6/15/2025

© WWE

Recommendations From A History Man

Peter Edge goes a little sentimental this fortnight, with some father themed picks.

This weekend is Father’s Day, and unlike Mother’s Day it is celebrated on the same day on both sides of the Atlantic. It’s a day when we can say thank you to our dads for putting up with us and we can treat them with a trip to the carvery – or is that just me?

But I thought this weekend we should celebrate not just the dads of AEW but also the old people in the company that have made AEW what it is (I imagine that’s what Tony Khan said during the Teams meeting when he was trying to justify giving MJF and Jeff Jarrett a 15 minute segment).

So let’s look at some classics from Taz, Cope, Christian, Jeff Jarrett and Dustin Rhodes.

Taz vs Bam Bam Bigelow- Living Dangerously 1998

Taz is the most famous actual father of a wrestler on the AEW roster page that also works for AEW, even though he’s more of the cool fun uncle of the announcing crew (Schiavone is the granddad, while Excalibur is the brother who you often wonder why he knows the release date of every anime movie in the past 5 years).

But the “Cool Uncle of AEW” used to be that relative who was the topic of discussion round the family dinner table because he gouged someone’s eye out because he looked at him for 0.05 seconds too long.

As the bad ass suplex machine, there was no one more popular in ECW than Taz, save for one night when Taz was the least popular – because at “Living Dangerously” in Asbury Park, the town’s most famous child, Bam Bam Bigelow, was gunning for his TV Title.

I like the match. There are a few sick moments – like the moment when Taz T-Bone Suplexes Bam Bam into the mass of chairs from the elevated entrance ramp and the fans have to figure out that they should get out of the way instead of having wrestlers tell them to move.

The final minute is awesome, but what is striking is how little atmosphere there is with this match despite the hometown hero aspect, with the only first real pop (that wasn’t for the T-Bone) happening when someone goes through a table. I’m describing an ECW match in 1998 and not a WWE match in 2025, by the way, but that final minute with that spot makes it a worthwhile endeavour with the good brawling beforehand. ***¾

Edge & Christian vs Hardy Boyz (Ladder Match)- No Mercy 1999

As the premier father of AEW, Christian Cage deserves a spot on our Reccies this fortnight, and with fellow old man Adam Copeland – maybe, potentially – getting the band back together with Christian (is it that obvious?) for what will surely be a 30 minute clash of cast iron B Tier tag team at All In, I thought we should look at the match that put the brothers from different mothers on the map.

The ladder match at “No Mercy” was Game 5 of the Best of 5 series between the 2 teams, with the prize being the managerial services of Terri Runnels, which is akin to having your soccer team be managed by Ivan Juric. A better prize would have been to be managed by Alexandra York, the inventor of analytics.

It’s very glaring how silent the crowd was in the early knockings of Match 5 of the Terri Invitational Tournament (was it obvious that this was a Vince Russo idea) as both were lower card teams in the WWF at the time; but boy, do they get the crowd with them by the end.

Even with the obstacle in the TV presentation of Jerry Lawler sounding like he was having his hands down his pants while talking about Terri Runnels (Terri must be under half Jerry’s age plus seven), with cool camera positions such as the “Wile E. Coyote” cam, the four wrestlers put on a career defining show with spectacular moments that had yet to be seen in wrestling – as many of the crowd reactions showed, earning multiple standing ovations during the match, and one afterwards, and even one on the “RAW” after “No Mercy”.

If you want to know why Cope, Christian and The Hardy Boyz are still on television today, you can point to this match. While that might be a turn off for younger fans, just watch this, please. Because this is what the feeling was on ladder matches before it became something to do on a day ending with Y. ****¼

You’ve just got to tolerate Jerry Lawler being horny for Terri Runnels for 15 minutes (god, Jerry was overrated as a commentator).

Kurt Angle vs Jeff Jarrett- TNA Genesis 2009

Jeff Jarrett is a father of a few kids and the stepfather of a few others, which in a piece of irony that wasn’t intentional (I swear), those stepkids are Kurt’s kids from his marriage to Jeff’s current wife Karen (and I thought me dating my former FWB’s best friend who she fell out with was awkward). Jarrett also has a famous father in the wrestling industry. You’d think these are the reasons I’m choosing a Jeff Jarrett match to review in this edition of Reccies…

…But actually, it’s because in an end-of-year vote amongst my circle of friends, Jeff won Worst Old Man, and those friends reading me saying nice things about Jeff is a great troll job, in my humble opinion.

This chapter of the Jeff/Kurt feud, which starts at 1:44:21 on the 2009 “Genesis” video on the TNA channel, would happen before Jeff and Karen were caught together. The second chapter after 10/10/10 dealt with all that man code breaking. This feud dealt with Jeff protecting TNA from the Main Event Mafia and its leader (or was it Sting that was leader?) from a hostile takeover. In hindsight, Jeff should have been more worried about Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan.

Even the biggest Jarrett detractors will have to admit that his punches are glorious and that is on-show in the early knockings. The brawling from the pair is great, as is the intensity from Kurt. A dive gone wrong is the only blemish in this match.

There are two great 2.9 kick outs from both. A great moment of heel work from Kurt (involving a chair and a guitar) is part of a really fun finishing stretch with a finish that isn’t what you expect in a No-DQ match, but it’s a match like this that makes you confident in an opinion that Kurt is a Top 25 guy of all time and that Jeff Jarrett is a great worker no matter how annoying that push in early 2025 was. ****¼

Dustin Rhodes vs Bunkhouse Buck- WCW Spring Stampede

Dustin Rhodes might have been the most anticipated second generation wrestler, with his dad Dusty being the big name that he was and the nickname “The Natural” making hype even more bold.

By the time 1994 came by, Dustin was a reliable mid-carder but didn’t seem destined to reach the heights of his dad. But one thing was certain: Dustin was one of the best brawlers in the industry, and at “Spring Stampede” 1994 (this is the first event to have two matches featured in my Reccies), he proved that acknowledgement with a really fun brawl against Bunkhouse Buck.

The time to start watching the match that shows the whole Stampede show on the WCW Vault channel on YouTube is 1:31:02, so you can listen to Dustin’s entrance theme (which slaps hard).

Buck (Southern Wrasslin’ mainstay Jimmy Golden) deserves his flowers for this match. His selling of various moments of offence from Dustin, like the belt whips and the eye poke, is brilliant. To be fair, Dustin’s selling of the blood loss in its infancy is also great, especially selling the blood “getting into his eyes.” The only reason I’m not making this a “notebook,” to nick a phrase from Voices of Wrestling, is the insistence on keeping to the wide camera when the blood comes out from both guys and also the obvious avoidance on saying blood or bleeding or busted open, with Tony Schiavone saying “_____ is hurt” when he saw blood on someone for the first time.

But it was really fun to see a No-DQ that didn’t rely on getting a gazillion objects from under the ring, with the fight seeing all weapons used in this match – barring one – coming from the attire worn (belts, brass knucks, powder- I think it was powder).

By Peter Edge

© WWE

Retro News

Goldberg gave a number of health updates through his CarCast podcast and selected media appearances ahead of his last wrestling match, which is expected to be part of WWE’s “Saturday Night’s Main Event” show in Atlanta, Georgia, on July 12th.

The veteran spoke about his training for the bout, how his high expectations have led to him hurting himself in training multiple times over the last couple of months, and how the weight gain for the match has been difficult:

Former Ring of Honor wrestler Brian Milonas has announced his retirement from pro wrestling. Milonas has wrestled since he was 19, starting out at the Polish American Veterans Club in Lowell, Massachusetts, and notching up a 22 year career. His last match took place on February 22nd, 2024. Milonas was a regular tag team partner for Beer City Bruiser in Ring of Honor.

In the message announcing his retirement he wrote:

Brian Heffron, also known as the Blue Meanie, announced on X that a celebration of life for Sabu will be held at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia on June 25th. The service is free to attend and open to the public, running between 7 and 11pm at the former home of ECW.
A further memorial service for the late Terrance Brunk will be held at Copper Moon in Lansing, Michigan, on June 21st. This is also open to the public.

Ricky Morton has made the decision to close his wrestling school. Making the announcement on Facebook, Morton announced that the “School of Morton” is to cease after 11 years in operation in Newport, Tennessee.

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