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[1983-08-26-Houston Wrestling] Jim Duggan vs Ted DiBiase (Loser Leaves Town Cage)


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This is pretty great. This is such a great feud. We start out with Ted stomping a mud hole into Duggan. Dibiase misses a charge into the corner and Duggan starts his comeback. The ring ropes breaks and Duggan uses it as a weapon. Dibiase returns the favor and beats Duggan down with the ring ropes. Dibiase is so great here at getting heat. He uses his punches so spot on here. He makes them mean so much. Loving how Ted works the cut. Ted has really one of the best fist drops ever. Duggan's come back is huge. The crowd is with him something fierce. Now Ted's bleeding. In a last second act of desperation, Ted loads the glove. Duggan gets the load and KO's Ted. 4*

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  • GSR changed the title to [1983-08-26-Houston Wrestling] Jim Duggan vs Ted DiBiase (Loser Leaves Town Cage)
  • 2 months later...

This was probably never going to be messing with the '85 stips match, but it's these two in a cage so obviously it was twelve minutes of badass. There was almost a running gag as folk were watching the original Mid-South set about the ring ropes in Houston constantly falling to bits. It happened in a bunch of matches. Maybe it was deliberate, like it was Boesch's way of throwing a curve ball and seeing how they'd persevere. Build character through adversity and whatnot. I don't recall it ever actively derailing a match and I imagine this would've been good had the ropes stayed in place, but somehow the turnbuckle flying apart seemed to make it even better. It happens only a couple minutes in, and as soon as it does Duggan just picks it up and tries to strangle DiBiase with this stray ring rope. Ted has already decided he's had enough of this and tries to roll away, but of course he only gets so far before the cage stops him. His "oh shit what have I done?" reaction as Duggan stands over him with a turnbuckle bolt is incredible. The rope and bolt then become a permanent fixture for the rest of the match. DiBiase uses it to cut Duggan open first and there's an amazing bit where he practically stabs him clean in the face with it. Duggan's comeback is total Hacksaw which means it's all-time level great. Seriously, who has a better walking tall babyface comeback than Duggan? The foot-stomping, the punches, the wild mane, it never fails. The big payback shots with the bolt obviously ruled, too. Ted loading the glove and punching Duggan in the gut was an awesome spot just for Duggan selling it like he'd been shot, but then they started running the two remaining ring ropes and it ended up with Duggan holding the equalizer. This is one of the best match-ups in US wrestling history, right? 

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  • 5 years later...

Pretty great brawl right here. I liked the little touch of starting the match while the poor announcer was still trying to do things normally, as you could feel the hate and tension between the competitors. They managed to entertain and please the crowd with such a simple, but effective, story and the good use of the turnbuckle as a weapon (it wasn't that overdone, at that time). Even the finish was simple but great, the crowded exploded when Duggan knocked DiBiase out with a punch and pinned him. Very fun and easy to follow, with a nice crowd and a bloody slugfest
***1/2

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