Bay Area Pro Episode #1
Friday, April 21st, 1989
Live from the Kaiser Convention Center
Oakland, CA
Quick-cut aerial stock footage of the East Bay appears on screen, with some establishing shots of vehicles driving over the Bay Bridge at night, people walking in downtown Oakland by Fox Theater and along Lake Merritt. All of this while “Oakland Stroke (Additional)” by Tower of Power plays. Cuts of generic in-ring wrestling action is now interspersed in the footage. A luchador in blue and white mask, a tall man with curly locks, a man in a bright pink mask jumping into the crowd and more. As the song fades, the Bay Area Pro title card fades in and a friendly but boisterous voice announces:
“Brought to you by Emporium-Capwell - this is Bay…Area…Pro!”
Tinny, but enthusiastic applause is heard as well as some raucous hootin and hollerin from the men in the crowd. The camera shows a well-filled auditorium of people of many different races, genders and ages who begin chanting
BEE AYE PEE
BEE AYE PEE
BEE AYE PEE
Suddenly over the PA speakers in the auditorium AND the speakers on your tv -
KICK IT
“Fight for your Right” by the Beastie Boys blasts out, kick-starting the first episode of Bay Area Pro with the tag team of THE FUTURE - The New Breed.
Chris Champion and Sean Royal come out to a mixed chorus of boos and cheers. They do a good job of recognizing both sides, though they are generally cheered a bit more and play into it. They take off their futuristic jackets and shades and stare intently at their opponents across the ring from them: Bucky Bass & Mike Force.
Match 1: The New Breed (Sean Royal & Chris Champion) def. Bucky Bass & Mike Force via combination inverted atomic drop / top rope seated senton (2:36)
A squash match in every sense - The New Breed were in control the entire match, playing with Bass and Force
At one point, in a disgusting display of dominance (hey that’s good), Sean Royal hits Mike Force with a seated piledriver, holds onto him, stands up and tosses him into a running Chris Champion who drops him with a nasty lariat
Champion also hit a flying body splash from the top rope to a standing Bucky Bass on the outside just for the hell of it - the crowd loved it.
The match ends with the Sean Royal giving Bass an inverted atomic drop, then lifting him up in the same position as Chris Champion flys off the top rope over Royal’s shoulders and nails Bass with a seated senton, smashing his head into the mat.
With their dominance, even the stodgiest fans are mostly cheering The New Breed as they leave the ring.
After a brief commercial for local Oakland, CA shops we are back in the auditorium and our announcer/interviewer Todd Pettingill is in the ring.
Todd: Ladies and Gentleman, what a start to our very first Bay Area Pro show! I am so happy to be here calling the action alongside the legend Jesse “The Body” Ventura (huge applause) each and every week. Oakland has long been a place on the cutting edge of what’s next - and with Bay Area Pro, everyone will see that we are on the ground floor of what comes NEXT in Pro Wrestling. Now let me introduce to you, one of the men who has joined BAP with big plans to take us into that new era -
The Man…Who Rules…The World….
SSSSSSSSIIIIIIIIIIIDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
The distorted guitar tones of “On the Hunt” by Lynyrd Skynyrd play and everyone stands up to view the big man as he slowly makes his way out to the ring - fist bumping everyone and reveling in the cheers and how stoked everyone is.
Sid, on the peak amount of juice, where his traps are basically touching his ears and his mullet is EXTRA short on the sides and fluffy in the back (-like his WWF run) gives an understandably insane promo where he laughs and yells and tries this babyface thing on to hype up the crowd for Bay Area Pro - but he’s totally the wrong person to do it, though the crowd loves him anyway. He says he’s here because HE’S THE MAN and that he can powerbomb any other man. He eventually moves to talking about the Bay Area Pro Heavyweight Championship - but at the mere mention, he is interrupted by another LOUD guitar track over the PA as “Stranglehold” by Ted Nugent plays…
Out walks “Superstar” Steve Austin, “Mad Dog” Buzz Sawyer and “Rotten” “Rambo” Ron Starr. This is ECW-era Austin, long blond hair, a ball cap - but showing that “Stone Cold” persona. They walk to the ring to LOUD boos and give me people various flipping off motions and laugh. They look mean.
Austin fuckin’ walks all over Sid - just masterful promo stuff, basically calling him a big dumbass. He lays his claim that CUTTHROAT will reign over Bay Area Pro and the Heavyweight title will be held by him, while his boys Buzz and Ron are gonna waltz into holding the Tag Team titles.
Sid is furious and ready to fight. The absolute psychopath Buzz Sawyer, much shorter than Sid, steps right up to him and their fingers are in each other’s faces. Some unnamed referees and Todd try to break them up as there is just some rudimentary shoving happening before THE BODY gets on the house mic back by his seat at the commentary desk.
Jesse Ventura: LISTEN UP, MEN! ENOUGH OF THIS. SETTLE IT IN THE RING. AUSTIN, SID - YOU KNOW YOU ARE BOTH IN THE UPCOMING TITLE TOURNAMENT. TONIGHT IN OUR MAIN EVENT, CUTTHROAT WILL FACE SID AND 2 WRESTLERS OF HIS CHOOSING. WHICHEVER TEAM LOSES TONIGHT, THE CAPTAIN WILL HAVE TO EARN THEIR WAY BACK INTO THE TOURNAMENT BY WINNING A BATTLE ROYAL LIVE FOR THE FINAL SPOT IN THE TOURNAMENT - LIVE, NEXT WEEK!
The crowd is hot for this classic 80s overbooked nonsense. I WONDER WHO WILL WIN AND WHO WILL LOSE..HMMMMMMMMMM.
Austin, Sawyer and Starr laugh to one another and give the boogieman fingers to Sid as they leave the ring, ignoring the jeering crowd on the way out.
Todd: Well Sid, who is it going to be?
Sid: Hahahahaha. Hahahaha. Hahahaha.
Sid shakes Todd’s hand and leaves the ring, fist bumping the crowd on the way out.
Match 2: “Hacksaw” Will Hobbs def. Tony Falk via Torture Rack (2:03)
Despite some attempts at offense from Falk, the GIANT Hobbs mostly just clubs him to the mat
He doesn’t exactly toy with him, but he comes across as indestructible
Hobbs wraps things up quick with a MASSIVE spinebuster after throwing Falk to the ropes and following it up by picking up his limp body and WRENCHING in the torture rack for the submission victory.
As he celebrates in the ring, raising his huge arms, a familiar face walks onto the entrance from behind the curtain. He nods his approval, politely claps and raises a casual fist to Hobbs, who sees him and nods back. It’s none other than Bad News Allen, showing his approval for the young buck.
After the show of respect, Allen heads back behind the curtain once again. And Hobbs soon heads back himself.
After another quick commercial break, we are welcomed back by Todd and Jesse and Todd tells us he we have some exciting talent coming to Bay Area Pro soon. The screen fades to a waving Japanese flag and soon transitions into a spectacular 90-second hype video of a masked wrestler with baggy pants and two unmasked, smaller wrestlers also with pants that billow. They do flips, they jump from high points, they use weapons and do moves not regularly seen in the USA. The instrumental track is smooth and jazzy as a nice contrast to the unique action shown. A closeup of the masked face slowly turns into a graphic with the words:
Coming Soon: AWAKENED BLAZE
Jesse: WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT? WHAT ARE THEY EATING OVER THERE IN JAH-PAHN??
Match 3: Brodie Lee def. “Big Beef” Jake Garvin via discus lariat (9:13)
In a big-time, hard hitting match. The young and fierce Big Beef really took it to the bigger and older Brodie Lee (in his classic tank top and jeans gear).
Lots of stiff punches, forearms, kicks, drop kicks, big boots, tackles etc.
Brodie Lee was in control through much of the match, but Beef DID really get some hot sequences that put Brodie on the ropes, but Brodie, ever the vet always found a little opening to get back on top.
Beef missed with the attempting to corner cross body on a prone Brodie, which allowed Brodie to capitalize and take things to the end. After picking Beef up, tossing him against the ropes and giving a NASTY big boot, Brodie then followed it up by picking up the dazed beef and WALLOPING him the discus lariat and pinning him nonchalantly for the 3-count.
After the match, Brodie smiled and smacked Beef a few times until he woke up, before helping him to his feet and rubbing his head like a little brother, giving some taps on the shoulders. The crowd cheers Beef wildly for his effort as he is still dazed and watches Brodie go to the back.
Another commercial break before a graphic pops up over a view of the ring stating “The Main Event”
“Stranglehold” plays once again to a chorus of LOUD boos. Austin, Sawyer and Starr walk out, smug as hell. Getting in the face of the camera, in the faces of fans and causing quite a scene. The get in the ring and wait, cocky as hell.
“On the Hunt” plays and the crowd comes unglued. Sid enters in full wrestling gear now - blue trunks, white boots and a towel around his shoulders. He stands just inside the entrance and points at CUTTHROAT before his music ends and another track begins…
“The Lonely Shepherd” by Zamfir signals the first of Sid’s teammates to the puzzlement of the crowd. The flutes and vaguely asian-inspired music the crowd would come to know 20 years later with Kill Bill sets the scene for a Warrior.
One World Warrior, that is.
Out comes Low Ki, a smaller guy the crowd is mostly unfamiliar with but looks menacing. He looks up at Sid and nods, his body filled with rage. The two step a little to the side and in a few seconds another tracks starts. One we know all too well….
“War Machine” by Kiss starts up which can only mean one thing…
A small guy stalks out from the back. Angry, head covered in a towel. Much shorter than Sid but built like two tight-ends mashed together. It’s none other than..
TAZ.
A pan to the ring shows CUTTHROAT a little bit flabbergasted, but also motioning for them to come down. Sid, Taz and Ki all look at one another, nod and rush to the ring.
Main Event: CUTTHROAT (Steve Austin, Buzz Sawyer & Ron Starr) def. Sid, Taz & Low Ki via Stun Gun on Sid (16:39)
A pier-6 brawl throughout the match with a real chaotic atmosphere
After a few minutes of just brawling (no real weapons used per se), the match finally SORT OF turns into a real 6-man tag team match, only to devolve into a brawl a few more times
CUTTHROAT continually use underhanded tactics to get the UPPERHAND on the face team, who push through it all with their toughness. Sawyer and Starr show amazing team work throughout, really doubling down on Low Ki and Sid ala the best southern teams of the 80s.
Austin MOSTLY avoids Sid, though the few times they do lock-up, Sid has the upperhand before an Austin cheapshot. Austin doesn’t look WEAK by any means, just like he will do anything to win.
Low Ki throws all kinds of kicks but is clearly outmatched throughout the contest, much smaller and able to be tossed around (hey, the idea of tossing Low Ki around is funny)
Taz is a beast and about destroys Ron Starr with a half-n-half suplex that sends him rolling out the ring.
Buzz Sawyer does his classic bump through the ropes off a crazy John Woo-style kick from Low Ki.
With some sneaky double-teaming, Sawyer and Starr are able to take out Low Ki outside the ring with a foreign object and clobber Taz with some hidden Brass knuckles behind the referees back as Sid is setting up Austin for the powerbomb. A perfect toss from Starr to Austin as he is up on Sid’s shoulders fighting the powerbomb results in Austin SMASHING Sid in the face with knucks, hopping down, getting rid of the knuckles, kicking Sid in the back of the leg and setting him up for a suprising STUN GUN on the ropes for the win.
Unbelievably, Sid has dropped the fall.
As CUTTHROAT lay boots to Sid, Taz runs them off with a chair, but doesn’t help Sid up nor check on him. He throws the chair down and shakes his head before walking to the back.
Todd: Unbelievable! Next week - Sid will have to compete in a battle royal to earn his spot BACK into the title tournament, kicking off just two weeks from now!
Jesse: AND WHAT WAS UP WITH TAZ? WHY DIDN’T HE HELP HIM UP TODD?
Todd: That’s all for tonight, folks. For Jesse Ventura, I’m Todd Pettingill - come back next week for MORE Bay Area Pro - live from Oakland!
