Winter Challenge 2 1991-03-02 at Penn Hall in Philadelphia, Pa
Champion: DC Drake
Joel Goodhart is out to hype the crowd and then the kid from last show sings “God Bless America”.
“Sweet” Stan Lane (w/ Jim Cornette) vs. “Latin Heartthrob” Al Perez, ref John Finnegan
This match is being dubbed the Battle of the Sex Gods. Lane gets pyro and a huge pop! Cornette grabs the mic but before he can get two words out Perez’s music hits. Goodhart is pissed. Cornette now on the mic and tells Perez they are hiring at Taco Bell. I’m a huge fan of both these guys so hopefully they don’t phone it in here. Perez with a hip toss and Lane goes to the floor and says that he bangs more women in a week than Perez does all year and he better stop pulling his hair and tights. Lane goes to work on the arm. Criss cross and Perez bails to the floor chases Cornette in the ring and he and Lane crash. Both men trying to play the face in the match but then fans are more behind Lane. Perez with a chin lock but Lane able to back him into a corner where Cornette nails him with the tennis racket behind the refs back. Lane with some karate now and he dumps Perez to the floor. Corny of course gets in some shots. Lane pulls something from his tight and chokes Perez with it. Perez tries to fight back but Lane with a swinging neck breaker. Lane puts on the chin lock but the crowd starts to chant boring so he immediately lets it go and gets back to some action. Lane misses a corner charge and Perez fires up. Perez nails a flying elbow smash and gets 2. He goes for it again but Lane ducks and Perez goes flying over the rope to the apron. Cornette jumps up on the apron and throws his racket to Lane. Lane misses and when he goes to pick it up Perez pins him with a sunset flip for the victory in 13.05. After the match Lane and Cornette attack with the racket to another big pop.
Ringmaster Rumble
Refs are John Finnegan, Joe Zanolle & Jim Molineaux Basically just a Royal Rumble. Winners gets a title match later tonight! Glenn Osbourne and Johnny O start off for the first two minute period. Jimmy Jannetty is out next and he goes right after Osbourne. It will be 60 seconds in-between entrances going forward. Out comes Hoss next who is billed at 400 pounds he crushes O with a belly to belly suplex. Rockin’ Rebel hits the ring next as Hoss tosses Barry O. Rebel with his shitty bulldog onto Osbourne. Crybaby Waldo is out next and he goes right to the other big man. Rebel gets rid of Osbourne. The big men slam each other. Hoss charges Rebel but Rebel ducks and pulls down the rope eliminating Hoss. Crowd is mad about that one. CN Redd comes out now. They are keeping it at 4 guys at a time as each time someone comes out a guy gets tossed. Ghetto Blaster is out now. He comes in and tosses Jannetty. Rebel with a piledriver on Redd. Mr. Sandman is out and he nails Jannetty in the aisle with a clothesline. Rebel clotheslines both Redd and Sandman. “Hacksaw” Larry Winters is out next. The fans really give him shit. Sandman with the worst looking swinging neck breaker ever on Rebel. Pretty sure they were equally at fault. Sabu hits the ring and goes after Sandman. Ghetto Blaster gets tossed off screen. Winters and Rebel of course beating on each other. Bulldog Brower Jr. is out and he starts getting his ass kicked right away. JT Smith goes right after Sandman. Bulldog Brower and Larry Winters toss each other. Wildchild comes out and goes after Crybaby Waldo. Sabu is gone also. He may have gone out with Winters and Brower. Wildchild tossed by Waldo. Rick Perez comes out now. This dude looks so much like Al Perez which I’m guessing is where he got his name. John Rock, no relation to the DC Comics character comes out next. “Hitman” Michael Bruno comes out and he looks about 50 years older then he did at the last show. Waldo is out. Bruno and Rebel toss out Perez. Don E Allen comes out. John Rock is out and the six men in the ring are Rebel, Redd, Bruno, Allen, Sandman and Smith. One of these men will get a title shot later tonight. My money is on Rebel. Redd charges Rebel but misses and goes out of the ring. Allen gets rid of Bruno. Rebel says bye by to Allen. Rebel with a spine buster on Sandman. Rebel goes up top but Allen jumps on the apron and nails him with a chair sending him to the floor. Smith and Sandman are left. Sandman with a slam and then he chokes Smith. Smith comes back with a big back body drop and gut wrench suplex and then he goes for the pin. Idiot. Sandman with a corner whip and clothesline. Sandman with a shitty dropkick and now HE goes for the pin. IDIOT! Sunset slip attempt by Smith. HELLO. Smith with a small package. Sandman goes for a power bomb but Smith flips over the back lands on his feet and clotheslines Sandman out of the ring! Smith gets the title match later tonight. Time of the Rumble was 24.48.
Russian Chain Match: Ivan Koloff vs. Manny Fernandez, ref Joe Zanolle
Nikita Koloff comes to the ring Nikita cuts a promo talking shit about Lex Luger and then leaves. This shit is gonna SUCK. Nikita comes back out after about two minutes of the match. Ivan cut open pretty early on also. They beat on each other and Manny gets 3 buckles but then Ivan pulls on the chain and Manny hits the ref. Nikita up on the apron and he nails Manny with the russian sickle. Ivan gets up hits 3 turnbuckles and the ref calls for the bell in 9.17. Ok so they need to stop doing chain matches because the refs can’t fucking count. That or Ivan was cheating because the ref was sorta still out of it when he was touching the buckles and he hit the first one that cut diagonally across the ring skipping over the second buckle. Match was not bad like I thought it would be. If the finish was Ivan cheating, which I’m fairly certain it was then it was awesome.
Falls Count Anywhere: Cactus Jack vs. “Hotstuff” Eddie Gilbert (w/ Veronica), ref John Finnegan
Fans are hyped up for this match. Pyro for Gilbert. Gilbert wins the slugfest early on and then they spill to the floor. They fight into the crowd and Gilbert throws Cactus into a table. They fight back into the crowd but the camera doesn’t really keep up with them so we miss a lot. Eddie is busted open. Jack gets a near fall in the front row. Cactus goes for a piledriver through a table but Gilbert back drops him and throws the table into the ring. Gilbert drives Jack into the table. Back to the floor and Jack with a back breaker and elbow off the apron for 2. Jack charges and gets the hot shot on the guard rail for 2. Jack with a sunset flip off the apron for 2. Back in the ring we get a double clothesline. Veronica throws in her purse but Jack catches it instead and nails Gilbert and gets the pin in 12.22. Gilbert immediately attacks and drops Jack with a piledriver. Gilbert gets on the mic and riles up the crowd.
The Sheik (w/ Bulldog Brower) vs. Abdullah the Butcher, ref John Finnegan
Sheik wears the old Detroit U.S. Title to the ring. Sheik attacks as Abby claims into the ring. Abby is bleeding about .3 seconds into the match. They brawl and stab each other with weapons. DQ in 4.57 after both men push the ref down. Big pull apart brawl afterwards as the fight goes on for like double the length of the actual match. Abby beats up Goodhart in the aisle.
Barbed Wire Match: Johnny Hotbody vs. Tony “Hitman” Stetson, ref Jim Molineaux
Hotbody attacks as Stetson gets into the ring. Looks like there’s just one strand of wire wrapped between the top and middle rope. Hotbody hits a nice looking piledriver. Stetson gets his face shoved into the wire. Hotbody goes under the ring for a piece of left over wire. He wraps it around the forehead of Stetson. Stetson is a bloody mess. Hotbody taunts and gives Stetson lots of time to recover. Stetson uses the piece of wire on Hotbody now digging it into his head and cutting him. Stetson the brings Hotbody over to the ropes and cuts up his arm with the wire. It looked Stetson may have been blading Hotbody’s arm for him. That’s gross. Stetson now chokes Hotbody with the wire. Stetson brings Hotbody to the center of the ring and school boys him for the win in 10.33. What a weird fucking finish. Like you didn’t want to hit him with your finisher or anything you went with a school boy?
Champion “Mad Dog” DC Drake (w/ Woman & Don E Allen) vs. JT Smith, ref Joe Zanolle
Drake and gang take FOREVER to get to the ring. Like Sandman lengths. Fans seem about ready to riot as Drake spends the first 4 minutes on the floor firing them up. Drake finally into the ring and Woman distracts Smith allowing Drake the sneak attack. Smith thrown to the floor and Drake beats on him outside the ring. Drake in control for the next few minutes as he works over Smith’s arm. Smith hits a clothesline to mount a comeback. Suplex by Smith for 2. Drake cuts Smith off and goes back to work on the arm. Drake with a powerslam for 2. Smith has a come back but the fans don’t care that much. They are more anti Drake then they are pro Smith. To the floor they go. Smith comes off the top ropes onto Drake in the aisle way. Back in the ring Smith with a sleep. I smell a ref bump! Allen gets up on the apron and the ref goes to get him down. Here it comes! Drake forces Smith into the ref and he crashes to the floor. Smith with a gut wrench and northern lights that almost kills Drake. Larry Winters comes out from under the right in a ref shirt and counts Smith the winner in 18.24. I thought Winters was heel and not also not a rer? Winters raises the hand of Smith and then attacks him. Shouldn’t he have known that was coming? They beat the crap out of Smith dropping him with a spike piledriver on a chair and hanging him over the ropes with a chain. Official decision ends up being Smith winning by DQ due to the interference. Smith continues to get his ass kicked until Rockin’ Rebel and Jimmy Jannetty come out to chase everyone away. Drake and gang celebrate in the aisle way and really hear it from the fans. Smith eventually gets up and goes after Drake with Rebel going after Winters. Jannetty shows up also everybody brawls again. Jannetty, Smith and Rebel all get laid out again. Match went to long but a really good brawl at the end and man could Drake really get a crowd to hate him.
Audience Lumberjack Match: Terry Fuck (w/ Bulldog Brower) vs. Jerry “The King” Lawler, ref John Finnegan
Funk on the mic with Goodhart. Funk shit talks the fans. Brower holds some belt for Funk. “Lawler sucks” chant goes up. Lawler and Funk both stale by talking to the fans. The lumberjacks throw Funk back into the ring. Both guys keep leaving the ring to yell at fans and they keep getting thrown back in. Funk with a piledirver for 2. Lawler takes over and doesn’t do much besides punch Funk. Funk ends up nailing the clubbing the ref in the back and throwing Lawler to the floor. Funk takes the belt off the ref and chokes Lawler with it over the rope. Funk trying to jump out of the ring but the audience lumberjacks keep pushing him back. Funk finally gets out and goes after a fan. Funk chokes a fan with the belt now. The bell rings at 11.37. Funk and Brower continue to attack Lawler. Funk goes after the fans and Lawler briefly gets a shot on Brower before Funk pulls him from the ring. Lawler and Funk threaten to throw chairs at each other and stuff and basically waste a ton of time just like they did last time. We get the official decision and Lawler wins by DQ. Lawler makes racial remarks to a black fan. Dick.
Pat Benatar’s “Hit Me with Your Best Shot” plays over a highlight video off the show.
My thoughts on the show…
Easily my favorite of the four shows so far. Solid from top to bottom with nothing that was putting me to sleep and even a few things that had me excited.
