[1990-07-07-NWA-Great American Bash] Doom vs Rock & Roll Express

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

The crowd wasn't into this, but I thought this was a good tag match. Tomk has argued that it's better than MX vs Southern Boys, which I don't agree with, but I do think this was a good match. Doom had improved quite a bit even since May here. Great power offense.

[PeteF3]

Dead crowd until the end and there's a long stretch where they appear to be distracted by something. Never saw this as anything other than solid, though the crowd came alive when Teddy Long got trapped in the ring with Gibson.

[soup23]

Crowd for this show was a weird bird. Kind of amazing it has only been two years since GAB 88 and how hot they were for that show compared to this. I really enjoyed this match a lot and thought Doom looked really good controlling the match. RNR can take a beating with the best of them and the result was a more classic structured tag match from the Southern Boys/ MX but still very good in ring.

[shoe]

A good tag that told a story. The crowd wasn't into it as most Rock N Roll bouts. I think Reed feels much more comfortable working this style than the style with the Steiners.

[Kevin Ridge]

I liked Doom's big power offense on a team like Rock n' Roll. Match kind of seemed lacking at first. Crowd probably did not help. Doom kept Express away from speeding match up too much. Reed's top rope shoulderblock was nice. Match was good but though much below US Tag title match.

[Superstar Sleeze]

"Ricky Morton is like a waterbug" -JR. I know he was referring to how quick Morton is, but waterbug!?!?!?

 

Missing that second gear to make this a truly great, all-time classic tag match. This was still a very good, traditional Rock N Rolls match. I liked the Rock N Rolls double teams early on and then Reed's power clotheslines to transition into the FIP segments. I thought the Doom control segments were missing a little something, but there was some good stuff. The finish was good and surprised that Doom went over as clean as they did with the top rope shoulderblock. I really did Reed's top rope shoulderblock.

[DR Ackermann]

Decent. Something was off and things never got going naturally.

[garretta]

I was surprised at the dead crowd too. Then again, MX/Southern Boys was before this, Flair/Sting was after it, and Rock 'n' Roll was presented as a massive underdog, so there was no real reason to get excited. Plus, I think most of the crowd would rather have seen a Steiners/Doom rematch. Instead, Rick and Scott were in a nothing match against Hayes and Garvin, which perplexes me.

 

This was mostly a Doom match, as both Ricky and Robert were beaten down much more thoroughly than a team that was expected to have a chance to win would be. JR was in his glory here; you can tell that he loves calling Doom matches because of their physicality, and he has a long history with Rock 'n' Roll (and Reed as well) going back to Mid-South.

 

Bob mentions at one point that Robert goes 235, and if you take the ring announcement of Rock 'n' Roll's combined weight of 420 at face value, that means Morton goes at about 185. That may be accurate, but it's startling that WCW would allow such an inference to be made in that day and age, especially since it takes Rock 'n' Roll from sizable underdogs to squash fodder. Who in their right mind would believe that a challenging team in which one member gives up almost ninety pounds to both members of the championship team has a real shot to win the belts?

 

JR is Ginoesque in his call for two referees in tag team matches here. He has a kayfabe point, of course, but I've seen matches where two refs are made to look just as idiotic as one when the situation calls for it.

 

A rare bone to pick with Bob Caudle: He calls for Ricky to make the tag instead of going for a pin at least twice when he has a member of Doom hurt. Sorry, Bob, but almost any athlete would go for the win first if their opponent is compromised. By the time Ricky tags Robert, Simmons and/or Reed could be up and ready to knock Robert's head off. To be fair, Bob's not the only announcer to do this, and it's just as annoying coming from someone else.

 

Not a bad match, really, but the Steiners should have been challenging instead.

[drew wardlaw]

Hmm so the RnR, and I guess any southern babyface tag team, kind of love or die by the crowd, so this one hurt them a bit. Whenever I watch the 1990 WCW stuff, I always switch which US tag team matches and which heavyweight rage matches I like best. This time I'm going from liking this one the best to the Doom vs Steiners. Doom had a great 1990, and the tag scene as a whole did too.

[dawho5]

I thought it was a much better match than the crowd did. Doom's power offense looked really good against the RnRs. Not as flashy as the MX vs RnR, but still effective.