[1991-12-28-WCW-Saturday Night] Marcus Bagwell and Dangerous Alliance

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Jim Ross takes us to a Marcus Bagwell squash. WCW for some reason loved to make a big deal on television of Bagwell going to SPRAYBERRY HIGH SCHOOL. Bagwell looks pretty green in this match. Paul E. Dangerously interrupts his post-match interview to offer him a TV title match next week. Bagwell says he appreciates it, but he's not ready for that level of competition just yet. Paul E. is SUCH an asshole here, even though this entire premise is a little silly. Paul E. takes exception to Bagwell going to Sting for advice and Bagwell finally has enough and jumps him. This gets him ambushed by the entire Dangerous Alliance sans Rude. Paul E. pulls handcuffs out of his tux in a funny moment and they are about to handcuff Bagwell when Sting makes the save. Rude attacks him from behind and gives him a Rude Awakening and they end up attacking his knee with the plaster cast after handcuffing him to the railing. Great stuff.

[Kevin Ridge]

Paul E. offers Bagwell a TV title match against Austin. Bagwell actually turns it down as he doesn’t feel like it is ready. Strange to turn down a title shot. Paul doesn’t like that Bagwell is taking training from Sting. Alliance attacks Bagwell and Sting makes the save. Rude gives him the Rude Awakening and again goes after the leg again. Sting was pushing it trying to go after the whole Alliance.

[PeteF3]

Who the hell thought that incessantly pushing Sprayberry High School would get Bagwell over? That's as bad as pushing the Omni in establishing WCW as a low-rent regional outfit. His name was stupid, too. An easily-impressed Paul E. offers Bagwell a TV Title shot, but Bagwell begs out. Bagwell really comes off as a putz, and once he puts his hands on Paul E. he gets swarmed by the Alliance. Good, chaotic beatdown follows which draws out Sting, and that seemed to be the plan all along as Rick Rude is waiting to jump him from behind. Sting takes the Rude Awakening on the ramp, gets handcuffed to the guardrail, and beaten in the leg with the cast that Paul E. has brought out. The WWF would later do a better job getting a cast over as a deadly weapon, but this was another hot segment.

[soup23]

I used to live a mile from Sprayberry so I do mark out but Ross mentioned it 3 times in this segment which makes the NATIONAL promotion seem very localized. After the squash, Paul E offers Bagwell a shot at the tv title. He gets progressively more condescending as the promo advances which is great. Bagwell gets beat down by the DA and out comes Sting for the save with pleading from the crowd. Rude gives the Rude Awakening on the stage and he gets rammed into the railing. This was a hot angle that took many twists and turns.

[garretta]

This was a tough one. As brutal as the beating the DA gave Sting was, I couldn't get fully into it because I was trying to rebook the setup in my head. As usual, Pete's right; Bagwell comes off as a real dummy here for not accepting the shot against Austin, which had to make even the biggest mark in the world shake their head in disbelief. Sure, Heyman most likely has a trick up his sleeve, but it's still a shot at a World champion; accept the match and make the DA play out their hand.

 

This would have been better if Bagwell had gotten a big head and challenged Austin himself, which would have brought out Heyman to laugh at him. Bagwell gets tired of being laughed at after a minute or so and pops Heyman, which brings out the troops and leads to Bagwell's beatdown. Sting comes out to make the save, and we go on from there. Either that or find some other reason for Sting to be attacked; heaven knows the DA really doesn't need an excuse to beat the hell out of Sting at this point.

 

Keep in mind that TBS was still serving as the local station for WCW in the Atlanta market, so in many ways they were trying to be a national promotion and a regional promotion at the same time. Hence the shoutouts to Sprayberry High School. Actually, Buff looks like he could still be in high school here.

 

Did anyone else catch the comment that JR made when Buff put his opponent away with the cradle suplex? "Perfectly executed." Shoutout to Curt? A shot at Vince? My money's on both.

 

Did anybody else expect Judy Bagwell to come down out of the stands and attack Heyman when Paul mentioned Buff's mom and dad?

 

I liked Paul visually illustrating the two types of breaks people get in wrestling with the aid of the cast. The man may be a bit too loud for my taste at times, but he can also be wonderfully clever in ways not too many other managers can be (or choose to be, In many cases). Speaking of which, his tantrum when Bagwell mentioned Sting is one of the rare times that I enjoyed seeing him totally snap.

 

The other faces were way late coming out of the locker room. I get that you don't want fourteen guys brawling all over the arena, but at least one or two could have come out before Sting's knee was pounded with that unbreakable cast a hundred times.

 

JR's eyerolling act usually comes about when Heyman takes shots at Turner Broadcasting, so in those cases it's understandable. If only he didn't do it 80-90% of the other times Paul opens his mouth as well.

[dawho5]

I'd say Heyman's freakout over the Sting deal was an act within the promo. Heyman's intention was to draw Sting out, so he is looking for ways to piss Bagwell off and get him to throw a punch. The condescension is really good from Paul here, but when that doesn't work he changes gears.