Tackling the 80s

[Loss]

Bob Roop vs Mike George (Mid South 12/16/81)

 

Mid South! Nice short match between two pros with some good amateur rides and counter moves. Nasty in spots - I love the eye rake on the ropes from Roop to turn the tide and George throws some stiff looking punches and does an eye rake on the ropes of his own when he makes his comeback. Roop ends up working over George’s arm, who attempts a one-man comeback before missing a shoulderblock into the turnbuckle, which secures the win for Roop. I think this match was a little underplayed by people the first time because they were ready to get to the “glory years” of 1984-1986, but this is an excellent studio match.

[Matt D]

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!

I decided to take a look at this for the first time. I have some definite structural problems with it that prevent me from liking it more. Some of the issues with the selling might be more forgivable if it was tighter.

 

Thoughts:

-Egregious early selling mostly because none of it matters or escalates. i don't buy Steamboat's getting that hurt because he snaps back with too much ease. If it was an arena show maybe?

-Everything gets somewhat better once Steamboat starts selling on the outside though. He's doing more consistent selling at this point and not just the immediate bump/sell.

-I don't like the Steamboat chinlock. It would have worked so much better if he went back to the side headlock base again since there was an extended spot-sequence between bases earlier. We don't hit the act break until Snuka starts biting and what not so it would give the whole match a ton more coherence with such a minor change.

-Given how well they recover, you can look at the botch as an extension of the missed top rope moves throughout the match. Snuka suffers for going for high risk moves when he's doing great by brawling/grinding/roughing Steamboat up. Honestly, it feels like he responds to the blown spot by going for blood, which is a very natural and organic reaction.

-The transition to Steamboat's initial comeback is a little silly because what the hell was Snuka doing with that jump into the corner? I mean that's not super uncommon or anything to see someone get posted in a weird way after missing an impossible corner splash and that one might have been a normal Snuka spot I just haven't seen before but it lead to the Steamboat splash spot which was huge so it stood out as hugely contrived. Also, I don't love the splash actually hitting since the REAL comeback doesn't start until the missed diving headbutt a minute later. Steamboat missing the splash and coming back after the missed diving headbutt would have meant so much than him hitting a huge move and just getting a two count.

-That said, the visual of a bloody Steamboat reading to do the splash is awesome and the timing on the missed diving headbutt was pretty great.

-I would have been cool with the pile driver if Snuka had just gotten his foot up on the rope with better (as in later) timing. Steamboat is so worked up/pissed off that he basically lets Snuka recover post-piledriver (enough that he's back in the match and on his feet) because he doesn't capitalize with the wrestling he does best. He just beats him back to life. You could say that how out cold Snuka seemed during the tree of woe at the end could be a lingering effect of the pile driver.

-That said, if you DON'T attribute it to that (And there's good reason not to), it's one of the shittiest looking tree of woes you'll ever see. I did buy the DQ finish as Steamboat being that pissed and Snuka gets to get his heat back post match.

 

I don't know. i had some real problems with it but I was still expecting much worse.

[Superstar Sleeze]

Dory & Terry Funk vs Bruiser Brody & Jimmy Snuka (AJPW 12/13/81)

 

Here we go! Pretty famous match. “Hansen? Stan Hansen?” One of my favorite calls ever. Super match that really picks up after Hansen takes Terry out with the lariat. Dory gives one of his better performances here, both in working over Snuka’s knee out of desperation because he has no idea what else to do to keep the heels at bay, and as the underdog fighting solo after Terry is taken out of commission. Hansen’s profanity laced post-match promo is of course tremendous.

 

HOLY FUCK! I watched this match with some stops and starts because I am working, but what an awesome friggin match. Either based on rep or personal preference, I figured a match with Brody, Snuka, and Dory would not be that good, but this match has been one of the best I have watched in a long time. This is pretty much the only Brody match I have ever watched. Based on this one match, he looks awesome. Everything he did was snug and looked great. Snuka was so friggin athletic. Dory was awesome with his euro uppercuts. Terry in his movements diving off the top and just going to toe-to-toe. I loved the streamers after the double suplex on Brody. I loved Terry diving off the top. I marked out like crazy for Hansen's lariat did not see it coming at all. I love that kind of finish and so well-done. I will have to rewatch it more critically. Great, great match.

[ohtani's jacket]

Regarding Sayama, his run in Mexico was a lot deeper than I ever imagined. If we had more footage of that it would help us judge how much of his Tiger Mask run was the gimmick hindering his work.

[Loss]

Nick Bockwinkel vs Billy Robinson (AWA 12/25/81)

 

If only this were an annual December tradition all the way through the 80s and not just at the beginning of the decade. I thought this was an excellent match - not quite up to par with their 1980 mat classic, but a very good match in its own right with some focused shoulder work from Bockwinkel and Robinson looking really good and doing some clever spots. The finish was well executed, even if I wasn’t a fan of the booking of it.

[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!

I watched this again. A lot of what I said I still think is true - it's faster paced and more action packed than most of what surrounds it in 1981. That said, the execution has a lot of problems and I somehow missed that on the first viewing. I wouldn't go as far as to agree with the backyarder description, but I do think Steamboat was uncharacteristically sloppy and Snuka was embarrassing at times and okay at times. Where I don't think the match is getting enough credit is in creating the great dramatic blood soaked visuals and winning over the crowd through Steamboat's selling. But I do get a lot of the criticisms of this otherwise.

 

(I know it's New Years Eve and I should be out, but I have a newborn and we have five inches of snow in Chicago, so it's just another night in our house.)

[Matt D]

The match absolutely has great visuals and I completely buy Steaboat's visceral rage in his comeback. I'm just a stickler for details. Also, on my end, action packed isn't a huge deal since I've seen some very action packed stuff out of Portland in this same time period very recently.

 

(And yeah, we're in the same boat with the small kid rampaging about with her giant stuffed Minnie Mouse, with the bigger kid in the midst of a 11 hour Lord of the Rings marathon which is how I got to watch the match earlier today).

[JerryvonKramer]

I liked that match too:

 

B+

20. Genichiro Tenryu, Mighty Inoue & Takashi Ishikawa vs. Riki Choshu, Animal Hamaguchi & Isamu Teranishi (1/10/85)

21. Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiro Tenryu vs. Stan Hansen & Ted Dibiase (8/31/85)

22. Stan Hansen & Dan Kroffat vs. Rock N Roll Express (10/26/88)

23. Jumbo Tsuruta & Yoshiaki Yatsu vs. Genichiro Tenryu & Toshiaki Kawada (2/26/89 TV)

24. Bruiser Brody & Jimmy Snuka vs. Dory and Terry Funk (12/13/81)

Speaking of good Dory performances, Loss, I'm glad you also liked the 03/30/81 match in Memphis vs. Lawler. I gave that A- and it might be the best I've seen Dory. It's between him there and him in the 8/31/83 tag match vs. Hansen / Gordy and 10/9/81 singles match vs. Brody, on which you seem a bit lukewarm. I'm interested to see how you get on with that tag match when you get there, I had it at #4 for All Japan, recall some people really taking against it.

 

Can't sleep so might get back into my own 80s viewing.

[Loss]

Rankings for 1981, to be revised as additional sets are released:

 

#1 - Andre the Giant vs Stan Hansen (NJPW 09/23/81) ****1/2

#2 - Ric Flair vs Jumbo Tsuruta (AJPW 10/09/81) ****1/4

#3 - Terry Funk vs Jerry Lawler (Memphis 03/23/81) ****1/4

#4 - Tatsumi Fujinami vs Isamu Teranishi (NJPW 10/08/81) ****

#5 - Bill Dundee, Steve Keirn, Rick & Robert Gibson vs Dream Machine, Nightmare I & The Heartbreakers (Memphis 07/25/81) ****

#6 - Eddie Gilbert & Ricky Morton vs Masa Fuchi & Atsushi Onita (Memphis 09/04/81) ****

#7 - Dory & Terry Funk vs Bruiser Brody & Jimmy Snuka (AJPW 12/13/81) ****

#8 - Jerry Lawler vs Dory Funk Jr. (Memphis 03/30/81) ***3/4

#9 - Higo Hamaguchi, Isamu Teranishi & Mach Hayato vs El Cobarde, Herodes & Goro Tsurumi (IWE 03/26/81) ***3/4

#10 - Bill Dundee & Tommy Rich vs Austin Idol & Dutch Mantell (Memphis 03/12/81) ***3/4

#11 - Nick Bockwinkel vs Billy Robinson (AWA 12/25/81) ***3/4

#12 - Tiger Mask & Tatsumi Fujinami vs Pete Roberts & El Solitario (NJPW 09/04/81) ***1/2

#13 - Antonio Inoki & Tatsumi Fujinami vs Andre the Giant & Rene Goulet (NJPW 12/10/81) ***1/2

#14 - Bill Dundee & Dream Machine vs Kevin Sullivan & Wayne Farris (Memphis 05/02/81) ***1/2

#15 - Terry Funk vs Jerry Lawler (Memphis 04/06/81) ***1/2

#16 - Kevin Sullivan vs Dutch Mantell (Memphis 05/09/81) ***1/2

#17 - Bill Dundee vs Wayne Farris & Tojo Yamamoto (Memphis 03/07/81) ***1/2

#18 - Adrian Adonis vs Jim Brunzell (AWA 06/28/81) ***1/2

#19 - Bob Roop vs Mike George (Mid South 12/16/81) ***1/2

#20 - Tiger Mask vs Gran Hamada (NJPW 11/06/81) ***1/4

#21 - Stan Lane vs George Takano (NJPW 07/24/81) ***1/4

#22 - Ricky Steamboat vs Jimmy Snuka (AJPW 06/03/81) ***1/4

#23 - Mil Mascaras vs Ricky Steamboat (AJPW August 1981) ***1/4

#24 - Mil Mascaras & Dos Caras vs Ricky Steamboat & Chavo Guerrero (AJPW 09/06/81) ***1/4

#25 - Bruiser Brody vs Dory Funk Jr. (AJPW 10/09/81) ***

#26 - Jerry Lawler & Bill Dundee vs Masa Fuchi & Atsushi Onita (Memphis 08/01/81) ***

#27 - Jerry Lawler vs Crusher Blackwell (Memphis 05/04/81) ***

#28 - Antonio Inoki vs Stan Hansen (NJPW 04/23/81) ***

#29 - Tiger Mask & Kengo Kimura vs Negro Navarro & El Signo (NJPW 10/30/81)

#30 - Stan Lane & Koko Ware vs Eddie Gilbert & Ricky Morton (Memphis October 1981)

#31 - Atsushi Onita, Masa Fuchi & Tojo Yamamoto vs Rick & Robert Gibson & Roy Rogers (Memphis 09/05/81)

#32 - Tiger Mask vs El Canek (NJPW 12/08/81)

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

#34 - Dory & Terry Funk vs Umanoseke Ueda & Buck Robley (AJPW 10/06/81)

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

#36 - Bill Dundee & Dream Machine vs Dutch Mantell & Wayne Ferris (Memphis 03/14/81)

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

#38 - Big John Studd & Crusher Blackwell vs High Flyers (AWA 02/20/81)

#39 - Nick Bockwinkel vs Pat O'Connor (AWA 03/22/81)

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

#41 - Andre the Giant & Cien Caras vs Alfonso Dantes, Herodes & Sangre Chicana (UWA 1981)

#42 - Billy Robinson vs Crusher Blackwell (AWA 12/03/81)

[WingedEagle]

Loving this. I always enjoy looking back and comparing your rankings with my own where applicable (a couple yearbooks, Memphis, AJ and a few straggler matches here and there thus far). Can't wait to see you make your way through the next few years.

[ohtani's jacket]

That Lawler/Funk No DQ match is so great. Pretty much perfection for that sort of stip. The Bill Dundee 8 man tag is too short for me to rate that high, but it's definitely a fun match. The concession stand brawl was a post-match angle and tough for me to rate as a match.

[Matt D]

Dory & Terry Funk vs Bruiser Brody & Jimmy Snuka (AJPW 12/13/81)

 

Here we go! Pretty famous match. “Hansen? Stan Hansen?” One of my favorite calls ever. Super match that really picks up after Hansen takes Terry out with the lariat. Dory gives one of his better performances here, both in working over Snuka’s knee out of desperation because he has no idea what else to do to keep the heels at bay, and as the underdog fighting solo after Terry is taken out of commission. Hansen’s profanity laced post-match promo is of course tremendous.

-Snuka's early Flair flop is ridiculous, especially relative to the violence of the double forearm he got hit with.

-I don't think Brody should ever do a leapfrog. I'm just saying.The dropkick is okay, I guess.

-His stuff looks pretty good here, though and Terry's selling of it is downright great, especially the kicks.

-Dory shouldn't dropkick.

-I liked the Dory/Snuka rope running, though it was sloppy as hell. There was something organic about it and the Brody punch to break up the toe-hold was huge. It was huge and sort of led to a mini transition with Snuka taking over with the headlock afterwards.

-It'd be nice if Dory worked a little harder from underneath in the headlock. They keep it moving at least, but his selling felt lifeless to me.

-The ending of this segment is smart with Terry's little distracting swipe which builds up tension for the Terry vs Brody section.

-Terry is such a great FIP. He sells so broadly and all over the ring. His hope spots are so desperate but this is japan not the south so we don't a bunch of cut off hope spots leading to a hot tag. Instead he gets a premature tag to Dory and Terry just dives from the top to the outside and the next thing I know Dory has Snuka in an abdominal stretch.

-After the reset that brings Terry back in, we get a really good punchfest between he and Brody. If there's a narrative to the match, I've sort of lost it by his point.The action's good, but I can't say I care a ton about what I'm watching.

-Ok, almost on cue, they start giving me some legwork, which is nice. I love Terry coming in to stop Brody from breaking up the toehold, since he broke it up earlier in the match. Snuka seems to be in the thing forever while we get the Hansen clothesline on the outside. I love Dory's confused look as he tries to figure out where his brother is.

-Dory going into Brie Mode in response is sort of great. I have no idea if it's a blade job or not. That's how good his punch flurry is. He's fighting Brody at his own game though and ultimately loses that fight.

-The Dory showing fighting spirit against impossible odds stuff is compelling. I don't really love Dory's selling or anything, but I don't need to. The story itself is compelling enough. I don't see why Brody's tag was particularly impressive. He already interfered to break up the spinning toe hold twice. Does he get DQed if he does it three times or something? It was stupid of Dory to put the hold on again in the first place but he was beat up and desperate. It doesn't kill the back half for me which I thought was good. They took a few connective pieces from the first half of the match which helped but ultimately, I thought the whole thing was more disjointed than I would have liked.

 

None of that is particularly fair to the match though. It was better than I was expecting from an excitement/action/execution standpoint, certainly, and it was probably the right match for the crowd. It's not good to judge entirely on what you would rather see as opposed to the match you did see, but I know what I like at least. I will say that in a vacuum I liked just about everything from the reset with Terry and Brody punching each on. I just didn't love the match as a whole.

[Superstar Sleeze]

Bruiser Brody vs Dory Funk Jr. (AJPW 10/09/81)

 

I kept waiting for an employee to break up this cafeteria fight between mental ward residents. Dory just wanted to hand out flowers, but this Frank fellow kept attacking him. Anyway, Brody beat the shit out of Dory and in Dory’s comeback, he takes Brody outside to give him a snapmare on the floor before bringing him back in to apply the spinning toehold. That’ll show him! Kidding aside, this isn’t a bad brawl at all and I sort of enjoyed the superficial aspects of it at least, between the double juicing and the hot crowd. This is far more emotion and passion than I’m used to seeing from Dory Funk. And he’s a guy I need to see more of although I’m well aware of the criticisms, but I thought Brody looked perfectly good as a madman brawler in this.

So why do people not like this Brusier Brody fellow? I'm being facetious, but in the two matches I have sat down to really watch I thought he delivered really good performances.

 

I wanted to watch this match before I re-watch the tag match to see if I can glean anything from this brawl to add context to a match that really blew me away on first viewing. I learned that Brody and Dory don't exactly exchange Christmas cards.

 

Dory, much like Greg Gagne, has a lot to overcome in the way of his image, but I buy his credibility as a wrestler a little more than Greg because of his sweet European uppercuts and generally coming off as tough as nails in his match. Brody can be a little goofy at times with his mannerisms, but I thought he worked a violent championship match. You really believed he was a madman. He took Dory right into the crowd and nailed with a metal rod. OW! Posts Dory to get the crimson river flowing. He punctuates the assault with his kneedrops, but Dory keeps kicking out. When Dory rebounds off the rope to forearm Brody the crowd pops huge. You gotta love the post receipt. The snapmare is goofy. The spinning toe hold will rip a knee to shreds so I buy it. Plus with the Funks I have come to accept that no matter how much of a brawl they are in they will are going to go for the spinning toe hold. I would have marked out like crazy if I ever watched a Funk Brothers bar fight and they busted out dual spinning toe holds. Brody seemed to sell well from Dory and cut him off with an eye-rake. Brody misses the knee drop and they just start slugging it out. Brody uses the ropes to hold himself off just kick Dory off of him, which I loved. Dory suplexes Brody onto the ref to trigger the finish stretch. Brody starts to march around and he has hold of his chain. Dory wrangles a portion of it and loses his mind. He is nailing everything in sight with the chain including the ref, which triggers a DQ and Brody wins the via DQ. Brody and some gaijin double team Dory until Terry makes the saves and Brody marches off with the International Title.

 

I am still testing waters of 80s puroresu so I am still in shock when I see this match that seems like a high-end ECW or Attitude Era brawl taking place in 1981 All Japan! It does feel abbreviated and it is missing the intangibles to put it over the top. I thought it was an energetic and violent brawl that transitioned the title to Brody and really made you want to see the Funks vs Brody & partner. And wouldn't ya know they just so happen to have such a match in December. ***1/2

[Graham Crackers]

I'm happy to see so many people digging Fujinami vs Teranishi. That was one of my favorites on the NJPW set. Here's my 1981 top 20:

 

1.) Jerry Lawler vs Terry Funk (Empty Arena) (CWA, 4/6/1981)

2.) Andre the Giant vs Stan Hansen (NJPW, 9/23/1981)

3.) Jerry Lawler vs Terry Funk (No DQ) (CWA, 3/23/1981)

4.) Tatsumi Fujinami vs Isamu Teranishi (NJPW, 10/8/1981)

5.) Ricky Morton & Eddie Gilbert vs Masa Fuchi & Atsushi Onita (Tupelo Concession Stand Brawl) (9/4/1981)

6.) Stan Lane & Koko Ware vs Eddie Gilbert & Ricky Morton (No DQ, 2/3 Falls) (CWA, 10/1981)

7.) Jerry Lawler & Bill Dundee vs Masa Fuchi & Atsushi Onita (CWA, 8/1/1981)

8.) Jerry Lawler vs Crusher Blackwell (CWA, 5/4/1981)

9.) Bill Dundee vs Wayne Farris & Tojo Yamamoto (CWA, 3/7/1981)

10.) Animal Hamaguchi, Isamu Teranishi & Mach Hayato vs El Cobarde, Herodes & Goro Tsurumi (IWE, 3/26/1981)

11.) Tiger Mask vs Gran Hamada (NJPW, 11/6/1981)

12.) Bruiser Brody & Jimmy Snuka vs Dory & Terry Funk (AJPW, 12/13/1981)

13.) Dutch Mantell vs Kevin Sullivan (CWA, 5/9/1981)

14.) Nick Bockwinkel vs Jim Brunzell (AWA, 6/11/1981)

15.) Antonio Inoki & Tatsumi Fujinami vs Andre the Giant & Rene Goulet (NJPW, 12/10/1981)

16.) Dos Caras & Mil Mascaras vs Chavo Guerrero & Ricky Steamboat (AJPW, 9/6/1981)

17.) Dory & Terry Funk vs Umanoseke Ueda & Buck Robley (AJPW, 10/6/1981)

18.) Bruiser Brody vs Dory Funk Jr. (AJPW, 10/9/1981)

19.) Bill Dundee, Steve Keirn, Rick & Robert Gibson vs Dream Machine, Nightmare #1 & Heartbreakers (CWA, 7/25/1981)

20.) Bob Roop vs Mike George (Mid South, 12/16/1981)

[Loss]

I noticed Flair/Jumbo wasn't in your top 20. What were your thoughts on that match? Just curious.

[Graham Crackers]

I noticed Flair/Jumbo wasn't in your top 20. What were your thoughts on that match? Just curious.

I had to search to find what I wrote in the DVDVR thread at the time and this is what I said:

 

I thought this flirted with greatness but never got past really good. There was a lot to enjoy here. I especially liked how Flair became uneasy about locking up with Jumbo after his first fall loss and all of his little cheap shots came at the right times. Still, after seeing their 83 match a few years ago I know they have a much better match in them.

I can get what people like about the match and why they like it more than me. When watching the 80s set I wasn't wild about AJPW save for a few great matches and angles until Choshu showed up and I don't think the style really came together until 1988. I feel like I should point out that while I like mat wrestling I've found that NWA style mat wrestling is really hit and miss with me. That's why the stuff I really liked from the first half of the AJPW set were wild brawls, Mil Mascaras doing lucha matwork, and those Baba vs Hansen matches which are really simple and have a great rhythm.

[Dylan Waco]

I thought Jumbo v. Flair was underwhelming too. I enjoyed it, thought it was a very good match, and ranked it reasonably well on the set. But I didn't think it was even close to an upper tier match for that set.

[JerryvonKramer]

I ranked it at #6 and thought it was a technical masterpiece. (that was the 83 match)

 

I ranked it at #131 and thought it was boring.

[Badlittlekitten]

Yeah the 81 match left me pretty bored too. I thought they got better with each outing together.

[Loss]

Whether I see it as an upper tier match for the set remains to be seen, but I absolutely thought it was among the best stuff to happen in 1981. Of course, the NWA World Champion style and lucha title match style are my two favorite types of wrestling matches to watch.

[Loss]

I've decided to take a look at some other praised matches for 1980-1981, specifically from Portland, the WWF and World of Sport. I was planning on waiting until there's a DVDVR set, but I feel like I'm a little behind the curve and don't want to wait that long. Matches added in to the master list. Whatever makes its way on to one of those sets that I don't watch now, I will watch then.

[Ricky Jackson]

This may be an oversight, but Backlund/Hogan 4/12/80 from Philly is a classic and needs to be added to the list. It's one of my favorite WWF matches from the 1979-80 footage we've been watching for Titans.

 

Also, for a total surprise, the 8/23/80 Larry Z vs Ivan Putski Texas Death match from Philly is a genuine hidden gem. No joke.

[Loss]

This may be an oversight, but Backlund/Hogan 4/12/80 from Philly is a classic and needs to be added to the list. It's one of my favorite WWF matches from the 1979-80 footage we've been watching for Titans.

 

Also, for a total surprise, the 8/23/80 Larry Z vs Ivan Putski Texas Death match from Philly is a genuine hidden gem. No joke.

Hogan/Backlund is there but I will add Zbyszko vs Putski.

[Loss]

Harley Race vs Rick Martel (PNW 01/12/80)

 

Race looks excellent and this may be my favorite match I can recall seeing him in, if only because he's working the U.S. instead of Japan. He has had better matches, but he does such a good job of making Martel look good. The spot where he stumbled off of the leapfrog and ended up armdragged was excellent. Martel is someone I really like, but he was a bit bland at this point, specifically in the arm work that seems to go forever and has no payoff. But Race's offense and selling keeps this match going in the right direction for the most part.

 

This has some weirdness. The champ winning the first fall is a curious layout choice. The drama over Martel being required to wake Race back up after putting him to sleep was a little awkward too, although I guess that is an effective way to get the hold over, especially when Race is expected to be alert enough to fight back in the third fall. Lame finish too. I wouldn't even call this a three-star match, but it's a good snapshot of how good both guys were at the time.

[Childs]

Race seemed to like winning the first fall in less-than-impressive fashion and then giving the second fall to the local babyface to build excitement going into the third. He followed that pattern with Billy Jack a few years later in Portland.