|
 April 4th - Sydney Entertainment Centre, Australia (WWA, 5000+
fans)
Jerry Lynn & Nova b AJ Styles & Chuck E. Chaos; The Funkster (Allan Funk) b
"Quebecer" Pierre Oulette; TEO b Puppet; Buff Bagwell & Ernest "The Cat" Miller b Stevie Ray & Disco Inferno; Sabu b Devon Storm; Midajah b Queen Bea; WWA Heavyweight title match: Nathan Jones b Jeff Jarrett, Scott Steiner & Grandmaster Sexay in a 4-way dance.
NOTES: The house was about half-full but they were hot for just about everything. They did the live commentary to the audience bit, which worked OK. The main commentator was Jeremy
Borash, with Stevie Ray and Disco Inferno going back and forth as the colour commentator. There was a show-long angle where Stevie and Disco lost their tag match, then feuded over who was the best colour commentator. Stevie won the crowd vote and threw Disco out of the ring. Which was a pity
'cos Disco was clearly miles better than Stevie. Disco was probably the most over heel on the night and he worked hard, both in the ring and on the
mic.
WWA used two local referees who did a fine job.
Fast-paced, entertaining opener. Sloppy in parts. Chuck E. Chaos is Melbourne wrestler Chucky. He tried hard but was clearly a yard behind the other three guys. Lynn won with a cradle piledriver on Chuck.
Very few people knew who Pierre was (I guess that shows how "over" mid-90s WWF was in Australia). Fans got into Funk's gimmick. He REALLY does look like Hogan and he has the mannerisms down pat. Funkster won with a piledriver followed by the leg drop.
The midgets worked hard and the fans were into the hardcore aspect of it, as well as the comedy. TEO won an entertaining match with a senton splash. Afterwards, Scott Steiner and Midajah came to the ring. Midajah beat up the midgets and threw them out of the ring. Scott then did his generic "Bad Daddy Booty" speech and threatened to beat up a fan at ringside.
Fans were into the gimmicks in the tag match but died during the wrestling. Disco worked hard but Stevie and Cat were pretty bad. Buff was beyond bad. He's got even lazier if that's at all possible. Worst match of the night so far. Buff pinned Disco after hitting him with a double-arm DDT.
Sabu and Devon Storm had a solid match with loads of what I call mid-90s
ECW-style moves. Sabu was crisp with all but one of his moves, which made the bout seem a lot better. Sabu pinned Storm with an Arabian moonsault (I think that's what it's called - it's when he jumps off the chair onto the ropes and moonsaults back over the chair).
The ladies evening gown match was mercifully short. Queen Bea is a local stripper. Midajah won and stripped the dress off Bea, leaving her in bra and panties. Puppet and TEO then hit the ring and stripped Midajah to her bra and panties. This brought out Steiner who suplexed Puppet into orbit, then beat up TEO and pressed him over his head and threw him onto Nathan Jones, who'd come to ringside.
Main event delivered everything and more. Steiner worked a fair proportion of the match and seemed to move OK. Crowd popped huge whenever he was in the ring with hometown boy Nathan Jones. Sexay was crazy over. Jarrett was strangely subdued - maybe
'cos he was dropping the strap? Ending came when Sexay and Steiner brawled at ringside. Jarrett went to hit Jones over the head with his guitar but Sexay jumped onto the ring apron and grabbed the guitar away from him. Jarrett spun round and got
chokeslammed. Crowd popped huge for the title change.
I must mention the post-match shenanigans. Sexay and Jones did the whole Too Cool dance routine with three people from the crowd which went down huge with the fans. Disco ran out to cause trouble, but got beaten up...again.
Overall, this card blew away the PPV that WWA did last October, mainly
'cos they steered clear of weird gimmick matches and angles for the main part, and just concentrated on wrestling.
I'm tempted to buy the PPV from Melbourne now, on the strength of this card.
Borash claimed WWA would be touring Australia again, but he didn't give any dates.
No-shows included Kronik,
Konnan, Road Dog and Sid Vicious. Of course, Rey Jnr and Eddie Guerrero weren't there either.
Dann Lennard
Sydney, Australia |
