Tully Blanchard

[ohtani's jacket]

Tully Blanchard vs. Carlos Colon (1989?)

 

Here's Tully vs. the man of the hour, Carlos Colon. Youtube has a pretty cool clip of these two grappling in North Carolina, but this is a title match from Puerto Rico. Pretty decent match, though definitely not in the epic category. It's more a case of Tully's schtick meets Colon's schtick more than anything else, and after watching the Hansen/Colon feud I think I've already figured out Colon's schtick. The match moves in and out of the ring a lot, which leads to some dead passages, and there's some weak spots with the ref towards the end, including the finish, but the basic brawling is entertaining enough. I'm not sure if it was an adlib or a regular Tully spot, but he did this desperation diving punch to the face which I thought was really cool. The North Carlolina match had much better grappling from Tully, but all in all not a bad match.

[Matt D]

Tully Blanchard vs Ultimate Warrior (Survivor Series Showdown, 1989)

 

I was watching some things to prep for the Microscope Match of the Week this week and this was one. I don't have a ton to say about it but I will say that Tully is really masterful in all the ways he gets back on offense, if even for a few seconds. Getting his feet up, moving out of the way, getting a cheap shot in, using the distracted ref. His entire offense for the match is basically made up of what would normally be transitions and it creates an overall theme that is pretty cool. It's definitely not much of a match though.

[shoe]

I have always liked Tully as a worker. Man he 'd talk or kick Magnum TA's crutches from him, or triple team Dusty and you'd be like what a prick. He has plenty of awesome matches on his résume. The thing that sticks out to me is that the man doesn't have boring matches.

[Moonsault Marvin]

Tully Blanchard vs Ultimate Warrior (Survivor Series Showdown, 1989)

 

I was watching some things to prep for the Microscope Match of the Week this week and this was one. I don't have a ton to say about it but I will say that Tully is really masterful in all the ways he gets back on offense, if even for a few seconds. Getting his feet up, moving out of the way, getting a cheap shot in, using the distracted ref. His entire offense for the match is basically made up of what would normally be transitions and it creates an overall theme that is pretty cool. It's definitely not much of a match though.

I stumbled across this on youtube a couple of weeks ago and enjoyed it. Tully did a good job as the overmatched heel and he had the Warrior using a more expanded offense than usual with a flying axehandle and a suplex.

[goodhelmet]

Tully did such a great jb as a heel that I hated him as an adult until I did the 3 disc Tully sampler. Then I realized he was just an evil genius.

[ohtani's jacket]

Tully Blanchard vs. Wahoo McDaniel

 

Youtube has three Blanchard vs. McDaniel matches, two from Southwest TV and another from a Crockett houseshow. The Southwest matches are the ones worth watching, though they only give you a little of the Tully vs. Wahoo not the whole Tully vs. Wahoo, as the Macho Man would say. These guys were a good match-up for each other. The Chief only had one direction and that was forward. He looked like he'd chop his way through a forest or a mountain if you stuck it in his way. Tully, on the other hand, was a hyperactive worker who would gladly throw cheap shots and run and hide all bout long if he could rope a dope his way through a match. There's plenty of hard hitting action in these bouts, as you'd expect. I love Wahoo's hip toss. It looks awesome when a guy that size slams someone into the mat with a throw like that. The commentator for SCW was pretty crap, but these are still fun TV stips with Tully being forced to wrestle McDaniel against his will. Tully is great in his role of brat. Did these guys ever have a definitive match together? And is it just me or did Blanchard wear mascara ala Isiah Thomas? It always seems that way to me.

 

Got to love how you can watch this on youtube and end up watching a bunch of awesome Ernie Ladd promos. His anti-whiskey drinkers in wrestling schtick is a riot.

[ohtani's jacket]

There are two more Tully/Wahoo clips on Youtube that I missed the first time round. One is a street fight from SCW that isn't much of anything and the other is an NWA houseshow from '85 where the crowd chant "I quit" at Tully the whole match long. It's a pretty fun match with the usual asskickery. I also dug the promo I saw of when Tully and Wahoo joined up as partners in Mid-Atlantic. I love it when they have the heels commentate over footage of what they did they've done to the faces. Wahoo was pretty solid on the mic and Tully was class dropping Ric Flair and Dusty Rhodes impersonations into the mix.

 

Tully Blanchard vs. Eric Embry, SCW 1/31/83

 

This was a lot of fun. Bob Sweetan made it work with his guest commentary and the awesome promo he cut at the end holding Embry's bloodied head up for the camera to take a good look at, but this was Tully the bastard as opposited to Tully the brat. We got to see a lot more of Tully's offense here than the usual cat and mouse stuff and he really went to town on Embry. If you're going to beat the shit out of some poor unfortunate kid to drive home a point to your rival then this is the way to do it. I'd like to think that Tully honed his craft working these studio matches for SCW, so I'm gonna roll with that idea unless corrected. In some ways, SCW was bush league, but on the other hand Tully made it seem like compelling viewing.

[ohtani's jacket]

Tully Blanchard vs. Bob Sweetan

 

Watched two of their matches and they were both disappointing. The first was the final of the tournament to crown the SCW Heavyweight champion, which was an angle basically after Adonis had laid Sweetan out with his Goodnight Irene sleeper after Sweetan won their semi-final and Sweetan entered the final injured. The second match was a Texas Death Match that was also a front for an angle involving Tully and Adonis with the work being pretty ho-hum beforehand.

[ohtani's jacket]

Tully Blanchard vs. Tim Horner (1/3/87)

 

Funny little TV match. Tully comes across like one of the masters of television studio wrestling. Tim Horner was always a bit of a white bread worker, but he had some exciting moves. I dug the way he blocked Tully's knee drop in this match. This was nothing grand, but they executed it in a way you didn't see in WWF matches at the time because of the dinky little TV studio. The usage of space in wrestling matches often fascinates me and there never seems to be enough space in these studio matches. It's almost as though the workers are confined to the canvas and not able to easily escape as in an arena match. There's an immediacy to see it that's different from other forms of wrestling, plus the matches are usually on the short side which adds an urgency to the work. Wrestling can look pretty awful when done badly in this setting, but like I said, Tully strikes me as one of the best at studio wrestling.

[ohtani's jacket]

Tully Blanchard vs. Dusty Rhodes, NWA 6/6/87

 

As a match this wasn't much chop, but with Dillon and Dark Journey at ringside along with Magnum TA guarding the one hundred thousand and Tommy Young getting involved you knew this would have enough bullshit to fill in a half an hour of TV time. I suppose Tully bumped, sold and stooged well, but it didn't strike me as one of his more memorable performances and Dusty was pretty lame compared to those Harley Race clips I watched recently. I don't think they really milked the bullshit for what it was worth, either, although I've always thought of Dillon as a pretty weak performer when it comes to managers. The finish was meant to be a debacle and it was, but there's fun debacles and then there's crap that makes you wish you hadn't sat through a match and this was in the latter category for me.

[jdw]

"Where's the money, Maggie?"

[ohtani's jacket]

Tully Blanchard vs. Dory Funk, Jr., SCW

 

Tully seems to the face here with Funk playing the heel. Apparently, Funk's idea of playing heel is gently, I mean mercilessly, throwing them into the ring post. Christ, were there ever two brothers who were less alike? You are a plodder, Dory Funk, Jr.

 

Tully Blanchard/Gino Hernandez vs. Terry Funk/Ivan Putski, SCW

 

This was just some bullshit excuse for Ricky Morton and Ken Lucas to start a big fight with Blanchard and Hernandez. I hate matches like these. Funk didn't deliver anything special with Blanchard, but he was just window dressing here.

[ohtani's jacket]

Tully Blanchard vs. Gene Ligon, World Championship Wrestling 1985

 

Only a squash match, but more evidence that Tully was one of the great television studio workers. Schiavone made the mistake of calling Tully "capable" in an earlier interview and Tully shows Tony just how capable he is by busting out a variety of holds on Gene Ligon. Tully's matches usually feature a lot of bumping and selling and heel shortcuts, so it was fun to watch him work the mat, though I wouldn't rate him as one of the greats in that category.

[ohtani's jacket]

Ron Garvin vs. Tully Blanchard, 10/7/87

 

This is one of my favourite match-ups in all of professional wrestling. Even in a short match like this, which was really an excuse for Flair and the Horsemen to do a run-in and kick Garvin's ass before Starrcade, there's plenty to love. It was a bit looser than their usual matches, but fuck me I love the hands of stone gimmick.

[JazeUSA]

T.B. had so many great matches & promo's, like Will said above he was just a genius w/ his psychology in the ring & out. Another guy like Flair who always made every match mean something, even the ones against the jobbers. I've been watching a dvd set I have of him & Gino Hernandez lately & they had some great matches back in SWCW both together & against each other, some of his best matches were with Arn in the NWA, there were so many that stick out to me I don't think I could just name one, T.B. had better matches against Magnum TA, Dusty Rhodes, & Ron Garvin than Ric Flair did. Great ring general & master psychologist!

[ohtani's jacket]

Arn Anderson/Tully Blanchard vs. Dusty Rhodes/Nikita Koloff, 12/12/87

 

Today's random Tully match is a fun Worldwide match from a December Greensboro card. Tully does really do anything memorable outside of some sweet arm work on Rhodes, but I thought it was interesting how these guys were able to work a basic FIP tag match, have a DQ finish, outside interference from both Flair and Luger, and still manage to accomplish more than twelve minutes of your average WWF tag match.

[Kevin Ridge]

Just watched the big 20 man tag Survivor Series 88 match today. Blanchard was the stand out in this match. Fantastic cheating/heeling all around. One point he gets tagged in and walks across the ring to tag in Volkoff as he wants nothing to do with the Powers of Pain. Later in match he tags out and practically lies down on his opponent so they can't make a tag themselves. As an illegal man he was doing great outside stuff pulling on Michaels leg after a tag and holding opponents in his own corner. It was a shame that Moosoon (expected) and Jesse (surprising) were missing some of this stuff on commentary. Tully accepting his role as chicken shit heel during match was great. Was another annoying moment when Tully totally played the faces/referee in to a cheap shot and Monsoon/Ventura gave the credit to Heenan for it which was annoying.

[flyonthewall2983]

The bittersweet thing about that match in particular is that you got a little taste of a Blanchard/Anderson vs. Bulldogs match in there too.

[Superstar Sleeze]

Tully Blanchard vs Ultimate Warrior (Survivor Series Showdown, 1989)

 

I was watching some things to prep for the Microscope Match of the Week this week and this was one. I don't have a ton to say about it but I will say that Tully is really masterful in all the ways he gets back on offense, if even for a few seconds. Getting his feet up, moving out of the way, getting a cheap shot in, using the distracted ref. His entire offense for the match is basically made up of what would normally be transitions and it creates an overall theme that is pretty cool. It's definitely not much of a match though.

WWF Intercontinental Champion Ultimate Warrior vs Tully Blanchard w/Bobby Heenan 11/89

 

It was disappointing that the Buster pretty much only exclusively worked tags against the Rockers, Bushwhackers and Demolition. I would have liked the odd singles match from Tully or Arn. I liked this match a bit more than though WOYAH~! is a guilty pleasure of mine. I find his antics and his general in-ring presence wildly entertaining. Tully starts off trying to lock up with the Warrior who just keeps shoving this peon off. Cut to The Brain immediately saying you set the pace. So Tully takes a moment, regains his confidence and he extends his hand. Warrior grabs his hand so hard he sells it. I love it! He jumped onto the apron if Warrior was smart he would have brought him over the ropes and let him drop. Tully thumb to the eye. Warrior no-sells. Tully takes his shoulder first bump over turnbuckle and then he goes flyin back over the the top rope when Warrior side steps him. Tully is basically working this match himself and he is great. Tully and The Brain try to hightail. Warrior in an impressive feat of strength carries Tully in a military press back and tosses him through the second rope. Warrior with a double axe handle off the top, but Stinger Splashes the turnbuckle when Tully moves out of the way. Tully with a bootscrape and choking. Warrior eats knees on a Warrior Splash and then misses an elbow. Finally, he catches Tully off the top with a powerslam. He goes for the gorilla press slam, but Arn comes out in clipping the knee. The Rockers & Neidhart send the Heenan Family packing and then Andre comes out for the staredown.

 

Warrior always has a great presence and he actually moves around the ring pretty well. This is a wicked entertaining popcorn match. I think these guys could have had some really fun 15 minute matches. It just seemed like Demolition the Warrior was not terribly interested in selling for Tully as he was constantly getting in hope spots, but that may have just been a function of the match. Fun stuff. What happened to Tully after the drug test? I know he did some stuff in ECW and some Slamboree stuff. Is there any 90s stuff worth seeing?

[ohtani's jacket]

Tully Blanchard vs. Terry Taylor, 8/85

 

This was all right, but it was hard to get excited over anything Taylor did. It was really a TV match with a bit more time, and because it was a Tully match, Taylor had to work most of the match from one top, which wasn't that interesting. Tully was fine, but it wasn't a particularly special performance from him. The whole thing was like the minimum of what I'd expect from this match-up, and I don't think it deserves any sort of "near classic" rating. It would have had to have gone far deeper than the usual "Tully in peril" to warrant that sort of praise.

[El-P]

Tully Blanchard vs. Terry Taylor, 8/85

 

This was all right, but it was hard to get excited over anything Taylor did. It was really a TV match with a bit more time, and because it was a Tully match, Taylor had to work most of the match from one top, which wasn't that interesting. Tully was fine, but it wasn't a particularly special performance from him. The whole thing was like the minimum of what I'd expect from this match-up, and I don't think it deserves any sort of "near classic" rating. It would have had to have gone far deeper than the usual "Tully in peril" to warrant that sort of praise.

 

Just watched that match. Thought it was very good. Damn, Taylor is just crisp and a terrific young babyface. Never ever understood the ridiculous backlash. Tully is awesome at doing little things and he's also a perfect ten as far as execution goes. The more I watch this stuff (Horsemen comp), the more appreciation I gain for Tully & Ole (Arn was already great and Flair was, well, Flair).