The SmarK DVD Rant for The Triumph and Tragedy of World Class

Reviews, Wrestling DVDs

The SmarK DVD Rant for The Triumph and Tragedy of World Class Championship Wrestling

– Gotta love the overblown titles from the WWE DVD department.

– So as promised, I bought both the WWE version and the Big Vision versions of the World Class DVDs, because I figured that people would want me to do the other one no matter which I picked anyway. Obviously the WWE version holds the advantage in production values and match library, but there’s an irritating problem with the 5.1 mix of this disc, as the mood-setting background music often drowns out the interviews. That’s the kind of sloppy production problems that they never used to make before they started outsourcing their DVDs.

Disc One

– We go ALL the way back to "Texas Rasslin’" in the early days of the Sportatorium. And of course we start with Fritz Von Erich, who works for Ed McLemore as Jack Adkisson while doing his taxes to earn money. Fritz loses his first son in 1959 when Jack Jr. is electrocuted and dies, and the evil german character is born out of that pain, according to Kevin.

– Gary Hart talks about Fritz and McLemore splitting off from the Houston office, and McLemore’s poor health leaving Fritz as the big cheese in Texas. Jerry Lawler talks about the philosophy of booking yourself as the top star in your territory because when it comes down to it, it’s your money and you can’t trust anyone else with it.

– So it’s onto Kevin talking about growing up as a Von Erich, which meant you were going to be a wrestler and you were going to be a world champion, no matter what.

– We jump ahead to the entrance of the kids into the wrestling world, as David drops out of college and Kerry passes up a trip to the Olympics in discus and becomes a star.

– So Fritz "retires" in 1982 after beating King Kong Bundy, leaving his children to carry the promotion for better or worse. Gary Hart talks about how some of the boys were resentful of the push they got, but the kids had "great big gigantic balls" and would step up to anyone who wanted to give them shit about their position.

– Kevin and Gary Hart discuss how the show was really intended just for Ft. Worth, but got syndicated and pirated all over the world and took off. Bill Irwin notes that the crew wanted to start touring to support those shows, but Fritz was old school and refused to pull a Vince by leaving his own territory, because that was a major no-no.

– More big stuff as we take a look at the technical innovations like miking the ring (a huge deal at the time) and having cameramen in the ring. And biggest of all, vignettes to show you a side of the characters outside of the ring, like Jimmy Garvin having to work on the farm for David Von Erich.

– The Sporatorium: It was hot. Really hot. And a bit of a shit-hole. But they all loved it and it looked like a million dollars on TV.

– And since Michael Hayes is involved here, he’s ready to tell his side of the story in great detail. And they actually cut in the "Badstreet USA" music video here. So we move onto the conversion to rock n roll musical entrances, which worked out pretty darn good for everyone.

– And speaking of working out well, the Freebirds come into the territory in late 1982 as babyfaces and immediately get themselves over. And we get clips of the famous Christmas match between Kerry and Ric Flair that set the promotion on fire. Gary Hart, the engineer of the storyline, gets a crappy payoff from Fritz for the show and quits as a result. So they hire Ken Mantel to replace him.

– Onto the young talent, like Jimmy Garvin, Iceman Parsons and Bill Irwin.

– With Gary Hart gone, Skandor Akbar takes over as lead heel manager, bringing Kamala and Missing Link as the resident monster heels. And speaking of monsters, Bruiser Brody, nuff said.

– Back to the Freebirds, as everyone hates Michael Hayes. Michael takes full credit for the success of the promotion. Buddy Roberts and his voice box is such a sad thing to see. The promotion could just keep running the same match over and over and still draw because people just hated the Freebirds so much that they’d pay to see them get beat up every night. Everyone gives much love to Buddy for being the guy who would get the shit kicked out of him every night while Michael and Terry got all the heat.

– And now, the depressing parts. David has to go to Japan to work some shows, but he’s deathly ill and has a huge meal when they get there. Bill Irwin speculates that his stomach ruptured and he choked to death. Is everyone really still that much in denial or are they just being political, I wonder?

– The David Von Erich memorial show fills a stadium, headlined by Kerry Von Erich winning the NWA World title from Ric Flair with a backslide. Shawn Michaels comments that the most surprising thing was that someone won a match with a backslide. Everyone notes that there was actually a lot of disappointment from Kerry and a lot of others because he was just filling in for his brother that night. Jerry Lawler notes that it’s not just about being incredibly popular, signing autographs and having great matches night after night, it’s about reliability too. If "reliability" is a code word for "bags and bags of coke" then yeah, but otherwise the other stuff is more than enough to get a serious push on top, reliable or not.

– Gary Hart returns to make Chris Adams into a heel, and that works spectacularly well.

– So in 1985, we finally meet Mike Von Erich, as he hurts his shoulder and gets toxic shock syndrome as a result of the operation to fix it. He lives, but suffers brain damage and is even worse as a wrestler than before. Of course, that doesn’t stop Fritz from promoting him as "The Living Miracle", and then bringing in the god-awful Lance Von Erich to replace his sons. Gary points out that fans immediately saw through that and considered that to be lying. Fritz quickly fires him on TV and pretends he never existed. That was probably for the best.

– Gino Hernandez, super-heel for hire, comes in and plays a character that was actually way ahead of his time, but then gets involved in the drug scene and dies just as he was about to be pushed as the top guy in the promotion in 1986.

– 1986 comes and with everyone on the downswing, World Class splits off from the NWA and starts recognizing Rick Rude as the first World Class World heavyweight champion, but then put it on midcard guys like Chris Adams and Black Bart, which pretty much defeats the purpose.

– 90 minutes into the show, we finally talk about drugs, specifically Kerry getting heavily into them after his motorcycle accident that claims his foot. This leads into a discussion of Mike and how he just couldn’t live up to his own name, leading to a suicide and a very sad suicide note.

– And speaking of sad, 1987 sees Fritz suffering a "heart attack". Gary Hart was offended because he wanted the company to go in a positive direction for once, but Michael Hayes just thought it was too little, too late.

– So in 1988, three of the dying promotions team up for Super Clash III, but that was just a bad idea all around. Lawler accuses Kerry of being higher than a kite during their match, which would not exactly be a shocking revelation if true.

– 1989 sees Jerry Jarrett muscling in as the new owner of World Class, changing the promotion to the USWA in the process, and that was the end.

– But life goes on for the Von Erichs (so to speak) and Kerry Von Erich moves onto the WWF, basically squashing Mr. Perfect to win the I-C title almost immediately, but it was all downhill from there.

– Saddest of all, Chris Von Erich had none of the physical look or athletic ability, and his lifelong dream of being a wrestler just ended with him getting hurt in the ring and then committing suicide. Kerry followed, as jail time was looming for him and he shoots himself rather than man up to it. Gary Hart and Kevin Von Erich are absolutely heartbreaking here. And of course Hart himself would end up dead not long after this DVD came out.

– HHH sums up the whole thing as not a curse, but rather a public service announcement for kids against drugs.

Overall, a really great documentary about the Von Erichs, but I don’t think quite enough was said about WCCW, the supposed subject of the DVD. They jumped around a lot and glossed over a lot of the reasons for the decline (outside of everyone dying), because for example the fall of the oil industry took down not only World Class, but Bill Watts’ UWF as well, and was a bigger factor than the minor reasons listed here. Still, great stuff and a fascinating and relatively candid look at the promotion.

Extras:

– Tea with Chris Adams, January 1983. Bill Mercer introduces us to Adams by joining him for a spot of tea. I have to wonder if that date is right because we’re well past that point on 24/7 now and I haven’t seen him pop up yet.

– From March 83, the intro vignette for Iceman Parsons.

– From February 84, the Freebirds cut a promo against the Von Erichs. Classic stuff with Gordy and Hayes accusing everyone in Texas of blaming things on them out of spite. They can’t help it if some Texan thought that David was ugly and beat him up! Note: The date on menu says "April 1983", which it clearly is not, but the date on the promo itself is February 1984, so we’ll go with that.

– April 84: Gino Hernandez arrives at the airport (again, the dates don’t match, as the menu says it’s 1983) and runs through his library of catchphrases stolen from Billy Graham (man of the hour/too sweet to be sour, twisted steel and sex appeal, etc).

– From July 1983: David Von Erich beats Jimmy Garvin to win the Texas title back, and gets Garvin as a valet for a day, and a famous vignette results. David shooting skeet and using Garvin as a target is strangely hilarious, because David is just being such a dick here and yet was supposed to be a babyface.

– More from 1983, as Jimmy Garvin introduces an assistant for Sunshine: Precious. Of course, Sunshine treats her like crap until she rises up and takes over as Garvin’s valet, a storyline that you could replay note-for-note today and still get it over. Although I’ve heard that Garvin and Sunshine were cousins, which makes their on-screen kissing and fondling all the weirder in retrospect.

– From April 1984: We visit the palatial mansion of the Fabulous Freebirds, which appears to be an abandoned house somewhere in Georgia. They complain about other teams ripping off their "Fabulous" name (which I can only assume was a shot at the Fabulous Ones) and Gordy makes his entrance into the promo by kicking out a window.

– From 1984: BADSTREET USA! Probably the best "original" piece of entrance music written until "Sexy Boy" came along, because it actually had a great guitar riff and chorus, even if Michael Hayes left a lot to be desired as a vocalist. And you have to love Michael’s hair band backing him up, looking like they failed an audition to be in Twisted Sister. I’m tempted to give the disc an automatic thumbs up just for including this.

– April 1985: The Dynamic Duo cut a promo from a car lot to hype their involvement in a $100,000 battle royale.

– From June 1987 (September according to the menu): Kerry Von Erich talks about his photography hobby and shows off his camera.

Extra Interviews

– Michael Hayes talks about Kabuki and how he missed the big boom.

– Kevin tells a story about going to Israel and Sunshine getting into a brawl with another woman for unexplained reasons.

– Bill Irwin tells a story about Fritz fronting him money for a dentist trip.

– Kevin talks about watching his dad wrestle when he was a little kid, and jumping into the ring when he felt Terry Funk was being unfair to Fritz.

– Dory Funk actually has a BRILLIANT idea for a better alternative to the First Blood match: The GERMAN blood match, where you each have a towel and the winner is the one who fills their towel up with their opponent’s blood.

– Gary Hart talks about being in a plane crash with Austin Idol and Dusty Rhodes, killing Bobby Shane and seriously injuring pilot Buddy Colt. It’s quite the story, actually.

– Kevin tells a story about Bob Brazil stealing a mule kick from him when he was little.

– Jimmy Garvin talks about the pain of wrestling and suffering for your art.

– More from Kevin, as his dad drags him out of the hospital bed with a concussion to take Lance Von Erich’s place in Japan, despite doctors warning the old man that a blow to the head would surely kill him. And sure enough, he gets booked in a KICKBOXING match on his first night and gets knocked out during ring introductions, so he gets pissed and shoots on the guy, taking out his leg. And then he cuts a horribly racist promo after the match, saying that "Just like Pearl Harbor he got attacked from behind, but just like Hiroshima he won in the end." I don’t know if that’s bullshit or what, but it’s a GREAT story.

– And we finish with Kevin talking about being the survivor of the family thanks to his marriage and his own children. Amen.

Disc Two

Enough of the sad, on with the happy! The matches!

Duke Keomuka v. Ricky Starr.

Going pretty far into the vault for this one. It would have to be into the 50s, and it’s from the original Texas Rasslin’ show. This is two out of three falls like most of the feature matches of that era. Here’s an interesting fact that I learned while surfing the net during the match: Duke’s son is Pat Tanaka. Duke takes Starr down with a wristlock and then switches to a kneebar (which the announcer calls a "keylock", which is interesting because I thought that was a relatively modern martial-arts term) but Starr escapes with a headscissors and takes Keomuka down with it. Duke actually takes Starr down in turn and makes that move into a leglock of his own, but Starr scoots away from it. They fight for the lockup and Duke chops him down, then tosses him. Back in, Keomuka pounds away on him and chokes him out on the ropes, then goes back to working on that wristlock. Starr fights up, so Duke chops him down until Starr makes the superman comeback and pounds away with forearms in the corner. Keomuka hits him with a shoulderblock in the corner, however, and hooks him in an "A1 Super Duper #1 finishing hold" (according to the announcer), in the form of a Japanese sleeper hold that finishes the first fall at 11:52.

Starr is revived for the second fall and Duke immediately takes him down for a facelock, but Starr gets his own anklelock and works on that. Duke fights up and throws chops, but Starr gets his patented dropkicks, five of them, to score the second fall at 18:21. The third and deciding fall sees Keomuka working on an armbar and a cross-armbreaker, but Starr fights up and they fight for the lockup. Starr slugs him down with a forearm and chokes away on the ropes, rare for a babyface at that point, but Duke goes for the leg again and it’s a stalemate. Starr hooks a cobra sleeper, but they end up in the ropes to force a break. Starr stomps on his bare feet for that and they trade blows, with Starr getting a big kneelift, but Keomuka hits him in the corner again. A second try misses, however, and Starr uses a pair of really impressive snapmares to finish at 25:02. It almost looked like he was going for an RKO there, as he jumped into the air before doing the move. Looks quaint by today’s standards, but aside from the pacing all the offense was stuff they’re still doing today. ***

American heavyweight title: King Kong Bundy v. Fritz Von Erich.

Bundy with hair is quite the sight, as he looks kind of a clean-shaven Big Show. This is included because it’s Fritz’ retirement match. The story here is the oldest one in wrestling, as Bundy comes to Fritz as a rookie and asks to be trained, Fritz takes him under his wing, but then Bundy turns on him and becomes a champion without him, leading to one final showdown between teacher and student. Bundy attacks in the corner to start, but Fritz quickly gets the claw to fight him off. Bundy pounds him down and gets a kneedrop for two, but now it’s a stomach claw. He gets two off that, but Bundy pounds him in the corner and works on the arm, but again Fritz counters with the claw. Bundy fights it off, so Fritz goes to the eyes instead and then tosses him. Bundy heads back in, so Fritz tosses him again and rams him into the post. Back in, Fritz gets another claw, so Bundy bails to escape. Out on the floor, Fritz puts him down with the claw again, but Bundy rakes the eyes to break free and grabs a chair. Fritz takes it from him and gets a couple of shots with it and pins Bundy to win the title at 7:54. I guess it was falls count anywhere. Nothing special as a match, and it was getting pretty silly for a guy the size of Bundy to have to sell for the elderly Von Erich. *1/2

NWA World title, cage match: Ric Flair v. Kerry Von Erich

Hayes appoints Terry Gordy as the special gatekeeper, just to make sure that no one can get out, you see. Kerry goes right for Flair’s leg and drops elbows on the knee. Flair tries going for the arm, but Kerry dropkicks out of a wristlock and Flair runs to the corner. Kerry goes after him and gets chopped, but comes back and slugs Flair into a Flair Flop. Flair goes low and starts chopping in the corner again, but Kerry is on the ropes and Hayes takes charge and pulls Flair back. Kerry pounds Flair in the corner and Hayes pulls them apart again, showing his objectivity. Kerry reverses a suplex attempt into a sleeper, but Flair suplexes out. Kerry takes him down and slugs away in frustration, but Flair fights off a claw attempt. He drops Kerry on the top rope to take over and chokes him out in the corner, which has Michael Hayes getting all upset again. Flair drops an elbow for two, but Kerry fights up and hooks him in the abdominal stretch. Flair quickly escapes, but misses an elbow and Kerry takes advantage by ramming him into the cage a few times. Flair of course starts bleeding, but Hayes again pulls them apart before too much damage can be done. Kerry goes for the claw again, but Flair kicks him low to stop it and now starts on the knee. He pounds it in the corner until Hayes pulls him off, and keeps taking Kerry down, but he keeps kicking out of the figure-four. Working the leg would become a much bigger adventure with Kerry in later years, of course. Kerry sends Flair into the cage and slugs him down, but misses a kneedrop and re-injures the knee. Flair is on it like a shark, and it’s figure-four time, on the correct leg! Kerry reverses the hold and now goes to work on Flair’s knee, because he’s all about the revenge. Flair tries to climb out, but Kerry yanks him down and keeps pounding him into the cage. Flair gets a chop and goes up, but Kerry was still too fresh and gets the Iron Claw. Flair’s foot in on the ropes, barely, so Hayes calls for the break and finally pulls Kerry off by force, which doesn’t prove very popular. Kerry goes over to argue the point and Flair takes the moment to knee Kerry in the back and send him into the corner by the door. Hayes, meanwhile, argues with Flair and gets so pissed off at him that he knocks Flair cold with a punch…but Kerry refuses the pin, because that would be wrong. Hayes decides to exit the match at this point, and when Kerry tries to follow him, Terry Gordy slams the door on his head. Flair only gets two from the real referee, but Hayes counts three anyway and awards the match to Flair. At this point the Freebirds storm out and the match continues, as Flair beats on Kerry until he’s out, but only gets two. Into the cage for one. Kerry fights back but he’s still losing it, and the discus punch puts Flair out, but the referee stops the match at 24:08 and awards it to Flair because Kerry is gone. I don’t think anyone ever remembers this as an all-time classic or anything, because it’s basically just Flair being Flair and working the leg while bleeding and stuff, but it’s quite good. ***3/4 And from there it was all Freebirds v. Von Erichs. Oddly enough, this was not the super-hot, violent turn you’d expect for something that would turn a territory around. And in fact most people remember the finish as Kerry eats door, Flair pins him, when in fact the match went on for another 5 minutes after the Freebirds turned on Kerry. Kinda weird how your memories differ from the actual product sometimes.

Iceman Parsons, David Von Erich & Kevin Von Erich v. The Freebirds

This one is coming up on 24/7 right away, actually. We have commentary from Kevin Von Erich and Todd Grisham for some reason. The Von Erichs clear the ring to start, giving the Birds plenty of time to talk trash. Finally we get going and David slugs on Hayes in the corner, but gets caught in a headlock. Michael in turn gets sent into the face corner and runs off to tag in Gordy. That brings Kevin into the match, and he catches Gordy’s foot and wins a slugfest, then rams Gordy into Iceman’s head. Kevin relates the story about why he wrestles barefoot at this point, and it’s a bit mundane, sadly. Over to Parsons, who slugs away on Buddy Roberts and puts him down with a butt-butt, and as usual Buddy gets to be the whipping boy of the Birds. David with the high knee for two. Buddy catches him with a knee to the gut and Hayes dives in with a kneedrop and rams David into Gordy’s knee. Gordy comes in and elbows David down, but gets into a slugfest and gets caught with the claw as a result. Buddy saves and he too gets clawed, but Hayes dumps David to break it up. Back in, Roberts puts him in a neck vice, followed by Hayes. The Freebirds sucker the faces in and inflict damage on David, and Gordy puts him down with a back elbow. The Birds work him over in the corner, but David gets an atomic drop on Gordy, forcing Hayes to come in and cut off the tag with a facelock. David fights out of it and it’s hot tag Parsons, and the brawl is on. Parsons gets hit with a cheapshot from Roberts, and Gordy pins him at 13:59. Good six-man, awful commentary. ***1/4

Hair match: Iceman Parsons v. Buddy Roberts

Buddy attacks to start, but Iceman gets a sunset flip for two. Buddy comes back with an elbowdrop for two, but Parsons comes back with a crossbody for two. Buddy bails, but Parsons slingshots him back in and gets two. They slug it out in the corner and Buddy gets tied in the ropes as a result, so Parsons pounds on him and brings him out of the corner with a London Bridge for two. Buddy slugs back, but Iceman uses his shucking and jiving skills to punch him down again for two. Abdominal stretch follows, but Roberts escapes with a hiptoss, only to miss a pair of elbows. Iceman puts him down with a headbutt, but walks into a boot. He keeps coming with a rollup for two, but Buddy reverses for the pin at 5:03. Iceman protests while Buddy retrieves the dreaded Freebird Hair Cream, but Parsons hits him with a butt-butt and uses the cream on Buddy’s hair, causing it to all fall out by the time the next TV show had been taped. Too short to be worth much. **1/2

Six-Man tag titles: The Freebirds v. Kevin, Mike & Fritz Von Erich

This is a Badstreet match, which means anything goes. This is from the David Von Erich Memorial show, so you KNOW who’s going over here. Kevin pounds on Buddy to start and sends him into the corner, where he’s ambushed by Hayes and Gordy. Kevin puts Buddy down with a mule kick out of the corner and hauls him over to his own corner, where Mike comes in and starts working on the leg. Hayes comes in to break it up, but misses a fistdrop off the second rope and all hell breaks loose with Fritz coming in for the triple-team on Hayes in the corner. Kevin holds off the other Birds while Fritz takes off his belt and whips Hayes with it, and Kevin then tags in legally and slugs it out with Gordy. He goes for the claw, but Gordy fights it off and brings him into the Freebird corner. Hayes uses his boot on Kevin, and then Buddy rams Kevin’s head into his belt buckle in a spot that looks pretty creepy if viewed out of context. Kevin manages to tag Fritz in, and the old man manages to fight off all of the heels and puts the claw on Hayes. Buddy dives in and he gets one, too. Gordy finally breaks it up with a boot to the head and pounds on Fritz, and it’s another huge brawl. Kevin flies into the chaos with a crossbody on Buddy and pins him to win the titles at 6:51. Good brawl, but the July rematch with Kerry/Kevin/Mike was actually voted Match of the Year by the WON and should have been included instead, since this was basically Kevin carrying four guys by himself. ***1/2

Chris Adams & Sunshine v. Jimmy Garvin & Precious

More from the Parade of Champions. This was the result of Sunshine’s face turn. Adams gets a sunset flip for two on Garvin, but Garvin prevents him from tagging Sunshine because he doesn’t want Precious to get involved in the match. Garvin takes Adams down with a chinlock, but he fights up and they clothesline each other. Adams comes back with the superkick and tags in Sunshine. So Precious is forced into the match and Sunshine drags her in for a catapult into the corner. Precious quickly tags Garvin back in, and Adams brings him in with a suplex for two. Slam and legdrop gets two. Garvin comes back with a Snake Eyes in the corner and goes to a facelock. He tries a piledriver, but Adams reverses out of it and tags Sunshine in. Garvin trips her up, however, allowing Precious to get her shots in, but Sunshine tosses Precious while Adams pins Garvin at 4:42 with something that the camera misses. Nothing as a match, but the concept made for a hot feud and they’d beat the concept into the ground all the way until they did it one last time with Adams and Steve Austin in 1989. *1/2

The Great Kabuki v. Kamala

Really? Why? Yet another match from the stadium show, and yet no Kerry v. Flair title switch, the match that people actually remember today and which is not readily available on any WWE DVD thus far. Kamala chokes him down and throws chops in the corner, but Kabuki puts him down with a superkick. They do the test of strength and Kamala gets a bearhug, but Kabuki chops out of it. Kamala goes back to it, but Kabuki chops out again and they slug it out until Kamala chokes him down. He turns it into a pectoral hold instead, aka The Titty Twister of DEATH, and that goes on for a good long while. Kabuki chops out of it. Kamala fires back with his own, but Kabuki puts him down with a superkick and the managers get involved for the double DQ at 7:18. Bad match, bad finish, total waste of DVD time. DUD

American tag team title: The Midnight Express v. The Fantastics

This is from the 85 Parade of Champions. There are two rings because of a two-ring main event gimmick match, so this match takes place in both rings, with Eaton v. Fulton in one ring and Condrey v. Rogers in the other. This is gonna be impossible to call, I bet. Everyone slugs it out and the Express win their battles, but Rogers gets a sunset flip on Dennis for two. Bobby slams Fulton for two. Fulton gets tossed, but slingshots Eaton out there with him and they fight on the floor. Eaton takes a backdrop out there, and finally everyone joins up in one ring. The Fantastics slug away on the Express and Fulton gets two on Condrey, and they split up again. Fulton pounds Condrey down and gets two and we’re back in one ring again, where the Fantastics put the Express down with dropkicks. Rogers gets two more on Condrey and goes up with a missile dropkick on Condrey, which gets two. The Midnights double-team him and toss Fulton into the other ring, then Dennis puts Rogers down with an STO for two. Eaton brings a chair into the ring and pounds on the Fantastics with it. Rogers gets tossed around and double-teamed by the Express, as they put him down with a double elbow. The Fantastics fight back, however, and Rogers powerslams Eaton for two. One of the two refs gets bumped while Eaton chokes Rogers out in the corner. Cornette hits Fulton with the racket and Condrey pins him at 8:39, and then Rogers rolls up Eaton for the pin at 8:43. This would seem to indicate that the Midnights get the titles since they got the pin first, but for whatever reason the Fantastics are given the belts. Not one of the better Midnights-Fantastics matches and the finish was idiotic. **1/2

Chris Adams v. Kevin Von Erich

More electric commentary from Grisham and Von Erich here. They fight for the lockup to start and trade wristlocks, as Kevin dropkicks him out of that. Kevin takes him down with a hammerlock, but Adams pounds away with forearms in the corner. He misses a charge and hits the post, and Kevin gets a victory roll for two while Adams starts bleeding. Kevin goes for the claw and Adams hits the floor to escape. Back in, Adams fights Kevin off and tosses him, then sends him into the stairs and stomps away as Kevin comes back in. They brawl out again and Kevin rams him into the table, then adds a slam there. Adams tosses chairs into the ring, but Kevin whips him into the corner and misses a charge of his own. Adams slugs away and catches him in the sleeper, but Kevin fights out and gets a rana for two. Adams pounds him down again and gets a backdrop for two, then goes back to the sleeper. They slug it out and Adams gets desperate and pulls what appears to be a long piece of string from ringside, which Kevin uses to choke him out for the DQ at 9:52. This was shaping up as a pretty good match before it got derailed by the DQ finish. ***

Bruiser Brody & Missing Link v. One Man Gang & Rick Rude

Into 1986 now. I should note that three out of the four are dead, although if you count Michael Cole’s faux pas on Smackdown then you can add One Man Gang to the list. And if you count WWE storyline canon, then Percy Pringle is dead as well. Big brawl to start and Rude pounds on Brody with knees and slugs away, but Brody puts him down with the big boot for two. Rude bails and stops to pose, then wants the test of strength with Brody. That goes nowhere good for him and the Link comes in, but gets caught in the heel corner. Gang hits Rude by mistake, but just keeps pounding on Link, drawing face heat. Missing Link is an odd choice for a crowd favorite, but there you go. Link fights back to the corner and brings Brody in, and he gets pounded down by Gang. Rude takes him down for the chinlock, but Brody comes back with a dropkick on the Gang that ties him up in the ropes. Brody throws boots while he’s there, and Link comes in with a headbutt to the chest, then dodges a charging Rude and splashes him. It’s BONZO GONZO and Link goes after Pringle, so Rude tosses him over the top rope to draw the DQ at 7:09. I have no idea why they put this on the DVD. *

Bruiser Brody v. Abdullah the Butcher

This is a cage match from 1986. Fritz is the special ref as they were getting pretty desperate to draw the big stadium crowds by any means they could at this point. Abdullah overpowers Brody and headbutts him into the corner. Abby pounds him down and goes to a chinlock, then drops an elbow. Brody fights back and chokes him out in the corner, then rakes his face into the cage. Brody hits some running kicks to bust the Butcher open (not a tough task, I realize), but Abby headbutts Brody into the corner and rams him into the cage. They slug it out from their knees and Brody wins that battle, then goes up with a flying chop and adds a big boot to put him down. Abdullah pulls out a fork, however, and puts Brody down, then gives Fritz a shot, too. That’s not gonna end well for him. And indeed, Fritz gets it away from him and puts him down with his own fork, which gives Brody the pin at 8:00. Stick a fork in him, he’s done. There was a brawl on 24/7 with these guys that was a million times better and crazier and I don’t know why they didn’t include it instead of this dull match. *1/2

I gotta say, the match selection here was pretty head-scratching. Where’s Kerry winning the title, which was pretty much the high point of the promotion? Where’s Gino Hernandez? Where’s the infamous blackout match where Iceman Parsons won the World title? Why not show some young Steve Austin to highlight the positives of what the promotion gave to the world even as it was dying? A very, very disappointing selection of matches, almost as if they were picked at random. Even Kevin, on commentary, notes that they picked the two matches he lost for some reason.

Recommended for the documentary and the Kerry-Flair cage match included on disc two, but this could have been a MUCH better set overall.

Coming later this weekend: The Heroes of World Class DVD!