HIDDEN GEM: Come As You Are (UWF Edition)

Bunkhouse Battle Royal
Date: January 1, 1987
Location: Convention Center, Tulsa, Oklahoma

Buddy Roberts, Michael Hayes, Terry Gordy, Ken Massey, Leroy Brown, Rick Steiner, Sting, Angel of Death, One Man Gang, Chavo Guerrero, Eddie Gilbert, Iceman Parsons, Jack Victory, Steve Williams, Ted DiBiase, Bill Irwin, Bobby Perez, Eli the Eliminator, Gary Young, Jeff Raitz, Jim Duggan, Terry Taylor

Dark match from a UWF TV taping and everyone is in street clothes. You’re eliminated by being tossed or bleeding here to make things a little more violent. The camera stays a good bit too close to start and you can’t see a lot of the ring. Throw in the lack of commentary and this is likely to wind up being very confusing. The brawling by the ropes begins and some people are sent outside through the ropes, meaning they can come back in.

Williams and Gordy brawl through the ropes and out to the floor as Massey is eliminated. We ignore the match to watch the two of them fight and they are eliminated as well. Makes enough sense. Victory is out but comes back in. Ring announcer: “Jack Victory is eliminated! Pardon me, he’s ok.” The brawling continues and since they are in street clothes, it is even more difficult to keep track of the people involved. Angel, Victory and Parsons are all out in a row to clear the ring out a bit.

Gilbert is bleeding for an elimination, even if it is off camera. Sting, Guerrero and Raitz are all out in a row. Hayes beats on Gang with his cowboy boot and Perez is out. Stiner is out and Gang starts hitting people with the boot. A bunch of people fight on the floor Eli, Brown and Irwin are all out, plus Taylor and Duggan. There goes Gang, leaving Hayes and Roberts to beat on DiBiase with a belt. Young is out and DiBiase makes the comeback by eliminating Roberts and then Hayes in a row to win at 10:38.

Rating: D. Aside from it being weird enough to see DiBiase as a face, the problem here was how fast people were being put out. The camera stayed far too zoomed in a lot of the time and I barely saw a lot of the people being eliminated. Just not a well put together match, but it was much more for the live crowd in the first place anyway.