Posted February 14, 201114 yr comment_5464509 Curt Hennig post-Bock draw promo. Steve O v. Super Ninja JIP. This was okay. Steve O has a nice elbow. The finish was half way cut off. Larry Zbyszko/Super Ninja v. Greg Gagne/Scott Hall Larry is always good pinballing and over emphasizing everything. This was no exception. Gagne ends up going FIP and is not bad in that role despite popular opinion of Greg. Larry hits a nice back kick that knocks him to the floor. Gagne's suplex looked fucking crazy dangerous here and was a better than normal hope spot as a result. I really liked the way Gagne kicked off before getting the hot tag and Hall was serviceable as the recipient of the hot tag. Larry took and sold the fuck out of Hall's bulldog. Finish is ridiculous as Hall has the torture rack on Larry and Saito shows up and throws powder and the match gets thrown out as Saito beats the piss out of Gagne. Fun but not great by any means. Post-match stuff with Bock saving Gagne from taking a piledriver on the floor and the subsequent chaos that included a badly botched spike piledriver was fun and might merit making at least that portion an EXTRA Buck Zumhoffe v. Steve Regal Regal jaws with the fans so Buck dropkicks him off the apron to the floor. I have not thought much of Regal so far but he was fun here bumping around for Zumhoffe. Zumhoffe ends up working a headlock forever. They do some fun stuff with it but it was just needlessly long and they don't even go to Regal's offensive run til they are almost fifteen minutes in at which point I couldn't possibly care less about this match. This did have a pretty good finishing run up until the stuff with Gagne and Precious. Midnight Rockers v. Buddy Rose/Doug Somers It is actually comical how much better Michaels punches looked back then. Really liked the fact that Somers got busted open in about a minute due to Michaels targeting him with punches. Somers eats some nice offense from Marty and then Shawn comes back in and is really deliberate in working the cut. Rose finally comes in and goes into a fun rope running spot with Shawn who ends up decking him and then working some jabs until Buddy gets dropped with a big flat back bump. Jannetty works some really great nearfalls with Rose who just BARELY escapes each time. The nearfall segment goes on a while here but the point is to draw Sherri into the action and allow a distraction for the heels to take over a bit. Rose and Michaels end up in the ring, with Jannetty and Somers brawling on the floor but the ref throws the match out. This was fun for what it was but the execution of the finish was really off and this was more an angle than a match in some ways. Buck Zumhoffe v. Buddy Wolfe Man I have given Zumhoffe the benefit of the doubt before, but he was boring here. Wolfe didn't help as he was content to lay around on the mat doing nothing while on "offense," but Buck was just totally uninteresting where at least Buddy tossed out some stiff strikes. Really tedious, nothing doing, draw. Larry Zbyszko/Super Ninja/Mr. Saito v. Greg Gagne/Leon White/Scott Hall JIP. Gagne is FIP as this starts and he is pretty good in that role. Ninja hit a cool looking running throat strike and the heels did some pretty standard work. White getting the hot tag was cool as the crowd popped really huge for him. You can tell they were protecting him as he got worked over a bit, got in some power offense on Larry and then tagged out to Hall. This match was super oddly structured as they have these weird periods of babyface runs and then each face gets a semi-FIP run with Hall's probably being the most pronounced though not really all that interesting. This also suffered from an extremely poorly executed finish. Too bad because on paper this looked pretty fun. Larry Zbyszko v. Steve O Larry's opening fireman's carry was sharp and Steve O showing him up was fun. Larry was just great freaking out when Steve O slipped over and locked on a hammerlock and though the matwork was basic Larry's over the top act worked well opposite Steve O's plane Jane babyface tactics. Amusing spot as they do a rope running exchange that leads to Larry casually standing up and ducking out of the ring. Really awesome spot as Larry and Steve O play cat and mouse and Larry catches Steve O with a perfectly hit back kick to Steve as he comes through the ropes and into the ring. Right after this the tape cuts to Karl Malone doing a commercial with a Gorilla. After a few seconds we come back to Zbyszko in control. Larry had exposed a turnbuckle and after working some solid heel work on the mat he smashes Steve into the exposed turnbuckle and starts wailing on his mid section. Larry hits a sick piledriver for a nearfall. Larry cuts off another Steve O come back with a nice back round kick. Steve O ends up catching Larry and posting his knee. He tries to ram Steve into the exposed steel again but Larry takes the shot and nice bump. Steve O has Larry reeling but misses his diving elbow for a nearfall that gets waived off because Larry's legs were on the ropes. Steve O hits a nice rolling cradle for a nearfall but misses on the follow up. The nearfall segment went from there and was actually well done up until the finishing schoolboy which didn't look all that good and felt like a cheap way to end a darn good tv match.
