Steve Armstrong v. Jimmy Del Ray

 

Early on some good quick rope running exchanges with Armstrong getting the upperhand via a variety of quick moves and highspots. His early urange looked good though it seemed random. Del Ray gains the advantage with a spike ddt and then Armstrong sells his ass off for a sharp right to the throat. Del Ray hits a sit out powerbomb and goes for a splash off the top but Steve moves. Armstrong hits an awesome looking diving clothesline off the top for a big bump and nearfall, but gets caught by Corny shooting off the ropes and pinned in short order. Strange. Shorter than I would have guessed though it was good while it lasted.

 

Dirty White Boy promo

 

Dirty White Boy v. Mongolian Stomper

 

Double DQ. This really wasn't awful though it wasn't interesting either.

 

Chris Candido promo

 

Chris Candido v. Tim Horner (Baby Bottle Match)

 

God Candido's early bumping is great. In the first minute he takes a face plant bump off the top, a 360 clothesline bump over the ropes to the floor and then a diving double axe from Horner results in him hanging upside down by his feet on the guardrail. Candido takes over by dropping down on attempted forward roll by Horner which sends him flying to the floor. He follows it up with a pretty wild looking plancha. Horner eats a suplex and we get a fucking clip which pisses me off because this is the sort of match I want to see in full not the fucking Mongolian Stomper sucking shit for five minutes. They come back with a sleeper hold and they do some teaser stuff from that point. Candido ends up hitting a pretty good powerslam on Horner in here somewhere. Horner takes a really massive bump off of a slingshot. Horner fires up and they end up on the top where Candido takes a diving top rope spinebuster which sounds worse than it was. Handspring elbow from Horner, followed by a Vader Bomb for two. Candido wins on a BS DQ. I don't know. The action was good in this, but the clip really annoyed me and took me out of the match. And the finish was so fucking stupid. I can't see this making the set.

 

Tim Horner promo

 

Brian Lee/Tammy Fytch promo

 

Tracy Smothers promo

 

Tracy Smothers v. Brian Lee (Coal Miner's Glove)

 

Smothers pre-match in ring promo is so fucking great. "I'm gonna scale that thing like Tarzan and stick that coal miner's glove up your butt and turn you into a popcicle" Great opening spot as Lee is on the floor so Tracy starts going for the glove. Lee comes into the ring so Tracy turns around hits a big cross body. Smothers hits a good baseball slide and some nice punches on the floor. Smothers dismissively throwing a cup of soda into Lee's face was cool. Tracy starts chasing Tammy and Lee tries to cheapshot but Tracy throws a blindside back kick. Smothers has the crowd going crazy for every little thing and is really working this gimmick for all it is worth, pointing to the pole, hamming it up, et. Smothers is beating Lee's ass and grabs the mic and says "you ain't so tough now are you faggot!" There is some brief back and fourth after Smothers gets caught going up the pole and this leads to a big bump in the corner from Smothers. Lee hits a good powerslam off the ropes and shortly thereafter another. There is an edit after a few cutoff spots, but I don't think too much is lost as they return in the same hold. Man they work several hope/cutoff spots exchanges all of which are good but I almost think there are too many to close together. Smothers bump off a flying body block looked dangerous as all hell. Lee has proven to be a good theatrical bumper himself and takes a huge bump off the ropes. Tracy races to the glove off of a corner charge but gets a huge crotch bump, which Smothers pays back a few seconds later. Lee manages to get the glove down but then Tammy holds up the ref while Tracy gets blindsided by DWB run-in. Good match, shitty finish. Post-match beatdown is good.

 

Promo with Brian Lee/DWB/Fytch

 

Promo with Cornette and his crew backstage

 

Promo with Bob Amrstrong and company backstage

 

Cornette's Army v. Armsrong's Army (Rage In The Cage)

 

This is a Wargames format, with handcuffs in the cage so you can take out opponents. Big Bossman is the ref here. Opening segment with Morton and Pritchard is actually really great as they work lots of clever spots and fast paced shit. We get a sit down powerbomb, a rope running monkey flip, Morten's delayed rana, some great punches et. Morton rakes Pritchard on the cage and everything here looks good. One of the Bruise Brothers comes in to give the heels the advantage and he immediately battery rams Ricky into the cage and Morton is bleeding a huge gusher just stumbling around and getting beaten to shit by the heels. Steve Armstrong evens the score and bumps the heels all over the cage. Pritchard blades but nothing like Ricky. Del Ray in. Sick camera shot with Ricky in the corner apply pressure with his fingers to what appears to be a gaping wound. Gibson is finally in for the save. Match has been good up to this point but is starting lose steam. Second Bruise Brother in. Steve Armstrong gets cuffed to the cage. Scott hits the ring and runs around hitting all the heels in the nuts. One of the Bruise Brothers gets handcuffed to the cage. Cornette is forced to go in by Mark Curtis. Cornette can really throw a punch and he goes straight to Morton and starts whipping on him. Armstrong comes in and fires up on all of the heels with big punches. Cornette ends up submitting to a toehold. Post-match Candido comes out with a key but Bossman turns the tables on the heels. This was not great and was a bit disappointing in some ways, but Morton was good enough on his own to get this consideration.

 

Jim Cornette v. Bob Armstrong (LumberJack Match)

 

The Lumberjacks have rackets and the ref is the Bossman again. Armstrong was fun in this, but Cornette makes it. His reliance on heel tactics is cool, his punches looked good, he bumped huge for a guy in pretty terrible shape, et. Cornette ends up blading pretty big. Bullet hits a huge pair of piledrivers on Cornette for the pin. Not nearly enough to nominate it, but I liked it for what it was.

"Gigolo" Jimmy del Ray vs. Steve Armstrong (8/14/93)

 

This is basically a captain's match where the winner gets the advantage for his team in the upcoming Rage in the Cage. I liked the work here but it felt like to me like it was more of a appetizer to the main course later on.

 

Next we get a promo by DWB regarding his upcoming match with Stomper.

 

"Dirty White Boy" Tony Anthony vs. Mongolian Stomper (8/14/93)

 

The brawling here was okay and nothing special with a predictable bullshit DDQ finish.

 

Next we get promos by Horner & Candido setting up their baby bottle match.

 

Baby Bottle Match: Chris Candido vs. "White Lightning" Tim Horner (8/14/93)

 

The micwork before the match with Candido was good but WTF here comes the clips again which is fucking ridiculous. Candido's bumping here early in the match was really good before he took out Horner with a running plancha to the floor which he almost undershot. Candido starts his control section and we get a CLIP which is bullshit. The guys are doing good here but the clipping has totally ruined the flow of the match. They do the superplex spot from the night before with Horner taking Candido by the legs and slamming him to the mat where he starts his comeback and in fact this is almost a carbon copy of said match. The problem with this match though is it had complete bullshit DQ finish where the other one had a fake finish then a restart with a satisfying finish. Terrible finish and thankfully we have that match from the night before which was way better.

 

Next we get promos from Primetime & Tammy followed up by Smothers.

 

Coal Miners Glove for the SMW Heavyweight Title: "Primetime" Brian Lee © vs. "Wild Eyed Southern Boy" Tracy Smothers (8/14/93)

 

The fans are hot for Smothers with rebel flags flying in the crowd. Like the night before the micwork before the match was good especially Tracy who was awesome talking about sticking the glove up Brian's ass. Both men go for the glove early and often with some really good action mixed in especially by Smothers who was taking it to Lee with the crowd going nuts. Smothers while kicking ass gets on the mic and says "you ain't so tough now are you faggot" which popped the crowd and pissed off Lee who immediately went to work on Smothers with a big clothesline to the floor. Tracy would fight back in spots including missing a big splash in the corner where he almost hit the post headfirst but Lee would keep up the pressure with power moves before using a chinlock for quite a while. Smothers' hope spots are fun and his climb up top ending with a kamikaze twisting dive facefirst into the mat was awesome. We would get the crotch spot similar to the night before to kickstart the Smothers comeback which is also the same from the night before but at least they have the pole to go for ending up with both men taking good crotch bumps as they climbed up. Tammy would trip up Smothers allowing Lee to get the glove but Smothers would kick it out of his hand and took it himself as Tammy had Mark Curtis hemmed up. DWB would run out and used a steel chair on Smothers while putting the glove on Lee with Curtis turning around to see this and counted the pin. Fuck another cheap finish in a gimmick match but at least Smothers got his revenge in the post-match by spanking Tammy until Lee & DWB attacked him. Lee used the figure-four as DWB jumped on the leg until Mark Curtis promised to suspend them if they didn't quit. Funny seeing DWB & Lee work together after hating each other a year earlier. The match was pretty damn solid even with the putrid finish. Solid nomination.

 

Then we get promos by the heels and Lee/DWB argue over who took out Smothers which was a nice touch.

 

Next we get promos from Cornette's Criminals & Armstrong's Army for Rage in the Cage.

 

Rage in the Cage - SR: Big Bossman: Armstrong's Army (Bob, Scott, & Steve Armstrong, Robert Gibson, & Ricky Morton) vs. Cornette's Criminals ("Gigolo" Jimmy del Ray, Dr. Tom Prichard, Don & Ron Harris, & Jim Cornette) (8/14/93)

 

This is under War Games rules. Bullet Bob dancing on the floor wearing his camo before the match is awesome. Morton & Prichard start off the match working a really fun 5 minute section with both men hitting some big spots at a fast pace. Morton has Prichard ready to be handcuffed but Ron Harris would enter the cage and he would use Morton's head as a battering ram into the cage causing him to pop a gusher. The heels go to town on that cut and Morton is bleeding profusely. Steve Armstrong would come in next as a house of fire throwing both heels into the cage with Prichard juicing next although not as colorful as Morton who is a crimson mask. Gigolo comes in next and the heels have the advantage again but don't really do a whole lot other than Prichard trying to cuff Morton. Gibson comes in next and action picks up again as he starts teeing off with punches but the action starts getting a little clunky before Don Harris joins the fray and the Bruiser cuff Steve Armstrong to the cage. It's now 4-on-2 with the highlight being bloodied Morton & Prichard brawling with each other. Scott Armstrong comes in next and starts fouling all the heels with Gigolo Jimmy selling like he was castrated. Scott brings some needed aggression here and they handcuff Ron Harris to even the odds with Morton who is on fumes throwing some great punches. Cornette enters the cage next and hides as Gibson gets handcuffed to the cage. Cornette picks on Morton here until Bullet Bob comes in and goes to war on the heels which was great. Gigolo gets handcuffed next as Bullet throws Cornette off the top rope then bashes his head into the cage then gets his ass kicked by Bob before submitting to a spinning toehold. Candido comes out with a key but Bossman gets one as well and everyone is unlocked as the brawling continues. This wasn't a great match by any means but it was a pretty damn fun brawl and moves forward fairly easily.

 

Lumberjacks w/Rackets Match - SR: Big Bossman: "Bullet" Bob Armstrong vs. Jim Cornette (8/20/93)

 

Corny is selling an injury from earlier saying that he slipped and fell on some water. Bullet Bob is fun here as usual but Corny is awesome in everything he does even his offense as his punches were pretty good. Corny also tapped a gusher and took two piledrivers for the finish. Fun for what it was and should be an extra.