[1980-01-04-Houston Wrestling] Les Thornton vs Jonathan Boyd

[shoe]

I liked this, and if it got another few minutes would have taken it to the next level. I enjoyed Thornton's arm work. It was compelling and looked real hurty. His European forearms were just plain nasty. I liked Boyd's constant movement and fight underneath. This is the wrestler verse the brawler. Boyd started working the leg. Thornton dung it on a kneelift. Then we get a finish. I would have liked a few more minutes of the leg work leading to the finish. Still they had a pretty good match with the time given. 2 1/2*

[Jetlag]

This was a basic undercard match. Hercules Boyd was a regular in europe so this was kinda worked like a Hamburg undercard match except it didn't go 3 rounds. Thornton seemed to be the face here but at one point went over to berate someone in the audience. Terrible finish where Thornton hits his awesome backbreaker but injures himself leading to his defeat.

[drew wardlaw]

Cool match here, very basic, but solid psychology and engaging throughout. I like the contrast of styles, with Thornton working more traditional European/British style and Boyd being a brawler. I liked the little cheapshots Boyd would throw in to try to get an advantage over the superior wrestler, like pulling the hair, thumb to the eye, just really standard but effective heel work that gets a response from the crowd. We get a bit of leg work from Boyd that leads to Thornton hitting a back-breaker that goes wrong, which lets Boyd pick up the win. Very enjoyable match that gets me even more excited about the project because this is something that I would never seek out to watch on its own, but is great to see in context of the rest of the show.

[soup23]

Solid but unspectacular. Boyd showed some promise being a brawling goon and it didn’t overstay it’s welcome. **