Steve Skyfire v. James Atkins (?)

 

I'm guessing this was shot for the local cable access station as it's got a single camera shot with a lone guy on commentary I don't recognize. This is Skyfire hitting lots of big offense for the era and time period, some of which looked really good and some of looked really bad. Still using a Tiger Driver less than two minutes into a match annoys me when it happens now. When it happens in a high school gym in TN in the early 90's it annoys me even more.

 

Kendo The Samurai v. Lance Storm

 

The dueling karate stances at the beginning is not the sort of thing I usually care about, but for some reason I really thought it was awesome here. Early exchange was really perfunctory mat stuff and while it was well executed it seemed like it was there mainly so they could check that off of the list. Thrust kick off the ropes from Kendo looked good and set up Lance in peril which included two very good looking bumps from Lance, including a Dustin Rhodes, missed crossbody, skip under bottom rope to floor bump. This had a pretty good ebb and flow once they got to the heat section and I liked the finish a lot with Storm killing Kendo with a huge belly to belly off the top.

 

Brian Lee/Chris Candido v. Scott Armstrong/Steve Armstrong

 

I really wanted to like this, but they lost me early and never really got me back. Seriously there is a fuckload of stalling in this and none of it really worked for me. This didn't come across as "building heat/anticipation" stalling but rather "this is a house show and we have a lot of time to fill so let's not do shit" stalling. Scott ends up playing FIP and is pretty good in that role but they don't do a very good job building to the hot tag and the ending sucked.

 

Bruiser Bedlam v. Brad Armstrong (Dog Fight Match)

 

This is basically a street fight and is entertaining in an off the wall way. Bedlam can't sell at all so when Brad hits him with a trash can he just walks around with his arms outstretched like frankenstein. Liked Brad's big shoulder blocks and Cornette took a nice bump. Racket gets the win for Bruiser.

 

Brian Lee v. Tony Anthony

 

Watching Lee work cowardly heel spots, slithering away on his stomach into self-posting nut shots is just bizarre to me. Lee ends up working the hidden foreign object gimmick at it, but he really sucks at it as it is painfully obvious that Mark Curtis is playing along due to Lee's shitty body language and positioning. DWB makes his comeback off of a really good theatrical bump from Lee off the ropes. Then Curtis takes a geat bump off of a clothesline. Candido ends up "botching" a run-in and costing Lee the match. Decent stuff overall.

There was nothing here that was nomination material and very little good overall. Weird show.