This was basically a 14-minute caning of Ric Flair by the vengeful Ricky Morton. Honestly, I wasn't even going to watch it. I've been going (slowly) through 1986 Crockett for the last three years now and I'm close to the more famous Flair/Morton cage match from the Bash tour. I haven't seen that in about 15 years and I really wanted to go into it fresh. This was listed as being from the 6/22/86 episode of World Pro, which I realised later is wrong, but I was going by that date initially and knew this was a shorter match from the DVD file time, so I figured it might've been a test run of sorts for the July match. I thought it also might've been clipped or JIP because a 14-minute Ric Flair cage match in 1986 felt implausible. So I was maybe going to go back to it after watching the Bash match and unbeknownst to me that would've been the correct order anyway but I ended up watching this one first because it was next on the disc. All of that pointlessness aside I'm very glad I watched the thing because it was very different from what I remember the Bash match being. It was also very awesome. This was happening in the first place because Flair and the Horsemen had mashed Morton's face into a locker room floor. Morton's been wearing a protective face mask for a few weeks now, walking around out of the ring with his cheek and nose bandaged up. You and I and Ricky Morton and everyone else knew that Flair would target it again. Morton flipping the script and immediately going after Flair's face was so great, and I love how Flair initially sold surprise, then indignation, then rage, then eventually came to the realisation that he himself was going to need a protective face mask if this continued. Maybe he figured the line for Space Mountain wouldn't be nearly as long if Space Mountain was busted and in dire need of repairs. In a regular match he'd have rolled to the floor and composed himself. I like that he actually tried to do that here, only he had nowhere to go on account of the 12-foot cage. Later, after it became obvious he was stuck in there with someone who would relentlessly try and disfigure him, he just ran up the buckles and tried to jump over the top. Flair was always one for the bare arse spot and Morton damn near yanked the whole trunks off him just to get him back in. Morton really grinds Flair's face into the canvas, rakes his face across the top rope, grabs Flair by the nose and tries to pull it off, drags him around the ring by the nose, all great stuff built around retaliatory facial mutilation. Flair trying to punch Morton in the face and selling his hand after he hits the face shield rules, then he manages to remove it but before he can do anything Morton fights him off and takes it back, puts it back on and headbutts him with the mask! I loved pretty much everything they did that was built around DIY facial reconstruction. Flair trying to hit the kneedrop here carried a little more weight than usual. He was always going to do it anyway, but doing it to a guy with a mangled face is extra vindictive. Flair missing and Morton going to the figure-four is another thing that probably would've happened regardless, but it had a little more behind it on Morton's part here, some humiliation laced through it, whereas most of the time it just feels like a spot a Flair opponent would do because...well because it's a Flair match and that was the done thing. Flair sold the leg in a really subtle but amazing way too, especially after Morton does a legdrop make-a-wish thing to both hamstrings. The slow limp into Flair's failed elbow drop was probably my favourite instance of it and Morton was just all over him again like a rash. Morton will always bring incredible energy to matches and this was him dialled up to 11. Even as Flair escaping by the skin of his teeth finishes go this one might've been a wee bit abrupt, but I like that they threw that curveball in there. Sometimes even after a pasting the champ can sneak out a win, and not every match needs to go half an hour anyway. Another excellent entry from two guys who were made to wrestle each other.
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