Ryan Navigates '90 - #50 (7/1 - 7/5)
USWA Dallas flies too close to the sun.
Good day!
Holy crap, we are FINALLY in July, and there’s some pretty crazy stuff here. The spotlight shines brightly on USWA Dallas as we have some major matches (and controversy) from their huge 4th of July show.
Also, an interesting match on paper sees Owen Hart and Keiji Muto collide in New Japan, Rhythm & Blues “perform”, and Ted DiBiase’s Cobb County odyssey continues.
SUNDAY, JULY 1st
WWF Wrestling Challenge
To celebrate Canada Day, we take in a performance from Rhythm & Blues. The Honky Tonk Man, Greg Valentine, and Jimmy Hart (holding their totally legit gold record) lay down some “Hunka Hunka Honky Love” for us.
Tragically, we don’t get The Bushwhackers or an atomic bomb to stop them from going through the whole thing. You can sense Valentine’s soul dying more and more with each note.
NWA Main Event
This week on the *Sterling Archer voice* DAAAAAANGER ZOOOOONE, Paul E. Dangerously interviews the Four Horsemen. Well, three for now, as we have Ole and Arn Anderson, and Barry Windham.
Ole warns Sting that the NWA title will not be changing hands at the Great American Bash on July 7th while Barry tells Jim Herd that nothing he says will change the outcome of the match. Arn explains that politics and collusion have been the Horsemen’s enemy since day one, but no matter what stipulations are piled on, everything will end exactly how it started.
Ric Flair walks into frame as the other Men of Horse exit stage left. Paul E. claims that Flair is not aware of some of the stipulations being laid out for the upcoming title match. Flair says it’s no secret that there’s animosity between him and the NWA right now.
Flair then removes his $1,000 custom-made alligator shoe to make a point to Sting.
On his best day, Sting will never be able to wear them! Paul E. dumps effusive praise on the Nature Boy, even getting down on his knees to thank Flair before the end of the segment.
Flair and especially Arn got to flex their prowess on the mic a bit this week. Ole’s value in the Horsemen package continues to diminish by the week.
MONDAY, JULY 2nd
WWF Prime Time Wrestling
We again join “The Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase and Virgil in Cobb County, Georgia. This time, they’re on the gridiron as they grill Big Boss Man’s old high school football skipper, Coach Batten.
Coach Batten completely buries Boss Man, saying he couldn’t walk and chew gum at the same time and proclaiming he had LACE on his panties (while throwing his cap down in a hilarious bit of overacting). DiBiase asks what kind of hitter Boss Man was, to which the tobacco-chewing coach replies that he couldn’t crack an egg.
Ted asks what position Boss Man played, and Batten confirms he was a guard. Well, he guarded the water bucket and watched the cheerleaders. Oh, got his ass.
DiBiase again cites this as proof that Boss Man came from nothing but a dumb hick county (while Batten nods in agreement in the background). All these hicks have a price for the Million Dollar Man!
This was hammy and overacted as hell, but it was pretty funny. Per Dave Meltzer, the Cobb County residents that Ted and Virgil talked with in these segments were actual friends and relatives of Boss Man.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 4th
USWA Challenge (Dallas)
We normally don’t see these guys on Wednesdays, but it’s an Independence Day special with some key matches! These were broadcast over a couple weeks of USWA Challenge, but we’ll look at them all here.
However, first, on the USWA Report, Craig Johnson talks with Billy Joe Travis. He went up and down the roads with Jeff Jarrett and says Double J almost lost his vision because of the hot sauce incident with Devastation Inc. Travis promises trouble for Sweet Daddy Falcone and Chico Torres.
Jeff Jarrett & Billy Joe Travis vs. Devastation Inc. (Sweet Daddy Falcone & Chico Torres) - We get a bit of HOT SAUCE LORE as it was apparently Chico’s grandmother who made the very condiment that found its way into Jarrett’s peepers. Notably absent is Skandor Akbar himself for some reason. I’m not sure if there was something in his personal life that kept him away, but you’d think he’d be there for a pivotal match in his stable’s big storyline.
It’s a four-way fray as soon as the faces hit the ring. Travis and Jarrett dominate in the early going with fists aplenty before the heels collect themselves on the floor. Things threaten to settle down, but the blondes swoop in and swarm Falcone with a double-team punch. Sweet Daddy begs off, but Travis stays on top of him with a retaliatory eye rake and AWESOME punches. Falcone even gets ping-ponged a bit by his opposition.
Jarrett tags in to a big pop, and HE goes to the eyes of Falcone. Sweet Daddy rolls to the floor, but ends up taking a walloping from Billy Joe. Falcone seeks counsel with Torres in his corner, but that results in Jarrett ramming their heads together. Falcone briefly takes over after countering a back body drop and tries to assail the eyes, but Travis puts a stop to that. Jarrett punches away at both Dev Inc-ers, again targeting the eyeballs of Falcone.
Travis stops a heel meeting on the floor and tosses Chico to a waiting Jarrett. However, Torres bails before any harm can befall him. After a bit of stalling, Falcone re-enters and clobbers away at Double J. Now Chico is more than willing to tag in…but Jarrett mounts a comeback to again send him scurrying.
Torres tries to buy time on the outside as USWA CHALLENGE ROLLS ON…
…and we’re back with Torres backing Jarrett into the corner and assaulting the eyes. Jarrett comes back by lighting Torres up with fists, forcing Chico to again retreat to the outside. Back in, Torres rakes the eyes and tags Falcone back in to continue the attack. However, Jarrett fights back and tags Travis in for some punches and a second-rope buttsplash.
Falcone whiffs on a kick, causing him to land on the back of his head. Falcone selling the cranial trauma like David Johansen’s character in Mr. Nanny is pretty funny.
Travis rocks Falcone with more punches until Torres tags in. Chico offers a handshake, but Travis tackles him down and drags him by the ear to the corner, allowing Jarrett to exact some vengeance. Travis checks back in, but he misses a kick, opening the window for Chico to go after HIS eyes.
Falcone re-enters and beats away at Travis, but Billy Joe fights back…until Falcone clobbers him out of the ring. Torres gets some cheap shots on the floor as the heels finally have some semblance of a sustained advantage.
That doesn’t last as Billy Joe fights out of a sleeper and crawls his way to the corner, and it’s HOT TAG JARRETT! He lights up Torres with fists and a beautiful second-rope dropkick for the three!
Post-match, Jarrett locks in a really terrible figure four on Chico. He’d get better at it.
Travis hilariously stomps away at the leg after Jarrett leaves.
***1/2 - This was a rather strong tag encounter. Yes, it was ridiculously one-sided, but it should have been given the build and the level of geekery on the heel side. Plus, Jarrett and Travis are a really dynamic babyface duo. Travis throws absolutely incredible punches, and Jarrett showed tremendous fire. I also really enjoyed the psychology around attacking the eyes.
To their credit, the Dev Inc. guys did pretty well feeding and bumping for the faces, leading to a very satisfying and definitive conclusion.
USWA Southern Heavyweight Championship: “Superstar” Bill Dundee (c) vs. “Hollywood” John Tatum - Before the match, Tatum grabs the house mic and again pleads his case to Tessa, having written her poetry and sending her beautiful gifts.
Tessa seems none too thrilled.
He’s going to beat Dundee’s brains in, and she’ll come back to him!
After a tentative start, Dundee gains an advantage with an armbar and a boot to the head. Tatum tries to accost Dundee, but Superstar fights back with a flurry of fists to send Hollywood to the floor. Tatum again harasses Tessa on the floor before making his way back inside, where Dundee continues working the arm with a hammerlock.
Tatum grabs some hair in an attempt to escape as USWA CHALLENGE ROLLS ON…
…and we’re back with a collar-and-elbow tie-up that results in Tatum PASTING Dundee with a right hand in the corner. Hollywood continues punching away…but Dundee gets his own right hand and a dropkick to again send Tatum scrambling to the floor. Dundee follows and slugs away, then continues the punishment between the ropes.
Dundee threatens to do harm to Tatum’s yambag, but he settles for a spinning toehold instead.
Superstar continues working over the leg, but Tatum retaliates with an eye rake and a chop. Tatum earns a one-count off some punches, but Dundee roars back with a big boot and a series of fists. Dundee gets a rebound crossbody, but Tatum takes referee Tony Falk down with him!
Dundee scores a phantom three-count, then gets a roll-up as the referee’s recovering. However, Tatum launches Dundee head-first into Falk’s breadbasket! Tatum rolls Dundee up, snags a handful of tights, and gets the three and the title!
Post-match, Tatum whacks Dundee with a California Kick, then he goes out to try to reconcile with Tessa as he’s now the champion. However, Tessa still refuses to come back to him.
Tessa walks away…only for Tatum to BLAST HER IN THE BACK OF THE HEAD WITH A CALIFORNIA KICK! Good lord.
Dundee comes to and pleads for assistance for his beau.
** - The match itself was mostly fine, but nothing beyond standard fare for these two. The second ref bump was really well-timed, though, and Dundee’s offense was spirited.
The angle at the end was kind of insane for the time as you never really saw much in the way of deliberate man-on-woman violence in wrestling. Taken on its own, it was well-executed and suitably provocative, and it worked to make Tatum look like an unrepentant scumbag with some screws loose. It’s also not quite as gratuitous and over-the-top as the kind of stuff we’d see in ECW and the WWF years later.
However, I can see how something like this can upset viewers, especially if you add this on top of what happens later in the show. Plus, the spot itself looked pretty brutal, and it’s tricky to properly bump for a kick you can’t see coming. It’s a challenging ask for a seasoned pro, let alone a non-wrestler like Tessa. They probably could have saved themselves some backlash and potential injury to Tessa if they went in a different direction.
Rumor had it that the original plan here was for Tessa to turn on Dundee and go back to Tatum, and they did tease something to that effect throughout, but the USWA decided to stay the course with Tatum’s continued descent into madness instead.
On the USWA Report, Dundee says he’s no longer the champion, but that doesn’t matter. He cuts a fired-up promo about Tatum’s attack on Tessa, saying we got to see what kind of heart he has. Dundee wants another match with Tatum. Sure, he’d like his title back, but the honor of Tessa is first and foremost. Really good stuff here to follow up on the big angle.
Kerry Von Erich vs. Maniac Matt Borne - After Kerry makes his way to the ring, Loverboy’s “Turn Me Loose” plays to signal the arrival of Borne.
You know what? It’s time for a MUSIC BREAK!
However, there is no Matt Borne to be seen, but only Percy Pringle. Craig Johnson questions him as to where Borne is, and Pringle tells him to “ask Horseface”. Pringle then accuses Kerry of using his lucrative Von Erich connections to ground Borne’s plane in Nashville. Pringle promises that Borne will be in Dallas eventually, just not tonight.
Kerry says that if Borne isn’t going to be here, he’s going to wrestle Pringle in his stead! He chases Percival around ringside and gets some blows in, but Pringle ducks when Kerry stupidly goes for a discus punch against the ringpost. Pringle enters the ring and works over the hand, but Kerry immediately comes back with a discus punch. Great bump and sell from Percy there.
Kerry locks in the IRON CLAW, but Gary Young, Sweet Daddy Falcone, and the Dog of War from Devastation Inc. hit the ring to attack the Modern Day Warrior. Billy Joe Travis and Jeff Jarrett run out to quickly chase them off.
So, yeah, Borne didn’t show up, which is why we got this hastily-cobbled together angle. It’s a shame that a feud that started off with such potential completely lost steam and didn’t really get the blowoff it needed. Borne did end up having a match with Kerry on July 8th (per Cagematch.net) before leaving the promotion, but nobody really cared. Borne did end up coming back to the USWA in December.
Steve Austin & Jeanie vs. Chris & Toni Adams - After weeks and weeks of quasi-shoot dirty laundry and beatdowns, we’re at the big showdown between the couples. As it’s a mixed tag and not intergender, Chris can only wrestle Steve, and Jeanie can only wrestle Toni.
Everybody goes at it, with the crowd especially going crazy when the ladies scrap. Tony Falk grabs the mic and warns the competitors to get everything under control. It does settle down with Toni wanting to start off with Jeanie, who refuses to engage. The gents officially kick off the action with Chris dominating Austin in the early going.
Jeanie manages to break up a chinlock by going for Adams’ eyes behind the ref’s back, allowing Austin to club him from behind. Austin applies a sleeper, maintaining the hold for a LOOOOOOONG time despite Adams’ attempts to break. You could have watched the extended Lord of the Rings trilogy in the time they worked that hold.
Adams finally breaks out and builds up a head of steam, but Austin clotheslines him down and reapplies the hold. Austin tags Jeanie in for some cheapshots, then immediately goes back to the sleeper. Adams again tries to break free with a top wristlock, but Austin snags some hair and slaps it back on. Yeesh. Jeanie comes in seconds later and gets a couple of shots in, but Adams picks her up, carries her to the corner, and it’s HOT TAG TONI!
Toni is a house afire, but Jeanie gets a strike to the injured ribs and tags Austin back in. Adams sneaks in and takes Austin out with a clubbing blow and a clothesline before sending him outside with a big punch. Back in, Chris lands an axehandle off the top and stomps away as the women come in and absolutely go nuts on each other.
Austin and Adams brawl on the floor as the referee counts both guys out, rendering the match a double count-out. Austin runs Adams into the post and piledrives him on the floor!
Stunning Steve rolls in and holds Toni for some free smacks from Jeanie, including a couple of jolts to the ribs. Austin decks the referee and ties Toni up against the ropes! Rude!
Steve dumps Adams back in the ring for another piledriver, then heads upstairs as Toni breaks free and slugs Jeanie to the floor.
Austin looks for a splash off the top, but Toni puts her body on top of Chris’. Ever the dickhead, Austin goes ahead and leaps anyway, crushing Toni against Chris! Jeanie and Steve survey the damage done as the segment ends.
*3/4 - This was honestly pretty disappointing as the match was about 80% chinlock and sleeperholds. I can see how that served to build anticipation for the action between Toni and Jeanie, but they surely could have found a better way to fill time.
At least the interactions between the women was suitably heated, and the action after the restholds was good. I also did like the bits of storytelling around Toni’s injured ribs.
However, what people will remember about this match is the ensuing angle. It was another serving of man-on-woman violence from the same show. Again, looking at the angle on its own, it’s very shocking, uncomfortable, and ratcheted up the storyline several notches, but booker Jerry Jarrett got greedy.
Running two of these kinds of angles on the same show is ridiculously excessive and, quite frankly, dulls the impact that each one would have had. They didn’t even split them over multiple episodes of USWA Challenge. They put both on the same broadcast! This kind of stuff resulted in the promotion getting taken off of television in key markets, including Fort Worth and, eventually, Dallas itself.
THURSDAY, JULY 5th
NJPW Burning Wave, Night 3
Owen Hart vs. Keiji Muto - This is basically on here for the sheer “whoa, these guys wrestled each other?” factor.
Muto works a headlock to start, withstanding Owen’s roll-up attempts until Hart counters with a wristlock. Muto monkey flips out and works over the arm, but Owen kips up and uses his acrobatics to reverse. After Muto gets his own arm wringer, Owen uses an impressive headscissors to ground his foe.
Muto escapes and hurls Owen out of the ring for some punishment against the guardrail, then he springboards in with an axehandle. He tosses Owen again, and they slug it out on the floor with Hart getting some chops and Muto hitting a spinning back kick. Back in, Owen gets a snapmare and drops a knee for two, then Muto takes back over by working over the leg. Hart wriggles free, then, moments later, he backflips to thwart a drop-down sequence and blasts Muto with the Shawn Michaels-killing enzuigiri for two.
Owen presses the advantage by PROCURING THE CHICKEN WING, but Muto backs him into the corner and mulekicks free. The ever-awesome Muto elbowdrop gets two, then he works a chinlock that transitions into a cravate, but Owen escapes and hits a BEAUTY of a dropkick. The assault continues on the floor with some strikes and a trip into the guardrail for Muto. Back in, Owen locks in the abdominal stretch.
Muto hiptosses out, but Owen gets a rebound crossbody (with a slight delay) for two. Gutwrench gets another two for the future Rocket, as does a legdrop, BROTHER. Hart works a chinlock, which Muto fights out of before catching Owen with a lovely dropkick. Muto locks in the Scorpion Deathlock, which quickly transitions to a Muta Lock. Owen escapes via raking the eyes, then he rains down some fists and boots onto Muto.
Rude Awakening neckbreaker gets two for Owen, then he heads up for a second-rope diving headbutt for another very close near-fall. Owen downs Muto with a shoulderblock and soon hits a nice German suplex for two, then he gets his excellent belly-to-belly for another near-fall. After a backbreaker, Owen (kinda) hits a moonsault for two. It was beautiful in its form, but only his face landed on Muto. However, Muto escapes a vertical suplex and gets his own German for two, then he drills Hart with a facecrusher.
Muto himself lands a backbreaker and barely gets his own moonsault for the three! Muto’s moonsault looked better, but he had the opposite issue that Owen did: Muto was too close to the turnbuckle during Owen’s moonsault, while Owen was almost too far from Muto during the finish.
**3/4 - This definitely did feel like more of a historical “dream match” kind of inclusion rather than a great contest. There was some good stuff here, to be sure, but some of the execution was slightly off, and there wasn’t much of a story going on until the end, where Muto did all the moves that Owen did to him seconds earlier and won with them.
Owen was still in the “putting it all together” stage with his psychology, but the athletics and the execution of the suplexes were definitely there. Muto always has that tremendous snap and viciousness in his moves that make for entertaining viewing, even if the match doesn’t necessarily excel in other areas.
THE TUGBOAT TRIBUNE
As always, the news comes courtesy of Dave Meltzer and the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Ric Flair apparently wants out of his NWA contract so he can jump to the WWF and set every record under the sun with Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania VII.
Jim Herd may actually consider it as Flair is being phased out as a top star and he’s making way too much money (Naitch’s contract is estimated to be around $550 to $750K per year). He let the Road Warriors go earlier than their agreement just to get rid of their massive contracts.
Jesse “The Body” Ventura may be leaving The Fed soon. On a radio interview, he said that his contract was set to expire soon, and negotiations were going rather poorly.
Yeah, things would get VERY unpleasant between the two parties over the ensuing months and years.
Ultimate Warrior main-event update: fans continue to really not care much for him. At a recent San Jose live event, the WWF only brought Warrior merch for their gimmick stands, which disappointed fans who wanted to purchase Hulk Hogan stuff.
Also, Warrior’s name is met with a resounding “meh” whenever he’s announced.
Kerry Von Erich is indeed set to finish up his USWA Dallas commitments before starting with the WWF on July 17th.
In actuality, he’d stick around until July 20th to blow off another angle, THEN he’d be Fed-bound.
Also, since it’s a new month, here’s some wrestlers who were born in July 1990:
July 8th - Marcel Barthel, two-time NXT tag team champion with fellow July 1990 birthday boy Fabian Aichner, and current member of WWE RAW’s Imperium stable under the name Ludwig Kaiser.
July 13th - Curt Stallion, U.S. indie worker and former NXT wrestler whose career was pretty much derailed a few years ago due to past transphobic comments and being named during the Speaking Out movement.
July 15th - Karl Fredericks, New Japan LA Dojo graduate, former Young Lion Cup champion, and ex-NXT prospect who wrestled as Eddy Thorpe.
July 16th - Speedball Mike Bailey, current AEW star. Their shoot name, Émile Charles Baillargeon-Laberge, is incredible.
July 21st - Fabian Aichner, two-time NXT tag team champion with fellow July birthday boy Marcel Barthel, Cruiserweight Classic standout, and former Imperium member under the moniker of Giovanni Vinci.
July 24th - Frightmare, former CHIKARA stalwart and the Wrestling Observer Newsletter’s Rookie of the Year for 2009.
July 24th - Angelo Dawkins, multiple-time WWE tag team champion as one half of the Street Profits.
July 24th (a real popular day for wrestler births, apparently) - Tucker Knight, retired wrestler and the guy from WWE’s Heavy Machinery tag team that wasn’t Otis. He currently coaches high school wrestling, so good for him.
July 31st - Missile Assault Man, CHIKARA wrestler who, in storyline, had adopted the “Missile Assault Ant” persona as a coping mechanism for being a mercenary who blew up a bus full of schoolchildren in Zimbabwe. FAMILY FRIENDLY ENTERTAINMENT.
NEXT TIME: A massive Saturday Special, with the Great American Bash, AJPW tag action, and the epic clash between Abdullah the Butcher and ZEUS!
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