NWA Classics 24/7 #30

Jose Lothario & Al Madril v Dick Murdoch & Killer Brooks (Houston Wrestling, 2/10/78)

How about Dickie Murdoch and the Supersock for a dream match! Murdoch's boots were the swankest you've ever laid eyes on but you would be a FOOL to think he wasn't about to punch people in the nose here all the same. Brooks is absolute top tier scuzz, the sort of dirtbag who sits in the corner of a bar drinking the same beer for three hours, people-watching a bunch of people fully aware of his presence yet equally hesitant to acknowledge it. You don't turn your gaze to that corner booth. Of course Lothario and Madril encounter those sorts on the regular. The best way to deal with a wretch like Tim Brooks is crack him in the face. Still, Brooks has been doing this too long not to have a counterstrike up his snot-coated sleeve and you know Murdoch - his cousin, according to Boesch - has a trick or two up his own. They end up spending most of the first fall working over Madril's leg, which they get to initially by smashing him in the kneecap with the edge of a chair. And then just when you think Lothario is about to clean house off the hot tag, Murdoch shuts him down IMMEDIATELY with an uppercut. I almost gasped, firstly because a Dick Murdoch uppercut is one of the greatest things in wrestling, but also because I'd have bet the house on Lothario being the one to throw it. It even leads to the heels taking the first fall and sometimes a cool wrinkle like that makes you want to see that babyface comeback even more. Sure enough the second fall is quick as the babyfaces even it up with a sunset flip, then going into the third Murdoch gets popped in the mouth and his sell of losing a tooth is pretty much exquisite. He asks Bronko Lubich to check for gaps and by this point the crowd want ALL of his teeth to be loosened so the third fall has the sort of heat you just don't see anymore. This ruled. Murdoch v Lothario would easily be nine stars, whether it's on a 1978 curve or a 2028 curve. 

NWA Classics 24/7 #29

Jose Lothario v Krusher Kruschev (Houston Wrestling, 8/31/84)

This was all about the punch. Everybody knows Lothario has that killshot in his locker and Kruschev wants nothing to do with it. In the early going he stalls and forces the ref' to step in whenever Lothario cocks that fist. Lothario cocks the fist many times as Kruschev keeps being a shithead and outright cheating. You know what it's all building to and obviously that first haymaker is a doozy. Lothario in Houston is like Lawler in Memphis or Colon in Puerto Rico. It's a special kind of connection that very few wrestlers have ever had; that legendary status in a particular area where the people just live and die with everything they do. There's one old gentleman in a straw hat front row and you can imagine he'd seen Jose work a hundred thousand times. Kruschev engaging in a fist fight was not the surest route to victory and that final uppercut was supreme. 

Adrian Street v Rick McCord (Houston Wrestling, 8/31/84)

Pretty much an Adrian Street show. Considering I haven't watched any Street in a while now I kind of loved it. McCord could've been any old warm body off the side of the road and this would've worked. Street's shtick is a hoot - he prances around, thrusts his pelvis in the direction of the referee during the pre-match checks, plants the lips on McCord and everyone just eats it up. When McCord finally puts him on his arse the pop is such that you know Street could've had them reacting for absolutely anybody. 

NWA Classics 24/7 #28

Chavo & Hector Guerreros v The Fantastics (Houston Wrestling, 8/3/84)

The structure of this was a bit ropey. Rather than your traditional southern tag formula, where in a perfect world Tommy Rogers takes a beating a few minutes as very few wrestlers take a beating like Tommy Rogers, and very few teams are as good as the Guerreros at dishing one out, we got three mini heat segments on Bobby Fulton, who felt a bit off during this. He wasn't bad or anything, but there were a few miscues and it made some of the double team spots feel a little contrived, or at least less organic than they usually do. Of course the people still lost it for the double row boat, and the headlock noggin knocker, and basically everything else for that matter because it's these four and they are very good at what they do. You've just seen those things done a little smoother, or a little quicker, with a little less setup. Chavo and Hector putting cool spins on otherwise standard spots will always rule so obviously I loved the finish, which gave us a picture perfect Tommy Rogers dropkick as a bonus. Not their best match together, but of course it was good, and really, I'll take every new bit of footage involving these guys I can get. It'd be foolish to complain.

NWA Classics 24/7 #27

Jack Brisco v The Spoiler (Houston Wrestling, 7/27/79)

I should probably watch more Spoiler. To be honest I haven't really thought about Brisco in years either, but I at least formed an actual opinion of him way back whenever (though that's been a loooong time as well). It's not that this is the first Spoiler/Super Destroyer match I've seen, it's that it might be the one closest to his peak and man that guy was fun as hell. This had a bunch of great headlock work in the first five-six minutes, and while Brisco is someone who'll always be active in holds to keep them semi-interesting it was Spoiler who was doing all sorts of neat stuff. I've probably seen it done before, but the way he held Brisco in the headlock so he could choke him over his knee at the same time is such a cool spot that more people should've pinched. He also sends the ref' around to check for Brisco pulling the mask (he's not, obviously), then when he's in the clear he yanks Brisco back down to the mat with a handful of hair. It was all just really solid heat-building. There was another awesome part where he perched up on the top rope waiting for Brisco to get back in the ring, scoping Brisco's movements before giving him a double axe handle as Brisco was halfway through the ropes. It doesn't sound like much, but he looked super menacing just by the way he quietly bided his time, and the longer he waited the more worried you were for Brisco. The claw v figure-four part of the match ruled as well. Initially Brisco countered the claw with a kneebreaker (after some really nice desperation selling while in the hold), then as he went to the half crab Spoiler was trying to grab anything he could to get out of it. By the time Brisco finally managed to get the figure-four on proper you had Spoiler almost crawling up Bronko Lubich's shirt for a reprieve. The two falls coming in quick succession worked as well, not just as comeuppance for Gary Hart's interference but because the second one made Brisco look he's always thinking on his feet. He was the world champ for a reason, you know. Imagine how much more cool Spoiler footage we could be getting if NWA On Demand was still a thing.

NWA Classics 24/7 #26

Butch Reed v Junkyard Dog (Dog Collar Match) (Houston Wrestling, 11/4/83)

This was kind of low key for a dog collar match, especially when you compare it to every Buzz Sawyer dog collar match to happen in Mid-South let alone something like Piper/Valentine. It was mostly fought in close quarters and nobody got hurled around by the neck or hung up over the ropes in attempted murder. There was blood, but nothing grotesque and certainly at no point did anybody stumble around with an ear hanging off. It still managed to feel pretty brutal though, the closeness giving it a gritty, personal sort of edge. Lots of nasty chain-wrapped punches, some to the forehead, some to the jaw, a couple to the ribs that looked extra mean. Those body shots aren't used a ton in matches like this, maybe because the wrestlers will generally opt for the more visceral - and what's more visceral than repeatedly punching someone in the face with a chain-wrapped fist? But the body shots were definitely a nice addition and they were sold like it sucked being on the receiving end of them. There was also a really cool transition spot where JYD went to headbutt Reed only for Reed to use the chain as a shield. Reed in control had some of the more brutal chain whippings I've seen as well. Plus Reed is someone who will absolutely go all the way when milking feet on the ropes for leverage. He never half-arses it by reaching out and grabbing a rope just to intimate to the crowd that he's cheating. He literally hangs his feet off the top rope and really forces his entire weight across JYD's neck when applying that headlock. Of course you question the need for a headlock in a dog collar match but hey, neither are Roddy Piper or Greg Valentine so we forgive them for their missteps.

NWA Classics 24/7 #25

The Sheepherders v Bruise Brothers (Houston Wrestling, 1/24/86)

Talk about making an entrance. This was the Sheepherders' debut in Houston and it was more of an angle than an actual match, but if you want to set yourself up to get rabid crowd heat wherever you go then I guess this is the way to do it. They jump the Bruise Brothers and stab them in the face with a flag pole, wave that New Zealand flag proudly and walk out as security restrains enraged fans. It was like four minutes all told and did exactly what it intended to do.


The Sheepherders v Bruise Brothers (Chicago Street Fight) (Houston Wrestling, 1/31/86)

Man, Williams and Miller are certifiable. People already wanted their blood after last week, now Williams is raving pre-match about how the Sheepherders have won titles and flown the New Zealand flag high in thirty six countries. They come out to the ring as someone chucks a pitcher of beer and then waltz around ringside waving the flag to absolutely nuclear heat. Williams gets on the house mic and tells everyone to shut up as two guys in the crowd who are very likely several sheets to the wind are shouting right in his face. Would I fuck be pulling that in front of several thousand drunk rednecks who want to stab me, especially when the security in charge of stopping them from doing so look like they would also like to stab me. This didn't last long either, but the Bruise Brothers got to look competitive for a few minutes before the crazy New Zealanders put them to bed. The Sheepherders looked really strong in both these matches and in about fifteen minutes total they've managed to become two of the most hated wrestlers in Texas. As Tracy Smothers would say: that's calling working, motherfucker.

NWA Classics 24/7 #24

Gino Hernandez & Tully Blanchard v Junkyard Dog & Tiger Conway Jr. (Houston Wrestling, 9/25/81)

This was full chickenshit stooge Tully Blanchard. The Dynamic Duo tag from the previous week was more of a Gino show, but this was Tully at his craven, backpedaling best. All of his bumps were super quick and allowed him to amplify those moments of stooging. What I mean is, when he'd take a surprise hip toss he'd almost roll through straight back up to his feet, and as he did it he'd find himself nose to nose in the corner with JYD. He didn't just take the bump, stand up in the opposite corner and realise he was in the wrong part of town. He wound up in that wrong part of town so quickly that he never had the time to register where he was, so the way he almost jumped backwards out his boots as he saw the Dog's fist not but six inches from his face was a reaction of genuine shock and terror. He certainly earned those reassuring hugs from Gino ("a real touching monent," Boesch comments sarcastically). Gino was really fun doing his thing as well and I loved him doing his Ali shuffle when he wanted a boxing match with Conway, who naturally rocked him with a big flurry. I haven't seen a lot of Conway Jr., but he took a nice beating here and had a few cool hope spots. His flip out of a backdrop where he landed on his feet was especially impressive, though the mid-match angle with Bockwinkel attacking JYD meant Conway was left on his own for a while. When he made it to his corner for the tag only to find it empty I half expected him to turn on the Dog. If this was the WWF he'd have thrown him through a barber shop window or strangled him with his own chain. But he weathered the storm long enough for JYD to recover, and when it was time for that hot tag the Dog came in like a man possessed. The way he looked at Gino would put the fear of god in any man and you could see Gino thinking about cutting bait then and there. I'm wondering if the Gino/Tully Dynamic Duo wasn't even better than the Gino/Adams version, even if the latter is probably the more famous.

NWA Classics 24/7 #23

Gino Hernandez & Tully Blanchard v Mil Mascaras & Manny Fernandez (Houston Wrestling, 9/18/81)

I've been watching a bunch of Tully lately, mostly in singles during the peak Crockett run, so I wanted to check out some Tully/Gino Dynamic Duo stuff and see where he was at in '81. By the US title run he was a perfect little weasel who always managed to come across as dangerous and legit at the same time. He'd go after a guy like a swarm of angry bees and even if you wanted to smack him in the mouth there was no question he was as good as he said he was. He hadn't quite perfected that at this point, but you could see the makings of it. Interestingly he was sort of placed in the Arn role here as Gino worked this as a sniveling coward who wanted no part of Manny and even less of Mil. Gino's shtick was totally over the top and awesome and, other than one bit where he and Tully shared a reassuring embrace outside the ring, it was Gino who garnered most of the heat on his own. He'd come in to throw a cheapshot, then the babyface would spot him and so he'd just bolt out of the ring. He wanted a piece of Mil, then when Manny obliged and tagged him in Gino ran straight over and tagged in Tully. At one point Mil chased him all around the ring and ringside area as Gino scarpered for his life. Mil was really fun in this as well. He had a great double noggin-knocker spot, threw a bunch of cool flying forearms, had Tully locked in tight with his headscissors and those nifty spinning headstand takeovers, then he played face in peril for a bit and gave the heels more than I was expecting. Mil even doing the job at the end was a bit of a holy shit moment because I don't know if I've ever actually seen that before. When Tully and Gino were setting up the finish I thought for sure it was going to be reversed, but then they went all in on it and not only did Gino escape without receiving his comeuppance, he pinned Mil himself (well, with a little help first)! Post-match Mil cuts a scathing promo in Spanish - like an angrier, teary-eyed version of your Onita classic - and I'm assuming there was a blowoff to this that's buried somewhere in that Houston footage we'll probably never see. Pre-Crockett Tully is kind of a blind spot for me so I guess I should watch a bunch of Dynamic Duo tags now?

NWA Classics 24/7 #22

Ted DiBiase v Hacksaw Duggan (Loser Leaves Town Cage Match) (Houston Wrestling, 8/26/83)

This was probably never going to be messing with the '85 stips match, but it's these two in a cage so obviously it was twelve minutes of badass. There was almost a running gag as folk were watching the original Mid-South set about the ring ropes in Houston constantly falling to bits. It happened in a bunch of matches. Maybe it was deliberate, like it was Boesch's way of throwing a curve ball and seeing how they'd persevere. Build character through adversity and whatnot. I don't recall it ever actively derailing a match and I imagine this would've been good had the ropes stayed in place, but somehow the turnbuckle flying apart seemed to make it even better. It happens only a couple minutes in, and as soon as it does Duggan just picks it up and tries to strangle DiBiase with this stray ring rope. Ted has already decided he's had enough of this and tries to roll away, but of course he only gets so far before the cage stops him. His "oh shit what have I done?" reaction as Duggan stands over him with a turnbuckle bolt is incredible. The rope and bolt then become a permanent fixture for the rest of the match. DiBiase uses it to cut Duggan open first and there's an amazing bit where he practically stabs him clean in the face with it. Duggan's comeback is total Hacksaw which means it's all-time level great. Seriously, who has a better walking tall babyface comeback than Duggan? The foot-stomping, the punches, the wild mane, it never fails. The big payback shots with the bolt obviously ruled, too. Ted loading the glove and punching Duggan in the gut was an awesome spot just for Duggan selling it like he'd been shot, but then they started running the two remaining ring ropes and it ended up with Duggan holding the equalizer. This is one of the best match-ups in US wrestling history, right?

NWA Classics 24/7 #21

Remember NWA Classics 24/7, later renamed NWA On Demand, later gone up in smoke and sold to whoever when WWE came calling? I remember. That particular streaming service is no longer with us, but if you know where to look (that super secret streaming site with all the videos on it that nobody's ever heard of) most of it still seems to be floating around. So it's back to Houston we go!


Ric Flair v Wahoo McDaniel (Houston Wrestling, 7/12/85)

This was the date on the match that made the DVDVR Mid-South set, but apparently that one was actually from 7/26 and the one from On Demand is the proper 7/12 match. So if you were ever wondering, there you go. I'm on as close to a Flair kick right now as I've been in about a decade and that Horsemen footage put me in the mood to rewatch some of what he was doing outside Crockett. This was pretty great when they were lacing into each other. The arena isn't mic'd up too well so you don't always get to hear the thwack on strikes, but some of these Wahoo chops are audible regardless. Flair has great chops, he always has, but he can't swing that knife edge like Wahoo and he's never had anything close to the overhand, so for once he's basically outmatched. And that was kind of the story. Flair will try and go toe to toe, but not only does it never end well for him, it never even approaches level footing. He'll throw one chop, maybe two at a push, and Wahoo will shred him. Flair simply can't hang. So I guess he decides he'll use the ropes at every opportunity and just cheat his way to victory. Maybe it was deliberate on the wrestlers' part, maybe it was a story they were actively telling, maybe I'm just projecting, but Flair's best friend in this match was the ring rope and if not for that he'd have been fucked. He wasn't only using it to cheat either. There were a few points where Wahoo dropped him with a chop or a tomahawk and Flair only escaped by draping a foot over the rope. Late on he tried to take it to the floor, but that backfired as well and it was him who wound up with a bloody forehead. Still, the ropes weren't going anywhere and they were always there to bail him out. Flair winning via dodgy pinfall with his feet on the ropes wasn't exactly a rarity, but I don't remember it ever being built to quite like that. Maybe that "build" was coincidental. It probably was, honestly. Either way it worked and overall this was good stuff.

NWA Classics 24/7 #20

Gino Hernandez v Nick Kozak (Houston Wrestling, 12/1/78)

There wasn't really a whole lot to this, but they told a nice enough story. Kozak must've wrestled on and off around Texas for about twenty years. He's clearly in the twilight of his career at this point and looks like a New York firefighter six months off retirement. Gino had his head shaved recently and is rocking the awesome mask/wig combo. Match is basically built around Kozak trying to expose Gino's baldy head to everyone in attendance. He seems more preoccupied with that than actually winning, though, and Boesch touches on it on commentary. Eventually he pushes Gino too far so Gino rams him into the post and smashes him with a chair. For some reason Bronko Lubich doesn't disqualify him and Gino finishes things off with a Russian leg sweep and a couple elbow drops. Gino in Houston is a well I haven't really tapped yet and this was an okay place to start.

NWA Classics 24/7 #19

Nick Bockwinkel v Tony Atlas (Houston Wrestling, 10/22/82)

Atlas is about as jacked in this match as I've ever seen a wrestler. He's not someone I've ever really thought about in a "how good at the wrestling was Tony Atlas?" sense, so I was interested in seeing what Bock might get out of a guy I've paid no attention to whatsoever. At times it felt like a Bockwinkel approximation of a Ric Flair touring title defence with how much he gave Atlas, especially late on with how desperate he was getting. The finish probably would've been the exact same had Flair been in there. But with Bock you never got all the begging off. Things were a little more grounded and they never seemed to be aiming for a big, dramatic crescendo. It turned out to be a nice tight contest, and almost certainly the best Atlas match I've seen. He wasn't spectacular or anything, but he made the most of what Bock gave him, and Bock will always try and keep things interesting while being worked over. There was this great bit where Bock tried to get out of a grapevine by elbowing Atlas in the head, but of course black wrestlers have heads of granite so Bock wound up selling it like he'd popped his funny bone. Matches like these aren't necessarily essential to Bockwinkel's case as a GOAT candidate, but they add to the picture we already have and that will never be a bad thing.


Midnight Express v Rock 'n' Roll Express (Houston Wrestling, 5/11/84)

This is one of the matches from this service I've been most looking forward to eventually sitting down and watching and it did not disappoint. Heck of a first go-around for these teams in Houston. They basically spent the first six minutes getting the crowd to pop and boo for high fives, then go apeshit for a hair pull. It was magical. I think over the years I've come to prefer the MX/Fantastics series over this by a tiny bit (I mean, they're both phenomenal), but the early shtick they work in MX/RnR matches is unparalleled. They have so much they can roll out between all four guys, five if you count Cornette, six if you count the referee. I thought the ref' in this was being crazy hyperactive and annoying early, really getting on Gibson's case about a phantom hair pull, but they paid that off with the spot where he breaks up a Condrey hair pull by literally yanking Condrey to the deck by the hair. In most cases I might've thought that to be too much, but the MX reaction to it, and the crowd exploding, really had me popping along with them. When the MX take over they work an awesome heat segment on Morton, running all sorts of distractions so they can hurl him over the top rope repeatedly, jab him with a steel chair, whack him with the tennis racket. It's the Midnight Express working over Ricky Morton -- you know what to expect and you know it's good. You don't need me to tell you this. I've written before about Condrey being a mean wee bastard and I just love him stomping on fingers and driving the point of his knee right into kidneys. Eaton is an absolute dynamo with the offence and he and Morton do a killer rope running sequence that ends with a HUGE powerslam. I also loved how Gibson just said fuck it and literally hiptossed Morton into his own corner, then quickly jumped back out to the apron to make the hot tag. I think there are three more MX/RnR tags from Houston that we don't already have, so hopefully they're unearthed at some point and we get the whole set. This was excellent stuff, obviously.

NWA Classics 24/7 #18

Bruiser Brody v Mongolian Stomper (Houston Wrestling 6/4/82)

Well this was great. It's the kind of chaotic brawl you'd expect out of Brody if you'd never seen him before and only heard a bunch of old-timers talk about him as an all time level brawler. If this was the only Brody match you'd ever watched, you'd probably believe it to be true. In terms of selling or how much he was willing to give his opponent, he never really did anything that was different from his usual. It's just that the Stomper seemed to realise this and decided to TAKE what he was going to get. He walked through Brody's punches as often as Brody walked through his and it made for a totally wild, uncooperative, hate-filled scrap. We got forehead biting, we got guys being thrown into rows of seats, we got a referee being launched across the ring for trying to involve himself, and of course we got the blood. Brody was swinging chairs like a damn psychopath, sometimes clusters of them at a time, and at one point he even dinged the ref' because why the hell not? There was another bit where he just went a wander with this blood-smeared chair like he wanted to break something - anything - and it was fucking awesome. I was thinking, "where is he even going?" and then I realised it didn't matter because I don't think even HE knew. He was too caught up in the moment. He'd lost himself in his madness. Just a wild, ridiculously fun ten minutes. Based on this I'd say Stomper knew exactly how to get the best out of Brody, but I think it would be unfair to say Brody never brought it. I just wish he brought it like that more often.

NWA Classics 24/7 #17

Jim Duggan v Kamala (Houston Wrestling, 6/28/85)

This is more about the big picture segment than the bell-to-bell match. The match only lasts a couple minutes before it gets thrown out, but that doesn't stop Duggan and Kamala having a big pull apart brawl for a while afterwards. This is Duggan's return to Houston, presumably after an eye injury, because he comes out wearing a big eye patch. Of course Kamala rips it off and tries to stab him in the eye with Akbar's whip. I don't know if Duggan bladed around his eye or whatever but it looked like he got shot in the face. Duggan is really one of the best ever working pull apart brawls. Anybody who gets in his way will be mowed down and when you see him marching around wielding an axe handle (a literal handle of an axe) you know you don't want to be anywhere near that. I don't think any of these Duggan/Kamala matches that've been upped are very long, but it's a fun pairing and Duggan seems to bring out the same kind of fire in Kamala that Invader I does. I'll check out the others in due course.


Butch Reed v Jim Neidhart (Houston Wrestling, 1/27/84)

Maybe it's because I knew this was the first match in the feud and two subsequent matches had been uploaded, but this definitely felt like the first match in a feud. Neidhart (or Need-hart as Boesch calls him) was usually pretty fun in Mid-South as Reed's partner. He would stooge and bump pretty big. This is obviously taking place after the babyface turn, but he still bumps a bit like a heel, taking some big exaggerated bumps off of Reed's punches, really throwing himself across the ring when Reed slingshots him into the ropes. Reed is Reed and takes all of Anvil's stuff great, bumping big himself and bouncing around for his punches. I'm not sure if he blades or he just ends up half covered in Neidhart's blood, but there's a cool image at the end where he has blood running down his chest like he'd just participated in a Dothraki heart-eating ritual. Perfectly fine eight minutes.


Ted DiBiase & Dr. Death v Dick Murdoch & Masked Superstar (Houston Wrestling, 3/14/86)

This was the business. It was structured a little differently from your tried-and-true southern style tag -- they worked holds briefly and evenly at the start so there wasn't much of a babyface shine, but that made the eventual payoff with a bloody and battered DiBiase cleaning house all the more meaningful. I guess you could say the heels took more of the match as a whole than was necessary (we basically got three heat segments that maybe could've been compressed a little), but it didn't really bother me. It's been a while since I've watched any Murdoch, but I don't think he'll ever stop being a favourite of mine. The camera angle was pretty wide in this so it meant you got to see him work the apron all the way through, and man is he great at working the apron. A lot of it was subtle, but you could see him getting worried when it looked like Superstar might've given up control, then he'd compose himself again after things were put back on track. The FIP spell on DiBiase was stellar, mostly for DiBiase's blade job and awesome selling, but Murdoch was clearly having a hoot beating him up. At one point he grabs a near-lifeless DiBiase by the hair, cackles at Williams across the ring, then smashes Ted's face into the canvas. This about sent Williams over the edge and he nearly threw Tommy Gilbert out his shoes to get to Murdoch, but of course all it did was give Dick and Superstar free rein to double team DiBiase some more. Post-match was great as well, with Ted and Doc holding Superstar's mask aloft in triumph. Strong tag match.

NWA Classics 24/7 #16

Butch Reed v Terry Taylor (Houston Wrestling, 5/11/84)

Man this was good stuff. I figured I'd like it because it's Reed and I'll like pretty much anything with Reed, and Reed v Taylor for thirteen minutes in 1984 was probably always going to be no worse than decent, but they worked in so much cool stuff that I never expected to see. Reed was never better selling for punches than he was for Taylor's in this. He has some great weeble-wobble moments, does a Terry Funk-esque pirouette before falling flat on his face, goes jelly-legged trying to stay upright; just so much fun eating Taylor's shots. Terry is wearing a neck brace so when Reed takes over you get some awesome clubbing to the neck, a big swinging neckbreaker and a hotshot across the top rope that Terry took without putting his hands up at all (looked brutal). Then Reed starts working the brass knucks hidden in the trunks shtick. The crowd are just all over him and he's popping Taylor and biting his forehead, then throws him out to the floor and challenges someone in the crowd to get in the ring in Terry's place. There were always pockets of fans in Mid-South/Houston that wouldn't take to Terry and boo him while he was still babyface, but they got 100% behind him here and they were molten for the comeback. The finish was rubbish, but everything up to it ruled. Every time I figured they'd settle things down and maybe Reed would work a chinlock or Terry would stop throwing amazing punches, they shut my mouth by continuing to bring the awesome in interesting ways. Totally ace and basically everything I could ask for out of a midcard match with no storyline implications. I would've had this top 50 on the Mid-South set. 

NWA Classics 24/7 #15

Terry & Dory Funk v Jose Lothario & Mil Mascaras (Houston Wrestling, 1/7/79)

This was one of those matches you watch and think, "man, I wonder if Terry Funk is the best wrestler ever at that thing." The thing in question in this match was his struggle to get out of a headlock/front facelock. The match starts out with Dory Funk being armdragged around at half speed before throwing a few short forearms, and that's followed by ten whole minutes of Terry trying to escape a headlock. And what a fun ten minutes they were. The way he tries to shake himself free, how he'll try and lift Lothario's leg off the floor while grinding a forearm across his face, how he'll literally attempt to jump out the ring just to get away -- it made a ten minute segment built around the simplest of holds feel like something you had to watch. Then when he finally manages to tag out he spends the next few minutes bent over on the apron de-cauliflowering his ears. As the match went on he also started getting surly as fuck, and that was a different yet equal kind of awesome. Dory was actually pretty fun in that regard as well, but Dory is low-key surly and when he stooges it's pretty subdued. With Terry, nothing is low-key and nothing is subdued. There was this bit after the opening headlock where Dory chucked Lothario to the floor and as Terry walks over to him you're ready to bet your mortgage on him sticking a boot in. Except he doesn't, and even pats Lothario on the back before helping him back in. That was nice of him, right? Very sporting. Then Dory, the fucking enabler, chucks Jose out again and at this point Terry is like "yes, I in fact DO demand recompense for the cauliflower ear!" All of the Terry/Jose parts were great, actually. That shouldn't really be surprising, but sometimes you'll get two guys on opposite ends of a tag match and they don't quite match up like you want them to. Luckily this had plenty of Terry v Jose and it culminated with them throwing jabs and Terry being left jelly-legged. You know a singles match would rule and you pray to the old gods that one exists. You also pray for that neverending well of untapped Terry Funk footage, for your thirst is yet unquenched.

NWA Classics 24/7 #14

Wild Bull Curry v Johnny Valentine (Houston Wrestling, 6/20/69)

This was a ton of fun -- the kind of thing that makes the NWA On Demand service truly awesome. Like, this being unearthed and thrown up on the internet in perfect VQ almost half a century after it happened is just...cool. I've never seen Wild Bull Curry before, but my goodness, his face! Is about 50% comprised of one single eyebrow! He looks like a newly hatched duckling, or Stig of the Dump. I love him already and so do this crowd. If you ever wondered where Greg Valentine picked up a lot of his quirks as a worker, it was from his old man. Johnny just LOOKS like an older, grizzlier Greg. Nobody could clubber a guy in the chest like the Valentine family. This is 2/3 falls, and the first fall is largely puncher v technician. Curry only knows how to throw fists and he'll live and die on that. Valentine tries to work holds and it feels as much like a tactic to smother Curry so Bull doesn't punch him in the ear as it does a way of actually winning. It wasn't remarkable hold-working or anything, but it was fairly active and I like how he seemed to be trying to actually use leverage, plus I dug Boesch's descriptiveness on commentary. Curry's flurries of wild punches were pretty great. They're not pretty at all but every bit as reckless as you'd expect punches to be when thrown by a man raised by orangutans. Some of them were stiff as a bastard as well, especially the ones where the camera gets up real close and Valentine is eating them square in the bloody forehead and staring into space like he's having a stroke. He even topples backwards like Greg would eventually do (except Greg would fall on his face). Stinker of a finish, but Curry trying to eat people post-match like a psychotic wee ManBearPig was entertaining.


Dusty Rhodes v Ivan Koloff (Coffin Match) (Houston Wrestling, 10/24/80)

I was kind of confused about how this stipulation was supposed to work. They never really explained it well pre-match and then they started working it like a Texas Death Match with falls and rest periods in between which. But Dusty also demanded the coffin be left in the ring and both guys would sell being near it like the coffin was a sentient being that could suck them into another dimension. THEN they started trying to shove each other in the coffin and...basically it was a casket match where you win by throwing your opponent in the coffin (although this one didn't have a lid), but for whatever reason you could also win falls that...didn't really matter whatsoever. They had some fun spells of brawling in between the rest periods, though. Ivan hit a nice gusher initially and they built to a hot crescendo at the end considering the early parts were fairly heatless for a big Dusty match. And in reverse 80s fashion the finish was actually awesome! Ivan laid Dusty's head over the edge of the coffin - which looked like a prop from an early Doctor Who episode - and went to hit a top rope kneedrop like he was trying to decapitate Dusty guillotine style. Dusty moved, Ivan kneed the coffin, and Dusty bionic elbowed him into said coffin. I wouldn't really call this good, but it was an interesting spectacle.

NWA Classics 24/7 #13

Hector Guerrero v Jose Lothario (Houston Wrestling, 5/25/84)

Who knew that what I needed to drag me out of a wrestling slump was to watch Hector Guerrero and Jose Lothario punch each other in the face for seven minutes? This is basically a set up for the eventual Texas Death Match - which turned out to be one of my absolute favourite matches of the 80s - and it's a total balls to the wall sprint that ends with neither guy being satisfied about the result. As always, Hector was a blast in this. He maybe gave Jose a little TOO much, but all of his awesome stooging and bumping around did make for some well deserved comeuppance for the early mugging, and the crowd ate up every second of it. Plus how can I not get behind Lothario throwing his amazing punches? Hector also seemed to get more desperate to turn the tide as the match went on, and it leads to him bailing outside and throwing a chair in the ring, which Lothario catches and bashes over Hector's head as he's getting back in the ring. In true "rules of the squared circle can't contain our hurricane of hatred" fashion both guys agree to grab the ref' and punch him across the ring so he'll stop interfering in the serious business at hand - which is both guys punching each other across the ring.

NWA Classics 24/7 #12

Tito Santana v Butch Reed (Houston Wrestling, 1/13/84)

I'm a big Tito fan and obviously a gigantic Reed mark, so this was one of the matches I got hyped for when it was put up on Classics. Their '87 WWF match was a pretty good 15 minute draw (well, I liked it), but this is really the match you want from these guys. I've watched a lot of Tito over the last few days and it feels pretty clear that he belongs in the same bracket as his babyface contemporaries like Martel and Steamboat. That's to say he was fucking awesome. He wasn't as theatrical with his selling as those two -- Tito's selling seemed grittier, maybe more "realistic" if you want to open that can of worms, but either way it was just as great. I suppose Martel and Steamboat played to the back row, while Tito was maybe a little more subtle. The one thing I think he has over both, though, is his babyface fire. That's one of those YMMV pro-wrestling terms that probably has different meanings to different people, but to me it basically means the intensity with which he teases and makes comebacks, and the conviction he shows while doing it. And well, I don't know if there are many babyfaces in US wrestling history that go after an opponent with more conviction than Tito, especially if he has reason to be pissed off. This wasn't the same Tito that tried to throttle Greg Valentine, but he was committed to everything he did and gave no quarter, which really created the sense of struggle that made a lot of this so good. Even things like the heel pulling the trunks to put the babyface in a pinning predicament while in a headlock felt fought over, rather than a simple spot that's been used to get a bit of heat since time began. It also gave us some awesome moments like Tito hitting a gutwrench suplex out of a front facelock, and Tito charging full steam into Reed only to be chucked throat first into the ropes. I'll always dig Reed hitting his killer fist drops and gorilla pressing dudes, but this was mostly a Tito showcase with Hacksaw as support act.

NWA Classics 24/7 #11

Nick Bockwinkel v Chavo Guerrero (Houston Wrestling, 2/25/83)

This isn't the best match that's comeout of the NWA Classics service, but it might be the coolest find to me personally. Even the idea of a Bockwinkel/Chavo match is awesome; like a dream match I'd never even thought about before. This is non-title and more of a set up to a probably-excellent title match, but it's a great set up. Story going in is that Bock refused to give Chavo a title shot because he hasn't earned it. This is Chavo's chance to prove himself.  Bock is in smug bastard mode early on, breaking clean with a smile like this is about to be a walk in the park, then taking Chavo over with a couple hiptosses and a body slam. Chavo comes back with some hiptosses and a slam of his own, and I loved how he really threw Bockwinkel to the mat off the slam as a pretty clear "fuck you." Bock gives Chavo a ton in this. Like, other than the opening hiptosses and slam he fights almost the whole match from below. I guess you could argue he maybe gave a bit TOO much, but I thought it worked given the story of Chavo being out to prove himself/Bockwinkel taking him too lightly and paying for it. Chavo works the arm for the majority and it's all pretty great. Both guys are really good at working holds so it's never static (btw, Chavo Guerrero is a god damn offensive dynamo for 1983), and the segments where they come up for air and Bock almost manages to regain advantage are often terrific. There's one segment that kind of fucking blew my mind. Bock grabs Chavo in a bodyscissors, more in an attempt to contain Chavo for a little while as he shakes his arm out and tries to recover from the previous arm work, reeling back and using his weight to lift Chavo up off the mat and slam him back down again. He tries that a second time, but Chavo's hip to it and manages to use his own momentum to escape, instantly running to the ropes. He comes back and Bockwinkel has his legs up for a monkey flip, which Chavo takes, landing on his feet, and as Bock gets up he's instantly taken down with an armdrag. Bock kicks Chavo off from his back, but Chavo is already on his feet before Bock, so Chavo takes him back over with another armdrag. Bock kicks him off again, Chavo gets up quicker, Bock is taken down with another armdrag. The third time Bock kicks him off he manages to get back to his feet quicker, but Chavo does a nip up and Bock ends up walking straight into yet another armdrag, and this time Chavo keeps hold of him as he goes back to wrenching on the arm. It might not sound spectacular reading about it, but it was an incredible sequence if for no reason other than how picture perfect the execution was. The finish was great as well, and I loved Boesch's "he may have him here!" call of it. Actually I loved pretty much everything about this. These guys are absolute money and I hope the gods of wrestling geekdom are kind enough to give us the title match.