Phil Schneider

Yeah that is nonsense, he is great singles wrestler. One of the things that impressed me the most about watching a bunch of WAR is his ability to have compelling matches with really lower ranked guys. He did a great job of making guys like Anjo and Aoyagi look like they had a real chance to pull off a huge upset while still keeping himself strong.

Man when I played rugby everyone had Dick Murdochs body. What kind of pansy shit has happened to Rugby

Both things are truly bonkers. Nothing about that match makes it stand out from any mid 90s WAR match. I love mid 90's WAR so I liked it fine but it is smoked by something like Ashura Hara v. Takashi Ishikawa.

I am requesting this show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nLHq7tRPlI It has 2013 Nunzio, Monsta Mack and Eric Corvis, I want you to watch it to see if I have to.

Man there is no one better and working a grim violent seedy match then Genichiro Tenryu. Match starts a little light hearted with Fujiwara complaining about Tenryu having too much grease, but gets violent quick. Tenryu traps Fujiwara in the corner with his sumo slaps, and finishes it off with a kick right between the eyes. Fujiwara gets a smile on his face like "OK motherfucker, you want to call this shit WAR, let's go to war." He drops in some nasty bodyshots and finishes up with a headbutt right on the eyebrow which cuts Tenryu open hardway. From that point on Fujiwara is like a hunting dog bringing down a wounded bear, he alternates between tearing and smashing the cut, and ripping at Tenryu's arm. Most of the time the Fujiwara armbar is used as a quick counter, very rarely is he this focused on a bodypart through out the match. He drags Tenryu over the top rope and to the floor with an armbar, returning constantly to that arm throughout. Tenryu is pretty dominated, he fires back with nasty jabs and rights, and keeps going for kappo kicks, but a lot of that is shrugged off. One of the few faults with Tenryu as a wrestler is that occasionally his stuff isn't hit cleanly and looks weak. The cool thing about the way Fujiwara sells, is that if you don't land, he isn't going for it. Tenryu hits a crappy powerbomb, Fujiwara transitions slickly into an armbar, he wiffs a kappo kick, Fujiwara punches him in the eye. It isn't no-selling exactly because you never see him shrug off something landed solidly (except in that weird Kawada match), but it adds a realism to his fights. Finish was the only thing that kept this off the Epic list. Tenryu is finally firing back after eating an asskicking, he hits some nasty chops which Fujiwara grits through, until he catches him in the throat which stuns Fujiwara enough to get a flash pin. Kind of conceptually interesting, but it just looked sudden and off here. I get that a chop to the throat will stun you, but I just wanted something bigger.

We start with Lawler spitting hot fire in a backstage promo. He calls Goldust a flaming fag, Marlena the biggest Goldigger in GA and says they should have named their daughter Target because everyone in Atlanta took a shot. Goldust jumps him at the bell and they go toe to to at a breakneck pace. The rights and lefts are as good as you would hope a Dustin v. Lawler punch exchange would be. The show was in Evansville IN, so Lawler get a huge crowd reaction even as a heel, including a Lawler chant as he was choking Dustin. Lawler gets bumped to the floor and bitch slapped by Marlena but he steals a quick pin with his feet on the ropes. Post match was great too, with them brawling to the stage and Lawler taking a huge rolling bump all the way down the ramp. Total bell to bell brawl in which every moment was great. Really makes me want to seek out more Goldust matches here, as this was brawling at the level of his best stuff with Buck and Funk.

Lesnar v. Cena was as good if not better and similarly violent

Anyone got results for this show or a card for TPI?

I saw liger live a couple of years ago against homicide. He worked really hard and was a treat to see live. I am sure you will dig it

Yeah seems weird, you aren't into scat porn

Also all of the Shank promos and the Romeo Bliss promo where he talks about getting the rats high heel shoe up his ass

Did they run a show? I want to see 2013 Venom

Tyson Kidd vs Yoshi Tatsu from NXT 2011 was a good pole match. Possibly the only one. Jeff Jarrett v. Billy Joe Travis Guitar on a pole was really good

You realize everyone posting in this thread got over the Super J Cup 94 period of their lives 15 years ago right?

You would think Barnwell would just get Dean the wrestling gig

Shit Lawler had great matches in five decades

Michael PS Hayes/Jimmy Garvin/BADSTREET~! vs. Tracey Smothers/Steve Armstrong/Dustin Rhodes 6/16/91-PART TWO When we last left this match Michael Hayes had just eaten a bionic elbow from Dustin and a drop kick from Armstrong and he and his associates have demanded a time out. The ref has refused to give them a time out. We saw in the first half that Hayes and Garvin want social approval while Badstreet just wants to do damage but it is pretty clear the gimp will only be released once the faces are tied to the chair. We have yet to see Badstreet in the ring. Faces have controlled all the wrestling exchanges but the heels have controlled the match. Heels haven’t won a single exchange yet. But through stalling and taking advantage of the ref the heels almost never let the faces get more than one mid range move off in a row. The faces want to quicken the tempo of the match but have been blocked each time they try something. We’re at the fifteen minute point and all of this stalling is about delayed gratification. The crowd has been kept from getting what they want. And they’re going to be rabid to get it. ….aw fuck I hate "to be continued" two part stories. The payoff to Yvonne Craig being tied up is never as great as Yvonne Craig being tied up. Well so instead of thinking of this as two parter, maybe you should picture Waylon Jennings voice as though we’ve just came back from commercial. Nah I'm sticking to Yvonne Craig in a sinister trap metaphor. Last time the Young Pistols were unable to get any continued offense in due to the Freebirds stalling and veteran skill at taking advantage of the ref. How will the Pistols and Dustin escape. You,the reader, has returned to find out. Paul Jones "Buddy Colt told me once, "The only difference between a babyface and a heel is the babyface moves foward and the heel backwards." The first whole half was built on faces being game and the heels stalling. The second half is where the faces finally get to move forward. Hayes can’t get the time out so he’s back in the ring, Steve gets a wristlock on Hayes and then a crossbody and an armdrag. BAM BOOM POW Its three moves in a row without the heel being able to stall. Without the heel being bale to block the momentum. And the crowd is ecstatic. GO STEVE GO! GO STEVE GO! Ross calls the fifteen minute point of the match and calls it a grueling match which misses the whole point. We're fifteen minutes in and the faces had been trapped, denied anything for that whole period and as can't be stated enough over the course of this match..THE FREEBIRDS SUCK! The Freebirds haven't been beating on the Pistols and Dustins body's they don't have the ability to do that. Freebirds haven't actually won any wrestling exchanges. But yet they've still controled the match. They haven't been beating on the Pistols/Dustin's bodies...they have been beating on their souls. And the story is that that has been "grueling" for the faces. Frustrating them again and again. GO STEVE GO!!! Garvin yells at the ref that there had been a hair pull in the arm drag, and the crowd anticipates the faces momentum being halted once again. But NO.Garvin arguing with the ref this time, forced the ref out of position. Wait the ref is out of position? And you can actually see the cartoon light bulb pop up above the Pistols heads. As its their turn to take advantage of the ref and the "face team"does a in your face false tag. Smothers claps his hand in the air and grabs a hold of Hayes arm. Faces doing the heel fake tag here is such a great outwit the heels spot. It is the perfect pay off to all the early stalling. It ‘s not at all the payoff you’d have expected but it works great. Smothers cranks on Hayes arm. Hayes who had been manipulating the ref for good body of the match is left to ineptly look at Patrick with a “c’mon ref, you’ve got to be kidding me” face. Badstreet does a lot of teasing of illegally entering to stop the arm work. This puts the ref again out of place for when Hayes is finally able to tag out to Garvin. Garvin comes in only for Smothers to pull on Hayes arm and tell ref to get Garvin out of ring. We get a second false face tag and Smothers continues to work the fingers of Hayes. This whole Bizarro World faces false tag , ref out of position to see legit heel tag is such a great payoff to match thus far. Finally the faces are able to get off their quick tags and get a continued run on offense. The crowd pops for every part of this sequence. Hayes sells the arm work but is able to escape from the hold for a second only to be hit with a Armstrong flying back elbow. Hayes drops to his knees and goes over to hug the heel corner turnbuckle. He tags in Jimmy Jam who comes into the ring confers with Hayes, helps Hayes to his feet and then tags Hayes back in. WHAT THE FUCK??? Let me repeat that for you. Hayes bails to the corner on his knees tags in Jimmy Jam who comes back into the ring confers with Hayes, helps Hayes to his feet and then tags Hayes back in. The faces are in control, tagging in the fresh man, Garvin, won't help the heels. the only thing that can help them is to stall. The hugging corner tagging yourself out then back in isn't exactly spitting out your mouth piece for Joe Goossen to clean but the effect is the same. Armstrong gets ready to lock up with Hayes but Hayes walks over to Smothers on the apron and smacks him. Both Garvin and Hayes have been doing this type of thing a bunch in this match, when they think the guy in the ring has their number they go over and call out the other Pistol. It’s an odd strategy as they are calling out the fresher guy. Although with all the stalling one could develop ring rust by being on the apron. Armstrong tags Smothers in and Smothers looks confused throwing up his hands “since when do we have beef?” They go for a rope running section where Garvin jumps into the ring, Hayes drops down, Garvin leapfrogs Smothers, Smothers hits the ropes, Hayes leapfrogs smothers and Smothers walks right into a boot from Garvin which knocks him into a Hayes left. The only difference between a babyface and a heel is the babyface moves forward and the heel backwards.” And now at 18 minutes into the match the heels have finally won an in ring wrestling exchange. A really pretty and smooth one at that..essentially a quick criss cross section given the appearance of a double team. All about ducking and Smothers headstong running into the punch. I'm not sure if the Freebirds of Garvin and Hayes are capable of anything else that pretty but all the stalling played off and they've finally won a in ring exchange. And NOW it is time to tag in Badstreet—“release the gimp”. Badstreet comes in and Fargo Struts and then just unleashes offense on the downed Smothers. A lariat, a top rope axe handle, a neckbreaker, etc..making sure to point to and taunt either Armstrong or Dustin between each move. He throws Smothers to the floor and Fargo Struts again…he is masked Freebird Evilness. Smothers eats a clothesline from Dink on the floor. Badstreet drags Smothers back to ring apron where he Garvin hits Smothers with a HY-UGE running Yakuza boot. Smothers flyes for the Yakuza boot ,taking a bump all the way to the security guard rail Hayes continues to wail on Smothers on the floor and Badstreet rams Smothers face into apron. Dustin and Armstrong try to get involved only to be stopped by Patrick. Badstreet taunting, Fargo Struts again and tags Garvin into the ring. Garvin snap mares Smothers and puts him into a reverse chin lock. Its really anticlimactic after Badstreet’s section. But we recognize the strategy Dink “We’ve got to get them on the mat” Hayes “We’re the champs. We’ve got to slow it down” Teh Freebirds, “We’ve got to slow it down” The chin lock elicits a face hand clap from the crowd which Dustin and Armstrong milk to try to get Smothers back into the match. Smothers tries to escape and the two bonk heads and race to make the tag. Dustin comes in a fire cleaning house. Armstrong joins him and just works over Garvin in the corner. Smothers is still out of it but Dustin is able to cause a heel miscommunication where Hayes punches Badstreet. And we're two on two and the faces FINALLY have fully escaped the trap. The crowd is ECSTATIC. Dustin punches Hayes low (getting the full on Eigen spit take) which sets up the bulldog. Ref goes to count ONE! TWO! AW Fuck. Richard Morton runs in to break pin and attack Dustin. Everyone brawls with Smothers recovered (but Badstreet not) by this point and match is thrown out while faces clean house and climb the ropes to yell at heels who bail to back. Paul Jones “Buddy Colt told me once, “The only difference between a babyface and a heel is the babyface moves forward and the heel backwards" Most of the matches we review are very Dustin centric. Most of what we write about is about Dustin. There have been matches which we've chosen not to write about because allthough good matches, Dustin plays a small role in their goodness or is off. I was hesitant to write about this match for that reason. But this was too much fun to ignore. This is a match where Dustin isn't asked to do much other than be a babyface and move forward. He does that. Thats really all that was needed out of him to make this work. Simple and effective. Tracey Smothers: “That’s called working. That’s old school”.

Here is Tomk's review from Segunda Caida. I really need to pester him to write more Michael PS Hayes/Jimmy Garvin/BADSTREET~! vs. Tracey Smothers/Steve Armstrong/Dustin Rhodes 6/16/91 This was originally written back in 2004/05 as part of the Dustin of the Day project. Match will appear on Schneider comp 24 Ok, so I really dig this match. But when Phil asked me if I wanted to write something about it, I kind of begged off. I had already reviewed a Tracey Smothers match that was filled with stalling. And I already reviewed a match where I spent the focus of the review on talking about shtick and theatricality. I was unsure whether I could really get across the difference between the stylized theatricality in Dustin/Steamboat vs. Arn/Zbyzsco and the shtick in this match. In the tag match the shtick was all really incorporated into the match as storytelling device. In the Freebirds match the story is the shtick and the shtick is the story. I wasn’t sure if I could get that across and then it occurred to me….I’m going to write a two part review of Freebirds vs. Dustin/Young Pistols. A couple reasons to do this. One the narrative arch really separates nicely into two parts and splitting it into two allows you to see how each part builds as well as than making the links as to how the concluding part reflects the opening part. Two it helps to really capture the epic quality of this match. Three this match is built on stalling which is delay of gratification…thus me not giving the reader the whole thing at once kind of mirrors the match nicely. And four, the idea of writing this in two parts just amuses me to no end. Tracey Smothers: "That's called working. That's old school"“ This match is part of the endless series of Freebirds vs. Young Pistols matches from the early nineties. For a while it seems like every major show, every Clash, PPV has some sort of matchup between these two teams. A tag match, a six man, a match with Brad instead of Steve, a match with Bullet Bob, a match with Buddy Roberts…just endless series of matches and by and large those matches are really not good. You would think after the third mediocre match between two teams they’d pair them up with different people, but you’d be wrong. The Freebirds and Young Pistols with Dustin had a six-man match on a Clash that I’d recommend avoiding, as it’s not much. However, they deliver the one great match in the series on the Pro. This takes place after the Ricky Morton turn. At the time of the turn, Ricky Morton, JYD, and Tommy Rich had the six man belts. Morton turns heel, will no longer tag with them, allowing the Freebirds to win the six- man title in a three on two. Thus, the Freebirds are double champions, with both the US Tag Title and the Six Man belts. These are the Freebirds of the nineties. These are not the Freebirds that people talk about as being HOF material. NO, no, no they are not. This is Michael PS Hayes and Jimmy Garvin. Michael PS Hayes is a guy who came to the fore by being the guy who knew how to throw one good looking punch and knew lots of heat getting shtick to do on the floor while Buddy Roberts and Terry Gordy did the in ring work for the Freebirds. Jimmy Garvin is a guy who knew how to do a lot of heat gathering shtick and stalling to piss off Canadians while Ronnie Garvin did all the wrestling work for the Garvins’ team. And then there’s Badstreet. And well Badstreet kind of rules. I’m watching all this WCW and been enjoying a lot of Brad Armstrong. During this period, Brad wrestles both as Brad and also as one ridiculous gimmick after another. The neat thing to watch is Brad really puts his all into each gimmick. WCW puts Tim Horner in a mask and he wrestles like Tim Horner with a mask on. They put Brad into a Spiderman mask and he wrestles like a face luchador with lots of in ring topes and a majistral type finisher. You tell him that he’s going to be Badstreet and he wrestles like a combo of Tony Arce and Andy Barrow, lots of rudo mannerisms and he slinks around like a combo of Jake the Snake and Snidely Whiplash. So you’ve got two guys who specialize in heel stalling plus the worker of your team who also has excellent rudo mannerisms. Then you add to that the president of the Diamond Mine DDP, some arm candy, and another manager in Big Daddy Dink. So you have a total of five guys who are there to gather heel heat only one of who can actually do the wrestling. One of the problems with I think most of the Freebirds vs. Pistols matches is that they tried to ignore that dynamic and actually work a wrestling match. On the Pro, someone realized "What are the Freebirds doing wrestling? They should just be stalling." And this may be one of the greatest stallfest matches you’ll ever see. This isn’t one of those matches with stalling, where there is just a lot of stalling at the beginning. NO. They incorporate the stalling into every part of this match. One almost needs to develop a workrate system for stalling in this match as these guys don’t just lay in the stall, they work the stall, milk the stall…the number of stalls per minute is almost athletically impressive. Its not that they just go to ref to complain about a fast count, they do five minutes of stalling around complaining about a fast count. The stalls have psyche, build and emotionally satisfying finishes. Michael PS Hayes and Dustin Rhodes start the match off with Michael PS Hayes doing an extended offended stall, “You want a piece of me? You think you can take me? “ which eventually elicits a “FREEBIRDS SUCK! FREEBIRD SUCK!” chant from the audience. Both Tracey Smothers and Dustin are really good at working a crowd chant, pointing to the crowd stomping, establishing the chant rhythm…trying to get different sides of the arena to join in, etc. Hayes is upset and he walks around circling with Dustin while Hayes looks at the audience dejected. He walks away from Dustin grabs the top rope in the heel corner does a Flash Dance-ish bend and bounce while holding top rope. Hayes finger swishes through his own hair while his hips perfectly mirror his finger swivel. Hayes then bodyglides forwards a couple steps and then moonwalks back. After that elaborate display he turns to audience for approval “How Bout that?” Of course he is met by: FREEBIRDS SUCK !! FREEBIRDS SUCK !! This leads to Hayes bailing out of the ring for a bit to further heat up the crowd and then eventually getting back in to lock up with Dustin. Dustin controls this section with Hayes trying to regain control of a rope running section by putting up his leg, Dustin catches the leg and turns it into an atomic drop (think the Nakamura shooty catch spot). Hayes is atomic dropped into face corner where all three faces get to wail on him before he runs to bail out by running to Jimmy Garvin on the apron and jumping into his protecting arms. The crowd goes nuts. Dustin points and does the swishy hand sign. Garvin and Hayes both do a thou do protest too much “oh no yuck we’re not like that” mime. Tracey Smothers goes to crowd and rhythmically points and starts a “FAGGOTS! FAGGOTS!” chant. I so need to see THUGS vs. Gangstas handhelds now, just to see Smothers try to start SPEARCHUCKA chants. They stall some more and milk the gay bashing heat as much as Hayes milked the original “Freebirds suck” heat. Jimmy Garvin yells at the crowd to “Shut UP!” and you can hear a tinge of sadness in his voice. Garvin goes to Big Daddy Dink to look for approval and says and I quote “It’s not what you think” to which Dink says “ENOUGH. ENOUGH.” He doesn’t want to hear about it. Dink’s tone is great as I imagine it is same tone Dick Cheney used when his daughter first introduced the family to Gretchen during break her freshman year. Hayes, Garvin, Dink and Badstreet try to comfort each other about getting the faggot chant and well let's be honest those four guys huddled conferring is going to only make that chant louder. I mean anyone of those guys alone could elicit that response but all four in a huddle make Raven’s Flock look like a minor league Hockey team. Even Pena’s most demented wet dream inspired trios teams look straight next to the Dink, Garvin, Hayes, Badstreet foursome. Then Hayes does his first stall involving Nick Patrick, as he goes for Nick Patrick for support against the crowd’s misunderstanding. Patrick sells discomfort at Hayes’ advances. Again, I want to emphasize here how good of a ref Patrick is, as he really knows how to mime to get over his communication with both teams over to the audience. This was the early nineties when WCW was using Bill Alfonso, because they needed someone on their crew who was able to translate for El Gigante…this never made any sense to me… I mean Phillip Sierra or Richard Santana would have made such great members of York Foundation as not only would they be turning on the working class values of people who go by their nicknames but they’d also be denying their culture…plus both had experience working Matt Borne… but instead WCW brought in Alfonso. Anyway, I can’t see this match working half as well if it was reffed by either Bill Alfonso or Randy Anderson. Hayes back in with Dustin, Dustin gets an armwringer and a high hiptoss on Hayes. Hayes runs to Patrick again with the “wait wait he pulled my tights” classic stall. Hayes does less with this stall then any of the other ones in this match. Hayes forces Patrick to ask the audience whether his tights were pulled and the crowd answers in the negative. So, this stall continues three of the storylines that they lay out over the course of match: (1)Freebirds trying to control the pace of the match by using the ref, much to the consternation of the faces. Hayes going to ref elicits this great “aw c’mon man? For real?” facial sell from Dustin. (2)Michael PS Hayes’ disappointment with the crowd. There is a lot of jawing with the crowd in this match and instead of it being the wrestler telling the fans that “hey you in the front row, you’re fat” or mocking the local sports team, or just mocking the crowd heelishly…Hayes’ jawing and stalling comes out of disappointment. Hayes is so full of himself that he can’t understand how the crowd doesn’t worship him too. (3) That the Freebirds in fact do suck. These are guys who need to slow it down…not after a suplex or even a bodyslam…but even a hiptoss is a dangerous throw and time to bail out. It’s not as complex or as deep a stall as most of the other ones but I want to make clear that it doesn’t break from the psychology of the match. Hayes goes for a couple strikes but Dustin catches him with another armwringer into an arm drag which he drops the leg on while simultaneously tagging Tracey. Dustin holds Hayes arm out for Tracy to hit with a diving top rope chop. Not the most impressive series of moves strung together. But its nine minutes into this match and the faces are able to string four moves together without the heels breaking up the momentum…the crowd pops like they hit an SSP. Hayes escapes a wrist lock with a kick and manages to tag in Jimmy Garvin. Garvin is immediately caught in an armwringer into a standing arm bar. Garvin has no escape for a simple armbar. Overwhelmed by the arm bar he has no choice but to back Tracey into the corner, forcing the ref to come over and break the armbar. YOU SUCK!!! YOU SUCK!!! Garvin now free of the armbar, Fargo Struts. FREEBIRDS SUCK! FREEBIRDS SUCK! Dustin climbs the ropes to start a pro-face handclap. Garvin gets a waistlock takedown on Smothers who easily escapes and takes Garvin down with a shouldertackle followed by a hiptoss. AW FUCK NOT A HIPTOSS. Hayes runs in to stop Smothers from being able to follow up on the hiptoss. Hayes ends up eating a hiptoss and both Freebirds eat superkicks. Badstreet threatens getting in the ring but Tracey scares him off with karate poses. The heels regroup on the ground Dink “We’ve got to get them on the mat” Hayes “We’re the champs. We’ve got to slow it down” They all agree “We’ve got to slow it down” Slow it down? The match is past the ten minute mark. The faces have only strung more than two moves together once. The only throws in this match have been one atomic drop and two hiptosses. They’re going to try to slow it down even more than that? And that really captures the dynamic of the match. The faces have won every single exchange in the match, but the heels are totally controlling the match. Garvin is back in with Smothers. Garvin gets taken down and pinned for a two count. 1,2, kick out… Hayes gets into ring to complain to Patrick “HEY HEY HEY!!! What was that?” Garvin turns to Patrick to complain about the fast count too. Garvin “That was 1..2.…It’s supposed to be one…………………..two………………three” Patrick practices the tempo that Garvin proposes. The long ellipses don’t really capture the tempo that the Freebirds try to set. Hmmm. Sing Freak-a-leak to yourself. If Patrick were to use the tempo the Freebirds want, Petey Pablo could list off two and a half stripper names between each count on the mat. [ Shameka. Keisha. Ta-]ONE! [ Shonda, Sabrina, Chris-] TWO! [Monique, Christina, Yo-] THREE! Garvin and Hayes clap the rhythm to Patrick: [sabrina, Daronda, Sha-] ONE! [Tenisha, Mocha, Kie-] TWO! [Christina, Veronica, Sa] THREE! Hayes counts it off to Big Daddy Dink.: [shameka. Keisha. Ta-]ONE ! [ Shonda, Sabrina, Chris-] TWO! [Monique, Christina, Yo-]THREE Dink counts it off with Patrick coming in at 2. [sabrina, Daronda, Sha-] ONE! [Tenisha, Mocha, Kie-] TWO! [Christina, Veronica, Sa] THREE! All four Freebirds count it off with Patrick. [Yolanda, Christina. Mel-] ONE! [Precious, Aisha, Sha] TWO! [Tiara, Shavonda, Cha]THREE! Garvin rolls up Smothers. So of course Patrick ambles over [Mya, Victoria, Ki-] …ONE! [Chandra..] kick out Crowd pops. Freebirds are infuriated. Hayes jumps back in the ring and Hayes and Garvin back Patrick up into the neutral corner. “What was that?!!!!” We repeat the same exact shtick but this time with the Freebirds wanting a quick 16th note count. The great thing about a comedy spot like this is you know what’s going to happen next and you just get giddy with anticipation. Every time Big Daddy Dink demonstrates to Patrick he fast count he wants..you just get more giddy. Smothers gets the sunset flip, quick count… Freebirds lose it and regroup on the floor. Great comedy spot with nice set up and delivery leaves the crowd with grins on their faces. For meaningless two-count section in middle of match, I don’t remember any Malenko/Guerrero roll up two-count exchange leaving me that satisfied. Smothers starts another FREEBIRDS SUCK ! chant. FREEBIRDS SUCK! FREEBIRDS SUCK! Jimmy Jam gets back in the ring and calls out Armstrong; “I want you Punk!” Steve hits a really pretty Taguchi style drop kick with a high angle and full extension and just a pretty pretty landing. After eating the dropkick, Garvin goes to the floor. Dink massages his back. “You’ve got to take your time, take your time.” “Your alright, Your alright, got to slow it down” Hayes tags himself back in and struts. He then does this elaborate hair flip where he bends at the waist to start the hair flip and then swivels his hips. The audience catcalls start. He does not understand why they cannot appreciate his hair and swivels. Hayes yells at the audience and he starts a faces fast clap and stomp for himself. No one in the crowd joins in and he does this hilariously sad defeated slowing clap down. He cannot understand why they won’t get behind him. And Hayes is left with nothing but his slow handclap for himself. It’s a hilariously pathetic spot. If HBK were smart at all he could work a spot like this beautifully in Canada, instead he just claps and stomps in a vacuum as though the crowd isn’t there. The Pistols and Rhodes start pointing to crowd and get the face handclap, which only makes Hayes face look sadder. Dejected, Hayes headlocks Armstrong and goes for a sunset flip attempt. Armstrong is able to just lean down and pound on Hayes to block the flip. Hayes bails from the punching and ends up backing himself up into the wrong corner where he again is met with the bionic elbow which turns him around right into a Armstrong dropkick. This time Armstrong's kick is much more compact like a cannon ball. Hayes calls for time out. Patrick won’t give him the T. Garvin demands that Hayes get a T. Still Patrick won’t go for it. Badstreet wants in. Hayes turns to the gimp and tells him in a tone one might use with your submissive “No, Badstreet not yet”. Badstreet looks across ring taunting the faces, points at them “you and you and you” and then makes the neck slash. He then points to the crowd and tells them to SHUT UP. Badstreets interaction with the crowd and the Pistols/Dustin team is completely different than that of the rest of the Freebirds. Badstreet is a classic rudo and just BAD; he’s not looking for anyone’s approval. And really, this is the end of the first chapter of this match. The chapter ended much the same way it began with Hayes bailing after accidentally ending up in the face corner and getting hit by Dustin. The story thus far is that Hayes and Garvin want social approval while Badstreet just wants to do damage. Hayes controls Badstreet. It is pretty clear the gimp will only be released once the faces are tied to the chair. Faces have controlled all the wrestling exchanges but the heels have controlled the match. Heels haven’t won a single exchange yet. But through stalling and taking advantage of the ref the heels almost never let the faces get more than one mid range move off in a row. The faces want to quicken the tempo of the match but have been blocked each time they try something. We’re at the fifteen minute point and the crowd has been kept from getting what they want. And they’re going to be rabid to get it. Tracey Smothers: “That’s called working. That’s old school

Yeah this was an old review when I watched the show, liked the Fuke match quite a bit. I put together the PWFG set for Will so I know all of that stuff

So I am going to go on record. Ken Shamrock used to rule at the pro-wrestling. I imagine if he ended up going to New Japan instead of WWF he would have had some great matches and we would all be Shamrock fans. This wasn't as good as the transcendent Shamrock v. Sano match, but it was pretty great. Both guys were clearly great athletes, and work a really fast style. I get the same vibe from this as I got from the Takada v. Yamazaki series although I like this match up more. Not a ton of selling, alot of moves, ext. Still for workrate shootstyle this was great workrate shootstyle. Great ending, with Shamrock and Funaki exchanging really fast strikes, Funaki goes for a German, ends up eating some nasty back elbows and Shamrock does a standing switch and crushes him with a dragon suplex for the KO. I was worried this was going to another 30 minute draw, and was really happy to see a winner.

This was a total blast. Fujiwara puts on kickpads in the beginning of the match and decides to use his kickboxing. Really had the feel of Matt Serra breaking out his highkick, as Fujiwara just has a shit eating grin on his face the whole time he is landing axe kicks, high kicks and Tiger Mask style spin kicks on the befuddled Sumo dude. Lato does get some offense including an awesome rush where he lowers his head and gores Fujiwara like a bull. Finish was great as Lato bulls Fujiwara into the corner and pops him with shots, Soronaka breaks them up, and Fujiwara points to the ref and says something, and when Lato is distracted smacks him with a high kick. "Hey look over there...BAM"

Man am I steamed Sano only worked three matches for PWFG as he is fucking gold again. This goes to a draw which keeps it a little below the sublime Sano v. Shamrock match on the second show, but it was incredible. The counters in this were faster then in the Shamrock match, but it was paced similar. Suzuki was the one brining the pro wrestling here, as he breaks out a nasty piledriver and even tries a dropkick. The dropkick spot was great as he threw it and Sano steps away contemptuously, Suzuki lands bounces up and hit a brutal jumping spin kick into Sano's grill. Suzuki was great here, as he is awesome as a fired up babyface, there is a point where is trying to get a cross armbreaker and he is just chopping at Sano's arm and kicking him in the head in a frenzy to try to get Sano to break his grip. There is a great spot where Sano has on a choke, and Suzuki is slapping his own face to keep himself awake. I loved the draw finish too, as both guys have kneebars on each other and are just twisting the ankles in desperation to try to get the submission before the bell. I clearly need to get more UWFI Sano, as he is truly brilliant in all of his PWFG matches, and I want more shootstyle Sano.

This is worked technico v. technico and is a pretty sweet version of that classic lucha formula. We get a first fall of indvidual matchups, all of them were solid, with the highlight being the Super Porky v. Popitekus battle of the Rhino's. They smash into each other and it looks like a compact car crash. 1991 may have been the point where Porky's fatness intersected with his agility perfectly, and you could tell he was inspired to match up with fellow elephantine highflyer Popitekus The second fall mixes up the match ups and ends with one of the greatest dive trains in wrestling history, Super Astro leads it off with his crazy somersault senton, then we get topes from El Brazo, Dandy, and Brazo De Oro, each one knocking the receiver into the seats, then Popitekus unloads a tope which looked like Superman threw a couch at a group of robbers. Then to finish it off, Porky hits a plancha which felt like Superman added the refrigerator. The third fall was fun although anything would have a hard time following up that train. Porky's silla to win the match was a sight to see though, can you imagine the smell?

Damn was this a blast. This was worked as a mat brawl, both guys were exchanging really nasty shots mostly on the mat. Short punches to the temple by Wilkins, almost JYDish seated headbutts by Fujiwara, Wilkins kind of leaping from a lying position into a knee on Fujiwara's throat. Fujiwara was almost working heel here, as he slaps on a kneebar and lays out in a supine lounging position with his head resting on his elbow, he almost looks like he is stifling a yawn. Wilkins is great, he has nice deadlift suplexes and takes Fujiwara's signature boston crab reversal as a dangerous neck bump. Is their any other shoot Wilkins out there? Did he work Kingdom or something?