[1983-07-09-MACW-Charlotte, NC] Jack & Jerry Brisco vs Ricky Steamboat & Jay Youngblood

[paul sosnowski]

Jack & Jerry Brisco defend the NWA World Tag Team Titles.   Available on the Network, Vault, WWE Hidden Gems, 1983.    "Battling the Brisco Brothers".   Talk about it here

[shoe]

This was the feud that had to follow the Slaughter/Kernodle one. The big angles to start this feud happens on the 5/7 and 5/14/83 shows. These shows we don't have on the network. They were really good angles that laid the groundwork for the Briscos heel turn, also they tried to break Jay's leg. They also have a 7/30/83 match on the network which was really good, along with the Starcade match.

The fans just hate the Brothers especially of the female persuasion. Jack gets on the mike and rrally riles the crowd. Steamboat and Youngblood out to that special pop of the men who respect them and the squeals fom the girls. The babyfaces get a bald Eagle chant going all from their body language. The faces start hot. Fun dbl team offense from the faces. Jerry is grear eating the offense. He hits Jay with a big back suplex to set up the heat. The heat is focused on Jay's neck and back. Jack torturing him on the mat. Steamboat is great on the outside. The Brisco's heat segment is on point and really great with a ruggidness to it. Even the little stuff done during the heat has value.

Hot tag to Steamer and he's running wild. In a great revenge spot to the Brisco turn angle he's after Jerry's leg. He's posting it, Atomic dropping it, punching it, chopping it. Jay hooks on an Inverted  Indian Death Lock that Jack breaks up. Desperation clothesline from Jay. Steamboats back in.  Chaos is everywhere. Great heel finish.  Postmatch Babyfaces standing tall so the crowd forgets about them losing. 4 1/2*

This was really well done, and one of the stronger tag matches of 1983 in the territories we have. You think about it you have the Final Conflict, Magnum TA/Wrestling 2 vs Reed/Neidhardt in a cage, Fabs vs Moondogs, and some variation of Freebirds vs Von Erich's?

[KB8]

If you thought their Starrcade match was disappointing, this is the one you want to see. If you thought the Starrcade match was good then this is also the one you want to see. Either way it's an awesome gift from the Network and a match you want to see. Steamboat was out of this world in it. Nine times out of ten I want to be watching Steamboat in peril, on the back foot, firing back with hope spots, selling a beatdown, EMOTING, playing allllll the way to the back row. That is his game and he's one of the very best ever at it. He was never on the back foot once here, never selling a beatdown, never in any peril. It was Walking Tall Steamboat and I don't remember seeing him work so dominant before, but holy shit was he downright incredible. Straight away he hits a huge atomic drop on Jack and takes it to the floor, cleaning house and lording over his kingdom. His hokey karate never looked better, measured and crisp as it was. But then he got a little overzealous and wanted more than the ref' was willing to let fly, so of course the Briscos took advantage and blindsided Jay. I can't tell you the last time I watched a Steamboat/Youngblood tag, but I'd be shocked if there were many better heat segments on Jay found among them. This was one of those segments where the heels were throwing out all sorts of awesome shit and the babyface was bumping and selling his tail off for all of it. I've never seen Gerry look better. Both of them were vicious, but Gerry took the cake by hitting this fucking ludicrous suplex across the top rope that about folded Jay from heel to earlobe. They spent their time working the back and there was another point where Jay was hanging out the ring as Jack worked Steamboat into a frenzy, so Gerry ran around, picked up Jay and hit a body slam across the apron. It was all kidneys and I bet Jay wasn't pissing right for a week. When Steamboat comes in off the hot tag they don't run straight to the finish, and instead we get a short segment where he and Jay work over Gerry's leg. This little stretch had some of the best stuff in the match, including Jay's Indian Deathlock, Steamboat wrapping the leg around the ring posts, and his awesome falling karate thrusts (think DiBiase fist drops but with karate) to the knee, which I've never once seen before but everyone should be doing. The second heat segment on Jay probably isn't even long enough to be called a heat segment, but it didn't feel implausible considering he'd been the recipient of a much heftier beatdown only a few minutes earlier. And of course Steamboat making the tag was red hot, because how could it not be. How in the hell did that Starrcade match end up being so flat?
 

[Clayton Jones]

Masterful tag team match from all four guys. I'm surprised I haven't heard more about it previously, but if the footage became readily available from the Hidden Gems section that makes a bit more sense. The heels are so vicious in this, laying everything in with bad intentions, smarmy and selling beautifully when they're getting what's coming to them. Steamboat and Youngblood compliment each other perfectly, two sides of the babyface coin, like the ideal of what a pro wrestling good guy was in 1983 come to life. I loved the way this match built and while it fell apart into chaos at the end it fit the escalating story they were telling.