The Ragamuffin Gunner is Returnin' Home Like a Hungry Runaway. He Walks Through Town all Alone. "He Must be From Mid-South," He Hears the High School Girls Say

Ted DiBiase v Brad Armstrong (2/10/85)

This was more of the "super solid wrestling" that their studio match from the month before was, but this time they're in the arena and they get 5 or 6 more minutes to work with (like me, you might have forgotten I wrote about that studio match on this very blog. It's been a while. But I checked what I said about it and, sure enough, "super solid wrestling"). The "super solid wrestling" part probably undersells it a bit, actually. I thought it hit the level above that and reached "pretty damn good," but my favourite part of this was DiBiase's verbal outbursts. It's why I dig the shit out of the arena footage on this set -- you can clearly hear dudes trash talking and jawing with fans and all that good stuff. Towards the end of this Armstrong almost catches Ted with a sneaky pin attempt from out of nowhere, and DiBiase gets up and shouts "You son of a bitch!" Then he jumps off the middle rope and elbows him in the skull. And that is pretty much the story of this match. Armstrong is young and white meat and...well, he's pretty bland. But he will armdrag the shit out of you and just won't go away. DiBiase probably thought this would be over in jig time, but the longer it goes the more it sets in that it won't, and that pisses him off. Armstrong doesn't have a loaded glove, though...


Rock 'n' Roll Express v Chavo & Hector Guerrero (2/13/85)

When I first watched this back in, like, the '08, it jumped right onto my theoretical favourite matches ever list. I thought it was one of the best sub-ten minute matches ever. My thoughts on it have since become a bit less rosy, but it's still a blast of a studio tag. Chavo Guerrero is the motherfucking greatest. He catches Ricky Morton in mid-air, holds him there for a second, then plants him dead with a fucking gorgeous overhead belly-to-belly suplex. Hector is more or less Eddie, although Eddie was able to grow a sleazier moustache. Other than that you can't tell the difference. The thing I remembered most about this was the finish, and that's still as cool as it always was, but I forgot about the spot beforehand with Chavo breaking up a pin by dropping an elbow on the ref' rather than Morton. He flew halfway across the ring to do it too, so you could buy it as being accidental...although if you know Chavo, you know better. Joel Watts is a fucking rotten commentator, btw. Fuck'm.


Mid-South Project