This is a show I bought from IVP Videos, which is being sold there under the title "Best of the UK V.55". It's handheld footage from an All Star show in Plymouth from 13 years ago, and had an interesting enough line up to convince me to check it out. It also comes with bonus matches at the end, which is nice
Legend of Doom vs Mustafa the Turk
LoD is Johnny South in his Road Warrior tribute/rip-off gimmick. Mustafa, bless him, is a generic "evil foreigner" heel. Mustafa dominates to start, before LoD sends him from the ring with a series of clotheslines. South grabs Mustafa's leg out from under him, toppling the big man like a tree, which gets a nice pop, and some brawling in the crowd also gets a good reaction. They work a rest hold into the match, and already South is selling more than the real LoD normally would. A missed avalanche in the corner sees Mustafa take a big spill to the floor, and back inside LoD nails a second-rope clothesline to pick up the win. Perfectly decent wrestling.
American Avalanche vs David Sierra
It's PN News vs the Cuban Assassin in a battle of former WCW stars. Sierra is accompanied by his manager Fantasy, and the camcorder zooms RIGHT IN on her breasts as they approach the ring. Sigh. Sierra attacks from behind, but makes the mistake of attacking the vast stomach of Avalanche. Avalanche keeps it simple, whilst working in crowdpleasing spots like holding onto a headlock when Sierra tries to fire him into the ropes. The headlock is held a tad too long though, and they bizarrely do the arm dropping spot on Sierra, who managed to get his arm up on two, despite being heel. Big bump is taken over top as Avalanche missed his namesake move in the corner. A 2nd rope cannonball senton misses, but AA gets fired up by the "belly" chants. An Avalanche DDT puts both men down, they then do a double clothesline spot to keep them down longer. Sierra tries using his Cuban flag on Avalanche, which the ref prevents, and the distraction lets AA hit a standing avalanche for the win. Not one to remember.
Marty Jannetty vs Totoru
Man, we certainly didn't get Marty Jannetty when I went to an All Star show 2 years after this. Totoru is a masked chap, allegedly from Thailand, in Super Dragon-esque pyjamas who trips as he comes into the ring. After Totoru spends ages stalling, he suckers Jannetty into posing on the turnbuckle, then attacks him. After Jannetty gets the upper hand, Totoru exits the ring and stalls for even longer. Jannetty dominates, throwing Totoru from the ring with a sunset flip, where he gets bullied by kids. For some reason, Totoru's trousers fall down, just fucking awful "comedy". Totoru gets back in the ring, and in the process of pulling himself to his feet, he pulls ref trousers down. Oh, hilarious. At this point, the ring announcer announces that 10 minutes have gone by, 10 minutes where we've seen barely any fucking wrestling. Jannetty misses a corner charge, giving Totoru his only offensive flurry, where he repeatedly whips Marty to the corner. Marty even cracks out the 360 degree clothesline spell, which is wasted on a load like Totoru. This lasts barely a minute, before Jannetty reverses a backdrop into a facebuster for three. A steaming sack of shit.
Chad Malenko vs Jonny Storm
You may know Malenko better as Chad Collyer, so this has the chance of being decent. Hilariously, he still has the initials "CC" on his trunks. Malenko tries to get a "USA" chant going for some easy heat. Nice little mat sequence gets us warmed up. I love the simple touches, where Storm asks the crowd if he should wrench Malenko's arm again, while Malenko shakes his head. They work a nice sequence of counters and reversals, which ends with Storm on top, which must seem like manna from the Gods for this crowd after some of the earlier toss on this show. Malenko takes control and slows things down with a chinlock. He sends Storm high into the air with a massive flapjack. This is being worked very simply, like a good TV match, with Storm getting a few hope spots on his comebacks before Malenko cuts him off. Makes sense, as this isn't a crowd that wants long indy-style matches (which these guys could certainly do). Top rope rana and a moonsault press by Storm gets a good reaction from the crowd. The end comes as Malenko blocks a second top rope rana and hits a tornado DDT for the win. Really enjoyed this.
James Mason & the Legend of Doom vs Hollywood Blonde & Bad Brad the Nasty Boy
Poor James Mason must feel left out at not getting an early 90's tag gimmick to work here. Couldn't he have been "the Natural Disaster" James Mason or something? This is a tables match. No idea who are portraying the heels, but Blonde looks like Brian Pillman playing at being Curt Hennig. The match starts and Bad Brad can hardly bump on an armdrag. Bodes well. Blonde at least looks competent, but Brad is working lighter than a feather. A brief heat spell sees a hot tag to Mason, and he looks top drawer here, hitting a sweet flipping senton. He gets caught by a Blonde DDT though to become face-in-peril. Blonde works in some nice heel spots on the apron, while his useless partner distracts the ref. Mason gets his comeback from out of nowhere, almost as if he just decided that Brad was too shit to keep selling for. The faces clean house, as the crowd start getting excited about seeing a table spot. It soon comes, as Mason blocks a top rope superplex attempt by the Blonde to put him through a table. The fact that this was still fun despite Bad Brad being utter shit is a testament to the work of the other three.
The crowd disperses as the MC offers photo opportunites with the Cuban Assassin and the camera zooms in on his manager's backside. So classy.
The two bonus matches at the end comes from an All Star show in Bristol from 22/2/01.
Jonny Storm vs Chad Malenko
This was filmed 3 weeks prior to the other match, so it'll be interesting if they just had a stock touring match. Seemingly not, as Malenko stomps the shit out of Storm in the corner to start. No mat work, just the more muscular Malenko hammering away on Storm. Storm sends him packing with some dropkicks, playing up his speed advantage. There is a mat section after this, but it's nice to see they mixed it up a little bit. They're definately working some different bits into this match, with Malenko doing a nice little showboat by running round whilst holding a delayed vertical suplex. Malenko keeps control on Jonny, with a nice single leg crab and an STF. Jonny's comeback here includes a nice rana in the middle of the ring, but Malenko catches him leaping off the top for another rana and plants him with a powerbomb for three. Another good bout between these two.
The Barbarian vs American Avalanche
This is joined in progress. I'd have fucking loved to have seen the Barbarian in action when I went to All Star. Barbarian is busy nailing AA with a chair as we come in. He misses a diving headbutt and a DDT puts him down, totally going against all wrestling has taught me about him having a hard head. Avalanche splashes a chair onto Barbarian for two. A chairshot to the head gets the win for Avalanche. Short and sweet.
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