Keeping Abreast of the Mantaur Situation
Bruiser Mastino vs. Tony St. Clair CWA 11/21/91
ER: This is one of Mastino's earliest matches in CWA, and easily ranks among his best ever matches. Also, it was right in front of me the entire time, but Mastino is related to PN News. I don't know how I didn't actually know this. I even come to the conclusion later in this post that he looks just like PN News. They look the same, they're shaped the same, they wear the same dorky full pants singlets, they both worked CWA, yet somehow it never crossed my mind that they were actually related. What a dummy. Mastino works a smart match here with lariats and slams, misses and nice fast elbowdrop, and St. Clair makes good use of his openings and makes sure to outgun Mastino when he has the chance. St. Clair throws some nice uppercuts and a really nasty lefty lariat, just absolutely drilling Mastino.
Commentary says "That's why they say St. Clair is the European Hulk Hogan", which is something that nobody had ever said until that guy said it. But all of this is good, it peaks in the right spots and builds to a super satisfying finish: We brawl to the floor and Mastino hits a rough bodyslam on the concrete, slamming St. Clair as hard as you'd slam someone in a ring. When Mastino charges him - and we'd been seeing him run at St. Clair all match - St. Clair finally moves and Mastino hits a hard lariat right into the post. I dug Mastino's arm and shoulder selling from here until the finish, as he hits a slam back in the ring but yells out about his shoulder, then missed a heavy shoulderblock into a turnbuckle. St. Clair wastes no time and as Mastino is staggering out of the corner holding his shoulder, St. Clair locks in a nasty Fujiwara for the immediate tap. Incredibly satisfying match.
Mantaur vs. Bam Bam Bigelow WWF Superstars 6/24/95
ER: Yeah!! This is a super fun big boy battle, kind of shocking that Mantaur was almost the same size as Bigelow (I thought he was kind of short and squat, but he's not that much shorter than BBB). It's a bunch of two big burly guys running right into each other. Literally. They both run and just hit each other with body weight. And it's great. Bigelow throws some headbutts and it makes me realize how weird it is that a guy with centaur horns doesn't throw a headbutt. I'm sure it was brought up at some point, and maybe he just couldn't throw a good headbutt...except I've seen him throw nice headbutts when he was in CWA before this. And now I need answers as to why Mantaur was NOT ALLOWED to throw a headbutt to purposely torpedo his Mantaur run. This was quite fast paced (outside of the longish Mantaur wear down chinlock, which I thought flattened out nicely), Mastino hits a nice vertical suplex, and we had a cool finish with Bigelow getting tossed into the corner, going up and over it Flair style and running to the next turnbuckle, which allowed Mantaur a bunch of time to stagger before falling. Bigelow showed impressive speed, and I don't recall him doing that kind of Flair flip in the corner before (he did almost not make it, which would have seen Mantaur smash into his head at a terrible angle, but he narrowly avoided the 'taur).
Bruiser Mastino vs. El Puerto Ricano ECW Hardcore TV 1/9/96
ER: ECW fans were smart you see, so they chanted "Mantaur Sucks" at him. Mastino appears to be even larger than his Mantaur stint, and in trunks and beard looks almost exactly like future ECW legend PN News. And you knew what this was going to be: Puerto Ricano bouncing off Mastino in various ways while Joey Styles gushes over how big Mastino's calves are. PR had pretty lousy punches and his offense didn't really look like it deserved to be sold, so his gimmick worked. He takes a nice clothesline, Mastino really extends on a vertical suplex and snaps off an awesome belly to belly, and we built to a fun finishing stretch where PR hit a missile dropkick off three consecutive turnbuckles to try and fell the beast, only to get caught on the 4th and absolutely splatted into the mat with a powerslam. Mastino could have actually had a decent ECW run, but the fans were never going to allow that to happen.
The Truth Commission vs. Terry Richards/Al Brown/Gene Miller WWF Shotgun 6/23/97
ER: Oh man do you know who thought the Truth Commission were cool? Teenage me!! You know who had a marginal understanding of South African politics? Neither teenage me NOR the World Wrestling Federation! I remember being genuinely excited week to week for Kurrgan singles matches, had ZERO memory of Mantaur ever being in the Truth Commission (under a mask as Tank, and now I finally understand my friend who thought Golga had been in the Truth Commission, as that would be a fairly logical guess had you seen this match and didn't know John Tenta), Kurrgan had a rattail, the Commandant was actually a great heel manager, I loved all of it. And this was a fantastic squash. Fantastic because the squash offense looked good, but also because the squashees didn't look like total pushovers. The squashees (including a young Rhino, who mostly paired off with Tank) fought back and while they kept taking moves, they didn't, ahem, "just lie there".
Mantaur vs. Bam Bam Bigelow WWF Superstars 6/24/95
ER: Yeah!! This is a super fun big boy battle, kind of shocking that Mantaur was almost the same size as Bigelow (I thought he was kind of short and squat, but he's not that much shorter than BBB). It's a bunch of two big burly guys running right into each other. Literally. They both run and just hit each other with body weight. And it's great. Bigelow throws some headbutts and it makes me realize how weird it is that a guy with centaur horns doesn't throw a headbutt. I'm sure it was brought up at some point, and maybe he just couldn't throw a good headbutt...except I've seen him throw nice headbutts when he was in CWA before this. And now I need answers as to why Mantaur was NOT ALLOWED to throw a headbutt to purposely torpedo his Mantaur run. This was quite fast paced (outside of the longish Mantaur wear down chinlock, which I thought flattened out nicely), Mastino hits a nice vertical suplex, and we had a cool finish with Bigelow getting tossed into the corner, going up and over it Flair style and running to the next turnbuckle, which allowed Mantaur a bunch of time to stagger before falling. Bigelow showed impressive speed, and I don't recall him doing that kind of Flair flip in the corner before (he did almost not make it, which would have seen Mantaur smash into his head at a terrible angle, but he narrowly avoided the 'taur).
Bruiser Mastino vs. El Puerto Ricano ECW Hardcore TV 1/9/96
ER: ECW fans were smart you see, so they chanted "Mantaur Sucks" at him. Mastino appears to be even larger than his Mantaur stint, and in trunks and beard looks almost exactly like future ECW legend PN News. And you knew what this was going to be: Puerto Ricano bouncing off Mastino in various ways while Joey Styles gushes over how big Mastino's calves are. PR had pretty lousy punches and his offense didn't really look like it deserved to be sold, so his gimmick worked. He takes a nice clothesline, Mastino really extends on a vertical suplex and snaps off an awesome belly to belly, and we built to a fun finishing stretch where PR hit a missile dropkick off three consecutive turnbuckles to try and fell the beast, only to get caught on the 4th and absolutely splatted into the mat with a powerslam. Mastino could have actually had a decent ECW run, but the fans were never going to allow that to happen.
The Truth Commission vs. Terry Richards/Al Brown/Gene Miller WWF Shotgun 6/23/97
ER: Oh man do you know who thought the Truth Commission were cool? Teenage me!! You know who had a marginal understanding of South African politics? Neither teenage me NOR the World Wrestling Federation! I remember being genuinely excited week to week for Kurrgan singles matches, had ZERO memory of Mantaur ever being in the Truth Commission (under a mask as Tank, and now I finally understand my friend who thought Golga had been in the Truth Commission, as that would be a fairly logical guess had you seen this match and didn't know John Tenta), Kurrgan had a rattail, the Commandant was actually a great heel manager, I loved all of it. And this was a fantastic squash. Fantastic because the squash offense looked good, but also because the squashees didn't look like total pushovers. The squashees (including a young Rhino, who mostly paired off with Tank) fought back and while they kept taking moves, they didn't, ahem, "just lie there".
There are moments of them going toe to toe (that never end with them gaining ground) or lifting up Tank only to have him fall on them, so while it was a complete 100% one sided squash, the losing team always looked like they were at least putting up a fight. Tank hits a hard shoulderblock on Richards, tosses him into the ropes only to punch him in the guy (with a nice sell from Richards), and it's easy to picture Richards getting the Mantaur gimmick had he been around just a few years prior. 1995 WWF definitely would have had a guy with a Rhino gimmick dressed in a gray singlet with a derpy helmet of some kind. In retrospect, why the fuck did Rhino never have a gray singlet with a rhino helmet!? Recon (Bull Buchanan) was way more athletic than I - fan of the Truth Commission - remembered, getting height on a sidekick and snapping off a standing huracanrana that looked actually good, and leaping REALLY unnecessarily high off the top to do an axe handle. The Interrogator's rattail was apparently attached to his beret, which is disappointing, as that means he had no rattail and instead had a beret that was operating as one of those rasta hats with fake dreads. Do South African mercenaries award differently braided rattails for committing terrible acts? It seems like they might! Interrogator also hits a bitchin elbow drop, and this whole thing was great.
Tank vs. Jerry Lawler USWA 3/15/97
ER: Yeahhhh baby you know you want to see a fat dude under a mask hide a fake weapon in his giant enforced khackis in front of a loud Memphis studio audience! Every Truth Commission member is at ringside cheating every chance they get, and we get a nice minute long explanation of what a "slow starter" Lawler is (which is Phil's favorite specific piece of wrestling announcer BS). Tank is really perfect at hiding a weapon for a studio audience as he reaches DEEP into his pants to retrieve and replace the weapon. We get a lot of good hide and seek, all building to Tank hitting a nice shot to the liver than King takes hard. It's an easy formula to work, but I love it. Every time the ref is checking for the weapon, that's when we get the interference from the TC, including an awesome moment of Interrogator choking Lawler over the bottom rope. Lawler's comeback is good, the strap comes down and he starts peppering Tank with left jabs and a big right, hits his Lawler dropkick, and nails a great fistdrop off the middle rope. But somehow, this all leads to Tank winning the USWA title (yes, the title switched hands on a practically weekly basis, but I had no idea Tank was a one week champ) when Lawler gets blasted with the Commandant's riding crop. And if there are any jerks out there who think we're wasting everybody's time by providing TWO different Mantaur pieces within the same week, let me just quickly remind you that you never would have otherwise been lucky enough to read the words:
"...blasted with the Commandant's riding crop."
With that, thus concludes Segunda Caida's Mantaur content, forever...
...
...
...
?
Tank vs. Jerry Lawler USWA 3/15/97
ER: Yeahhhh baby you know you want to see a fat dude under a mask hide a fake weapon in his giant enforced khackis in front of a loud Memphis studio audience! Every Truth Commission member is at ringside cheating every chance they get, and we get a nice minute long explanation of what a "slow starter" Lawler is (which is Phil's favorite specific piece of wrestling announcer BS). Tank is really perfect at hiding a weapon for a studio audience as he reaches DEEP into his pants to retrieve and replace the weapon. We get a lot of good hide and seek, all building to Tank hitting a nice shot to the liver than King takes hard. It's an easy formula to work, but I love it. Every time the ref is checking for the weapon, that's when we get the interference from the TC, including an awesome moment of Interrogator choking Lawler over the bottom rope. Lawler's comeback is good, the strap comes down and he starts peppering Tank with left jabs and a big right, hits his Lawler dropkick, and nails a great fistdrop off the middle rope. But somehow, this all leads to Tank winning the USWA title (yes, the title switched hands on a practically weekly basis, but I had no idea Tank was a one week champ) when Lawler gets blasted with the Commandant's riding crop. And if there are any jerks out there who think we're wasting everybody's time by providing TWO different Mantaur pieces within the same week, let me just quickly remind you that you never would have otherwise been lucky enough to read the words:
"...blasted with the Commandant's riding crop."
With that, thus concludes Segunda Caida's Mantaur content, forever...
...
...
...
?
Labels: 305 Live, Bam Bam Bigelow, Bruiser Mastino, El Puerto Ricano, Jerry Lawler, Mantaur, Tony St. Clair, Truth Commission
posted by EricR @ 10:00 PM
1 Comments:
Tony St Clair was past his best by the time of this fight having first appeared on UK TV in 1967.Asecond generation wrestler from Cornwall he had some incredibly brutal fights versus Dave Taylor on TV in Wales with both men fucking hurting each other
Post a Comment
<< Home