Kendo The Samurai v. Tracy Smothers

 

"Listen here you Jap, I don't know what box you crawled out of, but this time you've got a good ole fashion USA butt whipping comin your way!" I liked this a good bit. Early exchanges are all mat based with a hint of the exotic for the standards of Southern wrestling at the time. Tracy ends up in a dreaded nerve hold which doesn't last long, but does feature some pretty amusing verbal selling. I am not sure what the logic was in having these guys work over ten minutes, but Smothers is really great at up and down tempo matches and they did some things to keep this pretty interesting from bell to bell.

 

Thrillseekers v. Well Dunn

 

I found this to be extremely tedious. Storm's offense looked fucking horrid in this. Jericho did some flashy stuff that I thought looked okay, but overall I don't think the Seekers looked very good and Well Dunn were not strong enough to carry them with heel antics.

 

Rock N Roll Express v. Chris Candido/Brian Lee

 

I was surprised by how the early Candido/Morton segment was as it didn't really seem to click entirely. Both guys were working hard to be sure, but they seemed to be a step off the pace of the other and at times it was really obvious. Morton going FIP after the Lee press slam was cool. Morton FIP I thought was pretty neat as the heel unloaded a lot of big offense on Ricky and there were some great teaser spots with a small package hope spot from Ricky and a really cool spot where Candido took a bump off of the top and lunged for a tag only to meet a desperation spinebuster from Chris. Camera caught a really good post-hot tag shot of Ricky selling his ass off on the ropes which was probably the best thing in this.

 

Bruiser Bedlam v. Randy Savage

 

Pre-match lots of hubub with Cornette demanding Dory Funk Jr. be made the new commish, Armstrong cutting a promo and then the Savage entrance. Match itself was really minimalistic and almost sad to watch as Bedlam really has nothing to offer and Savage hit a sub-Shawn Michaels top rope elbow at one point that really made me cringe.

 

Dirty White Boy v. Jake Roberts

 

This is the Jake psych showcase. The first five minutes of this is all arm work and exchanges from both guys. Jake is great selling throughout and he eventually breaks DWB's momentum by getting Curtis to check for a mythical hair pull which gives him the chance to pop DWB in the face. They do a rope running spot and Roberts comes down off of a leapfrog and they do the the playing possum gimmick to perfection with Jake jumping up and doing jumping jacks after his Pearl Harbor job. Jake's taunts on offense are great and DWB's hope spots all come back to Jake's arm which I also really liked. There isn't really a finish to this, but the post match angle is really great.

"Wild Eyed Southern Boy" Tracy Smothers vs. Kendo the Samurai (4/20/94)

 

Tracy calling Kendo a Jap was hilarious and he was this match period with his charisma and selling as Kendo brought nothing to the table basically.

 

The Thrillseekers (Chris Jericho & Lance Storm) vs. Well Dunn (Timothy Well & Steven Dunn) (4/20/94)

 

Yeah this wasn't very good although Jericho showed his promise here. Well Dunn worked better with more experienced teams.

 

No DQ No Time Limit for the SMW Tag Titles: Chris Candido & "Primetime" Brian Lee © vs. The Rock n Roll Express (Robert Gibson & Ricky Morton) (4/20/94)

 

Tammy is getting into better shape now and showing off the goods a little more now and Lee is sporting the black hair at this time. Some good stuff at the start as RnR was great at getting the crowd going and the heels were good at selling their frustration. Candido was really damn good here early on taking punishment and the tug of war spot between RnR & Lee with Candido nuts going into the ringpost was fun. There was a bad botch by Morton off a dive in the corner but it led to Lee just killing him with a clothesline as he tried to piledrive Candido. This started the Morton FIP section and he was great here selling also. The heels big moves and foreign objects at will with Mark Curtis being distracted by Gibson keeping Morton grounded. The build to the hot tag was great as Morton was lunging over Candido but was slammed down with a spinebuster before he could touch Gibson. Morton would finally get the tag after a couple of reverse atomic drops and the camera work was great here showing Morton selling all the anguish he just went through. Tammy would get involved with Morton kissing her then getting slapped then almost eating a piledriver before Candido whacked him with her purse to win. This didn't set the world on fire by any means but I dug it a lot and liked RnR in a different dynamic than the Bodies here. This is a nomination.

 

Bruiser Bedlam vs. "Macho Man" Randy Savage (4/20/94)

 

Bedlam sucked dick but the pre-match with Corny was fun wanting Dory Funk Jr. to become the new commish of SMW with Bullet firing back on a promo before Savage came out was fun. The match itself was nothing and Savage didn't look so hot either but should've never done the job for fucking Bedlam. The post-match brawl was fun though.

 

SMW Heavyweight Title: Jake "The Snake" Roberts © vs. "Dirty White Boy" Tony Anthony (4/20/94)

 

Oh yeah time for fat fucked up Jake. DWB is wearing an eyepatch here from a previous angle with Jake so he is working with that hindrance. DWB works Jake's left arm early with Jake's psychology coming into play making it interesting then he faked an injury off a leapfrog where he had Mark Curtis tricked then used it to cheapshot DWB and afterwards he jumped up and did jumping jacks which was great. Jake was methodical like a motherfucker on offense and his taunts were great and I also liked DWB going back to the left arm in his hope spots. The psychology behind that was sound because that was Jake's short clothesline arm. We would get a ref bump on purpose by Jake who then used his boot on DWB before knocking Curtis to the floor again allowing Jake to tie DWB up in the ropes with his wrist tape while Kendo the Samurai showed up with the snake. DWG ran out trying to help her man so Jake almost dry humped her then teased the DDT all the while taunting DWB like a motherfucker before actually hitting the DDT. Jake then slithered over her as DWB promised to kill Jake so Jake threatened to pull the snake out before the babyfaces showed up for the save. The match was okay but the post-match was fucking awesome.