WWE Vintage Collection Report: August 14th 2011
By Shaun Best-Rajah.com Reporter
Hosted by: Mean Gene Okerlund
Welcome to the second part of our Summer spectacular theme. Three more matches from the WWE/WCW archives are on hand, so let’s begin!
June 18th 1988: Intercontinental Title:
Honky Tonk Man w/Peggy Sue vs Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake
This is a house show preview of the match that never was at SummerSlam 1988. More on that later. Jimmy Hart is banned from ringside. In his place is Peggy Sue, a mysterious “female” wearing a blonde wig and covering her face with a scarf. I smell shenanigans. The Barber has Honky on rubber legs in the early going, as he clubs away. Honky briefly works Beefcake over in the ropes, prompting a group of angry fans to start flipping Honky the bird. They REALLY hate him. Beefcake introduces Honky’s head to the turnbuckles, seesaws him in the ropes, then mounts in the corner to punch. Beefcake hits a running kneelift, but misses an elbow. Honky slaps on a chinlock as we head to a break.
Beefcake wrestles free from a sleeper and channels Hulk Hogan, as he plants Honky with a patented big boot….brother! Beefcake signals for his own sleeper. Honky wisely goes to the apron. Beefcake foolishly applies the hold anyway, knowing that the referee will break it up. Peggy slips Honky a “foreign object” as Beefcake is backed away. Honky socks it to Beefcake as the Barber attempts a back suplex. Honky rolls into a cover and retains his title. Sore loser Beefcake pulls off Peggy Sue’s wig to reveal none other than…Jimmy Hart. Beefcake defrocks the Mouth of the South who scurries outside still wearing his/her stuffed bra and briefs. This was a standard Honky title match during his record breaking reign, with plenty of crowd heat. Fans were desperate to see him lose, yet night after night, he’d pull out a cheap victory or non-finish. Beefcake was “attacked” by Outlaw Ron Bass just before SummerSlam to take him out of the Intercontinental picture in favour of the Ultimate Warrior. Winner: HONKY TONK MAN.
Monday Night Raw: August 19th 2002
The Un-Americans (Test, Christian & Lance Storm) vs Undertaker, Booker T & Goldust
Six days from SummerSlam. Book-Dust had a Tag Title showdown with reigning champions Christian and Storm, while the Biker version of the Undertaker had a date with Test. The Un-Americans were a Canadian faction, similar to that of the 1997 Hart Foundation, showing their disgust for all things American. William Regal would be added to the group later. Booker goes after everyone until Storm cuts him off with a poke to the eyes and top rope toss. Test sends Booker crashing into the ring steps, then takes over with a corner clothesline and full nelson slam. Booker escapes a chinlock, slips down from a pumphandle attempt, ducks a clothesline and wipes Test out with a heel kick. Goldust comes in to give Christian a running bulldog and Storm a quick powerslam. Goldust shatters Christian’s dreams with a kick to the nads in the corner. Test wipes out Goldust with a big boot, only to get caught with snake eyes by Undertaker. Storm runs in armed with one of the tag belts, but eats a chokeslam. Test pulls Undertaker out to fight up the entrance ramp. Booker gives Storm an axe kick, but gets taken out by Christian’s reverse DDT. Storm distracts Goldust as he sets Christian up for the curtain call, allowing Christian to knock Goldust out with a belt shot to the head. 1-2-3. Winners: THE UN-AMERICANS. This was a good action packed five minutes.
WCW Beach Blast – July 18th 1993
30 Minute Iron Man Match
(Vacant) U.S Title: Ravishing Rick Rude vs “The Natural” Dustin Rhodes
Both had been feuding over the title for several months. Following a controversial ending in one of their prior bouts, the title was held up. The two trade a series of camel clutches and chinlocks during the opening portion of the match. Rude turns Rhodes inside out with a clothesline, then turns a bearhug into a belly-to-belly. Rude softens Rhodes with a backbreaker across the knee and picks up the first fall following the Rude Awakening. With no rest period, Rude goes up top to hit Rhodes with a flying clothesline. To quote Tony Schiavone, Rude then puts the match “into a deep freeze,” consolidating what he has with restholds.
As we enter the final 15 minutes, Rude sends Rhodes outside, seemingly happy to add a countout to his lead. Rhodes staggers back in at a count of seven. After some more resting from Rude, Rhodes manages to reverse a tombstone piledriver for a nearfall. Rude avoids a desperation dive as Rhodes sails over the top rope.
Into the last ten minutes. Rhodes reverses a suplex, but gets pulled face first into the corner. Rude goads Rhodes telling him to “crawl (back) up,” and stalls for time. Rhodes survives a sleeper, but Rude rakes the face, prompting Rhodes to take another spill to the floor. Five minutes remain. Rude snots on Rhodes which color commentator Jesse Ventura describes as a “farmer’s handkerchief.” Rude gets cocky as he hammers away at Rhodes, while ducking the Natural’s rebukes. Rhodes cottons on, fakes a punch, Rude crouches down and Rhodes shocks him with a running bulldog to tie things up at 1-1. Rhodes gives Rude a piledriver and several clotheslines as the clock ticks down. Rude escapes a sleeper with a jawbreaker and slowly climbs up top. Rude jumps over Rhodes, who manages to drill Rude with a DDT just as the time runs out. Rhodes picks up the U.S title and looks longingly at it, but it’s ultimately still held up. Winner: DRAW. Rhodes finally got his defining victory over Rude in late August and would hold onto the title until December’s Starrcade PPV, where he lost a Best of Three Falls match to Steve Austin. This was very long in the tooth and quite boring to sit through. There was far too much resting and it was definitely one of the less than stellar Iron Man matchups.
We wrap up the summer spectacular theme with a final helping of “scorchers” next week. Shaun.
Any comments or discussion points drop me a line at shaunmb1@hotmail.com.
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