YouTubular: Jumping Joey Maggs

Posted by Leonard Hayhurst on 06.25.2009

And if that doesn’t get you, we also have Oz, the New Kids, heel Doink and the debuts of Raven and JT Southern


I feel a little creepy covering deceased wrestlers, but if I didn’t that’s a mighty large pool of names taken away to drawn on. So at least let me say that no disrespect is intended to any of these talented and beloved lost wrestlers. In fact, I like to see this column as a way to continue their legacy and name.

With that being said, let me remind everyone of the previously established adage that if your nickname is “jumping” you suck. Maggs debuted in 1987 in USWA and wrestled briefly for SMW and WWE too. He achieved his greatest fame in the WCW where he was enhancement talent putting over some of the future stars of tomorrow, as we will see below. Maggs sort of floated around the lower midcard for WCW until receiving a slight push in the later nineties after getting Teddy Long as a manager. Maggs retired from wrestling as the nineties closed due to a nagging shoulder injury. He died in 2006.

Joey Maggs vs. JT Southern
Video Length: 5:21
Link

This is Southern’s debut in WCW. He looks like he should be fronting a Skid Row tribute band. This is from “Worldwide” with Tony Schiavone on commentary.

They lock up and go into the corner. Southern breaks with a little attitude, so Maggs shows a little back and Southern runs to the other side of the ring and cowers. They lock up again and Southern forces Maggs into the corner for some chops. Maggs reverses. He whips Southern to the opposite corner and runs into a boot. JT gets a clothesline from behind and Maggs does a nice rolling sell of it. Maggs ducks an elbow, but then totally whiffs on a cross body. He got some nice sky though. Southern acts like that was the craziest thing he ever saw and asks Maggs if he’s ok. Southern works a chin lock. Maggs powers out, but Southern holds onto the ropes to avoid a dropkick. Southern wins with a twisting front suplex. I wasn’t really getting Southern’s shtick where he acted like every move was a total surprise to him and he feigned concern for his opponent. He showed some good defensive ring generalship though and Maggs did his job in putting the guy over well and clean. ½*

Later, Southern returns with a guitar to be interviewed by thin, clean shaven, well dressed Schiavone. Southern rips into Van Hammer for being the “Vanilla Ice of WCW.” So what does that make Southern, the Snow?

Joey Maggs vs. Scotty Flamingo with JT Southern
Video Length: 5:34
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This is Raven’s debut match for WCW and Southern is his manager. I guess that Van Hammer non-feud worked out real well for him. Raven is putting out a total John Morrison vibe. He’s even pretty ripped. Jesse Ventura is with Schiavone on commentary now. Ventura: “I always like a wrestler that worries about his hair after a move. That’s important.”

Flamingo gets a heel trip for show. He then gets another one and floats into a front facelock. Maggs rolls out of it and to his feet with a hammerlock. Flamingo breaks with a back elbow and goes to the ropes. Maggs nails a drop toehold and goes to a headlock. They fight over a top wristlock, back into the hammerlock. Flamingo breaks with an elbow again and into the ropes. Maggs eats a knee. Flamingo tries the knee lift again, but Maggs grabs it and cradles for two. Nice. Flamingo goes apeshit, just raking the back and clawing the eyes. Flamingo pitches Maggs to the floor so he can calm down. Back in, Maggs misses another dropkick. Flamingo whips him into the corner and follows with a back elbow. Maggs stumbles out into a clothesline. Flamingo finishes with…a piledriver? Weird. This was like watching some alternate universe RAW or something. Again, Maggs does his job and not much else. ½*

Later, Ventura interviews Flamingo. Scotty welcomes us to exposition theater as he gets his character over as a rich snob from Southern Florida. He even drops a rap on us. So that’s who the real Vanilla Ice of WCW is.

Joey Maggs vs. Oz
Video Length: 5:19
Link

In case you don’t know, Oz is Kevin Nash. I remember the rumor being that Ted Turner wanted to cross promote his massive movie library with WCW and create classic movie characters, hence Oz. He was going to form a heel stable with Charles Foster Kane and Rhett Butler. Jim Ross and Paul Heyman are on commentary.

Maggs tries a wristlock, but Oz just whips him out of it. He tries a few shoulderblocks and Nash just glares at him. Nash works an armbar. Maggs reverses, but has his eyes raked. Backbreaker and Oz just grinds him over his knee. Maggs is whipped pillar to post several times before running into a double handed choke slam. Oz works Joey over. He’s a bit shaky on a suplex. Oz drops the elbow and pulls Maggs up on the pin. A side slam finishes. We didn’t even get to see the Emerald City Twister. It was too long for what is was and Nash was sloppy and unmotivated. DUD.

Awesome, here is your WCW top ten for the weekend of Aug. 17-18.
Lex Luger is World Champion
1) Barry Windham
2) Ron Simmons
3) Nikita Koloff
4) Sting
5) Steve Austin
6) El Gigante
7) Johnny B. Badd
8) Diamond Studd
9) Dustin Rhodes
10) Bobby Eaton

That is lame with lame shoved in it.

Joey Maggs vs. Doink
Video Length: 3:38
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This is from “Superstars.” This is good Doink, and by that I mean bad Doink as played by Matt Borne. Vince McMahon, Randy Savage and Jerry Lawler are on commentary.

Maggs attacks Doink before the bell to send him to the floor. He follows him out and goes to town on him. Somebody had their Wheaties that morning. Back in the ring, Maggs works a headlock that Doink breaks with a knee breaker. Doink works the ankle. He gets Maggs in the corner and drapes his leg over the ropes and kicks at it. Maggs fires back with punches. Doink ducks one and lets Maggs spin into a back suplex. Whoopee Cushion for the win. The leg work went nowhere and it was a real basic squash. ¼*

Joey Maggs and Sgt. O’Reilly vs. The New Kids
Video Length: 4:47
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This is from USWA in Nov. 1990. The New Kids are Brian Christopher and Tony Williams. Christopher is the son of Jerry Lawler and worked as Grandmaster Sexay in WWE. They actually come out to “Hanging Tough.” Vince McMahon won’t spend money on royalties for real music, but the USWA will!

Christopher plays keep away from Maggs to start. They go into the corner and Maggs tries a cheap shot, but Christopher ducks and scores an armbar. Maggs can’t shake him loose. He finally uses an eye rake to break and tags O’Reilly. He walks into an arm drag and has his arm worked on. Tag to Williams who comes in with an axe handle to the side off the top. He works the arm and tags Christopher for a double backdrop. Tag back to Tony for a double wristlock into some back twisty slammy thing for two. Christopher slingshots in with a splash for two.

We JIP to Maggs breaking up a sunset flip and covering Williams for two. He covers a few more times to no avail. A body slam and he tags O’Reilly. He misses two elbow drops and Williams tags Christopher. It’s pretty obvious who the weak link on the heel team is. O’Reilly eats a double dropkick. They finish with Christopher holding up O’Reilly for a Williams missile dropkick. They cut a quick promo on how it’s Mother’s Day and they’re gay or something like that, I was paying attention.

Joey Maggs and Todd Morton vs. The Bruise Brothers
Video Length: 3:08
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This is from “Worldwide” in Sept. 1994. The Bruise Brothers would later be the Harris Brothers and had previously been the Blu Twins. Morton looks like Ricky Morton’s illegitimate son. I looked it up, but couldn’t find if they were related or not. Jesse Ventura and Eric Bischoff are on Commentary.

Morton plays matador to the charging bull of Bruise 1, we’ll say Ron, and consults with Maggs. Ron pounds on Morton, but he ducks a clothesline and gets a dropkick. Tag to Maggs for a double dropkick on both guys. However, Ron pulls Maggs into the top rope throat first. Maggs takes a whip to the corner hard and it’s a tag to Don. They hit a double back suplex. Don drops an elbow. Tag to Ron for a double team spinebuster and that’s all she wrote. Not much I can say really. DUD.

The 411: I remember some matches where Maggs got some time and offense in. These aren’t it. However, from these matches you get a real sense of Maggs being a good ‘enhancement talent’ as in body language and match development he seems to really understand his job: get your ass kicked and make the other guy look good. Being a quality jobber is a lost art and Maggs was a Rembrandt of it.

Final Score:  6.0   [ Average ]