RETRO Segunda Caida- DUSTIN OF THE DAY #19 Bunkhouse Buck v. Dustin Rhodes Slamboree 94

Eric is on a cruise with his parents and I am in a NYC hotel room with not great internet for streaming so I am posting a TOMK Dustin of the Day from back in the day

Dustin Rhodes vs. Bunkhouse Buck-Bullrope Match (Slamboree 94)

In the last Dustin vs. Buck match I reviewed, Buck won by DQ when Dustin was caught with the knucks. Parker gives Buck the knucks, Dustin atomic drops Buck, Buck drops the knuck, Dustin starts hitting Buck with knucks only for ref to see and Dustin to be Dqed. Pretty classic finish really well done as Dustin is really good at milking the crowd pop for “you guys want me to hit him with it???” before punching and Dustin instead of going to head just hits a bunch of really narsty looking bodyshots with the knuckledusters. The PPV Bunkhouse match before that had a knucks finish. Now we have a bullrope match where both wrestlers are tied together so that neither can bail and both share opportunity at same weapon, cowbell in the middle of ring.

Last time I reviewed a Buck vs. Dustin Rhodes match I talked a lot about Bunkhouse Buck's Darkness Muga and his great abdominal stretch work in the context of a brawl. There will not be any abdominal stretches here. This is a bullrope match and is about old style American lynching spots, ain't gonna be none of them Frenchified standing guillotines here.

Just as an aside, no one I’ve contacted who have the 1990 Dustin vs. Gary Young bullrope match from the Sportatorium listed has gotten back to me yet. So, if anyone has it, please, either contact me or put it up on the matches board. Thanks

This Bunkhouse Buck match is on the 94 Slamboree, Legends Reunion Show. The other really memorable things from this show was an opening match between Terry Funk and Tully Blanchard and the teasing of a possible Hogan vs. Flair match. The Funk vs. Tully match really has the feel of being Tully's ECW audition in front of a Philly crowd as the two work a real ECWish match with Blanchard channeling Kobashi (taking a DDT on the ring apron, among other places, multiple piledrivers both on chairs, floors, etc and keeps on coming).. The teased blonde wolrd champion turned out not to be Hogan but instead a really fat out of shape Barry Windham. If I was treated to a fat out of shape Windham, when I was expecting Hogan...I would have been stoked...but still it is a stupid booking and the crowd really turned hard on the bait and switch.

I am going to split this Bullrope match into four parts:

First part: the hot opening.

Dustin comes in with the bullrope attached to his hand. Buck, the heel of course wants no part of the bullrope. Dustin stands in the ring swinging the bullrope around his head, and buck comes in charging Dustin hoping not to get hit by rope. Bullrope knocks Buck to the outside and Dustin just wraps the thing around Bucks neck and they do a whole series of hanging and dragging by neck spots. Philly crowd thinking they're gonna be treated to a lynching is stoked. Dustin eventually straps the rope onto Buck's hand. and Dustin stays in control with a bunch of pulling the Buck into strikes spots (spots that otherwise might require opponent to run ropes). Buck still sells being out of it after escaping the hanging.

They do the big formula bullrope spots here early in the match. The face crotches heel with rope, the face smashes the cowbell on heel's penis, etc. I was talking about how good Dustin is at milking the crowd in the "should I do it???" spots and he does that really well here for the early formula bullrope spots.

Second part: Body part work.

Again, I wrote earlier about the knuckles exchange section in the Pro match between these two...Dustin instead of going to the head deviates from formula and took the knuckles to the body and it looks more violent than the normal formula.. Again he does that here as, we expect a bullrope match to have lots of cowbell shots to head...and instead Dustin uses cowbell to work over Buck's leg and it comes across like Dustin really wants to hurt Buck.

Dustin just starts slamming buck in the leg with the bell, grinds the edge into leg, and just really work the leg with the cowbell. 

Dustin goes to post Buck's leg and as seen in the Pro match, these two guys really know how to work a crotching opponent into post section. Here Buck sits up to prevent being crotched and they work a punch exchange to set up the posting. Dustin just pastes Buck in the face, and then can post leg. Buck sells the posting by swinging his upper body forward only to be pasted by Dustin with an uppercut and a right.... and then Dustin goes back to grinding the cowbell into the leg, dropping knee on leg etc. Buck is unsuccessful at breaking this up with eye rakes, etc.

Part three: Buck uses his knowledge of clothing to go back on offense.

Buck tried to escape the leg work by pulling on back of the hair and raking Dustin's eyes, but that didn't slow Dustin down much, so Buck grabs at the back of Dustin's shirt and pulls it over Dustin's head. Dustin has to stop to undo this so he can see. But before he can get the shirt off his face, Buck is back on offense punching the blinded Dustin from different angles. Buck than takes off his own belt and whips Dustin with the belt with one hand while using the other hand to smack the cowbell across Dustin's face.

The shirt, the belt, the cowbell...and Buck is in control and can take Dustin to the floor where he posts Dustin and then ties him to the ring post. Dustin is pinned to the post by the rope...no need for guillotine. With Dustin immobilized, Buck can kick and punch him at will. Then Buck takes off his suspenders and chokes Dustin with them. I really dig the clothing use to get back to offense section. Surprisingly he doesn't take off his boot, and disappointed that he didn't shove his kerchief in Dustin's mouth.

I'm used to Dustin trying to create distance so he can hit his strikes...instead here you have Dustin tied up trying to close distance, clinch to protect himself. With his movement limited, Dustin is able to trade some on the inside and any time these two trade punches it rules. Buck is getting the better of the punch exchange and eventually one of his punches drops the tied up Dustin. Dustin drops and low blows Buck on the way down.

Buck has this great stunned low blow sell where he just lays back dazed. Dustin is able to loosen the ropes a bit and hit a bionic elbow, loosens some more and hits a nasty heart punch with the bell..loosens some more and a series of bell shots to the heart. Dustin teases the bionic elbow to the bell on bucks head but instead just knocks Buck with the bell to head...This is Dustin's first use of the bell to the head in the match and gets a big pop...but this is Philly so that’s immediately followed by We want Blood chants..

Buck was really great selling during that whole section dazed from low blow enough to be rocked by elbow...rocked by elbow enough to be knocked back and out of breath by heart blows...and eventually knocked down by blow to head which allows Dustin enough time to completely unravel himself from post.

Part Four: Finish

So we're now building toward finish as both guys are really out on their feet at this point. Dustin had taken the long section of being tied up, Buck just ate the series of Dustin offense and his leg still ain't doing too well. Buck gets off first offensive move preceded by eye rake and tries to go for a big top rope move. But Buck's leg still taken pounding and Dustin punches buck on top rope, Buck falls seated crotching himself on top turnbuckle.

And we get your face punches heel on top rope while audience counts along section. I don't know if we've talked about how good Dustin is at this spot but he's really good. Its a spot that can often times look really shitty but Dustin punching a guy on top rope is something you always look forward too, as it always looks like his knuckles are connecting with either the forehead or the bridge of the nose. Here he does a bunch of shots to bridge of nose and ends the series with a really stiff flip flop and fly.

Buck is out but instinctively keeps climbing the ropes only to be gorilla pressed Falir style into the ring. Dustin is in control and goes for a bullrope assisted Irish whip and then pulls back on the rope. Nick Patrick is caught out of place and sandwiched between Buck and Dustin as we essentially have a triple collision spot.

It is a cool ref bump that also knocks both already weakened wrestlers loopy. Dustin while loopy goes for a vertical suplex that takes both wrestlers to the mat. Dustin is consistently good at playing a guy who is out of it doing things almost instinctively…he is the natural, naturally. His instinctive offense allows him to get of stuff while not being in control of match at all. .and this is real neat instinctive attempt at offense. 

The instinctive suplex doesn't scare off Col. Parker who sees the ref out and both wrestlers out..and Parker goes into the ring to get at Dustin...this is a mistake as Dustin is first to his feet and back Parker into the corner...this of course gives Buck enough time to get up and attack Dustin from behind. Buck puts Dustin in a full nelson, Parker gets out of corner and does this really cool "yeah now I'm gonna get my licks in" face and grabs the cowbell. 

Fuller is used to working Tennessee so the first thing he does when he has the cowbell is makes sure to wave it to get the metal sound...make sure the crowd knows that its real and not some aluminum bell. He does not really need to do that for this crowd because these are not stockyard workers who understand what being hit by a cowbell means. This is a Philly crowd who accept aluminum frying pan shots as long as it makes cool noise. It is unnecessary here but cool old school thing to do. Fuller again with his "ooh now I'm gonna get to hit you" smile while waving the bell in front of his pants and....

HOLY SHIT!!!

Miss. Sylvia always looked very comfortable handling that kendo stick. But NO WAY ...

HOLY SHIT!!!

I mean HOLY SHIT!

That has to be the cut of the pants.

Although I cannot imagine why you would put a rounded vertical twisting pleat on one side of white dress pants.

I mean DAMN!! 

Dustin Rhodes has one of the more infamous big schlongs in wrestling…

We have now reviewed more than thirty Dustin Rhodes matches and not mentioned it once cause it really has yet to distract from any of the matches. I mean, I wrote earlier in this review about how great Dustin's second rope punches to heel on top turnbuckle are. The point is that they are good enough punches that you overlook the fact that his hog leg appears to be pinning his opponent down and occasionally stabbing heel in the trachea during that spot. Punches are good enough that what you remember is the punch spot not the hog leg.

But God Damn,

The Robert Fuller tripod legitimately distracts from this match. Just imposible to get past the image. I don’t want to ever see the Tennessee Stud do the ten punches spot, I imagine Bullet wore the mask to keep Fuller’s gun from busting up his chin.

Fuller swings the bell at Dustin who jumps up in the full nelson hitting a Morton style seated drop kick while weight from kick and back elbow gets escape from full nelson. Cool spot not cool enough to make me forget…

Dustin with reckless cowbell swing for the pin and post match crazy Terry Funk attacks Dustin with the brandingiron and Buck, Fuller and Funk attack the rag doll like Dustin. Its sweet old school Tennessee keep the heat on heels booking where face gets the win, but heels leave face bloody and beaten. And well Dustin bleeds and bleeds and bleeds. The image of all the blood on the mat helps you to forget the other disturbing image in the match.