Typhoon

[AstroBoy]

Projects motivate me and I've been looking to take somebody totally random and do a deep dive on them to find. . . something. Mostly, just to give me something to pursue and I think it'll be fun. Typhoon popped into my mind as he so often does and so here comes a retrospective on the run of Typhoon in the WWF.

 

Natural Disasters vs. Bill Sampson and Bob Abbott (6/29/91)

 

This is on Superstars and it's right after Typhoon turned on the Bushwhackers and eschewed the Tugboat identity. Vince and Piper spend a lot of time recounting why Typhoon felt disrespected and call back to him getting thrown out of the Rumble by Hogan. I remember none of this.

 

As for the match there is hardly anything here except Earthquake throwing an ugly knee to the gut and Typhoon dropping a nice hearty elbow to the chest.

 

Natural Disasters vs. Matthew Burns and Scott Carlson (7/7/91)

 

From Wrestling Challenge. This is a tad bit meatier and more enjoyable than their TV debut. Typhoon hits two nice splashes in the corner and disdainfully steps over one of the scrubs on his way to tag in Earthquake. It should be noted that Earthquake hits some sweet leaping toe kicks in the corner. We get a Bushwhackers insert promo during the match. Typhoon's splash to set up the Earthquake splash looked really good. Not a great squash or anything but not bad.

 

Natural Disasters vs. Bobby Jones and Larry Ludden (7/21/91)

 

Nothing of note here as they build to a Summerslam match against Bushwhackers. Typhoon gets to shrug off some dropkicks before hitting his big splash in the corner but Earthquake pretty easily upstages him in this. Much better at using his agility and far better presence too. I do love the double team finish with Typhoon finishing things off with his typhoon splash this time.

 

Looking forward to this.

[gordi]

After watching - and REALLY enjoying - a few '88 AJPW Tenta matches, I considered doing something like this for my old compadre Big John... but at the moment I don't have the time or energy to do it justice...

 

So you can imagine my delight when I saw this. A close look at Typhoon is gonna shine some light on Earthquake as well. Good luck with this. I'll be reading.

[AstroBoy]

Thanks for the support. Tenta has been far more interesting to me so far but I figured he has his fans out there. Hopefully Typhoon will give me something of interest along the way.

[AstroBoy]

Natural Disasters vs. Doug Carson and Stan Saxon (8/3/91)

Natural Disasters vs. Hutch Thomas and Mike Russell (8/11/91)

 

I'll just group these together as they are both TV squashes that go under 3 minutes again and they are largely the same as everything that's come before. They run through their stuff -- splashes in the corner, body slams by each, some clobbering, and double splash for the finish. Nothing standout but it's early in their run and they are in the process of building to the Bushwhackers match with Andre at ringside. I don't remember Andre being part of this at all.

 

Natural Disasters vs. Russ Greenberg and Ray Garcia (8/18/91)

 

This is the Summerslam Spectacular. Typhoon comes through for me here as he busts out his elbow drop again, flattens one of these jabronies with his most emphatic splash yet and best of all pulls out a dropkick! It was a strange dropkick that looked almost like the predecessor to what would become the codebreaker these days but it was just refreshing to see him sprinkle in some panache here. Made this squash a lot more fun

[flyonthewall2983]

Not only did Hogan and Tugboat go at it at the Rumble, but Tugboat returned the favor in a battle royal a few months later on Saturday Night's Main Event.

 

I know you'll get to it but Typhoon did end up having a match with Hogan, which was just relegated to "Coliseum Video exclusive" status I believe, not even shown on television.

 

Bruce Prichard has told the story a few times, but that was going to be a much bigger heel turn, with Tugboat aligning himself with Sgt. Slaughter, with the blow-off being a match at WrestleMania with Hogan and whatever they were going to call Fred Ottman.

[AstroBoy]

Natural Disasters vs. Bushwhackers (8/26/91)

 

This is the grudge match at Summerslam. Surprisingly the Bushwhackers run wild early on and Typhoon and Earthquake bump for them. I actually was a little disappointed that they bump so easily for them considering how they were being built up to this point. Bushwhackers stand around like jackasses and just let Earthquake take over on offense. We get little new on offense from the Disasters. Both use backbreakers and work over the back in general and it's fine. Typhoon is pretty unconvincing trying to do a wobbly sell job before finally going down and giving the Bushwhackers a nice nearfall. Earthquake cuts them off and gets the finish.

 

This was awfully stilted and not a great outing from either team but I'm not exactly expecting hidden gems here. It should be noted that Andre the Giant was ringside with the Bushwhackers here but did essentially nothing.

 

Bonus: Western Pacific typhoon season yielded 17 typhoons in 1990, including 4 of the super typhoon variety. Did this in any way inspire Vince to slap the Typhoon gimmick on Fred Ottman? Unlikely.

[AstroBoy]

Natural Disasters vs. Chris Michaels and Sonny Blaze (9/1/91)

 

Awesome. Earthquake with a nice dropkick early on here. Typhoon just tosses Michaels I believe with a snap suplex and splashes him in the corner. Then he takes him to the other corner and hits a leaping splash to the torso that looks even better. This had a little bit more of a mean streak than some of the previous squashes. Also, this aired following the Summerslam match and Heenan alludes to the Natural Disasters taking on Legion of Doom in the future.

 

Natural Disasters vs. Brian Donahue and Mike Fury (9/14/91)

 

Jimmy Hart helps these squashes along with his ringside candor. Come on, Typhoon. You can throw a better back elbow than that. He throws such a bored back elbow. But he later connects on a kick to the torso that looked like a spastic child throwing a tantrum. And I mean that in a good way. Like, it was a moment of real anger and bad intentions from a relatively docile monster. Typhoon is not the most emotive.

[AstroBoy]

Natural Disasters vs. Paul Perez and Phil Apollo (9/8/91)

 

Typhoon and Earthquake use their over the shoulder backbreaker to bearhug combo in this. I'm finding, sadly, more and more cool Earthquake stuff in these while Typhoon throws these incredibly stationary back elbows. Earthquake has an awesome belly to belly and then does a double bicep taunt. He's the man. Earthquake really gets a bulk of the offense in the middle here. It's a shame that Typhoon has no real mean streak, at least at this point in the run.

 

Natural Disasters vs. Joe Milano and Martin Roy (9/28/91)

 

Hawk is giving an unintelligible promo as the match begins. Earthquake's red boots are snazzy and he viciously pounds on Milano's back. God bless Roy Martin trying to start up a clap on the apron, like the fans were going to go for that. Typhoon adds some oomph to his shoulder block and Milano pinball bumps for him. These squashes are starting to become just a bit more vicious and defined and you can buy them as a huge threat to the LOD coming up. Typhoon didn't see much time here but this had a definite edge to it. Typhoon steps on Milano's torso as they exit the ring.

[Grimmas]

You skipping Tugboat completely?

[AstroBoy]

The plan was just the Typhoon run, at least to start. But I do kinda want to see how he worked as Tugboat at some point.

[AstroBoy]

Natural Disasters vs. Mark Thomas and Tony Diamond (10/6/91)

 

Pretty boring by the numbers Disasters squash with no fun flourishes to speak of. Of note, though, Typhoon absolutely crushes one of these guys with his big splash at the end of the match. Also a fun showcase of Heenan and Monsoon's chemistry on commentary.

 

Natural Disasters vs. Barry Hardy, Duane Gill, and Jim Arnon (10/19/91)

 

This is a three-on-two handicap match, fun little mix-up in the middle of all these same-y squashes. Earthquake headbutts Hardy directly in the sternum. Typhoon skips the back elbow and throws a disdainful clothesline clobbering one of these guys. I'm liking it. Earthquake assists him in a pretty cool stacked sandwich in the turnbuckle on all three guys. They are building toward a Survivor Series match where Typhoon and Earthquake will team with IRS and Jake Roberts.

[Matt D]

The best squash that they had was on the 10/3/92 superstars vs Horowitz and Bob Bradley, btw.

[AstroBoy]

Yeah all the squashes have been pretty similar and by the numbers so far. I'm interested to see more how they work against legit opponents since I have very little memory of those matches of theirs. I'm trying to watch all their TV and PPV matches at the very least, so it may take a bit to get to late '92 but I'm looking forward to it.

[Matt D]

Theyre way more fun as babyfaces. If you stick it out, youll see.

[iamthedoctor]

The plan was just the Typhoon run, at least to start. But I do kinda want to see how he worked as Tugboat at some point.

 

Ive often wondered if they turned him heel a bit too soon than they should have.

[AstroBoy]

Natural Disasters vs. Rockers (11/3/91)

 

Hey look at this -- a really fun brief match! Jannetty and Michaels work to their speed and use tricks to lead Typhoon and Earthquake around the ring into stooge situations. Just really sensible spots pitting strength and size versus speed and smarts that logically level the playing field. Jannetty is sliding between Earthquake's legs and running around, coming off the top rope with a cross body that Earthquake catches but of course Shawn dives off the opposite corner and topples Earthquake. Typhoon charmingly stumbles through, working a rope running sequence with Jannetty that culminates in him tripping backwards over him on all fours, thanks to a Michaels dropkick. Really cute stuff before Jannetty runs after Jimmy Hart and leaves Shawn to get crushed and beaten. Of note here, Typhoon just crushes Michaels with an elbow drop mid-match, coming down on him with so much of his weight and Heenan on commentary seems to get a real kick out of it. This is worth a quick watch.

[AstroBoy]

Natural Disasters vs. Burt Stiles and Tom Stone (11/16/91) note that, when possible, dates I use will be air dates.

Not much to say here as the match goes less than two minutes.  The Disasters are headed toward Survivor Series where they will team with IRS and Jake Roberts against LOD with Big Bossman and Sid but Sid has had to pull out of the match.  Typhoon always looks sharp doing his splash and here it leads to the Earthquake finish as they clean up quickly.

 

Natural Disasters and IRS vs. Big Bossman and Legion of Doom (11/27/91)

Here is a Survivor Series six-man elimination.  Truthfully there isn't much to say about Typhoon and Earthquake here.  Typhoon was very robotic and out of place in a few key exchanges, just sort of standing like a statue waiting to take offense from LOD members.  This wasn't a strong outing for him.  Earthquake was better and had a nice strength battle with Animal, including a real impressive catching of Animal and turning it into a backbreaker.  Bossman was a lunatic here, moving a million miles an hour and just flying all over the ring and the floor to get the better of IRS early on.  He really looked great here but got eliminated after a briefcase shot.  This has a lame finish as IRS accidentally hits Typhoon with the case and he gets pinned, so Earthquake just walks off and leaves IRS to get picked off by the tag champs to end the show.  What a weird main event this show had.