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Match #A-84 - 11/29/81 Bob Backlund vs Don Muraco (12:06) Taped: Capital Centre, Landover, MD From: USA Network This is another Texas Death Match, a return match after the two did their sixty minute draw on 10/17/81 (a matinee on the same day they went sixty in the evening in Philly). Don has the beard here, just two weeks after the Philly match where it isn't noticable as a fully beard. We get about three minutes of feeling out and stooging, which isn't too bad. Bob eventually grabs a headlock and goes to work on it. Though Don has a stretch or two of not being very active in it, overall it's not bad at all. They do a standard spot of Don bailing over the ropes onto the apron while in it, only to have Bob keep the hold and drag him over the ropes back into the ring. They have an even better version of the spot where Don is going up to the top to try something, and instead of going over to Flair Toss him off the top, Bob gets there earlier, grabs a headlock as Don is climbing, and drags his ass down into the ring. The crowd enjoys that one quite a bit. They work in some nice spots of Bob punching Don while he's in the headlock, and just as in their MSG TDM, Vince is terrific in explaining that these things usually aren't legal, but in a TDM anything goes. Don cuts him off with a kneelift and elbow to the stomach, before turning towards the ref and giving Bob a low counter kick. We get a nice Bob Splat Bump as he turns around and tosses himself through the ropes to the floor. Only 3:30 in the headlock, so this looks like it might be even more of a sprint for the two. Perhaps USA Network forces them into shorter matches because of commercials. The Bob-Adonis lumberjack the following March (#73 above) was 13:51 so that might be a point of reference. Don slams Bob on the floor, and Vince explains that Bob doesn't need to beat the count in a TDM because there are no COR's. He made the same point earlier in the opening section when Don bailed the ring. Don bounces Bob's head off the ringpost, and does a number of things smacking around Bob while he's on the apron. One gets the feeling that Bob is being kept on the apron and outside the ring to get a payback spot on Don. Sure enough, Don goes to the floor toss Bob into the post and gets reversed into it headfirst. One gets another feeling as while Don goes flying towards the post he sure seems to look like he's pinching something in his hand. Yeah, Don goes down into a cutting position on the floor. In the event he didn't get enough, Bob comes over as Don is getting up to bounce his skull off the post again to give him the opportunity to go back down if he needed to do more work on his forehead. Wait, when Don is up again and wandering towards the ring, Bob from inside the ring reaches through and pops his head off the post for a third time. At this point Don seems to realize he doesn't have enough flow going and ducks his head under the ring apron for some focused blade work to get it right. Awful smart of Bob to do when allegedly he didn't know what the hell he was doing in the ring. But I digress... It's interesting to think that none of the three MSG and Philly matches that are out there have any blood. We've seen plenty of Don matches where he's willing to slice himself up, and Bob never was shy either. Also, in the intro to the match, Vince was explaining it was a TDM and did warn the squeemish that it's a brutal match. I'm not sure why they chose to whip out the blade on USA rather than MSG and Philly, especially when you think that USA might have been a little touchy on it, while there had been plenty of blood over the years on MSG Network and PRISM. I digress again... After Don pops back out and heads up onto the ring apron, Vince takes a moment that the match could get ugly and warns people again. Bob goes to town on the cut, and the USA cameras eventually do get a close up of Don bleeding. It's a little surprising that they go in that close. I'm not going to sell this as Slaughter-Patterson: Don isn't bleeding that much, or even as much as some of Bob's worst juice jobs. The point is that the cameras aren't shying from it, which is interesting. Don is top notch in selling the damage, and does a nice job of using the ropes in the process of selling. They blow a spot in an odd way. Don gets tied up in the ropes. Bob runs the ropes to come in and smack him, and the ref gets in between then. Bob appears to hit the ref, but the ref doesn't go down. Seemed to be a clear ref bump spot, but the ref didn't go down and it came across like a trainwreck. In short time with Don still tied up, Bob runs the ropes again, Don losens up himself, and tosses the ref into the oncoming Bob for the ref bump. This one is done well: the ref takes a header into Bob in a way that reasonably knocks the ref goofy while bumping Bob in a less damaging away. This works because Bob and Don are suppose to go toe-to-toe leading to the next spot, so it's not like Bob can also be "out" from the ref bump. It does make one wonder who was off the page on the first one blown one. Don may have thought Bob was going to connect on the first one and ref bump on the second one, so he didn't make the effort to toss the ref. Or Bob may have thought there was only going to be one, the ref bump. He does appear to do a trajectory into the ref on the first one, so it's clear there was some miscommunication. Don gets a phantom pin with the Tombstone, which Bob lays in for well more than two (!) before kicking out. Of course the ref is down and out and can't count it. Don goes for a double arm, and I'm sure we're going to see the flip with Bob on top for the pin... but Don hits it for another phantom pin attempt. He gets a mental 1.5 to 2.0 on this one before Bob kicks out. Don goes for a vertical suplex, but Bob nicely floats over and hoist him up for a backdrop suplex. They drift over to the corner, and Don kick off sending them down to the mat for a double pin. Bob bridges, Don gets his right shoulder up at two but the ref is on his left side and doesn't see it. Poor Don gets screwed again. Really strong pop for the finish. This is worth tracking down simply as almost a Nitro Style match for the two as they spring through things in 12 minutes. You get a little early stalling & stooging. You get just one segment of hold work, this by Bob. The segment has some nice spots through in to keep the crowd into it. We some outside work that leads to Bob's payback and Don juicing, which is new to the series. We get Bob working it over, so there's little different vibe than the other matches. We also get a ref bump which is new, and a different variation of the Don Gets Screwed finish. In a sense, they took the truncated nature of the match and put together something a little different. Which makes since in the event you got USA Network in addition to MSG or PRISM - you got a bit of a different match here. That's kind of nice out of a series. John

Match #A-83 - 11/14/81 Bob Backlund vs Don Muraco (21:25) Taped: The Spectrum, Philadelphia PA From: 11/14/81 PRISM Network This is the return match from their 60 minute draw in Philly, Match #A-7. It's the Philly blow off of the feud, and as such the parallel to the 09/21/81 MSG Texas Death Match. This isn't a TDM, instead having a 90 minute time limit. Pre-match, Bob is trying to get Don's "spike tape" taken off the right thumb. Don doesn't go for it, so Bob hops out to ringside and has Arnold tape up his right thumb. Of course Don doesn't like this and start crying to the ref. Decent pre-match face-heel stuff. After the bell, close to three minutes are killed with Don on his bike. That's down from six minutes of stalling and feeling out to open the 60 minute draw, and similar to the two minutes at the start of the MSG TDM. Bob takes control and goes to work on the arm. The hammerlock portion is pedestrian as Don doesn't work much from the bottom leaving Bob to largely wrench the arm. The armbar segments are very good as Don works several times to get out leading to nice Bob spots to get it back on. Seven minutes of Bob working the arm, which is similar to the amount in their 60 minute draw. Don finally gets out with a low counter kick, ala the Chono Counter Kick. Bob sells his nuts like he thinks he's El Hijo del Santo. Don is great with some strikes and stomps to keep the advantage before starting to work the arm. He's excellent here as well, with a nice shoulder breaker, some nice spots to yank the arm out before slapping on a way cool key lock. Bob sells it nicely with the slaps of the hand and wrist, and works well looking for counters to roll back into putting Don into a pinning position. Great stuff of Don pulling the hair to roll Bob back into selling for the hold. We all know where this is headed if you've watched some Inoki vs Bob. Bob goes to set for the lift once, but Muraco grabs the hair again and takes the oppotunity to break the hold for more spots striking the arm before going back into the keylock. In as sense it's a heel highspot sequence to put up the action before going back into a hold, and shows just how good Don can be when he feels like it. After eight minutes of Don being on top, Bob finally nails the lift, bumps Don across the turnbuckle and top rope, and slaps him. Don is great up in the left stooging and selling it, and again after eating the slap. Big Bob comeback, which cranks the heat up. He does slip onto his ass after using the foot rake that he's done in the majority of his matches. Odd to slip on something he's done hundreds of times, and he gets right up to continue kicking the shit out of Don. But it best be mentioned in the event people think I'm cutting Bob too much slack and ignoring sloppiness. Nice nearfall off the vertical suplex, then they execute a perfect double arm suplex where Bob lauches Don far across the ring and sliding in such a way that Don is in position to get the leg on the ropes to break another nearfall. Good work between the two knowning the spot and how to nail it together. They hit the Bob Driver, and it doesn't look good... and not in the way that a splatterific Bob Driver looks so bad it's good. Here it's Don getting his arms into a push up position and basically pushes away from the match to cause a ton of daylight on the move. He sells it like it was nailed, and Bob goes to cover like it was nailed, but even Kal has to point out that it didn't get hit like usual. Very much on Don, though it's possible that Bob had dropped him in a way recent to the match that caused Don not to want to get remotely close to taking the move in a "normal" way. It also lowered the heat of the match a good deal. Don blocks a reverse roll attempt to take the advantage, and it's nice to see the two again on the same page. Bob instantly sells on the mat after bumping to the mat off the block, eventually getting onto his hands an knees. Don "sees it" and works over the back in a quick and cool fashion: stomp to the back to force Bob flat on his stomach. Nice elbow drop to back. A way cool forward senton to the back, and then a kneedrop to the back. Just a really nice, quick 1-2-3-4 series of strikes and drops to take advantage of Bob's "injury". Smart stuff, and again shows how really rounded Don is when he feels like working. Don hits his own vertical suplex, which he almost turns into a slam on the way over and down for a two count (!) on Bob. Don works the back over some more with some strikes, but these set the table for Bob trying to make a comeback by striking back. All nicely sets up Bob going for a slam but his back "giving out" to feed Don a press and a cover for a terrific two count (!) that Bob lays in for as deep as he ever goes this side of the Pacific. Don uses a gutwrench up into a backbreaker, with the momentum drifting him back towards the corner and the ropes. Bob kicks off, rolls forward and flips over with himself on top and Don pinned to the mat for the three count. Don's feet are on the ropes for a controversial pin. This is a variation of the finish they used in the MSG TDM. In that one, Don went for a double arm suplex, which Bob countered with the flip to end up on top for the pin. Same feet on the ropes. Very good pop for the finish. Of course Don is pissed afterwards. This is a well structured match, broken down into segments. None overstays their welcome. About three minutes of opening stall & feeling out. About eight minutes of armwork by Bob. About seven minutes of armwork by Don. And about four minutes running to the finish, including each having their run on top (rather than My Turn, Your Turn) to get in some nearfalls. The transitions between two armwork sections was an excellent heel one: the low counter kick. The transition to the run to the finish is a strong Bob spot: the lift. I wouldn't rate this ahead of the MSG TDM. That one had an epic feel to it, not only going more then nine minutes longer but also slow building to the erruption of Don using the spike. It also tied into the finish of the Philly draw (Tombstone + Missed Splash at the bell) by hitting the splash for a great nearfall. One gets the feeling that the MSG draw before the TDM also had the Tombstone + Splash finish, but that's an assumption of the draws sharing comon finishes. The blow offs have similar finishes, but the Philly one skips the Tombstone + Splash to lead into the final pin, so doesn't have quit the tie in to the draw as one would have hoped. On the other hand, these two work very well together. Don's best matches in the WWF appear to be against Bob, with the only other very interesting matches he kicked out being the early Snuka matches. Those were carried by an aura of "hate" the two worked: insensity, juice and violence. The work wasn't sustained much past the first few matches, at least that I've seen, as both sort of wander off into the stoned stupors and get by with the juice and easy spots while the intensity fades. With Backlund in this run, Don tended to bring it every match. The three that I've seen have all been good. The TDM is one of the great WWF matches of the era. The Philly draw is a textbook example of how to fill sixty minutes with mat and body work, and solid in the variety they bring to it over the course of it. This is almost a sprint in contrast as they boil it down into 20 minutes, but go more extending in the run to the finish than they had in the draw. One again sees how very good Muraco can be in the ring when engaged, and how many different things he knew how to do well. We expect this from Bob. Put him in the Dusty Lounger, and he'll work it like no one every worked it against Dusty. Toss him in a keylock, be it by Inoki or Don, and he's got stuff to do in it. What's nice here is to see Don so clearly be on the same page and at ease in working through the hold with Bob. Or later in the match when Bob is selling the back to be right in snych with that 1-2-3-4 combo to attack it and set up the vertical suplex. I'd very much recommend this. It's not going to end up in my Top 25 of the WWF for the decade simply to keep up some variety, and they'd need to top this to get another match in there. But this is good stuff, and is another good contrast to how Don worked in the terrible series with Morales, the weaker matches with Snuka, the disappointing series with both Tito and Steamer. John

Match #A-8 - 09/21/81 Bob Backlund vs Don Muraco (30:47) Taped: Madison Square Garden, New York Aired: 09/21/81 MSG Network This is the return match off the prior sixty minute draw from MSG. WWF Texas Death style, with "no time limit" added in. Some similar early stalling to put heat on Muraco, but they use up less than two minutes with it before Don takes control with a lariat. In addition to the lariat, Don mixes in a string of cool spots to work over Bob: a legdrop, the neck snapper that Hennig would lift, a great knee lift and a headbutt drop. Vince is all over it: "He does so many things so well." -Vince McMahon As seen in the one hour draw, he knows how to work holds to fill time. And when on control in addition to the holds, he has a lot stuff he can do. He's a very good bumper for his size, can work some comedy, and isn't a bad seller. So when he doesn't feel like doing much of anything, he's frustrating as all hell because as Vince says, he does so many things well. Having put a bit of a beating to Bob, Don settles down to controlling him with a chinlock into a facelock, before Bob In Peril works up for a near counter. Shortcut (hairpull), a pair of cool moves (back elbow and legdrop), and Don's back in control with a front facelock. It's wonderful to watch the small things they *instantly* do once Don slaps it on: The ref quickly checks Bob. Bob raises a fist to the ref to show that he's "okay". Bob reaches down with his right hand behind Don's left leg, a motion that he might try a lift. Don quickly spreads his base, and when Bob drops his left hand to the other leg, he quickly gives a sign that Don's base is too wide to get leverage to lift him. Bob gives that up instantly, lifts his left arm up over Don's head to try to position for a vertical suplex. It's right there for us at home to see since it's camera side: Bob's left himself complete wide open on the left side of his torso and gut. Don's quickly releases the front facelock and pops Bob theatrically in the kidney. It's a chain of items working through the spot. If it's a dance, it a squence of steps, not big and flashy by small and with thought to set up the big flashy one at the end. It's not genius, but rather good work. There's a lot of that in this match. The work up out of the front facelock a second time, theatrically before this time Bob leaves his side open again, with Don planting a kneelift into it. This leads into Don going to town working over Bob's stomach. This one of the things that Frank pointed out in his review of the match which I wish we had laying around: the match is really nicely laid out. In taking control, Don spent close to a minute with bigger strikes and spots to take Bob apart. Then he spent two and a half minutes working the head because it's what was there after the strikes. Now he's moving into working the stomach after the two strikes to the gut when Bob was trying to get out of the front facelock. The longer stretches of the sixty minute match are being condensed here, yet it retains sections of focus in being laid out. They're not simply throwing shit at the wall - Don controlled for seven and a half minutes, and broke it down into three subsections, each having their focus. Very nice. Excellent transition out as Don eats the post on a drive into the corner. Bob smacks the arm around a bit, then fires up to the crowd by going to town on him, leading to a Bob Driver for a near fall. It's a hot near fall out of the transition, but with it not putting Don away, Bob instantly shifts the focus to Don's injured shoulder and arm. It's Bob, so he's theatrical as all hell, and very active. It's not enough just to put on a wristlock. It needs to be twisted around, playing to the crowd and then giving the arm an uppercut. It's not enough just to wrap the arm around the top rope to torque it, which is perfectly legal in a WWF Texas Death Match. It needs Bob to give it a high kick It's not enough to grab an armbar and stare off into space. Don makes a motion like he might spike Bob, so Bob releases the hold, drives an elbow into Don's skull (nice stooge selling by Don), and grabs the arm back. Holding an armbar on the mat, even with Don selling it, isn't enough. Bob had to hoist him up in the air for very theatrical arm yankers. They even break up space by playing off Don's earlier lariat, with Bob ducking it this time and hitting his own, adding to the laundry list of different things Bob does at one time or another in his matches. Or they mix in false transitions such as Don hitting a backbreaker before missing an elbowdrop with his bad arm to set up getting tossed right back into Bob control of working over the arm and shoulder. All of it's really good stuff, up there with some of the best old school armwork of the era to fill close to fourteen minutes. They transition out with Don eating the atomic drop, taking a nice bump out of the ring to "save" himself from getting pinned. A great spot off it with Muraco in desperation using a chair out of nowhere to Bob's throat to completely turn the match around. Since it's a Texas Death Match, it's legal and by this point we've had several spots that have gotten across that what's usually barred isn't. Bob sells the fuck out of the throat, as in Steamboat level selling of the thoart when Savage did the number on him. This of course sets up Don to use the Spike a number of times to toast Bob some more. He hits a running one to set up one of Bob's better Bob Splat spots - bouncing off the apron to the floor, then hopping over the baricade to sell it even more. Vince does a great job in this section of getting across that Bob can't be counted out, and the ref plays it right by encouraging Bob to get back in rather than forgetting and putting a count on him. Don's also inventive here by taking a rolled up cup tossed into the ring by a fan and driving it into Bob's throat, and then using a second to gouge Bob's eyes. It's simply stuff, but it does get the crowd going by using shit they threw at him to do a number on Bob. Smart heeling. With Bob finally back in the ring, Don goes to the Spike as a finisher, getting a two count (!) off it before before it's Bob In Peril time. Bob fires up for a nice backdrop suplex to counter it, but sells being more out of it which allowed Don to recover first for a two count (!) off it. Don hits the Tombstone and top rope splash combo that was the finish of the one hour draw. This time he nails the splash and gets a terrific two count (!) off it. A vertical suplex for another two count (!), though Don pulls him up from that one, setting up a double arm suplex. Bob counters it, first by blocking it, then by hoisting Don up and holding him off the ground for about four seconds, before droping backwards for his own suplex with a bridge. They flat out perfectly nail it as Don is on camera side as his leg flops over the bottom rope right infront of a camera, with the ref all the way on the other side to count the pin. The crowd goes batshit for one of those Backlund In MSG Pops that were a hallmark of this era. Bob sells it like he's in a whole mess of shape as he staggers quickly back to the dressing room while the heat is all on Muraco in the ring that he got screwed since his foot was on the ropes. Great fucking match. Frank long ago tabbed this one of the best of the era, and he's completely right. Wonderfully laid out. Great work large and small. Down the stretch there probably are no other matches of the era where Bob feels in as much peril as Don runs off four two counts on him, including nailing the combo he wasn't able to from the prior match. This time it looked like Bob was toast. This is another candidate for #1, not just for the Top 25. It really needs to be watched back-to-back with the Patera Death Match to get a good feel for which is better. They both have so much great stuff in it that it's a bit like picking between Funk vs. Tsuruta and Baba vs. Robinson for which is the more "perfect" high end title match of the 70s. They both frankly are worked as well as could be. John

Old walk throughs ... Match #A-7 - 10/17/81 Bob Backlund vs Don Muraco (54:38 "time limit draw") Taped: The Spectrum, Philadelphia Aired: 10/17/81 PRISM Network This is a match where very early on Yohe would call out that they're going long or to a draw. They kill over six minutes with literally nothing as Muraco is in Larry mode, though perhaps not as annoying. Muraco grabs a headlock at that point, and it's Bob In Peril time as Muraco works through a headlock and a chinlock. They're both active in it, with Don working it and Bob constantly working to get out of them in various ways only to get cut off and put back in. Four minutes of that, with the last reversal being into a hammerlock by Bob. Good selling in the transition as Bob shakes out the head for a while even while holding the lock. Standard stuff here as they pick it up from time-to-time before Bob takes it back down. Don enjoys laying on his belly a bit to much, and Bob keeps torquing the arm to prod him along. Even the end of the section has Bob getting Don up off the mat to set up the counter kick to the nuts. Don goes to work on Bob's stomach. One of the fun things about this match is how they basically work their way down each other's body to fill the time: Don working the head, Bob working the arm, Don working the stomach. You know we're going to get some legwork mixed in here. Don eventually works into a claw to the stomach, called a "spike" by Graham and Rudman. Bob actually eats a deep two count off it. More standard stuff of working up and down in the hold. Don uses the neck snapper for a nice highspot in the section. They also have a really nice spot of Bob headbutting out of the hold, only to knock himself goofy with them and leave himself open to Don headbutting the stomach to put the claw back on. It does foreshadow the next section nicely. The next escape spot had Bob using the punches to losen the hold, then they do a nice facebuster spiking Don's head for a great bump. Really good transition as Bob sells the stomach through all of it, Don sells being knocked goofy in the head, and all the stuff nicely sets up the coming work on the head: fist drops, Bob's goofy foot rakes, another great facebuster and an elbow smash to the skull before hiptossing Don all the way across the ring to create the separation needed for a headscissors takeover into working the headscissors. There's just a lot of nice stuff worked into one transition sequence. The headscissors can be a rest hold, but Bob works it right after putting it on to give the crowd a bit of a high spot (and a near fall) before relaxing a bit in it. Also nice to see once he relaxes that he puts his hand to his stomach and tap it to get some feeling back as he continues to sell Don's nearly nine minutes of working over that part of the body. It plays nicely not just in selling, but also in Bob catching his breath while in control of Don: he has Don under control and a bit dazed, so he might as well collect his own head. From the bottom, Don starts working his way out of the hold. They do a cool handstand, with Don spinning himself around expecting to get out, but Bob holding on and then torquing the neck. Don tries another handstand, and this time Bob lifts his legs up and gives him a short piledriver drop that Don is just awesome in kicking his legs out and going theatrically limp on... and Bob still rubbing the feeling back into his stomach afterwards. This is basic stuff in working the headscissors. You can find some of it back in the sixty minute Baba vs. Destroyer match. But as in that classic, the two here are working it *well*. Another nice touch has Bob doing a "face rake" by dragging himself back on the mat while Don's head is down in the scissors, with Don selling the shit out of it. Sure, it's "goofy", but it's a very good comedy spot. When you're going sixty, you need to keep the fans interested in a variety of ways, and mixing in a few comedy spots goes a long way. All in all, the head scissors section goes seven and a half minutes before Don takes out Bob's leg. Another good transition as Don's not 100% all there, but Bob's wheel is gone which allows him the time to grab the advantage. Don has a variety of things he does to it, including a few legdrivers, the leg split, and a nice tease of an indian deathlock. They work a nice leg rocker for a highspot before Don goes back to working over the leg with some great kneedrops. A tease of the figure four leads to an inside craddle for an excellent near fall. These guys really have their shit down pat. Don grabs a kneebar, which doesn't really allow for much by way of counter, except that Bob does get up twice in it, the first as a tease and the second for a monkey flip that was suppose to have Don hold on and roll over for a pin attempt, but he didn't rollover well enough. They stay out of synch when Don goes for a reverse roll into the ropes. It's pretty clear from the way Bob ducked down and how Don nailed his own neck on the top rope that Don was suppose to bump off while Bob held on. Bob does hold on, but Don seems to lose himself a bit by holding onto Bob like he wants to pull back into the reverse roll, so it's a little awkward when he finally bumps back onto the mat. They're right back in synch when Bob picks Don up for a slam, his leg "gives out" and he falls back with Don on top for a two count (!) that majorly pops the crowd in thinking it might have been the finish. Don goes back to working the leg, while Bob quickly goes to counter. Don's working a reverse single leg on the ground, and Bob is awesome in powering up and then reaching back for Don's head and neck to wrap them up, driving down down to the mat for a pin attempt. Don uses the hair to break Bob's grip, and goes back to the single leg, this time with a leg scissors on Bob's leg. Bob responds with one of his patented "I'm Gonna Hit Him" spots that gets the crowd going and opens him up for the heel to cheap shot him as the ref tells him not to punch Don. Don really had a nice hold on the leg, and they're working it very well. They're more than forty minutes in and still coming up with great stuff, and the crowd is right there with them, be it for small stuff like the theatrical "I'm Gonna Hit Him" spot or Bob breaking the hold with a shot gullotine on Don's skull. Payback time as Bob goes to town on Don's leg, and the crowd eats it up. Both are great here, with Bob having a wide variety of spots to work it over, all the while playing to the crowd, and Don sells the shit out of it. Bob is also great in still selling his own leg damage. The ref does step on Bob's surfboard by counting his shoulders down instantly when they were clearly up. Bob likely was going to work *toward* the shoulder going down, but not so fast, as he looked genuinely annoyed by the count. Nice turnaround as Don shows he knows how to counter the single leg by reaching back for Bob's head and neck to force him down to the mat for a pin attempt, nicely playing off what Bob did earlier. They work it a second time, and this time Don eventually mixes in an eye rake to break the hold. More excellent transition selling, this time by Don as he methodically tries to get his head while begining to work the neck to set up the Spike. Don's not far into it before Bob "Kobashi Ups"... literally. He looks to have that same mumbling mouth work going on along with the clenched fists. Of course when Kenta does it, that's part of being the Greatest Worker After Ric, while when Bob does it... it's just plan goofy, no matter what the crowd popping might tell you. Don nicely cuts him off with a chop thrust to the throat and then goes to work on the Spike. Bob fights it well, then goes limp. The ref is a bit slow on picking up on the fact that Bob is limp, so Bob moves his arm out of his lap to his side to emphasize "I'm freaking limp, ref!" The ref gets it and promptly goes down to check him and work the "He Might Be Out" spot. Yeah... and Bob is the one who doesn't have a clue in the ring. It's shit like this that drives you nuts about the myths that have built up around Bob over the years. We've seen in these matches where he has to take the lead with opponents not wanting to do much, and in spots like this where the ref is asleep at the wheel. It's not like Bob is off in his own playbook that's hard for a ref to follow. If a spike gets put on, just like a sleeper or a bearhug, it's likely that the person in it is going to go "limp" and you're going to need to do the old Raise & Drop the Arm spot. So pay a fucking attention. The nice thing here is that Bob is paying enough attention to reel the ref back in. I digress... Don works out of the spike section with a vertical suplex got strong near fall. Bob comes right back with a small package counter for a strong nearfall in the other direction. Don drops Bob on his head with a tombstone, then eats the knees when coming off the top with a splash. The bell rings for the time limit. The two beat the shit out of each other in the post match which gets the crowd going big, even after a 55 minute draw. That pretty damn good sign of how well the two still had the crowd. I wouldn't rate this ahead of the second Backlund vs. Inoki draw, which is the best one hour match that I've seen of this era. I'd have to rewatch the Bob vs. Valentine that went an hour to see how it compares, but my thought it that the two are on par. On the other hand, I found this far more satisfying work than the Dory vs. Brisco one hour draw that far too often was a souless match. This one had a clear face and heel, and frankly had better working of holds to me. It was at a disadvantage in that it didn't have the three fall structure that let them mix in the highspots of two falls having finishes. I really think the WWF in this era would have been wise to let Bob work three fall matches in the "mix" (along with Death Matches and Cage Matches), having him split falls to build drama over some of the longer matches. It's a very structured match in layout: Six Minutes: Stalling & Feeling Out Four Minutes: Muraco works the Head Seven Minutes: Backlund works the Arm Nine Minutes: Muraco works the Stomach Seven Minutes: Bob works the Head Ten Minutes: Don works the Leg Six Minutes: Bob works the Leg Five Minutes: Don works Neck One Minutes: Work to the Finish Those are rounded generally, so if they don't add up don't worry. It's just to tag off the general layout. Most of those sections is very well done to the point if you used three of them as the body of the match in a 20-30 minute match, you'd have a hell of a match. In a one hour draw, I can see someone who doesn't like working holds and/or body parts to get tired of watching *seven* sections like that. That's not really a problem for me as I tend to think they got progressively strong in the second half, starting with Bob's working of Don's head in the scissors. I always get to a point in this match where I'm wondering why I've always liked it, usually during Don's work of the stomach since the claw is such a tough hold to sustain. While they do well in it, the section that pulls me back in is the head scissors. It's one of the most basic old school holds, but these two work it very well, as they do with the next two sections working the legs where one was a payback off the other. The working of the neck isn't as strong as it will be done in the MSG blow off match, but it does tie into one of Don's finishers of the period. In that fashion, it had more "meaning" than the three prior sections, even if they were more interesting in how they were worked. This would make my Possible list of candidates for the Top 25. There's a lot of textbook stuff in here on how to fill time, and in this case a long time. In that sense it's similar to the Backlund vs. Hogan match, which I probably should move down to the Possible list given how many strong matches are popping up that weren't on the DVDVR List. But I do very much recommend the match. One of these days someone will need to put together a "The Sixty Minute Matches" series. Backlund would have a trio of matches on it, and I think they come off well when you look at them in the context of the time. John

I remember seeing it on the syndication show show that Joe P briefly had. John

I liked the Glass Spider tour as the equiv of a "Greatest Hits" tour with the added feature of having a popular album (and some recent hits) to support. For long time hardcore Bowie fans? No. But for people who generally liked him, or recently liked him, and never could make out the goofiness, it was solid. Quality backing band as well. But in a sense, Bruce's Reunion Tour was a semi-greatest hits / greatest war horses tour, with a little sprinkling of Tracks stuff in there since he didn't really have a new record to pound. It might not have been as thrilling as some earlier tours, but seeing him with the band again had value and was fun.

http://deadspin.com/5976517/manti-teos-dea...eason-is-a-hoax As usual, sports does "reality" (or in this case "fake reality") better than it's scripted brother ever can. Too bad Russo isn't running something major so we could watch his shitty attempt to play off this. John

The year of Lucha at the top spot. John

Dan's unearthed version appears to be the full match. I think he walked through it somewhere, but there looked to be no cuts or anything... and instead it's quite possible that the time counter just got the match time wrong. I think Dan may have a post about it hear, or on tOA walking through it. John

Awesome!

I always thought of "pinball bumping" more along the lines of getting hit, bumping, getting back up, getting hit again, bumping, getting back up, getting hit again, bumping. Rapid fire bumping, in other words. As far as who originated, don't know. Obviously Tully was one who did it quite a bit, while Shawn and Hennig got credit for it later. Of course Flair could eat a number of clotheslines from faces, pop back up only to eat another. Dusty loved heels bumping for him like that as well. John

That. John

To a degree, I agree. Savage-Tito matches work on some level as stand alone matches. But I tend to think they work much better as an arc: 02/08/86 Boston: Tito Santana vs Randy Savage 03/16/86 MSG: Randy Savage vs Tito Santana 04/22/86 MSG: Randy Savage vs Tito Santana (No DQ) 05/19/86 MSG: Randy Savage vs Tito Santana 06/14/86 MSG: Randy Savage & Adrian Adonis vs Tito Santana & Bruno Sammartino 07/12/86 MSG: Randy Savage & Adrian Adonis vs Tito Santana & Bruno Sammartino (Cage) Tito drops the title in the first. He has no luck winning the belt back, with the final MSG singles match with Bruno as guest ref leading into the tag team match. Tito finally gets his "payback" in the cage match, though Macho keeps the belt. The No DQ match is a high point, and to a degree it's the strongest stand alone match. But the context of why it's no dq (Savage causing a dq to save his title in the prior match), and the general increasing dislike between the two, comes across stronger by watching the prior matches. It's possible we'd get the same thing by watching the full series of MX vs R'n'R matches in say Greensboro in 1986. John

I liked that match a fair amount. Good, solid, reasonably smart house show match. Disappointing to hear that the later matches weren't up to snuff.

Good idea for organizing stuff.

My guess is that most of those matches are online in the usual places, and thus aren't hard to find (as opposed to finding them on disc). The comment isn't that anyone has to watch *all* of them. But I suspect various posters here have watched a number of them, or could search around for them. Shoe, for example, has watched a ton of WWF 80s stuff. I think Dylan has watched a good deal as well. The points are: * Savage had some well received feuds in the WWF in the 1986-87 period, not just for being famous but also match quality * those feuds kicked out a number of good-to-great matches in various settings * there's more Savage vs Ted than just SNME, Mania and the MSG trio * so if those don't hit the mark, the others might Example: in trying to find a Savage-Steamer match before The Angle aired but after the feud started, I had to sift through a couple to find one where everything clicked. The other(s) weren't bad, had flashes, but also didn't hit that "very good" or "excellent" level. In turn, finding something between The Angle and Mania was for years a problem: the Spectrum matches after the Angle aired just weren't great, and the two never worked a singles in MSG. Then Montreal popped up... and it was a gold mine. With Savage-Ted, there's: SNME Mania Post Mania Rematch(es) Cage Blow Off There's also the stuff at SummerSlam, which fits in but itsn't as important at looking at Savage-Ted. So the questions are: * what are the best post-Mania rematches * which cage match is best * can one piece together a 4-5 match sequence that best captures the feud with as good of matches as possible? And are there any really good matches in there? My recollection is that the SNME match is pretty decent. In turn, the Mania match isn't. That's on long ago watching. Either way, we're generally stuck with them since they're the front end of the feud and can't be swapped out. But after that, there are at least 7 different rematches to look at, and 2 cage matches. That's a lot of chances of have some very good to great matches. John

BTW... could you imagine WCW booking Bugs? It would be worse than Goldberg's dropping the title. John

John

Being aware and being self aware are two different things. You can be aware that others are critical of you. In turn, you can dismiss it because, what the fuck, you're more successful writing about pro wrestling (and MMA for that matter) than any of the people being critical so... fuck them. It's a world different to be self aware that while your "content", "facts", "reporting" and "information" may be really good / strong / great that your actual "writing quality" is poor / bad / embarrassing at times. While he's aware of criticism, I doubt Dave thinks his writing is ever bad or poor, nor is embarrassed by it, except in times like this... when it's being factually wrong in what he published that embarrassed him, not the quality of his writing. Does that make sense? I think we're talking about two sides of the same coin, Will. John

It's possible that Bowie came close to reinventing himself over a fair number of years. That doesn't mean that you weren't going to get a similar version of Major Tom across a lot of those tours from the 70s into the mid-80s.

Probably best to watch this one after watching their match from earlier in the series: http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?showtopic=13576

Okay... it's pretty clear that Mike didn't like Terry as much as Dory. John

Here's the DiBiase challenge: 03/07/88 Savage vs DiBiase (03/12/88 SNME) 03/27/88 Savage vs DiBiase (WM) 04/25/88 Savage vs DiBiase (MSG) 05/27/88 Savage vs DiBiase (MSG) 06/25/88 Savage vs DiBiase (MSG - Cage) 07/09/88 Savage vs DiBiase (Boston) 07/23/88 Savage vs DiBiase (Spectrum) 07/31/88 Savage vs DiBiase (County Stadium, Milwaukee) 08/06/88 Savage vs DiBiase (Boston) 08/27/88 Savage vs DiBiase (Spectrum) 09/24/88 Savage vs DiBiase (Spectrum - Cage) We know that Savage had excellent house show and big matches against Santana and Steamboat. They weren't all home runs, but a fair number of them raised above "solid" to be "very good" or "great" within the context of the WWF in the 80s. So how many great or really good ones are in this series? I know opinion varies, as some think the MSG cage match was great while I've never found it mind altering. So we might get some differences. But this is Ted's signature feud in the WWF, it headlines and drew, and we've been given a lot of examples of it to look at. How much of it was ****+? One can also look at the brawler/tech aspect as well. John