[1994-03-12-SMW-Johnson City, TN] Rock & Roll Express vs Heavenly Bodies (60-Minute Iron Man)

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

I should have a lot to say about this. I mean, it was an hour-long match. But I don't. It's just there. It's a good match when taken as a whole, but good is about it, and these guys also struggled to keep 60 minutes interesting. And for some reason, the Rock & Rolls carried a fall advantage for almost all of this, which seems to work against the idea of a big comeback. Add in some gimmicking with the time, and I really stopped caring. When they came roaring out of the gate, I thought we might get a different approach, but we didn't. Even though I was a little disappointed in this, I'm glad it made a yearbook. Good or bad, it needed to be here, and it was good. There was so much strong work for it to be bad, but it was surrounded by lots of boring time killing. Anyway, good was all it was. And a match that's just good doesn't really need to take an hour.

[Kevin Ridge]

We get a very quick fall by Rock & Roll to start match and they hold the advantage for a very long time. The Express really needed to be chasing the Bodies instead in this match. This would have been better off as 2 out of 3 falls or 30 minute time limit. Even in the last 10 minutes they weren't doing enough for a match that had already been going as long as it did. I think this could have done another fall on each side or spread out the falls more through the match.

[Exposer]

I'm not a fan of Heel In Peril segments. That's what it felt like when the Rock N Rolls had a twenty minute control segment after winning a fall early. This was good at least but I lost interest sporadically. I'm glad I saw this though. It's certainly a gem of some importance.

[soup23]

Good match but would have really benefited from being a 30 minute match. In the beginning with the quick fall and RNR controlling I just figured they were stretching out the southern tag formula of the hot beginning to fit an hour long match, but RNR just kept controlling the match and the Bodies didn't really get the upper hand until the last 8 seconds. Not a great match to build to the bluegrass brawl even though the heels were triumphant at the end.

[Tim Evans]

Just watched this on the SMW set and god it was a pain to sit through. I like both teams but the time killing had locks and limb work was just too much. Best part of the match was the Bodies taunting the crowd. Too much Robert Gibson control segments and not enough Ricky Morton famous FIP.

[shoe]

I prefer the match the next day. So here is my write up of that one when I was on the SMW committee to help pick matches for the SMW set.

 

 

This is a 60 minute Marathon match between 2 awesome teams and we get another awesome bout between these 2 teams.

 

The 1st fall starts off fast and furious and the RNR get the duke with the double dropkick off the Bodies miscue. This lasted all of a minute and is right out of Mx/RNRoll playbook. They used it a lot when the MX had the belts and were in a 2 out of 3 fall bout making the fans believe he was going to win the belts. It was the same here with the Bodies and RNR.

 

The 2nd fall was just some great old school tag team wrestling. We have the Rock N Roll working working over both of the Bodies arms. Plus the RNR was fake tagging behind the refs back which got over great with the crowd. Eventually the Bodies would take the advantage with some timely Cornette's interference. I must say the timing and execution of Cornette tripping up Morton was so damn smooth. Then again they have done this spot a million times. The heels worked over Morton for a while. Eventually, Morton would make the hot tag to Gibson and he goes wild. Eventually though he would fall victim to Cornette's racket to his back and drops the fall. This fall was great and went about 30 minutes.

 

The 3rd fall had the Bodies working over Gibson's back with some real fun back work. We also get the Gibson bump over the top rope where he does more damage to the back. Eventually we get the hot tag to Morton and he goes wild. In the melee Morton caught a tennis racket shot for the finish.

 

The 4th fall went about 7 minutes and leads to another Cornette racket shot to Morton, but instead of helping his team it backfires and Morton falls on one of the Bodies for a fall for the Rock N Roll.

 

The 5th fall was short and the finish was a tad corny no pun intended that I didn't like like but the crowd dug it enough by the one fan yelling he cheated he got extra air. Cornette ran out for the finish with an oxygen mask for Dr. Tom. This lead to another Cornette racket finish. Eventually time ran out and the crowd seemed legit hot at the Bodies for cheating with the extra air.

 

Final Thoughts:

 

I really liked this bout. They have another one on 3/12 that I need to check out. The guys told a story in each fall. The psychology of the bout was great. The guys just worked and had a great bout. On the Steamboat DVD on his commentary he said the most important thing about going an hour is keeping the crowd. Both teams did that in spades here. I liked how all of Cornette's interference was a build up to the 4/1/94 LLT cage match between the teams. Some things I didn't like was the finish to the last fall. I thought it was cheesy, but for the most part the audience bought it and that's all that matters. I also would have like the Rock n Roll to go over a bit stronger in the 4th fall. Overall though this is some good shit and you should go out of your way to see it. This is wrestling how it used to be and how I like it.

 

 

I understand Dylan's point of how the Bodies looked weak with not winning one fall w/o cheating. As a stand alone bout I get that. Though in the grand scheme of things they are building to a LLT cage bout between the teams for the big show on 4/1/94. So the cheating in the bouts lead to the cage bout stip.Also I'm a mark for 60 minute bouts.

[Cross Face Chicken Wing]

Add in some gimmicking with the time, and I really stopped caring.

You sure they gimmicked the time? I watched this match on the treadmill, with my timer set to an hour. As soon as the treadmill stopped, the match also ended.

[Loss]

Previously at PWO:

 

This is a 60 minute Marathon match between 2 awesome teams and we get another awesome bout between these 2 teams. The 1st fall starts off fast and furious and the RNR get the duke with the double dropkick off the Bodies miscue. This lasted all of a minute and is right out of Mx/RNRoll playbook. They used it a lot when the MX had the belts and were in a 2 out of 3 fall bout making the fans believe he was going to win the belts. It was the same here with the Bodies and RNR. The 2nd fall was just some great old school tag team wrestling. We have the Rock N Roll working working over both of the Bodies arms. Plus the RNR was fake tagging behind the refs back which got over great with the crowd. Eventually the Bodies would take the advantage with some timely Cornette's interference. I must say the timing and execution of Cornette tripping up Morton was so damn smooth. Then again they have done this spot a million times. The heels worked over Morton for a while. Eventually, Morton would make the hot tag to Gibson and he goes wild. Eventually though he would fall victim to Cornette's racket to his back and drops the fall. This fall was great and went about 30 minutes. The 3rd fall had the Bodies working over Gibson's back with some real fun back work. We also get the Gibson bump over the top rope where he does more damage to the back. Eventually we get the hot tag to Morton and he goes wild. In the melee Morton caught a tennis racket shot for the finish. The 4th fall went about 7 minutes and leads to another Cornette racket shot to Morton, but instead of helping his team it backfires and Morton falls on one of the Bodies for a fall for the Rock N Roll. The 5th fall was short and the finish was a tad corny no pun intended that I didn't like like but the crowd dug it enough by the one fan yelling he cheated he got extra air. Cornette ran out for the finish with an oxygen mask for Dr. Tom. This lead to another Cornette racket finish. Eventually time ran out and the crowd seemed legit hot at the Bodies for cheating with the extra air. Final Thoughts: I really liked this bout. They have another one on 3/12 that I need to check out. The guys told a story in each fall. The psychology of the bout was great. The guys just worked and had a great bout. On the Steamboat DVD on his commentary he said the most important thing about going an hour is keeping the crowd. Both teams did that in spades here. I liked how all of Cornette's interference was a build up to the 4/1/94 LLT cage match between the teams. Some things I didn't like was the finish to the last fall. I thought it was cheesy, but for the most part the audience bought it and that's all that matters. I also would have like the Rock n Roll to go over a bit stronger in the 4th fall. Overall though this is some good shit and you should go out of your way to see it. This is wrestling how it used to be and how I like it.

 

 

Great review! I actually also just got a copy of this match too and am trying to find the time to check it out.

 

 

Their are 2 Marathon matches between the teams that made tape. I haven't found time to watch the other one.

 

 

I've seen both of them and I thought they were both really hit or miss matches.

[PeteF3]

Oh man...Jim, I'm sorry, your promotion is really hot at the moment. But I don't relish having to watch a 1-hour handheld of a match that people are this lukewarm on. I do like the hot start, and it also establishes the rules nicely. In fact, the whole match is better than I would have expected, though I admit to having it on as background noise for a chunk of it. They kept the crowd into things and cut a strong pace for the whole hour. Lots of limbwork that filled time, but at least they worked the holds well while they were in them. I didn't really have a problem with HIP or the Rock 'n Rolls having the fall advantage, oddly enough. Dusty didn't want to book the Rock 'n Rolls and Midnights to go 60 because Ricky getting the shit kicked out of him for that long simply wouldn't be believable. Better to drag out the shine stuff for awhile--that way you can get away with two longer-than-usual FIP segments, one on each babyface, without overstaying your welcome. This is more of a match to admire than to like but it speaks well for all involved.