XCW Midwest Legends of the Garden 3/4/08

ER: EricR
PAS: Phil Schneider

ER:Phil was in town visiting his parents, and we were able to get together to watch some wrestling. Phil recently sent "good faith" money to a wrestler, which is as bold a move as I've ever heard. However, Mitch Ryder turned out to be a good egg and sent him some XCW-Midwest shows, currently one of the most consistently entertaining indies around. This was a Legends of the Louisville Garden reunion-style card.

PAS: Eric is always a good dude to watch wrestling with, and his way out of his league girlfriend always brings tasty home made bread. Still shocked that my money wasn’t just stolen, and I am so amped that I can follow XCW-Midwest regularly, cause damn are they awesome.

Bunkhouse Buck vs. Cowboy Budd Ellis

ER: First off, Buck looked EXACTLY as you remember him from a WCW Saturday Night episode from 10 years ago. Cowboy Budd Ellis had more baby oil on his body than anybody I've ever seen working a Cowboy gimmick. Not sure if they meant the graphic to read "Midnight Cowboy" Budd Ellis, but it should have. The match itself was fun, with Buck looking really great. Ellis tried for awhile to do some legwork, which basically looked like Budd cuddling Buck's leg. Buck's offense was really great, with a fist drop from a kneeling position and some nasty stomps to the face. Cowboy takes some rad untrained Vince McMahon-esque bumps, not quite mastering the flat back bump but instead approximating a "base of spine bump". His over the top bumps to the floor are truly a marvel. Inexplicably, Budd goes over here.

PAS: Those over the top bumps were really something, the best bumps are often referred to as “reckless.” Ellis’s bumps were the most cautious I have ever seen, he bumped to the floor like he was navigating his way down a steep hill. I am not sure why Buck was working as Bunkhouse Buck on a Legends of the Garden show, clearly Jimmy Golden was the Garden Legend. Bill Dundee wasn’t working as Sir William. Buck did look really great though, it is really bizarre how little he has aged, he is 58 years old and has been wrestling since the 60’s, but easily could show up on TV today working as Bunkhouse Buck and no one would bat an eye.

2 Tuff Tony vs. Andy Douglas

ER: Not sure what association they have with the Garden, but....this match wasn't very good. Andy Douglas was quite content to do minutes of arm work on the arm that Tony had no interest in using anyway, so Tony did some OK punches with his normal arm and this went like 10 minutes. Ending was actually quite spectacular, with Tony hitting a painfully accurate somersault guillotine legdrop off the top rope.....but then Douglas no sells and they go right into a botched powder to the eyes finish.

PAS: I am not sure why XCW only books one Natural at a time, and always as singles wrestlers, it just doesn’t seem like a good use of what they can deliver. This was pretty disappointing, I like both guys a bunch, but they never got it together here. There are ways to use both guys well, Naturals v. Eaton/Smothers, or Morton/Pain would be great, as would Tony as a tag partner for a face Bull Pain, but random throwaway undercard singles was sort of useless.

Bobby Eaton & Tracy Smothers vs. Ricky Morton & LT Falk

ER: This was really really good. Morton has gotten extremely nutty in his old age. He hit a great hurracanrana here and a punch of great punches and was just flying around the ring. Smothers really put on a show with awesome stooging, some great slip on a banana peel bumps, and cool matwork. Eaton threw some not-shockingly great punches. His shots to the body were especially awesome. Really laying in some great combos. Falk was a nice surprise, too. He really was the perfect spunky babyface to play off Smothers/Eaton.

PAS: I remember Eaton looking pretty done in 2005. During your nostalgia MX reunion tour he would look like the least guy in every match. Well something changed as he looked like Bobby Eaton here, wasn’t a huge bump freak, but all of his small stuff looked great. Morton is as ageless as Buck, Smothers was a blast too, I loved the baseball slide through the corner to break the ten count, great stoogey spot. LT Falk is apparently the son of Tony Falk which is one of the more awesome conceptual second generation guys. I would love to see JC Ice as Orton mike worker of a Legacy stable of J.T. Falk, Dylan Eaton and “3G” Eric Wayne.

Doug Gilbert vs. Mitch Ryder

ER: I actually don't remember much about this. Dougie riled up the crowd beforehand and Ryder is always good on the stick. Both had a perfectly fine match....but I remember little...

PAS: Mike work was the best part of this, Dougie was very chinklocky

Todd Morton, Bull Pain, & Chris Michaels vs. Bill Dundee & PG-13

ER: This match was pretty great and held up even better upon rewatch. Morton is one of the best workers in the world. He gets amazing height on dropkicks and backdrops, throws incredible punches, plays to the crowd in a great subtle way, works great from the apron, eats hot tag offense great....basically does everything great. Bull Pain is one of the most physically intimidating dudes in wrestling, and Michaels has become quite the high quality worker since his WWE developmental days. This was the best Jaime Dundee has looked (wrestling-wise) in the last few years, Wolfie D looked about as good as you would expect the best guy in TNA 6 years ago to look, and Bill is not quite as good as Lawler in XCW, but good nonetheless. Morton needs to be signed by NJPW, thrown under a mask, and then they can watch him revitalize juniors wrestling, and wrestling in general.

PAS: Yeah this was a load of fun. There is this great spot where Jamie Dundee taunts Bull Pain into an arm wrestling contest with Bill, and of course when Bill drops down, Superstar kicks him, while Jamie looks on with pride . It was a really heartwarming moment, Tomk started singing Cats in the Cradle. I completely second everything Eric had to say about Todd Morton, he really is incredible, he takes maybe the best spinning clothesline bump I have ever seen. Even with Morton’s awesomeness, this was the Jamie Dundee show, taunting, shticking, bumping, he really came off like a total superstar, this the best non Springer performance by Jamie in years.