Steve Austin Legacy DVD Review

http://www.angrymarks.com/news/View.php?ArticleID=2946

Written by Stevie J.

EXTRACT ....

Steve Austin found his singles push derailed though when Dusty put him in a tag team with Brian Pillman, which Austin was not happy about at first. Austin says that as time went on and they drove down the road together working shows "things started to click" and that they enjoyed making each other laugh. Pillman eventually decided they should be called the Hollywood Blonds and the name stuck. This leads to our first wrestling match of the whole DVD set.

* Hollywood Blonds (C) vs. Dos Hombres (WCW Tag Team Championship steel cage match)

This match is from WCW's Slamboree PPV on May 23rd, 1993. I don't know if Dos Hombres always wrestled under a mask but it's to WCW's benefit here as they had to fool people into thinking Ricky Steamboat and Shane Douglas were the challengers. Douglas had been fired before the PPV though so Tom Zenk took his place under the mask. Tony Schiavone and Larry Zbyszko even argue they don't know who is Douglas and who is Steamboat due to the masks during the match, and it's all a little absurd because Schiavone then contradicts this by saying he can tell Steamboat is the one wrestling Austin because of his knife-edge chops. The Blonds were a good team and the wrestling here is just fine but I'm not convinced this is the best example of Austin's tag team days they could have included. I do like some of the spots in the match, such as Austin being from the top of the cage like a tree of woe, but manages to escape just before his opponent rams into the fence. Another good spot is when Steamboat takes his mask off just before going to the top of the cage where he does a flying crossbody onto both Austin and Pillman. The Blonds retain when Austin pins Zenk off a Stun Gun and in the words of 'Super Chico' Bryan Alvarez, "This was fine." WINNERS AND STILL WCW TAG TEAM CHAMPS: THE HOLLYWOOD BLONDS.

Personally I think I would have preferred if they had put the career bio and the matches in seperate places, but I realize that probably would have been too much like other Austin releases such as "The Stone Cold Story." Austin talks about how much fun he and Pillman were having together and how over they got with their antics. Unfortunately in the whacky world of pro wrestling "getting over" is often the OPPOSITE of what a promoter wants you to do. Instead of being happy that you were successful in connecting with the crowd the promoter gets upset that a "mid-card act" or "filler team" is more popular than the established veterans or the guys at the top of the card. As a result WCW forced Austin and Pillman to split up, which meant they had to have a feud once the team ended.

11-11-2009,
TheDarkOne


I always wonder what Raw and the E would be like under different management. The great Tom Zenk used to talk at length about this and watching last night's episode made me think of this.
I don't think the program is unwatchable from week to week, but they suffer from using the same tired bits and turns. I wouldn't mind seeing some of the younger talent get wins over DX for example but under the current state of affairs I don't see it happening unless it's a build to another pay per view where the good guy eventually wins. I think the show suffers most from not having a consistent heel champion. Every time Orton gains moment the Champ shows up. It would be great to see Orton, Jericho, and possibly a few others create a stable that would be unstoppable by any of the faces but so many of the heels have been made to look so weak it would be a hard sell.

Vindictive booking.....

A Column by Derek K. for OWW on well regarded workers like SD Jones brought the following response from Harvey McCarthy. McCarthy's piece in turn raises the question - "If it's the job of the booker to fill arenas, why do some bookers downcard wrestlers with huge fan followings?" The answer, according to Dusty Rhodes - "vindictive booking."

"Harvey McCarthy wrote: ......I don’t think wrestling fans today appreciate what we had in the 1980s. I remember when Jim Powers and Paul Roma were repackaged into winners. They had a reverse decision over the Harts with the help of Mr. T. It was the start of the Young Stallions. Unfortunately, those two men didn’t get along and Vince broke them up. How about when PJ Walker pinned Mike Rotundo on Raw? He became Aldo Montoya not long afterwards. The fact that the “upset” could happen kept us tuned in through out all the other squash matches. Eventually, wrestling switched from pure jobbers to guys that promotions, especially WCW, wanted to bury. Tom Zenk is the best example of someone who many fans consider a jobber because of the way his career ended. He was brought into WCW to be a star. According to online interviews, he was supposed to have been a top five babyface. In the end, he was used to make other guys look good. Ironically, like Lanny Poffo in the WWF, they both started at the top of the card, but ended at the bottom when the bookers changed. Zenk, like Poffo, made good money but their careers stalled when they became “Jobbers to the Stars.” Oddly enough, like SD Jones and Iron Mike Sharpe, they had huge fan followings. Now, wrestling seems to be the same guys recycled over and over again. Why would I care that John Cena is going to face Shawn Michaels at Summer Slam, for example, when they have wrestled 20 times on TV already this year?"

Ric Flair and the WCW title Debut on WWE TV

September 09, 2009 By: Eric Gargiulo

Ric Flair and the WWE made pro wrestling history 18 years ago today. On September 9, 1991 Ric Flair debuted on WWE Prime Time Wrestling with the WCW title. Flair did the unthinkable, leaving WCW without dropping the title and bringing it to the rival. Now you know why Vince McMahon was so afraid of Bret Hart jumping to WCW with the belt?

This was truly a top ten moment in the history of pro wrestling. I remember thinking at the time that it was the greatest thing I had ever seen as a wrestling fan. For years, the Dream Match between Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair had been talked about. Finally, it would happen. On top of that, Flair never dropped the WCW belt and brought it with him. It didn’t get any better for a wrestling fan in 1990.

There was never and probably never will be another moment like this in my lifetime. For one, there is no WWE competition at the level of a Ric Flair in 1990 to steal. Secondly, there are so many legal ramifications in this generation that nobody is going to risk such an act. This was truly one of the last outlaw moments in pro wrestling.

Not everyone was excited about this moment. I talked to several WCW wrestlers at the time who were very angry. Tom Zenk who wrestled as the Z Man in WCW at the time was one of those wrestlers. A lot of the WCW wrestlers took it as a personal slap in the face by Ric Flair. Even one of Flair’s best friends, Barry Windham recently told me that he still hasn’t completely forgiven Flair for what he did in 1990 with the WCW belt. As a WCW wrestler, it didn’t get any more personal than this. Scott Steiner is another WCW wrestler at the time who continues to express bitterness over Flair’s jump.

The story has been told several times by Ric Flair. Flair’s side of the story is that he and WCW executive Jim Herd were constantly at odds. Both were in the middle of a contract negotiation. Herd demanded that Flair drop the belt to Barry Windham. Flair hung up on him and refused. Flair called Vince McMahon, made a deal, and took the belt with him.

It was expected that Flair and Hogan would break records. For whatever reason, Flair was a flop in New York. Former WWE office employee J.J. Dillon has written in his book about the fact that the match didn’t draw and bombed at the box office. In an unheard of move at the time, the WWE canceled their planned WrestleMania main-event of Hogan and Flair a few weeks before the show because of this. The buzz was there, but WWE fans weren’t buying the Nature Boy’s act.

Flair would leave the WWE only a few years after joining the company. Flair returned to WCW amidst controversy. In retrospect, it is quite shocking that Flair was allowed to come back to the company. Flair refused to drop the belt and brought it to the competition with intentions of putting WCW out of business. This wasn’t business for Flair, it was personal. Eric Bischoff was one of the few guys to recognize this and gets a lot of heat today for disrespecting Flair. In hindsight, did Flair deserve anything less?

It is funny to me in looking back on this story. Flair has done a lot of interviews criticizing guys like Hulk Hogan, Dusty Rhodes, and Bruno Sammartino. Flair is first to point out a guy like Lex Luger or Bret Hart for disrespecting the business he professes to love so much. At the same time, none of these guys ever performed such an egregious act in the business as Ric Flair.

Vince McMahon is another one who has dirty hands in this mess. The whole idea behind the screwing of Bret Hart was to prevent him from leaving as champion and taking the belt to WCW. Unlike Flair, Hart had too much class to do something like that. I truly believe him when he says he wouldn’t do it. Someone growing up in a wrestling family at that time in the business would never dream of such a thing. People wonder where Vince McMahon even got the idea of a screw job. It is easy, Vince was scared of retribution!

Happy Anniversary Ric Flair!

RE-EVALUATING THE CHAMP PART II

Top 25 matches from .....

NWA/WCW Power Hour 1990

Three WCW fans provide their take on the top 25 matches shown on WCW Power Hour in 1990. Zenk's name appears 5 times in the top 10 - something of an achievement given the boys are neither independent thinkers nor Z-fans. Though begrudging in their praise, the numbers do not lie and the re- evaluation continues.....

Top 25
(1) Midnight Express v. Brian Pillman/ Tom Zenk (04/20)- 70 pts
(2) Sting, Ric Flair, Arn Anderson v. Great Muta, Buzz Sawyer, Dragon Master (01/26/)- 68 pts
(3) Arn Anderson v. Great Muta (01/12)- 64pts
(4) Steiner Brothers v. Doom (03/30)- 54 pts
(5) Ric Flair v. Tom Zenk (02/02)- 49 pts
(6) Road Warriors v. Doom (02/23)- 41 pts
(7) Doom v. Tom Zenk/ Brian Pillman (06/16)- 40 pts
(8) Brian Pillman/ Tom Zenk v. Samu/ Joel Deaton (05/04)- 39 pts
(9) Tom Zenk v. Galaxian II (01/05)- 34 pts
(10) Ric Flair v. Tommy Rich (03/09)- 33 pts
(11) Midnight Express v. Lightning Express (08/31)- 32 pts
(12) Cactus Jack v. Eddie Gilbert (03/23)- 29 pts
(13) Rock n' Roll Express v. Doom (07/01)- 28 pts
(14) Ric Flair/ Arn Anderson v. Tim Horner/ Mike Rotunda (10/26)- 25 pts
(15) Brian Pillman v. Tim Horner (09/14)- 24 pts
(16) Freebirds v. Southern Boys (06/23)- 19 pts
(17) Ric Flair v. Robert Gibson (04/06)- 18 pts
(18) Midnight Express v. Tom Zenk/ Brian Pillman (06/09)- 17 pts
(19) Scott Steiner v. Ron Simmons (04/27)- 17 pts
(20) Michael Hayes v. Tracey Smothers (07/14)- 17 pts
(21) Tommy Rich/ Tim Horner v. State Patrol (07/07)- 17 pts
(22) Midnight Express v. Tommy Rich/ Tim Horner (07/22)- 16 pts
(23) Ric Flair v. Eddie Gilbert (01/12)- 16 pts
(24) Arn Anderson v. Buzz Sawyer (01/19)- 15 pts
(25) Bobby Eaton v. Tracey Smothers (09/28)- 15 pts

Part 1


Part 2


Part 3

Tom Zenk and Lee Scott

Lee Scott is my older brother; amazed there is anything on Youtube for him - he mainly wrestled in the Independents. He said that Muta was the most pure athlete he ever worked with or seen in any capacity. Lee suffered a fractured rib in a match with Tom Zenk (ironically, in the short time that he was there, Tom was one of the people he socialised with most) Lee found his contract had been cancelled while he was on the sidelines.