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First fall: ​There's not much wrestling from the heels, as Kim Song is your typical chop/nervehold Oriental. I wasn't able to get a good grasp of who he was, but he looks kind of like a smaller version of Killer Khan. He spends most of his time trying to find out the difference between judo chops (which are legal) and karate chops (which aren't). Meanwhile, Buddy gets fooled badly to end the fall, as he's got Hack in a front facelock near his and Matt's corner. Hack makes a blind tag to Matt, who comes off the top rope with a sunset flip to score the pin and give the faces a one fall to none lead approximately eleven minutes (disc time) into the match. Frank brings up an interesting trivia fact between falls: Buddy's teams have now lost three consecutive falls at the House of Action. Oliver lost two straight just forty-eight hours before, which has led to him taking a temporary leave of absence from the Arny. As of this match, he and Wiskowski are the only two guys who have left the Army on good terms (that is, without turning face and trying to beat the hell out of Buddy). An interesting sidelight to this match is that Regal, Matt's regular tag team partner, is facing Stan Stasiak later in the show. Stan had to have been close to retirement, because it sounds like Don's trying to get him one last shot at the NWA World title. The belt was held at this time by Dusty Rhodes, which finally answers my earlier question of whether Portland recognized Dusty's '81 reign or not. (According to Wrestlingdata, Don's plan didn't work; Dusty spent almost all of his time in Mid-Atlantic, Florida, and Georgia as champ, with a side trip or two to Central States.) Matt and Hack are the more coordinated team, which makes sense when Song has supposedly never even wrestled in Portland before. The singles feud between Matt and Buddy is in full bloom here, as they'll meet in a singles match the following Tuesday. Nice to see Luke Brown refereeing this match. Maybe Sandy got as many TV matches as he did because they wanted to plug his flea market as one of the places where fans could get tickets. I wonder what the news about Piper was that was only preliminary. It's amazing to me that he was so popular in Portland despite only being in the business for less than ten years and in Portland for somewhere around two. After watching almost this entire set, I'll have to admit that I was wrong; I'd thought it took a while for him to become a legend, but he was to Portland what Bruno was to the Northeast almost from the time he turned face. No other wrestler's guest appearances have been hyped as much as his, including Flair, Harley, and Andre. ​Second fall: ​Hack's the FIP for most of this fall, and takes quite a veering. Song shows that he has some wrestling skill as well as his martial arts knowledge; he works on Hack's arm a bit, and delivers a picture-perfect double underhook suplex (referred to by Frank as a belly-to belly suplex). Matt keeps trying to get in and stop the beating, but only distracts Luke. Finally he gets the hot tag, but soon things break down, and it's bonzo gonzo. Matt gets Buddy up for the airplane spin, but leaves his forehead wide open for Song to plant a headbutt on. Matt falls backwards, and Buddy lands on top of him and scores the three count which evens the match at a fall apiece with about five minutes of disc time remaining. The heels keep up their attack after the fall for a brief moment or two, but Buddy eventually calls Song off. Frank uses Song's "inexperience" to teach potential new viewers about the rules concerning what happens at the start of each fall in multi-fall matches. The conceit is that Song doesn't understand why Buddy has to start each fall and make contact. For his part, Buddy makes a big deal out of only lightly touching his opponent, then tagging Song right away, although that's mostly because he doesn't want to be in the ring with either Matt or Hack. Another Frankism, from the first fall: "Suplex" for a Russian legsweep. From almost any other announcer, this would sound like total ignorance. With Frank, you give him the benefit of the doubt that maybe he heard it called a suplex at some point. Why? Because he's so damn likable and draws you into the story of the match like few others in the business did even in 1981. At one point, Frank says that Song delivered a karate chop "right in front of the camera". Maybe he was supposed ​to, but the camera somehow managed not to catch all of it. That's one of Portland's major problems: spotty camerawork from veterans who should know better after almost fifteen years of covering wrestling. Speaking of errors, someone should tape the phone number of the Sports Arena to Frank's mirror so he can look at it while he's shaving in the morning. This is the second time on the set when he's been unsure of it. Apparently Tough Tony's still wrestling, even though the last time we saw him Buddy was beating him soundly. I wonder when his last match was. Third fall: ​The heels continue to beat on Matt for a while, but eventually he gets loose and tags Hack. After a few minutes, though, Hack's in big trouble and ends up down. Song then comes off the second rope with what Frank calls a judo chop to the throat, and that's enough to get the pin, as the Army takes the match two falls to one. After the match, the attack continues, as Buddy comes off the top rope on the back of Matt's neck, the better to weaken him for Tuesday's singles match. Meanwhile, Hack's flopping around and holding his throat, presumably because Song's chop hit him there. Buddy finishes the attack by hitting Matt in the head with a chair. My descriptions of action are usually purposefully vague, but sometimes there just isn't enough memorable action; the only thing I make it a point to remember is the actual move that got the three count in each fall. If you're reading this, you're either watching the matches or thinking about doing so, and each match is really best left up to individual viewing. I'm writing my impressions, but you'll undoubtedly have your own. I don't know of too many Orientals who also have the hard head gimmick like Song. Maybe Fuji with his banzai headbutts, but he still feels buckle shots with his head, which is the main way you can tell if a wrestler's "hard-headed" or not. Song doesn't, for the record. Frank finally got the phone number straight: it's 289-4222. I know the Sports Arena's a church building now, but I wonder if Sandy's family still runs their flea market. For one of the few times in televised wrestling history, a chairshot is no-sold by an announcer. It's not intentional, though; just as Matt got hit, a numbskull out of the crowd decided to challenge Buddy, forcing Frank to repeat for what must have seemed like the ten thousandth time that a ticket doesn't entitle a spectator to get physically involved in a wrestling match. I've heard plenty about the rabid crowds down South, but they didn't make a habit of disturbing the TV tapings the way certain knuckleheads in Portland did. That had to have driven Don absolutely mad, not just for injury reasons but for the possibility that a well-meaning beanbrain could ruin an angle that had taken months to build correctly. Maybe a couple of weeks of empty arena tapings would have cooled down the hotheads, although Don would have had to make sure that he could have withstood the temporary financial loss.

First fall: ​Rocky and Iceman are the Northwest tag team champions when this match takes place, but they're not introduced as such because this is a non-title bout. (Iceman's just referred to as "King" here, but I'll call him Iceman because that's how he's best known.) Rocky dazzles with fancy footwork and quick moves early, but Buddy and Matt ground him by working over his knee. After a while, this is too much for Iceman to take, and on at least two different occasions he comes in to protest to Sandy, which naturally leaves the door wide open for Buddy and Matt to doubleteam. After Iceman's last distraction, Buddy whacks Rocky's leg off the post, then Matt applies the spinning toehold. With a fall to give, Rocky submits, and the heels lead one fall to none approximately ten minutes of disc time into the match. Iceman hasn't legally been in the match yet, and his distractions have cost his team a fall. He must have been green as a forest here. I would guess that he's not able to do a lot, since Rocky's been in all the way so far. He's definitely got a lot more hair than when we saw him in Dallas. I liked the spot early where they teased dissension between Buddy and Matt, but didn't follow through. Especially with reluctant partners, promoters tend to tease dissension to the point where when it actually happens, fans are turned off or bored by it. I kind of like the idea of Matt making the best of a bad situation (he had to join the Army as a result of losing a match to Buddy, if you remember from the extras) by becoming the best scumbag heel he can possibly be, I hope we hear more about Regal's shoulder injury. I seem to remember seeing an injury angle involving him in the extras, but it's been so long since I've seen it that I don't know if it's this one or not. (Incidentally, I liked Frank's quip about "Back Home in Indiana" being a good song title.) I guess Oliver hasn't joined the Army quite yet, because he's not referenced by Frank. Where did he wrestle before Portland, if anyone knows? I seem to recall Masters from the extras as the guy who bragged that his full nelson was so hard to break that Buddy had to use a crowbar to do it. How good of a worker was he outside of that? He must not have been much, since none of his matches made the set. Second fall: ​Rocky tags Iceman in fairly quickly, and contrary to what I said above, Ice looks good in what little we see of him. Late in the fall, the heels get him in trouble, but he manages to tag Rocky, who floors Buddy with a dropkick. Matt gets him down and tries to bang his leg off the post again, but Rocky reaches down and drives Matt's head into the post instead. He then catches Buddy with a beautiful sunset flip. Sandy counts three, and we're even at a fall apiece with about eight minutes of disc time remaining. For the record, one of the ropes breaks again. This time, though, it's the faces who use the broken rope as a weapon, as Rocky gets in a good shot or two on Buddy before the workmen can come in to do repairs. This fall sees Frank as close to displeasure with Buddy as he's gotten so far. It's a pretty impressive rant by his standards, focusing on Buddy always using other Army members to do his fighting for him, either through individual challenges or tag matches. He never once calls Buddy a name or expresses an opinion in so many words, but you can tell he's pretty worked up. He hasn't really gotten angry (or even perturbed) in almost ninety matches so far, which is what made his attitude stand out here. We get another spot where one of the Army accidentally hits the other, this time with Buddy slugging Matt. Considering the circumstances under which they're together, they probably worked that spot at least once a match every time they teamed. Eight minutes is a bit long for a third fall in Portland, so I'd wager that we either have a brawl or an interview coming up. Third fall: ​Iceman shows off a little more of his skill in this fall, including the butt butt (rather primly called a "posterior bump" by Frank), but ends up the FIP briefly. He gets over to Rocky eventually, though, and it all breaks loose. Rocky eventually gets the sleeper on Buddy, but Masters interferes to cause the DQ and award Rocky and Iceman the match. We end up with a wild six-man brawl, as Hack Sawyer comes out to even the sides. At one point, Rocky reapplies the sleeper on Buddy while Hack puts it on Matt, and both heels are almost put out before order is finally restored. We get a third straight miscommunication spot early in this fall, and Frank takes the opportunity to warn us that Buddy won't tolerate many more mistakes of that kind from Matt or any other member of the Army. Frank then goes on to add with just a hunt of anger, "And then he (Matt) blames (Steve) Regal for the mistakes that cost them matches." Nice to see you fired up, Frank! I liked the explanation Frank gave at the beginning of the fall of just how serious Regal's shoulder injury was. In the rush to hype the next big angle or card, most promotions don't often (now or then) take the time to explain competitor's injuries (real or kayfabed) to the audience. Maybe if they did it more often, people would respect wrestlers and the chances they take with their bodies, even if they don't think a lot of the sport itself. Masters must have lost that loser leave town match to Rocky, because Oliver appears on this disc, and he seems like a perfect replacement, if in fact he is ​one.

For the third match in a row, joshi delivered for me. Mayumi and Dynamite's attack before the bell set the stage, putting the challengers even further into the underdog role, which gave the match an excitement that most of the other joshi matches I've seen lacked. The drama was off the charts, with the champions looking to defeat Toyota and Yamada once and for all, end their challenge, and take the belts back to JWP for good, and the challengers fighting and scratching against almost prohibitive odds to bring their belts back home where they belonged. Mayumi's a better person than I am to take both Yamada's giant swing and Toyota's rolling cradle in the same match. She probably should have sold dizziness more than she did, but I don't know of any other wrestlers who sell those moves for long either. Dynamite was kind of beaten down to size a bit here. She's a bit like Vader; if she's not an immovable, unstoppable monster, she loses some of her aura. I thought she had the ability to be a real force of nature like Aja and Bull were in their primes, but she won't be seen that way if she's shown to be normal too often. This is another application of the McMahon/Roussimoff Principle: No wrestler of a certain height and/or weight should sell in the way a normal wrestler would. Otherwise, they're not big and imposing; they're just fat. There were a lot of nearfalls, but the story being told meant that they added to the drama on both sides. The champions seemed especially desperate toward the end, as nothing they tried could put Toyota and Yamada away for good. The celebration at the end was smaller in scale than some others I've seen in joshi, but no less heartfelt. The amazing part is, Toyota and Yamada would be on opposite sides in the Tag League final just four days later, and they didn't exactly take it easy on each other during that match. Joshi's made up a lot of the ground it's lost with me over the year in these past three matches. Maybe the matches are better, or maybe I'm starting to gain more insight into the psychology of the style. Whichever the case, I'm waiting to see if the uphill climb continues during the '94 set.

I have no idea what I just saw. I didn't even know that the Gilberts had ever wrestled for Baba at all, let alone often enough to have any kind of loyalty to him. Also, why was Doug doing the talking intead of Eddie, and why were they speaking in English instead of Japanese? It's almost like they were talking to American promoters, but who had they worked for recently in the States except for Papa/Lawler and Paul Heyman? Or maybe they were just plain drunk. Any way you slice it, this little stunt did them no favors whatsoever. Did anyone notice that the promotion actually showed Eddie and Doug extending their middle fingers to the camera at the end of the segment? For anyone who might know, does the extended middle finger mean the same thing in Japan as it does here in the States? I have a hard time believing that they'd knowingly show two wrestlers telling the promotion to go fuck itself.

If what Pete says is true about this all starting with Owen-Lawler at Survivor Series Showdown (and I don't doubt it), it may have actually helped the Bret-Owen feud that that particular match never aired. Vince obviously wanted everyone to be on Bret's side, so for Owen to be so clearly in the right, even at the very beginning of the feud, wouldn't have helped matters at all. I thought this may have been Gino's best performance on ​Update. ​He needed to hold Owen's feet to the fire a little in order to bring out his (Owen's) whiny side, but he didn't hog the whole thing or badger Owen to the point where the viewers might have taken his side before Bret ever had a chance to defend himself. I thought Owen was very good too; we all know he has gripes now, some of which may be legitimate. Now it's time for Bret to defend himself, then see how Owen reacts to that defense, This turn is being very slowly and subtly laid out, at least by Vince's standards; maybe that's why this is one of the last pre-Attitude Era feuds that actually resonated with the fans on any sort of level. With the USWA and the WWF still (ostensibly) working together, I'm sure Dave would have given any WWF Women's Championship tournament that may have taken place in Memphis at least a little bit of hype, even if Lawler had to be taken off the card due to his legal troubles. In other words, I'm betting that this tournament (except for the final, which we saw) was a fake.

"Thank God For Kids" wasnl't the best choice for a music video, I'll grant you that. But as long as Lawler owned part of the promotion and wasn't going to do what may have been the smart thing and lay low for a couple of weeks, they handled this about as well as they possibly could. They needed to show the good old Kingfish being warm and unthreatening, and that's what they did here. Sure they had to lay it on thick, but I'm sure the accusers were hardly being subtle either, so from Lawler's perspective, it was almost a case of fighting fire with fire, so to speak. I'd also like to know the final resolution to this case. WMC must have been satisfied that Lawler was ultimately innocent, or else they'd have told the USWA to hit the bricks and taken their chances in court if need be. This piece certainly wasn't the time for it, but I wonder if by the end of the year we'll start hearing interviews from Lawler about how the WWF prejudged him and kicked him off of their TV and pay-per-views. I haven't seen any of this material at all yet, so I don't know how he actually ended up handling that small part of the situation once the heat was off of him. On a lighter note, ​Reggie B. Fine ​as a jobber? He could barely manage the last time we saw him, let alone wrestle.

Shawn did his best to make this feud his own, but I just can't buy it. As I said in an earlier thread, they'd have been better off claiming that Lawler ran scared and having the Knights wrestle Bret, Owen, and either Bruce or Keith by themselves. Even Shawn basically saying that if Stu and Helen had been his parents, he'd have kiled them long ago wasn't enough to get much of a reaction from me. Sorry, Vince, but your Plan B just isn't going to work. Ray looked more than a bit uncomfortable here, and he really shouldn't have; he'd been around wrestlers enough times while hosting Feud​ and at other WWF events (he was also a guest at Mania VIII, if you remember) that he should have known how they conducted business on camera. If he was trying to "sell" fear, he did a lousy job of that too. I can't help but think how much fun Richard Dawson would have had with a match like this; then again, he'd have probably outtalked all four of the Harts in spite of himself. I didn't notice that Stu was wearing a Pistons jacket; back then, they were a heated rival of the Celtics, so it made sense for him to ditch it fast in favor of a Bruins jacket. At least he could have worn a Flames jacket originally and claimed hometown pride.

Other than the first seeds of the Bret-Owen feud being planted (and quite cleverly, I might add), this was an embarrassment. I'm not sure what Vince should have done once he gave Lawler the boot, but Shawn trying to steal from Lawler's already older-than-dirt jokebook isn't something I wanted to see at all, and all of the heat for the whole thing is gone, since no one in the Hart family has believably screwed Shawn or taken anything from him. Maybe I would have just had the Knights (Barry Horowitz, Jeff Gaylord, and Greg Valentine, in case you didn't know) unmask and wrestle as themselves against Bret, Owen, and Bruce. That way you could still have the Bret-Owen tension and give the three guys who did absolutely nothing suspicious a payday while not appearing to condone what Lawler was accused of doing. Bruce Prichard's a million times better as Brother Love than he was as Reo Rogers. After seeing this, I refuse to believe that Vince didn't resent Dusty for whatever reason. Akeem was bad enough, but at least George Gray didn't try to copy Dusty's accents and verbal tics. Between the lisp and the high pitch, I could barely even understand Prichard; if I hadn't caught a spare "baybuh" or two, I would have wondered just who the hell this twerp was and how Shawn had gotten hooked up with him. Line of the Segment: Shawn, after seeing the "Home is where the (heart) is" embroidery on the wall: "I certainly hope so."

Or maybe Corny realized that he wouldn't have any jobbers left if the Dogs kept trying to kill them. Honestly, Corny's the star of this, as he usually is. I love heels who deliberately defy authority, and this is a prime example. The idea is more that the Dogs would dare to show up after being ordered not to than the damage that they actually inflict, which isn't very much. Without Bullet Bob at the helm, there's no one with any authority who's willing to come out and put a stop to this, and the rent-a-wrestler "security force" (who look like just two more poor stupid jobbers to me) are damn poor substitutes. Where was Sandy Scott, who's acted as authority in the past when Bullet Bob was otherwise engaged? Even if he couldn't have physically stopped the Dogs, he surely could have threatened fines and suspensions to them and to Corny if they didn't leave. The best we get is Bob Caudle, and forgive me, but he sounded pathetic here. The best he could offer in terms of indignation is "We have rules ​here, Jim!" Of course we do, and he's just stated he's going to break them, so what good does your weak-voiced (literally; he sounded like he had a cold) protest do? They may have been going for shocked disbelief, and when Bob Caudle is your voice of authority as an organization, all is just about lost anyway. Dutch was no help, not that anyone expected him to be, and he was right: If those two punks we saw at first are SMW's idea of security, it is ​a great big joke. As for Rock 'n' Roll, here's a tip, guys: When you're brawling with the Moondogs, whatever you do, don't hit Larry Latham (Spotty) in the stomach. If you do, don't blame him for not selling what he can't feel. I'm way overweight myself, but when you're so fat that you can believably no-sell a shot to the midsection with a stop sign, God's trying to tell you something. The rest of this wasn't terrible, but it wasn't anything earth-shattering either. As some others have said. the Dogs did this better and more heatedly in Memphis, mostly because 1) Jeff and Lawler were more willing to bump and bleed and 2) the Dogs were the main issue, not a couple of mercenaries brought in to protect someone else (in this case, the Bodies). That's ​the matchup the fans still want to see, no matter how many jobbers the Dogs almost kill with their trash cans and stop signs.

Double J is much more interesting than this. Seriously, Papa's been trying to shove this kind of video down our collective throats for the entire decade of the nineties so far, and not one of them has made Jeff any more popular. He is now what he was almost four years ago: a solid right-hand man for Lawler when Dundee's out of town, a good to very good worker who can put on terrific matches with the right opponent, but by no means the next king of Memphis, even with Lawler in legal trouble and closer to relinquishing his crown than he ever would be again. Judging by the December match listings, it appears that Papa finally got a clue and allowed Jeff to not only turn on Lawler in Memphis, but challenge him for the Unified title in full Double J gimmick. I'm loooking forward to not only seeing the match, but finding out how they set up the tum, since at this point there's not even a hint of it to be seen (unless you count the slightly harder than normal pushing of Jeff as "fabulous", which is probably more about the history of that gimmick and Jackie Fargo than anything to do with Jeff).

I'm not sure about promo of the decade, but this blows Hawk and Neidhart's crapfest out of the water for sure. The thing is, we veterans of watching wrestling have seen Terry go off before, but ECW fans hadn't yet. He'd played the almost-humble babyface throughout the Gilbert feud, mixed in with a taste of his comedic side. He'd only recently turned on JT Smith, which was his first overtly heelish act in ECW. So this promo almost certainly had extra impact on those ECW fans who weren't familiar with psycho Funk yet. Even if they knew that he'd piledriven Flair on a table and tried to smother him with a plastic bag, at least Flair was a wrestler, not an innocent broadcaster like Joey. Speaking of whom, even if he knew that Terry wouldn't deliberately hurt him, he had to worry that Terry would get so into what he was saying that he'd forget to take it easy with the string. I know one thing: I wouldn't have been in his (Joey's) shoes for all the money that Heyman could forget to pay me! I'm honestly not sure which match I want to see next in this feud. Maybe Terry could get Sabu, Bundy, Hawk, Neidhart, and Heyman all in the ring at once and have done with it.

Pete's right about the third guy. He's the only one I'd even think about asking to try out. The first guy (the one in the Bears T-shirtt) looked like he weighed about a hundred and twenty pounds soaking wet. Where did he get the strength to push a car? Someone should compile all of these clips from the set and send them to Corny. I'd love to hear him riff on some of these goofs, and on WCW for giving them national TV time.

So let me get this straight: the endgame for this is supposed to be Hawk and Neidhart against Terry Funk and King Kong Bundy? Talk about a match that was most likely pulled out of Heyman's ass! I never even knew Bundy was in ECW. The "one such as I could never have an enemy" line made the segment, but didn't really fit it. The rest of this was typical gaga; I'm sure Terry's promo will be more logical, even if he's supposed to be nuttier than a Snickers bar. I thought ECW was past the point of its life where they were bringing in random former WWF and WCW/JCP stars in order to pop a house, but I guess not. That said, I wish the upcoming match had made the set just for the sheer randomness of it.

This segment would have turned tragic in a hurry if Brian had dropped Kim on her head. I know that he probably wasn't used to dealing with wriggling females, but at least he could have set Kim down on her tailbone instead. Tammy was tremendous here. Other than Corny, she's the best mouthpiece in wrestling today, although the field isn't exactly large. I wonder if the word "slut" got by some of the local SMW affiliates, considering that just a few short months ago Tracy couldn't call Tammy a bitch (the phrase "witch with a capital B" still makes my skin crawl). I guess the build can begin now for Kim-Tammy. We all know it's going to happen in some form, so let's hope Kim's learned to work well enough not to get Tammy hurt; I doubt Tammy's going to be doing much of anything except trying to run away.

This really wasn't a match, but they don't make angles too much hotter than this anywhere. Everyone was tremendous, both inside the ring and out. Something tells me that if Kim hadn't been scheduled to come down, Tracy would have swallowed his pride and helped Tony, at least to clear Brian and Tammy out of the ring. They wouldn't have shaken hands or anything, but he'd have at least done that much. That said, it was better for the storyline that he didn't. His ambivalence sounded genuine, and who could blame him, since everyone in the angle but Kim had tried to cripple him at some point (and you can bet she would have if she'd been around)? If I remember Will's SMW set correctly, Kim became the main presence in Tony's corner for a time, at least through the end of the year. Ron came back in early '94 to do an angle with Corny where they got in the ring a few times, and Ron looked good for his age. Could he have needed surgery for real around this time, which would explain why Kim returned? I noticed that Dutch went along with Tracy when Tracy called Tammy "Tammy Witch". Even though it wouldn't become a major part of the angle, I got the feeling that Dutch disapproved of what Brian and Tammy did to Ron, and thus wasn't as friendly toward them as he was toward the other heels. If that's true, it's a nice change of pace from the Big Two, where if you're a commentator you're automatically supposed to support everyone else who's on your side of the fence no matter what. Dutch is the right guy to pull it off too, since he's always been portrayed as an independent thinker in SMW in spite of generally leaning heel. The only thing wrong with Tammy is that her voice has a hard time cutting through a booing crowd, which isn't her fault. I'd suggest that Brian take the mic first when she's going to talk and tell the crowd to shut up, but that would only make it worse. She'll be fine as long as she keeps swinging that purse and spraying innocent referees in the face.

Thanks for the info, Pete!

​​The pinfall that wasn't was actually the least confusing thing about all of this. First of all, what were Dustin and Uncle Fred doing out there? You see, there's this group called the Horsemen, and they're buddies of Flair's. When he's in trouble, they ​should be bailing him out. As I said in an earlier thread, I'm honestly not sure if the Horsemen were a unit by now, because Arn and Roma had nothing to do with the Rude feud whatsoever, and they're nowhere near this feud either. Even if Dusty didn't think Roma was worthy of being in the same group with Flair, how does that explain the absence of Flair's on- ​and ​offscreen best friend Arn? I understand why Flair wants to team with Sid (to get up Fuller's nose), but why not at least put Arn in the corner to offset Fuller and Race? (If the stabbing's already happened, use Roma.) Not only that, the postmatch was complete chaos, and not the good kind either. Were they that short on time that Fuller and Flair had to talk over each other? I had no idea what anybody ​was going on about, and neither did Tony, because he made it seem at first like Fuller was issuing an entirely different challenge to Flair rather than accepting the one Flair was laying out at the exact same moment​. Fuller knew enough about the business not to do this of his own accord, so I'm guessing people were giving the wrapup sign all over the place. If that's the case, I'm sure there were a few minutes that they could have cut somewhere else so that the show's main angle could proceed with a minimum of confusion. I liked Jesse siding with Flair here, although technically he ​wasn't ​robbed, since Pee Wee's hand motions were never meant to be construed as a pin count. The superplex spot looked great, but the powerslam was more Vader careening off of Flair's outstretched hands like a pinball (which isn't a bad athletic feat in itself, come to think of it). We also saw Flair hitting his stuff off the top again, which he'll have to do in future matches if he hopes to beat Vader. He looks more comfortable up there than I've ever seen him before, which he should considering all the practice he's been getting lately. Mean Gene didn't miss a beat; he looked like he's always belonged in WCW right off the bat. It's a shame that they had to start involving him in angles and such, as that really killed his overall reputation. I wonder if Bischoff already knew he was going after Hogan and thought that signing his old friend would help entice him to come on board. (Gene probably would have ended up in Atlanta regardless, since they didn't really have an interview specialist unless you count Bischoff, who had more important things to do.) Jesse really seems like he's been having a ball lately, to the point where Tony's even commenting on it. You'd better enjoy yourself while you can, Bod; you've only got about two more months before that no-good weasel Heenan steals your job!

They could have had something not too embarrassing if they'd stuck to Medusa defending the new era of women's wrestling against Sherri and the rest of the old guard, but this disintegrated into a verbal catfight (and not a very good one) in short order. I think Sherri mentioned her relationship with the Hammer to establish herself as the heel, but if that was the case she missed badly, because Medusa no-sold it completely. Honestly, I lost hope for this when Medusa said, "If you (Sherri) can challenge your offer, I'll hand you the mic". I'll send a million dollars in Monopoly money to the first poor sucker who can tell me what that was supposed to mean. Sherri had obviously been drinking, but what the hell was Medusa's excuse? She'd been around top promo guys like Rude, Arn, and even Heyman, so she should have been able to master the basics of what a promo was supposed to sound like. I think they were also trying to establish that Sherri was running from Medusa, which caused her to leave both the AWA and the WWF, but that was another thing that was hopelessly garbled in the mess we saw. The Japanese stuff at the end felt like it was tacked on just to keep the tape going, and the personal insults (what we could hear of them, at least) aren't worth wasting my time on. I don't know whose idea taping promos in a format like this was, but they should have been fired, whoever they were. If this was an example of how these two would have worked together, it's a blessing that this match never happened.

I liked Bret's promo; yes, Family Feud ​was dragged in by the feet kicking and screaming, but better that than constant references to survival like we've had every other year since 1987. I liked the photos we saw of the Hart family in happier times, which showed how close they are as opposed to Lawler and his Knights, three of whom we don't even know at this time. (I know that this was impossible for various reasons, but in a perfect world the Knights would have been Dundee, Dutch, and Austin Idol.) Corny never really got going, but that's not his fault. Neither is the fact that the WWF put this match on in a market that had never seen SMW before and didn't know the full history between Rock 'n' Roll and the Bodies. If I'd been Vince, I might have worked out a traditional Survivor Series match for SMW and hyped the wrestlers through videotape from SMW TV. How about the Bodies, Brian Lee and Chris Candido (with Tammy and Corny) against Rock 'n' Roll, Tony Anthony and Bobby Blaze (with Ron and Kim)? Can you imagine Ron Wright on WWF TV? Talk about a Twilight Zone ​moment! I thought I heard somewhere that Pierre got busted for steroids around this time, which might explain why Crush had to be subbed in for him. Why Crush? Probably because he was managed by Fuji. That's really all the connection that was necessary for a match like this. Does anyone know the story of the dissension on the Nash/Adam Bomb/Rotundo/Martel team? I know they turned Bomb face not too long after this. Todd was all right here. He's not Okerlund by a longshot, but he did his job effectively enough. Talking about how Thanksgiving Eve is the biggest travel day of the year accidentally spotlighted what a bad idea holding a pay-per-view on that evening was. Why would you schedule a pay-per-view on a night where a good portion of your audience was unlikely to be at home, or worse yet in a home that couldn't or wouldn't order a pay-per-view? That may have been one of the reasons why the WWF moved almost all of their pay-per-views to Sunday nights over the next couple of years.

Tony put his name in there, of course. It's all a plot to ruin Brian and Tammy and put them out of wrestling! Thanks for the info, Magnum!

Three years before, this would have been an epic. Now, it's a match which leads to nothing (although no one could have known that at the time) in front of a dead crowd whch felt disjointed somehow. This pairing had a good match in it somewhere, but this match wasn't it. Sid never truly looked like the monster he should have, even though he got a few power spots in. I hated the selling that Pete thought was so cool; a man who claims to be a monster who rules the world should laugh at those chops, not sell them like Ricky Steamboat. Also, he shouldn't be in a position where a man who almost never hits a move off the top connects three times. When was the last time Flair even went up top three times, let alone hit anything that often? Jesse had Fifi pegged right; if she's going to be at ringside, she better learn to do something besides look good. This is the problem that some people had with Liz; managers/valets shouldn't just be fans with a better seat. They should at least be a slight threat to get physically involved or at least distract their man's opponent enough to turn the tide of a match. Fifi doesn't even do loving concern like Liz did so well; she just stands there and smiles blankly, not even at ​anything. Besides, Arn and/or Roma should be Flair's second, assuming that the Horsemen are still a group (which I'm honestly not sure about at this point). Speaking of the Horsemen, there was no mention of Sid and Flair's past history as partners in the group, which would have made for an interesting footnote if nothing else. The finish stank, but how else were they going to set up Sid's turn? I liked how Jesse instinctively takes Fuller's side, and the Stud absorbs Sid's chokeslam like a champ. That chokeslam might have been Sid's best-looking move all night long, to be honest. Tony and Jesse were both in pretty good moods here, which helped this match remain watchable. Tony can play straight man to Jesse as well as anyone when the mood strikes him, and it did here. The only false note was when he chided Jesse for telling the director to keep a closeup of Fifi on the screen. Other than that, these two realy seemed to be having fun. Here's my favorite exchange. It comes right after Sid has risked a disqualification by choking Flair: Tony: If Sid gets disqualified, who will get the shot at Vader at the Clash? Jesse: You! Tony (laughing): Yeah, right. No thanks! It doesn't read like much, but after so many months of more than occasionally sounding like they're going to come to blows on the air, it's nice to hear them having fun with each other for a change. I also liked Tony saying that the Awesome Kongs (Jesse's new favorite tag team since the Blonds have broken up) could outeat him at lunch. That last one needs to be heard to be appreciated. If Sid had gone on to a long reign as WCW World champ after eventually dethroning Vader, this match would be a lot more fondly remembered As it is, it's disappointing and a waste of time, at least as far as the title picture goes. Maybe I would have appreciated it more if it was just another upper midcard match without Sid's turn stuck on the end of it

Bumping this to the top to get it out of my way.

This was the weakest of all the Tammy's Tips ​segments, but after what happened with Ron last week I don't think these are cute anymore. Tammy's moved up to the next level of heel, and should be doing more serious stuff related to actual angles. These have served their purpose and generated some nice laughs, but it's time to move on for all concerned. One thing that was still amusing was Margie's deadpan stare. No wonder Tammy appeared to get the giggles; she could have told Margie to wash her face, run for President or jump out the window and Margie's expression would have never changed. I would rate these above the Andy Kaufman and Boy Tony stuff from Memphis, mostly because Tammy knew enough to play it straight instead of sneering her way through the whole thing. She also worked well with Margie, while Kaufman and Falk were by themselves and treated their segments as just another kind of promo.

I'm still not ready to say that I enjoy heel Lawler as much as I do face Lawler, but he's been a lot better than I thought he'd be in his WWF promo work so far. I'd rate it far above the suff he did in 1990 Memphis, that's for sure. I take it that whoeverr Doink was by now, it wasn't Matt Borne, and that's too bad. Once he left, I remember Doink as more of a clown who was a wrestler than as a wrestler who happened to dress like a clown. The difference between the two is night and day. I'm guessing that Bret asked for some time off after Survivor Series, which is why he wasn't on this card. I'm a bit surprised that he'd skip MSG, of all places, but that's mostly because Vince is promoting this as a supercard. If he was still running MSG monthly, wrestlers missing months here and there wouldn't be a big deal. This match never took place due to Lawler's legal problems; Shawn Michaels substituted and beat Doink by pinfall. Here's the full result from Graham's site: Shawn Michaels pinned Doink the Clown with the superkick at 8:18 after Doink became distracted by Bam Bam Bigelow at ringside; Michaels came out in possession of his own WWF IC Title belt, with him then telling ring announcer Howard Finkel that he should be referred to as champion but that this is a non-title bout; late in the bout, Luna Vachon came ringside, with Doink kissing her leading to Bigelow coming out; after the bout, Bigelow & Luna double teamed Doink for several minutes; moments later, Bigelow went to hit the headbutt off the top only for Doink to trip Luna and Bigelow hit Luna with the headbutt instead; Doink then returned to the ring and doused her with a pail of water to revive her, with Bigelow then tripping over himself to try to get at Doink as Doink left ringside ​Four ​main events on a seven-match card? I understand an occasional double main event, but when over half of your matches are main events, that means that none of them really are.

Corny and Lawler may be the two best people at explaining match stipulations ever in the history of the business. The sad thing is, few other people even try to do it, and that's not a modern thing or an old-school thing. Even master talkers from days gone by like Dusty and Flair were more interested in their own personal spiels than in explaining the kinds of matches they were going to be wrestling in. (The flip side of that is that there werem't a whole lot of intricate stipulation matches in the seventies and eighties, particularly for Flair as NWA World champion.) I don't think for a second that Corny was intending to sound racist, especially against two white bikers. It's just that racist language and the language of class warfare are almost identical. That doesn't make it any less insulting in either circumstance. It might make for better viewing if Dr. Tom and Jigolo Jimmy did ​just stand there motionless and let Corny carry segments like this entirely on his own. Speaking for myself, I wasn't paying a bit of attention to what they were doing with each other; all of my attention was on what Corny was saying.