BRM Reviews NWA Grandslam '93

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Big Red Machine
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BRM Reviews NWA Grandslam '93

Post by Big Red Machine » Dec 6th, '18, 23:26

NWA Grandslam ‘93 (4/17/1993)- Minneapolis, MN


We start off with announcer Mick Karch telling his broadcast partner Christian Dady that “there is more excitement and more electricity in the air tonight for this card than there has been for any card as long as I can remember.” Well… they’re trying.

BRAD RHEINGANS vs. THE TAZMANIAC (w/Sir Oliver Humperdink)- 2/10
They were having a nice wrestling match inside the ring with Rheingans working over Taz’s head. Taz took over and turned it into a brawl, so Rheingans- the Olympic wrestler babyface- picked up a chair and just smashed Taz in the head with it. This happened right in front of the referee, but was not a DQ for some reason. Aside from this one spot, this was one of those matches where you can almost kind of see how people thought this was totally legit.

LARRY CAMERON vs. TOMMY FERRARA- 6.5/10
Larry Cameron is someone who Lance Storm speaks very highly of so I was quite excited to see him for the first time here… and he did not disappoint. He was an excellent big, mean cocky heel, and this Tommy Ferrara was a perfect smaller never-say-die babyface to complement him. This went an wonderfully engaging eight minutes that had me scouring the internet for more footage of these two.

JERRY LYNN vs. CHRIS CANDIDO (w/TR Shock)- 7/10
These two are so darn great. Lynn worked the arm, Candido worked the back, and they had a great heel that was set up by so many twists and turns that it made you angry that even with all of the times Jerry thwarted their evil plans, it still wasn’t enough.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- didn’t like it
The heels beat Jerry Lynn down a bit but he makes a comeback and takes them both out, even hitting them both with the same steel chain that Candido had just knocked him out with to win the match. If you’re going to do a heel finish, don’t take the heat away right afterwards!

BILLY BLAZE vs. HORACE THE PSYCHOPATH- 1.5/10
Apparently this “Horace The Psychopath” character is a kid-friendly comedy babyface who is one half of the tag team champions with white meat babyface Tommy Ferrara. I definitely was not expecting that. Then, after some comedy and a bunch of stalling, he turned into a heel, doing a bunch of back rakes and throwing closed-fist punches. Which I guess also pretty much describes Hulk Hogan’s offense at this point, too. The match was several minutes of boredom and goofiness followed by two good minutes of action.

LIGHTNING KID vs. SABU (w/Sir Oliver Humperdink)- 8.25/10
Mick Karch warned all viewers to “hang onto your hats” for this one. He was f*cking right.
I’ve talked before about how certain matches that you’d think wouldn’t age well because all of the stuff that was new to the audience in that match has been seen a million times by now, but some of them manage to still maintain that sense of wonderment about them. This is one of those matches. This was a modern indy spotfest in 1993, and in its own special way, it was GLORIOUS. This was a match contested at a pace that most of these fans had likely never seen before, with dives higher and further than they had ever seen before, and it totally worked. Throw in Kid’s great selling (aided by his nutsy blade-job) and Sabu taking a scary bump onto his head when Kid tried to powerbomb him off the top rope, plus how excellent Sabu is at… well… being Sabu, and you’ve got something that retains its sense of wonderment.
The only mark against this match was the finish, which was a disappointing double DQ after Kid accidentally hit the referee, and then Sabu just attacked the referee because… well… he’s Sabu in 1993. Sabu and Humperdink beat Lighting Kid down until Jerry Lynn came out and made the save for his former GWF rival.

OLIVER HUMPERDINK PROMO- F*CKING AWESOME!

CHARLIE NORRIS & MASA SAITO vs. NAILZ & THE HATER- 4.5/10
I know what you’re thinking, but don’t get too excited. This Charlie Norris is an imposter. I’m sure the real Chuck Norris roundhouse-kicked his head off after the show.
This was pretty dully, but not actually bad. It was eight minutes worth of stuff stretched out over fifteen.


ROAD WARRIOR HAWK vs. TERRY FUNK (w/Sir Oliver Humperdink)- 3/10
Terry Funk just wandered out to ringside, then went into the crowd to chase after Wade Keller (who had been acknowledged previously by the commentators for his role as a local radio host). Hawk then came out, and they passed right by each other as Terry Funk went to chase (and eventually punch) Dennis Coralluzzo. Funk then chased the cameraman on his way to finally getting into the ring… at which point Hawk left the ring to go say hello to a little kid in a wheelchair (who Meltzer says this show was an unannounced benefit show for… and also hawk donated his pay to the kid’s medical bills). Hawk went to get back into the ring, but Funk attacked him, meaning that we were FINALLY underway.
They brawled on the outside until the match was thrown out a minute and a half later. Funk gave Hawk a Piledriver on the floor, but somehow the Road Warriors have been allowed to get away with making a gimmick out of no-selling the most devastating move in professional wrestling so Hawk didn’t sell it. Making things even wackier, the actual timing of the referee throwing the match out occurred just as they were both finally getting in to the ring. The fans booed loudly.
They continued to brawl all over the place for a while. It was probably pretty wild for 1993 in the former AWA territory, but to me was just meh. They finally made their way back into the ring and Hawk hit Funk with a flying clothesline, then went for a pin, apparently not understanding that the bell having been rung pretty much repeatedly for the past few minutes is a sign that the match is over.

This was a fun little slice of history to watch, and was definitely worth the short (under two hours) run-time. I greatly enjoyed the very “real sports” presentation, and how they were able to maintain it even during wild brawls or when characters like The Tazmaniac and Nailz were running around. I found it interesting that Coralluzzo pretty clearly booked this show as if there was going to be follow-up, but as far as I can tell, there never was one. This show by itself is definitely worth you checking out if you just feeling like wanting something different from everything you see today.


STUPID ANNOUNCER QUOTES:
1. Mick Karch informed us that “photographers from all over the world are with us tonight, ladies and gentlemen. From Japan, from North Minneapolis; you’re not going to get any more diverse than that.

I mean… you could get more diverse than that if you added a third place in. Perhaps from one of the other continents that you didn’t mention. Someone from London or Cairo or Bogota, perhaps?
Hold #712: ARM BAR!

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NWK2000
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Re: BRM Reviews NWA Grandslam '93

Post by NWK2000 » Dec 7th, '18, 08:42

Big Red Machine wrote: Dec 6th, '18, 23:26

CHARLIE NORRIS & MASA SAITO vs. NAILZ & THE HATER- 4.5/10
I know what you’re thinking, but don’t get too excited. This Charlie Norris is an imposter. I’m sure the real Chuck Norris roundhouse-kicked his head off after the show.
This was pretty dully, but not actually bad. It was eight minutes worth of stuff stretched out over fifteen.


Charlie Norris was a WCW jobber in 1991-92 that was presented as a bootleg Tatanka
NWK Reviews is closed for business for now.

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