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Welcome to My (And Not Sly's) House
WWF World Tour 1991
Host: Alfred Hayes
Commentators: Vince McMahon, Roddy Piper, Alfred Hayes, Sean Mooney
I think the idea is pretty self explanatory here. This is a collection of matches from other countries on their international tours, with the main places being England and Japan with perhaps some others thrown in. Ok apparently its only London and Tokyo.
Alfred Hayes gets on a train, because you can take a train from Japan to London apparently.
Orient Express vs. The Rockers
This is from London. No entrance for the Express here, but this should be absolutely awesome. Fuji goes after the Rockers with the cane before we get going. The Rockers say theyre going back to the locker room and come back with a surprise. Ive seen this before as the commentary is very familiar to me. This is likely a tape I rented a lot when I was a kid and watched it about 100 times or so.
The surprise is Andre the Giant. Well that works Id think. Its so weird with this commentary as I dont remember watching this match in a long time and yet I can almost quote the commentary before its said. Granted there are a lot of shows I can do that with but you get the idea. Everyone gets in there at once and its kind of sloppy. I remember a classic between these teams at the 91 Rumble so this should be good.
Jannetty and Kato in the ring at the moment. Kato is a masked man if that helps you visualize things. This is after Wrestlemania as the Nasty Boys are the tag champions. The Rockers dominate the early part here which is rather weird. Marty comes in so Id expect a good amount of time will pass before Shawn is in again. Marty totally misses a dropkick and it looks terrible.
I guess you could blame it on the time switch or the jet lag or something, but given the time it might be due to a heightened level of alcohol on the faces part. Scratch what I said earlier as heres Shawn again. Shawn of course shows off a bit and we go back to an armbar. Ive never gotten how heels can get away with switching when the referees back is turned and hes just fine with it. Why cant faces get away with stuff like that?
Roddy asks Vince something about an airline and Vince avoids it like he would avoid a Benoit sign. That was odd. This really isnt much of a match at all. Andre has more or less done nothing at all out there either and its hurting the match a bit. At this point none of the tag guys mean anything so Andre is the star attraction here. When hes weak, it makes things a bit pointless.
Marty is literally almost falling into the ring reaching for a tag which doesnt connect. The Express does the Worlds Greatest Tag Teams double team move on the ropes. Youll either get that or you wont since I dont want to explain it. Shawn takes out both of the Express guys and theres the hot tag to Jannetty. Andre stops Fuji from interfering and pokes Kato with the cane. Double fist drops end it.
Rating: D. REALLY bad considering who was in there. This was a watchable match, but considering the classic they had at the Rumble, this was weak as hell. It was really just a long controlling sequence by the Express and then the Rockers making a very fast comeback before Andre did the real damage. That was all he did in the entire match and it just never worked at all. Bad match, all things considered.
Warlord vs. Jim Neidhart
Same show but later in the card. Yes, people were charged money to watch this match. Someone actually booked this match too. Someone thought this was the best choice of the talent on the roster. What does that tell you about WWF in 91? Warlord is more or less Chris Masters with an evil heel gimmick and a better look. LONG feeling out sequence to start as we kill some time here.
I shudder to think how long they could give this match given how long the tape is and how few matches were listed. Anvil grabs his foot and we do nothing for a bit longer. We hit the floor and do nothing at all of note. This is painfully boring to put it nicely. We get an I Am The Walrus reference from Roddy for the very old school people in the audience tonight.
The boring levels rise up as Warlord throws on a bearhug. His arms are deformed from so many roids in him. And now its a chinlock because we just havent killed off the crowd enough yet. This doesnt sound too bad, but keep in mind that about 20 seconds pass between each move. Were at well over 12 minutes and I havent left out anything but forearm smashes from Warlord.
Anvil starts his comeback, which of course is comprised of punches, forearms and clotheslines. Vince says Cowabunga for no apparent reason but its TMNT time (well we are in London after all) so all is right with the world. A splash misses for Neidhart and Warlord takes over again. And then a rollup from nowhere ends it for Anvil.
Rating: F+. This was FIFTEEN MINUTES LONG. Do I need to explain why this was a bad match? Well I might as well anyway. This was nothing at all of note and was just boring as hell to say the least. They TOTALLY clashed and Warlord was horrible on his best day, so this was just not going to be good at all. Absolutely awful and theres no other way to put it.
Fan Favorite Match: Randy Savage vs. Rick Martel
Back in the day fans would send in requests for matches. This is two days after Mania and Savage is fulfilling obligations, so allegedly its historic. Martel jumps him from behind to start. This is in Las Vegas mind you, so pay no attention to the whole WORLD Tour concept I suppose. Hayes gets on Liz, making sure hell be in hell soon.
Very basic stuff here as Martel goes after Liz and Savage doesnt like that very much. Randy hasnt actually done anything here but takes over for a bit just as I say that. And now he takes Martel to the floor and hits a delayed piledriver on the floor. The elbow ends it of course as Martel is DEAD. This is by far the shortest match on the tape so far.
Rating: D+. Best match so far which is saying VERY little. The ending was about as emphatic as you could ask for, but other than that it was boring. Savage had a bad tendency to do nothing at all and then hit one move and the elbow for the win, which is what he did here. Im not huge on it but that was his thing by this point so its all we had to work with I guess.
Time for Etiquette with Alfred Hayes, with his students Sister Sherri and the Brooklyn Brawler. This wont end well. Sherri is filing her toenails and Brawler shoots spit wads at the camera. They argue over how to use a napkin (which Hayes says not to call it). This goes nowhere fast to put it nicely. While they wait on the food we get this.
Ted DiBiase vs. Roddy Piper
From the same Vegas show, which was a Superstars taping. Piper is limping here due to a motorcycle accident which was legit. DiBiase has a crutch that Piper used to have and which played a relatively unimportant role at Mania. Its a brawl to start as we continue a feud that went nowhere at all. Sherri gets dragged in and the required kiss is used. Hayes says he wanted to kiss her for no apparent reason.
DiBiase goes for the knee which makes sense but after nearly an hour of this tape its hard to get hyped to put it mildly. All knee stuff now but a spinning toe hold/figure four is blocked. I could watch DiBiase do rolls and flips forever. DiBiase brings in the crutch but Roddy gets it and turns the tables on Ted. Sherri comes in again and crutch shots to the heels end this.
Rating: D+. This was like part of a match instead of a full one. They were trying but nothing came of it. Piper just wasnt interesting in the ring at this point and DiBiase had just been passed as a heel so there wasnt much here to work with at all. I never really got why this was supposed to be a good feud as it looked solid on paper but then one day they kind of just realized they were old and that was that. Bad match.
Sherri and Brawler tie up Hayes and have a food fight. The closeups of Alfreds face with the rapid eye movements are pretty funny. Yep this was pointless.
Earthquake vs. Jake Roberts
Looks like Vegas one more time. Quake had recently crushed Damien so theres a big feud here. Jake surprisingly dives under the ropes and gets caught, which doesnt seem like him. He just kind of shakes the shots off and is all fine and dandy. Cocaine is a powerful drug if there ever has been one. Sean talks about Jimmy Harts jackets and Quake unsuccessfully goes for the snake.
DDT doesnt work as it amazes me how far Quake had fallen in just a few months like he did, as he went from more or less main eventing Summerslam to this. Quake does his elbow to the leg and Jake tries to pull on Quakes Theo Mays to get out but to no avail. Never realized this but Earthquake looks like a big egg in the outfits he wore.
The Earthquake (move not person) is avoided and the snake is brought in by the fat man. An ass drop onto that one is blocked and theres Lucifer for the DQ. Well that was expected at least I guess. Jimmy almost gets covered by the snake of course. Hes not someone I want to see in leather pants by the way.
Rating: D. Another weak one here but this was indeed a pretty hot feud back in this era. Its nice to see a match that actually has some meaning on here rather than weak feuds getting the house show treatment. This wasnt much at all but Ive seen far worse. In other words its par for the course on this tape.
Mr. Perfect vs. Shawn Michaels
Two years later this would be the hottest feud in the company. Perfect is IC Champion here but theres no mention yet of this being for the title. More from Vegas of course. After some basics to start Shawn challenges him to some boxing. The more successful one (granted it was 5 years from now) wins that and Perfect hits the floor for a bit.
Perfect tries to chill for a bit so Shawn FUCKING DIVES over the ropes to get at him. He goes into the post and heres Marty to check on his buddy. Perfect always had such a sweet dropkick. Geez even back in 91 the announcers were kissing Shawns ass. All Perfect here as Sean tells us how great the 4 minutes weve seen so far have been.
Hayes more or less declares the match over which is about as much of a guarantee as you need that this isnt over yet. I love Perfects overselling of everything. A jawbreaker gets Shawn out of a sleeper and now he starts to oversell. Jannetty punches Perfect which buys some time. And heres Bobby Heenan who causes Jannetty to go down. Heenan isnt Perfects manager at this point so this is kind of weird.
Shawn starts his comeback and we crank it up a bit. The flying fistdrop is interrupted by the intelligent one. Here comes the Perfectplex but heres Big Bossman to beat up Perfect and cause the DQ.
Rating: B. Solid match here as both guys were just awesome at this point. Shawn was a little bit away from his heel turn and the beginning of his launch to superstardom. This was a good match though and the epitome of a breath of fresh air for anyone that has had to watch this show so far. Good match.
Time for Shopping with the Million Dollar Man. This should be good. What this has to do with the World Tour is beyond me but whatever. We head to his personal jeweler completely with images of money. Cant beat that. Ted has had his belt polished, making it look awesome. He looks at a very nice necklace and a box of rings, saying hell take them all. Nothing more than that as its over. Total waste of about 4 minutes.
Jim Duggan vs. Kendo Nagasaki
Were in Tokyo in the Egg Dome. Given what I know about these two, this should be AWFUL. Hayes says Nagasaki is one of Japans best wrestlers ever. Thats very amusing. Actually it isnt but whatever. This is from an SWS show and has American commentary of course.
This is like 2 minutes long as they head to the floor for some brawling and then Duggan charges into the corner but eats a knee. A kick to the chest ends it, which I think must have been a botched ending as Duggan looks fine afterwards. Some board shots put Nagasaki on the floor. Hayes tries to say that the referee counted to three in Japanese. If it wasnt a regular WWF referee I might buy that.
Rating: N/A. This was nothing at all and the ending was just odd as hell.
Hulk Hogan/Ultimate Warrior vs. General Adnan/Sgt. Slaughter/Undertaker
Please make this fast. More from Vegas here as thats enough world traveling for one show I guess. This is just after Mania so Hogan is the new world champion. Slaughter jumps Hulk to start which completely fails for him. Hogan keeps knocking Taker off the apron which is funny for some reason. Taker beats down Hogan to preview what would come about 6 months later.
Hayes is a heel announcer here and its kind of weird. How weird is it that Taker of all people is the least accomplished here? Hogan finally gets the tag to Warrior who is really bad. Somehow he gets beaten down in less than two minutes and were just waiting on the Hogan hot tag to end this. Slaughter misses a top rope splash to allow the tag to happen.
Next to no pop for it though as either the fans arent interested here or this is one of those marathon tapings where they went on for like 5 hours and were mostly just squashes. Camel Clutch to Hogan and Taker helps pull on it. Ah theres Warrior to save. He and Taker head to the floor and brawl back to the dressing room. Heel miscommunication lets Hogan pin Adnan.
Rating: D. If this was in the modern era, this would be a Raw main event and a bad one. This was just weak as hell and no one cared. This would be like Drew McIntyre, Punk and Mercury vs. Cena and Orton. Theres no reason to care and it wasnt anything good at all. It fits this tape perfectly in other words.
Overall Rating: F. AWFUL tape with a total of one good match. The World aspect is a joke as there are three matches not in America, none of which are any good. I know this was a bad era in the companys history, but can we do a bit better than a bunch of house show rejects and nothing of note. This was absolutely awful though and a total waste of time. Nothing at all worth seeing.
Host: Alfred Hayes
Commentators: Vince McMahon, Roddy Piper, Alfred Hayes, Sean Mooney
I think the idea is pretty self explanatory here. This is a collection of matches from other countries on their international tours, with the main places being England and Japan with perhaps some others thrown in. Ok apparently its only London and Tokyo.
Alfred Hayes gets on a train, because you can take a train from Japan to London apparently.
Orient Express vs. The Rockers
This is from London. No entrance for the Express here, but this should be absolutely awesome. Fuji goes after the Rockers with the cane before we get going. The Rockers say theyre going back to the locker room and come back with a surprise. Ive seen this before as the commentary is very familiar to me. This is likely a tape I rented a lot when I was a kid and watched it about 100 times or so.
The surprise is Andre the Giant. Well that works Id think. Its so weird with this commentary as I dont remember watching this match in a long time and yet I can almost quote the commentary before its said. Granted there are a lot of shows I can do that with but you get the idea. Everyone gets in there at once and its kind of sloppy. I remember a classic between these teams at the 91 Rumble so this should be good.
Jannetty and Kato in the ring at the moment. Kato is a masked man if that helps you visualize things. This is after Wrestlemania as the Nasty Boys are the tag champions. The Rockers dominate the early part here which is rather weird. Marty comes in so Id expect a good amount of time will pass before Shawn is in again. Marty totally misses a dropkick and it looks terrible.
I guess you could blame it on the time switch or the jet lag or something, but given the time it might be due to a heightened level of alcohol on the faces part. Scratch what I said earlier as heres Shawn again. Shawn of course shows off a bit and we go back to an armbar. Ive never gotten how heels can get away with switching when the referees back is turned and hes just fine with it. Why cant faces get away with stuff like that?
Roddy asks Vince something about an airline and Vince avoids it like he would avoid a Benoit sign. That was odd. This really isnt much of a match at all. Andre has more or less done nothing at all out there either and its hurting the match a bit. At this point none of the tag guys mean anything so Andre is the star attraction here. When hes weak, it makes things a bit pointless.
Marty is literally almost falling into the ring reaching for a tag which doesnt connect. The Express does the Worlds Greatest Tag Teams double team move on the ropes. Youll either get that or you wont since I dont want to explain it. Shawn takes out both of the Express guys and theres the hot tag to Jannetty. Andre stops Fuji from interfering and pokes Kato with the cane. Double fist drops end it.
Rating: D. REALLY bad considering who was in there. This was a watchable match, but considering the classic they had at the Rumble, this was weak as hell. It was really just a long controlling sequence by the Express and then the Rockers making a very fast comeback before Andre did the real damage. That was all he did in the entire match and it just never worked at all. Bad match, all things considered.
Warlord vs. Jim Neidhart
Same show but later in the card. Yes, people were charged money to watch this match. Someone actually booked this match too. Someone thought this was the best choice of the talent on the roster. What does that tell you about WWF in 91? Warlord is more or less Chris Masters with an evil heel gimmick and a better look. LONG feeling out sequence to start as we kill some time here.
I shudder to think how long they could give this match given how long the tape is and how few matches were listed. Anvil grabs his foot and we do nothing for a bit longer. We hit the floor and do nothing at all of note. This is painfully boring to put it nicely. We get an I Am The Walrus reference from Roddy for the very old school people in the audience tonight.
The boring levels rise up as Warlord throws on a bearhug. His arms are deformed from so many roids in him. And now its a chinlock because we just havent killed off the crowd enough yet. This doesnt sound too bad, but keep in mind that about 20 seconds pass between each move. Were at well over 12 minutes and I havent left out anything but forearm smashes from Warlord.
Anvil starts his comeback, which of course is comprised of punches, forearms and clotheslines. Vince says Cowabunga for no apparent reason but its TMNT time (well we are in London after all) so all is right with the world. A splash misses for Neidhart and Warlord takes over again. And then a rollup from nowhere ends it for Anvil.
Rating: F+. This was FIFTEEN MINUTES LONG. Do I need to explain why this was a bad match? Well I might as well anyway. This was nothing at all of note and was just boring as hell to say the least. They TOTALLY clashed and Warlord was horrible on his best day, so this was just not going to be good at all. Absolutely awful and theres no other way to put it.
Fan Favorite Match: Randy Savage vs. Rick Martel
Back in the day fans would send in requests for matches. This is two days after Mania and Savage is fulfilling obligations, so allegedly its historic. Martel jumps him from behind to start. This is in Las Vegas mind you, so pay no attention to the whole WORLD Tour concept I suppose. Hayes gets on Liz, making sure hell be in hell soon.
Very basic stuff here as Martel goes after Liz and Savage doesnt like that very much. Randy hasnt actually done anything here but takes over for a bit just as I say that. And now he takes Martel to the floor and hits a delayed piledriver on the floor. The elbow ends it of course as Martel is DEAD. This is by far the shortest match on the tape so far.
Rating: D+. Best match so far which is saying VERY little. The ending was about as emphatic as you could ask for, but other than that it was boring. Savage had a bad tendency to do nothing at all and then hit one move and the elbow for the win, which is what he did here. Im not huge on it but that was his thing by this point so its all we had to work with I guess.
Time for Etiquette with Alfred Hayes, with his students Sister Sherri and the Brooklyn Brawler. This wont end well. Sherri is filing her toenails and Brawler shoots spit wads at the camera. They argue over how to use a napkin (which Hayes says not to call it). This goes nowhere fast to put it nicely. While they wait on the food we get this.
Ted DiBiase vs. Roddy Piper
From the same Vegas show, which was a Superstars taping. Piper is limping here due to a motorcycle accident which was legit. DiBiase has a crutch that Piper used to have and which played a relatively unimportant role at Mania. Its a brawl to start as we continue a feud that went nowhere at all. Sherri gets dragged in and the required kiss is used. Hayes says he wanted to kiss her for no apparent reason.
DiBiase goes for the knee which makes sense but after nearly an hour of this tape its hard to get hyped to put it mildly. All knee stuff now but a spinning toe hold/figure four is blocked. I could watch DiBiase do rolls and flips forever. DiBiase brings in the crutch but Roddy gets it and turns the tables on Ted. Sherri comes in again and crutch shots to the heels end this.
Rating: D+. This was like part of a match instead of a full one. They were trying but nothing came of it. Piper just wasnt interesting in the ring at this point and DiBiase had just been passed as a heel so there wasnt much here to work with at all. I never really got why this was supposed to be a good feud as it looked solid on paper but then one day they kind of just realized they were old and that was that. Bad match.
Sherri and Brawler tie up Hayes and have a food fight. The closeups of Alfreds face with the rapid eye movements are pretty funny. Yep this was pointless.
Earthquake vs. Jake Roberts
Looks like Vegas one more time. Quake had recently crushed Damien so theres a big feud here. Jake surprisingly dives under the ropes and gets caught, which doesnt seem like him. He just kind of shakes the shots off and is all fine and dandy. Cocaine is a powerful drug if there ever has been one. Sean talks about Jimmy Harts jackets and Quake unsuccessfully goes for the snake.
DDT doesnt work as it amazes me how far Quake had fallen in just a few months like he did, as he went from more or less main eventing Summerslam to this. Quake does his elbow to the leg and Jake tries to pull on Quakes Theo Mays to get out but to no avail. Never realized this but Earthquake looks like a big egg in the outfits he wore.
The Earthquake (move not person) is avoided and the snake is brought in by the fat man. An ass drop onto that one is blocked and theres Lucifer for the DQ. Well that was expected at least I guess. Jimmy almost gets covered by the snake of course. Hes not someone I want to see in leather pants by the way.
Rating: D. Another weak one here but this was indeed a pretty hot feud back in this era. Its nice to see a match that actually has some meaning on here rather than weak feuds getting the house show treatment. This wasnt much at all but Ive seen far worse. In other words its par for the course on this tape.
Mr. Perfect vs. Shawn Michaels
Two years later this would be the hottest feud in the company. Perfect is IC Champion here but theres no mention yet of this being for the title. More from Vegas of course. After some basics to start Shawn challenges him to some boxing. The more successful one (granted it was 5 years from now) wins that and Perfect hits the floor for a bit.
Perfect tries to chill for a bit so Shawn FUCKING DIVES over the ropes to get at him. He goes into the post and heres Marty to check on his buddy. Perfect always had such a sweet dropkick. Geez even back in 91 the announcers were kissing Shawns ass. All Perfect here as Sean tells us how great the 4 minutes weve seen so far have been.
Hayes more or less declares the match over which is about as much of a guarantee as you need that this isnt over yet. I love Perfects overselling of everything. A jawbreaker gets Shawn out of a sleeper and now he starts to oversell. Jannetty punches Perfect which buys some time. And heres Bobby Heenan who causes Jannetty to go down. Heenan isnt Perfects manager at this point so this is kind of weird.
Shawn starts his comeback and we crank it up a bit. The flying fistdrop is interrupted by the intelligent one. Here comes the Perfectplex but heres Big Bossman to beat up Perfect and cause the DQ.
Rating: B. Solid match here as both guys were just awesome at this point. Shawn was a little bit away from his heel turn and the beginning of his launch to superstardom. This was a good match though and the epitome of a breath of fresh air for anyone that has had to watch this show so far. Good match.
Time for Shopping with the Million Dollar Man. This should be good. What this has to do with the World Tour is beyond me but whatever. We head to his personal jeweler completely with images of money. Cant beat that. Ted has had his belt polished, making it look awesome. He looks at a very nice necklace and a box of rings, saying hell take them all. Nothing more than that as its over. Total waste of about 4 minutes.
Jim Duggan vs. Kendo Nagasaki
Were in Tokyo in the Egg Dome. Given what I know about these two, this should be AWFUL. Hayes says Nagasaki is one of Japans best wrestlers ever. Thats very amusing. Actually it isnt but whatever. This is from an SWS show and has American commentary of course.
This is like 2 minutes long as they head to the floor for some brawling and then Duggan charges into the corner but eats a knee. A kick to the chest ends it, which I think must have been a botched ending as Duggan looks fine afterwards. Some board shots put Nagasaki on the floor. Hayes tries to say that the referee counted to three in Japanese. If it wasnt a regular WWF referee I might buy that.
Rating: N/A. This was nothing at all and the ending was just odd as hell.
Hulk Hogan/Ultimate Warrior vs. General Adnan/Sgt. Slaughter/Undertaker
Please make this fast. More from Vegas here as thats enough world traveling for one show I guess. This is just after Mania so Hogan is the new world champion. Slaughter jumps Hulk to start which completely fails for him. Hogan keeps knocking Taker off the apron which is funny for some reason. Taker beats down Hogan to preview what would come about 6 months later.
Hayes is a heel announcer here and its kind of weird. How weird is it that Taker of all people is the least accomplished here? Hogan finally gets the tag to Warrior who is really bad. Somehow he gets beaten down in less than two minutes and were just waiting on the Hogan hot tag to end this. Slaughter misses a top rope splash to allow the tag to happen.
Next to no pop for it though as either the fans arent interested here or this is one of those marathon tapings where they went on for like 5 hours and were mostly just squashes. Camel Clutch to Hogan and Taker helps pull on it. Ah theres Warrior to save. He and Taker head to the floor and brawl back to the dressing room. Heel miscommunication lets Hogan pin Adnan.
Rating: D. If this was in the modern era, this would be a Raw main event and a bad one. This was just weak as hell and no one cared. This would be like Drew McIntyre, Punk and Mercury vs. Cena and Orton. Theres no reason to care and it wasnt anything good at all. It fits this tape perfectly in other words.
Overall Rating: F. AWFUL tape with a total of one good match. The World aspect is a joke as there are three matches not in America, none of which are any good. I know this was a bad era in the companys history, but can we do a bit better than a bunch of house show rejects and nothing of note. This was absolutely awful though and a total waste of time. Nothing at all worth seeing.