GWF Supercard on ESPN

Air Date: 07/17/1991

Location: Global Dome (Sportatorium) in Dallas, TX

Announcers: Craig Johnson & Scott Hudson 

They aired a lot of tournament finishes again. They really weren’t finished as much as the last couple of minutes of a match, but more on that later. 

TV Title Tournament Third Round: The Patriot def. Bad Boy Billy Black in 7:17. Black hit a fucking tope in this 1991 daytime pro wrestling match, which was awesome. Black worked hard to get Patriot over, and I thought this was the best match of the tournament so far. **1/2 

Chris Walker did another surprisingly solid babyface promo. His southern accent was obviously a problem for Vince since I can’t recall a single WWF promo in his entire run there, but he could have been in a tag team or something in WCW. 

TV Title Tournament Third Round: Makhan Singh def. Chris Walker by DQ in 8:55. They played to the crowd a lot, with Makhan showing ass and posing for the crowd, only for Walker to show him up and flex back. The match wasn’t good, but it got much worse when Makhan decided to hang Walker with his turban for the DQ. The finish felt so fucking obviously like not wanting to pin either man. The match was fine before that, if not a little on the slow side because of Walker’s in-ring limitations. *1/4 

TV Title Tournament Third Round: Buddy Landel def. Adrian Street in 5:25. Adrian did another good job mat wrestling Landel early, but Buddy got the cheap win with his feet on the ropes, almost out of nowhere. I’m unsure why Adrian couldn’t sell for any sustained period during the match or job cleanly to Budrow, who still hasn’t won any singles match out of three, cleanly. He’s midcard Buddy Landel, being pushed as a serious main-eventer at the same time. *

They reaired a Buddy interview from multiple shows earlier. That was a benefit to not mentioning specific people or building specific matches in promos, I suppose. There were literally zero time stamps. 

Boni asked The Patriot about his hometown again. I was okay with this at first as a cool addition, but they were pushing it a little too hard. 

Okay, so we’ve talked very little about the fact that this was a confusing twenty-four-man tournament, so there were three semi-finalists. They did an in-ring coin flip with the Patriot, Landel, and Walker. The person with a different side of the coin than the other two got a bye into the finals. They all flipped once, and everyone got heads, so we got a REFLIP. Holy shit, that’s the most realistic thing I’ve ever seen in pro wrestling. It added nothing to the segment whatsoever, but I guess they were trying hard to make you think this could be real. Landel won and got the bye, so it’s Patriot vs. Walker on the next show, and then the winner will face Buddy in the finals on the same show. 

Rating: 3.0

Bad Boy Billy Black continued his streak of being the most underrated part of these early shows, and so did the Patriot, having the best match of every round. Bill Eadie has some misses as a booker, but the Patriots’ booking wasn’t one at all. The lengthy recaps of the tournament were also hugely detrimental at this point. You can do recaps, but not show that much of each match. Part of what you’re supposed to be doing in the early parts of a startup is establishing characters, and the only story being pushed outside of the tournament is Makhan Singh and Rip Rogers mentioning the Boss. There’s literally nothing else. Even if you’re opposed to doing non-tournament matches (and you shouldn’t be), some promos would eat up some of this time. 

GWF Supercard on ESPN

Air Date: 07/18/1991

Location: Global Dome (Sportatorium) in Dallas, TX

Announcers: Craig Johnson & Scott Hudson 

They aired more match highlights and the coin flip. The idea of the recaps is one hundred percent understandable, but it’s the length that offers way too much filler. 

TV Title Tournament Semifinals: The Patriot def. Chris Walker in 8:30. Buddy stayed at the ringside and acted as a heater. Still, the babyface vs. babyface dynamic didn’t click with the crowd, and they worked a slow match that eventually ended up centered on Patriot’s shoulder. *

Buddy Landel jumped the Patriot to start the finals, apparently, but…

They came back from a commercial break with a generic Patriots promo that had nothing to do with this final match whatsoever. We all know this was taped, but this was so bush league. 

TV Title Tournament Finals: The Patriot def. Buddy Landel in 6:08. They immediately went back to the attack and into the match after the interview. Landel worked the show over. I’m not sure what was going on, but he took a couple of bad bumps during the comeback. This wasn’t good, but the crowd reacted to the win. *1/4 

The Patriot did a strong interview with the title. He was definitely over the crowd after everything.

Rating: 3.0

They deserve credit for the way they made Patriot in this tournament from start to finish. Del Wilkes had some obvious limitations in 1991, but they built the character up in the first two weeks of television, and he was over with the live crowd. Some of that ties in with gallantly winning both matches here while working an injury, and a strong promo after. 

However, both matches on this show were bad, and the coin-flip idea didn’t improve the show or the tournament. The recaps come across as filler. The switch to the Patriot promo in the middle of him supposedly getting beaten down was very bush league. And there just isn’t enough on this show besides wrestling because the wrestling is remarkably unremarkable.