El Deporte de las Mil Emociones: Aniversario 1991

Week 59: Aniversario 1991

EB: It’s July 6, 1991 and we are at Estadio Juan Ramon Loubriel for Aniversario 1991. Ten matches are scheduled for tonight and we have seven of them available. We also have a clip of one of the remaining matches. Let’s start with that clip, as we go to a special from a few years later when WWC was recapping memories and highlights from each of the previous Aniversarios. In this case,this segment included a highlight from 1989, 1990 and 1991 (so a bit of a bonus from those years). The first two clips in this link are JYD vs. Paul Jones from Aniversario 89 in Mayaguez, followed by the Super Medicos vs Rouegaus from Aniversario 90 but this is also the west coast version. The third clip is the finishing stretch of Koko B Ware vs Galan Mendoza from Aniversario 91.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diy_XPLIv-I

The Koko vs Mendoza clips starts at around 3:26, where we see Mendoza drop an elbow on a prone Koko. Mendoza sends Koko into the ropes but Koko is able to counter with a kick to the head. However, Koko is a bit beat up and can’t immediately follow up on Mendoza. Koko starts getting a second wind and hits several clotheslines on Mendoza. A small package gets two for Koko. A Thesz press also gets two. Koko gets some standing punches in the corner, but the ref pulls Koko back and gives him a warning. This allows Mendoza to load up his glove behind the ref’s back. Mendoza sets up for his punch but the ref notices the glove and stops the punch from being thrown. Koko takes advantage to hook on a backslide and gets the pinfall on Mendoza to the crowd’s delight.

MD: We just get a couple of minutes of Koko vs Mendoza before the end. Not a ton of heat. Koko really was a fly-in from what we’ve seen. I’m curious how well Esteban, being a fan at the time, would have been aware of him, for instance. I imagine there was some fun stooging and antics early on but we don’t get them here, just the two slugging it out at the end and some nearfalls before the finish, which was Mendoza going for the glove, the ref stopping him, and Koko locking in a backslide for the win.

EB: As for the rest of the matches, we are missing the Caribbean title match between Super Medico #3 vs Rod Price and the revenge match of Bronco 1 vs. Skandor Akbar. This is the last weekend we will have Akbar and Price in Puerto Rico, so you can safely guess who won those matches.

MD: I need to go hunting through the Observer to see if I can find anything on Bronco vs Akbar and what Akbar’s big surprise was. That will haunt me.

EB: Let’s go to the seven matches we do have for the event which come from the VHS release of Aniversario 91. For this video release, the matches are in a different order than what they occurred in the event (the most obvious example is the Savinovich vs. Travis match being placed at the end of the video).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCkUn31Ixmw

A voice over announces “The time has come for Aniversario 91” as the Aniversario 91 theme music plays and Hugo steps into frame. Hugo thanks the viewer for purchasing or renting this videotape and promises that viewers will enjoy seven matches from this historic event. After mentioning the matches on the tape. Hugo gives a thank you to everyone who has made all of this possible and a reminder that this is not the only video release available so please make sure to ask your video rental store about them. Now let’s go to the matches.

Ricky Santana vs. Action Jackson (loser leaves town match)

We get the opening pyro and then Ricky Santana enters to ‘Gonna Make You Sweat (EverybodyDance Now)’. Look at the size of the crowd. Ricky is the World Junior champion but the title is not on the line as this is a loser leaves town match. It’s a match for which we have not seen the build in the footage we have available. I would not be surprised though if this stems from Ricky Sanana coming out to snatch the foreign object from Action Jackson when Jackson and Price had stolen the win from Invader and Ito (which caused the match to restart and then led to the rudos losing the match). Both men have had a good run in 1991 so far, but only one man will stay after this weekend. Action Jackson enters to “U Can’t Touch This”. Eliud Gonzales does the ring intros and makes sure to tell the fans that Ricky Sanatan has requested for fans to stop throwing stuff into the ring so he can concentrate on taking Action out (that’s one way to see if you can curb the object throwing). The announcers state that there has to be a winner in this match. 

The crowd is clearly behind Santana here as Ricky gets the better of Jackson with some punches. This leads to Jackson going outside a few times to try to regain control, only for Santana to quickly counter and get the better of him each time (including not falling for a handshake from Action). A test of strength finally gives Jackson some control, especially when he kicks down Ricky when it is being countered. Ricky finally kicks his way out of the test of strength and Action ends up on the outside again. The tide finally turns in Action's favor when he starts working over Santana's leg. This continues for a few minutes, with some hope spots by Santana thrown in. Action attempts a cover with his feet on the ropes, but the ref notices and throws Jackson off. Our first comment of the matches being out of order is that Hugo mentions that some of the residue in the ring is from the salt that was used in the Hugo vs. Travis match earlier in the show. Action continues working over the leg but is unable to put Ricky away. Santana eventually makes a comeback but his pin attempts are unsuccessful. Ricky goes up top but is caught by Action, who tries to slam Ricky off. However, Santana holds onto Jackson on the way down and locks in a small package to get the win. Action Jackson must leave Puerto Rico.

MD: This was good. You could feel the weight of the stakes, even if we didn’t really have the build relative to some of the other matches. Somewhere along the line, Jackson has become a very solid stooge. The first few minutes of the match was him getting out punched (nice punches too) or out slicked by Santana and then rushing out to the floor to stall and build up heat before coming back in. The fans responded accordingly. Jackson finally took over on the leg after Santana missed a big corner charge, starting with a spinning toe hold. They moved in and out of it with some hope spots, and it was fairly varied, though he just kind of held it a little too much maybe. Santana sold as he finally fired back and they had some good, believable nearfalls down the stretch including the ref catching Jackson with his feet way on the ropes. They ended it with Santana tossing Jackson off the top but rolling him up as Jackson tried to return the favor. I’m not sure there was much more to do with Jackson as a character, unless they were going to turn him babyface, but he had developed into a pretty good heel for the style of the territory by this point.

Miguelito Perez & Hurricane Castillo, Jr. vs. Samoan Swat Team

EB: The Caribbean Express is defending the Caribbean tag titles against the SST. Part of the Perez and Castillo music video set to "Indestructible” by The Four Tops is shown. This is to hammer home that these two are like brothers. Fatu and Castillo start out for their teams. Castillo gets a headlock and then is able to send Fatu out of the ring with some dropkicks. Fatu again does not fare well against Castillo, and a missed punch leads to him hitting Savage by mistake. This prompts tensions to flare for a moment among the SST but they hug it out. Fatu has a foreign object and uses it to knock down Castillo, and then plays hide the object by handing it off to his partner. Savage and Perez are tagged in and Perez gets an armbar on Savage. After having his arm briefly over, Savage escapes but gets dropkicked to the outside. Back in and the Express does some quick tags while working over Fatu’s arm. The foreign object comes into play again as it is used to hit Castillo and send him to the outside.

As Perez checks on Castillo, Hugo mentions what a way this is to close out Aniversario 1991 (so it appears this was the last match of the night). The SST continued to press their advantage against Castillo, with Savage attacking him on the outside. A power slam gets only two when Perez breaks up the pin attempt. Fatu is tagged in and they bait Perez into coming, allowing for some more double teaming behind the ref’s back. The SST continue working over Castillo for the next few minutes using some underhanded tactics like assisted abdominal stretches and another use of the foreign object. Castillo eventually makes the tag, Perez comes in to clean house and all four men end up in the ring. Castillo clotheslines Savage out of the ring, leaving Perez and Fatu. Perez tries a reverse somersault press off the turnbuckle, but Fatu ducks. Fatu then goes up top but Monster Ripper takes advantage of the ref being distracted and shakes the ropes, causing Fatu to crotch himself on the top turnbuckle. Perez (unclear if he saw Ripper’s interference) hits a superplex and gets the pin. The Caribbean Express have retained their titles.

MD: Another in the long line of good Puerto Rican tags. I’m not sure if it’s because Demolition was on the card or because they were playing up the dissonance angle, but SST weren’t quite as monstrous or bestial as they would have been a year or two earlier. They stooged early, including one hitting the other and then hugging and then the Express controlled on the arm for a while. When the SST took over, it was by hiding an object. They got heat on Perez and things were thrown in but not nearly as much as we’d seen before. They did a Decapitation which is funny for one thing to do while Demolition is on the card, but it was a lot of controlling on the arm too. Castillo barely got drawn in and the time he did it was right before Perez ducked a double clothesline to make the hot tag. Unfortunately, after Castillo came in hot, a resurgent Perez tried a double noggin knocker on Samoans, never a good idea, and it looked like Fatu was going to win with the top rope splash. He had a tendency of crocheting himself comedically here but this time it was Ripper who shook the ropes. That let Perez hit a superplex for the win. Definitely good but I could have used just a little more heat.

Invader #1 vs. Ronnie Garvin 

EB: Garvin makes his entrance with El Profe for what Hugo calls the second main event of the night. Invader is allowed to have his fist taped for this encounter and he has promised to lay out Garvin. Invader comes out to “Eye of the Tiger” as a voice over from him indicates that this will be the toughest match of his life. The story of this match is that both men are wary about each other’s punching ability, but Garvin in particular is avoiding the taped fist. Garvin is the first one to get some punches in with some body shots in the corner. Garvin attacks with some headbutts and chops, but the moment Invader counters out and squares up to punch, Garvin leans out of the ropes to force the ref to tell Invader to back off. Garvin controls the pace of the match and works over Invader with some chops and also focuses on Invader's neck. A sleeper causes Invader to fade but he manages to keep his arm up on the arm check. Invader gets out of the hold but again misses Garvin when he tries to square up for the taped fist punch. 

Garvin switches tactics and starts focusing on working over Invader's taped fist to try to neutralize the danger. He rams Invader's hand on the turnbuckle and then does the Garvin stomp but focuses on the taped hand. Some attempted pins are countered but Garvin continues focusing on working over Invader’s hand and arm. Garcin has Invader in a double hammerlock but Invader makes the ropes when one arm is released. Garvin wraps Invader's arm around the ropes and starts wrenching it as the ref tries to get Garvin to break. Garvin continues on the attack but Invader starts getting fired up and makes his comeback. A rope running sequence sees Invader leap frog over Garvin and then surprise him with the taped fist heart punch on the rebound. The pin is academic and Invader has laid out Ron Garvin. 

MD: This was the match I was looking forward to the most and yep, it was the sort of minimal, hyper-focused affair I was expecting. Garvin sold the IDEA of Invader’s taped fist huge, hiding in the ropes for the first couple of minutes and freaking out whenever Invader even clenched a fist at him. He, of course, turned it around and hit some cheapshots to the gut to take over, leading to working the head and neck and a chinlock until Invader started to get some hope.

Garvin cut him off and went right in on the hand. Some great handwork here as he used the Garvin Stomp on it repeatedly, not going around but going to the hand instead. Then he’d grind the arm in the rope and even bite at the bicep. It was all to no avail however, as Invader started to get strength from the crowd, using a walking hulk up until he was ready to fire back. He had to use the side of the arm and headbutts and slam Garvin’s head into the turnbuckles at first but after a leapfrog, he whipped around and managed the heart punch. Garvin sold it like death, maybe death three times even, and post match Invader waved his fingers, still selling. Past some blood, this is just what you’d want from these two at this point of their career. 

Monster Ripper vs. El Profe

EB: This is the first ever man vs woman match in Puerto Rico. El Profe comes out with a bouquet of flowers, it seems he wants to make peace with Ripper before anything turns ugly. Ripper comes out and we cut to both wrestlers ready to go in the ring. It seems Profe had been offering the flowers as a peace offering and Ripper did not accept them. The bell rings as Profe decides to blindside Ripper with the bouquet, using the flowers as a weapon to repeatedly smack Ripper in the face. Profe uses the stems as a weapon by jabbing them into Ripper’s throat and then follows up with a double foot stomp. Flowers are scattered about the ring as Profe continues on offense, pausing every now and then to gloat to the crowd. Another double foot stomp and Profe starts bopping and weaving in the ring as Ripper rolls out. It seems Hugo Savinovich is out there seconding ripper, while Billy Joe Travis is out there backing up Profe. Hugo helps Ripper up but Monster is unable to get back in the ring as Profe kicks her.

Ripper finally gets back in but Profe immediately jumps her and continues in control, making sure to pause to do a yawning pantomime to signal how easy this is for him. Ripper makes a brief comeback but Profe cuts it off and continues by slapping and punching Ripper in the face to further embarrass her. Profe gets a backdrop and senton, but instead of going for the pin he continues gloating to the crowd. He finally goes for the cover but only gets two. Before Ripper can come back, Profe rakes her eyes and hits a suplex.  Profe signals it's over and takes his time going up top. He misses a senton from the top and now Ripper has her opening. Ripper gets several blows in and briefly tries to go for Profe’s mask, but then resumes her attack.Ripper rams Profe's head into the corners and then runs off the ropes, but falls victim to Travis tripping her. Profe yells at Travis to get in there but the ref intercepts Travis. Profe attempts a slam on Ripper while this was going on and Hugo quickly reaches in to trip Profe up, causing Ripper to fall on top of Profe. The ref turns around, sees Ripper making the cover and makes the three count. Monster Ripper has defeated El Profe. But the victory celebration is short and Profe and Billy Joe attack both Ripper and Hugo. Blood is drawn as Travis throws Hugo head first into a ringpost as Profe attacks Ripper inside the ring. The attack stops when the Caribbean Express come out to make the save. This sets up a mixed tag match for the next day’s Aniversario card in Ponce. 

MD: This overachieved more than any match I’ve seen as part of this project. It was really great. Go watch it before reading anything I say. Okay, back? Good. Profe comes down smooth as can be, with his over the top music and a bouquet of flowers. I was wondering what was up with it at first but it’s obvious once Ripper comes down that he was going to give it to her, or that was the gimmick. Instead, he smashes her in the head with them and jabs the stems into her throat, which is a great visual and quite believable actually. After that he just absolutely unloads on her. He does these brutal double stomps and just lays into her. Huge heat. There’s trash flying in, lots of drinks so that whenever a bump happens, liquid splashes up off the mat. 

At one point she tries to fire up but Profe kicks her in the gut off the ropes. He eventually tosses her and Hugo, out there now (as was Travis) tries to get her ready to fight again. Profe catches her on the way in though. He suplexes her with ease. He hits a senton off the ropes and he’s great in his little mannerisms. He yawns. He does a tranquilo lean in the corner. Just really milking it, totally fearless of all the stuff flying in. He goes up to the top to put her away but misses the somersault senton. The place comes alive as she starts laying into him. Legdrops and back body drops and slamming him all around the ring. Travis, having been slinking around, catches her off the ropes though. That lets Profe take back over as the ref is admonishing Travis. Profe lifts her up again but Hugo comes in under the bottom rope and leans halfway across the ring to yank Profe’s legs for another huge pop as Ripper pins him for three. 

Post match, Profe lays into Ripper as Travis bloodies up Hugo. They’d have their reckoning later. Very smart, very well executed, super overachieving, high heat match. Honestly, sort of blew me away.

Dino Bravo vs. Carlos Colon

EB: It’s main even time as Dino Bravo challenges Carlos Colon for the Universal title. This match was set up by the attack Bravo perpetrated on Colon during the Noche de Campeones card on Mother’s Day weekend. Bravo throws Carlos off him on the initial lockup, establishing again that Bravo has the strength advantage. A second lockup leads to a break and Bravo fails in surprising Colon with a punch, instead Colon blocks and fires off several of his own. Bravo hides in the ropes to get Carlos to back off. The match surprisingly continues with some holds and counters, as Bravo works a headlock on the mat and then Carlos does some arm drags that send Bravo to the outside to regroup. Colon works over Dino’s arm once the latter is back in, which is a smart strategy to try to neutralize the full nelson. Bravo briefly gets some kicks in but Carlos counters with an arm drag, dropkick and a body press for two. Bravo against regroups on the outside.

The ref starts a count to force Bravo back in and Carlos immediately starts chopping Bravo in the corner. An Irish whip leads to a monkey flip attempt, but Bravo catches Colon and does an atomic drop. This allows Bravo to control the next several minutes with some Colon hope spots mixed in. Bravo uses kicks, a reverse chinlock and a toss to the outside to try to wear down Carlos. Bravo goes for a bearhug to continue wearing down Colon, who is brought down to his knees. The ref checks Colon's arm but Carlos responds on the third check. Carlos breaks out of the bearhug by poking Bravo in the eye. Carlos blocks a Bravo suplex and counters with a suplex of his own. Carlos starts his comeback, punctuated with a cartwheel. Colon sets up and is able to lock in the figure four, but Bravo refuses to give up. Bravo reverses the hold and now the worry is if Bravo will break Colon’s leg just like what happened with Polynesian Prince. Carlso holds on and is able to grab the ropes to force a break, but his leg may have suffered some damage. As Carlos tries to fire off some punches, Bravo responds by kicking Colon’s leg. This leads to a Bravo airplane spin which leaves Carlos dizzy. Bravo charges in with a clothesline but Colon is aware enough to dodge and instead Bravo decks the referee. Bravo locks in the full nelson but the ref is down. It looks like Carlos may be losing his title, but all of a sudden Ihvader runs into the ring, punches Bravo in the back with the taped fist and runs off. Bravo staggers into a corner as Colon tries to gather himself. Beravos makes a beeline towards Carlos, but Colon is able to grab Bravo in a small package and get the three count. Carlos has retained the Universal title but it’s definitely questionable how it came about. Carlos grabs the title belt and is still a bit staggered as he leaves the ring. Meanwhile, an irate Bravo gets some final kicks in on the departing Colon.

MD: Okay, first and foremost, this was fine. Totally okay match. Needed blood, sorry, but it did. Now I’m expecting a massive bloodbath between Hugo and Travis and will be disappointed if I don’t get it. That’s the only explanation. BUT in general, this was good. Bravo inherited a lot of heat on his way in from having Profe with him. It was very paint by numbers for the most part. He’d get a little move on Colon and then eat three or four. They’d repeat it. Colon controlled which defused some of the heat to be honest. Bravo finally got him in an inverted atomic drop and started to wear him down. The brunt of this was a long bearhug that was worked well until Bravo got tired. 

I do think the finishing stretch is worth mentioning. Colon came back and did the cartwheel and put on the figure-four. This is where watching the TV really added a ton. We had seen the segment where Bravo broke Polynesian Prince’s leg by turning it over. When he did it here, it felt like a huge deal. We’d also seen matches he won by setting up the full nelson with the airplane spin so him doing it here felt like a big deal too. He missed Colon and got the ref with a clothesline though, and then Invader ran in and whacked Bravo in the back of the head with the taped fist as he had the Full Nelson on. Colon rolled him up and won it. I feel like I might have missed something there. Obviously the Army sticks together and Profe has done lots of nefarious things, but it felt a little cheap for Invader to interfere at Aniversario in the title match when the heel hadn’t really done anything to warrant it for once. 

TNT & Giant Warrior vs. Demolition Smash & Crush

EB: This match should please Matt as Demolition make an appearance. Granted it is the Smash and Crush version, but we’ll take what we can get. Their opponents are TNT & Giant Warrior, with TNT asking Warrior to be his partner against Demolition. A bit surprising that this the spot for TNT on the card, but it is against a high profile import at least. Demolition starts off quick by jumping Warrior and TNT and focusing their attacks on TNT. It almost seems like we have gone straight to TNT in peril, but after a couple of minutes TNT finds an opening and uses his karate moves to regain control on both Smash and Crush. Giant Warrior comes in to help TNT and both Demos are cleared from the ring. TNT remains in control working over Smash, and then Warrior is tagged in as the tecnicos focus on working over Smash’s arm. The tecnico team remains in control until Demolition is able to lure Warrior into their corner and are able to take over.

Giant Warrior becomes the face in peril as Demolition work him over. Smash uses a neck twist to wear Warrior down as the crowd tries to rally him. Demolition keeps baiting TNT into the ring, allowing them opportunities to double team Warrior behind the referee’s back. In an impressive feat of strength, Crush gets Warrior up in a torture rack position before dropping down in a back breaker type move. TNT breaks up that pin attempt. Crush continues working over Warriors using his legs to hold Warriors in a body vice. Warrior tries but cannot quite reach for the tag. Warrior keeps resisting the hold and it looks like he might finally reach TNT’s tag but Smash jumps off the apron and runs over to yank TNT off the apron. Finally, Crush releases the vice hold and tags in Smash. Warrior counters a charge with boot and is able to make the tag to TNT. An offensive flurry from TNT takes care of both Demos, but his two pin attempts on Smash are broken up by Crush. Warrior returns to the ring as all four men start fighting. The tecnicos get the better of Demolition as the ref starts making motions for them to stop, and then we get a double disqualification finish due to continued fighting in the ring. Not the best finish. TNT hauls off and decks the ref for calling for the dq. The tecnicos continue attacking Demolition at ringside. 

MD: Obviously, I’m a huge Demolition fan, but that really means I’m a big Bill Eadie as Ax fan. He’s great at structuring matches and conducting traffic and knowing how to make babyfaces earn every inch and adapting his act for different heels. But with a crowd this hot (even if they seem a little burnt out at first) and this deep into the Smash/Crush run, even this version of Demolition had a lot to offer and they offered it here, giving Giant Warrior maybe his best match ever (and a lot of that came down to his connection to the crowd and selling).

They start in on TNT early, but he came back as they ran into all of his kicks. Then we ended up with a long heat on Giant Warrior, most of which had him pinned down in a body scissors but they made it compelling. Warrior was constantly fighting, reaching straining, and they had to do whatever they could to keep him there given his size and reach (including Smash trying to pull TNT off the apron). They really did a great job of building the pressure up until he was able to block getting rammed into the turnbuckle with his foot (though Smash undercut his foot in a cool little spot). Immediately thereafter Smash ran into his boot in the opposite corner and TNT came in hot. He hit the spin wheel kick but everything devolved and Quiñones called it off right before getting clobbered himself. So disappointing finish even if they had the satisfaction of the hot tag, but a pretty solid match overall before that.

Hugo Savonovich vs. Billy Joe Travis

EB: Our last match on the video release is Hugo Savinovich vs. Billy Joe Travis. Hugo is here defending his family’s honor from the insults Travis had been saying on television and has promised to bring his ‘walking hardware store’ out of retirement for the match. For those wondering, this is in reference to Hugo’s rudo days when he would have all manner of foreign objects hidden on him, thus the walking hardware store name for this arsenal. Hugo comes out to a nice ovation, pauses to take off his shirt on the outside and then charges into the ring. Travis tries to jump Hugo, but instead Hugo catches Travis and fights him off (punctuated by biting Travis in the face). Travis tries to offer his hand but Hugo continues attacking, pulling out a belt from his tights and just whipping Travis with it around ringside. Hugo starts choking Travis with the belt but Travis gets out of it with a low blow. Travis now has possession of the belt and whips Hugo with it. A punch knocks Hugo down to the ballfield dirt and Travis follows him with more punches. Eliud Gonzalez on commentary reminds us that anything goes here. 

Travis stomps a prone Hugo on the field, but Hugo fights back and hits a dropkick on Travis. Hugo reaches into his boot and pulls out a coat hanger as he chases Travis back into the ring. Travis is choked with the coat hanger. Hugo then pulls out a chain and wraps it around his fist but Travis is able to backdrop Hugo before a punch is landed. Travis grabs the chain but opts to use it more to hold Hugo in place for some punches and then a clothesline. Travis slams Hugo and decides to go to the top to deliver a chain assisted fist drop. As Travis gloats to the crowd, Hugo comes too and reaches into his tights. Travis jumps off the top but is met with a face full of salt from Hugo. Travis hits the mat, Hugo makes the cover and gets the three count. Hugo wants to get a couple of licks in after the bell but Travis is able to roll out. The crowd applauds as Hugo has his hand raised as the winner. With that, we are done with Aniversario 1991.

MD: This goes about six minutes and it definitely doesn’t wear out its welcome. It probably could have gone twice that with Travis controlling a lot more. But the crowd is way up the whole time. Hugo charges right in, biting Travis in the forehead (no blood!) and whipping him with his belt. Travis takes back over and just hits these great measured punches on the outside. He had been shadowboxing before Hugo came in and he’s just a great sleazy Memphis Heel.

He really only gets a few shots in (even if they’re spaced out well) before Hugo finds a wire and comes back, choking Travis with it. He hits a dropkick and then pulls out a chain and it builds to a big moment, but Travis back body drops him and takes it. He pockets it himself so he can slam Hugo. As he sets him up for the big fistdrop with the chain, Hugo finds some powder and tosses it right into his eyes to set Travis up for the pin. Everyone is overjoyed and we fade to black with Hugo whacking Travis with chain-assisted punches. 

We’re missing a couple of matches that were good or at least interesting on paper and there was a dubious finish or two in this one, but overall everything came together pretty well. Good crowd-pleasing Aniversario.

EB: Next time on El Deporte de las Mil Emociones, a big World tag title match takes place between two tecnico teams, an announced return of Steve Strong does not materialize and we get a Russian replacement instead, and the status quo changes for two wrestlers.