[1980-08-09-WWF-Showdown at Shea] Ken Patera vs Tony Atlas

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[SAMS]

1980-08-09
WWF - Showdown at Shea
Ken Patera (c) vs Tony Atlas
WWF Intercontinental Title Match
Shea Stadium, Flushing, New York, USA
Card
★★★

Tony Atlas was hot to start this. Even as Patera was making his way to the ring Atlas looked like he was frothing at the mouth to get things started. Was the entire build to this revolve just around the arm wrestling angle they did on TV? Because if there was more to it then I missed that. But Atlas seemed very aggrieved.
We got a nice shine sequence to start as Atlas flew at Patera. Yes his offense doesn’t look amazing, but you could tell he was working extremely hard and he was getting a mega reaction from the crowd. Patera was selling the shit out of everything Atlas threw at him and this whole section was gold.
The transition to Patera gaining control was a bit weak but what he did do on top made up for it. When he wants to, Patera can pile it on. His power slams always look fantastic and the one he delivered on Atlas here was no different. They also worked a neat spot where Atlas pulled out a sleeper from his bag of tricks and Patera managed to utilise the ropes, by diving between them, to clothesline Atlas.
The finish was essentially them brawling to the outside and Patera not getting back in time. This wasn’t good. Less for the fact it was a count out but for the execution. If both men had continued their wild brawl outside it would have made more sense, but they wanted to give Atlas the win without giving him the title, so it couldn’t be a double countout. Timing this to make it look great is hard to do and here it felt like Patera was kind of loitering on the apron waiting to be counted out.
Patera continued his extremely strong year with a very good match against somebody I’ve been extremely down on in Atlas. But I wouldn’t say this was a carry job at all, as Atlas was visibly putting forth the effort and it was mostly off his back the reaction they were getting from the crowd. His energy and animosity against Patera before the match even started set the tone and he knew how and when to play to the crowd.