[1992-05-01-UCW] Bill Wilcox vs Freight Train Fulton

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

A little backstory -- UCW got some buzz in the WON and Torch in 1992, and these guys were sort of considered guys who might have a future. This fed was run by alpha fan John McAdam. Since the yearbook is a time capsule, I wanted to include something that was sort of discussed at that point in time, even if it was forgotten about later. This is my first exposure to this, but it's something I've wanted to see for years.

 

Fulton is a bigger guy by indy standards and a smarmy heel. Wilcox is a tremendous flyer and busts out some cool stuff. They probably do too much at times, but it's cool to see two guys working so hard on such a small show and a match with this many highspots -- not just flying from Wilcox, but also great power spots from Fulton -- and a strong face/heel alignment between two no-names is really hard to complain about.

 

They are both a product of the universe they're part of. Fulton wrestles like he wishes he was Steve Williams and Wilcox wrestles like he wishes he was Furnas or Kroffat. For fake Doc vs fake Can-Ams, it's pretty good.

 

Eventually, the action spills outside and Fulton gives Wilcox a piledriver through a table!

 

The match goes to a 20-minute draw. There is an argument that this is in many ways a poorly worked match. I see the logic. It probably is. The piledriver through the table is just another spot and is barely sold. They also do proto-2.9 wrestling at times, before such a thing existed. And there's so many borrowed spots from Liger, Flair, Muta, the AJ guys and maybe some lucha that if you hate tape watching as a wrestling style, you'll probably loathe this. But I'm not sure how much it matters. These guys were working incredibly hard to get noticed, and those types of things weren't commonplace at this point, so it's way less annoying in proper context. There's something charming about it.

[Tim Evans]

This was pretty much every late 90's indy match taking place in 1992. I gotta give them credit for working hard and trying to impress. Whatever happened to these guys? And was that Mcadam as the fake Jim Cornette?

[shoe]

I will say McAdam's ring looks real professional. Both guys work hard here. I thought Fulton has some tight looking work. I really thought he did a nice fist drop. That table spot killed me. They threw a bunch of shit out there. I was at an Indy in Austin this past week and a couple of the matches were better than this or in the same range again it was live verse tape. I too what ever happened to them.

[Kevin Ridge]

I found this to be fascinating and worth the watch. Quite the spot fest as these guys were busting out all types of moves and submissions. They've been watching their videotapes for sure. The piledriver table spot looked great but them completely no selling it and wrestling another 12-14 minutes was pretty bad. There was no padding on the floor either. Would have been very interesting to if a match like this showed up on WWF/WCW tv at this time.

[WingedEagle]

This felt like a couple of wrestlers putting together a demo tape to show off what they could do, almost like an audition. While it was interesting for the time period its not something I'd want to watch again.

 

**1/4

[MikeCampbell]

What you have here is two guys who want to get noticed, and they went about it the right way for the time. The only thing I could have really done without was the piledriver spot. That should have been the death of Wilcox.

[PeteF3]

These guys actually made the PWI 500 that year, so I'd assume McAdam knew whose palms to grease in the Apter mag world. Fulton cuts a decent promo to start--but "Freight Train" is not a good name for a robe-wearing trash-talking heel.

 

This was sort of what I expected the first Kid/Lynn match to look like--some impressive spots mimicking the stuff making the tape trading rounds at the time. That's what this was, without those matches' build, hatred, and psychology. That said, indy 2.9 nise-All-Japan wrestling was not nearly as widespread as it was in the ROH days through today, Fulton is somewhat attempting to work as a traditional heel, and Wilcox busted out a few submissions and pinning combinations I still haven't seen. It hasn't aged well at all but I can see why it generated the buzz that it did.

 

And yes, the table spot or to be more exact the way it was worked was ridiculous.

[Robert S]

Those guys looked pretty polished in the stuff they do considering it's two guys I have never heard of and that never got any real break wrestling in 1992 indy in late 90ies indies style, if that makes sense.

[garretta]

This match is best viewed not as a coherent story, but as a demo tape of spots to be sent to the Big Two should either one of these two get up the guts to try and make the jump. In that context, the piledriver through the table spot didn't bother me at all; the idea was to show that Fulton could execute it, and after Wilcox sold it for a few seconds it was time to move to the next spot in the checklist. These two guys worked hard, but they were obviously years away from being stars or even functional workers anywhere but where they were.

 

It seemed at times like they switched roles, as Wilcox heeled it up a bit while he had Fulton in the figure four. This adds to the audition tape vibe that permeates the bout.

 

They needed to work on their ring positioning as well; several times when they went to execute a move that needs a lot of room, they ran out of room and smacked against the ropes.

 

McAdam looks a little bit like Corny, but I've seen Corny's debut in Memphis, and even though he was a million miles from what he would later become, he still had more charisma and working ability than McAdam shows here. There's a reason he settled down to life as a tape trader and message board poster. Of course, I would have had more to judge him on if I could have actually heard the prematch promo he cut with Fulton.

 

Are you sure McAdam ran this promotion, Loss? The only UCW I could find with a search that was in operation in 1992 was an outfit that ran out of Winnipeg. Its owner was a gentleman by the name of Walter Shefchyk.

[Loss]

Yes, John McAdam ran this and it was based in New England. I don't think we see him on camera here, though.

[garretta]

Thanks for the info, Loss!

[dawho5]

I am on the same page as most here.  In a lot of ways they are 7 or 8 years ahead of their time.  And they are pretty good at executing everything.  Just there is nothing to it besides that.  Fulton had some decent agility spots too.