[1992-09-05-SMW-TV] The Fantastics vs Heavenly Bodies

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

I like this match way better than the barbed wire match. The No DQ stip opened up a lot of possibilities, and I was thinking we'd probably get a normal 80s style match where No DQ didn't mean anything, but it did here. SMW usually felt a little overbooked to me, but this worked.

[Tim Evans]

This was good but it didn't need to refs. Really liked Bobby Fulton in the match and the importance of the Sleeper.

[shoe]

This is what I said about the match for the SMW set.

 

 

 

 

I thought this was just a damn good match. I feel it falls more as a slam dunk than a solid nomination. It probably falls somewhere in between. Fulton's punches are like jack hammers. The opening segment with Lane and Bobby was great. Dutch putting over the Japan tricks that the Fulton's have picked up in Japan. Pushing the sleeper hold which was great in that it played a part in the finish. This was the best Jackie has looked. I love the old Bill Watts finish of the either soaked rag. The diving sunset flip from Jackie was scary as hell. The match had an edge to it where the fans are like these guys don't each other.

[El-P]

Really good match, one of the best on SMW TV thus far.

[Kevin Ridge]

Cornette doesn’t have his racket but the Fantastics use the belt and a metal bar early in the match. Not sure why Cornette doesn’t just grab one of those as the ref is letting things go with No DQ. Who needs a racket though when you can use some ether. Dutch thinks Fantastics were drinking heavy and just passed out.

[WingedEagle]

Even without looking back to confirm, I'm pretty comfortable calling this the best SMW match on the set yet. Good use of the stip by the Bodies to differentiate this from your standard tag. On the other side of the coin, it was odd seeing the rep not letting Bobby Fulton in without a clean tag. The finishing sequence with the ref bump, face near falls and climax was well laid out and told a great story. Let's get to the RNR already.

 

***1/2

[PeteF3]

Definitely the best match to appear on SMW television so far if not the best SMW match period. This whole set-up was taken from Mid-South, with Cornette replacing his banned tennis racket with ether. And the match itself is awesome, with some neat spots from the Fantastics to open and some good punishment dished out by the Bodies in return. I liked how they got over the no-DQ stip immediately by having both teams get sent over the top rope. Plus more of Bobby Fulton's awesome uppercuts. Great stuff all around.

[GSR]

Pete always seems to cover the points that I mention when writing my notes, but without question the best match on SMW TV so far. My only complaint was there being the two ref bumps in the match, as I thought it was unnecessary and there was really no need to for Curtis to get involved (especially as his, similar to Lee vs Orndorff at Volunteer Slam, is again ridiculously contrived). They could have easily carried on the match do the same ether rag finish with the first referee still being out and KO'ed on the arena floor. A funny line at the end with Bob Caudle convinced that Cornette knocked Bobby Fulton out with something, whilst Dutch just thinks he's a heavy drinker, was drunk before he went out and ended up passing out in the match!

[garretta]

This stank.

 

Yes, you read that correctly. I like the Bodies as much as anyone, but this match was so ridiculously booked that the quality of the wrestling doesn't mean a thing. First of all, it's no DQ, so why didn't Corny defy the ban and bring the racquet anyway? Anything goes means anything, including stuff that's banned. But that's hardly the worst offense. The ether finish was a nice idea, but to do it off of two refs being bumped? Corny should have brought the can in, shook it right in the ref's face, then loaded the rag in front of him. In other words, I can do whatever the hell I want, so screw you, Mark Curtis.

 

Maybe I'm exaggerating a bit, but they did this finish like it was a regular match and the ether had to be hidden. If you want to know my favorite no-DQ spot of all time, it was Captain Louis Albano accidentally crashing a chair over Afa's head when the Samoans lost the WWF tag belts to Tony Arlas and Rocky Johnson. Capper took his time waddling into the ring, wound up, Rocky ducked, and WHAM!, all while Dick Woerhle looked right at it and couldn't do a thing. That's how you book manager interference in a no-DQ match. Of course, it would have been better if Corny had thrown the rag in to Stan or Dr. Tom, because Bobby will never live down being manhandled by a manager, even if he's also the booker.

 

To top it off, Dutch was uttlerly ridiculous here. Acknowledge the ether, say the match was no DQ, too bad, so sad, new champs. But not Mr. Mantell, no sir. Bobby's a heavy drinker? When the fans clearly saw the rag and Corny made no attempt to hide it? You sound like a braindead asshole, Dutch. Call what the hell you see in front of you, especially in a situation where you don't have to cover for the Bodies' actions. This is the kind of stuff which makes sure that guys like Dutch and Heenan will never get their due as commentators: They lie and insult the audience's intelligence when the situation doesn't call for it. There's being a good heel commentator and there's being an idiot, and Dutch came down on the wrong side of the fence here. Hopefully it doesn't happen too often from here on out.

 

I much preferred the barbed wire match to this, even with Bullet Bob's fast count at the end. Corny just wanted to get the Fultons out of the way to set up the Rock 'n' Roll feud, and I guess he didn't care how sloppily he did it. It's a shame, because I've grown to like Bobby and Jackie over their stint in SMW. They deserved a better sendoff (at least on the Yearbooks) than this.

[dawho5]

I'll say it was a fun match with the Fultons (I can't call them the Fantastics with Jackie there) playing kind of a Fabulous Ones-style asshole babyface team, which is what they have been all along.  They worked the stip well with some obvious exceptions, which have been mentioned.  And it was structured like a Southern tag, which is always a huge plus for me.  Best SMW match yet.