WCW World Championship Wrestling, Atlanta, GA
Whenever left to my own devices I have a habit of defaulting to early 90s WCW or Coliseum Video matches or some shit, so here we are. I AM still taking requests and they WILL be helping me pay off an emergency dentist bill. (I won’t, like, lose my home or anything, I don’t want to be too dramatic because basically I am OK, but it was a hit I did not plan on, as most hits are.)
So here’s Brian Pillman and Cactus Jack at Center Stage!
(Requests open and tips always appreciated!)
Flyin’ is the WCW light heavyweight champion but obviously that’s not on the line here as Jack is not 235 or under. But Pillman is also a fighter historically, loves to mix it up and get physical, and Ross notes that Brian has “been a fighter all his life.”
“He may about 220, but he thinks he’s a lot bigger than that.”
Tentative start, Jack gets the first real shots in with some rights over the upper back. Whip reversed, but Pillman gets backdropped to the apron, where he springboards in with a terrible dropkick. Back in the ring, Jack fishhooking and squealing like he enjoys doing. Now biting in the corner!
Pillman kips up over Cactus in one corner, then the other and headscissors Jack to the floor, and zips through the ropes with a much better dropkick. Now they’re on the floor and fighting. Jack sends Pillman into the apron, but Brian hits a back suplay on the floor and a big dive from the crowd!
Pillman getting back to his roots, laying in some hard chops, smacking Jack’s head off the apron. Suplay attempt from Pillman trying to get Cactus back in the ring, but Jack counters and Pillman is sent over to the floor! Not quite how you’re imagining it, but for 1991 this is wild, and Pillman gets elbowed off the apron and into the guardrail!
Cactus rolls Flyin’ back into the ring and goes up top himself, but Pillman catches him flying with a dropkick. Pillman up top now, but Jack falls back into the ropes and knocks Pillman out to the floor, where Jack hits the Cactus elbow!
Jack squealing on the apron as he figures out how to maybe piledrive Pillman through the ropes, and then we get this as the finish:
Pillman wins it there.
There is some really wild stuff in this match, they don’t get much time to make it more than an amusing time-filler, but they made something out of their few minutes anyway. That is basically all you can ask. I realize I’m giving this a three and gave Cole-Gargano III a two just yesterday, but again, it’s not star ratings, and I am not Dave Meltzer who thinks these things are quantifiable. I take matches as they are on their terms, or try to. Cole-Gargano wanted to be an incredible 46-minute epic and left me feeling nothing despite incredible effort. Pillman-Cactus has nowhere near the ambition and connects about as well as they had the chance to. It’s the same as rating movies or whatever for me. A lot more professional craft of various type went into the third Ant-Man than into the 1984 exploitation-vigilante movie Alley Cat, but I will tell you and mean it that Alley Cat is better because it basically achieved its goals, and Quantumania did not.
Tape Machines Are Rolling 