[1998-05-08-OMEGA] Serial Thrillaz (Mike Maverick & Shane Helms) vs Death & Destruction (Frank Parker & Roger Anderson)

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Tim Cooke]

Southern style tag team wrestling is my favorite single style of wrestling. Faces dominate early with the heels bumping and stooging for them, transition to face in peril, and then take it home. It’s simple and with a little thought, can be done extremely well in a variety of different circumstances and with different kinds of wrestlers.

 

OMEGA was a promotion that came the closest to blending the traditional southern wrestling tradition of building heat in matches while adding in state of the art moves and high spots (for the time). Death and Destruction bring the heat here, Helms brings the high spots and youthful energy, and Maverick brings the big man power spots.

 

This is the OMEGA match that I think best represents the promotion, although I am looking forward to rewatching the Helms/Maverick vs. Hardy Boys matches from Dec 98 and Jan 99.

[Loss]

This was really great. I've never seen Frank Parker or Roger Anderson work before, but I'm told they are North Carolina indy vets and they are really good at building heat. Helms is perfectly cast as a babyface because of his great high flying moves and this has all the things you want in tag team wrestling - hot start with the heels getting outsmarted and losing every exchange early, leading to one mistake where the heels take over and heat things up like crazy and finally a hot tag building to a finish. I loved this, and sadly, these matches are few and far between by 1998. This is on an indy show, but there's nothing minor league about this - the guys aren't stars, but this is the type of work that could get over in a larger building just as well.

[Childs]

As promised by Mr. Cooke, this was excellent. These guys knew how to work a tag match, plain and simple. Helms did the crazy spots you expect from an indy match, but he hit them at the right moments--to punctuate the early shine and to finish the match. Parker and Anderson didn't do anything flashy, but they worked the crowd brilliantly during their long stretch of control. Helms escaped FIP purgatory off a huge missed dive, which worked perfectly to set up the finishing run. The crowd loved everything. I enjoyed the little kids celebrating with Helms in the bleachers and the folks still giving the business to the heels as they skulked out. Good stuff all the way around.

[soup23]

Give me some turnip greens and fried chicken and let me watch this shit on a loop. I adored this match so much as it hit all the things I look for in a tag match. Babyfaces being plucky and flashy and heels being scuzzy as ever and really working over the faces when given the opportunity. The dives by Helms had a great height and impact on them and the finish was so rewarding as evidenced by the crowd going crazy. One of the best southern tags of the decade. (****1/4)

[PeteF3]

Best indy match since the heyday of the Lightning Kid. In some ways this is just as much of a cosplay performance as the previous OMEGA bouts--Anderson & Parker even resemble Ole & Gene physically in addition to the style and the crimson ring attire--but the fundamentals are executed so much better and D&D stand out so much precisely *because* they work a fairly antiquated style that it makes for a much more enjoyable match. They do some terrific heeling through all this, with some old-school trademarks like Parker loading his boot and using a string to choke Helms, and some great mocking of the crowd chants and of the Serial Thrillaz' posing for the crowd. When they attempt the more advanced '90s-style moves they get a little sloppy, but the overarching story is good enough to make up for it and you sort of have to admire the effort to update the classic southern formula a little. Helms is even sloppier at this point, but he at least knows how to sell and that can get you 90% of the way sometimes. And the height on his dives is really incredible. Maverick doesn't do a lot but he's clearly holding this together from the babyface side, and aside from the big dives he's the best part of every babyface offensive sequence. A promising blend of what's to come--a '90s indy aesthetic with classic Crockett touches that the Hardyz grew up watching.

[TravJ1979]

I wish this was pro shot because the way it is presented really takes me out of the action. This will definitely require a re-watch because, while I thought it was good, I wasn't blown away like others. I did notice how good the heel team was at being heels as it truly did stand out. Maverick's "Thug Life" and "Hardcore" written on his tights seemed so out of place.