Time for another edition of Saturday Morning Slam from 2012. Voice Over Guy tells us that today is all about the Intercontinental Championship before informing us that today’s match will see Long Island Iced-Z, Zack Ryder, taking on Future NXT Dad, William “Steven” Regal. This is apparently the only televised singles match these two men have ever had.
Saturday Morning Spotlight
This week the Spotlight is on The Miz. It’s amazing to me how little his shtick has changed between 2012 and present day. He’s got the same mannerisms and catchphrases and stuff. It’s weird.
Fave Five
This week we get a Fave Five on the best Intercontinental Champions of all times. They are as follows: Pat Patterson, Chris Jericho, The Ultimate Warrior, The Honky Tonk Man, and Macho Man Randy Savage. They then talked about Savage’s match against Steamboat at WrestleMania III. Overall it was a fine list and the video package was put together well.
Pop Quiz
Speaking of Randy Savage, WrestleMania, and title wins, CM Punk is here with today’s Pop Quiz. Who did Macho Man beat at WrestleMania IV to win his first World Heavyweight Championship?
A. Hulk Hogan
B. Andre the Giant
C. Ted Dibiase
We’ll find out later today!
Match 1: William Regal vs. Zack Ryder
With all that rigmarole out of the way we head to the arena for the match of day. This week Josh Mathews is joined on commentary by Santino Marella. Both men head down to the ring. Marella says that Regal looks like a “real vill-E-in.” Ryder comes out and offers Regal a fist bump of respect, but Regal replies, “How dare you!” to this affront to proper decorum. God I love William Regal.
The match begins with Ryder pumping his fist to pop the crowd. Regal does not appreciate this so he attempts to pop the crowd by doing his Blue Bloods peace sign deal. The crowd is not into it. Ryder pumps his fist again. Regal attempts to fire up the crowd once more but they are not into it.
They finally decide to wrestle and Regal takes Ryder down to the mat and starts working the arm. He gets into it with Santino telling him, “I’ve got it now!” as Satino yells back, “Oh no you don’t!” Regal releases Ryder to go closer to the ropes to better yell at Santino and Ryder grabs a roll up for a near fall.
Collar and elbow tie up and Regal goes after the arm. Ryder reverses it and takes Regal down to the mat and works over the arm. They do so grappling on the mat. This is crazy. Regal gets back to his feet and gets to the ropes to break the hold.
Ryder sends Regal into the corner with a dropkick and looks for the Broski Boot, but Regal rolls out to the floor and we go to commercials. TAPE MACHINES ARE ROLLING!
We return from break with the standard Saturday Morning Slam “Don’t Try This At Home,” PSA. This week it’s from Ryder who tells us we can “fist pump our faces off,” but not to try any Rough Ryders or Broski Boots or whatever.
Back to the action we find Ryder bring Regal back into the ring from the apron the hard way. Regal, who apparently had spent the entire commercial break jawing with Santino, takes Ryder down to the mat for a pin attempt but Ryder fights back to his feet and we get a test of strength.
We get some back and forth with Ryder getting a couple one counts Regal gets out of the hold and takes Ryder down with a wristlock. Ryder reverses it but Regal gets him back down to the mat and grapevines his legs and works another hold on Ryder’s arm.
Ryder tries to reach the bottom rope for a ropebreak but can’t quite get there. Ryder eventually fights back to his feet and reverses the wristlock. Regal gets out of it and begs off to the corner.
Ryder sells his arm. Regal calls for another test of strength and Ryder, being dumb, readily agrees to it, locking up with his one good arm. Regal gives him an arm ringer, but Ryder counters out with a Codebreaker/judo flip. A dropkick follows and we cut to the commentary team because he probably hit Regal in the head.
Ryder comes off the ropes with a crossbody block for two. Both me are back to their feet and Ryder goes up for the Rough Ryder from out of nowhere and we cut to Mathews and Marella since it’s a leg lariat to the back of the neck. We go back to the ring to see Ryder cover Regal and pick up the win. Regal slinks to the back while Ryder pumps his fists in the ring.
Winner: Zack Ryder
This was a fine little match with a surprising amount of matwork. Regal is great at that sort of stuff and Ryder, who is not really known as a mat-based technician, kept up pretty well. Beyond the back and forth between Regal and Marella there was less outright humor than other episodes of Saturday Morning Slam, but that’s fine.
My one minor gripe with this match was the fact that they cut away at the finish. I know there’s a no headshot rule on Saturday Morning Slam, so why not have Ryder win with a rollup or crossbody (both moves he did for near falls) or have Regal get into it with Santino again and let Ryder win with a schoolboy? Like I said, kind of a minor gripe. [**]
Video Package!
We get a video about Make-a-Wish and John Cena’s work with them narrated by Cena himself. Regardless of what one thinks of John Cena the professional wrestling character, John Cena the man seems like one hell of a good dude.
Pop Quiz
CM Punk’s back with the answer to the pop quiz question he asked earlier. It’s Ted Dibiase for those who don’t know.
Next Week on Saturday Morning Slam!
Voice Over Guy is here to wrap the show up and hype next week’s episode where they will be celebrating “Family Health and Fitness Day,” whatever that is. Also the Leader of the Cenation, none other than John Cena, will be on the show.
Before we sign off for the day there’s one last thing…
How To Be Awesome!
The Miz is here to give us some tips about how to be awesome. They are as follows:
- Dress the part.
- Walk the part.
- Listen to naysayers. (This is not a typo.)
- Be loud! Be heard!
- Be Awesome!
While suggesting they “be awesome” while teaching children how to be awesome does kind of remind me of that Steve Martin, “You Can Be a Millionaire…And Never Pay Taxes!” bit this was overall a fine “have self-esteem,” segment aimed at small children.
Final Thoughts
The match between Ryder and Regal was the sort of thing I love about B and C shows where you’d get bizarre matchups between people who would never come in contact with one another on a more prestigious program, and this week the actual encounter was surprisingly good.
As for the other stuff I thought the package about the Intercontinental Champions was decent, especially for young kids who might not actually know about guys like Patterson or The Honky Tonk Man.
Overall this was a good episode of Saturday Morning Slam and worth checking out on YouTube or Dailymotion or wherever if you like wrestling and have 20 some-odd minutes to kill.
Atomic Drop 