[1982-12-15-Joint Promotions] Steve Grey vs Jackie Turpin

[GSR]

Thhe final of the 'New Year's Day Knockout Tournament' (Turpin had defeated Tally Ho Kaye) and in a change to the semi-finals this is fought over ten minutes duration, with no pinfalls, no submissions and the winner will be determined on a points system, where if any part of the body bar the soles of the feet touch the canvas then your opponent scores a point, and the person with the most points at the end of the ten minutes is declared the winner.  I'm pretty sure that this wasn't the first (or last) time that they did this 'points match'.  This was something different, if nothing else.  Both legitimately appeared to forget what was going on at times, with Grey putting his hand on the canvas for balance when Turpin had him trapped in a grapevine, and Turpin dropping down to a knee whilst having a front chancery on Grey.  With three minutes to go and Grey 13-5 up, he for some reason decides to throw a dropkick.  It made no sense in the slightest as the best outcome would be both gaining a point, whilst the worst would be just his opponent gaining one.  The worst outcome is what happened as Turpin sidestepped the move and Grey hit fresh air.  If that wasn't bad enough, he later tries a monkey flip and a similar outcome occurs with Turpin landing on his feet and again Grey cost himself a point.  Towards the end of the contest MC Brian Crabtree (who is keeping a running update over the house mic for the crowd and audience at home) gets confused and gives Grey a point that should have gone to Turpin!  Turpin ends up going head mare crazy to win the contest, officially 20 points to 18 (although the correct score is 21-17).

I really didn't like this at all.  Grey throwing a dropkick and attempting a monkey flip made him look stupid.  You could portray it as him 'forgetting' he wasn't in a regular match, but the amount of times both wrestlers scrambled to the ropes to prevent being taken down, I'm not buying that.  Also, if he 'forgets' it wasn't a regular match, it again is making Grey out to be an idiot.  The mess with Brian Crabtree only added to things.  Maybe they wanted to give Turpin a win without Grey having to take a fall, I don't know, but give me tags with Big Daddy any day over this!