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1996 Dark Matches

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Hey Scott,

2 Quick questions:

1) I'm listening to the SCSA podcasts and he talks about doing a bunch of jobs to HBK and Hitman when he started out. This, of course, blew my mind and have been searching, non-stop for these matches, but haven't been able to find, EVEN ON YOU-TUBE, any of these (I'm assuming) apocalpytically good 1995-Earlier 1996 Pre-Neck Injury Ringmaster matches. Any thoughts on this?

2) As part of my Austin-HBK-Hart crusade, I was looking at some old IYH entries on Wikipedia and was shocked to find some amazing main event-level matches that were taking place in dark matches. To Wit:

IYH 7     UT/Mankind-  (Within weeks of their feud starting)

IYH 10    Sid/Vader

IYH 11     HBK/Goldust (THIS IS A WORLD TITLE MATCH)

IYH 12     HBK/Mankind- (Because of course you would follow their life-changing match 2 months earlier, with a dark match on one of the least-talked-about PPV in history).

What was going on here? More importantly, Where are these matches and why isn't anyone talking about them?

1)  Had Bret been around past 1997 he would have returned those jobs tenfold, so I don't think anyone was sweating it.  Also, Bret tended to completely phone it in on house shows, so I wouldn't think you were missing anything mindblowing. 

2)  My assumption would be that they were just trying to pop a bigger gate since those IYH shows drew abysmally (much like everything else for WWE in 1996).  Plus if you were a fan going to a PPV show and only getting two hours, you'd feel ripped off.  

Comments

  1. Tom DawkingsDecember 25, 2013 at 10:25 PM

    I remember it being reported as news that in the first week of 1997, Michaels did 2 clean jobs to Austin at houseshows, which shocked a lot of people.


    And there was a Austin/Bret houseshow type match from South Africa mid '96 shown on one of those Colosseum videos that wasn't very good and had Austin submitting to the sharpshooter within seconds of having the move applied to him.

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  2. Mr. Satan (Pat P. Pro)December 25, 2013 at 10:47 PM

    That's what house shows are for: great match-ups where they go through the motions.

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  3. Mister_E_MahnDecember 25, 2013 at 10:56 PM

    I dunno, I would personally call those mid length questions.

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  4. NoCashDecember 25, 2013 at 11:01 PM

    Can someone find the match where Bobby Heenan made a guy give up during the pre-match instructions?

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  5. HowmuchdoesthisguyweighDecember 25, 2013 at 11:28 PM

    MINOR THREADJACK TO WWE2K14 PS3 players.....

    Please upload and play "ROAD TO WM PART 1"

    I had a ton of fun working on it... It's part 1 of what I'm assuming will be a 3 or 4 part series to get to my desired WM30 card!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Billy CastilloDecember 25, 2013 at 11:44 PM

    I saw a match live featuring HBK vs Austin when the latter had just recently debuted as the Ringmaster.

    I went to every single house show ran in Houston from 1989 to 1997 (used to be one per month til about 1991 or so) and only saw Hart dog it once...a surprisingly horrible match v Barbarian where the latter actually carried the match. Obviously, this was during my mark days, but even then I noticed something was up. Hart seemed very sluggish, to the point where the Barbarian started getting pops for near falls.

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  7. Biscuit!December 26, 2013 at 12:11 AM

    I saw it live here in STL - King Kong Brody put up a valiant effort, but he was smart to give up.

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  8. spicollidriverDecember 26, 2013 at 1:35 AM

    http://www.wwe.com/videos/bret-hart-vs-stone-cold-steve-austin-coliseum-home-video-may-9-1996-26014526

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  9. spicollidriverDecember 26, 2013 at 1:36 AM

    the only Austin/Michaels match from that time period that was caught on camera was their match from Raw (10/96):

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTqbrgqAUGs

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  10. ZanatudeDecember 26, 2013 at 2:07 AM

    Hey, Mobile Disqus is sorta fixed!

    ReplyDelete
  11. jeff baileyDecember 26, 2013 at 5:53 AM

    An unmotivated Bret Hart is not a pretty sight.

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  12. Porn-Peddling Jef VinsonDecember 26, 2013 at 6:53 AM

    They usually test things there to see how it gets over with the crowd as well.

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  13. OfficerFarvaDecember 26, 2013 at 7:10 AM

    So, how much do you weigh?

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  14. HowmuchdoesthisguyweighDecember 26, 2013 at 7:24 AM

    Tune in to Nitro to find out.... GOODNIGGGGHHHHHHHTTT

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  15. OfficerFarvaDecember 26, 2013 at 7:24 AM

    I saw Bret/Austin at a house show at Lehigh when I was like 11. No recollection on who won thoigh.

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  16. dirtyearsbillDecember 26, 2013 at 8:23 AM

    During my tape trading days I tracked down a handheld video of a house show I went to as a kid in January 1997. It has a pretty good Austin/HBK match which ends in a schmoz when Bret and Vader run in. (Austin had interfered in the Bret/Vader match earlier.) Since it was in the Bay Area, Meltzer was actually there and I think he gave it 3 1/2 *'s. The results are on the history of wwe site, but I don't feel compelled to look for them.

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  17. ziggaman730December 26, 2013 at 8:37 AM

    Do u live in the Lehigh valley? I live in Easton now but grew up in nj.

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  18. OfficerFarvaDecember 26, 2013 at 8:45 AM

    Yea. Lived in Bethlehem until I went to undergrad. Actually had a girlfriend in college that grew up in easton. Between these two I'm pretty familiar with easton.

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  19. OfficerFarvaDecember 26, 2013 at 8:48 AM

    Fum fact about easton: where super milf lisa ann got her start as a stripper

    ReplyDelete
  20. ABeyAnce1December 26, 2013 at 8:50 AM

    So is Scott on vacation still? Where is he getting his internet access?

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  21. CinamericaJasonDecember 26, 2013 at 9:43 AM

    I've seen a lot of dark matches at Raw / SD tapings that have tons of star power, but that doesn't equal good matches. Most are done in 5-10 minutes since the guys just want to get out of there after a long day and are there to give the crowd a happy ending since they get to see top stars hit their finishers on some heels.

    Some I remember are Bret vs. Taker vs. Austin, Jericho vs. Cena, Cena/Batista vs. Edge/Orton, and Cena vs. Batista.

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  22. Daniel SwinneyDecember 26, 2013 at 9:45 AM

    I can't find it on Youtube, but I believe that match was for the Championship of the Neighborhood.

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  23. OfficerFarvaDecember 26, 2013 at 9:53 AM

    THIS x 10

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  24. Jackson SmithDecember 26, 2013 at 10:06 AM

    Best house show match I ever saw - Bret/Owen at the Meadowlands in what they were then calling a 60 Minute Marathon Match in '94.

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  25. jvc113December 26, 2013 at 10:07 AM

    He took the prettiest girl in the neighborhood out that week,

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  26. jvc113December 26, 2013 at 10:30 AM

    In early 95-96, when the In Your House concept was started, the entire roster would have been at the IYH show since they would be taping four weeks of Raw and four weeks of Superstars the following nights. So since everyone was already there, and they were only doing 1:45 on ppv, why not throw out some crazy dark matches for the paying fans?

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  27. jvc113December 26, 2013 at 10:30 AM

    I was at that taping.

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  28. jvc113December 26, 2013 at 10:32 AM

    Remember how in 1996 The Barbarian and Meng actually got to be a pretty good team, and earned the slot against the Outsiders at Starrcade 96? Sure, the Steiners were injured, but they became a legitimately good team and it thy were actually rewarded for their improvement.

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  29. jvc113December 26, 2013 at 10:33 AM

    If he types like 160 words a minute, they were pretty quick.

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  30. Billy CastilloDecember 26, 2013 at 11:12 AM

    I've always felt both guys were underrated workers

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  31. Steven FerrariDecember 26, 2013 at 11:34 AM

    I feel like Scott kind of missed the point of the first question, in that these are now what would be hidden gems from the WWF in 1995-1996 and there's apparently NO EVIDENCE, other than History of the WWE, not even as some sort of tease.

    The 90s saw the demise of the taped house show within the bigger markets, no more syndicated shows meant no need to tape things at MSG or the Boston Garden or Toronto or Philly. As a result, something a lot of us became used to (watching on our local cable provider instead of going to the show live) became a thing of the past, but it also limits the amount of "hidden gem" matches that they used to fill out Coliseum Home Videos.

    If they ever do get the network going, I would love to see the WWE make deals with some of the bigger arenas on the house show circuit to televise the cards, maybe one big card a month from MSG or Chicago or Philly that isn't getting a Raw/Smackdown/PPV anytime soon.

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  32. Scott KeithDecember 26, 2013 at 11:40 AM

    Wizards.

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  33. JamesDecember 26, 2013 at 11:56 AM

    My favorite random house show moment was Earl Hebner beating the shit out of Triple H and DX.

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  34. OfficerFarvaDecember 26, 2013 at 12:16 PM

    Coincidentally, That's also the name of a game i play with Tessmacher in my bedroom.

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  35. Amsterdam_Adam_CurryDecember 26, 2013 at 12:25 PM

    IIRC IYH 2 had 2 dark matches after the Sid/Nash main event, want to say it was Bret vs. Goldust and... I dunno, either Austin or Foley against someone, or maybe each other? I'm too lazy to look it up at the moment.

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  36. tzunsetDecember 26, 2013 at 12:56 PM

    Bret and Foley wrestled (according to Bret's book, and I think, Foley's too.) I'd like to see one of those matches.

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  37. Mar SoloDecember 26, 2013 at 1:11 PM

    Upload?

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  38. HbkslushDecember 26, 2013 at 1:14 PM

    This is just a little clip of their one televised singles match. Couldn't find the whole thing right now, but the complete match is fairly good, though not great. Too bad they never had a complete feud.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WdjieYmfKc

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  39. Syed H.December 26, 2013 at 1:15 PM

    There's a great gif of that floating around somewhere.

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  40. HowmuchdoesthisguyweighDecember 26, 2013 at 1:37 PM

    Download!

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  41. Louis IzzoDecember 26, 2013 at 2:27 PM

    Coliseum Video actually added that 'Taker/Kama match as an "Exclusive" to the IYH2 tape. Ditto Bam Bam vs. Tatanka from IYH 1's dark matches. Weird to find out years later the Bulldog/Owen "King of the Ring Qualifying" Match on Raw was also taped from the IYH 1 dark set.

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  42. jeff baileyDecember 26, 2013 at 2:41 PM

    That Bret/Laffite match was very good. The Undertaker/Kama match not quite so good.

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  43. Knuckleberry PinnDecember 26, 2013 at 2:58 PM

    Boys had their working boots on

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  44. Joseph HoweDecember 26, 2013 at 6:14 PM

    I remember being at a Superstar's taping with HBK vs Ringmaster. We were wondering who the boring looking dude with the crewcut was. Little did we know at the time...

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  45. Amsterdam_Adam_CurryDecember 26, 2013 at 11:07 PM

    Never seen either, but the Hart/Laffite match from IYH3 was ****-ish.

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  46. jeff baileyDecember 27, 2013 at 2:56 AM

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfiNmkTCakI

    ReplyDelete

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