RIP Bobby Eaton Pt. 2

Bobby Eaton vs. Chris Champion NWA 1/23/88

ER: Cool TV match that I kept expecting to go the time limit, with Eaton working over Champion's good arm while Cornette berates Champion from ringside. Champion had really nice jabs and nice timing on his dropkick, and that's more than enough for Eaton to work with. I love Champion's Future Lost Boy haircut, and the idea that he was smart enough to travel 15 years back from the future but can't avoid a car accident. Eaton is great at running right into Champion's dropkick, his punches all sing, and the zig zags shaved into Champion's head give Eaton a perfect target for a wicked kneedrop. I love how Champion punched with his cast arm, while Bobby kept grinding away on the good arm, and we also get to hear Eaton talking trash while wrenching in hammerlocks. Cornette was great at ringside, bashing Champion with the racket, getting in Tommy Young's way, and getting right in Champion's face when Eaton had a submission near the ropes. Eaton took a nice backdrop bump on Champion's comeback, and Bobby's quick sharp running knee strike to Champion's spine was a cool thing to drop him with (as well as Cornette holding Champion's foot so no kickout). I knew there were several MX/New Breed tags but I didn't actually know we got a singles match between any of them, so this was a real treat. 

Bobby Eaton/Sting vs. Abdullah the Butcher/Cactus Jack WCW 10/26/91

ER: Fantastic Center Stage war that played with the same chaotic energy as all of their prior interactions. I loved how Bobby and Sting rushed to the ring after the heels' entrance. You never get to see fired up babyfaces charging into battle anymore, and how could fans not get behind two heroes who charge at their crazy foes with punches and kicks? Cactus was a real great Center Stage bumper, and here he takes a huge backdrop over the guardrail down a fire escape exit ramp, the kind of building location that you could tell he had been dying to incorporate into a big bump, and later he splats off the apron with a missed cannonball. Eaton is on fire throughout, but they're smart about how often he gets cut off and how quickly things turnaround, and those quick turnarounds really make a short match pack a wallop. His punches all look great, but those don't mean as much when Abdullah and Cactus are ripping at your face holes. There's a great spot where Abdullah blocks a Bobby monkey flip by holding in the corner (a monkey flip Bobby hit in their earlier singles match) and that's when the gouging starts. Abdullah has some incredibly nasty face work, really looked like he had two fingers dug into Bobby's right eye socket, ripped at his nose, Cactus comes in and rips at Eaton's mouth and kicks him in the head several times, and Bobby's selling and bumping for Abby's throat thrusts make them feel as deadly as they look. Eaton and Abby are really great opponents and all time legends, but that earlier singles and this tag are most of the available interactions we have between them. There is a Lethal Lottery Starrcade tag a month later, and that's it. We have been gifted with cool wrestling handhelds, but it's probably too much to ask for their two house show singles, or the holy grail of Bobby/Abby teaming up vs. Dustin/Windham. This tag and their singles match a month prior accomplish a ton of story in under 9 minutes total, and it's a shame this didn't go on for months. 

PAS:  What a wild, chaotic and satisfying match this was. Eaton is amazing as a fired up southern babyface, you could see how great he would have been if he and Ricky Morton Freaky Friday'd in that tag feud (Morton would have made an amazing Eaton too). This really made me want to go and watch every WCWSN and Worldwide Abby and Cactus tag, they felt like such a whirlwind of violence, which was Abby's real pro wrestling superpower. Cactus was fucking nuts, he took four insane bumps in a five minute tv match, and also had a great punch out with Bobby, throwing great looking jabs only to get caught with the left hook. I loved the call back spot with Abby blocking the monkey flip. It is probably something only I and Eric noticed, because we happened to watch both matches within a week, but I love that they were smart enough to put it in there for the obsessives. 

Bobby Eaton/Arn Anderson vs. Steiner Brothers WCW 3/28/92

PAS: This was a house show match designed to showcase the Steiners and get the crowd excited to see them do their thing. We get a bunch of fun stooging Arn moments, Rick biting him in the butt, him diving into an outstretched foot, classic clown show Arn. For a guy who had such a rep as a serious killer, he was a great stooge. Bobby eats most of the big shots from the Steiners, taking a real reckless looking Frankensteiner and some of the big Rick overhand rights. I thought all of the business in this match was great, but I wish we had gotten a longer heel on top section. It really only lasted about 90 seconds (although it did have Bobby land his incredible looking top rope knee drop) and you need to let it simmer a bit more than that to make the hot tag pop. Still. this was a great opportunity to see amazing performers, perform. 

ER: This was like the Steiners working a 90/10 match against Well Dunn, with Eaton and Arn as the world's greatest Well Dunn. Dangerous Alliance doesn't get a single piece of offense until about 8 minutes in, when Eaton lands a right hand on Rick that then gets him immediately clobbered. A huge chunk of this is Arn stooging around for the Steiners with stumbling clownshoe mannerisms, great Bugs Bunny shit like outsmarting your opponent and then turning around to find that you did not, in fact, outsmart your opponent. Eaton and Arn take several armdrags and hiptosses and hard Rick door knock right hands while Madusa does a great job on the floor running around and trying to get her boys to focus. Arn's bumping is so great here, even his silly spots that don't quite make sense end with whip crack bumps, like him boot after questionably attempting his axe handle to a downed Dogface. Eaton is great at taking dangerous Steiner offense (like Scott's Frankensteiner at the finish) but I LOVED a sequence he had with Rick. We already had the cool unexpected layout of Bobby being the aggressive guy on offense and Arn being more of the bumper, but Eaton ups it with this: He goes for a slingshot suplex on Rick, and on the bounce Rick shifts his weight and lands behind Bobby in a reverse waistlock. Eaton holds the ropes to buck Steiner off and block the O'Connor roll, only to turn around and get clotheslined to the floor before even knowing what's happening to him. Gorgeous sequence that looked naturally executed and not like a guy just playing reversals wrestling.