[1991-09-08-WCW-Main Event] Dick Slater & Dick Murdoch vs The Enforcers

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Interesting match up. Even with Murdoch and Slater being past their prime, this is fun, even though I was hoping but not expecting much more. I always enjoy heel vs heel tag matches. Arn is the sort of FIP in this I guess. This has no heat, but that's WCW TV. Murdoch ends up hitting the Enforcers with brass knucks that Arn brought into the ring for the DQ. Not sure why they needed to be protected at this point since they were on the way out, as this felt like it should have been an Enforcers win.

[PeteF3]

That classic WCW quality control sees this taped match air after the Clash, so no belts for the Enforcers. This was quite a fun little fight, with some fun exchanges between Zbyszko and Slater and work on Arn's arm. Cheap finish but I liked this more than Loss, I think.

[Kevin Ridge]

Some crafty guys in the ring, each knowing how to bend the rules. Heel versus heel which I don't think is the ideal match for the Enforcers at this point. Enforcers actually come off as the faces. Arn tries to use some knucks but Murdoch ends up getting them leading to DQ. Would have preferred Enforcers pulling out the win via pinfall with use of the knucks.

[soup23]

I liked this a good deal and thought the FIP stuff on Arn was very focused and featured a lot of vicious little rabbit punches and kicks. Hardliners still being protected is a head scratcher but as a 10 minute contest to fill up a tv spot, this was a ton of fun.

[PhilTLL]

Fun stuff, though I would have preferred a bit more downright heeling from two teams who, as Ross says, "sing out of the same hymnal."

 

Totally worth a watch to me just to see this:

 

 

[garretta]

The work on Arn's arms was nice, but other than that I didn't see a whole lot of point to this, especially the finish. If we ignore the fact that this was taped before the Clash, we have a situation where Murdoch and Slater are fighting for a possible tag team title shot. They've had both Arn and Larry on the run throughout the match. So Murdoch promptly blows it all higher than a kite by retrieving Arn's knucks after Slater gets nailed and clocking everyone he sees with them. Real smart, Dickie.

 

In general, a finish like that exposes the business, because why would someone who's fighting for a title or title shot deliberately get themselves disqualified and blow their chance? The only type of finish worse than this one is its first cousin, where a heel challenger has someone interfere on his behalf to save a pin even though he knows that it ruins his title shot and (theoretically) means that he doesn't necessarily get another one.

 

Zbyszko's new tougher persona continues to impress me. If you'd asked me at the start of the year if I thought Larry would make a good partner for Arn, I would have laughed. but the Enforcers could have been this decade's answer to the Brain Busters if given a little more time on top. Larry has almost everything Tully had, including the ability to make people dislike him intensely on sight.

 

You can tell it's college football season, because JR brought the comparisons thick and fast, including one that also served as a plug for his new employers, the Atlanta Falcons. Comparisons between football and wrestling are one thing, but did we have to know that Murdoch's son Brandon was playing for Texas Tech? Who even knew that Murdoch had a son named Brandon?

 

According to Wrestlingdata.com, Murdoch and Slater were already gone from WCW by the time this match aired. Their last appearance was on 9/1 in Norfolk, Virginia, where they lost to Rick Steiner and Bill Kazmaier.

[JKWebb]

For as long as it lasted, this match ruled. I was pretty excited for it when I saw the names. I loved the Murdoch and Arn interaction, and decimation of Arn's left arm. I would have liked to have seen a long battle between these two teams. Good stiff punching here, and I kind of laughed when Murdoch said something like "come on in here boy!" to Larry Z, and Larry shouted something smart back at him in his Larry Z screaming tone. Anyways, fun short matchup.

[dawho5]

I was excited to see these 4 guys work. Some miscommunication and no crowd heat, but it's heel vs heel in a cold promotion. The work on Arn's arm was really good and I loved the stiff shots they gave each other throughout. I'll go with this as a fun, pointless match, but one that gives you what you would expect from 4 solid pros in the ring.