#142 – Big Van Vader v Cactus Jack, Texas Death Match, October 24, 1993
This week Dre and Black Cat discuss a historic match from early 90s WCW involving two of the baddest dudes in the history of pro wrestling – Cactus Jack and Big Van Vader. Please support the Old School Wrestling Podcast by visiting oldschoolwrestlingpodcast.com where you can find links to all of our great products. We now offer all of our box sets and bonus episodes from all three seasons on our premium digital download site. Thanks for listening and we’ll see you…..at the matches!
There’s a great Gorgeous George show on YouTube called Icons of Wrestling.Great clips and interviews including the pre-reanimated Lou Thesz.It has a clip of his Florida Air gimmick-breathing clean smoke free canned Florida air instead of the stale air all the commoners in the crowd were breathing. His biographys an interesting read too,the later years get pretty dark.
Steven Farhood is very much real. He’s been a boxing commentator on Showtime for over fifteen years now and previously worked for CNN, ESPN, USA network, and Ring Magazine among others. Funny to hear his old ridiculous wrestling articles!
left handed cigarette is a smart guy. “Gorgeous George” by John Capouya is a really good read. Get hold of a copy..
I very much remember those late 70s/early 80s copies of PWI and Inside Wrestling my older brother and his friends used to buy (I was 3 or 4 at the time) Some of those matches looked like slasher films.
Who do you guys reckon was the most renown old school ‘bleeder’? For my money, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a big match that Abdullah the Butcher wrestled where his forehead wasn’t gushing. I think all you had to do was look at that guy the wrong way and he’d be busted open.
I haven’t been to a ton of live events but at each one Ive been to there’s always a guy that is much smaller than they look on Tv and a guy who is much bigger. At a terrible WCW show I went to Vader was the much bigger than on Tv guy. I always thought he was kind of short and wide but that guy was an f’n mountain. He has to be about 6’5 or bigger and he took up most of the ramp they came down. Some smark yelled “Leon” at him over and over and after his squash match he gave that guy a look and invited him to fornicate with himself.No one else in our section made a peep.I always thought they could have done so much more with him in the WWE. Its probably the rare case where WCW booked him in a better way.
I recall Mick Foley talking on his Cheap Pop – Hits and Misses (or something like that) DVD about his feud with Vader. They had a WCW Saturday Night match where Foley asked Vader to maybe get a nice mouse under his eye or a little bit of blood. The resulting match was so bloody that Saturday Night never aired it. Foley had a copy of the match, so it aired on the DVD. Just goes to show how insane Foley was to keep asking Vader to shoot on him.
But who am I to argue with Santa?
And speaking of “gushers”, there was definitely a time in Ric Flair’s career, sometime during his final main run in the E and his time in TNA, where people would just punch him and he’d open up. That is some very bad scar tissue. I’m imagining everyday things, like putting on a hat, or toweling off his hair after a shower, and he just starts bleeding.
Ya, Flair’s bleeding always looked so dramatic because every strand of his long blond hair would turn bright red.
Regarding the incident of Harley Race stabbing Wahoo McDaniel with a pencil- you cannot get lead poisoning from being stabbed with a pencil. Pencils contain no lead, but are made from graphite. Probably still not healthy though.
A pretty gross blood match was Lawler vs Kerry Von Erich at one of those AWA supercard turd fests. At one point Kerrys blood is dripping right into Lawlers mouth while Kerry has him pinned down in the Von Erich claw. Kerry Von Erich blood was 100 proof so I hope Lawler didn’t drive home. That’s also the match where Kerry was wasted and managed to cut his arm in the locker room beforehand and they had to work in the arm wound even though Kerry checks it several times before Lawler “injures” him.