Once upon a time this would've been my all-time dream match, my wrestling footage holy grail. With a bullet, too. We've all heard the story of how Flair and Murdoch worked a 60-minute draw in Tulsa and it was the best match Joel Watts had ever seen but then he went and left the film reel in his car and it melted in the Oklahoma sun. Who knows if that's even true, but in a world where there's really no footage of these two wrestling otherwise, you want to believe a 60-minute draw between them really was the best match never seen. If you're a fan of both it probably isn't hard to believe either. This wasn't the long arena match most of us might've wanted, but for an abbreviated TV version of the Nature Boy and Captain Redneck I thought it was pretty damn great. With every new Flair match (or match up) I most look forward to seeing how his opponent operates within the Flair Formula. I know I always say that but it's always true. Who will let Flair take the full reins, who'll push back a little and leave their mark on things, who'll rail against it entirely and just do whatever? This had enough moments I'd never seen in any other Flair match to think they were working as close to 50/50 as you'll get, even if it was still very much a Flair match. Murdoch working the leg didn't feel like your regular Flair opponent working the leg. It wasn't treated as a revenge spot, didn't stem from Flair working the leg and applying the figure-4 first, it was something Murdoch latched onto and he went with it. It never even led to him applying the figure-4 either, which surprised me in a good way. They also transitioned out of it when Murdoch tried to elbow drop the knee but Flair pulled his leg away and Murdoch ate shit on the landing. That prompted Flair to twist on the arm and punch him in the armpit for a few minutes, and Flair working a guy's arm is always nasty stuff. When they crept up to the line of doing something I expected, more often than not they'd take it in another direction. They never traded chops in the corner - Flair threw several but Murdoch would always shut him down with his own amazing punches. When Flair climbed the turnbuckles and Murdoch stopped him you're pretty sure he's about to slam him, but instead Murdoch goes ROGUE and hits an awesome running powerslam. Murdoch also threaded his own signature stuff in at cool moments, like the spot where he winds up for a big punch, the ref' grabs his arm to stop it, so Murdoch just pops his opponent with the free hand as he stares at the ref' with visible annoyance. In no world would I have expected Flair to take a brainbuster but wouldn't you believe it, Murdoch drops him with a brainbuster and it's nice when the world throws you curveballs sometimes. There are really no wrestlers I feel like I NEED to see go an hour with Flair at this stage. There are really no wrestlers I feel like I need to see go an hour, period. But If you told me tomorrow that it turns out Joel Watts had melted the wrong film reel and the one with Flair v Murdoch was found in a basemen in Oklahoma City, I would still be very excited to see how that would look.
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