Captain Redneck v Dr Death!

Dick Murdoch v Steve Williams (JCP, 7/10/87)

This sort of handheld footage is a real treat. I would assume it wasn't actually taped for TV and the wrestlers would've known that, so in some ways it gives you the purest look at them. What do they do when the cameras are off? There was that Meltzer talking point from years ago about Murdoch being a lazy house show worker who'd goof around or whatever. I think at this stage the laziness point has been pretty thoroughly nonsense'd, but to be honest I love goofball Murdoch anyway so if more footage of him doing that on house shows was to appear on the internet 30 years later then I wouldn't be complaining. And while this wasn't FULL goofball Murdoch, at least in part because of the context of the feud, we were gifted with ONE of the the absolute best goofball Murdoch moments ever. The stipulation coming in is that Williams can't use the cast on his arm as a weapon or he'll be disqualified, and I'm not sure if it was Murdoch and Eddie Gilbert who broke that arm in the first place but Williams starts by going right after the arm of Murdoch. He has some really nasty stomps to the forearm while his other foot has Murdoch's arm pinned to the mat, very Arn Anderson-ish while Murdoch has to pretend he can't yank the arm away. Murdoch is selling all the way to the back row whenever Williams slams that extended arm down across his shoulder, then Williams picks him up on his back and starts squatting like Murdoch was a weighted rucksack. You knew that Eddie Gilbert skulking around ringside with a cane was going to come into play and of course he distracts the ref' so Murdoch can smash Williams in the arm with it. Murdoch was mean as a bastard working over the arm, but I thought Williams' selling was equally great. He never let you forget the arm was his major weakness, the way he'd sell huge whenever Murdoch stomped it or smashed it into the turnbuckles or hit it with the cane, whereas in contrast he'd sell a stomp to the back or the ribs like something he could shrug off. There was a great bit where he tried to fire up and rush after Murdoch on his knees, Murdoch frantically backing away before shutting Williams down with another kick to the arm. As soon as Williams starts the comeback Murdoch turns the stooging up to 14, first with his spinning top sell of a big vertical suplex, doing about five rotations in place. He throws a punch that Williams blocks with the cast arm, Murdoch sells his own hand (a cool combo of the previous arm work and the fact he just punched a cast), then Williams clocks him and Murdoch's sell of it is quite frankly indescribable. Murdoch falling limp into Williams' arms before being propped up and tagged again really is the best of Captain Redneck. We even got a great finish to boot, with Gilbert's distraction backfiring and Murdoch being met coming off the top with a cast to the jaw.