JerryvonKramer

Dory Funk Jr vs. Steve Keirn (05/08/81) Dory was Floria Heavyweight Champ around this point. Incidentally in 81 he was also the first NWA International Champions in All Japan after they brought that belt back. This would have been between the AJPW tours. Dory spent most of 81 either in All Japan or Florida. Of course, Solie on commentary and he says Keirn is in the condition of his life. Shame the same can't be said of his hair! This is quite cool, don't get to see studio wrestling from Florida very often. Dory starts off with a headlock. Hiptoss by Keirn, float over, arm bar. Dory reverses it. Keirn tries to counter the armbar with a Russian legsweep, blocked, he hits an arm drag instead. Criss-cross and Kerin gets Dory in a sleeper. Suplex by Keirn. This is the first match I've seen for Dory to be really dominated like this, he's giving Keirn a lot here. Piledriver! Only two. Dory dumps Keirn out of the ring to break the momentum. Now he seems to knock him out on the turnbuckle post. Spinning toehold! Keirn is KO'd here. But Dory keeps going another spinning toehold. Another one! He's not giving up. He pushes the ref aside too! Mike Graham is here now to ward Dory off and he leaves. But no!! Dory sneaks back around and attacks Graham! Punches him. Dumps him. OOHHHHH he stiffs the ref in the face!! Punched him right out! And now he's trying to attack Keirn again. Graham comes back but Dory nails him. Kneedrop from the top rope! Uppercut on Graham. Stomps on Keirn. He grabs the ref again and slaps him. And again. PILEDRIVER ON THE REF! Holy shit! He's gone nuts. Another person hits the ring and he dumps them. Spinning toehold on Graham! Dory is wild. Bodyslam on Graham and we go to a break. **1/2 Too short really to get more, but Keirn looked good for the brief-running length and we get to see more Psycho Dory as he completely destroys three men. The attacks on the ref are so random that I found them really funny. This was interesting because it was Dory working as an out and out heel and presumably a top heel anchor for the promotion around this time; he worked differently. He bumped around a bit more, he gave more to Keirn, and was willing to show ass as he was booked to do. Very interesting to see the contrast between his work here, and how he was working in All Japan as a top babyface. Dory Funk Jr vs. Mike Graham (08/13/81) Again, I don't have the date, but this looks like it was part of the same run and presumably the incident in the last match helped to set this up. Gordon Solie says that both men have agreed that this will be under "Australian British Empire rules": six, seven-minute rounds. Solie says that Dory as a former NWA champion he'll have vastly more experience in this sort of match-up than Graham. "Coach" John Heath agrees and says that he thinks Dory is probably the smartest man in wrestling. This is for the Florida title, of course. Winner of the most rounds wins. Dory gets some heel heat when he's introduced. Round 1: Dory gets Graham in a headlock. Coach Heath now with some fanastic colour analysis: he says that anyone going up against Dory is going to be worried about his spinning toehold, which you don't usually see till the end of the match. But that means that most wrestlers are going to go into the match with all sorts of defensive strategies in mind to counter attacks on their legs as Dory works to go for his signature move. BUT says Heath, Dory knows this, so you'll notice that 99% of his attacks on the head and shoulder region, "the side and front chancery". Wow, Coach Heath is really good at this. Dory works a series of cradles. Heath talks about how this cuts off the air and affects "respatory intake". Heath is making this so far with his interesting insights. Dory brings Graham back down to the mat and works the headlock. Heath says, however, that he thinks Mike Graham is one of the top 4 wrestlers in the world today, but also that Dory is also in the top 4. I wonder who the other two are in Heath's book. Graham goes to an arm bar. Solie mentions that Graham has been doing a lot of travelling of late, especially to "the Orient". Bodyslam by Graham and an armdrag. He's working the leftarm now. Only 3 minutes remain of this first round. Graham stays on top after some rope running, and goes back to the arm. After another slam, Dory bails to break the momentum, 25 seconds remain. Heath praises Dory's ring savvy. The first round is over, neither man could gain a pinfall or submission. So does it go to points? Seemingly not. It's a draw for this round. Verdict so far ... Coach Heath needs to be talked about more as being one of the all-time great colour commentators! Round 2: Pace picks up now with Graham hitting another armdrag and a bodyslam. Goes for the figure-four, but Dory quickly breaks the attempts and backs off. Heath talks about Dory's experience again and how Graham's youth and exuberance may be getting the better of him. And now, Terry Funk has come to ringside, he has a full beard. Solie isn't happy that Terry is here. Graham has Dory in a head-scissors and is wrenching it back and forth. Bodyslam. Dory backs up. Armdrag once again by Graham. Solie and Heath give Graham the edge at this point, seems like he's found a chink in the champ's armour here. But Dory dumps Graham out of the ring and ties himself up with the ref, which allows Terry to get in some punches. Solie is unhappy, but the dastardly Funks have regained the advantage. Dory with a series of uppercuts now. Delayed double under-hook suplex -- beautiful move and well executed. Inside cradle gets 1, 2, 3. Dory goes 1-0 up with an assist from his brother. Round 3: Dory jumps Graham to start and hits six or seven uppercuts. And he dumps Graham to the outside again right next to Terry who shouts abuse at him. Vertical suplay back in by Dory, and several more uppercuts to floor him. Elbow drop. Piledriver. Well-executed. Only gets two. This youngster has guts. More uppercuts now, but Graham starts to come back. He fires up, but Dory hits a snapmare, misses an elbow. Dropkick by Graham! But misses a second as Dory sidesteps it and a kneelift. Dory wins the second fall with what Heath calls a "deep inside jackknife cradle". Terry gets in the ring to consult with Dory, who is now 2-0 up. Round 4: Graham starts with a headlock. Heath says that being 2-0 down has completely affected Graham's strategy going into this match. Solie says that this is critical for Graham now. Belly-to-back suplex by Dory. Forearms in the corner. But Graham comes back again with right in the corner, Dory breaks it with a knee to the gut. Dory dumps Graham out of the ring again. Terry goes over but gets caught jawing with some fans who are angry. Back in the ring, and Dory gets an abdominal stretch on which Heath calls a "standing open guillotine", he talks about anatomy in a manner that would give both Gorilla Monsoon and Jim Ross hard ons. Hiptoss by Graham. Dory counters with a "top nelson joined to an inside cradle", which is a devastating hold according to Heath. Dory goes for a suplex but Graham reverses it. Dory hits a block forearm, but Graham comes back. Slugfest now but Graham comes out on top. Bodyslam. Kneedrop. Another slam. But Graham misses an elbow. But a deep inside cradle by Graham gets a flash pin. It's 2-1 to Dory. This has been a smartly booked and worked match so far. Round 5: Side nelson by Dory to start this, but Graham escapes. Tempers starting to flare here. Indian deathlock by Graham. Dory's in trouble. Graham sits back on the deathlock and also goes for a pin while still in the hold. Break because they are in the ropes. Hammerlock takeover by Graham, but Dory comes back with the forearms, uppercuts and chops. Goes for a slam and Graham goes for that inside cradle. Heath says that Dory needs to switch his game here and now needs to control, which he does with a hold of some descriptions. Solie mentions that there's been a study recently that shows that wrestlers have the highest cardie-vascular development of any athletes. Ha ha. Heath talks about how wrestling is a game of human chess and that Dory is THE chess master. Gutwrench suplex by Dory now. "Quarter nelson lock on the shoulder blade". Crowd gets behind Graham and he gets a "go Mike go!" chant. Forearms in the corner again but Dory. Snapmare. Spinning toehold! But Graham blocks and reverses and gets on the figure-four!! And that's it Dory submits to it to give up the second fall for Graham. So it's tied 2-2 ahead of round 6. As we go into the break, they play a excerpt from Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds. Round 6: Dory's leg is injured after the figure-four and he's in trouble heading into this. Graham goes right back to work on the leg, but Dory counters into a wrist-lock and the quarter-nelson on the shoulder again. Heath goes on about how you don't get to be NWA champion for four years without considerable ring smarts. Dory dumps Graham again for his brother to attack. Dory distracts the ref and Terry chokes Graham with his necktie and rolls him back in. Uppercut by Dory gets two. Struggle over the pin now, up to a vertical base, and Dory rams Graham into the turnbuckle, and Dory starts punching Graham, who comes back with rights. Dory has the crimson mask and Graham pounds on the cut. He goes for the figure four and Terry gets on the apron. Dory is dazed and swings wildly, his in "desperate straights" and bails. Back in and Graham pounds on Dory's injured head. Two minutes remain. Knee to the rib-cage. Dory tackles him and tries a cheap pin with his legs on the ropes, but the ref spots it. Both men tumble over the top to the outside. Terry is on the apron again. Back in and both men are down. Dory's face is covered in blood by this point. Inside cradle gets two. Dory covers for two. Slugfest. Double-leg takeover by Graham and back into the figure-four. We could be seeing a new champion! Time limit expires!! What happened? Back to Solie and Heath, and it was a draw! Dory is still the champ. **** With at least 1/2 a star added for the quality of the commentary helpling to make this an intriguing encounter, debating whether to go higher. I don't give out ****1/4 as a rating, but this is round around there. Listening to Heath and Solie during this match, added a completely different dimension to some of the matwork, and it really helped me appreciate the psychology of the counter wrestling some more, while teaching me the names of some holds in the meantime. HOWEVER, this was not worked in the dry technical manner that you'd expect. Dory was in heel mode, and seemed at times to be trying to turn it from a technical affair into a brawl. When Terry turned up, Dory was happy to break every rule in the book to regain the advantage, and in the contest of such a theoretically technical match as this, with people talking up his rep as a former NWA champ etc. etc., I thought that was some great dickery on his part. I thought this match showed a glimpse of what your typical Dory broadway might have been like back in the day if he was working in a dirtier heel mode, maybe against a local hero. Dory's highspots: the delayed double-under-hook suplex, the vertical suplex, the gutwrench suplex, the belly-to-back suplex and the piledriver are all very well executed. The psychology in this match was also great, with Dory trying first to outwrestle Graham but quickly getting frustrated and desperate and resorting to dirty tactics and cheap shortcuts. I'm surprised by how much I enjoyed this, because on paper it looks like it would be an absolute snooze-fest. Dory Funk Jr vs. Tully Blanchard (sometime in 1980?) This is from Southwest Championship Wrestling where Tully had several feuds with The Funks. I read over at Kayfabe Memories that in one angle around 81/82, Tully viciously attacked Terry with a clawhammer and Dory had a match with him to avenge it. However, I believe this match is from 1980 when Tully was still a face and the SWCW champion, Dory is the challenger. We join it in progress where the commentator criticises Dory for pulling the hair. and using dirty tactics. I'm not sure who the commentator is, but he has a David Crockett-ish quality. They seem like they've been wrestling a good while when we join them. The commentator says that Dory has been showing a lot of unsportsmanlike conduct tonight. Throws Tully into the turnbuckle and he flips over to the outside. Back in the ring, and he has Tully in a hammerlock. Applies the pressure and wrenches in the knees. Uppercuts and elbows in the corner, but Tully comes back. It's a slugfest. Tully gets the better of it with elbows to Dory's head. Dory crashes down. Tully closes in but Dory puts one leg outside the ring to get the ref to intervene. Big headlock wrenches by Tully now, the crowd counts the wrenches. He stays in the headlock. Tully rolls the headlock around. He is working it as interestingly as possible. But Dory now counters with a shinbreaker. Dory grabs Tully by the hair and hits him with two hard rights before snapmare, but Tully hits a backslide for two. Elbow to the jaw stuns Tully and Dory applies an abdominal stretch which the commentator calls a "semi-half nelson", ha ha. Dory grabs the tights while he's applying the hold, "I don't think I've ever seen Dory Funk Jr wrestle the way he is tonight", says the commentator in disgust. Dory goes for a dropkick but Tully ducks it, and now gets on the figure-four. Tully wrenches on the figure-four, but Dory gets to the ropes. Tully wrenches on the leg again but Dory goes to the hair again and flings Tully to the outside. Back in and Tully is on the attack again. We're told there's thirty minutes gone, so we're missing the first fifteen. Slugfest in the corner but Tully is coming out on top while Dory is missing. Dory tries to bail, but Tully brings him back in. Belly-to-back suplex by Dory. He covers and yes he gets the three! Dory pins Tully! But his feet were in the ropes. I don't see Dory's name in the record books. Piecing together what happened, it looks like either this was a Dusty finish OR the title was vacated and Terry Funk won the resultant tournament. Which would actually put this match in early 81. Not sure, I can't find any decent results for this promotion. I know in 81-2 that The Funks turned face after the angle I described before. As for the match, I can't really give it a rating because we only got the last 12 minutes or so of a 30-minute match. I thought some of it looked a bit sloppy, but Tully looked good working that headlock and taking the bumps. Dory seemed to be working especially dirty, as a proper cheap heel. Dory Funk Jr vs. Dick Slater (1981?) I can date this to 81 or 82 because Slater is the SWCW champion and he had two different runs with the belt in those two years. The commentator is very Texan, I think it is Gene Kelly, and this whole place has a great and unique vibe. I wonder how much Southwest from this era is out there. Slam by Slater. Kelly references the "now infamous hammer incident" that occurred last week, when Terry Funk was injured at the hands of Tully, so that puts this in late 1981. Bodyslam by Dory. The commentator calls Slater "Dickie Slater" throughout. Dory with a headlock now. The commentator talks about how last week, Tully took the claws of a hammer to Terry Funk's ear and now he's having problems with his equilibrium. That sounds like such a tremendous angle, I've looked for it but it's not out there and is considered lost. Strange that we have the week after but not that week. As Dory works this headlock he leverages his weight right on top of the neck, that's simple but more effective working of the hold than 90% of applications you'll see. Dory keeps this on now. I can't help but notice that now he's a face he's working very clean and more technical. Atomic drop by Slater. Rack by Dory gets two. Back to the headlock. Gene Kelly is so Texan that I'm fancying BBQ. He tells us that Nick Bockwinkel is in town tonight, and he's "set Manny Fernandez for the babyblues". "Oooohh skin the rabbit, Dickie". Atomic drop by Dory sends Slater over the top. "Forearm lift shivers Slater's timbers". Gene Kelly is AWESOME. Suplex by Slater. Crowd starts chanting "Dory Dory". Snapmare by Slater. Kneedrop. Backbreaker by Slater. Kelly mentions that Ken Patera was doing tests of strength earlier. Hmmm, seems like Southwest had some big-name workers passing through in 1981. Slater goes for a piledriver but Dory reverses into a backdrop. Slater takes a tumble to the outside, as Dory is lying prone in the ring. Tully hits the ring now wearing ALL WHITE and starting stomping on Dory! Dory grabs leg and starts uppercutting him. Headlock takeover and Dory now beats on Tully, but Slater recovers and grabs Dory. Double-teaming now. Stomps. Scott Casey hits the ring to make the save and squares off with Slater. Dory knocks Tully down. They all brawl to the back. Dory gets back into the ring to get his hand raised. ** This was a match where I thought Slater and Dory were working two different styles and not meshing well. Slater was bumping around and running around and working his ass off, Dory was in early 70s mode and not really prepared to work the sort of match Slater seemed to want, so you'd get awkward spots where Dory, for example, hit a mild atomic drop and then Slater basically bounced, on his own, to take a big bump to the outside -- almost Mr. Perfect style. I don't know if it's a knock on Slater or a knock on Dory, but something wasn't clicking here. Dory was also not really fired up enough in the angle with Tully at the end. Really feels like he was saving his A-game for All Japan and Florida and had turned up for a paycheck here. Dory Funk Jr and Terry Funk vs. Scott Casey and Relampico Leon (1981?) I'm guessing this was a few weeks before the last match and before the claw/hammer angle. Terry starts out but soon tags in Dory. Hip toss by Casey and a bodyslam. They mention on commentary that Terry Funk is the current SWCW champion so that actually makes it a few months before the last match in about mid-81. Leon has one hell of a first name! He works a headlock here. He has a sleazy-looking moustache. The colour commentator on with Gene Kelly is not the brightest tool in the shed: "the Southwest title is the most prestigic title". Yes, "prestigic". Maybe people sent footage of this up to Vince so he could confirm all his anti-Southern biases. Funks double-team Leon. Uppercut by Dory. Funks have fantastic chemistry as partners. Delayed double-under-hook suplex. Thing. Of. Beauty. Tags out to Terry, who hits an elbow drop. Legdrop by Terry, covers for two. Dory in. Three uppercuts, belly-to-back suplex. Still only two. Fair play, Leon is one tough JTTS. Dory dumps him. Terry atomic drops him outside of the ring. Casey goes after Terry as Dory rolls Leon in. Spinning toehold! Casey breaks it. Leon comes back and tags in Casey to is a house of fire. Slams Dory. Really poor stuff from the faces now as Leon seems absolutely lost and takes an age to Irish whip Dory into Casey's legs which saps all momentum from the comeback. Casey hits punches on both Funks now and a double noggin knocker. Terry hits a headbutt though and staggers about. Dory grabs Casey's hair, Leon tags in and hits a dropkick on Terry. Dory breaks the pin. Leon hits a bodyslam. Dory hits the flying knee press from the top rope as Terry holds him for three. ** The Funks are just superb as a tag-team: a well oiled machine, totally aware of each others' strengths and they know exactly what to do: when to work a heat segment, when to feed a comeback etc. But they were working with some pretty shitty opposition here who really drag this match down from being an enjoyable competitive squash to an embarrassment of sorts for the promotion that made it look like The Funks shouldn't really be there. At one point the commentator tried on the "main event in any arena in the world" line, and I don't think a single person in the world then or now would buy that. Leon, in particular, looked poor and Casey not much better. Dory Funk Jr vs. Carlos Rodriguez (1980?) This seems like it was earlier. Gene Kelly is not on commentary, it's a more sprightly chap who is joined by Jose Lothario who is here to provide expert analysis. Dory puts Rodriguez on his shoulders in the air-plane spin position and just sits him on the turnbuckle. Rodgriguez has a waistlock on Rogriguez, Dory comes around to reverse it. Legdrag takeover, split and elbow drop. Forearm smash by Dory. Reverse chinlock by Dory. Uppercut. Snapmare. Chinlock. Lothario for whatever reason makes me feel like there's a drug deal going down soon Breaking Bad style, it's just that Texmex accent. Carlos starts to comeback and hits a dropkick. Headlock. Elbow smash by Dory. Suplex by Dory. Nicely executed. The commentator mentions that Dory is the SWCW champion which means that the Wikipedia records are incorrect! That puts this match after the Tully one but before the others. Spinning toehold! and that's all she wrote. They mention that Dory won the belt two weeks ago in Corpus Christi. We have an interview with Tully now and said that he hates to cry into his milk, but he's not the Southwest champion anymore. The Funks are there too. Terry interrupts. "Wait a minute Blanchard, just hold it one second, you have NEVER reached our level! You'll always be a neophyte compared to the Funk name. Sure your FATHER was a tremendous athlete, your father was great. Our father was great too. We'll both admit that, but we are proven people in the world of professional wrestling, but look what Junior did to you when you faced him, right Junior?" Dory gets on the mic now. He says that the proof is in the pudding and that he beat Tully, but Tull argues that he beat Terry in the middle of the ring and that in his heart of hearts, Dory knows that he beat him too two weks ago. Dory says he never stole anyone in his life and that he won the title fair and square, right in the middle. Tully says that in Corpus Christi he was pumped up, and that te very next night he beat Dory, and that he has a tape to prove that he really won the match. But we don't get to see that on this clip ... hmmm, so I'm thinking that the belt was vacated as a result of all this. I might go and read some Southwest history to see if I'm right. * Nothing match really. I don't think Dory is best-placed working squashes against young no-namers like this. Doesn't really play to his strengths. Dory Funk Jr and Manny Fernandez vs. Tank Patton and Moon Mulligan (late 1981? / early 82?) Gene Kelly mentions early on that the clawhammer incident was a couple of months ago which puts this late on in 81 or very early in 82. Moon Mulligan is a bit like an early 80s Max Payne spliced with pure jobber. Dory has a wristlock on Tank Patton, but Moon intervenes. Kelly is a real character on commentary, a real good ol' boy. Patton with a hiptoss and an elbow drop for two. They've been tagging in and out, Dory is basically working FIP here. Dory hits a back suplex on Mulligan to escape a headlock. But Patton takes over. They've cut the ring off here. Quick tags in and out, fairplay effective work from the heels here. Patton with a side headlock. Double-teaming from him and Mulligan. Tag to Manny is hardly "hot", crowd doesn't seem to care about this. Fernandez hits a back slide on Mulligan for three to win $5,000. Apparently, Mulligan had said he'd give five grand to anyone who could pin him. Manny is annoyed that he hasn't been given his money. Mulligan has high-tailed it, he owes the man some money! *1/2 Pretty nothing TV match but was interesting to see Dory work as FIP. The heels were surprisingly good here, but I'm not sure that Dory is the most sympathetic FIP in the world and Manny didn't seem that over with the crowd when they hit the hot tag. Felt like Dory was just hanging around a bit long after being involved in the hotter angles earlier in the year and was just working some dates before moving on. One thing I'll say is that there seems to be a real difference between motivated Dory and Dory just half-assing it, we mostly get the latter in Southwest. In Florida, however, he seemed to bring it. And that completes this little round-up of Dory in Florida and Southwest. Next time, I'll be looking at The Funks against a variety of different opponents, including Ricky Steamboat and Jay Youngblood, Nick Bockwinkel and Blackjack Lanza, Rick Martel and Tom Zenk, and The Road Warriors (in three different matches). Tune in next time Dory fans!

Not unless you are magic. I'm assuming you listened to the first one where we look through the newsletters. A second show has been posted about 1981 rosters. For Titans Xtra, we're not having separate threads for each show. I wanted to keep down on "clutter".

Johnny is only truly "wasted" during the first 10 minutes or so of this. If you're wondering how he gets progressively more sober, it's because we recorded the intro last. I mention this, because I don't want him claiming that his insane defense of Strongbow was under the influence!

http://placetobenation.com/titans-of-wrestling-31-cobra-clutch-challenge-wwf-february-to-march-1981/ Parv, Pete, Johnny and Kelly travel to Allentown and they're closing all the factories down for the Cobra Clutch challenge! On the docket tonight: 02-21 Cobra Clutch Challenge: Jeff Carson 02-28 Cobra Clutch Challenge: Rick McGraw 02-28 Stan Hansen vs Steve King 03-07 Cobra Clutch Challenge: Pat Patterson - Discussion of the WWF TV product and them drawing in Canada - Johnny adopts the totally ridiculous stance that Chief Jay Strongbow was a good worker because crowds cheered for him - Bios for long-time ring announcer Joe McHugh, and jobbers Jack Carson, Ron Shaw, and the Black Demon - Slow-burn turns including random discussion of Sting's stupidity - Plus: Italian restaurants in St. Louis! The Love Brothers! The burial of David Sammartino! And much, much more. The PWO-PTBN Podcast Network features great shows you can find right here at Place to Be Nation. By subscribing on iTunes or SoundCloud, you’ll have access to new episodes, bonus content, as well as a complete archive of: Where the Big Boys Play, Titans of Wrestling, Pro-Wrestling Super-Show, Good Will Wrestling, and Wrestling With the Past.

I have about 6 or 7 obsessive interests: films, music, board games, video games, football ("soccer") and pro wrestling. It's almost like they are on a wheel or a loop. I am always into all of them, but each month one of them will "come into focus" and be featured more, it'll be in the main event slot. Sometimes some interests take a back seat. Football just had a major run over the world cup to the point where I wasn't going to social engagements or leaving the house to try to watch every game -- a special case. Board games had a big run in May which happened to coincide with the UK Games Expo and a big trip a group of us did there. Films and video games have both been in recess for the past few months, but video games had a big run around Xmas 2013 sort of time, and films around February-March in the middle of Oscar season. Music had a biggish run around the time I wrote the first Wu-Tang article. Wrestling is currently in the middle of a major run, after the semester has ended and I've got more time to watch stuff. I've been like that for as long as I can remember, although I will say that being part of various projects has helped keep wrestling from drifting too far "into recess". Even during periods where wrestling is in number 5 or 6 slot, I've had stuff to watch and talk about for podcasts.

Who are they? Just wondering.

Wow Steve, I only posted it 5 minutes ago!

So the fact he does two spots that you don't like is enough for you to say that Flair isn't the GOAT and to argue that those who do are overrating him? Is this what you're saying?

Titans Xtra: 1981 Roster Analysis Part 1 - St. Louis, Mid-Atlantic, Florida, Georgia https://soundcloud.com/jerryvonkramer/titans-xtra-1981-roster-analysis-part-1 In the first of a series of shows on this theme, Parv, Kelly and Dylan analyse and rate the rosters of every major wrestling promotion from 1981. They start with the core NWA promotions, JCP (Mid-Atlantic), GCW (Georgia), and CWF (Florida), and its flagship city, St. Louis.

Ric Flair beat Race at Starrcade 83 coming off the top rope.

You can't get away with that post Matt because you make it sound like Flair's matches as traveling champ were all the same, but they weren't at all. Watch his matches vs. Jumbo, Martel, Carlos Colon, Kerry Von Erich, Dusty Rhodes, Ted DiBiase and Jerry Lawler as a completely random scattershot and then tell me that they are all the same. They aren't, it can scarcely be argued. Flair's "formula" match is against limited opponents who worked a big-man "power wrestler" style: Hawk, Nikita, Sting, Luger in 88. I simply won't let it be said that Flair was unimaginative and worked the same match against all those different opponents in different places because it's just not true. I'm not giving anyone a free pass on it until they watch the matches and break them down.

Also, as much as you can argue that Flair did have a set formula vs. big men of limited ability, that formula worked. The Clash 1 match made Sting into a star. The 88 matches with Luger helped get him over as a main eventer. The 1985 matches with Nikita helped give Crockett another creditable main eventer from someone who was both inexperienced and limited. The 87 match with Road Warrior Hawk gave Crockett another main event people could buy into and that match is highly rated by some people (not me, I HATE Hawk in that match, if you want to talk about "disrespect", look at him there). So as much as Flair did "go to" that against those sorts of opponents, he did it because it helped to get them over. I doubt Sting is going to be too worried about being led by the nose for 30-odd minutes; he wasn't' complaining about it when he was earning $750k.

Yip, and another one that people often overlook: The Valiants We loved them in 1979 on Titans. John Valiant is a great talker. Jimmy is very good at crowd control, and Jerry Valiant might be one of the most underrated bumpers in history. You can make a good argument that The Valiants were at least a decade ahead of their time. And certainly you can see aspects of The Valiants that end up in The Freebirds -- has Michael Hayes talked about The Valiants anywhere? Honestly, in what has been a very shitty tag division in WWF from 79-81 so far, these guys were the shining beacons of hope.

Well hold on, the Luger matches after 88 aren't that match, so clearly he gave Luger that space even though we know Flair thought Luger was shit and didn't respect him at all. The Scott Steiner match -- the one match where Flair abandons the very formula vs. big men that we're talking about -- and everyone rags on it that Flair didn't give Scott enough. So what is it? If he's pinballing and calling it in the ring he's being "disrespectful" (to guys by that point who really had no right to clean his boots let alone work with him), if he changes up and works a more dominant style he's "burying" the opponent. Well?

I should point out that not all of my picks are serious, I just got a kick out of trying to argue that The Mega Bucks and Virgil were a three-man stable. Ha ha ha.

How can he give them same match if so much of those matches are pinballing for the opponent? But anyway ... Flair leading limited workers by the nose is one of his skills, that he drags servicable matches out of such opponents and sticks them through a "formula" is not a knock on the guy, it's the definition of "broomstick worker", that is Flair wrestling himself. I'll grant you that on occasion Flair could underrate opponents and just give them that match. It's basically the match he always has with Sting. And I've said many times that Sting always feels like Flair's most cookie cutter opponent. It's the match he'd has with Road Warriror Hawk. And probably the best version of it is the match with Luger in 88 or maybe one of the Kerry Von Erich matches. I think some of this is perceptive and true. You can add to it also his "match vs. inferior opponent", which can be a dominant squash or be the "underestimated underdog" Sam Houston variant (of which the Ricky Morton matches are the apotheosis). But what isn't true is that Flair works two brawls or tech matches the same. His matches vs. Jumbo and vs. Steamer aren't the same. His matches with Ron Garvin and Terry Funk aren't the same. It's just simply not true to say that. I think what it might be true to say is that Flair has opponents who he leads by the nose, and other opponents who he respects enough to let them carry their end of the match. I think it's probably fair to assume that Flair thought Taker in 92 was along the lines of a Road Warrior Hawk.

I don't think any criticism of Flair winds me up more than this. Watch three matches of ANY guy in the history of wrestling in a row and you'll find repeated spots. It's just the grammar of pro-wrestling. I've watched Dory Funk Jr. and Terry Funk matches back-to-back and there's shit both of them do in EVERY match. I don't see guys ragging on Terry Funk because he always does that 360 bump over the top rope. Jumbo Tsurta will always go for the running knee. Arn Anderson will always go for the second rope move that never hits as will DiBiase. Watch enough Ivan Koloff matches and you can predict exactly when he's going to feed the opponent his spot to comeback. Every wrestler ever has signature moves and signature bumps they do in every single match. This criticism is a fucking nonsense, it really is. It's literally like saying, "I've watched three Ryu (from Street Fighter 2) matches in a row and do you know what, he did a ha-do-ken in every single one of them". Well no shit, that's what Ryu does. But the reason this pisses me off is that Flair is the one guy who really doesn't give you the same match twice, not even against different opponents. Watch three of the Luger matches back-to-back. Watch three Garvin matches back-to-back. Watch three Savage matches back-to-back. Or the Steamboat matches. None of them are the same, structurally, or in Flair's performance. "Oh but he does a Flair flip in every single one of them" Oh fuck off. Sorry, but this is one thing guaranteed to get a rise out of me. And I've dealt with it as a criticism again and again and again, pointing to specific matches, and specific runs of matches where it is clearly and definitively not true. Flair wrestles very different matches even within a short time frame. I've talked about how he has at least four different personalities, and how sometimes you'll see all four of them in one match. "Oh but he does a Flair flip and a Flair flop".

Some other three-man stables you might want to think about: The Mega Bucks and Virgil. Neither The Shield nor The Freebirds were ended bosses of an arcade game. Their drawing power in the first half of 1988 would be interesting to look at vs. either Shield or Freebirds. As far as longevity goes, you COULD argue that they remained as a tacit and implied unit until Wrestlemania V, because of DiBiase's run-in during the Jake-Andre match. The Midnight Express and Jim Cornette You could argue that Jim Cornette is just as good a talker as Hayes, that Eaton is a better workhorse than Buddy Roberts and that Gordy is overrated, and that you'd take Dennis Condrey or Stan Lane over him. Still, MX are as good as any three-man unit I can think of. Obviously Corny is not a wrestler, but he's totally integral to the package. The Rat Pack DiBiase, Duggan and Matt Borne. They were certainly a hot act in Mid-South and their break-up produced a hotter feud than any of the Freebirds vs. Freebirds stuff. They surely drew vs. Watts / JYD. Part of some legendary angles. Demolition Just padding out the numbers to be honest, but but but but ... has there ever been a cooler-looking Survivor Series team than The Perfect team? Perhaps, but I thought it's probably the best Demolition ever looked. The Original NWO Let's face it, NWO was all about Hogan, Nash and Hall. Arguably, in 1996 they were AS HOT as the Freebirds ever were, if not hotter, and hotter than The Shield in terms of getting people to watch the product. Longevity is their issue, how long is it before more were added? The Russians People will rag on Krusher Krushsev, but for a while there, Nikita was the top heel in JCP headlining shows, and Ivan and Krusher were tag champs having near ***** matches with the Rock n Roll Express. Too Cool and Rikishi I don't think I've ever hated anything in my life as much as their dancing shit in the middle of the attitude era. I hated it then, I hate it now. But about as over as a midcard act can get for a while there. The Brood Will be maligned for Gangrel, but again these guys were really over for a while and this group was arguably the platform that launched two major stars of the next decade.

Because you wanted it as number 1 or because you felt the black and gold was robbed?

I can't tell if the stuff about MX is intended as a troll. More interested though: how much Jack and Jerry have you seen and from when?

It really depends on how many Belgians there are in the team. For each one, multiply the inefficiency by ten.

I'd be surprised if there was a single regular poster on PWO who didn't know that.

Thanks for all this. I guess my main question remains the one about how the tag titles compare to the singles title, because as a viewer watching, the tag titles seem as major a deal as any of the singles titles. However, none of my All-Japan viewing has ever been full cards from start to finish, so while I'll often see lots of matches from the same time period, I seldom have the context of how the card plays out. It's hard to work out some of these things. To what extent were the tag titles treated as being as significant as the singles titles?

Time for some more Funkin' goodness. I am saving the longer Jumbo matches and the Jack Brisco matches for a time when I am feeling geared up to sit through 60-minute matches. At present, I can't find the US-based Jack matches but am getting in Solie's "Film Room" on Dory from a certain German trader I deal with, as well as some more All Japan Classics ... I am actually tempted to get ALL the AJPW classics, but there's an awful lot of them. For now though ... Terry Funk and Dory Funk Jr vs. The Sheik and Abdullah the Butcher (15/12/77) Thanks to my man Kelly for recommending this one. I think he said that this was the match that made The Funks big babyfaces in Japan. The Funks ambush Sheik and Abby early, before they can get into the ring or take their robes off. Sheik is bleeding before the match has even started. Crowd is hot for Dory as he snapmares Abby, stomps on his head and elbow drops him. Sheik interferes, so Terry comes in. Dory gets Sheik's rope and chokes him with it. Ref has lost control of this one early. Terry tags in and does some showboating. The Funks compliment each others' characters very well, Terry is fire, Dory is ice. Terry's the life of the party, Dory's no-nonsense. Terry's the madness, Dory's the method. And they'll both kick your arse. Dory's back in and he locks up with Abby who gives him the double throad thrust. Elbow gets two. Uppercuts by Dory now. Goes for the suplex and it hits but it is a bit botch-y: Abby goes off to the side rather than up and over. Forearm smash from Dory and a tag. Double atomic drop. Terry covers for two. Abby cheaply gains advantage and tags out. Sheik comes in with seemingly lethal punches. I suspect he has a foreign object but it is well concealed. Now Abby comes in and, yes, he has the object of doom. Outrageous cheating now as the ref is tied up with Dory and the heels beat the shit out of Terry. Abby lays in a brutal shot on Terry's wrist. He's going to break his arm ref! Dory is beside himself but this only ties the ref up further. Sheik and Abby are just the absolute masters of dastardly heel tactics. Eventually Dory can take it no more and gives Abby a whack on the back. This allows Terry to start coming back. Abby is dazed and Terry tags out. Dory a house of fire lays in some strikes. Throws Sheik out of the ring, but ends up catching something and falls out of the ring. Abby is on top now. Elbow gets two. Sheik comes in with the weapon but Dory counters and gets it himself. Dory nails both guys now with the object. Meanwhile, Terry is out in the crowd nursing the arm that Abby almost broke earlier. Abby and Sheik have Dory in the ring and they grab both sides of his ... mouth. What are they doing? This looks like a torture ritual! Are they trying to rip Dory's face open? Before we can find out Terry comes in fired up and lays in shots on Abby who is by this point bleedly profusely. But Abby catches him with a stiff shot to the face which sends him packing. Goes out after him to bit him. In the ring, meanwhile, Sheik nails Dory with the foreign object but the ref spots it and calls for the bell. Well, it's about time the ref saw something! After the bell goes all four men brawl and the young boys hit the ring. This was fun, but not the absolute classic that the 79 match is. It's a bit short and is missing the extended heat segment for Abby and Sheik. I do like them though as kind of like the Dick Dastardly and Mutley of All Japan. ***1/2 Terry Funk and Dory Funk Jr vs. The Sheik and Abdullah the Butcher (9/19/78) Dory looking cooler than usual here with his beard. Terry is bobbing and weaving in antipaction for the match. Funks get a loud ovation from the crowd. It's Terry and Sheik to start but Sheik is going through his pre-match ritual. He wants to pray. Is there anything emptier or less sincere than The Sheik's prayer? Ha ha. Sheik has blatantly already got a foreign object in his hand. Something seems to bother him and he walks almost all the way back to the locker room, through the crowd. That is A+ stalling. Sheik comes back to the ring and still has the object. The ref really needs to try a bit harder opening his eyes. Both guys tag out and it's Dory vs. Abby now. Big forearm by Dory gets a cheer. He tosses Sheik for good measure. Funks double-team Abby. Dory gives Sheik about six uppercuts in the corner. Terry vs. Abby now. Still early doors, it's been a bit stop-start so far. Abby uses the object to floor Terry. A nasty shot to his gut. Terry sells it like he's been killed. Sheik in, and Terry is busted out. Sheik attacks the cut by biting it. Nasty. Abby's back in and he produces the object from his tights again. Tags in and out now with both Abby and Sheik using the object. Sheik uses it almost like a knife at one point and goes for the eye. Terry pretty bloody but manages to tag out. Dory come in ready for a fight, but Sheik has the object and floors him quickly while the ref is attending to Terry. Dory is busted open too now. The ref tires to get Sheik from attacking Dory, but the damage has been done, he's bleeding very heavily. Abby ties up the ref as Sheik now HAMMERS on Dory's head. Level of brutality here: A+, level of sneakiness: off the charts. Dory is so bloodied now he's staggering. Manages to tag out and Terry is fucking pissed and screaming his head off, covered in blood. Fantastic visual. He shouts something at Abby. Wow, real hatred and intensity. Brilliant. Funk lays in some excellent punches on Abby now. He's bobbing and weaving, face a crimson mask. Abby gets Terry in a bearhug which breaks the momentum. Meanwhile, Dory and Sheik are somehow all the way out in the crowd brawling. Sheik makes it back to the ring, he's now bloody too. Dory looks angry and grabs .. the BELL. And it's a real-old school heavy looking bell. And he slams Abby accross the back with it. And now he nails Sheik. He has the object and lays in shots to Sheiks face. Meanwhile Terry and Abby brawl outside. The ref has completely gone. The bell can't go because it's lying in the carnage in the middle of the ring. Dory is still pounding on Sheik and a young-looking offical tries to come to get him off. Dory slams him to the canvas as he attacks Sheik more. Young boys hits the ring, but Dory doesn't care by this point, he's possessed and is punching anything that moves in his pursuit of Sheik. Dory is hitting Sheik so much it's starting to seem like a murder attempt. More young boys hit the ring, but Dory, covered in blood, batters them away. He's fighting everyone. Throws incidental young boys out of the ring as if they were generic henchmen from an action movie. And STILL he hammers on Sheik. NINE young boys now drag Dory from the Sheik but he's still fighting them! He punches them off left and right and ... attacks Sheik again. Terry and Abby are back in the ring now. This is total carnage. Dory has completely lost it, he's got the derange look in his eye of someone who has seen red and wants to kill, the visual is great with his face completely covered in blood. And STILL he goes after Sheik. He can't leave it. The young boys try again. The bell has been retrieved by this point and is ringing like mad. Dory punches out a few more young boys and then goes right back to his brutal assault on Sheik. I'm expecting the police to show up at this point, this is grevious bodily harm in public. Abby and Terry are still brawling outside the ring. Dory is literally trying to kill Sheik now. The young boys try yet again to get him off. All nine of them hold him back, but he's punching them again and goes back to Sheik again. They manage to drag Sheik it one side of the ring out of harm's way, and Dory is staggering around, still with that demented look in his eye. Abby has the misfortune to get in the ring now and Dory smashes his head with the object. Dory now spots Sheik and beelines it with a flurry of further attacks. He's still lashing out wildly at anyone who dares to try to come near him. This is fucking PRIMAL. Abby tries to escape through the crowd, but Terry goes after him and they start brawling there. The crowd clear a space for them and the young boys are there in force in their red tracksuits. Dory is back in the ring, and Terry makes his way back there too. Both are absolutely covered in blood. Dory raises his hand, still carrying the object, and Terry does too. Confetti showers down. Abby staggers through the crowd and Sheik is being carried to the back half beaten to death. Sheik makes a last few desparate lunges towards the ring, but he's been smashed into a pulp. He falls to the floor almost as if having a seizure, it looks like Dory has broken his wrist, he's completely covered in blood. He can barely move, but with any ounce of energy he has he still gestures towards going back to the ring. Abby comes to stop him. He looks like his spirit has been broken and they hobble to the back. Ah fuck it ***** This is about as wild, bloody, brutal and downright sadistic as any brawl I've seen and it reaches Magnum-Tully levels of primal rage and hatred. The sequence where Dory is beating on Sheik is breathtaking, and has to rank as one of Dory's all-time career performances. He came across as a man who'd been pushed beyond the point of reason and had just snapped and broken here, it's an incredible performance. INCREDIBLE. The beating that Sheik takes at the end goes beyond the point of justice and retribution, he's beaten so badly by Dory that you almost feel sympathy for him. But since his cheating and villainy before it is so outrageous, and since he's been doing that shit for so many years, it's like all his chickens came home to roost at once. He had it coming to him, but this was the ultimate "he had it coming to him". One of the best things I've ever seen in wrestling. I have to take a break, maybe have an ice cream and settle down, because I wasn't prepared for something as good as this tonight. Blown away, I put this in the same bracket as Magnum-Tully "I Quit", transcendant.

Well, gee, I guess people will have to tune in to find out.