Vader

Earthquake & Vader vs. Gary Albright & Kazuo Yamazaki (and other Dream Matches!)

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Oh man, I found some wild stuff for everyone today! VADER AND EARTHQUAKE as the mother of all Monster tag teams! In the weirdo Fake-Shoot Japanese UWF-I fed, no less!

Also, here’s a horrifying indie match between the Warlord and an ultra-green Ron Reis, plus a tag match in the storied No-Limit Soldiers/West Texas Rednecks feud. And we end things with a Saturday Night match between Eddie Guerrero & Blitzkrieg, as my “check out all the Blitzkrieg stuff on YouTube” series finally continues!

SUPER VADER & JOHN TENTA vs. GARY ALBRIGHT & KAZUO YAMAZAKI:
(UWF-I, 08.10.1994)
* Now THIS is a Fat Man Stand-Off! So Vader/Albright is the big feud in the company at this point, and Vader (the reigning champ) brings it Earthquake for a tag match. Quake is noticeably taller and wider than Vader is, in fact. Both are wearing their standard gear, though Tenta has an oddly blank upper torso, as “Earthquake” has been taken off. Albright was a big kinda homegrown UWF-I star, becoming a big name they were building up. He got pretty fat after this, but here is a barrel-chested guy in yellow, being dwarfed by the opposing team. Yamazaki has no physique, but was a shooter-type guy through most of the UWFs- feeling skipped over for title shots, he bailed for New Japan (his original company) and even sided with them during the “New Japan vs. UWF” angle, training its boys against the “Shooters”.

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What the World Was Watching: USWA Championship Wrestling – July 1, 1995

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Lance Russell and Dave Brown are calling the action, broadcasting from the WMC-TV5 studio in Memphis, Tennessee.

A video package highlights Brandon Baxter’s issues with Jimmy Valiant.

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What the World Was Watching: USWA Championship Wrestling – June 24, 1995

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Lance Russell returns to today’s broadcast alongside Dave Brown and they are broadcasting from the WMC-TV5 studio in Memphis, Tennessee.

Russell interviews Brandon Baxter, who is upset that he is not being treated like a star in the USWA like he was in the Global Wrestling Federation (GWF).  Baxter demands that Russell tell him who Bill Dundee is going to have as his mystery partner for an upcoming match and that brings Dundee out.  As expected, that leads to Doug Gilbert and Brian Lee backing up their manager, but PG-13 make the save.

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What the World Was Watching: WCW Main Event – October 22, 1995

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–Gene Okerlund and Bobby Heenan are in the studio for today’s telecast.  Okerlund does his best to describe how the monster truck battle between Hulk Hogan and the Giant will play out at Halloween Havoc.

–As part of the Halloween Havoc Control Center WCW Champion Hulk Hogan and Jimmy Hart do a taped promo where they promise to do whatever it takes to defeat the Giant at Halloween Havoc.

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What the World Was Watching: WCW Main Event – October 8, 1995

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–Gene Okerlund and Bobby Heenan handle the studio duties for today’s broadcast.  They open the show by hyping the Giant and recapping the Dungeon of Doom shaving WCW Champion Hulk Hogan’s mustache on Monday Nitro.

–As part of the Halloween Havoc Control Center, Kurasawa and Colonel Robert Parker rant about how Road Warrior Hawk is going down.  Hawk promises to do some intensive surgery on Kurasawa in Detroit.

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What the World Was Watching: WCW Saturday Night – September 30, 1995

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–Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan are calling the action and they are taped from Atlanta, Georgia.  According to thehistoryofwwe.com, these tapings took place on September 20.

–Dusty Rhodes comes out to take on his new role as a color commentator.  Heenan demands that Dusty leave and when Dusty refuses, Heenan takes a hike, doing a funny bit of giving Schiavone and Dusty a bunch of chances to take him back.

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What the World Was Watching: WCW Main Event – September 17, 1995

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–WCW Champion Hulk Hogan shows up in Asheville, North Carolina on the Harley Davidson motorcycle he received at Bash at the Beach and is surrounded by his fans.  Gene Okerlund interviews him, with Hogan hyping his journey through North Carolina, painting the Dungeon of Doom as anti-American.  This offends the Giant as he takes a Dungeon of Doom monster truck and runs over Hogan’s motorcycle, forcing Hogan and his fans to flee.  Hogan hilariously pounds on the side of the truck like a kid having a tantrum as the Giant laughs.

–Eric Bischoff and Dusty Rhodes are doing commentary and they are live from Asheville, North Carolina.  They treat the destruction of Hogan’s motorcycle as a national tragedy.

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What the World Was Watching: WCW Saturday Night – September 9, 1995

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–Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan are in the booth and they are concluding the August 9 tapings at Center Stage in Atlanta, Georgia.

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What the World Was Watching: WCW Worldwide – September 9, 1995

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–Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan are doing commentary and they are taped from Orlando, Florida.  They hype next week’s Fall Brawl pay-per-view.

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What the World Was Watching: WCW Main Event – September 3, 1995

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–Eric Bischoff and Bobby Heenan are in the Mall of America for the last WCW telecast before the debut of Monday Nitro.  Heenan continues to rant about how Steve McMichael should not be in the announce booth.

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What the World Was Watching: WCW Saturday Night – August 26, 1995

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–Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan are in the booth and they are taped from Atlanta, Georgia.  This show was taped in Atlanta on July 26.

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What the World Was Watching: WCW Pro – August 19, 1995

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WCW Prime for August 14 featured a new feature bout, with Chris Cruise and Dusty Rhodes calling the action.

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What the World Was Watching: WCW Saturday Night – August 12, 1995

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–Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan are in the booth and they are taped from Atlanta, Georgia.  This show wraps up the tapings done at Center Stage on July 11.

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What the World Was Watching: Clash of the Champions XXXI

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–Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan are in the booth and they are live from Daytona Beach, Florida.

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What the World Was Watching: WCW Worldwide – August 5, 1995

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-Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan are doing commentary and they are taped from Orlando, Florida.

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What the World Was Watching: WCW Saturday Night – July 29, 1995

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–Gene Okerlund interviews WCW Champion Hulk Hogan in a dark room.  Hogan says he misses Andre the Giant and how it was unfair the Pontiac Silverdome did not chant Andre’s name.  He does his best to act dramatic, sniffing Andre’s old shirt, as he says he felt Andre’s presence when the Giant threw the shirt at him at Bash at the Beach and that rumors of Andre having a son were true.  Hogan concludes by saying that the time has come to rise and face the challenge of the Giant again and to do so he will have to fight through the Dungeon of Doom.  That journey will start on next week’s Main Event.

–Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan are doing commentary and they are taped from Atlanta, Georgia.  The matches on this broadcast took place on July 11.

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What the World Was Watching: WCW Saturday Night – July 22, 1995

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–Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan are doing commentary and they are taped from Atlanta, Georgia.  The tapings took place on June 21, something to remember in relation to the scheduled main event.  Tonight’s episode is one hour in length.

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What the World Was Watching: WCW Pro – July 22, 1995

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–There were no new matches on WCW Prime so we go right to WCW Pro where Chris Cruise, Dusty Rhodes, and Larry Zbyszko.  They are kicking off a new set of tapings in Macon, Georgia that took place on June 26.

–A video package recaps the events of Bash at the Beach.

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What the World Was Watching: Bash at the Beach 1995

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–Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan are in the booth and they are live from Huntington Beach, California.  Schiavone says that the crowd is the biggest ever to see a WCW event.  This passes the eye test but there was no accurate way to verify how many people were there to see the show since WCW did not sell tickets to the event.

–A video package hypes Meng.

–United States Champion Sting is interviewed by Gene Okerlund.  Sting says that he has home field advantage and the fans – including his mother and father who are at ringside – will give him the energy to defend the U.S. title.

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