Posted June 20, 201114 yr comment_5474555 Mitch Snow v. Art Washington Snow's early amateur stuff is not bad and crushes Washington with a chop. Later poor Art almost cripples himself by taking a head bump on a drop toehold of all things. Ends on a hip toss. Strange Larry Zbyszko promo denying a role in the Bock title loss to Hennig. DJ Peterson v. Mike Tolos You know I liked the way Tolos ate offense in this and the spot with Peterson airballing on a dropkick looked cool because Tolos slid under it. Tolos hit a couple of nice offense moves and then Peterson rolled through on a sleeper and hit a nice back elbow off the ropes for a near fall. Shortly afterward he hit his shoulderblock for the finish. This was actually pretty good. Just really short. Kevin Kelly v. Steve O in an arm wrestling challenge!! Oh my god. Martel has a "mangeress" graphic, there is 10k on this and Kevin Kelly comes out to "Bad To The Bone." I am enjoying this more than I should. The crowd was crazy into this. Kelly won of course but this was more compelling than anything I've seen in TNA all year. Soldat Ustinov v. Sonny Rogers Rogers rag doll act is almost too good here as he looks subhuman bumping face first in awkward fashion into the top turnbuckle at one point and eating a slam on the floor that looked really strange. This wasn't very good. Clips of Bock/Larry Z feud. Larry Zbyszko v. Ray Stevens This is Stevens fighting for vengeance on Bock's behalf after Larry costs him the title in the Cow Palace so this has a really hot crowd. Larry tries his stalling act early. That ends when Stevens goes to his eyes, tosses him to the floor and batters him. There is a cool shot when they are on the floor with a pair of little kids wildly cheering Stevens on. Larry eventually reverses fortunes by hitting his back spinkick and starts beating up on Stevens. Stevens gets pissed and comes back with some big blows and I have to admit this is simple stuff but I am digging it. Double knockdown spot and the ref takes a bump after a piledriver attempt from Stevens. Larry goes to the trunk and decks Stevens with a foreign object for the win. This is really short. About five minutes bell-to-bell including Larry's stalling. Still Larry is really good in these sort of matches (see v. Leon White, v. Bock on handheld) and I loved the dynamic here of old man defending his Elk's Lodge buddy from injustices of post-modern America. Curt Hennig v. Greg Gagne Hennig is great early taking all of Gagne's offense in rapid fire fashion, making Greg's strikes look great, and just wildly flailing all over the place. Greg is too aggressive and ends up smacking into the turnbuckle on a corner charge when Hennig slides out of the way. Hennig is a stiff motherfucker her and does everything with the cruelest of intentions and a scowl on his face. They work in some really cool cut off spots in this. I mean really fucking awesome. At one point Hennig takes a big turnbuckle shot to tease a comeback. Later Gagne hits the steel on a corner charge for another cool cut off. There is a brutally stiff strike exchange at one point where I really thought Greg was going to make his comeback but he goes for a dropkick and Hennig does the single greatest "hold onto the ropes to avoid dropkick and let face smash canvas spot" I've ever seen. That is not hyperbole and I defy anyone to come up with a better example of this spot. Hennig literally turns and starts to spring into the move and then at the last second clutches the top rope allowing his entire body to be pulled wildly off the ground, slinging him away from the move. Totally awesome and I would nominate the match just based on that and crowd heat alone. Hennig ends up missing a diving knee and takes a wild bump into the ropes as Greg goes to work on his leg. Greg locks on his Indian Deathlock which is seriously an awesome move and probably my favorite thing Greg does but Hennig rakes his eyes breaking the hold for yet another great cut off spot. Gagne finally makes his comeback after winning a strike exchange and slingshotting Hennig all the way to the fucking top of the ring post where Hennig blades. Hennig's selling of this is really incredible as he staggers around and ends up taking another bump into the steel. He runs through two dropkicks from Greg making them look awesome but Larry Z shows up and breaks up the pin for the DQ. Post-match Hennig takes a huge bump over the top after Stevens makes the save for Greg. This was a great match and I didn't even mind the finish to be honest. Hennig was incredible in this and Gagne was solid too. I'm not sure how long this went - definitely no longer than 8 minutes - but this is one of the best sub-ten minute matches I've ever seen.
June 20, 201114 yr comment_5474589 Mitch Snow v. Art Washington Ends on a hip toss. Strange Hip Toss = "Slam Jam", designed to be a hiptoss/belly-to-belly style move. Nice idea, but Snow was too small to make it look effective, i thought.
