KB8

Awesome. I'm all about any new Murdoch footage popping up.

Was this available before, shoe? There was one on the Mid-South set, though the dates are different. EDIT: I see Phil asked you this exact same question in your other thread.

I played with mine all the time. Royal Rumbles with fifty action figures. I remember being at a market with my grandparents when I was a kid and I came across a stall selling Rick Rude, Demolition and Akeem and I freaked. I didn't even know there were figures made of those guys. That was a great day. My brother got a bunch of the newer, super-detailed ones like the Classics series. There's a couple suitcases full of my old ones and the ones my brother had sitting in the spare room at my mother's house.

Pretty sure this is the earliest Tenryu match I've seen (might've seen some clips from Texas, but that seems unlikely and even then I doubt it would've been a full match). He's younger in this match than I am currently, which is just mind boggling because it's Tenryu and hasn't he always been forty six years old? I don't know how long he's been back in Japan at this point, but he's been wrestling for about a year and I guess if you're gonna give him a showcase then it might as well be against his trainers (there's something just RIGHT about Tenryu being a Terry Funk trainee). Tenryu and Hata, kitted out in their rookie garb, got to do more in this than I'd have expected. There's a semi-lengthy spell in the first half where they work the headlock on Terry, and Terry is a master of keeping a headlock interesting so it was a pretty nice stretch. There was one bit where Terry, still in the headlock, hit a shinbreaker on Hata, who sold it by keeping hold of the headlock on the mat while making sure he was stretching his leg out and grimacing at the same time. When Terry wasn't trying to free himself from the headlock he was rolling out some nice offence, especially his gut wrench and vertical suplexes, and at one point he hit a nasty dropkick right to Hata's face. Tenryu never punched anyone in the jaw or booted them in the eye, but he threw a couple meaty chops and got to bulldoze his way out the corner to a big pop. It was pretty surreal seeing him come in at the end to save his partner and take a back step when Dory went to cut him off. If this was WAR he'd have punted Terry in the liver and sent Dory back to the ranch for his horse shit.

Probably '86. In addition to what's already been mentioned there's Puerto Rico having an awesome year, with Funk coming in and being crazy, the beginning of the Colon/Hansen feud, and Invader I having amazing brawls with a handful of different folk.

Reed/Taylor from 5/84 was so good, and tremendously heated for a midcard match with no ongoing feud implications (that I'm aware of, anyway). Reed's amazing selling and bumping for Taylor's early punches, the neck work with Taylor's crazy no-hands bump on the hotshot, the brass knucks in the trunks, Taylor bleeding, forehead biting, Reed telling a fan to get in the ring, Taylor's fiery comeback, molten hot crowd...I figured it'd be good, but they just hit us with a ton of great stuff that I wasn't expecting. I might've had it top 50 if it had been on the Mid-South set.

I thought I was good at fitting obscure football references into write-ups, but that Abel Xavier name drop is impressive.

I should probably try and seek out that Low-Ki match already.

He also has Terry Funk's rodeo of insanity coming up and that's pretty much worth the price of admission alone. Good grief is disc 3 one of the best single discs of wrestling this 80s project has produced (that might be an interesting conversation, actually...).

Chavo Jr. is another underrated Rey opponent. They had a match on a 2001 WCW PPV that was easily one of the better matches the company had in its last couple years (not an astronomically high bar, but still). Their No Way Out 2004 match was pretty great and the Great American Bash match the same year was outstanding. I don't remember much about the '06 feud now other than the daft storyline running through it, but I don't imagine it sucked. They must've had something decent.

Flair and Jumbo. A lot of that is burnout. I feel like I've seen pretty much all I need to see from those guys at this point. There are still Flair matches I could watch no problem if I put them on right now, and I still like the grumpiest old man Jumbo shows a ton, but for the most part I don't have much interest in watching either of them, and haven't for a few years now.

I participated in best WWF/E match ever and best WCW match ever polls on another forum a few years back, and the best WWF/E match poll on smarkschoice a few years before that, and I think on all my ballots I had no less than four Rey/Eddie matches. At this point I think I'd have their Halloween Havoc match #1 on my WCW ballot (I had it top 5 at the time) and their 6/05 Smackdown match would be a serious #1 contender for my WWF list (I had that somewhere around my top 10 at the time). It's right up there with Tenryu/Hashimoto, Ishikawa/Ikeda and Lawler/Dundee as my favourite recurring match-up in wrestling. Of course that was my pick. I like lots of stuff he did with the other guys as well, though. I haven't watched anything he did in singles with Psicosis or Juvi in Mexico in almost a decade, but the ECW matches were still fun the last time I saw them and last month I watched a six minute Rey/Juvi match from a September '97 Nitro that was pretty great. Haven't seen any of the Jericho series from WWE since it happened, but I remember it being really good. I don't remember anything they did in WCW being blow away great, but maybe I missed something. I thought they worked well together in WWE, though. I've only seen a few of the Punk matches, but I'm pretty sure I liked them all. There were two or three from 2010 that I liked a lot. This is more of a "Rey was HIS best opponent as opposed to the other way around" kind of thing, but Rey/Angle was always really good. Angle was a super solid base for him and he got to throw Rey around like a jock bully. By the end of Angle's WWE run Rey was about the only guy I was interested in seeing him up against.

And before watching this set and seeing those guys in the lead up to the match, if I'd seen that on a match list I wouldn't have been hyped for it whatsoever (which was probably the case when I originally skimmed the listing for this set, in fact). Part of that is because I wouldn't have ever seen Chicky Starr before and Ron Starr and the Invaders would've been guys I'd seen maybe twice in my life, and certainly not recently enough to have a feel for how good they were. But then you get a disc and a half into this and you see those names and you realise that, in actual fact, that is a pretty damn stacked six man tag. And that's kind of the beauty of this set.

Disc 2 1. Invader I vs. Eric Embry (June 1986) 2. Invader III vs. Eric Embry (1/6/86) 3. Carlos Colon and The Invaders vs. Abdullah the Butcher, Chicky and Ron Starr (4/26/86) 4. Carlos Colon vs. Abdullah the Butcher (March 1986) 5. Rock n Roll RPM's vs. The Crusher & Eric Embry (3/29/86) 6. Chicky Starr vs. Invader III (Scaffold Match) (May 1986) 7. Invader I vs. Chicky Starr (1/6/86) 8. Kamala vs. The Invader (2/22/86) 9. Los Pastores vs. The Invaders (8/2/86) 10. Carlos Colon vs. Abdullah The Butcher (6/15/86) 11. The Invaders vs. Chicky Starr & Ron Starr (3/29/86) 12. Invader I vs. Bruiser Brody (6/15/86) 13. Carlos Colon & Miguel Perez Jr. vs. Los Pastores (January 1986) 14. Abdullah the Butcher v. Victor Jovica (Chain Match) (July 1986) 15. The Rock n Roll RPM's vs. The Zambuie Express (3/29/86) 16. Rock n Roll RPM's vs. Dan Greer & Don Kent (3/29/86) 17. Carlos Colon vs. Jos LeDuc (Barbed Wire Match) (2/22/86) Crazy good disc. Disc 1 felt like a taste of what's to come, and this was where we well and truly arrived. Embry was amazing on this disc. Both Invaders were as well, but Embry had a hell of a 1-2 punch at the top of the disc (Embry/Invader I is still my very tentative working #1 halfway through disc 3). The Abby/Colon series has been way better than I would've expected. I loved the March match and that June massacre is unlike just about any match I've seen in a long, long time. I'll probably be the high voter on the six-man, but that kind of match is just way up my alley I thought it was really awesome.

Big E and Rusev usually have some pretty funny tweets. I think The Rock tends to interact with a good amount of fans. That's about all I have. I don't actually follow any of them, because all I really use twitter for is football stuff, but they've been re-tweeted onto my timeline a few times.

Yeah, amazing promo. He was gonna "jerk" out his eye but then reconsidered because he wants Invader to be able to look in the mirror and see his disfigured face after Terry bites his nose off. Terry coming to Dory's aid and throwing guys around ruled as well. And I'm with you on that Invader match. No way that wouldn't have been awesome.

Disc 3 so far has been amazing. Terry Funk working Puerto Rico is something everyone needs to see. Just batshit insane and awesome.

For a tag team I would never have thought of years ago as being a "workrate team," the Sheepherders could cut a real pace when they wanted to. I mean, they don't do a ton of stuff, but this was fairly lengthy and they went absolute hell for leather all the way (I don't have anywhere close to a complete picture of the Invaders, but those guys being able to work at this pace isn't surprising at all). The early shine period was a hundred miles an hour, the Invaders going after Luke's arm and working constant quick tags. There were some cool bits where Luke would make it over to his corner only for Butch to be jawing with a section of the crowd, thus missing the chance to tag, or maybe he would tag but the ref' would be distracted by the other Invader. It all got Butch Miller ranting and raving on the apron. When they eventually take over the pace doesn't dip, so we get a nice, frantic heat segment on Invader I, which was a cool change of pace from Invader III playing FIP. The last few minutes were pretty great as well. They do another semi-extended run after the hot tag with guys brawling in and around the ring, and there's an awesome spot where Invader I tries to hit a double bulldog, but the Pastores pick him up and crotch him over the top rope before hitting a spike piledriver. I think the match gets thrown out at this point but we get another few minutes of brawling and Invader III wrapping handcuffs around his fist and clocking folk. The Pastores trying to break Invader I's arm with a flag pole at the end looked brutal as well. Really good tag. It had your traditional southern style structure, but it still managed to feel plenty hectic even before things broke down at the end (then it felt REALLY hectic).

Man, Abby attacking Jovica with a fork before he's even taken his executioner's hood off is a heck of a visual to start a match with. Pretty sure this is the first time I've seen Jovica wrestle. He was mostly okay and he bled like a maniac. Like, dude is absolutely covered in blood after three minutes. Abdullah ruled yet again. He was a nasty bastard when he was throwing chain-wrapped fists and whipping Jovica with the chain, and at one point he even threw in a dick punch for good measure. He was really at his best when he was wailing in pain, though. Jovica would punch him in the ribs and choke him with the chain and Abby would squeal and snort like a dying pig. This also had a really cool finish. They would sort of trade "nearfalls" in the sense that each guy would touch three turnbuckles then be cut off just before touching the fourth, going back and forth a bit with that for a few minutes. Then Abby looks like he's put Jovica down for good, but at the last second Jovica yanks the chain up between his legs and Abby goes down shrieking in agony. Even the Butcher will go down to that old chestnut.

Yep. This delivered. Maybe the two MVPs of the set so far, and it met the lofty expectations such a match-up creates. Where has Eric Embry been all my life? I have no recollection of him being THIS good in Texas/USWA. He was phenomenal in this, though. Invader beat on him to start, with big clubs to the chest and an awesome flurry of punches while Embry pinballed all over the place, both inside the ring and outside. And of course Invader kicked him in the balls, because Invader kicks everyone in the balls. Embry would futilely try and crawl away, then he'd beg off and plead for mercy, but Invader would just smash his face into the canvas. This whole first spell was great, basically. But then Embry takes over - through questionable means, obviously - and the match goes up another few levels. In the previous Embry matches he worked mostly from the bottom and/or tailored his offence around cheapshots and brief flurries. This time it was like he'd reached his breaking point and all he wanted to do was beat Invader all around the building. He hits him with a chair, throws him into the ringposts, rams him into a big blue garage door, then piledrives him on a table, which is bonkers for 1986. Some old moo moo-wearing lady in the crowd even tries to take a kick at him. His headbutt off the middle rope looked great, but his falling headbutt from a standing position looked even better, like the Ted DiBiase fist drop of falling headbutts. He really lives up to that Mr. Piledriver moniker as well by absolutely drilling Invader with a jumping piledriver (in addition to the crazy one on the table). Invader bleeds through all of this and Invader taking a bloody beatdown is pretty much can't fail at this point. He is so, so good at it, with his jelly-legged selling and his wild lunges as he's trying to make desperation comebacks. They do a big double knockdown reset spot that Embry really leans into, and that serves as the catalyst for Invader's comeback, which was spectacular. As soon as he chucks Embry out to the floor everyone in the building goes nuts because they know it's payback time, and sure enough Embry pays in blood. The last stretch with both guys trading last-legs punches and punts to the balls and throwing each other into chairs and barricades was out of this world. I think this went about twelve minutes bell to bell and it was truly exceptional. Everything that was promised and my new #1.

I'm not really sure where to start with this one. I honestly don't think you could do this match anywhere other than in Puerto Rico. It starts out with them being a bit more hesitant, not trying to claw each other's face off straight away. I love how Abby backs Colon into the ropes and that entire side of the crowd are in uproar the instant Abby reaches down to his boot. The ref' is actually pretty great here, constantly checking to see if Abby hasn't pulled a fork from somewhere, really putting across how much of a menace he is. They throw a few headbutts, trade some strikes...then Colon gets a pencil from who knows where and stabs Abby in the eye! He's just digging this pencil into the eye, trying to gouge the eye out with his fingers, biting the eye. For the rest of the match it's basically Colon punching and biting and stabbing Abby while trying to rip his eye out and Abby just takes all of this and sells the crap out of it. At one point we even get some blood splatter on one of the ringside cameras. I actually started to feel sympathy for Abdullah the fucking Butcher because of the monumental fatboy shitkicking he was taking. This was like the time Token got fed up with all of Cartman's racist horse shit and just kicked fuck out of him on the Christian Rock Festival stage, except this Cartman is a psychopath (or more of a psychopath) who stabs people with a fork and Token kicked fuck out of him for twenty whole minutes. And the crowd eats it all up! The doctor comes in to check on Abby, Abby pushes him away because he will not die, so Colon goes back to punching him in the eye and smashing him with a wooden chair and standing on his head! Abby throws maybe six strikes the whole match. The rest of it is Colon abusing him. Relentlessly. There was one bit where Colon was peppering him with fists against the ropes and Abby was almost convulsing on his feet, bouncing off the ropes as if they were the only thing keeping him upright. I'm not sure how good this actually was, but it was one of the most engrossing, borderline-disturbing matches I've seen in ages. Maybe ever.

This was about as simple as you could get structurally, with one major momentum shift and both guys basically splitting the match down the middle in terms of who worked on top. I thought it worked perfectly well for them. The beginning consists of Brody beating Invader all over the place with Invader juicing and selling the blood like Invader does, though he doesn't hit an uber-gusher this time out. He tries to make his comebacks and he's his awesome scrappy self, but Brody fights through the blows and keeps on moving forward. Then Invader THUMPS him in the plums and Brody does this amusing sell where he walks around in a circle holding his nether regions before falling into a flat back bump. That's your one major momentum shift. Brody isn't great at selling, but he does give Invader the whole second half of the match; or maybe Invader TAKES the whole second half in spite of Brody wanting to be Brody. Actually, that's probably unfair to Brody, honestly, because he was decent enough in this, at times even pretty good. There's a great bit where he swings wildly and tries to grab Invader but Invader ducks away from it all and hits his double chop to land Brody on his keister in the corner. I'm not even sure that was an intentional bump -- I think Invader might've caught him off guard and legit rocked him. Eventually it spills out into the crowd and Invader chases Brody off with a chair in hand. Invader then gets hoisted up on fans' shoulders and paraded around the stadium like a king, which ruled. I enjoyed this. Even if it was kind of weird watching it knowing what would happen a couple years later.

Well damn. I never thought we'd get another scaffold match on the level of Dundee/Koko from the Memphis set, but this was a pretty fucking tremendous scaffold match. They also took it in a totally different direction from Dundee/Koko. That was mostly about shtick and Dundee using the tricks he learned working the high bar in the circus to scale and move around the platform. It was a little whimsical at times with some comedy thrown in. They never exactly beat the shit out of each other, because who in their right mind would want to have an actual wrestling match, never mind a full on brawl, up on a scaffold platform? Invader III and Chicky Starr, that's who. This started out a bit tentatively as you'd expect, with Chicky begging off and showing fear at being all the way up there, but pretty soon he gets busted open and it's like the blood forces him to cut loose. He knows that if he doesn't step up he might actually die, because that scaffold platform is HIGH and the guy he's on it with wants to throw him off it. Some of the stuff they did was batshit crazy. I've never seen anyone hit a dropkick in a scaffold match before, but sure enough Invader hits his all-time level dropkick and Chicky bumps himself almost to the edge of the platform. Invader hits a big vertical suplex, then they fight over a body slam at the shaky scaffold's edge and it's genuinely one of the most intense moments in a wrestling match I've seen in a while. I mean, if that goes wrong they are fucked. Chicky prematurely celebrating might've been a bit dumb, but Invader hanging on and dragging himself back up was impressive and Chicky's bump at the end was insane, like Batman dropping Sal Maroni off a balcony.