[2000-08-18-UWF] Billy Reil vs Little Dixie vs Mike Quackenbush vs Don Montoya vs Flash Wheeler vs Zieg vs Dr Hurtz vs Homicide (Gauntlet)

[soup23]

I had a nice writedown of this match that got ate so let me just hit the highlights now.

 

Reil/Dixie started things off and had a pretty great opening stanza with Dixie bumping like a loon and hitting the highspots when needed. Reil was heeling it up with a gaudy gold bowling shirt. Quackenbush was next and he was also impressive against Dixie running through a variety of unique moves including a full nelson camel clutch. It was really neat seeing Quack work heel here. Montoya attacks Quack while Dixie is on the outside getting counted out. Montoya makes short work of Quack and then the match grinds to a halt. We get Flash Wheeler beating Montoya and then Zieg before Dr. Hurtz comes out. Flash looked good vs Montoya but blows a few spots the longer he wrestles and looked ready to get out of there by the end. Homicide is the last competitor and runs through some of his offense on Hurtz before Hurtz hits a DDT and middle rope legdrop to win in anticlimactic fashion. **1/4 for the whole thing but the opening was exciting.

[AstroBoy]

Dixie and Quack stand out here with both displaying some fun offense and Dixie getting a chance to get beaten up and look good doing it. Some really shoddy stuff comes from Zieg and Wheeler the longer they go and I was legitimately surprised to see Hurtz win this. Homicide seemed so wasted as he hardly got a chance to be used to his full potential. The beginning of this was much better than what this turned into.

 

**

[Tim Evans]

Dixie/Billy was pretty fun with Dixie bumping like a mad man. He lands right on his head. The match goes downhill after Quack and Dixie are eliminated. Wheeler last longer than he should and Dr. Hurtz is a funny gimmick that I don't think he's supposed to be. I did like Montoya getting the heart punch over in 2000. Well as over as he could with the 50 people in the crowd. The finish to the match was really anticlimatic.

[GSR]

Gauntlet match to determine the first UWF champion, each participant having drawn a number to determine what position they would enter in the gauntlet.  Blimey this is sparsely attended.  A headscissors spikes Reil on his head and after a tornado bulldog, he takes to the outside.  Dixie with a tope but he gets a bit caught up in the ropes.  Reil blocks the double axe handle and launches Dixie with an overhead belly to belly.  A release German suplex dumps Dixie on the top of his head which gets a “Holy Shit!” chant from the few dozen in attendance.  The referee immediately checks that Dixie hasn’t broken his neck because that was a scary looking landing.  Dixie avoids the middle rope somersault leg drop, but Reil then blocks the tornado DDT and levels him an almighty spear.  He puts Dixie on his shoulders for a sit out fireman’s carry, but he holds on to Reil’s leg and rolls him up for the pin.  Mike Quackenbush drew number three and there are no pleasantries or handshakes from him, going straight for Dixie and not giving him a moment to recover.  Plenty of thigh slapping kicks out of Quack!  ‘Shooter Clutch’, but with Dixie not tapping Quack drags him over to the ropes and drapes him over the middle one.  He then steps out the ring, runs around and dropkicks him in the head.  Innovative!  Mexican Scorpion hold, which is a nifty variation on the traditional Scorpion Deathlock.  Quack transitions to an Indian Deathlock and with it locked in, leans back and grabs Dixie around the neck.  Japanese stranglehold into a camel clutch.  Dixie with a low blow as he finally starts to get a bit of offense in.  Snap suplex.  Quack blocks the tornado DDT and hits a double arm suplex (which they are calling a ‘Sleepwalker suplex’).  Side Russian leg sweep from the middle when Don Montoya, who had apparently been promising a ‘run in’, does exactly that.  How the ref is missing this I don’t know, but you’re having to suspend plenty of disbelief!  Montoya with a heart punch on Dixie before launching him over the top rope to the floor.  As the referee starts to count him out, Montoya doesn’t even try to hide and plants Quack with a gutwrench powerbomb.  Dixie is counted out and the moment the ref reaches ten, Montoya leaps off the middle with a frog splash.  A heart punch to Quack and he’s eliminated as Montoya calls for the EMT’s!  Flash Wheeler is next and initial impressions aren’t positive and I’m already hoping for another heart punch.  We get a bit of shtick involving the referee slow counting on purpose due to Montoya taking exception to the way he counted on a previous pin attempt.  Don misses the big splash and Wheeler with a leg lariat.  Flash telegraphs the back drop, up kick by Montoya followed by a flying forearm.  He calls for the heart punch, but Flash reverses things and hits a spinebuster to send ‘the Don’ packing.  You can sense the crowd deflate after that one.  Zieg has drawn number six and this is dying.  Flash puts everyone out of their misery with a back slide in what was easily the worst ‘match’ of the gauntlet by some way.  Dr Hurtz, who is all about hurting people, is our penultimate entrant.  Wheeler slips off the turnbuckles and then fails to connect on the knee drop.  Magistral cradle by Hurtz and we’re down to our final two, the last man being Homicide.  The final match goes all of two minutes before Hurtz stuffs Homicide with an ugly looking DDT and then lands a middle rope leg drop to become the first UWF Heavyweight champion.

A dreadfully booked Gauntlet match that died the moment Don Montoya was eliminated and finished on a real downer when Homicide was beaten in two minutes.  Are the likes of Wheeler, Zieg and Hurtz all regulars in the promotion, or did they front load the Gauntlet with the better workers because they knew the aforementioned three aren’t very good?  It’s not my job to book this, but if Hurtz was winning this I would’ve rejigged the order and had Zieg in third (with Dixie going over) then Wheeler (it doesn’t matter who wins here), followed by Quack, Montoya, Homicide and finally Hurtz.  Dixie plays a great underdog bumping and being thrown around, while Quack looked excellent with his tricked out wizardry.  Montoya is always fun and as poor as Wheeler is, he gets an entertaining section out of him.  The less said about what came next the better.