[1990-07-04-USWA Texas] Bill Dundee vs John Tatum

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Childs]

They did a nice job with the Tessa angle here, making it seem like she just might go back to Tatum until he superkicked her in the back of the head after the match. That was a nasty-looking spot, borderline inappropriate for television. The match itself was pretty good as well, with Dundee landing some awesome punches from unusual angles before Tatum cheated to win the title. I agree with Loss that this gallant babyface run suited Dundee well.

[Loss]

In the pre-match, Tatum says he knows Tessa is coming back to him tonight. It was in the WON that her turning on Dundee and going back was the original plan for this match, but they decided Tatum continuing to lose his mind was better.

 

This was a pretty decent match when they were actually locking up. Tatum wins the title by hooking the tights, then superkicks Dundee right after the match. He pleads for Tessa to come back to him and she isn't interested and he ends up superkicking her in the back of the head in a very uncomfortable moment.

[PeteF3]

Craig Johnson teases a Tessa heel turn, as they push that it's ambiguous where her heart lies. After pleading for her return before the match Tatum mostly wrestles on the level with a minimum of shtick. Tony Falk gets in the way of two big Dundee offensive moves, allowing Tatum to roll him up and yank the tights to regain the Southern title. Tatum again pleads with Tessa after the match and this time she emphatically tells him that she's never going back and that he's "sick." Then Tessa turns around and eats a SUPERKICK TO THE BACK OF THE FUCKING HEAD and gets laid out on the floor. A true holy shit moment that even gets Craig to stop cramming cutesy puns and transitions into his announcing for half a minute. This feud appears to be just heating up.

[soup23]

Not a ton to the match but some good exchanges. I especially liked the 4-5 punches Tatum gave and then he blew the double kiss to the crowd. The way they teased Tessa was well done and I didn't know where it was going. The superkick was really uncomfortable though. Good fired up promo by Dundee.

[shoe]

The match was so so, but the superkick to the back of Tessa's head was a holy shit moment. She took one hell of a bump off that thing. The timing on that thing was spot on or he just kicked her in the back of the head.

[Kevin Ridge]

Yeah, I thought we were going to see a Tessa turn here by her facial expressions. Tatum will win the title and her back. Alright match but the big moment was definitely the after match. Superkick looked nasty with Tessa's head snapping forward. Tough to take a kick like that when you can't see it coming. Uncomfortable to watch. I don't like Dundee's initial reaction to this. He should be way more emotional.

 

Thankfully Dundee is more fired up in his promo after.

[ajtroma]

Bill Dundee is one of the scummiest, sleaziest, carniest people I've ever met so its hard for me to take myself out of that mindset to watch him as a babyface.

[garretta]

The actual match was a spirited brawl. Each man threw some of the best punches I've seen in a while, particularly Dundee, who's got a well-deserved rep as one of the best punchers in wrestling history.

 

We didn't need two big ref bumps followed by a screwjob finish, however. It didn't help that Tony Falk is the most annoyingly visible ref so far on the set, even more so than Earl Hebner. Maybe he thinks that if he's shown on camera enough, Jarrett will bring back the "Boy Tony" gimmick he had when he wrestled briefly in Memphis in the mid-eighties.

 

Finally, we come to the Tessa stuff. The suggestions of her possible turn were understated and easy to miss if you weren't looking for them. I find it interesting that the original plan was for her to betray Dundee and go back to Tatum, mostly because that would have been preferable to what actually happened. Not only was Tatum kicking her in the head totally inappropriate, but they risked further injury for her by making her take such a brutal face-first bump. That would be a hard bump for a veteran wrestler to take, let alone an almost-untrained rookie valet.

 

What's worse is, she didn't even come close to selling a concussion at any point afterward. If you're going to show a woman getting kicked in the head and falling face-first to the concrete, she better be in the hospital for at least a week and recovering for two more. Instead, she's rolling around on the ground with Kim a few days later in Memphis like nothing's wrong. If you're going to bring this feud to Memphis, bring the whole thing, including its injuries. The whole Tessa/Kim program should never have gotten off the ground. In fact, I'm not even sure Tessa should have come to Memphis under these circumstances, Dundee's girlfriend or not, especially when the girls' part of the feud is so physically weak.

 

Finally, we again hear no sense of outrage from Craig. It's not like he's calling these matches from a studio in post production; he's right there at ringside, for God's sake. We not only don't get outrage, we don't even really get irritation. He barely even registers shock or concern for Tessa's well-being. He lowers his voice slightly for five or ten seconds, then it's on to the next item on the format sheet. He's clearly in far over his head as a wrestling announcer, and now more than ever after a performance like this, Jerry Jarrett should have pulled as many strings as possible to get Bill Mercer back, even for a month.

 

I'll be interested to see the mixed tag from this card in the context of what's already happened concerning violence by men against women. After seeing this bout, I'm sure that an incident like this would have been enough by itself for KTVT to cancel wrestling, never mind what happened in that match.

[drew wardlaw]

Man Tatum super kicks Tessa in the head. Pretty good match here, and it seemed strange that it was as long as it was, not the typical thing we've seen in the uswa stuff so far. Tatum still has me hooked, and it's looking like this is leading to a blowoff.

[GSR]

Before the match begins an emotional Tatum gets on the mic and tells Tessa he’s written her poems from the bottom of his heart, has sent her the finest gifts money can buy and can see it in her eyes that after he wins the title and beats Bill Dundee’s brains in, that she’s going to come back to him. Tatum continues to insist that he’s a changed man, but his actions in the match with the closed fists and eye rakes don’t indicate that at all. Tatum reverses an Irish whip into the turnbuckles and ‘The Superstar’ comes off the middle one with a reverse crossbody. Tony Falk is too close to the action and the wrestler’s crash back into him. Dundee makes the cover but Falk is still down and clutching at his leg. Tatum kicks out and Dundee with an O’Connor roll. Falk finally gets back to his feet but as he’s coming around to count the pin, Tatum kicks out again shooting Dundee forward and headfirst into Falk who gets bumped for a second time. Tatum rolls up Dundee, grabs the tights, Falk crawls over to count the three and he’s the new Southern Heavyweight champion. After the match he superkicks Dundee in the back of the head and goes outside to plead to Tessa. She tells him that she’ll never come back to him and that it’s over. When she walks away from him he SUPERKICKS HER IN THE BACK OF THE HEAD which appears to completely stun the Sportatorium audience. He casually then makes his way to the back with Tessa laid out unconscious on the arena floor and Craig Johnson saying how this doesn’t look good.

 

We return from a commercial break and Dundee is with Johnson. He says that although he’s lost the Southern title, that’s not the main issue right now. John Tatum said how he loved Tessa and that everything he did for her and everything that he was doing for her came from his heart, but we’ve just seen what kind of heart he has. Winning wrestling matches and belts is one thing, but when you take your spite out on a woman, that isn’t right. He says that he’ll do whatever it takes to get him in the ring and although he wants that belt back, that can wait as he’s now fighting for Tessa’s honour.

 

I found the match to be disappointing and not that heated at all considering how hot the angles and build up have been. I was expecting full on Tatum ‘changed man’ playing by the rules, or ‘angry, pissed off Tatum’ doing whatever it took to win the title. As it was, we got something in between. The superkick to Tessa was a holy shit moment and seemed to stun everyone as the Sportatorium just went quiet. It was something that I remember reading about in the Apter mag’s, but this was the first time I’d ever seen the footage. I agree with garretta about Falk, and it’s as though he has to get bumped in every match. We hadn’t seen him being bumped for a while so he makes up for it here by getting done twice! After the Dundee post-attack interview I’m pretty excited for whatever’s next between these two.

[dawho5]

That kick to the back of Tessa's head was extremely well-executed. And highly uncomfortable. Tatum continues to be the biggest douche of 1990, which is quite the accomplishment. Oh yeah, I even said verbally (despite being the only one in the room) "there is no need for a ref bump, let alone two."

[ajtroma]

Let me defend Craig here. He was a legit sportscaster and, as such, wanted to call the matches legit. So, he asked Jerry Jarrett not to clue him in on the finishes. Whatever he did was true to the moment. I liked Craig because he really was one of the first to know both wrestling history and have a good command of current pop culture. But, those glasses...