We’re back to 1999 now, as we continue our recaps of the UWA’s efforts to get British wrestling back in the mainstream.
The show actually opened with a brief to-camera piece from Phil Powers, where it’s explained that this was recorded before Owen Hart passed away. I’m guessing there’s references to him and/or the Harts here, as the UWA passed on their condolences.
They replay footage from last week’s win for Christopher Daniels over Doug Williams, and from the titles, it’s over to Dan Berlinka in the studio. I’m kinda liking this format of handling blatantly pre-taped shows – almost a homage to the old World of Sport style without trying to insult us. Only problem, I can see this getting stale very quickly…
Berlinka talks up footage from after that Daniels/Williams match, with Doug and “Hot Stuff” Stevie Knight fighting in the locker room. They also tease an interview with Phil Powers, by having him standing next to UWA interviewer Jameelah as if they’re waiting for their cue, whilst we’re also meant to find out more about Dino Scarlo.
We go to that interview with Phil Powers, who’s called a strong contender for the TV title. Powers runs through some of the names in the tournament, but he’s interrupted by Mad Dog McPhie, as he and Jonny Storm attack Powers.
Ring announcer Paul Martin introduces L!VE TV personality Tiffani Bannister (a model who used to give financial news whilst stripping… welcome to British television in the late 90s!). Bannister is our ring announcer for this match, in the name of synergy! Except she doesn’t announce the names of 2 Far Gone’s opponents, instead saying “c’mon out boys!”
Mark this down as “When gimmicks don’t translate well” – in Canada, these two tagged as the All Knighters – Joey Knight and Robin Knightwing. Just to hammer home their country of origin, they came out with Canadian flags and dance around with them… oh dear. At least there’s no stock “Canada” laser show for them to use. By the way, this was where the Harts were mentioned, as the All Nighters were apparently trained in the Hart Dungeon.
2 Far Gone (Steve Morocco & Paul Tyrell) vs. All Nighters (Joey Knight & Robin Nightwing)
Apparently this match will go some way to determining who’s going to win the UWA tag titles – or at least get a future shot at them.
One of the All Nighters cartwheels out of a waistlock to take down both members of 2 Far Gone, before a pair of hiptosses take them down. None of the commentators know which is which, before a double baseball slide sends the Canadians to the floor. A quick Google search makes me think the bigger one is Robin Nightwing, so I’ll go with that.
Steve Morocco gets taken down with a double-team bulldog from the Canadians for a near-fall, before they dance and drop an elbow. Nightwing grabs a front facelock on Morocco, who fights out and delivers a short-arm clothesline. After a couple of suplexes, Morocco tags in Tyrell who flies in with an axehandle.
2 Far Gone front suplex each other onto Knightwing for a near-fall as we go to commercial… and when we come back, Knightwing hits a cannonball dive off the apron. More dives from Knight and Tyrell follow, before Nightwing takes a side slam/top rope elbow for the loss. Not much of a match, with the All Nighters looking totally out of place here. Which is saying something. 2 Far Gone drop the Canadians with extra shots, before throwing them to the floor for the hell of it. *¾
Back to Dan in the studio, as he throws back to footage of Phil Powers getting attacked earlier in the show. They acknowledge that Dino Scarlo broke up that attack, and show us that he was one of the “shadowy officials” during last week’s scrapyard match.
Berlinka breaks the news that Scarlo’s been abusing his powers and holding “scrapyard matches” for the financial gain of some “interested parties”. Had Scarlo been shown or even talked about prior to last week, that might have meant something, but unfortunately the newscaster-like announcement just lacked any impact.
Dan continued by claiming that Scarlo was getting “up and comers” to fight in these scrapyard matches to get a foothold in the business. Fair enough, I’m sure in 2016 there’s gullible fans falling for poor training!
Kenny McBride voices over a video of Dino Scarlo’s latest scrapyard bout, and we get footage of another “streetfight” of “Werra Letat” against “a martial arts expert, known only as Frank”. I guess they were pushed for time when kayfabing the expert’s name! Frank chokes Werra on the ground, before peppering him with a variety of kicks that missed… which all get replayed in slow-motion!
Letat uses a traffic cone… but Frank just kicks it away before being thrown into a piece of aluminium. Frank gets hit with a trash can a few times, before he cries uncle. Suddenly, that video segues into one with Alex Shane and Leon Murphy… Shane’s out of action because of a manicure action, so Murphy’ll be taking his place in the “streetfighting tournament”.
The video continues as McBride tells us that Murphy’s opponent didn’t appear, so instead he’s going to fight Scarlo himself. Murphy gutwrench suplexes Scarlo into that aluminium sheet, then tosses him onto a tarpaulin. An elbow drop is followed by a big splash on the top of a car, but Scarlo makes a comeback, throwing Murphy into some oil cans. Murphy accidentally hits a caravan when he aimed for Scarlo, and the match gets stopped due to “injury”. An interesting video package, but this seemed to be weird – why would the UWA air “full” streetfights if these weren’t sanctioned?
Anyway, back to Dan in the studio, who tells us that Dino Scarlo and Sorcha have been severely reprimanded for their streetfighting matches. Yeah… that’s a weak slap on the wrist, and a bad blow-off to this one-show storyline. We’re taken to Steve Lynskey in the studio, and his fake American accent is all over the place for his interview. Lynskey’s asked about Doug Williams’ loss last week, and we get more overacting and bad accents… yeah, he’s better off as a ref!
Back from break, we’re shown a recap of last week where Steve Lynskey pulled Doug Williams from his match with Stevie Knight. They take us back to Asortia (no caption yet, so I have no idea how the name’s spelled), and then to footage of the Williams/Daniels match.
After that, they finally give us the “new” footage of Williams and Knight brawling in the locker-room… and then more horrific American accents from Steve Lynskey. The video editing here was so 1990s, and not in a good way!
Next week’s show is apparently going to be a preview of the 10-man TV title tournament… that may be an easy one to recap!
Tiger Mask vs. Gran Naniwa
Naniwa throws Tiger Mask to the outside from the bell and then whips him into the guard railings. A chair’s picked up as Naniwa uses it on Tiger Mask, as we see a load of empty seats in the crowd en route to a commercial break.
Back from break, we see Naniwa in the ring taunting the crowd, before he chokes away at Tiger Mask in the corner. Naniwa chokes Tiger Mask across the top rope, and grounds the Tiger with an eye rake through the mask.
A headbutt to the groin rocks Tiger Mask, as does a legdrop to the same area, before Naniwa hangs up Tiger Mask in the Tree of Woe. Naniwa stands on the groin of the Tiger, before doing the same by crotching Tiger in the ringpost. Another bodyslam from Naniwa leads to the rope-walk elbow drop, but the referee refuses to count the pin.
Naniwa goes outside for his chair from earlier, and uses it in the ring, before dropping Tiger Mask with an Ace crusher onto the chair. That only gets a two-count (and no DQ), before Naniwa uses the chair again, but he misses and gets it dropkicked into his head.
Tiger Mask makes a comeback with a kick in the corner, before some more kicks sent Naniwa out of the ring. We see an attempt at a Space Flying Tiger Drop, but Naniwa cuts it off with a forearm, and then lands a missile dropkick to take Tiger Mask to the floor. An Asai moonsault misses, as Tiger Mask whips Naniwa into the guard rails.
Back in the ring, Tiger Mask tries to suplex Naniwa back in… a German suplex sees Tiger land on his feet, only to dropkick Naniwa back to the floor. Tiger Mask goes up top and connects with a flying cross body to the floor. Naniwa gets a drink from the crowd, then returns to the ring, only to get caught in a belly-to-belly suplex off the ropes… but the bell rings as the ten minute time limit expires. The crowd chants for five more minutes, but they don’t get that… and so we’re left with an uninspiring draw.
If they’d not done that first half of taunting the crowd and stalling, this could have been something decent. They didn’t, so we just ended with a 2-3 minute good match tacked onto something that was unremarkable. **
That’s all for this week’s show – not exactly a blow-way episode, but with the TV title tournament to build up to, you could understand why the undercard from that show didn’t get as much attention as it perhaps should have.