Curt Hennig vs. Convict (Prison Yard Match) (4/23/83)

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Curt Hennig vs. Convict (Prison Yard Match) (4/23/83)

Disc 5

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First fall: ​A prison yard match is basically a lumberjack strap match. Any time one of the wrestlers goes outside the ring, the lumberjacks go after him with their whips/straps until they bail back into the ring. So far, Curt's the only one who's been thrown out, and he came back in after one lash from Assassin (who according to Dutch has wet his strap to make it cut flesh more easily).

 

Somehow, I get the feeling that we'd have seen a lot more action outside the ring if this hadn't been on TV. They really didn't want guys to bleed too much, and I can't say I blame them, although that sort of negates the purpose of putting a match like this on TV.

 

Curt gets the first fall by backflipping out of Convict's over-the-shoulder backbreaker, catching him in a back suplex, and bridging to score the pin. He's up one fall to none with about twelve minutes of disc time remaining.

 

Who is this Convict? He's a powerful guy, whoever he is, and he knows how to work body parts, as he spends most of the fall targeting Curt's back. Curt gets very little offense, to the point that even a desperation shoulderblock pops both the crowd and the announcers.

 

Dutch continues to be a great source of old-time wrestling information. For instance, I never knew that an over-the-shoulder backbreaker can also be called an Atlas (as in Charles, I suppose) backbreaker. I also enjoyed hearing about his strap matches with Bull Ramos and his wet strap. It seems to me that a wet strap would be an unfair advantage for the heel and should thus be illegal, but I've never heard such a thing mentioned during a match which uses straps until this one.

 

Convict piledrives Curt after the bell, which should leave Curt at some kind of disadvantage going forward. (As an aside, Stan Stasiak is the guest referee for this match.)

 

​Second fall: ​I had no idea that Convict was someone sent by Buddy to cripple Curt. If that's the case, he didn't get the job done, as Curt withstands a frightful beating, then comes back to defeat Convict in two straight falls with a dropkick off the top.

 

I'm guessing that we won't see Convict again; your shelf life isn't too long when you lose your specialty match in two straight falls.

 

We got a lot more action outside the ring with the straps in this fall, particularly Assassin against Curt. If I hadn't seen the interview at the end where Curt was attacked by Ali Hassan (who sounds about as Iranian as Coss does) I'd swear that they were trying to start a Curt-Assassin program.

 

The biggest pop of the fall came when Curt, whose back had been destroyed for most of the first two falls by both Convict's power moves and the straps, slammed Convict. That may not seem like much today, but back then slams were still a big deal if a guy weighed over two fifty or stood taller than about six-five.

 

Stasiak shouldn't have been counting Convict when he had the claw on Curt, even if it was a smother. That's what "anything goes" means; guys get to smother each other if they want to. I really hate when refs try to enforce rules in no-rules matches, no matter what the supposed reason is. It makes me wonder why they even booked a no-rules match to begin with.

 

Good point by Dutch about Convict wearing his outfit into the ring so the strap shots wouldn't hurt him. That didn't look like the type of outfit that would tear easily either (so someone could gain access to the wearer's back or legs).

 

I liked Curt still selling the effects of the match in the postmatch interview. Hassan calling Curt "Hatchet" drew a mild chuckle from me, although he should remember that hatchets can be dangerous too if they're used right.

 

Curt should never have fallen for the "You want the belt?" routine; it never ends well when the person who's asked the question answers "Yes". I think we have the death match on the set, and I can't wait to see it.