Jules Strongbow vs. Mike Miller (3/3/84)

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Jules Strongbow vs. Mike Miller (3/3/84)

Disc 8

[garretta]

This match was uncomfortable to watch at times, and I mean that as a compliment. Warching two guys do this kind of work on each other's legs gets to be hard to take aftrer a while. Of course, once Stan explained the backstory, it was easy to expect the kind of match we got. The only thing we ​didn't ​get was one of these guys actually being carried out on a stretcher.

 

This may be the best match I've ever seen out of Jules. There's not a lot of competition, though, since the only other time I've seen him was as the designated FIP for the team of himself and his "big brother" Chief Jay in the WWF. It was a revelation to watch this bout and realize that he knew more than one move (the tomahawk chop). Seriously, with three lazy workers like Jules, Chief Jay, and Fuji in the ring with him, how did Saito not go crazy during their tag matches? The second best worker in those matches may just have been Captain Lou Albano (who managed Fuji and Saito); at least he knew how to bump and blade.

 

A sarcastic golf clap to Jules for finally getting a clue and going to work on the leg of Miller's that didn't ​have the big-as-life cast on its foot. It only took him half the match. Even Coss and Stasiak wondered how he could be dumb enough to keep working on the casted leg when every move he tried hurt him instead (though they didn't actually use the word "dumb"). God bless Stan for trying to cover for him instead of running down to the ring screaming, "THE OTHER LEG, YOU BLASTED IDIOT!"

 

Coss's leg puns got to be a bit much, and Stan isn't the experienced broadcaster that Dutch became as yet, so he didn't know enough to try and gently stop him. I like Coss well enough when he plays it straight on play-by-play, but if he's trying to do color and isn't set up the right way, his attempts at humor can crash and burn like the ​Hindenburg​.

 

At least we got a decision, although it seemed kind of weak that Sandy knew about the casted foot for the whole match, knew that Miller was using it, and waited until there was less than thirty seconds left to disqualify Miller for using it. Miller's postmatch attack was brutal, and I'm sorry that they chose to go to commercial in the middle of it rather than wait until he was pulled off once and for all. I thought for a second that he was going to go after Sandy's leg, but he didn't.

 

The matches where Hack and Piper return, at least the ones that were televised, are on this very disc. If I'm not mistaken, both Hack and Rod are Buddy's partners in one of the final televised six-mans between the People's Army/RBA and the Clan, which is the match we have. Talk about hell freezing over; Buddy and Piper on the same team. I can't wait to see it!