JHawk

Most people who know Hodge say that his handshake can still damn near break your hand if you're not ready for it. I'd love to meet the man, but I'd be scared to be respectful enough to shake his hand.

A double update since I actually remembered to work on this after four months. OSW Superstar Challenge (May 15, 2004) Live from the Arena in Baltimore, MD :00-:01 Gordon Solie discusses the previous tag team tournament happenings. :01-:19 Tag Team Title Tournament Quarterfinal scheduled for one fall with a 20-minute time limit: #3 The Basham Brothers (w/Shaniqua) vs. #6 America's Most Wanted Doug Basham and James Storm start, and Doug wastes no time clotheslining Storm to the floor, then ramming Storm's head into the ringpost and busting him open. Back in the ring, and the Bashams take turns double teaming Storm, paying particular attention to the open wound on the Tennessee Cowboy's forehead. A running forearm smash earns Storm a near fall, and he makes the tag to Chris Harris, who cleans house on both Bashams and gets a series of near falls. Harris tags back out to Storm, which proves to be a stupid move, as Storm is weak from the blood loss and once again is double teamed by both Bashams. Storm makes several attempts at the tag, falling just a bit short each time. Another running forearm smash knocks Doug out of the ring, but the Bashams make an illegal switch, and Danny knocks Harris off the apron to prevent the tag at just the right moment. He turns around and walks into a Storm lariat, and that gives Storm enough time to make the much needed hot tag. He works over both Bashams, then isolates Doug. Storm comes in, and they hit the Death Sentence, but as referee Bill Benford gets Storm out of the ring, Danny comes in and takes Harris down with the Brain Damage before getting the pin himself in 14:34. **3/4 :19-21 COMMERCIAL BREAK :21-:24 Gordon Solie introduces Bruno Sammartino to the OSW audience. Sammartino acknowledges that his ultimate goal is to become the OSW World Champion, but first he wants to make sure that the evil in OSW is contained. He makes comments about Buddy Rogers in particular. :24-:26 COMMERCIAL BREAK :26-:37 Tag Team Title Tournament Quarterfinal scheduled for one fall with a 20-minute time limit: #2 Ted DiBiase/Johnny Valentine vs. #7 Bobo Brazil/Mark Lewin A battle of two fan favorite tag teams, and while each team has contrasting styles, they wrestle a match completely within the rulebook. The entire match consists of Valentine and DiBiase using their wrestling knowledge to keep their opponents grounded, but eventually the power advantage their opponents have keeps them in the match and allows them to regain control. However, the turning point comes when Lewin misses a kneedrop around the five minute mark, and the DiBiase/Valentine team keeps their focus there until Valentine forces Lewin to submit to the figure-four leglock at 7:49. *3/4 Both teams shake hands after the match. :37-:39 COMMERCIAL BREAK :39-:42 Gordon Solie interviews Buddy Rogers, who takes offense to Bruno Sammartino lumping him in with the evil in OSW. Rogers issues a challenge for a "scientific" match for next week's show, and Solie is certain an upstanding man like Bruno will readily accept. :42-:44 COMMERCIAL BREAK :44-:53 One fall to curfew: Johnny Swinger vs. Pedro Morales The in-ring debut for Morales, who has a large Puerto Rican following. Morales uses some very basic moves early on: bodyslams, hiptosses, clotheslines. Morales attempts a back suplex, but Swinger flips over, lands behind Morales, then clotheslines his opponent in the back of the head to take control. Swinger uses some suplexes and DDTs to keep Morales on the defensive, but he wastes a lot of time before going for the cover and can't score pinfalls as a result. Then he goes for a high cross body, but Morales catches him in midair, takes him down with a backbreaker, then locks in a Boston crab. Swinger tries to reach the ropes, but eventually submits at 5:38. **3/4 :53-:55 COMMERCIAL BREAK :55-:58 Gordon Solie interviews AJ Styles. Styles will be defending the OSW World Title in two weeks against Gorgeous George, but before he can get into discussing that match, Air Paris interrupts excitedly. Paris informs Styles that they have a match against Black Gordman and Gran Goliath next week. Paris leaves before Styles can respond, and he stares at him with a dumbfounded look on his face before walking off. :58-1:00 Gordon Solie goes over the lineup for next week: OSW Tag Team Title Tournament Semifinal: The Basham Brothers vs. Ted DiBiase/Johnny Valentine Buddy Rogers vs. Bruno Sammartino Black Gordman/Gran Goliath vs. Air Raid End of show

May 3, 2004 Signings: Faces: Jack Brisco Pedro Morales Bruno Sammartino OSW Superstar Challenge (May 8, 2004) Live from the Teaneck Armory in Newark, NJ :00-:01 Gordon Solie welcomes us and reminds us the OSW Tag Team Title tournament begins tonight. :01-:08 One fall with a 10-minute time limit: "Wild" Bill Irwin vs. Jack Brisco Knowing he isn't going to outwrestle the former college standout, Irwin attempts to take control with a series of punches, kicks, and eyerakes early. And he dominates with the style until he makes a costly mistake, ducking his head for a backdrop, which allows Brisco to turn Irwin into an Oklahoma roll for the pin at 4:14. * :08-:10 COMMERCIAL BREAK :10-:30 Tag Team Title Tournament Quarterfinal scheduled for one fall with a 20-minute time limit: #1 The Wild Samoans (w/Capt. Lou Albano) vs. #8 Nikolai Volkoff/Kurt Von Hess (w/Al Costello) And you can throw any and all wrestling out the window right away, as all hell breaks loose. Referee Bill Benford tries his best to keep order, and to some extent he does, but each team double teams as often as they can, with all four men brawling at the same at various points of the contest. The finish comes with all four men brawling in the ring. Sika and Volkoff are legal, and Benford tries to separate Afa and Von Hess. As he does, Costello enters the ring and hits Sika over the head with his boomerang...just as Benford turns around. The referee has no choice but to award the Samoans the victory by DQ after 17:11. -1/4* :30-:32 COMMERCIAL BREAK :32-:55 Tag Team Title Tournament Quarterfinal scheduled for one fall with a 20-minute time limit: #4 Spanky and "Arriba" Luis Martinez vs. #5 Black Gordman/Gran Goliath Goliath and Gordman use simplistic tag team strategy, as they take control of Spanky in the early going and keep him isolated in their half of the ring. Spanky eventually takes Gordman down with an enzuigiri and makes the tag, and they use quick tags and teamwork to keep Gordman off-balance. Gordman stops the onslaught with a low blow to Spanky, and Spanky officially becomes face-in-peril. Some beautiful gutwrench suplexes by Goliath earn a couple of near falls, then they toss Spanky out of the ring. This leads to a turning point, as Gordman gets run into the ringpost in the ensuing four way brawl and is busted open. Spanky makes the hot tag as soon as the action returns to the ring, and Martinez gets a quick series of near falls on his bloodied opponent. That brings Goliath in, which also brings in Spanky, and we get a four way brawl until the bell rings to signal the time limit draw. Both teams are eliminated, meaning the Samoans are automatically in the championship match. **1/2 :55-:57 COMMERCIAL BREAK :57-1:00 Gordon Solie interviews World Champion AJ Styles about possible challengers when he's interrupted by his tag team partner, Air Paris. Paris expresses disappointment that he missed the tag team tournament, but Styles promises that despite his title defense schedule, he'll be sure to help Paris win tag team gold as soon as champions have declared. They shake hands, but Paris doesn't seem pleased. End of show.

^ agreed. Good topic, wrong folder.

I wrote about this a couple of years ago here when I remembered to do my Today in Wrestling History column. Doesn't really seem significant, does it?

Low-Ki's back? RF must really be gone this time. In all seriousness, thank God. ROH just ain't the same without him.

Jimmy Buffett - License to Chill Haven't listened to it yet though

Please tell me the three way cruiserweight match got 20 minutes.

Agreed. Motherfucker killed Apollo Creed, who was one of my favorite movie characters ever.

Akili Smith. As a Browns fan waiting for the team to come back, I was certain this guy was the QB of the future. Then he couldn't start for the shitty Bengals teams he was on. I've never been so glad to be wrong in my life.

There goes the no hitter. Which is good in a way, because now I can actually root for Dye and Hatteberg to contribute for my fantasy league instead of screwing myself over by rooting for the no-hitter.

My main problem with pitch counts is they don't take into account how well the guy's pitching. At the Indians game i was at a couple of weeks ago, C.C. Sabathia was taken out of the game after the 5th inning because his pitch count was at 97 pitches...even though the fifth inning was his best inning of the entire game. In order to pitch a complete game in this day and age, assuming your pitch count is 100, you have to average just 11 pitches an inning. how often is that really possible?

Hey, I liked that shirt. Hell, I had a running gag with my friend Kelli at school. I'd wear that shirt pretty much every Friday, and every Friday she'd go, "I hate that shirt." Good times, good times.

*sigh* You'd think Vince would have learned after the WWF lawsuit. That one should have been obvious too since one logo had a panda and the letters on it and the other didn't even look like the letters at first glance, but he lost that one too. Did Marvel ever lose revenue because people thought Hulk Hogan was going to be in their comics and were pissed because he wasn't? Because unless they can prove that, I think they're all idiots. BTW, isn't a lawsuit from Marvel what stopped WCW from using the Arachniman gimmick? Granted, the gimmick was total wrestlecrap, but that had never stopped WCW before.

Raw from JHawk's Beak(7/19/2004) Somehow I think I liked it more than most people, but whatever.

I don't know why, but I laughed my ass off for about a minute after reading that one. Of course, this was February 1996, so not too many people got the joke.

Don't misunderstand me. I'm a huge Dr. Death fan from way back. But there's a reason JR has a reputation for liking a certain type of wrestling, and Doc is part of that.

He's a former football player from Oklahoma. Seriously, that's why.

Coffee

Milk.

I had heard rumors a few weeks ago that the goal was to make this a series, but they wanted Bakula to essentially be the Al to the daughter's Sam and couldn't because of Bakula's Enterprise commitments. I have no idea how true that rumor is though. I actually wasn't too upset with the series finale, but it deserved a legit finale.

Hoffscotch. OK, no on that.

I love Bob Feller, but honestly, who cares? But I agree with Anglesault (there's a shock). Nolan Ryan is right there. Hell, the shape Ali's in these days, I don't think he even realized he threw out the first pitch.

DeNiro

PBP = previously banned poster. Pretty much anybody with less than 50 posts gets accused of that these days, mostly because about 85% of them are PBPs.