NWA Pro Wrestling, Miami, FL
Pillman and Z-Man are your defending NWA United States tag team champions. The Samoans here are Fatu and Samoan Savage, who was formerly known as Tonga Kid, and not Fatu and Samu.
“This combination of all-action youngsters will be a force to be reckoned with in tag team wrestling in the neon 90s,” says 8-year-old TAPE of Pillman and Zenk.
Lance Russell and Jimmy Garvin are on commentary here. What a duo. There’s a lot of crowd work to start, a couple minutes worth. Because of all that crowd work, the fans are reacting big to basically anything. They pop for Z-Man ducking a right hand from Fatu that hits Samoan Savage in the corner. This sets the Samoans off fighting each other, but then they stop and hug because the crowd like it too much. I will leave out the fans’ problematic follow-up chant but it’s what you can probably guess.
Pillman takes a beating, hot tag to Zenk, Zenk takes a beating. Samoans are a solid tag team, unique in style, which is what this late 80s/early 90s WCW tag division really boasted. Loads of teams with different styles. Lads, we’ve got a NERVEHOLD. Zenk gets out of that but takes more shots and then it’s back to the NERVEHOLD. Goddamn we love a NERVEHOLD. Z-Man sells the shit out of it, too, big facial expressions and some subtle twitching in his upper body.
They do a fake-out hot tag, another thing you rarely see anymore because so little of wrestling is about engaging the crowd anymore, making them actually feel things or want to see things. Left to their own devices, they either don’t react or react the “wrong” way, which gets other people all pissy, but have you MET wrestling fans? Of course they don’t know how to act.
Savage misses a flying splash — the Headshrinker finisher, if you’re more familiar with that, where the other Samoan stands in the corner but doesn’t actually do anything, but it’s a “tag team move” — and Zenk makes the hot tag. Pillman is all fire, crowd going wild. But once again the tide turns, and Pillman gets thrown over the top for the automatic DQ.
This is mostly good stuff. The Samoans were a little clunky at times and Zenk was never the most compelling guy, the the better moments carry it through and Pillman adds a lot. Crowd’s fired up because they got them there, worth watching.
Tape Machines Are Rolling 
You must be logged in to post a comment.