[1990-10-08-USWA-World Title Tournament] Terry Funk vs Dick Murdoch

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Funk and Murdoch doing their thing. Fun spots here, including eye pokes, balance losing spots, boxing poses and headbutts on all fours. The slugfest outside the ring where Funk breaks the stairs is the highlight of this. Murdoch has obviously slipped from where he was a few years prior, but he still had some fight in him. Clever finish, with Funk tricking Murdoch into using the branding iron and getting DQd. I might be tempted to watch 30 discs of this tournament.

[PeteF3]

There has been a little too much referee abuse for one night of wrestling for my liking, but this is yet another fun match.

[Bix]

There has been a little too much referee abuse for one night of wrestling for my liking

One night of wrestling, five or six weeks of TV

[shoe]

They seemed to be loving working with one another. Just another good bout from

the tournament .

[soup23]

Short match but filled with a lot of neat touches like work on the leg, bumps to concrete, and Terry crazily wailing the referee. Finish was clever to boot.

[Kevin Ridge]

Terry swings wildly and misses and Murdoch counters with a eye poke. Funk gets all pissed and starts headbutting. Murdoch has another counter for that. An eye poke! Fun stuff. Funk is doing everything he can to get disqualified but the referee is letting it go. Punching the referee, knocking him down, bringing the brandon iron into the ring and Murdoch is the one who gets disqualified for taking the weapon away from Funk. Match was going great. I guess with a tournament like this there is going to be some cheap finishes this but it’s more referees looking inept.

[garretta]

It almost seemed like Jarrett wanted a Lawler/Funk semifinal at all costs and wasn't too choosy concerning how it came about. I wasn't a fan of this one; it would have been a whole lot better with both of them fresh, especially Terry, who was selling a knee injury here and let it totally bring the match down until the very end. Murdoch worked well on the injured knee, but the brawl on the outside was what I wanted to see more of; these two simply beating the stew out of each other. Like I said earlier, the finish seemed weak, but the end was much more important than the means, as Messrs. Lawler and Funk will renew hostilities in the semis.

 

I don't think Neighbors looked bad here; he's refereeing a match with a man who basically never follows the rules (Terry), so if you want a match out of him at all, you have to forgive everything but the most blatant offenses, and even a few of those as long as someone isn't killed. Is this a double standard? Of course it is. Welcome to the world of professional wrestling!

 

You can tell Craig's getting punchy; the bad puns and stretched segues from his earliest days are back in full force, and he's starting to stumble over his phrases just a bit. Then again, he will have called seventeen matches in one night by the end of the quarterfinal round, so if punchy is all he is, he's doing a lot better than I would be in that situation.

[drew wardlaw]

I really like the opening stand off and missed punches into the eye poke. I think my expectations were a bit high for this match, but it was still pretty good.

[dawho5]

Craig being in way over his head is kind of a foregone conclusion. Kinda unhappy they brought him back. Fun match between two guys who know their trade very well.