YouTubular: The State Patrol

Posted by Leonard Hayhurst on 08.30.2009

Parker and Wright are eastbound and down

In our last installment we covered the many faces of Brad Armstrong. This included two matches with Dale Veasey, who is better known as Lt. James Earl Wright of the State Patrol. His partner in the team was Dwayne Bruce as Sgt. Buddy Lee Parker. As we also talked about last week, during the early nineties WCW tried to court kids like WWE had done. So, why do they make heels out of cops who kids should be taught to honor and respect?

Bruce also wrestled as Braun the Leprechaun in the Dungeon of Doom and as Jack Boot. He became the head trainer at WCW’s infamous (more than famous) Power Plant and was often given on air credit for creating Goldberg. I should also mention the shout out he get in Batista’s book for telling him he would never amount to anything in wrestling. Who’s laughing now? Well, not me.

Wright also teamed with Bob Brown as the Alaskan Hunters. He retired in the late nineties, but did a couple shows for Columbus Championship Wrestling earlier this decade.

Sting and Ric Flair vs. the State Patrol
Video Length: 7:10
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This is from NWA Main Event with Bob Caudle and David Crockett. It’s a warm up for the Thunder Cage match at the first Halloween Havoc. Today it would be like having John Cena and Triple H vs. Dibiase and Rhodes. Wait a minute…

Wright rakes the eyes and pounds on Sting. Sting fires back and gets a backdrop, leading to his so sweet back in the day dropkick. A clothesline is followed by tags all around. No, sorry, Flair was just giving a high five. See he’s smart and making Sting do all the work. Sting locks up with Parker. Parker works him over in the corner and the heels cheat for a double clothesline. Sting ducks a second and lands a double bulldog. He hits a cross body from on high for two on Wright. Flair enters to chop the hell out of Parker and knock him to the floor. He tags in proper for an atomic drop and a backdrop suplex. Whoo! We go to school on the leg. Tags all around. Parker works the arm. Sting fights out and tags Flair. He works the chops and punches. He lands a knee drop and keeps going on Parker. Inverted atomic drop and a tag to Sting. He scores a leg drop and a big delay suplex. Tag to Flair and he throws Parker into his own corner while challenging Wright to tag in. You can kind of tell Flair wants to kick this up a notch. He throws Wright to the floor and then whips him into the steel guardrail. He scores a suplex and reenters the ring to tag Sting. Sting drops down for a Snake Eyes on the guardrail. Back in the ring, the Scorpion Splash leads to the Scorpion Deathlock for the win. Flair cuts off Parker and the faces give him a double clothesline just for fun. Flair and Sting were just in a much higher gear than their competitors here and it showed. Neither are really into doing squashes and they didn’t work the traditional tag formula either, so this was just kind of there. However, it’s Sting and Flair, so it’s decent by default. ** ½

Junkyard Dog, Ricky Morton and Tommy Rich vs. Big Cat and the State Patrol for the NWA Six Man Tag Team Championship
Video Length: 10:01
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This is from WrestleWar 1991. Big Cat is Curtis Hughes. Commentators are Jim Ross and Dusty Rhodes. Interesting to note, Rich and Morton would hold the belts again with Terry Taylor as part of the York Foundation after this.

JYD and Big Cat start off. They poke each other in the chest then slug it out. A big head butt lands Cat in his corner and he tags Wright. JYD tags Ricky Morton for a double back elbow. Morton gets the best of a crisscross with a hip toss and works the arm drags. Tag to Rich. He leap frogs out of a scoop slam try and gets a body slam. He goes for an elbow and Wright moves. Wright points to his brain, because he’s brilliant, but Rich saw Wright move and the lieutenant walks into an arm drag. Wright rakes the eyes to break an arm bar and scores a body slam. He tags Parker. Rich moves on an elbow drop and gets an arm drag. He scores some shoulder blocks off the ropes and then reverses a hip toss. We go back to the arm bar. Tag to Morton. He lands an inverted atomic drop after a hard whip to the corner. Wright runs in and is bounced to the floor with an atomic drop. Tag to JYD.

Dog head butts Parker halfway to Paris, Texas, and he tags Big Cat. They do a test of strength. Cat gets the advantage, so Dog breaks off and gets a back heel trip into a diving head butt. Cat rakes the eyes and drops an elbow for two. Tag to Parker. Dog no sells some punches and tags Morton. Cat gets in the ring to distract the referee so Wright can cheap shot Morton. You know where this goes. Tag to Wright. The State Patrol get a pretty nice flying head butt-backbreaker combo for two. Tag to Parker for a double shoulder block for two. Tag to Cat. Parker lands a drop toehold so Cat can get an elbow drop to the back of the head. That gets two. A dropkick gets two. Cat uses a body slam to set up a missed elbow drop. Tag to Parker. They brawl until Morton runs into a scoop slam for two. Tag to Wright for a battering ram, into a bulldog and then Wright drops an elbow for two. Real crisp sequence. Tag back to Parker for a double backbreaker and double elbow drop for two. Tag to Cat. Morton gets caught on a cross body for a backbreaker. Cat hits Tommy Rich to bait him in and it’s a triple team with the ref’s back turned. Parker stays in and works a chin lock. Morton fights out, but takes a whip to the corner. Parker misses a charge, but manages to tag Wright. Morton barrel rolls to tag JYD. He cleans house and gets the Thump on Parker. Cat breaks up the pin, but Morton slips in for the cover and the win. There was no tag there, so I have no idea what they were going for. The match was really disjointed to start, but got good during the face in peril sequence. The State Patrol showed really good chemistry and they used Big Cat in the right ways. He’d hit a few power moves and tag out. JYD and Cat matched up well, but I don’t think that ever went anywhere. **

Sgt. Buddy Lee Parker vs. Glacier
Video Length: 8:39
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This is the Christmas Eve 1996 edition of Nitro with Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenay and Bobby Heenan on commentary. They hype the Piper vs. Hogan upcoming Starrcade match. I love that Tenay says that Glacier’s mask is priceless to him when he would later sell it to Kaz Hayashi. Parker is working a military gimmick here instead of his police one.

Glacier chokes Parker before the bell then lets go. Parker charges, but Glacier drops down and gets a sweep kick for a cover. He gets a windmill arm wringer (that’s what I’m calling it) and powers Parker to the mat. Parker reverses a whip, but runs into a knee. He kicks Parker as he sits up and covers for one. Parker tries to whip Glacier, but he rolls across the mat and comes up for a punch to the gut. He puts Parker on the top rope and then hits a thrust kicks while standing on the ropes to knock him to the floor. Glacier leaps out to the floor for a kick-a-thon. Parker runs into the ring in an attempt to cut Glacier off as he enters, but he scores a back kick and inverted snap mare. New drinking game, drink every time Glacier uses a kick. Kick to the back of the head. They get sloppy in the corner and Glacier comes out of it with a spinning heel kick. A tilt-a-whirl slam leads to the Cryonic Kick. Parker kicks out of the cover. Glacier just hits a second one for the win. You know my buddy Thom knows a guy who wrestled Glacier in the indies. He got to duck the Cryonic Kick and schoolboy him for the win. Eat that Parker. These guys just didn’t match up and Glacier had no real charisma or energy in the ring. It was like having a bad Sega Genesis controller and they only thing that is working is the kick button. DUD.

Sgt. Buddy Lee Parker vs. PN News
Video Length: 2:55
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Yo Baby Yo Baby Yo!!! This is from WCW Pro and News’ rap is longer than the match. They brawl to start. News gets a backdrop. He whips Parker into the ropes for a dropkick. He scores a belly to belly suplex and goes up top for a splash and the win. The match seemed clipped all to hell. That’s probably a good thing. DUD.

Sgt. Buddy Lee Parker vs. Johnny B. Badd
Video Length: 10:48
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This is from WorldWide in May 1994 during the famous Disney/MGM tapings. Tony Schiavone and Jesse Ventura are the commentators. Badd has the Badd Blaster and lips stickers for fat women.

Lock up to start with a clean break in the corner. They do some amateur wrestling. Parker works an arm wringer. Badd breaks and uses a heel trip for a cover. A drop toehold leads to a hammerlock. Parker powers up and fights back. Parker misses a blind charge to take a hip toss and dropkick. Badd works the arm. The match is so exciting Schiavone and Ventura talk about where they are going golfing later. Parker makes the ropes to break and heel trips Badd, but he kicks Parker off and goes back to the arm. Parker breaks with a knee and fires a few forearms. Parker lands a sloppy hip toss for a cover. Back to the armbar. Parker powers out, but Badd tosses him across the ring and scores a head scissors. He tries it a second time and Parker drops him throat first on the top rope. A body slam leads to an elbow drop for two. Parker works a headlock on the mat. Badd powers out, but eats a clothesline for two. Parker goes to a standing chinlock. Badd powers our again, but runs into a knee. Badd nails a tilt-a-whirl head scissors. Backdrop, atomic drop, dropkick. A top rope sunset flip scores the victory. As the crowd helpfully chants: whoomp there it is! Did you know that Johnny is pretty as a picture and looks just like Little Richard. All the arm work went nowhere and Parker’s portion was a bit too late and too flat. ½*

James Earl Wright vs. Flying Brian Pillman
Video Length: 4:41
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Since we had the two Brad Armstrong matches last week, you only get one Wright match this week due to fair and equal coverage laws. This is in Spanish or something. Speak American son so I can understand.

They grapple to start. Pillman does a nice flip over on a backdrop try and lands a springboard cross body for two. Wright fights back and whips Pillman to the far corner. He catches himself to sit on the top rope and then springs over Wright as he charges. I can barely remember this Pillman. This was a guy that was just as athletic as old school Sting. Wright bails after a dropkick. Pillman fakes out Wright on a plancha and then kicks him through the ropes. They brawl on the floor. Wright whips Pillman into the guardrail and then breaks the count out. Wright catches Pillman on the apron. He blocks a shot to the turnbuckles and enters the ring with a double axe handle from the top. Jackknife pin gets a one. Wright slugs away. A diving headbutt scores a two count. Pillman gets a sunset flip for two off of a backdrop try. They trade chops. Pillman leaps to the outside on a cross corner whip and nails a springboard clothesline to step to the pay window. Pillman looked awesome and Wright was just his inflatable clown punching bag. ¾*

The 411: I’m sorry I couldn’t find more straight up tag matches, because the State Patrol actually looked really good in that six man tag. Parker reminded me a lot of Steve Lombardi in his singles matches; keep it simple and get the other guy over. Wright was your average power wrestling heel, but he works a crowd pretty well. These were two guys who understood what their jobs were and did them. Can’t fault two lunch pail guys like that.

Final Score:  5.0   [ Not So Good ]