World Wrestling Allstars 2002
Note: This report was originally written exclusively for the Wrestling Observer website
12/8 WWA in Belfast
Odyssey Arena
Report by Stewart Allen of Pro Wrestling Press (http://pwpress.hypermart.net)
I arrived at the arena early. Way too early, as it happened… since the talent had not arrived yet. Using my pass, I wandered into the main section of the Odyssey Arena and had a seat as the stagehands set up the ring and safety barriers. Oh well…
After a while, and a wander around the backstage area… where I saw single dressing rooms marked out for Sting and Luger, and a shared dressing room for Disco Inferno & Perry Saturn, I came across the current NWA World Champion Jeff Jarrett and NWA: TNA ring announcer Jeremy Borash recording a short interview for broadcast on TNA’s “Explosion” show. Jarrett’s a confident promo man and he hyped the fact that the NWA World Title was being defended overseas. I also managed to pick up that Jarrett will be heading to Japan next week for Zero One’s big PPV show on the 15th of December.
I had a couple of words with Jeremy, who confirmed that Nathan Jones had already headed back to the USA after the PPV show in Glasgow this past Friday. Jeremy agreed that Jones would probably start soon with the WWE and predicted that he’ll be a big hit there. “He’ll be champion in two years… Vince loves big guys”, he said. I was about to retort when I remembered that the Big Show is currently the WWE Champion… which pretty much backs up exactly what Jeremy said.
As Jeremy left to do some dramatic camcorder shots of Jarrett in the ring, I came across a coughing Marcus Bagwell. “We’re all sick!” he complained when I said hello. Fair enough. It’s not like I’d have much to talk to Bagwell about anyway. I headed out to the arena again and watched the competitors in the first match running through some spots, and waited for the show to begin.
If the WWE number of 6,000 was legitimate for their Odyssey show in October was legit (and I have no reason to think otherwise as the place was jam-packed to the rafters on that occasion), then I reckon the WWA only had the place configured for 3,500 since both ends of the arena were curtained off and the floor could’ve held a couple of hundred more seats it they had wanted to. Of that 3,500 there were still a fair amount of empty seats dotted around the place, so I reckon the attendance would’ve been around the 3,000 mark.
Jeremy was the play by play announcer, and he was joined at the table by Simon Diamond (who, I’m happy to say, came out to his awesome ECW music: “Simon Says” by Drain STH). Anyway… as per usual, Simon has a problem… and this time it’s legit. According to Diamond, he sustained a concussion on Friday night, and is therefore unable to wrestle… which is unfortunate, since I’m quite the fan of Simon’s work.
(1) Shark Boy beat “Spyder” Nate Webb, Frankie “The Future” Kazarian and Johnny Swinger in four-way match. High-flying action was the order of the day in the opener, with all four guys showing themselves to be pretty adept at the high velocity spotfest. I don’t want to be unkind to them, since they were good entertainment and got the crowd jacked up… but it was a step or so below TNA’s X Division standard. That being said though, Shark Boy got over really well with the crowd and he should be used more than he had been in TNA. End came with Shark Boy hitting one of his opponents with a Dead Sea Drop (Diamond Dust). Special mention must go though to Frankie Kazarian for using the Karate Kid music as his theme tune. Post match, Midajah entered the ring and teased taking her top off until Perry Saturn came out and destroyed all four guys. Saturn left with Midajah.
Jeremy introduced the WWA Commissioner Mike Sanders… who comes out to cut a babyface promo. Being used to seeing Sanders as a heel, I was waiting for the big mid-promo heel turn… but before that happened, some guy with long hair came to the ring, claiming to be the best the business has to offer. Sanders spoke for the whole arena when he asked the newcomer just who the hell he was… and it turned out to be Joe E Legend. Wow. Growing out the hair since his WWF run as Just Joe has given the guy a whole new look… so much so that I didn’t even recognise him. Anyhow, the upshot of it all was a match being booked for later in the show between the two guys. Very good segment.
(2) Norman Smiley & Konnan beat Disco Inferno & Malice. Disco was undoubtedly the star of the show last year in the Odyssey in his match with Grandmaster Sexay, and although he used the near-legendary Village People’s Elbow in that match, he (strangely) promised that he would debut that very same move in the ring tonight. In any case, Disco announces that he has the best partner money can buy… Malice… and that if Malice does what he is told, they’ll win the match easily. The babyfaces make their entrance and Konnan throws out the following zinger to Disco. “Hey, you’re from Marietta, Georgia, right? Where the men are men and the sheep are scared!” The match was good comedy action, with Disco taking a seat at the announcer’s table at one point because the match was so in hand. And yes, we did see the second “Belfast debut” of the Village People’s Elbow. Eventually, the inevitable heel miscommunication lead to Disco dropping an elbow on Malice and Malice responded with a chokeslam to his partner. Norman Smiley made the academic cover. Decent stuff, and it was kept reasonably short.
(3) Teo beat Puppet in a Hardcore midgets match. What’s to say here, really? Enjoyable enough if you like the idea of midgets hitting each other with foreign objects. Absolutely incredible ending spot when Teo came off the top rope onto Puppet who was underneath about six chairs and a road sign. Funny spot mid match was Teo’s attempt at a 619. The crowd were totally into the action.
Interval
Disco Inferno joins Borash for commentary, replacing Simon Diamond.
(4) Mike Sanders beat Joe E Legend. Definitely a step up in quality from the pre-intermission bouts, this was a very good ‘righteous babyface’ v ‘nefarious heel’ match, with Sanders in particular working the crowd well and keeping them on his side. In fact, Sanders actually showed a lot of in-ring talent, which in addition to his well-documented verbal skills make him quite the star. Sanders won with the Sweet Chin Music.
Simon Diamond returns to the commentary table, and Disco leaves after introducing the next participants.
(5) Sabu beat Perry Saturn in a Hardcore match. Saturn was accompanied by Midajah. A large “ECW” chant broke out at the start of this match. Sabu was on offence for much of the match, displaying his array of moves… and to his credit, he didn’t blow a thing, be it Air Sabu, the Arabian Facebuster or a springboard from chair to top rope to outside the ring. Midajah got involved to save her man, but ended up caught, and laid out on a table outside the ring. Saturn saved her from going through the table from a Sabu springboard, but wasn’t so lucky himself as he ended up going through the table from a Sabu sunset flip powerbomb. From there it was academic, and once back in the ring, Sabu polished off Saturn with a triple jump moonsault. Very good match, in my opinion. I know in other shows around the UK, these guys have been working three way matches with Simon Diamond, and it was a shame that Simon was just commentating… but I was pleasantly surprised.
(6) WWA Champion Lex Luger & Sting beat NWA Champion Jeff Jarrett & Buff Bagwell in a match where if Jarrett or Luger would’ve been pinned, they’d have lost their title. What was it Lex Luger used to say? That he had 4% body fat? Well, he may want to add a zero to that number right about now, since the Package has gotten rather bloated in his semi-retirement. Sting, on the other hand, while he was clearly phoning in his performance, at least seemed to be capable and energetic. And, while Sting was dealing with a useless big lug as his partner, so was Jarrett. I know Bagwell was unwell, but even still, this was the sort of match you might have had nightmares about as a Nitro main event a couple of years ago. Given the title change stipulation, there was only one result in the match, and that was Bagwell getting pinned… and he went down to a Scorpion Death Drop for the 1-2-3.
The show was very hit & miss, with the worst match without doubt being the main event. I’d have preferred to see Bagwell v Luger as the semi final of the card (with all the crapness that that would bring), if it meant we’d have had Sting v Jarrett in the main event. Alas, it was not to be. The show wasn’t as good as it was last year (headlined by Jarrett v Road Dogg), but the Sanders v Legend and Sabu v Saturn matches were good enough to give the show a mild reccomendation.
Jeremy announced the WWA would return to Belfast, but no date was given.