Dark Pegasus Video Review: Greatest Superstars of the 90s, Disc Three

Posted by J.D. Dunn on 04.23.2009

As Hogan and Bret fade, Austin, Triple H and the Rock rise.

Greatest Superstars of the 90s

By J.D. Dunn
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WWF World Title/Intercontinental Title vs. WWF Tag Titles: Yokozuna & The British Bulldog (w/Jim Cornette & Mr. Fuji) vs. Diesel & Shawn Michaels (09.24.95).
The crazy stipulation is that if Shawn or Diesel get a win, they become the tag team champions. If either one of them get pinned or submit, the guy who beat them gets their title. That creates an interesting dynamic because one of the tag champs would have to sacrifice a title so his partner could win. On the other hand, one of the singles champs might try to avoid tagging in because he can't lose his title if he doesn't tag in. Of course, that aspect never manifests in these matches. Instead, they just go with a straight tag match. Shawn and Bulldog start out, and do a hot sequence. Yoko tries to interject but gets his clock cleaned by Diesel. Shawn challenges Yoko to a sumo duel and then ducks between his legs. Yoko nails him with an elbow, though. AH'M BIGGER'N YOU! AH'M HIGH'R ON THE FYOOD CHAIN! GET IN MAH BELLY! Diesel blitzes Yoko and knocks him to the floor, so Bulldog gets in. Bulldog gets a hanging suplex on Diesel after a botched attempt. Shawn plays face-in-peril for a while. Ross actually points out how stupid the Bulldog is for tagging out instead of trying to finish Shawn, and Vince seems totally clueless about it, explaining that Davey Boy wants Yoko to finish Shawn off. Shawn avoids the Banzai Drop and tags Diesel. The faces clean house, and Diesel sets up for the Jackknife. Yoko breaks it up but gets kicked to the floor by Shawn. Bulldog powerslams Diesel, but Shawn saves with the Picture-Perfect elbow. Suddenly, Owen Hart runs down and comes off the top, but Diesel catches him and hits the Jackknife Powerbomb at 15:44. So Shawn and Diesel hold all four titles in the WWF (but the Clique never had any influence!). Ah, but Owen wasn't even in the match, so this stupid stipulation would be overturned by the time Raw went on the air. Too much Yoko dragged this one down. Now, if they had replaced Yoko with the Bulldog…**

#1 Contender's Match: Shawn Michaels vs. Owen Hart (w/Jim Cornette — 02.18.96).
This is the payoff from months earlier when Owen gave Shawn an enzuigiri and put him out of action. Shawn is rather blasé about the whole thing, considering his career was nearly ended. Shawn goes out after Cornette and gets a high five from Vince. Owen tries the same thing, but everyone in the front row leaves him hanging. Ha! Shawn comes of the top with a double ax-handle. Back in, Owen pulls Shawn's hair to get out of a headlock, but Shawn grabs Owen's hair to keep the hold. Cornette gets the ref's attention to complain, so Shawn waits until his back is turned and yanks Owen's hair to the delight of the crowd. Owen comes back with his belly-to-belly. Owen did two moves better than anyone else in wrestling: the belly-to-belly off an Irish Whip, and the leg lariat. After a few minutes of working the back, Owen hits the latter move and sends Shawn to the floor. Owen continues to dominate with Shawn getting an occasional move to keep the crowd interested. Shawn takes the Shawn flip, and Owen hits a wicked flying clothesline on the rebound. SHARPSHOOTER! Shawn struggles to the ropes. Owen hits the enzuigiri, knocking Shawn all the way to the floor. SHAWN'S DEAD! Owen drags him back in, which is kind of out of character because Owen was always the type who would be content with a countout. Shawn avoids a corner charge and comes back with the usual. Jim Cornette tries to intervene and gets knocked out. Owen ducks Sweet Chin Music but misses the enzuigiri. Shawn finishes with a second attempt at 15:59. Excellent match, and you could see some of that "You reverse my finisher, I reverse your finisher, and you don't reverse my finisher" action that became part of every major match later on. ****

WWF Heavyweight Title: Shawn Michaels (w/Jose Lothario) vs. Vader (w/Jim Cornette — 08.18.96).
Okay, the original plan was for Vader to win the title here only to lose it to a returning Bret Hart. For whatever reason, though, Vader fell out of favor, and they gave his push to Sid. This is one of the great matchups of the 90s – and by that, I mean Vader was the ultimate monster heel and Shawn was the ultimate babyface at this point (outside of being a total prick, but people still bought into him). Given a chance to do more work together, I think they could have developed a great Sting/Vader dynamic. Shawn catches Vader's leg and SWEEPS THE LEG. Vader gets knocked to the floor, so Shawn follows with the over-the-top tope! Shawn keeps getting cockier with all of his flashy moves until he slingshots over the top rope and gets powerbombed on the floor. Now things get really fun as Shawn goes into ragdoll mode, and Vader is the kid with anger management problems who keeps slamming the ragdoll against the foot of the bed. Metaphor too long? Vader has absolutely no regard for Shawn's life, which, when you see how Shawn behaves probably isn't such a bad thing. A cameraman gets a little too close to Shawn, so he swipes at him instead of selling his injury. Vader hauls Shawn up and drops him on the railing, earning a countout victory at 13:50. Jim Cornette is adamant that Vader wants the title, so he screams for the ref to restart the match. Shawn is game, so the ref restarts the match. Vader clubs him, but Jose and Cornette get involved. Shawn manages to wrest Cornette's racquet away from him and goes nuts on both Vader and Cornette for the DQ at 17:47. Cornette calls Shawn a coward who only got disqualified to save his title. WWF President Gorilla Monsoon restarts the match yet again. Shawn avoids the buttdrop and drops the elbow. That sets up Sweet Chin Music. ONE, TWO, THREEish? The ref says Vader got his shoulder up. Shawn argues, so Vader shoves him into the ref and hits a powerbomb. A new ref slides in, and Vader gets two. Vader is about to pumpsplash Michaels, but Cornette tells him to go for the moonsault instead. Oh, Jimmy. Shawn avoids, of course, and hits the moonsault block for the win at 22:18. Outside of Shawn's notorious attitude problems, this match was da bomb. Kids still say "da bomb," don't they? Can't argue with the perfect fit of one of the great sellers of all time in Shawn Michaels and one of the best offensive powerhouses in Vader. ****

Steel Cage Match: Hunter Hearst Helmsley (w/Chyna) vs. Mankind (08.03.97).
Another one in need of a redo… actually, a second redo. HHH was not yet Triple H yet, still stuck in the "Connecticut Blueblood" gimmick. He defeated Mankind a few weeks earlier to become King of the Ring, triggering a series of Pearl Harbor jobs between the two and turning Mankind into a sympathetic babyface. Hunter dives for the door immediately, but Mankind drags him back in. Can you believe both of these guys are world champions as I type this? Mandible Claw, but Chyna climbs up and chokes Mankind out with a strap. Mankind goes up, but Chyna blocks his path with the TAINTPUNCH! MAXIMUM FATALITY! HHH climbs up and delivers a superplex. Not as cool as when Hogan did it to Bossman, but still pretty big for the time. Hunter goes for the door but decides he wants to inflict more punishment. D'oh! That leads to a Mankind comeback, and he goes for the door only to have Chyna SLAM THE DOOR ON HIS HEAD! Poor door. It retired shortly after. Hunter slams Mankind's head up against the cage and goes up. They brawl on the top rope and knock each other silly. Hunter crotches himself to the groans of the male audience. Chyna climbs up on the cage and clings like a spider monkey, so Mankind catapults Hunter into her, knocking her off the cage to a HUGE pop. Mankind goes up and over the top. He's almost out, but he decides to go up to the top of the cage. He comes off the top with a flying elbowdrop ("shades of Jimmy Snuka"… sort of). Now Mankind goes over the top. Chyna tries to pull HHH out the door (something she tried to do earlier in the match and Hunter had to wave her off). Mankind makes it over the top and out at 22:25. Dude Love's music hits, and Mick starts tapping his foot. It's a transformation! IT'S DUDE LOVE! Great selling here and some vicious bumps from Mick, as usual. ***3/4

WCW Heavyweight Title: Hollywood Hogan vs. Lex Luger (08.04.97).
Good God, this was sad early on. Hogan controls throughout, which is just a bad idea on so many levels. He stomps the weakest mudhole ever and "boots Luger in the gut." Uh huh. We take a break and come back to Luger fighting out of a bearhug. Luger kicks out of the legdrop! A second one misses, so here come Scott Hall, Randy Savage and Kevin Nash to interfere. Luger fights them all off and clocks Hogan with the forearm. That sets up the Torture Rack at 10:57. Luger reclaims the belt for WCW! Well, this was just a stupid idea all around because A) Hogan won it right back and B) it just blunts Sting's win a few months later. It's the wrestling equivalent of "Simpsons did it." The match was horrible too. *

WWF Heavyweight Title: Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. The Undertaker (08.30.98).
Austin gets another glass-shattering entrance. That's so cool. There was some backstage controversy as Vince Russo wanted Taker to come into the match a clear heel with Austin and Taker hating each other. Instead, he got overruled, and this is a more respectful match. Russo did get his way a year later as Taker went full heel. They slug it out until Taker goes after the arm. Austin surprises everyone by wrestling and going after Taker's arm then after his injured knee. They slug it out again, with Austin yanking Taker off the top rope. Kane comes down to observe, but the Undertaker sends him to the back because he wants a one-on-one contest. Taker chokeslams Austin from the apron to the inside of the ring! They work in the obligatory brawl into the crowd segment that seemed to happen in every main event from 1998 until Austin's injuries caught up with him 1999. Back in, Taker darts out of the ring to avoid a Stunner and rams Austin's back into the ringpost. He puts Austin on the Spanish Announce Table and puts him THROUGH it with a legdrop off the top! And there's your last big Taker spot for quite a while. Back in, it only gets two. They clothesline each other for a double KO spot. Austin gets sort of a blind Stunner, but it only gets two. Taker ducks a swing and gets another chokeslam for two and crotches Austin on the top rope. Taker goes for the ropewalk forearm, but Austin lowblows him on the way down and hits the Stunner for the win at 20:50. Taker doesn't like it, but he hands Austin the title anyway. The usual good Austin match from 1998 where there isn't much more than brawling back and forth, but it's intense and gets the crowd into it. Kane comes back out, and Kane and Undertaker stare down Austin from the aisle. ***

WCW U.S. Title: Sting vs. Bret Hart (10.25.98).
Another dream match wasted. Bret stalls forever before Sting goes out after him. Sting controls, but this is post-1996 Sting, so it's dreadfully boring. Bret comes back but misses a missile dropkick (because that's such a Bret Hart move and all). Sting puts him in the Scorpion Deathlock, but Bret is in the ropes. Bret twists his knee on a leapfrog, but Sting doesn't buy it and stomps on it. The ref pushes Sting back, so Bret pulls out the international object… although he's Canadian, so can I call it "foreign" again? The FOREIGN object allows Bret to take over, and he takes it to the floor. Mostly, he's just glaring at the crowd. Boring. Back in, the ref goes to check on Sting, but Sting thinks it's Bret and knocks him down. Bret adds a legdrop to the ref just to be an asshole. Sting superplexes Bret on the referee's legs. Bret grabs Sting's baseball bat and nails him with it as only someone raised on hockey can. Bret applies the Sharpshooter for the submission and title at 16:37. Blech. Bret was not allowed to be Bret until it was too late. This would be an exception to The WWF Undertaker Rule where Bret is really not someone who could be repackaged effectively. Instead, they just plugged him into the usual WCW heel formula rather than letting him be a heel his own way. *3/4

#1 Contender's Match, Strap Match: Triple H vs. The Rock (07.25.99).
This is not a "touch-the-corners" match. It's just "Falls Count Anywhere" with both guys strapped together. Brawl to start, and they work their way over to the Spanish table. It's just a tease, though. Hunter gets whipped into the steps. The brawl spills into the crowd and around to the entrance. Rock drops HHH on the barricade. Ross says that Helmsley's punishment after the MSG Incident was just created by the newsletters. See, this is why you have to take everything Ross says on his blog with a grain of salt. Rock suplexes Helmsley on the floor for two. They fight back to the ring where Hunter hits a high knee. Chyna walks down to the ring to distract the ref while Rock hits the Rock Bottom. The ref is still with Chyna, though. Well, that was a silly spot because Hunter was still in control when Chyna hopped up on the apron. What did he signal to her -- "Hey, distract the ref while I turn around into this Rock Bottom?" Hunter goes low and chokes the Rock out with the strap. Rock yanks Hunter off the top rope, or, as Ross says, "The Rock jerks Triple H off… the top rope." Rock hits a Samoan Drop for two. Hunter decides he'll just take the strap off because that's much easier. Rock makes him pay with some STIFF strap shots. The People's DDT gets two. Chyna distracts the ref again while Billy Gunn runs in and hits Rock with a club. You know, it's "No DQ," they didn't really need the ref distraction there. It only gets two anyway. Rock counters the Pedigree with a shot to the little H. People's Elbow, but Gunn yanks Rock off the cover. Rock gives Gunn a Rock Bottom but turns around into the Pedigree at 19:22. Waaaaaaay overbooked, but hey, they had to set up that epic Billy Gunn vs. Rock "Kiss My Ass" match somehow. The strap really didn't enter into it that much outside of giving them another foreign object to use. ***

The 411: Outside of some odd match choices, this is a fine compilation of 1990s stars. There were a few notable omissions, like Goldust and some guys in WCW who became bigger stars in the WWE (Big Show, for example). Oh, and Jeff Jarrett, but you can probably guess why he's not in there. That complaint, and the WWE-centric match selection, aside, this is still a quality set. The documentary doesn't provide much new material, but the matches are definitely worth the purchase.

Thumbs up.

Final Score:  8.0   [ Very Good ]