Found Footage Friday: LOST 1990 WWF HOUSE SHOW~!

WWF House Show Wisconsin Fieldhouse 10/28/90

ER: I love these "undocumented" WWF house shows so much. It's like they never existed, WWF out here running secret shows in podunk towns. Matt and I wrote about a WWF Boy Scout Fundraiser show from '92, which is one of my favorite show reviews we've ever done for Segunda Caida. These shows are special. The WWF showing up in some nothing central Wisconsin town with $9 tickets sold at the local hardware store, like when some mudshow Harlem Clowns barnstormers played members my small childhood town's fire and police departments in our high school gymnasium. I was $9, my dad took me and a couple friends, and we laughed when this one Healdsburg, CA cop kept getting Clowned. I had no idea who the Harlem Clowns were before but saw the ads in our local paper, the Healdsburg Tribune, and Healdsburg wasn't a place that got "events". We were going to a town event, like when the fair would come to town. That's the best part about a show like this: It's not filmed as a wrestling show. It's filmed as a Town Event. WWF sold cheap tickets to a show at Marshfield, Wisconsin's high school gym and we get to watch the home video. My dad didn't bring the camcorder to that Harlem Clowns game, the way he would to my baseball games or recitals, but somebody's dad did. If there are a few guys out there who run a Barnstorming Basketball blog, I hope they find it. 

1. Shane Douglas vs. Black Bart

MD: This is amazing footage to have in the first place as we'd never even had the card for this, just the date. This is clipped, but you still get probably half the match. Tail end of 1990 is when I first got into wrestling as a kid (a little bit of a late arriver) so seeing Black Bart and Shane Douglas in a WWF ring is just natural for me. As an opening match on a B or C show, things could have been a lot worse. Bart was a well-oiled machine by 91; he knew what to do. He knew what not to do. He knew when to do it. He could still execute it well enough. He was never going to be the star that he claims he was going to be if you listen to him do interviews now but he could be just as valuable on an undercard as he was in 85 when he was feuding with Ron Bass in JCP. He was solid enough here that it makes me want to go back and look at his WCW and GWF stuff the following year. It's funny to think that your real bottom of the card heels in 90 WWF were Buddy Rose and Black Bart. Your bottom of the card faces were Powers and Brunzell with Douglas just a bit above them maybe as a real up and comer. Bart worked Dustin a lot around this time as well.

From what we see here, it's paint by numbers, but the numbers add up and the paint is vibrant and the kids in the crowd are into it. Douglas is snappy in his shine, including a nice headscissors takeover and Bart sailing across the ring on an armdrag. We don't see the actual transition but we come in with Bart dropping Shane over the top rope. They then work a chinlock up and down but Shane gets the crowd behind him and he's dynamic enough in the rope running out of it. The finish is a sunset flip back out of the corner and it gets a big pop. Douglas had some legs as a babyface here and they could have done something with him. There are probably dozens of shoot interviews I'm not going to listen to for why they didn't. 90-91 Bart is the one that might get another look from us though.

ER: I thought this was a great opener, and I don't think I realized how good Black Bart would be for Shane Douglas. I have seen more than enough early 90s Douglas and I don't think he typically looks as good as he did here. Bart is a big guy, the kind of big guy that dads in the crowd look at and think "yeah now that's a big guy" and the perfect kind of big guy to take Douglas's babyface fire. There were hundreds of guys working matches just like this and Bart and Douglas were doing it better than most of them. Bart really was a (for me at least) much better Ron Bass, but I don't think I ever thought of Shane Douglas as being a potentially great Ricky Morton. He looked like a great Ricky here. His two headscissors were incredible. Everything Douglas did, Bart made look better, but those headscissors would have looked great against anyone. They were the classic Robert Gibson/Marty Jannetty style and Bart is a big sold guy who is able to "stand" with them longer. Those style headscissors are always more satisfying to me when you can see the babyface actually working to take their opponent over, so Bart being able to hold Douglas up for that pause before getting slid across the ring just makes them pop. The crowd is wild for everything they do (a beautiful running theme on the afternoon) and it made the simplest things sing. 

2. Warlord vs. Tom Stone

MD: This is more like it. Tom Stone has a windbreaker that fits 1990 perfectly. Warlord is lacking Slick but has the full half helmet and armor and staff. I watched some 87 Warlord in New Japan recently where he was the Dangerous Violence Warlord and very green. That Warlord would have given Stone half of the match. This one did not. It was worked like an enhancement match. Real Immovable Object vs. Stoppable Force stuff. Stone tried some clotheslines and punches and staggered Warlord a little but he did a good job portraying how shocked he was that things weren't working instead of doing what Duggan or Bossman would do and build up momentum. That meant he ran into a clothesline eventually. Warlord was really good at setting his stuff up, a bit lift of the arm before coming down with it, that sort of thing, but the impact never lived up to the preamble. Stone's big comeback was two eye rakes and the biting of the eye which seemed to confuse the crowd more than anything else. Then he ran into a lovely big boot and ate the running power slam. This didn't try to be more than what it should have been because of the setting. That meant no lengthy nerve hold. Unless Stone's family was in the crowd, I don't think anyone was disappointed at its absence.

ER: I'm a big Tom Rocky Stone guy, even though he's someone we barely write about. He's a guy I kept trying to get on the DVDVR 80s AWA set, just because I wanted him represented somehow. What's the best Tom Stone match? I have no idea. He didn't get anywhere near the same match length opportunities as the similar-but-different Iron Mike Sharpe, was never used by WWF as a job guy who would put up a fight or could occasionally win. Stone had to do things to stand out while rarely getting out of 2 minute losses. Here, we get 5 minutes of Stone and while none of his offense is really sold, it's a much broader picture of the kind of personality Stone could bring to a loss (that looked like it was headed towards a loss every second of the match). I love his windbreaker, love his dedication to the job guy singlet (the one with the horizontal strap joining the shoulder straps), and love how he still knew how to land offense that looked good while knowing it wouldn't be acknowledged. His clotheslines looked great, his punches looked even better - grabbing Warlord's head with his left and throwing heavy shots with his right - but his perplexed looks in the corner took the cake. He had no entry point into Warlord, he knew he had no entry point, and knew he had no shot. 

Everybody in Marshfield knew that Tom Stone had no shot. He was Mr. Belding in a way that is necessary but now completely unrepresented in wrestling. I don't think any wrestler projected School Principal than Tom Stone. If you didn't know better, you'd think he actually was a teacher at Marshfield High. We have all watched and attended wrestling shows where a teacher from that gymnasium's high school got into the ring. I went to a show at Antioch High School to see Greg Valentine and Sabu and Antioch High School's football coach wrestle. Tom Stone is the most subtly, skillfully acted goofball science teacher wrestling at his school's fundraiser. He's made for this show. He's the fucking Bruno Sammartino of this specific kind of show. His frustration at his own ineffectiveness, a great "here it goes" shake of the head, and a total surprise when he raked at Warlord's eyes and actually bit his eye! A reminder that Tom Stone is a bad guy who actually wants to win. A great pro wrestler. 

Warlord looked like trash. I've watched a lot of Maxx Muscle matches and Warlord was not as good as Maxx Muscle. He has no weight of any kind behind anything he did. His big boot was light, his clothesline soft. That's not really important. If Warlord had walked by me in my town's high school gym when I was 9 years old, my jaw would have been dropped. Gassed out guy in a helmet and Conan weapon would impress the hell out of 9 year old me. Warlord looks huge in a high school gym. You've never seen a bigger person in that building. His match ending powerslam was a real powerslam, an important lesson for wrestlers in "ending the match on a high note". Save your best thing for your last thing. Marshfield will remember Warlord's size and powerslam and nothing else he did. That means it worked. 

 

3. Sgt. Slaughter vs. Nikolai Volkoff

MD: Legitimately shocking. Slaughter came out to huge, huge heat with Adnan and the flag and singing the Iraqi anthem and calling people maggots. Volkoff had a huge pop and the US flag. I do like how this is an inversion. By that I mean, if you ever see a parody of pro wrestling, you'll never see the foreign guy as the face and the American as the turncoat, and Volkoff was super super over during the summer of 90. The whole bit he did with the scouts made him something like the third or fourth top babyface in WWF, at least for a few months. It really did set up the heel Slaughter character well and this was a mauling. Slaughter ambushed Volkoff from behind as Adnan was waving the flag at him and he never let up. His stuff was pointed and credible, mean, just rubbing Volkoff's face in the ground, plastering him with shots from every angle, just being relentless. Warlord is supposed to be slow and methodological, but the difference in the actual perceived impact was telling. You keep looking for Volkoff's comeback and it never gets there. He just eats a bunch of elbow drops and the camel clutch, followed by a post match beating.

ER: When Matt sent me the card for this show it hadn't crossed my mind that Sgt. Slaughter would be bringing his Iraqi Sympathizer routine to this high school. It would have been so fucking wild if someone came flying an Iraqi flag into my school when I was a kid. How could people in central Wisconsin process a guy coming into their town and rooting for Iraq? Do they know the formula? Could they understand it was all part of the show? What's the percentage of Believers? The Gulf War was fresh in 1990. I, a child, would not have been permitted to show any kind of allegiance with Iraq on school grounds and I wish I could have seen the reactions from my town's adults. Sgt. Slaughter praising Iraq and shouting a G rated Tracy Smothers promo at the unexpecting crowd is an incredible sight on its own, but, even as a child, I would have expected Sgt. Slaughter's comeuppance to be arriving any minute. 

Matt's not wrong about how loved Volkoff was that summer, but even if he hadn't been, it was a man waving a large American flag in the face of a man waving an Iraqi flag at what was basically the onset of the Gulf War. Everybody in that building knew that America would come out of this looking good. 

And then Sgt. Slaughter just fucked Volkoff up for several minutes and got him to tap without ever absorbing a single shot, then continued fucking Volkoff up after winning. I and everyone in Marshfield knew that it was only a matter of time before one of Slaughter's constant barrage of kicks to the ribs and big man shots to the body got turned back against him, and instead American got run the fuck over and buried like if the first 15 minutes of Red Dawn had been the whole movie. I don't know if I have ever seen America fare worse in a high school gymnasium. This might be our greatest document of America in the role of Yoji Anjo flying to America fight Rickson Gracie. 

4. Rockers vs. Power and Glory

MD: Really good tag. Great Michaels performance too but everyone was on here. It started with Jannetty hitting a top rope fist on Hercules who was swinging his chain in the middle of the ring for an awesome visual to start and never really let up. Rockers kept outquicking Power and Glory's attempt to cheat to take over to keep the shine but it was overall pretty brisk. Nothing wore out its welcome. When Jannetty was in there (and getting a chant), Shawn was engaged on the apron. It took a fairly complex series of three or four cheating attempts to finally take over on Michaels. They mostly worked over his leg. There was a great hope spot where Roma was stepping on the ankle to prevent him from tag and so he could taunt Jannetty and Michaels worked himself halfway up and did a sort of falling punch which looked perfect given the HH quality. They were drawing a bunch of heat by attacking Jannetty on the apron and focusing on the leg, building to Michaels kicking Herc into the corner on a spinning toe hold. Jannetty came in hot setting up the finish where Michaels, having been tossed outside, pulled Hercules away allowing Jannetty to duck the double clothesline and hit a cross body on Roma. Fans were into this and if anything, I could have used an extra minute or two.

ER: Great tag match from two of the great WWF tag teams. Power and Glory were so good. Of course the Rockers were good but Power and Glory were so good. Hercules and Paul Roma are each guys who don't give enough credit. Hercules' as a worker keeps looking better and better the more I revisit that era. He's another act that plays huge in a high school gym. Look how he swings the chains, knowing exactly how close he can stand to Marty Jannetty to not actually chain whip the man while still swinging the chains at full extension. Paul Roma, meanwhile, holds up tremendously, as he's the greasiest slimeball around and looks and acts like someone who should be the greasiest slimeball around. He was born into being an asshole. You cannot look like Paul Roma and not be a jackoff. This building understood that on sight, and they also understood that the Rockers were the coolest boys in town. Marty Jannetty especially got a huge reaction, and the opening of this match should have been the way a classic PPV match happened. Hercules swinging chains in Marty's face, Marty climbing to the top rope and leaping off with a fist to the face. 

I love watching southern tag formula in American gyms. Bad versions of it usually work, great versions of it lead to ear splitting joyous reactions. When Marty tags in after Michaels has been getting his leg kicked and stomped over? It's impossible to picture anything or anyone getting a louder reaction. Power and Glory did nothing over the top to work over Michaels' knee, other than look exactly the way Power and Glory look and simply kicking and stomping at his leg. They didn't need to do anything else, the energy was perfect. It could have gone on another 10 minutes and it only would have gotten better with each minute. This crowd would have been along for every stomp and every close tag. I do wish Michaels had been cut off from a tag one or two or three more times, but this deserved every scream of that hot tag. The Marty chants are calorific icing. 

5. Koko B. Ware vs. Boris Zhukov

MD: Koko looks like a million bucks here. Most entertaining, compelling, engaging babyface in the world. Zhukov does his part to start, stalling early while Koko keeps the USA chants going and holds court in the ring, and then walking right into a whole lot of stooing shtick. The best bit was when Koko would headbutt him and Zhukov would stagger and then Koko would mock the stagger. Legitimately funny stuff. Eventually Zhukov dragged him down into that nerve hold I was worried about in the Warlord match, but it worked here far better. Some good hope spots and cutoffs before Koko came back and eventually won it with a missile dropkick so high that he basically bounced off the top of Zhukov's head. I'm not doing this one justice but it was very good for what it was.

ER: Was every person on this roster just the perfect High School Gym Attraction? Any child who sees Koko B. Ware dance into their gym, literal parrot on his shoulder, bronze suit glittering, looking like the coolest confident most fun person in the world. A Megastar cartoon of a man. I dated a girl my age whose connection to wrestling was watching Sunday morning WWF with her brother, and Koko B. Ware was her favorite. How couldn't he be the favorite? Do you know how wide I smiled and how my voice went up when a hot girl told me she loved Koko B. Ware at some point in her life. That's special. We'll have that. I smile when I pass my Koko Hasbro. If, instead of Koko B. Ware - a name every American should be allowed to hear once in their life, because it's a fake name that has a real chance to stick with someone after hearing it just one time. What's a better pro wrestler name than Koko B. Ware? Gorilla Monsoon? Probably. But not many. We should have been given Attitude era Koko. Lives would have changed. The charm of children asking questions on pro wrestling handhelds is one of the truly innocent and charming experiences in our scumbag obsession of choice. Suddenly every child in every part of this building had questions when Koko B. Ware appeared in their lives. 

6. Texas Tornado vs. Mr. Perfect

MD: I don't know about this one. It had some weird, weird structural things that would have made more sense if Perfect had the belt and wasn't the challenger. He attacked Kerry on the way in, but Kerry came back, hit the tornado punch on the floor, and then started play King of the Mountain, keeping Perfect out of the ring. It was pretty back and forth after that with Perfect able to chip away but never hold control for long. Kerry was going to Kerry. They definitely felt more room to breathe given that this was a house show that no one was ever going to see. Perfect BLOCKED the discus punch on the inside. Kerry hit it another time or two in the match incidentally, just twirling around after his punches. Kerry kicked out of the PerfectPlex. At some point, you got the sense that maybe they were just having fun with it because they were on a B show in Wisconsin? 

The finish was fun with Perfect undoing the turnbuckles but Kerry cutting him off and running him across the ring to faceplant him into the metal. Perfect did a triple gainer in the air exactly as you'd want him to in that situation but he still managed to kick out at too. It didn't matter much though as Kerry just spun around the ring at full speed to hit the tornado punch one last time for the win. Post-match, Hennig just decided to lay there for a bit. It was an entertaining house show performance (and has value along those lines certainly) but I don't it necessarily had the substance to go along with the sizzle.

ER: I wish we had sound during Kerry's entrance because that crowd looked loud and Kerry took a long time with it, slow walked it in his perfect jacket. But we have all of this full match, and I loved it a lot more than Matt. I thought this was a great match, a stiff dominating heel Perfect performance against a tough fight back aw shucks babyface Kerry performance. Kerry spammed variations on the discus punch in between a consistently dominant Perfect attack. This was really physical. When Perfect bumped for Kerry, he bumped for Kerry, but when he hit Kerry he hit Kerry. Every punch and every chop Perfect threw played directly into this camcorder lens 12 riser seats up. Perfect was an unrelenting attacker, smothering our sculpted god. Two different times in this match, Perfect flung himself over the top rope to the floor to continue an attack as quickly as possible. Our cameraman misses a huge Perfect bump to the floor that gets the gym jumping to their feet, but you can see his feet go over the top, and it looked no different than him flying out to the floor just to punch Kerry in the face. Blocking the discus punch was a legit surprise, and a heel out punching the babyface champion famous for his punches. That's a hero facing a real threat, and Perfect looked like a real threat, easily the most violent worker on the show. Kerry kicking out of the Perfect Plex would have shocked me live; Perfect flipping for a discus punch would have delighted me.  

7. Earthquake vs. Hacksaw Jim Duggan

MD: Earthquake had Hart with him and Jimmy even did the introduction for him. There was some fun house show goofing here too with Duggan catching Earthquake trying to cheapshot him a number of times. Quake was one of the best ever at knowing just how much to give and exactly when to give it. He was doing all of the Hogan poses too and it got big heat. He knew how to be a monster. He knew how to accentuate the things that made him larger than life. It's not quite the same as how Andre did it, because Andre had such a unique presence that he was accentuating being Andre. With Quake it was more about running a scientific experiment to prove beyond any matter of doubt that physics actually matter. Duggan got in a lot of shots and even got close once or twice (close being making him wobble or teasing a slam). Jimmy helped him take over eventually and he had some bear hugs that didn't look like the most amazing things in the world from the HH vantage but were naturally believable enough. Duggan was able to get hope spots through dodging and firing back but he was cut off. His comeback was pro wrestling perfection as Quake wobbled more and more, including this bit of remarkable fancy footwork to really get it across and build up the drama, before Duggan finally hit the three point stance. Hart intervened but eventually got squashed in the corner as Duggan moved and they sent the fans home happy with a quick roll up pin. We have the Summerslam Fever match between these two and some tags, but I think this was a pretty rare matchup overall and unsurprisingly, they matched up well together.

ER: Earthquake looks so massive here, in ways that we will never see in pro wrestling again. I don't think people realize just how much a big fat bearded guy fearlessly running ropes as fearlessly as God himself meant to our fandom. I don't know if I've committed to anything in my life as fearlessly as Earthquake commits to running ropes, and honestly it inspires me. I've been going on and on about how every wrestler on this roster is made to shine in a high school gymnasium but will you look at how perfect Earthquake and Jim Duggan look in high school gym of a town that had a Carl's Jr. but didn't get a McDonalds until 1991. Duggan's punches all looked like shit, and it didn't matter, because when it came time for Earthquake to tease out a Berzerkeresque spot where he legs keep splitting farther and farther apart with each subsequent Hacksaw clothesline, we were somehow witnessing Earthquake putting more faith into his adductor muscles than he puts into the ropes. I was so certain he was hitting the mat on that third clothesline, plopped down on his butt, and when he went full leg spread hunch forward it was like the greatest Andre spot that Andre never did. These men knew. Some kid went into their town's new-ish McDonalds that day and told them "Nick sent me," and later that night saw Earthquake vanquished by America. What a day. 

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New Footage Friday: 1994 WCW House Show (+ Bonus Lawler vs. Bock!)

WCW House Show El Paso 7/14/94

Lord Steve Regal vs. Johnny B. Badd - GREAT

MD: 94 house show Regal obviously brings a lot to the table. He stalled a lot early, but paid it off by bumping himself on the way back in for high comedy. The chain wrestling, when they got to it, was good, though everything along these lines, even the good stuff, feels a little low rent after watching so much French Catch. When Regal took over, it was with a brutal variety of offense. Badd really needed a couple more meaningful hope spots, even if he was going to get the reversed banana peel win.

PAS: I thought this was nifty stuff. Any chance to see new Regal is tremendous, and I thought he was awesome here. He had some fun stooging stuff at the beginning, really riling up the crowd and doing the job of a opening match wrestler. When he lays a beating on JBB it was appropriate, Lots of of those nasty left handed forearms to the side of Badd's head, and an incredible counter of a sunset flip where he shifts his weight and drops a knee right on Badd's eye. I really liked Badd's comeback, really worked the heavy bag with his body shots, and hit a very cool looking flying headscissor. Finish was a bit lame, but what you would expect from a house show. Regal really elevates everything he does. 

ER: House show Regal during this era would have been such a treat, and his performance is the kind that makes house show handhelds such a joy. Regal is the TV champ here, and just watching his haughty mannerisms as he reacts to the El Paso fans would be enough to make me love this match. He makes a ring attendant hold the ropes open for him, circles Badd several times while making fake lunges toward him, then when the crowd finally gets excited about Badd laying his hands on Regal...why of course that's when Regal rolls to the floor to avoid the action. Regal keeps grabbing the house mic and asking the fans to please be more quiet so he can concentrate on his wrestling, threatens to leave until he begins being counted out, runs back to the ring and trips on the ropes, landing in his face. This is the kind of stuff that house show dreams are made of, a style that we're getting further and further away from to the detriment of all wrestling joy. 

And once Regal does start wrestling he lays a great beating on Badd for over 10 minutes. He leans full body weight behind European uppercuts, works cool knuckle lock exchanges that end with Regal kneeing his way out, blocks a sunset flip by dropping a knee down onto Badd's face. I thought Badd sold Regal's shots so well, loved the way he always looked off balance, the way Regal would uppercut him into the ropes and then headbutt his stomach to get him back into the ropes, Badd had a nice organic way of selling Regal's offense exactly as it was delivered. Badd's punch comeback looked really cool, highlighting how silly modern stand and trade exchanges look, as Bad is landing body shots while Regal and him aren't really focused on each other's timing. It looked like two guys each trying to land strikes while on defense, not like two guys waiting out their turning in the timing to strike. Regal is a slime and tries to put his feet on the ropes for the win just because he can, and it works! Until the ref notices the feet and reverses the call, leading to Regal getting schoolboyed. This was a tremendous Regal performance around a popular but limited performer, but I thought Badd's selling was incredibly strong and only added to Regal's hilarious mannerisms and brutal strikes. 

Brian Pillman vs. Diamond Dallas Page

MD: It's great to see visible proof of Austin sitting and watching matches. I'd guess in this case that Page asked him to for critiques but maybe the guy just liked wrestling and was a student of the game. Pillman here, came off like the world's smallest Hansen, constantly fighting back, constantly making Page fill space with his size and his offense. It meant Page had to take every moment of this with nothing given and that made for a more compelling experience than you might think coming in.

ER: I'm never going to be too into those matches where babyfaces hit arm drags and then hold arm wringers as a big portion of the match, as it always just ends up making me more interested in the heel eventually breaking through and that shouldn't be the goal. But that's what happened here as I wound up being far more excited for DDP bumping around for Pillman, and really loved his hard forearms to Pillman's jaw. I thought he was good at working a big man against a hot babyface, liked how he took the crossbody, but just found myself far more interested in seeing DDP throw those elbows. Maybe the most interesting thing was our cameraman panning the crowd (or well, panning hundreds of empty folding chairs) to catch Steve Austin sitting by the entrance watching the match. I love seeing things like that. 

Stars & Stripes vs. Pretty Wonderful

MD: The highlight of this came early when Roma bumped himself out of the corner on a clean break and declared victory by claiming Patriot took out his eye. Pretty funny stuff. Pretty Wonderful cut off the ring well, but a lot of their offense was more focused on containing Patriot than doing damage to him and that'll only take you so far. The finish worked though, giving us just enough Bagwell and not too much of him.

ER: I have friends who went to a WCW house in Oakland, CA maybe three months after this house show, and they both said that Pretty Wonderful vs. Stars & Stripes was the worst match they had ever seen live, both with memories of the match going 30 minutes and being dreadfully boring. They both acknowledge that they might feel differently now, how their tastes may have changed, and I think it's possible that they might have hated it due to the unnecessary length and the probable amounts of bullshit in the match. The bullshit in this match is really great, but I know I had less tolerance of stalling and drawn out cheating and those sorts of things when I was younger, and now it's something I actively seek. I didn't like those Rockers/Rougeaus matches that started with 15 minutes of them doing showoff poses and playing games of H-O-R-S-E by doing backflips off the buckles, and now I would kill to see wrestling matches like that. 

This match had a lot of bullshit, and it was nearly 20 minutes (with several minutes cut out when the guy stopped recording) of Pretty Wonderful cutting Patriot off from Bagwell. Patriot is one of the more supremely uninteresting wrestlers of the era, and a match focused on PW containing him and his weird punches is a good thing (he throws hooking right hands with nice form, but frequently aims them them so his mid wrist is connecting with the side of his opponent's head, so his fist always lands behind his opponent). Orndorff is great bumping around the ring and begging off from Stars and Stripes, and things get really great when Roma starts using hand claps behind the ref's back to make it look like Patriot is taking cheap shots. Roma backs Patriot into the corner a couple times, and claps his hands right when the ref can't see, bumps backwards holding his face and complaining about Patriot's poor sportsmanship. The first time Roma did it, a woman near our cameraman began loudly, hoarsely CACKLING with laughter. God I wish I could have watched wrestling with that woman. Roma was great at being the batter who is trying to work a hit by pitch, and what really makes the match is how deeply upset the crowd gets with every single cheat utilized by PW. When a crowd is this angry at a heel routine, it's the easiest thing to love. Roma is a guy I never think of, a wrestler I've seen so much yet has made such a small impression on my memory that watching this house show version of Roma gives me a new appreciation for him. This guy knew how to draw excellent heat on an undersold Texas house show, and that's a cool thing. The match builds smartly to a quick Bagwell hot tag, which is the best possible use of 1993 Bagwell. There's a good chance I would not have had the patience for this match in 1994, but in 2020 this was just what I needed.

Guardian Angel vs. Ron Simmons

MD: This was short and weird. You have to call it a disappointment. I've never seen Simmons work heel like this, almost like chickenshit, falling out of the ring and running away from Angel. He had a nice face first corner bump/rope assisted mule kick as a transition move but it didn't go anywhere as Bossman took right back over a minute later (though there was what felt like a small cut which maybe made a difference). Really the best part of this was how the ring shook whenever they hit the ropes.

ER: I thought this kicked ass, and based on the timekeeper's call I think we actually got closer to 4 minutes cut out of this, and I think that was an important cut. I'm pretty positive we missed the 4 minute entirety of Ron Simmons' offense, as the match cuts right after he knocks Traylor to the floor with an awesome falling headbutt/Bret Hart diving elbow, and then joins us back with Simmons missing a big headbutt off the middle rope. What we're left with does indeed feel incomplete, but I loved the match we did get. Simmons/Boss Man really wasn't a singles match that was run a lot (I don't think we ever would have even got a singles match between them 5-6 years later in WWF), and who knows maybe they intentionally did not want to run this match because Traylor so large and it's a tough spot to put some heels in working with a large dominant babyface. 

But large dominant babyface Ray Traylor is some of my favorite wrestling, so I loved seeing him uppercut Simmons around the ring, roll to the floor and uppercut him some more. We get big shoulderblocks and nice collisions, and obviously the big mystery is just what did Ron Simmons do to control Traylor during that missing time. Traylor's comeback after the Simmons missed headbutt is great, a few big clotheslines and a finisher worthy crossbody that Traylor got great big man height on (and Simmons took in a way that landed HARD). We get a hilarious bit at the very end that feels completely out of place (enough that I assume this was played up a lot during our missing time) as Traylor hits a headbutt and then drops to his knees selling Simmons' hard head...only to roll him up in a small package when Simmons tried to capitalize. It's REALLY hard to do a "sell hard head of opponent spot" literally 10 seconds before winning the match, so this had to have been the focal point of the missing time, leading to Traylor exploiting it for the surprise finish. Loved this pairing, glad we finally got to see a nice length singles. 

Dustin Rhodes/Arn Anderson vs. Bunkhouse Buck/Amarillo Slim

MD: We don't get a ton of this. In fact, we lose it right when it's getting good, but I'm sick of hearing Arn say how terrible a babyface he'd be because he has no "babyface skills." He could punch. He had great timing. That's literally all you need.

ER: Oh, how cruel handheld wrestling can be. This was the match I was most excited to see, and what portion of the match clearly showed it to be the best match on the show. Alas, we don't see the finish of the match, and it felt like there still could have been 5 (or 10!) minutes left. The match still could have gone in several ways and we cut out after jumps the gun on the hot tag. It wouldn't be a shock to find out they worked another 5 minutes of Buck/Slim keeping Arn away from the tag. As we finish, Arn has run into the ring throwing punches before getting tossed hard to the floor, and Buck/Slim are just about to start working over Dustin again. We'll never know, but what we do get is as good as its on paper promise. 

There are cuts throughout the match, but those appear to be our cameraman cutting "out of ring" time. Obviously, all of that out of the ring time involves Robert Fuller, so cutting that out of the handheld is a crime. When Bunkhouse Buck takes a huge bump over the top to the floor and Fuller gives him some air by waving his cowboy hat over his face, you know we're missing out on other versions of that. But we do get Fuller on the house mic directing traffic and telling Buck and Slim to keep putting the boots to Dustin. Buck is great at laying in the boots and taking offense, loved how he sold Dustin's atomic drop but also loved how he kept backing Dustin up with a bearhug. At first I thought it was silly that Erik Watts was working as "Amarillo Slim" (I had no idea this was a gimmick he worked at the end of his first WCW run), but heel cowboy Erik Watts is way more interesting than tall clumsy babyface Erik Watts. He takes his own fast bump to the floor and could have really been valuable as a heel patsy who apes Buck and Fuller. Arn as a fired up hot tag babyface is something we didn't get enough of, and something he's great at. He's a powerhouse on the apron, and between his babyface apron energy and Dustin's excellent FIP work, it's not shockingly a great fit. So, watch and love this for what it is, and not for the missing parts we have no control over. We have Amarillo Slim footage now, and for that we should be thankful. Imagine if Virgil had only worked a few house show dates as Curly Bill and had never been on TV under that gimmick. Watts as Slim is not as exciting as that, but it hits the same spot. 

Stunning Steve Austin vs. Sting

MD: Austin was in transition here, no longer the TV champ of 91 or the Hollywood Blonde of 93 but not yet what he'd become a couple of years (and injuries) later. I love watching him squash guys in 95. Here he was still full of stooging and bullshit but had a way that he threw himself into all of his offense that was a portent of what would come. Sting did what he had to, emanating power and authority, a straightman that let all of Austin's manic energy just wash around him, waiting for him to feed into gorilla press slams and back body drops. This had enough time to be fun, but given the number of roll up finishes so far, there was probably no harm in giving Sting something more definitive to end it.

ER: I love Steve Austin, and I really love this era of Austin. I don't know if anyone on the roster at this point delivered offense better than Austin. He wrestles the way 1994 Bret Hart would have wrestled as a stooging heel. Same perfectly executed offense, delivered as if to look like he's really throwing his full weight behind everything. Hart and Austin have very similar styles but tweaked in ways that made them unique and complementary opponents (instead of the parity battle their series could have been), and 1994 Hart was a guy that would have been able to have a great match with Sting. House Show Austin is one of my favorite things, as every time we get to finally see WCW handhelds or unreleased post-Raw dark matches, Austin shows himself to be one of the more engaging crowd work guys in history. I mean, *obviously* Steve Austin was someone who could connect with crowds, but he never really stopped working the way an old 50 year old bullshit artist territory guy would work a 35 person crowd. He clearly relishes getting in people's faces and doing full routines with people in the front row, and the crowd was here for ALL of it. He knew when to be vicious to Sting, he knew when to get his ass kicked, and you get the sense that Austin could have had a match this good with a babyface of any ability. 

Austin is a great bumper, and here we get to see him give the balcony fans in El Paso a great look off at him as he flew into a sky high backdrop, and not long after went up just as high for a quick Sting press slam, and Austin works so fast his bumps look even better. He's one of the best all time at being perfectly in control while working at a speed that makes it seem like things are about to run off the rails. It's like a 2 year old who has been walking for awhile, but still falls down when running too fast, as if the body isn't quite catching up to the desire. Maybe the best thing about his bumping is how hard his landings look, or how hard he makes his landings look. He hits heavy on the mat for every back bump, which makes suplex landings or falls feel always consequential. His offense all looks so good, and I can't get enough of his kneedrop, his diving elbow off the middle buckle that might be the best version of that elbow ever thrown, and one of the coolest things I've ever seen him do: when he unrolls Sting's arm like he's about to hit a Rainmaker and just assaults him with a back elbow. Honestly, it looked so great it should be a finisher. It all builds to a quick, simple Sting comeback. Austin bumps for three decent clotheslines, holds the ropes on a sunset flip only to have them kicked off by the ref (sincerely one of my most hated spots in wrestling history). Austin kicks out but comes up shoving the ref for kicking his hands, leading to Austin getting shoved into a schoolboy. The finish really felt like the kind that some WCW agent saw Flair use for a couple decades, but Austin pulls off that kind of thing with aplomb. 

Jerry "The King" Lawler vs  Nick Bockwinkle CWA 8/21/78 - GREAT

MD: A Thanksgiving miracle, even if one with a ten minute clip through a lot of the good stuff. I'm pretty certain this was the first time Bockwinkel fought Lawler and some of the only footage (if not THE only footage) we have of Heenan in the Mid-South Coliseum. Heenan had amazing purple and gold California pajama gear that could have only existed in the 70s. Bock wrestled Lawler early on the same way he'd wrestle Chavo Guerrero in Houston a few years later, that Hollywood over-confidence in wrestling a local yokel in front of a crowd that loved him for whatever reason. Even Lance picked up on it on commentary a few minutes in (which is why Lance is so great). It led, of course, to Lawler stooging him with his own offense and looking like a million bucks without diminishing Bockwinkel in the least. Heenan and Bockwinkel spend the first few minutes complaining about hairpulls that don't exist only for Bock to take over for a bit with a hairpull of his own. It's that attention to detail that made him so great. The cut comes just as you can tell they were about to move into something better, so it's frustrating, but when we come back for the finish, it's in the midst of a ton of great Lawler punches and Bockwinkel's full body selling that really got over the weight of what had happened so far. The finish is typical Heenan running in when his guy is doomed, but it's to show that Lawler can beat the champ and set up the rematch the following week, which I bet drew. It's a shame we don't have all of this, but we've got 15 minute more of it than we did last week, and I won't complain about that.

PAS: Odd presentation of this match, we get the first 12 minutes or so of this, which is a lot of feeling out and cat and mouse stuff. Lawler suckering Bock into a side headlock, Heenan grousing at the ref, etc. All prologue. These are two masters, so minor key stuff is going to be well worth watching, but just as Lawler starts to pick it up with big forearms to the ribs and a couple of right hands, they jump right to the last two minutes. I obviously want it all, but if you are going to clip, clip the appetizer, not the main course. Finish is Lawler rolling, and we get an absolutely classic fist drop. He is the best ever at it, and this is one of his best, before Heenan just runs in for the DQ (his Laker's jumpsuit was maybe the highlight of this match, he looked like Jerry West on the prowl for the ladies). A little frustrating, but still this was something we didn't know existed until Wednesday.

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