Koko Ware vs The Patriot – CWA
02/01/86
There is an art to a good squash match, an art that has unfortunately fallen somewhat by the wayside as the push for TV ratings and PPV buys took hold across the wrestling world. At a time when the big matches weren’t shown for free every Monday or Tuesday night, the only way you could really start to know what a wrestler was capable of in the ring was to attend the live shows or to watch them defeat job guys on television. In one to three minutes, you had to sell your character and your offense enough to make people give enough of a shit about you to buy tickets to watch your matches.
The heel squash match often saw the name wrestler overpower their opponent, often giving them little to no offense whatsoever. Generally, the squash match to promote a face might see some heel offense, though this would only be to allow a brief fiery comeback before the finish; the bread and butter of what a face often needs to be able to offer the fans. Thus, Paul Orndorff would bully his jobber opponents mercilessly before dropping them with the piledriver; Tito Santana would use his speed to work his way out of heel control before landing dropkicks, back body drops and his flying forearm finisher.
Sometimes, name guys did take liberties with their opponents. This often came about due to a job guy acting in a way backstage that was deemed to require them getting put ‘back in their place’. The Midnight Express famously shot on a wrestler who was dubbed ‘Wee Willie Wilkins’ after he had offended Dusty and the Express backstage on a World Championship Wrestling taping. Yokozuna was another wrestler who, after the opponent didn’t bump on a back splash into the corner, saw fit to crush him with what amounted to a shoot Banzai drop.
This brings us to Koko Ware vs The Patriot in Memphis.
Whilst Koko is often considered to be a guy that was likeable and friendly behind the scenes, he was also someone who wasn’t afraid to stand up for himself or to get in the faces of people who he thought had disrespected him. Without knowing the situation surrounding the lead up to this match, it is difficult to suggest what seemed to annoy Ware to the point where he seemed to legitimately kick this jobber’s ass. Had he been disrespected backstage, or did he just not really care about laying in some stiff shots along the way?
As both men were in the ring for the pre-match introductions, Ware was already beginning to stalk the Patriot, to the extent that the referee had to stand between them to stop Ware from jumping him before the bell. When the match began, the Patriot backed Ware into the corner and landed a chop – this was the last offense he would get in the match and possibly the last thing he remembers about it as well.
The first few punches from Ware are stiff, though not necessarily beyond the pale in terms of behaviour. A clothesline that followed, however, dumped the Patriot hard on the mat, the stiff impact of arm on chest/neck audible in the small Memphis studio. The next thirty seconds saw the Patriot struggling to regain any sense of where he was or which way was up, a job made more challenging by periodic punches to the face and kicks in the back from a heated Ware.
The only thing that redeems Ware somewhat is that he does protect the Patriot on the Ghost Buster brainbuster finisher, a move he could have gone to town on if he really wanted to hurt the guy. Still, a slap around the face at the two count of the winning pinfall just served to put the exclamation mark on whatever point Ware was trying to make – point that seemed to be never to mess with him again. I doubt he would.
