goodhelmet

I have no idea what Frispo is.

His finisher is "whatever he does after the 619 this week", so it's ultimately besides the point. I don't know if you are criticizing the multiple finishers or praising it but that is one of the things I love about WWE Rey.

I don't recall seeing it but it sounds right up my alley!

Dick Murdoch is one of my favorite wrestlers of all time. The things I like out of my wrestling are the things that Dick Murdoch does best. I'll go over a few of these traits and try to use specific matches as examples. A sick sadistic fuck – It is no secret that I like blood in my wrestling and old school bloodbaths are right up my alley. When Dick Murdoch is in a match that calls for blood, he delivers in spades or dishes out enough punishment where his opponent is covered in blood. When Murdoch bleeds, I don't think I can recall him covered in blood. However, he does have his moments where he wrestles with a bloody nose or a carved up arm. In the Barry Windham 7/11/87 match (the real classic Windham match, not the WWF match) and the 7/21/87 tag against the Lightning Express, Murdoch looks for plunder and uses random weapons including a pencil to attack his opponent. IN the Flair vs. Dibiase match, we recall Dibiase turning face and getting destroyed by Flair. It was Murdoch who made Flair a bloody mess and brainbustered him on the fucking floor. In the Abdullah the Butcher New Japan match, Murdoch shows no fear and gives Abdullah the sickest, most insane brain buster of all time. Murdoch, as a face or heel, is a sick fuck and I love sick fucks. Tricky Dickie's Arm Work – I think the argument against Dick's armwork is that it does not directly payoff to the finish. That isn't always the case. The Doctor Death vs. Dick Murdoch 6/13/87 match led to Murdoch and Gilbert eventually breaking Doc's arm, the same arm that Dick worked on earlier. Sometimes, Dick doesn't win the matches where his opponent's arm is dangling by a string but the arm work was worth it. Sometimes, it has nothing to do with the stretch of the finish but it is the nastiest arm wringing work you will see. I loved the arm work in the Inoki matches that appeared on the NJ set and the Jumbo matches from the 1st falls. It was also a great way to carry the early portion of the 7/11/87 Barry match and the long Butch Reed matches. Someone already mentioned that this was the way that big title territory matches were worked. Even if it was killing time, you can argue that every big time star from the period did it including Race, Flair, Lawler, etc. Dick just knew how to keep the arm work interesting and he always found new ways to destroy the limb. For me, the arm work was more about controlling the tempo of the match and keeping the opponent grounded, preventing him from getting the offense. Another match that I loved Dick's arm work is the 12/4/87 Murdoch & Inoki vs. Fujiwara & Saito match. Selling and facial work – Dick is one of the best at selling ever. Sometimes, it is just the expression of pain when getting his arm twisted or it is limping on a bum leg after getting his leg torn to shreds. Dick is known for being a great brawler, and he is, but the great thing about brawling Dick is how he has a drunken bar room brawler gaze where he has drank so much whiskey that he won't feel any effects until the next day's hangover. In the Bruiser Brody 11/22/85 NJ match, he makes Brody bearable by selling his ass off but not letting himself get mauled by Brody. In the 12/10/85 Inoki match, Phil Schneider claims the match was mediocre saved single-handedly by Murdoch's awesome facial expression after getting nailed with a final enziguiri. I love that match but that ending facial expression stays burned in your mind years after watching the match. Loss once told me he thought selling was the most important component in wrestling and who is better at selling than Dick Murdoch? There are many that are comparable but few you can call undeniably better. My Fist, Your Face – I love a great punch in wrestling. I think Murdoch is right there with Lawler as one of the best punchers in wrestling history. He has built entire matches around punching opponents in the face especially the two Dibiase Mid South brawls from 12/27 and 12/31/85. In the 9/22/85 Butch Reed match, Phil Schneider made this comment "Some of the best punch exchanges I have ever seen, seriously Lawler v. Dundee level awesome. Murdoch isn't afraid to kick someone right in the face." One of my favorite stories in all of wrestling history is the Dick Murdoch vs. Nightmare 7/14/85 match. The entire match is worked around Nightmare and Eddie Gilbert cheating and the referee preventing Murdoch from punching Nightmare in the face. Eventually Dick fakes a right and lands a left that had me falling out of my fucking chair. He constructed an entire match around a punch as the payoff. Maybe great punches aren't your thing. It's ok if you don't have a love of great punches, it just means you and I are looking for something different in our wrestling. Dick Murdoch just happens to be one of the greatest punchers in the game. The Ultimate Teammate – I love great tag wrestling and I think Murdoch is one of the best. I enjoy the North-South team more than about anyone and I am responsible for putting the large amount of their matches on the NJ set. I thought Dick and Adonis were great at cutting off the ring and systematically destroying their opponents. Phil and Chiklds disagreed but about half of the NJ voters agreed with me and the tag matches I selected did respectable. Still, while the Adonis team may be the 2nd most famous team of Dick's career (The Dusty team has to be first), he still had awesome tag matches with enough other guys that Dick could demonstrate he was a great tag wrestler. In Mid South/UWF, he had great matches with Dick Slater, Hacksaw Duggan, Masked Superstar and Eddie Gilbert. In New Japan, he had a classic tag match with Inoki as his partner which I mentioned earlier. He was great in his role in the 6 man elimination tags. In the Inoki tag, Childs wrote the following and it is just one of the exhibits on how smart of a wrestler Dick Murdoch was… CHILDS: "This featured one of those virtuoso Murdoch performances in which he brought enough stooging, bumping and violence for everyone in the match. He actually invented a move specifically to set up NJ double countouts. He kind of bounced his ass on the second rope and did a backflip over the top, pulling his opponent with him the whole time. Who else would create a move specifically to facilitate one type of ending in one promotion? Maybe Dundee?" In the Kantaro Hoshino, Riki Choshu, Antonio Inoki vs. Scott Hall, Bob Orton, Dick Murdoch, NJ 11/17/88 tag, CHILDS wrote the following… CHILDS: "Murdoch, as you might expect, excelled at crafting near-elimination scenarios. It's a shame we never got to see him in War Games, because he would've been every bit as masterful as Arn Anderson." All of the above doesn't even touch upon his comedic timing, his interviews, his ability to carry lesser wrestlers (Nikita Koloff, a green Dr. Death) or the appeal of a guy with chicken legs and a beer gut beating the piss out of people. Most of my favorite wrestlers aren't guys that would look like your ideal wrestler (Murdoch, Rose, Lawler) but they are generally the smartest wrestler in the arena. I think Murdoch would fall in this category and I don't think it is hyperbole to say so.

I'll respond with a longer post lat because you guys are killing me. "so-so Murdoch" ... As if such a thing exists. Phil and I have heard the criticism and it is usually something you hear on why he isn't in the hall of fame because people thought he would take night's off. I think Phil and I have watched more Murdoch than anyone because of the 80s projects and it was the furthest thing from the truth. He may have had bad matches but it wasn't becAse he was phoning it in. Also, I have seen tons of Murdoch which I will reference and tons of Muraco. Still looking for a good Muraco match. I think we had 10-15 great Murdoch matches on the Mid South set alone if not more.

Not yet

There comes a time when a wrestling opinion is so far removed from what I enjoy about wrestling that I don't know what I could ever haves use for your opinion. Disliking Dick Murdoch is one of those opinions.

We still have enough footage. I didn't include tons of 70s footage on my Funk comp but enough for you to get an idea of how he performed.

The 619 has only increased my love of Rey's work over the years. I hate the Hennig-HBk-Ziggler over bumping but not enough to make me hate the wrestlers. I disliked Eddie Guerrero doing the three amigos since I was over the multiple suplex drops by the time he started doing them.

I will add more later but between Lawler, Flair and Funk, I know for a fact that Loss, Dylan and I all rank them differently at #1.

When I think of GOAT's now I tend to think of Funk, Lawler, Tenryu and Casas. They have the versatility, peak and longevity. I wouldn't knock anyone who has Flair at one and I still regard him highly relative to some, but like Loss sees more flaws in Lawler with time, I see more flaws with Flair. I liked Flair's retirement match and a match or two from his WWE run but it definitely hurt. Living in Russo land in WCW's dying days hurts also. However, Flair was so great in the 1980s, similar to Jumbo, it put him in the conversation on that decade alone. I would put Fujinami in that class as well as guys like Rey (last decade or so) and Buddy Rose. Other guys like El Hijo del Santo and Blue Panther have had tons of great matches across decades but not as consistently great as Lawler in my opinion. When the yearbooks and DVDVR 80s projects are done, I think another GOAT poll would be nice since we would have a good 40 years of recorded footage to draw from with more exposure to matches than ever before. Hell, I feel like we are 2 80s sets removed from finding another guy to put in the GOAT conversation.

When I make the super Lawler comp, it will make a strong case for GOAT. Lawler really benefits from being a great worker in the last yen years when only Tenryu has been able to sustain that momentum from guys who regularly worked in the 70s.

Three people have the power to ban members... Loss, myself, and Dylan Waco. You can disagree with us, hate us and despise our opinions on wrestling (Hell, has anyone had more arguments on the internet than Dylan?). However, if we make a decision on offensive language or inappropriate discussion or board matters, don't be a dick and beg to get banned.

And I would go back to my original question: If you're a fan of a guy's shtick then why wouldn't you rate it highly? In the original post I was questioning, it appeared to me you were dismissing Phil's ratings as hyperbole. I am arguing it isn't. Not that you can't disagree with the rating.

You're gone.

You not posting here is a problem for me? I don't respect your opinion or your taste in wrestling. It wouldn't be a problem. Either way, anytime you and Jerome have an argument over abusive language, take it to PMs OR if you are so offended, report it to a mod/admin like you would at DVDVR.

Then you will have to find another board to post at.

Fuck it, I am speaking for Phil since I have watched tons of his EPIC rating matches with him. He means Epic.

If you're talking to me, and you continue this, you will be banned. If El-P continues, he will be banned. Kill it.

El-P already agreed not to use the word retard. End this nigger/faggot shit.

If you're a fan of a guy's shtick then why wouldn't you rate it highly?

John Cena vs. Dolph Ziggler - Fun match that was really all about the payoff. AJ turns on Cena but doesn't quite commit to Dolph yet. However, that smile she shot him after the evil glare was awesome. The best thing her shitty character has done in months. Overall, really fun show with one AWESOME match and a bunch of good stuff.