Tackling the 80s

[Loss]

Adrian Adonis & Jesse Ventura vs Greg Gagne & Jim Brunzell (AWA 03/01/81)

 

So much of this match was just filling time. Not bad, just really bland. I don’t think Adonis and Ventura are aggressive enough to keep this much FIP work compelling for this long. If anything, this shows how reliant the tag formula is on really good heels. Here, the High Flyers were the better workers. The long break outside the ring after Gagne got the first hot tag was horribly timed and deflated the crowd. It was like the match started over after Gagne tagged in and they were working like it was a brand new match. Now if you chop off everything that came before that tag, from here on, the match gets better, but that’s half the match in the tank. Even then, some of the choices just don’t make sense to me in terms of building heat — little things like Adonis coming in and immediately going for a cover after Jesse held on to the ropes to avoid a dropkick, somewhat big things like Adonis not coming in for house afire to also feed Brunzell and really big things like the aforementioned timing of dead spots in the match. Even the second hot tag to Brunzell wasn't really built up enough. I think the nicest thing I can say about this is that Greg Gagne gave a pretty solid performance. I like FIP tag work where the babyface teases minor comebacks to let us know they are still in the game and keep the crowd involved, and he did that really effectively.

 

What was the point in building to a THIRD hot tag with just a minute or two of match time left? Add on that I hate it when announcers don’t attempt to frame context at all and just call moves without giving any background on the participants or getting over the surrounding angle, which lowers this as an overall presentation. And a crappy no contest finish to boot. I wasn't a fan at all.

[Loss]

Bill Dundee vs Wayne Farris & Tojo Yamamoto (Memphis 03/07/81)

 

Tommy Rich is Bill Dundee’s tag team partner and can’t make it to the studio today. This means Dundee will be defending the title on his own. Before the match, Russell suggests that Jimmy Hart postpone the match because no one will respect Hart’s charges as champions if they beat Dundee. Hart is amused at this proposition, but says no. Dream Machine comes out upset that he’s not in the title match, since he’s been so loyal to Jimmy for so long. Lance Russell is masterful at explaining all of this and setting up the match.

 

Bill Dundee is a great babyface tag team worker, and this is a huge showcase for him. I love all of his matwork and comedy spots that the heels sell well, and he gets the psychology of this pitch perfect. He said earlier in the show he planned to wrestle not to win, but instead just to not lose, and that would be his strategy — stall and ride the clock to hit the 30-minute time limit. So you have him taking advantage of the rules when the heels start to build momentum by riding the ten-count, which is tremendous in how it’s executed, as he takes advantage of Farris being so overzealous to buy himself some time. I don’t think I’d be a fan of the opportunistic babyface working the system to protect themselves in most cases, as good wrestling babyfaces are more valiant than they are smart. But Dundee and Russell execute this so well that I would make an exception in this case.

 

They trusted Dundee to pull off something pretty tough here, and he did a great job of it. It would be easy for him to seem heelish, or for the match to get boring, but he knows how to balance this. Bleeding is actually a great choice to keep him sympathetic even when he’s trying to use the rules to his advantage. I’m sure better stuff will follow, but I’m not sure I’ll see anything smarter than this. This is the most compelling presentation of 1981 at this point.

[Loss]

Bill Dundee & Tommy Rich vs Dutch Mantell & Austin Idol (Memphis 03/12/81)

 

Excellent tag team match. Dundee is so great as a babyface, both in the showy outfoxing of the heels in the early stages, and also selling a heel attack like crazy. Dundee is every bit as good a babyface tag team worker as Ricky Morton. I loved the backbreaker/elbow drop combo from the Dutch/Idol tag team. Dundee and Rich win the tag titles in a surprise finish. As good as Dundee was, Dutch and Idol really held this together with a strong, coherent heel performance.

[Loss]

Bill Dundee & Dream Machine vs Dutch Mantell & Wayne Farris (Memphis 03/14/81)

 

I like the previous match better, but this had some great moments. I love the roll around slugfests with Dundee and Farris. Dutch takes a really fun exaggerated bump off of the hiptoss. Dream Machine is also a pretty decent babyface, but he isn’t as over as Dundee. The heat isn’t bad for this, but doesn’t seem quite as strong as it should be because of that. Despite the good exchanges, the match layout is a bit abrupt and the crowd is a bit quiet, which is what keeps this from getting to the next level.

[Loss]

Nick Bockwinkel vs Pat O’Connor (AWA 03/22/81)

 

Cool to see Pat O’Connor, but too short to really amount to anything.

[Loss]

Adrian Adonis & Jesse Ventura vs Greg Gagne & Jim Brunzell (AWA 03/22/81)

 

Much better than the last match. My socks aren’t threatening to be knocked off, but this was a satisfying match that got over the cage as something dangerous. Adonis does pull out some of his trademark bumps in the final minute or two of this, but his performance before that was nothing. Jesse did more to get the match over as something special in the body of this.

[Loss]

Jerry Lawler vs Terry Funk (Memphis 03/23/81)

 

Pretty great brawl. Funk takes a few bumps to start, then they just get into a simple, bloody slugfest and create some great visuals. Funk gets a chair from Jimmy Hart and swipes Lawler’s leg to set up the spinning toehold, but Lawler makes a comeback of his own. Big heat and great punches. I would have liked to have seen at least one wrestling move thrown in somewhere - a vertical suplex or something - as my favorite brawls still remember that they are wrestling matches. But that’s a small quibble that doesn’t detract from the match too much.

[NintendoLogic]

The spinning toe hold is a wrestling move.

[Loss]

It's actually a hold if you want to get pedantic.

[Loss]

Higo Hamaguchi, Isamu Teranishi & Mach Hayato vs El Cobarde, Herodes & Goro Tsurumi (IWE 03/26/81)

 

I enjoyed this as a match with a lot of creative spots and better lucha-influenced mat wrestling than I'm likely to find anywhere else in 1981. The hard hitting Japanese guys made a nice contrast to the smooth matwork and highspots of the lucha guys. Hamaguchi's power spots in particular look good as a styles clash to some of the standard lucha spots. The subtle twist on the classic lucha fall finish to end the second fall was tremendous. I loved how violent this turned in the final fall too. Really great.

[Loss]

Jerry Lawler vs Dory Funk Jr. (Memphis 03/30/81)

 

I loved this. One of the better Dory matches I've seen, with him working holds really well and showing decent aggression. Lawler sells his stuff really well, and when he finally gets his comeback, it's glorious. My only problem with this is that I thought this was too one-sided in the early stages. From the point where Lawler made his first comeback and they started going a little more back and forth, I really enjoyed this quite a bit. Started on the slow side, but it turned into a great match. I like this version of Dory.

[Loss]

Jerry Lawler vs Terry Funk (Memphis 04/06/81)

 

The famous empty arena match. It's really hard to rate this as a wrestling match. As an overall presentation, including Funk's post-match agony and Lance Russell's brilliant handling of all of this, it's a five-star presentation. There's not much of a wrestling match here, but I don't mean that as an insult. I just see this more as a piece of booking genius that sadly didn't draw like expected. I do think this is something everyone who considers themselves a wrestling fan should see at least once.

[Loss]

Tiger Mask vs Dynamite Kid (NJPW 04/23/81)

 

This isn't really bad. It's not really special, but it's not really bad. Tiger Mask goes over in straightforward match in a relatively short match where he gets to show off some of his arsenal. A few messy spots, but nothing that takes away from the match that much. This is just kind of empty.

[Loss]

Antonio Inoki vs Stan Hansen (NJPW 04/23/81)

 

I am tired of this match-up, but I still really liked this match as a bombfest by their standards. I feel like I'm not saying enough about some of these matches, but a lot of them leave me indifferent.

[Loss]

Bill Dundee & Dream Machine vs Kevin Sullivan & Wayne Farris (Memphis 05/02/81)

 

These Memphis tags have been a real treat, especially for fans of Bill Dundee, who based solely on the footage I'm watching looks like the best worker in the business at this point. I know that's likely not quite true, but he looks great in these matches. Also give Farris credit for being far more fundamentally sound than he ever appeared to be as Honky Tonk Man. He's not great or anything, but he's a perfectly fine working heel with a nice bag of tricks and some decent bumps. I love the amateur looking throw he does. This is also a different Kevin Sullivan than we all know and love, one of the many guys in wrestling at this point ripping off Billy Graham. Dundee makes a really fired up comeback in the last few minutes of this in the build to the elusive hot tag. Cool to see the heels get a relative clean pinfall win in Memphis too!

[goodhelmet]

You are in the era of Bill Dundee Studio Ace. After the completion of the Memphis set, Lawler came away as the best arena wrestler while Dundee was the top studio guy.

[Loss]

Jerry Lawler vs Crusher Blackwell (Memphis 05/04/81)

 

Blackwell's agility is really impressive, but I'm not a fan of the way Lawler often starts matches as a babyface where he takes absolutely no offense for himself. Get past that and this turns into a good match, especially when Lawler starts mixing in some of his own stuff to keep the people in this while Blackwell dominates. Lawler starting the comeback and missing the fistdrop was cool and unexpected. Kind of a weak finish, but there is some excellent work in this.

[Phil Schneider]

Everyone knows Lawler is a notoriously slow starter

[Loss]

Of course. It sometimes comes across as someone not fighting back.

[Loss]

Dutch Mantel vs Kevin Sullivan (Memphis 05/09/81)

 

Lots of good detail in the matwork. I really enjoyed watching these two work a hammerlock and a headlock for the first five minutes of this, getting pin attempts and failed counters from it. Dutch is an awesome aggressor when they are toe-to-toe, which causes Sullivan to try grounding him. Both guys have some really great kicks and strikes. They close things out with some really quick attempts at falls, culminating in Dutch losing his patience and choking Sullivan out with the strap on his tights! I don’t know why it surprised me to see Sullivan so good at fundamentals. Basic match, but violent and really well executed, with tremendous studio heat by the end and a nice photo finish. This is probably the best traditional wrestling match I’ve ever seen from Sullivan, and Dutch is a total workhorse.

[Loss]

Jimmy Snuka vs Ricky Steamboat (AJPW 06/03/81)

 

This was faster paced and more action packed than most of what I’ve seen so far in ’81. It has the feel of two young guys putting their fingerprints on the wrestling style. Steamboat does some really outstanding selling, and the mid-air collision off of the criss cross sequence that leads to both falling outside the ring is a truly beautiful spot. Snuka botches a slingshot dive back into the ring which gets a laugh from the crowd, but they nicely recover. From there, this turns into more of a crazy brawl, with Steamboat juicing and Snuka as a total madman, going after the cut with gusto. Give Steamboat big credit, as he just keeps selling and selling (and selling) until the crowd is chanting his name and rooting for a comeback. With the blood, standing on the top ropes to brawl and big dives, this is like a cage match with no cage (ignoring the DQ finish), which is pretty cool. They built to that DQ so well that I had no problem with it, and in some ways, I think it worked better than a clean pinfall would have. Great, great match!

[Loss]

Nick Bockwinkel vs Jim Brunzell (AWA 06/11/81)

 

10 minutes of good wrestling. I really enjoyed the hammerlock matwork and Brunzell's comeback. Probably not the best, but maybe my favorite AWA match so far. But I’m still waiting on this promotion to wow me and it hasn’t happened yet.

[Dylan Waco]

Jimmy Snuka vs Ricky Steamboat (AJPW 06/03/81)

 

This was faster paced and more action packed than most of what I’ve seen so far in ’81. It has the feel of two young guys putting their fingerprints on the wrestling style. Steamboat does some really outstanding selling, and the mid-air collision off of the criss cross sequence that leads to both falling outside the ring is a truly beautiful spot. Snuka botches a slingshot dive back into the ring which gets a laugh from the crowd, but they nicely recover. From there, this turns into more of a crazy brawl, with Steamboat juicing and Snuka as a total madman, going after the cut with gusto. Give Steamboat big credit, as he just keeps selling and selling (and selling) until the crowd is chanting his name and rooting for a comeback. With the blood, standing on the top ropes to brawl and big dives, this is like a cage match with no cage (ignoring the DQ finish), which is pretty cool. They built to that DQ so well that I had no problem with it, and in some ways, I think it worked better than a clean pinfall would have. Great, great match!

This one shocks me, because I absolutely hated this match, and think it is one of the worst matches to ever make an 80's set.

[goodhelmet]

If you look back at the nomination process, there was really no dissent between me, Childs and Kris putting it on the set.

[Graham Crackers]

Jimmy Snuka vs Ricky Steamboat (AJPW 06/03/81)

 

This was faster paced and more action packed than most of what I’ve seen so far in ’81. It has the feel of two young guys putting their fingerprints on the wrestling style. Steamboat does some really outstanding selling, and the mid-air collision off of the criss cross sequence that leads to both falling outside the ring is a truly beautiful spot. Snuka botches a slingshot dive back into the ring which gets a laugh from the crowd, but they nicely recover. From there, this turns into more of a crazy brawl, with Steamboat juicing and Snuka as a total madman, going after the cut with gusto. Give Steamboat big credit, as he just keeps selling and selling (and selling) until the crowd is chanting his name and rooting for a comeback. With the blood, standing on the top ropes to brawl and big dives, this is like a cage match with no cage (ignoring the DQ finish), which is pretty cool. They built to that DQ so well that I had no problem with it, and in some ways, I think it worked better than a clean pinfall would have. Great, great match!

This one shocks me, because I absolutely hated this match, and think it is one of the worst matches to ever make an 80's set.

 

Yeah, this was number 150 on my ballot. I wrote this when originally watching that set:

 

This was frustrating to watch. Some of Snuka's bumps were athletically impressive but many of them looked business exposing. His first bump to the floor on the missed splash looked great but from then on he made it too obvious that he was propelling himself. A lot of this felt really aimless and the story didn't start getting fleshed out until Steamboat was busted open. Snuka tries to work over the wound but he doesn't do it very well. The biting was good and the blood around his mouth was a crazy visual but those weird finger thrusts never looked like they were doing any real damage. The setup for Steamboat's splash was pretty awkward as well. This is the bottom for me so far.