Man alive what a great performance from Savio/TNT here. I have nothing against Action Jackson and he looked good at times himself, but Savio was on a completely different level. Everything he did in this match was done with complete conviction, like he knew he was the key to making or breaking the feud. I don't necessarily think of him as a huge bumping guy, but he takes three or for different post bump variations in this and all of them look absolutely incredible. He also might take the single best knees to the gut spot I've ever seen on a huge big splash hope spot. His offense was equal tight and exciting, including fun little hope spots like crossbodies and sunset flips and a great run when he made his comeback after spending the bulk of the match in peril, that included a sweet dropkick and some mammoth looking head kicks. The finish here was great with Chicky slipping powder to throw into Savio's eyes, which leads to Original TNT locking on the cobra clutch. Chicky is great here using a towel to sweep away the remnants of the powder, while Savio flings himself wildly off the ropes trying to break the hold in vain, like Colon had done three years before on the tv show when Savio had him locked in the hold. They even do the same post-match mouth foaming bit they had done with Colon back then as well. The only thing keeping this from being an easy nomination, is the admittedly less than ideal nervehold base, but really that is a minor flaw in an otherwise very good match.

This was from 1990

This match is actually from 1989.

 

Chicky brought in Action Jackson and claimed that he was the original TNT (he wasn't). The feud came about with Chicky bringing in this wrestler he claimed was the original TNT and the one we had seen was an impostor. Chicky would constantly run down the real TNT and call him a fake. The most notable incident was that Chicky went as far as to call TNT out by his real shoot name at one point while going on and on about him being a fake and his guy being the real deal. TNT had enough and told Chicky he would face his phony TNT.

 

 

Shockingly, TNT lost the first match to the original "TNT" when he got put down with the cobra hold. In a nod to continuity, original TNT refused to wake TNT up and TNT felt the effects of what he had done when he had been a heel.

 

The feud was to come to a head at the Aniversario 89 show in a winner take all match for the rights to the TNT name, identity and face paint. However, with Hurricane Hugo set to hit Puerto Rico in the early morning of the following day, the Aniversario 89 show was cancelled hours before it was to take place as part of the mandated curfew precautions. Action Jackson left right after this, so no proper blowoff between the two was held in 1989. Instead, when the rescheduled Aniversario show took place, it was TNT vs. Chicky Starr in a 5 minute apuestas match. If TNT failed to beat Chicky in 5 minutes, he would lose the TNT name and gimmick. If TNT defeated Chicky in 5 minutes, Chicky would lose his hair. TNT won. That put the issue with Chicky to bed.

 

 

The feud with Original TNT did get closure when Action Jackson returned billed again as the Original TNT right at the end of 1990. Once again both men feuded over the name for the first two months of 1991, and this time there was closure when TNT beat Original TNT in the winner take all identity match held the first weekend of March 91. From there, Action Jackson remained in WWC as Action Jackson until the summer.

That's where I got confused....I didn't know he had two runs.....thanks Boricua

Original TNT vs. TNT

Action Jackson looks cool here as the Original TNT and he takes the fight to TNT early and often. This is domination early on with TNT doing a great job of making Original TNT look like a killer. Chicky Starr also gets involved on the floor ramming TNT backfirst into the ringpost. Original TNT looks working that nervehold though and at times is drags down the match. TNT would finally make his comeback and the crowd was eating it up including an AWESOME Superkick in the corner. Chicky would give powder to Original TNT who threw it in TNT's face then locked on the Cobra Clutch as Chicky wiped up the powder with his towel. TNT tried his best to get out of the Clutch using the ropes to spring off but there was no luck and TNT passed out due to the pain. This was almost the exact same deal they did 3 years earlier with TNT when he was a heel feuding with Colon even including the foaming at the mouth. I wasn't as high on this as Dylan was but still this was a really solid performance from TNT and I'll pass it on as a low-end pick.