Booker did an interview which was OK. I really wish they
would give him a real title feud with Eddie. He’s
a way better foe than JBL.
Rey Mysterio, Spike Dudley and Scotty 2 Hotty took on Jamie
Noble, Akio and Chavo Guerrero jr. in a match that showed
off the depth of the Cruiserweight division. Seriously,
you have Jamie who works like an agile American Heavyweight,
Rey who busts all sorts of Lucha out, Akio who works a strange
Japanese / Lucha hybrid, Chavo who is Chavo, Scotty who
is a spot (The Worm, dancing, etc) guy and Spike who is
a brawler. I really liked the way they showed all these
guys’ talents using a Lucha trios inspired system
of changes and tags. We got to see Spike doing all his great
simple flying attacks (double stomps, head ram, face running)
and Rey busting some nice submissions. They did a segment
where everyone hit a big spot, rotating through everyone.
Jamie Noble eventually hit the Tiger Driver for the pin
on Spike. Good match.
Paul Heyman read some prepared statements about the Undertaker
and pleading for him to take it easy on him. Maybe it’s
just me, but it doesn’t seem like Paul is putting
his heart into this.
Cena vs. Booker was a fairly good match. Cena’s work
is moving closer and closer to the PPV main event style
that guys like Rock and Austin do. This match flowed pretty
well, got decent heat and didn’t openly suck until
Angle got involved. Cena tries to clothesline Booker, but
hits Angle and knocks him down. They keep the match going
until Angle announces that Cena touched him, so he is stripped
of the title. A lame ending that opens the door for strong
possibilities.
NEWS
Well, RAW was down a bit below the season average this week.
Likely reasons include Eugene’s character and his
ill-advised turn, the lack of interest in HHH and his storylines,
or more likely, the WWE just having a down period.
Vinny McMahon is trying to get long-time nemesis Bruno
Sanmartino to agree to be inducted into the (W)WW(F)E Hall
of Fame. He also wants to get Bret Hart and Hulk Hogan in
soon, too. This is a big deal, as Sanmartino has been one
of the biggest anti-McMahon forces for years. Frankly, they
should just put him in whether or not he agrees to come
and accept the award.
They seem to have sent Mordecai back to OVW. They’re
getting a little nervous about gimmicks, as they see that
they are not drawing.
Next Thursday is the Diva casting special on Spike TV at
10. Should be boobtacular!
FlashBack!
May 5, 1993. FMW had made a name for itself delivering the
most hard core wrestling the world had ever seen. They had
been doing fire matches, landmine matches, and even a match
where barbed wire was left uncoiled on the ground outside
the ring and they had to take bumps onto it. The biggest
match of the promotion up to that time was set for the traditional
Golden Week show at Kawasaki Stadium.
The show was officially the Fourth Anniversary of FMW.
They booked a card that couldn’t miss. Combat Toyoda
& Megumi Kudo beat Toshiyo Yamada & Manami Toyota
in the best women’s match that FMW would produced
until they started putting Kudo in brawls. The then Brand
New Michinoku Pro sent a few guys to tear down the house
with a great Lucha inspired match. Ricky Fuji, Big Titan
(Fake Razor Ramon) and Gladiator (I’m not sure who
that was, but it might have been Horace Boulder) had a great
all over the stadium brawl with Katsuji Ueda, Great Punk,
& Tarzan Goto. Even Leon Spinks showed up to do a job.
The match that drew the 40,000+ crowd was Atsushi Onita
vs. Terry Funk in the Exploding Ring Barbed Wire Landmine
Match.
The gimmick of the match was simple - The guys would wrestle
in a steel cage made of barbed wire. When they got thrown
into the cage, there were there would be small explosions
if they were thrown into the barbed wire and after fifteen
minutes, the ring would explode. They made it look amazing.
The ref was wearing a fire-proof outfit, and after 10 minutes
or so, the sirens went off to tell everyone that the explosions
are on the way.
The match was pure Onita drama. Onita took a pounding at
the hands of good ole Terry until Atsushi hit his come back,
which got the whole crowd into a tizzy. Onita managed to
get the pin at 12:20 or so with a DDT. This wasn’t
the big story. Onita had won and started to leave the cage.
Funk wasn’t moving. The story went that Terry had
been KOed and time was running out. A second siren went
off about a minute before the explosion and Terry still
wasn’t up and fightin’. So, Onita-san did what
every Japanese man would do in the situation: he jumped
on top of Terry when the explosion hit to save him.
And the explosion was amazing.
It made an actual mushroom cloud that went straight up.
The entire arena, all 40K or so, were deadly silent. The
only sound was the siren, still shrilly calling out danger.
It was an incredible scene on the commercial video tape.
I’ve seen a hand held version which isn’t nearly
as impressive, but still, you almost half-believed that
Terry and Onita were dead down there. After a few minutes,
the guys got up and received huge ovations. Terry even came
through enough to do a brief verbal exchange with Onita
afterwards. It was the greatest spectacle match in history
up to that point. Though FMW would fail to draw after Onita
left, this will always stand as one of the most remembered
matches in the history of Japanese wrestling.
