The SmarK Rant for GWF Supercard – 08.07.91

The SmarK Rant for GWF Supercard – 08.07.91

Taped from the GLOBALDOME in Dallas TX

Your hosts are Craig Johnson & Scott Hudson

The GWF tag team title tournament continues, with more of the first round this week.

The Patriot & Terry Daniels v. Bad News Brown & Big Bully Busick

Now those are two teams that actually make sense! I’m somewhat curious how they could get away with calling him “Bad News Brown” outside of the WWF instead of just the usual Bad News Allen. Because he definitely didn’t use that name anywhere else outside of the Fed that I know of. The announcers clarify that Bad News isn’t a particularly nice guy, in case newer fans watching couldn’t clue in that a team comprised of “Bad News” and “Big Bully” were the bad guys in this particular dynamic. We get a bunch of stalling to start and the Patriot overpowers both heels, prompting various arguments with the referee. Finally Bad News gets a cheapshot to take over on Patriot, but the babyfaces use the power of tag team brotherhood to foil him. Over to Busick and Patriot continues dominating him until Bully demands a test of strength. So Patriot wins that and stomps the fingers, and it’s over to Terry Daniels, who is probably dead meat. But he does manage to take Busick down with a headlock before Busick muscles him into the heel corner and they go to work on him. Patriot should have just worked the whole match himself. Believing in his partner was his big mistake. The heels switch off with bearhugs on Daniels while Patriot keeps running in and breaking it up, but finally Brown hits Terry with the GHETTO BLASTER and pins him at 7:50 while Bully holds Patriot back. Oh man, making him watch his shame and failure, that’s COLD. And so surprisingly, Patriot not only doesn’t win this tournament, but he’s out in the first round. Just a super simple dumb tag match and it was fine. **

The Cuban Assassin & El Cubano v. The Renegade Warriors

That’s a lot of Cubans. Are they sponsored by Mark Cuban? I’m pretty sure the WCW version of El Cubano was in fact the very Cuban Assassin here that he’s teaming with, and even Cagematch doesn’t have a guess who this version of “El Cubano” is. Unless we were wasting medical cloning science on Fidel Sierra back in 1991, but that just seems silly. Cuban stalls and complains about how much he hates the USA for a while before taking Mark Youngblood down with armdrags and doing the cliché “woo woo woo” mocking of him. Come on, there’s lots of perfectly good ways to mock the Youngbloods for being terrible without going down THAT road. Sierra does a criss-cross with Mark and the Youngbloods take him down for a double team before hitting him with chops that would make Wahoo McDaniel weep and probably laugh a little bit. So it’s over to Cubano, who is definitely NOT Jack Victory at least, and the Youngbloods continue double-teaming him with chops for two. Chris comes in with a high kick and kneedrop, and a double team legdrop gets two for Mark. Man these guys make me miss Jay Youngblood. More generic double-teams from the Warriors and a dropkick gets two for Chris. Rising knee in the corner and he goes to a chinlock on Cubano as 90% of this match has been the Youngbloods getting the shine. Chris works a headscissors on the mat and hits a piledriver for two before Sierra remembers he’s trying to win the match and makes the save. Mark comes in and chops Cubano down for two and a sideslam gets two. Are these guys gonna sell ANYTHING for the Cubans? Finally Fidel gets the tag and actually makes Mark Youngblood sell for a bit, and Cubano drops an elbow for two and Sierra puts the boots to him. But then Mark powers Cubano up into a Hangman’s noose and Chris comes off the top with a chop to finish at 8:15. God that felt 3x longer. Just the Cubans selling and selling and selling and selling for the Warriors. ½*

Steve Dane & The Handsome Stranger v. Scott Anthony & Rip Rogers

Oh ho! Scott Anthony is Scotty “The Body” Levy, on his way to WCW as Scotty Flamingo later on. Scotty and Rip as a tag team is an awesome idea, and Scotty even gives us a rap, completely cracking up Bagwell in the process. Dane was better known as Steven Casey in the WWF and WCW and he had a good look and good skills but just never broke through. I guess best known for putting over Great Muta in WCW, to unleash Muta on the world in 1989. Rip does a whole bit with struggling to get his jacket off and then trades armdrags with the Stranger, allowing the babyfaces to switch off behind the ref’s back while Scotty protests loudly. To the heel corner, as the Cartel double-teams the Stranger, but then Scotty is all intimidated by the Stranger’s awesome charisma and manliness and runs away. Back in the ring, Rogers beats on the Stranger with chops in the corner, but the Stranger fights back with a dropkick to set up Dane necking him on the top rope. Man these supposed babyfaces are doing a lot of cheating. So to even things up, the Cartel blatantly chokes Stranger out in their corner, with Scotty really selling the evil for the cheap seats and hamming it up, but he misses a blind charge and it’s hot tag Dane. Neckbreaker on Anthony gets two, and a cradle gets two. Sunset flip gets two. The babyfaces whip them into each other and clear the ring, and Dane slugs away on Scotty in the corner before getting taken down and pinned with the old Flair rollup at 6:33. This was exactly what it needed to be. I haven’t the foggiest who is winning this thing but Rip and Scotty seem like the clear choice. **

The Handsome Stranger joins Joe, and he’s still promising to save his unmasking for his wedding night. Or when he signs with WCW, whichever comes first.

The Davis Brothers join Boni, and they concede that they don’t look alike or talk alike but they’re still absolutely 100% brothers for real.

The Nightmares v. Joel Deaton & Billy Black

These are definitely not the more famous Nightmares, as they’re replacing the team of Iceman Parsons & Greg Valentine and they’re just a pair of masked goofs in mismatched gear. Deaton of course was better known as Thunderfoot #1 in Crockett and jobbing in a tag team with brother Vernon. The Nightmares double-team Black after a brawl to start, but he brings Deaton in, and Joel quickly puts a Nightmare into the Boston crab, before the other guy makes the save. Nightmare #2 gets a suplex on Deaton and goes to a chinlock, but Deaton escapes with a jawbreaker and hits a DDT for two. Nightmare #1 comes in with a sunset flip for two and goes to an abdominal stretch, but Black gets a hot tag and takes #2 down with a double wristlock. He quickly makes the ropes and chokes Deaton out on the ropes, but misses a charge and Joel rolls him up for two. And then Billy finishes a Nightmare with a bulldog at 7:35. This was a total mess and I would not have pegged Deaton & Black as the babyfaces in this promotion. Also I wouldn’t have watched this and thought “Hey, there’s a team that All Japan might want to book for a few tours!” but that’s wrestling for ya. *

And with that, we’re done with the first round, as this was a very fun and watchable episode, with Scott Anthony getting the ball and running with it as an overselling clown heel being the clear highlight.