wrestling / Video Reviews

USWA Championship Wrestling (4.7.1990) Review

April 17, 2020 | Posted by Adam Nedeff
Mike Awesome USWA Championship Wrestling 4-7-1990
7.4
The 411 Rating
Community Grade
12345678910
Your Grade
Loading...
USWA Championship Wrestling (4.7.1990) Review  

-Amazon skips a few weeks, probably because the masters were recorded over for an hour-long episode of “ALF.”

-Originally aired April 7, 1990.

-Your host is Michael St. John.

-We go to Memphis, where Ronnie P. Gossett is throwing a fit because he’s been told he has to get in the ring and wrestle. Gossett says he doesn’t want to wrestle, and since I don’t want to see Ronnie P. Gossett in spandex, I’m kind of on his side. Gossett has brought out his man Big Lou Winston (and apparently it’s the peak of his career and he leaves the business forever later in the year) to step in the ring on his behalf.

-Eddie Marlin heads out and says Gossett’s barred from USWA if he doesn’t get his ass in the ring when match time rolls around.

-Jerry Lawler has words for Mike Awesome and Chris Champion, who tricked Lawler into signing a contract for a tag team match with Ronnie P. Gossett as his partner.

CHRIS CHAMPION vs. DON KELLY

-Slam and a clothesline by Champion. Champion has his hair tied into Cindy Brady-style braids now, and pretty much solely for that reason, the Dirty White Boys hit the ring with Ronnie P. Gossett, and the DWBs hold Champion down while Gossett does a series of fat guy splashes on him until finally the faces run out from the locker room to help. Great bit of added info from Dave Brown, who says he noticed a door was being held shut, which is why the faces couldn’t get there sooner. I have never heard a commentator bother to explain something like that before.

UNIFIED TITLE: JERRY “The King” LAWLER (Champion) vs. “Simply Irresistible” JEFF JARRETT

-We’re in the Sportatorium and apparently this is from one of the missing episodes, so that works nicely….Lawler enters the ring first and cuts a promo that lasts through Jarrett’s entire slow walk to the ring, and Marc Lowrence gives it that special Marc Lowrence touch by saying “I’ll just talk over this…” and covering up Lawler’s entire promo with his own musings.

-But wait a minute!!! Jeff Gaylord attacks Jarrett before he makes it in the ring. Faces run to ringside to check on Jarrett, who just isn’t moving, sprawled out on the floor, and Lawler is throwing a fit, demanding that the match be started. Jarrett prides himself on being a tough guy, he can take it! Start the match! Well, the match never starts, and Marc Lowrence summons an ambulance.

-Jeff Jarrett announces that, doctor’s orders, he has to take a little time off. And he’s sick to his stomach about it because that was his one title shot, and since Gaylord injured him, he’s missing his turn, essentially, and other contenders are moving ahead of him. He vows revenge for Jeff Gaylord…

-And out walks Skandar Akbar and Jeff Gaylord. Akbar insists they don’t want trouble and seems to be setting something up, but in a nice twist on the usual formula, when Akbar starts to talk, Jarrett just walks around him and starts a fistfight with Gaylord. Jarrett gets the upper hand and has Gaylord pinned on the ground, and he’s just laying into Gaylord. Great visual as Akbar tries to pull Jarrett off, but Jarrett is clinging onto Gaylord and beating on him so hard that Akbar just rips the clothes off Jarrett without Jarrett budging.

-We move onto later in the show, with Jeff Gaylord in a squash match when Jeff Jarrett emerges with new pants and the same fighting spirit. The brawl spills into the stands and we abruptly cut away because Dave Brown is now live in Memphis with Jeff Jarrett. Jarrett concedes he respects Lawler for all he’s accomplished, but he worked damn hard for that title shot and Jeff Gaylord took it away from him. Jarrett promises payback against Gaylord in their match coming up “this week” at one of several buildings in the Memphis territory.

-We head back to Memphis for what is apparently this week. Jeff Gaylord comes strutting out and sucker punches Jarrett, then rams him into the post. Jarrett is busted open. He forgets to sabotage the door like in the previous attack, so Bill Dundee heads out, and Gaylord unexpectedly just beats on Dundee for a bit and turns his focus back to Jarrett. The Southern Rockers head out next and NOW Gaylord turns and runs away, grabbing a chair for protection on his way out.

DIRTY WHITE BOYS (with Ronnie P. Gossett & Dirty White Girl) vs. BEN JORDAN & KEN RAPER

-Raper is looking to rebuild his standings after a humiliating loss in Evansville to The Masked MeToo. This incarnation of the Dirty White Boys is Tony Anthony and the freshly-pushed Alex Porteau. Jordan gets Porteau on the mat with a side headlock. Porteau escapes but gets dropkicked in the stomach by Jordan. Well…at least it looked good. Tony Anthony tags in and headbutts Jordan to take over. Jordan comes back with the dropkick and side headlock because they worked for him before.

-Jordan gets a near-fall and Anthony looks thrown off by how well the jobber is doing so he tags back out. Porteau gets caught in some dirty tactics…dirty white tactics to be specific, and a legdrop version of the decapitator finishes. Dirty White Girl still seems really annoyed and disgusted by Gossett’s presence at ringside.

“Simply Irresistible” JEFF JARRETT vs. LOU WINSTON (with Ronnie P. Gossett)

-Eddie Marlin asks everyone to be patient because Jeff Jarrett is in no condition to wrestle, so he’s headed backstage to rustle up a substitution…And Jeff Jarrett heads out with his head all bandaged up and he takes on Winston. That barely goes 30 seconds before Jeff Gaylord re-emerges and makes it a 2-on-1 attack. Bill Dundee comes out to even the sides and again, surprisingly, he’s just treated as a total jobber. Sweet Daddy Falcone and Darren Wise show up for no reason and mount a 2-on-1 attack on Dundee as the 2-on-1 attack on Jarrett continues. And once again, it’s the Southern Rockers that compel everyone to retreat.

-The Southern Rockers say it’s a little suspicious that the Dirty White Boys are doing business with a big fat sissy.

MIKE AWESOME (with Nathaniel Whitlock) vs. RADFERN TINDLE

-Nathaniel is the former Nate the Rat, the servant that Jerry Lawler fired and humiliated, now a babyface manager. Meanwhile, Amazon thinks the jobber’s name is “Redfern,” so pro-tip: If the promoter names you after a book about a pair of dead dogs, your career probably isn’t going to take off and you should look into truck driving school.

-King hammers away at Tindle as the Southern Rockers show up and say as long as stuff keeps breaking loose, they might as well stay out there, so they pledge to prevent outside interference for the rest of the show. Easy victory by Awesome, getting the pin in 42 seconds with a powerbomb.

T.D. STEELE vs. SWEET DADDY FALCONE (with “Dirty Deeds” Darren Wise)

-Falcone is hilariously miscast as an arrogant tough guy from New York and he just looks like anybody from the 1980s parade of mustached and mulleted WWF jobbers. In pink tights, like tough Italian guys in New York wear. Match barely gets started (which is the theme of this week’s episode) before Jeff Jarrett and Bill Dundee, both sporting blood stained bandages, come out and destroy the heels with trash cans and brooms. Not visible anywhere: The Southern Rockers. Way to neglect your sworn duties, guys.

-We’re “nearly out of time” (six minutes left in the show) but we join a Southern Rockers squash in progress, and because of all the shit that’s gone down this week, Dundee, Jarrett, Nathaniel, and Mike Awesome are surrounding the ring. Rockers dominate, and a double DDT finishes.

7.4
The final score: review Good
The 411
You don't see this very often: a single storyline that impacts every match for the entire hour. That's different and it's a lot of fun.
legend