Florida is quickly becoming one of my favorite territories to watch. This match was pretty typical of any promotion of the time with top name guys going against low-card or no-name guys. Bob Roop did guest commentary for the bouts and compared Ports to Billy Robinson. I find that rather laughable because I saw a Robinson match from late-70s AWA last year that made this look terrible. The Ortons won ... as if you couldn't have guessed.
2) Kevin Von Erich, Kerry Von Erich, & David Von Erich vs. Wild Bill Irwin, Frank Dusek, & Ten Gu – 4
Glad to see some World Class made it on here. This was a rather unique six-man tag because it featured two rings. The rules were two guys would fight per ring and the odd men out would stand on the apron between the rings and could tag in at any time in any ring. The action was hard to follow at times but the concept was very original. Again, the outcome was slightly predictable with the Von Erich’s coming out on top.
3) Blackjack Mulligan & Blackjack Mulligan Jr. vs. Ricky Harris & Jim Nelson – 4
What’s with the squash matches! This bout was preceded by an three-minute long and pretty damn boring interview from both Mulligans by Bob Caudle. Mulligan Jr. is a very young Barry Windham. The match was nothing memorable and was yet another squash match.
4) Jack & Gerald Brisco vs. Ricky Steamboat & Jay Youngblood – 6
This is some classic shit right here. For those of you who only remember Gerald Brisco from his stint as a McMahon lackey in the late-90’s, the you’re missing out. This was a big moment in the careers of Steamboat and Youngblood who were the eventual victors. This featured classic chain wrestling and is an essential match for anyone who wants to see what classic tag team wrestling looks like.
5) Hector, Chavo, & Mando Guerrero vs. Mike Enos, Krusher Krugnoff, & Tom Burton – 5
This was basically a showcase match for the Guerreros. The only notable name from the opposition is Mike Enos would would go on to have a decent career in both WWF and WCW. This ran a little bit long but was ahead of its time for the moves presented from the Guerreros. Still, a suprisingly decent match, especially for late-80s AWA.
6) Bret, Owen, Keith, & Bruce Hart vs. Shawn Michaels & The Knights – Elimination Match – 5
What’s up with all these pre-match interviews? We get Ray Combs interviewing the Harts since this is apparently a “family feud” match. Then, the highly annoying Todd Pettengill interviews Michaels, and then Combs is back to do extended ring intros. Michaels is a sub for Jerry Lawler, who was apparently engaging in promiscuous activites, and the Knights and Greg Valentine, Barry Horowitz, and Jeff Gaylord. The match itself was really nothing of note and only served to plant the seeds for the Bret/Owen fued that would last through the summer of 1994.
7) Dusty Rhodes & Dustin Rhodes vs. Terry Funk & Bunkhouse Buck – 5
The crowd was hot for Dusty. It was pretty cool to see Dusty and Funk lock up but that was about the only good quality here. This was a set-up for the Fall Brawl 94 main event and featured Arn Anderson running in and Meng no-selling a chair shot. The hot crowd helped the bout tremendously otherwise the score would’ve been shit.
8) Terry Funk & Dory Funk Jr. vs. The Public Enemy – 3
Typical early ECW brawl with one camera angle and Joey Styles doing voice-over commentary. To my knowledge, this was the first time Terry and Dory teamed up since they were in the WWF in the mid-80s. There was sloppy brawling, sloppy chair shots, sloppy spots, but thankfully, at least to my knowledge, no sloppy seconds.
9) Rocky Maivia vs. The Sultan – 5
I bet you’re thinking the same thing … what in the world is this doing on here? Well, before you start pulling your hair out, allow me to elaborate on this hidden gem. Granted, this didn’t get a recommended rating (6 or above), this was still a damn fun match. It’s not everyday you get to see a Sultan. Anyway, Rocky wins from out of nowhere and then gets a three-on-one beatdown from Sheik, Sultan, and Backlund. Then comes Rocky Johnson (Maivia’s dad) to clean house with his son and save the day. Now that you know why this is on here, let’s move on.
10) Jerry Lawler & Brian Christopher vs. Ivan & Scott Putski – 4
The youngsters did most of the work here … actually, to be honest, Ivan didn’t do shit until the end when he came in to score the pin. Other than that, nothing of note.
11) Eddie & Chavo Guerrero vs. Shelton Benjamin & Charlie Haas – 6
Again the Guerreros are featured, this time in a fun tag match from a long-forgotten Smackdown episode. While pretty standard for the time, this gets a recommended rating mainly because the tag team division on both brands are pretty much dead right now. This was also Chavo’s return from a bicep injury. The Guerreros win the belts but would eventually lose them to the Bashams.
12) Randy Orton vs. The Undertaker – 6
The story of this one is Orton wanting revenge on Taker for beating him at WrestleMania 21. A solid contest but a run-in from Bob Orton, dressed in disguise as a fan, and the fact that this feud ran for damn near a year prevented any higher scoring.
Aside from the rareness of the matches on here, I can’t really say that you should go out of your way to get this. There were some good and some bad matches but nothing that can’t be found with a little digging on the internet. The only thing that would really warrant this purchase would be the Briscoes vs. Steamboat/Youngblood match. The main feature really wasn’t that great either. Basically, this is one DVD that can be skipped.
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