Simon Diamond & CW Anderson vs Mikey Whipwreck &
Chris Chetti
You know it’s a hit crowd when even the heel team get huge
pops. Perfectly decent formula tag match, where Diamond and Anderson take
control on Chetti after some initial face offence. Styles prefaced this by
pointing out Chetti was the only one of the four who wasn’t wrestling
regularly, so it makes sense when he becomes face-in-peril. CW looks the best
out of the four men, nailing a lovely looking superkick on Mikey, but even an
out-of-shape Diamond or a semi-retired Chetti keep pace and don’t blow
anything. This might well be the best match I’ve seen Chetti in. After things
break down, we get a series of finishers, culminating with Mikey hitting a Whippersnapper
on Simon for 3. Good Heat main event.
Tracy Smothers vs the Blue Meanie
Tracy is accompanied by JT Smith for an FBI reunion. Despite
Smothers being awesome, the limitations of the Meanie mean this has to be a
comedy match. Luckily, Smothers can do those really well too, leading to a
sequence where he fails to slam Meanie, but both Meanie and referee John
Finnegan manage to slam him. Finnegan even covers for two. Tracy doesn’t
appreciate the negativity of the crowd, advising them to stop or “everybody
dies!” Tracy challenges Meanie to a dance off instead. Spoiler: both are
terrible dancers. Smothers attacks Meanie from behind during the dance-off, but
Meanie isn’t down for long. A corner splash puts Smothers to the mat, but Smith
belts Meanie with a chain on an attempted moonsault, allowing Smothers the pin
(with foot on rope). Not great, but Tracy was fun here.
Kid Kash vs Too Cold Scorpio
This is the match most likely to steal the show. They do
things so well, even the little things like Scorpio adjusting his legs when he
has Kash from behind to ensure Kash can’t grab them to escape. Scorpio remains
slightly ahead at first and seems to be having fun, but he soon takes things
seriously as Kash starts uping the tempo. Scorpio makes his first mistake by
missing a pescado, before Kash springboards out and hits a rana on the floor.
Kash is in command on the floor as much as Scorpio was in the ring, which he
shows by throwing Scorpio from the stage and following with a cannonball. Kash
hits Scorp with his own GHC tag belt, but the insult causes Scorp to no-sell
it. He gets Kash back in the ring and plants him with a powerbomb and 2nd
rope flipping legdrop for two. A top rope flipping legdrop gets two. Kash tries
to fire back with a slightly botched rana for two, but Scorp regains control
and hits another powerbomb and a 450 splash to win. Unsurprisingly, match of
the show. Great display by both men, especially the contrast between Scorpio
dominating in the ring, and Kash dominating on the floor.
Raven vs the Sandman
Raven is accompanied by the Blue Meanie and the Musketeer,
which must be the worst entourage he’s ever had. Raven decides to substitute
the Musketeer for himself, which leads to a Sandman beating for Meanie and
Musketeer. Raven takes advantage of this distraction to take over. Raven
dominates a lot of the match, fair to say Sandman doesn’t add much to
proceedings. Meanie throws powder in Sandman’s face and the Evenflow gets 2 for
Raven. Sandman gets in a bit of offence, putting Raven through a table and
hitting a swanton onto a ladder with Raven underneath. Swanton through a table
gets 2. Meanie comes in to help Raven and hits two shitty moonsaults for 2. A
third one is much better, but still only gets two. Don E Allen comes in to help
Raven to zero reaction, but Mikey Whipwreck sends him off. Mikey goes to share
a beer with Sandman, but turns and hits a Whippersnapper to give Raven the win.
Pretty much held together by Raven and overbooking, the result was a mess, but
a watchable mess.
Shane Douglas vs Sabu vs Terry Funk
This is a barbed wire rope match, and instantly Douglas and
Funk look smarter by the fact they’re wearing t-shirts (not that you would
expect Sabu to do so). It seems even smarter as both men are in the barbed wire
within two minutes. Indeed, a fair bit of the opening segment is dedicated to
all three men getting pushed into the wire. The best of these spots sees Sabu
go for a chair-assisted springboard, only for Funk to move the chair, sending
Sabu flying into the barbs. As the match progresses though, the barbed wire
spots really start to lose their impact through overuse. Things get worse as
Funk gets his arm so stuck that they have to cut the wire to free him. At this
point, the overbooking kicks in, but in a way that actually makes the match
more fun. Firstly, Shane KO’s two referees in a row, the second with a chain
wrapped round his fist. Styles then claims that the whole show was a plot by Shane to cripple both Sabu and
Funk, which is a brilliant storyline. Shane starts climbing a rickety ladder,
but the lights go off. When they come back on, Mick Foley is in the ring in a
ref shirt to a huge pop. He uses socko on Douglas to a chorus of boos, but then
amends it to barbed wire socko to a huge cheer! Sabu hits Shane with a chain to
the face to eliminate him. Funk recovers and puts Sabu on a table, but climbing
the rickety ladder causes it to collapse, and Sabu hits the Arabian facebuster
to win. The first half was dull, but the second half was overbooked enough to
make it at least entertaining. The overall theme for the show is that the
wrestling was below average, but enough smoke and mirrors were used to make the
matches fun.
