Dick Murdoch

[Grimmas]

Discuss here.

[goodhelmet]

A no brainer Hall of Famer and one of the greatest wrestlers of the 80s. I have a big write up of what makes Murdoch great in the Microscope.

[Timbo Slice]

Easy addition to the list. Probably in the 50-75 range.

[goodhelmet]

That's about 35-60 places too low but I'll forgive you.

[Timbo Slice]

I haven't watched nearly enough Murdoch. One of the guys where I'm happy I have 18 months to catch up on stuff.

[Dylan Waco]

I want someone to do a big dump of great Murdoch. If we are going to talk about him as a top 30 guy, I want a massive laundry list.

[Shining Wiz]

I want someone to do a big dump of great Murdoch. If we are going to talk about him as a top 30 guy, I want a massive laundry list.

 

+1

[Matt D]

I've seen him kill great matches (matches that he helped make great) by decided that he had to do ill conceived comedy in a finishing stretch.

[goodhelmet]

Dick Murdoch vs. The Nightmare (7/14/85)

Dick Murdoch vs. Butch Reed (9/22/85)

Dick Murdoch vs. Butch Reed (10/14/85)

Ted Dibiase vs. Dick Murdoch (JIP) (12/27/85)

Ted DiBiase vs. Dick Murdoch (12/31/85)

Steve Williams vs. Dick Murdoch (6/13/87)

Barry Windham vs. Dick Murdoch (7/11/87)

 

These are the singles matches from the Mid South set.

 

He has the Jumbo matches from the All Japan set, the singles Windham match from WWWF, the Abby brainbuster match, the Nikita Koloff match and more I can't think of off the top of my head. Add his tag matches and I don't see how he isn't a Top 30 guy.

 

Everything I love about wrestling, Murdoch is great at and he has the match list to back it up.

 

Just to refresh people's memory, this is what I said about Murdoch in the microscope...

 

Dick Murdoch is one of my favorite wrestlers of all time. The things I like out of my wrestling are the things that Dick Murdoch does best. I'll go over a few of these traits and try to use specific matches as examples.

A sick sadistic fuck – It is no secret that I like blood in my wrestling and old school bloodbaths are right up my alley. When Dick Murdoch is in a match that calls for blood, he delivers in spades or dishes out enough punishment where his opponent is covered in blood. When Murdoch bleeds, I don't think I can recall him covered in blood. However, he does have his moments where he wrestles with a bloody nose or a carved up arm. In the Barry Windham 7/11/87 match (the real classic Windham match, not the WWF match) and the 7/21/87 tag against the Lightning Express, Murdoch looks for plunder and uses random weapons including a pencil to attack his opponent. IN the Flair vs. Dibiase match, we recall Dibiase turning face and getting destroyed by Flair. It was Murdoch who made Flair a bloody mess and brainbustered him on the fucking floor. In the Abdullah the Butcher New Japan match, Murdoch shows no fear and gives Abdullah the sickest, most insane brain buster of all time. Murdoch, as a face or heel, is a sick fuck and I love sick fucks.

Tricky Dickie's Arm Work – I think the argument against Dick's armwork is that it does not directly payoff to the finish. That isn't always the case. The Doctor Death vs. Dick Murdoch 6/13/87 match led to Murdoch and Gilbert eventually breaking Doc's arm, the same arm that Dick worked on earlier. Sometimes, Dick doesn't win the matches where his opponent's arm is dangling by a string but the arm work was worth it. Sometimes, it has nothing to do with the stretch of the finish but it is the nastiest arm wringing work you will see. I loved the arm work in the Inoki matches that appeared on the NJ set and the Jumbo matches from the 1st falls. It was also a great way to carry the early portion of the 7/11/87 Barry match and the long Butch Reed matches. Someone already mentioned that this was the way that big title territory matches were worked. Even if it was killing time, you can argue that every big time star from the period did it including Race, Flair, Lawler, etc. Dick just knew how to keep the arm work interesting and he always found new ways to destroy the limb. For me, the arm work was more about controlling the tempo of the match and keeping the opponent grounded, preventing him from getting the offense. Another match that I loved Dick's arm work is the 12/4/87 Murdoch & Inoki vs. Fujiwara & Saito match.

Selling and facial work – Dick is one of the best at selling ever. Sometimes, it is just the expression of pain when getting his arm twisted or it is limping on a bum leg after getting his leg torn to shreds. Dick is known for being a great brawler, and he is, but the great thing about brawling Dick is how he has a drunken bar room brawler gaze where he has drank so much whiskey that he won't feel any effects until the next day's hangover. In the Bruiser Brody 11/22/85 NJ match, he makes Brody bearable by selling his ass off but not letting himself get mauled by Brody. In the 12/10/85 Inoki match, Phil Schneider claims the match was mediocre saved single-handedly by Murdoch's awesome facial expression after getting nailed with a final enziguiri. I love that match but that ending facial expression stays burned in your mind years after watching the match. Loss once told me he thought selling was the most important component in wrestling and who is better at selling than Dick Murdoch? There are many that are comparable but few you can call undeniably better.

My Fist, Your Face – I love a great punch in wrestling. I think Murdoch is right there with Lawler as one of the best punchers in wrestling history. He has built entire matches around punching opponents in the face especially the two Dibiase Mid South brawls from 12/27 and 12/31/85. In the 9/22/85 Butch Reed match, Phil Schneider made this comment "Some of the best punch exchanges I have ever seen, seriously Lawler v. Dundee level awesome. Murdoch isn't afraid to kick someone right in the face." One of my favorite stories in all of wrestling history is the Dick Murdoch vs. Nightmare 7/14/85 match. The entire match is worked around Nightmare and Eddie Gilbert cheating and the referee preventing Murdoch from punching Nightmare in the face. Eventually Dick fakes a right and lands a left that had me falling out of my fucking chair. He constructed an entire match around a punch as the payoff. Maybe great punches aren't your thing. It's ok if you don't have a love of great punches, it just means you and I are looking for something different in our wrestling. Dick Murdoch just happens to be one of the greatest punchers in the game.

The Ultimate Teammate – I love great tag wrestling and I think Murdoch is one of the best. I enjoy the North-South team more than about anyone and I am responsible for putting the large amount of their matches on the NJ set. I thought Dick and Adonis were great at cutting off the ring and systematically destroying their opponents. Phil and Chiklds disagreed but about half of the NJ voters agreed with me and the tag matches I selected did respectable. Still, while the Adonis team may be the 2nd most famous team of Dick's career (The Dusty team has to be first), he still had awesome tag matches with enough other guys that Dick could demonstrate he was a great tag wrestler. In Mid South/UWF, he had great matches with Dick Slater, Hacksaw Duggan, Masked Superstar and Eddie Gilbert. In New Japan, he had a classic tag match with Inoki as his partner which I mentioned earlier. He was great in his role in the 6 man elimination tags. In the Inoki tag, Childs wrote the following and it is just one of the exhibits on how smart of a wrestler Dick Murdoch was…

CHILDS: "This featured one of those virtuoso Murdoch performances in which he brought enough stooging, bumping and violence for everyone in the match. He actually invented a move specifically to set up NJ double countouts. He kind of bounced his ass on the second rope and did a backflip over the top, pulling his opponent with him the whole time. Who else would create a move specifically to facilitate one type of ending in one promotion? Maybe Dundee?"

In the Kantaro Hoshino, Riki Choshu, Antonio Inoki vs. Scott Hall, Bob Orton, Dick Murdoch, NJ 11/17/88 tag, CHILDS wrote the following…

CHILDS: "Murdoch, as you might expect, excelled at crafting near-elimination scenarios. It's a shame we never got to see him in War Games, because he would've been every bit as masterful as Arn Anderson."

All of the above doesn't even touch upon his comedic timing, his interviews, his ability to carry lesser wrestlers (Nikita Koloff, a green Dr. Death) or the appeal of a guy with chicken legs and a beer gut beating the piss out of people. Most of my favorite wrestlers aren't guys that would look like your ideal wrestler (Murdoch, Rose, Lawler) but they are generally the smartest wrestler in the arena. I think Murdoch would fall in this category and I don't think it is hyperbole to say so.

 

 

[shoe]

I've seen him kill great matches (matches that he helped make great) by decided that he had to do ill conceived comedy in a finishing stretch.

Can you give me a few examples of this so I can look and see if I agree? Not saying it didn't happen just want some examples to see if the statement has merit.

[Matt D]

Not a lot of time right now, but here's one.

 

http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/18155-dick-murdoch/?view=findpost&p=5530450

 

It's a match worth watching but it is frustrating

[goodhelmet]

I just watched that match and I'll disagree with you. The comedy isn't fucking over the top. It is subtle and isn't really a focus as much as it is O'Connor outsmarting Dick in that run. Dick gets fed up and they start duking it out. I had no problem with it but I am really glad I got to watch the match. Raised the stock of both guys in my view.

[PeteF3]

I love that O'Connor match. None of the opening work with holds bothered me at all.

 

Wrong thread for it but Pat seems like he should be a top 25 guy. Hard to evaluate the Golden Age folks because footage is so limited, but '50s Pat looks better than Thesz and '70s Pat was still tearing it up.

[Matt D]

Will,you of all people would be the one I'd think would get frustrated when they went to comedy right following the awesome super heated punching that they'd been building to all match began. I wanted another couple of minutes of that instead.

[goodhelmet]

it wasn't stand up shtick or Owen-Foley level stuff or even Andre strutting (which is awesome). There was some shadow boxing, Dick flying out of the ring after getting outsmarted and some hiding the punches from the ref (which is awesome). It wasn't a jarring juxtaposition that made me laugh like Rude-Dingo stopping mid-match to have an arm wrestling contest.

[JerryvonKramer]

This isn't about Murdoch but about Terry Funk, but the spot that PeteF3 and I are talking about here where Hawk no sells the piledriver, then Terry tries to despite obviously being dazed-as-hell is one of the funniest comedy spots I've ever seen.

 

While you're there Will, you might answer some of my questions about the omissions from the All Japan set.

 

I am reserving judgement on Murdoch for now till I've seen everything.

[Matt D]

One thing I will say is that I haven't seen the match for a year and a half so i can't say definitively on this one. From what I remember and my write up it definitely bugged me at the time.

[goodhelmet]

You and I view wrestling differently. It's no biggie.

[goodhelmet]

While you're there Will, you might answer some of my questions about the omissions from the All Japan set.

 

 

This was my write-up...

 

Road Warriors vs. Dory and Terry Funk (10/10/86)

- Terry's Manny Fernandez mustache is doing him no favors. Too much Road Warrior domination and no-selling for me to nominate but the Funks are making this hard since they are really good at selling and bumping here.

The Kris Z follow up...

Dory & Terry Funk vs. The Road Warriors (Animal & Hawk) (10/10/86) YAY Terry is back and with his hair/mustache combo, he looks like he is ready to star with Nina Hartley more than starring with Patrick Swayze. The Roadies were in full Roadies in Japan mode as far as selling here. This was entertaining but not a nomination.

[JerryvonKramer]

How about the Martel / Zenk match and all of the others? That's right Will, I'm saying you underrepresented Funk on AJPW.

[Ditch]

Murdoch had everything as a worker. EVERYTHING. Bumping, selling, matwork, good offense, adaptable, and more than consistent enough to make the cut. His 12/76 match with Kox and 6/86 match with Inoki are as different as you can imagine, including Murdoch's role. Both matches rule and Murodoch rules in both of them.

 

DICK MF MURDOCH.

[goodhelmet]

Fuck yeah Ditch!

[goodhelmet]

How about the Martel / Zenk match and all of the others? That's right Will, I'm saying you underrepresented Funk on AJPW.

 

It was a committee that also included Childs and Kris Z. If anybody felt that strongly about those, they could have fought for them or included them as personal picks. Why waste time worrying about old ass Dory Funk when I could watch more Tenryu & Hara tags?

[JerryvonKramer]

That's the sort of bad, closed-minded attitude I'm fighting against here. Blind anti-Dory prejudice.

[goodhelmet]

You just like shitty wrestlers. It's ok to have bad opinions here at PWO where the only expectation is that you are a wrestling fan.