NWA On Demand

[shoe]

Atlas vs Lewin

 

Atlas promo putting over his body building training and weight training. We're getting a little back and forth fighting. Atlas uses his foot for leverage to push off Lewin. a Full Nelson eye gouge by Lewin. Atlas with a nice revenge spot does the exact Full Nelson face rake spot. Lewin chokes on him on the rope, and Atlas returns the favor. Brawl on the floor and Atlas posts him, and smashes him with a chair. Atlas smashes a chair again. Atlas with a flurry. Lewin is bleeding and is being dominated. He tosses Lewin and is Dq'd. Atlas is still all over Lewin.Atlas biting the cut. Lewin escapes to the back.

[Johnny Sorrow]

1st lesson of Women self defense to avoid rape.

 

Part 1 of a 13 part series.

This is the greatest thing ever on this service.

[Matt D]

I can't sleep and I've got a telework day tomorrow so I'm playing some catch up:

 

Kiniski vs Patton: Kiniski was just on fire here. I've seen very little of young Kiniski but I can't imagine he worked like this twenty years earlier. He just threw himself into everything for eight minutes or so. This was old man go-go-go, with chops and mares and endless geriatric aggression. Patton would get his chops in with a shot to the throat or by yanking him down from the outside, but in general, he was game to feed and feed and feed. I would have loved to see ten minutes of Kiniski vs Gino from right around here. As it was, this was a lot of fun. More on the Gold Cup after I find the strength to watch a 20 minute Mike Graham match. Some things seem to stand out.

 

Tiger vs Ivan: Boesch summed it up perfectly, not with "Some people don't admit they're terrible," to describe Ivan, but with "Listen to the rising crescendo." That was the match, which was hardly ambitious but really solid as the sort of undercard match that gets the crowd into the show, that lets Boesch talk about some upcoming talent and read off the birthdays. Conway had the fans on every hold he worked his way out of, struggling and waving them along to cheer. They were more than happy to do so. He was over enough and talented enough that in another territory (if he could recapture what he had with the local connection here) he could have held a secondary belt or been the guy to put over whoever was going to face the travelling champ, that sort of role. Ivan kept on top with cheapshots and eyerakes (leading Boesch to comment, in his imitable fashion how that could make you gunshy and hesitant to come in). Conway would come back with his athleticism and his punches and due to the unbreakable head, having his share of flourishes to stand out, and would finally get just enough distance to hit the flying headbutt off the top on a rising Ivan. Ivan's a meat and potatoes wrestler but there's nothing wrong with that. Matches like this aren't main events, but they make the wrestling world go round.

[Matt D]

The Lucas match was interesting. I got a kick out of Boesch calling him "dependable" as the very first thing, because you knew how important that was to him.What was most striking was just how much of the match Lucas took as the babyface. Some of the headscissors stuff was good and fairly elaborate, working and out through spots, but then it moved on to him being on top with a headlock and so on and so forth. Grenade, combustible as he may have been, barely got anything in the match. Meanwhile, while Lucas was sound and working hard, I wouldn't say he was particularly memorable, so if both wrestlers came out looking better in the Ivan/Tiger match, as Pete indicated, I'm not sure anyone really came out of this one looking all that great. The kids running to the rail to celebrate the win enjoyed it though, so there's that at least, right? This is the sort of match which could theoretically turn me negatively on a wrestler, but only if I saw him do it a number of times, and also keeping the context of the card in mind. This was the opening match on the card, as best as I can tell, with the Tiger/Ivan match following it. If they flipped the two it would have worked better I think.

[Johnny Sorrow]

Mike Graham winning a chair fight against the Dynamic Duo can eat my asshole. And not in the good way.

[shoe]

Bull Ramos vs Dos Caras

 

This is an interesting match up. Caras uses Ramos's size against him. Ramos tries to set up a sneak attack to no avail. Caras working inside and bam drop kick. Brawling on the floor and Ramos gets posted. Ramos gets a chair, but Caras gets a small piece and hits Ramos. Bull wants a handshake, and gets one. Caras with an ear biel from the top. Ramos using a nerve hold to control Caras. Ramos has this odd charisma about him. Ramos biting Caras fingers. The last minute of this is pretty terrible. Heck the 1st 10 minutes were no shakes anyways.

[Matt D]

Bull Ramos vs Dos Caras

 

This is an interesting match up. Caras uses Ramos's size against him. Ramos tries to set up a sneak attack to no avail. Caras working inside and bam drop kick. Brawling on the floor and Ramos gets posted. Ramos gets a chair, but Caras gets a small piece and hits Ramos. Bull wants a handshake, and gets one. Caras with an ear biel from the top. Ramos using a nerve hold to control Caras. Ramos has this odd charisma about him. Ramos biting Caras fingers. The last minute of this is pretty terrible. Heck the 1st 10 minutes were no shakes anyways.

 

I found Ramos really interesting. He obviously didn't have much left in the tank, but he used his mass in pretty novel ways. He was mainly using it as a shield to do things so the ref couldn't see them. Past that, he utilized the visual inconsistency of someone so big basically operating with chickenshit tactics instead of controlling the match like a bully. It's some of the stuff John Studd would do as well (and get no credit for) and I half wonder if Studd learned it from Ramos when he was working in Houston as Captain USA. The problem here was that Caras is the wrong opponent for that. Someone like Terry Funk (or maybe even Tiger Conway, Jr. from what we've seen of him) might have been able to make a whole match out of the act. Caras needs someone who can either base for him or go with him and Ramos, at this stage of his career, just wasn't either. I'm really curious if Ramos worked this way when he was younger and didn't blow up quite so thoroughly, because that could have made for a really unique wrestler.

[shoe]

My favorite part of the match was all the shielding spots.

[Matt D]

In general, it's very cool to have these Gold Cup matches. I'm trying to think of an equivalent, but it's hard because it's so regional. It'd be as if Wrestlemania XX happened, we never really heard much about it, and we're seeing it for the first time years later. Something like that. That's the thing with this footage. There really is no equivalent. You can't just randomly drop the idea of "Oh, here's a three night series of shows to celebrate 50 years in wrestling" like it's nothing. There's so much weight and prestige behind that. 50 years is a huge thing. I'm really curious how the last night worked. We've seen results of Tito winning a battle royal and Tito beating Bock. The way Boesch explained it, the battle royal was a seeding one. The first two people out wrestled each other and so on. He keep stressing the idea that there'd be one man standing in the end, so I'm still trying to figure out if that means that the winners went on to face each other or not? It seems like that'd be a really long night of wrestling if that was the case.

 

Quick thoughts on a couple of matches: Tully vs Graham was fine. Graham worked hard. Tully kept it interesting. For a twenty minute draw, it moved at a good pace. Graham was talented. He's just so naturally unlikable that it's hard to root for him as a babyface. At least Greg Gagne (who was also talented but unlikable) always had Brunzell with him.

 

Atlas vs Lewin had its problems (heel Lewin's karate chop offense is the worst thing, just the worst. I actually kind of like it as goofy babyface offense though), but it was an amazing way to get over a new babyface in the territory. Atlas looked like a million bucks in there and so much of that was Lewin.

[Matt D]

 

Bush coaching Wahoo in Little League sounds like wonderful wrestling BS.

[Matt D]

The program from Boesch's retirement card was on Classics too:

http://www.wrestlingclassics.com/mu/mu-tw/spec-ed/08-28-87-boesch-cover.jpg

http://www.wrestlingclassics.com/mu/mu-tw/spec-ed/08-28-87-boesch-pg2.jpg

http://www.wrestlingclassics.com/mu/mu-tw/spec-ed/08-28-87-boesch-pg3.jpg

http://www.wrestlingclassics.com/mu/mu-tw/spec-ed/08-28-87-boesch-pg4.jpg

[shoe]

 

Bush coaching Wahoo in Little League sounds like wonderful wrestling BS.

That story has been around forever. I've heard it so many times I believe it.

[shoe]

Gordy vs Dibiase

 

I was there for this. My 14th Birthday. It's funny in St. Louis it was hockey games. 85,86,88,89 was wrestling.They're brawling right from jump street. Gordy focusing on the back. Dibiase throwing bombs. Gordy makes Ted taste the cage. I loved Gordy tossing Ted neck into the corner buckle. The impact looks nasty. Gordy is busted open and Ted is after that cut. He's punching it, fist dropping it, biting it, and drops the knee on it. Big punch from Gordy turns the tide. Big neckbreaker as a call back to the neck work. Belly to back causes more damage. Again the neck into the turnbuckle followed up by a nasty lariat. Gordy hurts the leg on an Atomic drop spot. Ted goes for the Figure 4, but gets kicked off. Gordy back to the neck. Ted hits the piledriver as a nasty revenge spot, and is a great finish with all of Terry's blood loss. It would totally fuck him up with all the blood going to the top of his head and leaking out. Ted gets the win. Johnny mentioned it to me, and I totally forgot that the neck work from Gordy is a deep cut. Flash back to Georgia and Terry Gordy piledrove Ted once on the floor and 3 more in the ring. So Gordy knows all about Ted's history with his bad neck.4 3/4*

[shoe]

Hayes vs Dibiase

 

Ted is out with the UWF title. Hayes and Dibiase are whipping each other good. Ted's fistdrop is a thing of beauty. Hayes is so great in his selling in this style of match. Teddy eats the cage and is busted open. Hayes is working the cut. He's rolling the whip up in his fist to inflict more damage. Everytime Hayes went for the belt Ted had an answer. Ted pins him after a big punch. 3 1/2*

 

Promos

Dibiase building a rmatch on Halloween night.

Gordy this is pretty awesome. Love how he does it with the ice pack.

[shoe]

The outtakes were interesting on the promos.

[Matt D]

Here's what I said on SC about the Dibiase stuff:

 

The latest gem from NWAOnDemand. We'd had the cage match JIP, but this is the whole package: pre-match mic-work to set things up, the cage match, the crowd buzzing afterwards as Ted heads to the back and then comes back out, the whipping match in the cage, and then post match backstage promos (including some pre-post interview moments that serve as outtakes). Thirty-two minutes of great Watts-style wrestling.

This is the penultimate encounter of the Freebirds vs Dibiase/Doc feud, which also included some really great Doc vs Gordy matches and the awesome Hayes vs Doc cage match, which people need to sign up for the service and see if they haven't yet. Doc is supposed to wrestle Gordy here in the cage but Ted claims that they injured him. I assume he's on a Japan tour instead. Hayes wants them to give the match to Gordy but Ted takes it for himself, even though he's booked right after in the whipping match.

The cage match is pretty much everything you'd want it to be. Gordy, like always, is an absolute beast in using his body mass to control the match. He uses the ring, and in this case, the cage, so well, bullying Dibiase around, fighting out of the corner, using the turnbuckles as weapons. He has such a natural physical presence. Dibiase, on the other hand, is such an ideal mid-south babyface, a triple tough brawler who can take punishment, who can and will sell (both his back to Gordy's offense and ring utilization, and his face from the sheer power of Gordy's blows), but that'll come back with his fits and guts alone. I had never realized until watching this match that the true, absolute point of Dibiase's signature fistdrops is to work over a bloody wound. They're amazing here.

In the end, he escapes to the back with the win and the belt, causing Hayes to rant and rave and the crowd to buzz elatedly for the few minutes before Born in the USA comes back on and Dibiase makes his way back out for round two. This is simple, straightforward, and effective. Hayes wants to steal back the belt and escape the cage and whatever punishment he can muster is just to allow enough space to manage that. It (along with the fact that Hayes is seen as much as a manager as anything else) helps rationalize how a worn down (and ambushed) Dibiase can fight back. Every time Hayes gets a real advantage, he goes for the belt. Every time he does, Dibiase recovers and battles back. It's short, sweet, and effective and leaves the fans buzzing and happy, all preparation for the Gordy vs Dibiase blow-off match on Halloween night.

The post match Gordy promo is a horrorshow of blood and fury. It's great to watch on its own and very cool to see the few seconds of him getting ready to talk in the "outtake." Just classic stuff all around.

-----

I was happily surprised by the Robley vs Casey match. I thought that Robley did a good job portraying that he did want the money and that he was really out to hurt Casey. When a shot to the throat is nasty enough that Boesch pops for it, you know something right is happening. I liked the legwork too. He did some things you just don't see everyday. I don't think we give Casey quite enough credit. He had a real connection with the Houston crowd and could call upon very potent bursts of babyface fire. There are certain matches with him that I'm hoping we get.

This whole angle, however, was new to us. I feel like this era is a little underrepresented in the footage so far. Mansfield is out there like a proto-Eddie Gilbert and it's very cool. There are all sorts of gimmick matches involved in the feud and it went on for a while. The post match promos were a lot of fun. I'm sure Robley did the "Go Buck Go" thing a thousand times in his career but I loved that. I bet Johnny's going to love Tank's shirt.

[shoe]

Robley vs Casey

 

This is a bounty match. Eddie Mansfield put a 5,0000 bounty. on Casey. I really liked Robley's focus on the arm. Casey counters and gives Robley a taste of his own medicine. Now Robley is targeting the neck and throat area. This is pretty vicious. Casey teases a comeback , but is cut off. Now Robley moves onto the leg. Robley is throwing everything at the wall and hopes something sticks . Casey starts up another comeback and the crowd is with him 100%. Sleeper and the crowd erupts. Heels cheat and get the win. I thought the story was great. Casey's selling was strong. This was a good match. 3 1/2*

 

Then we get some fun promos.

[goc]

Yea the Mansfield/Casey feud went on for quite a while in Southwest. I've always liked Eddie Mansfield in all the stuff I've seen him in. Especially the mixed midget tag with he & Tiny Tim (or Tom?) against Scott Casey & Cowboy Lang.

 

[shoe]

6 man tag.

 

It's a wild brawl to start. It settles down, and we get a nice shine sequence. Tully cuts off Tiger and the heels start to get heat. Tiger is a good FIP. Tank using his weight by leaning on Tiger is really smart. Robley in with a nasty right. Casey gets the hot tag. Now the ring fills up. Order is maintained. Tully ping ponging for Duncum. All the faces getting a piece of Tully. It's a battle of hosses with Duncum and Patton. Robley working over Duncum. This is kind of like a AWA tag structure. This is the 2nd heat segment. The crowd is with Duncum. Casey in, and the ring fills up. Casey scores the win. This was a good solid tag. 3 1/4*

[shoe]

OMG vs Young

 

Gang has always been one of my favorite gimmicks. Young would later in the decade be managed by Akbar. I loved Young stomping on OMG foot to be able to reverse the wristlock. Of course OMG sold it up big. Young staying on the arm.I loved the tease of pulling the tights. They did a great engaging the crowd with it, and Tommie Gilbert's reactions to it. Loved Young going after the wrist. OMG turns the tide and tosses Young to Akbar on the outside. Great way to get heat. OMG still selling the repercussions of the wrist damage. Eye rake by OMG and he's in full bully mode. Gang misses a standing avalanche in the corner. Young lights him up with forearms and drop kicks. Young misss and eats a clothesline. Big Leg drop by OMG gets a win. What a smartly worked match. Akbar cuts a promo. 3*

[shoe]

Savoldi vs Mendoza

 

Savoldi is from the famous wrestling family. He was a big star in ICW during the great Tony Atlas heel run. Savoldi has worked all over, but never really made it big. Mustavo is over selling big tim and it's grand. Crowd is into this match. Savoldi throws a great looking drop kick. A big corner bump by Savoldi. Mustavo getting heat, and it's pretty tame. The crowd wants to hate him and he's working a chin lock. Savoldi makes a comeback. It's very baby facish in nature. Pretty much the get your popcorn and a coke match.

[Matt D]

Some capsule thoughts:

 

I'm with Pete on OMG vs Young. OMG was excellent at this point at knowing exactly how much to give. I shortchanged this match when I saw it on paper(despite liking Gang well enough) and that was a mistake. Young played up the local underdog favorite well, hyper-focused on a body part that would keep him in it. There was always the sense that Gang just needed one opportunity to crush him though. He showed me a lot here, milking moments to the crowd's dismay. It's not the craziest thing in the world to put the belt on him if he's the one main event on the roster not constantly going to Japan.

 

Also with Pete on the AWA structure of the six man. Double heat. I thought the hot tags were lacking even if the heat was perfectly fine. I really like babyface Duncum in Houston for some reason. He plays that Blackjack Mulligan of towering cowboy (as opposed to the more technical cowboy in Casey) role well. Tully looks like such a star in these matches. I'm not saying he gets overshadowed by Gino in Duo tags but there's a lot less distinction than in these ones.

 

The O'Connor match was great, less so for the match itself, which was a fine five minute snippet of a top wristlock battle, but because of the Boesch history lesson. He was just spouting information for five minutes straight and it left me wanting more of that (and it looks like they just posted another). I liked how he had to almost apologize for how singular the action was, commenting on the difference between late 60s wrestling and the wrestling of that day.

 

I went back and watched Buddy Roberts vs Steve Williams in the cage too, because we got the promos that tied everything together. Right now we have the three cage matches (Doc vs Buddy, Doc vs Hayes, Dibiase vs Gordy/Hayes), some promos, at least one tag, and some scattered six mans with either Doc or Dibiase. It's a hell of a package. It feels like a chapter of one of the best forgotten feuds of the 80s. The 3 shows, 3 cage matches deal is such a great idea.

[shoe]

Fantastics vs Gilbert/Sting

 

This is 2 out of 3 falls. Houston loves them some Fantastics. We get an early shine with both heels stooging and setting up payoffs. The test of strength with Sting sets up the heat.Gilbert was great setting up a distraction for a Sting spot. Fulton was great here as a FIP. Hot tag and Rogers is on fire.Eventually though the heels cheating pays off.

 

The 2nd fall starts with the heels beating down Rogers. They really milk the drama here. Roger's . Fulton gets in and steals the fall.

 

3rd fall and it's for all the marbles. Slugfest, then a big cross body sends both to the floor. A great double pin is teased, but it's only a 2. The Fantastics hit a top rope Hart Attack. Tatum and Victory interfere.

 

. 3 1/2*

[Matt D]

I think Pete might even be underselling that match by around a half a star. I'll try to write more tomorrow. It was a big surprise to me and kind of makes me wish that we had another big heel Sting run at some point.

[shoe]

I think Pete might even be underselling that match by around a half a star. I'll try to write more tomorrow. It was a big surprise to me and kind of makes me wish that we had another big heel Sting run at some point.

I'll rewatch it again tonight. I did it while I was sleepy.