GSR
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I’m liking the sheer variety of promotions that are making an appearance on the Yearbook and this is one I haven’t heard of. On 5-Star today they have a special interview with the Women’s World Champion, Rockin’ Robin, one of the crowd favourites in 5-Star, Sam Houston and their mother Marcia (it’s Mother’s Day weekend!). Houston and Robin talk about what an inspiration she is and how she’s always supported them and encouraged them through everything. Nothing you’d go out of your way to watch again here, just something different from a promotion you won’t know. Although not outright calling her the WWF Women’s champion, they certainly seem to be implying that, with Marcia talking about seeing Robin win the World title in Paris, France. To be fair, I suppose she is, even if they have stopped recognising/promoting/booking that title.
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Ted Dibiase and Virgil join Mean Gene and Dibiase has a face like thunder. Monsoon comments that he doesn’t look happy, but ‘The Brain’ assures us with all that money, he’s happy! Clips of Dibiase and Virgil jumping the Big Bossman on Saturday Night’s Main Event after he’d defeated Akeem air, and Ted says how he offered the Bossman the greatest opportunity of his life. He offered him enough money to retire on and all he had to do was retrieve his Million Dollar belt for him. Gene says how he’s spoken privately with the Bossman and he’s told him that he can’t be bought and doesn’t have a price. Dibiase says that everyone has a price for the Million Dollar Man including Gene Okerlund, including all these nickel and dime pinching peons here in the building and including the Big Bossman. He says that the Bossman will be on his knees grovelling for his money, but he’s going to put a whipping on him like he’s never seen and then shove that money down his throat.
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Adams runs down the aisle and straight into the ring attacking Austin from behind with a can of hairspray. He’s about to spray it at him when Jeannie starts clawing at Adams’ face distracting him and giving Austin the chance to turn the tide in his favour. Austin goes to work on Adams whilst Jeannie grabs the hairspray that he had originally bought out with him. Austin with some forearms and he throws Adams to the floor with Jeannie gleefully watching on. He starts beating on him out there while at the same time keeping an eye on Bronco Lubich’s count. He tosses Adams back in the ring, climbs to the top turnbuckle but misses the big splash. Adams with a superkick and he’s finally able to get some control in the match. He returns the favour throwing Austin to the outside before cracking him in the head with a chair. He rams Austin’s head into the apron and goes to suplex him back into the ring. Jeannie pulls Adams’ leg from under him, Austin falls on top, hooks the leg and gets the pin. Adams superkicks Austin after the match and tries to tie him up in the ropes, but Jeannie is there with the hairspray and sprays it in his face. With Adams ‘blinded’, Austin calls Jeannie into the ring and he holds Adams while she slaps him twice. Adams breaks free of Austin and the heels are out of there with Austin carrying Jeannie up the aisle. A good short match and you can see Austin’s improvement on a weekly basis as everything offensively looked good here. I liked Jeannie as well as the bitchy ex, although her slaps could do with a bit of work. I ended up watching this a second time after reading the posts in this thread. I still stand by my original comments and the only criticism I had was that Austin might have been slightly tentative in the first few minutes when he was celebrating moves, as if he was giving himself some time to think about what to do next. For me, that was the only hole I could find. Shame that the ‘I Quit’ match from 5/18 is missing.
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The Horsemen are with Jim Ross and he says how they are at full strength for Capital Combat and that Sting and Robocop should watch out. Woman repeats her line about the manhunt being over and Flair says that now they have ‘the ace, the trump card!’ Not only is he going to beat Lex Luger in the cage next Saturday night, but he’s going to bleed from coast to coast and he’s going to be the most embarrassed athlete alive. Ole brings in a tuxedo wearing Sid Vicious and announces that he is the man that is going to take care of Robocop. Windham thinks with the big man on their side they can’t lose, and Sting and Luger might as well just give up as from now they dominate professional wrestling. Arn says that they’re bringing violence to Washington, DC and if you think R2D2, Sting on one leg and Luger can buck these odds you’re out of your noodle! Flair closes the interview by telling Sting that they’re going to break his leg again. Everyone had something to say here, but Flair was the best of the bunch. I’m still not convinced on Woman as part of the group, especially as all she ever talks about is her ‘manhunt’. I can certainly see her as someone who Flair would be with, I just feel she needs to be more of a mouthpiece if she’s with the Horsemen. If Ole wasn’t there it might be different, but they don’t need two managerial types with them.
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Jim Ross is joined by Lex Luger and he says how his greatest opportunity will be one week from tonight when it will all be on the line, Ric Flair vs Lex Luger in a cage for the first time ever. Lex says that he’s stepped through and over every obstacle that Flair has put in his path. He’s not once deterred him and his objective has never been clearer. Despite every beating he’s taken, he’s still standing here bigger, stronger and more fired up than he’s ever been in his career. It’s put up or shut up time for him. His first title shot at Ric Flair in a cage and he’s coming out the new World Heavyweight champion.
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Jerry Lawler joins Dave Brown and Dave says that they’ve just seen a video of what happened between him and ‘Handsome’ Jimmy Valiant last week. Lawler says that he knows what he saw, but he will tell them exactly what happened though. Before he does that he introduces Wayne Bright (some radio jockey) and his bodyguard, who’ve got a T-shirt and some bumper stickers for ‘The King’. Lawler says that what you see is not always what you get. The bout between him and Valiant was a ‘stretcher match’ and the only way the match can end is when one man is carried out of there on a stretcher. ‘The King’ doesn’t claim to be the biggest or the strongest man in professional wrestling, but what he is without doubt, is the smartest man. When he saw he was going to be in a ‘stretcher match’ with Jimmy Valiant he stepped back and decided on a strategy. Everyone saw that tape of the last time he gave a concert in Memphis and Valiant came in and busted a guitar over his head. Well that was in ‘Handsome’ Jimmy’s ‘good old days’, but if you take a look at him now you realise that father time has kicked him in the butt! He knows that Jimmy Valiant couldn’t hurt him with a sledgehammer and that he just had to take his time until he was tired and exhausted. The one thing he didn’t figure on was Jimmy Valiant getting so tired that he’d fall asleep right in front of that crowd! He found a rag and put some smelling salts on it to try and wake him up, but he had no luck and finally had to put him on a stretcher and send him right out the back door! Dave isn’t convinced by his explanation and says that the ringsiders said there was a distinctive smell of ether, but ‘The King’ cuts him off to talk about this upcoming ‘stretcher match’. He claims that Jimmy Valiant and Eddie Marlin have got together and they think that Ronnie Gossett had something to do with his victory, so they’re going to suspend him from the roof so that he’s hanging 50ft up in the air. Although Lawler is not too sure how they are going to go about that with Gossett! Dave finds it funny, but not so ‘The King’ who claims that Gossett has a fear of heights, is in poor health and has a heart condition and something like this could be the end for him! The crowd cheer and clap at this and Lawler quips that they are the same people who cheered for the iceberg when the Titanic went down, and promises that Valiant will take another stretcher ride this week. Lawler says that tomorrow is Mother’s Day and he had an idea to take a camera and try and find Jimmy Valiant’s mother so that they could do an interview with her. It wasn’t easy but he eventually found her. ‘The King’ plays the tape and he’s outside a run down, derelict looking house with no windows. He says that Valiant bought it for his mother, but then sees there’s a note on the door saying how it’s been condemned by the Memphis Housing Board of Health. He finds Mrs Valiant (who looks about the same age as Jimmy) at the launderette and she’s washing Jimmy’s clothes. Lawler makes out that Valiant doesn’t care for his mother by making her walk three miles to the launderette to do his washing, by buying her gifts like soap on a rope for Mother’s Day (she thought it was jewellery!) and buying her dog food to eat - free trial size at that (she thinks it’s good though!). Back in the studio and Dave thinks it was all a set up and that wasn’t ‘Handsome’ Jimmy’s Mum at all. A garbage can then comes flying at Lawler and he Valiant beats on ‘The King’ until he’s able to get out of there. Valiant says does Lawler think he’s the only person in Memphis that has feelings? How about these fine people that he insults week after week that come to television? How about the lady that was in that video? She’s not his mother but she’s somebodies mother. Lawler can say anything he wants about him, but never talk about his mother. His mother is no longer with him and he tells everyone watching that for Mother’s Day tomorrow, call her, go see her, buy her something, taker her for dinner because one day she may not be with you. This Monday it’s a ‘stretcher match’ one more time, no interference by that fat slob and he promises everyone that before Lawler gets on that stretcher he’s going to say ‘Handsome Jimmy I’m sorry, I’ll never talk about your mother again’. Didn’t care for the vignette as it was too similar to the promos Lawler was cutting about King Cobra’s parents earlier in the year and it just seemed a rehash of those. Strong Valiant promo to close the segment, and much prefer ones like these compared to when he’s clowning around, singing and talking about Mempho Daddio! I presume Lawler getting the radio jockey on was for a bit of advertising like when he worked that Furniture company into an episode a couple of months back.
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Lawler is now managed by Ronnie Gossett in Memphis too. This was a selection of choice clips of a match from the Mid-South Coliseum and what aired was really good. This was more of a brawl with plenty of fighting at ringside, use of weapons and ‘The King’ even getting busted open. Despite claiming not to be a wrestler and in spite of his ‘heart condition’, Gossett was interfering with regularity. Valiant with a sleeper on Lawler outside of the ring and Gossett charges into the referee who collides with the wrestlers. Lawler sprays ether on a rag and smothers it in Valiant’s face knocking him out. Lawler gets back in the ring and Gossett gets referee Jerry Calhoun back to his feet. He starts counting Valiant out, reaches ten and due to the new rules, Lawler wins by technical loss and is once again the Unified champion. So Lawler both loses and regains the title via screwy finish! The two of them place Valiant on the stretcher after the match and Lawler smothers him again with the ether soaked rag before the ‘Handsome one’ is wheeled out of there.
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Rick Rude is in the gym skipping and Bobby Heenan says that the Warrior is looking at the greatest physical athlete in the world, and that he now believes what they already know, that it’s all over for the Ultimate Warrior! Rude stops skipping and starts to throw some combinations at the punch bag. He says that training hasn’t been easy and the toughest part, the showdown, is yet to come. They know all men are not created equal and they found that out last time when he took his title. It’s going to happen again, except this time not only is he going to take his title, he’s going to break him like a wild stallion and put out the raging fire that make the Ultimate Warrior the Ultimate Warrior. Bottom line, he’s going to bust him up!
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Brother Love’s guests this week are a common man and a common woman who now know their place in society. That place is at the feet of the ‘Macho King’ Randy Savage and the ‘Sensational Queen’ Sherri and they are the ‘American Dream’ Dusty Rhodes and Sapphire. Love says how Sapphire learned all about humiliation when she kissed the feet of the ‘Macho King’, but that is only half of the story. He then turns to Dusty Rhodes and says that the other half is when ‘Brother Dream’ gets on his hands and knees, crawls, bends down and kisses the feet of the ‘Macho King’ and the ‘Sensational Queen’. Dusty says that he’ll tell them about the common people of Americana. His father worked out in the country and crawled on his knees in a public ditch, while Sapphire’s mum went through a hotel scrubbing floors as that’s what this country is all about! He says that nobody embarrasses Dusty Rhodes in public, nobody embarrasses Sapphire in public and there are going to be some damn dues paid! As far as Brother Love thinking he’s going to kiss Sherri’s feet, he can kiss his ***! He asks Sapphire what she thinks and ends up getting a slap for his trouble. Only a short promo, but powerful stuff from Dusty here. Give him his due, he doesn’t do anything half-hearted and puts everything into each and every angle, no matter how ‘silly’ it may seem.
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For UK readers this is the US version of ‘Family Fortunes’. It’s the NWA vs GLOW and the NWA is represented by Sting, Lex Luger, Road Warrior Animal and Rick and Scott Steiner, while GLOW’s contestants are Jackie Stallone, Godiva, Daisy, Mae the Farmer’s Daughter and Hollywood. The NWA takes the first game and Scott Steiner scores 192. Despite some dodgy answers (‘name one of the costs of owning a car? $9,000’) and not answering all of the questions, Rick scrapes over the line and gets the eight points required to win the $5,000. GLOW take game two and Hollywood scores 71, even though she thought that the weight of a large baby is 30lbs! Godiva is up for the second half and she’s worse than Rick Steiner, scoring just twenty points and giving them a total of 91. Game three goes to the NWA and a solid score of 131 from Sting sees them start off promisingly. For some reason they decided to put Rick up again and, not surprisingly after his efforts in game one, he can’t get the 69 points required scoring a pitiful 18 points even though he managed to give four correct answers. Another win for the NWA in game four and another good performance from Sting scoring 120 points. Animal makes his debut trying to bring it home, but he’s battling Rick for thickest member of the team with gems like ‘name something that’s hard to do when your hair is too long? Go for a walk’ and ‘A word that rhymes with bush? Cush’. He actually gets close with his final three answers but still falls four points short. The NWA make it 4-1 for the week taking the last game. Lex Luger draws a blank on one question but scores a respectable 102 points. Sting (who has been one of their best players) has his worst performance and despite only needing 17 from his last two answers bags two zeroes. Strange that Scott Steiner was never used again after scoring 192 points in the very first game. Sting and Luger were both good but Rick and Animal did themselves, and the image of wrestlers, no favours with some of their answers. Think what they women must have been like to get steamrollered by this bunch though!
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Ric Flair and Woman are with Gordon Solie and Solie is surprised that Woman was able to get Sid Vicious as one of the Horsemen. She says, as he knows, she was on a manhunt and she got her man. Flair says that when Woman and the Horseman got together, they put together the greatest sports package today: money, brains, and with the acquisition of Sid Vicious, more brawn than the Road Warriors, the Steiner Brothers, Lex Luger and Sting are prepared to deal with. When the cage goes down at Capital Combat is doesn’t matter about Sting or Robocop because Lex Luger is going to bleed, he’s going to sweat and he’s going to find out why he is the World Heavyweight champion!
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Jim Cornette’s guests on the Slugger are the ‘leaders’ of the Four Horsemen, Ole Anderson and Ric Flair. Ole says that when you talk about wrestling you talk about the Four Horsemen. The people out here love the Horsemen and he doesn’t blame them (they don’t seem to be loving him here!). They bought back Arn Anderson, they bought back Barry Windham and everybody said what could possibly top that? Well when it comes to surprises there is nobody better than the Horsemen. They’ve got one more big announcement to make, one more addition to the Horsemen and they want to bring him out right now. Walking down the aisle and with Woman on his arm comes the newest addition to the Four Horsemen, Sid Vicious. Woman says that her manhunt is over and Vicious tells Robocop that he’s the man of the future and he’s going to crush him like a can. Ole calls out Arn and Windham to join them and the new Horsemen are all together. Vicious’ debut and they have him cutting promos on Robocop? Jeez.
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Max Andrews, John Brozell and Percy Pringle are all in the ring to keep Kerry and Borne separated and to add to the gravitas of the match, while senior (in more ways than one!) official Bronco Lubich is the assigned referee. The first minute of this is really good as they trade punches and you get the sense that this is a fight. Kerry goes for the claw but Borne holds that off and Kerry goes for a stomach claw instead. Borne escapes and the two of them fight some more before a discus punch sends Borne over the top rope to the floor. This is where the match goes to pot. They start fighting on the floor and Borne breaks the first count, but the second time they are out of the ring for 50 seconds. Why hasn’t Bronco counted them out? The camera also loses them here as the two fight to the back which doesn’t help matters. Kerry posts Borne and he finally gets back in the ring. I’d like to say that Borne beats the count, and officially he does, but it’s 25 legitimate seconds later and Bronco is a quick counter so I don’t know how he dragged this out. A succession of discus punches and Borne takes another tumble backwards over the top tope to the floor. Kerry puts the claw on Borne on the floor, they fight to the back and the two of them are finally counted out. The end up fighting to the outside with Kerry taking a backdrop onto a car and Borne getting slammed on a car bonnet. John Brozell comes out to try and put a halt to things but Kerry decks him (we later find out he gets a very short suspension for this). The two of them continue to fight until Jeff Jarrett and a couple of other wrestlers separate them. I enjoyed the brawl in the parking lot as it’s something different for the Texas branch of the USWA although the poor lighting doesn’t help matters. The opening minute and the intensity there was really good, but I had a huge problem with the count out not being adhered to. Kerry also seems limited to punches, discus punches and the claw. I preferred both Lawler/Valiant and Travis/Valiant to this, while I think that Austin and Adams brawl better too. On a final note, I’ve since watched the Borne/Kerry match from 5/25 and prefer that to this one as well.
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‘The King’ says that there is no way in the minute that he has that he could express the disappointment he felt last week, when he went into that ring and people that used to stand up and cheer for him, were now cheering for Jimmy Valiant. A man that has come here to try and take the World Heavyweight title away from him and out of the area. While the promoter, Eddie Marlin, a man who he’s made rich, is standing right behind Valiant saying ‘Go Jimmy Go!’ He tells the fans that he doesn’t need them, he’s the greatest and this belt means it! He’s carried Jimmy Valiant on his coat tails when they were partners, he used to think they were friends, but he can throw that all out of the window. He doesn’t need him either and will prove it this week when he steps in the ring with him and finished him off once and for all.
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The ‘Sensational Queen’ Sherri and ‘Macho King’ Randy Savage are out for an interview with Mean Gene. Bobby Heenan wolf whistles on seeing Sherri, while Monsoon refers to them as two highly controversial and despicable figures! Savage says that the ‘Macho King’ and the ‘Sensational Queen’ have all their R-E-S-P-E-C-T back. When Sapphire paid homage to the ‘Macho King’ by wilfully crawling over and kissing the royal foot she showed respect, but that is only half of what this is all about. Gene wonders what the other half is? Savage says that the other half is when he meets the ‘American Dream’ in the squared circle and the common man wilfully crawls over, bends down and kisses the royal foot of the ‘Sensational Queen’. Sherri is rather excited about this prospect and wants the ‘Dream’ to kiss both of her feet! Savage says that after he’s done that and degraded himself to the highest level just like Sapphire, then each and every one of the commoners and peasants all over the world will take turns in kissing the royal feet of the ‘Macho King’ and the ‘Sensational Queen’.
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Post-match interview after an Austin squash and Marc Lowrance says that the question Chris Adams is asking is ‘Why?’ Austin says that Chris Adams doesn’t ask him any questions, no-one asks the ‘Stunning One’ anything. He knows what he’s doing and with Jeannie by his side he will go right to the top. He own his boots (two pairs!), he owns his ex-wife and he owns him. He even went over to Jeannie’s the other day and he got his old dog! He’s tied up in the backyard and every day that he goes over to see Jeannie he kicks that dog with everything he’s got, just like he kicks Chris Adams’ butt in that ring. Jeannie says that she’s known Chris longer than anybody and he’s just a cry baby. All he does is cry and whine when things don’t go the way he wants and he’s just jealous of Steve Austin because he’s a real man. Adams joins them and Austin tells him to get out of there as this is their interview time. Adams tells him to keep out of this and he’ll deal with him in a minute. He asks Jeannie why after ten years and five years separated does she now suddenly come on the scene? What is it about him and his business that she’s poking her nose into and why? She says that she can do whatever she likes and doesn’t have to ask him for anything. She goes to slap him but he blocks it and Austin blindsides him. He starts beating on Adams with Jeannie enjoying every minute of it. Adams gets back into it and the two of them start fighting around ringside and eventually into the ring. Adams brings a chair in there, but when he goes over to Austin Jeannie sprays hairspray in his face. Austin rams Adams’ head into the chair busting him open and Jeannie then gets in the ring herself. Austin continues to put the boots to Austin and they leave him lying bloody in the middle of the ring as Austin shouts ‘Fee, Fi, Fo, Fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman!’ Austin was great here both in the promo, the brawl and the beat down and you can see the improvement with each passing week. Jeannie is fine standing there looking all vixen like but it’s a different matter when she has to do something. She’s not the best of talkers and the slap that Adams blocked looked bad and was one that Stevie Wonder could have seen coming. She’s still early into her career as an onscreen performer so hopefully she’ll improve with time or when Toni arrives, but the men have been fantastic so far.
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Bill Dundee interferes in a Tatum squash sneaking up on him from behind and nailing him in the face with some handcuffs that he’d wrapped around his fist. He cuffs Tatum to the top rope and then invites Tessa into the ring. He asks Tatum for a title shot and when he says ‘never’ he kisses Tessa. Dundee says that they can wait as long as he wants because he’s enjoying this, and asks him again. Tatum says that he’s going to kill him and he’s not having a title shot. He tries to kick him but can’t quite reach because of being cuffed to the ropes. Dundee grabs the belt and Tatum says he can have one just don’t kiss Tessa again; the ‘Superstar’ kisses her anyway! Tatum starts throwing a tantrum point and begs Tessa not to kiss him anymore. Dundee says the USWA promoters heard that, the title match is signed and kisses Tessa one final time before making his way out of the ring. Tatum again puts his hands on Tessa and Dundee throws him the keys to the handcuffs to free himself. He makes a meal of this, but finally frees himself and runs off up the aisle in pursuit of Dundee.
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Kerry interrupts a Garvin squash attacking both wrestlers and clearing them from the ring. He gets hold of the mic from Marc Lowrance and says that he was blinded by friendship, but because he was blinded, his baby brother has been hurt and when you hurt his brother, you hurt him. He tells Matt Borne that whatever it takes, on Friday night, he is his and if he wants to fight, they’ll fight. Kerry calls for matchmaker John Brozell to come out and tells him that he wants Borne on Friday. Brozell tries to warn him that he’ll be giving up a World title shot, but after what happened to Chris, he doesn’t care. Brozell says fine then and he’ll get the match signed.
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Jerry Lawler is in his robe and carrying the crown. He says that Kerry Von Erich has no shame whatsoever and obviously let his pride and self-dignity go down the drain years ago! He can’t even relate to a person like Kerry Von Erich. He can’t comprehend how a man like he thinks? He couldn’t find it anywhere inside of him to get up on Saturday morning, be standing at the door of Max Andrews with his tail between his legs, begging and pleading for another return match when he and Max both know that he doesn’t deserve one. That’s what Kerry Von Erich! Every time he comes to Dallas, to ‘the ultimate dump of the Earth’ the Sportatorium with its slummy dressing rooms, he leaves Kerry Von Erich lying flat on his back showing everyone the loser that he is. What does he do though? He gets up the next morning and begs for a rematch. Isn’t he embarrassed? Isn’t he ashamed? Doesn’t he realise how he let all his retarded fans down? They look up to him, but they see him fall at the hands of ‘The King’ every week and they get tired of it. He’s going to lose those fans. Already he’s started to notice that now people are chanting ‘King, King, King’ and that’s because everybody loves a winner and that’s exactly what he is. Kerry Von Erich is like everything else in Dallas, like the Dallas Cowboys, they’re all a bunch of losers and he’s the man that is going to keep it that way. This week he’s got another rematch and he can chalk up another loss! I really like this, just something in Lawler’s delivery here. Customary running down of the Sportatorium obviously mind!
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Matt Borne says how there was a tournament and the winner of that tournament got to face Kerry Von Erich for the Texas title. He won that tournament, walked right through it, but Kerry doesn’t want to get in the ring with him. He thought that the people out here respected him for standing up for what he believes in, but he was wrong. He believes that the Texas title should be around his waist and to do that he’s got to wrestle Kerry. He’s showing his true colours though by not wrestling him, he’s a coward and these people showed their true colours by standing behind him. Chris Von Erich comes out and Borne calls him ‘the Von Erich family gimmick’ and wonders if his mum likes his permed hair? He asks Chris why they call his brother the ‘Modern Day Warrior’ when he won’t fight? What will it take for his brother to get in the ring and fight him? Chris says how Kerry let him have a shot at the World title and he was beaten in record time, at which point Borne stiffly backhands him across the face before throwing him head first into the ring apron. Kerry Von Erich, Jeff Jarrett and Jimmy Jack Funk come out to check on Chris and Borne wonders if that will get him to fight? Borne was tremendous here and this was even better than the previous interview after he’d got the Texas title shot. Chris Von Erich is tiny, like Pink Assassin levels of tiny. He seemed pretty nervous and uncertain out there and that back hand across the face was brutal. You can’t help but feel sad for Chris knowing the end result with how much he wanted to be a wrestler, but because of his genes it was just never going to be.
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‘North American Wrestling Allegiance presents Super Sonic Texas Wrestling every Monday and Tuesday night at 19:30!’ I actually recognised Bill Irwin and Kamala in the clips for this promotion! No idea on who the big, jacked up, mulleted chap is who was featured predominantly mind.
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John Brozell, Kerry Von Erich and Jeff Jarrett walk down the aisle to surprise Marc Lowrance as he is in the process of linking to some VT. Brozell says how they are sad to see him leaving them, but they are excited about his career in the ministry and present him with a plaque from the fans, staff and management of the USWA in recognition of ten years dedicated service to the sport of professional wrestling. Edwin (not sure who he is, maybe a fan?) gives a really touching tribute to Lowrance, calling him the finest wrestling announcer in the profession today and that they all consider themselves very fortunate to have had him with them in the USWA. Kerry says that he’s going to miss Marc and there is nothing he can say, or nothing that he can give him, to show their appreciation enough for what he’s done for them and the USWA. He wishes him good luck in the ministry and says that he’s always be welcome back at the Sportatorium. Jarrett feels a little cheated that he’s only known Marc for just over a year, but he’s helped him out, helped everyone out and wishes him the best and invites him to come back and see them. Lowrance tries to bring things back to what is going on with Kerry at the moment, but he tells him that this is his moment and they’ll talk later. This was a very classy and nice tribute to Lowrance, and one that he appeared to know nothing about judging by the look on his face when he saw Brozell, Kerry and Jarrett coming down the aisle. He did well to hold things together with all those kind words that everyone was saying about him.
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For once Jim Cornette’s guests aren’t Ric Flair and Woman, it’s the world’s greatest Rock & Roll band, the Fabulous Freebirds, Michael Hayes and Jimmy Garvin. Before he talks to them he wants to see the videotape of when they whipped those dirty cowards, the Rock & Roll Express! They air a clip from Worldwide of the Freebirds jumping Morton and Gibson after a squash and whipping them with a leather strap. Back at Center Stage and Cornette thinks that was the greatest thing he’s ever seen. Garvin wonders if they can see the tape again, maybe in slow motion, but Cornette suggests instead of seeing that tape again, why don’t they just do it again? Hayes says how in every arena they go to the crowd say ‘Rock and Roll’, but it looks to him like there isn’t one thing that is ‘Rock and Roll’ about the Rock & Roll Express; they’re nothing but incorrigible hoodlums, snotty nosed brats that won’t listen when they’re told what to do! He tells them at Capital Combat it is a ‘corporal punishment country whipping match’, they’ve both got belts, but they’re going to meet up sometime before then. At this point the crowd start cheering and Garvin jumps out of the ring quickly followed by Hayes. Cornette’s not sure what’s going on, turns around and sees the Rock & Roll Express behind him and takes a pratfall to the canvas! He’s on his knees and starts sucking up to them, ‘buddies, pals’, and claims he was just saying how they’re going to beat up the Freebirds and win that match, how they’ve never really had a chance to talk and they could be friends! The Rock & Rolls are carrying straps and they get Cornette to admit that they are the greatest tag team in the world today before he even tries to get the crowd to start a ‘Rock & Roll’ chant! When Morton says that the fans have come to see them whip somebody and the Freebirds aren’t here…he gets out of there sharpish. Cornette and his backtracking was hilarious, especially when he was on his knees and trying to lead the crowd in a ‘Rock & Roll’ chant. Decent little Hayes promo too prior to the Rock & Rolls coming out.
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Jim Ross says that it is obvious the Horsemen are back at full strength and they’ve just left a lasting impression on Sting and Lex Luger. Ole Anderson says how the greatest group assembled in the world are right here, but they haven’t seen everything as they’ve still got one more surprise. Barry Windham states that the Horsemen are at full force again and Sting and Luger’s nightmare is a reality as they’re going to dominate the NWA once again. Ric Flair says it’s Capital Combat, it’s the Horsemen on one side, its Sting, Luger and Robocop on the other. It’s the cage, it is everything that violence is in the world and its competition at its best! When Lex Luger walked out here on national television and promised the wrestling world the Heavyweight title, which meant he had to beat him in the cage, he just retired. For as God as his witness, he will bleed, he will sweat and he will learn the word respect for him and the Horsemen! Great stuff from Flair here.
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A world title match on Worldwide! Ole Anderson is in Ric Flair’s corner and Sting in Lex Luger’s, while on commentary they say that Anderson’s plan is to take Luger out before they get to Capital Combat. Clever opening from Flair as they go for a lock up but he just pokes Lex in the eye and tosses him straight out to the floor. Chop to the chest that has no effect other than to rile Luger up. Lex with a big press slam followed by an Irish whip which Flair take a nice bump over the turnbuckle and to the floor from. They fight at ringside and Flair even picks up a chair to clock Luger with. Back in the ring and another press slam followed by a bear hug. Flair manages to escape and he unloads with punches and chops in the corner (boy does he love to chop Lex!). Again these only seem to fire Luger up who stalks down the ‘Nature Boy’. He gives him a hip toss but when he charges at Flair, he ducks and Luger goes careering over the top rope to the floor. Teddy Long on commentary thinks that the referee should disqualify Lex at this point for deliberately going over the top rope! Flair controls things from here with Ole even getting in some shots himself when Ric distracts the referee. For the third time Flair’s chops don’t have the desired effect (you’d think he would’ve learned!) and Lex with a backslide for a near fall. Flair misses a knee drop and Luger applies a Figure 4 of his own which the ‘Nature Boy’ manages to escape from. Flair goes to the top turnbuckle but Lex catches him and slams him to the canvas. Superplex by the ‘Package’ and he signals for the Torture Rack. Ole fearing the worst at this point interferes for the title saving DQ. Arn Anderson is out next but Lex is managing to hold them all off, when out comes BARRY WINDHAM who jumps Sting from behind and rams him into the post. The four of them start beating down Luger and Sting rolls into the ring to try and help him out. Flair goes straight for him, attacking him and stamping on his already injured leg. Some wrestlers from the back come to try and help out but Windham is guarding the one side of the ring and preventing anyone from getting in there. Flair continues to go after Sting’s knee and as he is about to apply the Figure 4, the Steiners, Brian Pillman and Tom Zenk all rush from the back leading to the Horseman finally clearing from the ring. This was a really good TV match with an even better post-match angle. The match itself was very fast paced, as though they were trying to do a 30 minute match but in a third of the time. The crowd was hot for this and Flair doesn’t pull any of those chops on Lex! I didn’t mind Flair’s ponytail at first, but when he’s worked a few minutes of the match and it’s started to fall out, well, it looks daft then! Post-match was excellent with the Windham surprise and then Flair deliberately targeting Sting’s knee and trying to put him out of there for good. The whole segment in total only lasted a shade over 11 minutes, but it was tremendous from start to finish.
