Hey, This Happened: Bart Gunn and Saturn Stiffed the Hell out of Each Other, 13 Years Ago

Mike Barton vs. Perry Saturn TNA 4/9/03

13 years ago Mike Barton made his one TNA appearance, as he and Perry Saturn stiffed the holy hell out of each other, and none of us saw it because we were all in our early 20s and we weren't watching TNA. The match starts in the back (a clear reminder of who was in charge...) and Barton throws a dozen hard left hands right at Saturn's eye as they brawl to and into the ring. Saturn fires back with an occasional stiff right of his own, Barton fires him meanly into the guardrail, Saturn gets busted open over his right eye, and - it being TNA - the camera also zooms in to watch him blade his left eyebrow. Barton hits a cool shoulderblock off the ropes, and Saturn hits an awesome springboard dropkick (looks even better while bleeding) plus a couple of awesome German suplexes. We get a tremendous spot where Barton holds up the bleeding Saturn in a loooong delayed vertical suplex, and you can see the blood dripping off Saturn's head and down Barton's chest. Saturn really has no problem leaning into all of Barton's shots, and the finish was really great. Barton threw one of his hardest lefts, and then shook his hand out afterwards and started kind of pulling at his glove. Saturn pounces and maneuvers around Barton, takes him down and starts wrenching on Barton's hurt hand to get the tap. I love a good brawl, and I was a wild teenage super mark for the Brawl for All, so this was really fun to see all these years removed. Saturn ending a fight by capitalizing on a guy possibly breaking his hand from too many punches, improvising a street fight submission on Barton, was a pretty high concept finish for a match nobody knows about. 

Also, as a fun aside, one of the first email conversations Phil and I ever had was about Saturn. Phil and I traded tapes in the early 2000s, and I would make compilation tapes of lucha and WWF Metal/Heat matches so he could watch guys for DVDVR 500 consideration. On one of the last WWE syndicated comp tapes I sent him I was REALLY impressed by a wildly resurgent Saturn. Saturn had come back from injury and was really tearing up the early 2002 WWE landscape (at 1 AM on Saturday nights on my local affiliate). I have fond memories of doing my midnight to 2 AM college radio show, then picking up Taco Bell, going home and watching the episodes of Metal and WCW Worldwide that had aired during my radio show.

Well, I searched my old ass email inbox and found one of the earliest email conversations between Phil and I, from 4/30/02:

Eric: "Just wondering if you got the Lucha/B/O WWF Metal/Heat tapes I sent you. I sent them a week ago, so I was hoping the WWF comp would be there in time for the 500 ranking. I guess if it didn't get there in time, there will be some sad WWF undercarders who won't get their rightful place. Anyway, good luck with the 500."

Phil responds: "Yup got it watched it all, you were totally right about Saturn. Although he is hurt so he won't end up preposterously high on the 500 like he would have. Me and Tom totally dug the Metal and would be into future tapes like that every six months or so. Really fun wrestling, although it was frustrating to watch Funaki refuse to mat wrestle even with jobbers or Saturn."

There you have it. Two guys bonding over their love of 2002 syndicated Perry Saturn matches. Still going strong today! <3 .="" 3="" p="">