DOUBLE A OF THE DAY #12

Arn Anderson & Bobby Eaton v Barry Windham & Dustin Rhodes (WCW Clash of the Champions XIX, 6/16/92)

This is as good a ten minute southern tag as you're likely to see. Everybody brings it big time here and the result is a really great little match.

We start out with Barry and Arn and Ventura's on commentary giving it "Why is he still allowed to have that fist taped? It happened MONTHS ago!", so you know what to expect. Sure enough Barry pops him with a big right and Arn collapses on his keester, checking to see if he's still got a mouth full of teeth. The opening Arn/Barry exchange is short, but it's exactly what you want from a 2 minute exchange between them, capped off by Barry dropkicking Arn off the top rope to the floor.

Then we get Dustin and Eaton, and that might be even better. Again, it's short, but it's got everything you want from those two matching up for a couple minutes - Dustin doing the repeated bionic elbows to the forehead while Eaton falls back, bounces off the middle rope and winds up back on his feet for more elbows; Dustin going for a sunset flip and Eaton stopping short, popping him in the gut with a punch while Dustin's on his way back down, etc. Dustin totally wastes him with a huge running boot to the face that sends Eaton to the floor, and Heyman's going crazy, screaming about how that's twice his boys have been knocked over the top rope, demanding the Texicans be disqualified.

There's two FIP sections to this. The first is Windham taking a short (to the point where it isn't really face in peril) beating after a cheapshot from Bobby, and then we get the mini-hot tag to Dustin who flattens Arn with an awesome lariat. Then we get an even more awesome transition into Dustin's FIP, with Arn going for the DDT close to the ropes, Dustin holding on to block it only to stand up straight and get caught with double axe handle to the throat from Eaton on the apron.

Dustin's heat section is just loaded with great stuff, like Eaton throwing amazing punches, Dustin taking his big cross body to nowhere bump and Heyman plastering him in the kidneys with that brick of a phone. Easily one of the better compact FIP sections I've seen.

I've spoken about Arn's stomps more than once since I've started doing these, and man alive do they rule in this. He stomps Dustin's skull six times a row and it seriously might be the best set of stomps ever; they really look brutal. Then Windham comes in because he can't take it anymore, and while the ref' is putting him out, Arn uses the bottom rope to get extra height on another stomp right to Dustin's face. We also get one of Arn's trademark ass-first bumps off of a Dustin jawbreaker, and nobody takes an ass-first bump like Arn.

Finish to this is great, with Eaton hitting Dustin with his own bulldog, then going for it again only for Dustin to shove him into the turnbuckle and make the hot tag to Barry. Problem is, the ref's distracted by Arn so he doesn't see it, but Barry's all "Sheddup, dickhead" and cleans Eaton's clock anyway. They're out on the floor, and Dustin, who's still dazed in the ring, suffers death by spinebuster behind the ref's back. Arn hits the floor and goes after Windham so Eaton can go back and pin Dustin, and from that we get a GREAT nearfall. I honestly thought it was over. Dustin completes the upset by moving out of the way of an Alabama Jam and hitting his bulldog while Heyman is fucking irate and swinging his phone at anything that moves.

Awesome match. Arn was terrific whenever he was in there, but fuck man, all four guys were. Countless moments of subtle brilliance from everybody, everything you could want from a short southern tag... great stuff.