[2000-03-01-WCW-Thunder] Terry Funk vs Dustin Rhodes

[soup23]

Holy shit its Broken Dustin Rhodes as he calls the crowd a bunch of drones. Dustin is talking about kicking Funk’s ass. When did this partnership come to an end? Dustin calls the crowd marks and cuts a typical Russorific shoot promo. Some habits die hard. We go back to catering where Funk gets attacked by Dustin including pouring the punch bowl on him. Dustin says come on and get some. Terry waddles in and takes forever where Dustin should clearly be able to see him. Anyway, Terry bops Dustin with a chair and man I thought it was depressing seeing Flair vs. Funk until I witnessed this. Dustin calls Funk a piece of shit and then hits Funk across the head with a chair multiple times. Not much heat at all for this. Finally, Dillenger and company come in and break things up. Not really a match but this was atrocious.

[KB8]

I haven't seen this, but I thought their Uncensored match later in the month was crazy fun. I don't remember how good it actually was and it might've been more funny than anything else, but I got a huge kick out of it. Funk came out wearing a frozen chicken (with 'DUSTY' written on it) like it was a boxing glove, then said he'd brought Dustin's brother with him before sending someone in a chicken suit to the ring. Then he punches Dustin in the head with his frozen chicken hand. I think it was a cowbell match and Funk tried to change the stip midway through, then dinged the ref' with the cowbell when he told him no.

[Loss]

Dustin Rhodes does a pre-match promo calling the fans "smart marks" that very clearly goes over their heads. Fans just weren't there at this point. Still, that's far, far from the worst offense WCW has of that nature in 2000. This is more angle than match, and it's all pretty bad and depressing stuff from two great career talents. These fans don't have a clue about anything going on. They are just there because the stars are in town, nothing more. But they aren't invested in shit.

[GSR]

Dustin Rhodes is out and he’s got something to share with all the ‘marks’, the ‘smart marks’. He’s fought for them, fought for this business, and right now doesn’t give a rat’s ass about any of them and never will again. They are the ones who are turncoats, they take and take and take until there it nothing left to be given, and then they turn their back on them. At this point Bobby Heenan refers to the fans a parasites and leeches! He’s got some video of something that happened earlier and when these people see it they will realise that ‘old bag of crap’ Terry Funk will never see another birthday. The footage is of an autograph signing where Rhodes attacks Funk (hits him in the head with a water jug, hits him in the back with a chair, pours coffee on him and leaves him laying). Dustin says how the people should be worried about Funk ‘is he okay?’, ‘does he have to go in an ambulance?’, but they’re more concerned that they’re not getting their autograph! Some people throw garbage at him and he offers them to come in the ring and ‘try him’ if they want. Funk enters from the back of the ring and nails Dustin in the back with a chair. He continues to waffle him with it andimploring him to get up, as every time he does he’s going to knock him back down on his ass. He tells him his father wasn’t a wrestler, he isn’t either and he doesn’t belong in a wrestling ring, so throws him to the arena floor. He goes for a piledriver, but Dustin with a backdrop and a DDT. Rhodes throws him back in the ring as our footage ends.

 

This was all angle as opposed to match. I enjoyed bitter Dustin, but not a fan at all of insider terms like ‘marks’ and ‘smart marks’ being used in promos. I expected Rhodes to turn on Funk at Superbrawl in the ‘death match’ with Flair, but something obviously happened in the week or so after. The stuff at the autograph signing wasn’t the best, but I’m not as down on the rest of this as everyone else seems to be.