Buster Time Digest

The Last Refuge of Scoundrels

The Lost Super Dragon CD
By Chris Lening

I've been told one of the perks of Internet Wrestling Criticism Celebrity is that if you're well respected enough, you'll get all sorts of neat stuff most others don't: Tapes before the general public can get them for no cost, Special Seats at big shows, that sort of thing. For all I know, these are just myths, but I CAN tell you that one of the perks of being James Cobo's younger, thinner, taller, more handsome doppelganger (editor's note: Chris Lening may henceforth be reached here) is that you can get all the stuff he passes on. So then, here's a CD of stuff I'm not fully sure is on tape anywhere yet. Bow down.

Super Dragon vs. Hellblazer, 10/10/98

This is shot at some gym which houses the Titans. Only one around here I can think of is Cal State Fullerton. Crowd is really into it, though, so it's easy to tell Dragon's the face and Blazer is your heel. The first minute is spent locking this in, as Blazer brings all the deliberate brawling and big move teasing, while Dragon looks about a thousand times more plucky than he does nowadays.

If I was reviewing this back in 1998, there's really two ways to go with this talking about Dragon: Either I'd say he was all full of potential, but had a Long ways to go before his mental game matched up with his physical, or I'd say he was a spot machine. It probably would be the latter, although I suppose given hindsight, there's hope for all the spot machines of the world today. There's some really nice flow between each man's offense, but even then, the match is sort of unfocused, given that's it's relatively short and doesn't seem to have a proper beginning segment (most of the good stuff I've seen out of SD all gets to work in the opening mat stuff; here there's already flying head scissors and giant bumps off the apron within 90 seconds). The best little piece of work is actually probably from Hellblazer (who otherwise is Foleyesque in appearance but not in skill), as he blocks an early lariat and does some nice transitioning into a DVD, whereafter more arm work commences. That said, Dragon ends up hitting the Lariat a few minutes later, so it seems as though all is for naught. There's selling on defense from both men, and it's certainly fair enough, but it seems the transition to offense contains the healing manna of Heaven, at times. The crowd really digs it, though it seems the bulk of them are small children, and it's hard not to be eight years old and freak out over running shooting star presses and all. Basically this comes across as the type of Dragon match you'll hear described by people who don't really understand the full depth of the high end RevPro stuff, which is odd, since none of them have seen this contest. There's the faintest little hint of applying the highspots in a more focused manner, but for the most part this just feels like ten minutes of stuff. (10:18)

Ric Flair (w/Mr. Perfect) v. Randy Savage (WWF World Title Match)
by Shane Osman

This is from Hershey, PA, 9/1/92. Of course, being that this is at Hershey, that means that I could have been there. But I was not, making this probably my biggest missed wrestling opportunity (With my chance to see Santito vs. Quackenbush as the only thing that comes close.). Whenever I miss a show around here, something cool invariably happens. Except for those NWA New Jersey shows that I avoid like the plague whenever they're in the area. I've heard nothing good about those. So yeah, there's a match here. Flair is stylin' and profilin' in a swanky purple robe tonight, arrogantly blowing kisses to the crowd as he waits for Savage to come out. And come out he does! He's limping heavily, though, selling his left knee after a Flair/Perfect attack at Summerslam 92 a few days earlier.

Flair and Savage circle, with Savage warily backpedaling away from Flair. Perfect grabs his leg, but Savage quickly breaks free. Flair corners him, then pounces as Savage turns toward Perfect. He grabs Savage's leg and takes him down. Savage bails out. He rolls back in and tells Flair to bring it. Perfect grabs his leg again, but Savage manages to back into the corner. He kicks wildly at Flair to keep him at a distance, then moves away from the corner when he sees Perfect circling around the ring. Flair moves in and we have a lockup. He backs Savage into the corner and lays in a kick to the knee. He follows up with a chop, then goes right back to the knee. Savage cuts him off with a kick to the gut and we trade positions, with Flair in the corner.

They trade punches for a bit and Flair dives for the knee. Savage manages to avoid him, escaping to the opposite side of the ring. Perfect is still stalking around the ring, looking for an opportunity to get involved. Lockup and Flair grabs a side headlock. He takes Savage down and immediately goes for the figure four. It's too early, though, as Savage kicks him away and backs into the corner once again. He takes a swipe at Perfect, allowing Flair to grab a front facelock in the corner. He buries a knee in Savage's ribs and lands another kick to the knee. He snapmares Savage out of the corner and stomps on the knee. Whip attempt, but Savage reverses. He manages to press Flair and slam him to the mat, hurting his own knee in the process.

Perfect distracts Savage, allowing Flair to slip in another kick to the knee. He whips Savage into the ropes and goes for a hiptoss. Savage blocks it and counters into an abdominal stretch. That was nifty. I'm not sure I've ever seen that counter before. Flair uses his free hand to pound away at Savage's knee until he breaks the hold. On commentary, Bobby Heenan is doing a great job of pushing how badly Savage is hurt and how stupid he is to keep putting himself in situations that allow Flair to go after the knee. I miss Heenan. Even in his WCW stretch when he was just collecting a paycheck, he was still one of the best. He and Gorilla Monsoon are the best announce team ever, hands down.

Anyway, Flair whips Savage into the corner. Savage rebounds out and nails him with a clothesline. Cover gets two. Flair pops up and kicks him in the knee once again. He takes Savage over with a delayed vertical suplex for two. He follows up with a picture perfect elbowdrop for another nearfall. He starts stomping on Savage and talking trash to the crowd. Classic Flair here. They trade shots in the corner, with Flair staying in control. Perfect yanks Savage down and Flair rakes his eyes. He distracts referee Earl Hebner, allowing Perfect to grab Savage's leg. Savage kicks him away, though.

Flair moves in and scores with a backdrop suplex for two. Great cradle by Flair. He had both the leg and the head hooked. No one bothers to do that stuff these days. Covers have gotten so lazy. And don't even get me started on kickouts. If there's anything more basic that no one bothers to do, I don't know what it is. At the very least, have enough sense to actually lift your shoulder off of the mat. It's not that hard. Instead, we get a lazy flip of the legs as the ref pretends to see a shoulder go up. I'm not sure if it's accurate, but I read somewhere that Jim Cornette has his OVW officials "shoot" on their counts. If you don't have a shoulder up, you lose the match. It doesn't matter how things were booked beforehand. If only there were more people who cared about this business as much as Cornette does. But enough about my pet peeves. We're in the midst of a match, I believe.

Savage lunges for Perfect again, but gets nothing. Flair kicks him in the knee and takes him down. He locks him in a half crab, but Savage forces a rope break. He backs into the corner again and kicks wildly at Flair. He fires right back and slams Savage. He hits his Harley Race kneedrop, sending Savage rolling toward the corner. Flair slaps on a leg lace submission, but Savage is in the ropes. Flair backs him into the corner, but Savage rolls him into a small package for a quick two count. Perfect reaches in, but Savage kicks his hand away. Flair pulls him up and tosses him over the top rope as we cut to commercial. When we come back, Flair is climbing out of the ring, leading me to believe that nothing was clipped out.

Savage rolls back in and catches Flair coming in. He punches away at him and whips him into the corner. Flair rebounds out and Savage takes him over with a backdrop. He follows up with a clothesline, then connects with a second that sends Flair to the floor. Savage rams him into the railing and suplexes him on the floor. Heenan is going crazy, accusing Savage of trying to get himself DQ'ed. Perfect moves in, but Savage grabs a chair to dissuade him from coming any closer. He pounds on Flair for a bit, then turns toward Perfect, who's possibly doing the worst job of sneaking that I've ever seen. But the distraction pays off, as Flair pokes Savage in the eyes.

Flair charges, but Savage scores with a backdrop. He rams Flair into the railing and rolls him back in. He manages to climb to the top, coming off with a double axehandle. But he ends up hurting his knee even more on the move. The camera cuts to the entranceway, where Razor Ramon is making his way out. Back in the ring, Savage grabs a side headlock. Flair shoots him into the ropes. Perfect goes for a trip, distracting Savage. Flair nails him with a dropkick to the back, sending him to the floor. He distracts the referee, allowing Razor to kick Savage's knee from in under him. He walks away as Flair rolls Savage back in. He locks the figure four in the middle of the ring. Savage tries to fight it, but after about three minutes in the hold, he finally blacks out. Hebner makes the count and Flair starts his second reign as WWF champion.

This was great. Savage did basically nothing, smartly concentrating on selling his knee while letting the bulk of the match focus on the psychology of Flair going after the injury. This is the type of match that the current WWE roster should be studying. It's great that they're trying to mold their in-ring style back toward the "pick a body part and work on it" philosophy. But where they fail is that, after working that style throughout the match, they fall back to the signature move equals the end booking, making the rest of the match a moot point because the crowd knows that it's not leading anywhere. No one gets into it because they've been trained to equate a finisher with the finish. They try the occasional flash pinfall, but that's more a gimmick than an actual finish these days.

The counterpoint is a match like this. Every single thing that Flair did was aimed at the knee. Then, oddly enough, the finish tied into the rest of the match, as Flair finally managed to weaken the knee to the point where Savage couldn't continue. Shocking, I know! You don't need world class workers to pull that off. You just need to stick to one philosophy until you retrain your fan base to accept it.

Steve Williams/Terry Gordy v. Rick/Scott Steiner
by Shane Osman

As far as I can figure, this match is from the 9.26.92 edition of WCW Worldwide. Don't quote me on that date, though. They manage to bug me right from the start, bringing out the champions first. I hate when they do that. But anyway, Scotty and Gordy start. They lockup and Scott backs him into the ropes. Gordy is ready to throw down, but we get a clean break. Scott grabs an armbar, but Gordy quickly reverses it and yanks him down by the hair. Scott comes back with a fireman's carry takedown. Gordy whips him into the ropes and lines up for a back elbow. Scott ducks it and tackles him. He knocks him down a second time and sets up for a Tiger Driver. Doc quickly runs in to break it up. He and Rick brawl and we have double whips by the Steiners. Stereo backdrops send the champs scurrying to the floor. Gordy rolls back in with his hands up, looking for a fight.

Scott moves in for the lockup, but Gordy kicks him in the gut. He rams Scott into Doc's knee and makes the tag. The MVC looks for a double team, but Scott fights out of the corner like all good babyfaces do. Williams charges, but Scotty takes him over with an armdrag. He holds onto the arm and tags Rick in. Doc backs off, stalling for a bit while looking to Gordy for advice. We finally get a lockup and Rick backs him into the corner with a series of punches. Williams fires back with palm strikes, sending Rick into the opposite corner. He biels him back out and drops into a three-point stance. He tackles Rick and sets for a second charge. But Rick is ready, nailing him with a stiff Steinerline. Doc bails out once again as we cut to commercial.

When we get back, Scott is in the ring, working an armbar on Williams. Doc is having none of that, though. He tosses Steiner to the floor and comes off the apron with a double axehandle. Scotty fires back with a few forearm shots, but Gordy cuts him off. Williams rolls Scott back in and stomps on him for a bit before tagging Gordy back in. They level him with a double shoulderblock and Gordy picks up a two count. He rams Scott into the corner and pounds him down with some clubbing forearms to the back. Suplex gets two. Doc tags back in. He drops and elbow to Scott's back and starts stomping the back of his neck. He whips Scott into the ropes and ducks his head. Sunset flip by Scott. Williams won't go over, so Rick punches him into the nearfall.

Doc pops up and rolls Scotty into the heel corner. He drops a trio of elbows to the back and gets a two count. Tag to Gordy. He slams Scott and follows up with a stiff clothesline for two. Tag to Doc, who locks Scott in a half crab. Scott crawls toward his corner, but Gordy comes in, distracting the ref who then misses the Steiner's tag. He escorts Rick out of the ring and the MVC make an illegal switch. Gordy slaps on the STF. But the ref is calling it straight down the middle. He didn't see Doc and Gordy tag, so he kicks Gordy out of the ring. Big pop for that. Doc comes back in, lays in a few boots and makes the tag. Gordy whips Scott into the corner, but misses a charge.

Scott crawls toward his corner, but Gordy catches him by the ankle. Scott lunges, though, managing to make the tag. Rick cleans house on the champs. He backdrops Gordy and makes the cover, popping back up to catch Doc coming in. He backs off, looking to charge Gordy, but Williams tackles him. The MVC go for a double backdrop, but Scott is there to catch Rick and sit him down softly. Doc and Gordy don't take kindly to the interference, so they try to behead him with a double lariat. Gordy grabs a rear waistlock on Rick. It gets reversed and Rick dumps him on his head with a German suplex. I'm not sure if it was supposed to be simultaneous, but Doc slips away from a slam and gives Scott a German as well. But the ref has already counted the fall on Gordy. Steiners win!

Good match. Not at the level of their other two big matches (Clash XIX and Beach Blast 92, to be exact), though. What was shown, at any rate. Not sure how much was clipped out. Very basic story to the match (and the entire feud, really): The MVC appear on the Steiner's turf and proclaim themselves the big dogs of the yard. Steiners aren't ready to step aside just yet. They throw down to find out who the better team really is. It's as simple as that.

It runs deeper, though. Doc and Gordy were the only real opposition that the Steiners ever faced in the US. They were nearly the Steiner's equals as wrestlers (Actually, much better workers in reality. But the Steiners WCW rep was built on being solid wrestlers) and better in terms of a brawl. So the Steiners almost went into the series as the underdogs. They were essentially trying to prove themselves to the MVC and, by extension, themselves. Heady stuff.

Click Here for Part 2

Shane Osman
Digable James Cobo
Chris Lening

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