Devon Storm vs Chris Kanyon WCW Prime 04-29-1996
Occasionally, I'm wrong about things.
I try not to make it a habit, but from time to time I've been known to be momentarily incorrect. I thought Heath Ledger would make a terrible joker. I thought Kyrie Irving would lead the Boston Celtics to a NBA Championship. I thought a mullet was a good idea for a haircut in 2009.
I've been wrong
But wrestling, wrestling I think I'm usually right. Whether it be my own hubris, my own willingness to be hoisted on my own petard, my own ability to use a theasaurus to desrcibe the same thing over and over again to boost the word count on this blog.....I'm confident in my wrestling opinions. Pro Wrestling evolves and moves forward, but at the end of the day it's kind of the same. There's only so many original ideas that stuff repeats itself . You watch long enough and you see the tropes and the formulas. The fun part starts when you see someone skewer those tropes or play with the formulas. Like Waingro said, the action is the juice. Of course I'm not always right, but I'm usually in the ball park. It's so rare that I feel I am completely blindsided by pro wrestling, I can't remember last time it happened.
Then I watched this match and I was rattled.
First, a peak behind the curtain. The way I decide matches to review on the blog are a combo of, matches I already knew were interesting or by casting a wide net and seeing what comes back. I've amassed a pretty lengthy "Watch Later" section on YouTube over the years and usually I scroll through that and see what peaks my fancy. However, sometimes I decide I want to see if my gut instinct about a wrestler is correct.
Enter Kanyon
It's been said by people smarter than me, that Kanyon was so innovative and ahead of his time that he would thrive in wrestling today. He was nicknamed The Innovator of Offense for a reason. In doing this project, it dawned on me that Kanyon would be amazing squash match guy. He seems like someone with such dedication to innovation that he would come up with Wacky stuff to do to jobbers. This would be great. Let me find a match. Wait, he's got a match with Devon Storm before Devon Storm was Crowbar? Oh man he's gonna toss Devon Storm all around and this is going to rule. I just assumed this was a Hall of Fame squash. You know what happens when you assume right?
You make a rash judgement out of you and me?
Coming to you from Universal Studios, it's WCW Prime. This is Kanyon when he was still in a tag team with Mark Starr as Men at Work. That's a team I want to deep dive at some point. They were regulars on Saturday Night and their gimmick was, construction guys? The extent of the gimmick was hard hats, jeans, and tape measuring sometimes. It was great. His opponent is "Dangerous" Devon Storm. Storm was an indie wrestling name in the mid 90s and while he's a bit before my time, I think he's one of those guys who influenced the guys who influenced the guys today. Devon Storm is dressed like Marty Jannetty's brother, who I assume Marty Jannetty blamed for that murder he said he did once.
The bell rings and Kanyon is off the races. Here we go. Some punches to Devon Storm and then whips him into the ropes and Devon hits the world's slowest headscissors. Kanyon staggers out and Storm hits a Front Flip to Kanyon on the outside. Worth noting that the ring is on a stage which is elevated, but the problem is the elevation device ( scientific term) is a circle while the ring is not. That means every move on the outside is terrifying as someone might hit the edgeand mess up their back. Kanyon back in and Devon does one of those moves that's hard to describe , but let me try my best. Jumps off the top over Kanyon's shoulders into a victory roll without the pinning combo? I'm not good at this part. I never ran an e-fed, I don't know what I'm doing. Man they're letting Devon get a lot of offense in this.
Wait
Wait
IS THIS A DEVON STORM SQUASH MATCH?
Like I said, I was wrong.
Devon is hitting every big move. Top Rope Frankensteiner and then a biiiiigggg back body drop to Kanyon to the outside. Devon Storm with a moonsault to the outside that barely hits Kanyon and Devon is lucky he didn't hit the elevation device ( still scientific term). Devon rolls Kanyon and hits a split legged moonsault. Moonsault is a strong term. More like a split legged senton. It's not good and that's like the third time I thought Devon Storm hurt himself. Kanyon fights back and Devon Storm hits his finisher, A Flipping Stunner off the top rope for the win. That move is awesome. It's very similar to Ember Moon's Eclipse except it's flipping OVER The guy. It's a great finisher that I can't do justice.
I can't describe to you the confusion as I slowly realized Kanyon was the one getting squashed. I mean, shame on me for not remembering the massive 1996 WCW Devon Storm push. He was like original Goldberg. That said, it's a fun match and I still came away impressed with both guys. Devon Storm for going all out and hitting big moves, and Kanyon for bumping for everything like a lunatic. It's not hall of fame worthy but it's fun and worth checking out
Who betta than Kanyon?
Devon Storm...he won the match
TLDR REVIEW
I hate being wrong. Kanyon hates winning. Devon Storm hates his body
If you're interested in more condensed version of my thoughts, You can check out my Twitter where I talk about wrestling or stress out during Boston Celtics games. Hell, I'll even take suggestions for matches you want to see reviewed. You can also check out my Youtube where I make weird videos where I put on wigs in front of a camera to mask my true identity.