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[1993-04-24-WCW-Saturday Night] Vader vs Cactus Jack


Loss

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  • 1 month later...

Even before the angle, this was a terrific, super-stiff match with both guys taking lots of big bumps. Vader powerbombs Cactus on the concrete and wins by countout. After the commercial, Cactus is having a neckbrace put on and is stretchered out. At this point, this was the best WCW angle in a very long time. Hmmm, this seems like a money angle where WCW will promote Cactus' comeback hard all year. No way they can mess this one up. :)

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Was it really any worse a bump than Kobashi's from Hansen in July? I'm not even sure it ranks near the top of Foley's WCW bumps - the fall off the apron, the hip toss off the ramp... didn't he take a backdrop on the floor in that AWA trios with the Guerrero brothers?

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  • 4 months later...
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  • 9 months later...

A wild brawl from the outset as Cactus goes toe to toe with the big man. This feud was doing a great job of elevating Jacks status, or at least it should have done if WCW wasn't run by retards. This contest was going along even better than the previous week before they cut it short for an angle at the end. Vader delivered a powerbomb onto the concrete. He was clearly taking more care than normal, but it's such a dangerous bump to take. It's all Foleys fault he got injured. Afterwards he did a stretcher job (not too hard to act) and then got 'Lost in Cleveland'.

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  • 8 months later...

Cactus getting a lot of offense early on. Vader delivers a very questionable low elbow drop. Vader's splash where he missed looked bad as he landed on his feet and just fell backwards. Plenty of Cactus' offense though. They could have got the powerbomb over on the floor mat but damn that looked vicious on the concrete. Credit to WCW for at least playing up big with the stretcher job.

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  • 1 month later...

Angle of the Year so far...for now, of course. The opening is really great, with Cactus pulling out all sorts of stops to inflict pain on Vader, and the ending is spectacularly well-done. Tony and Jesse sell this great, and from what I've been told this is actually a shortened version of what went on in the theater. They even went to the trouble of forcing the fans to stay put so as not to impede the ambulance. The last several minutes, once Jesse leaves, are completely silent--no commentary at all, just a fadeout to the copyright notice as the ambulance pulls away. Yes, it was an over-the-top bump for Foley, but as I said, it was meant to actually ACCOMPLISH something, which is to humanize him. I'd say it succeeded, and it was that human element that made Foley such an endearing figure at the end of the decade, as opposed to some generic CZW mutant.

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  • 1 year later...

Cactus bodyslams Race prematch and they start brawling outside the ring. Cactus nails him with a chair, while Harley goes up for another bodyslam on the floor and Cactus's elbow. What a trooper. Stiff punches by Cactus, back suplex then Vader catches him coming off ropes for big slam. Hits a couple Vader bombs with punches mixed in, then a dumb spot where he tries to jump feet first on Cactus who obviously rolls away. Cactus goes for a somersault dive but Vader rolls away and Cactus gets the floor. Vader powerbombs him on the concrete floor, which I somehow thought looked reasonably safe given what it was. Cactus is counted out, then stretchered out. Brutal, but more disjointed than the first match.

 

***1/4

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  • 2 months later...

I liked this better as a match than the previous week as it was out of control and violent. Jack also had some well timed comebacks that had the crowd rocking. The spot with the powerbomb looks sick and there is a debate as to whether it should have been performed or not but for what they were going for on this night, it was damn effective. The stretcher scene with Jesse going along for the ride is a nice touch at getting over the severity of the situation. ***1/2

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  • 6 months later...

This was great as a continuation and escalation of their previous match. I love that they worked this so that Cactus Jack learned from his fluke win/mauling and brings a new defensive and offensive strategy to this, covering up to block Vader's strikes and bringing the offense early and often. He brings the fire and Vader and Race bring the bumping. This might be the best Cactus ever looked on offense and is easily his best performance to date. Everyone is great here as is the crowd and the booking (at this point). They set Cactus Jack up for a good run near the top...

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  • 8 months later...

This match takes the place of the one the week before as WCW's Match of the Year to this point. It was worked a little more traditionally, but not so much that we were allowed to forget that two fugitives from the nut house were in the ring, or out of it as the case may be. (I should make it three, considering some of the shots that Harley took from Mick,) Mick looked like he may have had Vader's number at one point, but the toll of two hard bouts against a 450-pound man was too much, and eventually Vader took control for good.

 

Again, I don't get why Mick's the bad guy here. Do any of you know if he called the match? Even if he did, Vader could have refused to do the powerbomb on the concrete, which would have meant that Mick would have had to somehow launch himself into the bump he took on the floor. For that matter, Harley could have refused to pull back the mats, which would have made the bump at least a little safer. Neither of those happened which means that the match layout was agreed to by everyone, road agent included. At most, Mick deserves one-fourth of the blame, with the rest being split between Harley, Vader, and whoever booked the finish. Would I have booked it? Probably, only I would have made sure the mat was still in place. The powerbomb itself was needed to paint Vader as someone who will stop at nothing to injure those whom he wants out of the way,

 

Tony and Jesse were great here, although part of that was undoubtedly awe at what these two maniacs were putting themselves through. Jesse was brilliant in the postmatch, especially when he reminded Tony of what Mick had said in the promo we saw earlier about not wanting any more matches with Vader for his family's sake: "There may not be any rematches, or any more matches for Jack, period." I also liked that he went to help load Mick onto the stretcher, although we didn't see him because the crowd around the scene was so big. It was too dark to see Jesse in the ambulance, too.

 

For an outfit whose production has rightfully been excoriated at times over the years, WCW got this one right by going silent for the last few minutes. The ambulance scene looked and felt more legitimate than any other I've seen in wrestling in quite a while, probably because it was. But there were no announcer histrionics, no talk of what it meant in the grand scheme of things, no shilling for a pay-per-view, just a look at what it's like for a wrestler to be taken out on a stretcher. Regardless of whose fault the injury was, it was nice to see the moment treated with the gravity it deserved.

 

How the hell did Davey Boy get a shot at Vader on pay-per-view so quickly? Based off of this angle, my choice to face Vader at SuperBrawl would have been Barbarian, assuming he was still around.

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  • 9 months later...

WCW World Heavyweight Champion Vader vs Cactus Jack - WCW Saturday Night 4/24/93

 

I could have sworn I have seen this before, but I have not. I thought what made this so special was how good Cactus Jack's offense was especially his right hand. I don't think of Foley as a great striker, but he brought it here. They did a great job building off the sheer brutality of the match from the previous week. They just start brawling like madmen and more importantly Cactus is getting the upper hand and kicking ass. Foley is so concerned about sick bumps he sometimes neglects his offense but here it was all about the fight. I thought this was a great fight. Cactus even hits the Cactus Elbow on Harley. Vader catching Jack on a crossbody and THROWING HIM DOWN was great. Cactus keeps fighting. I love it. Vader tags Cactus pretty good in the taped up broken nose when he is up against the ropes. Vader just crushes Cactus. Vader's offense looks so damn good. This is night and day from the Shawn match I just watched. Vader is bulldozing Cactus. VADERBOMB! SECOND TIME! Third time he misses double stomp. Cactus clothesline, but then Cactus goes SPLAT on the somersault dive from apron. Then why this match is so famous Vader POWERBOMBS Cactus on exposed concrete. Excellent selling from Cactus and great job by the announcers especially Ventura putting over the severity of this angle.

 

The angle is amazing and it is so sad WCW botched it with the Lost in Cleveland vignettes. Unlike a lot of matches that are backdrops to angle, the match itself is excellent. It is a total war and here Cactus really brings the fight to Vader. The transition of the wounded Vader slumped against the ropes throwing a wild bear paw and tagging Cactus in that broken nose was great. Vader was crushing it. The finish was insane. Definitely a must see, but in some ways bitter sweet because they never have that climatic final encounter that they deserved after these two hellacious matches. ****

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  • GSR changed the title to [1993-04-24-WCW-Saturday Night] Vader vs Cactus Jack

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