Posted May 11, 201213 yr comment_5502305 "Sadistic" Steve Strong (DiSalvo) vs. Armando Salgado (February 1989) Squash. Rufus R. Jones vs. White Angel (February 1989) Competitive squash. Victor Jovica vs. Assassin #2 (February 1989) Not good. WWC Jr. Heavyweight Title: Ricky Santana © vs. Kensuke Sasaki (February 1989) Maybe this one will be better than the other. Nice start here as both men are movin and groovin but Santana goes back to the armwork like he did the previous match but we have a twist here as the match is clipped from Santana working the arm to Sasaki choking out Santana with a reverse chinlock. This ended up being a better match than the previous one but the clipping hurt the flow. Victor Jovica vs. Dr. Death (March 1989) Not good. "Sadistic" Steve Strong vs. Rufus R. Jones (March 1989) Yeesh this was bad. Next we get a Renegade Warriors squash. Then we get an Abuddadein video. TNT vs. Mr. Pogo (March 1989) Short match and nothing really good.
November 18, 201311 yr comment_5573169 Steve Strong (DiSalvo) vs. Armando Salgado Oh joy, the era of Steve Strong is here. They show this close up pic of him early and my god is he pockmarked to hell. Strong is surprisingly good in this as your mean, constantly moving forward, violent heel. His offense looks good and he carries himself very well. He won with a jumping tombstone that looked sick as fuck. Rufus R. Jones vs. White Angel Man I kinda loved this. This is all about Rufus either dancing and firing up, or selling for clubbing forearms and nerveholds. There is absolutely no reason for me to like this as much as I did but there is something about watching him do his thing that brings great joy to me. Maybe it's a South Carolina thing? In any case I loved his headbutt to the gut counter and I don't give a shit what anyone says, his double punch is a good looking spot. He even took a couple of decent bumps in this. The finish with Rufus trying to escape the full nelson by walking over the top rope and Angel not breaking it huts it enough for me not to nominate it. Oh well. Victor Jovica vs. Assassin #2 There was a lengthy battle for control of a bearhug here. I mean these guys did try at times, and some of the spots weren't bad, but you aren't coming back from that. Another clip from a TNT v. Abudda Dein match. Ricky Santana © vs. Kensuke Sasaki The work in this was much more spirited and interesting than the work in the first match. They did a lot of the same things, but with more pace, more focus and better selling. I really liked the rope running spots and both guys had some solid counters to each others runs. Sasaki of all people going to the wrist tape choke spot was something to behold. Sasaki in control wasn't outstanding (though he did throw some meaty strikes), but I liked the corner bump from Santana and his big comeback with the diving lariat got over huge. The finish with the ref noticing the salt on Santana and refusing to count the pin for Sasaki was kind of strange, but I didn't hate it. The clip where we missed how Santana went on the defensive hurt this some, but I didn't think it was a fatal blow to the match. Over ten minutes of this were shown, I think it merits consideration. Victor Jovica vs. Dr. Death Amazing that they keep airing Jovica and Rufus Jones matches on this show. I can see Rufus for the Atl market being a smart idea, but Jovica? This was like a slightly better version of the match with Assassin 2 which is to say it's not worth anyone's time. Steve Strong vs. Rufus R. Jones Yea this was not good. If even I can't defend a Rufus match you know it sucks. Renegade Warriors match is a total squash. Abudda Dein video is fucking funny. EXTRA TNT vs. Mr. Pogo This was actually really disappointing. Not really a bad match per se, but these guys had much better than this in them. Pogo hit one nice kick, other than that this came across like the lamest possible version of the standard house show match they were probably working.
