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Part I: There is a WJZY, but it's located in Charlotte, not Sarasota. Randy's obviously in another studio at Titan Towers. The "twenty-four hours to find a partner" thing is a great device to build drama, but the consequences for not doing so aren't spelled out. Does Savage forfeit the match? Does he have to go against Flair and Hall two on one? Could Tunney assign him a partner, someone who may not be able to cut it on Flair and Hall's level? Exactly why is Randy so desperate to turn Curt? Vince almost blows the whole thing by not acting shocked. There's too much "cat who swallowed the canary" in his delivery. Duggan, Hillbilly, and Heenan all act like this is the craziest thing they've ever heard of, but Vince the non-wrestler doesn't? You'd think he'd be offering his own services as a partner before he'd stand still for Randy teaming with someone like Curt. Among Heenan's choices for Randy's partner: George Bush and Herve Villechaize. You'll be laughing out of the other side of your mouth soon enough, Uncle Bobby! I love Randy trying to appeal to Curt's manhood, but he really doesn't have to; Curt's intrigued by the idea from the start, despite the protests from Hillbilly, Hacksaw, and Heenan that Curt's "just a manager". Part II: This is when the real knife-twisting starts, as Vince expresses the thought that maybe, just maybe, Heenan made Curt Flair's executive consultant just to keep him out of the ring and allow Flair to have all the glory for himself. It would make, ahem, perfect sense to do that from Heenan's standpoint: Curt's an excellent technical wrestler, just like Flair, and he's come close against Hogan quite a few times in the past. If Hogan is Flair's goal, why not make sure that every potential roadblock is out of the way, particularly the ones you have influence over? Curt would certainly agree in exchange for a big enough payoff, plus he has a back injury (which was referenced by Gino in passing at SunmerSlam '91, I believe, though they certainly didn't make a big deal out of it), so he'll take easy money in exchange for not having his brains beaten out every week, right? Heenan makes several slips that add to the drama here, referring to Curt as "just a manager" at least once and saying that Savage couldn't possibly want someone who's been out of the ring for over a year as a partner. Curt's slowly starting to take offense as we go to break. One question: Who was Curt talking to on the phone? Part III: This is when it gets good. Heenan's at least tried to spare Curt's ego a bit so far, but Flair and Hall appear for the first time here, and they make it clear that in their minds, Curt's just one of the hired help. Hall starts off with "You used to be somebody", and Flair piles on by emphatically stating that Curt walks behind him. Curt's starting to do a slow burn, and it gets even hotter when he's asked if he thinks he's a better wrestler than Flair. His answer: Yes. He's asked if he's a better wrestler than Razor, and again, the answer is yes. All the while, Flair and Hall are acting like this whole thing is a minor irritant, a psych-out job designed to take away from their training time, and they want it over with. At one point, Heenan even speculates that Savage has another partner all signed and ready to go, while Flair dismisses the whole business as a bluff because Savage doesn't have a partner at all. This segment contains one of the first times I've heard Hall/Razor use one of his signature phrases, as he says of Curt, "He's one of the bad guys." Part IV: More exploration of the same themes, with the addition of the money angle: Curt could stand to make a huge payday as Savage's partner, and isn't he a professional? How many paydays has he missed as a result of having to walk behind Flair and take orders from him? Isn't he the greatest wrestler who ever lived, the perfect wrestler, if you will? Or is he afraid of the competition, of Flair and Hall, or perhaps of Savage himself? Curt clams not, that he could get back in the ring tomorrow and perform perfectly. Heenan knows that it's all starting to crumble for him and Flair, and just like at the Royal Rumble, he does desperation brilliantly. Even his requests for water are extra dramatic and filled with meaning now, as he's desperately trying to maintain his composure and repair the damage that's already been done, But appeals to Curt's loyalty haven't worked, nor has reminding him of his place within the Flair organization. What other tricks will Heenan try to keep Curt in the fold, especially with Savage back on the scene and (presumably) demanding Curt's final answer? Finally, Vince lays it on the line: Will Curt at least consider Savage's offer? Curt says yes, and an angry Heenan can't believe his ears. Part V: We're getting down to rug-cutting time, as Savage, Flair, and Hall almost literally wage a war for Curt's soul. Unfortunaltely for Flair and Hall, all they choose to offer is continued servitude in exchange for loyalty, while Savage is offering him the return of his manhood and a piece of the glory at Survivor Series. It gets a little tough to hear the back-and-forth at times, with both sides talking at once, but that only adds to both the pressure and the chaos. I'd forgotten about Curt's boast that he could beat Flair, Savage, and Hall all in the same night, even after a year's layoff. That's one feat I'd have definitely loved to see him try to pull off. Part VI: Most of this is the clip we've seen elsewhere: Curt accepts Savage's offer, Heenan gets mad and slaps him, and Curt makes the turn official by pouring a pitcher full of water on Heenan's head. I have to believe that there was a time when he'd have done more, but Bobby's neck prevented that. I loved Flair's final interview, where he snapped and called Curt "Hennig" because he wasn't perfect anymore. I wish that he'd kept it up, but he might have been told by Vince to stick to the names that the WWF had trademarked. Still. it's nice to hear that I'm not the only one out there who knows who Curt Hennig is. Savage didn't need to say much else, nor did Curt; the big smile on Curt's face said it all for them. I can't wait to see this match now! Was this Heenan's finest hour in the WWF? I don't think so; maybe of the "broadcast journalist" era, but he did so much better work when he was an active manager that it isn't funny. This isn't even his best performance this year; the Rumble's got that crown by open lengths. I will say that it's probably his last great performance outside of commentary, maybe even his last truly great WWF performance overall, although I still have '93 to go through in order to tell for sure.

When I originally commented on this, I hadn't seen Windham's turn. Now I have, and this whole thing obviously makes more sense. Barry was at home as the arrogant heel calling out the young punk Dustin, and I loved Steamer jumping to Dustin's defense, in a sense paying him back for Dustin's attempt to save him from Barry's wrath at the Clash. The brief brawl looked really good. and it seemed like Dustin-Windham was going to be one of WCW's hottest feuds heading into '93. I can't wait to find out why it never really happened.

They tried harder with Bret during his first reign than I thought, having him face a wide variety of opponents even if those opponents weren't necessarily top drawer. It was almost like they'd heard the outside criticism from sources like the Weston mags about how soft Hogan's schedule in particular was and decided to compensate for it once someone whom they knew could handle it had the belt. Wise move. This was without question the most Crockett-like interview Flair has done yet, with the exception of running down Saskatoon. Otherwise, Mean Gene could have been David Crockett or Tony Schiavone, and this could have been any random Saturday night at 6:05. It's interesting to me that Vince allowed guys like Dusty and Flair to slip back into their JCP personas once he knew they were leaving. Was it a case of hoping that they'd look ridiculous to the WWF fanbase and thus wouldn't be missed, or did Dusty and Flair simply not care what Vince thought anymore since they were going home? So Hall would have ultimately beaten Flair and sent him out of the WWF? That would have had to have been sometime in the summer of '93, since that was when Hall turned face anyway. Interesting that it was Curt who ended up getting the win instead, and that it helped make his face push work as well as it ultimately did. Couldn't they have done new vignettes for Curt to celebrate his turn? I'm guessing that the one later in December featuring Wade Boggs is an original. since I know Boggs didn't do anything with Curt and Lanny in '88.

We didn't get the beginning of this, but I really didn't need to see the beating of Lee again anyway. Bullet Bob is tremendous here, and it doesn't matter that he's doing the kind of promo work that Lee should be doing, because Lee simply isn't capable of it, at least not like this. You can almost taste the resignation and frustration in Bullet Bob's voice, as he knows the lengths he's had to go to in order to correct the wrong of Sully's presence. After seeing the footage between Stomper and Bullet Bob (which is the highlight of the segment, by the way), you know how serious Bullet Bob thinks this mess is, that he has to go to a man whom he obviously still dislikes immensely in order to get revenge for Lee. The fact that (if I'm not mistaken) Sully managed the Stomper at one time makes the stakes even higher here, as there's always a chance that Sully could work his voodoo, get Stomper over to his side, and wreak even more havoc on SMW. There's definitely a feeling here that the future of the entire promotion hangs in the balance. Sully is excellent as well, pitting aside the rambling and devil talk and speaking straight from the depths of his cold, black heart. Bullet Bob tried to sanitize SMW, promoting people like Brian Lee at Sully's expense, and now he's going to pay for it, and Stomper will also pay for turning his back on the dark side. It's a simple message, but the creepy atmosphere adds immeasurably to it, as do the followers repeating the key words in that eerie whisper. Is Sully speaking for Corny? More than likely, but you get the feeling that he believes what he's saying, too. Maybe that's why Corny brought Sully in and encouraged him to go wild: to tell the viewers, the stations the promotion's on, and most importantly the advertisers that this isn't the cartopn show they're used to seeing; this is a bunch of adults inflicting pain and blood on each other and liking it, and other adults who like watching them do it. I like this version of Sully more than the guy who speaks in tongues and says things that even he most likely doesn't understand fully. He's definitely got potential to raise a whole bunch of hell in SMW, and I'd like to see just who's going to stop him and how far they're going to have to go to do it.

This was a tremendous underdog performance by Dustin, as he'd been jumped by Cactus earlier, probably so he couldn't compete in this bout. This wasn't the Ricky Morton-style beating a lot of these matches turn into, though; Dustin got his share of offense in, mostly off of Barby's mistakes, then pulled a surprise pin out of his pocket when Barby missed a post shot. In the end, he may not have been Barby's physical match, but he was smarter, especially since Cactus wasn't at ringside, as JR and Larry pointed out. Barby really looked good here, almost like the World title contender he'd been the month before. He never looked this good as a single for Vince, though I must say he wasn't too bad a looking guy without the paint. The antlers did him no favors, though. Jake's been erased from the WCW memory bank, as JR simply refers to Dustin's "other opponent" for the bout. This means that Jake certainly wasn't gone for just any thirty-day rehab (if drugs were really his problem) and that Watts didn't want him back in any case. Barby-Vader would have been a hell of a semifinal, but Watts was never one to think outside the box like that. There is an odd tag team match promised for the following week, though: Sting and Nikita vs. Rude and Cactus. Talk about beauty and the beast! I've always liked Larry on commentary, and he was great here as well. He walks a fine line between putting Dustin over for his gutsiness and calling him a fool for taking such a brutal beating, and he does it well, without too much heeling. He's great at that sort of tweener role, kind of like Dutch Mantell, except that Dutch is (or soon will be) affiliated with the heel Stud Stable in SMW. You can tell which of the two semifinals is the bigger deal, as Sting-Rude gets the spot at the Clash. That's a good business decision, but I might have put both semis at the Clash in order to give the finals at Starrcade all the hype they deserved.

This was more of a showcase for Scorpio than anything else, and what a showcase it was. You'd have thought he was the main event star and Simmons was the midcarder. As Eagle said, the World title is pretty much beside the point where Simmons is concerned. This match isn't even the main event on the Clash card; Sting-Rude in the King of Cable semifinals is. JR and Jesse should have known Scorpio's name and used it throughout the match, even if Cappetta couldn't get it out during the intros. On the other hand, having no name certainly added to Scorpio's aura: someone who for all anyone knows is a random bum off the street came into the ring against three of the toughest heels in WCW and did stuff like that? He must be someone really special. I guess Jake would have been involved somehow if he hadn't left, probably as a cornerman. It almost seems like they were going for Simmons/Jake as the ultimate blowoff here, and that would have been something to see. This should have gotten more than eight minutes, given that the Clash is the next biggest thing to a pay-per-view and that this was supposed to be a major feud involving the World champion. The match was so short that JR barely had time to reference Simmons' football background, and Jesse didn't really have time to get any decent lines in, which is a real shame. It's almost like they already knew that Simmons was a dud as World champion and wanted to get the focus back on the man who should have been the top dog all along (Sting).

I can't believe that this was actually shown on TV in unedited form, and that it didn't cost Corny some stations that he could ill afford to lose. If I'd signed up to carry SMW, I know I would have thought long and hard before allowing it back on my station, and if I'd seen this prior to airing I might have yanked the show early and put on something else instead. There was no excuse not to cut this off before the parts that most of you thought were so great. If I'd been the promoter, I would have gone to commercial just before Dutch swore on the air and not shown the rest, then had Bullet Bob come out the next week and redo the announcement banning Sully. I would have saved the angle by admitting that there was more footage that simply couldn't be shown on the air, then described some of it. That's about as far as I would have gone. Maybe this would have been better if Lee hadn't bled quite so much. Whatever trick he used to bring that much blood, he way overdid it, and I would probably have fined him for it, especially if I lost stations and the money that went with them. The technical problems were a nice touch, as was Dutch coming down on Lee's side, agreeing with Sully's ban, and trying in vain to protect Caudle (who, by the way, was smart enough never to get near the actual action). He stayed in character enough not to get involved himself, which is something I would have liked to see, Shoo Baby and all. I liked Bob's sense of outrage, and the fact that he was moved to actually get up and try to help spoke volumes about how serious the situation was. I noticed the CPR and Lee moving, but it came across to me more like they were checking to make sure he was still breathing, not trying to help him breathe. One last nice touch: Although Sully's banned, his minions aren't, which ensures that the feud will continue, and so will Sully's paid commercials (which may be where the NWO got the idea from).

This seems more genuinely shoot-like than the Lawler-Snowman stuff, if you want the truth. Koko really seems like a guy who was just relaxing at home when he heard his employer being verbally assaulted and came down to try and do something about it, while Lawler seems disgusted by the fact that he's been booked to wrestle WWF opponents two weeks in a row, only for them to turn sissy and not show up. This is a really organic setup for an angle. Unfortunately, the presence of Sample and Prentice doesn't really help tell the story, even though I suppose they needed to have a way to keep the feud grounded in Memphis issues, since Vince wasn't flying down WWF wrestlers yet. I also didn't like the constant pull-aparts, especially with Eddie Marlin in the middle. Intentionally or not, they seem to be proving Koko's point that Lawler's not good enough to take on a WWF superstar and thus needs to be protected from them by anybody and everybody associated with the USWA. Could you imagine the good time Vince would have had with this if he'd chosen to do a footage exchange? Here's Memphis's so-called King, and he's so much of a wimp that he can't even stand up to the Birdman, sho (as great of a Superstar as he is) hasn't even contended seriously for a title since he's been here. I know I would have paid to see something like that on Prime Time. Unfortunately, Lawler wouldn't have been taken seriously enough after that to have his epic feud with Bret, so it's best that they didn't go that way. Does anyone know who Lawler was supposed to wrestle that never showed up (probably because the match was never booked in the first place)? As a Pittsburgher and Steeler fan, I loved Koko taking potshots at the Browns, although as much as Lawler himself loves them and the Indians, it's not really an effective heat-getting tool with the Memphis fans at large. Call Memphis's college football and basketball teams losers and you might have something.

Lawler was actually very understated here, especially compared to the goon he'd become later on. A Heenan-Lawler partnership with Hogan or Savage as the target a few years earlier might have been something to see. Unfortunately, we'll only get to see them interact on Prime Time, which will only be on the air three more weeks. I guess you could say that this was the last important thing to happen on the show, and it's not the worst way to go out, truth be told. I liked that Vince at least seemed to have a clue who Lawler was, unlike so many other times when new WWF "superstars" came in with no past whatsoever, even if they'd been with the WWF before. Hilbilly and Sarge pickin' and grinnin' I could have lived without. I realize that Sarge was destined to be a face no matter what since the Iraqi sympathizer run, but this is a little too far toward soft in the head territory for my tastes. Heenan's disgust at seeing this was gold. I noticed that Lawler used the same cape and crown that everyone who'd previously been the WWF's King had with the exception of Savage. Fortunately, they'd create a new outfit for him soon, as that particular ensemble was probably dry-cleaned and burned, as Gino had requested quite a few times over the years.

This would have meant a whole lot more to me if the WWF had actually recognized the Unified title as part of the angle and had Koko defending it, even against jobbers and other midcarders. But they didn't; not only that, but Samples and Prentice get more heat for interfering than Koko does for actually beating Lawler for the title. I know that the whole WWF working arrangement picks up steam in '93, and I'm looking forward to seeing it, but right now it doesn't mean a whole hell of a lot. It's interesting that Lawler doesn't out Vince as the head of the WWF right off the bat. He makes sure to say that Jack Tunney was the one who begged him to appear on Prime Time. I guess Vince wasn't too keen on the Memphis part of this angle to start and didn't want to get personally involved until he was sure that Lawler would get over in the WWF. I liked how Lawler justified being the jerk that he was on WWF TV to the USWA fanbase, and it's amazing that it worked for as long as it did. I wonder if they did any Raws in Memphis while Lawler was a big-time heel in the WWF, and how they explained (or failed to explain) the ovations he almost surely got if they did, If I'm not mistaken, Samples and Prentice are leftovers from Eddie Gilbert's failed Global invasion a while back. I guess they're sort of Memphis's designated outsiders, willing to sell their souls to any promotion that isn't the USWA. I got a kick out of Koko referring to Cory as "Cary". I also liked Dave's determination to keep the show going in the face of Lawler's benevolent sit-in. Did Koko, Samples, or Prentice show up that day? If they did, we don't have it here.

Lawler teaming with the Dogs isn't necessarily a bad idea in itself, but it could have waited a few months to let the feud die down a bit in the fans' minds. Lee and Lawler were also just a bit too chummy for my tastes, at least this soon. If the King trusts Lee and the Dogs as much as he appears to here and gets burned, he deserves it. I'm more intrigued by what we saw as we went to break. Was that Corey refereeing a women's boxing match? Does anyone know the story behind this?

What about kids that were the target age for Make-A-Wish, Johnny? Granted, some would have probably gotten a kick out of seeing that guys like the ones I mentioned weren't so bad after all, but I still think most of them would have rather seen guys they liked (assuming they weren't fans of the guys they saw, which is always possible).

I don't know if I'd be using guys like Yoko, Fuji, Flair, and Michaels as charity ambassadors if I were Vince. There were still too many fans who believed that heels were bad people and didn't really care about kids or anything else except themselves. This bothers me more than the idea of Vince doing damage control. Let's face it, considering what he and the WWF were going through right about now, they needed all the positive PR they could get, even if they had to make it for themselves. Staying in the wrestling bubble and pretending that their problems didn't exist would have been suicide. I'm not sure if I actually wanted to hear the Nasties sing or not. It all depends on what the Colonel taught them about music.

More of the same as the first video, only we get Tina Turner instead of Ray Charles, which, no disrespect to Tina, is a bit of a step downward. They're trying to tell us that Jarrett's the best in Memphis, but I'm not buying as long as Lawler is even peripherally involved. Sorry, Papa. One wacky thing I noticed: Most of Jeff's action footage in this video is from Dallas. They couldn't even bother to put in any footage from the MSC? Even if this video is old, that's still a crock. Take out the Dallas clips and put in some Memphis ones.

If this were a new guy coming into Memphis with a new gimmick, a video like this would be understandable. Corny as hell, but still understandable. But this is the same old Jeff Jarrett in a not-so-original package, and most of the footage isn't even related to Memphis, let alone wrestling. About the only good thing here is Ray Charles. Thanks, but I'll pass.

I decided to watch this in three parts, starting with the attack on Doug. It wasn't nearly as brutal as it probably should have been, and Lawler barely got a pop for making the save. This is proof positive that the fans simply don't care about the Dogs anymore, and why should they? It's been the same thing every week, and even the horrific becomes commonplace if you see it often enough. There aren't a whole lot of places for the Dogs to go, but they should be moved down the card and a new top heel (or heels) should be brought in to go after Lawler. Once and for all, Corey, if you don't like the way Lee and the Dogs handle their business, get into the ring and they to stop them yourself. See how far you get. Lance did a lot of the "Aw, come on, Jimmy/Billy/Dutch!" stuff too, but everyone knew he was in charge of the program and trying the best he could to keep order because it was his responsibility. All Corey's doing is polluting the ears of the audience, and although I know it'll never happen, I'd pay anything for Spotty or Spike to take their bone and bop Corey right on top of the head. It would serve him right. The Moondog Mountain promos are too confusing and loud to really do much for me. Lee's very good, but Spotty and Spike grunting and screaming in the background negates that. I did like hoe Lee constantly warned the Dogs to stay away from the barbed wire; if it's too dangerous for Lee to allow the Dogs to fool with it, imagine what it will do to relatively normal people like Eddie and Doug. Doug's nowhere near the promo hos brother is; in fact, I'd have rather heard a pretape from Eddie than what we got from Doug. Now I know why they put Lawler back in the feud; Doug needed a mouthpiece when Eddie was busy elsewhere. Lawler wraps all this up with a typically great prom where he promises to show the world that Lee's blood is yellow. I liked how he reminded the Dogs that he and his various partners have damaged them more than they'd damaged him, including running off Cujo and the Big Black Dog. Still, he's about ready for new challenges, both in Memphis and elsewhere. I can't wait to see the match between Eddie and the Funker. It's a shame that the USWA apparently did nothing with this despite the fact that this match supposedly served to determine Lawler's new number one contender, because Memphis could use some of Terry's craziness right about now.

I would have preferred a little more quiet intensity from Flair here, a little more sense of being hurt, of maybe even grieving just a bit. This comes off like Curt's just another opponent to be humbled, and that's wrong. Then again, Flair's not really capable of being the coolest cat in the room anymore, and hasn't been since his early days on TBS with Crockett. I liked Hall calling Okerlund "Gene Mean" like Sheik used to. Other than that, this was a typical Razor interview, and as I've said before, that's not a good mix with Flair. If there was someone in the group who was in the middle between Flair's craziness and Hall's deliberateness (for lack of a better word). this would all sound a lot better. I know I'm beating a dead horse, but since this is the last Survivor Series promo of the year, I'll say it for the last time: Vince, we know the show is called the Survivor Series. We knew it well enough to buy it. So there's no need to keep hammering us over the head with the word "survive" in every single ever-lovin' promo. Please, for the love of sanity, reflect on this and try not to do it next year.

This was a typical Flair title defense......for 1986. And that's certainly a compliment. It was as if Flair said, "Enough of this cartoon garbage. Now you're going to see how real World champions do it." It's a shame that he couldn't have had a match like this with Savage at least once, but Vince had so many storylines that he wanted to begin or continue at various points during that feud that it was impossible. Bret's a fresh opponent, and the title is the only issue at stake between them, so the way is clear for Flair to just go out there and wrestle the way he does best. Of course, he has to have a willing opponent, and Bret's certainly that. He does all the spots you expect from Ric's opponents, but unlike some guys, he looks natural doing them all, even with moves that he doesn't necessarily use on other opponents, like the sleeper. I don't understand why he didn't like working with Flair, because they honestly brought out the best in each other. Ric hasn't had a showcase match like this since he's been in the WWF, and while Bret's had better individual performances, it's hard to find an opponent that he's meshed quite so well with. Curt's close, but he hurt his back before they could really have the mutual classic that they deserved to have and we deserved to see. I particularly liked the limbwork, and kudos to Flair for allowing Bret to use the figure four before he did. I know he's done that with some other opponents too, but not in the WWF. He's finally starting to realize who he can really work with, even if it's a bit late in the game. Faced with a different style of match, Gino and Lord Alfred went back to their earlier, better days and called the match the way it needed to be called, putting over both the big picture and the small details. As just one example, I loved His Lordship talking about how the figure four can make the leg of the applier numb by cutting off the blood supply to his own leg. That's Gordon Solie-level analysis, and it's a shock to hear it from a man who's been pretty much a comedy figure for about the past five years or so. I thought he also did a tremendous job selling the work Bret did on Flair's arm, keeping it up for almost the entire match. You never hear that from a WWF announcer anymore. Never. As for Gino, aside from a lame joke about Mean Gene and Heenan running up bar tabs (which came early in the bout, before the action had really begun) and one or two other asides, he was all business here, and this was his best call since Jesse left. This is the type of call I would cite when asked to explain why Gino was my favorite announcer growing up, and it's a shame that he didn't have too many more like this one in him. Gino and His Lordship mentioned Bret's reigns as IC champ, but not as tag team champ. I'd like to think they were just putting him over as a single, but I'll bet it was more about purging Neidhart from our memories. His Lordship calls the referee Dave Hebner at one point. Did he just mix up his Hebners or did Dave fill in for another official who couldn't make the taping, for whatever reason? It's a shame this one was buried on Coliseum Video, regardless of the reason. It's the WWF's singles match of the year by far, and deserves to be hailed as a true classic. Congratulations to everyone involved!

Can they possibly come up with a gimmick match any stranger than this? I loved Doug and Lawler dunking the jobber, and the idea of the Dogs listening to opera music and living on a yacht is truly inspired, but how many times and in how many ways does Lawler (since this is still his feud, regardless of who his partners are) have to beat these guys before they go away? Shouldn't he be defending the Unified title? I don't have the faintest idea who he could wrestle, as long as it isn't a Moondog. I'm seriously wondering if most of the other guys in the promotion might have refused to work with the Dogs and/or Lee, for whatever reason. Dundee didn't get this many matches in a row with Lawler, and their feud practically defines modern Memphis wrestling. Same for Eddie, Dutch, Austin Idol, and a lot of other more memorable Lawler feud partners. Even Andy Kaufman took breaks occasionally. One good thing: Lee was actually understandable here, and when he is, he's very very good. He needs at least one other protégé in order to broaden his horizons a bit, though.

I must be having Moondog fatigue, because I didn't like the Lee promo at all. The one good part was when he brought up Eddie supposedly trying to kill him when they were boys together. That's a nice personal issue to hang a feud on, but it should have been brought up when Eddie first attacked them after they injured Doug, not now. The bit at the so-called mansion was so loud and had so many people talking (or in the Dogs' case, growling) at once that I had trouble making anything out. We like to think of the WWF and WCW cornering the market on absurd sketches, but this one's just as weird as anything they've put out all year. It looked like a log cabin version of demolition derby; how effective it was as a training film I can't even begin to guess. At least Todd Champion gets to say he was in there with the King for twenty minutes at the Mid-South Coliseum, if nothing else. I wasn't too impressed with what I saw, but you really can't tell anything from MSC matches because they're chopped into a thousand pieces. I thought Lawler kicking out of the chain shot was overkill, even for Memphis. There had to be another way to get to the finish; you're supposed to make fans suspend their disbelief, not dangle it out the window by his ankles. Under the circumstances, I can forgive seeing Jeff so active. He was pretty much Lawler's referee in all but name (just like Neighbors had been Champion's the week before), so it makes sense that he'd get active on the King's side, striped shirt or no striped shirt. It's good to see the King back on top of the singles ranks. Memphis feels like Memphis again!

This was a hell of a change of pace from the endless stream of Moondogs brawls we've been seeing lately. I've really become a Brian Christopher fan from seeing him on this Yearbook, and he delivered a wonderful overall performance here. He looked good in the ring against Davis, but the highlight was his mic and character work, From loudmouth bully to conniving cheat to whiny little weasel to defiant hothead, he did it all here in the space of a little over sixteen minutes. Davis was an excellent foil for him, and I wish we'd seen more of the leadup to this, especially how in the world Brian ended up with three different belts. I liked the touch of the fans coming up to break eleven of the twelve eggs, and Brian taunting them to take their best shot was great. I actually liked the defiance more than the typical cowardice he showed earlier in trying to get out of the stip. Suckering Davis into accepting the loser-leave-town-match was great icing on the cake. Brian's been raiding Dad's insult files, I see. Seriously, how in the world can anyone with two functioning ears not know exactly whose kid Brian is? The visual resemblance may take a while to figure out, and they don't wrestle alike at all, but if you closed your eyes, Brian could have been Lawler sometime in the early to mid-seventies. Corey and Champion did nothing for this segment. Champion didn't really sound interested in the bout since it didn't involve him, and basically stuck to insulting Davis and calling Brian a champion, which we already know he is. Corey's brutal as a host, and hearing him do Lance Russell makes me yearn for the real Lancer's return. I know it wasn't practical to do this, but they should have given the show the week off whenever Dave was on vacation and just run recaps. Champion did get off one good line: "I may just buy (Brian) a couple of belts because I'm a nice guy." One decent line doesn't make a segment, though.

The clipping hurt this match, because while what was here was good, it wasn't really great. My favorite part was the interaction between Scotty and Rude; it almost seemed like Watts was trying to figure out if Scotty could possibly be U.S. champion material, and while this match didn't settle that question; it sure whetted the appetite for the match should they have chosen to book it. I guess Heyman was out of the mix by now, since there's no mention of the Dangerous Alliance by Tony or Jesse at any point in the bout. (He wasn't gone for good, as someone wondered above, but his days as anything meaningful were over.) I liked Jesse putting over how popular Sting was, which is more than he ever did for Hogan even when the two of them were supposedly getting along well. I'm guessing that was at least partially because Jesse still had designs of working some kind of program with Hogan, even after he supposedly retired. (By program, I mean something that aired on TV; the two wrestled on quite a few house shows in the fall of '85, but never in an arena where the WWF taped for TV.) Jesse was a hoot ragging on Rick's headgear, which did look kind of goofy at that. I loved Rick mimicking Medusa's time out signal, as well as Scotty trying (but failing) to mimic Rude's hip swivels. Odd that Sting pinned Arn after simply ramming him face first into the canvas. I guess they didn't want Arn taking a submission loss due to the Scorpion Deathlock while they were still trying to push him and Bobby as top contenders for the world tag title. It seems like they're trying to revive the Sting-Rude issue, what with them being on a collision course in the King of Cable tournament. That's fine by me; their issue from '91 has never been properly settled in the first place. In another oddity, Doc and Gordy lost a non-title bout to the Steiners the week before (the one where they hurt Scotty's back), and are scheduled to defend the titles the following week on Worldwide, but no opponents are named. At first I thought they'd be showing the title change where Doc and Gordy lost to Barry and Dustin, but if that's the case, why imply that their match would be a part of the regular Worldwide show instead of saying that they'd be showing a match that originally aired on WCWSN? Is this an example of the syndicated shows and the cable shows not acknowledging each other if they can help it, or is there an MVC title defense that aired on Worldwide before the title switch was acknowledged on that show?

I admit that my first priority when I watched this match was to see how Bruno would do as a commentator in WCW. I'm fairly sure that he had no interest in a full-time role with any promotion by this time, but he was good enough to be a solid color guy, maybe a notch below Jesse, but a good fit with JR. He put over Dustin's work on Jake's arm beautifully, and he was the one who warned the audience that Jake was playing possum when he supposedly hurt his knee. I'm now more convinced than ever that Bruno was half-assing it or worse when he was with Vince and Jesse on Superstars, and probably before that on Championship as well, because he was so disgusted by the WWF product. Is that unprofessional? Yes, but given how he felt about steroids and how David's push (the reason he came back in the first place) was stop-and-start at best and almost entirely depended on his own willingness to get back in the ring, I can't entirely blame him. This match was set up terribly by JR. There was supposedly an issue between these two because of an incident at the Omni, but of course there was no footage to back this up, and this certainly wasn't wrestled like a grudge match at any point. Dustin's work on Jake's arm took up the first half, and Jake's work on Dustin's throat took up most of the second half until they were ready to go home. There wasn't much, if any, fire from either man over and above the usual, so why make a big deal about an incident 97% of the audience will never even see? I liked the finish a lot, with Jake jumping Dustin from behind, then putting the DDT on him. I also liked Dustin countering the DDT with a short clothesline, which was Jake's prelude to the DDT for years. The postmatch was great as well, with JR wanting to stay as far away from the snake (which should have had a name) as possible. Jake makes sure to promote Havoc before addressing the tag match and Barby's lack of a partner. I thought it was going to be Jake himself until I remembered that Tony Atlas came in around this time. Would this have been his debut? It certainly seems like they may have been setting up programs for Simmons with both Reed and Jake, not to mention Cactus. In fact, I'm wondering if Jake and Reed's departures might have played a role in WCW taking the belt off of Simmons, especially since the only other truly viable challenger available (Rude) also got hurt around this time. It certainly was better for business to run a Sting-Vader World title program than Simmons against........Arn? Pillman? Austin? By the way, the bag at ringside makes no sense if Jake isn't going to put the snake on his opponent after the match. If a cobra was legitimately too dangerous to do it with, they should have brought back the python. I've said it before: Watts was a bullheaded old fart who at times couldn't tell gold in his pocket when he had it. I disagree with most of you; Jake wouldn't have been very much in WCW even if he'd stayed. Watts would have needed to embrace the character which Jake had created for Vince in full instead of trying to turn him back into just another tough-guy wrestler like almost everyone else in WCW, and there was no chance of that, as both Watts and Jake have admitted.

The only reason these were six-mans seems to be so Lee could eat the pins and take a lot of the beatings. Pete's right; there's no real reason for Lawler to be involved anymore, at least not consistently. The thing is, who else makes sense as a third man for Eddie and Doug? This is the first time that the crowds are audibly lukewarm for a Moondogs brawl. There aren't a whole lot of other places for them to go, but there has to be someway for them to be pushed down the card a bit. Either that or, if they insist on keeping Lawler involved, send Spotty and Spike after the Unified title, each in his turn. Anything has to be fresher than the same brawls we've been having for almost a year by now.

Bret was very good here. He's not an elite talker like Flair is, but he's no slouch either. He's just different. I like the multiple feuds at once idea, which is a stark departure from the days of Hogan only feuding with one guy at a time so as not to confuse the poor little Hulksters. Maybe we're in for a slightly more mature WWF, though I'm not exactly holding my breath. I loved Bret using Flair's signature line back on him. Who else thinks that Flair didn't exactly care for that? I only had time for a quick look at Graham's site and couldn't find out, so maybe one of you will know: What's Joe the Interviewer's last name?