Falls Count Anywhere

03-19-08

Pip pip.

Yes, I am perfectly aware that there was a TNA PPV this weekend. I’m just so bored by most of what TNA presents these days that I completely ignored everything except the Three-Way Woman’s Match. ODB is way over and has a great personality. Gayle Kim is also over and is a hard worker who really never got the full shot she deserved in the WWE. Awesome Kong is a decent worker, has decent charisma and is pretty over, too. Their match was a good one and I think they’ll keep it going for a while. The Knockouts Division in TNA is just about the only thing that’s really working for them. While I think that all the talk of them doing a Knockouts only regular TV show isn’t a good idea, I do think doing one special episode of Impact or something with the Knockouts as the focus would be a good one.

There wasn’t a lot of wrestling I watched this weekend, what with Cinequest still in full force until Sunday, but I did manage to catch a bit of fun from the old days. I popped in an old video tape from 1988. I taped a lot of wrestling in those days. I had old WWF, NWA and a big old collection of AWA and World Class. Most of those tapes are gone, some taped over and many just lost in one of my various moves. I came across this tape the last time I moved and it was very eye-opening to get to watch it again.

The first match on the tape was from World Class. It was some jobber vs. The Spoiler. Dan Jardine, the guy behind the Spoiler mask, just passed away, and here about all he did was grab the ropes and drop knees on the poor guy. He pinned him in about a minute. It was weird that this match and the other two on the show were all from 1986, which meant that ESPN was showing tapes that were at least two years old.

That also meant that the Von Erichs were just around the peak. Mike Von Erich hadn’t died yet, as he was featured on the show, and the 3rd annual Davind Von Erich Parade of Champions was still coming up, according to announcer Marc Laurance.

The second match featured Steve Simpson. The guy, a South African, was a pretty fun little wrestler. He was a favorite and was probably just behind the Von Erichs and Bruiser Brody in the Face Overness scale. He took on Brian Adias. It was a clean match, I don’t think Adias had turned yet, and the two of them did some good stuff. Simpson did some nice flying stuff, including a headscissors take over that didn’t become popular until the Lucha era hit the USA a decade later. I thought it was a very fun match.

The main event was Lance Von Erich vs. The Angel of Death. At least it looked like the Angel of Death. The tape had some tracking problems and it wasn’t clear if it was the same guy who passed away last year or no. Still, it was amazing at how very much Lance was over even though folks knew he wasn’t really a Von Erich. The match ended with the claw and then Rick Rude ran in. I knew he was in WCCW at the time, but it was still something of a surprise looking back 20+ years.

The second thing was an old edition of Superstars of Wrestling. This was from one of the best times for Tag Team Wrestling ever. There were the Rockers and the British Bulldogs and the Hart Foundation and the Killer Bees and The Islanders and Strike Force and Demolition. This show had three tag team matches, plus squashes for Koko B. Ware and Ted DiBiase. The three tag team squashes were from The Islanders (and one of the guys being squashed appeared to be the legendary jobber Johnny K-9, who would later go on to become Bruiser Bedlam and later a Mob dude), Demolition (who had the best entrance music in the business at the time) and The British Bulldogs. It was amazing to hear who over these guys were.

Wrestling was just coming down from its peak high in 1987 with WrestleMania III, but the guys were mostly the same. The guys were working as hard as they wanted to, but no harder. It was awesome to see The Bulldogs do their signature spots, though it was obvious that Dynamite Kid was already starting to go downhill. Davey Boy looked great and the PowerSlam he did was one of the best in the business. The Islanders were another devastating Samoan tag team. Haku (King Haku and later Meng in WCW) and Tama (The Tonga Kid and later the Samoan Savage) were an awesome team and the feud they had with the Bulldogs was a classic. The interviews, mostly talking about an up-coming show at the Oakland Coliseum, were great.

The final thing I watched was a short piece of wrestling from TBS. It was a classic angle where Magnum TA came out and was carrying a baseball bat for protection. Tully Blanchard and JJ Dillion confronted him and attacked him. Barry Windham tried to make the save, but he was KOed and the Horsement ran over Magnum.

Enter Dusty Rhodes.

Rhodes came, grabbed the bat and attacked them all. He even hit Jim Crockett with the bat by accident. He choked out Tully and wrestlers ran in to pull them apart. It was an amazing angle for the day and they had Dusty ‘suspended’ for 120 days. That’s also the length of time the Midnight Rider was in town. Dusty had done similar angles several times over his career, but this one was my favourite, especially since it was the one I remember watching on a bright April morning in 1988.

Good trip down memory lane for me. I’ve gotta watch more.

See y’all when I’m back from England!

Chris Garcia