing (although no "we want Flair" chant, unfortunately), and it's all solid stuff and does a fine job killing time...but then Pillman does...something, and it basically serves as the transition into the extended finishing run, and the five minutes of leg work ends up meaning jack shit. Pillman literally does not sell the leg for one second and renders the entire period before that meaningless. Finishing stretch is good and everything, but it's two great athletes doing whatever great athletes do, and I don't really, like, CARE, you know? The vampire in me would prefer it if they hated each other and headbutted each other until they were both bleeding buckets. But they respect each other and Pillman does a nice roll-up. Sure, this is good and all, but punch him in the FACE or something.


Brian Pillman v Shane Douglas (Saturday Night, 10/17/92)

THIS was more like it. This has no nice guy Pillman bullshit -- he is a smarmy little prick and acts like a smarmy little prick. They do some nice duelling armwork in the first half that's punctuated by Pillman acting like a smarmy little prick. Douglas is pretty vanilla, but I'm digging everything he's busting out when going after the arm. He does this hammerlock-into-headstand thing that looked way cool and nasty at the same time. Eventually Pillman takes over by tossing Shane out to the floor and giving him a baseball slide that broke his chin. Then he laughs because he is SMARMY and a prick. You know, as a guy that always used to think babyface Pillman was way better than heel Pillman, I'd probably rather watch heel Pillman at this stage. He's probably a better worker as a babyface, but I'd rather see him act like a shithead than respectable nice guy with high cheekbones. He still has the high cheekbones as a heel, but he's a PRICK about it so it's better. The psycho look he gets on his face as he's about to ram Douglas' head into the ring post was really the pro-wrestling perfection. Shane Douglas seems like a guy in quite the need of a reappraisal. Maybe.


WCW 1992 Project