Superstar Sleeze

Disc 8 doesnt look too exciting save for Nature Boy goodness... Gene Kiniski, Art Crews & Ricky Romero vs Gene Lewis, Roger Kirby & Max Blue - Six-Man Tag Elimination - Oh boy! A rough start for this disc of Wrestling at the Chase. Flair is World Champion and this is from 1982. His two major challengers, 54 year old Big Thunder and 53 year old Dick The Bruiser. Gene Kiniski old as fuck in this match but he actually moves around really well and is the best wrestler of the match. I liked Max Blue the most from the heels so of course he is eliminated first. Gene ends up 1-on-2, he uses heel miscommunication to his advantage to win with a kneedrop and backbreaker. Gene Kiniski cuts a classic pro wrestling promo. He is no carnival barker like the 80s pro wrestlers. He is blue collar, salt of the Earth. He tells like it is in a no-nonsense style. I liked the content a lot even if it was a little dry. He came off as really lucid and analytical. What the fuck happened at Starrcade 1983? He looked like an old man that didnt know what was going on. Kiniski is coming for Ric Flair, they are complete opposites, Dick The Bruiser is the Uncrowned Champion and if Big Thunder wins, he will give The Bruiser the first crack, he gives his kids the rub which is the reason I think he is being pushed again. Interview with Jack Brisco from 2004. Nothing earth-shattering seemed to be in kayfabe, but I liked it. Mark Romero vs Roger Kirby - Sue me, I liked this match a lot. It is so fundamental but I loved it. Romero was the 19 year old son of Ricky Romero, I am surprised the kid dint get a break somewhere. Good looking kid and good execution. He could have been molded into something. Headlock, tackle stuff. Kirby roughhouses a little and then works the hammerlock. Romero works a one arm bodyslam as a hope spot. Great use of the flying headscissors. Time limit draw as Romero has him trapped in ab stretch. *** Ted DiBiase Music Video set ONJ's Let's Get Physical...St. Louis goes Mempho baby! Ric Flair & Jerry Brown vs Dick The Bruiser & Bulldog Bob Brown - Terrific Ric Flair performance, he was such a little shit to Dick The Bruiser throughout this, taunting him constantly. Flair worked strong on top against Bulldog Bob Brown. So much energy. You can really see why he is a cut above everyone else. Just great Flair offense and character work. Before he was in there with Bulldog, he was in there with Bruiser. He stood toe to toe with Bruiser before eventually Flair Flopping for him. The Bruiser was FUCKING OVER! The only time I have heard the crowd actively chant for the wrestler was here. Chants for the 53-year old Missouri Heavyweight Champion. When you are that over no matter your age, you deserve to be in the mix. Jerry Brown was Buddy Roberts former partner in the famous, original Hollywood Blonds. Loved the finish. Flair and Brusier are going at it hard. They are building to a Kiel rematch after a controversial finish had Flair retaining. Flair goes to post the leg but DB shoves him off and Flair goes HARD into the announce table and Larry & Mickey were expecting as one of them lets out a yelp. Brawl. DB slams Flair head into the table and then PILEDRIVES Flair on the floor and busts him open! Countout win for the Bruiser & Bulldog. Bruiser celebrates with the Missouri and World Championships. I went ragging on the Bruiser vs Flair program and came out wanting to see it! That's the most effective TV match possible! ***1/4 Dewey Robertson squash I'll be honest I dont remember much of this. Kerry Von Erich & Rufus R. Jones vs Hercules & Jobber - Hercules with a shaved head and looking yoked, looks like he should be a Russian, Larry is calling him Hercules already. Kerry mocks him posing. Rufus is a ton of fun. Rufus & Kerry are my new favorite tag team. Kerry puts down the jobber with a Stomach Claw suplex. We get a look at the Flying Sheiks, Ken Patera & Crusher Blackwell, Blackwell's match is in the AWA nd he is in peak Blackwell form. Patera is kinda bland to me. He is not bad per se, but he is not great either. He is just there. Full nelson wins his match. Here's the highlight of this disc and it is good craic as the Irish would say, Ric Flair vs Art Crews. Flair is the World's Champion as this is 1982. Very Ric Flair match but with more amateur stuff and lots of good chain wrestling. He lets Crew shine, but this tight and tenacious Flair. The best part is this is a backdrop for an angle with Dick The Bruiser. The Bruiser is over like gangbusters. He steals Flair's robe and belt. Puts it on and parades himself around ringside. Flair is INCENSED! This is the best Flair, the ref and Crews try to hold him back. As The Bruiser mocks him in the ring, STOMPS ON THE ROBE and flung it into the crowd! Flair was madder than a hornet. He beats on Crews and makes him tap out to the Figure-4. He retrieves his robe and belt and cuts a great pissed off promo. Dick The Bruiser beats Hercules in a minute, he throws him on the announce table, hits him with a metal water pitcher and two Atomic Stomps win it. Bruiser cuts a pretty lame promo that Flair is a sissy and no one wants a girl as a champion, they want a man. The dude is fucking over. He talks about going to saloons, drinking beer and smoking cigars way before Stone Cold Steve Austin. I skipped Dewey Robertson/Rufus R Jones/Mike George vs Three Chumps. From a match quality perspective one of the weakest of the set, in a territory that very rarely ran angles on TV, this is the best one we have on tape. Sam Muchnick retired on January 1, 1982 and I wonder if the changing of the guard was one of the reason you all of sudden saw angles on TV and music videos of wrestlers set to Olivia Newton-John. I am all for it!

UGH Volume 7 was cut short on the Impact Wrestling Network so I missed Kerry Von Erich vs Greg Valentine. I will have track that down online. NWA Missouri Champion Ken Patera vs Dewey Robertson - This was a good glimpse into what it would have looked like if Patera had been a travelling NWA World Champion. He takes four massive bumps in this and really lets Dewey's shine. I would say he is in between a Flair and a Race. He bumps to make his opponent shine but he has a lot more personality than a Race. Dewey was fine but nothing about say missed opportunity. I thought where Patera may come up short compared to a Race or a Flair is the lack of offense. The Bearhug and Full Nelson is all well in good and I liked the focus on the back, but it was a lot of clubbering offense. The finish was a time limit draw which surprised me. Good match. *** Spike Huber vs Gil Guerrero - Huber is a good plucky, white meat babyface. He wrestles very early 80s babyface with lots of armdrags and energy. He loves the Gutwrench suplex. Airplane spin and backdrop get him the win. Harley Race vs David Von Erich - is definitely the best match I have seen watching these DVDs so far, I thought it was so good, I made a review for it. Excellent escalation. I dont really like Harley Race, but when I do is always against the Von Erich boys. Great chemistry, great finish. **** Kerry Von Erich 40 second squash with the Stomach Claw. What is Kerry's accent? I dont think I have ever heard anyone talk like that. He has never come across as the brightest bulb but he was a helluva wrestler. Bobo Brazil Squash, extrapolating based on this performance, I bet Bobo Brazil was a helluva wrestler in his prime in Detroit against The Sheik & Abdullah. He was doing double dropdowns no problem. He was moving great and hitting hard. Coco Butt gets the win. I wish we would get our hands on primetime Detroit Wrestling Footage. Instead of a great Kerry Von Erich vs Greg Valentine match, I got 12 minutes of Bulldog Bob Brown vs Baron Von Raschke. I like the Baron but this way too much Brown doing a headlock. It was tight I will give him that. Baron almost gets the Claw on. They both tumble to the outside. They both hit the ref for a Double DQ. Baron giving a contemporary interview with Larry was nice to hear about his football and legit wrestling credentials. Then how he broke in with Verne and Mad Dog. Seems like an affable fellow. Once I track down Kerry vs Valentine, this could be the best disc of the set. Without it, it is pretty weak besides the excellent Harley vs David match. Next disc appears in full as the run time is back up to 2 hours. Oh boy, nothing looks good, we may be getting to the dregs of the set. Some Flair matches those are usually at the very least entertaining.

Harley Race vs David Von Erich - St. Louis Wrestling At The Chase 8/23/81 I am no fan of Harley Race except against the Von Erich boys. There's something magical about their chemistry. I have seen terrific matches with Kerry & Kevin and now we can add David to the list. Early on in my St. Louis watch I was impressed by this matchup but I thought this was even better and this maybe the best St. Louis match we have on tape, it is definitely in my fave five. Harley Race is no longer champion having dropped the strap to Dusty Rhodes. This combined Harley's slam, bang, do it again style with lots of struggle and babyface/heel dynamics, two things the Von Erich boys excelled in. David is working the headlock to start. I enjoyed the bridge out by David when Harley tried to pry David down by the chin. I really liked how Harley was thwarted again and again. Harley nails an excellent dropkick but misses the falling headbutt. He headbutts during a rope break only to be clotheslined on a criss cross. I lap that type of shit up. Harley is really effective in using the headbutt. It does get over the desperation and that he is one tough son of a bitch for using his head for such damage. We get the barrage of piledrivers, tombstone and conventional to no avail. David press slams him off the top and nails his own piledriver at one point. I thought they used missed moves excellently in this. They even brawl on the outside really tearing up the announce table. As they close in on 5 minutes left, they really pour it on. Huge pop for the Iron Claw! Rope break plus headbutt to the breadbasket. It is funny to me that Harley loves the piledriver but the vertical suplex is his finish in St. Louis. He nails it but wants to hit the Diving Headbutt, but he belly flops. David up on the ropes and comes down with THE CLAW~! Time is running out! This could be the biggest victory of David's career! Harley pulls the ref into David for the ref bump. Harley delivers the Suplex on the floor! DAVID SELLS THIS LIKE A MILLION BUCKS! AWESOME SELL! Kerry is out and wallops Harley and checks on his brother. This was a great all-action match that escalated really nicely into a wicked hot finish run and told the story of heel veteran vs young babyface really well. ****

Disc 6 does not look like it has much meat on the bone We start off with my main man, Crusher Blackwell looking like a million bucks. Love his freight train body splash in the corner and we get a sick legdrop. He gets into a brawl with Dewey Robertson not yet the Missing Link. Robertson sends Blackwell into the post and he NO SELLS IT! There is a fight. Blackwell yanks the chair right out from the smokin' hot girl in the red sweater. He then starts to bash himself in the head with the chair. That was something else! Love Blackwell! Bob Orton vs Mark Romero was a surprisingly awesome squash. Orton's reputation has risen over the last decade as a workrate dynamo and it is rightfully shown here. Romero looks like the type of cat with the right breaks and mentor could have been somebody, but it didnt pan out. There is a clip in the middle unfortunately but what we get is rockin'. The two most memorable things by far are Orton's two escapes from the headscissors. The first Romero ends up hanging down his front and that could have easily been converted into a tombstone piledriver but it is c. 1981 so I am not sure if it was even invented yet. The second had Romero down the back and Orton executed one of the best Airplane Spins ever! Romero was a serviceable babyface but this was the Orton show. Great rope-assisted dropkick. Loved the powerslam and backbreaker. Orton is a worker I need to see more of. His best match by far is that Southwest Classic with Terry Funk. Pre-WWF Orton is definitely on my to do list, but I dont know how much we have. Romero goes back to the flying headscissors. I would be remiss to mention that Orton executed a flying headscissors early in the match to my surprise and then missed it in entertaining fashion. Romero executes the first attempt but on the second attempt Orton evades and Romero ends up eating the top turnbuckle which is a perfect set up for the Superplex! Hard to beat this competitive squash! ***1/4 Bruiser Brody vs Dory Funk Jr in All Japan - I dont know why this made the comp except that Larry is a total Brody mark. Double juice, good Dory fire and clean finish. Easy recommend. ***3/4 Kerry Von Erich & Rufus R. Jones vs JJ Dillon & Bobby Jaggers - JJ underwhelms again! Best Jaggers performance, lots of great stooging, I loved him falling into the ring and also tagging Kerry in the wrong corner and getting waffled. I enjoy Rufus' schtick and Kerry had some great highspots. Then way Kerry hit his dropkicks in a whirlwind of energy was really cool. Time limit draw. NWA Missouri Heavyweight Champion Ted DiBiase vs Chief Thundercloud - DiBiase beat Flair and is back in contention for the World Championship, but The American Dream Dusty Rhodes is coming, baby. Thundercloud gave DiBiase more fits than I expected with his chops, hair pulling, getting DiBiase off his feet more than once. DiBiase used the Fireman's Carry liberally not quite as good at as Baron Von Raschke but it is an underrated takedown and I dug it here. Flair & Patera vs Dusty & Dick The Bruiser is being advertised. I liked when Thundercloud was chopping in the corner that DiBiase used the Greco-Roman Double Underhooks and repositioned so they could open a can of whoop ass on him. DiBiase wins with the Figure-4. After like three or four discs mentioning this big angle at the Kiel with DiBiase and Race from February of 1981, it turns out we have footage of it! Race won the first fall with a Tombstone Piledriver so I guess it was around, it was not exactly like the Undertakers as Race just fell forwards. DiBiase hit a kneecrusher/Figure-4 to win the second fall. The third fall was just as Larry explained. Ref bump to outside. DiBiase over the top rope. DiBiase pins with the Bridging Back Suplex, but the top rope is a DQ so Race retains. Crowd did pop huge and it looked like DiBiase was very over! NWA World Heavyweight Champion Harley Race vs Spike Huber is exemplary of how Harley works, all action no substance. Lots of highspots and bomb-throwing, but light on character work, struggle. It is very cold, mechanical. It is very Triple H. You can see how Triple H picked up a lot more from Harley Race than he did the Nature Boy. Huber, who is Dick The Bruiser's son in-law bounces the champion around but with none of the pizzazz that Flair would have also Flair would have created obstacles for Huber to overcome. I will admit I did find the finish quite exciting. It was Harley missing a falling headbutt on the outside right into concrete that generated some nice nearfalls for Huber. They did these two weird leapfrogs spots where the collided into each other, but they looked gnarly. Race got pressed slam off the top. Harley hit a nice piledriver to win. Like I said if you like highspots galore and pure workrate you will enjoy this, but it is very Spot A->Spot B->Spot C wrestling with little connective tissue. *** A pair of Dusty Rhodes squashes. I do think these squashes put the previous match in perspective for as much I would rail against the lack of character work, psychology and struggle in the previous match, it was at least not as boring as these matches. Dusty was not quite as charismatic as usual. He had flashes moreso in the first squash than the second. He worked the leg in the first and the chinlock in the second. Some good Bionic Elbows and it was a falling elbow drop that got him the duke in each. According to the match listing I have the Volume should have extended but I am missing a Dusty promo (which are always a treasure), Harley squash, DiBiase/Huber vs Harley/JJ Dillon and highlights from Harley vs DiBiase in the Checkerdome, the last is a bummer as I feel like most of these discs have really been building to this. On to Disc 7 which looks light BUT does feature Kerry Von Erich vs Greg Valentine! I wonder if this is the match I have already seen or if it is a new one!

NWA International Heavyweight Champion Dory Funk Jr vs Bruiser Brody - AJPW 4/21/82 This was randomly on volume 6 of the St. Louis Wrestling at the Chase comp that is available on Impact Wrestling's Streaming Network. The only rationale I can come up with is that it is because Larry was a massive Brody mark. The key with all Brody matches is just check all preconceived notions of Brody as a wildman brawler at the door, he just wasnt. Once you have seen enough of Brody and dont try to force him to be something he is not, he becomes a lot better. I actually like how stingy he is with the bumps as it makes them mean more. This finished #134 on All Japan 80s set which seems criminally low as I thought this was pretty great at 15 minutes very brisk. Brody worked strong early and forced Dory to work underneath, sending Dory outside with a dropkick and then working a headlock. Brody uses a bodyslam and Larry points out Dory used the bodyslam as a set up move winning World Championship from Gene Kiniski by delivering seven bodyslams before the Spinning Toehold. Learn something new everyday. Lo and Behold, Dory hits the bodyslam on Brody. I have always loved Dory's European Uppercut and he was on fire here. They work a great knucklelock/monkey flip sequence which totally unexpected from these but I dug it. I liked how Brody chaotically spun into the turnbuckles but didnt bump. However, there was a weird moment where Dory got Brody off his feet but Brody only half-bumped. He either needed to full bump or no sell. The half bump looked awkward. Brody picks the heel up from outside the ring and now the fun begins. He brawls into the crowd throws Dory into some chairs and Dory starts bleeding. I was really surprised how low this is on the set as it is very vigorous, it is bloody and ultimately has a clean finish. Brody plays King of the Mountain. Two awesome big boots in the ending stretch. Dory plays a little Kurt Angle popping up and hurling Brody off the top rope and gets a vertical suplex (he couldnt negotiate it earlier in the match) as hope spots. Pretty big bombs down the stretch. They spill to the outside and now Dory busts open Brody. Double Juice! Dory is rockin'. Dory goes for the Back Suplex but Bordy kicks off the top rope so Dory ends up taking the brunt of it and Brody wins. I always liked that finish. Solid opening with Dory playing the fiery babyface from underneath, the ending stretch was hot with the blood, bombs and a great finish. As always I wish Brody gave us something more in the way of charisma and being more heelish. Besides not leaving his feet and opening Dory up, he wrestles very neutral. ***3/4

Hey AA484 thanks for the love! I, also, prefer the written word, brutha. It is more exact. I think you can reach a broader audience with audio. Glad you dig my write-ups. I am in the Microscope section for now. Watched a couple episodes of AWA All-Star Wrestling and have been digging through St. Louis' Wrestling At The Chase so you can catch me there! Pro Wrestling Love vol. 3 is up and ready to be consumed & digested. I have a got of shit going on in my personal life right now so I am going to keep this short and sweet. If you have been enjoying listening to me and Jerome/El-P break down what we think is the very best of TNA/Impact Wrestling of all time then click the link and enjoy because it is only getting better! Have a great week everybody! Let me know if you have any comments, questions or requests! https://www.podbean.com/eu/pb-a9etu-f445f6

Disc 5 lets roll... Hangman Bobby Jaggers vs Tommy Sharpe - Jaggers has the Hangman name. He wrestles very similarly to Flair, but not as energetic, not as interesting and not as loud. He lets Sharp overwhelm him at every turn. Sharpe charges and Jaggers repels him. Jaggers has some good clubbering offense, but then its chinlock city. The finish is a Hangman's Lariat, didnt look good. Baron Von Raschke vs Art Crews - In one of those St. Louis nomenclature idiosyncrasies, Baron is forced to dropped the Baron from his name. St. Louis is cool because you do get to see the AWA stars mix it up with the NWA. I would bet Baron was a great wrestler in the late 60s and throughout the 70s. I have watched a lot of him recently and you can pick up his wrestling pedigree. Great athleticism besides a botched monkey flip probably because he had never taken it before. The middle section was quite exciting with the Baron kicking ass. He let Crews have a little and then it was chinlock city by the Baron. Yawn. Baron wins with the Brain Claw! Kerry Von Erich! vs A Jobber- Kerry looking like a million bucks but still growing his hair out. Good technically sound wrestling by Kerry early and then we get the Power wrestling. Great Urnage/Oo-Soto-Gari combination. Basically think Rock Bottom combined with a Hiptoss and it looked vicious! The Iron Claw ends up in the ropes but the Brain Claw gives him the victory and it was powerful. He hoisted the jobber up with the Stomach Claw and slams him to the mat! Butch Reed & Rufus R. Jones vs The Kelly Twins - I am surprised in a more soap opera-oriented territory like a Memphis they didnt pick up the Kelly twins just to do the evil twin angle. Soaps can do the whole evil twin with camera tricks. WWF did with the Hebners once to great effect. To me the dumbest thing you can do is debut twins together. Give one a year or so as a babyface and then you pull the evil twin trick that's money. I think you could still do it, but probably not as effectively but in the 80s, huge! Kelly Twins werent half bad either. Rufus is from Boston?!? Maybe the best Boston wrestler until John Cena came along! Rufus was over with the audience and me. He is fun. Reed looked awesome in this. I need to check more Reed, great wrestler. Kellys were effective heels, but Reed was the MVP. Draw finish. Reed was cooking at the end though, dropped the leg as time expired. NWA World Champion Jack Brisco vs Giant Baba Kiel Auditorium Highlights form 8/8/75 - Jack wins the first fall with the O'Connor Roll. Jack wrestling heel in this is interesting. Baba wins the second fall with his Neckbreaker Drop Lariat. Brisco wins with a Back Suplex. We have their 1974 title switches in full and in great quality thanks to the Japanese. They are dandies! Definitely check those out if you have time. Time for a break. When we come back Ric Flair vs Pat O'Connor! Kerry Von Erich vs Ken Patera! Bruce Reed vs Hangman Bobby Jaggers - Im sad to report that Jaggers is not a lost worker of the 80s. He is a very basic heel. I liked Reed a lot of this good, strong babyface. This is a more traditional structure compared to some of the slam bang workrate tag matches I have seen. After besting Jaggers at every turn, Reed takes a tumble to the outside off a missed charge. Jaggers plays of the King of the Mountain, which was good stuff. Then it is chinlock city. Two Reed tackles and it is followed by the Jaggers kneelift. It is clear they are working for the draw. Reed doesnt get his comeback until there's less than a minute. So weird not seeing the long extended babyface finish. They both knock heads after the time limit expires. Ric Flair vs Pat O'Connor - Wooooo! Daddy, this is more like it! They are building to Flair vs DiBiase for the Missouri Championship and de facto Number 1 Contender to Harley Race. This is during the time they were really building Flair giving him wins over the former World Champions and top contenders. Flair looks great here, maybe the best he ever has. He was always jacked but he looked leaner than ever. O'Connor looks like dogshit, but he can still wrestle, brutha. Classic Flair with O'Connor getting the best of him in interesting and entertaining ways. Flair works the front facelock and it is really fun and cool because O'Connor uses a lot of suplex attempts and other ways to break Flair's grip and on the third suplex does. Flair is the master of using all the real estate afforded to him and the action goes to the outside. He wraps O'Connor's knee around the post. I love O'Connor's reaction to the Single Leg Pickup he just starts throwing right haymakers to the bandage on Flair's head reopening the wound! What great psychology. Now Flair is bleeding and the crowd is whipped into a frenzy. O'Connor with a sleeper on the outside and Flair slams him into the post, Figure-4! The ref count is on and Flair makes it in. Flair's promo is money. He is 100% The Nature Boy! The ladies only care if he wins or loses, daddy, they dont care how he does it. He runs down DiBiase and Race and says all the gold will be his. The Man! I love Naitch. My favorite match thus far, but not for long, I will say Flair vs Kerry, Reed vs Blackwell and Kerry vs Valentine top this from St. Louis. ***3/4 Kerry Von Erich & Rufus R. Jones vs JJ Dillon & Mike Kelley - Sub-5 minute match. JJ's heart was not in it, barely stooged for Rufus. Nothing match. Ken Patera vs Kerry Von Erich was great. Really enjoyed all the ways Kerry showed up Patera and how Patera sold that. Ken tried to flex early and Kerry made him paid. Then Patera thinks he got some momentum rolling and Kerry dropkicks him out of the ring. Patera has Kerry in a headlock and ends up sat down the top rope. At this point Patera comes crashing down on Kerry. I thought Kerry's selling was better than Patera's offense. It was entertaining throughout. It was a predictable draw in this star vs star match with Kerry getting an O'Connor Roll as time expired. ***1/4 Wendi Richter & Joyce Grable vs Carol Summers & Jill Fontaine was the surprise of century! My favorite match of the set so far. Grable looked fantastic in her singles match and I thought Richter was pretty good in that mixed tag. I remember remarking to myself and surprised I didnt put it in my review of the Richter tag that I wanted to see Grable vs Richter. They put turned heel and just put on a clinic. They were giving Mickey a ton of shit during the introductions. He gets out of there and compares them to Ox Baker and Bulldog Bob Brown. I popped. If you wanna see a carryjob watch this. Richter and Grable put on a clinic. They rip through the babyfaces at the start, but then it becomes competitive. There's a part where they are missing giant splashes that is great. Richter throws herself into some great bumps. The finish is a Richter backdropping one of the girls into a Grable POWERBOMB~! MADNESS! SHEER MADNESS! Loved the hell out of this! ****

I have no idea when this episode of TV is from they were advertising an Oakland Battle Royale on November 12th. Based on the roster, it feels like it is 1981. AWA World Tag Team Champions High Flyers vs Jobbers - Been watching a lot of squashes and I realize my least favorite is when a technical babyface squashes. Power wrestlers are a ton of fun to watch heel or baby as they will just smoke their opponents. Classic heel with cheat like sumbitch. Technical babyfaces not much to it and they often try to make it seem more competitive by doing a lot of motion but it really isnt. Matches like this make me believe Crockett was not ahead of its time just with it. Very Crockett style match in 1981 in AWA. Tons of workrate and motion. Brunzell has such a terrific dropkick. Love the snapmare take over for the first fall. Gagne sleeper takes the second fall. Gagne has good fire. It is a shame Brunzell was not a bit taller or didnt come along a little later could've been a big player. The Hulkster is with Johnny Valiant. Hulk Hogan is clearly trying to do the Superstar Billy Graham rap and he is pretty good at it, but he still hasnt found his voice. Johnny Valiant is just one of those talkers that talks. His cadence is good, but he doesnt have the conviction or content worth listening to. They are challenging Jesse The Body to a Arm Wrestling Match. A little heel vs heel...SCANDALOUS~! Mean Gene is the best. He asks a pointed question about arm wrestling he knows how to get a point over. Dizzy Ed Hogan vs Scrap Iron George Gadawski - Brutus Beefcake has one of those faces where he looks different everytime I see him. Man, I dont know youre telling me Dizzy Boulder, Brutus Beefcak and The Disciple are the same person. i have a hard time believeing that, brutha. Dizzy Boulder is Hulk Hogan with a better hairline and less charisma. He wins with a full nelson. Lame Squash. Baron Von Raschke vs Worst Jobber Ever - Greg says the Baron was an NCAA champion when he intro's this and uses the Danny Hodge line to describe Baron that the Baron had the strongest grip in wrestling. Looked it up. Baron was an AAU champion, World Bronze and a Big 8 Champion. Baron is a good athlete I can tell. He is in there with one of the worst jobbers I have ever seen. A total load and that makes every move look like shit. I would have just Clawed him and got the fuck out. What a load. Hulk Hogan vs Two Jobbers - Hogan gets the BIG STAR treatment! You cant say the AWA was not pushing him and he looks like a million bucks. He was pretty good in this. I like 80s WWF Hogan that hams it up more. Hogan double bearhug was a really cool finish! Tito Santana vs Jobber - Not Much to report here. Tito has a nice dropkick too. God, I love that Tito/Martel vs High Flyers match from this time. Jesse The Body SMOKES Hulk Hogan in his promo. It is not even close who is the better promo at this time. Hogan would become Jesse's equal but he was always more athletic than Jesse and I think more inherently likeable. Jesse has too much smarm to him. He did get the State of Minnesota to vote him as Governor so I guess I am wrong. Adrian Adonis here also and they are talking the Battle Royale. Jesse was so good in this. HEY! Here's Andre and he's going to be in the Battle Royale. It is in Oakland and Mean Gene has the audacity to sav that it is something that area has never seen before! The last Cow Palace Battle Royale was actually this very year, 1981 and won by the Man of San Fran himself, Pat Patterson!

Didnt feel like St. Louis so decided to watch a random episode of AWA TV. I watched All Star Wrestling was this the A-Show or was it Championship Wrestling? I have seen a lot of great AWA promo with Mean Gene, but there were promos on this episode. It was 35 minutes long, usually an hour of TV is 38-42minutes run time, do people think the promos were cut or did All-Star Wrestling not show promos? Also where was this taped? Twin Cities, I presume? Spacious venue. August 2, 1981 AWA All-Star Wrestling AWA World Tag Team Champion High Flyers vs a Mexican/Puerto Rican jobbers. Heel jobbers go after Greg's eyes and try some roughhouse tactics on Brunzell in the second falls. Two straight for the champs. Brunzell looked great. Dropkick was not the finish, needed a small package. Greg looked pretty good, but I preferred Brunzell in this outing. Greg had some good leg work. Both were energetic and vigorous. Greg wins with a Jackknife pin. Crusher Jerry Blackwell vs George "Scrap Iron" Gadaski - The highlight of this show. Blackwell looked like a million bucks. If you are a Blackwell like I am, this is not a must watch, but it is a really strong squash match from him. Loved the freight train finish. Tito Santana vs Pancho - I like how he heel jobbers cheat a lot, lots of hair pulling in this. Tito has his fists cocked in typical pissed off Tito fashion but he never lets them fly to my dismay. Really cool pin by Tito that should be cribbed. He does a standing reverse toehold with a backbridge. Verne has been on commentary and you could tell he liked that one. Sheik Adnan al-Kaisse vs Jobber - Adan slapped the jobber around. I dont remember this being quite as vicious as I wanted it to be. Abdominal Stretch wins it for the Sheik, customary Wilbur Synder reference by Verne. Baron Von Raschke vs Jobber - Finishes off. Again, I noticed that Baron is still quite athletic at this point in his career. Verne calls him "supple" while that's a descriptor that I reserve for use in a different form of physical, adult entertainment, he's not wrong, but at the same time I am not sure I want to think of the Baron in that light. The Baron definitely had something, the way he moves around the ring is very graceful. Brain Claw finishes it. I will probably stick with St. Louis for the time being because I am trying to finish before the end of the month so I dont have to pay Impact another $8, but this was a fun 35 minutes. Blackwell squash was worthwhile, always nice to see Tito and the Baron is growing on me.

Disc #4 Baby! NWA Missouri Heavyweight Champion Ted DiBiase vs Big John Studd - Apparently, DiBiase is coming off the heels of a controversial match with World Champion Harley Race (more on that later) that has Larry calling DiBiase "The Uncrowned World Champion" which does bolster Parv's case for DiBiase as a top contender for the World Championship. I am a sucker for Big John Studd even though I know he is not very good. I got excited that there would be something here, but not really. The match was pretty boring. Lots of chinlocks from Studd. DiBiase is a decent white-meat babyface but I think he found his true calling as a heel in Mid-South. When you compare DiBiase to the great babyfaces of the 80s, Steamboat, Santana, Martel and Windham, he doesnt have the fire, charisma or selling chops those four had. He is solid enough here. Studd does look like a monster. Studd plays King of the Mountain and DiBiase yanks him down and posts the knee. Nice! DiBiase is looking for the Figure-4 big kickout by Studd sends DiBiase crashing through the ropes. Studd slams DiBiase into the front row seat. I think a woman put her leg on that seat so Studd couldnt do it again! Awesome! DiBiase took control and bashed Studd with the chair! It is a double DQ or countout! Boring match, strong finish. I had never heard a Studd promo. He is alright. Sounds like a pretty normal wrestling dude. Says punk a lot. He says he whupped DiBiase so he knows he can whup Harley Race and he is going to win the Missouri and World Championship. Bulldog Bob Brown & Kerry Brown vs Kelly Twins - Turns out Kerry Brown is Bulldog Bob's nephew. He is bleeding. Turns out the Kelly Twins are not jobbers. They are Irish-Canadian twins of some size that I have never heard of. Did anything come of them? Bulldog Bob gets the hot tag. Oh boy! That's what everyone was clamoring for in 1981 was the Bulldog Bob face turn. Kerry submits to the Irish Clutch, looked like a standing, inverted Figure-4. Bulldog Bob Brown vs Pat Kelly - Oh boy! The worst most boring match I have seen in quite sometime. The match is a 15 minute draw so boring that Larry has enough time to regale us with the complete story of the Race vs DiBiase match from the Kiel. It was 2 out of 3 falls, Harley took the first, Ted the second. It was a Dusty finish. You know in retrospect even though Dusty used the finish a lot he clearly cribbed it from somewhere else. Harley hurled DiBiase over the top rope but the ref had been bumped. DiBiase recovered and hit a bridging suplex to get the three count from the new ref, but the original ref called for the DQ. Lame. Brown poured it on with a couple minutes left including a dropkick and a lot of backbreakers. In his defense this old ass ref had a really slow count. Legdrop as time expires. Yeah I watched a 15 minute Bulldog Brown vs Pat Kelly draw, sympathy cards welcomed. Time for bed. Akio Sato vs Max Blue - Almost skipped this, glad I didnt as I enjoyed it a good bit. Akio Sato is Sato from the Orient Express. It seems he got pushed in the Central States territory as a babyface partner of Bob Giegel which is interesting and cool. Guys on RAW, Dynamite and Smackdown wish they could have a match this efficient and tell such a great story in 7 minutes and change. Just such nice fundamental wrestling from both. So tight. Sato keeps getting the upper hand. So Blue starts in with the dirty tactics, a shot to the kidney, no clean break. Sato keeps sticking to the holds. Blue throws in some high flying with the headscissors and Sato just keeps dogging him. Then Sato sneaks in the punch for all the bullshit Blue was doing. Side suplex wins it for Sato. Just beautiful meat & potatoes wrestling. ***1/4. They dont make em like they used to. Dick The Bruiser & Jesse Barr vs Buzz Tyler & Mike George - Let me tell you something, I didnt expect Buzz Tyler OR Mike George to look like that. I think I was getting Buzz Tyler confused with Bugsy McGraw. I never seen Buzz Tyler before. He is a tubby fellow and I was not expecting that. Mike George is another name I have seen a bunch but never seen wrestle. I was not expecting the toothless cousin of Bob Ross. This match was not much. Dick The Bruiser may have been good craic in the 60s and early 70s but he was toast at this point. The heels were as generic as they come. Jesse Barr was very, very sound fundamentally I can see why he was pushed in Florida, he had that pedigree they like. DB busted Buzz open in the nose and mouth hardway on the announce table because he didnt get his hands up in time. To add insult to injury, he claws and raked at his face after he pinned him. NWA Missouri Champion Ken Patera vs Tommy Sharpe - At least Sharpe tried to give this a shot on work on Patera's knee. Patera had MASSIVE arms. It is interesting because the rest of his body is not that big, but his arms are huge. I wouldnt say Patera is someone I really want to seek out after watching these squashes but he is definitely good. Great bodyslam and the Full Nelson is perfect for him. Larry Matysik and Mickey Garagiola reminiscing about old times was great. Loved finding out Gene Kiniski was a motormouth, chatterbox & gourmet cook. Dick The Bruiser was the salt of the Earth, tough guy that cries at his daughter's wedding. Great story about how Mickey's brother Joe a famous baseball player got some free food, but a different person didnt know who the brother was, but he knew Mickey from Wrestling At The Chase! King Kong Brody & Ken Patera vs Rocky Johnson & Pat O'Connor - 15 minute draw. This match was a bit of clusterfuck and boring at times. Brody was pretty useless. Just plain not selling in a Rocky John Full Nelson. Patera was real into chinlocks. However, at least Patera was willing to bump and sell for Rocky Johnson. I enjoy Rocky. All his movements are very exaggerated which I bet played for arena audience. Very athletic. I loved his shaking his tailfeather to power himself out of a Brody knucklelock. I love a good booty-shakin' babyface. He was a fun babyface. O'Connor had a hot tag. It is interesting he had a hot tag with 5 minutes to go so I expected 5 minutes of uptempo action. I think we have been spoiled by the long finish stretches of Flair and All Japan. They took us back down and worked more heat. The finish with a minute to go was not even that hot. Like what I have seen from Rocky, not a good showing from Brody or Patera. Brody was a weird a promo. There is almost no way his voice could match his aura. He just sounds like a big redneck. He is complaining about being in tag wrestling and Sam Muchnick. Lots of heels going after Muchnick. Weakest disc so far. Akio Sato vs Max Blue was the best match. The best part was Larry and Mickey reminiscing! The next disc should be better we have Ric Flair vs Pat O'Connor and Kerry Von Erich vs Ken Patera! Two marquee matches!

Thanks Beast, did you get a chance to listen what did you think? Yes Cactus my hope was to help people with the Greatest Match Ever project at gweproject.freeforums.net with any blind spots they might have with TNA/Impact. Yes it is definitely marred by bad booking but there’s still a treasure trove of hidden gems. I hope this helps you & others! Its Sunday! You know what that means! Marty & Jerome continue to spread the Pro Wrestling Love on the Place to Be Wrestling Podcast Feed (thanks Justin & Scott for having us). https://www.podbean.com/eu/pb-sugne-f445a7 Episode 2 gets us through #20-16 of our Best TNA/Impact Wrestling Matches of All Time Jerome gives the contemporary stuff lots of love while Marty to his own surprise gives Chris Sabin a lot of love! It’s TNA so there’s plenty of AJ Styles, Samoa Joe and Christopher Daniels talk too! Hope you all enjoy! Let us know what you think!

Disc 3 Begins with a Lou Thesz promo, he comes across very affable. I would like to listen to Thesz spin a yarn. He has that old school charisma that requires no yelling, just pleasant to listen to. Thesz is doing commentary while Rufus R Jones wrestles a squash. I dont think I have ever seen a Rufus match. The way he juked & jived out of the side headlock popped me. He was a shucking & jiving babyface and liked his vibe. The best part was Thesz talking about how all the old timers are so pissy about new fangled wrestling, but he doesnt feel that way. The more things change, the more they stay the same. They show five squash matches of Rocky Johnson. Another wrestler I dont think I have seen wrestle. Lots of Ali influences you can tell with the shuffle as a wrestler he takes it further with back rolls and stuff. Each squash ends with two dropkicks and then another move such as Argentine Backbreaker, Gutwrench or vertical. Larry tells us that Rocky had a NWA Championship Match against Harley Race, which I didint realize he was that big of a deal. That's pretty cool. Dick Murdoch vs Dick The Bruiser's Son In-Law Spike Huber. Huber is all piss 'n' vinegar to start. Raucous start as Murdoch takes a walk. Murdoch has been the MVP of this footage. He was great at combining the charisma and the explosive offense. He pulls Huber up only to hit the Brainbuster to make a point to his archenemy Dick The Bruiser. King Kong Brody vs Abdullah The Butcher as I learn from Larry that St. Louis did do spot shows. I didnt realize that. It was on either side of the Missouri and Illinois border. I thought they just worked the Kiel or Checkerdome and Wrestling at the Chase. I have seen at least one of their brawls from World Class not as good as that. Brody lets himself get beatup and stood upon. Brody blades very visibly on camera. Brody comeback just happens. No real fire. No big transition. They do the brawl on the outside with chairs and stuff. This was ok. The fact the lighting was so bright and it was in High School Gym made me think this was in the 90s. Judy Martin vs Winona Littleheart - Judy Martin is a badass. Good kickass performance from her. Littleheart has an American Indian gimmick does the Wardance and ends up winning with a reverse crossbody. Joyce Grable vs Judy Martin is my new dream match. Just realized I have more work to do in the morning so gotta cut it short tonight. Dick Murdoch & Baron Von Raschke vs Ted DiBiase & David Von Erich - AWESOME 20 minute time limit draw! I really need to make a review for this because this rocked. Murdoch continues to be the MVP of this set. Before there was Rick Rude there was Dicky Murdoch selling Atomic Drops. He gets strangled with the tag rope he brings in. Baron ends up putting the Claw on him! That popped me. The Figure-4 on Murdoch and Claw on Von Raschke was good craic. DiBiase/Murdoch brawled on the outside. So much Murdoch goodness. Baron was still pretty solid at this point as he was a spry 40 years old at this time compared to some of the other old-timers. The main crux of this story was the Battle of the Claws, the Von Erich Iron Claw vs the Von Raschke BRAIN Claw! Great moment where Baron has the Claw applied, David fights through the pain and applies THE CLAW WHILE IN THE CLAW~! I popped for this! Another great moment saw David applying the Claw on the Baron and Murdoch jump off the top rope into a STOMACH CLAW! Awesome! Finish was Murdoch hitting a piledriver on DiBiase but time ran out. This 20 minutes of kickass action with a great story. ***3/4 Baron Von Raschke promo about the Brain Claw vs Iron Claw it is a bunch of trash talk but it is said with conviction and that's the major difference between today and yesterday. If the wrestler's believe, you believe. That's all kayfabe is, brutha. NWA Missouri Heavyweight Champion Ken Patera squash. Our first look at Patera and given that he is Missouri Champ and Larry says he beat Kevin Von Erich (a dream match I gotta see!) means this in between April-November 1980. Patera hits a nice bodyslam. A little Flair begging off there. Swinging Full Nelson wins him the match. Patera was clearly presented as a strongman and a main event act. Killer Karl Kox & Bulldog Bob Brown vs Pat O'Connor & Tommy Yates - a nothing match, I thought Yates was a failed babyface experiment at first, but no he was a jobber and just the fall guy. Kox and Brown argue over who should pin him. Kox vs Brown, I am sure that put asses in seats in 1980. Ted DiBiase & Wendi Richter vs Bulldog Bob Brown & Vivian St. John - The women were good fun in this. Vivian is a nasty heel. She went to the double goozle more often than not but with head shaking from Wendi it was a good visual. I like how raw the women are. Bulldog Bob got socked but gets his licks in on Wendi, which is pretty edgy for 1980 including choking her with tag rope. Wendi ends giving him a lickin for the lickin he gave as The Dream would say. Bulldog Bob sold for DiBiase pretty well. Wendi won with a Schoolboy. Very ok match. Skippable. NWA Missouri Heavyweight Champion Ken Patera squash against Tommy Yates. Patera hits the delayed vertical as a shot across the bow to the World Champion Harley Race. Patera has a great bodyslam. Swinging Full Nelson. Patera's promo is solid nothing earth-shattering. He is coming for Race, he got a shot in 1977 but he is more experienced and seasoned and this time he is taking the Gold home. David Von Erich vs Bobby Jaggers - David is growing on me. He is not immediately appealing like Wild Man Kevin Von Erich or Herculean Kerry Von Erich but he is a nice solid wrestler. Reminds me of a Barry Windham or a Dustin Rhodes which is mighty high praise, but not quite at their level. Jaggers is the quintessential 80s midcarder, never a jobber, never in the main event (well maybe Central States or Southwest). David looked really good at the fundamentals and the mat wrestling. Jaggers was using the thumb jab to the throat liberally as his cutoff. Liked David throwing that back at him after two. This felt like a match they were just extending to fill time with a long chinlock from Jaggers. They were really selling David vs Baron in the Battle of the Claws. The finish is David busting open Jaggers with the Iron Claw for the win. Dick Murdoch & Baron Von Raschke vs Pat O'Connor & Kerry Brown - Another O'Connor/Jobber connection. Murdoch is fantastic in this everyone else is fine. Murdoch just ragdolls Brown. Beating him to a pulp on the outside with the announce table. Then crowning him with the chair. I loved him jumping on the back of O'Connor from the top rope illegally. They continue to sell David vs Baron, Baron defeats Brown with the Claw, BUT NO BLOOD! Seems like David's may be superior. Come to the Kiel Auditorium this week to find out! Overall Thoughts: Dick Murdoch & Baron Von Raschke vs Ted DiBiase & David Von Erich was terrific! That's really all you can ask for these old school comps is if you get one really strong, long match a disc then the disc is a success. Dick Murdoch continues to shine. David Von Erich is growing on me. Nice to see Lou Thesz and Ken Patera. Next Disc looks pretty skimpy. I would say I am most interested in Ted DiBiase vs Big John Studd as I have seen almost zero Studd before WWF.

Chief Jay Historian strikes again! I know I did Portland and Georgia with you all. I am definitely going to do some Florida and Georgia soon. I am just doing this first because it is on Impact+ and I want to get my money's worth.

NWA World Heavyweight Champion Harley Race vs David Von Erich - St. Louis Wrestling At The Chase 5/27/79 As my good buddy, Pete/Shoe would say this is a great piece of business. Officially this is a gauntlet match pitting Harley vs David & Fritz Von Erich. David is going first. David had just taken Harley to the limit down in Dallas and now it looks like they are building him up in St. Louis to draw a house at the Kiel. If Harley loses, match is over, if not he faces Fritz. If you were smart to the business at this time, conventional wisdom says Harley wins the first fall and the drama is in the second. When they go with David in the first fall, I was confused. I appreciated the swerve with David going OVER big in the first fall, we are talking "Iron Claw, Bladejob, Pass out from Blood Loss" big! I dont think you could go over bigger! Huge booking! On top of that we get nearly 15 minutes of uncut action that is just fantastic TV wrestling and I am far from a Harley guy or even a David guy preferring both of his brothers to him. David starts the match off Steamboat/White Meat Babyface style with a nearfall barrage and an abdominal stretch. Harley goes to the eyes and woman in the front row literally gets out of her seat and approaches ringside to admonish him. What a time to have been alive! Normally, I dont like how robotic Harley is and how he ragdolls for his opponents, but I liked how three times he did not give a clean break. Twice, it was the headbutt and once a shouldertackle. The first two times David came back and showed his ability to persevere, which I appreciate. David was working the headlock and using youth/quickness to his advantage. Nice back drop out of the piledriver on the floor. The third time was a charm for Harley with the headbutt on the ropes. Harley took charge and looked poised to win. In a very 2010s wrestling finish, David Von Erich caught a diving Harley Race with the Iron Claw as Race was attempting a top rope headbutt. I marked out. Harley blades in the Claw! I love when they do that! He sells it well and does a complete pass out. During the promo with all three Von Erichs (Fritz, David & Kevin), Harley is barley conscious and being helped to the back! Talk about putting someone over huge! Kickass TV wrestling with a badass finish! ****

Thanks brutha for the tip! That sounds interesting even given the circumstances. Disc 2 is more from 1979! Harley Race vs David Von Erich deserves its own thread. We see clips of Harley Race defending the title against Jumbo in Japan, Martel in Australia and Randy Alls (Rose) in Atlanta. All surprisingly clean victories and the last two with the delayed vertical suplex, I didnt realize he had a finish move and if he did I thought it was the headbutt so that was cool to learn. Fabulous Moolah vs Winona Littleheart was workrate because they knew the crowd was not into them. So they just kept moving. Smart strategy. Where's Joyce Grable? I liked her. Dory Funk Jr vs Jobber only say Funk hit a piledriver, suplex and Spinning Toehold. I like Dory usually. Ric Flair vs Jobber ok Flair begs off against this jobber and probably shouldnt BUT and there is CAPTIAL BUT he did throw a kick right into the breadbasket when he lured him into the corner so it was strategy. Flair wins the Criss-Cross with a reverse elbow after firefighting didnt work. See strategy shifting in 1979 squash matches, you gotta love Flair. Flair kicks ass now with the delayed vertical and the Figure-4. Bobo Brazil vs Two Jobbers, this is my first Brazil match, he is HUGE! He was 55 at this point. He had plenty of charisma. His heel jabronis did not. I got to see the Coco Headbutt so that was cool! I got work to do so that's it for the night. We get some famous 1960s footage of Wrestling At The Chase, in black & white at the Chase Hotel in its Ballroom. I know I have seen this before because the setting of well-dressed patron at long dining tables watching the pro graps made quite an impression on me. Johnny Valentine vs Bill Frazier - Joe Garagiola is pretty funny on commentary calling Valentine the Baking Soda man because of his Arm & Hammer finish which is just big Hammer Elbows. Greg didnt fall too far from the tree. He teases Frazier about not missing any meals and that his head resembles a bowling ball. Decent match. Solid grappling and such . Valentine is a good roughhouse wrestler like his son. Frazier tries to play king of the mountain with Valentine but that just draws his ire and Valentine waylays him with some Arm & Hammer shots. The Baking Soda Man! Pat O'Connor vs Lorzeno Parente is just beautiful wrestling! If you havent seen it, you simply must. It is gorgeous all around. Pat O'Connor is someone I feel we are missing out on big time to have seen in this time period would have been a joy. This is real deal chain wrestling how we mean it. The best part by far is how O'Connor maintains controls of the hammerlock even through snapmares. This is a technical babyface vs babyface classic. They keep it clean and they work wonderfully in and out of holds. What's amazing is after 3-4 minutes of chaining they both stand up and the crowd applauds. The more things change, the more they stay the same! That wouldnt be out of place at an Indy today! They work a terrific workrate finish that's bing bang boom and O'Connor ends up on top for the win. ***1/2 Now if you havent seen O'Connor apply wrestling holds on Joe Garagiola, I implore you again, you simply must! This is tremendous TV! From there they segueway into Kevin Von Erich applying the body scissors on Larry Matysik but it is not quite as fun as the previous segment from the 60s. Then we get a long, but action-packed tag pitting Missouri Champion Dick Murdoch & Bulldog Bob Brown vs Kevin Von Erich & "Big Thunder" Gene Kiniski. About 17-18 minutes long with a great Dicky Murdoch promo to set up the Murdoch vs Kevin Missouri State Tile Defense the next week. Triple face in peril. St. Louis Wrestling is Gorilla's dream promotion as they have two refs for tag matches but that does not stop the cheating. There is a triple face in peril. Murdoch works strangling with the tag rope into multiple situations. Kiniski was 51 years old but similar to his eager beaver performance at Starrcade 1983 had plenty of energy. Him and Bulldog Bob looked like twins but Bulldog Bob is a little shorter and squatter. Vigorous action though throughout. Kevin is wearing boots, but not quite as feisty. Murdoch carries this as expected with his heel shenanigans. The Iron Claw is applied mid-way through the match. Murdoch sells it for all its worth. Funny spot is when Brown comes over to tag, Murdoch walks to a neutral corner. He has no desire to get back in there with the Iron Claw. They work a fake finish with Murdoch feet on the ropes and the second ref calls it off. Double DDQ is the real finish, they love brawling at ringside and so do I! Murdoch and Kevin bash each other into the announce table and it looks great. I am wicked excited for the singles clash between two of my all-time favorites! *** Duck Murdoch vs Kevin Von Erich - Two of my Top 50 favorite wrestlers of all time. Murdoch cuts a great promo about how Kevin is a boy and that he shouldn’t be out here if he’s going to sound like he is crying. It is true the Von Erichs were pretty terrible promos. The match did not live up to the hype in my head. Kevin didn’t wrestle very Kevin-y if you watched a lot of Kevin in World Class you know what I mean. The easiest way to describe it is like it felt like no one told Kevin it was a work. He was always struggling always fighting back and it gave his matches a unique feel. I don’t know if it was because this was St. Louis instead of Dallas or if he didn’t develop style until later (this match took place in 1979-1980, all the World Class I have seen is from 1982 on). It is still a good match but it is not extra special. Murdoch forces Kevin to wrestle from underneath. Kevin wins a test of strength in great fashion and Gorilla would be incredibly impressed by his abdominal stretch as it is absolutely perfect! Murdoch also is not quite as Murdoch-y in this match. Not much in the way of fun heel shenanigans or torturing a body part. Both just give good performances. Kevin kicks out at 1 from the Brainbuster. Giant Splash eats knees. Iron Claw really well done and dramatic. Bulldog Bob Brown attacks Kevin before Murdoch gives. Massive pull apart that really builds to the Kiel match in a week. Nice little TV match to build to the house show match but not extra special sumthin sumthin. ***1/4

Thanks Kelly! You’ll be my first call when I cover World Class! “Work smarter not harder” was something my Junior year math teacher always said and appreciate it Brutha!

I have become fascinated with 1980s US Wrestling. The territory system and the mystique of so many of these larger than life stars has ensnared me again. I think Parv did a deep dive on this footage with Pete maybe in podcast form. I have flickers of memories of this, but I could be mistaken. The famous Larry Matysik's St. Louis 12 disc set is on Impact+ Streaming Network of all places. My free trial rolled over and I figured I should get my money's worth out of it now. I hope to watch a disc a day, we shall see! Shorter form notes than my usual long reviews: Larry Matysik's hair in 1979 is I dont know how to describe it. I will say this I dont know how any human could ever get their hair to look like that. It is truly a feat of 1970s hairspray. I believe all the footage on this disc is from 1979 David Von Erich vs Gene Stevens is a very entertaining competitive squash. Larry M only mentions Kevin & Fritz on commentary no mention of Kerry. I have never bought into the whole David was the anointed one story. He was the most unattractive, gangly and less charismatic of the brothers. Kevin and Kerry were both very good looking, superior workers in my estimation (in fairness David is the one I have seen the least) and more charismatic. I thought David looked really strong here so really nice mat wrestling and wristlocks. This reminded me of the 1986 squashes on Crockett TV against an Action Mike Jackson or Rocky King or a higher ranked jobber as Gene Steven got plenty of offense in. I liked David's dropkick a lot. Strong finish with repeated kneedrops in the corner and then a Vaderbomb to win. Workrate was alive and well in 1979 St. Louis, brutha! Really solid match, I dug it. *** Brusier Brody & Bob Sweetan vs Bryan St. John & Billy Starr is a very boring, competitive squash. I was surprised how long this was. The heel stars not being able to put away these chumps was weird. I was shocked when Brody covered after a backbreaker and there was a kick out. Brody has an aura to him for sure, but given how competitive this was. He did lose his luster. Bob Sweetan gets lumped in with Bulldog Bob Brown and Bulldog Bob Brower as lumpy old dudes that are just kinda there for me. Sweetan is the one who usually screws up and lets a face jobber tag, but as Matysik correctly points out Brody&Sweetan have tagged like 20-30 time compared to the jobbers and let have not put them away. David is pretty good on commentary. No mention of Kerry again. I looked it up Kevin is the oldeest then David then Kerry. Kerry would have only been 19 at this time. Kerry would only be 60 today, same age as my Dad that's crazy. We could have had Kerry matches as late as 2010 if he was still alive. Kerry Von Erich in TNA would been nuts! Anyways, thats a tangent. It looks like they are building to Brody vs Andre which definitely have have been a spectacle. Brody one-arm bodyslam and Flying King Kong Kneedrop to win. Brody promo: Apparently, inclement weather kept Brody from tagging with Flair against Andre. Instead it was Flair & Murdoch vs Andre & someone that would be awesome to see! Dick Murdoch vs Andre The Giant is being built to. I would love to see Dick Murdoch vs Andre, do we have that? Flair vs Andre does that exist? Brody is a solid promo, but I dont know I wanted him to sound more unhinged or like a savage ruthless. He challenges the winner of Murdoch vs Andre. Brody wins a Handicap Match that is competitive but at least shorter than tag. It is a one-arm powerslam and flying kneedrop. I think there's another promo. This is more about gunning for Harley's World Championship. He mentioned he defeated three previous world champions, I cant remember which ones and that Flair is too pretty to be World Champ. A shoot perhaps? Battle of the Dicks: NWA Missouri Heavyweight Champion Dick The Bruiser vs Dick Murdoch. Murdoch was scheduled for a squash against St. John, but Dick The Brusier comes out and wants a piece of Dick Murdoch. Sam Muchnick comes out and makes the match official for the Missouri Championship. DB had defeated Murdoch for the Championship but Murdoch I guess was hounding him. Looks like this is from March 18, 1979 as Murdoch wins the Missouri Championship which until Muchnick retirement on January 1, 1982 was probably the second most prestigious title after the World Heavyweight Championship in the NWA. The Brusier was 51 at the time. He was not bumping or selling for shit. There were some fun Murdoch moments. I loved how hard Murdoch would try to ram his head into the buckles but Brusier would resist, Brusier sold resistance better but Murdoch's face made it. They brawled on the outside with DB slamming his head into the table. 1979 St. Louis has workrate and brawling! DB gets a stomach claw and a couple bodyslams too close to the ropes. I liked that the Brusier slammed Murdoch's head into the buckles. Further symmetry, Murdoch slammed Bruiser too close to the ropes, but he scooped DB's leg off before the ref could see and count the fall. Winner and new champion! A very heel controversial finish! St. Louis was not dry at all. The fans hated Murdoch too. Murdoch did the best he could, but DB was a load. NWA Missouri Heavyweight Champion Dick Murdoch vs Pat O'Connor: These two have a match from All Japan 1975 that I should revisit to see if I have more patience for it. I remember it being dry with a headlock/headscissors dominating most of the match. O'Connor is 56 years old! He moves a lot better than the Bruiser and this is a much better match. Murdoch controls with a side headlock, O'Connor Roll as a hope spot! O'Connor works some great armdrags reminiscent of Jack Brisco or Ricky Steamboat. Very technically sound match. Murdoch's heat segment is great at one point he tries to rip O'Connor jaw apart. It is always a joy to watch Murdoch great blend of comedy and torture. Finish is alright. O'Connor has him in the sleeper and TV crowd goes wild! They really want him to win. Murdoch milks it but gets up and rams O'Connor's head into the buckles. Matysik says he sees red but I dont. Dick The Bruiser comes out and attacks Murdoch triggering the DQ. It makes sense as Bruiser was trying to prevent further injury to his fellow old-timer. Murdoch's heel promo is great! He talks about beating up everyone Jack Brisco, Ted DiBiase and Brusier with Brainbuster and Larry reminds him that those Brainbusters were illegal outside the ring. After one, Murdoch says you shouldnt have moved the ring. Which popped me! Oh I loved Murdoch calling the ref Muchnick Stooges during his matches. He calls Larry a Muchnick stooge. 20 years before Austin vs McMahon there was Murdoch vs Muchnick. He accuses Muchnick of conspiring against him. Awesome promo! Dick The Brusier vs Mike Bowyer - DB uses some nerve holds and test of strength. He throws Bowyer outside. Slams him into the table over the table into the chairs. Ice water to the face and then beats on the stairs. Pins with a flying stomp. If Dick The Bruiser was not 51, that would probably have been great. Larry talks about how no wrestler has been suspended more than Dick The Brusier and how he is a general ruffian. Question traditionally roughhouser were heels and the clean technical wrestlers the babyfaces. Was Dick The Bruiser the first sort of blue collar, everyman roughhouse babyface? That's very influential if true as he would be the ancestor of Stone Cold Steve Austin. Da Crusher was also similar but I find Da Crusher more entertaining. Larry tells us the next matches are clipped for a Best of Wrestling at the Chase episode they ran in 1979 of 1978 matches. Bruiser Brody (a St. Louis mainstay, it is from St. Louis we get all the Flair vs Brody matches) beats a jobber with a Boston Crab. It is interesting that Muchnick and Verne Gagne has reps for loving technical, classic/traditional wrestling but featured a lot of roughhouse brawls like Brody, Dick The Bruiser and Da Crusher. Terry Funk wins with a Sunset Flip over Tank Patton, good Funk selling performance. Dick Murdoch beats the crap out of Steve Hall. Murdoch was feuding with Andre and Dick The Bruiser at this time. Great Murdoch performance. Joyce Grable (babyface) vs Leliani Kai (heel) was awesome! Bodyslam on the floor starts these clips. Throwing themselves into catapults, belly flops and flying hair mares. The ref gets caught in their Tasmanian Devil tornado of dust to delight of the fans. Nice pinning combinations. I believe Grable got the duke. Pat O'Connor/Joyce Grable vs Bulldog Bob Brown & Suzette Star, the first clip we see is Grable hop on O'Connor's back and slap Bulldog. Bulldog got hot. That spot was over. O'Connor worked Brown. Suzette came into do the same spot but Bulldog collapsed from exhaustion. Grable wins the match. Grable was a good wrestler from these clips. Dick The Bruiser beats the shit out of a jobber. He was Missouri Heavyweight Champion. They were building to a Harley Race World Heavyweight Title shot. Bruiser beats him around the ring and over the table. Flying stomp and a piledriver. Harley Race vs a jobber. He beats him down with some high knees. Dick The Bruiser is out and has an extraordinarily husky voice. He puts on the NWA Championship to taunt Race. Race goes for the Piledriver on the floor but is backdropped out. Dick The Bruiser might old as dirt but he is over as rover. Next we go to Ted DiBiase finally a babyface under 50. Powerslam and Figure-4 gets the win for him. Ric Flair vs Pat O'Connor which I think we have in full somewhere else. Ric Flair is a breath of fresh air after all this old man footage. Flair Flip. Flair ends up taking over and kicking ass. I love he maintains control of his Figure-4. O'Connor gets to his belly and Flair snaps him back over in the hold. O'Connor was a very athletic man compared to the average wrestler back in the day which were a lot of tough guys and strongmen. Flair rams O'Connor hard into the post and O'Connor is really bleeding. Flair taunts DiBiase and throws water in his face. It is on! Great pull apart brawl as DiBiase kicks some ass until some midcard heels help Flair and then the midcard babyfaces save DiBiase. I know we get Flair vs DiBiase in that epic Mid-South angle but I would love to see what they could with some time at the Kiel Auditorium. Clips of Ted DiBiase vs King Kong Brody (sorry for incorrectly using Bruiser Brody, anywhere Dick The Bruiser worked, Bruiser Brody had to work as King Kong Brody). Brody kicks his ass as we are JIP, great King of the Mountain. Brody is shorter than I thought he was. This could be a combination that DiBiase is taller than I gave him credit. I would say both are in 6' 2"-6' 4" range. Brody takes a Sunset Flip. I think Brody not bumping is a little overstated and may have more to do that he worked Face against Flair and also he worked Japan a lot. So those two contexts would make sense for him not to bump as opposed to here where DiBiase had him on the ropes. Brody bumped for the dropkick and DiBiase repeatedly going for the Figure-4 with Brody clearly reeling. This being Superstar vs Superstar we get the Double DQ/DCO finish with Brody and DiBiase going wild into the announce table. DiBiase crowns Brody with a chair. Pretty damn good little brawl. I would check out a DiBiase vs Brody arena match in full based on this TV Match. Clips of Dibiase & Orndorff vs Harley & Bulldog Brown - Orndorff is a dude I have no idea what he was like before WWF. Some preliminary research shows he was a big deal in Georgia at the time. He looks good here, I liked his Irish Whip heel into the other heel spot. This is all about DiBiase vs Race. Lots of the young upstart Ted DiBiase showing up Race at the beginning and then on the floor back dropping out of a piledriver and then in the grand finale pinning the World Champion with a bridging German Suplex. Crowd popped huge and DiBiase celebrated big. I wouldnt read into this too much insofar I dont think he was going to win the Title tomorrow. I think it clearly shows the NWA was high on DiBiase and that he was being groomed for big things, but to say he was in contention to be the Man after Harley Race would be a stretch. I think this was more looking into building him as a potential champion after Flair in the Late 80s if the NWA stayed with the same business model. Harley Race beats Gary Young interesting Gary Young is a protege of Pat O'Connor were their higher hopes for Gary Young than realized? Overall Thoughts: The best part of St. Louis since it is a town that flies in all its talent from around the country, you get an all-star feel and a nice cross-section of what was out there. There is a lot of heavy hitters like Flair, Brody, Murdoch and Race for the time. You get the young upstarts like DiBiase and Von Erichs. You get plenty of old-timers like Dick The Bruiser and Pat O'Connor. Negatives were I would have liked to seen more promos or angles. The angle between the two Dicks was very fun even if the match was not so more stuff like that would be great. Pat O'Connor vs Dick Murdoch was my favorite match with the David Von Erich competitive squash being a close second. Dick Murdoch is who I enjoyed most based on his in-ring work and that one promo. Dick The Bruiser to me is an intriguing figure even if he looks as old as dirt. Looking forward to the next disc...looking ahead there's a Dick Murdoch vs Kevin Von Erich match that if it is clips will be enjoyable and if it is in full with a clean finish is a possible MOTYC on paper. Murdoch & Kevin are both in my Top 50 of all time, really looking forward to this!

Pro Wrestling Love Goes Audio! On the Place To Be Wrestling Feed! Thank you to JT & Scott for hosting us! My brother says you can get access to "Place To Be Wrestling Feed" on Spotify and if you have an iPhone you have the purple Podcast app you can search for "Place To Be Wrestling" Feed and it will come up. I assume Apple Music/iTunes has it. Here is the web link: https://www.podbean.com/eu/pb-5wwux-f3d63d https://placetobe.podbean.com/ The hook in my opinion of the inaugural episode is my guest who is none other than PWO stalwart @El-P! I am so glad to have a chance to have an at length conversation with Jerome on pro wrestling as it was the most fun I have had during the Pandemic. Thank you so much for joining me, Jerome! We are discussing our Top 25 Matches in TNA/Impact Wrestling History. Of course when you get two PWO fans together there was no way to house all this goodness in one episode. So the first episode is just #25-21! We will continue to do it in 5 match chunks as we countdown to the Best TNA/Impact Wrestling Match of All Time. We hope you all enjoy this and please we welcome all feedback! Agree, disagree, thought we missed a match, please let us know! It was a blast to do this and we hope you all enjoy!

Baltimore has Waffle House. It is in the South, brutha.

NWA World TV Champion Tully Blanchard - NWA Great American Bash 1985 Light Out Cage Match Baby Doll & Tully stole the Championship from the American Dream when Baby Doll threw a foreign object into the ring. Tully Blanchard says he has dealt with the dealer. To ensure himself of that, he used Abdullah The Butcher to attack the Dream. In a tag team match, Baby Doll handed Tully some flash paper and he threw a FIREBALL in Dusty's face. I am a staunch believer that wrestling needs more Fireballs. Dusty was left singing the Hard Time Blues. Kinda outta nowhere it seemed in the build he wanted to have a Barbed Wire Match. Tully starts dressing up like a cowboy mocking Dusty but it is set a Barbed Wire Match as the inaugural Great American Bash. I think the match is actually a Lights Out Cage Match meaning you win by knockout, I think. Also on the line is some money vs Baby Doll for thirty days. It is one thing for heel creep Ric Flair to win a date with Precious and then get coldcocked by Ronnie Garvin for being a sleaze it is another for babyface All-American Dusty to think he can control a woman for thirty days. I hope we have this is in full...here we go...the ref is checking for foreign objects and there is a fan hollering to check his elbow pad which is just great. Bionic Elbow to start sends Tully reeling. Tully struts out of hitting the cage. We get a little Dusty strut and booty shaking. Dusty bodyslam on Tully. Tully is a great stooge. Tully fights out of a toehold and uses the tights to throw Dusty into the cage. Dusty taps a gusher. Tully works the cut. Tully chinlock while Dusty bleeds. Dusty misses an elbow drop as Tully gets his. Tully bars the arm. Dusty punches out of the arm bar. Bionic elbow. Repeated. Dusty gets the crowd more involved. Hurls Tully into the cage and bashes Tully's head into the cage repeatedly. Big baseball swinging double axe-handle. Double Juice! Dusty grates his bloody face across the steel. This is not as good as later Tully vs Dusty matches. Not much zip/heat to their wrestling. Dusty is great at selling headbutts on jelly welly legs. Tully throws off the ref and as he attacks the cut while Dusty is slumped in the corner. Big chop by Dusty. Bionic Elbow. Tully wants to escape out the door, but it is locked there is no refuge from this danger. Big clothesline from Dusty as the crowd roars, gets a two count. This match might just need a three count to win. Figure-4 by Dusty! Tully reverses the Pressure and it keeps on for quite a bit of time. Tully lunges at the leg. Dusty responds with a Bionic Elbow. Dusty backdrops out of a piledriver. Baby Doll hands Tully a foreign object over the cage, but Tully never has a chance to use it. Dusty nails for a piledriver for the three count and a massive pop. It is Dusty I am not expecting a workrate classic, but this fell kind of flat for me. I think their 1986/7 matches were much more energetic, heated, charismatic whatever word you wan to use. This had its moments but it just didnt string them together. Still enjoyable. ***

NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair vs Magnum TA - NWA WCW 6/15/85 Ric Flair is what is cookin'. They just ran an ultra hot angle with Nikita Koloff the previous week on Worldwide with Nikita decking David Crockett after Koloffs felt Flair was ducking him. Flair defends David by charging into the ring during a Nikita match, big time heat. On the flip side, Ric Flair is being an obnoxious prick to Magnum TA buying him suits from Michael's in Kansas City so he doesnt have to dress like a bum. This is a great Studio TV Match angle. Mags puts up $1000 says he cant beat him in 10 minutes. Flair was scheduled to wrestle someone else but says it is time to shut this kid up. Flair marches to the ring. Chop, Magnum punch drops Flair where he stands. Criss cross ends with a Magnum dropkick. Blistering chop by Flair. Flair eats the Back Drop and Flair is begging off. Flair Flop. Flair short knee. Flair tosses Magnum out of the ring, but he storms the ring. Mags blocks the suplex. The Andersons, Flair's cousin, have arrived on the scene. Flair kneedrop. Flair gutwrench suplex. Abdominal Stretch with use of ropes is such a great heel move that should come back. Mags hiptoss. Flair headbutt to gut. Small package by Mags. Mags wins a firefight, Flair Flip, Flair crashes to the floor. Double axehandle by Flair and standing elbow drop. Flair belts him with a chop and shoulder into the post. An old cut on Magnum's forehead got busted open. Magnum whips him hard into the buckles and it doesnt look good for the champ. Flair tackle. O'Connor Roll by Magnum. Mags Punch. Very Crockett workrate style match. Magnum has a great punch. Magnum goes for the Steamboat Splash and eats knees. Backslide battle. Magnum wins the battle but not the war only gets two. Big Press Slam from Magnum on Flair. Magnum pummels him in the corner. Magnum goes for broke with a dropkick, but crashes and burns. Flair gets two. Magnum misses the crossbody. Flair is pumped. Flair goes up top but press slammed off. MAGNUM APPLIES THE FIGURE-4!!! Flair is in a bad way. There is less than a minute left. Ten minutes up! Flair tries to go after him. Atomic drop and the Andersons attack Flair. Flair hits a massive top rope kneedrop on Magnum. I love this angle. I think the young lion challenges the World Champion to a ten minute time limit match is such a great way to build the young lion and build the real championship matches for the house show loops. So simple yet so damn effective. ***1/2

The Fantastics vs The Sheepherders - Crockett Cup 1986 Quarterfinals I dont think I realized quite how stacked that inaugural Crockett Cup was. I believe both teams are representing Watts' Mid-South or they would both be there soon. As they would be having multiple steel cage matches in May of 1986. This is the most famous version of Sheepherders (Butch & Luke) with Jack Victory as their flag-bearer at the end of the match they had the Mad Max girl whose name I think was Maxine. This match is most famous for being awarded five stars by Meltzer as he was at this even live however there was no way of knowing if the match was that good because it was clipped to hell on the commercial release. The Network released this in full a couple years ago to little fanfare, which shocks me. While it is not the Last Battle of Atlanta, this was still very much a holy grail. Does it live up to the hype? Well it is not ***** in my opinion, but I didnt have that lofty of expectations I did think this was a pretty choice slab of violent pro wrestling. I think you if you want to show Fulton was every bit as integral to the success of The Fantastics as Rogers this is a good match to show people. He is the star of the show. Rogers was the workrate guy of the team. Fulton was the gimmick/charisma/showman of the team and they complemented each other well. In the famous 1988 Midnights series, Rogers stands out because that's more of a workrate feud, but here is where Fulton shines. Fulton leans into USA vs World angle. He gets a U-S-A chant started and then leads the crowd in the Pledge of Allegiance before the match even gets started. I always say this in Fantastics matches but it bears repeating: we need more high-fiving and booty-shaking. Fantastics use the dropkicks to open the match. We get a little anti-shine with the Herders working Fulton's arm, but Fulton uses a monkey flip and a dropkick of course to regain control. Rogers does some stuff. Fulton has a terrific punch. It looks fucking perfect. Nice right cross with a little uppercut action. Beautiful. Fulton back in and atomic drops one Herder into the other. I'll be honest I dont know which Sheepherder is which I always feel like the darker hair oned is Butch but I think I am wrong and it is Luke. The action spills onto the outside and that's when this match ratchets up in a big way. Fulton eats the posts and ends up wearing the Crimson Mask. Rogers throws a Herder into the railing and the railing collapses onto the fans which was a crazy moment. Victory stomps Fulton. This one very Southern fan loses his shit on audio calling for a DQ, it was awesome. "Ref you saw that. Where's the DQ?" You tell him. Roger sees the blood on Fulton's face and has joined the Disqualification bandwagon. The number one reason this is a classic is because of Fulton's selling. The blood definitely adds to it, but this is also an all-time great selljob from Fulton. I cant describe it, you just gotta watch it and bear witness for yourself. Nice clothesline from Fulton but it is just a hope spot as the Herders cut him off. Good clubbering offense from the mean & nasty Sheepherders. They slam him back into the railing. Fulton is selling like a million bucks, brutha. Fulton throws three desperate kicks from the mat that are just awesome. They do the false hot tag to huge heat. The ref is busy detaining Rogers, the Herders look ready to double team Fulton and slam him into the Flagpole. Fulton stops and drives "Luke" into the pole and he taps a gusher! Awesome spot! Love it! Fulton makes the tag. Rogers opens a can of whoop ass on Luke who take a huge bump off a fist. Rogers bites the cut! Big punch off the top. Katie Bar The Door it is a Pier-Six Brawl! Fulton gets thrown into the ref which wipes him out to the outside. "Butch" is pounding on Fulton. Fulton comes back with those sweet right crosses but Jack Victory distracts him. "Butch" has the pole and jabs it into Roger's back. Fulton is fucked on the outside. Fulton trips up Butch so he cant pulverize Rogers with the pole and instead Rogers nails Butch. Then they nail Jack Victory. We may have ultra-rare Quintuple juice. Tug of war over the pole, but Fulton dropkicks the one Herder. Maxine is out. The brawl does not let up. This is a great way to set up the May Steel Cage house show loop between these two teams. This was a great blood-filled brawl. The referee calls for a double disqualification. The Fantastics are pissed with the ref's decision and look ready to clock him but they think better of it. This match was raging once Fulton got busted open. The beginning was solid, but picked up real steam during Fulton's heat segment and Roger's hot tag. Give this a real finish and it is a real classic, baby! ****1/4

Their rematch (23-Nov-20) was also of similar caliber. These two have great chemistry!

NWA US Heavyweight Champion Magnum TA vs Nikita Koloff - NWA Worldwide 8/16/86 Match #6 This match was light years better than #4, in large part because Magnum really picked up the slack and was a more active babyface. I liked the shine especially the part where Nikita was looking Sickle only for Mags to nail the dropkick. Magnum worked the arm really well, against a better opponent I really could see that going somewhere. We go to a break and we dont see how Nikita got control, which is a bummer. Nikita charges the buckles with his bad shoulder, but regains control. Nikita was working a lot with chinlocks and front facelocks, but I thought Magnum's selling and constant work from underneath made this a much more spirited contest. I liked the suplex hope spots. The finish was solid. Magnum has a really great punch. I would have liked to see what he could do in Mempho with Lawler or Dundee. Krusher messes with the match. Mags yells at him Nikita crashes into him with a knee but also bumps the ref. SICKLE~! Magnum is outside the ropes but new ref doesnt see that. Old ref waives it off, in all the commotion Belly 2 Belly Suplex to send this to a decisive Match 7! Dont let Match #4 sour you on the series, this is quite good.***3/4

Midnight Express vs Original Midnight Express - Starrcade 1988 Let me say this to start, I implore everyone to watch the angle building to this. It will really enrich the viewing experience brutha. Corny gets a call on a telephone during a Saturday Night Squash a week after they dropped the belts to the newly heel Road Warriors. He is his usual incendiary self when all of sudden Loverboy Dennis and Randy Rose hit the ring. Cornette who is in all white gets busted open by Paul E’s Brick Cell Phone. The next week Corny brings out the jacket and cuts a babyface promo to end all babyface promos. He says his Mama says he needs to come home and it is too dangerous. He casts his Mama aside and says he is standing on his own two feet. The studio audience popped huge and so did I over 30 years later. That promo was delivered with such conviction and you couldn’t helped but be engrossed. Paul E was good and effective but in the weeks leading up to the showdown, Jim Cornette was in a class all by himself. You really wanted to see the Real Midnight Express whup The OMX. Jumpstart. MX back drop OMX out of the ring. Cornette and Eaton are great heels but my God are they great babyfaces too! Cornette has the crowd eating out of the palm of his hand. He was whipping the crowd into a frenzy with his antics. He was terrific. A shine is supposed to be fun and this put a big smile on my face. All the challenges to Paul E! The best part was when Condrey or Rose was on the outside he would whack them when the racket. The crowd would go nuts! Paul E would ring the bell wanting a DQ and the crowd would be all over him. Great pro wrestling! Also it was so nice to finally see Eaton let his hair down and cut loose. No need to worry about feeding & bumping, he could let the fists fly and let rip it. Eaton has the offense of an amazing babyface great fists of fury AND high flying, high octane offense. Loved seeing Condrey & Rose shine up the MX, they did a great job. Great transition to the heat segment with Eaton taking a hard charge into the buckles. Condrey was the grit of the MX and so he was perfect working the heat segment. I do think Lane is a better seller than Eaton especially working all those years in the Fabs but so much of the story centered around Condrey’s sudden, inexplicable departure. Eaton felt betrayed by Condrey and vice versa so it only made sense we got this heat segment. Rose is a solid hand like a Doug Somers but Condrey is where the heat is at. I am a huge mark for great transitions. The heat segment builds to the OMX Rocket Launcher which they had been using in squash matches in the lead up to this. They feel they have Eaton sufficiently beat down for this. Rocket Launcher Crashes & Burns as Eaton moves! Great climax to a great heat segment! Hot tag was short but sweet. Lane gives a great fired up performance ref is bumped and Paul E cracks the brick cell phone over his head. Jim Cornette is in, has Paul E by the mullet and clocks him. Great bump by Paul E. Ref finds the phone, waives off the cover. TOTAL ELIMINATION(called Double Goozle) here! Great quick clean finish for the babyfaces. OMX attacks post-match but Eaton beats them back with the racket. Pure MX fun but it feels so so refreshing because they are wicked over babyfaces. It was so nice to see them unleash that offensive arsenal to applause and so nice to see Cornette use his charisma to win the crowd over! Very underrated match and very fun! ****1/4