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Ted Dibiase vs Hacksaw Duggan 7/29/83 Texas Street Fight

 

Wow this is just awesome brawl. Houston loves them some Hacksaw Duggan. This was just violent and full of hate. Totally out of control. Dibiase takes a big time ass kicking. He's also pretty good at taking it to Duggan. The punches in this thing are awesome. Their is a ferociousness to it. Akbar is a manager that I've always liked. A massive heat magnet. I liked how the finish in this was worked. Great stuff from a great feud. No wonder this was Paul Boesch's favorite feud. 4 1/4*

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I haven't been keeping up as much lately with football season taking up a lot of my viewing time but I watched Tommy Rich/Kamala last night and thought that was a ton of fun. I really liked the cat and mouse stuff and though this was a good match and really didn't even get upset at the totally stupid ass finish. I mean sure it doesn't make ANY logical sense why Tommy Rich can pin Kamala's manager to win the match but the crowd fucking LOVED it and I can't see a DQ or a countout finish getting that big of a reaction.

 

Watched the chain match between Dr. Death/Angel of Death today and thought it was pretty good, not quite on the level of the JYD/Reed chain match or the ones with Buzz Sawyer that were on the Mid-South set but still really good. I'm glad they didn't go overboard with the corner touching and only did a few cut offs although I was surprised they went with that gimmick at all since usually Watts chain matches were won with pins.

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First to the post on this one and I think it's very, very good. Inventive shine. Goliath and Moreno both held their own (being guys we hadn't seen as much so I wasn't sure). Then, they managed the sort of stuttering heat that the Guerreros liked to do but with weightier face in peril sections that had very little mid-match shine between them which made it feel like the babyfaces were just more damaged than the heels. Multiple hot tags or at least momentum shifts. I really liked it.

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Dr. Death/Gordy Texas Death Match was so great. Might be my favourite Williams performance in the US, from the dead on his feet selling to the wild animal comeback. Gordy's blade job was outrageous. At one point he tries to piledrive Williams and he bleeds so much that the back of Williams' yellow trunks are practically turned bright red. Even liked the finish for what it was. Yeah, this feels like it would've been a top 10 contender for the Mid-South set, and that is an AWFULLY high bar.

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Hacksaw Duggan vs Kamala 6/28/85

This was thrown out early but they get brawling. Duggan is out with a protective mask. Super spirited brawl. Akbar throws powder at Duggan. Kamala goes after the mask and Duggan's eye is a mess. Kamala is after the eye. Hits the eye with the mask. Duggan biting Kamala's forehead. Total chaos and the locker room is out.This breaks down into like the Brock/Taker Raw brawl. Except this was better. Awesome stuff.

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Jose Lothario/Buddy Moreno vs Black Gordman/Gran Goliath

 

 

Gordman and Goliath are a very famous team in Texas and California. They were the Eddie Guerrero and Art Barr of their time. They were qreat at generating heat, and even in the twilight of their career they could still get it.

 

 

This was really well done. The structure almost feels more modern in the many momentum shifts. We start out with a nice 5 minute shine. The heels start to get heat for 3 minutes, then we'd see a shine for 3 minutes etc. So we get this back and forth action. The difference here the crowd isn't educated to that structure. So everytime the faces got the shine the crowd would go crazy, and vice versa on the heat. Thy weren't use to that and treated each one as a cut off and hot tag. The finish was a lot of fun too. I dug all the shines, and when the heels were working over Lothario's legs it was top notch work. 3 1/2*

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Fantastics vs Mantell/Pritchard

 

Super fun shine. Hugely entertaining. It went too long but the heat, relatively stilted as it was, still was good enough to make you feel like it was longer. Hot tag seemed earned but a little below potential, but you got the sense that the Fantastics realized that timing-wise and did their best to maximize it, which I give credit for. Finish was spirited but not exactly worldshaking. Still, very good stuff. Mantell and Pritchard put on a great performance getting clowned and the Fantastics were extremly good at what they did, from interacting with the crowd before the match to the last seconds.

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Fantastics vs Dutch/Pritchard



This was a ton of fun. The shine was so well done. Dutch and Pritchard are pros at bumping and stooging . So many great heel miscommunication spots. Fulton was great at getting the crowd riled up. Rogers and Fulton targeted the arm. When the time for the heels to get the heat Dutch was pretty good at it. Tom's work on top wasn't very interesting. Though the crowd made up for it. Their was a weird mis timed drop kick by Rogers, that he covered well. The crowd was eating this up. The finish looked a bit off. Fulton was good in the FIP role. Overall good stuff. 3 1/4*

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Al Perez vs Hacksaw Higgins 7/12/85




Higgins is a wrestler who talked to my High School at an assembly in 89 or 90. Their was a picture in a yearbook with me who was the TE and our starting offensive line with Higgins who dwarfed us all. The only wrestler to ever speak at my High School.



This was your basic technical baby face in Perez vs your big ugly heel in Higgins. Perez controlled him with arm drags and basic arm work. Higgins bumped well for his size and ate all of Perez's offense. Even a nice German Suplex for the finish.


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Watch the match again. And this time around watch for the little details that make this believable - as opposed to what we are seeing on TV today.

 

Don't fall into the trap that you are watching so much wrestling - that you fast forward through it and miss the most salient parts. Quality over quantity.

 

What I'm talking about is this - go back to the finish. What I like most is that -

 

1 - babyfaces win - so the people go home happy -

 

2 - yet the heels keep their heat because of the post-finish attack / classic psychology - the people FORGET that the heels lost the match because they kept their heat at the end (ALL young wrestlers today should understand this)

 

3 - Superman (in the form of JYD) comes back in and clears house -

 

4 - but the best part - and watch this closely - is at the end where referee Ronnie West is selling the ref bump like he legitimately dislocated his shoulder - and the babyface JYD shows concern - says hold on a minute - let me take a look at it - and JYD pops the referee's dislocated shoulder back onto place!

 

Who saw that? Who noticed that? So I respectfully disagree that this was Wrestling II's good bye tour - it actually set up the series of matches he had with Magnum.

 

Guys - it's little things like that - in opinion - that add to the "magic" that makes the product appear to be real. And that's what's lost today. Let's look beyond the "matches" when we watch NWAClassics.com - and analyze the psychology! To me - that's what's fun about watching these great matches.

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