Former Friends and Tag-Team Partners

I'm drawn to breakup matches. The team of Zenk and Pillman commanded a few of my fantasies circa 1990, but what I craved was for the two to wrestle each other. When the tag-team champions split, I got what I wanted. I root for both men equally, good and bad, but I want a clear and definite win--one man victorious, the other vanquished--but this battle ends in a draw, the 10-minute time limit expired.

The opening sorties point up the evenness in strength and scientific skill, like mirror images. They can't make a hold stick for more than half a second. Brian professes not to want this fight, but Tom wants it hard. This touch of asymmetry gives the match its punch, and when, midway through,  Zenk tosses Pillman out of the ring, Pillman responds with the fire the crowd and I have been waiting for. He carries that passion back into the ring, where the fight accelerates, turning edgy and dirty. As it turns out, the battle has a clear and definite winner here, just not officially.

Tom Zenk vs Brian Pillman, WCW Power Hour, 10 October 1992 (World Championship Wrestling)