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[1990-07-07-WWC-Anniversario] Abdullah the Butcher vs Zeus


Loss

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  • 2 months later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Zeus! In Puerto Rico! As a BABYFACE! Drawing "Zeus!" chants! This...is not the worst thing I've ever seen. It goes on way too long and they lose what's a genuinely hot crowd to start, but you can't fault these guys for lack of energy. Clearly Zeus was watered down in the WWF as Puerto Rico gave him some time to show off what he could do: swinging forearms, bearhugs, swinging forearms, chokes, selling, bearhugs, forearms, bearhugs, and bearhugs from the apron. And Abby charging a downed Zeus and eating a monkey flip = spot of the year.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

This is probably beyond words but I'll attempt to do this masterpiece some justice. Back in 1991 was my first ever taste of American wrestling as I got a tape of Summerslam 1989. That event was main evented by the Greek God Zeus, so he will always have a special place in my heart. At the time I had no idea how awesome he was. I mean the guy has a Z on the side of his head FFS! Within seconds I was marking out hard for him here.

 

Obviously this is a match that looks terrible on paper. I went in hoping that it would fit in the catagory of 'so bad it's good'. It was way too bad for that. It kept getting worse and worse before going off the scale of all known badness and somehow ending up as an anti-classic. I must have been laughing non-stop for the 2nd half of it. There were a couple of times I had to pause it as I'd fallen off my chair and was quite literally ROTFLMAO. It was absolute gold.

 

There was 12m of action and it felt like about 30. One of the wrestlers couldn't physically bump so didn't. The other had never been taught how to bump so didn't. The entire match was conducted standing with The Human Wrecking Machine mainly on offence. His moveset was choke, clubbing blow, head butt, bear hug and lariat. I was disappointed that he'd forgotten the neck snap of death. It wasn't just the extreme repetitiveness of the offence, but the way he used it. Once he'd selected a move from 1-5 he just did it immediately, irrespective of ring positioning or match flow. I know the guy was an actor, but it was almost like he hadn't even watched wrestling before. There was absolutely no psychology, pacing or any of that nonsense. Abby was Abby. No opponent actually works with him, they simply exist in his world for a short time. Time has no meaning or effect on him. The background to all this insanity was a bunch of bemused Puerta Ricans who spent the whole time pelting the ring with rubbish. Just in case it couldn't get any more surreal.

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...

When that was over the first thing I thought of was Krusty The Clown at the Little Miss Springfield Pageant: "Well, That just kept on goin!"

 

Who was the booker in Puerto Rico at this point? Its clearly not a well-minded person who said "Well, why the hell not?"

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  • 1 year later...

I actually think Zeus was the better of the two workers here on the basis of the monkey flip spot alone. I had no idea that he could even execute a monkey flip, no matter how bad it may have looked.

 

This was never exactly going to be a classic no matter what, but you have to hand it to Tiny Lister. He accepts a wrestling gig in Puerto Rico, then either has to be told for the first time or reminded that his opponent not only doesn't bump, but can't leave his feet for any reason. The man knows only five moves to start with, and now has no way to look like anything but a total idiot. But does he turn around and go home? No! He goes out there and gives it his all, such as his "all" is, and even gets Abby to take a MONKEY FLIP! Brody couldn't do it, Colon (who owns the ever-lovin' promotion) couldn't do it, The Sheik couldn't do it, but a third-rate Hollywood actor/stuntman actually got Abdullah the Butcher to leave his feet. For that, he should be saluted as one of the top ten workers of the year, and I'm not entirely kidding. He also got Abby to sell his forearms a little. Granted, it was after he was hit by about five hundred of them, but when it comes to Abby, you take what you get and are damn glad to have it.

 

Is it just me, or was the ref looking for an excuse to end this thing five or so minutes early? I mean, we all know nobody's getting pinned and they're going to fight back to the locker room anyway, so why prolong the inevitable?

 

I have nothing much to say about Abby. He doesn't perform, just goes out and stands there until it's time to pull his fork out, stabs his opponent until he bleeds, throws a few chops, maybe drops an elbow if he's feeling spry, then takes it home. You know that's what you're going to get when he's on the card, so why knock him for it? You might as well knock the sun for rising in the morning.

 

I'm glad I saw this one........once.

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  • 1 year later...
  • 8 months later...

The crowd are peppering Abby with rubbish before he even gets in the ring. He doesnt make it in there as Zeus goes out and attacks him as hes on his way around ringside. His attacks look so weak though, worse than Tom Magee against Hiroshi Wajima. His clubbing blows, the headbutts, everything is so soft. They have an okay looking lock up, but those clubbing blows get worse with each one he delivers. You wouldnt imagine that a man who looks as threatening and imposing as Zeus could deliver such piss poor strikes. Even when he starts choking Abby it looks like he is putting nothing into it. He manages to lift the Butcher off his feet with a bearhug, which is the only impressive thing about this match so far. More grazing clubbing blows and you can see Abby blade his forehead. Yet more blows to the head, and words cant convey how bad this is. Abby pulls some scissors out of his boot, but Zeus stops him from using them and they drop to the floor. I thought things may pick up with the foreign object but I was sadly mistaken and Zeus returns to his main move, the powder puff clubbing blows to the head! Abby finally starts to gain some advantage and drops Zeus with some thrusts to the throat. A big elbow, but Zeus kicks out. When you think things can get no worse, Zeus throws a clothesline, adding to his repertoire of lame ass moves. Abby with a nerve hold and Zeus cant even sell that convincingly. Despite both not really exerting themselves, theyre both puffing for air at this point. The Butcher with a low blow, he starts choking Zeus with the rope and Im wanting this to stop! More awful action including Zeus applying a bearhug while he is on the apron outside the ring and Abby is still inside! He pulls him to the outside and the two start fighting out there and mercifully they dont beat the count and the match is declared a double count out.

 

Zeus may well be the worse wrestler ever. Huge credit to Pat Patterson or whomever was looking after him in the WWF, because he looked nowhere near as bad as this there. A legitimate contender for worse match of all time.

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