New Footage Friday: TULLY! BAM BAM! KERRY! THE KING! THE IDOL!

TWA Spring Spectacular 3/31/90  Pt. 1   Pt. 2


PAS: This was an awesome, loaded pre-ECW Philly indy show. I always used to read about these shows in Wrestling Magazines, and it is cool to actually check one out.


Jules Strongbow vs. Randy Lewis

PAS: This wasn't good, but at least it was long and had a shitty ending. Lewis looks like Lex Lugarcito, without any of the talent. There was a moment of Strongbow firing up with tomahawk chops and I enjoy fired up Tomahawk chops, but this was stinky and I advise my friends not to watch it.

Rockin' Rebel vs. CN Redd

PAS: Oof these first two matches are rough. CN Redd had some fun stooging spots early, including flying over the top rope on a missed punch. Rebel is as terrible as a young guy as he was as a guy forcing his way onto early ROH shows because he owned the ring. He murdered his wife and killed himself and is an all time wrestling history piece of shit. This was a fed with really long prelim matches for no good reason. 

Johnny Hot Body vs. Tony Stetson 

PAS: This was actually really good, these were two of the Wrestling Magazine guys you would see in picture spreads, but outside of some Taz squashes I am not sure I had ever seen either guy wrestle before. This was a taped fist first blood match, and was a really fun Memphis style brawl. Both guys threw really starchy punches, and took painful looking awkward bumps on tables, chairs and the ring apron. Nothing looked set up the way later ECW brawls could, it just looked like two guys trying to kick each others ass, which is something I appreciate. It wasn't at the level of the FMW Onita//Goto vs. Kurisu/Dragonmaster tag brawl but it had that sort of feel to it. I really liked the finish with both guys just tumbling painful to the floor and pounding on each others heads till they were both opened up.

ER: I thought this was great, a Philly style brawl that never settles in the ring and keeps the fans hot. There are hardly any moves to speak of, but Stetson and Hot Body locked in meaty armed side headlocks, thumping forearm clubs, and great punches to eyebrows, and none of the bumps look clean. They fell really painfully into everything, body weight thrown off, hard landings onto concrete or tables; it's the kind of off balance bumping that happens when I step heel first on a cat toy in the dark and fall shoulder first into the side of the couch. Johnny Hot Body and Tony Stetson reside in that same part of my brain as some like Chad Austin, the part of my brain reserved for Wrestlers Who I'm Pretty Sure I Saw Get Chokeslammed By 911 At Some Point, but this is the first time I've seen these two unleashed. The longer things go the uglier (i.e. better) things get, as they've now grabbed a couple drinks from ringside fans and bounced them off each other's heads, so the floor is now slippery and you get some great ugly hockey fighting moments of them slipping and punching. Early in the match I notice a great Philly woman in the front row, dressed in all black, perfect fried blond curls, having the time of her life yelling for Stetson. And I see her again at the end of the match, after Stetson and Hot Body have been rolling around the floor punching each other while interlaced at the shoulder, and Stetson grabs Hot Body by the waistband of his jeans and flings him directly into that woman. Hot Body's head was covered in blood, and the woman stands up looking 1 part repulsed and 2 parts furious, hitting Hot Body and telling him to get the fuck outta there. I wish we had gotten more shots of the blood, but we also got two dudes in old shirts, kneepads over jeans, jeans tucked into work boots if an option, and once you throw in aggressive mic cord choking that's really all you need.

Tom Prichard vs. Cheetah Kid

PAS: This was really fun, Cheetah Kid is Rocco Rock in a Cheetah mask, basically working as a US Indy Tiger Mask. I ended up enjoying this more then 90% of the actually Japanese Tiger Mask matches. Prichard has an incredible blond permullet, and is unsurprisingly great at filling in the time between Cheetah's big spots. Those spots were really big, some cool bridging suplexes, three really crazy bumps to the floor (including one into a row a chairs which would make a crazy indy luchador proud) and a big tope con hilo. Paul E. was with Prichard and got some good heat, but the finish was a bit messy, with an awkward ref bump and a phone shot. But the crowd was going nuts for the Kid, and it was totally understandable.

ER: I thought this was awesome too. I thought the taped fist match was hot (and it was), but the crowd got louder and louder for this one, with good cause. Prichard is the perfect kind of pro for a match like this, and seeing him in this environment makes me like him even more. Plus he has incredible 80s back up singer hair, the bleachiest blond you've seen, looking like Suzi Carr from Will To Power. This would have been plenty enjoyable if it had just been Prichard stooging, taking long walks on the floor, Paul E. running distraction, with the big spots being a sunset flip and Cheetah Kid's really nice bridging back suplex. That would have been a good match, because Prichard is good at gluing matches like that, and watching nice forearms shots to the chest or a sunset flip blocked by a punch would have been cool. 

But then Cheetah Kid starts flying to the floor in different ways, each bump bigger than the last. The first one just confirms how much I love a guy getting yanked by his waistband into stuff. We saw it in the taped fist match, and here Prichard yanks Kid to the floor quickly and efficiently. It's a logical and simple move that I remember seeing Lawler use a lot, and it's an action that doesn't really exist in modern wrestling. What could be easier and smarter than hooking someone's waistband and tossing them? Cheetah Kid also does essentially a tope to nothing, stumbling (as part of the spot) on a Prichard drop down and flying again to the floor. For the third Prichard got a major head of steam and sent Cheetah over the top so hard with a lariat that Cheetah flew backwards and crashed over the announce table, into the crowd. At that point that fans were on their feet cheering for Kid, recognizing the insane effort he was making and getting fully into his imminent death. Kid hits a great tope con giro (with a perfect catch from Prichard) and we get a gorgeous VHS slow motion replay of it, clearly an effect done in-camera as we have the awesome blinking "slow motion" at the bottom of the screen. The finish is a shame, as the ref is clearly out of place on the spot that was supposed to bump him, so they run it back and re-bump him, and that always comes off deflating. But this whole thing was fun as hell. If there are two matches as good as this one and the taped fist brawl on an indy card today, I go home thinking I saw a really good show. And we still have Tully, Lawler, Bam Bam, KvE, The Idol, and Orndorff. I like these odds.

MD: The Prichard/Paul E combo is fun. I'm blanking if they were paired together elsewhere but I'd be happy to watch more of that. This was definitely of its time. Rocco gets an A for effort, constantly trying to do stuff that was just beyond his physical prowess, but that tinge of sloppiness made everything seem more earnest and dangerous. It reminds me a bit of the big WWE women's gimmick matches of the last few years where you always have the sense they're about to kill themselves to win. He'd do an amazing flip into the ring and then stumble his way through his attempt to take advantage of it. What really made this work was Dr. Tom there to base and ground it all. There were a few too many unnecessary ref bumps at the end but I can't imagine being in this crowd and not being delighted by this thing.

DC Drake vs. Larry Winters

PAS: This had a bunch of cool stuff, but was dragged down by its length. It is hard for a heated brawl to keep its momentum for over a half an hour. Winters comes in with a big wrap on on his elbow and Drake goes after it pretty hard and focused. They climb to the top of the arena and Drake tries to toss Winter off a super high balcony, which I am sure made a cool PWI photo. There are some dead moments, and the match picks up again when Winter busts Drake open with a post shot. They went back into the crowd, and then had a cool spot where Drake puts on a figure four, and Winters breaks it by whipping him with the ring mic cord. Winters ends up Quitting when Drake and his manager work over his arm. This was a cool fifteen minute match bloated up to 30+. We needed an editor. 

Misty Blue Simmes vs. Kat LeRoux

PAS: This was a pretty basic 80s/90s women's match. A couple of gals who look like Def Leppard video vixens throwing open hand chops and hair whips. I imagine these two worked each other 10 times a month and it felt very polished if unspectacular. I liked the Simmes' finish of an airplane spin into a top rope splash, felt like a fine 1990 highspot.

Paul Orndorff vs. Austin Idol

MD: Complete glorious BS. I'm sure there were moments in 86 (or even 88 and in other earlier runs like in Mid-South) where Orndorff was more over as a face, but he had a different mindset in 90 and he was milking it for all it was worth. This was mic work, stalling, an impromptu arm wrestling contest, chicanery from Idol, and Orndorff's comeback. The heat was more on Paul E than on Idol but since the finish was all about him, that generally worked out. If the crowd hadn't been into this, the lack of action would have been an issue, but they were and these two were masterful in playing off of it all.

ER: I am all here for early 40s BS indy show match Austin Idol. This is 20 minutes of two consummate professionals working smart, and not bumping, but done so in a way that nobody could possibly call it lazy. These were two energetic performances from two charisma fireballs, with moves made unnecessary. Idol takes multiple powders, stalls, lands a perfect headlock punch and bails, comes back in and eats a half dozen headlock punches and bails again, locks in a long chinlock that's mostly about flexing his still impressive arms, all building up to a long arm wrestling challenge. I love a good pro wrestling arm wrestling challenge, and can't say that I've seen one done during a match. But Idol was hilarious getting into the ring and lying on his stomach, arm flexed, challenging Orndorff to a battle of guns. 

Idol is so great at milking heat for things like this, and I was skeptical that Memphis style heat and stooging would work in front of a troglodyte Philly audience, but it does. This show is the first time Lawler had ever worked Philly, and in some ways bringing in guys like that could lead to the confused reactions of 1997 WWF crowds watching AAA luchadors. Outside of early career job work, Idol had never worked Philly either, certainly not since becoming a marketable regional star. So its great seeing the act succeed immensely, great seeing him turn the arm wrestling challenge into a choke once it becomes clear that Orndorff is winning. It's great seeing fans eating up shtick. I love shtick in a vacuum, but shtick that has the crowd hooked is absolutely the greatest. We get a hidden weapon punch and an incredulous Idol after the kickout, we get Orndorff throwing fantastic uppercuts from his knees (Idol sells them the way boxers sell punches in Bugs Bunny cartoons, so, perfectly in other words), and Idol goes down when Paul. E comes off the top with an errant cell phone shot. Paul E. going off the top rope? Hell yes. Loved all of this.

PAS: In many ways Orndorff was always kind of a dime store Austin Idol, and it was cool to see him in with the best version of himself. Idol is a master of this kind of stally shticky match, and he is so amazing at the the little things which makes a match like this. For a guy who doesn't do much moves wise in this match, he makes it all count. Lots of super violent eye rakes which look like he ripped out Paul's cornea, and of course really great looking punches. Thought Paul showed a bunch of energy, and was a nifty dance partner, but Idol is the best. 

Kerry Von Erich vs. Jerry Lawler - GREAT

PAS: This is full heel Lawler doing his touring shtick. We get a couple stops for him to do some crowd work stand up. We have a whole hide a chain section (with a visible chain, not just a donut hole), and a big fireball ending. Everything of course was executed to perfection. Lawler's cheap shot chain punch looked incredible, and I loved the fired up babyface punches from Kerry and the big discus which got a great Lawler exaggeration sell. I thought they could have gotten down to business a bit quicker, but the actual business was booming. Lawler breaking the Iron Claw by tossing a fireball was an awesome finish. So much Lawler out there, and every new match we get is a total treat.

ER: This is a bit of a slow starter, but once it gets started it was another classic from these two. I always love what Lawler can do with Kerry, and I think he brings out some of the best parts of every era Kerry. I also was really enjoying just watching Lawler work Philadelphia for the first time in his career, sporting some ketchup and mustard tights combo that I've never seen, and I wonder how many people there were seeing him for the first time. He was a guy I assume many of them know, but maybe hadn't actually seen at all, let alone live. This whole thing is boiled down to the basics, Lawler building to several great big punches (his straight right to Kerry's face is gorgeous), and two big fistdrops off the middle buckle. Kerry catches him in the claw on another attempt, and Lawler is a maestro at selling holds like the claw. He's so good at kicking his legs in dramatic fashion and really getting across that panicked comeuppance. We also get long hide the chain stuff, which I'm just always going to love when it's performed to this finely tuned level, Lawler really letting all the fans know exactly what he's hiding, kids screaming CHAIN! CHAIN! to the ref. I love it. When Kerry finally gets the chain Lawler flies all around for him, gets whalloped in the corner with big shots, goes down hard for the discus punch. I love these two together, Kerry always seems to put off big energy opposite him. 

Tully Blanchard vs. Bam Bam Bigelow

MD: Seeing this out of context, I could be wrong, but you get the sense Bigelow was supposed to be the face and Blanchard was supposed to be the heel and the crowd wanted nothing to do with that arrangement. We have very few honest babyface Blanchard performances and while this wasn't 100% along those lines, it was sure close enough. Once they figured out what was going on, he worked from underneath, fighting out of a bearhug, kicking at the leg to chop down Bigelow and even throwing a dropkick. The cage was primarily used for escape cut offs and to let Bigelow get up to the top rope for a spot, but as 80s WWF style cage matches go, this was relatively high end. Arn has talked a lot lately about how he'd make a bad babyface because he didn't have moves/spots/"tools", noting that Tully had at least a few more, and yeah, he used a few more here. There were times where maybe you wanted him to have one or two more things in his offensive flourishes and comebacks but in general, I thought he worked better than fine in this role and that concern is generally overblown.

PAS: There are few concrete rules in life that never should be broken and Tully Blanchard should never be a babyface is one of them. I mean how scuzzy does Philly have to be, to cheer fucking Tully Blanchard of all people? Tully is an all time great and he works this kind of conquering hero cage match really well. Bam Bam is so explosive, it is like watching some Combine warrior Nose Tackle, no way a giant guy like that should be able to bang out that 40 time. The missed big headbutt by Bam Bam was almost Super Porkish in it's explosion. Weird to have a bloodless cage match in Philly of all places, but outside of that, this was a treat.