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[1991-11-16-WCW-Pro] Terrence Taylor & Richard Morton & Thomas Rich vs Big Josh & Dustin Rhodes & Tom Zenk (Cage)


Loss

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  • 4 months later...

I don't think this is better than any WWF cage match ever. But they sure do a better job of getting over the cage as something that keeps everyone in who should in - and out who should be out - than any WWF cage match I've ever seen. Simple things like Morton and Taylor selling the panic of being locked in and Morton trying an escape early on that backfired worked well. There isn't much heat for this, which seems weird for a cage match and makes this a little sad. But this was a midcard feud that wasn't over, so I suppose that makes sense. Morton is excellent yet again as a working heel, and he gives everything he has to getting the crowd into this. But nothing he does seems to work, and not everyone in the match shares his enthusiasm. There's a camera angle that tells it all where Rich and Zenk are standing in their respective corners and everyone else is brawling on the top rope in a neutral corner. And they just stand there and look like idiots. The crowd finally wakes up in the last 1-2 minutes of this, but it's a little too late.

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  • 1 month later...

I guess the previous match warranted this now being in a cage. Don’t think the feud has that much heat to be the case. I was reminded in a way of USWA-TX with the gimmick matches. You have a no DQ cage match and everyone is treating it like some traditional six man with tags. Was more like a fence just to keep people inside.

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Yep, my first exact thought was "This was a USWA-TX special." There is some good work here, from Morton's offense to Taylor's trash talking, to the abject fear of all three of the York Foundation at being separated from their precious computer. Even York makes herself useful at ringside, constantly badgering ring crew member Gordon Nelson for the key. Still, it's a waste to run a cage match on a syndie B-show and there's no heat for it at all. A somewhat disappointing end, if that's what it is, to this series and to the York Foundation in general. They take the loss but lay out the babyfaces afterward and only then does the cage truly come into play as a weapon.

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  • 11 months later...

Glad we get the cage match conclusion to this series even though the heat was lackluster and the action at time felt a step back from the two matches. I question the decision to have Zenk as FIP and the finish with Dustin giving a dropkick was anticlimatic. Still glad we saw this whole mid card feud.

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  • 1 year later...

Count me in as one of those who isn't quite sure what this was doing on the syndicated B show. Don't get me wrong, this was a good match for what it was, but to not only make it a cage match, but a Thundercage match, seems like overkill even with the finish of the match the previous week. To make it non-title renders the whole thing pointless, although I suspect that that was mostly because Dustin and Steamboat would be getting the tag titles in just a few days.

 

Since this was going out in syndication, they probably didn't want too much blood, but thank heaven they allowed some in the postmatch brawl to at least partially justify the cage's presence.

 

Nice to be able to hear at least some of the trash talking going on. My favorite spot was when Taylor taunted Zenk after he caught his boot, sneering "What are you gonna do?" and got his answer with an enzugiri. Wrestling needs more comedy like that.

 

Was there any significance to Cappetta giving the weights for the faces, but not the heels? I guess they figured that announcing champions at weights under 235 (as all three of the Yorks were) would make the match seem uncompetitive on paper.

 

Terri trying to get the key from Nelson was a nice piece of business and shows that she's learned to work at ringside fairly well. It's a pity that her interviews from around this time didn't make the set so we can judge how far she's come in that respect.

 

When did JR start calling the matches for Pro? Was Lance on his way out or already gone? This is one of the few Pro matches in the first two Yearbooks that didn't come from WGN.

 

We may not have had blood, but we sure had some uncomfortable crotch shots, particularly from Rich. It's rare that you see the same guy take two low blows in the same bout like he does here.

 

I think I've said this before, but it bothers me when people imply that Vince didn't really know how to book a cage match. In most territories, even though cages were certainly used as weapons, their main purpose was to ensure a fair match where holds could be exchanged and maneuvers executed without interference. In the WWF, they only used the cage if two guys wanted to beat the living hell out of each other. Thus, it was more of a test of manhood to escape the cage after beating your opponent to death than it was to get a pinfall on them. Keeping people in and out so a fair wrestling match could be held was barely a priority, although they paid lip service to it. If Blassie, Albano, and the other managers would have been willing to take the bumps, Bruno, Backlund, and Hogan would have probably taken them into the cage while the match was still going and beaten them to a pulp too, as they often did after the match.

 

it's sad to see the Yorks go, at least as a full-time stable, but with the DA on the scene and only room for one heel supergroup, I guess it was inevitable.

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  • 2 years later...

I thought Borne did good with his mini-FIP, as did Dustin. My take on this match was that the crowd was a little confused with the layout. Both of the heel controls were short and I'm not sure any of the babyfaces were over enough to get the crowd into it with their offense. As good as Dustin and Borne's offense is, just i don't think either character had been given the time to really get the act over and it's a thrown together team in the first place. Crowd did heat up when Z-Man, the guy who has been a babyface forever, gets worked over. So I guess that is one plus for Zenk. The cage was definitely unnecessary, even if the heels all did a great job of selling it.

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  • GSR changed the title to [1991-11-16-WCW-Pro] Terrence Taylor & Richard Morton & Thomas Rich vs Big Josh & Dustin Rhodes & Tom Zenk (Cage)
  • 11 months later...

Not as good as the previous non-cage matches against these two teams.

Non-title, no blood (or any use of the cage really) until close to the end and after the match, and as mentioned above, many moments in which guys are just standing around watching their partners fight.

I wish I liked Taylor, Morton and Rich more, but their entire York Foundation run bored me. All solid "hands", but very little personality and their matches never got me interested. I thought the two previous weeks were going to lead to a big match here, but if anything there was somehow less evidence here that these 6 guys had a feud.

Thank god for the Dangerous Alliance, not only to show what a real heel stable can do, but to give Dustin Rhodes an upgrade in opponents and card position.

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