Lost and Found:

[Guest thefrenchargel]

To quote the great Willie Nelson "They say the first line in a book is always the hardest to write. Glad that's over with..." I'm Argel, wrestling addict since birth, fan of many different wrestlers and many different styles. I'm not setting out to write a book like Willie, just a column like other net jocks. Well, a little different than most, but you get the idea. After getting "smartened up" to pro wrestling and expanding my horizons a bit, I of course got on the internet to see what people had to say about this great sport of ours, and read everyone's glowing recommendations to several outstanding matches. Misawa vs. Kawada 6/3/94 came up quite a bit, as did the J Cups, I watched 'em and loved 'em. Still do. As far as the American side of things, Savage vs. Steamboat, NWA in 89, Bret vs. Owen, etc. I picked up the stuff I hadn't seen, watched it and loved it. As far as writing about those classics, people a lot smarter than me that have watched a lot more wrestling than me have said about everything there is to be said. However, there's a lot of "lost classics" that never really get the attention they deserve. Some of them are victims of circumstance, either being mixed in with a whole lot of outstanding matches or a whole lot of crap and getting lost in the shuffle. Some of them are assorted rarities and hard to find, like the Bret Hart vs. Ric Flair Ironman match from a houseshow recorded on a handheld. Some of them are just plain forgotten about...

 

   I feel this match belongs in the first category. 1992 was a pretty interesting year in the WWF. Ric Flair had a great title run, Bret Hart was receiving a monster push, the newly turned Shawn Michaels was starting to find himself, Savage was still doing great, and Hogan was on the outs. The beginning of the year had the stellar Royal Rumble for the world title, which saw Ric Flair entering at number 3, and lasting the whole way, winning the title in an incredible performance after Hulk Hogan threw a fit after eliminating Sid Justice, which allowed Flair to dump Sid and get the duke. On the same show, Rowdy Roddy Piper beat the Mountie for the Intercontinental Title, who had beaten the Hitman to win the belt in the first place. Fast forward to Wrestlemania. Hulk Hogan is fighting Sid Justice and Randy Savage is fighting Ric Flair for the WWF World Title in a double main event. Lower on the card however, are Bret and Piper, two babyfaces well over with the crowd, set to face off in the IC Title match. I'll return to that in a second. Later on in the year, Bret had an AMAZING match with the British Bulldog, amazing because Davey was blown up coming in to the thing, and it was still *****. On the same show, there was Randy Savage squaring off against the Ultimate Warrior in a rematch from Wrestlemania VII. Good match, not as good as WM, but good none the less. Later in the year, Bret's monster push continued, as he captured the world title from Ric Flair in a very good match at a Saskatoon house show.    

   That year's edition of Survivor Series saw Randy Savage choose the "retired" heel Mr. Perfect as his tag team partner in his tag match against arch nemesis Ric Flair and WWF newcomer Razor Ramon. In the main event, Bret squared off against IC champ Shawn Michaels. The match was great, just like every other Bret Hart match from 92, but by this point, Piper wasn't in the picture at all, which is what makes he and Bret's WM VIII match stand out more to me on its own, but stand out less when you look at the year as a whole, there was just too much good stuff. Whew. Deep breath now.

 

   This one's live from Indianapolis, Indiana (my home state, woohoo!) at the illustrious Hoosier Dome. Hosted by Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan.

 

  Pre-match ranting from Piper dwells on subjects like Bret being a hell of a competitor, Bret's family, and bologna sandwiches. Entertaining stuff.

 

   Crowd is jacked, as you might imagine, and the competitors do a staredown as the ref goes over the rules. There's a big-ass "4 Horsemen" sign that gets on camera briefly in honor of Flair's presence. Gorilla mentions Piper's golden gloves experience as Bobby mocks it as "Amateur punk stuff" and goes on a tirade about how amateurs don't make any money and names about fifteen different names for cash. They circle and lock up. Piper gets an armdrag. Circle again, and Bret returns the favor with an armdrag of his own. Tie up again, and Piper gets a single leg, then rides him on the mat. Up to a waistlock, and Bret uses a leverage move to dump Piper between the 2nd and 3rd ropes. Piper back in, Bret shoves him, Piper spits in return. Gorilla gets all indignant. Test of strength leads to a Piper armwringer, which Bret counters with one of his own. Roddy chops away in an effort to get lose, but Bret's not having it. Into the corner, more chops and punches, but Bret keeps ahold of the arm the whole time and takes Piper to the mat. Bret works a hammerlock. Up and Piper whips him, misses the clothesline, and Bret nails him with a dropkick, but appears to have hurt his shoulder on the move. Bobby suggests he's playing possum, and indeed Bret is! Small package gets 2. Back up Piper gets peeved and bitchslaps him. That's more like it! Headlock, Roddy on an irish whip, Bret gets a crossbody and they both go over the top to the floor. A little sloppy, but got the point across. Piper back in, and holds the ropes so Bret can enter. Bret comes back in tentatively. Crowd pops for the sportsmanship and competitive spirit and such.

 

   Feeling out process is pretty much over at this point with Bret matching Roddy move for move, and keeping the advantage, dictating the pace. Makes sense since Bret's obviously the superior technical wrestler. Piper decides to try a different route and suckerpunches Bret. Nice touch. Bret blades pretty blatantly as the ref admonishes Roddy. Piper continues the beating. Bret gets sent to the corner hard-style, and gets caught up in a Piper headlock, who promptly busts him in the forehead. Piper gets a nice bulldog for 2 and change. Bret's got the blood flowing quite nicely. Piper bites the gash, big whip to the corner, kneelift gets 2 for the champ. Bret to the ropes, and gets a sunset flip for a close 2. Piper drills the challenger again, and goes into the stinging jabs and big right hand. Cover and Bret kicks out at 2. Slugfest, and a running forearm from The Hitman sends Roddy to the floor. Back in, it's a double clothesline. Ref starts the double count.

 

   Good segment controlled by Piper's brawling, toughness, and well-placed cheapshots. Bret sells it all masterfully. Piper gets up at six, and heads upstairs. Hart crotches him, pulls him out by his head, so Piper's basically stretched out horizontally from the top turnbuckle, and Bret tosses him down with a facebuster of sorts, I guess. Piper sells it nicely. Bret gets the ball rolling with an inverted atomic drop (or reverse piledrive if you're Vince McMahon.) Very nice vertical suplex gets two for Bret. Bret's feelin' it. Side russian legsweep, (called a neckbreaker by Monsoon), another two count. Hart gets his beautiful backbreaker, and seeks the Sharpshooter, but it gets blocked. Bret counters the counter with an elbowdrop to the neck. He goes up for the second rope version, but meets Piper's boot. Both out on the mat. Good spot there because they built to it, and it wasn't just some "whatamaneuver" that is only done so the babyface can make a comeback. Gotta love that there psychology stuff. Heenan proclaims this is in fact a hell of a match. I agree with you there, Brain. They go to a slugfest while on their knees, continuing as they stand up, but Hart takes advantage with a headbutt. Piper whips Bret into the Ref. Ref is bumped, Piper clotheslines Bret over the top. Bret eats stairs. Piper tosses Hart back in the ring.

 

  Okay, we've got a bleeding Bret Hart in the ring, a bumped ref, a rabid crowd, so naturally, Piper snaps and grabs the ring bell from the timekeeper's table. He goes in, holds the bell up like he's going to bash the Hitman's brains in, and the crowd just starts screaming "No Roddy, NOOOOO!!!!" Piper gets the crazy far away look in his eye, hoists the bell up again to massive boos. Up one more time, and the crowd is just dying. Piper thinks twice and tosses the bell down to a massive pop and tries to take it by hooking in the sleeper. Bret does the corner reversal to the sleeper made famous by him and Austin at 96 Survivor Series as the ref rolls over and counts three for our new beloved WWF Intercontinental Champion at 12:50 of awesome action.

 

   This match showed off the strengths of both men involved, with great selling and psychology. Especially the ending, where Piper could've won it easily by bashing Bret with the bell while the ref was out, but instead he chose to be a clean competitor and use the sleeper, but his good show of sportsmanship backfired and cost him his title. Could've had an awesome rematch, but Bret was being groomed for bigger and better things. He would remain champ until Summerslam at Wembeley Stadium where he'd drop the title to his brother in law, Davey Boy Smith in the aforementioned ***** classic. This match wasn't quite that exactly, but still gets a sweet rating of ****1/4 from me. If you have never seen this, it's totally worth a look. Flair/Savage for the title is on the same show, so there's no reason not to either rent or buy the tape. If you have seen it but don't remember it, for God's sake, pop the tape in and give it a look, you won't be disappointed.

 

   Well, that was relatively painless. By all means, send me some feedback, good or bad, and keep requests for "lost classics" coming in. This was my first real rant of sorts, and I'm pretty satisfied. Look for either a great Rockers match or maybe Flair/Anderson next. Until then,

 

-Argel Out.

[Guest]

Great article, keep writing them. You know, I think Rock/Undertaker from KOTR 99 was a lost CLASSIC ::cough cough::

[Guest Mark4steamboat]

awesome idea/title/ and review. Great job. Im totally looking forward to further additions.