Commissions return again, this one coming from Ko-fi contributor Jack the Jobber. You can be like them and pay me to write about all types of stuff. People tend to choose wrestling matches, but very little is entirely off the table, so long as I haven’t written about it before (and please, come prepared with a date or show name or something if it isn’t obvious). You can commission a piece of writing of your choosing by heading on over to www.ko-fi.com/elhijodelsimon. The current rate is $5/match or $5/started half hour of a thing (example: an 89 minute movie is $15, a 92 minute one is $20), and if you have some aim that cannot be figured out through simple multiplication, feel free to hit the DMs on Twitter or Ko-fi.
This was for Blackman’s WWF Hardcore Title.
Hell yeah man.
Among all my wrestling guilty pleasures, or at least things I know I like way more than most people, the Steve Blackman hardcore title run is real real high up on that list.
Not only was it, in the context of 2000 WWF, a breath of fresh air with the division returning to action after the better part of a year plus as a comedy sideshow, but it was also just objectively cool as hell. None of these matches lasted ll that long, for sure almost never over ten minutes, and they were always full of the hardcore spots nobody else was doing. Not just in the WWF, but like anywhere in the country. Blackman would use kendo sticks, a chair, and a trash can and opt to try stuff from martial arts movies instead. To say he was doing John Woo fight scenes in the ring would be dishonest, but that sort of thing was clearly his inspiration, and it made him so much different than everyone else doing these matches, as well as the best one to do them since Mick Foley left the belt behind in late 98.
This is unfortunately not the greatest show of that.
Blackman works best against smaller guys who he can do a little more with, creatively speaking. The Blackman work against guys like X-Pac or Al Snow Raven or Road Dogg tends to allow him more room to get creative. This is also a little on the shorter side at three minutes, and in no other era do you tend to feel the difference between three minutes to five minutes like this one. The greats can still achieve a lot in five minutes, but three feels far more stifling.
Still, this is not without its qualities.
Albert’s offense is all really good. You can see the future Giant Bernard — or even just A-Train — in there behind the Bicycle Kick or the basic clubs, or even just how he moves. There’s a great DDT on an open chair he hits too. Additionally, while a little bigger than works best with the Blackman routine, Albert is still there for Steve to do a few cool tricks with the sticks and the trash can, as even in a shorter one, Blackman finds a way to stand out.
Blackman wins with a mere kendo stick shot to the head off of the apron.
Hopefully, someone a little newer might see this and find out about one of my favorite weird little bullshit runs out there. It’s not what I would necessarily throw out there as a Steve Blackman introductory course, but if you come across this and like it, there are many greater delights in your future.
And as always, thank you to pervert Youtube accounts for, as a side effect, preserving such wonderful wrestling history.
HANDWERK 