Superstar Sleeze

That’s really interesting so the plan was to have Inoki/Saito align against the younger generation oh and that’s why Sakaguchi was used in the embrace. Jericho of all people covered this last year in his podcast. He covered the Island Death Match and the Japanese fan he had on explained the intergenerational feud you mentioned. If you have not listened to that podcast it is worth a listen.

Yes! I was hoping you’d see this! Black Cat handcuffing the wrong dude is so classic and makes so much sense why the angle felt so confusing. Thank you!

IWGP Heavyweight Champion Antonio Inoki vs Riki Choshu - NJPW 2/4/88 In 1988, Antonio Inoki turned 45 and he had one of his hottest years of his career. He had long feuds with Riki Choshu & Vader and an hour draw with Tatsumi Fujinami. In 1989, it would be the Soviet invasion and he would be tied to a Georgian judoka. I feel like the early 90s was a short bridge of Fujinami/Vader/Choshu to the Three Musketeers. So 1988 feels like Inoki's swan song. This would be Inoki's last IWGP title defense as Cagematch says the upcoming Vader match was not for the title and he vacated the title due to a foot injury, whether it was kayfabe or not just to get the tile off Inoki without doing the job I do not know. This is a humdinger to go out on. Riki Choshu was firing on all cylinders. Big dropkick right at the beginning! I love the hot start. Choshu beats the ever loving shit out of Inoki for five minutes. Great King of the Mountain. He bashes Inoki's head repeatedly into the post and turnbuckle and surprisingly does not draw blood. The ref breaks up one of the King of the Mountain spots on the apron and that dickwad Inoki nails an Enziguiri. Inoki lets the fists fly on Choshu's head and he is the one to bloody Choshu with a railing shot, which is again surprising given how much Choshu bashed his head in. Inoki gets an abdominal stretch but Choshu hiptosses out. Choshu roars back with a Saito Suplex and into the Scorpion Deathlock. Inoki makes the ropes and on the second attempt, Inoki rips Choshu in the head with fists, fucking wicked. Choshu winds up for the lariat and Inoki lunges at him and headbutts him in the head. It looked like it could have been bad and Choshu kinda had to bend over for him. Inoki figure-4. Wicked hot action, lots of asskicking, blood and big time submission. Very little downtime. Inoki ENZIGUIRI! iNOKI OCTOPUS STRETCH! Choshu falls over to break it. CHOSHU SAITO SUPLEX! 1-2-NO! Great nearfall. Choshu steals Inoki's Octopus Stretch! Inoki Dropkick. Inoki steals the Saito Suplex to set up the Octopus Stretch. Choshu gets a finger on the rope but the ref doesnt feel like it counts and calls the match for Inoki. I dont know if the basis for this was the old school interpretation of the rule that the two combatants needed to be tied up in the ropes as opposed to contact with the rope by one combatant. Or if it was intended to be controversial as Saito came out to bitch and moan. I really like this style of match. It reminds me of All Japan King's Road where it is big bomb after big bomb (which makes sense as Choshu was in All Japan from 1985-1986). The difference between this and 90s All Japan is Choshu is much more efficient. This clocked in around 12ish minutes and theres no fat on this. From the King of the Mountain to Inoki bloodying him to all the BIG BOMBS & SUBMISSIONS! This is really my kinda wrestling. Everything mattered and felt important. ****1/2

Before there was ECW, there was fucking New Japan in 1987 BABY! Right out of the ECW playbook, this was a series of impromptu matches that led to a mega-hot debut and apparently a riot at the Sumo Hall. New Japan World has an excellent 38 minute video up covering it all. So it begins with Saito cutting a promo in the ring with Choshu and Vader. This is after the very famous Island Death Match. I am presuming Saito is introducing Vader as his assassin. Inoki comes out. It is a bit confusing but we end up settling into a tag team match pitting Masa Saito & Riki Choshu vs Tastumi Fujinami & Kengo Kimura. Masa Saito & Riki Choshu vs Tastumi Fujinami & Kengo Kimura A match that wont really change your life but there is one very strange moment. Saito & Choshu dominate the match. Outside two flurries of offense for the babyfaces, the heel dominated. Choshu blasts Fujinami with a lariat to send him to the outside and then winds up and crushes Kimura to win. What was weird? How unruly the crowd was! They were chanting something that I couldnt understand they would not relent. They seemed angry. A couple minutes into the match, Choshu puts on the Scorpion Deathlock on Fujinami and the crowd morphs into a 1997 Nitro crowd and litters the ring with drinks and trash. It was so bizarre and electric. They never did it again, but they were not as vociferous as the match wore on but they would still chant. So Choshu immediately gets on the mic and yells for Inoki. Super hot. Inoki comes out, Choshu bails. Inoki tries to call him back out. Choshu trots out but Inoki has left. Inoki comes back in. That was a lot of wasted time. Antonio Inoki vs Riki Choshu. The ref is trying to pull Choshu out of the corner for crowding and Inoki nails him with an enziguiri which is a dick move that only like Hogan or Dusty could get away with as a babyface. He bloodies Choshu on the outside. Back in the ring, Choshu is lunging, but collapsing at Inoki trying to hit him as Inoki beats him up. Choshu hits one Saito Suplex in defiance but basically gets owned by Inoki who slaps on the Octopus Stretch. There is some commotion but it looks like Hase throws in the towel. Hase bowls Inoki over to break Choshu free. His reward, Choshu giving him a hard shove out of the ring. A bloody Choshu is pissed at Hase. Inoki now calls out Saito but Saito has back-up in the form of the Mastodon, Vader! Vader has the silly looking Elephant Steam Helmet but no mask but he is in great shape. Antonio Inoki vs Big Van Vader. Inoki tries a surprise attack, but Vader shrugs it off and DEMOLISHES INOKI! He squashes him like this was nothing. Outside of the famous Brock squash of Cena theres nothing like this maybe Vader vs Sting at GAB 1992. After watching a shit ton of Bam Bam Bigelow in New Japan I am so glad they picked Leon over him for this gimmick. The Vader whistle, his cockiness and his ferocity were on display. He fucking rocked. He kicked Inoki's shit in. Inoki fucking MADE VADER! This is how you get a monster heel over on night 1. Insane string of impromptu matches leading to one of the hottest debuts and angles in pro wrestling history! Something every wrestling fan needs to see! Also I invite anyone who knows more about this night to please further elaborate on what happened!

Antonio Inoki vs Masa Saito - NJPW 6/12/87 Inaugural IWGP Champion The winner of this will be crowned the inaugural IWGP champion. Before the G-1 Climax, there were annual round robin tournaments in New Japan since 1974 about a year after the founding the company. They were first called the World League then the MSG League and finally the International Wrestling Grand Prix which is a fucking badass name for a tournament. As one would suspect, Antonio Inoki won the vast majority of these, but other winners included Seiji Sakaguchi, Andre the Giant and Hulk Hogan, a pretty illustrious list. Inoki would defend titles such as the NWF Heavyweight Championship a title out of the Buffalo/Cleveland area and the WWF World Martial Arts Championship but this was the first time New Japan would promote their own singles heavyweight title. I really like both Inoki & Saito as singles wrestlers but again I found this match to be peculiar even though I enjoyed the work for the most part. Saito dominated Inoki for the vast majority of the match and the conclusion of the match is not very satisfying in my opinion. At the outset of the match, Inoki throws a wild mule kick that catches the ref and then hits a rainbow spinning heel kick and an Enziguiri to force Saito to powder. Saito return is able to get a trip but Inoki working into some arm work. Saito counters into the inverted figure-4 he used in the March pull apart brawl to injure Inoki's leg. Inoki comes up hobbled and Saito catches him with a lariat. Saito works a nice, tight Boston Crab. Great power out from Inoki sending Saito into the buckles as the crowd roars. Inoki works some heabdutts and then a tight chinlock, but Saito goes back to his inverted figure-4 and again upon the break clobbers Inoki with a lariat. As Inoki tries to get back in, Saito rams Inoki's head into the turnbuckle repeatedly and then hits not one but two Saito suplexes. This is where the match goes off the rails for me. I felt like Saito poured it on too much so that any Inoki comeback would not be credible. Saito went for the sleeper I presume as to not kill off his finish. They work the sleeper well, Inoki makes it to the apron and when Saito has to let go Inoki slumps to the floor. I think I have asked this before, but why do Japanese refs call the match in English when two Japanese wrestlers are working? I have heard this before and it always surprises me. Inoki comes in and eats another Saito Suplex and this time a cover for two. Saito goes for another and Inoki shifts weight and wins the match. Funny enough, this was my preferred finish when wrestling my younger brother. The Saito Suplex is the safest suplex in my opinion and I would do it all the time to my brother but the finish would always be him finally reversing the weight and picking up the three. I thought the match was anti-climatic and I thought the Saito heat segment was overkill. ***1/4 The post-match was confusing. Choshu clearly calls out Fujinami and Maeda who were on commentary. I am sure of this because I understood him calling out their names. The rest of it I couldnt make out, but it felt electric. These are five megastars no matter what I think of Maeda he was over. The weird part is Inoki/Sakaguchi/Saito hug it out, but Inoki & Saito have an island death match soon. I thought Choshu & Saito were buds. I dont know. Anyways a solid match but anti-climatic.

Antonio Inoki vs Masa Saito - NJPW 3/26/87 Masa Saito is BACK BABY! Saito had served his time, finished out some work in AWA and was ready for the big money feud with Inoki. This would be match one in a series that would culminate in the famous Island Death Match which may have been the pioneer in cinematic pro wrestling. Saito became Inoki's main rival for 1987 and along side the return of Riki Choshu ensured that the New Japan would continue its hot streak after the return of the UWF workers in 1986. The April match is a wild, red hot match, this being the first match in the series is more of the technical match then turns into a Vince Russo Wet Dream Angel. Front Half: I enjoyed the work. There was not really a sense of progression per se, but there was a lot of tight, snug work, lots of close quarter grappling. They worked some good NWA championship style grappling with Inoki working out of Saito's headscissors. Tempers flare a little. Inoki smacks Saito. Saito headbutts and Inoki returns in kind. Inoki hits a great explosive dropkick and Saito powders. Saito comes back with a Scorpion Deathlock. I was surprised how quickly they went to that. Great struggle over it. Inoki powdered. Tried for the working from his back strategy. Amazing leg kicks and ENZIGUIRIS from his back. Inoki was an insane athlete. SAITO SUPLEX~! Demolished him! They are bringing out the big bombs. Inoki used his insane leg strength to whip Saito off on the next Scorpion Deathlock attempt. Inoki throws another headbutt in there and some great suplex bombs. Hitting a top rope kneedrop. Peculiar that Saito nailed suplex shortly thereafter. It wouldnt be a long Inoki match without an Inoki Short Arm Scissors, which coincidentally is a favorite move of mine. I really enjoyed watching the work of this and it was breezy action. I wish there was a better constructed narrative, but I have enjoyed this so far. Saito breaks free and Saito Suplex! Inoki retaliates with his own Saito Suplex. This is red hot shit and then the Inokiism kicks in... Second Half: Maybe this would be improved if I understood Japanese, but here we are and I will describe what I saw. Anybody that has any more information, I would be very interested. All of sudden there is a commotion in the crowd and the entire crowd has their heads turned to an aisleway as if this was WCW 1998. Saito drops Inoki repeatedly three times on the top rope balls first. Then it happens. I thought it was going to be Riki Choshu's big return. It was a man dressed in a hockey mask and pantaloons. It looked like something Tiger Jeet Singh would wear. They mystery man handcuffs himself to Saito, which I think is a play off Saito's jail time. Then it was weird, heatless stretch of time. Saito and Inoki took shots at the hockey mask but neither get it off. It was lame and weird. Saito is dragged to the back. The crowd chants Saito as if they want an encore at a rock concert. Saito comes back with the handcuff cut off, but the cuff still on his wrist. Inoki feeds to have Saito hit him in the head with the cuff. It is very clear they are trying to draw hardway blood and it is gnarly to watch. At one point the ref throws a toekick to Saito's gut and throws a left kick. Saito clobbers him. What the fuck? They finally get it so Inoki undoes the top turnbuckle which happens in the April match. Saito wraps Inoki in an inverted figure-4, what the fuck? Inoki cracks him with the turnbuckle and draws blood. They slap each other a little. It was a pretty tepid brawl. Nearly impossible match to rate. The match was ~**** but the angle was convoluted and heatless. It was a Vince Russo. Wet Dream. So Bizarre! Does anyone have any info on this?

Riki Choshu vs Victor Zangiev - NJPW 12/31/89 Moscow Of course Inoki was the first promoter to run pro wrestling in the Soviet Union that is so on brand. I am really bummed there is no 70s/80s wrestling of a Kennedy’s trio that have won the Six-Man tag tiles and are gunning for the World Title saying they’re gonna bring it back to Wall Street and that they love to steal from the proletariat, so sad. Talk about killing a town besides Hashimikov going over Manny Fernandez and the Georgian Judoka teaming with Inoki going over Rhenigans & Saito all the Soviets did jobs. Fucking Bam Bam Bigelow won his match. Jesus. I love Choshu but this is the Zangiev show. So many awesome bridges and tricked out mat work. He gets one of the most amazing Germans I’ve ever seen. He misses a top rope splash and Choshu TRUCKS him for the win. Heavy sigh. Zangiev should have been a massive star! ***

IWGP Heavyweight Champion Vader vs Bam Bam Bigelow -NJPW 9/20/89 These two have zero chemistry together. Totally heatless match. Inoki is the special guest ref and does nothing of note. Bam Bam might be the original super heavyweight who tries way too hard to be a cruiser weight. He does that silly somersault evasion. He executes a very nice drop toehold but do I really want to see Bigelow. He runs through an enziguiri (teachers pet!), bodyslam drop kick to send Vader out. Bigelow works a boring hold. Vader comes up swinging no transition. He is just like fuck it we are boring them and he beats the shit outta him and shows him how to do a proper super heavyweight drop kick. Vader works boring holds. Choshu totally laid this out as it very symmetric but Bigelow has zero charisma and Vader doesn’t know how to carry a match yet. They trade drop kicks and chest bumps. Bigelow gets a brief flurry. Vader hits a power slam and a lariat to win the match to crickets. Bad match.

IWGP Champion Riki Choshu vs Vader - NJPW 8/10/89 HOSS FIGHT! Bill Watts eat your heart out! Good God Almighty, this is the wrestling I fucking live for! It is a step down from their 6/27/89, which finished #19 on the DVDVR rankings, but curiously this one which is a title change did not even place. This was fantastic! Vader dropped the title to Hashimikov in May, Choshu picked it up in July and now Vader has won it back. My theory is they were billing this tour as Japan vs USA vs USSR. I think they felt the need to throw the USSR a bone and have one of the Soviet Shooters win the title. They ultimately wanted to proceed with Vader as the Champion. After the Bigelow and Hashimikov matches, this reminded me why a good Hoss Fight is like nothing else. They immediately just bring it and are teeing off on over another. The intensity, the struggle, and the stiff shots are all here. Choshu wrestles Vader down with a Fujiwara armbar. When Vader comes up, he closes the gap and DEMOLISHES Choshu with a short-arm clothesline. He pauses to adjust his hip flexor and then works a Scorpion Deathlock. Using Choshu own move against him. Big Vader Splash in the corner and another beefy lariat. VADER CHARGES AND EATS THE BUCKLES! Back body drop! Enziguiri! Cut to Inoki on commentary. Love the transition! Only Vader can hurt Vader. Great way to generate a hope sequence with a ton of heat for Choshu who works a cross-armbreaker but Vader gets the ropes. Choshu wins a suplex struggle! Great bump here by Vader who rolls through it to make it like he was really launched. Vader tries to fight back and eventually lands a suplex. He goes for the Giant Splash, but CHOSHU LANDS A SUPERPLEX! VADER FUCKING BOUNCES OFF THE CANVAS! HOT DAMN! MACK TRUCK LARIAT! Choshu signals this is it! Crowd bites huge! Choshu beats him up on the outside. The tease a countout win for Choshu after another lariat. Choshu Lariat in the ring, but it only rocks the Big Man, he winds up for the kill MUTHAFUCKIN AIR VADER DROPKICK! Pops me and Hiroshi Hase huge! Hase couldnt believe it. Vader got up high and full explosion on the dropkick like he Jim Brunzell and decapitates Choshu. Vader follows up with a huge sunset flip for the win! I love how exaggerated the Sunset Flip was. Some great Vader offense, but really it was two big stretches of Choshu's offense and how Vader bumped & sold that did for me. Vader's dropkick was massive! This is the HOT SUMMER SHIT! ****1/4

IWGP Heavyweight Champion Salman Hashimikov vs Riki Choshu - NJPW 7/12/89 Excellent Riki Choshu style match and performance. Choshu is so economical and he makes every highspot count and feel huge. Even though Hashimikov wrestles exactly the same as the Vader match, this match is a lot better. Hashimikov still has zero charisma but thats ok because we have RIKI CHOSHU! Very symmetrical match. Each man gets two throws at the beginning. Choshu gets two back drops out of a test of strength. Hashimikov gets two reverse bodyslams, the announcers get into an argument whether it was a brainbuster or a fisherman, which popped me. Hashimikov gets a nice single leg pick up transitions into an Indian/Scorpion Deathlock hybrid. Choshu follows suit with a Scorpion Deathlock as I said very symmetric. Hashimikov hits the move that won him the match against Vader. It hoists him over the shoulder and then slams him backwards. Would be a cool move to do in the pool or lake. Choshu powders. Hashimikov does it on the outside and falls back. Gnarly. Hashimikov looked in control and as he is charging, Choshu kicks him suspiciously low, hard to say if it was in the balls or inner thigh, which is perfect for wrestling. Choshu was still aligned with Masa Saito who is looking like a beefcake stud on the outside. I think Choshu is still a heel so it fits well. AXE BOMBAH~! MACK TRUCK LARIAT! CHOSHU WINS THE IWGP TITLE! Hashimikov was not doing it for me. I love Soviet Shooters, but he was not for me. Happy to have the belt back on Choshu. Fun hoss fight. ***1/4

IWGP Heavyweight Champion Vader vs Salman Hashimikov - NJPW 5/25/1989 Nothing like seeing dying days USA VS USSR feud play out in Japan. :p Inoki, after a couple years of wrestling traditional heels such as Masa Saito, Riki Choshu and Vader, is going back to a well he is familiar with SHOOTERS, specifically SOVIET SHOOTERS! He was embroiled in a feud with Shota Chochishvilli, a Georgian gold medalist in Judo. I was watching the Olympics this year and the World's Strongest Man is from Georgia. Forget Gabel Steveson, somebody needs to hire that big muthafuck ASAP. He was pressing insane weight over his head. He would be a killer monster heel. Hashimikov is a Chechen who is a four-time World Freestyle champion in the heavyweight division between 1979-1983. I am sorry to report Hashimikov is no Volk Han. He is not some great lost Soviet Shooter. He was pretty bland. He didnt seem to fully understand how to leverage his credentials into being a great pro wrestling. The did some Greco-Roman pummeling, he had some nice takedowns. Great belly to belly throw. He upended him with a single leg and then into a crossarmbreaker. He was crazy strong. He hoisted Vader up onto his shoulder and fucking threw him backwards for the win. It just lacked that je ne sais quoi. Just no charisma or fire. Vader was Vader. He rocked. He fucked Hashimikov's shit up after the first takedown. He rocked him with some wicked shots. Pressed him above his head and threw him down like a sack of potatoes. Hashimikov had to powder. Vader could only do so much. He threw some good shots. Nice JYD style powerslam got two, but that was his nearfall. Another letdown but again not Vader's fault, just in there with two dudes with no charisma.

Vader vs Bam Bam Bigelow - NJPW 9/12/88 Very underwhelming hoss fight. Bigelow doesnt do it for me. You think a dude with fucking blue flames tattooed to his head would be more menacing but here he is fucking cartwheeling again. Vader is getting excited about the puffs of steam coming out of the helmet. Bigelow decides to wrestle this like he is Steamboat doing somersaults to avoid locking up with Vader and playing to the crowd. They fucking do a dropdown, hiptoss counter hiptoss as Vader powders and Bigelow soaks in the cheers. Flair & Steamboat eat your hearts out! Vader does a test of strength and thankfully cleans this punk's clock. BEEFY SHORT-ARM CLOTHESLINE! Belly to Back Suplex! Massive splash in the corner. You know bare minimum Vader's offense would look sick. Bigelow takes a HARD Flair Flop bump. I think he surprised himself there. Vader does his best to kick ass, but Bigelow is just not returning fire. Vader eats his railing bump as he is just wrestling himself. They do a ref bump for no reason. Bigelow's offense is so fucking weak. Vader backdrops him over the railing. Vader vaults the railing but lands short so has to bunny hop splash Bigelow in the seats, which is a microcosm of how silly this match is. Double countdown. Nothing to see here folks, Bigelow is just not very good.

Masa Saito vs Akira Maeda - NJPW 5/18/87 IWGP Tournament Insane bloody angle here! Super Strong Machine jumps Maeda before he enters the ring and takes him to the woodshed. Awesome, uncooperative beatdown here. Hirata slams Maeda from pillar to post. Maeda eats some nasty fucking shots to the post and railing. Maeda taps a huge gusher. I don't know if Super Strong Machine hated Maeda or was aligned with Saito, but this was a terrific hot angle. Per usual, I am woefully ignorant on New Japan booking & backstory, any suggestions? Saito DEMOLISHES Maeda with a Saito Suplex. Maeda kicks out to a massive pop. Saito TRUCKS with a Lariat, another kick. Saito tries pouring it on. Scorpion Deathlock and Maeda does the proto-Austin with the push-up and the Crimson Mask! THIS IS SICK! Maeda powers out of a Boston Crab. WALKING TALL MAEDA! Maeda's best asset and in my opinion only asset is his tree trunk legs. He starts throwing kicks and that Rainbow Spinning Heel Kick gets a huge pop. They end up on the outside. Saito BASHES his head into the post and then ANNIHILATES him with a Saito Suplex to win by countout. This was a part of the tournament to determine the inaugural IWGP Champion. Super Strong Machine comes out and attacks again. Maybe the feud was personal rather than an alliance with Saito. Fujiwara runs him off without laying a finger on him which is a boss move. Match defies rating as it is just an ultra-hot ***** angle and I really dont even like Maeda. I still think he could have been more charismatic, but it is hard to fuck up being incredibly bloody, getting your shit wrecked and making a comeback. Even Maeda can pull that off. Saito is an offensive juggernaut. As an anti-Maeda fan, it was a lot of fun watching his shit get kicked in. Lets go ****, but like I said this is more of an angle and everyone needs to check it out!

IWGP Heavyweight Champion Antonio Inoki vs Bam Bam Bigelow - NJPW 8/2/87 Inoki is the newly minted IWGP Champion having defeated Saito two months ago to become the inaugural champion. He is defending against cartwheeling, wet behind the ears Bam Bam. Look I can’t cartwheel, it is impressive that he can. But cmon it just makes him look silly. I mean nothing says menacing like a well-executed cartwheel right? Gimme a break. Whoever told Bigelow to knock off cartwheeling was a wise man. This is not the Lawler classic but this is still a pretty fun Inoki vs generic monster match. Bigelow looks really green at the beginning with Inoki basically feeding him and directing traffic but Bigelow gains confidence as the match wears on. Bigelow working holds dragged. I did like his hollering while Inoki broke his clasp and turned it into his own arm bar. Bigelow’s highspots looked great. I liked the double leg drop banana split. The missed flying headbutt looked gnarly! Massive belly flop. Inoki felling him With three clothesline’s looked good. Bigelow’s big flourish missing the diving headbutt was great. Inoki’s death enziguiri knocking Bam Bam out of the ring and drawing blood was awesome. Bombs away kneedrop gives Inoki the clean win. A pretty bulletproof formula Inoki is so damn charismatic and his great timing he had this down Pat. Bigelow is very athletic and was game for this match. ***1/4

Antonio Inoki vs Brusier Brody - NJPW 4/18/85 Call me crazy, but I really liked this match. I am kinda annoyed with myself because I had to drive my airport and do some work (who fucking works? LAME!) immediately after watching this. So I am going off two hour memories so I will try to recall as best I can. The crowd is molten lava in this match. THUNDEROUS INOKI CHANTS! Excellent Clash of the Titans match built around Hope Spots and Cutoffs. It was so, so well done. Brody's propensity not to bump enhances this match. He does one thing that bugs the shit out of me in this match but I will mention that later. Inoki has a bandage around his his left bicep. HUGE FIGHT FEEL! Inoki gets an early dropkick, Brody shrugs it off and bars the arm. Ok, Brody does two things that bug the shit out of me. One was these loose arm bars and just generally lackluster arm work. Inoki was so amazing at running hope spots out of these armbars. He shoulder tackles Brody at one point who catches him right into the slam and GETS UP HUGE FOR A MASSIVE LEGDROP! It is all about working in & out of the weak arm bar doing cool hope spot-cutoffs. Inoki trying with all his might to get an armbreaker over his shoulder got massive heat. This was such a great underneath performance. Brody was just feeding Inoki constantly letting him tee off, but always cutting off the rally at the most dramatic times. That was about the first 15 minutes. Then they started throwing huge bombs and Inoki started working the leg hard. This is where I am most annoyed I didnt write my review immediately after is it is now kinda jumbled in my head. Brody ended up blading his fucking knee in the midst of all this, which was so badass. I guess i can talk about what pissed me off about Brody. I didnt mind him sandbagging Inoki on a Butterfly suplex. Shit shouldnt always hit clean and Brody is a monster with some life left in him. It is more his inability to convey true horror movie villain invincible charisma. The best excample of this is he eats a suplex from Inoki after he had suplexed Inoki. Brody did not no-sell it, but he didnt sell it either. Brody stayed down for two so it was not a total fuck you. It was like he was just not selling, which bugs me a lot more than no-selling. If he no-sold like Undertaker then that would have popped the crowd and Inoki would have grown wide, what do I need to do to beat this superhuman. If he sold, the crowd would have went wild because Inoki finally hurt the Monster. This weird not selling thing he does is my issue. He is oddly not charismatic. I think of early 80s Snuka like 1981-1982 that was a horror movie villain that stalked his prey. Brody actually is very smart about bumping and feeding. He is just terrible at "the how" of pro wrestling. Inoki really does a number on the knee. They work some great highspots down the stretch with big bombs. There is a ton of countout teases and ref bumps. Lots of big Bombs Away knee drops and great Clash of the Titans wrestling. It ends up being a double countout with Brody piledriving Inoki and Inoki coming back and quite literally kicking Brody out of the arena. As a first match, in the series I loved this. Brody's selling choices leave a lot to be desired. After being disappointed by the big stadium clash between Roman and Cena, I really enjoyed this. Specifically, the hope spot/cutoff dynamic which gave the match a ton of energy! I recommend checking this one out! ****1/2

Antonio Inoki vs King Kong Bundy - NJPW 2/5/85 It was unclear to me if Inoki won $15,000 if he won the match or if he bodyslammed Bundy because I dont speak Japanese. I wanted to see what New Japan World had for 1980s matches and this one stuck out to me as an interesting match. Bundy had his cape that makes him look like the World's Largest Dracula. I think have seen him wear this in Memphis, but I dont think he wore it in the WWF. I thought this was a pretty fun old school, Clash of Titans match. Bundy slams Inoki right at the bell. Great back arch, but even better Inoki comes up with his fist ball. THATS AN ACE BABYFACE REACTION! Neither man gives an inch. There is no bumping. Inoki is no-selling. Bundy is rockin' and reelin'. Inoki goes for a couple slams throughout the match but is always thwarted. The match does drag in the middle with a Bundy armbar then chinlock. It was the only way to get someone to the mat was force him with his weight because no one was bumping for shit, which I dig in this context. Bundy goes for a slam but INOKI HEADSCISSORS! I popped for that. Inoki scoops Bundy and falls backwards throwing him over the ropes so that was a cool spot to show Inoki could kinda do it. Then in my preferred way to work these matches, only Bundy can really hurt Bundy. Bundy fells Inoki finally and goes for the big splash BUT MISSES! Inoki races to the top rope with a Bombs Away Kneedrop for two. Thats when I realized it was NOT a bodyslam match and that it was a normal match. There were so many bodyslam attempts, I thought it might be. On the outside, Bundy charges and clotheslines the post and Inoki wins by countout. Nothing that will change your life and it did drag in the middle, but this was a fun National Hero vs Gargantuan Monster match. ***

This was super fun, but thats it for now. The Greatest Match Ever voting is three months away and I really need to kick that into high gear. Back to cherry picking great matches but I will be looking to resume this in December. Bye for now!

Gertner & Shrike02 glad youre loving it! My bad everyone I forgot to turn Episode 40, Part 5 in on time! Had some real serious personal bullshit that rocked my shit happen at the beginning of the week, then there was CM Punk mania and then I had a wedding to go to on Saturday, which was a fucking blast! @Ricky Jackson & I talked about our #10-#6 Best WWF matches of 1978-1987 on this episode of Pro Wrestling Love which came out last Sunday which I never advertised on here. A Metric Shit Ton of Love for Bob Backlund, Excellent Kal Rudman commentary and Randy Savage vs Ricky Steamboat! All this and much, much more! Click the link, download, listen and enjoy! https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-h822b-10b5281

Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling May 1986 Programming note: The Iconic World Championship Wrestling at 6:05 Eastern on Saturday Night has started. I think Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling quickly became tertiary programming if I am not mistaken. Peacock only has November on of that program. So sticking with MACW TV for now. 5/4/85 Peacock dropping the ball again with no 5/4/85. 5/11/85 Main Angle: Tully wins the TV Title from Dusty with some chicanery from Baby Doll. Ref bump, Dusty gets the visual fall. Baby Doll throws in the loaded elbow pad and Tully knocks him out. Dusty even has his feet on the ropes as Tully wins. I dont know I watched all of this out of order. So I have seen the 86 and 87 versions of the feud. It is feud that can feel played out but also with the right angle can feel instantly molten hot. This just didnt have much heat with me. Dusty just won it in March at Silverstarr. The only reason I feel they switched the title was so Dusty could get the big pop again at the Great American Bash. They devoted a ton of program time to it. Dusty and Tully cut good promos but felt lukewarm to me. Matches that Went Too long: Buddy Landell & Uncle Ivan's squashes just dragged on and on. The Nikita/Ivan the Road to Moscow will be paved with Gold coming after Flair is a fucking badass storyline. We are going to follow Nikita as he prepares for the big World Championship match. Flair would start to become more heelish as the year wore on but this presents him as a big time babyface. Midcard Mania: We are in full swing of US Champion Magnum TA pinning jobbers inside of 30 seconds with the Belly to Belly. I liked this one the Atomic Drop ricochet into the ropes and Belly To Belly for the win. Ron Bass is back, oh joy! Jimmy Valiant cant talk. He has a chalkboard and has surprisingly good penmanship. Like really good. That was unexpected. Superstar Graham & Barbarian win a squash. Barbarian is the MAN! Jimmy Valiant runs them off with Dick Slater that was unexpected! Feels like kind of a waste of Dicky Slater. Magnum could use a dance partner and I think Slater would make a great challenger. Mediocre episode at best. 5/18/85 No major angle. Very unusual Match of the Night: Buddy Landell vs Pat Tanaka holy shit this was excellent! Pat Tanaka was born to be a red hot midcard babyface and nobody knew! Awesome shine. That hot shot was fucking gnarly that set up the heat segment. I wish I took better notes. Between work and recording a podcast I think it was been 3-4 days since I watched this. My recollection was that was a corker of a midcard match. Definitely worth a watch. If memory serves me, Landell won with a Figure-4. ***1/2 Match That Went Far Too Long: Tully Blanchard gave some jabroni far too long in their match. Anyone who says Flair was bad, Tully was 10x worse. Those he nails a gnarly dropkick in this along with a Slingshot Suplex. Dusty was on commentary. There was some staredown, showdown nonsense. Tully cut the "Deal with the Dealer" promo and Dusty retorted. The promos were better this week, but the angle is still lukewarm to me. Road To Moscow Will Be Paved With Gold: Nikita wins his squash in short order. Good hype package. This is definitely my favorite thing about May Crockett. Midcard Mania: Mags continues the quick squash gimmick. Don Kernodle as the Pride of USA which is a bold fucking statement continues his semi-push. Jimmy Valiant wins a squash. He has 50% of his voice back. Great fucking character work from him. I like the Boogie Woogie Man. Dick Slater has a busted up eye and it looks gnarly. I totally believe he had someone in the locker room give him a shoot shiner. It was nasty. Superstar Graham is useless in the ring and that showed in his singles squash, but he can still be magic on the mic. I thought it was a really good Graham promo. Mid-South is starting to widen the gap between them and Crockett. One more show left for Crockett in this month! 5/25/85 Main Angle: We have an angle! Tully Blanchard has thrown his lot in with Paul Jones and acquired the services of Abdullah The Butcher to vanquish Dusty Rhodes. Tully Blanchard & The Barbarian are the dream tag team I didnt know I wanted until I saw them. They were at the point in the Tully vs Dusty feud where they needed to start adding people to keep it fresh. For me, personally I felt like Dusty & Tully were slumming it by overlapping with Valiant vs Jones feud. They needed to inject some fresh blood into the feud. This will keep Dusty busy for a month before the big blowoff at Great American Bash. Based on the GAB card, they spin Abby off to fight Magnum TA which is a great use of him to further build Mags. Road To Moscow Will Be Paved With Gold: Nikita Sickles a picture of the Nature Boy taped on a heavy bag until it shreds. He wins a tag team squash with Krusher Krushchev. These have been short, but very, very effective. The best part of May. Even without Flair on the show, it feels like a big deal! Match of the Night: "Patrick" Tanaka vs Denny Brown for the World Junior Heavyweight was a great *** workrate affair with Brown playing the subtle heel. Tons of great highspots and action. Tanaka is wicked over! Caudle & Weaver have been calling Pat Tanaka "Patrick" starting last week which has popped me. Between this and the Buddy Landell matches, there is an alternate universe where Tanaka gets wicked over in Crockett takes the Steamboat mantle. He was really good! Midcard Mania: Buddy Landell continues to squash and be kinda directionless. Ron Bass now has a black glove on and is using the claw. He beats Houston and puts on the Claw on afterwards. There is an alternate universe where Sam Houston is a massive star and Shawn Michaels is just a plucky white meat JTTS. Buzz Tyler saves and the Neighborhood Dad feud continues. Magnum TA & Manny Fernandez are being linked and ostensibly against the Russians but the Russians are more focused on Flair. The Rock N Rolls will be here in a month. Where were the Andersons?!?! Missed Arn!

NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair vs Wendell Cooley - Mid-South TV 5/25/85 This is an excellent Ric Flair heel TV match. I am not sure if this is Flair's TV debut in Mid-South as Mid-South was an independent promotion so I dont think Flair came in much before 1985, but perhaps I am wrong. Flair had been mentioned on TV in March when Kerry Von Erich was wrestling TV and Watts was promoting Kerry vs Flair in his territory. Next up was Terry Taylor who was pushed from TV Champion to North American Champion so that Ted DiBiase could lose the Loser Leaves Town to Duggan and go work Japan without the belt. This also allowed Taylor to be positioned to have a crack at Flair which he did in late April/early May, but now is the big push because Flair will be defending the World Title against Taylor at the Superdome. The previous week on Mid-South TV Taylor demonstrated how he would avoid the Figure-4 and how he could apply to tap someone out. Now the Nature Boy, The World Champion is here. Loved this match. Look it is no secret I am a Flair mark. He's so good at blending the sporting and larger than life aspects of pro wrestling. The short knees, the crowding in the corner, and just the general positioning. I had heard the name Wendell Cooley but had never seen him wrestle. I liked his look. He looked like a smaller Marc Mero. There is not much to say other than I really enjoyed this match. Flair dominated the match and let Cooley get some hope spots maybe 25% of the match but this was Flair looking like The Man. I liked the brawl on the outside which you didnt see at all on Mid-South. Jim Ross putting over his mean streak as he dropped Cooley face first on the railing. A really good fire fight broke out in the corner. Butterfly suplex looked great and the Figure-4 finished it. Terry Taylor won a squash over Eddie Gilbert I was shocked how lopsided it was. GIlbert was smoked. Flair attacked after the match and put Taylor in the Figure-4. Only for Taylor to reverse the pressure and have Flair hollering "Uncle". A damn good piece of business to set up the Superdome match. Fucking Snowman, who sucks out loud comes out to save because Eddie Gilbert started attacking again, but even he cant ruin this angle. Flair had a great promo to close out the show and it was awesome seeing him on Mid-South! ***1/2 P.S. Here's why I think Snowman sucks...Snowman defeats Jake The Snake in a pretty monumental upset. Snowman is a fucking stiff if I have ever seen one. Not like he hits stiff, he like is an uncoordinated, unathletic stiff. He looked greener than goose shit and has zero natural athleticism. Jake was just trying to feed for him. Jake was trying to protect himself by getting some offense in but Snowman couldnt even sell OR no-sell probably. It would be one thing if Snowman had Luger or Hogan like No Selling charisma. It is like he did not know how to react. Imagine Goldberg with NONE of the explosivity, power, athleticism or charisma and thats the Snowman. He finishes with the JYD thump. I have not seen Master G yet, but this has to be the worst JYD replacement ever. Then he cuts a promo after and he does not even have a good promo like he is not charismatic like the Dog at all.

World Class Championship Wrestling May 1985 5/4/85 Peacock doesnt have it and I couldnt find results. So carrying on... 5/11/85 & 5/18/85 Footage from the David Von Erich Memorial held on 5/5/85 at Texas Stadium looked like a good crowd. Probably 30,000? Kerry Von Erich vs One Man Gang: One Man Gang is Gary Hart's main dude and Gary Hart is cuffed to Fritz. If Kerry loses, Gang gets Fritz in the ring. If Kerry wins, Gary Hart is shaved bald. Very underwhelming match. Not enough Claw work or Kerry offense. Pretty plodding. Kerry's Discus Punch woke me up, but this is very disappointing. The finish is dogshit. Gary Hart trips up Kerry on his bodyslam attempt. So Fritz trips Gang and that leads directly to the pin. Thats it? Like no Kerry offensive move to win. The shaving of the hair is always a fun gimmick. Did Gary ever grow his hair back? He was bald in 89 in WCW, so maybe not. 12-Man Clusterfuck From Hell: How this made the 80s DVDVR set for World Class? It did finish #147 so people agree with me. I do not know. It was Von Erichs (Mike Version) & Freebirds vs Dynamic Duo, Kamala, Rip Oliver and Dr. Death. It was fucking atrocious. Horrible battle royale-esque brawling. Oh the post-match angle is pretty good. Kevin Von Erich won a Lincoln. Gary Hart orders OMG to destroy it. The Von Erichs fucking steamroll him in the most energy seen all show. Only for Gino to swoop in, pick up the Chain and smash the windshield in with Chris Adams. That adds some stank on the Dynamic Duo vs Von Erichs so that was a good. Rip Oliver vs Mike Von Erich: Formula-based wrestling here which is perfectly fine better than last two matches and thats damning with faint praise. Rip is known as the Crippler and he broke Mike's arm. The whole match is built around Mike trying to slug him with the Cast and when he does. He wins the match. Very basic. Rip Oliver is no great shakes. Midnight Express vs Fantastics: Titles are still vacated from March so I guess I have not missed much. Jim Cornette is sitting next to Lil Jon, no not the one that would go skeet skeet all over Jim Cornette's wife, but some dude that you can probably guess is not very little in fact he is wicked tall. The match is pretty great as would be expected from these two teams. It is Texas Tornado rules in two different rings but it is not an out & out brawl so not my favorite of their matches. Rogers has some nice highspots. Bobby Fulton vs Bobby Eaton was fucking awesome! Bobby Fulton is really damn good. The finish is the shits. The heel cheat to win and after a significant delay a different ref counts a pin for the Fantastics. It is not a draw. David Manning literally says "There were simultaneous pins and Fantastics won" Even if there were simultaneous pins that is fucking stupid logic BUT they were NOT even simultaneous the heel pinned first. Fucking garbage. ***1/4 for very good work though. 5/25/85 This half-Sportatorium, half-David Von Erich Memorial Main Angle: Gino & Adams are standing next to a sports car with Bill Mercer and say they drive Sports cars not old duffer's Lincolns. Gino looks like quintessential 80s movie douche. I got to give him that. Great punchable face. Midcard Mania: Thor, yes that Thor from Mid-South, the dude that is a taller Stunning Steve Austin but is actually Nailz he is now in World Class and he eats the pinfall loss to Brian Adias via a reverse crossbody. Pretty unceremonious debut. Chris Adams had a very entertaining squash. If Adams was doing this in Mid-Atlantic he would be more fondly remembered. He reminds me of Tully with better offense. Saving Grace Main Event: I knew if they were showing footage of the Texas Stadium card there would be one thing to look forward. One of my all-time favorite matches, my pick for the #4 Match on the DVDVR World Class set and just an absolute barnburner as it is Ric Flair vs Kevin Von Erich, ****1/2. Since this was technically shown on TV it will be hard for any TV Match to top this. It is just as good as I remember it. Kevin Von Erich is full Tasmanian Devil-Kevin just constantly moving forward and always attacking and Flair is there to bump & run, but also stand & bang so it is an amazing dynamic. If you have not seen this one, YOU MUST WATCH IT! The dive from one ring to the other in the middle match still POPS ME HUGE! If it was not for one of the best Matches of the Year and one of the best matches in the territory's history, I would say World Class May TV was the shits and that is really sad when your matches were all from your biggest show of the year in front of 30,000 fans. I know Kerry & Kevin vs Gino & Adams has some juice left but it is not looking good for World Class.

@Ricky Jackson is back for third installment of Pro Wrestling Love counting down the Best WWF Matches to take place between 1978-1987. Kelly is in his element discussing historic feuds such as Hulk Hogan vs Paul Orndorff (RIP) and Greg Valentine vs Tito Santana. I give my big Bob Backlund psychology breakdown using the Hulk Hogan 1980 match as a case study. Plus we have the Jumping Bomb Angels & Glamour Girls! All this and much, much more! Click the link, download and enjoy! Let us know what you think https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-npyv7-10ac529

Mid-South Wrestling May 1985 Hey doesnt April come after March? I am going to skip around and keep things fresh. I think I wanna hit up the Sweeps Months first and see what action those months have. 5/4/85 Main Angle/Match of the Night: Steve Casey has come out of fucking nowhere! He is having killer matches with Dory Funk Jr & Tully Blanchard in Mid-Atlantic and now is killing it with Dr. Death in Mid-South. He wins pretty handily over Dr. Death's protege another Boomer Sooner, Edcar Boo Thompson. They play up how green Thompson is when he falls through the ropes. Doc gets overzealous in his cheating and knocks into Boo and Casey crossbodies him for the win. Doc pitches a fit after the match and says he will not be embarrassed like that and challenges Casey to a match. Casey comes out and accepts. I assume it is for next week but it turns out it is for this week! Lo & behold another great Steve Casey match! Casey does some really fun, cute British style stuff like a misdirection hop over and hop back on a dropdown. Great hard-hitting action. Doc was a strong heel. Some great hope spots like the dropkick. Casey takes a big back bump when Doc hooks the ropes on a monkey flip. Doc loads the arm brace nails him and then Oklahoma Stampede for the win. One of the best early Doc matches! ***1/4 Hot House Show Angle: Bill Watts interrupts the main event to show us footage of Hacksaw Duggan vs Kamala where Skandor Akbar throws a FIREBALL in Duggan's face! OH HELL YEAH! I am all for more fireballs in wrestling. When Dr. Death vs Hacksaw was announced for next week as a part of the TV Title, I audibly said "Oh that will be good" but now I am wondering if it will even happen. Competitive Matches: Jake The Snake convincingly beat former North American Champion Brad Armstrong who is treated more like a plucky midcard, wet behind the ears babyface than a former champion. Jake is growing on me, good energy from him. DDT was excellent. In the Main Event, Terry Taylor & Bill Dundee convincingly beat The Dirty White Boys which surprised me. I thought they were going to go off the air before the match ended. Dundee was the star of this. Oodles of charisma and so much Memphis charm to this match. Taylor looks more like a star than Armstrong but he does NOT feel like The Man. At this point 2/3rds of the excellent Flair trilogy is over and Duggan & Reed still feel like bigger stars. Taylor got the hot tag and house of fire and then the Figure-4 for the win. Midcard Mania: The World Class connection has dried up but here comes the Memphis boys. In addition to Dundee, we have the man from Oil Trough, Texas, Dirty Dutch Mantel who won his squash decisively. The Nightmare (Moondog Rex, had to look it up) who looks like an Assassin won a handicap match because Gen. Eddie "Dont Call Me Hot Stuff" Gilbert was doing commentary. Nightmare looked impressive beat the shit out of two jobbers. Bonus points for ref violence which I love. The ref took the piledrievr better than the jabronis. Brickhouse Brown is a lot more over. He is a shuckin' & jivin' black babyface. Him and Tom Pritchard have a very nice little midcard babyface vs babyface match. Brown's finish looks brutal. Looks like it totally kills him. It is a lunging middle rope diving headbutt. Looks like a great way to jam your neck and paralyze yourself. I hope he does not kill himself on it. 5/11/85 Best Mid-South Episode of TV thus far. I think this what people mean when they cite Watts as a world class producer of television. Main Angle: They really lean into the fireball angle with Akbar burning Duggan's face. Watts is great here really puts this over. He may go a little too far with the "terrorist" stuff and the "Peace of God" and "Christ Jesus", but man he puts over the heavy duty nature of this angle. They announce Akbar has cost Duggan his career and we are saying farewell to Hacksaw. Duggan is so good in the promo. They have him all bandaged, make up team did a great job, half his beard shaved. Duggan says Big Men arent supposed to be scared well he is. Damn, I got all the feels on that one. Goosebumps, eyes watered a little bit, heart went out to him. What a great emotional promo. This takes up most of the beginning of the show and then they end the show with a tribute to Hacksaw Duggan. Wow! Amazing stuff! Ted Is Back!: Ted DiBiase has been wrestling in Japan because of the Loser Leaves Town stipulation but he is back. He is overjoyed that Akbar has taken Duggan out and good riddance. I would have liked more disgust from Watts at these heinous comments. Him & Dr. Death defeated the Rock & Roll Express for the Tag Belts the week prior in Houston in a match I have reviewed, which is a great match. Check that out. Tag Team Mania: Lots of great tag team wrestling on the card. The Rock N Roll Express have a great match with Dirty White Boys on this night at a house show, but the TV match is a dandy too. RnRs have a ton of fun in the shine with the row boat spot and other fun shenanigans. Dirty White Boys have not clicked with me yet. They dont seem special. They work a short effective heat segment. The finish is fun as they try to choke Morton with a bandana but he thwarts it and Double Dropkick gets the surprising clean win as the Dirty White Boys were pretty established. *** The last match of the night saw new Tag Champions DiBiase & Doc defeat Casey & a jabroni. Casey looked great, but they didnt follow up at all on the animosity the previous week between Doc & Casey and how Doc cheated to beat him the week before. Heavy sigh. Dropped storylines still a problem even back then. Solid match to get Doc & DiBiase over, DiBiase wins with the glove. Casey was not treated well here, doesnt look good for him. In the hottest match of the night THE FREEBIRDS ARE HERE~! The place erupts for Badstreet USA, people are wearing Freebird shirts and the crowd goes crazy for them. A Freebird chant erupts when they work the heat segment. The original cool heels. Buddy Jack & Hayes work heel but they crowd does not give a shit they love the Birds. Roberts and Hayes do a lot of fun stooging for Armstrong and Mike Jackson. Hayes busts out the moonwalk. What a cool mutha. Liked the transition to heat, Jackson was going for a flying headscissors too close to the Freebirds corner and Hayes popped them. They did a "Breaking Down in Tulsa" melee before the Bulldog picks up the win for the Freebirds. *** I hope they stick around. Midcard Mania: TV Title tournament is still ongoing. It was supposed to be Doc vs Duggan in the semis which I was looking forward to, but with Duggan's "retirement" the match is not going to happen, but buck up because Watts has found a replacement. The Snowman! Yes that one that ran the legendary angle with Lawler in Memphis in 1990. Dude is jacked and stacked and green as grass. Let me tell you something brutha, Doc bumped & fed for this dude like a pro. Doc got no offense in and just ate canvas in basically a squash. Think Goldberg but nowhere near as good. Weird Doc is squashed here and then wrestles later in the night with DiBiase and he is not selling it and Watts doesnt mention it. Again a weird loose end. Snowman moves on to face Jake The Snake next week. Speaking of Jake the Snake he made quick work of Mark Ragin using a hang out to dry suplex and DDT. Hostile Commentary: In the tag match or the Jake The Snake match, Bill Watts goes off on WWF & Hulk Hogan. He says Mid-South is independent of WWF, AWA and NWA and chose to bring in Flair because he thinks he is the best. Hogan is a fraud and that he would weight 150lbs if it was not for the juice. Ok, Bill tell us how you really feel brutha. Two three star matches, the hot return of the Freebirds, DiBiase is back, new tag champs, and the Duggan angle, definitely the best Mid-South show. 5/18/85 Massive Freebird Chants at the start of the show both before and after they throw to the Duggan video. They are NOT even on the show! What the hell? I have not heard anyone this over in Mid-South. The Von Erichs are wicked over in Texas. Dusty & Flair are very over in Mid-Atlantic. Thats the level I am getting from the Freebirds here. Main Angle: Hacksaw Duggan sans beard but with full vision is back BABY! He is a great promo and he is coming for Skandor Akbar and his goons! Sounds like we have our summer angle, baby! This is my first Skandor Akbar promo and he is very ok. Just standard stock 80s foreign heel manager shizit. Talks about using the American judicial system to avoid suspension. Mid-South continues to promote their conservative ideology as Jim Ross goes on a rant about how the American Judicial System protects the perpetrator and not the victim. It sure does seem to work that way for white males, Jimbo. So we have had "Christ Jesus" invoked, promotion of an Evangelical rag, anti-gun control rant and an anti-American judicial system rant and those were only within 7 episodes. Political shit notwithstanding Duggan is an awesome babyface, love a great fireball angle and am interested in seeing who Skandor uses besides Kamala if anybody. TV Title Tournament Final: Snowman defeats Jake The Snake in a pretty monumental upset. Snowman is a fucking stiff if I have ever seen one. Not like he hits stiff, he like is an uncoordinated, unathletic stiff. He looked greener than goose shit and has zero natural athleticism. Jake was just trying to feed for him. Jake was trying to protect himself by getting some offense in but Snowman couldnt even sell OR no-sell probably. It would be one thing if Snowman had Luger or Hogan like No Selling charisma. It is like he did not know how to react. Imagine Goldberg with NONE of the explosivity, power, athleticism or charisma and thats the Snowman. He finishes with the JYD thump. I have not seen Master G yet, but this has to be the worst JYD replacement ever. Then he cuts a promo after and he does not even have a good promo like he is not charismatic like the Dog at all. I forgot to mention that Bill Dundee who just is dripping with charisma ends up brawling with Jake The Snake after the match. That would be tasty feud. I wish Dundee won the TV Title. Terry Taylor Figure-4 Demonstration: They are building to Taylor vs Flair at the Superdome on 6/1/85. Did they have another show they really have not mentioned the show? Anyways, Taylor wants to show how he will avoid the Figure-4. Usual shit: kangaroo kick, inside cradle, but he does show off one I have never before converting into a Calf-Slicer, to the point where I want to see someone do that. DiBiase/Doc/Thor come out. Thor for the record would become Nailz but now he looks like a taller Stunning Steve Austin. DiBiase says he is the Master of Figure-4. They have this very nerdy discussion about the finer points of the Figure-4 which makes me chuckle. Long story short, DiBiase's master plan was to beat down Taylor, but instead Taylor applied the Figure-4 on Thor and made him say Uncle. Effective segment. It helped Flair the most probably as they really invested a lot in his Figure-4 and now the Mid-South fans will be really anxious for it when it happens. As shoe would say a good piece of business. Midcard Mania: Doc & DiBiase defeated Casey & a jabroni again. Poor Steve Casey. DiBiase & Doc looked better this week. I liked the double football tackle. Standard squash. Eddie Gilbert & The Nightmare had a squash. Nothing special. Hot shot->piledriver finish. Nord The Barbarian is now aligned with Jake The Snake. What happened to Butch Reed? Jake cut a great promo before the Nord match. Decent Nord squash with the Full Nelson. Brickhouse Brown is over like rover with his dancing gimmick and won a tag team match with Brad Armstrong with that ramrod headbutt that looks like he is going to paralyze himself. Joel Watts is very proud of a nightclub video he made of Brickhouse Brown. I am enjoying the more angle-driven approach they are taking in May as opposed to March, but Snowman leaves a lot to be desired. We need more Duggan and Reed in front of the crowd! 5/25/85 Main Angle: COWBOY BILL WATTS WALKING TALL! They continue their anti-bureaucracy, anti-judicial system rants just give Akbar a fucking hearing and then fire his ass, duh. If they just drop all the stupid legal wranglings and have Watts Walk Tall and dispense John Wayne Frontier Justice it would be a badass angle. Basically Watts is going to come back and team with Duggan against Akbar's men. Kamala returned and won a squash. Akbar debuts "a new guy", "The Brute", but it is just an angle to have Duggan return and kick ass! Duggan is over huge. It is nice to have a big babyface star back on TV. Duggan is over huge. I will definitely try to seek out some summer of '85 Duggan matches. Match of the Night: THE NATURE BOY ON MID-SOUTH TV!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOO! Nature Boy Up In This House! He is going up against Wendell Cooley. Excellent Flair TV match as he took 75% of the match and really showed why he is The Man. First time seeing Cooley and I liked what I saw. Looked like a mini Marc Mero. Really nice match. ***1/2. Wrote it up. Did a great job building off the Terry Taylor Figure-4 exhibition the previous week. Terry Taylor won a squash over Eddie Gilbert I was shocked how lopsided it was. GIlbert was smoked. Flair attacked after the match and put Taylor in the Figure-4. Only for Taylor to reverse the pressure and have Flair hollering "Uncle". A damn good piece of business to set up the Superdome match. Fucking Snowman, who sucks out loud comes out to save because Eddie Gilbert started attacking again, but even he cant ruin this angle. Here's my review: Midcard Mania: Dr. Death & DiBiase win another squash. They are a solid team, but not a great squash team. Big time midcard match between Jake The Snake & Nord The Barbarian vs. Brickhouse Brown & Brad Armstrong. Jake the Snake & Barbarian did look a notch above these two in star power but they did protect Brickhouse & BA. Nord looked like he was going to finish Brickhouse with the Full Nelson, some good teasing, BA interfered with a dropkick. The ref gets distracted and Jake The Snake DDT'd Brickhouse into oblivion and finishes the match. Snowman beat Tommy Pritchard who according to an off-hand comment from JR has turned heel but you wouldnt know it from this. Snowman is the shits. Really great month! The Duggan fireball angle was great! Loved the Flair vs Taylor stuff, which is a great trilogy. Snowman is the shits, but in a way I kinda miss the fact there is such a shitty wrestler because nobody is really that shitty from a mechanical point of view anymore. Doc & DiBiase are very inoffensive, they are just ok. Jake The Snake has really grown on me, I wish he was rewarded with the TV title some great promos and match performances out of him. I need to track down the Freebirds vs Rock N Roll on Power Pro Wrestling which was taped this month. Freebirds were fucking over! It is a shame they went to AWA.

Mid-South Wrestling March 1985 3/2/85 Main Angle: Bill Watts & Hacksaw Jim Duggan go on anti-gun control rant and relate to wrestling because if Watts takes away the chairs, chains and brass knuckles, the outlaws will still have them. You gotta fight fire with fire! Yee haw! Yippee Ki Kay, Muthafucka! DiBiase vandalized Duggan's car the week prior and Hacksaw has a massive Coal Miner's Glove to get revenge. DiBiase & Doc are wrecking Brad Armstrong & Terry Daniels' shit. BA is such a midcarder. Former North American Champion, but got treated like he was Tom Pritchard here and Watts was saying DiBiase injured his daddy and BA comes out armdraggin him?!? Gimme a break. Daniels whips out the ref. The heels are gonna cheat. Duggan brains Doc with the glove and then CREAMS BA with a Coal Miner's Glove and Armstrong is out like a light. Puts over the gravity of the Glove and with great power comes great responsibility. His friend became collateral damage as he sought revenge. I am very disappointed Watts didnt follow up on this as this would be a great impetus to a Brad Armstrong heel turn. TV Title Drama: Terry Taylor defeats Tim Horner in a very short face vs face match never got out of first gear. Jake The Snake comes up before the Gino Hernandez match (Gino won a squash) and says he is tired of Taylor ducking him if he ducks him next week, he ends his career, if he doesnt he takes his title. He doesnt say it that way, but he should have. That was the gist. Midcard Mania: Buddy Landell is on his way out as he takes a 5-minute loss to Kerry Von Erich. Kerry looked great, Discus Punch, amazing standing dropkick and Claw for the win. Buddy looked good eating his shit. Watts explains the World Class connection of this show as they are co-promoting a Houston show and we can look forward to more World Class stars. Skandor Akbar's men had squashes. Nord The Barbarian debuted and squashed Shawn Michaels. It is funny watching baby fat Shawn Michaels get squashed. Kamala had a boring match with Iceman Parsons due to his over-reliance on the titty claw. The start and finish were hot, but the heat segment dragged. Hercules attacked Iceman. Kamala was going to Splash them but Butch Reed hurled him off the top rope. Butch Reed rules. Dirty White Boys won a squash. 3/9/85 Format: Matches in front of the Irish McNeil Boys Club, in between the size of a studio wrestling and a full arena like WWF or JCP was doing. The most disappointing aspect is the lack of promos. This is very wrestling-heavy. I am hankering for some great promos & angles so doesnt scratch that itch like Crockett. Furthermore, I think Crockett's style is better to get heat. You cant beat the wrestlers cutting promos. Jim Ross & Joel Watts can hem & haw all they want, but the best way to build that heat and emotion connection is let the wrestlers rip it on the mic. I think Crockett has it right. Match of the Night: Jake "The Snake" Roberts vs Terry Taylor for the Television Championship (a medal worn by Vero's Hero). I am a bugger Terry Taylor fan than most and lower on Jake The Snake than most, sometimes less is just less, brutha. I thought this was very energetic for Jake. It was probably 8-10 minutes but was action-packed. I watched this last night, I might go back and review it because it was a really strong workrate match. There was a really good spot early with Taylor CLOCKING Jake with a right cross and Jake selling it with the slither powder. I recall a pretty clean finish for Taylor. The more important part is the angle after where Jake the Snake drops the Champ with a DDT on the chair busting Taylor open. So that feud is just getting started. JR puts over Joel Watts' video editing ability. We get a video package for Vero's Hero and his forced smile. Taylor should have been a heel from jump, definitely something smarmy about him. Commentary: Mid-South fans is it typical for Joel Watts to walk all over JR on commentary. He is always shouting over him and doing the vast majority of play by play. JR was good when he got a chance to talk which was not often. Dream Tag Team That Did Happen & I Got To See: Hacksaw Duggan & Kerry Muthafuckin Von Erich! OH HELL YEAH! These are my two favorites from Mid-South & World Class respectively FUCK YEAH! I love Mid-South Duggan he just has this Northern Blue Collar grit to him like a Bruno or a DDP. I just dig that vibe. Huge fan of the Flair vs Kerry series (dont sleep on their Mid-South series, 4/28/85 is a contender for their best match ever). They wrestled Hercules Hernandez (doing a Sheik gimmick) and Gino Hernandez. You know it wouldnt have been half-bad in some promotion they did a Gino & Hercules are brothers or cousins gimmick. Gino as the mouth and Hercules as the heavy. I didnt think the heels added much. This was all about the babyfaces and the fire and charisma they brought. Ted DiBiase came out, OH SHIT THATS RIGHT, the Loser Leaves Town match is still coming up! Duggan has gotten a hold of the Coal Miner's Glove and blasts one of the heels, I think Hercules and Kerry picks up the win . Nice way to build the DiBiase/Duggan program. Kerry cut a typical Kerry promo which a fumblin, stumblin, bumblin promo. It looks like they are setting up Flair vs Kerry in the territory. Other Squashes: Kamala crushes a jobber but crushes him so fucking bad he gets DQ'd...Splash off the top rope. Iceman King Parsons short squash, looked good. Dirty White Boys (Tony Anthony & Len Denton) won a squash, underwhelmed. They were not very heelish. There was a "Barbarian" squash, but it was not the real Barbarian. Who is this Mickey Mouse Barbarbian? Seriously? I didnt recognize him at all. Match that went too long: Buddy Landell vs Brad Armstrong, Buddy was a great heel, but not too much to this one. It didnt really stick with me. Interesting Mid-South had two competitive matches compared to Mid-Atlantic having zero (yes Flair vs Donovan was a good match but nobody thought Donovan was going to win). 3/16/85 Main Angle: A real doozy! Terry Taylor wins the North American Championship from Terry Taylor in an IMPROMPTU title vs title match! Mid-South is like World Class very few promos. Bill Watts does a recap of last week and the heinous attack from Jake the Snake on Terry Taylor on Taylor post-match after his loss. Boot attack and then a DDT on the steel chair drawing blood. Terry Taylor is out and challenges Jake The Snake to a rematch for the TV Title. Ted DiBiase, North American Champion is out, he says with the Superstation deal, he wants the TV title. If only Ted knew the contract was up next month. Poor Ted. Short match more of an angle than anything else. The action was energetic, but nothing too special. The finish was straight out of the Watts playbook as Jake comes to the ring in a Rod Stewart concert tour shirt. There is so many levels to his interference. Long story short, DiBiase loaded the glove, swang & missed, O'Connor Roll and Taylor took the title. Cool angle! Dont know if Taylor was ready in terms of star power. That being said fucking Brad Armstrong was just a champion so Watts was willing to try young & hungry talent. Taylor vs Flair trilogy is fucking awesome so it helps build Vero's Hero credibility for that. Midcard Mania: A shit ton of World Class connections and talent transfer here. Gentleman Chris Adams is here and he has an entertaining little ditty with White Lightning Tim Horner. Adams reminds me of Tully but with more offense. He works some great stooging spots and nails a Superkick. Kerry Von Erich is coming back soon, which makes sense as he & Flair get a run in the territory in April. Skandor Akbar is managing Kamala who is doing a gimmick of splashing jabronis off the top rope and breaking their backs and getting DQ'd for coming off the top. Hercules is on his way out as he is Sunshine's mystery man. His team with Jack Victory loses to Brad Armstrong and a young Tom Pritchard in a weird convoluted way. Herc tagged in, Brad blasted him and Brad rolled up Victory to win. Sort of a strange way to protect the heels. Watts was being too clever for his own good. RNRs win a match over some jabronis to close out the show jawing with the Dirty White Boys. The Barbarian who I found out it John Nord aka The Bezerker squashed Iceman King Parsons which I was surprised but I think Iceman was headed back to Dallas based on their TV. I definitely like the real Barbarian more, but I have an open mind for Nord. The bearhug was meh, but the Full Nelson I liked because he really made a point to get Iceman off his feet. Looks like they are building to Butch Reed vs Akbar's men which are Kamala and Nord. I wish Mid-South had promos. They feel like the mid-market baseball team that has the stars for the Sox and Yankees on their team and also a lot of journeymen that they need to make work with a genius coach/GM. Looking forward to watching more. 3/23/85 Peacock does not have this episode up, FUCKING PEACOCK :p lol. Peacock hate has definitely been overblown all integrations are tough and I am surprised how much 80s stuff got transferred so quickly. So I am quite please. John Nord The Barbarian defeated a jabroni Ted DiBiase & Dr. Death defeated Terry Daniels & a jabroni named Shawn Michaels I wonder what happened to him Terry Taylor defeated Kamala which was interesting enough on paper that I went on Youtube to see what I could find. That was a dumbass decision. Found a shitty house show match. If you ever wanted to see a match with armpit psychology, I guess this would be for you. Kamala had Terry Taylor in a titty claw for 8 minutes. Excoriatingly boring. Terrible finish to boot. Kamala comes off the top rope and misses a splash. Kamala had been getting DQ'd on TV for doing that to jaybrones. This made Taylor look like a shit champion. When he looked to get his heat back, Taylor was dumped over top rope. Then Kamala splashed Skandor Akbar, but then Akbar settled him down. Fucking shits. Four Way Elimination match RNR Express beat Dirty White Boys, Brad Armstrong & Tom Pritchard and Jake Roberts & Jack Victory. Doesnt look like I missed much. 3/30/85 Format: I have noticed the promo/interview segment usually happens at the beginning of the show to set up the angle. This particular episode had two additional ones in the forms of replays. Ted DiBiase will be back in 30 days after losing the Vince Russo Wet Dream Match to Duggan and brings up just like the Civil War the war will live on. Between this and Watts promoting a non-Denominational Christian magazine and the power of faith, this is a very Southern show. All the important things from last week show end up getting recapped in this week. Nord The Barbarian ripped off Butch Reed's nice suit but Reed fought through the humiliation and made a comeback. Cut a great fired up promo challenging Nord to a Ghetto Street Fight. I might try to find that and check that out. Nord won another squash against Mike Jackson but no showdown with Reed. Main Angle Part One: Very Watts episode with a lot of matrix booking and having the wrestlers in a multiple angles. They end up showing the finish of the Kamala vs Terry Taylor match from the previous so I am doubly dumb for wasting 11 minutes on that shitty house show match. TV match looked raucous. Taylor got busted open on the outside. He popped Kamala. Jake The Snake who has been feuding with him came out, swang and missed. Taylor flattened him. Kamala ends up getting table topped and Taylor wins. Kamala loses his shit and attacks Friday and Akbar. Now the House Show finish makes sense. He loses control and attacks his "handlers" when he loses. Jim Ross went way overboard with the "KAMALA IS CONFUSED!" at the top of his lungs which made me laugh. Kamala squashes this little twerp Shawn Michaels who the fuck is that. Terry Taylor saves. Akbar tries to run his head into the post, but Taylor beats him back and piledrives Friday. Now Kamala shows he cares and hoists Friday back to safety. The Friday gimmick is genius really. That is part one of the main angle. Main Angle Part Two: The second part took place during Kerry Von Erich's defeat of Thor with a Claw pinfall win. So who is Thor, looked like a taller Stunning Steve Austin to the point where I was initially confused. Beautiful blond hair. Thor is the future Nailz. We get out first mention Ric Flair at the top of the show. Watts mentions Kerry is the #1 Contender to the World's title held by Flair. In addition, he said Taylor is vacating the TV Championship because he is now the North American Champion. There will be a TV Title tournament. Jake The Snake bemoans the fact he is not the #1 seed citing the DDT is the most dangerous move and left Taylor laying. Watts said that was after a match. Watts also tells us that they tried to bring the Mid-South area a Chris Adams title defense of the American Championship against Kerry Von Erich citing neutral ground for this World Class feud. Adams forsook the opportunity opting to team with Dr. Death against Pritchard and somebody. Prtichard avoided Death on a criss cross and ran into an Adams Superkick for the loss. Adams looked like a ton of fun early stooging again. Back to the Von Erich match, Jake The Snake dropped the hint that he had a phone conversation with Nature Boy Ric Flair and that he could be bought. Next thing you know Jake The Snake & Chris Adams jump Kerry Von Erich. Jake had a cup of coffee in World Class in late 84 as a Adams/Gino buddy in their feud with the Von Erichs. Terry Taylor saves and Terry & Kerry are called a dream team! I am kinda interested in them. They are two great Flair opponents in the summer. Lots of great shit! Bizarre Commentary: Boyd Pierce loves letting us know who the ladies love. Bill does most of the talking in general but Boyd lets know the ladies swoon for Kerry's body. You know who else the ladies swoon for Joel Watts...BWHAHAHAHAAHAHA! Those were the most sentences Boyd strung together were extolling Joel Watts as a sex symbol. Midcard Mania: There were still three more matches on this show. Brickhouse Brown, a name I have heard before, but never seen beat Jacko Victory. Not very over, not very special and smaller than I expected. Dirty White Boys beat The Lightning Express in a pretty one-sided, borderline squash match. Brad Armstrong was just the North American champion. What a fall from grace! There was NO hot tag! BA Came in when the White Boys double teamed too long and then he flamed out. Horner ate a Samoan Drop and lost. Weird. Steve Casey was the last match and this random British dude who I have never even heard of continues to impress as he puts on a technical clinic against a jobber. I dig me some Steve Casey!

Kelly @Ricky Jackson & I are back again! WHOOMP! There it is! Heavy metal podcast is still on tap but one of the trio is still dealing with some shit. This is part 2 of the World Wrestling Federation Match from 1978-1987, Backlund, Bruno/Larry Z, and of course Kelly's boy, B. Brian Blair! Nuthin but love for Pro Wrestling Love & Kelly Nelson! Thank you so much all! https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-awasp-10a2d1a