House Show Results from Knoxville, TN, Friday, August 22nd

• Squire Dave Thomas over Bobby Eaton.
  • Slow match.
  • Bobby "hulked out" of a few holds when the crowd chanted "USA", made me wish Jim Duggan was around.
  • I did not notice how the match ended.
• Juventud Guerrera over Psychosis.
  • Stupid fans booed both men on the way to the ring, I guess we don't like their kind here.
  • Unfortunately, both men put on a lackluster match with no real flow, their were a few great diving head scissor takedowns by Juventud, but both men seemed to want to leave as soon as they could. I guess that what happens when the crowd hated both guys.
  • I missed the ending of the match while talking to a friend.
• Dean Malenko over Eddie Guerrero with a Texas Cloverleaf.
  • Amazing match that went on for a long time with a lot of moves I had not seen before.
  • To end the match Dean, got Eddie's legs for the cloverleaf, then picked him up, slammed him back down face first in the cloverleaf, it is real hard to describe but looked amazing.
• Intermission where my friend and I take the time to yell at some stupid kid dressed as Sting (Where is your turkey, boy?). He looked mortified but his friends were ROTFL.
• Steiners over Wrath/Mortis
  • Why in the hell are the Stiners so popular? They had the crowd going crazy. They are easily the worst tag teeam ever, nowadays, and they are lazy as hell in the ring, especially at house shows.
  • This match was saved by Wrath who is amazing in the ring, I want to see Nash/Wrath or Giant/Wrath matches real bad.
  • Rick Steiner took all of the abuse for the Steiners.
  • Why doesn't someone just rip of Scott Steiner's back brace during a match?
  • Steiner Bulldog off the top rope on Mortis for the win
• Ric Flair over Jeff Jarrett with a rollup.
  • Flair had a police escort to the ring and ignored the fans on the way down.
  • Good match from Flair, he worked harder than almost anyone tonight (Dean and Eddie were the only ones that worked harder).
  • Flair ragged on JJ about not being US champ anymore.
  • JJ had Flair pinned but the ref reversed the decision. While JJ argued with the ref, Flair rolled him up and won.
  • Eddie came to ringside and him and JJ beat up Flair after the match until Malenko came in for the save.
  • I hope Malenko joins the Horsemen. He and Chris Benoit would make an incredible tag team.
• The last match was Luger and Hall but we left after the Flair match.
• Better card than last time in Knoxville, Malenko and Guerrero were incredible.

These are the results of last night's card six-match WCW card. Charlie and his friends Matt and Joyce attended. I could not as I was detained with babysitting so this is a second-hand report, but Charlie is typically accurate in his assessment.

The first three matches were poor, but things heated up after intermission. The card was good considering who appeared, but was poor otherwise. The card at the Civic Auditorium was about 60% pro-WCW which has been in direct contrast with most cards here in the past year as the markish fans have been totally WCW in the past. The card drew well despite the poor card and the building looked more full than the last WCW card.

Tennessee Mountain Wrestling (of which former World champ Ron Garvin serves as booker and champion) officials Bill Needham and Terry Landel and star Jeff Anderson were in attendance. If you have never seen their program I will assure you that they were there simply as fans and not as a tryout or anything resembling that. Pro Wrestling Illustrated readers might recognize Needham's name as he sends in all of the Knoxville results and always is sporting a PWI name tag.

• In the opening match, Dave Taylor pinned Bobby Eaton with a roll up. Eaton was as over as one could expect as the Knoxville faithful relate to a fellow redneck. Charlie may have been the only one in the building rooting for Taylor. Chants of "Bor-ing! Bor-ing!" rang through the Civic Auditorium as this match endured. I was surprised that these two received any reaction at all. Chances are the chant would have occurred regardless of the quality of the match as WCW has completely misused both wrestlers.
• The next match was Psychosis against Juventud Guerrera. This match was originally billed as Konan vs. Rey Mysterio, Jr. Mysterio did not attend due to injuries which he at least must sell whether he is capable of wrestling or not. Konan's absence was not accounted for on the microphone. This match was approximately ten minutes with the first five minutes building to a climatic conclusion which saw Juvie pin Psychosis and injure himself in the process which will be explained later.
• The third match pitted Eddy Guerrero against Dean Malenko. Eddy was the first wrestler to use the house mic and did the traditional heel speech of calling the fans rednecks which started an "Eddy Sucks" chant. Guerrero then proceded to walk out "until the chants stopped." The match would have been exceptional had this match not been done numerous times on television. Every time Malenko has come to Knoxville has wrestled either Mysterio or Guerrero in good but overdone matches. Malenko made Eddy submit to his Texas Cloverleaf.
• Intermission. The only souvenier information of note was that the only new T-shirt of note was the Rey Mysterio one. Charlie has yet to recover from the fact that the new Outsiders shirt was not being sold at the event.
• The Steiner Brothers defeated Wrath and Mortis after the bulldog from the top rope. Mortis did the job. This was not the suplex fest one would expect in a Steiners' match. Charlie counted only four. Also, their was no use of the house mic which is something the Steiners have traditionally done a great deal of in Knoxville. In fact, in the past, they have done more talking than wrestling here. James Vandenberg did appear on the card, which is rare for a manager to make a house show. We speculate that he may have friends here due to his past work in Jim Cornette's Smoky Mountain wrestling since Knoxville was their central location.
• The fifth match pitted Ric Flair against Jeff Jarrett. Flair got on the mic and said he traveled all the way to Knoxville to wrestle for the U.S. title but that Jarrett proved last night that he was a chump instead of a champ. Jarrett was booed unmercifully and "Jarrett sucks" chants amused Flair so much they he was noticeably laughing and got on the house mic and said, "Jarrett what?" Flair did his trademark figure-four but Jarrett got to the ropes. Referee Mark Curtis was about to disqualify Jarrett for using his feet on the ropes, but Flair pinned him with a roll-up.
• In the main event Lex Luger defeated Scott Hall by disqualification when Syxx interfered. Hall and Syxx got on the mic and declared Knoxville nWo country and Hall teased that DDP would do a run-in of sorts as he taunted him. Hall was pelted with a coke and informed Dave Penzer to tell the fans he would not wrestle until they stopped throwing things in the ring. After Penzer made the announcement, Syxx was nailed with a direct hit and Hall and Syxx left the ring. Luger followed them to the dressing room and did not return for five minutes. Luger then returned and pleaded with the fans that he only signed the match so they could see him "kick Hall's @$$." It was at this time that Hall and Syxx returned and continued the match.
  The highlight of the main event came when Hall did his hands to the groin gesture to Knoxville's resident old lady (every city has one). The woman was already riled up and had taken a swing at Wrath when this occurred. Luger consoled her with a hug and a kiss to the cheek. At this point, Hall rolled on the floor with his finger pointing down his throat gesturing that it made him ill.
  After the match Charlie, Jennie and Matt headed to the Hyatt which is where the wrestlers stay and is directly adjacent to the coliseum. Charlie and Matt were going to pretend to just happen to be playing pool in the bar when the wrestlers arrived. I am glad they did not as they were wearing black boots and in complete Outsiders attire. I think they might have looked conspicuous. The fact that Jennie was wearing black leather pants for the event as a "surprise" for Charlie would not have helped either. I never thought I'd be glad to miss wrestling...
  At the Hyatt, Flair was the first wrestler they saw. He was sitting at the bar as usual with two women, although he did not seem overly interested in either. Flair was not his usual outgoing self as he claimed to be too tired to sign autographs. He is normally very receptive but if he wasn't even into hitting on the women, Flair was definitely tired, so they let him be.
  Next, Hall and Syxx checked in. Hall was busy signing for the room and was not receptive to the fans. Syxx was as great as your Brushes With Greatness section implies. He actually thanked Charlie for a sign he had made for him and signed an autograph "Syxx Pac." When asked to sign, Hall said he just wanted to go to his room, which he did. As Syxx followed, he accidentally plowed over a kid which left the wresting groupies in the Hyatt laughing.
  The last encounter involved the two Mexicans, Psychosis and Juvie. Psychosis was not overly friendly but did allow one picture to be taken of him. We were slightly prejudiced against him as we have heard of his poor reputation with fans so perhaps he is nicer than we perceived. Juve came in in his wrestling outfit minus the mask and wearing the nWo Syxx shirt. He was wearing a cast on his right arm. He could not sign autographs. For those wrestling freaks like us, that means Juvie is right-handed. He posed for pictures with anyone who asked and was very cordial.
  
• Overall, the show was enjoyed by all. The fans were disgruntled that they did not announce a return date to Knoxville. They usually run Knoxville every three months, but the last time they did not announce a return date they did not come back for about five months, which were the wrestling fanatics on hand.