[1992-04-11-SMW-TV] Heavenly Bodies vs Brad & Bart Batten

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

And finally, the Heavenly Bodies debut -- Tom Pritchard and Stan Lane! This was included as the payoff to the vignettes, not because of the match quality, but this is a fun match. The Battens are sort of a poor man's good tag team, in that they have some good spots that they execute somewhere in the range between awkward and decent. Semi-competitive extended squash to put over the Bodies in the first round of the tag tournament.

[shoe]

A fun little match. The Bodies are off to the races.

[El-P]

Never saw the original version of the Bodies before. Lane isn't the same kind of beast as Del Ray, obviously.

[MikeCampbell]

This is a fun little match, but the centerpiece here is obviously the debut of the Bodies after all the buildup, and it's a good payoff.

[WingedEagle]

After all of those vignettes and build up we finally have the debut of the Bodies. It may have been an extended squash but I thought it was pretty great, with the Bodies looking phenomenal on offense in this style and making fast tags while the Battens were a hell of a canvas for what they were doing.

 

***1/4

[PeteF3]

Great intro, with Pink Floyd's "Time" segueing into "Frankenstein," and we get the second poaching of a USWA wrestler as Dr. Tom Prichard makes his way across the state. This was an effective payoff to the video clips as the Bodies definitely stood out among the early SMW roster.

 

Two good matches on one TV episode--the Bodies looked good in control and setting up the Battens' offense. Good move to throw them right into the tag tournament.

[GSR]

The Gangsta of Love and The Doctor of Desire finally debut as the Heavenly Bodies! Cornette when doing his introduction states that he's previously managed the best tag team in the USA but that wasn't enough. He then got himself the best tag team in the world, but that also wasn't enough, so now he has got himself the best tag team in the universe. Good match and effective debut for the Bodies, who demonstrated some nice double team manoeuvres and garnered heat from the crowd straight off. Battens also looked good in this match, but the whole presentation and build up has made the Bodies be something special already.

[garretta]

Not bad for a debut, I must say. Stan and Dr. Tom still have some work to do as a team, but what they show here is more than enough to defeat the Battens. who put up a decent fight before going down.

 

I wonder why Corny didn't just use the Midnight Express name. Was he afraid of a legal hassle from WCW? Was it a gesture of respect toward Bobby Eaton? Or (most likely) did he just want to give his new team a fresh start? It's a pity Stan didn't stay in SMW long enough to make a real impact; when most people think of the Bodies, it's Prichard and Jimmy Del Ray.

 

I liked Dutch saying that he knew who Corny's new team was all along, but decided to sit on it. That didn't do much for the cause of wrestling journalism, but it was a good way to remind the SMW fans that Dutch is supposed to be a heel.

 

I was glad to hear the update on Hector. Quite frankly, I'm surprised Corny didn't decide that he wanted to manage Orndorff, who was obviously supposed to be SMW's top singles heel at this point. I think they would have made quite the interesting combination.

[dawho5]

Good enough tag match for sure.  Lane and Dr. Tom work well together.  Living in the right part of Tennessee in 1992 would have been confusing with now DWB and Pritchard in both promotions.  Battens are at least serviceable as babyfaces.  Better as heels when they could do the illegal twin switching.