The recent WWE signing of Powerhouse Hobbs has me thinking back to the late 1980s when a young Ray Traylor left the NWA and came over to the company and became the Big Bossman. Both were big dudes who seemingly hadn’t fully learned their craft yet, although Traylor was just 24 years old when he made the switch whereas Hobbs is ten years older than that already. I dunno, maybe I’m completely out to lunch here, they just seem similar to me. Regardless, we’re going to check out this match from the Superstation where Traylor (not Taylor as the chyron read) takes on The Barbarian.
So the match starts and the two circle each other, with Barbarian shoving Traylor into the corner. He does this with his superior strength, and just in case you couldn’t figure that out, he gives us a helpful “ME BIG AND STRONG” pose.
But Traylor wasn’t about to just give up, and traps Barbie in a side headlock which he wrenches and wrenches and wrenches. He bounces off the ropes and the two collide with Barbie being like, “Man this sure is a large fella. I bet he could be a big boss, man!”
Traylor tries it again, only to get a boot right to the schnozz. Holy crap that was awesome, as was the flying legdrop that followed. Those are almost enough to make up for the stupid on all fours headbutts that followed. Hated when JYD did those, hate when Barbarian does ’em too.
As if to apologize for those, Barbarian unleashes another brutal kick upside Traylor’s jaw. We then get some Hong Kong Phooey chops for good measure.
Then we get something I sure wasn’t expecting, and that is Barbarian giving Traylor a big ol’ smooch! No wait, I’m sorry he’s biting him. Thankfully David Crockett was there to clarify that for me. Barbarian then tosses him outside the ring like yesterday’s garbage.
As if things weren’t going poorly enough for Traylor, now we get Barbarian’s manager, “Number One” Paul Jones laying the boots to him. Woof.
Things go from bad to worse as we get a freeze frame of poor Ray laying belly first on the ground. Is this the first SQUASH ever with a commercial break? I can tell you Magnum TA would never let one of HIS squashes go that long!
We come back and Barbie decides enough’s enough, and slams Traylor to the mat. He then heads up to the corner and…is it just me, or is that a LOOOOONG way away? Nonetheless, he connects with the headbutt and thus ends this one. Better days were ahead of course for Traylor, who wound up being Jim Cornette’s bodyguard as “Big Bubba” Rogers for a bit prior to his run as the Bossman, which made him a huge star. Is it possible we’ll see the same trajectory for Big Will Hobbs? Time will tell!