Glass Hand Dissolving: The Lightning Express

-


 vs Hollywood Blondes (Memphis 11/10/1984)

This is a pretty good TV tag match. Tim Horner was such a good tag team wrestler; his offense looked good, he could sell, he could fire up. Armstrong is fine, but I'm starting to become a big Tim Horner guy. Nothing about this match really stands out, but it is entertaining. Eventually, Ron Garvin hits the ring, and the whole thing gets thrown out. 

vs Ivan Koloff & Krusher Kruschev (JCP 10/26/1986)

This is worked exactly how you would draw it up. Horner and Armstrong show promise early, but get cut off by the Russians, who then proceed to isolate and punish Horner for a bit portion of the match. Darsow gets a large portion of that, and despite being able to do it more effectively in Demolition, he really isn't up to it here in a way that makes the match exciting. Ivan carries his end of the load, though. Armstrong finally gets the tag and some in on fire, and it looks like Armstrong is going to pin Ivan for the titles, but nanoseconds before the ref counts three, the time limit expires. 

vs Sting & Rick Steiner (UWF 6/6/1987)

This is the most meaningful match of this set, it's for the UWF Tag Titles. Horner ends up selling for most of this, almost entirely in bearhugs from both Sting and Steiner. Sting, more so than Steiner, mixes in more offense, but this is primarily Horner in bearhugs. When Armstrong finally tags in, the crowd is hot, and Armstrong takes over and eventually gets the win. I think this is a problem with a lot of these matches is that while Horner and Armstrong have good offense, they don't get a lot of it, and selling in holds isn't something they're particularly suited to do all that well. 

vs Dick Slater & Bunkhouse Buck (WCW 4/15/1995)

Horner and Armstrong get the first portion of this match, and work headlocks for the entirety of their shine segment, I mean all of it, they are constantly working or grabbing headlocks. I'm not against working holds, but if you're a babyface, southern territory tag-team, I can't think of a worse thing to do than work headlocks for quite literally 75% of a match. When the Stud Stable takes over, it is exciting because at least something is happening; they kick and punch, and it feels like a breath of fresh air. Horner gets cheapshotted attempting an O'Connor Roll, and that's good; they deserve to lose this match. It was bad and it is really their fault. 

vs The Blue Bloods (WCW 5/6/1995)

As you might expect, there is a lot of working of holds here, mostly from Regal, of course, but Eaton gets in on it. It is what it is, it is a lot better than all the headlocks from the last match, but I am not one of those people who claim this is great wrestling; it's just delayed gratification. I will see the finishing stretch, which is only about a minute, where Eaton hits the Alabama Jam is good, and the match isn't bad, but it's fine. 

Verdict

Was not really a fan of this set of matches. The one with the Stud Stable was really not great. I didn't love the UWF title change or the Blue Bloods match. I thought the Russians match was ok, as was the Memphis tag, but I don't think this is a particularly good team. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

[11-01-2005] John Cena vs Kurt Angle vs Shawn Michaels

-
Image
This match is a continuation of the Unforgiven match between John Cena and Kurt Angle, but this is Taboo Tuesday and the fans get to vote on a third wrestler to make our main event a Triple Threat Match. In the weeks leading up to this show, Eric Bischoff set up an angle for Shawn Michaels to get involved with Cena and Angle, stacking the deck in HBK's favor, especially considering the other options for the poll were Kane and Big Show. It is also worth noting that this match follows a very good, and incredibly bloody cage match between Ric Flair and Triple H. Cena is still over like crazy at this point in 2005, but having to follow a bloodbath cage match isn't exactly an envious position.  Shawn Michaels, predictably, wins the poll and at one point in the show we are shown Angle approaching Michaels, proposing a deal of sorts; He and Shawn take out Cena and wrestle each other for the title. The posture before the bell seems to indicate that Angle and HBK have a deal, but as soo...
Read more

[09-18-2005] John Cena vs Kurt Angle

-
Image
  Coming into this show, it has been four months since John Cena has main-evented a PPV. So, let's run down what has happened in the interim. Shortly after the JBL match, John Cena gets drafted to Raw, where he'll spend over a decade as the centerpiece of that show. And to celebrate that momentous occasion, Cena was given the poisoned chalice of Chris Jericho wanting to put him over, which really never works except if you're Chris Jericho. Already tasked with overcoming that, John Cena's gimmick also now has come to include the fact that he can't wrestle. Fans took this bit of storytelling to heart to such a degree that ten years after this, a lot of fans still believed it, despite mountains of evidence to the contrary. At Vengence in June, Cena beats Jericho and Christian in a triple threat and at SummerSlam he beats Chris Jericho is a singles match. This leads us here to Unforgiven, and the continuation of the John Cena can't wrestle saga, this time up against...
Read more

6 Matches: Buddy Rogers

-
Image
GWE season is here, and I've been slacking, so with about one year to make a ballot, I'm starting to review wrestlers I've considered, but not fully formed an opinion on. So we begin with Buddy Rogers, a guy who has two of my favorite matches of the Golden Era, against Lou Thesz in 1950 and Pat O'Connor in 1961 .   Buddy Rogers/Magnificent Maurice/Johnny Barend vs Bobo Brazil/Art Thomas/Dory Dixon - Chicago 3/15/1963 There are 10 complete Buddy Rogers matches out there, and this is one of them. He's barely in this, it is mostly a showcase for the face team, Buddy spends a lot of time on the apron playing a chickenshit. In some ways that is Buddy Rogers' greatest contribution to modern wrestling, he sort of codified what it meant to be a heel, and you can see a glimpse of why he was so successful, but its only just a glimpse.  Buddy Rogers vs. Cyclone Ayana - Chicago 1/5/1951 From a modern perspective, so much of the Golden Age stuff just seems boring or stall-y,...
Read more