Jump to content
Pro Wrestling Only

[2000-03-25-TWA-Total Impact TV] American Dragon & Spanky vs Board of Education (Cage)


Loss

Recommended Posts

I wouldn't call this a great cage match, but it was very good, mainly because it was a lot of fun watching idealistic young wrestlers go all out in an attempt to have a great match. Danielson did an incredibly risky dive to the floor from the top of the cage that seemed to ring his bell, even guys catching him. I think he also bladed for the first time here and might have oversliced himself. He told the story in his book. In spite of all that, he and Spanky are a fun tag team and the match had the crowd hyped and got over the hatred and stakes of the feud really well. I think they had the best match they were capable of having at this point in their careers, and one that they should be proud of. The most entertaining thing by far in this match was Shawn Michaels shooting on WWF cage matches repeatedly on commentary, saying this isn't one of those wimpy WWF cage matches where all you have to do to win is leave. ***1/2

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This had some slop but does feel like the type of match that people would point to now on twitter as a hoot and a real coming out party for Spanky and Dragon. It is weird that the first think I naturally associate with Dragon is technical wrestling but he is usually really good in garbage style matches and turned in easily his best performance here getting bloodied up and his mask ripped. Spanky gets bloodied as well. Board of Education are serviceable and bumped off the big moves of the faces when needed. Michaels was tremendous on commentary toning down his OHHHHS and channeling Bill Watts in 1985 talking about the differences of this cage match vs. the competition and putting over Spanky and Dragon huge. Dragons crossbody from the cage and elbow drop were both great spots. ***1/2

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

I like the starting with a brawl, but everyone getting out of the cage so easily kinda defeated the point.

 

The play by play guy is really annoying (that Hell in a Cell reference was, um, misplaced). Also, Spankaholics?

 

Dragon's dive is great, and I liked the big bumps in the finish. I also liked the energy generally. But on the whole, this felt sloppy and unfocused.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

This was pretty chaotic compared to other cage matches. Lots of awkward moves but it made sense with the feud. Spanky bleeds a ton and Dragon gets his masked ripped off. I still get a kick out of the Board of Education. One guy looks like he's from the mean street posse and the other looks like he's Gangrel's son. They were pretty good foils for American Force 2000. Wonder whatever happened to them?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 months later...

This one gets started before the wrestlers even get into the cage as the Board of Education wait on the arena floor for Spanky and Dragon, and then jump them as soon as they walk through the curtain. The four of them fight at ringside with Dragon giving Rueben Cruz a snap suplex on the concrete. They finally make it inside and American Force double team Jeremy Sage with a drop toehold/dropkick to the head, followed by a camel clutch/dropkick to the face. Wheelbarrow into a bulldog on Cruz. Spankensteiner! Sage counters a Dragon Irish whip and drops him with a spinning kick, while as Spanky goes for a second rana, Cruz just pushes him backwards off his shoulder. Spanky lands directly on his head and he’s lucky he didn’t break his neck on that. The Board of Education then step out of the ring (for seemingly no reason whatsoever) and Shawn Michaels says on commentary that this isn’t one of those WWF cage matches where if you get out the cage you win, you have to pin your man in the middle here. Crossbody off the top of the cage to the floor by Dragon. Ah, that’s why they stepped out of it! Spanky sets up a table and lays Sage on it, however as he climbs the cage, Cruz drags him down. Cruz then whips him into the cage, but Spanky runs up it and falls backwards into him. It looks like he was attempting a take on Jodie Fleisch’s ‘Wall Unit’, but didn’t manage to flip all the way over. Dragon’s clutching at his shoulder and he could’ve legitimately hurt it on that dive. As they return to the ring, the BOE throw Spanky repeatedly into the cage busting him open. Spinebuster by Cruz and Sage with a kneedrop off the middle for two. They rip Spanky’s pants off and a butterfly suplex for another two. Dragon is able to come and help his partner out, although he’s favouring the right side and is only throwing left jabs and headbutts. Sage stops him in his tracks with a lariat as the BOE are back in control of things. Cruz grinds Spanky's bloodied face into the cage, while Sage takes a chair to Dragon’s injured shoulder as the two of them are back on the outside. Suplex/guillotine legdrop, but Dragon is able to break up the pin in time. His mask is completely torn now, although he made sure to collect the Board’s paddle when he was just on the floor. Kick to the chest of Cruz and a belly to back on Sage. Spanky and Dragon then give the BOE a taste of their own medicine, repeatedly launching them into one side of the cage and then the other. Running elbow smash to Cruz as he’s backed in the corner. Sage avoids a flying Spanky who crashes and burns into the cage. Double team airplane spin/Ace crusher on Dragon. Cruz makes the cover but Spanky is there to break it up. Dropkick to the back of Sage. Face first suplex on Cruz and instead of helping his partner Sage rolls out the cage. Top rope elbow from Dragon and Spanky with the frog splash. Oh, here’s Sage, he’d been to collect a chair from ringside and after stopping the cover, swings it at Dragon. Spanky breaks the paddle of Sage’s head and tosses him through the cage door to the floor. A second face first suplex on Cruz and Sage seems to think that climbing the cage is a better way to return to the ring than using the door! Spanky climbs from inside, nails him with a right and he takes a nestea plunge through the table that they’d set up earlier. Elbow off the top of the cage by Dragon, Spanky with the cover and we have new TWA tag team champions.

 

Good opening with the Board of Education jumping Spanky and Dragon before they even got in the ring. The two teams going at it on the floor for a bit added a real urgency to things, and they weren’t going to wait until they were in the cage to get their hands on their opponents. I wasn’t keen on them just leaving the cage at various points though. The whole purpose of a cage is to keep everyone trapped, there’s no escape from your opponent, nowhere to go, and here they are exiting out the door and doing as they please. Yeah, Shawn Michaels said this isn’t like a WWF cage match and you can only win by pinning your opponent, it doesn’t matter if you leave the cage, but it all felt very contrived and that the only reason they did it was so Dragon could do his crossbody to the floor, and later so Sage could take the backwards bump through the table. I couldn’t tell if Dragon had legitimately injured his arm or not and first, and I liked him throwing lefts and headbutts whilst protecting it. The problem was he would then proceed to use the right (and on strength moves) before going back to selling it (which indicated to me he was working), something he kept up for the rest of the match. Still, he did better than most veterans would do here. The effort was real strong by all four here with Spanky juicing and Dragon having his match torn off, although their collective inexperience showed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This was far from flawless but none of the TWA stuff so far has been. What it is however is always very easy to watch. What I really liked about this was how it came off as two teams that really disliked each other rather than two teams working a match thanks to the manic pace and the wild spots. Spanky continues to take nutty bumps on his head that make you wonder how his neck didn't break. BOE are goofy and some of their bumping against the cage is weird but I thought they were good flils here flr the two guys you're watching this for. Dragon takes a big bump with a cross body off the cage to the floor which very strangely turns into Dragon selling on the outside while Spanky gets worked over 2 on 1. I even had to rewind it after the match to check I didn't miss anything. Maybe Dragon was supposed to crash and burn but it didn't look that way. When he got back in though he looked great again. His elbow off the top looked awesome. Dragon gets his mask completely ripped in the middle and the resemblence to Bryan Danielson is uncanny.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

This was tons of fun. We get some wild ringside brawling, blood, mask tearing, a table bump, two big cage dives, etc.

The selling of the the arm injury from Dragon, the chair shot from Cruz on Dragon's injured shoulder, Dragon selling the injury, Spanky bleeding, Cruz bleeding and Dragon's two cage dives were all great.

 

Stuff such as the predictable table spot irked me, but there wasn't really much to dislike here.

 

By far the best TWA match we've seen so far.

 

***1/2

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
  • GSR changed the title to [2000-03-25-TWA-Total Impact TV] American Dragon & Spanky vs Board of Education (Cage)

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...