My initial thought after watching this was, "I wish people still worked like this today." Then after four seconds of consideration my next thought was that I don't actually watch enough of today's wrestling to know whether or not people DON'T work like this. It at least FEELS like what these two were doing is something mostly lost to time. I started thinking about when wrestling in the US shifted away from what this was towards what it became in the 70s and then the 80s and then every decade after that. I always used to hear about how wrestling was much slower in the 50s and I guess that might be true if you ignore what they were doing in France, but this was nothing like the sort of thing I would've expected when I first started reading about wrestling on the internet however long ago. I know wrestling moved towards having more high-impact moves and general ACTION~ as it went along, but there was and is still matwork and grappling and working of holds in US wrestling. By the 80s there was pretty much no matwork like this, though. Even your most go-go-go Flair matches didn't have half as much energy from the perspective of actually working holds. They didn't even do a lot here -- Gagne largely worked around a headlock while Goelz went after Venre's arm with a few different holds. The difference was the intensity and aggression with which they approached all of it. There was no slapping on an armbar and sitting in it, no ponderous side headlocks where the person on the receiving end was content to lay there for a minute or two. You'd maybe call the pacing of that "deliberate," and there's lots of 70s and 80s matwork where they work deliberately and I can enjoy it, but the pacing of this was almost frenzied and the difference is stark. Gagne's headlock work was some of the best I've ever seen. It was damn near torturous, like he was trying to squeeze Goelz's brains out his nose. He was grinding the headlock with his right arm then did a standing switch to apply it with his left and it looked like the fucking thing was in fast forward. There was absolutely zero daylight between temple and forearm on this headlock. Goelz is tremendous and I feel like if we had a bunch of his footage we'd be raving about him as an all-timer. He was ferocious going after Gagne's arm. At one point he took him down with an armbar then floated over into a gorgeous hammerlock. He wrenched the absolute fuck out of that thing as well, repeatedly, like he was trying to yank the arm clean out the socket, and you know Gagne had to sleep on his other side that night. When Gagne kept wringing Goelz's head with the headlock Billy just dropped to the mat and curled up like a turtle. There was another moment where he managed to pop out of the headlock by sort of jumping and throwing himself backwards and I love how he sold being discombobulated as he tried to get up to his feet quickly. Really the struggle over everything was sensational and somewhere along the line that sort of thing got lost in the States. The rope running parts ruled too, with rapid fast leapfrog attempts and dropkicks, sometimes connecting at full speed, while sometimes one would try a leapfrog while the other would just charge into them as they were in mid-air. An awesome 20-minute draw that feels like it would've been the first half of a classic 40-minute war.
Wednesday, 5 February 2025
Tuesday, 4 February 2025
Smile Brighter than them Arkansas Diamonds, Dreams Bigger than a Mid-South Horizon
Butch Reed v Buzz Sawyer (Dog Collar Match) (12/31/85)
In a world where Roddy Piper and Greg Valentine didn't try to mutilate each other with a chain this might be the best dog collar match in wrestling history. It's easily one of the best matches under 10 minutes there's ever been. I don't remember there being a specific issue between these two leading up to this, but Sawyer wants the dog collar stipulation so Reed obliges on the basis that there'll be no disqualifications. Sawyer howls like the mad dog he is as they're being hooked together by the chain and you can tell Reed was staring a hole through him the entire time. Sawyer regrets his hubris immediately as Reed just knocks lumps out him for about five minutes solid. It was a phenomenal five-minute stretch and I almost wanted to watch it twice. Reed throws some of the best chain-wrapped punches ever, just absolutely clobbering Sawyer under the jaw. His chain whippings don't have the same rampant disregard for flesh as Piper and Valentine's did but you forget that pretty quickly when he grabs a length of chain and starts grinding it back and forth across the cut on Sawyer's forehead. Sawyer squeals like a pig and you'd maybe feel sorry for him if he wasn't a HOODLUM. Also he asked for this. Reed roars and raises his arms to the sky like a wild animal driven to find this side of himself and it was biblical. Sawyer is feral at points fighting from below, biting Reed in the thigh and swinging lengths of chain blindly. Reed was almost shocked when Sawyer tried to take a chunk out his leg, looked at the bite mark, then at Sawyer, then kicked him in the face. When Sawyer finally comes back with a chain-wrapped fist of his own he drags Reed outside and busts him open, a man who knows his way around a dog collar match better than anyone. I don't remember if he bit the cut although I'll strongly assume he did as this is Buzz Sawyer but what he absolutely did do was try and whip Reed in the face with the chain. Reed was lucky he moved out the way or he might've been DISFIGURED or at the very least in some distress. Reed sawing the chain across Sawyer's MOUTH was fucking nuts and then the finish is even crazier. Sawyer is the master of this sort of match and sometimes that's because he knows exactly the right shortcuts to take. This time he unhooked his own collar and tied it to the bottom rope, then as Reed went to undo it Sawyer grabbed him in a bulldog and ran him across the ring, letting the chain still attached to Reed's neck snap him back as it went taut. Truly brutal stuff and a finish that's stuck with me since I first saw this over 15 years ago. One of my favourite matches ever and if not for Dick Murdoch and Jim Duggan it might've been both men's career match.
Monday, 3 February 2025
The Kids are in Town for a Funeral, so Pack the Car and Dry Your Eyes. I Know They got Plenty of Young Blood Left in 'em, and Plenty Nights Under Mid-South Skies
Dick Murdoch v Ted DiBiase (12/31/85)
This ruled in many of the same ways as the Houston match a few days earlier, sometimes almost beat for beat, but was also different enough to stand and rule on its own. They start things out like they did in the first match, with Murdoch jumping DiBiase at the bell and DiBiase turning the tables by hitting a powerslam while Murdoch is still in his ring jacket. That's always going to be an awesome way to start a match though so who's going to complain about seeing it twice? Murdoch was sensational in that first match and he was sensational in this. I think his work on DiBiase's neck was even more vicious here. Some of the stomps were godly and those kneedrops right to the base of DiBiase's skull were some of the best you'll ever see. When DiBiase came back and built momentum you maybe wondered if they'd drop the neck work, but then in the back half Murdoch used the chair again, just like he did a few days earlier, and smashed the thing into DiBiase's neck. Murdoch wanted that brainbuster and you bought that everything he did leading up to it was designed to put DiBiase out for good. DiBiase always has great whip on his bumps - maybe too great considering his neck was shot to hell by the end - and his bump off Murdoch's slingshot over the top rope was tremendous. He took that thing like Murdoch was trying to rip his head clean off. When he wasn't being a sadist Murdoch was begging off and cowering from DiBiase's wrath, on one occasion outright running away when DiBiase started to make a comeback. That led to an amazing transition as DiBiase chased him outside the ring and over the barricade, but as Murdoch hopped back over he caught DiBiase with a right hook to the jaw. From there he smashed DiBiase into ring apron and the rail and a ringside table while Tommy Gilbert was apoplectic. Murdoch might've been the best wrestler in the world in 1985.
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