The Regal vs. Eaton Series

 What do you do when you have two workers as talented as 1996-1997 William Regal and Bobby Eaton with nothing to do? You book them into a bunch of under 5 minute TV matches, of course!!

William Regal vs. Bobby Eaton, WCW 3/7/1995

Regal is sleazy as hell here, strutting about the ring as if he was gonna apply to the Ministry of Silly Walks. They lock up and we get Regal doing about 5 cool things in 30 seconds outgrappling Eaton. Regal talks trash, Eaton gets fired up and soon Regal eats like 6 beautiful punches in a row and a neckbreaker. Eaton signals for the Alabama Jam but Regal scurries away and gets on the mic. After some profuse apologizing Regal offers Eaton to team up with him and Eaton is just all befuddled and accepts. I guess Eaton had nothing better to do. And this is how the Blue Bloods were born!

William Regal vs. Bobby Eaton, WCW 10/30/1996

And just like that, the Blue Bloods are no more! How much can you achieve in a 3 minute match? We start this with Regal working an armlock and Eaton goes for a god damn flying headscissor hold, but Regal uses the ropes to throw him off in one of those cool things seemingly only Regal does. Eaton with an armwringer and Regal bumps in his head into the turnbuckle, resulting in some fun cranky Regal neck selling. Eaton starts uncorking punches with Dusty putting them over as lethal and gets some nice nearfalls for a punch combo and a swinging neckbreaker, with Regal just barely getting the foot to the ropes on the neckbreaker. Eaton continues to go to town on Regal with the punches but Regal shoves the refree, decks Eaton with a punch and pin him with the feet on the ropes. This was sweet.

William Regal vs. Bobby Eaton, WCW 11/29/1996

Another 3 minute match! Will they ever get 4 minutes on WCW TV? They throw a lot of punches in this one, with Regal going for his palm strikes right away and Eaton clocking him with a great looking right. They work a test of strength/monkey flip spot for a minute which is really cool, then go back to punches. Eaton goes for a suplex and Regal cradles him as he gets up which was a neat finish. I think this went slightly under 3 minutes.

William Regal vs. Bobby Eaton, WCW 2/16/1997(?)

Finally, a 4 and a half minute match between them! And it‘s a very mysterious match too, because it‘s not even listed on Cagematch! Maybe it‘s actually their April match. Same start as the preceding match, with Regal going for palms in the corner and eating a big Eaton punch. God damn Regal has about a dozen ways to just keep running into Eatons amazing looking punches in this. We get a heat segment for a minute where Eaton takes a facebump on the floor and smashed into the stairs, but soon enough Regal is back to eating punches and selling them like a cartoon cat getting caught in a mousetrap. Another easy flash rollup win for Regal here, will they develop this theme?

William Regal vs. Bobby Eaton, WCW 6/24/1997

Most vicious Regal performance so far, as he kicks the hell out of Eatons arm here and kneedrops his face. Joey Maggs for some reason comes out and Dusty promptly buries him on commentary saying he needs to watch and learn because he hasn‘t been winning matches. Eaton gets a brief comemback and Regal does the British style bounce off the turnbuckle into taking a backdrop bump. REALLY neat moment where Eaton tries to climb out the ring and Regal catches his leg and drives it into the buckle. Regal puts the Regal Stretch on Eaton, and Eaton fights it really hard trying to turn out of it, but Regal lands some open hands and headbutt until he can turn Eaton on his belly to get the tap. I guess this conclusive finish ends their series. Surprising how much neat stuff you can do in throwaway 4 minute matches.