Flair v Kerry! In Hawaii!

Ric Flair v Kerry Von Erich (Polynesian Pro, 2/13/85)

I think it was Charles/Loss from PWO who said years ago that we never give ourselves enough distance from Flair to properly miss him. Like, I'll go years without watching a wrestler and then I'll throw on a match of theirs out the blue and pretty quickly I'll be like "Oh. That's why I loved that person." Other than a brief period about a decade ago I've never really given myself enough time away from Flair to appreciate what I'd potentially miss about him. What Flair does have though, is a bunch of match-ups against individual wrestlers that I won't watch for years. I've never gone eight years without watching a Ric Flair match but I did go eight years without watching a Flair v Steamboat match. Flair v Kerry is a pairing that's produced a couple matches I love, but on the other hand after I last watched one of their matches I felt like I could go a lifetime without needing to see them wrestle again. Well I guess life is too short to be making such definitive statements and I hadn't seen this in like 12 years so last night I fired it up. I think I'd still have their 8/82 match as my #1 Flair v Kerry match but this was pretty damn great. Nothing they did was a major shift from past encounters and structurally it was fairly predictable for a long Flair title defence, but having a good idea of what you're getting isn't necessarily a bad thing and they did throw in a couple interesting wrinkles in the back half. I loved the opening few minutes, though again they did nothing out of the ordinary. Flair didn't start out as a sportsman exactly, but he was fairly reserved and mostly working clean. Then Kerry gets the better of a few exchanges and Flair starts to unravel like you knew he would. Even if those early exchanges aren't mind-blowing it's all decent stuff, just rock solid NWA matwork where they move in and out of holds, coming up for air to tease Flair throwing a few punches out of frustration, only to rethink that strategy when Kerry shows everyone he'll throw a few back. This was a really fun Kerry performance in general. He worked with a real air of confidence early and at least felt like the sort of challenger you'd buy winning the belt, not least because he'd done it before. He never spent a ton of time working from below, but when he was on the defensive he was really good there too, especially with his big expressive selling and bumping. It's actually a shame that we never got more Flair working on top, which is something I find myself saying pretty often about him as champ. The stretch here where he took over was great stuff and he was damn near feral for a minute there, throwing nasty body shots, knees to the gut, working over Kerry's midsection while peppering in some great looking uppercuts and chops. They both used the sleeper hold to some major heat with Kerry's coming as a bit of a revenge spot, then Flair lands on his head off a mistimed Flair Flip in the corner and you're thinking "he's absolutely going to just get up and have Kerry whip him across the other side so he can do it again" and sure enough that's exactly what happened. I liked how Kerry briefly managed to apply the Claw to the head but other than that Flair avoided it the whole match, so Kerry switched things up a bit and flung on the STOMACH~ Claw instead. The commentator is aghast when Flair misses the kneedrop and Kerry puts him in the figure-four; the first time our good man whoever he is has seen that. To be fair it leads to a nice bit of legwork and YOU can never complain about Kerry giving Flair the Iron Claw to the knee, which quite frankly rules like fuck. In a legitimately shocking turn of events Flair doesn't even get the chance to go after Kerry's leg later. Not one single figure-four attempt. No shinbreaker, nothing. I thought for sure we'd see it and we didn't and that was pretty cool. In a roundabout way it protected him at least a little. Sure he escaped by the skin of his teeth in the end, but he looked tough as a bastard doing it and he never even went to his ultimate weapon. About 45 minutes of this aired and I can say that it never felt like I was sitting watching a 45-minute match. Which is about the highest praise I can give something at this stage of the game. Maybe I'll watch another Flair v Kerry match at some point in the next six years.

Galactica! Dump shenanigans! Brody and Abby in the cage! Forks 'n' scissors!

Crush Gals v Lola Gonzalez & La Galactica (AJW, 10/6/84)

I thought this was okay, although admittedly it's not entirely my thing. If you're a fan of the rampant Dump-ish interference stuff and the associated chaos then I can get why someone would love it, but for the most part I've probably seen about all I need to see of that particular brand of nonsense by now. I'm not huge on the Crush Gals as a team either. Or Asuka in general and I much prefer bulkier 90s Chigusa. But they were perfectly solid in their roles here and of course the crowd were a million percent mental for them. Just sheer lunacy from word one. You'd think a genuine murder was afoot when Dump stabbed Asuka in the head with those scissors and then Asuka came up bloodied like a scene from a horror film and everyone went even more ballistic after that. Lola and Galactica were awesome as usual. Both were taking reckless bumps off the top rope where you could buy them crushing Asuka or Chigusa had the moves they attempted actually connected, plus they were cheapshotting and biting and scratching and pretty much everything else they shouldn't have been doing but were never actively deterred from because these 80s joshi refs will let EVERYTHING go. To be fair at least they're consistent with it. If I'm Dump and I can waltz in the ring and stab someone with scissors with impunity then why the hell wouldn't I? The Crush Gals' comeback was scorching as well, I'll give them that. 

Bruiser Brody v Abdullah the Butcher (Cage Match) (WCCW, 10/12/84)

I had some fairly high hopes for this. Unfortunately they weren't quite met and I much preferred the match from a couple months earlier, but there was some decent stuff here all the same. I actually think the stipulation hurt it. Usually with a cage match, you put two bloodthirsty maniacs in there and you're likely to see some gnarly shit. We never really got anything gnarly though and the best thing about the August match was that they were free to roam around and pick up a chair or a microphone or fight amongst the crowd and whatever. They could also play off Gary Hart around ringside. The cage restricted or outright eliminated all of that and these are not the men to be CONFINED. At least not unless Abby is being handcuffed to that cage and hit with a plank until he starts convulsing and you wonder if this isn't all a bit disturbing. Also Fritz as the guest ref' kind of took some of the focus off of Brody, which is partly understandable as it's Dallas and Fritz is the original Von Erich and of course he's not going to slink into the background. But Abdullah's act works better when the ref' doesn't actually catch him stabbing someone with a fork, let alone take the fork and stab Abdullah with it. Honestly, Brody kind of felt like an afterthought in the end, practically crawling bloodied and battered over Abdullah's carcass after Fritz had slaughtered the poor fella. I'm guessing Brody had burned most of his bridges in America by this point to agree to that.

The Bruiser and the Butcher

Bruiser Brody v Abdullah the Butcher (WCCW, 8/4/86)

I've watched a lot of Brody the last few days. Or like five matches, so a handful. A smattering, if you will. I don't really know why because I'm not a Brody fan and initially I only watched him v Dick Murdoch, brought about by our man Matt D posting a clip on twitter, entirely for the stuff with Murdoch getting hit with a wooden table. But Brody's performance was interesting in that match because there were parts where I thought he came across as an awesome menace and other parts where I thought he was sort of deplorable and infuriating for many of the reasons people have thought Brody deplorable and infuriating over the years. And "half menacing, half annoying" was largely my takeaway from the other Brody matches I watched, which has been consistent with my view of Brody forever now.

But this was the Brody you, I, WE wanted all along. I mean, probably. Maybe it's because he didn't have as much STROKE in Dallas, maybe it's because he liked Abdullah, maybe it's because he was in a particularly generous mood, but this was about as giving a performance as you'll see from Brody and I don't remember him ever looking more vulnerable. When he hit the ring to begin with he was all over Abdullah. Abby even took a quick flat back bump off a kneelift and I wondered if we weren't going to get Brody gobbling him up. But then Abby fought back quickly and nothing about Brody's selling was half-baked or hesitant. There was no flailing arms in lieu of taking any actual bumps when the time was right to take them, no goofy cross-eyed staring before shrugging everything off and going back on offence. Abby blocked one kick to the gut and gave Brody a palm thrust to the throat and Brody sold the thing like death. You knew when Abby was bleeding within 45 seconds that Brody would do the same later, and sure enough he got stabbed in the head and bled profusely. The most shocking part of all was when Abby had him practically tied to the ropes by the hair, like when Satanico would tie a scrub like Octagon by the tassels on his mask, throwing headbutts and punches and jabs with a fork while the referee was distracted, and Brody just...didn't retaliate. He couldn't. I'd never seen him in that position before and it was kind of shocking. Obviously Abdullah ruled as well, shambling around like a grotesque wretch, licking Brody's blood off his hands, stabbing him with a spike whenever he got the chance. Both guys played off each other great. 

And all of the smoke and mirrors was phenomenal. That term sometimes gets bandied about as a bit of a criticism, like how I've seen it used to describe something like Rock/Hogan. "They barely did anything, it was all atmosphere!" Or how Rick Rude v the Ultimate Warrior wasn't ACTUALLY good wrestling, it was just the layout! Nonsense, basically. It's make-believe fighting, the whole premise is smoke and mirrors. And to be honest the smoke and mirrors I'm talking about in this instance is probably along the same lines, but what everyone involved did here was the kind of smoke and mirrors I'd think of when talking about a magic show. Illusion and all that. Slight of hand, draw attention to one thing while something else is going on. Obvious stuff like Gary Hart standing on the apron so Abdullah can jab Brody in the head with a spike. The tried and true professional WRESTLING magic, if maybe not the kind you'd see at a kid's birthday party (well, hopefully). Sometimes the people being duped by the smoke and mirrors were in on the act all along, like David Manning, who was run ragged by Hart and Abdullah while doing his damnedest to spot any foul play. At one point he practically scaled Abby's back to see OVER him because Abby positioned himself in such a way where Manning couldn't see AROUND him. The curtain has been drawn back now, we all know that Manning knew what was going on, but he sold it in a way that the crowd bought the opposite being true. Mark Lawrence was so good on commentary, continually feeding the idea that Hart was a master manipulator and instigating the carnage caused by this morbidly obese man with a fork stuffed in his pants. Hart himself was of course amazing. Manning checked Abby before the bell for any foreign objects and the crowd wanted him to check Hart as well. Manning might've done it too if Brody hadn't stormed the ring and started a fight. After a few minutes it was Hart who passed the spike to Abdullah and when Manning knew something was up, Hart was more than happy to take off his jacket and ask to be patted down. The crowd were livid and the setup and payoff to that moment was perfect. When the match breaks down like you know it was always going to they brawl up to a big semi-enclosed area, disappearing behind this one pair of boards. Hart then slides the boards together and stands in front of them so Manning can't follow the wrestlers. He obviously figures Abdullah has more tricks up his sleeve (or down his pants) and based on how the rest of the match has gone the crowd probably think so too. Then one of the panels gets blown back, Hart goes flying as it crashes into him, and from behind it comes Brody wielding a plank while Abdullah backpedals as furiously as a man in his physical state can backpedal. Set up and paid off perfectly. Magic, innit?

The last couple minutes are awesome chaos. I fully expected Brody to go bonkers with the 2x4 and exact some sweet revenge, really milk the beatdown on Abdullah to the point where we all forget that he'd been mollywhopped for a while there. And to begin with he does, clobbering Abdullah in the head with a plank of wood while Abby lies helpless like a puddle of goo. Then Gary Hart gets involved again and absolutely hammers Brody with a chair. I'm guessing Brody liked Hart as much as he liked Abdullah because I don't think I've seen someone hit Brody with anything like this in my life. Abdullah takes the 2x4 and smashes Brody in the head with it over and over, Hart keeping at bay any enhancement talent who scramble out to make the save. He outright launched a chair at someone's head and Brody ends up being dragged to safety by referees, a blood-soaked mess of hair and fur boots. If I've ever seen Brody carried out the ring like a carcass before then I've surely forgotten it because once again I was practically in shock. Bruiser Brody, beaten and battered, unable to leave a fight by his own accord. 

This all builds to a cage match a couple months later at the big Cottonbowl Extravaganza. I think there's another match between them before then as well and I can only assume Brody gets to annihilate Abdullah somewhere along the line, but either way this was one of the best Brody performances I've ever seen. I got the menacing caveman, the brawler, the madman who'll pick up a microphone as a weapon and stalk down his prey, but also the sort of vulnerability that put his opponent over huge. It actually has me excited about how he'll get his payback - payback that he never got here because the bigger picture called for him to delay the taking of it. 

It really is magic when they do it right. 

El Samurai meets the THUNDER

Jushin Liger v El Samurai (New Japan, 4/30/92)

I don't know what Samurai was thinking. I don't know why he decided to approach this match with such impertinence. Don't know why he ever thought it would be a good idea to test Liger like this, to poke the bear so brazenly and expect not to get ripped apart. Or maybe he knew the latter was a very real possibility but still backed himself to weather the storm and take it home before it ever happened. A bold strategy, you have to say. Fair play to the man. Either way this is one of those New Japan matches that I imagine the majority of folk with any interest in Japanese wrestling has at least heard of. It's a match that had been heralded in tape-trading circles for years, one of the first I made a point of hunting down, and it still seems to be famous enough today that younger folk will know of it. So you've either seen it or you've read about it and you probably know how Samurai went at Liger from the start. It's still quite the shock when he spits on him before the bell, wholly unnecessary as a response to a handshake. When Liger never retaliated immediately you almost hoped Samurai would back away from that ledge, accept the olive branch and go about business with a little more decorum. He never and at least for a few minutes there he might've had Liger in some real danger. He rips the mask, smashes a glass bottle over Liger's head, hits a tombstone on the floor, really goes for the throat. It wasn't as heated a beatdown as when Sano did it a couple years earlier and Liger keeps the BLADE~ away this time, but it was all compelling enough. I do wish Liger tried to fight back once or twice though, maybe have Samurai cut him off just to build anticipation for the proper comeback. Or maybe the comeback being what it was landed more emphatically. Even through the mask you could tell Liger had reached breaking point and Samurai poked that bear once too often. The first palm thrust felt like a fucking sledgehammer and after that it was a demolition. My favourite Liger is pissed off Liger and this was one of the best fuck around and find out Liger performances ever. He brutalises Samurai and gets payback for the mask, practically ripping Samurai's off entirely, to the point where Sammy wrestles the rest of the match with it hanging by a thread like a little neckerchief, face completely exposed. He didn't forget the tombstone on the floor either and if he'd gone a step further and glassed Samurai into the bargain we'd be calling this a seven-star affair. I'd have liked for them to make things a little more contested in the body of the match rather than having one extended beatdown, but it's hard to complain too loudly when the beatdown was as resounding as this. At the time I was desperate to check this out for the big moves and highspots, and some of those moves and highspots are still spectacular 30+ years later, but what holds everything together is the animosity and the story of Liger putting another pretender in his place. Even the section in the final third where they kind of traded submission attempts was fine because at least on Liger's part it looked like he was trying to rip Samurai's arm out. In the end Samurai was one in a long line of challengers who came at the king, and like all of those before him he could do naught but miss.

Revisiting Choshu v Fujinami (part 1 maybe)

Riki Choshu v Tatsumi Fujinami (New Japan, 4/3/83)

This series as a whole reminds me a little of the amazing Fujinami/Hashimoto match from 1998, where it's Fujinami's skill and technique matched up against the ferocity of Hashimoto. '83 Choshu and  '98 Hash aren't necessarily the perfect comparison and there are certainly differences across both match-ups, but Choshu was a force of nature around this point and he was maybe never more explosive. Just the way he moves, the way he'll burst into life at any moment, it's sort of mesmerising. The start was about as perfect a way to grab you as you could get, with Choshu trying to waylay Fujinami and Fujinami, knowing he wasn't getting out the way of it, deciding to take a piece of Choshu with him. It's one of the best double clothesline spots ever. I really liked the pacing of the first two thirds, though I could see some folk struggling with it. The grappling is rough and none of it comes easy, even if sometimes the pace slows to a bit of a crawl. It's not particularly flashy, but even the simplest movements are done with real intent and it's all very gripping. Plus when the tempo did drop it felt to me like they were biding time, maybe using that to recuperate a little, because whenever they burst back into life again it was frantic. Throughout all of this we got the TETCHINESS, with both of them throwing slaps out of rope breaks or stalemates, real derisory shit from two guys who do not like each other. When things ramp up in the final third it gets awesome and that stretch run was nuclear. I loved how Choshu's first hammer blow almost came about because Fujinami fell back on his strengths - because why wouldn't he, I guess? - when he grabbed the headlock as containment, only for Choshu to rip off the backdrop. I hadn't watched this series since the DVDVR 80s set 15 years ago so I had no memory of how any of the matches ended. When it went to the floor I figured they were absolutely going to the count out, but then they took it back in and Fujinami hitting the German suplex had me biting huge. Fujinami sells the leg with a bit of subtlety after that, stemming from Choshu's work on it earlier, and maybe in the end that loss of mobility is his undoing because he can't escape getting obliterated with one more lariat. I had this as their second best match together and to the surprise of no one it held up great. 

Riki Choshu v Tatsumi Fujinami (New Japan, 4/21/83)

Honestly, I might've liked this one even better! Choshu comes in as the champ this time, Fujinami with his knee bandaged up from whatever happened to it a few weeks earlier, but Choshu is Choshu and champion or not he'll still go for the throat straight out the gate. This time, in a nice twist from before, Fujinami precipitates it as the one who throws the first cheapshot; a slap across the face while the ref' is checking Choshu's boots. Of course Choshu is apoplectic and tries to decapitate Fujinami immediately, but this time, rather than matching it with his own lariat, Fujinami ducks and floors Choshu with a dropkick. If Fujinami is the thinking man's wrestler then he knew exactly how to wave the red cape in Choshu's face. Fujinami goes right to the figure-four leglock from there, probably as a means of keeping Choshu's energy in check, probably as a bit of payback for his own busted leg. I loved the hesitancy and general selling from Choshu after he can finally cause a break, trying to keep his distance from Fujinami who makes no bones about wanting to go after that leg again. Choshu is also not above kicking Fujinami in the knee and in the least shocking turn of events imaginable tries to do just that on more than one occasion. That leg probably writes Choshu's strategy for him and I liked how this time around he wanted the sasori-gatame more than anything. In the last match he was brute force, full steam ahead, but this time it felt like he was using the lariat to set up the submission attempt. When he finally manages to apply it Fujinami refuses to quit so in true Choshu fashion he decides to just body slam him on the guardrail. He already beat Fujinami clean before, why would be balk at a count-out this time around? These guys are pretty much made for each other. 

Have I never written about a Ric Flair v Harley Race match in 14 and a half years???

Ric Flair v Harley Race (Central States, 7/19/84)

Ordinarily I wouldn't bother talking about this as we only get 10 minutes of a match that goes at least 20, but the half we got was so good I thought it was worth it. I'm sure you and all wrestlers involved are just thrilled. The pre-match was also worth talking about as the Missing Link absolutely murders Harley Race with headbutts. I don't even know how many Missing Link matches I've watched in my life but based on this alone it feels like I need to watch everything. These headbutts were tremendous, then he climbed the ropes and threw a chair clean off Harley's face! It was ridiculous and Race was a maniac for taking the thing fully with no hands up for protection. Full chair right in the face. Flair comes out after that to pick the bones clean, as cocksure as you'd expect from him in that situation. They're in Kansas City so Race was already going to be the hometown babyface, but after the pre-match mauling? After Flair basically strutting over the carcass? The place goes from hot to molten and then there's a jump cut and we miss 10 minutes but NO MATTER (a little matter) as everything after that is fantastic. From the point we pick up the action Flair has just been posted on the floor and very shortly after that he's a mess. Even in the dimly lit arena you can see the blood flowing. I've been sort of jaded by Harley after however many years of hearing he was an all-timer, especially having gone through so much of his stuff from Japan that does nothing for me, but this was a fantastic babyface performance from him. He was the local hero, but unlike most locals Flair rocks into town to wrestle, Harley was the eight-time champion of the world so the chances of him winning just felt higher. It seemed like Flair sold everything with a little more desperation into the bargain. Harley had already beaten him more than once after all. Where Flair's selling was frantic and exaggerated, Harley's was much more understated and he sold the toll of that blood-loss amazingly, dazed and struggling as he was. Both guys are very much from the school of "keep things movin!" and sometimes that'll work for you, sometimes it won't. If you're one of the dozen people reading this then I imagine you've seen enough from both to have your own stance on that particular philosophy. Harley's take on it doesn't always work for me because it can feel like he's running through offence with not a lot of escalation, but this time everything was reined in a bit and it never felt like as much STUFF was going on. They still cut a strong pace and Flair was getting bumped around the whole time, bloodied and fighting for his life - or title, which is practically the same thing - but it all clicked and there was logical progression and really they just bled and knocked lumps out each other which is also great. If the Missing Link stole the show pre-match with his headbutts then Race tried to reclaim it during it, especially with his falling headbutts and MORE especially with one off the middle rope. There was an amusing spot where Flair went up top to get thrown off, Race didn't bite on it, so Flair jumped off anyway and got caught with a gut shot. Rather than leaving it there Flair went fuck it and decided to do it again 10 seconds later and this time Harley obliged. I guess Flair's the one with the big belt now so he gets to steer that ship whether Harley wants it or not. After some awesome last legs punch exchanges and brawling Race hits another big headbutt off the second rope, the place in raptures, but the Missing Link comes back out headbutts the ref'! Race clearing house was molten hot and honestly I'm not sure I've ever seen him look better, even this late into his career. This was way different from the usual Flair/Race match thanks to the role reversal and it worked a treat. I just wish we had the full thing. Or dare I say another Flair/Harley match like this, as the 59 we have on tape already apparently isn't enough.