[1978-07-26-Joint Promotions] Marty Jones vs Mark Rocco

[Microstatistics]

Beautiful wrestling with excellent exchanges and a real mean streak. 

[Clayton Jones]

Man Rocco is a heat seeking missile in this one. Maybe to a bit of excess but the crowd loves it. Jones is a good straight-laced foil for Rollerball but this does get very personal by the end. There's a great feeling of trial and error in the tactics between the two and this ends in a satisfying way that beautifully sets up their double title match. I'm not one for star ratings typically but this is easily in **** territory and the rematch is even better.

[cactus]

Rocco might not look like a man who could get the crowd calling for his opponent to rip Rocco's arm off, but he really riled them up here by bending the rules and using illegal strikes on his opponent. The matwork here was very flashy yet there's always a feeling of struggle. A previous match between these two ended in a no contest after tempers flared so much that the referee had to call the match off. This starts off feeling like they can keep calm and just work a regular match, but Jones soon explodes on Rocco during the second round after Rocco takes one too many liberties with Jones. Jones looked fired-up and Rocco feed for his comeback magnificently by being a total bumping machine. The arm drags that Jones lands on Rocco could make Ricky Steamboat blush in embarrassment. Just fantastic stuff. You wouldn't usually see this amount of hatred and intensity if you tuned into World Of Sport, but this match had it in spades. ★★★★½