[2000-06-03-MPPW-TV] Derrick King vs Blade Boudreaux vs Ali vs Seven vs Koko B. Ware vs Spellbinder (Elimination)

[soup23]

Everyone thinks they deserve a shot at Wolfie D. The highlights were King who cut a great promo and Ko Ko who is a treat to see this late in his career and he tries his damndest to not namedrop KIng and Dundee. Koko is wearing his high energy tights. A really long match for PPW showing they are having to stretch things out with MCW around. The eliminations were well done and culminated in Ko Ko getting out of the match taking a big tumble to the outside. Spellbinder and Boudreaux are the finalists and get a few minutes together with Spellbinder being fascinated with Wolfie D on commentary. The match cuts off for us right at the end with a promo with Baxter in the locker room. Sad we don't have the finish but neat to see these long form Memphis matches. **3/4

[Tim Evans]

Koko in his High energy pants in 2000 is hilarious. Love him trash talking everyone in the ring and just slapping Ali right in the face. Other than that, this was a mess. Seven is really bad here whiffing right and left and just being awkward. Spellbinder pulls his old phantasio tricks in the beginning. I never get why Randy didn't go all the way with Ali as he was over and was good in the ring. He and Koko get elminated by going over the top rope which I guess counts. Doing the TBS finish is weak.

[GSR]

Dave Brown says that despite the mistake by the referee last week, Wolfie D remains the Power Pro champion. Ali has demanded some interview time and joins Corey Maclin in the ring. He says that on Wolfie’s best day he couldn’t beat him on his worse, and challenges him to come out and face him right now for the Power Pro title. There’s no sign of Wolfie, but there is sign of Derrick King. King tells Ali that he’s been in the back listening to what he said and everyone knows that he’s had several shots at the title already. He on the other hand, is the uncrowned champion of Power Pro wrestling (“it even says so on Randy Hales’ website!”) and he wants a shot at Wolfie D today. Ali and King exchange words with Ali saying how King needs to go home, dust off his little Young Guns trophy, and leave the heavyweights to the big boys! Seven joins the party, and as TV champion, thinks that makes him the number one contender and that he deserves a title shot. Next comes Blade Boudreaux shortly followed by the Spellbinder, and you’ve guessed it, both think they deserve a title shot too. Randy Hales is out to try and diffuse the situation and thinks that everyone should be the number one contender, but they’re all whining like little girls. He tells them to stop acting like babies, and instead of arguing about it, fight about it, before setting up a five way dance for later in the show. At which point they’re then interrupted by Koko B. Ware. He too claims to be the number one contender and deserves a title match, until he quickly forgets about that idea and claims that he is in fact the World champion! He’s been all over the world, has wrestled in the WWF and WCW (really?), has beaten the guy with the crown, the little Australian and also Ric Flair, and tells Hales to go to the back and just hand the belt over to him. Randy is having no part of that and adds Koko to the match later in the show, which is now a six way number one contender’s match.

 

Alan Steel confronts Derrick King in the locker room as he’s dressing and claims that the only reason he’s in this match is because he sucks up to Randy Hales. King pretty much brushes him off, telling him to leave him alone as he’s got to get ready for this match. As he leaves Steel warns him that he’ll pay for walking away and not listening to him.

 

Wolfie D joins Dave and Corey at the commentary desk for the number one contender’s match where eliminations can occur via pin, submission or via over the top rope elimination. Ali and Spellbinder gets us underway and their work is fairly unspectacular, ending when Spellbinder goes all Phantasio, throwing silly string at Ali a la Spiderman and he tags out. Blade Boudreaux and Derrick King is a vast improvement on what went before, as these two work a fast paced section together. The two exchange neckbreakers, which both garner a two, before letting Koko and Seven show what they can do. Koko’s piled on the weight, not Rob Harlem levels, but he’s a lot bigger than he was in the late 80s/early 90s. Its neckbreaker central as Seven takes down King with one. Fallaway slam followed by a gorilla press from Spellbinder as they look to isolate King and almost ‘team up’ against him. The worst clothesline spot you’ll ever see, as an unfortunate camera angle shows Seven doesn’t connect at all (missing by a good foot), yet King sells like he’s on the receiving end of one from Bradshaw. King ducks a lariat and we get our fourth neckbreaker of the match. Alan Steel is at ringside and as King primes himself for the superkick, ‘All That’ grabs his ankle. The distraction allows Seven to hit his ‘Redemption’ finisher and King is eliminated. He goes right after Steel, holding him responsible, and the pair have to be separated by a bunch of officials and referees. The match continues as Koko attacks Ali with a stick, and then busts out a (Muhammad) Ali shuffle in between peppering him with some soft looking jabs. I think Koko tries a ‘stunner’ but it was so badly executed that I’m not sure what it was. More jabs as Ali as backed up against the ropes, however as he swings a right, Ali ducks under and backdrops him over the top rope, therefore eliminating Koko. As Ali has a few choice words to him, he’s then tossed over by Seven and we’re down to three. Boudreaux makes his second appearance in the match and again looks good. He misses a splash in the corner, but lands a reverse DDT for the pin and now Seven is out of there. Belly to belly by Spellbinder followed by lariat for two. Shoulder tackle, he then picks Blade up for a bodyslam, but in the process his swinging legs take out referee William Gibson. Double clothesline and both men, along with the official, are down. As Blade gets to his feet, Seven is back out and nails him in the back with a Kendo stick. Spellbinder makes the cover just as Dave Brown says that we’re out of time for today and they’ll let us know the result of the match next week.

 

Probably the longest Power Pro match all year, certainly the longest of what we’ve watched, and they run out of time with it going off air still in progress! In all honesty though, I’m pretty sure that was the finish and we only missed a couple of seconds of action. The interview segment setting this up was good, although some of the claims about being number one contender were a bit tenuous. Seeing him cut a decent promo too, adds fire to why neither WWF nor WCW took a shot on Ali; he’s muscular, has got a good look, can work, can talk, maybe he was a local boy who never wanted to leave Memphis? The match itself wasn’t up too much as the constant quick tags at the start didn’t really allow it to flow. Boudreaux and King were the standouts (and their section together at the start the highlight), and it felt like they tried to use King as the glue to hold it together. Koko’s best days are behind him and it was funny seeing Ali having to run slow at one point so that he wouldn’t catch up with him! I’m guessing he didn’t fancy jobbing either so that’s why they had over the top rope eliminations. Spellbinder was the worst of the six, just a big, jacked up stiff. King and Steel should provide some decent matches if previous form is to go by.