[1991-03-16-USWA-Memphis TV] Bill Dundee vs Sgt. O'Reilly

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Expiration of time match with some pretty top notch matwork! Dundee is first class. Terrific squash. Steve Austin attacks Dundee after the match by punching him with a coal miner's glove while JC cuts an obnoxious promo. Dundee juices to get this over. The angle was good, but the squash was the highlight. I'm glad they at least waited until after the match to do the run-in. Dundee's interview capping this off is excellent, even though they try to use the music to wrap him up. What a pro.

[PeteF3]

Dundee wrestles a clean match against a Sgt. Slaughter ripoff, putting him out with the sleeper. Steve Austin jumps him afterward with the coal miner's glove while JC Ice Baby rants and gloats at ringside. Dundee cuts a bloody response promo vowing to take Austin out like he did the White Boy and Jeff Gaylord if that's what it takes to get his son back, before he gets Frank Sinatra'd out of his allotted time.

[Kevin Ridge]

Dundee runs away from some poor kids who were just looking to high five him. Sgt. O’ Reilly complains about his tights being pulled on a back body drop. Tough to argue that one. Superstar wins easily but nice squash. Austin attacks Dundee after the match and JC Ice is very happy about the whole thing.

[soup23]

Good insight into how good Dundee could be as a studio worker as this was three minutes but featured some nifty work. Dundee blades from the Austin beatdown to put it over and he gets the Oscar treatment getting his promo cut off.

[garretta]

O'Reilly must have been pretty green, because this seemed more like a training bout than anything else with its emphasis on matwork. That gives the announcers time to tell Bill's story again, complete with a tagline about how he was a total bastard when he came here but has matured into a model citizen, so there's hope for Jamie yet. First, though, his friends have to stop busting Bill open with coal miner's gloves. Second, Jamie has to stop acting so happy about it. And third, he has to stop trying to take the mic out of Dave Brown's hand.

 

Jamie's not a bad talker for his experience level, and the idea that he could recruit someone like Austin to do his dirty work speaks to his intelligence. But Bill's promo blows his away. Even though part of it's cut off, the gist is still loud and clear: he'll stop at nothing to make Jamie see the error of his ways, even running Austin out of Memphis. The mentions of Bill sending Tony Anthony and Jeff Gaylord out make him seem like even more of a threat to do it, regardless of his size.

 

I'd have liked to see Jeff and/or Lawler make the save here, but apparently they want to keep this issue separate from the Tennessee/Texas stuff as much as possible, and I can't blame them. Why try to squeeze everyone into one hot program when you can have two? I still think that the two feuds will intersect at some point before all is said and done, though.

[dawho5]

Billy is a really good matwork guy when he needs to be. Still a better puncher though.