New Footage Friday: DUSTIN! BARRY! SGT. CRAIG! BILLY BLACK!
NWA 7/11/98
Dustin Rhodes vs. Barry Windham
MD: You'd want this to have a few more minutes at least, or maybe a finish, but it's pretty interesting for what it is. The intimacy stood out as you can really see the grin on Barry's face or hear him jawwing to Dustin. He messed with him a lot to start, engaging and disengaging, teasing a test of strength, refusing to shake the hand until he actually did, which was probably to get Dustin's guard down for when he started to punch. They went to the blood almost immediately thereafter, with Barry tossing him to the floor and slamming him headfirst into a table at ringside. That made the match feel longer and weightier than it was. Dustin had a hope spot and they at least gave lip service to the idea that they might do a superplex in front of this crowd, but that led to Dustin's comeback and the DDQ. This was worked to the level of the show, but by two masters who still weaved in an element of the personal and the visceral despite it all.
PAS: We never really got any matches between these two when they broke up in WCW (at least on TV, they ran Texas Death and Bullrope matches on house shows which I am sure were incredible) , so it is cool we got to see them match up a couple of years later. This match felt like a throw back for sure, with Windham not doing much besides punching but landing some nasty looking punches. They had some really great exchanges and Dustin really opened it up for an indy show (pretty crazy that he was doing this kind of nostalgia indy show 22 years ago and is still main eventing Cable TV shows today), we didn't get a real finish and this felt like it was setting up a big time gimmick blow off match, and while they did run this on a three show circuit, they never came back to this town for a big finish.
ER: I love this era of WWF or WCW guys showing up main eventing a southern indy show during a time they were under contract. It's cool seeing big TV names at the time showing up in super appreciative gyms. We've seen Eddy headline indy cards and put on PPV quality matches, and here's Dustin - another who has done plenty of interesting things over several different indy runs - bleeding all over a North Carolina gym. Windham was done with his WWF run and would join WCW in a few months, and this felt stronger than anything they were doing on TV around this time. Dustin was still making PPV and having nice longer matches with Val Venis, and this felt like a good 1998 house show version of something like that. Windham knuckle punches Dustin in several nasty ways, some great kneeling punches to the brow and temple, and it makes Dustin's color look even more authentic. Dustin is popular with the crowd - a cute kid even hugs him during his ring entrance - and getting juice on a show like this gets them even more into his comeback. This was almost entirely no back bump wrestling, lots of punch exchanges. But these are two guys I love seeing do punch exchanges, and this is a cool era to see them do it.
Fly-High Eddie vs. Thunderfoot #2
MD: Without actually watching more 1998 footage, I have no reason to think Thunderfoot #2 wasn't Ligon but also no reason to think it was. He came out with Ronnie P. Gossett Jr. who was not of relation but was working the gimmick. The video lists this as Mike Maverick but it's Fly High Eddie who is working a stoner gimmick instead of a high-flying gimmick. He starts a Porky chant for Gossett to start which shifted the heat to him instead of either Eddie or Thunderfoot. Whoever Thunderfoot was, he knew what he was doing (which again leans it towards Ligon) completely over the top in celebrating the smallest things and selling so big on everything that you could see it two states away. Eddie really doesn't do anything but he probably didn't have to with Thunderfoot working and emoting for a half dozen people. We probably need more matches like this in joyless 2020.
Big Daddy D vs. "Joltin" Brad Holtin
MD: I have no idea who Big Daddy D was but he had a good look, a certain awkward swagger where he'd stumble out of a move and turn it into a cocky little mannerism, and some fun vocalizing as he was wrestling. This lasted about a minute and a half before he won with a weird standing half crab. Then he cut a promo, winded, after the match. Post match, Maxx came out to save Holtin and D hit him with maybe the slowest kneelift ever but then took a gigantic bump through the ropes when Maxx moved so we'll call it a wash. This was a fine squash but I'm kind of glad we don't have to see the Maxx vs. D match it set up.
ER: I like seeing big fake Power Plant indy guys from this era. It's great because there were guys in the Power Plant who were worse than Big Daddy D, but he was in this North Carolina gym and not many other places. Power Plant guys always brought something pleasant and unexpected to their matches, a nice bump or a great kick, and Big Daddy D had that. His single leg crab looked good, and Holtin put it over strong with his screams. Holtin takes a high backdrop and Daddy takes a disgusting and wonderful Hamrick bump, doing a feet first tope and splatting on his back. That's the kind of bump and risk taking attitude that would have made Daddy a favorite of mine on Worldwide or Metal. Wrestling ain't fair.
Rikki Nelson/Brad Anderson vs. David Isley/Colt Steel
MD: Pretty straight forward southern style tag. Nelson made cocky heeling look natural and effortless and got the job done but it was nothing that will stick with you for long, though I really liked how he was able to menace from the floor when the ref wasn't looking. Anderson came off more like a Power Plant guy than anything else: good look, OK power moves, not always in the right place at the right time. Steel had sort of a poor man's Ronnie Garvin vibe and played face-in-peril well. Isley wasn't really in there long enough to show much, but it all more or less came together with a format that can do no ill.
ER: What I wouldn't give to see this exact same match at the next indy show I go to. I don't mean that like, "The idea of not being in my house sounds so appealing that even this match would feel like manna from heaven." No, I just wish this was the kind of wrestling I could go see, instead of modern indy style. I wish we had more Rikki Nelsons on the indy scene. He looks like a snotty younger brother of Pat Sajak, brings a real veteran performer's professionalism with him, and it's the kind of thing that is really memorable on a show like this. He's someone who is always filling time, he's always selling something that happened, he's reacting to fans, he's frustrated with the ref, he's giving instructions to Anderson. He's the kind of guy who is always on, but he's not always making the match about him. He just knows how to fill time with a deep bag of material. He had a great top rope elbowdrop and threw out a lot of offense (Hitman elbow and diving clothesline off the middle buckle, slingshot splash, front suplex) while filling the empty spots with glue. Brad Anderson looks like a guy who would have gotten an extended look from WWF, and is the son of Gene Anderson so he's one of those 3rd generation guys they like. But what's crazy is that Anderson was in WCW nearly a decade earlier as Zan Panzer, and here he just doesn't seem to be nearly complete enough as a worker. He got tryout matches with him, and it's possible that they had just experience the 2nd gen letdown that was Scott Putski, that they just opted to pass on Brad Putski. David Isley somehow got an All Japan tour, and he might officially now be the weirdest guy to have gotten on. That tour was 1992, and in 1998 David Isley looks almost completely untrained. His hot tag is stunningly bad and he looked lost through all of it. His ring entrance gear was a old faded neon windbreaker and a backwards dad hat, and he was the one guy in the match who looked like he didn't exercise. Colt Steel looked like Ronnie Garvin's dad, meaning he looked like the Crusher's son, and he was fine. But this tag was all about getting heat, keeping the fans involved, and I wish I could be there now.
Sgt. Craig Pittman vs. Billy Black
MD: I always kind of liked Pittman in WCW. He brought something different to the table. Watching this, I half wonder why they didn't bring him in to WWF to work that Shamrock/Severn/Blackman contingent when almost everyone was getting signed. He was a little older by this point, almost 40, maybe not in as good a shape as he had been a few years earlier. He was super charismatic here though. If this was fifteen years earlier, he could have been an attraction somewhere, probably. He worked pretty broadly here, less precision and more of just throwing himself at Black. He wrestled for the crowd, with lots of shouting and push-ups and they got into it well enough, with a USA chant at some point. He also did a flip bump off a punch, though admittedly, it was pretty early in the match. Black, as always, had a lot of stuff, big and small: a handspring elbow in the corner, a missed moonsault, mixing it with plenty of heel tricks to get back on offense. Again, this all felt broad and loose. Black took over with a low blow out of the corner but when he tried another one mid match, Pittman just shrugged it off (which doesn't feel like the sort of thing one ought to do unless it's in the final comeback). I'm not sure this ever came together but it was probably a lot of fun for the crowd. I basically want to see Pittman's entire 98 indy run, and I doubt much of any of it is available. Bunkhouse Buck. One Man Gang. Dan Severn for the NWA title. Teaming with Valiant against the Fultons. Ah well. This showed up after all.
ER: I love this era of WWF or WCW guys showing up main eventing a southern indy show during a time they were under contract. It's cool seeing big TV names at the time showing up in super appreciative gyms. We've seen Eddy headline indy cards and put on PPV quality matches, and here's Dustin - another who has done plenty of interesting things over several different indy runs - bleeding all over a North Carolina gym. Windham was done with his WWF run and would join WCW in a few months, and this felt stronger than anything they were doing on TV around this time. Dustin was still making PPV and having nice longer matches with Val Venis, and this felt like a good 1998 house show version of something like that. Windham knuckle punches Dustin in several nasty ways, some great kneeling punches to the brow and temple, and it makes Dustin's color look even more authentic. Dustin is popular with the crowd - a cute kid even hugs him during his ring entrance - and getting juice on a show like this gets them even more into his comeback. This was almost entirely no back bump wrestling, lots of punch exchanges. But these are two guys I love seeing do punch exchanges, and this is a cool era to see them do it.
Fly-High Eddie vs. Thunderfoot #2
MD: Without actually watching more 1998 footage, I have no reason to think Thunderfoot #2 wasn't Ligon but also no reason to think it was. He came out with Ronnie P. Gossett Jr. who was not of relation but was working the gimmick. The video lists this as Mike Maverick but it's Fly High Eddie who is working a stoner gimmick instead of a high-flying gimmick. He starts a Porky chant for Gossett to start which shifted the heat to him instead of either Eddie or Thunderfoot. Whoever Thunderfoot was, he knew what he was doing (which again leans it towards Ligon) completely over the top in celebrating the smallest things and selling so big on everything that you could see it two states away. Eddie really doesn't do anything but he probably didn't have to with Thunderfoot working and emoting for a half dozen people. We probably need more matches like this in joyless 2020.
Big Daddy D vs. "Joltin" Brad Holtin
MD: I have no idea who Big Daddy D was but he had a good look, a certain awkward swagger where he'd stumble out of a move and turn it into a cocky little mannerism, and some fun vocalizing as he was wrestling. This lasted about a minute and a half before he won with a weird standing half crab. Then he cut a promo, winded, after the match. Post match, Maxx came out to save Holtin and D hit him with maybe the slowest kneelift ever but then took a gigantic bump through the ropes when Maxx moved so we'll call it a wash. This was a fine squash but I'm kind of glad we don't have to see the Maxx vs. D match it set up.
ER: I like seeing big fake Power Plant indy guys from this era. It's great because there were guys in the Power Plant who were worse than Big Daddy D, but he was in this North Carolina gym and not many other places. Power Plant guys always brought something pleasant and unexpected to their matches, a nice bump or a great kick, and Big Daddy D had that. His single leg crab looked good, and Holtin put it over strong with his screams. Holtin takes a high backdrop and Daddy takes a disgusting and wonderful Hamrick bump, doing a feet first tope and splatting on his back. That's the kind of bump and risk taking attitude that would have made Daddy a favorite of mine on Worldwide or Metal. Wrestling ain't fair.
Rikki Nelson/Brad Anderson vs. David Isley/Colt Steel
MD: Pretty straight forward southern style tag. Nelson made cocky heeling look natural and effortless and got the job done but it was nothing that will stick with you for long, though I really liked how he was able to menace from the floor when the ref wasn't looking. Anderson came off more like a Power Plant guy than anything else: good look, OK power moves, not always in the right place at the right time. Steel had sort of a poor man's Ronnie Garvin vibe and played face-in-peril well. Isley wasn't really in there long enough to show much, but it all more or less came together with a format that can do no ill.
ER: What I wouldn't give to see this exact same match at the next indy show I go to. I don't mean that like, "The idea of not being in my house sounds so appealing that even this match would feel like manna from heaven." No, I just wish this was the kind of wrestling I could go see, instead of modern indy style. I wish we had more Rikki Nelsons on the indy scene. He looks like a snotty younger brother of Pat Sajak, brings a real veteran performer's professionalism with him, and it's the kind of thing that is really memorable on a show like this. He's someone who is always filling time, he's always selling something that happened, he's reacting to fans, he's frustrated with the ref, he's giving instructions to Anderson. He's the kind of guy who is always on, but he's not always making the match about him. He just knows how to fill time with a deep bag of material. He had a great top rope elbowdrop and threw out a lot of offense (Hitman elbow and diving clothesline off the middle buckle, slingshot splash, front suplex) while filling the empty spots with glue. Brad Anderson looks like a guy who would have gotten an extended look from WWF, and is the son of Gene Anderson so he's one of those 3rd generation guys they like. But what's crazy is that Anderson was in WCW nearly a decade earlier as Zan Panzer, and here he just doesn't seem to be nearly complete enough as a worker. He got tryout matches with him, and it's possible that they had just experience the 2nd gen letdown that was Scott Putski, that they just opted to pass on Brad Putski. David Isley somehow got an All Japan tour, and he might officially now be the weirdest guy to have gotten on. That tour was 1992, and in 1998 David Isley looks almost completely untrained. His hot tag is stunningly bad and he looked lost through all of it. His ring entrance gear was a old faded neon windbreaker and a backwards dad hat, and he was the one guy in the match who looked like he didn't exercise. Colt Steel looked like Ronnie Garvin's dad, meaning he looked like the Crusher's son, and he was fine. But this tag was all about getting heat, keeping the fans involved, and I wish I could be there now.
Sgt. Craig Pittman vs. Billy Black
MD: I always kind of liked Pittman in WCW. He brought something different to the table. Watching this, I half wonder why they didn't bring him in to WWF to work that Shamrock/Severn/Blackman contingent when almost everyone was getting signed. He was a little older by this point, almost 40, maybe not in as good a shape as he had been a few years earlier. He was super charismatic here though. If this was fifteen years earlier, he could have been an attraction somewhere, probably. He worked pretty broadly here, less precision and more of just throwing himself at Black. He wrestled for the crowd, with lots of shouting and push-ups and they got into it well enough, with a USA chant at some point. He also did a flip bump off a punch, though admittedly, it was pretty early in the match. Black, as always, had a lot of stuff, big and small: a handspring elbow in the corner, a missed moonsault, mixing it with plenty of heel tricks to get back on offense. Again, this all felt broad and loose. Black took over with a low blow out of the corner but when he tried another one mid match, Pittman just shrugged it off (which doesn't feel like the sort of thing one ought to do unless it's in the final comeback). I'm not sure this ever came together but it was probably a lot of fun for the crowd. I basically want to see Pittman's entire 98 indy run, and I doubt much of any of it is available. Bunkhouse Buck. One Man Gang. Dan Severn for the NWA title. Teaming with Valiant against the Fultons. Ah well. This showed up after all.
PAS: I dug both guys in this match a lot. Pittman has a ton flash and a really well developed gimmick which connected with the crowd. He's kind of a mix between face AWA Slaughter and JYD. Black has a ton of big offense for 1998 but also bumps huge for all of Pittman's stuff. I loved all of the in-ring topes by Pittman and it always looked cool when he broke them out to cut Black off or go on offense.
Labels: Barry Windham, Billy Black, Brad Anderson, Craig Pittman, David Isley, Dustin Rhodes, Gene Ligon, New Footage Friday, Rikki Nelson
posted by Phil @ 10:00 PM
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