MikeCampbell

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.

This literally had it all. Believable and hateful exchanges with fists and chops, Flair selling his ass off for Eaton's quasi-Triangle choke, and Bobby flying a mile for Flair's chops and shoulderblock. Flair catching Eaton's knee to setup the figure four was a piece of brilliance, and even the non clean finish works in its own way because Cornette tried to cheat and it backfired on him and wound up costing Eaton the match. At the time this set a viewership record for Main Event, and was praised the moon. So, naturally Herd hated everything about it!

Before the Regal/Finlay matches started up, this has got to be the stiffest match of the Monday Night Wars. Aja's kicks to Asari's back after the snap mare are positively brutal. This was designed as a squash to get over Aja and set up Alundra vs Aja for the Royal Rumble (after the match, she even makes the belt around the waist motion), but by the time it actually aired the WWF had already decided to not renew Madusa's contract and informed AJW that they weren't having the match. This is why the Vince and Jerry don't really bother to take the match seriously.

The lucha and shootstyle matwork was a blast to watch, and Tajiri was mostly great about selling his leg after Hidaka singled it out. The one thing that took me out of this was that Hidaka never seemed to come across as being a genuine threat to Tajiri and the title. It's great that he can seemingly cross kneelock him at will (the German suplex to cross kneelock was sick!) but, I never got the feeling that Tajiri was in any real imminent danger of losing the title here.

Andrade/Pac was great stuff. But, I just don't understand what is going on with the booking. Why are they dicking around with first FTR and now adding Black for no good reason, when Dragon Lee and Dralistico are right there, and set up an obvious trios feud? I get that Pac lives in the UK, and his family is over there, so he's got to travel and that's why he's not around very often. But, what's the reason for Andrade? He could be putting on bangers like this every week, and he's barely used. I loved the match, but I hated the aftermath. Let Pac get his win and bring out the Lucha Bros to celebrate with him, and end the show with Death Triangle standing tall. Cody and Black was totally shoehorned in, and they could have easily done that during a promo or something instead of stealing the spotlight.

This almost seems like something of a hidden gem. A five or so minute match, which is seemingly there just to give Lawler an excuse to tell Polish jokes abouty Ivan Putski, and it's almost shockingly engaging. Shelley shows some good mat skills, and Brian take a couple of overdone bumps, to let him look good in Canada. But, when Brian takes over, Shelley sells like Brian is damn near killing him. There are at least two spots that would have made great finishes, thanks to Shelley's selling. The full nelson facebuster, and a bit later after Shelley splats on his dive. The missed dive is the beginning of the end anyway, because he looks like he's out of it, and it doesn't take long for Brian to get another opening and quickly end things with a reverse DDT and the Tennessee Jam.

Overall, this was a rather unremarkable match. 'Busa was in control for a bit and then it was Shinzaki's turn. The only thing that I really took away from it, was how good 'Busa was with his selling. Especially toward the end with those last few big spots, it almost seemed tragic that poor Hayabusa was enduring so much pain. By the time it was finally over, you almost felt relieved for him because he wasn't going to be hurt anymore.

They do some nice things here, but like Jetlag said, the spot-fu (a term I haven't even thought of in probably 15 years now) is a bit overdone. There's just no reason for TAKA to barely get to his feet by the count of 9 and get spiked with his own Michinoku Driver and a big head kick, and then still beat the count, let alone be able to dart behind Tanaka do his own German suplex right afterwards. TAKA's selling is great, and Tanaka looked good for most of this, and they've got a decently smart finish with TAKA finding a way to keep Tanaka off of his bad leg and keep his sleeper on to retain. So, this certainly isn't a bad match.

If Loss and Will were still doing yearbooks, then this would absolutely make the cut. This is a classic for all the wrong reasons.

I have to wonder if there's legit heat between them due to Maeda getting shitcanned over the 9/2 match. Takada almost goes out of his way to try to make Sayama look bad here. When Sayama lands his first big kick to the gut, after Takada answers the ref's count, he just springs back to life as though he's fine. Takada does the same thing later, after they'd built up some nice heat with Sayama's single leg crab. Takada gets the ropes to break and then he just jumps back up and tries to take over. Hell, after Takada taps, he just gets up and walks to the corner. He couldn't even be bothered to sell the leg, and do the customary post match handshake with Sayama.

Mid South was added on Thursday, and Mid Atlantic was added on Friday. I'm hoping that the recent additions of Thunder and Mid Atlantic are a sign that the uploads of NWA World Championship Wrestling, and the Clash of Champions specials are being added sooner rather than later..... For anyone who may be in the know. On the original WWE Network, the last match on Clash VI was Flair/Steamboat, was there a reason that the Road Warriors/Varsity Club title change was cut off?

Someone on Twitter pointed out that three of the four shows that have topped 1 Million viewers were main evented by Darby.

This was praised to the moon when it happened. I never understood why at the time, and watching it all these years later, I honestly still don't. I suppose that, compared with some of the absolute shit that HHH had to deal with during this year as far as the matches with Scott Steiner and Kevin Nash, this looks great in comparison. But, even without the screwjob finish, this didn't do much for me. They get nearly half an hour to work, but they spend a huge chunk of that time trading punches and chops instead of actually wrestling. They both take big bumps to the floor that don't mean a thing. HHH working Shawn's back, and Shawn working the knee, ultimately just wind up being filler. Granted, it's some fun filler. The crowd goes apeshit when HHH is cranking that abdominal stretch, with Flair helping from the floor, and Shawn's figure four is a great revenge spot for that. But, Shawn kips up and HHH stops selling the knee, and they just go about their business. The finishing run is the usual overbooked finish with ref bumps, near falls from props and cheating, and when it seems like Shawn has overcome it all and won the title, no, he actually didn't. It's not a terrible match or anything, there is some fun stuff to see. But, for me, this doesn't rate much more than 'watchable.'

Thanks for this info! I thought that last night was a one time only thing with them moving to Friday. Funny note, for those who watch on Fite. In lieu of commericals, we just get the logo with the full Dynamite theme song playing until the show comes back. One of the lyrics to the song is "Acting like it's Friday, but it's really only Wednesday!" Well, last night instead of the actual song, they just looped the music and didn't actually have the singing.

What do you call the Omega/Moxley feud that’s been going since January?

Just to be clear. I’m not advocating anyone being cut. I’m just saying these people are used so sporadically that most people probably wouldn’t notice or really care.

I think one of the biggest issues with AEW's booking is that they have so many guys on the roster, and only two hours of TV. And before anyone starts talking about Dark, it does a fraction of what Dynamite does as far as views go. Dark Elevation's numbers are a bit better, but still a long way off. If Dynamite is Raw, Dark and Dark Elevation are Heat and Velocity, not Smackdown. My cousin and I came up with a list of people that AEW could probably cut tomorrow, and most fans probably wouldn't bat an eyelash about it. Joey Janela Sonny Kiss Dr. Luther Serpentico Pineapple Pete Billy Gunn (as a wrestler, keep him in the school or have him manage his kids) Peter Avalon Leva Bates Bear Country Jack Evans Angelico Christopher Daniels (again, only as an active wrestler, keep him backstage doing that stuff) Michael Nakazawa Mel Big Swole Evil Uno Stu Grayson Colt Cabana Ivelise JD Drake

I said the same thing on Twitter, apparently their TV deals actually bring them in more money than their PPVs do. So, I can understand. But, it still feels like something that could attract interest in the PPV and drive up buys. I'm an admitted huge fan of Death Triangle, so I'm pulling for them to take the tag titles next week. I honestly wouldn't be shocked to see Moxley show up and do something to cost them the tag titles. The Elite/Mox feud continues, and the tag titles can slide over to be part of the renewed Death Triangle/Best Friends storyline.

I completely agree, but I’m wondering if Tony would even listen to them? Before AEW ran a single show, Tony already made the statement that nobody will write his TV except him.

I think the answer is rather obvious, Loss. It was "The competition!"

I loved the angle at the end with MJF and his new buddies laying out the Inner Circle, and I liked the start of Kenny Omega vs. Christian Cage, which I assume will be the main event for Double or Nothing. But, holy christ on a cracker, they need to slow down with the angles and turns. There's no reason why they couldn't have held off for a week or two in having Bunkhouse Butch and Blade decide to sign with Matt Hardy. Make a storyline out of it where they look at what Kingston did as showing weakness and have them turn on him. The Pentagon/Cody thing makes no sense to me. There's no real plausible reason for Pentagon to suddenly be calling out Cody. It's not like Cody won the ladder match. It just comes off like a lazy attempt to give each of them something to do, since Pac and Fenix are headed for the tag titles match and the Shaq thing is done. I actually do like a program with Sting and Archer, especially with Jake and Sting having their own sordid history. But, first off, Archer was being a babyface all of two weeks ago, and the execution was pretty mediocre. Sting cuts promo, Archer and Jake interrupt and Sting just leaves. No confrontation or anything. The Scorpio Sky heel turn could have been slow burnt for at least another week. Have him win a singles match, and keep showing off his heelish tendencies, and have Darby Allin doing color commentary and put over how great an athlete Sky is, and how much he's looking forward to wrestling him. To paraphrase a friend of mine, say what you will about Dixie Carter, but she never fancied herself as a booker or TV writer.

This is quite the hidden gem, tucked away as the opening match of an episode of Raw in what has to be one of the worst creative and artistic periods for the WWF. The body of the match is Owen working over Sid's leg (after a chop block on the floor thanks to a distraction by Davey Boy), and Owen and Sid wind up putting on a pretty compelling match as a result. Sid has never been a great seller, since his character has never really allowed for that, but he does a damn fine job of making it seem like Owen has him hobbled. Sid even makes his comeback by standing and trading strikes with Owen, rather than bumping him around with power spots, so that you're never quite sure if he leg can hold up. Owen runs himself into Sid's choke slam, and before we can find out if Sid has it in him to do the powerbomb, Bulldog runs in for the DQ, and Shawn makes the save. This isn't anything blowaway amazing, but, it's an extremely fun and well put together match, and it shows just how far a couple of capable guys can go just doing simple and effective work. The only thing that I would have liked to see is a bigger payoff to Owen working the leg, in the form of him giving Sid the sharpshooter. Sid is such a tall guy, that it wouldn't have taken much for him to get a rope break anyway.

I knew it was coming, because of the video last week. But, I still marked a bit when Pac came out. It's a ready made program between King, Blade, and Bunkhouse Butch and the reformed Death Triangle, now that the feud between Moxley and King is done, and they look to have wrapped up the storyline with Allie and QT. But, I'm a little bit worried that they'll screw it up by trying to be too cute and have Fenix side with Pac and Pentagon torn between his brother and his supposed best friend.