Pro Wrestling Chronicle

Match #105: Chavo Guerrero vs. Steve Keirn (no DQ loser is painted yellow match) (1/31/86)

Loser gets painted yellow by the winner. You know, cause goofy people in 1930 from Texas would call somebody “yella” if they were scared. Whatever.

Steve Keirn is yet another victim of the flamboyant gayness of wrestling, wearing suspenders with his wrestling trunks.

This is also a lights out match - a relic of the olden days where they turned the lights on to “end the show”, and legend had it the athletic commissions would leave so the match itself was actually unsanctioned. Something tells me that was a work too. Chavo has yellow paint and a brush with him. Looks like real paint to me.

Lots of punching and the occasional monkey flip. Then Keirn will bail out. It’s effective for the stips and whatnot. Keirn tries to shake hands, but that only leads to trouble. Chavo works a submission. Not terribly interesting but Keirn sells it well and Chavo portrays good intensity/anger. Chavo puts Keirn into the surfboard and then a camel clutch. Five minutes in.

Now we get some sense to this. Chavo goes from the camel clutch to a bodyslam, and them more back strikes. Keirn gouges the eyes to gain the advantage. Not much heel heat initially for Keirn’s cheating, choking, and biting. It slowly builds though. It’s appropriate stuff for the stips match. The Fabs and Guerreros were in a bad ass feud at this point. Keirn punches Chavo as Guerrero bleeds on his knees.
This is tough. It’s got brutality and not alot of the “art” of wrestling, but it really shouldn’t. Still, it’s very slow and deliberate punch/kick once Keirn is on offense. It’s dull at times, but I feel wrong for knocking it because Keirn is trying to draw the heel heat with his tactics.

Picks up about ten minutes in with a slugfest that pops the crowd. Back and forth. Keirn doesn’t shine here with his bumps like he has in the past. Keirn does end up in control again. Crowd is buzzing more and Chavo is fighting back alot more, so the hope spot was effective to the match.

Chavo using alot more head trauma offense now, like the turnbuckle, which plays into the last match story. Keirn sells those better. Chavo really didn’t end up bleeding much, but Chavo is trying to bust Keirn open.

The finish comes as Chavo is beating on Keirn, Chavo reverses him by a whip into the buckle. Keirn takes the Bret Hart sternum-first bump, backs out and gets suplexed for the finish. Chavo wins.

Here’s some good story telling. Keirn hits Chavo with brass knux (everything in Mid South had big back body drops and brass knuckles) and KOs the ref. But Chavo comes back and grabs the paint. Stan Lane is out to try to spot the yellow painting, but Chavo nails him too. The finish was so flat but the crowd pops more for this stuff then the match. Chavo falls to a 2-on-1 beating, gets piledriven, and yellow painted bumped all over him. Chavo looked legit pissed.

A blah match. Stips made for the post-match stuff, and frankly the entertainment/angle aspects were better than the match execution one. Finish came out of nowhere in an uninspired match from a feud that had been going pretty strong. Business and sketch wise this all made sense, but they didn’t pull off the match portion that well. 2 ½ and 5/10.

Match Discussion Here