[1990-10-29-UWF-TV] Steve Williams vs Paul Orndorff

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Doc comes out to the Bash '88 music, which I'm sure will excite soup and Jerry Von Kramer. Orndorff is the face and Doc the heel, which wasn't the dynamic I expected the first time I saw this footage. I should count up all the matches that are on here featuring two people employed by WCW within the previous 12 months, because something that keeps standing out is how horrible the promotion was at keeping people around. I'd like to see these two get about 20 minutes, because they work well together, and this was a good match. I think it could have been really great with more time.

[shoe]

This was great for the time given. They had a great chemistry in the ring. A pair of legit bad asses, so I'm sure their was a big respect factor there.

[PeteF3]

Pretty good stuff, with neat work (though not to a Buddy Rose extent) centering around low blows. Did any non-squash in the UWF ever have a pinfall finish?

[soup23]

Decent little match just not given much time to develop. Orndorff has lost a lot of muscle. The finish was shit.

[Kevin Ridge]

Agreed that this needed more time. I figured UWF needed to deliver a big time match at some point. The low blow stuff was fun.

[garretta]

This is a nice little free TV match here. Nothing too spectacular, but enough to promote a house show feud between these two if Abrams had ever run a loop. I liked the low blow exchange, and Doc worked on Paul's leg in an attempt to introduce some limb psychology that ultimately went nowhere.

 

I hate to sound like I'm picking on people here, but could we please ease up on the complaints for every finish that isn't a clean pinfall or submission? Despite what Abrams implied in his outro, this feud's just getting started, and this match was at a TV taping in front of a few hundred people at most. Do you honestly think that either one of these two would have agreed to lose clean? If one of them had, they'd have been legitimate candidates for the funny farm. There's still plenty of mileage left in this feud, and we're nowhere near the time where any sort of definite resolution is even advisable, let alone necessary. Just be patient, guys.

 

Abrams is still beating the Davey Meltzer thing from three or four weeks ago totally into the ground. As for his match calling, he's not the worst I've ever heard, especially with Bruno there to reign him in, but he likes to think that he's a hundred times more clever than anyone else who's ever worn a mic, so we get gems like: "Dr. Death's not going to take this beating sneezing!" How Bruno didn't fall down laughing at that piece of absurdity I'll never know. Then again, maybe he did; the commentary for this match was obviously added in post production, so it could have been redone any number of times. Bruno continues to be above average by his standards, even doing (gasp) some subtle heeling, particularly during the low blow sequences and when Abrams suggests that Paul should be disqualified for his actions outside the ring.

 

To Loss's point above, this would have been an interesting midcard feud in WCW. As it is, it's the number one feud in this promotion so far, but if only a few hundred people watch their matches, can it really be a main event feud? Nevertheless, I'm eager to see more.

[drew wardlaw]

The UWF has been really dry, but this was the best thing from it so far. Decent match, not a lot to it and pretty short, but Orndorff and Doc were working well. I know they had ppvs so I'm curious what those looked like.

[dawho5]

I'd definitely be interested in a Doc/Orndorff PPV match.

 

I think the whole thing with the finishes is more because of the massive shift in pro wrestling during the late 90s. We went from mostly non-finishes in the marquee matchups to everything having a finish to keep the fans watching. Where we are at in 1990, it's very much an 80s atmosphere from a booking standpoint. Keep the TV matches non-decisive to make the house shows (or PPVs) a big deal.