PeteF3
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A really fun, realistic-looking brawl with a cheap finish. Kerry is tossed out of the ring and hits Percy Pringle, and Pringle is upset about Kerry tearing his jacket. That distraction allows Borne to roll Kerry up rather weakly for the 3-count. This was good, but the cool presence of all the officials sort of unfairly had me expecting something a little more epic in scope.
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I praised Tatum for his shamelessness earlier but I think his problem as a worker is going too far in that direction. You can criticize Lawler for relying too much on stalling and cheating and foreign objects but he comes across like Vader by comparison to Tatum. It works even less when in with a guy like Dundee. Still a good finish that's finally a turning point in this storyline as Tessa turns on Tatum and crotches him on the top rope, leading to a Dundee win.
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They work a whole match without any major cuts on the wire at all, as the mere threat of the wire is enough to get heat and draw people in. Awesome finish as Chris fights from getting dropped onto the wire and pulls out a crucifix for the victory. He pays for it afterward, as Austin decks Adams with brass knucks and then brutalizes him with a chair and a really well-done beatdown.
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Great to see Cornette & Paul E. still selling their feud, instead of being all buddy-buddy just because they're both heels now. -
Super-hot start with a motherfucking plancha from Choshu! Mutoh tries to slow things down by taking out Choshu's legs and gets some very close near-falls, but Choshu eventually takes over and is able to lariat Mutoh down. Mutoh was back to working as the plucky young underdog after a year of working as a monster heel and he didn't seem to lose a beat.
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Yeah, Luger was fucked by management here, not Flair per se. They decided that Sting was going to get the belt that he would have won in February and that he would get it from Flair. Lex just a placeholder feud because, as Meltzer put it in reporting on the Sting injury, the next-highest singles babyface after Sting was Norman the Lunatic. Knowing the condition of Lex's knee now, his performance here is probably one of his best. I really don't think you'd know the knee injury was legit judging from what Luger does--whether or not that's a good thing I'll leave up to others. But all of his moves still have snap and the cage allows them to do some high-impact, heat-getting stuff that just involves heads into the cage rather than big bumps. Pivotal moment where Lex fucks up the knee on a superplex and Flair has him almost beat with the figure four, and then we go off the rails. First the Horsemen come down, then Sting, then El Gigante--with what I believe was no hype or announcement whatsoever other than what we saw from Connie Chung. The knee shit is all blown to hell as Luger goes nuts again on offense. RoboCop is nowhere to be seen. Then the cage raises and we get the mother of all bullshit finishes. The post-match is great stuff, with a long beatdown as Sting and Gigante are helpless outside the cage, and a fantastic crazy bug-eyed Flair promo.
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I will not have you two defaming the NAIA AND JUCO ALL-AMERICAN Butch Reed. I mean, hyping Pillman as a "wedgebuster" or Simmons, who at least was a legit elite college player, is one thing, but...I think I made this point elsewhere about Tracey Smothers. Telling that Ross spends five minutes blithering about football and collegiate wrestling before getting around to mention what degree the Steiners majored in. There was a bit of meandering to this but Scott was a bit better than I thought in the Ricky Morton role, and some of the clotheslines were fantastic. Scott busts out one of the earliest t-bone suplexes on record. A double-team on Rick nets the tag titles for Doom and that boxing loss and headshaving are a million miles away from Theodore Long.
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So Jumbo vs Tenryu from 1989 would count because it was in the "territory days"? Really? Was the criteria really too complicated? Most of the complete matches available from the '70s are from the WWWF, the Japan promotions, and Great Britain because that's mostly who kept the footage or even had long arena footage to start with. The Mid-Atlantic "garbage" tapes are all fascinating even though very little is complete.
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The S&M toys are barely used and this isn't much of a match despite the best efforts of Ricky and Robert.
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Cornette's revelation had me laughing to the point where I missed JYD saying "I'm yo' daddy." Cornette's attempted subterfuge afterward is almost as good. Priceless segment. An in-shape JYD would have had a lot to offer to any promotion. Caudle and Schiavone seemed like they were legitimately cracking up.
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Gordon called some goofy shit in Florida but this might top it. He sells it as best he can, though. Cappetta's ridiculous over-the-top editorializing in his intro of Sting might actually top THAT. This...goes about as well as it possibly could have, to be honest. It definitely had a "Let's get this shit over with" feel to it which I'm just fine with.
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Ross' fat jokes about Cornette are getting tiresome, not to mention a bit hypocritical. What would Ross do if WCW had ever signed Ronnie P. Gossett? Disappointing match in most aspects. There have been good, heated matches where Cornette was similarly incapacitated, but Pillman and Zenk are no Rock 'n Roll Express or Fantastics. Eaton is fantastic here, Lane and Pillman pretty good, and Zeaman is awful. Each babyface gets to kick out a heel finisher, I guess as a bone for doing a clean job, but it sort of makes Zenk going down to an enzuigiri & small package all the weirder. The storyline of the match pointed to Pillman doing the job. Edit: Ross & Caudle don't pick up on it but the replay shows Lane loading the boot before the enzuigiri, which is a nice touch.
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I think it's pretty hilarious that Sid, of all people, is the only one of the Horsemen to be wearing a tux. It appears that Woman is already being phased out, as she wasn't a part of the final pre-show promo or this one.
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Jeannie threatens to come out with a tell-all book about her marriage to Chris Adams that will be better than what's in the National Enquirer. She then cuts a really great promo on the wives of the World Class viewing audience, saying that when they're snuggled up in bed that they're actually thinking about her.
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We get a recap of the match from 5/18 that we apparently missed out on--Dundee's boot had gotten removed and Tessa tossed it into the ring. Dundee caught it and hit Tatum with it for the pin--so whom did Tessa throw the boot to? Tatum declares that it was a mistake anybody could have made and coerces Tessa into declaring her love for Tatum. Dundee isn't interested in fighting and gives up his interview time to Tatum, only to get leveled from behind and posted, all while Tatum dares Tessa to take Dundee now.
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Weird segment with Gary Young more or less outing himself as the culprit who apparently destroyed a surprise party set-up for Kerry Von Erich. This looks like a babyface turn for Terrence Garvin when suddenly he hands Young his $1000 payoff and Young jumps KVE, and both heels take off. Fun little swerve even if this feud set-up doesn't make a great deal of sense. A Von Erich *would* be taken in by a trick like that.
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Borne's sort of all over the place to start, but once he talks about the lumberjack match he gets on track in a hurry--Kerry is built for show, not for go. Pringle does not seem overly interested in making nice with Borne at this point.
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Yeah, Kerry is almost Hogan-esque in his complaining about how everyone is against him. Pringle comes off as incredibly reasonable in his defense of his viewpoint. On the other hand, even if it was unintentional it's a nice way of building to a turn without giving it away. "Matt Borne either leaves...or he stays." How Zen. "But if he stays, he'll be injured." Like the similarly coherent Jimmy Snuka, Kerry does have an undeniable presence on the stick even when he isn't making sense. I don't see how it's possible that the Texas-raised Kerry and Oregon-raised Borne could have been longtime friends, but Kerry does sound sincere.
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Even more egregious is Lex talking about how there's always been interference in their past matches, but now a CAGE is involved. How does Capital Combat end again?
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THE NEW FAMILY ENTERTAINMENT. Ted Turner is the "owner of the NWA." I can see a few prominent wrestling authorities' heads exploding as we speak. $33 million in revenues the first year! Higher ratings than the baseball and basketball teams! Well, considering how awful the Braves and Hawks had been I'll buy the second one. (And of course Georgia was a ratings powerhouse and more or less kept the burgeoning SuperStation afloat during the rocky first few years). WCW's shameless attempts to pander to kids in this segment are pretty galling. Appealing to kids is fine and desirable, but I think even the modern PG-rated WWE is less up-front about it. Jim Nelson gets about 3 seconds of lip service and then disappears. Connie levels us with the revelation that "million dollar salaries and championship titles" are decided more by public appeal than athletic ability. Jim Herd confirms this by saying he won't put a popular wrestler in with someone who can tear him apart. Christ, breaking kayfabe outright probably would have come across better than that. Sting's knee injury resulted in millions in lost revenues for WCW, but nothing to fear--George Gonzalez is waiting in the wings.
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I have no idea what that "I'd just as soon be the loser" line was about, either.
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It's way down on the list of things to talk about in this angle, but since it's the last thing we hear...along with seeing the "serious" side of Bobby the Brain we finally get to see the serious side of Lawler as a heel. The one-liners are funny but it's nice to see Lawler actually putting over his opponent and claiming to be the superior wrestler and not just better because his opponent is a talentless idiot. Now, P.T. Anderson coined the term "gearshift movies" for movies that start in one direction and suddenly stop on a dime and veer into another territory--this is a gearshift angle and it's something I always mark out for*. Lawler is out giving a good but standard promo about Kerry Von Erich when the Snowman and Eddie Marlin are suddenly out arguing over what Snowman declares is a fear on the part of Memphis wrestling of having a "black King," while he also takes shots at Lawler for his comments about black people on welfare and his other snide comments. Marlin says that's bullshit and invokes the names of Brickhouse Brown and others who have been in the territory, all of whom are dismissed by Snowman. Lawler points out that King Cobra beat him for the title, but Snowman says that doesn't matter because the belt is back with Lawler. Eventually security gets Snowman out after a series of false starts and a promise to get a ticket for the Mid-South Coliseum, then Lawler continues the weirdness by VERY sternly addressing a heckler. Lawler briefly continues to defend the promotion's stance on black wrestlers after Snowman leaves, pointing out the large black population in Memphis and how much money could be made with a black World Champion, then veers back towards Kerry Von Erich. And this is probably the best, most well-executed "shoot angle" in wrestling history. Even the CM Punk pipe bomb from the summer of '11 looked planned and organized compared to this: - Dave's understated, "We're doing an interview here" to start with. No McMahon-esque "WAIT A MINUTE, WHAT'S THIS?!" - There are a bunch of unusual, little-used camera angles that really add to the feeling of chaos surrounding this. Cameras in the ring showing the interview set, some jump-cuts as Snowman is doubling back around the ring, etc. Like a live breaking news report--this actually feels more out-of-control than Lawler destroying the set on Chris Champion. - Eddie Marlin is FANTASTIC here. Everyone plays their roles great but I actually thought Marlin was the star of this segment. - True "shades of gray," in a good way and not a Russo way. It's three guys all with a specific point of view trying to get it across and all of whom actually have valid points. Snowman is correct that racism is a problem for black wrestlers, and Marlin has a point that Memphis has pushed black wrestlers who've earned it, which Snowman hasn't done. - Snowman looks like a guy who's both legitimately unhinged and would fuck up Lawler, Brown, Marlin, and security singlehandedly. If there's one weakness to this segment it's the idea of him being successfully escorted out by anyone. - The thing that makes great shoot angles like the Punk promo and this work: kayfabe is never broken once. It's all about title shots and winning championships, something that race can and does play a role in even in a legitimate sport. Not a single "insider" term is ever used by anyone. - To the best of my knowledge, the story that Lawler tells of Snowman going to the local black paper the Tri-State Defender and black radio stations REALLY WAS a shoot, and Lawler & co. decided to bring in Snowman for the angle so as not to alienate their black fanbase (which was sizable as any look at the studio crowd will tell you). That type of authenticity can't be matched or scripted. In that sense this is almost a NJPW/UWF or Choshu's Army storyline based on real-life conflicts. Easily the angle of the year to this point. Absolutely out-of-the-box booking that had never been attempted anywhere and may not have really been attempted since. Race angles had been done but always in an over-the-top, Col. DeBeers or "throwing buckets of paint" type of way, even when the Gangstas were doing this shtick in SMW. This truly felt authentic. Maybe not any less exploitative than those angles, but it was still something that genuinely stirred emotions in people in a real way. *Of course I can only think of two real "gearshift angles" in wrestling, period--this one and the OMX run-in, which came immediately after Cornette hyped what we all thought would be a Midnights/Road Warriors feud over the titles.
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It's past time to go somewhere with this.
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This was effective, I guess, in setting up Tugboat as being Hogan's delegate in the wake of the big injury angle to come. Brother Love, having taken offense to Hogan interrupting his show, dares him to come back again next week when his guest is Earthquake. Nonetheless, Tugboat is about as lame of an attempted upper-card character as the WWF got.
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The technicos actually did win the first fall. Dandy eats a DDT off the second turnbuckle which is sold as a tombstone (and compared to such by the announcers), but Satanico is successfully able to finagle a timeout for his team when it appears that Atlantis has him dead and buried. The subsequent battle with Satanico trying to pay back Atlantis by repeatedly dropping him on his head is my favorite part of the match.