Billy Jack vs. Harley Race (2/3 Falls) (10/22/83)

[goodhelmet]

Billy Jack vs. Harley Race (2/3 Falls) (10/22/83)

Disc 7

[garretta]

First fall: ​As is customary, Billy Jack the local hero gets most of the offense, and gains several impressive nearfalls and visual pins. But Harley's a wily veteran, and he eventually catches Billy Jack with a reverse victory roll, then grabs the trunks for good measure. Sandy counts three, and the champion leads one fall to none with about fourteen minutes of disc time remaining.

 

Most guys who wrestle for the World title do things you've never seen before, but Billy Jack really shows off his repertoire here, using a sleeper for the first time (according to his mentor Stasiak) and busting out a damn good piledriver as well. His offense is neck-based, as you would expect from someone whose finisher is the full nelson, and he works a side headlock for a good portion of the fall as well, once getting a two and three-quarter count. It's tough sometimes to think about how close a challenger seemed to be to gaining the title when you know in advance that he didn't win, but Harley definitely seemed to be in trouble after one fall.

 

Speaking of whom, I can see the argument some make that neither he nor Flair ever really looked like champions because they gave too much of their matches away. But how else are you going to convince the fans of a certain terriitory that their hometown boy has a chance? Even in non-NWA territories, the champions made money by making their challengers look like they were the better man for most of the bout. Look at Bruno, Backlund, and even early Hogan in the WWF. They certainly looked on most nights like they were not only going to lose the belt, but be injured so badly that they'd have to be stretchered out of the arena. That's what made their eventual comebacks so satisfying (or, in Harley's case, frustrating).

 

I liked Stan on commentary watching his protégé. He tried as hard as he could to be impartial, but Coss points out how he's jumping out of his seat after nearly every move Billy Jack makes, right along with the rest of the crowd. The fans were so hot for Billy Jack that Harley got some of the loudest boos I've heard on the set for a simple tights pull. Make no mistake, they believed that Billy Jack was walking out the World champion on this night.

 

I loved Harley trying to bargain the match down to one fall. As it turned out, it would have been better for him if he had, because he would have already won.

 

This definitely wasn't the first World title match ever held at the House of Action, but I think it's the first one Coss has called, so we'll forgive him his historical ignorance. One question, though: If the World champion has never been in Portland before as Coss claims, how does Flair know so much about Billy Jack?

 

​Second fall: ​Billy Jack continues to work on Harley's back with basic bodyslams and backdrops, including one on the arena floor to get out of a potential piledriver. Harley's moving pretty slowly by the end, which allows Billy Jack to slip over his back and lock on the full nelson. The pain ends up being too much for the champion, and he submits to even the match at a fall apiece with about four and a half minutes of wrestling time remaining, according to Coss. (Something tells me we're going to a draw here, folks.)

 

I like how Billy Jack lifted Harley off the ground as he applied the full nelson. For a second I thought he was going to swing him around the way Kenny Patera used to do.

 

I'm at the point now where I could stand to see more than just headbutts out of Harley. Usually the champion gets a control section in his title matches so that the fans can see what a good wrestler he is. Harley hasn't gotten his yet, and with so little time remaining I don't think he will. Unless they're building to a house show match somewhere in the territory, this match is a waste of Harley's time and talent. By contrast, Flair got plenty of offense in the match I saw against Hack Sawyer. Granted, Billy Jack's the much bigger crowd favorite, but it's not like he hasn't taken a beating before.

 

Does anyone else think that it would be better at times to do away with the break between falls? You could still book time-limit draws, but there would be more wresting time, which would make the finishes in matches like this less obvious. Even the marks have to know that the odds are against Billy Jack winning the title with so little time left, and that's not really fair. At the very least, we should have had Don on the microphone getting the boys to double-time it to the ring.

 

Third fall: ​This consists of Billy Jack trying to apply the full nelson and Harley trying to stall for time. At one point Billy Jack locks on the full nelson ​outside ​the ring, but of course it doesn't count. The time limit runs out just after Billy Jack slips out of a vertical suplex. He applies the full nelson after the bell just because, but Harley bails out for his life.

 

The big problem in this fall was that even the kayfabed time was shaved. The calls were honest until we hit three minutes, then all of a sudden within about fifteen seconds we had the one-minute call. I don't mind time being fudged, but figure out how you're going to do it before the match starts, not right in the middle of the last fall, when even the six year-olds in the audience know that two minutes can't possibly pass that quickly. Maybe this is why Vince, both The Elder and The Younger, never bothered with time calls; could you imagine trying to convince the hip crowds in New York and Philadelphia that two minutes have passed in the span of fifteen seconds?

 

Overall, the atmosphere was the main thing to recommend this. Billy Jack looked great, but it's easy to look great when your opponent is a Wrestling Buddy in human form, like Harley was here except for occasional forearms and headbutts. He probably looked better and got more offense in when he and Billy Jack wrestled in midcard bouts for Vince a few years later. I can't blame the NWA World Champion formula; Harley just plain looked awful, period, like his mind wasn't even on the match at times, or like he'd been hurt and was just trying to get through the evening without aggravating his injuries. Either way, I expected a lot more out of this match than we got.