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Salvatore Bellomo vs Swede Hanson (9/18/82) This started rather slowly and, just like in the Pete Sanchez match, Bellomo teased throwing a punch but didn't. They insisted on locking up time after time, and it wasn't very good, in terms of smoothness and intensity of the grappling. Hanson applied a full nelson, then released it and turned his back on Bellomo, daring him to put one on himself... which is a questionable strategy and it went nowhere anyway. Bellomo used some flashy offense and Hanson landed a few strikes later on, but every time they got back to their feet, they just went back to locking up like nothing happened. It felt like the match never evolved, much to the crowd's boredom. At the end, Bellomo finally threw a punch and the match was over within a minute with a flashy roll-up that wasn't as bad as the rest of the bout. -1/2*

Salvatore Bellomo vs Pete Sanchez (7/31/82) This went a bit too long and never reached the next level, resulting in an 11-12 minute babyface vs babyface match where nothing they did was particularly good or interesting. The most engaging element was Bellomo getting tired of the stalemate and teasing to punch Sanchez, but it never escalated furhter. In fact, things actually became a bit more choreographed, they started shaking hands often and the crowd wasn't very vocal during all of that. The flashy finish at least made sense, but this felt very flat overall. 1/2*

Vivian St. John & Peggy Lee vs The Fabulous Moolah & Leilani Kai (7/31/82) This was not as bad as some of the women's tag matches I have seen so far, mostly because Vivian and Leilani tried hard at the beginning and the crowd was more involved than usual. However, the timing of several spots was completely off, some of the women were not very experienced, and Moolah wasn't exactly smooth either. They did a spot where Moolah hid behind the referee during an Irish whip, but she did it long before the whip even started, so it ended up looking silly, and the referee didn't even sell being run into. The finish was awkward as well, as there seemed to be some miscommunication during a pin attempt by Moolah on Vivian, forcing them to improvise with a sudden small package. 1/2*

Laurent Soucie vs Swede Hanson (5/22/82) I had never seen Soucie wrestle before and he didn't seem terrible, but this didn't have a good structure and the crowd was dead, so it was kind of doomed from the start. They locked up a couple of times and traded armlocks; Hanson gave Soucie a clean break on a few occasions, before eventually getting tired of it and taking over with some strikes. Not only did the strikes look quite weak, but this never really evolved into Hanson having to switch gears because of Soucie's limb work; it just felt like an abrupt change of pace and made all the lockups feel like fillers. Hanson then no sold a dropkick and won with a cold backbreaker submission. 3/4*

Why would that give me grief? I've cited plenty of other factors that made some of these matches bad in my eyes. That said, stalling does seem to be the most common theme at the moment and that's probably because of the era and territory I'm covering. I should also mention that I'm basing the list on a mix of my own memories and other people's thoughts, and there simply aren't that many reviews available for the early '80s. As a result, the selections are probably skewed a bit toward the "long, dull match" type. A terrible 5 minute All Star Wrestling match that nobody has ever written about simply isn't going to end up on my radar. Nor am I going to watch every single show that ever took place just to make sure I don't miss anything, so some imbalance is inevitable.

Tony Atlas vs Jesse Ventura (4/17/82) I can't comprehend why they were given 16 minutes, because this was obviously going to be filled with endless stalling. Ventura had good heat, at least, but this felt like forever and I'm not even sure they needed a shower afterward. There were a couple of moments where it looked like the match might pick up, but they consistently pumped the brakes to water it down. Ventura spent most of his time posing to the crowd and arguing with the referee. Atlas did some arm work, and Ventura sold it for a bit until he completely forgot about it and used a full nelson. Just as Atlas was finally starting his decisive comeback, they abruptly moved to the floor and stayed there for a few seconds, allowing Ventura to win by count-out. 1/2*

Jeff Craney vs Charlie Fulton (2/20/82) They both got booed during the introductions and again when they tried to stall a bit, so the announcers criticized the crowd and told them to be patient. God bless Philly. This wasn't good, and the lack of heat made it painful to watch, almost nobody in attendance cheered Craney. Fulton used a persistent chinlock for a large portion of the match, but most of the other action looked sloppy anyway. Craney never really had a comeback (and if he's just a jobber, why did Fulton need 10 minutes to beat him?) and some fans were even booing when Creney kicked out, they just wanted this to end. It was fun to see Fulton use a bodyslam-legdrop combo for the win, but this didn't work very well. 1/4*

Tony Atlas vs Angelo Mosca (11/29/81) The timekeeper called this a 16-minute match, but I only watched a little over 13, so some footage might be missing, even though I didn't notice any editing. Maybe he just fell asleep during the long stalling sequence at the beginning, to what even Vince had to say "we'll be here all night." Vince sold this as a strength contest, even though they didn't do anything remarkable and weirdly waited nearly 10 minutes before doing a proper test of strength. Atlas was challenging his inner DeNucci by hitting his opponent and then staring at him for 20 seconds without capitalizing. Mosca didn't do much better during his heat segment, which mostly consisted of lazy rest holds. The crowd was with Atlas, at least, but he looked quite ridiculous during his comeback, a mix between Hogan hulking up and Warrior going crazy. This was far too long. 1/2*

Dominic DeNucci vs Larry Sharpe (11/29/81) Oh, I hated this one. The initial lockups weren't too bad, but most of the action was quite bland, and DeNucci indulged in some rope running and leapfrogs, which didn't really suit his mobility. Sharpe started working on the arm in an "unusual fashion," as Vince said on commentary, but at least he put some effort into it. DeNucci came back once Sharpe hurt his own knee, but then stalled for ages and didn't do anything noteworthy to the leg before ignoring it altogether and slapping on a headlock?! They clearly struggled from that point on and started killing time. DeNucci would do things really slowly, including an aborted kick after lifting his leg, then signalled Sharpe to take over with some hand gestures. Sharpe did about a minute of random legwork on DeNucci, before DeNucci used a sleeper and the time limit bell rang at the 19 minute mark. FUCK. -1/2*

Liger made his debut, in the Tokyo Dome of all places and it was the most hyped Junior Heavyweight arrival since Tiger Mask's. Historic match, but not a great one as these two didn't click, probably because Liger was so quick and tried to do so much in these 10 minutes, while Kobayashi tried to take this slowly and to make his bumps mean more. It was an enjoyable debut anyway, even though a few moves fell redundant, as the finish was good at least. **3/4

This was not technically a dream match on that day, but it surely became one in hindsight. Amazing hoss fight, it was a very exciting 10 minutes with great strikes and a compelling selling throughout the match, especially Vader trying to keep his arm away from Hashimoto. Vader looked a bit lost, in terms of not being able to dominate Hash physically like he would usually do to his opponents, so they went all out and it was only a matter of time before one knocked down the other. The referee botched the 3 count though and that partially ruined the finish. ****

This was a cool spectacle, as they only went for 7 minutes and it fit both Hashimoto's stamina and Zangiev's lack of experience in a pro wrestling ring. Hash put his opponent over big time with some good selling and they had some meaningful struggle sequences on the mat, like Zangiev's creative way to get out of a headscissor hold. This included a spit from Hashimoto, something that was very rare in Japan. Really cool series of kicks from Hash and the submission finish on Zangiev got him over as a legitimate threat. ***1/2

After a couple of disappointing matches against each other, these two tore the Tokyo Dome down here. Fujinami tried everything he had, going back to his junior heavyweight days, and also managing to knock Vader off his feet a few times, but ultimately the monster was just too much for him. Fujinami did some solid arm work and tried to control the gaijin, it worked decently enough until Vader got the best and squashed Fujinami with his weight, going over clean as the bodyslam attempt was a mistake on Fujinami's part. ***3/4

First Triple Crown defense ever. This had a lot of potential and Tenryu showed his courage again, slapping Jumbo and dragging the worst out of the champion, once again making Tenryu look like the organic babyface he turned out to be. This match was famous for Jumbo knocking out Tenryu with a botched powerbomb, so they ended the match early at the 16/17 minutes mark. While this shut down a promising bout and a good nearfalls sequence, it is one of the few times a botch was actually good for business, because it helped putting over Jumbo as a ruthless prick and Tenryu as a resilient opponent. ***1/2

This was historic as the match that assigned the very first Triple Crown, but it wasn't a great one and not even on par with what these two did just 2 days earlier. While I appreciated the storytelling and the recalls to their previous bout, the action wasn't too exciting, despite some of the limb work looking very snug and putting over Hansen as the aggressor here, as he got dominated by Jumbo in their previous match. Not the best finish, but a good one in terms of leaving a door open to a rematch. ***1/4

First Triple Crown unification attempt, that went nowhere due to the non-finish, but the match was good and had tons of heat. Jumbo felt as heelish as ever, which made Hansen the improbable, but awesome, babyface here. Jumbo was so aggressive and arrogant that Hansen lost it in his comeback, targeting Jumbo's arm and making him eat the steel post. They hit really hard, even though this was a bit slowish at times, even though the count-out finish was decently executed. ***1/2

While this obviously pales in comparison to the Steamboat/Flair that WCW put on that same day, it was a good main event with a decent flow. I wasn't crazy about Hogan's stuff at the beginning, but they set the tone in a nice way, as Savage was intimated by the challenger and knew he had to resort to cheap tactics. Hogan was a very effective seller once Savage took over and focused on his throat and neck. Usual Hogan finish, clean as a whistle. ***

This was an excellent match and a good strategic development from their first bout, as Flair changed his pace due to losing the champion's advantage here. This was textbook Flair, working on the leg and relying on flashy pinfalls, while Steamboat put on some incredible selling and was very believable in his struggle to get control over the match. I think this would have been virtually perfect by trimming about 10 minutes, but their stamina was outstanding and it made sense for Steamboat to finally be the one to outshine Flair in a (almost) 60 minutes showdown. Decent finish, as of course it led to the rubber match. ****3/4

Dominic DeNucci vs The Magnificent Muraco (7/22/81) Yeah, this didn't work for me. The crowd antagonized Muraco, who spent loads of time yelling at them and ripping a sign, while DeNucci argued with the referee like an old man complaining about a construction site. This might be entertaining to some and at least the fan got involved, but I feel like stalling for 5 minutes when the match only goes 8 is just lazy. Admittedly, it got even worse once they actually started wrestling, as they spent the next 3 minutes doing a bunch of unconvincing stuff. Muraco's strikes felt very light and DeNucci didn't contribute much of anything. Muraco spiked DeNucci in the chest and DeNucci threw himself out of the ring, losing by count-out. DUD

The Magnificent Muraco vs SD Jones (6/27/81) Muraco, billed as "Morocco" for some reason, defended the IC Title here. Muraco took a few good bumps to build up SD's offense, while the challenger focused on a toehold. It wasn't the best, as they stalled quite a bit, but it was fine until Muraco completely ignored the leg work during his comeback and also started taking unnecessary moves, such as a punch from the top rope, without his ankle seemingly bothering him at all. There was also a very clumsy sequence where Muraco missed a punch on SD and they both fell on the floor for some reason, this was poor improvisation as SD stayed down selling despite the punch not landing. Good heel finish, but this didn't gel very well overall. 1/2*

Steve King vs Johnny Rodz (6/27/81) This was not terrible, easily the best match that I have seen so far in this project, but still quite a dull bout. I didn't mind the first few minutes, as they showcased some decent tests of strength, armdrags and upper-body holds. However, I felt that Rodz was very lazy during his control segment, failing to create any excitement and throwing some weak looking superkicks. He even moved out of the way of a crossbody too early, making King look silly for not being able to spot it. King also locked in a random toehold during the final part of the match and it went nowhere before Rodz won cleanly. This had a promising start, but it went downhill after that. 3/4*

Dominic DeNucci vs Killer Khan (4/29/81) Not good. Khan spent a few minutes smothering DeNucci and forcing an elbow against his face, while DeNucci did his signature bad selling by laying down on the first rope. DeNucci finally punched Khan on the nose and stared at him forever, hitting a punch every like 20/30 seconds and doing nothing else, so it would look like one of DeNucci's shitty punches meant much more than anything Khan did. Not only that, but DeNucci got immediately back on his feet after a cane shot from Freddie Blassie too. The referee apparently didn't know any of the rules, as he let DeNucci punch Khan to his contentment or Khan smother DeNucci into the ropes many times, until the official finally counted DeNucci out after he got trapped between the ropes. 1/2*

Food is a great parallel and I fully agree, there will always be some meals, seasonings or flavours we prefer and some we don't really fancy. It's all subjective and the recent GWE ballots proved it once again. I'm just having fun watching the matches, writing a few words about them and interacting with others here!

Thank you for watching the match and taking the time to share your thoughts. I see your points, I just don't enjoy stalling that much. I guess I am somewhat biased against comedy matches, it needs to be 'great comedy' to please me. The same goes for movies, 'unfunny comedy' just doesn't do it for me and it feels much worse than an average non-comedy movie. Moolah's spots with the referees are another example, they're quite stupid and also badly executed on most occasions. I agree on Scicluna's execution. Heenan had a few amazing bullshit matches in AWA and I remember being higher than anyone else on Flair & Eugene vs La Resistance. Can't comment on RJ City as I am not familiar with his work.

The Great Yatsu vs The Hangman (4/18/81) This was a mistake. Yatsu wasn't a great hand yet and he had to wrestle Hangman for 20 minutes. They insisted on doing a test of strength despite the poor crowd reaction and then a bad looking double KO spot after just 5 minutes, then Hangman took over by working on Yatsu's head. Yatsu put in some decent work on Hangman's leg, and Hangman actually sold it well before completely forgetting about it and hitting backbreakers with his bad leg. FFS. Hangman also tried some unconvincing arm work during his comeback, ignoring the previous focus on the head, which didn't make much sense. They rang the bell for a time limit draw after 18 minutes and I can't blame the few fans that cheered when this happened. 1/4*