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Where Wrestling's Regional History Lives! |
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- Scott Keith
- Live from Norfolk, VA - Your hosts are Jim Ross and Bob Caudle. - Opening match, US tag titles: The Fantastics v. Steve Williams & Kevin Sullivan. This is the Fantastics' second US title reign, as they won the tournament for the vacant titles at the end of 1988 and were supposed to be fighting the Sheepherders in a flag match here, but Vince signed them away to screw the NWA over, and we're left with this. This would be the clipped Turner Home Video version. I've never seen the full version, because Canada didn't get PPV until 1992. Fulton and Sullivan trade stuff to start, and then Williams gets in and gets double-teamed by the faces. One of them backfires, however, and Williams gives Fulton six presses on the press slam to take control. Match is clipped to Fulton getting the hot tag to Tommy Rogers at the 10 minute mark, who proceeds to take out Sullivan. A flying splash hits the knees, and Doc comes in for damage control, kicking the hell out of Rogers. He goes to the chinlock, however, taking the heat down a few notches. Fulton finally gets the hot tag, and the usual pier-six results. Ugly ending as Fulton goes for a sleeper, but releases it and tries a leapfrog, only to get hot-shotted on the top rope for the pin, giving the Varsity Club the US tag titles. Seemed about ***-ish. - The Midnight Express v. The Midnight Express. The story: The Midnights lost the World tag titles to the Road Warriors, a week or so later they were wrestling a squash on World Championship Wrestling and were jumped by Paul E. Dangerously's "Original" Midnight Express, fresh from the AWA. A super hot feud erupted, and this is the blowoff. Well, one of them. Lane and Eaton clean house a couple of times, and the fans are CLEARLY on their side. Cornette whacks Dennis Condrey with a wicked racket shot early on, causing Paul E. to ring the bell in protest. The heat here is amazing. Cornette makes gay references about Paul E. at ringside. The OME are getting nowhere, meanwhile. Another racket shot, and another indignant bell-ringing. JR: "This is like smoking a cigarette in a munitions dump -- you just know something bad can happen at any time". Pretty slow start to the actual match -- mainly the Midnights showcasing their stuff. Bobby misses a blind corner charge, however, to put him in the Ricky Morton role (oh, the irony!). Paul E. is wearing a pink shirt, white suspenders and a red bow tie...yeah, that doesn't look gay at all. Original Midnights miss the Rocket Launcher and Lane gets the hot tag and destroys the imposters. Enzuigiri knocks Condrey senseless, but the ref is distracted. Dangerously smashes the CELL PHONE OF DOOM in Lane's head, but Long sees the evidence and stops the count. Crowd is ABSOLUTELY NUTS! Rose argues, and the Midnights nail the Double Goozle (clothesline-legsweep) for the pin. The heels pound the shit out of Cornette after the decision. Total old school NWA booking. ***1/2 More...
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