The card was held outside at the rodeo grounds. A decent-sized crowd came with most sitting in the free grandstand seats. The weather was good for wrestling. The on-again, off-again, relationship this group has with the word "World" in their name was off again.
Ken Patera introduced the show, only to be interrupted by "Wild" Bill Irwin, who gave him advice on how to referee the tag match.
(1) Bo Bullinski, Jr. "face" pinned The Dakota Kid "heel". That's what the program said: Bo, not Bull. Anyway, Jr. no sold early on. Dakota Kid tried three successive sleeper holds. Jr. gained the pin after some sort of a butt-drop.
(2) Jason Vain "heel" defeated The Street Fighter "face" to retain the WAWA TV title. Street Fighter was in the audience before the match, and was put over as a wrestler "in the crowd" despite the fact that he was wearing wrestling gear and was advertised in the program. This match had some good moves, including a top rope huracanrana, a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker, and a full hanging suplex. The two also engaged in some little seen mat wrestling. The finish came when Vain hit Street Fighter with his title belt, then rolled him up for the win. Jason Vain showed some ability and has a Lash Laroux style haircut.
(3) Che Physique "face" (w/Matt Burns) retained the Ladies Championship over Miss Natural "heel" (w/Chuck the New Age Farmer) in an overturned decision. Before the match Burns and Chuck argued over who would get to referee. Patera flipped a coin and Chuck won. This match wasn't as bad as it could have been. The heel offense included a lot of hair pulling, including one interesting bit where Natural stood on Physique's hair while holding her upside down off the mat. Che connected with two corner-to-corner Xena flips and missed a top rope splash. The pin came on a fast three count with Miss Natural using the ropes to her advantage. After the match Patera overturned the decision and Che beat on Chuck. Miss Natural has a little bit of Lita in her. It's a shame these two don't have more opponents. The fragmentation of the local wrestling scene hurts women more than anyone.
(4) Matt Burns "face" defeated Black Top Bully (Barry Darsow) "heel" by DQ. Darsow retained WAWA Heavyweight Championship. If there is one thing that sets apart the old wrestlers from the new, it's the pitch and volume of their voices. Darsow is loud, very loud. He makes sure that everybody is paying attention to him and this went a long way to put him over. This was the best match of the evening. The pair fought outside the ring with Darsow suplexing Burns into a pile of dirt. In the ring Burns missed with a spectacular looking moonsault. The finish started with a ref bump and a foreign object, and ended with Patera DQ'ing Darsow. This match featured good old fashioned hokey. It's time for Matt Burns to move beyond his "Rookie Sensation" image.
(5) Derek "Starfire" Dukes & Jumpin' Jim Brunzell "faces" defeated "Wild" Bill Irwin & Chuck the New Age Farmer "heels". Ken Patera was guest referee. The heels played a game of "scissors-paper-rock" to see who would start. Irwin was the dominant personality of the match. Like Darsow, he was loud. Stalling early, he argued with the fans, the wrestlers, and Patera. He left the ring at one point to challenge some kids. Jim Brunzell's contribution was mostly a monkey flip and his trademark dropkick. The faces gained the pin in a mish-mash finish.
(6) The Street Fighter won a 10 man battle royal. I've seen these WAWA battle royals before. They are usually short, this was the shortest match on the card. That was the best that can be said of it.
Of the three worst "Big 3" matches I've seen live in recent years, one had Barry Darsow in it and two had Bill Irwin. It was nice to see them working better this night. -doc d'X