DVDVR Memphis Set, Top 60: #58

Bill Dundee & Tony Boyles v Wayne Farris & Larry Latham (6/7/80)

This was the match that solidified Dundee as the king of the studio match for me. It's only the fourth match on the entire set, but watching it for the first time when I got a hold of it, four was enough. I had already seen some of his arena matches, like the '85 LLT with Lawler, but the way he'd bust out a bunch of new tricks for every studio match was cool as shit.

This is pretty much the Bill Dundee show. It's total old school southern tag formula with the 'veteran and rookie team' dynamic on the babyface side, and Dundee is kingsized as the veteran of his team, stomping ass and taking names. Boyles isn't offensively bad or anything, but he throws really shitty looking strikes and... well he's not very good, either. Still, one should look at that as a positive, because it means we get even more Bill Dundee stomping ass and taking names. At one point he runs the length of the ring and slide tackles Latham right in the face. Nigel De Jong would be proud.

Boyles is the one to play FIP here. He's no Ricky Morton, but the Bombers do a nice enough job of working him over. It's nothing spectacular, mostly of the punch/kick brawling variety, but it doesn't matter because Bill is always doing something to keep it interesting; running around the ringside area to kick the shit out of a weasly manager, jumping to his partner's aid when things are looking especially rough, never content to stand still and let the match pass him by -- you really get the sense he's desperate to whoop someone's tail and protect his partner. Finish is botched, but I always sort of liked it as some bastardised spike piledriver thing. The post-match is really good too, with Dundee punting Latham in the head and taking a gang beating for his troubles.

Dundee was a huge find for me on this set. In some ways even more so than Lawler. This isn't the best Dundee match on the set, nor is it the best tag match tag match or even studio match, but it's something you can show to someone that's never seen Bill Dundee wrestle before as a taster of what he can do. It's also an interesting look at the future Honky Tonk Man, who I thought looked better in Memphis than he ever did in the WWF. Maybe it was the hair.