Episode Nine: LWA Overdrive Emanating from Milwaukee, WI
The show cold opens to endgame footage of the most recent match in the world championship series between Backlund and Flair, this one taking place in Backlund’s backyard in Bloomington, MN. Referee Tommy Young has been bumped, and Flair has brought a chair into the ring. He holds it overhead and tries to bring it crashing down on Backlund’s head, but Backlund gets his arms up and grabs hold of the chair in mid-swing. He wrestles the chair away from Flair, takes a quick glance to see that Young is still down, and then rares back and waffles Flair with it three different times before tossing it out of the ring. Flair is out cold. Backlund covers, Tommy Young conveniently comes out of his coma, and comes over and makes the three-count. Backlund’s home crowd roars in approval as he gets on the board in the series and closes the gap to 2-1.
Mean Gene Okerlund Interviews Bob Backlund
Backlund comes out to a big pop. He says, “What can I say? Ric Flair was right. Sometimes you have to cut corners. Sometimes you have to fight fire with fire. And sometimes you have to knock a piece of trash like Ric Flair out by any means necessary when you know he would do the same thing to you in a heartbeat. You know Gene, something snapped inside of me last week when I saw him crowing about how the series was over, about what a relief it was for LWA officials to see that he would be the first champion instead of me. I realized I’d been naïve. I’m happy to fight a fair fight right down to the letter against a respectable human being, but Flair is not that. Never has been. I gave you a head start, Ric…but now I’m ready to do whatever it takes to bring you down.” Schiavone says, “Wow. Strong words from Bob Backlund. This series just got REALLY good…”
North American Champion Jerry “The King” Lawler v. Vulnerable Vince
During Lawler’s entrance, footage is shown from the same Bloomington house show of Bam Bam Bigelow defeating Ron Simmons in another match in the round robin to determine a new #1 contender to Lawler’s title. A graphic shows on the screen reflecting the following standings in the pool:
1. (1-0) Pedro Morales
1. (1-0) Bam Bam Bigelow
3. (0-1) Chief Jay Strongbow
3. (0-1) Ron Simmons
This is a basic squash match. During it, we get a PIP from Bigelow. “Jerry Lawler, I know that your heart dropped when you saw me win this past Saturday. You know that The Beast from the East is breathing down your neck and that you’re going to have to deal with the beating of a lifetime soon. No fluke victories this time, son.” Lawler closes out his match with a piledriver.
Winner: Jerry “The King” Lawler
A video clip of last week’s show is shown, wherein the Sheepherders interrupted the Eliminators’ title shot at the Steiners, looked like they cost them the belts, and left them a bloody mess in the ring.
The Sheepherders (w/ The Grand Wizard) v. Tommy Tryhard and “Hard to Watch” Jobby Walker
The Sheepherders’ crowd heat has been cranked up to 11 after last week. Bob Caudle notes that the Steiners are both recovering from injuries and were kept in the hospital in Charleston for precautionary reasons. They aren’t here tonight. The Herders make quick work of the enhancement talents, winning with a double gutbuster. The Grand Wizard enters the ring afterward, pompous as ever, with a microphone in hand. “Are you kidding me, Eliminators? First you get a complete fluke win over us to even get your first title shot, and then because you cry about the way that the Steiners spanked you once you got a title shot, you get another one? I don’t think so. The Sheepherders should be next in line for a shot at the titles, but we’re willing to wait for a little while on that. My men had so much fun beating the hell out of you last time that they decided that they just want to keep doing it for sport until you wave the white flag for good. Sweet dreams…and enjoy the hospital food, losers.”
Winners: The Sheepherders
Chief Jay Strongbow v. Tony Tapsalot
Chief Jay gives his own PIP promo during this match congratulating Pedro Morales on a great win against him last week, but assuring him that he’s going to be back in this race for the NA Title shot in a big way when he takes down Bam Bam Bigelow this week in St. Louis. Strongbow forces Mr. Tapsalot into submission with the Indian deathlock.
Winner: Chief Jay Strongbow
A house show is advertised for this coming week in St. Louis, Missouri, with the following card:
Ric Flair v. Lanny Poffo
Bob Backlund v. Danny Spivey
Jerry Lawler v. Pat Tanaka
(NA Title Round Robin) Bam Bam Bigelow v. Chief Jay Strongbow
Paul Orndorff v. King Tonga
The Steiner Brothers & Ron Simmons v. The Powers of Pain & Pedro Morales
Killer Kowalski v. Peter Maivia
“Superfly” Jimmy Snuka (w/ The Grand Wizard) v. Atlantic City Al
Snuka’s dominance over Peter Maivia in last week’s tag match with Tonga Kid against Maivia and Paul Orndorff is propped up. Caudle again says that he has seen a lot of Snuka in the northwest, and that this guy is going to be an absolute monster in the LWA. Snuka comes off the top with a superfly splash to end the match.
Winner: “Superfly” Jimmy Snuka
Mean Gene Okerlund Interviews the Steiner Brothers (w/ Sunny)
The Steiners hold their tag team titles up high and proud on the way to the ring. The fans are repulsed. Tony Schiavone says, “How can these two possibly be proud of the way they hung onto the belts last week? They were literally one second away from watching the Eliminators walk away as champions. This turns my stomach.” Sunny brags up her team and talks about how the Eliminators were the best that the company seemed to be able to throw at them, and that they failed not once now, but TWICE. Scott Steiner takes the mic and says, “Hey, I wish we had some actual competition in this company. I’m happy to be a tag team champion, but I’m afraid that this is going to get boring after a while…”
Music hits and interrupts:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9qFT1aKIgk
The Powers of Pain, Barbarian and the Warlord, emerge from the back in painted face and full costume. They stand at the end of the ramp, stare at the Steiners for a moment, and then charge to the ring. The Steiners and Sunny bail and take off through the crowd to get away as the Powers stand in the ring pointing and threatening at them. Schiavone: “I don’t think Scott Steiner has to worry too much about getting bored.”
NA Title Round Robin Match: Pedro Morales v. Ron Simmons (w/ Sunny)
Simmons comes to the ring with an especially angry/focused look on his face. Caudle mentions that Simmons is in a must-win situation now, as a loss tonight would eliminate him from the race to become the #1 contender. Morales is more and more over every week. Morales has his way with Simmons for a good chunk of the match, but makes a terrible mistake when he drops his head too far in advance for a back bodydrop and Simmons connects with a hard boot to the face. Simmons quickly capitalizes by picking up a vulnerable Morales and slamming him to the mat with the Dominator. As Schiavone says, “And out of absolutely nowhere, that’s all she wrote,” the referee counts to three.
Winner: Ron Simmons
Schiavone and Caudle say that they’re all out of time for this week, quickly plug this week’s St. Louis house show and encourage everyone in the area to go to it, then promptly sign off until next week’s episode of Overdrive.
Two Plus Two
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