[1981-05-04-Maple Leaf Wrestling] Roddy Piper & Jimmy Snuka vs Ric Flair & Dewey Robertson

[Superstar Sleeze]

Roddy Piper & Jimmy Snuka vs Ric Flair & Dewey Robertson - Maple Leaf Wrestling 5/4/81

 

Ric Flair is a ball of muthafuckin energy in this match. I wish we made more Flair from the late 70s/early 80s so we got more of a chance to see him as a fun bayface. Piper had just recently won the United States Championship from Flair at the beginning of 81. Was Piper one of Flair's recruits? Seems likely since Flair was a total mark for Piper and his comedy. Piper proves how thin line is between babyface and heel. He is able with his smile to convey if he is a babyface or heel. Same smile as always, but this one he looked like a smug, obnoxious prick and you just wanted Flair to wipe right off his face. Snuka looked like a total badass in this. Dewey Robertson was your token Canuck. Flair wanted some Piper bad and there is a lot of stalling early. Flair threatens to strip Piper out of that skirt if he did not get in the ring. Neither Snuka nor Piper want anything to do with Flair. FLAIR HITS A DROPKICK OUT OF THE STRUT! THAT WAS SO COOL! Flair gets trapped in the wrong corner and Piper chokes him with the tag rope. Flair from his knees choking Piper, thats how bad he wants him. Everything Piper does is for a reaction. He is either cowering or cheating his ass off, but in real gritty fashion. Dewey Robertson is actually a pretty damn good hot tag. I really thought the layout was cool. It was stalling to start, but Flair keeping crowd engaged, Flair heat segment into a babyface shine with a ton of nearfalls, back into a Dewey heat segment into the real finish run. It is definitely a layout that could be exploited more frequently. Piper was awesome at bumping during this run for Dewey, I liked his bump into the ropes. Dewey and Flair got a ton of explosive nearfalls on Piper, but Piper just kept going back to the eyes. Eventually Robertson is so affected, he could tag out to Snuka. They beat up Dewey, which is the most uneventful part of the match, but it is fine. The Flair hot tag rules all and he just beats up anything that moves. Flair puts Piper into the figure-4, but Snuka breaks it up. Dewey dropkicks Flair on top for the win. Really fun studio match. Flair & Piper were the clear highlights here. If the job is to make you want to see a United States championship match between these two, mission accomplished. ***

[The Following Contest]

Where was this? Maple Leaf Gardens? How are you watching this?

[conker8]

Here

 

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xxyjcx_ric-flair-dewey-robertson-vs-jimmy-snuka-roddy-piper_sport

[KB8]

Man this was fun. It's about as pure babyface as I've ever seen Flair work. I guess he was already Slick Ric by mid-'81, but it wasn't the same babyface Slick Ric as we'd see later. A lot of babyface Flair felt like a guy who was naturally a prick taking time off from being a prick because he had issue with an even bigger prick. Old man babyface Flair was easy to root for because he was two hundred years old and being brutalised by people seventy years his junior. His biggest hope spots were still low blows or biting someone in the face. Sympathy was easy to come by and he was beloved, but there wasn't much difference between babyface Flair and heel Flair. He was wooing and strutting here, but he did it with a real babyface energy, like he figured he had to work for his reactions rather than taking for granted that he'd get them regardless. He was throwing dropkicks, super fast body punches in place of the chops, working much quicker than usual. No measured knee drops, no flopping, instead we got small packages and house o' fire. Even the figure four was applied quicker than I've ever seen him do it before, and he went into it as a reversal off a Piper knee drop so there was no methodical leg work beforehand. He just did everything at babyface speed and it was super refreshing. The stuff with Piper also ruled and Piper was an awesome shit head with the early stalling, the cheapshots, choking Flair with the tag rope, etc. Snuka didn't exude the same charisma, but he was a fine lieutenant and I liked how he was always trying to cut the ring off, keeping Flair in that heel corner and dragging him back whenever he tried to scoot away. I don't know who Dewey Robertson is but he was fine and played his part in the finish, so I guess he did what he needed to do. Flair even celebrated with him afterwards like he meant it, rather than patting him on the back because he's the Nature Boy and the plebs should be privileged to share in his victory glow. I've somehow seen hardly anything from this Flair/Piper feud, but based on this I'm hyped to check out more.

[Mattsdmf]

Just finished this match as I'm going through my own Crockett/NWA project.

This was an incredibly fun TV match in which they worked a different tag structure than normal as it starts with FIP, shine, another FIP, shine and finish.  I really loved how fired up Flair was and Dewey Robertson (who would become The Missing Link) help up his end.  Roddy Piper was a bumping maniac in this.  I really wish we had more arena footage of this time period as I would love to see Flair and Piper go at in front of a nuclear Carolina crowd.  Flair really picked up the pace in this as he switched into "house of fire" mode and dropped a lot of what his schtick was.  A fun match everyone should check out.