"The Magnificent" Don Muraco

[Grimmas]

Discuss here.

[Grimmas]

I don't have a defense ready for Muraco, but he is one of my favourites and he will be on my list. At his best he is more entertaining than most wrestlers in the ring. Sure he has bad performances, but so does everybody.

[WingedEagle]

I liked his presence walking to the ring, especially when Graham managed him. Anything else worth checking out I may have missed?

[Grimmas]

I liked his presence walking to the ring, especially when Graham managed him. Anything else worth checking out I may have missed?

The big problem with Muraco is that his prime is not on tape. There are clips against Brisco where he looks great and some promos, but yeah...

 

I love the Snuka feud

I love the Backlund feud (both of them)

I love the Steamboat feud

I love parts of the Pedro feud

 

His biggest issue is lack of footage of his prime.

[Parties]

Favorite two Muraco matches I've seen are:

 

Bob Backlund vs. Don Muraco [Texas Death Match] (Madison Square Garden, 9/21/81)

Junkyard Dog/Ricky Steamboat vs. Don Muraco/Mr. Fuji (Landover Cap Centre, 8/17/85)

 

Both were on my ballot for SC's 50 Best WWF/E matches. Texas Death was in my top 10, the tag near the bottom of the ballot, but still very entertaining.

 

Muraco won't make my list, but I haven't seen him have tons of lousy matches or anything. I realize this is faint praise that we aren't supposed to be using, but he's a better candidate than many of the other workers who have threads. Is the backlash people holding the gassed-up tie-die era of "The Rock" against him?

[Matt D]

I wish we had more, longer matches from his Florida run. I love the one we have with Windham, just for his intensity.

 

[JerryvonKramer]

I wish we had more, longer matches from his Florida run. I love the one we have with Windham, just for his intensity.

Actually the one thing you DON'T want out of Muraco is a longer match.

 

We had a good discussion on him on Titans #51.

 

He's better in shorter matches, where he can let his charisma and intensity carry things. The LAST thing you want is for him to go much longer than 10-15 mins, because that's why you get the bad Muraco who sits in holds and is lazy as fuck.

[Grimmas]

How long was that Texas Death match that you liked so much Parv?

[JerryvonKramer]

About thirty mins. But steady on, I didn't LOVE it. I just liked it more than the rest of the Titans.

[Grimmas]

About thirty mins. But steady on, I didn't LOVE it. I just liked it more than the rest of the Titans.

Fair enough. My defense will come soon.

[Ricky Jackson]

IMO for Muraco in 81 WWF the Texas Death Match against Pedro 11/23 is good, I wasn't blown away by the Backlund matches, and the rest is Dullsville (avoid every other match against Pedro like the plague)

[Childs]

Favorite two Muraco matches I've seen are:

 

Bob Backlund vs. Don Muraco [Texas Death Match] (Madison Square Garden, 9/21/81)

Junkyard Dog/Ricky Steamboat vs. Don Muraco/Mr. Fuji (Landover Cap Centre, 8/17/85)

 

Both were on my ballot for SC's 50 Best WWF/E matches. Texas Death was in my top 10, the tag near the bottom of the ballot, but still very entertaining.

 

Muraco won't make my list, but I haven't seen him have tons of lousy matches or anything. I realize this is faint praise that we aren't supposed to be using, but he's a better candidate than many of the other workers who have threads. Is the backlash people holding the gassed-up tie-die era of "The Rock" against him?

 

No, the backlash comes from the fact he was an obviously gifted guy who wrestled dull-as-shit matches a lot of the time. Need a nap? Watch the Steamboat feud.

[JerryvonKramer]

Muraco is awesome until the second the bell rings.

 

Then: front face lock. Time passes. Chin lock. Time passes. And more time passes.

 

He might be the least engaging mat worker in history. I want to say that he INVENTED the rest hold.

[El-P]

The greatest laziest wrestler this side of Keiji Mutoh. Hence, he's sorta the most frustrating guy ever.

[shoe]

No, not top 100 most charismatic wrestlers.

[elliott]

I wanted to renominate him because @Grimmas has been threatening to make a case for him for like a decade now. 

I also just watched a tag with Muraco & Bob Orton Jr vs Hogan & Snuka 5/18/85 and it's an awesome match. If you were going to watch one match with Muraco, I'd pick that one. Incredible Hogan performance. 

[KB8]

I'll co-sign that tag. Really an out of nowhere awesome match, with a great Hogan performance and Orton using the cast for one of the best transition spots of the decade. 

[NotJayTabb]

On 5/7/2023 at 12:10 AM, elliott said:

I wanted to renominate him because @Grimmas has been threatening to make a case for him for like a decade now. 

I also just watched a tag with Muraco & Bob Orton Jr vs Hogan & Snuka 5/18/85 and it's an awesome match. If you were going to watch one match with Muraco, I'd pick that one. Incredible Hogan performance. 

One of my favourite GWE16 podcast moments was Grimmas building up the scale of GWE, all the footage people had watched, all the chat and debate...then part gleefully, part apologetically announcing his #100 was the Magnificent One.

[elliott]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Classic!