Skyefire's WWE DVD review featuring NOPE matches

[Skyefire]

And now on to the fifth and final volume of Wrestling Gold, "Beat Me If You Can". Isn't that pretty much the name of the game?

Nick Bockwinkel vs Terry Allen, Southwest Championship Wrestling
You may know Allen as Magnum TA. Here he's still using his real name as he goes up against the AWA World Champion in this non-title match. The two men start off with some amateur moves as they each take each other down. Bockwinkel soon resorts to punches to the gut of Allen followed by a Figure Four on the arm of Allen. Moments later, Allen picks Bockwinkel up with a body slam, followed by a second body slam. Allen then applies a side headlock on the champion. Bockwinkel gets up and backs Allen into the corner and delivers several blows to his opponent. Allen fights back with a hip toss followed by a flying drop kick. Bockwinkel comes back with a bodyslam, then drapes Allen throat first across the bottom rope and drops a knee on him. He follows that up with a piledriver and a three count. Nick Bockwinkel is your winner but Terry Allen comes out looking good in this match.

"Polish Power" Ivan Putski vs "The Continental Lover" Eddie Mansfield
Cornette describes Mansfield as being known in pro wrestling for his "lack of ability to get a job, lack of ability to keep a job, and tremendous complaining when he got fired from a job." Mansfield immediately cheap shots Putski with a thumb to the throat. He then wraps his wrist tape around the throat of the Polish Power. Putski attempts to get away and Mansfield jumps on his back. But Putski carries his opponent on his back across the ring while being choked. Mansfield then delivers another thumb to the throat. Mansfield attempts to ram Putski's head into the turnbuckle but Putski blocks it. As is common in pretty much every Southwest Championship Wrestling match on this collection, the TV commentator is hyping the promotion saying how it's the greatest and the fans are the greatest and you should check it out. It gets kinda old after a while. After a few more thumbs to the throat, Mansfield goes to the second rope and delivers an elbow drop. What do you known, he does know more than one move. Each time Putski fights back, Mansfield takes a walk to the outside. Then as Putski tries to go after Mansfield, the referee tries to stop him and Putski shoves him down. Soon the referee has no choice but to disqualify Putski. After watching this match now, I went back and rewatched it and counted 17 times Mansfield struck Putski in the throat in the span of a 6 minute match. I think Mansfield put together about five other offensive moves during this match.

Tito Santana vs Kelly Kiniski,
Yet another battle of West Texas State alum. Despite being a Texas native, no he's not actually from Mexico, Santana spent very little time wresting in Texas promotions. The match starts with a collar-and-elbow tie up, followed by an overhead wrist lock by Kiniski, then Santana takes Kiniski down to start things off. This match comes shortly after Santana won a tournament in Houston defeating the AWA World Champion Nick Bockwinkel in the finals. Santana applies a wrist lock to Kiniski but Kelly gets to the ropes. Santana takes Kiniski down with an arm drag. It's mentioned that Santana is a former WWF Tag Team Champion. See, wrestling promotions can mention other promotions by name. It's not that hard. Santana applies an armbar to Kiniski. Kiniski backs him up to the corner. Santana delivers his flying double arm clothesline to take Kiniski down and he covers Kiniski for the win.

The Sheik vs Tom Jones
Not, not the singer Tom Jones. This Tom Jones, also known as Bearcat Jones, Mr. Ebony, Gladiator, Red Shadow, Black Olympia who once held the Mid-South version of the NWA United States Tag Team Championships with Billy Red Lyons 10 months. Cornette describes Jones as Sheik's "hapless victim" and the original TV announcer says he "doesn't know what Jones has done to deserve such an opponent. Sheik wants the referee to check Jones' boots and while the ref is doing that Sheik attacks Jones. Jones fights out of it and Sheik retreats to his corner and soon to the outside. Jones is forced back into his corner as Sheik goes to his prayer rug. The crowd, of course, boos this. Now we're ready to officially get this match underway. Jones begins pounding away on Sheik. Sheik takes Jones down and then gets a hammer lock on Jones and is twisting the arm of Jones. This causes Jones to submit. The match lasts a minute and a half. Sheik refuses to release the hold. Whipper Billy Watson comes to Jones' aid but Sheik fights back against him. Sheik's manager, the original "Weasel", Eddie "The Brain" Creachman stands over the fallen Jones in the ring as fans get right up against the ring and throw trash into the ring.

Bobo Brazil vs Michael Angelo
We finally get a look at the legendary Bobo Brazil. His opponent, Michael Angelo is billed as being from Italy. The two men tie up and Angelo delivers some blows to Brazil and soon begins choking him. Angelo rams Brazil's head into the turnbuckle but it has no effect. Angelo uses some cheap tactics to take control of Brazil. Angelo seems to enjoy delivering shots to the throat of his opponent. Maybe that's where Eddie Mansfield learned it from. Brazil fights back. After knocking his opponent down, Brazil begins dancing in the ring. He then delivers his patented "Coco Butt" headbutt which keeps Angelo down for the three count.

Jerry Lawler vs Eddie Gilbert
Described by Dave Meltzer as a "dream come true" for Gilbert facing his childhood hero in Jerry Lawler. This is the first one-on-one meeting between the two. They had previously teamed together in six-man tag matches and faced each other in Battle Royals. This match comes from a CWA Memphis Championship Wrestling TV taping. "Hot Stuff" is a hot starter against "The King" her as he takes Lawler down multiple times. Lawler fights back and frustrates Gilbert. Gilbert takes a break to the outside of the ring. The two criss-cross and Lawler takes Gilbert down with a shoulder tackle. Gilbert takes a walk once again. Back in the ring the two lock up and Gilbert backs Lawler into a corner and begins punching him in the mid-section. Gilbert continues to work over Lawler. This only energizes The King as he goes to work on his opponent. Lawler gets Gilbert in the corner and begins pounding on him when Rick Rude and Jimmy Hart hit the ring and attack Lawler. Gilbert holds Lawler down with Rude hits him. Lawler goes to the outside and returns with a chair which sends everyone else running.

Mud Match, The Sheik vs Tiger Jeet Singh
Inside the ring is a tarp. On top of the tarp is something akin to a child's sandbox, only it's filled with mud. There's no original commentary for this match so all we get is Cornette and Meltzer on commentary. The two men battle in the mud and soon Eddie Creachman gets involved and thrown into the mud. The referee also gets muddy in this match. At times it seems like the wrestlers are intentionally getting the referee covered in mud much like in the bear match when Gene Dubois tried to get the referee attacked by the bear. Singh delivers some thrusts to the throat of Sheik and then rubs his face into the mud. Creachman gets involved once again which manages to distract Singh and give Sheik the advantage. Sheik gets knocked to the outside where he says "hi" to a fan. Singh gets a chair involved and goes after Sheik with this. The referee makes a two count while Singh has a chair to Sheik's throat. Singh pounds on Sheik. Sheik manages to get Singh down and pins him. Hank James, the half-brother of Bobo Brazil, comes out and attacks The Sheik. This match is difficult to watch. Between subpar video quality and the mud. Cornette on commentary delivers a few one-liners such "This looks like a political campaign there's so much mud slinging" and "I haven't seen this much mud slinging since my last trip to Hooters" as well as getting in a few shots at his arch-nemesis, Vince Russo.

CWA International Heavyweight Championship, Austin Idol (c) vs Masao Ito
Going into this match Ito claimed he was going to reach into Idol's chest and pull out his heart. Ito goes through his pre-match salt ceremonies, much like WWE fans may be familiar with from Yokozuna, but unlike Yokozuna, Ito is actually Japanese. This match is from a studio TV taping. Ito pounds away on Idol early on followed by several chops. Idol manages to fight back and soon bodyslams Ito twice. Idol goes for the Las Vegas Leg Lock but Ito's manager (not sure who it is but he's dressed like Kim Chee in camouflage), gets up on the ring apron and distracts Idol. The manager then pulls Idol out and hits him with nunchucks while Ito distracts the referee. Idol gets counted out and apparently Ito wins the title on a countout.

SCW Tag Team Championships, Gino Hernandez & Tully Blanchard (c) vs Scott Casey & Terry Allen
Terry Allen works over Blanchard early on but makes the mistake of letting Blanchard get the tag. But Allen immediately takes control of Gino Hernandez. Blanchard is tagged back in and drops and elbow on Allen. Allen tags in Casey who goes to work on Blanchard. A lot of fast action at this point. Soon all four men are in the ring as the babyfaces grab the heels by their heads and rams them together. Allen rams his knee into Blanchard before whipping him into the corner. Allen tags in Casey who gets a sleeper on Blanchard until Hernandez breaks it up. Aleen with a bearhug on Blanchard and once again Hernandez gets involved. Gino is tagged in and delivers a reverse elbow from the top rope onto Allen and gets the pin. The action in this match is so fast paced it's hard to describe what's going on. By time I type it, five more moves have happened.

AWA Southern Heavyweight Championship, Terry Taylor (c) vs Sabu the Wildman, Memphis 12/5/82
Not the Sabu of ECW fame. This Sabu is also known as Coco Samoa, bears a resemblance to and early-90's Jimmy Snuka and wrestled primarily in the 70's and 80's everywhere from Portland to Mid-Atlantic to Florida to Texas. Taylor gets a wrist lock in Sabu. Sabu takes Taylor down with a handful of hair. This match comes one week after Taylor upset Sabu to win the title. Sabu goes for a leg drop but Taylor moves out of the way. Taylor slams Sabu to the mat. Taylor goes for the pin but Sabu gets his foot on the ropes. Taylor begins pounding on Sabu but Sabu doesn't stay down for long. Sabu soon tosses Taylor over the top rope which results in a DQ against Sabu.

Wahoo McDaniel, Tommy Rogers, Marty Janetty def Ted Oates & The Grapplers, Central States Wrestling 7/19/84
Janetty starts off the main who trained him, Ted Oates. The two crisscross and Janetty takes Oates down with a hip toss. Janetty and Rogers are collectively known as The Uptown Boys. After one of the Grapplers is tagged in Janetty takes him down. Wahoo is in and begins working over the masked Grappler. Rogers in and applies a wrist lock on Grappler. Grappler soon distracts the referee allowing his partners to double team Rogers. Later in the match, the heels are in control of Rogers as he manages to tag in Janetty. Soon all six men are in the ring. It's down to Janetty and Grappler #2 in the ring. Grappler goes for a flying clothesline but misses. Janetty then hits a flying body press which is able to keep the Grappler down for the three. But the fight is not over as Oates brings a chair into the ring and delivers a piledriver to Janetty on the chair. Any true wrestling fan knows about Janetty and about Wahoo. Rogers is best known as one-half of the Fantastics who held numerous tag team titles including the NWA United States Tag Team Championships while in WCW. Like Janetty, Oates is a Georgia native who competed in several southern territories throughout the 70's and 80's. He held several tag team championships, most of them with his brother, Jerry Oates. The Grapplers were also known as the Dirty White Boys. Anthony also competed in the WWF as TL Hopper and managed The Godwinns as Uncle Cletus.

This concludes the Wrestling Gold series. This is a fine look into the territorial era of professional wrestling seeing stars that some people may not be familiar with as well as stars before they were national stars. I highly recommend this collection for anyone who is a die hard wrestling fan.

Next up time to examine the best matches from a summer tradition dating back to the 80's that returns for it's next installment this week.