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SAMS

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  1. SAMS
    1980-08-09 WWF - Showdown at Shea Andre the Giant vs Hulk Hogan Shea Stadium, Flushing, New York, USA Card ★★ Now this was something that projected better within the large space that was Shea Stadium. In the end we had a ref bump, Hogan slamming Andre (7 years prior to WMIII), then Andre getting the win with a slam of his own, followed by a splash and a second referee came flying out of nowhere to count three, even though it seemed like Hogan kicked out at 2 and a half. The footage I watched had Michael Cole and Mick Foley commentating over the archive footage and it would be an understatement to say that it was a little distracting. I thought the match highlighted some of Hogan’s flaws at this time, as he too often resorted to rest holds like a bear hug instead of doing something interesting. But I did think that this was a pretty excellent performance once again from Andre. He’s shown multiple times this year already that he can make what he does look big and look threatening. When he lays the hammer, even on a guy Hogan’s size, it has weight, both physical and metaphorical. I don’t really like his splash, especially when he misses as he always lands on his knees to break the fall, but moves like his headbutt to his opponent’s back really hit the mark for me.
  2. SAMS
    1980-08-09 WWF - Showdown at Shea Tatsumi Fujinami (c) vs. Chavo Guerrero WWF Junior Heavyweight Title Match Shea Stadium, Flushing, New York, USA Card ★★ Back to back for Chavo here as he challenged Fujinami for his Junior Heavyweight Title. I thought the work here was perfectly fine but it certainly felt like a by the numbers affair for these two. The high spots that normally get the blood rushing fell a bit flat here as something like Fujinami’s dive to the outside felt small as he just flung himself into the wide expanse of Shea Stadium. The best moment of the match was Fujinami delivering an aeroplane spin and then selling the dizziness himself which I thought was excellent. Otherwise it was a bit dull for what it was, which I’ll admit could be down somewhat to expectations coming in.
  3. SAMS
    1980-08-08 Houston Wrestling Chavo Guerrero vs Twin Devil #2 Sam Houston Coliseum, Houston, Texas, USA Card ★★ Short and sweet. Chavo was impressive, coming out the gates with a nifty headscissor takedown. As the match wore on Twin Devil #1, hanging out at ringside, became enough of a nuisance that El Halcon had to come out to level the playing field. I didn’t think too much of either Twin Devil - they seemed pretty limited. However I loved the spot where they switched behind the referee’s back and he was none the wiser because they were twins. It was to no avail though as Chavo finished the new Devil with a Hurricanrana into a pin.
  4. SAMS
    1980-08-05 Joint Promotions Pat Roach vs Tony St Clair Bedworth, Warwickshire, United Kingdom Rating: ★★★ St Clair was the British Heavyweight Champion, but he was outweighed by the far larger Roach by nearly 5 stones. Despite this he was able to go toe to toe with the big man and the first few rounds were pretty scientific. They teased some more hard hitting spots, including a shoulder charge collision which they called back to repeatedly throughout, which gave the impression that St Clair wasn’t going to be steamrolled. Eventually Roach looked like he was going to make some headway using his power as he sent St Clair into the turnbuckle with such force he almost disintegrated. A huge shoulder check and a second whip into the corner made it feel like a pin was inevitable, and it was, but it was St Clair, able to use Roach’s momentum against him, who rolled him up for the first fall of the match. Things were nip and tuck over the next few rounds but St Clair pulled out some more power moves of his own, hitting a few European Uppercuts, and meeting a shoulder charge from Roach at its apex and nailing him in the face. It felt like a 2-0 victory was more certain than Roach levelling things up. It wasn’t to be however as they got tangled up in the ropes and St Clair ended up twisting his leg, having it caught between the bottom two ropes, and he was unable to continue, handing the win to Roach. The finish was a bit of a wet blanket but Roach’s trainer, Dave Dynamite, carrying St Clair to the back like a little baby was quite amusing. These injury finishes are quite common in WoS, so they don’t feel too much of a let down as they are part of the fabric of the style. St Clair comes across as technically competent but I’ve found him pretty bland so far. His work doesn’t have enough flash to overcome his lack of charisma as well. Roach is a guy I increasingly wish they just booked like Brock Lesnar, or at least Big Daddy. He’s such a big guy and looks like he could legitimately smash his opponents into dust, but they are very restrained and I’m yearning to see him let off the lead a little and annihilate someone. Here he did some excellent timbeeeeeer selling of some St Clair dropkicks to the face that really put over the impact of the moves.
  5. SAMS
    1980-08-05 Joint Promotions Johnny South vs Ringo Rigby Bedworth, Warwickshire, United Kingdom ★★★ South was sporting the most unfortunate combover and looked like somebody’s 45 year old librarian dad had just rocked up to the ring. While both men weren’t afraid of pushing the boundaries of the rules, South certainly had the edge in taking liberties. He repeatedly got in a cheap shot or an attack after the bell but without it feeling calculated like a Rocco, Breaks or McManus. This certainly was pretty excellent for about two rounds. Rigby showed off his quickness, and he certainly had the advantage, being the lighter man by a good 2 stone. Despite the weight disparity he was able to get the early lead and whenever he was in trouble would find some clever way to escape or turn the tides. Things kind of lost their way in the middle part as the chippiness from both men increased but it felt more and more that Rigby faded. South was doing the right things but he didn’t have the force of personality to get it across to the crowd in the way I think he intended and they were unusually muted at times. But things never went completely off the rails to dampen the match too much. The final round picked up as South increasingly went for broke to level things and Rigby had enough in the tank for a final flurry and a neat sequence at the end had him drill a few nice forearms before getting a diving rolling cradle for the 2-0 victory.
  6. SAMS
    1980-08-02 PNW Buddy Rose & Ed Wiskoski vs. Rick Martel & Roddy Piper NWA Pacific Northwest Tag Team Title Best Two Out Of Three Falls Match (vacant) Sports Arena, Portland, Oregon, USA Card ★★★ With the Sheepherders leaving the territory the belts were held up and after a tag team tournament the final two teams were these two (at least they said there was a tournament. Match listings don’t indicate anything of the sort.). The first fall was all about keeping Piper isolated. They did a great job of teasing the hot tag with Wiskoski holding Piper in a body scissors and Piper inching his way across the mat towards Martel. Again and again Rose and Wiskoski were able to thwart these attempts until the last when Martel came in molten, unloaded on Rose and Big Ed, and finished Rose off with a Hurricanrana into a pin. They started the second fall as a mirror image of the first. This time Piper and Martel isolated Rose and consistently got him in a side headlock with a variety of interesting takedowns to maintain control. An overzealous dropkick attempt by Martel however changed the tide and Wiskoski and Rose really honed in on the back and relentlessly wore Martel down. A particularly devastating looking backbreaker put him away to level things at one apiece. The compromised Martel had to start the second and once again they built to a hot tag, this time with Piper flying out the gates with fury. This spilt out to the floor and all four men were counted out amidst a wild brawl. Back up at the interview area, Don Owen announced that due to the no-decision, a rematch would be set for Tuesday. A no time limit, no DQ match with other wrestlers around the ring. When Rose went for Owen things absolutely erupted and again we had chaos with everybody beating down on everyone with Don Owen and Dutch Mantell in the middle. This perhaps was the best non-wrestling segment they’ve had in Portland all year. The wildness of this brawl was off the charts and felt organically unhinged. For the match itself, I thought it had a very nice story but how they worked towards telling that story was a bit limited. I really enjoyed the focus on Martel’s back, but something like using a body scissors to tease the hot tag in the first for example, isn’t the most interesting visually, and there were a few things like this which give the match ceiling of sorts for me.
  7. SAMS
    1980-08-XX AJW Yumi Ikeshita vs. Rimi Yokota Guam ★★★ Firstly, these shows surely had one of the coolest ring mats of all time. It was dark blue with a vibrant flower design and what I think were palm tree leaves in the corner. Very striking indeed. I may be mistaken but all these matches came from their Guam tour of late August. Ikeshita is the current All-Pacific champion coming in, but I’m pretty sure that this was a non-title match. I felt that they told a really compelling story here. Yokota is improving month on month but Ikeshita is willing to stoop low and do what it takes to win, plus she had the numbers advantage with Masami roaming on the outside and willing to interfere when it mattered. Yokota brought it to Ikeshita to start but a few cheap shots gave control to Ikeshita and she started working at grinding Yokota down. Yokota had a moment where she ducked a lazy punch and countered with an Abdominal Stretch, and for a minute or so she had swung the momentum, but it was clear that unless she was willing to fight fire with fire she was going to come off worse. Ikeshita began focusing on the leg very intently, locking in a figure four and then a series of other leg holds. She benefited from Masami knocking Yokota’s hands away from the ropes and some incredibly lenient AJW refereeing, and was able to keep up the attacks on the leg for a considerable portion of the match. Sometimes the outside interference works against these AJW matches, but here the involvement of Masami worked really well. She didn’t do too much and it felt like Ikeshita was maintaining the advantage mostly on her own merit, and especially during the home stretch, it was only in the desperate moments did Masami really interfere. The turning point was actually Ikeshita introducing a foreign object into the fray. This seemed to be the catalyst Yokota needed to dig deep and something snapped within her. She fought back, got hold of the object herself and then laid waste to Ikeshita, Masami and even the referee (at least the leniency went both ways). Finally Yokota was upping the aggression and doing what she needed to overcome her opponent and things were far more 50/50 as things rolled towards the finish. Once the countdown began it was clear we were heading for a draw, but the way they worked this I thought was perfect considering the finish here. Yokota, just within this match, grew a lot and changed her approach when required and Ikeshita still came off as a badass but clearly she knew that this was a close call by the end. Sometimes it definitely goes overboard, but the weak referees and the constant numbers advantage the heels have in the promotion does stack the odds against the faces, but when they execute well and the face is able to succeed, it does deliver in a unique way, so I think that’s something to look out for in AJW’s booking approach moving forwards.
  8. SAMS
    1980-07-26 WWF Larry Zbyszko vs Ivan Putski Philadelphia Spectrum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA Card ★★★ Little over five minutes in total but absolute non-stop action. Putski was a madman here. He looked coked off his tits before the match even began. Even before Larry had even made his way to the ring. And once the match did get underway he went full steam at Larry and just battered him for 3-4 minutes. He was a complete powerhouse and his stuff looked like it was killing Larry. This certainly was a match where the commentary added value. These are the usual duo for the Spectrum shows at this time but I’m not sure either man knows much about wrestling at all, but I found that endearing here and they put over Putski big time. Larry unhooked the corner turnbuckle pad and lured Putski in. He brained him 4-5 times to gain some measure of control, or so he thought, but Putski fired back and Larry had to bail. Putski did a crazy gorilla style chest thumping thing before chasing Larry around on the floor and grabbed him in a bear hug through the ropes. He wouldn’t relinquish and Dick Woehrle had to call Putski for the DQ. With Larry going into his match with Bruno and Putski being notorious for not eating pins, this match couldn’t really have finished any other way but they seriously delivered for something that looks like a throwaway match on paper. Larry got a slimy win and riled the crowd up before his showdown with Bruno and Putski looked like a killer in there to leave the crowd happy.
  9. SAMS
    1980-07-26 WWF Andre the Giant vs Hulk Hogan Philadelphia Spectrum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA Card ★★ Really fascinating interview with Andre before the match. They talked about his diet, travel schedule, exercise routine (or lack thereof), and his opinion of the wrestlers over in Japan. Watching late 80s WWF they put over Andre as this unbeatable entity, the Eighth Wonder of the World etc., but he’s often in comedy matches and clearly not at his peak. I didn’t watch it in real time so I knew that it wasn’t long before he started using a walking aide and of course passed away. So these kinds of emphasis always went a bit over my head. But going back through the footage and seeing how different territories presented him on a month by month basis has given me a far greater appreciation for him. Increasingly he does come across as this unique entity. Occasionally his offense looks more Giant Baba than Stan Hansen, but the promotions, and Andre himself, do an excellent job of conveying his raw power, the struggle any wrestler in the world would have with even trying to compete with him, and ultimately, the futility in even trying to gain a victory over him. And it doesn’t come across like a shill either. Looking at Andre in context it’s self evident, of course he would be this unbeaten legend, he’s MASSIVE! Anyway, to the match. I thought that Andre and Hogan worked this excellently. They had a brief staredown to start. We know Hogan’s a huge guy, but seeing Andre tower over him in both height and stature really is a spectacular visual. The work is simple but effective. In contrast to the Backlund/Patera title match, where Monsoon always looked like he had things under control, it never seemed like Dick Woehrle would be able to control these two behemoths. Andre controlled for the most part, but Hogan managed to get the transition with some nice stiff kicks to the gut and it felt organic. He couldn’t contain Andre for long though and seeing that he was going to be on the receiving end of a corner splash, he pulled Dick into the line of fire. After some deliberation it was announced that Hogan was DQ’d. He’s aghast, but I’m not exactly sure why. As things were building towards the Shea Stadium show it made sense that they would do a DQ finish here, but I wasn’t crazy about this ending. It was blatantly obvious that Hogan pulled the referee, so I can only assume he hoped that it would be Andre who would be DQ’d for attacking the referee. But it was too obvious and left the finish a bit flat. Otherwise I actually would have liked maybe 3-4 more minutes on this, as I think they still had a ways to go before they needed to transition to the finish and the match was ticking along nicely. If it had a better finish and was a tad longer this really could have been something intriguing.
  10. SAMS
    1980-07-26 WWF Bob Backlund (c) vs Ken Patera WWF Heavyweight Title Title Match (Special Referee: Gorilla Monsoon) Philadelphia Spectrum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA Card ★★ Much like their Texas Death match at MSG, there was no pretence of scientific wrestling here. Bob was eager to get going and Patera wasn’t even able to get his trousers off before he was being thrown to the ground and punched in the face. The match itself was a by-the-numbers Backlund vs Patera match. They hit the right beats and did the usual moves, which is good, but nothing here was particularly special or memorable. What was interesting however was Monsoon’s involvement. The track record of special guest referees is not good but here Monsoon equipped himself very well. He definitely wasn’t shy of getting involved, but he didn’t overstep any boundaries and his general size allowed him to wade in and break up things that other referees usually can’t. He also pushed the pace of the match along as well, doing things like dragging Patera back into the centre of the ring instead of allowing him to languish on the apron. Overall I just didn’t think that the amount of offense Backlund dished out warranted the extent that Patera was selling. If he was going overboard selling a body part I might be more forgiving but he was doing the generic exhausted sell-job, and I don’t think Backlund had done enough to warrant that response. Then the finish was a bit confusing. I guess Patera just didn’t see a path to victory so chose an alternative route than being pinned, but he grabbed a mic stand from ringside and clobbered Monsoon in the head with it for the no-doubt DQ. It sets up some issues between Patera and Monsoon, so perhaps there’s a match there upcoming, but choosing to lose so obviously feels a bit dubious to me and definitely not satisfying. Generally a good-ish match, with a solid referee performance, but both men have done better this year by a long way.
  11. SAMS
    1980-07-19 PNW Buddy Rose, Ed Wiskoski & Fidel Cortez vs. The Sheepherders (Butch Miller & Luke Williams) & Jonathan Boyd Best Two Out Of Three Falls Six Man Tag Team Match Sports Arena, Portland, Oregon, USA Card ★★ My first look at Boyd. He came out with a killer hat and jacket combo. Black with gold trim and a massive boomerang. That look must have gone down like gangbusters in 1980. Unfortunately when he took off the jacket and hat he looked like a crazy man from a trailer park who happened to own a singlet. This was another example of the Sheepherders falling flat to me as faces. I appreciated that they kept some heelish elements to their work, indicating that just because they turned on Rose they weren’t suddenly completely different people, but they don’t inspire any real emotion or energy in me when they wrestle. In fact it was Boyd who looked the best on their team, as he at least had some oomph to his attacks. The best part was Rose bouncing around like a maniac for Boyd in the second fall and the heels generally being vicious on the outside when opportunities arose and I thought that the mask switch at the end between Rose and Wiskoski to steal the final fall was an interesting twist. Ultimately though there were too many nerve holds and claws from both Cortez, Wiskoski, and even Rose. Slow pace. The in-ring work was generic, had a slow pace and nothing really stood out.
  12. SAMS
    1980-07-12 PNW Rick Martel (c) vs. Ed Wiskoski NWA Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Title Best Two Out Of Three Falls Match Sports Arena, Portland, Oregon, USA Card ★★★ Ed got to stretch his legs here with a singles title match. They worked this around Wiskoski retaining control around a front facelock hold. Martel repeatedly hit offensive moves but Wiskoski would keep that hold locked on. Eventually Martel managed a second big suplex to dislodge himself from Wiskoski’s grasp. They built to that relatively simple spot so well that it had much more impact than it should have had. Martel took control and started the beatdown on Wiskoski. His selling was still goofy, especially when he was holding his back, but I’m coming around to his bumping style, at least here it felt effective. Martel was going for the kill but got caught in a side headlock which Wiskoski reversed into a backdrop suplex setting up his diving headbutt for the first fall. I’ll repeat that his diving headbutt looks really good and feels like it’s worth being a no doubt fall ender every time. Martel really went after the back in the second fall, which definitely carried an air of desperation as he was in a 1-0 hole. Often it can feel like a given that the face will make that comeback, but Wiskoski did such a good job here that I felt like he came across really strong and as a pretty legitimate challenger. Every time Martel lost some of that control you feared it could be the end for him but after a few near falls he pulled out a beautiful Hurricanrana into a pin to level things up. Conspicuously Rose had been in the dressing room the entire time and hadn’t made an appearance so if we were going to have a screwy finish you would have assumed he’d turn up, but here it was all Ed. Yes, Martel wasn’t able to get the clean pin on him, but I thought as far as cheating goes, this was a really good example of how to try it. Martel was on the offensive with a series of dropkicks and Wiskoski surreptitiously dragged Sandy Barr into the line of fire on one attempt, sending him sprawling to the mat. In the confusion he was able to lay out Martel and it appeared that he would have had him for the pin. Unfortunately Barr was privy to Ed’s tactics and disqualified him for the pull. Wiskoski didn’t get away with it but it conceivably could have worked. Cheaters are gonna cheat, but at least be sneaky with it and I felt that this was justifiable.
  13. SAMS
    1980-07-18 AWA Nick Bockwinkel (c) vs. Verne Gagne AWA World Heavyweight Title Match Comiskey Park, Chicago, Illinois, USA Card ★★★ Thought that this was excellent and only dragged down by the obvious clipping which lost us roughly a quarter of the match. To start both men struggled over simple holds designed to wear their opponent down. Bockwinkel grabbed a standing arm hold and later on Verne countered with a surfboard. But both men did an excellent job, both when giving and receiving these holds, in adding little touches, like an extra tug or yank, to ramp up the leverage and keep things interesting. The fact that they made such simple moves compelling over a sustained duration is testament to these two. Slowly Verne began to build momentum and take more control, sending Bockwinkel into the turnbuckles on two fantastic bumps and Bock resorted to ducking out the ring more than once to regain his composure. The final time he did this it appeared like he was merely playing possum and he wrenched Gagne to the mat and posted his left leg. Gagne’s selling here was spot on, as he took his time outside the ring, visibly steeling himself knowing that he had to re-enter the ring and continue, now less than 100%. Bockwinkel unsurprisingly targeted the leg immediately and continued this tactic to the end. Verne threw out a few flash pin attempts that a man in his 50s really shouldn’t be able to execute as well as he did and he hit one of my favourite moves, the bounce off the ropes into a forearm smash, that sent Bockwinkel for a loop. They were both able to get across the sheer impact on moves like this. Despite the leg injury you could feel that Gagne was gaining momentum once again and I was waiting to see if Heenan would make an appearance, but even when Gagne locked on his sleeper hold he held back and Bockwinkel was lights out handing the championship back to the boss. The story they delivered was simple but executed fantastically. Just wish that we hadn’t had the clipping but hey, can’t have it all.
  14. SAMS
    1980-07-10 AWA Nick Bockwinkel (c) vs. Dino Bravo AWA World Heavyweight Title Match Winnipeg Arena, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada Card ★★★ AWA hasn’t really delivered so far this year but this was really great stuff. Initially Bockwinkel had control with a series of side headlock takedowns and he did a fantastic job at grinding on Dino’s head. Then the general timing of Dino’s escape attempts and reverts back into the hold kept things ticking along nicely. When it was time for the momentum swing Dino went for the leg. His leg sweep takedowns were consistently clumsy looking but Dino was single minded in his focus on the leg and Bockwinkel sold the hell out of it. He attempted a comeback of his own and ended up going knee first into the turnbuckle and Dino had no hesitation and went right back to that leg for spinning toe holds, a single leg boston crab and even a figure four. Whenever Bockwinkel had the chance to get to his feet he was limping around like crazy and that leg just looked incredibly vulnerable. Bravo, in terms of match psychology, did all the correct things but those little extras that raised everything up all came from Bockwinkel and he gave a masterful performance. This had the feeling of a nice slow burn and they were building to a great finale before we had just a terrible finish. Bravo got dumped to the outside and then came back firing. We had a number of near falls before the final three count by the referee BUT Bockwinkel’s leg was on the rope. Bravo thought he’d won the belt and grabbed it from Okerlund before heading to the back. The referee immediately realises his mistake and gestures for the match to continue, Okerlund on the house microphone calls Dino to return but he no shows and finally the referee is forced to count him out and Bockwinkel gets the win. Winning a match because your opponent didn’t realise the match was still ongoing is the definition of cheap, and no matter how good the match was up until that point I can’t help but have a bad taste in my mouth with that finish.
  15. SAMS
    1980-07-05 PNW Buddy Rose & Ed Wiskoski vs. The Sheepherders (Butch Miller & Luke Williams) Best Two Out Of Three Falls Tag Team Match Sports Arena, Portland, Oregon, USA Card ★★ Looks like Rip Rogers was the unfortunate soul who got kicked out of town during a recent elimination tag match between this group, so Rose’s Army is currently just Rose & Wiskoski. The first two falls built around Williams playing FIP and Miller constantly being away from his corner to make the hot tag. This was either because he was distracted, but mostly due to getting attacked from both inside and outside the ring. These kinds of spots can sometimes be a bit hokey and there’s no real reason for the partner to miss the tag, but here it felt far more natural and it held up the match psychology they were going for. In the first fall Williams was finally able to get to Miller and his hot tag was pretty good. After a brief flurry of action he took Wiskowski down and got the first fall. In the second however they were able to isolate Williams and he was never able to get free with Rose eventually running interference and wiping out Miller, allowing Wiskoski to hit a brutal diving headbutt off the top for a well earned equalising fall. In the third things could have gone either way until Wiskoski had enough and brought a chair into the action and got himself disqualified. Didn’t love the finish, if you’re happy to lose via DQ then why not get the chair at the beginning of the match? It didn’t feel like he was driven by desperation or his team was about to lose, it kind of just happened. The post match beat down on Miller however was very intense to the point that one fan even got involved with Rose, so that made up for the weak finish to some extent. This was my first look at Wiskoski in the ring and his headbutt was great, but he fell a bit flat in other areas. His selling and bumping in particular were far too cartoony I thought but he seems composed on the mic and he and Rose are an interesting pair going forwards.
  16. SAMS
    1980-07-XX AJW Jackie Sato vs Mami Kumano Best Two Out Of Three Falls Match ★★ This was an excellent performance from Jackie Sato. Easily the best she’s looked all year. Kumano as well gave a fine heel performance, however this match overall was dragged down by everything surrounding it. The ring was surrounded by a number of other wrestlers, including Monster Ripper, Kumano’s partner Ikeshita and Tomi Aoyama, a key babyface in the company. The heel wrestlers seemed to have carte blanche to do basically whatever they liked at any time. The second fall finished with Monster Ripper hauling Jackie into a Fireman’s Carry and then lugging her around the outside of the ring while the referee counted her out. Kumano had a long stretch where she was using a small screwdriver as a weapon. There was an attempt to conceal this weapon for the most part but in the end the referee got a bit too nosey for his own good and ended up getting a swift jab in the throat from it. How is a referee supposed to work under these conditions? Is he just supposed to continue like that never happened? He should have called his union. Anyway, if he’s got no authority to enforce any of the rules then what’s the point of having them, or having a referee for that matter? Why should I care about a rope break during a submission if there’s really no reason for anybody to release the hold? Why should we even have the match if a group of wrestlers can just haul one competitor outside the ring and contain them there to be counted out. Just feels a bit wishy-washy to me and it denigrates the whole match. Ultimately if this booking strategy was to make Jackie look like a superhero, overcoming insurmountable odds, then to a certain extent it was a success. The non-heel wrestlers on the outside were next to useless in preventing her from getting gang attacked and she managed to pull out the victory anyway. The stretches she had on offense were intense and impactful and she pulled out a wide variety of throws that just looked great. Kumano spent a great deal of time annihilating her with the screwdriver and she sold the shit out of it, especially when she got hit in the hand. Later on when they targeted her bandaged leg she sold the shit out of that as well. There were men in the crowd who were so incensed with the heel antics that they actually tried to get involved and there were small girls crying, so clearly the crowd were having a strong visceral reaction to the action in and around the ring, but for me as a viewer, I wish that they could establish the boundaries a bit more and then heels doing heel things would feel a bit more meaningful.
  17. SAMS
    1980-06-25 Joint Promotions Marc Rocco vs Mal Sanders Combat Challenge Shield Semi Final Match Southport, Merseyside, United Kingdom ★★★★ This is the other heat of the aforementioned Combat Challenge Shield tournament. Rocco, being the GB Heavy-Middleweight Champion, outweighed Sanders, the European Middleweight Champion, by 1 ¾ stones and was the favourite going in. The first round was a showcase for Sanders, allowing him to work some escapes off of Rocco’s holds. Rocco was reasonably well behaved early on but it only took him until midway through the second round before he began his antics. Rocco really had an ability to rile up a crowd. This was the same crowd as the David/Jones match and they were pretty quiet throughout that one apart from the high spots. Throughout this match they were consistently loud and a lot of that had to do with Rocco. As per usual he would bend the rules, often getting in extra shots when he should break or when his man was grounded, and his offense really looked brutal considering they were usually simple kicks or knee drops. Over the next few rounds he built up a series of unfair advantages with these attacks and picked up his first public warning. Eventually Sanders had had enough and he retaliated and really showed a lot of fire, enough to justifiably earn a public warning of his own as he unleashed a punch right at Rocco’s throat. Sander’s really started going at Rocco and the crowd were going mental in support of him. His performance here was miles better than when he matched up with Bobby Barnes earlier in the year and would justify his “Superstar” nickname. In the fourth round Sanders was able to capitalise on his momentum and catch Rocco in a pin, going 1-0 up, and backing him into a corner with only two rounds to go. The fifth round had Rocco continue pushing the limits, picking up his second public warning after a series of late shots, and he really was on the brink of a disqualification. Sanders at one point sold a late elbow drop onto his back like absolute death and this extra damage he was accruing illegally looked like it would surely give the round to Rocco. Instead of merely winning the round and tying things up, a desperate attack by Sanders allowed him to get caught and Rocco literally spiked him into the mat with a devastating Piledriver for the KO victory.
  18. SAMS
    1980-06-25 Joint Promotions Marty Jones vs Young David Combat Challenge Shield Semi Final Match Southport, Merseyside, United Kingdom ★★★ Semi-final match for a tournament called the “Combat Challenge Shield”. Not sure the importance of it but the winner of this round would face Marc Rocco in the final. The footage joined at the beginning of the second round. David has improved leaps and bounds over the last few months. The second round here had him working on top and it certainly didn’t feel like the veteran was leading him in any way. David had the wristlock applied and they spent the entire fall working around Jones trying to escape in various ways with David being too fast and being able to consistently reapply it. In a swerve however, Jones was able to catch David out at the last and roll him up for a flash pin just before the bell to take a 1-0 lead. Out of the 5 rounds broadcast here, this was by far the best with David looking incredibly comfortable and at ease in the ring. The middle four rounds had Jones mostly in control and things kind of fell away. Jones is a guy with a strong rep, so I was looking forward to him cropping up in my match listings, but he really hasn’t jumped off the screen for me so far and this match was no different. I’m not sure whether David should have been more combative when working from underneath but Jones’ offense throughout this period didn’t grab me at all. The best spot was them both going for a shoulder charge and Jones wiping David out. They worked a raucous pin sequence at the end of the fifth, where each man tried for a pin and the other countered, going back and forth for perhaps five or six attempts before finally David caught a bridge and got the equaliser. That set up a final sixth round and this for sure made up for the somewhat dull previous rounds. They upped the pace with both men going for that victory and a path to the final and they teased a number of different finishes, from countout on Jones after getting sent flying over the ropes, to David potentially grabbing another flash pin. All the while it seemed like Jones was in the ascendancy, so any offense here David got in felt meaningful. But it wasn’t to be and while David valiantly attempted to capture that winning fall, he left himself open to a sit down pin for Jones.
  19. SAMS
    1980-06-29 MLW Jimmy Snuka & Ray Stevens (c) vs. Jay Youngblood & Ricky Steamboat NWA World Tag Team Title Match Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Card ★★★★ ¼ Stevens & Snuka had won the titles from Steamboat and Youngblood a week or so earlier at a Mid-Atlantic show so the faces were trying to regain their lost titles. The early portions were very drawn out, punctuated by brief explosions of action. Steamboat and Snuka didn’t even lock up until a few minutes had passed, but the tension kept growing and the crowd were losing their minds. This felt like a BIG deal. Once the action got underway they did a rapid fire rope running sequence and Steamboat got the upper hand with a body check. They brought the pace back down for a minute or so before it exploded to life once again. The entire first half of the match was an extended shine for Steamboat and Youngblood and it was an excellent example of making a heel in peril sequence work. Their offense had spark, they tagged frequently and effectively but most importantly they were working hard. Finally the heels made the tag and gained some control, while their manager (Gene Anderson) caused distractions for the referee. From here we ended up with two separate FIP sequences. The first had Youngblood being worked over hard before he managed to get to Steamboat for the hot tag. After a flurry of action he had a golden opportunity to tag back out but instead made the mistake of going after Snuka in the opposite corner. This allowed Stevens to blindside him and they gained the numbers advantage again. We built again to a hot tag, this time with Steamboat suffering, and Youngblood came roaring in, wiping out both Stevens and Snuka. He had things firmly in control but they just couldn’t put the champions away and before I knew it the house lights were up and the match had ended. Curfew time limit draw and the champions retained. I don’t think it’s too far-fetched to say that Steamboat and Youngblood carried this match. Snuka was serviceable but I can’t recall anything in particular that Stevens did throughout the entire match. When they were on top their offense looked great, a mountain of various chops and dropkicks, and they injected considerable energy into these sections. When they were being worked over, both guys were able to sell the shit out of their opponents' attacks, they created enormous sympathy and it really engaged me throughout. Really an example of elevating what could have been mediocre into something truly substantial. While Steamboat was excellent for most of this match, I thought that Youngblood was the absolute star here. Steamboat often is credited with being perhaps the best babyface of all time, well here I think Youngblood shows off why he could potentially have been even more of a “pure” babyface than Steamboat. He had a certain verve in his movements and personality that made him incredibly endearing and so far I’ve found watching him so rewarding, it’s a real shame that he died so young. Perhaps with a better champion team this could have been an all time classic, but Steamboat and Youngblood are making a push for being the best tag team of 1980 (granted it has felt like a pretty paltry year on that front).
  20. SAMS
    1980-06-22 AWA Nick Bockwinkel vs Jumbo Tsuruta AWA World Heavyweight Title Match Minneapolis Auditorium, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA Card ★★★ Whereas Baba looked like he couldn’t give a shit in his match, Jumbo looked extremely motivated to capture Bockwinkel’s AWA Title. Jumbo was mostly on the offensive and Bockwinkel really didn’t have many stretches of offensive control but I loved how he sold here for Jumbo, pretty understated, exhaustive selling that worked really well in context. Jumbo here really seemed to be able to connect to the crowd, likely that they were cheering more for Bockwinkel to lose than for Jumbo to win, but he was able to harness that energy to generate strong reactions at several points. This didn’t have any real standout moments to speak of but I thought it was solidly entertaining bell to bell. By the end Jumbo had beaten down Bockwinkel to the point where he had him pinned multiple times over, however an errant hip toss had incapacitated the referee and he wasn’t able to count the pin. Just when I thought they were going to do the classic reverse with Bockwinkel stealing it at the last, the referee actually gave Jumbo the win as he saw Heenan interfering in an earlier pin attempt. The finish felt a little cheap, but to be expected if they weren’t going to have the title change hands. Baba was actually on commentary and early in the match I’m certain he and his co-commentator had discussed that in this match specifically the title would change hands on a DQ. They seemed very confused by the finish as they waited for Okerlund’s official announcement that in fact Bockwinkel had retained the title.
  21. SAMS
    1980-06-21 PNW Buddy Rose vs Butch Miller Lumberjack Match Sports Arena, Portland, Oregon, USA Card ★ The most interesting part of this was Rose’s mad dashes to try and get away from the action. Early on he tried rolling out of each side of the ring only to get pushed back in. Later on, when he found himself on the outside, it wouldn’t be immediately clear that he was gonna try and do a runner, then at the last moment he would take his chance, but obviously he was doomed to fail with so many wrestlers surrounding the ring. Rogers and Rose tried to pull the same trick they pulled on Piper earlier on in the night, but this time Piper was a lumberjack, and he wasn’t gonna see Rose win so cheaply. The foreign object got prised from Rose’s hands and it ended up with Miller who used it himself and he did away with Rose. My biggest issue here was that I don’t think Miller is very good as a singles wrestler, and I really don’t think he’s that good as a face either. This has been a heated feud and Rose turned on The Sheepherders and bloodied up his partner Williams, but he seemed pretty content here to do his weird head bobbing/body spasm thing instead of taking the initiative and going on the offensive early while Rose was trying to escape. The pace was way too slow and too often Rose would be prone on the mat while Miller stood there looking around at the crowd trying to generate a reaction. This was certainly more Bushwacker than Sheepherder, and it definitely hurt the match.
  22. SAMS
    1980-06-07 PNW Butch Miller vs. Buddy Rose Best Two Out Of Three Falls Match Sports Arena, Portland, Oregon, USA Card ★★ Butch was super over with the crowd after his recent turn against Rose. This was a bread and butter affair with Rose a bumping machine, diving all over the place for Miller’s offense. Miller went fast and strong to start and didn’t let up at all throughout the first fall and ultimately wore Rose down to get the first pin. Rose came back some in the second and managed to dish out some offense of his own and the equalising fall came from him using the ropes for leverage while Sandy Barr was unsighted. The third fall was cut short as they ended up brawling outside and both were counted out. Miller got posted and sprung a gusher. He returned the favour to Rose who got colour too. They wouldn’t stop brawling and we had multiple guys from the back come down and try to tear them apart. I loved Rose’s bumping here and again you could see him pulling the strings throughout, however this ended up feeling a bit one note and I think to an extent highlighted Miller’s weaknesses within a straight up singles setting. We didn’t get a fully fleshed out final fall and the brawling after the match wasn’t intense or substantial enough to make up for it.
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    1980-06-07 CWA Bill Dundee & Tony Boyles vs. The Blonde Bombers (Wayne Farris & Larry Latham) WMC Studios, Memphis, Tennessee, USA ★★★ Boy this was frenetic. Dundee was a one man show, whizzing all over the ring. He was breaking up pins, dragging Boyles over to their corner for the tag, on offense he was controlling either one of the Blonde Bombers and at times both of them at the same time. Boyles was basically a prop here, used to give Dundee a partner, but Dundee was directing him the whole way and there wasn’t much to say about him really. The Blonde Bombers were having some synchronicity issues and they ran two separate spots where Farris inadvertently ended up attacking Latham. The first was weird as it involved a rope running sequence. Farris got involved for seemingly no reason and it just ended up with them colliding which I didn’t care for. After 10 minutes the Bombers were finally able to get Boyles isolated and diffuse the dynamo that was Bill Dundee. As they slowly worked him over Dundee was getting more and more frustrated and he began venturing further and further away from his corner. This brought the referee’s attention and thus directed it away from the Bombers and the action in the ring. As Dundee got caught up with Davis at ringside the Bombers were able to hit a Spike Piledriver, which they actually botched the timing of terribly, but either way when they hit it, it did look like it could have paralysed Boyles, so job done there I guess. Things didn’t stop there however and we had 10+ minutes of extras. First, despite winning the match, the Bombers weren’t satisfied and continued to work over Dundee and Boyles. Dundee eventually had blood just pouring from his face and they left them sprawled as they mouthed off to Russell about how they deserved the title shots that Dundee was getting. We went to commercials and when we returned Dundee was hot. He wanted them back in the ring and a 1v1 match. Davis turned up to jaw back and Dundee just grabbed him, flung him into the ring and proceeded to absolutely destroy him. I mean, Dundee just starts teeing off on this manager. The punches are savage and he’s getting obliterated. The Bombers arrived and gained the numbers advantage again. Eventually Eddie Marlin got in the ring to try and help but got chalk/salt thrown in the eyes for his troubles. Then Jerry Jarrett got into the ring and he was swarmed by the Bombers too. He did manage to get his belt off and started swinging it violently to send his attackers fleeing and finally things calmed down. This was a really chaotic angle with an unusually strong escalation of violence, especially for TV. Dundee looked great here. He looked pretty great during the match but they lost and he was beaten down afterwards however the fire he displayed when he came to generated that heat back from the crowd and his assault on Davis was truly memorable. The Bombers then came in and beat down on him some more so that they would get their heat back. Really this was great booking to position everybody perfectly. Dundee looks legit, the Bombers don’t look weak but instead dastardly. One of the best segments on TV all year no doubt.
  24. SAMS
    1980-06-05 NJPW Stan Hansen vs. Antonio Inoki MSG Series 1980 Final Match Kuramae Kokugikan, Tokyo, Japan Card ★★★★ Well this was unexpected. I said for their last match that I thought that was the best they could do, and here I was proved wrong. This didn’t last too long, and a large part of my enjoyment of it came from the post-match action, but this was a good performance from Inoki and perhaps Hansen’s best performance of the year to date. Inoki knew he was up against a beast and he was deliberately aggressive in going after Hansen. Once in the ropes he got in a sick headbutt which opened up Hansen early and then he worked on keeping him grounded and under control. Even when they were tied up grappling over a leg hold, he was laying in some nasty looking kicks right in Hansen’s face. Hansen always feels like a caged beast you need to make sure doesn’t break free, but here more than ever it felt like whenever he got some offense in it looked like curtains for Inoki. Hansen’s reputation is for stiff shots, but strangely I’ve found him somewhat light (at least compared against himself) so far this year. Here that certainly wasn’t the case. His knee drops were visibly jarring to Inoki and he was far more rough with the referee than I remember him being before. This foreshadowed the key moment of the match where he lined Inoki up for the Lariat but Inoki had enough time to duck and the referee behind him took the full force. Now that the pesky referee wasn’t in the way any more, Hansen thought it was time to take Inoki for a stroll. They disappeared into the crowd, only to emerge with Inoki on Hulk Hogan’s back and Hansen’s bull rope tied around his neck. They got back into the ring and the double beatdown began. This wasn’t looking good for Inoki and a few young boys started crashing the ring to save their boss. Then Dusty made an appearance and lasted all of five seconds before he also was gushing blood. Hansen was just teeing up the young boys for Lariat after Lariat and these were absolutely crushing each one in turn and made him look like a complete animal. Finally Inoki was freed from the rope and all together they were able to repel Hansen and Hogan from the ring, all the while the fans were launching seat cushions into the ring. It was bedlam of the best kind.
  25. SAMS
    1980-06-05 NJPW Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Bob Backlund Kuramae Kokugikan, Tokyo, Japan Card ★★★ This is the best I’ve seen Backlund work an opening mat exchange. He and Fujinami were struggling to gain advantages in holds and he was able to do away with the usual faux-amateur stuff that I don’t think he’s very good at. There was a nice sequence where he had one of Fujinami’s legs and was trying to get the other to take him down and Fujinami did a great job of maintaining his balance on the one leg and brushing Backlund’s advances away at the same time. Eventually Bob had had enough and just wrenched Fujinami to the mat using his free arm. This was set up to be a real classic, but I think they both settled into their comfort zones a little too much during the middle portion and we got headlock city. This can usually be dull as dishwater but they did well to keep this engaging, however it definitely wasn’t my preferred route for them to take this match. The finish however was a major comeback as the desperation kicked in. We had suplexes and reversals and it felt like any move could be the finisher. Fujinami dropped Backlund with a beautifully savage Gut Wrench Suplex but Backlund endured and, after a little tease, flung Fujinami with a Butterfly Suplex for a near fall. In the end Backlund was able to do an O’Connor Roll into a bridge to put Fujinami away. This was an okay match bookended by an excellent start and finish. Backlund showed some of his best work to date and Fujinami continues to impress. I thought this could have been great if they committed to a bit more escalation in the middle third, but for an exhibition of sorts, they definitely delivered.
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