Posted July 21, 201213 yr comment_5510739 VQ - Okay 1. Steel Cage Turmoil (Steel Cage Gauntlet Match) Let me start by saying that I'm going to break this down entrant by entrant. That means I'm going to review the first "match" then make a separate review for the second "match" and so on and so forth. I'll label these "matches" alphabetically. A. Greg Valentine vs. SD Jones This came and went but I'm sure most or all of these pairings will. Jones got his leg caught up in the ropes as he was against the cage after trying to get an early escape for the win. Valentine sort of attempted the figure four from that position but changed his mind at the last second. That came across very strange. Nothing of importance happened afterwards except Valentine getting hit a few times by Jones. The Hammer easily got rid of Jones and calmly walked out of the cage to eliminate Mr. "Special Delivery." B. Greg Valentine vs. Angelo Mosca Boy, I can tell this isn't going to be very good at all. Valentine doesn't want to go back in the cage so he stalls outside on the floor. Mosca gets tired of waiting and wails on The Hammer and rolls him back into the ring. Mosca actually gets the crowd really riled up for a minute and strings together a flurry of offense. However, after just a swing to the ropes and a mid-ring collision Valentine is crawling back out of the ring to eliminate Mosca. This lasted about as long as a cup of tea. I would guess that the other pairings do as well. C. Greg Valentine vs. Tony Atlas Valentine stooges for Atlas briefly. Valentine fights back with some stiff strikes and nearly escapes. Tony catches him by the leg at the last second and gives him a back suplex. Atlas climbed over the cage to secure the win and the Valentine elimination. D. Tony Atlas vs. Bob Orton Jr. Orton takes some good bumps into the cage. There are a couple of teases with both guys trying to escape. Atlas finally is able to incapacitate Orton and climbs over the cage to eliminate him. E. Tony Atlas vs. David Schultz They had a minor exchange then raced to see who'd get over the cage first. Schultz won so Atlas was eliminated. F. Tito Santana vs. David Schultz There's a brief stare down then Tito wins an exchange and swings Schultz to the turnbuckle. He walks out of the cage and now Schultz is gone. G. Tito Santana vs. Moondog Rex This wasn't bad. They milked the drama pretty well with the teases in this. Tito walked out as Rex was running the ropes in an amusing elimination. H. Tito Santana vs. Bobby Heenan This was fun. Heenan bumped wildly for Tito. Tito tried to walk out but Heenan pulled him by the leg and rammed him into the cage. Heenan tossed him into the cage a few more times and tried to escape over the top. Tito stopped him and not long after that threw Heenan into the cage and walked out to secure The Brain's elimination. J. Tito Santana vs. Moondog Spot This was okay. Tito and Spot exchanged some nice blows then teased escapes well. Spot missed a second rope splash and Tito slowly climbed his way over the cage to put away Spot. K. Tito Santana vs. Ken Patera This was another good Tito pairing. There was some really intense fighting going on and some great uses of the cage with Patera nearly taking it down after being thrown into it. Tito made a crucial mistake and went for a dropkick but missed. Patera was then give the opening to walk out of the cage to finally eliminate Tito. L. Ken Patera vs. David Sammartino This pairing was bizarre. Sammartino just acted like a damn fool. He was doing side headlocks and sleeper holds. He was able to tie Patera up in the ropes but instead of simple walking out he gave him some punches then went to take him out with something big. However, Patera back dropped him into the cage in a cool spot and walked out to finish off David. Sammartino is really stupid. M. Ken Patera vs. Swede Hanson This was whatever. Hanson sucks so nothing really came out of him. Patera just sort of found an opening and escaped the grasp of Hanson to get him eliminated. N. Ken Patera vs. Mario Mancini This was kind of amusing. Patera took out Mancini was a body slam and a vertical suplex, taunted, then walked out of the cage confidently to quickly get rid of Mancini. O. Ken Patera vs. Mr. Fuji What the hell??? Fuji did the same shit Sammartino did. He tied Patera in the ropes and pandered instead of WALKING OUT OF THE CAGE. Patera caught him with a sick clothesline and next thing we know Fuji's been eliminated and Patera is on the floor after walking casually out of the cage. P. Ken Patera vs. Jose Luis Rivera Rivera nearly gets away with one when he quickly attacks Patera and tries to escape. Patera, however, gets a hold of him and makes easy work of Rivera. Soon enough, he's walking out of the cage to have Rivera eliminated. Q. Ken Patera vs. Chief Jay Strongbow This wasn't terrible. Although, Patera using a fucking bear hug to suppress Strongbow was totally bizarre and stupid in this context. The escape teases were good and the finish is really good with Strongbow sliding under Patera's legs and slipping out of the cage door finally eliminating Patera. R. Chief Jay Strongbow vs. Big John Studd This was alright. Strongbow tried a few different ways to escape and even attempted the same way he beat Patera. However, Studd caught him at the last second, stomped him and walked over him and out the cage door to eliminate Strongbow. S. Big John Studd vs. Salvatore Bellomo Bellomo got a nice little flurry of offense before Studd threw him into the cage, slammed him and walked out the cage door to end Bellomo's hopes and dreams. T. Big John Studd vs. Rocky Johnson This was alright actually. Rocky really took it to Studd and basically won every exchange but Studd kept grabbing him at the last second before he could get out of the cage. After a final collision Studd crawled to the door as Rocky hung on to him desperately but to no avail Studd escaped the cage and eliminated Rocky. Ultimately, Studd won Steel Cage Turmoil. This was so terribly long and the only ones who seemed to know how to work this match were Tito and Studd. The latter guy is almost always worthless so that tells us how this match went. 2. Roddy Piper vs. The Tonga Kid This was pretty good. Piper is really tremendous in tense pre-match situations. I love his mannerisms and physical charisma. It's very impressive. Tonga gets some decent offense going early on and Piper does his usual heel stooging to go along with it. However, Tonga kept going back to a side headlock after heated exchanges. It doesn't fit the bill. It got become rather annoying and odd as he did it two more times after that. Although, they looked to be clearly done to transition into Piper heat segments but there's other ways to do that. Piper got the crowd going with his awesome taunts and at one point did the "Superfly" pose in front of Snuka who was in Tonga's corner to tremendous heat. There was a great near fall after Tonga had fought out of a solid sleeper spot but ate a knee lift from Piper. Piper just casually rested his shoulders onto Tonga expected a three but Tonga kicked out. Piper's reaction ruled. Tonga would come back with some nice hate filled punches but all hell would break loose as the ref took a fall and Snuka and Bob Orton Jr. joined the fray. The Tonga Kid was awarded the match by disqualification after the melee. This could have been better but the side head lock as a transition into a heat segment done three times isn't going to do it for me. Plus, this needed a tad bit more time and hate for me to really enjoy this. Final Analysis That was all that was taped on this show. I thought there was more. Anyways, this show is not too good. Steel Cage Turmoil was incredibly long and boring a lot of the time. I could be okay if I never saw it ever again. Piper-Tonga I wish was better but there was some good stuff. Overall, this show didn't deliver too well.
