GWF Supercard on ESPN

Air Date: 07/23/1991

Location: Global Dome (Sportatorium) in Dallas, TX

Announcers: Craig Johnson & Scott Hudson 

The announcers previewed the light heavyweight title tournament, eventually getting to the participation of Dusty Rhodes’ body double, Randy Rhodes. They were already making the tournament a joke before it even started. Well done.

Makhan Singh and Rip Rogers did an interview teasing the Boss and pushing themselves as The Cartel. Makhan wasn’t doing home run promos, but they were consistently solid work, and they were building something.

GWF Light Heavyweight Title Tournament 1st Round: Chaz def. Ed Robinson in 6:05. Chaz was a good-looking young guy, but didn’t have the hulking physique you’d associate with the pretty boys of yesteryear in the Sportatorium. This was another dragged-out squash that clearly indicates one round too many, like the TV title tournament. Chaz’s top rope sidekick finisher looked good, but this was mostly just there. *

GWF Light Heavyweight Title Tournament 1st Round: Lightning Kid def. Bubba Fangman in 6:28. Unlike Chaz, Kid worked differently, working much quicker and using a lot of aerial moves. I loved this Kobra Kai-esque heel version of Kid. His kicks looked really good as well. *1/2 

GWF Light Heavyweight Title Tournament 1st Round: The Handsome Stranger def. Butch Blackheart in 6:59. Another squash, only this was probably the dullest and worst-executed. Marcus Bagwell as Stranger was still really green after only briefly working on Georgia indys. 3/4* 

The Patriot cut a solid promo, teasing a program with Stan Lane, whose days in this promotion were numbered. 

GWF Light Heavyweight Title Tournament 1st Round: Rip Rogers def. Ray Evans in 6:56. Rogers worked really hard to entertain the crowd, but this was the fourth six-plus-minute squash in a row. *1/4 

Adrian Street safely won the worst promo of the show by answering a fan question about where he’s billed from. This very homogenized babyface version of Street is void of all controversy, but also of interest. I love Adrian Street, but not this version. 

Rip and Makhan did another promo, continuing to push the mystery of the Cartel and the Boss. Why two of these? I can appreciate minimalism as much as the next guy, but they desperately needed to do more with other people. Why are they on twice? 

Rating: 2.5

We had four extended squashes disguised as tournament matches. Other than Lightning Kid, no one else stood out. The decision to do this big of a tournament was insane and it showed with the names on paper. They pushed Rip and Makhan and The Boss angle hard, which is good. They did build up legitimate interest in that reveal, and the stable does eventually grow. But just like the way they built the Patriot in the TV title tournament, they can only do one thing at a time and there’s nothing else going on in the shows. What makes that format even weirder is that this company isn’t taking a big program to PPV or around the loop on house shows because they weren’t running any, so there is no “money program” to weigh above everything else. We’ve still never had a non-tournament match. There aren’t nearly enough promos. We still haven’t really had an angle of any kind on any show. At this point, it’s a dull show that relies too much on wrestling matches that rank somewhere between bad and average.

GWF Supercard on ESPN

Air Date: 07/24/1991

Location: Global Dome (Sportatorium) in Dallas, TX

Announcers: Craig Johnson & Scott Hudson 

More tournament highlights to take up a quarter of weekday airtime that MUST be filled. 

Big Bully Busick was interviewed by Pedecino, where he put over his new finish, the Bully Blaster. He’s kind of a fun character when he’s not being pushed to the top.

GWF Light Heavyweight Title Tournament 1st Round: Steve Simpson def. Mike Stetson in 7:33. Simpson was always a rail-thin worker, but also never really wrestled a junior heavyweight style. Stetson was another overweight job guy, and this was another long, dull match with a lot of holds. *

GWF Light Heavyweight Title Tournament 1st Round: Adrian Street def. Iceman King Parsons by DQ in 5:18. I love Iceman, but he looked like he may have eaten a junior heavyweight before this match. The match was better than the first because both could work and get the crowd into it. Street was punching Iceman in the corner when Iceman threw him over the top for a very lame DQ. *1/4

In the very next segment, Joe Pedecino talked about the top rope DQ rule being waived in Global. WTF did I just see? They were also teasing Commissioner, Max Andrews, possibly banning Iceman from bringing his (paddle) roody pooh stick to the ring. 

GWF Light Heavyweight Title Tournament 1st Round: Brian Adias def. El Bandelero in 6:56. Jesus, another long, dull squash. Adias couldn’t even get a good reaction here after all his history in the building. *

The Patriot did a promo talking about winning the TV title and representing the USA. 

Bill Irwin did an interview on being there to win the Global world title, even though no title ever exists. He also says he’ll be in the tag team tournament—your usual solid midcard promo effort from Irwin. 

GWF Light Heavyweight Title Tournament 1st Round: Mike Davis def. Victor Gonzalez in 6:31. Davis was in his full-on Jake Roberts tribute gimmick. He won with a nice-looking scissors kick, but the first round is pretty much all long squashes.

Davis was interviewed and worked fhe Jake gimmick so fucking hard, down to the hushed promos. This came off so lame, but he was trying. 

Rating: 2.0

The matches were all bad, and we had the inexplicable DQ finish and Pedecino saying the top rope rule didn’t exist in Global. Thankfully, they did some more promos, but not much was worthwhile. 

GWF Supercard on ESPN

Air Date: 07/25/1991

Location: Global Dome (Sportatorium) in Dallas, TX

Announcers: Craig Johnson & Scott Hudson 

More tournament highlights, as always. 

Buff Bagwell did his first interview as The Handsome Stranger, and it was pretty awful, and undoubtedly exacerbated by the fact that he said he wouldn’t remove his mask until his wedding night. Man, this is such a bad gimmick. How about finding something ladies will like and won’t want to make men punch you in the face? 

GWF Light Heavyweight Title Tournament 1st Round: Jerry Lynn def. Randy Rhodes in 0:03. Rhodes did the old Buddy Rose gimmick, claiming to weigh 226 lbs. despite looking a biscuit shy of three bills. While he and his manager, Christopher Love (Bert Prentice), were arguing with officials, Lynn rolled him up and pinned him. Why were they making their new division a punchline already?

Love and Rhodes did an interview. I’ve always enjoyed Bert, so I dug this. 

GWF Light Heavyweight Title Tournament 1st Round: Terry Daniels def. Rick Gerren in 6:04. They did more chain and mat wrestling, compared to other tourney matches, rather than work a lot of long holds. It was too technical to get over, but I appreciated the effort. *1/2

Joe Pedecino plugged the tag title tournament, concocting the story that the Global tag champs, the English Lords, had to vacate due to a car accident in Europe. This was so unnecessary. 

GWF Light Heavyweight Title Tournament 1st Round: Terry Garvin def. Kenny The Stinger in 8:32. Garvin could work the crowd and was good enough to get something decent here. *3/4 

Chaz did his first interview. He was nervous and not remotely good, but did say he stayed in shape by running from his father. More on that later. 

GWF Light Heavyweight Title Tournament 1st Round: John Tatum def. Khris Germany in 5:12. Tatum’s gut looked bulbous here, and I love Hollywood John, but he just looked way past his prime. *

Rating: 3.0

Some of the matches were slightly better than others, but this tournament, with twenty-four men, meant THREE television episodes of long, boring squashes. I appreciate the effort in letting Stranger and Chaz do promos, but it didn’t make the show any better. This entire first round was a big mistake.