[2000-01-22-TWA-Total Impact TV] American Dragon vs Buster Time

[Loss]

Nice big man vs little man match. Danielson looks good here ... you can sort of see him making mild improvements by the week as he gains confidence.

[soup23]

Buster Time! Hey, it sounds like Buster Rhymes, get it. Dragon cuts a small promo here and it's not awful with him comparing the match to David and Goliath. Not two seconds into the match we get HBK's first WHOAAA on commentary. He is atrocious. Dragon keeps showing more with each appearance and some growth as he is aggressive here with throwing Buster Time to the outside and continues the onslaught out there. Time comes back and throws Dragon out on the outside. Shawn says this is his gift to the wrestling business since he doesn't wrestle anymore. Buster Time is actually impressing me a lot here and has a good arsenal of fun power moves and some cockiness to go along with it. Big Bad John comes out with the kendo stick and Time is out. Dragon hits the elbow drop for the pin and Venom looks on from the rampway. Really fun match here. ***

[Tim Evans]

I thought Buster Time actually looked better than Dragon here. He had good power guy offense and looked more impressive. I like how his shirt had Ass Kick on it. Finish had a guy named Big Bad John come out and help Dragon win. Also a cameo from Paul Diamond as Venum at the end. Had no idea he looked like Berlyn.

[AstroBoy]

This was really entertaining. Dragon's onslaught at the beginning was fantastic and he took a real hellacious bump off the clothesline to open the match. UBG seemed decent, at the very least serviceable, and they work a nice cat and mouse type of match. Given some more time to breathe this could have been even better but it's still a really nice 10 minute match.

[Moonsault Marvin]

Fun match. I thought this was Bryan's best performance so far. His uninspired promo was awful, but his matches continue to improve. He had some nice high flying moves like running off the apron and elbowing Buster Time while he was climbing over the railing. Buster had some good power moves like the gorilla press drop to the floor.

[GSR]

Short pre-match interviews from both. Time is pretty intense and pumped, while Dragon is fairly softly spoken and calls Time another rung on his ladder, whilst comparing their upcoming match to David vs Goliath. Buster with a clothesline that folds Dragon over, but he fights back with a huracanrana and a series of arm drags. They exchange stinging chops in the corner and Dragon’s resonate through Buster’s T-shirt. A headscissors sends Time to the floor. Dragon with a pescado but Buster catches him and puts him over his shoulder, however Dragon slides off and sends Time careering into the guard rail. Dragon with a huracanrana sending Time over the guardrail and into the front row, and then a flip dive off barricade onto him. As Buster tries to get back to the ringside area, he’s met with an elbow off the apron followed by a suicide dive from Dragon. He throws him into the ring, springboards off the top, but is caught with a powerslam. Time tosses him to the outside, gorilla press and he just drops him chest first to the floor, followed by an Irish whip into the guard rail. Dragon breaks a side headlick and a spinning heel kick sends Time tumbling through the ropes to the outside. Dropkick off the apron to the floor by Dragon. Headscissors back into the ring, but Buster with a big chokeslam and a huge elbow for a near fall. Big Bad John comes to ringside, Dragon reverses an Irish whip and John nails Time in the back with a kendo stick. Snap suplex and an elbow off the top for the win.

 

Great TV match and Dragon worked so hard here. His work ethic, even this early in his career, is off the charts (flip dive off the barricade, suicide dive, taking a press slam to the arena floor, taking an Irish whip into the guard rail, dropkick off the apron to the floor). I’ve never seen Time before but was impresses by him too and he cuts a strong, if not short, promo before the match. No hesitations or botches that have been evident in the first few TWA matches I’ve watched either. Of the stuff that is new to me, probably my favourite thing so far.

[TravJ1979]

Dragon did every highspot he knew in like a five minute match. That said, he didn't make them look terrible. Fun match,

[Stiva]

I really enjoyed this little TV match and it was cool to see that the speed and explosiveness that made Bryan's hot tags so much fun, were present as early as here. Not to repeat too much but I thought Buster looked kinda promising, if green, here too. He had a decent look, heel charisma and some fun little spots dotted throughout the match but this was a total Bryan performance. Everything that would make him great is here already and it can't be long before he begins to knit it all together.

[Edwin]

Yikes, that Dragon promo was a bit rough. Ultimate Bad Guy seems like a generic name from a Double Dragon NES villain.

 

Dragon looked awesome here. David vs. Goliath TV match with Dragon using his speed and agility trying to try and stop UBG and UBG using his strength and size advantage to try and ground Dragon.

 

That rana over the guardrail and endless dives from Dragon in hopes of wiping out UBG early on were beautiful. UBG also does a great job at manhandling the much smaller Dragon.

 

Really good stuff.