Fun TV match version of the usual Gordy/Williams hoss fight. It's mostly Gordy in control while Ross screams like a madman on commentary about how physical everything is. Gordy works over the back and I liked how any time Williams started building up a bit of steam Gordy would just take him to the floor and chuck him into the barricade. He did that twice, then on the third attempt Williams reversed it and Gordy went flying. Both of them took blade to forehead and by the end they were throwing soup bones while some scrubs emptied from the locker room to break it up. They one and all were thrown around like bags of potatoes and Jim Ross was beside himself.
Ted DiBiase & Dr. Death v Terry Gordy & Michael Hayes (Badstreet Match) (1/9/87)
My main takeaway from this is that Michael Hayes was fucking great. It wasn't even a spectacular Hayes performance, not a standout one, not one of the first you'd point to as a reason why people 30 years ago were on some bullshit when they said he was kind of crummy. It's just been years since I've watched any Hayes in Mid-South/Houston and this made me wish Watts especially decided to use him more in the ring. I also watched some 2023 AEW recently and I didn't really enjoy any of what I watched not involving Ricky Starks. There was something about the way Starks moved, how he was vicious and at times reckless and not all that graceful. It felt authentic and I bought him as someone who would poke you in the eye and wallop you with a shoe and then strut across the ring in celebration. Hayes is authentic, maybe even magnetic if you want to wax a wee bit poetic. He was not at all down to get punched in the face by DiBiase or Williams here and let me tell you, both of those guys really wanted to punch Michael Hayes in the face. Hayes didn't WANT to engage, because he knew getting punched in the face was a very likely outcome of doing so. But he still did it, backed into a corner - or at least the confines of a sanctioned match - as he was, and before long he leaned all the way into it. There's something satisfying about someone going fuck it and shedding all (most) caution and just whomping someone in the face with their cowboy boot. Maybe he was a craven at heart, but he was a vicious one and he didn't always need Gordy to bail him out.
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