Matt Borne vs. Steve Regal (2/3 falls) (2/27/82)

[goodhelmet]

Matt Borne vs. Steve Regal (2/3 falls) (2/27/82)

Disc 4

[AstroBoy]

Borne has an off kilter way of moving about the ring that I enjoy. I thought this was a pretty weak performance from Regal. There was a moment in the third fall where Borne had to physically turn himself around and throw himself into the corner so that Regal could take over on offense. Other parts of the match Regal was okay but his whole performance felt poor.

 

Borne on the other hand was really enjoyable. I enjoyed his aggression, running over to stomp Regal before he could get up, attacking him after the bell. I liked his jumping butt splashes to the sternum and his work over the midsection in general. It was a pleasant surprise to see him win this semi-cleanly as well, with Regal celebrating what he thought was a win only for the ref to have counted the pin for Borne. Rocky Johnson comes down in a huge sport jacket after the match and runs off Borne. I may have to rewatch some matches because this feels like the first time that Regal has irked me so much on this set.

[garretta]

​First fall: ​Matt wants no part of this match at the start, and spends the first five minutes or so stalling for time or leaving the ring the second Regal goes on offense. After a while, he makes an opening for himself by targeting Regal's back and works on it for a while, but Regal slips out of a slam attempt near the ropes and rolls him up for a surprise three-count and a 1-0 lead with less than ten minutes of disc time remaining.

 

It's an interesting contrast watching two completely different Borne matches back to back. In the June 5 Buddy match, he's an aggrieved babyface and former Army member who's out to kick Buddy's ass all over the Northwest and doesn't mind if Buddy gets his shots in too. Here, he's a full-fledged heel and Army member in good standing who wants no part of a former partner with vengeance on his mind. I wouldn't call his stalling exactly epic, but it's definitely done with a purpose which makes it part of the drama.

 

Regal constantly breaking Sandy's count may seem stupid at first, but he can't beat the hell out of Matt unless Matt's in the ring to be beaten the hell out of. A countout win gets him the lead in the match, but that's not what he's after; he wants Matt's hide. I don't remember seeing Regal as a single on the set yet, but he seems like a perfectly good hand in tag matches, so I'm willing to give him a chance here.

 

Once the action starts, this is fairly decent. Matt's back work is the best part, and Regal doesn't really have to do much except basic rollups and defensive work such as avoiding slams and such. In the early part of the bout, he establishes his scientific advantage over Matt in several exchanges, but that doesn't mean a whole lot by the end of the fall. He seems to have gotten a lucky pin over a man who was dominating him, so let's see if he can wake up offensively in the second fall.

 

I enjoyed Sandy putting a fast count on Matt in order to get him back in the ring, and unlike some referees who do that, he gave the impression that he would have gone all the way to twenty and declared Regal the winner of the fall if Matt hadn't returned. He also does that weird two-handed three count that he only uses when faces are going to get a pin. Between that and counting pins with the back of his hand (which I swear I've seen him do at least once on the set), it's apparent that his approach to the job is unlike any other in the sport.

 

Between falls, Frank hypes appearances by Flair and Andre. When was the last time there was such a thing as a non-celebrity special attraction on a wrestling card, especially on the order of those two?

 

Second fall: ​Matt continues working on Regal's back throughout the fall, getting several nearfalls. Late in the fall, Regal mounts a small rally that's snuffed out when he misses a dropkick and comes down flat on his injured back. Matt hits a back suplex and gets the win, evening the bout at one fall apiece with a little less than three minutes of disc time remaining.

 

Frank makes a big deal of which leg the wrestlers hook when they're going for pins. According to him, a wrestler's more likely to pin his opponent when he hooks the outside (far) leg than he is when he hooks the inside (near) leg. He hasn't told us why yet, and I don't think he's the type to make stuff up out of his own head. It's probably something a wrestler told him once in order to make his pin calls sound more authentic.

 

Regal really does​ look limited on offense, and only part of that can be attributed to selling. He just doesn't seem energetic enough for someone who's fighting his former partner, the man who turned his back on him and the fans. He's wrestling this match as if he was in there with any random heel on the roster, and that's definitely not what I expected. It probably wasn't what the crowd at the House of Action expected, either.

 

Since Matt got the stalling out of the way early, he's been wrestling a surprisingly clean, tough bout and dominating the action. But unless he hurries up, it's not going to get him much; as I said above, we have less than three minutes remaining. It looks like we're headed for a time-limit draw and a rematch at a later date, but as a wise man once said, it only takes three seconds to end a match.

 

Third fall:​ We finally get the heated brawl we should have gotten long before now, as these two start whalng away on each other. With less than two minutes left, Matt goes for a back suplex, but Regal pushes off the top turnbuckle, thinking that that will force Matt to the canvas with his shoulders down. Instead, it's his own shoulders that end up on the canvas for the three count, as Matt gets the fluky but clean win. Matt tries to press his advantage with a postmatch attack, but Rocky Johnson makes the save,

 

The finish isn't exactly new, but it guarantees both a clean win and controversy at the same time, so it's easy to see why it's used so often.

 

When Frank says that Buddy and Oliver are out of town, he's not kidding. They were wrestling on WTBS that night (February 27), getting two squash wins (presumably one in each hour). The following night at the Omni, they lost to the Funks in a tag team tournament. (As an aside, I wonder if Piper, who was co-hosting ​Georgia Championship Wrestling ​by that time, interviewed Buddy at some point during the evening, or if Gordon took care of it after explaining the history between the two of them.)