I've Been to the Mid-South Church, Said My Religious Vows. I've Sucked the Milk out of a Thousand Cows

Rock 'n' Roll Express & Butch Reed v Kamala, Dr. Death & One Man Gang (2/25/85)

I love Butch Reed. He fucking ruled it in this match. Actually, Kamala ruled it too, and I'm assuming there's a singles match out there that I need to track down. Reed comes out wearing facepaint and starts shouting "LET THE SLAVE GO! FREE THE SLAVE! FREE THE SLAVE!" at Kim Chee and Akbar. That was right on the level of him shouting "WHAT'S IT GON' BE, HONKY?" at fans (he was heel then, now he's babyface). Everything Reed and Kamala did together was great, although I kind of wish they got more time to match up. There is an awesome punch exchange, though, and Reed seemed fired up like crazy any time they were within five feet of each other. Reed's flurry of jabs on the Gang before uncorking a fucking GREAT looking haymaker was maybe the spot of the match. Gang bumped huge off it, too. Kamala's shtick is fun as Hell here. He's a cannibal from Uganda and doesn't understand even the simplest rules of wrestling (like how to properly pin someone), so he sure as shit hasn't figured out how to conduct himself in a tag match. He's always roaming about the apron, and from time to time he'll just get in the ring or start climbing the turnbuckles, so Akbar and Kim Chee are always having to settle him down and restrain him. I remember him doing similar stuff in some of the tags on the Texas set, too. I dig all that shit. Heat segment on Morton is pretty bearhug-y, but if you can't buy Steve Williams or the One Man Gang crushing a little dude's lungs with a bearhug then I don't know what to tell you. Morton is a guy that can make pretty much anything look painful anyway, and there might not be anybody in history that's a more compelling babyface in peril than him (that's why they call it "playing Ricky Morton," after all). Finish is great, with Gang slapping Kamala in the arm to tag him in and Kamala going nuts because he thinks Gang's startin' shit. Williams comes in to try and calm things down, so Morton dropkicks him into Gang who then flies into Kamala. Cameraman ends up missing the actual move that puts Gang away, but I can forgive it since it all got nice and chaotic. Good luck capturing all that. Fun match. I don't think I liked it a whole lot the first time around, but I definitely got a kick out of it this time.


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