[2000-07-22-OVW-TV] Flash Flanagan vs Rico Constantino

[soup23]

This was a weird match where we get 1 minute of action before Rico hurts his leg. The spot didn’t look very believable at all that Rico would have been legit hurt. Flash attacks the referee and calls out Nick Dinsmore. Out comes Dinsmore and we get an impromptu match as Cornette swears to us that no one knew this was going to happen. You hear that guys, we have a SHOOT on our hands. Cornette is without a doubt a worst announcer in 2000 that Lawler and I feel completely justified in that opinion. Dinsmore gets thrown from the top rope for the DQ and then Flash dives on him. Flash attacks the referee again. Not much heat for this at all which should show how ineffective it has been as an engaging feud overall. All the referees come out and they get attacked. A chair gets involved. Now a referee fires off against Flash and gets a piledriver. Fuck this overbooked shit. TPT finally makes the big save. The earlier TPT squash showed a short but semi effective segment that could have made OVW seem like at least a decent promotion. This crammed as many Memphis tropes into a seven minute segment as you could and the dead crowd with Cornette being the loudest voice felt hollow and depressing. 1/4*

[GSR]

This hasn’t even gone sixty seconds when Rico tries to land on his feet off a hip toss and falls to the canvas clutching at his knee. Flash hesitantly puts a few boots to him as he and referee Robert Brisco’s body language tries to portray this as being ‘unplanned’. Jim Cornette is conducting things from the commentary booth, telling Brisco that he’s got to make a judgment call on what to do and ordering him to get Flash away from Rico. Flash doesn’t respond to well to that and decks Brisco when he tries. He apparently wants Nick Dinsmore and Cornette screams for someone to go and get him. Literally within a matter of seconds he’s out and the two are trading blows. Corny is now screaming at the top of his voice for a referee, and trying to convince us (“I swear to you, I swear to you”) that they had no idea this was going to happen! Hmm, really Jim? The impromptu ‘match’ (the bell never rang to end Flash/Rico or rang to start this) goes only a shade longer than Flash/Constantino, ending when Flash hurls Dinsmore over the top rope for the DQ. The action continues though, and Flash with a somersault senton to the floor. The rest of the OVW officials are trying to help Brisco in putting a stop to this, but they should have thought better of that as all ended up getting assaulted by the wrestlers. Flash drills Dinsmore over the head with a chair and Brisco has finally had enough of being his punch bag, actually dropping him with a right hand. That’s the only shot he gets in mind as Flash then lays him out with a piledriver. More screaming from Cornette about how that move is illegal in OVW and Brisco could have a broken neck. Trash eventually puts a stop to this, with Flash fleeing the ring the moment he claps eyes on him.

 

Way, way too rushed with so much happening in such a short space of time. Personally I would’ve ditched the impromptu match and just had Dinsmore saving Constantino from being attacked by Flash. You could then do the wild brawl with the refs being unable to separate the two and getting clocked along the way. I would’ve also closed the show that way, not had Trash be the one to run off Flash and certainly not had Flash bump for Robert Brisco! Dinsmore/ Flash is the feud, but how this ended I’m more interested in seeing Flash vs TPT and after that one minute of athletic action we got, would also rather see Flash vs Constantino.

[Tim Evans]

Match never really happens as Rico blows out his knee and they have to improvise with Dinsmore coming out. This isn't too bad till the refs run in. Flash bumping for the ref is just utter bullshit. It's like Cornette saw the hebner/HHH stuff and said "lets somehow do that but worse." Flash dumping Disnoreon his head was rough looking.