The Midnight Express vs. The Fantastics (No DQ) (Mid-South, 1984)
For a match to be special or stand-out, it usually has to do the little things right. The small attention to detail that could easily be overlooked, but when applied throughout, make a match that more special. If you didn?t know by now, Mid-South loved the gimmick matches, and they especially loved No DQ matches. As a background, Jim Cornette is wearing a wrestler?s mask at ringside. He recently had his head shaved when Hercules Hernandez (Cornette?s bodyguard) lost a match to Jim Duggan. This is also the Condrey & Eaton version of the MX so people don?t go in expecting Stan Lane. Before the match even begins, the crowd is worked up into a frenzy. They appear so restless that the PA Announcer has to tell them to sit down or the match will not continue. This immediately sets off the alarms to what will be one hell of a fight.
The first? little thing? the Fantastics do right happens before the bell even rings. The Fantastics take off their jackets and hold them. Once the bell sounds, they throw the jackets at the Midnight Express, temporarily blinding them, so they can attack. This sets off a shine segment that sees Rogers & Fulton playing babyface by using traditional heel tactics such as blatant double-teams, eye rakes, chokeholds, and employing the services of the outside guard rail and ring-post. Using this strategy, the Fantastics have complete control of the early portion of the match and it is a refreshing dynamic to see the faces cheat so openly? and get cheered for it!
Although I love the strategy incorporated, the early going is quite sloppy and a couple of moves looked either fake (a knee lift that doesn?t even connect) or poorly executed (an atomic drop). They quickly win me back though with more gratuitous face cheating. This establishes a nice early theme that when the faces are given permission to cheat, they will inevitably always be able to beat the heels at their own game? and the cheating doesn?t let up. The Fantastics continue with low blows, biting the forehead, and switching places without tagging.
Around the five-minute mark, The Midnight Express gain control with a Condrey knee to Fulton?s back after an Irish whip near the MX corner. The MX re-establish the No DQ stipulation by throwing Fulton over the top-rope and Fulton sells the damage. This brings us to the face-in-peril segment where the MX slow things down and build heat from an already vociferous crowd. I really admire the way the MX control this part of the match. The Fantastics are known as high-flyers so the MX keep Fulton grounded as the MX string together some nice heel work of their own? pulling hair, choking with the ropes, and allowing the tension to build as they work over Fulton. In this match, Fulton plays face-in-peril just as well, if not better, than any Ricky Morton match I have ever seen.
The end segment has its ups and downs and is where the match starts to ignore the little things and go overboard. First off, Fulton is never able to make the hot tag since Rogers gets fed up and takes matters into his own hands. He goes in and ties Condrey up in the ropes while Eaton is preoccupied with Fulton. A roll-up attempt sees Fulton, Condrey and the ref go down in a heap in the outside. This is where he Mid-South overbooking rears its ugly head. Cornette takes Fulton out with the Ether Rag(!) and the MX finish Fulton off with a top-rope clothesline for the pin.
Final Thoughts
The beginning of this match showed great promise. The Fantastics early control of the match showed how successful they could be when using dirty tactics. This more than made up for the sloppy execution that plagues potential great matches. The MX heat segment was also really neat to watch as the MX show that they still can?t be matched when it comes to cheating and controlling a match. The biggest disappointment was the end segment that happened way too fast and never saw enough back-and-forth segments to give the crowd the emotional roller-coaster that they were anticipating. Once Rogers entered the ring, the match was practically over after a couple of minutes of overbooked shenanigans. If this No DQ match had another 5-10 minutes to play with, I have no doubt it would have come to a much more satisfying conclusion.
