MikeCampbell

Yet another example of the fact how great a worker Yamazaki was at this time. He more or less wrestles himself here, he puts himself into positions for Nakano to do simple counters (such as lower his base to prevent the German so Nakano only needed to shove him down to get a back mount), and he absolutely sells his ass off and makes it seems like Nakano actually has a prayer of winning this match. Of course, he's Kazuo Yamazaki and he knows that he can end it whenever he wants, which he does after a couple of hard kicks and a legbar. But it's a total blast watching him look like Nakano's bitch before that. After this match Maeda faced Funaki and Takada wrestled Suzuki, and both of those matches are surefire insomnia cures.

I really wanted to like this, because they both sell like death when Nagata works the knee and Ishikawa works the ribs, but both body part segments were just filler and had no impact on the finish at all, and their execution was godawful, even Nagata's armbar toward the end looked like he was exerting next to no real pressure on Ishikawada.

This isn't even ten minutes long, but it's a brilliant match. It perfectly plays off of ther earlier tournament matches that Ito and Aoki had that got them to the finals, and the end result is the morality play that pro wrestling is supposed to be. This isn't going to get the attention, or amount of dicussion (for better or worse), that Cody Rhodes vs. Roman Reigns from WrestleMania did. But, unlike Cody, Takanori Ito was able to "finish the story." While I sat in front of my laptop trying to piece together what all I wanted to say about this match, it got me thinking about the mentality of only wanting to see the "best" matches (and for the record I am just as guilty as anyone else of having that mindset), and this is a prime example of why that's a flawed way to look at things. If I was to show this to someone who hadn't seen any of the earlier tournament stuff, they'd probably come away having enjoyed the match (depending on their overall opinion of shootstyle) but they'd miss the context of why a lot of the little things that Aoki and Ito do worked so well.

Wrong year, bruh. Umaga and Cena's match was at the 2007 Royal Rumble. They were both in the actual Rumble match in 2008, which Cena actually won.

This is, without a doubt or any hint of exaggeration, the worst match I've seen this year! Picture Roderick Strong vs. GUNTHER in a chop battle, with nobody bothering to sell, and that's what this looks like. It gets absurd to the point that Ishida does a running boot to the corner (like Sami Zayn's finisher) and T-Hawk just stares back at him, completely unphased. Then it turns into some sort of "tribute" the latter day Misawa/Kobashi matches with them throwing each other with suplexes and popping right back up. Just complete garbage!

I'm making my way through this show to review for my website, and I have to disagree with the part that I bolded above. I'm 5/7 of the way finished, and I'd say it's actually been fairly memorable. Okubo certainly stepped up for both of his matches and the Ueyama/Ito match was a nice affair with some traditional pro-style storytelling and smartly takes advantage of the UWF-style rules by putting over Ito, and doing it in such a way that it doesn't make Ueyama look bad at all. What's most diappointing, with the benefit of hindsight, is that the tournament itself almost feels like a waste when one knows what's going to happen in the next few months. It's clearly designed as a vehicle to get Kyosuke Sasaki over, which it certainly accomplishes, but it could have been done so much better and been made to matter long term. Fujii sticks out like a sore thumb amongst the people involved. There was no reason for him, with his Vader/Albright in UWFI push, to be lumped in with this crew. Replace him with Yoshida or Murahama and let Sasaki win the whole thing and cement him as the next "guy" as far as the Tamura trainees goes. The Tamura vs. Fujii match (which happened in December) could have easily taken place on this show. Hell, after the Tamura match Fujii was done in the company for nearly two years anyway.

Two wrestlers known for their stiffness, and they don't disappoint! The thing that stuck out the most to me was the crowd, epsecially one woman who was super high pitched and vocal in her support of Wahoo. It reminded me of watching a Jay Strongbow match on an old Coliseum Video and the crowd was vocal but a good portion of their support was done through 'war cries' for him. None of that stuff here. Just traditional crowd heat, which I'm very tempted to compare to the 1992 Can Ams vs. Kobashi/Kikuchi classic, wanting to see their guy win.

For whatever it's worth, this is easily one of my favorite Inoki matches (and I've never really been a fan of his work). I can absolutely see the Ikeda/Ishikawa comparisions. This feels "legit" in a way that Inoki's 'different style' fights the faux MMA stuff he did in the 90's and 00's never did to me. The crowd was hot throughout and when Oki's headbutt busted him open, the phrase "unglued" doesn't even do it justice.

This is closest that I've seen a Lidet UWF match come to feeling a UWF match from the old days. The work is simple, but very well done. Nakamura has the striking advantage, Matsui has the advantage with his throws, and they use the mat to settle the tie. Neither seems out of their element on the mat, and they're both able to knock off points with their submissions just as well as with their striking/throwing. Nakamura wins after throwing kicks at Matsui and taking him by surprise with a flying juji-gatame, but Matsui's loss doesn't cause any hit to his aura or credibility, and it feels like a rematch between them could just as easily end with Matsui winning.

For a 39 second match, they certainly packed a lot of intensity into it. Iizuka jumpstarts with a flying knee and when Izuchi gets back up, he unloads with more strikes. Iizuka shoots in for a takedown and throws himself right into Izuchi's knee and his lights go out. It certainly begs for a rematch (if GLEAT ever decides to run another Lidet UWF show, since we're coming up on five months since the last one), and leaves questions about both of them coming out of this. Was this a fluke strike or was Izuchi ready for it? What does this say about Iizuka after his second straight main event loss?

This was just complete domination by Tamura. He shuts down Fuke with middle kicks and quickly burns through all of his points, despite strikes not even being Tamura's primary strength. After two matches against lower card workers, where he genuinely found a way to work with them and make them look good, Tamura wrestles one of his contemporaries, with a decently long run in Pacrase, and just decimates him. Ideally, Fuke should have pushed Tamura further than Sakata and Mishima were able to, and possibly set himself up to be the U-STYLE version of Yamazaki, the guy who the upstarts go through before they can challenge The Ace. But, if anything, this makes Fuke look no different than the likes of Naoki Kimura or Kazuki Okubo.

MATWATCH July 4, 1988 Steve hopes that he’ll have the new Matwatch logo by next week but wants to start off by previewing the upcoming “Great American Bash” PPV. This is Crockett’s first chance to put on a first class PPV show, and he can’t afford to blow it. Crockett has everything going for him right now: Ted Turner has cleared more then ten million households for access to the PPV, the price tag is much lower than the WWF’s, there’s no competition from the WWF, the Flair/Luger main event has been built up on TV like no other main event, since Flair defending against 14 various opponents during the 1986 Great American Bash tour and Baltimore is the NWA’s top drawing city, so they can expect a sellout. Steve thinks they should get at least a five-percent national buyrate, which would put 1.8-2 Million dollars in Crockett’s pocket, with Turner taking a similar cut. The marketing for the show has been first-rate and if your area has been equipped to receive the show, then there should be print ads in the local newspaper. The card is as follows: Ric Flair vs. Lex Luger – Steve expects this to tell everyone whether or not Flair is staying in the NWA. As of now, there’s not a title change expected, but if Flair does decide to move to the WWF, then expect Luger to win the title here. Steve thinks it’ll take roughly four weeks to see that Luger won’t draw, but Dave Meltzer jokes that Dusty still hasn’t figured out that Ronnie Garvin didn’t draw last year. Steve predicts Luger to win by DQ, to keep Flair as champion, and to set up a series of matches throughout the fall. Dusty Rhodes vs. Barry Windham – The NWA usually doesn’t tip their hands at upcoming title changes, unlike the WWF, but a recent campaign of NWA themed Mello Yellow cans lists Dusty as being the U.S. Champion. Steve expects Dusty to win the title here, and then do a retirement at Starrcade. Triple Tower of Doom – They’ve tried several times on TV to explain the rules, but Steve still doesn’t fully understand them. He expects the good guys to win, in order to settle the angle with Sullivan and Precious. Tully and Arn vs. Sting and Nikita – Tully and Arn are set to defend the tag titles throughout the summer, so Steve expects the babyfaces to be disqualified for hitting the ref, or some such nonsense. Midnight Express vs. Fantastics – With the fans paying $15 a pop for this one, he expects to see Jim Cornette get ten lashes with the belt here. There’s also a couple of undercard matches, Larry Zybyszko vs. Brad Armstrong and the Rock ‘n’ Roll Express vs. The Sheepherders, but Steve isn’t sure if they’ll be on the PPV. He thinks the tag team match might, and the Zybyszko match won’t. Even with all of its talent and organizational issues, the NWA is still the cream of the crop in workers and overall performers. Flair is still one of the greatest names in the history of the game, so they’ve got a strong anchor, but they cannot afford to make any mistakes. If Jim Ross isn’t one of the lead announcers, it’ll be a mistake. If Dusty tries to steal the spotlight, it’ll be a mistake. If the ending to Flair/Luger leaves the fans unsatisfied, it’ll be a mistake. Steve wants to see an outright victory from either of them, but he thinks this is where they’ll foul things up. Steve thinks the Crockett group, despite all of the criticisms that they’ve received in 1988, deserves a lot of credit for putting together a show that gives them a chance to break out into a lot of big money markets, which is something very few people thought was possible back in January. COMINGS AND GOINGS Matwatch believes that the sale of the NWA to Ted Turner is imminent, probably by August 1st. Crockett and Turner had a meeting two weeks ago and were said to have made an agreement in principle for a complete buyout from Turner. There are a few remaining details, such as the prices and the terms of the payments. Crockett will stay on as GM for at least one year, and no word about Dusty staying on as the booker. Steve thinks Crockett could pay for the company with his share of four successful PPV shows. We should expect a much more aggressive marketing campaign due to Turner’s new licensing and merchandizing company. - The 7/18 Bash event in Columbus, GA will be taped for the Worldwide Wrestling TV show, which is the first time a TV show has been taped in Columbus. - If Flair does jump to the WWF, don’t expect him to be Harley Race’s replacement as the King. The plan is for Bobby Heenan to do a 4-6 week search and announce Haku as the new king, and then kill off the angle. - “Isn’t the stuff that Bruce Prichard is doing as Brother Love just awful?” Not only does it distract from the wrestling (not unusual for the WWF) but he also can’t get off the broken record of “I Love You.” Steve prefers Brother Ernest Angel in Continental, talking about “Sister Hyatt” and “Brother Platt.” - Scott Putski showed up on NWA TV and is getting a small push for the Bash shows in Houston and Dallas. Steve thinks Crockett might just be trying to cash in on the name of former WWF star Ivan Putski. Scott seemed to be emulating Jimmy Snuka instead of his father, but the fans seemed to go for him, although his interviews stunk. - If you call 1-900-909-4LOU, you’ll get to hear Bruno Sammartino’s diatribe of how Vince screwed over his son David. Vince asked Bruno and David to team up in March of 1985 against Heenan and Orndorff, and then used David as undercard preliminary guy afterwards. It’s nothing new, but Steve finds it interesting that they’d use the 900 number for that. - Dave Meltzer ought to sue the 970-RING service in Atlanta, since they essentially read information verbatim from the Observer. - Steve saw footage of Big Van Vader in Japan. He comes to the ring in a half-suit of armor and then takes it off to reveal another mask. He obviously looks like Darth Vader. The character is supposed to be a heel, but the kids love him. - Anyone who can’t get the Bash PPV and would like a copy can get one from Steve for $10 (which barely covers the cost of mailings and a decent quality cassette tape) but the cost of waiting for Turner’s official release is $35. - One final note regarding the sale to Turner. If it goes though, then all talent negotiations are expected to be held by Steve Kasten (president of the Hawks and Braves) and the balloon payment setup by Crockett will be replaced by a more orderly schedule. Crockett will be responsible for paying the talent all monies owed from his 1987-88 contracts. PROMOTER PROFILE Jim Crockett made a calculated decision in 1985 which changed the face of wrestling almost as much as Vince McMahons national expansion did. He upped the price for NWA Champion Ric Flair to appear on World Class events. World Class owner Fritz Von Erich balked and refused to pay, and WCCW withdrew from the NWA. In the coming months, Crockett cut off all relations with Jerry Jarrett in Memphis, Mike Graham in Florida, Bill Watts in the UWF, Bob Geigel in the Central States and Ron Fuller in Continental. Don Owens in the Northwest does continue to run cards as an NWA member, but he hasn’t used Flair in two years. Crockett decided to make his own attempt at going national and swallowed up the UWF and Florida in the process, while also sending talent to the Central States to help bail them out. By the spring of 1987, Crockett had nearly 175 wrestlers employed, those of us who have followed the shutdowns of Florida and the UWF know what happened to the talent, which could have eaten McMahon’s group alive for wrestling and working ability. The NWA still has a highly regarded talent base, but if one person, namely Steve Beverly, was in charge of restructuring the company then here’s what he would do to fix their issues. - Dump Dusty Rhodes as the booker, he may still have promotional abilities, but Dusty can’t keep pushing himself as the biggest star. The failure of the Midnight Rider showed that. - Develop fresh young talent. Steve feels like Sting ought to be a top star right now, and that Tim Horner and Brad Armstrong as vastly underutilized. He’d also make a play for talent like Curt Hennig, Owen Hart, and Paul E. Dangerously. - Make Jim Ross the lead announcer. David Crockett is as talented as Oscar Robertson used to be. Ross knows the holds, has a good grasp on the history of various feuds and nobody generates excitement from a hot match like Jim. - Get rid of the Four Horsemen and turn Flair babyface. It’s long overdue and would generate a lot of interest with Flair traveling the country against his former friends. - Re-establish relationships with other companies, which Steve concedes will take a new owner to do. The Crockett Cup and Starrcade need fresh faces in order to market a fresh flavor. There was a chance to get talent from Stampede and World Class for the Crockett Cup in April, and it didn’t happen. - Dump the Bunkhouse Stampede show. Nobody cares. This was just half a dozen thoughts. Steve sees the sale to Turner as the best thing that could happen for the NWA. Turner is a broadcast professional, who saw the success of wrestling on his old WTCG station. He also sees home video and PPV as a gold mine for the company. The biggest criticism of Crockett is that he’s still using his old cronies, while McMahon has branched out and hired on young and hungry media market specialsts. Ted has several people like this in his employ and there’s no love lost between Vince and Ted after Vince’s failed attempt to take over the World Championship Wrestling slot in 1984-85. Turner is a very shrewd communication professional, and Steve would like to see a war between them, and guess who he thinks would win. I REMEMBER . . . Steve first met Mario Galento in 1968, he’d been around for thirty years mostly as a villain. He left most territories after disputes with promoters, and he traveled with a “brother” by name of Al Galento and created an image which actually led to his getting arrested in New York City. Mario’s first wife, Lucille, had written a book about him called “The Gentle Brute” which he always sold at live shows. He was born with the name Bonny Lee Boyette, and with a name like Bonny, he learned how to fight very quickly. During the 1950’s he’d had wins over Bruno Sammartino, Buddy Rogers and Wilbur Snyder, all of whom would wear the NWA or WWWF Titles. He turned babyface during the 1960’s in a boxing match with Buddy Fuller when Rocky Marciano knocked out Galento while the referee was down. After his turn, he showed his affection for children. He would show up at bookings hours before the show just to entertain the children. Steve recalls seeing him at an event in Waycross, GA where he demonstrated the sleeper hold and the Hangman. Many of the wrestlers would use the kids to sell their photos and send them home with their own photo as payment. Mario Galento sent them home with 15% of the earnings. Steve feels like he’s one of the few old-timers that could still go in today’s age. His battles with Butcher Vachon are legendary. Steve isn’t sure of his whereabouts now, or even if he’s still alive. But in today’s high gloss programmed world of wrestling, we need more people like Mario Galento. TV TEMPO Reviewing the key happenings on TV for the weekend of July 2-3: NWA: On NWA Pro Nikita Koloff gave Al Perez the Russian Sickle, for a mild amount of heat. On the Saturday TBS show, the Rock ‘n’ Roll Express returned and said they were after their fifth World Tag Team Title. On the Sunday Main Event show, Sting and Steve Williams had a twenty-minute draw with the Midnight Express, and Nikita Koloff beat Barry Windham by DQ after the other Horsemen interfered. WWF: The Rougeaus beat the Killer Zzzz’s with their new rule breaking tactics but were still cheered. The only other highlight was seeing Jesse Ventura without his earing or head scarf. CWF: Tom Prichard and the Dirty White Boy had a wild brawl that ended when White Boy’s valet, Lady Mystic, interfered. But Bambi (a former POWW wrestler and valet in Memphis) showed up to help Dr. Tom. Expect to see the ladies have catfights. Southern: Mr. Wrestling II and Buck Robley had a bad match that saw Dick Slater interfere after less than a minute and Chris Adams make the save. Robley is simply awful and it’s sad to see that II is reduced to doing this. AWA: Robert Gibson and Greg Gagne challenged for the AWA Tag Titles in a match that was taped three weeks ago and showed that they’d never teamed up before. It shows the lack of immediacy in the AWA with Robert already back with Crockett teaming with Ricky Morton, and he’s on AWA TV demanding a rematch. World Class: Jerry Lawler and Terry Taylor had a good match for the AWA Title. Kerry Von Erich challenged Lawler for a Title-for-Title match afterwards. USA Pro: Wendell Cooley and Buddy Landell had a short brawl that was triggered when Landell’s manager, Terry Adonis, wanted to buy out Cooley’s contract for the match. Northwest: Jesse Barr is back as Jimmy Jack Funk and beat Al Madril. Dave Sierra (Cuban Assassin) has left for Japan. Blooper of the Week: Gary Hart for crediting Kevin Von Erich (instead of Kevin Sullivan) for inventing the Triple Tower of Doom.

Demolition and Strike Force had a rematch for the tag team titles on Superstars, which ended by countout when the Demos gave Martel their finisher on the floor. I don't believe that this was the catalyst for Martel's turn the following year. Martel was back by the Royal Rumble in January, and the turn wasn't until WrestleMania, a full two months later.

The pacing, structure, and storytelling seen here would look right at home in the mid 1980's, and just reinfornces the notion of FTR truly being the best tag team in the business. Everything they do feels natural and expected, even when things don't quite seem to go as planned, they're able to make them work without totally killing the flow of the match. Anyone who sees Lucha Bros vs. Young Bucks or Usos vs. New Day and thinks "That's great tag team wrestling!" needs to watch this and see what great tag team wrestling really looks like!

I enjoyed this on a visceral level, with how much Wheeler bled and the lengths in which Mox had to go in order to finally beat him. But, those were the two main takeaways for me. The idea is that Wheeler earns Mox's (and by extension Regal and Danielson's) respect and joins the BCC, but instead of doing it by pushing Mox as far as he could and proving he can hang with them, this is Wheeler showing how much of a beating he's able and willing to take.

Mark Sterling as Jackie Chiles?

It's rare to find much of a story within shootstyle matches, since storytelling has always been more of a pro-style staple, but these two pull it off well enough. Mishima is all about the flashiness and showing off with cartwheels and overly showy spinning kicks, and the experienced legend uses simple techniques in order to shut him down. Mishima gets a chance to finish him off with a juji-gatame, but Tamura is already working his way toward escaping before he can even get it on, and when Tamura gets the same opening, he makes sure to position himself in the center of the ring so that Mishima can't do the same to him.

When talking about Maeda's various in ring incidents, I'm surprised this isn't brought up more often, especially with how legendary Tamura would become. But then again, compared to the Andre and Chosyu stuff, roughing up a rookie with only a few matches under his belt seems relatively tame. Also, considering that Tamura would jump to RINGS in 1996, there must not have been hard feelings.

I have to say that I disagree with both of you. This didn't really do a damn thing for me, outside of the first exchange. After they separated, Ito was like a deer in the headlights. Even when he lucked into something like that takedown, his first instinct was to cover up instead of press his advantage. In comparison to Ito, Ueyama looks like a young Tamura. Whether or not he is, I can't say because this is the first U-Style show I've seen outside of a few clips here and there.

This is easily one of the worst matches I've seen in recent memory. Fujita wins the GHC by basically taking a huge shit on Nakajima and thoroughly outwrestling him, and when Nakajima pelts him with ridiculously stiff strikes, Fujita smiles and hands is back to him. There's only one time when it seems like Nakajima can win, after an utterly sick looking running kick to the face (picture a Randy Orton punt, where Orton doesn't give two flying shits if he injures someone or not), and they don't even try to milk it for a near fall or a ten count. Nakajima just tries a suplex so that Fujita can reverse it, and then finish him off to win the title. I can honestly say that if I never see another Kazuyuki Fujita match again, I'll be perfectly happy with it.

The U-Style debut show as a whole was solid, but it didn't have a whole lot of standout moments. But the finish here was certainly one of them. It seems like Kimura is the better grappler here, as Hara has to fight a lot harder to get holds locked in, and it doesn't seem like they're locked in very well. But then Hara darts behind Kimura and kills him with one of the most brutal looking Germans that you'll ever see! Hara locks in a sleeper and bam! Kimura has to submit.

This is something of a holy grail match, as (at least at the moment) it's the only available footage of Art Barr's lone New Japan tour, which can be found on New Japan Classics #662. I'm quite certain that if this was out there when Will and Loss were making up the yearbooks, it'd have been included. As an actual match, it's good (hardly a shocker with how good everyone was during this time), but Eddie and Art are both mostly in the background, while Cat is doing the heavy lifting. Eddie breaks out the slingshot senton early in their heat segment, and after they halt Ohtani's comeback, Art does the frog splash, but those are more exceptions. They're mostly found to be brawling, and them bumping and stooging for Lyger and Ohtani more than anything else. But the attitude you'd expect from the AAA Tag Team Champions is there, especially from Art in his early bits with Lyger. The real shocker to me was Black Cat, who struck me as the obvious fall guy and weak link, and how great he was at working over Ohtani, between his suplexes and matwork.

MATWATCH June 27, 1988 “This is the premiere, the debut, put-up-or-shut-up time.” Steve Beverly gives a brief introduction to himself. He works in academic communications at Auburn University, where he’s concluding a year-long work in tracing the history of pro wrestling on television, and Steve confesses to being a fan of wrestling for the last twenty-three years. He’s gone from being simply a fan, or a “mark,” to being a ring announcer and television commentator, to being an academic reviewer. Like many fans, he’s seen things over the last five years that he never thought he’d see in wrestling, and while he’s happy that it’s become so mainstream, he still considers himself a “purist” and detests some of the more cartoony aspects, although he confesses to being an admirer of Vince McMahon for his marketing and merchandising. Steve also makes it clear that this bulletin won’t be an all things for all people sort of bulletin. His employment at Auburn isn’t allowing him to focus nonstop on wrestling. Steve plans to provide a thorough week to week view of wrestling from the television side of things, as well as covering the major stories, and looking critically at how various wrestling companies are using television and proving insights as to whether or not the promotions are being responsible in their presentation of wrestling to the fans. A regular feature is planned to be called “REMEMBER WHEN” which will show how past feuds were heightened through the use of TV, as well as looking at the various angles, turns, sell jobs, and interviews in wrestling history. Steve hopes that longtime fans will enjoy this bit of nostalgia. In addition, Steve hopes to be able to bring humor into this bulletin. Steve feels like wrestling has lost much of its natural humor with all the competition between the promotions. After they get going, Steve plans on having a section for readers to submit letters, but he stresses that he's not looking for fan gushing or personal attacks on other people. He wants serious opinions on the wrestling shows that readers watch on TV. He also wants a “USA Today” approach with weekly wrestling reviews including segments for Lines of the Week, Best Pictures, Strongest Comments, Worst Interview, Blooper Award, Dreaded Glitch, and Boo of the Week. Steve concludes his intro by saying that if he gets the chance to interview people within the business, they'll be included in future issues. But because it's such a closed business, most people involved won't want to be named. This is a true joy for Steve, and he hopes the readers enjoy this complimentary first issue and they'll find a subscription form enclosed later on. He just asks that people give Matwatch a chance and participate with him. Steve's Sidelights Let's go to 7:00 PM on Saturday Night in Atlanta, on channel 36 WATL. Steve made the journey to Joe Pedicino's third annual Wrestlethon, along with John Hamilton and Richard Hyatt (Columnist for the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer and known as Missy's brother). The event was done to raise money for bullet proof vests for the Atlanta Police Dept. The night began with late night POWW and AWA shows, and then Joe cut in during the Fox Late Show to introduce rookie Joey Maggs, only to have Eddie Gilbert blindside Maggs and destroy the kid. It would have been great, except for the fact that nobody clued in Ross Schafer (Late Show host) in L.A., and he kept trying to talk over Joe's narration, and the studio audience was too distracted for the angle to get over. The angle was replayed the next morning to milk the hype for that night's show in the new WATL studio. Pedicino replayed his two-hour documentary "The History of Pro Wrestling" from 5:30-7:30, which ironically had interviews with Jim Crockett, whom Joe recently had a bad falling out with, and then showed another half hour of taped material as the crowd entered for the 8:00 live show. Joe hyped up the show as the first live wrestling show to originate from Atlanta in more than twenty years, which Steve states in accurate. The card was made up of mostly wrestlers from Southern Championship Wrestling, a few AWA wrestlers, and the big guest being Eddie Gilbert from the Continental Wrestling Federation, along with Paul E Dangerously and Missy Hyatt. Richard Hyatt was a friend of ring announcer Rhubarb Jones and asked him to tell Missy that her long lost brother was in attendance, but he didn't buy it. "The only no-show was Ted Oates, and nobody missed him." Joe pulled off a nice small scale WWF sort of show, with Rick Stewart doing interviews. Brad and Bart Batten vs. Steve Pritchard and Gerald Finley - the Battens played heels and looked good, although not on the level of the Midnights, Fantastics, or RPMs. Finley wasn't even in until 7:00 and he was pinned at 7:45. Tommy Rich vs Joey Maggs - This showed how much of a shell of his former self Tommy Rich has become. Mostly rest holds, although Maggs had a little support from the angle last night. Tommy hit a suplex and did more rest holds and pinned Maggs after his flying body press. Paul E. came out to challenge Tommy Rich to wrestle Eddie Gilbert. It was hard to understand because there was no PA in the studio. The main event was Rich vs. Gilbert with Rich never wrestling again if he loses. Randy Rose and Joel Deaton vs. Chic Donovan and Mighty Igor - Rose looked good, but was going through the motions, and Donovan looked unusually bad. Rose scored the pin with a knee from the second rope. Mr Big vs. Ricki Starr and Tim Anderson - Steve says this is the worst match of this kind he's seen this year. Blackwell spent three minutes trying to sell and rolling against the ropes. He finally pinned Anderson with a splash. When Blackwell tried to get up a fan yelled "Anyone have a crane?" Ranger Ross and Rufus R. Jones vs. Soldat Ustinov and Nick Busich - Busich is the worst Russian that Steve has ever seen, although he did draw some USA chants. Ross sold the bearhug well, but it went too long. The heels were finally disqualified when Busich did the wimpiest 'hitting the ref' that Steve has ever seen. Manny Fernandez vs. Big Jim Bryant - Manny looks like he can hardly go. Bryant spent most of the match on the mat, and Ronnie Garvin couldn't even make him look good. Manny got into it with a fan in a Mangum TA shirt and was visibly laughing. Manny pinned him with the flying burrito. The show appeared to be over, but Rick Stewart said that the WATL general manager phoned in authorized the program to continue so that the Rich and Gilbert match can happen. Paul E. promised to stay at the announcer's desk and not get involved. Rich wanted the police officers to handcuff Dangerously, but it didn't happen. Eddie Gilbert vs. Tommy Rich - This was night and day from Tommy's match the night before, he looked like the Tommy Rich of 1981, and Gilbert sold huge for him. Tommy went for a sleeper and Eddie shoved him off and knocked down the ref. Tommy threw Eddie over the top rope onto the floor, which wasn't padded. Tommy gave Eddie a body slam on the floor and Dangerously left the announce desk and hit Rich with the phone. Tommy recovered first and threw Eddie into the ring, ready for the kill, and Dick Slater ran in and attacked Tommy to draw the DQ. Then, out of nowhere, Slater turned around and started attacking Eddie, Manny Fernandez came out and they gave Eddie a double piledriver, while the crowd was screaming for Tommy to help Eddie, and Paul E. was screaming worse than Roddy Piper. Finally, the rest of the babyfaces came out to help Eddie. It's not exactly clear if this was supposed to happen. After the show ended, with most of the crowd having left, Pedicino was heard saying that he didn't understand why Slater did what he did. "I don't know what he was thinking when he hit Eddie." Gilbert actually got up quickly after Slater hit him and yelled out "Boy, what's wrong with you?" WATL still airs Continental's TV, where Eddie is still a top heel, so it didn't really make sense, but the crowd was sure hot for it. This marks the second time that Slater has done something like this, he recently attacked Tommy Rich, Jerry Oates, and Hoss Deaton during a tag team match, and he got in legit trouble with Buck Robely over it. Overall, it was a fun night, and it looks like Pedicino will be going live from the studio on a regular basis. Other News NWA - The Powers of Pain have left the NWA for the WWF. They refused to work scaffold matches with the Road Warriors, so Dusty pushed them out. They're being replaced by Ivan Koloff and the Angel of Death, who cancelled his plans to go to Stampede. Steve doesn't think this will go over very well, since Angel is about as fun to watch as Ox Baker. The 7/31 show in Detroit is being headlined by Kevin Sullivan and Dick Murdoch vs. Dusty Rhodes and The Sheik. "Yes, THE Sheik, who was a major heel in the sixties in the Detroit and upper Midwest areas, and is now about 62 years old." There's also talk about bringing in Dick the Bruiser in Indianapolis and teaming him with The Crusher. The NWA front office guys all love this idea, maybe they'll do a run in Miami and bring in Sputnik Monroe. The Flair/Luger title match should be over huge for the 7/10 PPV and the only thing that should be able to hurt it would be if too many people spend big money on the Tyson/Spinks fight. Recently on Worldwide the NWA did one of their "make-em-mad" routines by doing a Luger/Windham match and announcing a 45-minute time limit, with only five minutes left in the show. Continental - They drew 2,700 for their TV taping in Montgomery, which is the biggest crowd since a Ric Flair vs. Wendell Cooley match two years previously. Steve Armstrong is back with Tracy Smothers, and Brother Ernest Angel is in, managing Sika with his legit nephew Samu. The TV last week was the best show that they've produced since Eddie started booking. USA - Fuller put on a hot show this week, with a *** match between Terry Gordy and Doug Furnas, with Gordy selling big to make Furnas look great. Gordy won by countout after giving Furnas a suplex on the floor. Buddy Landell attacked Tennessee Champion Wendell Cooley, to set up a title match for the next week. Tommy Rich did a pre-taped interview where he was attacked by Bill Dundee and the RPM's. "Tommy's had it rough lately, hasn't he?" This group has a very nice looking TV show. WWF - Nobody knows how they will use Barbarian and Warlord. One idea being talked about is turning Demolition babyface to feud with them, but they just started feuding with the Hart Foundation. Big Bubba Rogers debuted this week as the Big Boss Man, it's a funnier routine than him wrestling in suspenders, but it's probably going to make a lot of Atlantans angry because they're making fun of their prison wardens. The events center guy, Sean Mooney, is a dud, and Steve thinks they should try to get Jim Ross and have him also do play by play. World Class - Their TV is already looking stale, which is a shame for someone as talented as Michael Hayes. Now that he isn't booking, Hayes appears to be just another one of the boys. The group has also been hurt by the recent departures of Chris Adams and Terry Taylor. Michael Hayes and Kerry Von Erich as a team seems like a renovation of what they were doing four years ago, and at this rate Hayes probably ought to try to make peace with the NWA. It's also a waste to team Terry Gordy up with Shaun Simpson. International World All Star Wrestling - "So you've never heard of this bunch before, huh?" They were running Monday nights at the Chickasaw Club in Columbus, and now are running TV out of Macon on Friday nights at midnight. Steve saw their show on Friday, and it was excruciating. The legendary Randy Hogan is teaming with his brother Ricky, and they wrestled The Redneck and Fred Haney Jr. "Sugar" Ray Lloyd recently left SCW for this group, and they'll most likely run Macon, Valdosta, Albany, and maybe Columbus and Waycross. Final Notes Warlord and Barbarian started on Saturday night as babyfaces, and are being managed by Tito Santana, as revenge for Demolition injuring Rick Martel. SCW has its first live card in Columbus this coming Saturday night. Eddie Gilbert and Austin Idol packed the house in Montgomery. Steve talked with Dave Meltzer, and Dave thinks that Slater deliberately tried to show up Eddie Gilbert at the Pedicino show because it was on live TV, and nobody could edit it. This is why promoters rarely run live shows anymore, because too many wrestlers have burned them. Angel of Death started on TBS this week, and Paul Jones made sure to bury Warlord and Barbarian as cowards. At least five guys will be altered from the original NWA lineup this week in Montgomery. Ricky Santana, Warlord, Barbarian, The Terminator, and Johnny Ace were all scheduled to appear. Steve recently watched two hours of tape from Mexico and said nobody missed much. The wrestlers are mostly masked and it's hard to get into their identities with so many alike. Lastly, Steve says he'll need $5 from subscribers prior to August first, so he can make sure to send issues through August and September, and he closes by saying that next week he'll be reporting on the NWA show in Montgomery.

Looks like the only one that aired was the 7/2 trios match. It’s on NJ Classics # 662.

I was back and forth between really digging this, and hoping it would start getting good again. The only thing that I really didn't understand was the piledriver, since I've always understood the piledriver to be an instant death sort of thing, but Satanico kicked out like it was just another near fall, and despite Koshinaka losing by DQ, it wasn't from the piledriver.