This Week In WWE Vintage Collection History: American Made
By Aaron Wood Jul 22, 2012 - 7:57 AM
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COLLECTION #216
Mean
Gene opened up the show with one flag dead centre amongst the rest
that have populated his desk over the past weeks, and that was Old
Glory. Yep, we'd be taking a look this week at Superstars who
haven''t just got red running through their veins but red, white and
blue. And we'd be starting thing off with the August 15th 2002
edition of Smackdown as 2 former Olympians would square off with each
other as Kurt Angle faced Mark Henry.
After
the break, Gene postulated that no team better represented America,
at least uin their outfits than WCW's "Stars & Stripes",
and in a match from a Clash of The Champions (the one that took place
on November 16th 1994), they looked to recapture the WCW Tag Titles
from familiar foes of Paul Roma and Paul Orndorff, Pretty Wonderful.
Only this time, The Patriot's mask was also on the line.
We
came back to see a hype video for a cage match between Lex Luger and
Tatanka on what was a special USA Network show billed as Sunday Night
Slam (subtitled March to Wrestlemania) that took place on March 26th
1995. The match would also end up on the VHS compilation entitled
"RAW Hits", even though it's not from RAW...
Next
up, we took a look at the most fervent American supporters in the WWE
in Sgt. Slaughter and Hacksaw Jim Duggan. With either man in the
ring, you could practically guarantee a "USA! USA!" chant
would get going. And in this case, we got both, as they teamed up
again Money Inc. in a match that took place on April 7th 1992, but
aired on Prime Time Wrestling on the nearly perfect date, all things
considered, of July 6th. Oddly enough though, the on-screen graphic
said June 22nd, this match had nothing to do with... The announcers
were Gorilla and Lord Alfred.
We
joined things mid-match as Duggan whipped IRS across, but missed a
charge, which allowed Money Inc. to take over. A DiBiase clothesline
picked up a 2 count before he locked a chinlock on. Duggan got out
but took a knee to the gut before bringing IRS back in. The faces
got a tag, but DiBiase had the referee distracted, so it didn't
count. However, with Ted in the ring, he missed a fist drop and
Duggan was able to make the tag. Slaughter went to work on both men,
getting the Cobra Clutch on DiBiase, but IRS broke it up. The match
broke down as Duggan came in too. Jimmy Hart gave IRS Duggan's 2x4,
but Hacksaw blocked a shot, got it himself and hit IRS to draw the
DQ.
Our
main event for this week saw us re-visit someone we'd already seen on
the show, as we saw how The Patriot had made his debut on RAW in July
of 1997, getting involved in the Hart Foundation storyline. And so
we went to the July 28th 1997 edition of RAW as The Patriot took on
Bret Hart. This would be the same edition of RAW, where Bret would
say that if he could give America an enema, he would stick the hose
in Pittsburgh, where RAW was taking place from.
Gene
said another part of the legendary HBK/Bret rivalry saw The Patriot
able to pick up the victory with Patriot unquestionably ecstatic
about his victory. Gene said that next week, we would take a short
break from the "Best In The World" series to commemorate
the 1000th edition of RAW, saying we wouldn't want to miss that
before signing off.
Epilogue
Mark
Henry was only being used sporadically at this point, and after
picking up a knee injury in weight training, he was sent back down to
OVW for more seasoning before returning to TV on RAW in 2003 as a
heel with Teddy Long. As for Angle, he was set for a match at
Summerslam with Rey Mysterio, a match which he won. His next major
move was to be entered, by Stephanie McMahon, into the tournament for
the newly-created WWE Tag Titles, and given Chris Benoit as a
partner. The pair would end up winning the tournament, even though
they didn't want to team together, with Stephanie threatening them if
they didn't get along.
As
for Stars & Stripes, they would lose the titles again just a few
weeks later to Harlem Heat, although the American pair would get to
hold the titles for a few weeks after losing losing them as the match
wouldn't air until the beginning of 1995. A rematch was set for the
30th edition of the Clash Of The Champions, but Harlem Heat retained.
Stars & Stripes would continue on in lower card match until The
Patriot left in May for All Japan.
By
this point in his career, Lex Luger had formed a team with Davey Boy
Smith, dubbing themselves The Allied Powers, and they would make
their PPV just a weeks or so later at Wrestlemania 11, beating the
Blu Brothers, later earning a shot at the Tag Team Titles at the
second In Your House event against Owen Hart & Yokozuna, although
they would fail in that title shot.
Hacksaw
& Slaughter got to teaming when Sarge had saved Duggan from a
Nasty Boys beatdown. However, the team didn't go very far before
Slaughter retired as an active wrestler in the fall of 92. Duggan
continued on, but found himself as a lower card act. He got a short
feud with Yokozuna in 1993, but was ultimately laid out by him and
taken off TV for a number of months.
Off
of the back of his win on RAW, Patriot would challenge Bret Hart to a
WWE Title match at Summerslam, although he would ultimately lose. He
then teamed with Vader against Bret & Bulldog at Badd Blood, but
again, they lost that match. Patriot was scheduled to be part of
"Team USA" to take on the Hart Foundation at the Montreal
Survivor Series, but was injured and replaced by Steve Blackman and
released in early 1998.
