Revisiting 00s US Indies #4

Samoa Joe & Bryan Danielson v Austin Aries & Jack Evans (ROH Third Anniversary Celebration - Part 2, 2/25/05)

Well this was a hoot. A lot of the more workrate-heavy ROH tags don't do a ton for me, but things like this can be real fun. They lean a bit further into the SHTICK~ and structurally it's pretty much traditional southern tag formula. It's also an upper-midcard lead-in tag to the next night's Aries/Joe rematch, so they don't shoot for seven star epic. The first half had a bit of comedy, a bit of crowd-engagement, a bit of setup for tomorrow's main event and a whole lot of Jack Evans getting murdered. He asks for a dance off with Danielson to begin with, does his break dance bit, so Joe and Danielson do a tandem Mexican wave to a monster pop. Evans obviously is irate. He then asks Joe for a karate contest and Joe smacks his face off. Aries comes in for one brief exchange with Joe, gets decked, tags back out and sticks to the apron. Danielson and Joe beating on Evans was great. Just a complete ass-stomping where Danielson stretches him silly and Joe literally kicks him out his shoes (and later slaps him about the face with those same shoes). Danielson bends him at a truly disgusting angle with a surfboard stretch, then Joe comes in and hits a running dropkick while he's suspended in midair. Eventually Gen Next take over on Danielson and you might be shocked to hear that it was a really good heat segment. What was so cool about the transition is that, to that point, it was literally Aries' only involvement outside of that bit with Joe. He came in and blindsided Danielson with a suplex off the top, dragging Evans back to his own corner, ready to tag in on his own terms. AMAZING bit where Evans has a pin on Danielson and Joe breaks it up by launching Evans' shoe at him from the apron. I love pretty much any spot where someone will throw something from the apron so I popped like an idiot. He did it again later with the other shoe, this time to break up an Aries pin, but he also blamed someone in the crowd for it to get out of jail with the ref' (and the person in the crowd willingly took all the heat for it). I also loved that Evans wrestled the majority of the match in his socks, although it did lead to a scary moment where he tried to backflip off Danielson's back and nearly piledrove himself on the landing. Lots of cool stuff in the finishing run, like Aries clipping Joe's knee from behind to maybe set up something for their singles match. And that stretch muffler at the end is the nastiest version you'll ever see in your life. I thought this ruled. 

Revisiting 00s US Indies #3

Samoa Joe v Austin Aries (Final Battle 2004, 12/26/04)

I think this is the first time I've seen this. Aries was a favourite of mine back in the day so I figured I must've watched it at some point, but nothing was coming back to me during it. Either way it was pretty good. It probably would've come off better had I watched it in proper context, but I don't really have the time or inclination to go through that entire Joe title run again and I think I got most of what they were shooting for anyway. Aries comes out quick and tries to catch Joe early, which makes some sense because we've already seen Punk and Danielson go long with him only for that strategy to fail. Joe was having none of it though and you kind of wonder if Aries has even the slimmest of chances. He briefly goes to the headlock, but again that was a Punk strategy Joe overcame and it doesn't last long. He goes to the legs and Gabe suggests it might be smart as we haven't seen anybody try that with Joe before. Punk immediately rattles off two examples to the contrary and Gabe concedes that maybe it is actually a strategy we've seen after all. But ultimately it matters little as Joe is unfazed and keeps moving forward. The middle of the match was fine as Joe is usually compelling enough in control, plus he looks like he's having fun beating on Aries and it makes those odds of a title change feel even longer. Finishing run was really compact and actually pretty great. They tease the brainbuster well throughout and it's what Aries tries to go back to at several points - his one potential ace in the hole. By minute sixteen you obviously don't think Joe's punched himself out, but things are getting frantic and you can tell it won't be long before someone goes down. Aries is slippery, he's fought his way back into it after looking utterly dominated, Joe is struggling to string together his big bombs while Aires keeps finding gaps to put together bigger combinations. It's not really that I bought Aries implementing a specific strategy and it bearing fruit at the end. It was more about his explosiveness and ability to reel off those combinations at the right time. He also knew when something was going to shit and was pragmatic enough to move off it - like the headlock or the leg work - so there's something to be said for that as well. The one thing he did stick by was the brainbuster, and he was right to because it was key in that final combo to seal the deal. Joe overextends just a little, Aries capitalises with a few killer strikes, finally hits the brainbuster and 450 1-2 punch...it was a pretty awesome finish. They have a rematch in early '05 so I'll definitely watch that soon as well. 

Revisiting 00s US Indies #2

Necro Butcher v Toby Klein (IWA-MS, 6/25/04)

A good friend of mine once described this match as two drunk, shirtless hillbilly jackoffs hitting each other in the face to see who's the last guy standing. He hated it. The way I, in all my wisdom, see this, it's a match between two drunk, shirtless hillbilly jackoffs hitting each other in the face to see who's the last guy standing. I most certainly did not hate it. Some of the crazy shit they did is truly bonkers. I'm not even talking about the stuff with the homemade weapons the fans brought, though some of that was wild too, like the thumbtack-encrusted rolling pin and the Wiffle bat with forks through it. The powerbomb off the bleachers never had any of those daft frills, but it looked insane and fittingly only a handful of people are insane enough to actually take it. Necro's somersault senton might've been the greatest in history as he just lobbed himself to the floor like a big wad of tobacco spit and recklessly bounced off Klein. Punches were thrown with stupid abandon, shots landing to the eardrum, the ribs, the jaw, the clavicle, all thrown like you'd expect from two lunatics fighting over a dead squirrel. Necro gets ripped to shreds with a barbed wire bat and Klein pours literal salt in his wounds and eyes. Right at the beginning Necro just bumrushes Klein and throws him out the ring and Klein smashes his teeth off the apron on the way down, then Necro picks up a PC monitor from 1995 and hucks it clean at his head. This is absolutely not for everyone and it might be the only American deathmatch I watch for this, but it's Necro in his element and if you're a fan of that then you're probably going to want to watch this thing. 

Revisiting 00s US Indies #1

So I went back and watched a bunch of 90s joshi not that long ago and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed all of it. A couple nights ago I got the urge to watch some Necro Butcher ridiculousness and then I watched some Low-Ki and now I guess I'm going down this rabbit hole. I won't have watched some of this stuff in about fifteen years, while some I'll be taking a run at for the first time. I'm not sure what the ratio will be on your indie classics to scuzzy warehouse snuff films where someone gets hit in the head with a Betamax player. I'm less likely to revisit your Danielson/Nigel series than Necro Butcher v Toby Klein. Don't have much interest in watching a Joe/Punk broadway, any of those lengthy Bryan Danielson title defences against an Alex Shelley or Delirious, that Punk/Hero match that went two hours, pretty much anything involving Tyler Black or Davey Richards or Kevin Steen. We'll see how it goes. 

Low-Ki v American Dragon (ROH Round Robin Challenge, 3/30/02)

These two are probably the closest we've ever had to a US Ishikawa v Ikeda. It's really a match-up made in heaven and if I watched every Danielson/Low-Ki match from the early 00s and compared them with every Danielson/Nigel McGuinness match from the mid 00s, I'd be shocked if I didn't come away thinking the former held up way better (outside of that 6th Anniversary match anyway). This one isn't quite as all-time level spectacular as the JAPW match from June, but it had a bunch of the same qualities. The matwork is as strong as any matwork in US history. It's tight, gritty, all of it applied violently and you buy them trying to rend limbs. In between Low-Ki would throw vicious strikes - the short punts to the eye, one upkick that was insane - while Danielson would stretch him like this was some Stu Hart torture session. Danielson's ground and pound also ruled and the part where he was raining down crossfaces was fucking unbelievable. It's striker v grappler in a lot of ways, but like the very best Ishikawa/Ikeda that doesn't mean Ki is useless on the mat or Danielson can't throw strikes. The main difference between this and the JAPW match is that the last fifteen minutes are more along the lines of your indie/juniors dream match. That's not really my jam but this was done about as well as I could want. The selling remained strong, the pacing was good, everything they hit looked as snug and and painful as you'd want, I never felt like anything was overkill, the finish itself was great...even at about 32 minutes it was pretty much the perfect modern day epic and one that holds up nearly twenty years later. I haven't said that about a lot of matches from 2002 trying to shoot for the same thing, especially not ones that run half an hour. 

I Never Stay in One Place Long, I'm just a Natural Born Rambler. My Mama was a Mid-South Dance Hall Girl and My Daddy was a Riverboat Gambler

The Fantastics v Bill Dundee & Dutch Mantell (10/4/85)

A very different encounter from the arena match, but a very fun one all the same. This was basically a bullwhip on a pole match and if nothing else it makes you appreciate how good Bill Dundee is in matches where the wrestlers are required to climb up and/or on top of shit. In fact everyone really milked the hell out of climbing that pole and securing the weapon they could freely use, but Dundee was the most creative about it and brought the most urgency. The match was only about seven minutes and that was probably the perfect length for it. They never beat about the bush in going for the prize - there was no slow build to it like there might be in a ladder match, no added psychology where you had someone working a leg to prevent the climb, the pole was the central focus and every few seconds you had someone trying to shimmy up it as quick as possible. They'd reach a point of diminishing returns before very long that way so a full blown sprint was the right choice. Not sure why Eddie Gilbert got involved at the end, but Dundee takes an amazing bump out the ring and over the barricade before Mantell puts a whippin' on someone. This is a crazy good match-up, shockingly enough. 

Ted DiBiase v Bob Sweetan (Taped Fist Match) (10/11/85)

Badass little brawl. It's about ten minutes and a really awesome DiBiase performance. All of his punches looked great and he hit four or five fist drops that were A+++. His bumping ruled as well, hurling himself out the ring and nearly wiping a cameraman, an awesome sort of half-flip bump after getting caught with a punch coming off the top, then bleeding an absolute gusher off a bump into the turnbuckle bolt. Sweetan is as gruff as anybody you'll ever see, but he was sympathetic in a tubby kid getting beat on by the football players way. Or tubby homeless man who sleeps in a bin getting beat on by the football players way. He took an unprotected chairshot to the head and got cut open but he never gave up the fight. In the end he might've come out on top had he a loaded glove of his own. 

Mid-South Project

Daylight Dawned and Found Me in Mid-South, in a Rundown Motel Room as Dark as Hell

Dick Murdoch v Butch Reed (9/22/85)

By Christ what a match. This is a glimpse into an alternate world where Trump was the president of the NWA and not of an actual country and he decided to roll the dice on those rumours of Murdoch being a closet Klan member by giving him the big belt for six years. In a perfect world those rumours would've been nonsense and the ACTUAL NWA president gave him the big belt for six years anyway. He was tremendous in this. Don't get me wrong, Reed was amazing as well, but Murdoch was on another level and it might be the ultimate Captain Redneck experience. Following that altercation on TV a couple days before, things are tetchy almost straight away. They play that up for the first twenty minutes, constantly escalating with tensions rising and threatening to boil over, always threading its way through everything they do. It was so, so good. On a basic level it's pretty much Reed working a headlock and Murdoch working the arm, but everything they do with those holds is excellent and the little subtleties they add really set it all apart. Reed has a great headlock, really squeezes and grinds it in, leans way back like he's trying to pull Murdoch's head off, then when Murdoch tries to roll him into a pinning position Reed just shifts his weight so he's lying completely on Murdoch's head instead. Murdoch tries to trip the leg from a standing position, so Reed spreads his base and forces Murdoch to the mat. When Murdoch finally escapes into a hammerlock he sells the aftereffects of the headlock like his ears have been ground into stubs. All of his work on the arm was incredible. He was always going to be the one who wound up leaning towards that heel end of the spectrum, so he played that up by being a nasty bastard while working entirely within the rules. Loved all the joint-manipulation, where he'd have Reed's shoulder, elbow and wrist all twisted in different yet equally painful ways, often at the same time. He'd bar the arm and stomp Reed right under the armpit, drop knees across the bicep, stomp the lat, maybe even take a few liberties and add the fingers to that joint-manipulation (Reed: "He's got my fingers!"). As time goes on the work in between holds gets meaner and meaner. The armdrags at the start make way for forearm shivers and elbows, but I love how much they play up not throwing blatant fists, despite them REALLY wanting to on more than one occasion. Even Tommy Gilbert being sort of overbearing as the ref' was cool in that sense, where he'd get right in the middle and try to keep a lid on things. Of course everybody knew it was a matter of time before it went out the window. Murdoch came up bloody-mouthed way at the start after a dropkick so those little rabbit punches to the ribs were clearly payback, and I loved him being sly with it by shifting Reed out of Gilbert's line of sight each time he did it (while still working the hammerlock). Murdoch demonstrating his open-handed strike on Gilbert and Gilbert selling it like he got winded was awesome as well. That moment where Reed says fuck it and lands one on Murdoch's jaw was pretty much the perfect way to cap off that stretch of the match. From there it just continues to escalate and builds to Murdoch slamming Reed on the concrete, then the Reed comeback leads to the big exhausted finishing run. I guess it's not as exciting as your big Flair finishing runs, at least in that there aren't as many nearfalls, but I'll take Murdoch's punch-drunk selling over the backslide and slam off the top any day. And hey, if you're REALLY missing Flair then Murdoch even puts his spin on blond champion being put in the figure-four! That made for a killer finale with Reed going after the leg and Murdoch trying to boot him in the face from his back. The legwork also directly sets up the finish and the post-match pull-apart was about four minutes of these two punching each other in the face, with the REAL payoff of someone finally decking Tommy Gilbert for sticking his nose in. Honestly, I was a wee bit worried this wouldn't hold up like I wanted it to. I can happily say it's yet another example of me being a fool because it was everything I remembered it being and more. 

Mid-South Project

BRUCE Reed??

Masked Superstar v Bruce Reed (GCW, 8/22/81)

I'm pretty well convinced that Georgia had some of the best studio wrestling in America in the early 80s. There, I've said it and I'll say it again and I don't care who hears me! Bruce Reed is a young BUTCH Reed and this is one of the earliest examples of him being awesome that I've seen, maybe the earliest. Superstar gave him a ton which didn't hurt. Reed had an answer to everything Superstar did so Superstar would need to take powders to compose himself. When he tried to get surly with the clubbering - and Eadie has great clubbering - Reed would punch him in the mouth and keep pressing. It's an easy enough story to tell, but champion underestimating his young opponent is always a good one and you know Solie is great at communicating it on his end. Reed's arm work was really good - nice tight hammerlock, throwing headbutts to the shoulder while he has it barred, yanking Superstar back to the mat when he tries to escape, etc. Loved the bit where Superstar tried to snapmare his way out of that hammerlock, but Reed held on, forced him onto all fours (or threes, as it were) and followed up with a big butt smash across the hammerlocked arm. Reed is also a guy who can do cruiserweight shit and make it look as impactful as it does graceful. Big guys doing high flying is commonplace today and you won't see him getting as creative as a Dominik Dijakovic or whatever, but his flying crossbody is always killer and his leaping shoulder tackle looked tremendous here. In the end Superstar used that athleticism against him, sidestepping another crossbody attempt as Reed hotshotted himself across the rope to set up the cobra clutch. 

If You Tell Me that She's not Here, I'll Follow the Trail of Her Tears. That's how I got to Mid-South

Dick Murdoch v Dr. Death (9/20/85)

This was like the first half of an awesome arena match plugged into a TV setting, and where it would ordinarily be disappointing that the other half of that awesome arena match never materialised, you forgive it because it was presented within the package of an awesome Watts TV angle instead. It's for the North American title and before the bell Butch Reed gets in to say he's challenging the winner. "That's all I've got to say." Murdoch walks up to the mic: "Well if that's all you've got to say then walk on out and sit down." Babyface Murdoch rules because he retains more than a few traits of heel Murdoch, he just implements them a little more...loveably? The opening few minutes are based around both guys being tied together at the arm, taking each other over with armdrags, working the front chancery, both of them really grinding the forearm across the jaw, just all around surliness from two guys you expect that of. They go back and forth for a bit after that, then Tommy Gilbert takes a killer ref' bump and the shenanigans start. First Bob Sweetan interferes on Williams' behalf, so Reed jumps in from ringside to even the odds. During all of this Murdoch hasn't actually seen Reed OR Sweetan in there, as the latter blindsided him when Murdoch was going for the brainbuster. Eventually Reed gets caught and falls onto Murdoch, so when Murdoch comes to again he just assumes it was Reed who clocked him in the first place, not Sweetan. Murdoch throwing amazing punches on a redneck rampage is a truly beautiful sight and this was the sort of thing Watts excelled at throughout this period. Just super fun TV wrestling, and it adds some fire to the upcoming Reed/Murdoch match I thought was an absolute stone cold classic when I last watched it. 

The Fantastics v Bill Dundee & Dutch Mantel (9/22/85)

I basically remembered nothing about this. It's weird as well, because at least one new Fantastics v Dundee/Mantel match was unearthed during the great summer of NWA On Demand, yet my excitement for that wasn't through the roof. Clearly I was a fucking idiot and forgot what a good thing looks like because this ruled like a bastard and the fact there's another one out there is very awesome. It got lots of time, which meant we got LOTS of Dundee and Mantel Memphis horse-shittin' it up to a molten crowd. My favourite was the hide the foreign object shtick. Dundee hid it in his mouth, his trunks, his kneepad, a new place every time the ref' checked him. When they take over on Rogers - with a foreign object shot, of course - they largely beat the crap out of him while interspersing it with punches or karate thrusts or ACTUAL foreign object shots to the throat (Mantel's whip being the object of choice). It was an awesome heat segment and Rogers was at the peak of his powers selling it. There were a couple points where he was thiiiis close to tagging out, probably close enough where it would've been hard to suspend your disbelief if it was someone else milking it, but Rogers walks that line perfectly with his selling and you buy him as being totally out on his feet, just that half a second too slow to reach out before Dundee or Mantel can scramble to intercept. Tommy Gilbert takes another awesome ref' bump, pretty much having Fulton powerbombed straight into his face, then we get a great finish with Fulton turning a double team into his own advantage. The Mid-South set had some of the best US tags of the 80s and this felt like it could hang tough with the real high-enders. 

Mid-South Project

The Enforcer v The Ragin' Bull!

Arn Anderson v Manny Fernandez (World Championship Wrestling, 4/19/86)

This got plenty of time, and it was good because it's these two getting plenty of time, though I wonder if it wouldn't have been even better had they stuck to the usual 15-minute time limit for these TV title matches rather than expanding it to 20 (I'm not sure why they did that here). 15 is right in the sweet spot. You get the stooging, enough time for a compelling control segment, and then a few minutes to work towards a finish, assuming of course they're going to use the full 15 minutes. 10 condenses things a little too much when you've got world class stoogeer like Arn or Tully carrying the belt. With 20 you obviously get longer to build, but this dragged a wee bit in the middle and could've used a few minutes shaved off. BUT who really gives a shit as it was still Arn and Manny working a nice title match on television. Arn can't do a thing early on and has to roll outside several times after being popped by Manny's punches. Each powder lasts longer than the previous, maybe because he's increasingly inclined to milk the clock, maybe because each one of those punches is taking a little more out of him. Manny controls the body of the match by working the leg, and it's fine stuff and Arn sells it well. I especially liked Arn fighting back with a running knee to the gut and crumpling in a heap as it was done with the bad leg. Also liked him throwing on a bodyscissors and pointing to his imaginary watch. The bodyscissors was never going to outright win him the match at that point in it, but if he can keep Manny grounded then it means Manny can't hurt him, and it's Manny who needs to win - Arn just needs to survive. 

The Revolution is Genocide, Your Execution will be Televised, don't Cross Tenryu like Isaiah, that Shit be Ill-Advised

Genichiro Tenryu v Keiji Mutoh (All Japan, 6/8/01) - GREAT

This was kind of weird. I dug a lot of it and thought it often worked because of the pace...but on the other hand that same pace was a bit of a struggle. Or Mutoh working that pace in general is a struggle. You could've JIP'd the first seven or so minutes and not a ton would've been lost overall, though Mutoh hitting an early Shining Wizard and Tenryu's subsequent sell, where he never looked quite right again thereafter, was a pretty great moment. Not much of note happened in that opening stretch otherwise. Or not much grabbed me; maybe you'll find something more noteworthy. Actually we got a little teaser of Mutoh working the leg for his Shining Wizard strategy so if you like the idea of that then you're in luck. I didn't dislike Mutoh in this but I'm not sure how good he was. He's a strange worker. He moves like he's buffering, where he'll sit there dead-eyed for a while and then bang, he's in motion for a few seconds and it's really quick and it looks like your fibre broadband is doing more work than it should have to in order to catch up in real time. I also cannot be arsed one bit with watching him methodically work a leg so that didn't bode well either. But hey, things picked up nicely when Tenryu hit a brainbuster on the apron and from that point on I thought they built things really well. Tenryu's "get to fuck with that" response to Mutoh's low dropkicks by hitting a few of his own was awesome. It'll irk people that the duelling leg work never played a bigger role in the finish, but Mutoh's whole point of going to the leg is to set up the Shining Wizard anyway and that certainly did play a role in the finish. They could've sold it better, I guess? I don't know man, I'm sort of past caring about that stuff at this stage. There were a few really cool moments in that back half though, like Mutoh's knee to the head as a counter to the brainbuster, followed by Tenryu almost goading him into another Shining Wizard attempt that he was ready to block and capitalise on. In terms of scale you'd never hold the last five minutes of this up against the All Japan finishing runs of a few years earlier, but it never intended to replicate that and I appreciate how much drama they were able to build off a few key nearfalls.  

Complete & Accurate Tenryu

The King

Jerry Lawler v Rick Morton (Memphis, 1/26/80)

Morton is billed as being 193 pounds here and that feels about 60 too many. This was basically Lawler doing his Memphis version of heel ace v babyface challenger for ten minutes on TV. I'm a dweeb and spent a goodly amount of time a few years back comparing how Flair would work those matches in Atlanta to how Bockwinkel would work them in Minneapolis to how Rose would work them in Portland. I haven't really seen a ton of Lawler working that kind of match in Memphis, largely because he spent almost all of the 80s as a babyface and also because 90s Memphis/USWA is a blind spot. I guess ultimately the broad strokes of this were the same as they'd be for those other guys, but it's a match dynamic I'll always like and I thought this was fun as fuck. Morton won't put up with Lawler's nonsense and takes him over with the headlock, so obviously Lawler complains about his hair being pulled. Morton goes back to the headlock - cleanly - and as Hart runs distraction Lawler reverses it into a headlock of his own...by pulling the hair. Morton's bumping is already pretty great, and I know it's easy to say this now but you could tell that skinny young man was going to be awesome. The leg work in the middle ruled and I loved Lawler digging the knuckle into Morton's kneecap, loved Morton's burst of offence, loved him standing on one leg as he went back to the headlock, loved how that gave Lawler the opening to take over again. His knee-high tackles looked great as desperation spots and like any good version of a match like this he made the people believe he might actually have a chance. In the end his only satisfaction would come from kicking Jimmy Hart in the mouth, but he put up a hell of a fight and Lawler made him look like a threat. You can't ask for too much more. 

A Weekend of Guerrero

I never even realised it had just gone fifteen years since he passed away. It...does not feel like fifteen years. And so I watched some Eddie Guerrero, as I often tend to do. 

Eddie Guerrero & Chris Benoit v Bubba Ray & Spike Dudley (RAW, 7/1/02)

Well this was pretty dang nifty. Eddie and Benoit have that real snap to everything they do and Benoit's chops are treated as being real game-changers (and look and sound lethal). You look at those names and you think Spike Dudley getting his butt kicked for a few minutes might be fun and you would be correct. Eddie and Benoit both hit awesome back suplexes and I like how Eddie is the cheapshotting wee prick while Benoit is the straight ahead machine. This was during the Bubba Ray singles push that I don't remember lasting very long, but he doesn't look like much of a victor after the post-match beatdown. Spike's bump through the table on the floor is also fairly ludicrous. 

Eddie Guerrero v Booker T (RAW, 7/8/02)

This was like three minutes long, but about all you could really ask for out of a three minute match that's essentially setup material for a bigger main event later on. Eddie bumps nicely for all of Booker's strikes, then as Booker goes for the axe kick Eddie dropkicks him in the quad. It looked pretty great as Booker was in the air as Eddie connected with the dropkick, plus he did it super fast so it never looked telegraphed at all. Either way this is leading to:

Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, Big Show, X-Pac & Kevin Nash v RVD, Booker T, Goldust, Bubba Ray & Spike Dudley (RAW, 7/8/02)

This was alright. Not close to the best ten-man tag on a Monday Night RAW involving Chris Benoit and X-Pac, but then not much of anything is close to that. Match felt like an RVD showcase as he got the most screen time and did all of his RVD things on offence, then played face in peril for a minute and fought back by doing his RVD things. He was fine. X-Pac was the most featured for his side and looked pretty good. I would've guessed he was gone by this point but evidently I'd have been a fool. Eddie never really got to do much so the best part of team nWo/Latino Wolverines (that is very bad I'm so sorry) was Michaels being a dipshit on the floor. I so badly wish we got more heel Michaels during his second run because he was very obnoxious here and I'll always love his hyperactive bumping as a heel. Nash comes in for his first appearance in three months - torn bicep - and as soon as he started moving I was like "how many times had he torn his quad by this point?" and then he went and tore his quad. I honest to god had no idea this was the match where he got injured again and I felt pretty bad for the guy considering he literally just came back from a previous muscle tear. Hebnar throws up the X, things break down, Michaels hits a blindside superkick and that's that. 

The Funker v The Dog!

Terry Funk v Junkyard Dog (WWF, 8/18/85)

Pretty much a Terry Funk pandemonium special. I guess that sort of WWF midcard match won't have a massively high ceiling for some folk, but the floor on it will pretty much never be low because of his ability to make just about anything interesting. Mid-80s WWF Terry Funk is maybe the goofiest Terry Funk. There'll always be that hint of danger to everything he does no matter how comedic it might be, but he seemed to veer more towards the stooging there than he did in other places. In comparison, Puerto Rico Funk was the wildest because I guess he could get away with starting riots with impunity, so everything he did in Puerto Rico was just INHERENTLY dangerous. He never tried to suffocate anyone with a plastic bag in the WWF so I suppose he let loose a bit more working for Crockett. ECW Desperado Funk was probably the most sympathetic but there was nothing funny about a 50-year old man being wrapped in barbed wire. In that 80s WWF run he was more about the comedy, a man on a mission to be as ridiculous as possible. I cannot get enough of it and obviously this ruled. He starts the match by jabbing JYD in the guts with a branding iron, but pretty soon throws some headbutts and of course that's a no-no against the Dog. At one point he ends up on all fours facing the corner and I really wanted JYD to headbutt him in the arse and sure enough he headbutted him in the arse and Funk went face-first into the bottom turnbuckle. It wasn't just that he brought the comedy bumps - he brought the genuinely mental bumps as well. His first big one was a slam over the top rope and the camera angle made it look extra wild. Later he gets tossed over the top again, this time landing clean through a table by ringside. Not like your usual table bump where the table breaks in two; he landed flush in the middle of it and the thing remained standing around the outside, Funk just sitting in the middle like a vagrant, stuck inside a ring of debris. When he tries to slink away up the ramp at the end he falls backwards down the stairs, then throws abuse at the hecklers. A master of his craft. Seventeen stars. 

1982 Mid-South TV!

So it looks like pretty much every episode of Mid-South Wrestling from 1982 through to the end of 1985 is up on the Network now (minus the small handful of episodes that I think have always been missing even from the bootlegger lists). When the hell did that happen? I knew '85 had been there for a while, but I figured it was only a smattering of episodes from '82-'83. That early 80s Irish McNeil Boys Club period of Mid-South has some WILD nostalgia buzz for me. It's not "this takes me back to the days of my youth when Freddos were still 10p and I wasn't yet decrepit" nostalgia. I hadn't arrived on this earth early enough to watch Mid-South Wrestling on TV. That's the sort of nostalgia I get from something like 1994 WWF, where I'll listen to Todd Pettengill talk his nonsense about whatever and get all fuzzy about recording episodes of All-American Wrestling (hosted by Gorilla Monsoon and Johnny Polo) and The Simpsons on Sky 1. Truly nostalgia for the simpler times. 

With early 80s Mid-South it's a different sort of nostalgia. I never properly watched any Mid-South until the DVDVR 80s set came out, but it wound up becoming one of my all-time favourite promotions and was probably the most fun I've had with wrestling since the late 90s watching RAW every week. Those early Bob Roop and Mr. Olympia matches might as well have happened in a different world than the one later inhabited by the Rock 'n' Roll Express and the Fantastics. The crowds of the former were full of old women and middle-aged men in trucker hats stopping off on a 400 mile round trip, while those of the latter were packed to the brim with screaming kids and teenagers, an altogether different sort of assemblage. That '84-'86 period is maybe my favourite run of any promotion ever, but there's something almost comforting about the earlier stuff in that big hangar-looking studio, maybe because it was my gateway to what would eventually be the stuff I loved more than anything. So I dived back in and let myself be embraced by the warm bosom of Mid-South. 

Andre the Giant, Dusty Rhodes & The Junkyard Dog v Ernie Ladd & The Wild Samoans (Mid-South, 1/16/82)

This is one of those matches where "could be a main event anywhere in the WORLD!" might actually apply (or at least anywhere in the country). Obviously Andre is mostly responsible for that, but Dusty is hardly small time and I think folks still underrate how huge the JYD was in Mid-South. It got about six minutes and Andre was involved for most of it, which is probably what you want. He makes everyone look small, including Ladd who I think was legitimately about the same size. At one point one of the Samoans tries to choke Andre from the apron and Andre just piggybacks him into the ring like it's merely a hefty child he's carrying. I know Andre was still mobile at this point but seeing him hit a splash off the middle rope was pretty wild. JYD also conked Afa with a headbutt and came out no worse for wear, so if you were wondering who sat higher in the carny pro-wrestling pantheon of indestructible heads then it is NOT the Samoans. 

Bob Orton Jr. v Mr. Olympia (Mid-South, 1/23/82)

Here's a story about Bob Orton. About ten years ago my friend and I were getting tanked up one weekday afternoon, really living the early-20s dream. Someone had the idea of sticking on one of those Smackdown! games that the youths play. So we went and did a Royal Rumble, getting progressively more rubber with each participant. I don't remember who I went for this Royal Rumble but my friend was Randy Orton. In Royal Rumble mode, once your wrester gets eliminated you can choose to go the next entrant and play as them instead, that way you're not sitting there like a dickhead watching the AI wrestle each other, which is a good thing because those rumbles could take forever. Whoever I went originally got eliminated and I eventually wound up going, you guessed it, Bob Orton Jr. My friend and I decided to team up, but then I stabbed him - my own son - in the back and eliminate him. My friend, flabbergasted, then shouted "Bob Orton, ma da!" which for the non-Scottish people means "Bob Orton, my father!" In our exceedingly pished up state we both found this hilarious and the term Bob Orton ma da has been a staple ever since, often to express exasperation or shock. For example: "They're going into ANOTHER lockdown! Bob Orton ma da!" I've even used it as a username for several things over the years. So there you go, a true window into the cracked and degenerated mind of a genius. Anyhow, Olympia was a bit of a revelation from the early 80s footage on the DVDVR set, culminating with that awesome Chavo Guerrero match. This is one of his very first appearances in the Mid-South area and he was already a really fun babyface. He had some nice headscissor work and I liked how Orton would stooge around in between, including an airplane spin to free himself before falling flat on his arse, partly out of dizziness, partly because that headscissor had taken its toll. Orton would continually try to slink out the ring and Olympia would stay on him, and by the time he hooked in that sleeper hold you knew it was lights out for Orton. And to that, I say, Bob Orton ma da! 

Tenryu Sat Back, a Vet, and Watched Beginners Winnin' His Belts. Burned His Bridges, Came Back a Good Swimmer Like Phelps

Genichiro Tenryu & Tatsumi Fujinami v Shiro Koshinaka & Kensuke Sasaki (New Japan, 4/10/99) - GOOD

This had some decent stuff, but was kind of low key overall and felt like they were actively shooting for fun midcard bout with big names rather than epic. It's a heavyweight scrap but not a heavy watch. Which I mean, that's fine. I don't need HEAVY in the All Japan sense every time and instead I can work with HEAVY in the sense you've got four beefy dudes clobbering each other. Tenryu and Sasaki brought the best clobbering and it made for an awesome precursor to their Dome match a year later, which coincidentally was also awesome. It had the same dynamic as that, with Tenryu trying to be Tenryu and Sasaki not letting him get away with it. Chops to the throat and punches to the cheekbone were paid in kind and the part where Sasaki just went bonkers on him ruled. As did Tenryu slumping in the corner afterwards like "what the fuck was that about?" Fujinami wasn't washed in '99 because he has that amazing Hashimoto match in his locker from a few months earlier, but he looked a step off here, a few things understandably being slower and less coordinated than they'd be if this was 1989 rather than 1999. Koshinaka v Tenryu is always a fun match-up. I'm not sure how they came to be on opposite sides here because I'm pretty sure they were regular partners around this time, but Koshinaka is old and ugly and tries to jab his hip bone into Tenryu's eye and Tenryu wallops him in the throat. 

Genichiro Tenryu v Kazushi Miyamoto (All Japan, 2/16/03) - GOOD

Tenryu v young lion is pretty much always going to be at least fun. It's hard to fuck something like that up when you're one of the very best ever at that sort of match, so if the young lion in question can bring some FIRE and maybe some mean mugging and is willing to get his throat kicked you'll be in for a fun 10 minutes. Miyamoto brought all of those things so this was a fun 10 minutes (for us, the gentle viewer; not him). He throws big overhands to the chest and Tenryu looks on unfazed. Tenryu even breaks clean and doesn't seem to be in a mood for assaulting someone. Of course you know that'll only last so long as Miyamoto is determined to prove a point. He throws a punch and Tenryu looks at him like "that's quite enough of that" and chops him in the throat. He absolutely clobbers the kid with two disgusting face punts and Miyamoto spends the rest of the match with a bloody nose, trying to come at the king with his adorable heavyweight swanton bombs and standing moonsaults. You know how it ends, but Tenryu sells like he might actually be in danger once or twice and gives the kid his moments to shine. You can't really go wrong with this.

Complete & Accurate Tenryu

IRS! Men on a Mission! Tatanka! It's 1994 WWF!

The Headshrinkers, Rick Martel, Jeff Jarrett & IRS v The Smoking Gunns, 123 Kid, Sparky Plugg & Tatanka (RAW, 4/4/94)

This was pretty cookie-cutter for something that had some decent potential on paper. IRS is the most over person in this whole match and is roundly booed whenever he's featured. It doesn't even feel like X-Pac heat either. On the one hand that means he ends up in there for a solid chunk of the ten minutes, while someone like Fatu gets zero, but I suppose he's earned it? The gimmick is obviously ridiculous so if you can turn a feud with Tatanka that's based on not paying gift tax on a Native American headdress into something people are actually invested in then as far as I'm concerned you've earned your TV time. 123 Kid only got about a minute to work but he looked great as he usually does in 1994, hitting spin kicks right under the jaw, bringing some much-needed energy to a team whose primary source of energy, perhaps somewhat ironically, was the dude called SPARKY PLUGG. Jarrett and Martel were pretty amusing and stooged obnoxiously, but they mostly paired up with Billy and Bart and the latter just isn't very good. Billy had a rough start by getting put on his neck off a hip toss in the first three seconds and ignoring it because it wasn't supposed to happen that way, then he redeemed himself with a fun exchange with Samu where he took a killer inside-out bump off a clothesline. Tatanka also participated. 

The Quebecers v Men on a Mission (RAW, 4/11/94)

Well this was pretty damn okay! The Quebecers are really fun and make this fairly heated by the end. Their offence rules, all the cool double-teams, distraction spots that would be even better if Hebnar wasn't terrible, just a fun unit that I never really appreciated much before (and it's truly wild that PCO is still going strong 26 years later). I liked them trying to go for Mabel's legs early on before getting bowled over and pivoting towards beating on Mo instead. I have no opinion of Mo whatsoever, really. He gets beaten up for a few minutes and takes an amusing bump to the floor where he headers it into the guardrail. Some pretty big heat for a couple nearfalls, a crowd that really wanted Men on a Mission to win...yeah, this was decent. 

1994 WWF Project

Rumours Spreadin' Round in the Mid-South Town About that Shack Outside La Grange

Bill Watts, Hacksaw Duggan & Dick Murdoch v Skandor Akbar, Kamala & Kareem Muhammad (7/28/85)

How about that for an all-time walking tall babyface unit. You can probably guess how this went. Three guys with amazing punches punching three guys who will bump all over the shop for them, especially Kamala and Muhammad who take some awesome big beefy dude bumps. Kamala ruled in this, actually. He spent a fair bit of it on the back foot getting jabbed in the mouth and shoulder tackled around the ring and his general pinballing was great. A few times he'd sort of stagger like he was out on his feet and then faceplant to a giant pop. We also got a collector's item of Captain Redneck in peril. Dicky Morton! Akbar mostly directed traffic from out on the apron and would only get in there when it was safe, so he passes the manager-pulling-wrestler-duty test fine. I guess I'd have liked an actual hot tag, but at a certain point you can understand why Watts and Duggan threw their hands up on the whole thing and just came in swinging. And Watts planting Kamala with the body slam was about as satisfying a finish as you could ever get in front of this crowd. 

Dr. Death & Bob Sweetan v Al Perez & Wendell Cooley (8/30/85)

I've watched a fair amount of studio/TV lately. From a bunch of different territories - Crockett, Memphis, Portland, Georgia, Houston, Mid-South. I didn't think this was a great match or anything, but within that context of studio wrestling something like this will always stick out. It gets plenty of time; way more than your standard studio match (Portland aside, I guess). It's worked more like an arena match than a studio match, at least in that they use their time to slow things down a bit and build to more significant transitions and momentum shifts. The crowd don't really care about Perez and Cooley to begin with, probably because it's a title match and nobody thinks for a second they'll actually win. Before the bell Jake and Barbarian talked Williams and Sweetan into giving them a title shot the following week on TV, so everyone is looking ahead to that anyway. Then the longer it goes the more people start getting behind the babyfaces, start cheering those hope spots and comebacks, maybe even start to believe they could pull out the victory. The final sequence was a little ragged, but Perez's German suplex is gorgeous and it made for a pretty awesome moment. For a TV match it's hard to ask for too much more. 

Mid-South Project

French Catch

I've finally started going through some of this, although I haven't really been writing about any of it so far. I'll tell you what though - it's fucking good. 

Le Petit Prince v Michel Saulnier (France, 10/4/69)

This was amazing. It wasn't just that they were working outrageous state-of-the-art exchanges at insane speed -- it was the build up to that point in the match where they were going all out, with the groundwork by Saulnier wearing the Prince down, that gave those last few minutes in particular a real sense of escalation and meaning. Some of the hold-working was incredible. I probably should've watched their other matches before this to see if they played off anything or made any callbacks, even just to get a feel for how they work together, but it's not at all hard to follow the trail they're leading us down. Best possible 1960s Dean Malenko v Rey Jr. is a very apt description of this (and one I've stolen). Somehow though this might be even more inventive and ahead of its time than 1996 Rey Misterio Jr. It was worked with Saulnier as Malenko grounding our little Prince for about 15-20 minutes, first using an armbar, then moving on to use a headlock. It was paced pretty much perfectly in that nothing was stationary, no holds were applied without a struggle, then every thirty seconds or so they'd bring it up for air and Prince would flip or scramble or roll his way out, sometimes into a rapid quick rope-running sequence, yet Saulnier would inevitably do something to drag him back down to earth. Some of the sequences were absolutely gorgeous and damn near preposterous in their level of difficulty, but they were hitting everything on the money and moving between each step with crazy precision. My favourite part of that 20-minute period was when they wound up in a criss-cross rope-running spot that felt totally organic and Saulnier managed to yank the Prince into another headlock takeover, this time about planting him on the top of his skull. The headlock stuff actually reminded me of the Wild Pegasus/Black Tiger match from '96 where Benoit did not want Eddie up and running about and pulling any of that shit, and like in that match the crowd started getting on Sauliner's case big time. The second parallel is the awesome little bit of selling from Prince when he finally manages to create some daylight, grabbing the ropes for a second to show that even if he's shaken Saulnier he hasn't quite shaken the cobwebs just yet. The Prince's spin kick to the jaw towards the end was a thing of beauty and even if you'd usually want a decisive finish, you can't really complain about 30 minutes of these two just killing it. 

You were too Bad for a Little Mid-South Town, with Your Hip-Hop Hat and Your Pants on the Ground

Ric Flair v Butch Reed (No DQ) (8/10/85)

This was what it was. I could count on one hand the amount of people I'd put ahead of Reed on a favourite wrestlers list and still have fingers left to spare, but I've seen these Flair matches before and I wasn't all that excited about revisiting any. Especially not the longest of them, and this one goes an hour. You know what you're getting with Flair. He'll either start out sporting and progressively unravel, or he'll be unravelled in the first place and just get worse. By this point him and Reed already had beef, so we got the latter and he was throwing cheapshots and begging off inside a minute. I liked the first third and final ten minutes well enough. That first twenty minutes is largely Reed working a headlock and...look, it was fine. Sometimes it was even really good because Reed has an awesome grinding headlock and it always looks like he's trying to wring a guy's head off. Flair will go for the shinbreaker and Reed will just grind the hell out of that headlock until Flair's equilibrium is shot to bits. They milk Flair grabbing the tights to try and roll him up, Reed gets annoyed and throws mounted punches, back to the headlock they go. Flair isn't all that interesting working holds from below but I can get by. They then transition into working a font facelock and I'll always like the spot where Flair tries to suplex his way out of it only for Reed to hold on, roll over and squeeze even harder. They lose me a bit in the middle though, and part of that isn't really their fault as there's a jump in the film and we miss about ten minutes. It's just that before long I'm kind of waiting for the bell to ring and that's never a good sign. Last twenty minutes are your Flair on the Ropes extended finishing run. Objectively it worked because the heat built and built, and they did some stuff I liked a lot. Reed has awesome punches and he threw many of them, great combos that were capped off with his big winding uppercut. Obviously he works the leg and applies the figure-four, but I liked the twist here with him refusing to let go even when Flair got to the ropes and the ref' being powerless to do anything about it. That no DQ stip came into play best of all when they started hucking each other over the top rope and we got a couple great splats to the concrete, including one of Flair's best off an uppercut. Flair just picking Reed up and crotching him on the ropes was another great spot, basically kicking off his only semi-extended run of offence the entire match. Reed's shoulder tackle off the top was absolutely top banana as well and maybe if he wasn't so fatigued he'd have hit the gorilla press slam in time. I guess I'd have liked Flair to work a bit more from above. I get the rationale behind him not doing that and I did think he looked like a hardy bastard for toughing it out, but I thought Reed needed to overcome a little more. Tommy Gilbert was also kind of annoying at points. I eventually got used to him going through the set the first time, but he has a touch of the Kiniskis about him where he wants to be super involved, and it stifled some of the stooging Flair would do in the corner. A few times you wished Reed would actually pull the trigger and put him on his arse. 

Mid-South Project

Double Denny Brown of the Day!

Tully Blanchard v Denny Brown (Worldwide, 1/4/86)

This is from the episode where Tully and Baby Doll have their unceremonious split and the latter ends up with Dusty in very dodgy-by-modern-standards circumstances. Either way Tully is not quite right during this and it's an awesome performance from him. Brown tries to control early with an arm-wringer and I loved Tully just punching him in the throat to shake him. The match was kind of back and forth the whole way (the whole way being like seven/eight minutes), but it worked because it played to the idea that Tully's head was elsewhere. He worked super aggressive, yet he couldn't quite keep Brown leashed because sometimes that aggressiveness worked against him. Then the crowd start a big Dusty chant and Tully is livid. He basically decides to milk this for everything it's worth. They know it gets to him and he sneers and snarls at people ringside, so each time they start it up it gets louder and louder. It distracts him long enough for Brown to fight back, then each time Tully takes over again he looks possessed, and each time THAT leads to him making a mistake. It's not even a particularly impressive example of a wrestler playing off a crowd given it's such an obvious thing for him to do in that moment, but he does it expertly and he has the people eating out of his hand. 

Arn Anderson v Denny Brown (World Championship Wrestling, 2/22/86)

This got decent time and was a nifty little studio bout. Flair was ringside doing some commentary and walked that fine line of being super entertaining and adding to the whole thing, without being TOO distracting by basically just being who he is. He came close to the latter once or twice, though it was through no real fault of his own as a group of frat boys (or as Flair called them "sorority kids") in the crowd started getting on his case (and he played off that a little, because obviously he did). His actual commentary was really good and I like that he tried to put over Denny Brown as a threat. It wasn't condescending, he praised him for being the junior heavyweight champion who's fought all around the world just like himself, so the fact he was giving Arn trouble shouldn't be a surprise to anybody. Match itself made Denny look like the threat Flair was actually presenting him as and his work on the arm early was solid stuff. When Arn takes over you question if that forearm wasn't really a fist, or if it WAS a forearm maybe it was lower than just the abdomen. His bodyscissor work was fine, Denny hung tough with the TV champ, but in the end that Gordbuster did for Denny the same as it did for many a man. 

Midnight Express v Road Warriors!

Midnight Express v Road Warriors (JCP, 4/18/86)

I can't tell you how much I loved this. My tastes have changed in some fairly substantial ways over the years, but I think your tried and true southern tag worked in front of a hot crowd will be one type of wrestling match I'll never tire of. It doesn't need to be complicated. A solid babyface shine, a solid heat segment, a nice little run to the finish...even that, the most basic play on the formula, will usually be enough to keep me halfway engaged. From a layout standpoint this was as simple as you could get. It had two actual transitions the entire match and it was barely ten minutes long and it was balls to the wall great. The crowd are batshit nuclear and the Road Warriors are just stupid over. They're one of those acts that basically anybody could get behind, that sort of larger-than-life presence that can mesmerise you, completely badass, yet talking about growing up on the streets of Chicago and having to fight for everything in life keeps them grounded just enough to be somewhat relatable. About eight tenths of this landed absolutely perfectly. I'm a sucker for wrestlers who are built like the side of a fire engine doing unexpected athletic shit and if Animal's leapfrog never had me on the floor then his fucking dropkick surely did. Condrey and Eaton's stooging during the shine was something to behold. They did all of the overt stuff to perfection - the temper tantrum by Condrey where he threatened to walk out, every one of Eaton's bumps - but the subtle stuff is what puts them on that GOAT pedestal. Eaton trying to point out that Hawk is behind Condrey without giving the game away, how Cornette confers with them to change strategy, how they position themselves in the ring as if they're actually trying to create separation between both Road Warriors, it's all awesome. There was one amazing sequence where Eaton tried to basically run away only to be gorilla press slammed - from the floor - over the top rope and back into the ring, just to get smashed back out and clotheslined on the concrete, while Condrey was busy getting knocked around inside the ring by Hawk. Hebnar pretty clearly sees Cornette walloping Animal with the tennis racket for the big transition, but you forgive that seconds later when Hawk chases Cornette around and through the ring. This jacked up monster of a guy being mere centimetres from grabbing Cornette's coat as he escapes out the other side was like something from a horror movie (though in this movie you want the monster to actually succeed). Nobody drags referees and wrestlers out of position during a heat segment like the Midnights and Condrey's mean mugging to draw Hawk in was phenomenal. Everybody knows he has no chance if Hawk actually gets a hold of him, just like the Midnights have no chance to win if the match stays on the level, but Condrey's banking on wee Earl Hebnar to play meat shield long enough for Cornette to jab Animal in the throat with that racket. You totally buy Hawk as the kind of lunatic who can't help but bite on everything as well. At one point he cleared the top rope and I'm not sure Condrey expected him to move quite like that. Someone in the crowd got so enraged they even threatened to throw a table! If I could've asked for one thing it would've been another Animal hope spot before the hot tag, but that hot tag was blistering all the same and Hawk annihilating folk was outstanding. I also don't think I've seen a crowd so annoyed by a Dusty Finish. This was before everybody and their granny expected it, so the jeers and outrage were directed at the Midnights escaping with the belts rather than whoever booked another finish like that. I need to see every match these teams ever had together. 

Flair v Morton (and some more Morton and some more Flair)!

Ric Flair v Ricky Morton (World Championship Wrestling, 4/12/86)

Fun impromptu studio match. It was pretty choppy at points and some things came off sort of ragged, but for a first go-around between them it set us up nicely for some awesome matches down the line. Morton works fast and takes a fair amount of the match, and while you probably expect that anyway considering it's Flair it does go a ways towards making Morton look extra legit. We even get a Flair blade job on TV, some Horsemen participation, Morton scoring a phantom pinfall to really sell the idea he has a chance in an actual title match, and a Dusty appearance at the end because that guy was way the fuck too smart not to leech some of that Morton heat. The Flair/Morton stuff in the first few months of the year has been built perfectly and this was a great way to kick it into high gear, even if the match itself wasn't amazing. 

Midnight Express v Rock 'n' Roll Express (World Pro Wrestling, 4/12/86)

This was from the Charlotte, NC show that aired on Japanese TV, and I can only imagine how badly Japanese fans seeing this on a Saturday morning (or whatever) wanted Condrey and Eaton to come in and challenge Jumbo and Tenryu. Fuck yer King's Road, this is the route All Japan should've taken. Did Cornette ever do anything in Japan, actually? He was locked in a shark cage for this and I'd always heard about the MX/RnR matches with Cornette in a shark cage, but this might be the first time I've actually seen one. It ruled, obviously. Gibson ran up the score early and looked as crisp as I've ever seen him, hitting biiiiiig delayed headscissor takeovers, doing a perfect rope-assisted backflip out of a suplex, funneling Eaton into the corner to be popped by a Morton right hand. He put one of the MX on their butt and immediately ran out the ring and up the aisle to yank the chord attached to Cornette's cage, making the cage swing haphazardly in the air, and Cornette selling this like he was about to throw up was immaculate. These guys will always do at least one or two unique things per match - even if the broad strokes are part of the same tried and true formula, in the countless MX/RnR matches I've seen at this point I don't think any two have been the same (and you couldn't really have blamed them had the chosen to do that). This time it was the big transition, where Eaton (from the apron) returned that earlier favour by popping Morton in the mouth as the latter tried to continue with the headscissor takeovers. Condrey's backbreaker looked killer and then a chunk of the heat segment was made up of the Midnights trying to pull Morton's face apart. You can't really go wrong with this match-up. 

Ric Flair & Tully Blanchard v Dusty Rhodes & Wahoo McDaniel (Double Strap Match) (JCP, 4/12/86)

From the same show as MX/RnRs, though I don't think this aired on TV. It was pretty similar to the same match from March, just with Flair in place of Arn. Tully was amazing again, constantly making a nuisance of himself, always being a terror, showing major ass when he needed to. I didn't think this had the same energy as the March version though, even with Flair involved. It was mostly confined to the ring and they didn't really do anything noteworthy with the strap. Even Flair getting chucked off the top was the standard fare, when the strap was right there to be used for yanking him halfway across the ring. 

Georgia (Still) on My Mind

Bobby Eaton v Steve Keirn (GCW, 2/7/81)

This might be the best studio match yet. Even if Eaton wasn't a household name yet he sure was fucking awesome. Keirn was all over him like a rash in the early going, really whipping him over with headlocks and giving him no room to breathe whatsoever. These TV title matches have a 15-minute time limit so it's cool to see the challenger show such urgency. Like, I'm obviously watching a bunch of different studio wrestling right now and I don't know if anywhere else nailed that aspect of the TV title quite as well as they did in Georgia. Eaton eventually takes over with a KILLER Billy Robinson-style backbreaker and goes after the future Fabulous One's spine for a spell. The kneedrops to the lower back looked great, the abdominal stretch looked tight, the back back suplex looked like a Bobby Eaton back suplex. Last few minutes kick it up another gear with some big offence, including Keirn hitting a Saito suplex and even a revenge abdominal stretch. Also liked Eaton trying to pull another fast one by putting his feet on the ropes (the same way he won the title the previous week), but this time the ref' spots it so he just chucks Keirn over the top rope instead. Champion keeps his belt on a DQ after all, so our future gator-hunter goes home empty-handed. I've always liked Keirn and this only bolsters his Very Good Pro Wrestler case. Eaton...looked very much like Bobby Eaton even at this point of his career.

Jake Roberts v Ron Garvin (GCW, 4/7/84)

I wanted to check out some GCW arena footage to go along with the studio stuff. There doesn't seem to be a ton available (that I could find anyway, though I may not know the best places to look and even then my search was hardly exhaustive), but this is on the Network in pristine quality. Also thought it would be interesting to compare a TV title match in an arena setting to one in a studio setting. This had a no time-limit stipulation (as befitting their feud. I assume) so it might not be the best comparison, but they certainly worked it differently. It was way more methodical than those earlier Sullivan/Keirn/Eaton bouts from TV, less frantic, which I guess made sense given that they weren't constrained to 15 minutes. I liked the early bit with Jake being so much taller than Garvin that Garvin could trip him onto his face out of a headlock. Jake taking over by using his height (and the turnbuckles) to catch Garvin with a punch to the eye (also out of a headlock) was a nice touch as well. Unfortunately Jake's control segment dragged a wee bit. The hope spots never felt as hot as you'd like and it needed a bit more energy, though Jake using his wrist tape to choke Garvin is one of those cool touches he always brings. I'm not entirely sure why the ref' let so much fly - I don't think it was no DQ - but the last few minutes were fairly rabid. Jake rips off Garvin's forehead bandage and opens him up, and the reaction for Garvin going bonkers with the chair is amazing. I bet there's some awesome Jake stuff in Georgia, and even if this wasn't at that level overall it was a hell of a moment in the end. 

I've Been Watching '86 Crockett

Magnum TA v Nikita Koloff (JCP, 1/19/86)

Clipped a little, but there was still enough here to get a handle on things. It was fun and I was kind of surprised at the cool touches both guys brought. I suppose most people have come around to the idea that Magnum was actually pretty damn good, but I'm not sure anybody has gone to bat for Nikita being anything more than a decent hoss. While I will not be the one to present that case he at least brought a few of those cool touches. This was a story of Magnum fearing no man, no matter how big and mean they are. He faced all of Nikita's intimidation tactics head on and went at him full steam ahead. My favourite bit of this was when Nikita challenged him to see who had the hardest shoulderblock, like your territory era dick-swingin' chop battle. Magnum had no time for it whatsoever and just elbowed him in the mouth instead, which sent Nikita to the floor in a rage. Magnum's work on the arm was all good and I loved him sawing the bicep with his forearm before dropping headbutts. Nikita takes over when Magnum crashes and burns off a missed cross body, but it was the setup by Nikita that was great. As Magnum hits the ropes Nikita throws his arms up as if he's going devour Magnum like a big old bear, almost baiting Magnum into making a move, then as soon as Magnum leaves his feet Nikita is ready to just duck out the way. 

Arn Anderson v Ron Garvin (World Championship Wrestling, 3/1/86)

This was alright, though more of a teaser for something much better. It started with Garvin going to throw that hand of stone and Arn bailing immediately out the ring, so for the rest of the ten minutes Garvin stuck to throwing every other kind of strike instead. Once or twice he threw a punch, probably out of habit more than anything else, but it was headbutts and chops and slaps for the most part. Maybe he was sick and tired of these Horsemen trying to imply he was nothing more than a sucker punch artist and this was his way of proving otherwise. Arn was fun enough on the back foot and Garvin will always be good at roughing someone up. At one point he had Arn in a sort of grounded abdominal stretch and started slapping him across the face. Arn working the bearhug wasn't amazing or anything, but Garvin raking his back while in it was a nice bit of grittiness that usually wouldn't - or shouldn't - work as a babyface spot. Naturally Arn stalls for the time as the 10 minutes are almost up and you wonder if next time maybe Garvin just punches the jaw off him to begin with. 

Arn Anderson v Ron Garvin (World Championship Wrestling, 4/5/86)

Yeah, this was better. It was more even but felt appropriately rough. Arn controlled early with the headlock and liberal use of the trusty hair-pull, which annoyed Garvin very much. I liked Arn being in no hurry to force the issue whenever Garvin's temper flared. He'd just drop out the ring and eat up some of the clock. The second time he did it to try and sucker Garvin into a cheapshot, but Garvin saw it coming and popped him in the mouth. Garvin stretching him out afterwards was obviously good because it never looks like being on the end of a Garvin beatdown is anything other than awful, and really that's what you want to see from a babyface who's supposed to be a tough wee bastard. Right? As it went on Arn really only created openings through questionable means, sometimes subtly (using Garvin's tights to yank him into a shoulder to the midsection), sometimes blatantly obvious (poking him in the eye so Garvin will let him go). And even if the DQ finish might leave you feeling shortchanged initially, the post-match angle with Tully trying to break Garvin's hand with his cowboy boot is some wonderful TV. 

Georgia on My Mind

There's a goodly, goodly amount of Georgia Championship Wrestling TV on youtube and I started going through it last week, beginning from 1981. It's mostly a blind spot for me beyond your Flair and Flair-adjacent stuff, but I'm really enjoying it so far. Dusty, Ole and Tony Atlas are at the top of the card to begin the year, the Freebirds are causing havoc - mainly with Robert Fuller and Ted DiBiase right now - and there's a really fun midcard with guys like Kevin Sullivan, Steve Keirn, and the JYD has just rocked up looking for the trio who blinded him in Louisiana...

Kevin Sullivan v Les Thornton (GCW, 1/3/81)

What a nifty little 10 minute studio bout. This is for the TV title and there's a real sense of urgency from both, where they start out mostly clean but intense, then the closer they get to the time limit the more niggly it gets. Thornton was a hoot with his quasi-WoS offence. It looked slick and Sullivan had a hard time dealing with it, but there were times as well where he'd just drop down on something like an attempted fireman's carry into a neck crank and it looked super uncooperative and rugged. I didn't really know Sullivan could grapple like this. It wasn't spectacular or anything, but it did the trick nicely and you could buy him holding his own. It never looked like Thornton could just smother him, basically. He got fed up playing by the book soon enough as well and started throwing mean little rabbit punches. Thornton staying on track and sticking to the forearm smashes - which all ruled - was cool too. I'd be more than fine with a bunch of Thornton studio matches if he's a regular around this time. 

Kevin Sullivan v Steve O (GCW, 1/17/81)

I know it's literally four episodes of TV, so not exactly a huge sample size, but Kevin Sullivan has been one of the stars of the early '81. YOUR January Georgia Championship Wrestling MVP. All of his studio matches have been good and he brings a real grittiness to everything. I love how he'll sporadically do something nasty, usually during those in-between moments where guys are moving from one move to the next. In this he threw out a one-handed back rake as Steve O was trying to get up off the mat, then he jumped on his guts with a double stomp as Steve was rolling over onto his back. They're moments that don't look planned and come across as on the fly violence. For eight minutes this was Sullivan being a nasty bastard, where Steve O could've basically been any competent babyface and it would've been decent. I now look forward to seeing Sullivan on TV each week and the feud with Steve Keirn could be really nifty. 

Steve O v Bobby Eaton (GCW, 1/31/81)

So Sullivan is OUT as the TV champ, thanks in large part to that hubcap thief Steve Keirn, and Steve O is IN. The TV title matches each week are a blast. They all get ~10 minutes and everybody's allowed to stretch out, do some nice tight matwork, throw out a few of their big moves, build to a nice heated finish. It's pretty much perfect studio wrestling and I might try and hunt down some arena footage from around the same time. This was really good, of course. Eaton is a relatively unknown commodity at this point and I love Solie's commentary, how he thinks Steve O has him dead to rights a few times only for Eaton to show some mettle and hang in there. It's kind of surreal that there was a time where "gosh, I really wonder if Bobby Eaton will be able to hang with Steve O" was a thing that made sense. The first half was largely mat-based and it all looked super snug, then Eaton would throw fists and I liked that Steve O just continued going about his business clean as a whistle. Rather than popping Eaton in the mouth, despite being more than entitled to, he planted him with a big vertical soup-LAY (is Solie still the only commentator to pronounce it like that? Surely I'm forgetting someone obvious). The end might've come a bit suddenly, but at the same time it made sense that it did. Eaton used the ropes and won wholly unexpectedly, obviously the first thing he's going to do is get out of dodge quickly. It was like Fish hitting the game-winner against San Antonio with .4 seconds on the clock. Nobody's hanging about to let the refs check if it left his fingertips in time, just pack your shit and get on the bus. Sullivan's post-match promo is so awesome and I really hope we have footage of the Boston Street Fight with Keirn.