garretta
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I can't imagine even the worst heel in the WWF today telling the kids to forget about school. Whether that's part of the evolution of wrestling into something better or its slow but inevitable demise, I'll let the individual decide. Hall had a ton of guts wearing that shirt, and whoever picked it out had to be at least half blind. What was the fruit Hall used (to say he ate it would be inaccurate, of course) in this segment? It looked like a plum.
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This may have been Corny's first chance to cut a dead-serious promo ever, and I do mean ever. His character everywhere else he's been was supposed to be less than manly and less than sharp, easily fooled and physically taken advantage of. We'll see some of that in SMW as time goes on, but for now Corny is about as angry as he's ever been, and he doesn't mince words. The best part is, the crowd doesn't care; even if that brawl happened exactly the way he and the Bodies say it did, they want to see the Fultons put all three of them in the hospital, never to return. They cheer Dr. Tom's injured eye, and they'd probably throw a happy fit if Corny had a chair broken over his head or something similar. So we have an environment where the Bodies are openly saying that they'll try to hurt the Fultons and end their careers, which is rarer than one might think in wrestling. I just hope that the matches live up to the hype, because Corny's got the customers wanting serious carnage and plenty of it. Interesting that Lane not only never says a word, but never even appears on camera. Could it be that Corny, like a lot of people here on the board, thought that Stan's hairpiece looked so goofy that it would take away from the promo, and that if the piece didn't the headgear would? And if that's true, why did Stan insist on wearing the headgear in the first place? It sounds almost like he knew his career was winding down and he was thinking more about his life and image outside the ring than being taken seriously inside it. I liked that Dutch did this interview instead of Bob. As much as I like him, sometimes he )like every other babyface announcer) shakes his head or rolls his eyes in an effort to tell the viewers not to take the heel's bullshit seriously. We didn't need that here; Corny and Dr. Tom needed to draw every possible bit of heat from this situation and make sure that everyone in the building believed that the Fultons were in serious trouble. To that end, I could have done without Dr. Tom talking about commercials and record deals. There's certainly a time and a place to do that, but not in this particular promo. This has nothing to do with what we saw, but why isn't Dutch carrying Shoo Baby, or at least hanging it over the post, while he does Down and Dirty? It could be his answer to Ace Orton!
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Well, that takes care of Steamboat/Rude, doesn't it? I'm sure their match at Beach Blast will be tremendous, but I feel cheated already that it's not going to lead to anything. What happened to Steamer wanting the US title as a way to shut up Heyman and the DA? Why even have this feud instead of sending Rude after Sting and the World title? You're telling me that the best they could do instead for Beach Blast was Mick Foley? No offense to Mick, but his issue with Sting was settled months ago. At any rate, I liked Nikita explaining why he's proud to be from Lithuania, and him talking about how he came to realize that men and women are equals as human beings through his marriage. I also liked him returning Jesse's compliment concerning his hairstyle. Jesse's letting his humor show through without being aggressively heelish like he sometimes was in the WWF. The stuff I didn't like had to do with the meat of the angle. You're telling me that Heyman was so bent on recruiting Nikita for the DA that he waited a whole month to get his answer, and then sent Medusa out for it? Something was set up totally wrongly here. It seems like the DA is starting to fall through the cracks a bit, which doesn't surprise me if what I've heard about Watts and Ole not liking Paul is true. The Zbyszko breakup hasn't gone much of anywhere that we've seen, Arn's chasing Sting, and Bobby's gone AWOL. Rude and Austin are still front and center, but that's due to their own talent, not because of their ties to the DA. Also, why would Watts not want Steamer as his next US champ? Why Nikita? He's not that much bigger than Ricky now, and the "noble Russian fights for America" stuff reached its peak five years before. Maybe he doesn't want to push a guy who's so openly family-oriented as opposed to living and dying for the business, but if that's true, why keep him at all? Why not send him back to Vince on his knees? (Actually, Steamer might have been more of a fit in SMW by now if Corny had had the money to pay him, since they ran cards on a regional loop which was close to Ricky's home in Charlotte.) Finally, why did Medusa look so scared? I don't mean in the "big bad babyface is running me off" sense, either. She looked like she was having some sort of flashback or meltdown on camera. Maybe this was just the way she sold fright, but it was odd to say the least considering how brash she usually is. It's even odder that she didn't say a word the whole time. I hope there's some kind of storyline explanation for this in the coming weeks.
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I'm not sure I believe that this took place where they say it did. I don't mean to sound like one of those people who think that everything in wrestling at this time takes place within twenty miles of Stamford, but I think it fits here. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the "reservation" was a green screen. Think about it; why would this tribe accept a visit from someone who's not their own and than let him wander around the reservation half-naked, assuming they even know who he is or what he does? It doesn't sound very smart to me. I'm adopting a rule of thumb: If a guy's in his robe or gear, whatever "on location" interview he's doing is being shot in the studio at Titan Towers. If an audience is needed, it's either local schoolkids or paid extras. In case you're scoring at home, that means that the only vignettes from around this time I might agree were actually done on location are Hall's. I may be all wet, of course, but someone's going to have to prove that I am before I'll believe differently. As far as content goes, Tatanka did the best he could, but the issue between him and Martel wasn't exactly heated or destined to mean much in the long run. As a point of reference, at this point in the Jake feud give or take a few weeks, Jake was DDTing Brother Love and still had sunglasses and a cane. Of course, that was Jake, a proven moneymaker and ten times the performer Tatanka ever was or ever will be. Jake/Martel may have been the second most heated issue in the company in its time after Hogan/Sarge; this was just another midcard feud that no one cared about while it was going on, let alone today. On the off chance that this really was a location shoot, how typical of Vince to use a reservation on the Canadian border. Canadians have their natives too, but I'm sure they also have their own native heroes. They don't need ours to be forced down their throats, especially when the one in question hadn't really accomplished anything in the WWF (or anywhere else in wrestling) yet.
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I thought this was great. I loved watching these two just letting it all hang out for the camera to the point where Phil Rainey has to talk over them to wrap up the segment. Tony on Phil: "He's very rude!" It was also nice to see Tony without Ron Wright. As much as I love Ron, having to serve his overbearing character kind of limits Tony, who's quite a good talker on his own. Am I the only one who's lamenting the fact that we didn't get a long-term Landell/Anthony alliance out of this? Buddy's too self-centered to be put with Ron full time, but I could see these two as friends and occasional partners. For some reason, I'm not sold on the Anthony/Orndorff team they're trying to push now, as much as I like both guys. There are good individual lines here, but this one's mostly about the overall atmosphere. It's one of the top ten promos of the half-year, and has to be seen to be believed (that's a compliment in this case).
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This was okay until Paul said, "This is the best thing ever to happen to the Legion of Doom!" I could take the idea of Hawk and Animal having a doll to talk to, hard as it may be to believe, and even to find him among the ruins of their childhood home, but to act like finding him is going to revive their careers and to have Paul actually bring him to life through ventriloquism? That's taking an inoffensive idea a bit too far. If they wanted to do something with a mentor from the streets named Rocco, they could have found an old retired wrestler to do it: Ray Stevens, the Crusher, even Arnie Skaaland, since most of the fans in 1992 didn't know who he was. But Vince had to have his merchandising tie-ins, didn't he? This may not have totally ruined the LOD's careers, but what was left of their aura was gone. They were a step above the Bushwhackers on the seriousness scale, but they weren't to be taken on the same level as Money Inc. or the Natural Disasters. What a sad turn of events for one of the greatest teams of all time.
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This might have been the most offensive segment Memphis has done in a long, long time. From the racist crack about Lance "getting a tan" to Lawler's "kids" sounding like they're mentally slow to the passing of the hat, it all just plain reeked. Even the non-exploitative stuff was terrible. Note to Dennis: Jesse Ventura got away with referring to all the announcers as "Jack" (because they don't mean jack) back in his wrestling days. You, sir, are no Jesse Ventura. You're probably not even as good as Jesse's son Tyrell, who's not even a wrestler and has never cut a promo that I know of. If this kind of stuff is the best you can come up with, stick to promoting and leave the working to those who know how, or at least can learn better than you have. At the very least, don't kill your own angle by having one of the "kids" come out in a Mets shirt. Make it an Indians shirt, since that's Lawler's favorite team and the one he'd presumably raise his "sons" to follow. I wonder how the real Brian and Kevin felt about this angle. They may not have said anything, but they couldn't have been happy at being portrayed like this, particularly Brian, who was trying to make his way up the ladder as a performer. Remember, they may not have acknowledged him as Jerry's son on TV, but I'm guessing that most of the crowd knew it. It couldn't have made him feel good to be portrayed as physically weak and mentally retarded, and by a non-wrestler to boot. I liked Dave directly warning the studio audience not to give the "kids" money. It may or may not have done any good, but it's nice to see an announcer taking an active, non-physical interest in an angle without killing it.
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This is the same gimmick we saw Barry working in Dallas, but he's a lot less grating here than he was with Eddie Gilbert. I liked the part where Barry thought he had only twenty-five or twenty-six losses instead of forty-three. This could have had real potential if he had stayed in SMW. Down and Dirty was a favorite segment of mine on Will's set, and even though Memphis was a lot less structured on interviews than most promotions, I would have loved to see how a segment like this would have played in the USWA. Of course, that might have meant less mic time for Lawler, so it would have been a non-starter. Besides, Dutch was a face in Memphis, not the heel-leaning tweener he was here, so there would have been an entirely different dynamic in play.
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The promo wasn't much by itself, but the idea of Ronnie returning home to Knoxville most likely sold quite a few tickets. He looks really good here; not quite in the prime of his youth, but not forty-seven either. The George Foreman reference would have been more apt if Ronnie was challenging for a title, not just providing backup for Brian Lee in a tag match. I understand the point he was trying to make, though. I'm not sure I like the idea of Ronnie trying to make Orndorff, or all people, out to be some kind of punk rookie who's done nothing. He's headlined against Hogan and was actually supposed to be his promotion's number one heel, instead of being handed a title win over Flair because not even Dusty wanted to be the man to put him over on JCP's first pay-per-view. There are plenty of other things to get on Orndorff about other than his so-called "lack of experience". Nice to hear Ronnie use both of his famous nicknames here. I'm guessing he couldn't use "One Man Gang" for so long because of George Gray.
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We all knew he was coming, and now he's here. For however old he was, Jackie looked really good here. He wasn't quite Superman- he only stunned the Dogs with his board shots instead of knocking them cold- but nobody cared. Dave and Corey seemed particularly happy to see him; then again, he isn't refereeing a match of theirs Monday night! Lawler can talk all he wants about how he and Jeff just want a fair match, but the only reason Jackie's here is to kick some Moondog tail. It's just a question of how far one of them (most likely Lee) will push him before he snaps. Jackie's line about how if Lawler and Jeff get beat he'll just go play golf and forget about it is my new Line of the Month for June, and it's in the top three for the year so far. I find it amazing that Corey hadn't met Jackie before this show. Come to think of it, though, Michael St. John was in the co-host's chair the last time he got involved over a year before, and before that I want to say that the last time we saw him was when he refereed Lawler's AWA World title victory over Curt back in '88. Correct me if I'm wrong, please.
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Brian's a louder, slightly more crass version of his dad, and that's a good thing. I could imagine Jerry Lawler circa 1971 doing the bit with the homeless man if they'd thought of it. It took plenty of guts to push the son of the biggest babyface Memphis wrestling had ever had as a heel, yet Brian's made it work spectacularly so far. The best part is, he's not getting positive reactions whatever he does like his old man would. There's something inherent in the way he does his thing that makes it impossible for anyone to like him, even if they know he's the King's son. Even Dave wants to smack him right in the snoot. It's amazing that Brian hasn't called the old man out yet, even in passing. I wonder how Jerry felt about possibly wrestling Brian with Kevin as the referee. I know he and Brian wrestled each other eventually, but did Kevin ever ref one of their matches?
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This was about the only way you could possibly build up a challenger that no one in Memphis had ever heard of. Coraluzzo's still green as a pea on the mic, but he does well enough, although the jokes about the smell of Memphis got old while Andy Kaufman was in his prime on Taxi. Doggendorf's just another musclehead the likes of which are tailor-made to go one-and-done with Lawler when he has nothing else going on in a given week. I did like Coraluzzo's rationale for why Kamala left, although like the "smell of Memphis" jokes, the stuff about the WWF having inferior competition is so old its beard is dragging along on the floor. The child support stuff hits a bit too close to home considering what we know now about Lawler's sexual habits, and "Lawler killed Kaufman" is the third tired old Memphis talking point contained in this interview that can go to the scrap heap at its earliest convenience. Fargo's return next week (which I saw in the match listings) is ten thousand times more appealing to me than this. Interesting that the heels were pulling Doggendorf off of Lawler, particularly Lee. I guess you could say that Lee doesn't want anyone else hurting Lawler but the Moondogs if you wanted to give an explanation, which Dave and Corey didn't. Nice to see Brian inadvertently saving dear old Dad as well. One rather inane question from an eternal mark: How does Coraluzzo expect Lawler to pay child support if Doggendorf cripples him?
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They were still working out the kinks in Shawn's character a bit, but I thought he handled himself well. Vince must have really seen something in him to push him into an IC title program so relatively soon after his turn. I guess that's what happens when your most logical feud partner (in Shawn's case, Jannetty) snorts way his opportunity to feud with you. It's also possible that Vince liked what he saw in terms of chemistry between Bret and Shawn during the series between the Harts and the Rockers back in 1990. I agree that Sherri was a bit too much in the background here, but Shawn had to learn how to handle himself on the stick, and besides, she's still every bit the screaming banshee she's always been at ringside, so she'll do all right. I think it would have been hilarious if a plant had actually jumped the barrier and tried to get at Shawn, only to be manhandled by Sherri. I get why they didn't do that, though; they didn't want fans to try to do it for real.
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It's strange that they're in essence paying tribute to one of the top heels in Memphis wrestling history after Lawler has (presumably) run him out of town. This would have been more effective the previous week as a means to hype what could have been Eddie's final match. That said, the footage was a treat to see, especially for the appearances of people like Lance Russell and Jimmy Hart, who symbolize Memphis wrestling each in their own way as much as Lawler does. It was nice to see Missy too, in what I consider her best run ever. Where did Eddie go next? I see by the match listings that he's back in the USWA by the end of the year fighting the Moondogs, of all people. It's too early for ECW, and we know he didn't show up in Smoky Mountain or either of the Big Two. I'm guessing he went to the indies for a while, since the GWF was probably still mad at him for taking their belt to Memphis without permission.
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Randy does a very honest interview here, but this is what happens when the main reason for an angle or feud leaves a promotion. As I've said in other threads, the WWF title, while not exactly meaningless, was never the point of the Savage/Flair program; Flair's pursuit of Liz was. Now that she's gone, the feud hangs on Savage pulling the tights to win at Mania, which he did because he wanted to avenge his woman and take the belt away from the man who caused her so much heartache. Of course, that's officially out of bounds since Liz isn't here anymore, so now Savage did it simply because he was trying to be as dirty as Flair. Not exactly the most noble of sentiments, is it? Vince was lucky that he had the guy to pull something like that off; you could buy Randy feeling the need to break the rules before Flair could, regardless of circumstances. But a tights pull, while certainly an act that a wrestler desperate to win a feud could and has engaged in, is a flimsy thing to base that feud on, which is why we got Warrior/Savage at SummerSlam instead of the blowoff this feud deserved. I liked Gene's shocked tone of voice when he asked if Randy would actually (gasp) BREAK THE RULES to keep the title. No one can go back and forth between seasoned wrestling journalist and seemingly naïve "voice of the fan" as effortlessly as he can, and that's one of the many things today's WWE product presentation is sorely lacking.
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At least Lawler was open about wanting to steal the Sting gimmick and why, the better to avoid possible lawsuits from Turner Broadcasting. The problem was, this guy was just as big a nothing after he got his face painted as he was beforehand. I'd neither seen nor heard about this guy before, which proves that you need more than a certain look to be successful in the wrestling business. Whatever it was that Lawler thought Oates already had, it didn't come across on screen, paint or no paint. I disagree with TG about the USWA wanting to bury Sting. If anything, this was a sort of tribute to a man who got his start in Memphis and was now one of the top two or three wrestlers in the world. Hell, maybe they thought that Sting would show up at the WMC studios someday and give his official stamp of approval to Oates.
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Lawler's clearly had enough of Eddie and it shows here. There's not even a pretense of respecting him or anyone associated with him or the GWF. It's gotten so bad that a portion of the studio audience has actually started cheering for Eddie, which may not have been the intended effect, but Lawler clearly doesn't care about that either. At least we get to see the finish of the match from the previous Monday night at the MSC, which is a lot cleaner than I would have guessed it would be. My guess is that Eddie's latest run in Memphis is just about over. At least Lawler isn't forced to pay lip service to the idea of going to the GWF to defend the title; he flat-out states that anyone from the GWF interested in taking the title has to come to Memphis to do it. Of course, that's a cover for the fact that the GWF had nothing to do with the title change and refused to recognize it.
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My guess is that the GWF told Eddie to quit representing himself as their champion without their permission, so this was the USWA's way of ending the angle. I liked this a lot better when Eddie was calm at the beginning, talking about his dream of being Southern champion. Once his sunglasses came off, this promo lost something. It didn't go completely off the rails by any means, but Eddie's a better talker when he's talking from the heart and telling his real-life story. Going after Lawler for believing he's the King (who do you think called him the King first anyway, Eddie? Lance Russell?) makes no sense in this context. Neither does having Bert Prentice wasting the first few seconds of interview rime, even if he is supposed to be a GWF official. Speaking of Prentice, why in the world did he call Corey "Corey Maclin Ali"? At least that's what it sounded like to me.
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This was very strangely wrestled by both teams. I'm not sure Doc knew that they were running out of time, or if he did he didn't care. I've never seen a wrestler go to a reverse chinlock and a front facelock when a match was in countdown mode before. The Steiners weren't much smarter; Rick took some nice punishment, but he made no effort to tag Scotty until it was too late in the bout to properly set up the Frankensteiner, which should have caused a 2.9 count interrupted by the bell. It just seemed that everyone was a step slow here, and I hope there are better matches between the two teams coming down the road. My comments are solely based on the clip from the Yearbook, not the full match as is the case with some others in this thread.
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The Stinger was great here; I loved how he painted himself as Goliath going into the Vader match instead of David almost solely based on the fans and their reaction to him. Sting seems to be a favorite of Jesse's to the extent that there is such a thing; I would have thought he'd dismiss Sting as a pretty boy and a facepainted freak, especially compared to real men like Rude and Vader. They're promoting Vader exactly how I feared they would. "Feels no pain"? After the Steiners and Sting himself threw him around like he weighed two hundred pounds during his last swing through WCW? Sorry, but I don't buy it, and Sting isn't going to look like much of a champion if he can't manhandle Vader at will during their upcoming feud (though I suppose they'll use the rib injury as an excuse for why Vader will look like an unstoppable monster). This already knocks down the feud a few pegs in my eyes before they even step in the ring for the first time, and I'm wishing that they'd decided to resurrect the Sting/Rude feud instead.
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I'm surprised they're pushing this as hard as they are when Sting/Vader is where they've placed their bets. Maybe they didn't know how Vader would get over and needed a backup plan in case he fizzed at the gate. At least Arn was a known name who they knew could give Sting a run for his money until they could set up another challenger for him. There's still a slight hint of animosity between Arn and Dusty, as Arn accuses Dusty of trying to get inside his head. It's subtle stuff, but a nice nod to history nonetheless.
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I liked Medusa much better than Missy, and it's not even close. She has a better look, is one hell of a promo (especially when deftly bringing the double entendres right up to the line without crossing it), and her affiliation with the DA gives her a lot more purpose than Missy, who sort of floats in and out of what we see on the Yearbook but has no clearly defined role (I know she's a co-host of Main Event, but when's the last time we had a match from that show on the set?). At any rate, Medusa comes off in this segment as a woman, while Missy looks and sounds like a little girl. The high point for Missy's character was when she played the feminist to Paul's male chauvinist so surprisingly well early in '91. Then she became a stalker in the locker room, and it's all been downhill since. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: One of the biggest mistakes WCW made in the pre-NWO years was keeping and pushing Missy over Nancy Sullivan. Bitch of the segment goes to JR for doing everything he can to minimize, trivialize, and otherwise ruin Heyman's appearance on this show. Is there anyone who this guy can work with anymore? You'd think he would have been grateful to actually have a wrestling professional as his co-host for once instead of the Ill-informed and uncaring pseudo-celebrities he's been stuck with recently, but no. If this is a character choice he made or someone made for him, it's a lousy one. If it isn't, he's behaving more and more like an unprofessional prick and needs to be disciplined before he gets too much further out of control. By contrast, Paul appears to be having the time of his life, and he's not letting JR's sour faces and hand signals bother him one bit. I love how he just laughed as Medusa was cutting Missy down; he probably wished he'd thought of some of her putdowns when he needed them last year. The "blowing.......hot air" line is another top five candidate for Line of the Year so far.
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This may have been Rude's best promo ever, although I didn't care for the digs at Bonnie and Richie considering where the feud has been. The line about not having been to bed for sleep since 1972 is one of the top five lines of the year so far. I was focused on Rude, so I didn't see Medusa blush. Considering who her character is, it had to be accidental. As for the Bruise Cruise, it probably would have cost a ton of money for Turner to cancel it just to appease Watts, whose dedication to kayfabe was already far too much for the day and age he found himself in. The Cowboy may not have liked the idea, but he probably had no choice but to lump it.
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I think I've seen almost all the WarGames that have made tape, and this had to be the most violent. Austin, Arn, Barry, and Dustin were all unrecognizable at the end due to blood, and Bobby almost had his arm ripped out by Sting. While none of the individual performances matched Pillman's tour de force from last year, this was probably a better overall match. It's hard to remember all the great spots, but I liked the double crab on Steamboat, which I don't think I've ever seen before; Arn with his head between the rings; Medusa climbing the cage and actually accomplishing her mission (throwing Paul's phone into Arn) before being chased down by Sting; Arn clobbering everything that moved with said phone; the endless personal war between Steamboat and Rude, which had to be the longest one-on-one battle in the hstory of WarGames; any spot involving the cage roof, which was far too low to be safe yet managed to play a big part in the bout because the wrestlers figured out how to use it for good-looking and effective stuff; and, of, course, the ending. Whoever thought of using a broken turnbuckle as the main part of the finish deserves a raise. The spot looked good, and once everyone figured put what the DA was doing, we were left to wonder just who would use it and how. Larry was the perfect patsy, and Bobby the perfect victim. Rude's arms are too heavily muscled for hitting them to really hurt them, even with an iron hook, while Arn's too tough to be a quitter and Austin had already been beaten almost to death. The other interesting thing is that the DA went after Larry for hitting Bobby rather than Bobby for surrendering. I might have turned Bobby back face, since he comes across as not too evil a guy and he'd already been effective in the role just a few months before, plus he could have been a good challenger for Rude. Larry's just too sleazy and scummy to be an effective face, or even a tweener. Having said that, if they were going to get the most mileage out of a Larry turn, this was when they should have done it. Have the DA beat Larry up and leave him laying when they had the most weapons on hand to hurt him. The problem was, with the NWA tag tournament on the horizon and Rude busy with Steamer, there was no one from the DA for Larry to wrestle if they'd turned him here, and by the time he could have started the feud in earnest, Watts had totally marginalized Heyman and the DA was just about dead as a group. As I said in an earlier thread, though, I don't think Larry could have gotten too far up the ladder, certainly not to Rude and maybe not even to Austin, who was really starting to come into his own. Nice tease of a possible turn by Nikita, but I'm glad it didn't happen. Even if it had, it wouldn't have led to much, because Sting was already headed for what turned out to be one of his most legendary feuds, with Vader. The commentary was pretty much straightforward; Jesse always put away his heel persona for the big events and called them 99.44% straight; the only exception here was his ripping of Barry for using the cast on his hand, and that died down when JR reminded him that there was no DQ in WarGames. In fact, JR gets the award for the worst line of the night by far: When Jesse compares Paul to Vince Lombardi and Mike Ditka, JR fires back by comparing him to Jim Jones, which is just plain wrong. I get the idea of Paul being a "cult leader" of sorts, but thousands of people actually died at Jonestown. Surely there was a bad football coach somewhere in JR's past that he could have referenced to make his point, like Oklahoma legend Bud Wilkinson when he coached the St. Louis Cardinals. I saw Medusa taping Bobby's hand just before he entered the ring for the sixth period. Was that the DA's response to Barry having his hand taped, or did that have something to do with Bobby's legit injury which he wrestled this match with? I forgot about Jesse saying that Steamer would need to call all his girlfriends in Jacksonville to help him once this bout was over. It was a typical Jesse line, but I again blame Dusty for even starting the Steamer-Rude feud down this path in the first place. This is my WCW Match of the Year so far, but Flair's once-in-a-lifetime performance in the Rumble still keeps that match number one overall as we head into June.
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Nice buildup here for the NWA tag tournament. I wonder how they chose which member of each team was going to speak. Some of them were obvious (Arn), but why Rude over Austin and Dustin over Barry? Paul's promo is unique because it welcomes the idea of the two DA teams facing each other. Most of the time when members of a heel stable could possibly face off, the manager involved hints that one team or wrestler will "take a dive" for the other. Bobby Heenan in particular was a master at this. Unfortunately, this type of confrontation never happened that I can remember, at least not in the Big Two. Nice to see Lance again. He'd be out of WCW not long after this, first making an appearance or two in SMW and then heading back to Memphis, where even with Dave's greatness he's still missed terribly. Watts not wanting the NWA connection for WCW explains why it wasn't made a big deal out of except as a way to make Doc and Bamm Bamm double champions. I wonder how the NWA brass felt about the Cowboy using their belts to give his protégé a monster push and then discarding them.