[1991-03-30-WCW-Saturday Night] Tommy Rich vs Arn Anderson

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Another really good WCW TV match with bad booking. Lots of good body part work and some typical Arn sequences, like the bodyscissors into the Boston crab spot. Rich still doesn't really work up to his potential, as everything good about this is because of Arn. I'm not sure why Sid needed to run out and interfere, and it's ridiculous that he managed to botch that spot even. Did that really add something to the match? I guess Dusty's lesson learned returning to WCW was that you can give away plenty of interesting matches on TV, as long as they don't have finishes.

[shoe]

I thought this was a good solid bout. I thought they did a good job milking the drama of it. I liked how Rich would go back to the leg. I liked Sid's interference and thought it set up a nice false finish. When he interfered I was why did he do a leg sweep. Still a good bout that had some interesting work in it. Nothing fancy just smart work .

[PeteF3]

This was on the level of the middle Arn-Taylor draw...if that makes any sense. I too don't get why Arn needed Sid's help to hurt Rich's already-injured leg, but Rich's work is outstanding--from his focused attack on Arn's leg to his sympathy selling after the run-in. I'm fine with a time-limit draw since that's such a TV Title staple, but the execution of it wasn't all that great and we had that WWF-style "heel champion in control at the finish" that seems so back-asswards. This was still enjoyable with Rich showing that he had a decent amount left in the tank.

[Kevin Ridge]

Arn very pleased with himself after hitting the shoulder block. Heyman getting under Ross’ skin on commentary is fun. Did like the body scissors turned into Boston crab. Sid’s interference was very random and didn’t lead to anything. Not only was Anderson in control at finish but he also hits Rich with a spinebuster after match was over.

[soup23]

Good tv match with a lot of grounded body control work. I didn't mind the Sid interference that much as he got in and out pretty quick. I thought Rich looked really valiant going to a time limit draw.

[Smack2k]

WCW Had a LOT of good TV Title, TV Title challenger level guy TV matches during the first 4 months of 1991 on Pro and Worldwide with:

 

Tommy Rich

Arn Anderson

Bobby Eaton

Tom Zenk

Ricky Morton

Rip Rogers

Terry Taylor

 

And a few others....

[garretta]

This match was decent, but it didn't make a hell of a lot of sense. First off, Rich is the one with the injured leg at the start, but not only doesn't Arn work on it like you'd think an Anderson would, but Rich ends up working on his leg instead. JR covers for this with a story about Arn tearing his groin which probably isn't true. It's well-done work, but it's also backwards compared to the natural story outlined by JR and Paul at the beginning of the match.

 

Then we get the Sid run-in, where he clubs Tommy in the back of the legs with a huge forearm and almost causes him to get counted out. I thought for sure that Arn would spend the last few minutes destroying Tommy's leg after that, but he never so much as touched it. Either it was a legit injury that Arn was trying to stay away from or someone got their signals crossed somewhere. Again, the neck-based moves Arn hit were well-done, and Tommy showed a ton of fight and guts to hang on for the draw, but workers like these don't usually tell a completely different story than the announcers are trying to put over on commentary.

 

No mention of a Horsemen breakup or even a loosening of the alliance here, as was made evident by Sid's run-in.

 

I liked Paul getting on Dusty's case about how he interviewed Barry, which audibly angered JR. Was JR's weight a taboo subject for his partners? JR seemed legitimately angry after Paul's insult about diapers not fitting, although he'd been going after Paul for whining about not getting to interview Barry himself just before that, so maybe it all tied in.

 

Paul and Missy are still at it, huh? I guess that situation still goes on until the Bash pay-per-view in July, and maybe even after that. I know Missy's ostensibly the babyface, but I certainly get JR's point about both of them being annoying and hard to take. Hopefully the stupid stuff is kept to a minimum going forward.

 

.

[PeteF3]

In fairness to JR, the torn groin actually *was* true. It's why Arn had to miss WarGames.

[garretta]

Okay, Pete. I thought it was a back injury somehow. Thanks for the clarification!

[Tim Evans]

Watched this part of the Secret Santo project

 

Another good Arn Anderson tv title match. He gives Tommy a lot of offense and had some unique comebacks including the sid interference and baiting Tommy into the corner and then punching him in the face. Tommy is probably in the best shape of his life during this run and is a better opponent for Arn than say Terry Taylor or Tom Zenk. I liked that the sid interference wasn't the end of the match. However, one of my pet peeves in wrestling is the ring announcer doing the countdown of the time limit over the mic. It makes the finish so obvious and hurts the match to me. I still enjoyed it but not as much as if it had a clean finish.