[1984-07-23-WWF-The Brawl To End It All] Tito Santana vs Bob Orton Jr

[Superstar Sleeze]

WWF Intercontinental Champion Tito Santana vs Bob Orton - MSG 7/23/84

 

They pretty blatantly telegraph this is a draw with a pretty pedestrian opening ten minutes. They worked the holds well, but you could tell they just wasting time. Orton catches Tito with a punch on a criss cross. This combines elements of workrate (bomb-throwing), but with lots of selling of exhaustion so it feels like a 2010s self-conscious epic. Lots of time in between moves in order to sell exhaustion. Orton busts out a powerslam, backbreaker, Fishermans Suplex and tries a Vaderbomb, but eats knees. Each move is great just lots of time in between spots. Tito instead of having one big burst of fire has a several mini-comebacks. The one after the Vaderbomb was good but went into an ab stretch and then he missed a crossbody and Orton gets a cover. Orton takes a Slaughter like bump over the turnbuckles and some big Tito shots. Orton gets a big reverse atomic drop off the Tito ten count punches in corner. Good nearfall down the stretch. Bell rings shortly after. My big issue is they were selling total exhaustion but they only wrestled twenty minutes! C'mon! They were acting like they went a full Broadway. It is not like they worked a sprint. Over selling and way too much time in between moves. Found this to be disappointing.