Mike Rotunda & Z-Man vs. The Samoan Swat Team (Fatu & Samoan Savage)
Much better than that rotten tag at Capital Combat. And it’s not because Z-Man is better than Tommy Rich, but rather they didn’t spend years in a nerve grip. The pacing was rather wild and ultra fast paced, particularly the Samoans. They were in/out and quick to trade momentum. Not much drama, but a lot of fun and exciting sequences. The schoolboy finish was weak though. ***
NWA United States Tag Team Title Match: The Midnight Express (Bobby Eaton & Stan Lane) (w/Jim Cornette) (c) vs. The Rock 'n' Roll Express (Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson)
I thought this was quite striking as a match. Not as dramatic as their previous encounters, but with more emphasis on spots and momentum, which then allowed for still a thrilling experience. It felt like a freeing experience where both teams aimed to simply wrestle and wow the crowd which they did. It’s strange to think the RnRs were over the hill because they looked great here, Robert Gibson particularly. I loved his work on the leg later in the match. Stan Lane shone in this too. Obviously the finish is a big sour puss but the rest was pretty great. ****
NWA United States Heavyweight Title Match: Lex Luger (c) vs. Sid Vicious (w/Ole Anderson)
Now when I saw the match time, I was expecting some big angle but no Luger attacks Sid and Ole, while he was still in the ring, and took advantage of the confusion and pinned Sid with a clothesline. Strange but I dig it. It worked out well. SQUASH.
NWA World Tag Team Title Match: Doom (Butch Reed & Ron Simmons) (w/Teddy Long) (c) vs. The Steiner Brothers (Rick Steiner & Scott Steiner)
This was pretty sensational. Both tag team title matches tonight have been given the time and booking worth the wrestlers opposed to the shorter singles matches and they’ve paid off. This is a pretty wonderful show for both Steiners, but especially Scott who comes across as an athletic phenom here. He delivers two moonsault plexes (As JR calls them) one after the other to both of Doom. And I loved how Doom seemed to comprehend and understand him because he’s such an enigma. They’d take turns coming in only to get their asses wiped and sent out again. And even when Rick comes in, they struggle against Rick’s skills. Only when Reed slows the pace and gets strategic with his offence, before baiting Rick outside to get hit by Simmons, does Doom get back into it. Doom then beat down Rick for a short while before they moved into the closing stretch where Doom ended up cheating to win by nailing Scott with a “foreign object” to retain the tag team titles. Great match. ****
Paul Orndorff vs. Arn Anderson
Woah, the excellence of both wrestlers showcased right here. Just meat and potatoes - pure american styled wrestling. No big spots needed, just a collection of well executed, off the cuff, gritty basics all put together. Paul Orndorff looked terrific as a babyface. He took Arn’s TV title before the match and mocked wearing it to the delight of the crowd. And he did great at driving Arn on the backfoot. I loved the use of the figure four and Arn’s selling was wonderful for it. But the biggest spot that I loved was Orndorff’s flying elbow. Totally unexpected but it looked awesome. And Arn was just so good. As good as he ever looked. Everything was sublime and the way he and Orndorff worked together was magic. And Orndorff getting the win was a big surprise. A nice one. ****
NWA World Heavyweight Title Match: Ric Flair (w/Ole Anderson) (c) vs. The Junkyard Dog
WON readers as well as Dave saw this was sacrilegious. You’d think Flair and JYD went 60 minutes instead of 7. Now this isn’t a good match. And you can see Flair wait for JYD to slowly get into position for his spots. And there were a lot of absent pauses. But this was pretty harmless. It was short at least. The Horseman swarm the ring and attack JYD and Sting and Luger come out to help. Plus El Gigante! **1/2
Other Star Ratings:
Freebirds vs Southern Boys - 3
Bam Bam Bigelow vs Tommy Rich - 2
Flyin Brian vs Mean Mark - 2.5
Doug Furnas vs Barry Windham - 3
Comments
Post a Comment