[1993-11-24-WWF-Survivor Series] Rock & Roll Express vs Heavenly Bodies

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

This is an outstanding match, it's a shame the Boston audience didn't get into it, because they were doing everything they could to win them over. These guys worked really, really hard, probably knowing this would be a cold crowd going in, so they pulled out pretty much all of my favorite tag team spots in an attempt to win them over, but nothing worked. Too bad, this was probably better than every 80s WWF tag.

[Kevin Ridge]

Yeah, frustrating crowd with their reaction to this match. You want to see guys working this hard get rewarded with a crowd that gets into match as goes on. Just didn't happen here. Ross had a pretty good call on the mic. Action is great and the guys hit all their tag spots. Ricky takes his beating and when he finally gets the tag to Robert it is so disappointing to hear the zero reaction by the fans. Sucky crowd, this still ends up being an excellent tag match. One of the better seen in WWF for the year.

[PeteF3]

Hey, fuck you Boston--I know these guys aren't quite as skillful as four fucking Doinks, but the WWF pushed this match-up as well as they could for a mid-card bout and gave both teams TV time leading up to it. They weren't *that* unknown. The dead/hostile crowd hurts this but the work is outstanding, particularly the Bodies' offense. Del Ray busts out an Asai moonsault to the floor and there are some sick double-teams. And I thought Del Ray catching the thrown racket while balanced on the top turnbuckle was spectacular. Ross had a standout call--he even referenced the Midnight Express! And Monsoon at least stayed out of the way. The stuff about the top rope rule was clever, but it was incongruously placed in this match when Marella wasn't bothering to discern who was legal and who wasn't and partially botching the finish. That sort of sums this match up--incongruous. The work was as good as or better than SuperBrawl, but that was in the heart of NWA/SMW country. This was in a WWF home arena and the whole presentation--from the WWF-style officiating to the crowd to the presence of Monsoon and even Finkle--made this southern-as-country-fried-steak presentation just seem off.

[GSR]

Both teams are busting out all sorts of hot moves but the crowd couldn’t care less and are treating this as a food break. Jimmy Del Ray with an Asai moonsault, leg drop/trash compactor off the top rope, Ricky Morton reverses a powerbomb into a frankensteiner, Del Ray with a moonsault body block and nothing, while Jim Ross is doing all he can on commentary. Prichard throws Morton over the top rope to the floor and Gibson thinks that’s a DQ but they’re not in Smoky Mountain now (which is nicely explained by Ross). Double dropkick to Prichard but he kicks out and Cornette is up on the apron only to get nailed by Morton. Gibson covers Prichard again but referee Joey Marella is distracted as he’s trying to get Morton out of the ring. Del Ray climbs to the top turnbuckle, Cornette throws him the racket (great catch!) and he comes off the top with the racket onto Gibson. Prichard makes the cover and we have new SMW tag team champions.

[flyonthewall2983]

Unless I'm wrong on this, this must be the only time the same guys were in a match together on a WCW PPV and WWF PPV in the same year.

[Superstar Sleeze]

SMW Tag Team Champions Rock N Roll Express vs Heavenly Bodies - WWF Survivor Series 1993

 

My hometown of Boston let the wrestling world down by being absolutely dead for all this kickass tag team action. From the Morton suicide dive to start the match to Del Rey catching the tennis racquet to drive it into the RNRs to win the tag belts, the action in this was fast and furious and never ever let up. In fact my complaint would be that they were wrestling too fast. They knew this would be a cold crowd and they tried to compensate by being extra hot but I think it was to the detriment of the match because it took away from the selling and the awesomeness of the spots. The Bodies are just great successors to the Midnights with the all fun spots at the beginning, the row the boat spot is the one I always think of with this match. When it comes time to get heat they get heat. Pritchard's powerbomb is great and Del rey's Asai Moonsault and body jiggle it awesome. Loved seeing the Trash Compactor. God Bless Southern tag Wrestling. Morton with the Misawa-rana on the second powerbomb attempt was great and double DDT sets up the coldest hot tag ever. I am so sorry everybody for my hometown! I will say the finish stretch was a bit of a mess with the convoluted that would be a DQ in SMW but not here in WWF, who the fuck is legal (Morton was not but was being treated as such) and zero heat for the double dropkick. Superbrawl III was a better match, but this was very good.

 

I don't think there is anything more jarring than Rock N Roll Express wrestling for WWF in Boston. Just so weird. ***1/2

[garretta]

Now we know what happens when a crowd conditioned to believe that only WWF wrestling is any good is asked to sit through another promotion's match on a WWF card. But it wasn't all ​the crowd's fault; these guys may have worked an athletically impressive match, but it didn't feel like they were comfortable enough to do the bullshit that makes this series fun. This is where they needed to do every spot involving Corny that they could remember, all the hokey but effective miscommunication and dissension spots from the Bodies, all the vamping and preening and overacting that still gets the Southern crowds hot. In short, they worked a straight wrestling match when they needed a Southern-fried sports entertainment match.

 

In other words, take your Asai moonsaults and your Franensteiner counters and stick them up your asses next time, guys; I want to see Dr. Tom and Jigolo Jimmy make a sandwich out of Corny in the middle of the ring, I want to see Jimmy go to give Robert an arm wringer in the corner, only for Robert to switch with Dr. Tom. I want to see everything go wrong for the Bodies at the start and have them threaten to go at each other, only for Corny to convince them to hug it out. I want to see racquet spots in the middle and ether at the finish. Wrestle like it's Knoxville or Johnson City, not a WWF pay-per-view. If Vince doesn't like it, too bad.

 

JR really sounded at home here, as he should have considering his history with Ricky, Robert, and Corny. He told stories and mentioned facts that we experienced fans have known for a while, but were undoubtedly fascinating to the first-time viewer of this feud, like Paul Morton being a ref in Memphis and Robert's mom being a deaf mute. I could have done without trying to merge the Bodies' history with the Midnights, but SMW's done the same thing at times, so I can't fault Vince (through JR) for following suit. Hearing Gino say the names Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson was surreal, as was hearing a "Tennessee territory" acknowledged by both name and location, which they haven't done up to now with the USWA although Lawler was arguably their top heel from the time he attacked Bret until he had to leave.

 

Gino never really sounded like he was into this match except for briefly ragging on Corny at the beginning. He was asked to call the match, so he did, but it felt like he was just marking time until he could get back to the ​real stars of the show, four Doinks included. He put everyone over as an athlete, and that was about all. I found it a bit preposterous that he tried to make it sound like Ricky didn't know how tag team wrestling worked until it hit me that he might never have seen Rock 'n' Roll before and didn't know their formula.

 

The finish was a bit convoluted, but they needed to do it that way to give Rock 'n' Roll an out back home. By the way, did anyone notice that the crowd woke up just a bit when the Bodies were announced as the new SMW tag champs? I heard more than a few cheers, which was a bit surprising considering how the Bodies had just won and how big a heel Corny was through his association with Fuji and Yoko.

 

It's too bad that Vince probably used the crowd's reaction to this match as an excuse to marginalize the Bodies and not use Ricky and Robert again. I think Rock 'n' Roll wouldn't have made bad challengers for the Quebecers, whether they ever ended up with the belts or not.

 

I forgot to say that hearing Finkel announce Ricky and Robert was yet another surreal moment, as was hearing him do the "NEWWWWWW!" bit for the SMW tag titles. I wonder if Corny ever thought of using him as a guest ring announcer in SMW, especially when there were WWF stars on a card.

[soup23]

There has been a constant talk on PWO whether a crowd to be wrong, this is exhibit A for me. A maddening crowd that doesn't give a shit about some great action that is happening in the ring. I agree to the narrative that generally good matches doesn't equal hot periods for wrestling but sheesh, show some respect man. I was happy to see the Bodies win as it gave a historic ending to the match. All four deserved better. ****

[Beast]

I can't think of too many other times that a match lost a crowd and the crowd was blamed instead of the wrestlers on here.

As garretta said above, there may have been ways for these 5 to win the crowd over, but they stuck with whatever they had planned and it fell flat. Maybe if I watched this with the sound off I'd have enjoyed it more, but this IS uncomfortably awkward as is. I felt bad for all involved as they were clearly busting their asses, but again, why is it the crowd's fault for not caring? 

Now, this match shouldn't have been presented on PPV without a solid buildup and especially not in the middle of a card that was already suffering from lack of depth (meaning each match was 5-10 minutes too long throughout the night), but it didn't seem like there was even one moment that Morton, Gibson, Prichard, Del Ray and Cornette turned off the autopilot to reconsider what was happening and pivot towards a more successful match. To my ears it seemed like Del Ray's "gigolo" gyrating got a reaction, but it was brief and then back to spot, spot, spot; exactly what Cornette complains about today.

** feels more right than *** or **** and that's for the moves themselves more than anything else. I just don't understand why this match gets a pass when it's almost 15 minutes of talented guys failing to do what they needed to to win over a new crowd.