On Brand Segunda Caida: The Only Good Match from Heroes of Wrestling

Tully Blanchard vs. Stan Lane Heroes of Wrestling 10/10/99     Pt. 2

ER: You know what match is a sincerely great piece of pro wrestling? This match right here. Over the past few years we've uncovered some great new Tully matches on New Footage Fridays, and it really opened my eyes to just how much I overlooked Tully. It's not like his ability was ever a secret, but I think my brain always let Arn overshadow him. Arn Anderson is one of my all time favorites, but the years and every piece of new footage have been turning me into a Tully guy. This was the best match on the infamous Heroes of Wrestling PPV, and I'm not actually intending that to be any kind of backhand compliment. Now, it was the best match on Heroes of Wrestling because it was the only good match on Heroes of Wrestling, but this match would have stood out as a good wrestling match on any show. 

Stan Lane's promo to start set a great tone, an actual perfect heel promo, talking down the ring announcer ("I'm sure you're a local guy who wanted to impress his friends but...") and projecting his voice louder and louder as the fans boo louder, getting real heat by talking about how successful he's been since his days as a tag team legend. The promo goes to another level when he talks about his broadcasting success with WWF and ESPN, and then redoes his entire introduction in an incredible Bruce Buffer voice. If Stan Lane actually wanted to be a wrestler in the 90s/00s he could have been part of one of the greatest butterfly effects in mankind's history, as it would have made the existence of Mr. Kennedy completely obsolete. Randy Rosenbloom on commentary says "The women LOVE this guy! Kids, apparently, do not." Indeed, many children in the southeastern United States grew up without fathers thanks to Stan Lane.

Lane also runs down Blanchard during Blanchard's entrance ("This guy's preaching in tents and I'm on ESPN!") and it gives us a great start to the match proper, with Tully chasing Lane all around the ring and getting hit with an elbowdrop after Lane leads the chase back into the ring. Lane has a nice falling clothesline, and Tully fights back with a cool elbow to the back of Lane's head and a great low running dropkick. Blanchard takes a great bump on the floor off an atomic drop, flying into the ringpost on the recoil. Lane shows off some of his great heel karate, hitting a savate kick to the stomach and a nice cross chop. Lane actually has a ton of offense in this, a pretty huge moveset for a guy in his mid 40s who had barely wrestled for 5 years. He's got a good swinging neckbreaker, Russian legsweep, hotshot, and he knows how to make it flow together really well. He doesn't come off like a guy just doing moves he knows, he knows how to make his offense work really well within the match. Tully goes low and drags Lane out of the ring by the trunks, then puts on a figure 4 on the floor for some reason. Now, the finish was the only bad part of the match, but it was a real dry dick of a finish. Tully hits a side suplex and they both pin each other and no fan has ever reacted positively to that finish so everyone leaves upset and/or confused. It was a Bad Finish, but even with this finish it would have played high to the back row of any legends convention weekend, and that means something.