Post by fifthhorseman on Aug 5, 2017 16:48:44 GMT -5
UWF FRIDAY NIGHT’S MAIN EVENT
EPISODE 30
EPISODE 30
Mauro Ranallo: We are live from the Kay Yeager Coliseum in Wichita Falls, Texas – and THIS is UWF Friday Night’s Main Event! I am joined tonight on color commentary by Xavier Woods, and fans, we have four great matches in store for you tonight, featuring not one but two title defenses. In our main event, the UWF World Trios champions, the Authority, will face Daniel Bryan, Jake Roberts, and Ricky Steamboat! But that’s not all – UWF North American Heavyweight champion Nick Bockwinkel faces the man that earned his shot at the Crockett Cup… and he is Rusev! Also, we have two behemoths going at it, with Big E Langston facing off against Steve Williams, and our opening match, Zack Ryder makes his UWF debut against Triple H! Let’s get to the ring right now!
ZACK RYDER vs. TRIPLE H (w/Kenny Omega):
vs.
“The Game”, seconded by Omega, was certainly in a fighting mood, and he took it to Ryder early. Punches, slams, and his trademark NWA-styled offense grounded his foe, and he used his weight advantage to grind him further into the mat. But “Long Island Iced Z” was nothing if not resilient, and he battled back with a series of forearms, hiptosses, and dropkicks that eventually caused the multi-time World champ to roll outside to confer with “the Cleaner”. Using the ten-count to his advantage, Triple H took control again, and wasted little time before nailing Ryder with the Pedigree.
After the match, Triple H grabbed the microphone from Christy Hemme’s hands, and shouted, “I’m jerking the curtain tonight? Really? Listen up, Watts – you too, Hitman. I showed you with Dusty Rhodes, I’m not fooling around here… I want a title shot, and I want it now.” As he concluded his rant, Omega picked up Ryder and handed him to his partner, and he laid in a second vicious Pedigree. After the two heels left, a video vignette was shown, highlighting the career achievements of the Englander making his way to the UWF… Nigel McGuinness.
COMMERCIAL
Backstage, Kevin Kelly found the UWF World Heavyweight champion, Bret Hart, exiting Commissioner Bill Watts’ office. When asked for comment, Hart said, “Anytime, anyplace, Hunter… but first, I have to deal with your buddy, Randy Orton. He thinks he’s a big man calling me out a couple of weeks ago? Let’s see about that. I just signed a contract to face him one-on-one in a non-title match next week. But I’ll tell you guys what – if Orton and the rest of his Authority goons win tonight, I’ll put my championship on the line, too. But if he loses, it stays non-title… and you don’t get a title shot for the rest of the year, either! You have until the start of your Trios match to give me an answer.”
UWF NORTH AMERICAN HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH
NICK BOCKWINKEL (c) vs. RUSEV (w/Lana):
NICK BOCKWINKEL (c) vs. RUSEV (w/Lana):
vs.
This was, literally, the champion’s biggest obstacle to date; Bockwinkel hadn’t faced a foe in the UWF that was as big or strong as the “Bulgarian Brute”. The challenger withstood Bockwinkel’s offense easily to start the match, and he tossed the AWA legend from pillar to post for the first few minutes. But the champ took advantage of a missed spinning heel kick and went to work on Rusev’s knee. Several minutes elapsed, but Rusev refused to quit, and he fired back up. However, Lana picked the wrong time to distract the referee, and “the Smartest Man in Wrestling” went to his trunks and blasted Rusev between the eyes with a roll of quarters. The 300-pounder staggered, dropped to a knee… and then slowly got back to his feet.
Bockwinkel saw enough. After taking a pair of hard bodyslams, the North American champion slid out of the ring and walked back up the ramp. He was rarely unprepared, but this night, he bitterly accepted the countout loss, while Rusev and Lana yelled at him from the ring.
The action cut from there to Kevin Kelly, who stood backstage with Bam Bam Bigelow. The interviewer talked about the two-on-one beating he absorbed at the hands of the new World Class stable of Mike Awesome and Manny Fernandez, and “the Beast from the East” was furious: “I don’t care if it’s one of them or both of them! I don’t care if it’s here in Wichita Falls, or Asbury Park, or a parking lot anywhere in between! They are gonna pay!”
COMMERCIAL
Ranallo and Woods discussed the rebranding of the Mid-South Junior Heavyweight title and its dominant champion, Danny Hodge, before throwing it to a pre-taped announcement from Commissioner Bill Watts, which was shown to both the arena audience and the television viewers.
Watts: “A lot has changed in 2017 as it pertains to the UWF World LightHeavyweight division. When the UWF got back in business, I thought we had the best roster that could possibly be put together… but hell, I was wrong. It’s gotten better. And through it all, our champion, Danny Hodge, has retained his title for over seven months. However, a couple of men have taken him all the way to the time limit. Kenny Omega at the Crockett Cup, for example. The Dynamite Kid a couple of months ago, as well. And like I said, the roster has only gotten deeper. So, I’d like to announce the first-ever Elimination Chamber match in UWF history, and it will take place on a special two-hour edition of Friday Night’s Main Event in two weeks. Danny Hodge will have one small advantage – the champion’s advantage, so to speak – in that he will be the last man to leave his pod that night. And I just told you two of his other opponents: Kenny Omega and the Dynamite Kid. The other three competitors will be selected by the UWF Championship Committee and announced soon.”
After returning to live TV, Ranallo and Woods were excited for a couple of reasons. One, of course, being the Elimination Chamber announcement, and they hyped up not only the three known participants, but the three unknown competitors as well. They also verified that Triple H (and Randy Orton) both agreed to Bret Hart's terms, wasting little time in signing off on that stipulation, before throwing it back to ring announcer Christy Hemme.
BIG E LANGSTON (w/Kofi Kingston) vs. STEVE WILLIAMS:
vs.
This served as a counterpoint to the heel/heel match that preceded it, and the two powerhouses shook hands as the bell rang to kick it off. It was a “hoss” match, plain and simple, and the Texas fans ate it up. For the entirety of the 13 minutes, it was fought as clean as one could hope, and it was just about as even as one could imagine, too. “Dr. Death” rarely fought men as strong as he was, but Big E was up to the task. They threw each other around with slams and suplexes, battered each other with clotheslines and flying shouldertackles, and it was a sprint of a match. In the end, though, Williams found a way to roll Langston into the tightest small package he had ever been cinched into, and he held him down for the three-count. Ranallo theorized that Big E wasn’t quite conditioned for a full-on singles match, which may have been true; regardless, both he and Kingston congratulated “Dr. Death” in the center of the ring after the hard-fought battle.
COMMERCIAL
A short video package aired, timelining the events that led to the night’s main event, culminating in the Saturn/Steamboat match from last week. No other verbal set-up was required, and Ranallo threw it to the ring as fast as he could.
UWF WORLD TRIOS CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH
THE AUTHORITY vs. DANIEL BRYAN, JAKE ROBERTS, and RICKY STEAMBOAT:
THE AUTHORITY vs. DANIEL BRYAN, JAKE ROBERTS, and RICKY STEAMBOAT:
vs.
Big match announcements from Hemme, and the champions – specifically, Orton – had the added incentive to win. However, the three men across the ring from them also had the Trios gold in mind, and all of them were well-versed in tag matches – particularly Steamboat, who had held eight sanctioned World tag titles in the past.
“The Dragon” started off against the team captain, and he and “the Viper” traded holds and counters like the veterans they were. The audience was fired up, and after a couple of minutes, they tagged out, and Roberts and O’Haire were next. Not nearly as scientific, but exciting, and the biggest man in the match eventually took over with sheer power.
Roberts was the face in peril, and the Authority exerted their will on him for several minutes. “The Snake”, finally, battled back against Saturn, and he dove across the ring and tagged Bryan in. The former WWE champion was the proverbial house house on fire, and he tore into “the Eliminator” with knees, chops, and kicks. Orton and O’Haire charged in, and Bryan contended with them as well until all six men were in the ring, and it was chaos. Head official Tommy Young gave them as much rope as he could, straddling the line between controlling the action and giving the fans what they wanted – and it was obvious that they wanted a fight.
It spilled outside as well, and the next 90 seconds were crazy, and Young let it go. Legal men were forgotten, and while Bryan and Steamboat slugged it out with Orton and O’Haire on the floor, Roberts and Saturn mixed it up in the middle. “The Snake” ducked a punch, and connected with his short-arm clothesline. But he drifted too close to the opponent’s corner, and unseen by the overworked ref, Orton nailed Roberts with a chair across the upper back. The challenger staggered straight into Saturn, who had recovered enough to pick up his foe and drop him back down with his Death Valley Driver. Three seconds later, the bell rang, and the Authority was declared the victors.
But it was not over. Seemingly unsatisfied, Orton slowly sauntered into the ring with the chair back in his hand, O’Haire right behind him, and they stood over Roberts. Suddenly, Steamboat slid into the ring with two chairs, and he handed one to Bryan as they stood guard, nose-to-nose with the Authority. A few long, tense seconds elapsed, and the champions finally retreated and left the ring with their belts held high overhead.
Thus, they never saw Ricky Steamboat smash Daniel Bryan over the back with a steel chair.
Once. Twice. A shot to a sitting Roberts. A third shot to Bryan, and one more to Roberts as the confused crowd went berserk, and the cameras faded to black.