[1992-03-14-WCW-Saturday Night] Ricky Morton vs Brian Pillman

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Was Jim Ross always this annoying and I just never noticed?

 

Anyway, this is a solid TV match. Morton was a good heel. Here, he works over Pillman's knee. Pillman comes back and uses the same pinning combo he used to beat Liger at Superbrawl.

[shoe]

A good match. Morton does his best Flair impression. I loved the work on Pillman's leg, and Pillman's selling of the leg. Then Pillman makes a comeback and shit cans all the damage to the knee. Really my only complaint of the match. A really strong t.v bout.

[Eduardo]

I was pretty disappointed at this. Disappointed by the selling, and it felt like they were just going through the motions. Nothing bad, it was just a throwaway TV match.

[El-P]

Was Jim Ross always this annoying and I just never noticed?

Ross could be quite annoying at this point, but I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary here. At least he wasn't shilling his hotline every two minutes.

 

Anyway, this is just not a good match, and the perfect illustration of why the LH championship was a failure. Boring limb work that doesn't mean anything, Pillman brushes off all the eg work in one split second to do a sloppy headscissor, and wins with a very sloppy bridge. Morton was boring at this time, seriously going through the motions. It took him going to SMW and reuniting with Gibson to rule again. His matches with Brad Armstrong were just as boring and uninspired (and Armstrong never helps in those cases as he's solid as hell but not very exciting).

 

(on the same TV show, Austin had a pretty good TV title match against Scott Steiner, in which Scott was surprisingly under control, and Madusa quite fun)

[MikeCampbell]

This wasn't bad, but it's rather unremarkable, aside from Pillman's selling. It really shows how lackluster the original Light Heavyweight Division was.

[WingedEagle]

Looks like I'm in the minority on this one as I was a huge fan. Brad Armstrong shines on commentary. Pillman with great early work on Morton's arm including a hammerlock, armbar and even posting Morton's arm. We transition to Pillman selling the knee, working the figure four like a real platinum blonde heel before Pillman scores the win the same way as he defeated Liger at Superbrawl.

 

***3/4

[PeteF3]

Yeah, I liked this just fine, too. Maybe it wasn't the fast-paced encounter that was ideal for a light heavyweight match--rather, it was like the first half of a NJPW juniors match--but it was a solid enough bout. Morton working as a scuzzy heel is still enough of a novelty for me that I'm enjoying watching it. Armstrong was good on commentary, too.

 

This was a period where they were pushing all the light heavyweights as being against each other, almost like NJPW did. Pillman had decked Johnny B. Badd at the PPV when Badd planted one of his fake lips on him and Badd had actually interfered and cost Pillman a match against Morton a few weeks earlier. It didn't last, but it was an interesting booking move.

[xlynwoodx]

Match was alright, lots of limb work than a quick finish. Went longer than I expected. Brad Armstrong said they were "moving like cats out there."

 

Morton hits Pillman's knee on the ringpost then puts Pillman in the figure four on the other knee. I like the intensity while in the hold by both guys. A few minutes later Pillman is running the ropes fine. He uses the same pin he used to beat Liger at the PPV, Morton had trouble getting into position.

[garretta]

I think this would have been better if it had been a title match. As it was, this proved nothing except that Ricky's time in WCW was just about up; without the Yorks as backup, there was really nothing left for him to do. He plays his part well, especially during the figure-four when he trash-talks Pillman and slaps his face, but there's no real sense at any time that he's in Pillman's league

 

I didn't really notice the lack of consistent selling on Pillman's part until it was brought up here, but come to think of it, there wasn't much he could do without his legs, so maybe it was best for the match that he didn't sell. Think about it; if he can't fly and he can't use his legs, how is he going to go over? Sometimes the "right" way to wrestle a match has to take a back seat to what's "best for business", as they say nowadays. Of course, why have the match at all then? Why not just have Pillman squash a jobber?

 

I thought JR was in his glory here; he didn't have to set anyone up or stand still for any irrelevant jokes, and he could engage in serious wrestling discussion with someone he liked and respected, rather than having to put up with someone he was flat-out jealous of by his own admission (Jesse). Brad missed his calling, as he was a tremendous analyst, knowing just when to put the match and the wrestlers over and when to put himself over, and he was a great deal more articulate than I ever remember him being on promos.

 

I don't think they quite knew who to push as Pillman's number one contender, hence the mini-tournament. I guess the ideal would have been getting Liger to stay in the States for an extended run, but there was almost no chance of that whatsoever.

 

Wow, Jesse doing the house show circuit, especially a mid-size town like Topeka? I wonder what Kip Frey promised him to get him to do that!

[drew wardlaw]

Wow Brad Armstrong is surprising on commentary. Very solid. I like the slower start to the match, with Morton eventually getting the upper hand and working on Pillman's knee. It's still so cool to me that Morton was as good of a heel as he was. Pillman gets fired up like only he can, kind of blows off the leg work, and wins with a pinning combination. I really couldn't ask for much more out of the match.