[1991-03-29-USWA Texas] Jeff Jarrett vs Tom Prichard (Cage)

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Another really good match between these two. While I've enjoyed the matchup, this is probably the right point to stop the series, so I'm glad there are no more coming. The cage is a little inconsequential, as I expected, but factor that out and you have a match just as good as any of the ones they've had before. This one was really held together by Pritchard's offense and Jarrett's selling. I love the finish of this, as they tease yet another chain finish, and end up doing tease after tease before Jarrett finally gets the clean pin.

 

But this continues, as Pritchard manages to sneak the chain into Jarrett's trunks on the rollup pin, then accuse Jarrett of using it. The referee is about to return the belt to Pritchard until Elliott Mays hits the ringside area to declare that the belt is held up. Feels like a repeat, and I wish Jarrett could just get a decisive win, but I liked the match a lot.

[shoe]

I enjoyed this match and have enjoyed this feud. We start out early with the Dr. putting Jarrett into the cage with normal cage match spots . The exception though we get no blood. So then the match settles down into a regular match that so happens in a cage. So we pretty much have Pritchard work over Jarrett and Jarrett sells beautifully. The finish was fantastic for what it was.

[PeteF3]

This was worked well, if a little meandering for a bit, though I'm rapidly tiring of big gimmick matches where the gimmick is unable to be used, presumably per ESPN. Just makes the Texas leg look much more like a poor man's Memphis--especially adding in that there are far fewer unique-to-Dallas angles and feuds, and it all adds up to a promotion that's dropped off in a big way from 1990. Clever little finish with Dr. Tom framing Jarrett for using a chain and seemingly retaining the belt on a Dusty Finish, but then a Dusty Finish to THAT finish as the Southern title gets held up. If this is the last chronological Jarrett/Prichard match then I wish this had ended a little more decisively, but they have me interested to see where this goes.

[Kevin Ridge]

I was ready to congratulate them on the finish with Pritchard getting the chain but Jarrett managing to avoid getting hit with it multiple times and then getting the win. But Pritchard puts the chain in Jarrett’s trunks and the referee disqualifies him. In a cage match! This is getting frustrating. Stop using cage match, street fight, etc gimmicks if you are going to have standard wrestling match rules. As a wrestling match it was good but they need to just stick to wrestling if they are unable to use the gimmicks in full because of censors. I’m trying but I just can’t get my head around this.

[soup23]

Good match but was pretty disappointing to me. I can get behind a methodical cage match if the intensity and hatred is there but I just didn't feel it between these two. I also thought Jarrett looked sloppier here than he has in a while with that awful missile dropkick and the roll up sequence not looking very smooth.

[garretta]

This match never really got going for me, and it had nothing to do with what went on in the ring. If we're just looking at the actual wrestling, this might be the best bout Jeff and Dr. Tom have had yet, and the finish, though it's typical bullshit, is brilliantly conceived bullshit, so it's forgivable. But there's just been too much bad booking in the USWA lately, and that negates everything else in my book.

 

To start with, we have the typical violent match that hurts no one. Okay, so you can say that Jeff wants the cage not so it can be used as a weapon, but to keep Tojo out. Well, it doesn't work on that level, just like it didn't with Dundee/Embry, because it's his chain that leads to the finish. So why have the cage? To beat your opponent up with, except that can't happen because of ESPN's blood restrictions. But we knew all that going in, so at least Paul Neighbors can stay out of the way and let these two slug each other senseless, right? Wrong! So we get no violence, no blood, zealous rule enforcement, and the usual interference, plus a DQ finish that has to be overturned. Was the ring crew desperate enough for a paycheck that Papa booked a cage match just to give them something to assemble?

 

But wait, there's more. It struck me from hearing Michael's introduction that I couldn't remember how the Southern belt had changed hands last. Then I remembered; we've heard so much about Embry and his various feuds that everything else in the promotion has been completely forgotten, title belts included. Not only that, but we're back to Dallas not recognizing what happens in Memphis. In Memphis, it's Embry who's the Southern champion, thus allowing him to hold the most prestigious belt each half of the promotion has. The Southern title doesn't mean as much in Dallas, so Jeff and Prichard are allowed to squabble over it with no one the wiser. Can you imagine what the fans who got ESPN in Memphis must have been thinking at this time? Of course, to them Lawler was the king no matter what, so maybe who held which belt didn't matter as long as Lawler was the overall ruler, so to speak. Still, it had to be confusing, and Dave and Corey/Michael/Lawler probably didn't take time on a given Saturday morning to say, "Now, for those of you who might be watching the shows from Dallas on ESPN..........."

 

Finally, am I the only one who wishes that either Embry or Prichard had flat-out decked Elliott Mays? I have nothing against the man, but there's something about seeing him hold up and run away with two belts like a thief in the night that irritates me. My guess is that they were trying to figure out which belt to keep once the Dallas side closed, and wanted both of them out of action so they wouldn't be tempted to book any more switches until everything got straight.

 

All I can say is thank God that we have only one more Dallas bout to go. I've never believed that Papa's heart was in this side of the promotion, and the fact that he's let things go to this extent proves it. Maybe now with Dallas closed he can work on keeping Embry's ego in check before he takes Memphis down the sewer too.

[dawho5]

Honestly, that finish to me looks like it was a well-covered botch. Jeff does the exact same setup that Pritchard gives him for the actual finish, then they call it a wash and re-do it the right way. And it somehow works better for a finish to the match than just once. Great wrestling from both guys. The fact that they booked a cage match for ESPN after previous weeks of ridiculous stip match being screwed up by the rules is just awful. wait, didn't it get mentioned we have not one but TWO cage matches? Yeah, that's just incredible.