Playing catch up:
We received two Fantastics vs Gilbert/Sting matches. We got them out order.
The earlier match is interesting. It's basically a very, very long heel-in-peril, primarily on Sting. You got the sense in this one that they were teaching him, that the purpose here was to get him a lot of ring time stooging and bumping for the Fantastics. They had an amazing rapport with the crowd, certainly, but the drama came too late in this one. It was fun for what it was, though, because you really did get to see Sting go to class and some of the lessons he was learning here probably paid off for his entire career as a babyface.
The second match Pete covered. It was the 2/3 falls and it was really strong. I thought it benefited considerably from the 2/3 falls structure, which forced them to utilize transitions at appropriate times. You can't do a twenty minute heel-in-peril if you're going to do a fall ten-fifteen minutes in. The Fantastics were absolutely ahead of their time; some of the near-falls at the end of the first fall felt almost 90s AJPWish. Sting had come a long way by this point (even from a few weeks earlier you see improvement). There's an exasperation he portrayed as a heel that was very natural, a sort of "how the hell did I get into this situation?" mentality which was probably how he really felt to some degree. I wish the hot tags had been a little hotter/better timed and obviously the finish was an issue, but I thought this was strong and heated throughout. The Fantastics rousing the crowd with the object on the apron drumming between the second and the third fall was great stuff. In both matches, it's a testament to Gilbert and the Fantastics that they were able to go so long with someone so green. You have to envy these crowds. These matches were the undercard for the first two Doc vs Freebirds cage matches.
I caught Dibiase/Link vs Tatum/Victory last night, It was a lot of fun. Odd couple babyface pairing with Dark Journey. The heels had Missy. Dibiase was slumming with these guys to a degree, but the heels (Especially Tatum) were happy to be in there with him and bumped and stooged all over. He was also super giving, with the majority of the match being Dibiase-in-peril. The comeback was definitive and really, this was all to set up the Freebirds coming out and assaulting Dibiase post-match. Pete would use the phrase umbrella storytelling here and he'd be right.
The battle royal was enjoyable too. It's hard to keep track of everything, especially without commentary but some moments stood out. Taylor and Koko working together against OMG amused me for some reason. I loved Gang being in the ring with Tatum and co. at the end, and just mauling them when they wanted a heel-heel handshake. Duggan hitting Ring #2 and immediately charging at Gordy was awesome. I don't think we've seen much of them interacting. There was a moment when Duggan had his hand up to punch Taylor blindly, and when he realized who it was, he gave him the big thumbs up instead. The end of the match with Gordy/Buddy vs Chavo in Ring #2 and Dibiase coming out bandaged up after the earlier assault was awesome. That Dibiase/Doc vs Freebirds feud was something else. We have most of the pieces now I think. What a great, lost 80s feud. It was awesome to see Chavo, sort of at the end of his run as a star, get one last big win.
