[1980-09-06-Maple Leaf Wrestling] Ric Flair & Angelo Mosca vs Greg Valentine & Hussein Arab

[KB8]

Man, this absolutely ruled. What the hell? Why is this never talked about when one of the guys in it is the most talked about wrestler in the history of our great sport? How is there a Flair match this good that hasn't had eighty six thousand words written about it? Pre-world title babyface Nature Boy is so awesome. I never thought I'd get properly excited about Flair again, not after all this time when I thought I'd seen all I ever possibly needed to see from him, but I couldn't believe how impressive he was in this. His babyface energy was startling. This wasn't like when he'd work babyface after he'd won all those world titles. It wasn't even like that brief period in '85 when he worked babyface against the Russians, and that was him at the absolute peak of his powers. I've said this before, but a lot of babyface Flair still felt like heel Flair only dialed back a bit. He'd still do a bunch of the things he'd do as a heel, they'd just get the babyface pop because of who he was. In fact he could practically work heel opposite an actual heel, but if he was presented as a babyface and the fans were supposed to cheer him then the fans would cheer him. He was Ric Flair and could do whatever the hell he wanted. This, though, was a babyface who worked 100% like a babyface. In an alternate reality he took this act and paired up with a Ricky Steamboat and they became the greatest babyface tag team that ever lived. He strutted and woo'd but there was no arrogance to any of it. There was none of that veneer where you knew deep down he was still that same guy who'd pat you on the back then brag about your wife waiting in line for Space Mountain. At one point Mosca had Valentine in a bearhug and Flair strutted along the apron, started the crowd clapping along, then grabbed the house mic and folk just went apeshit wooing along with him. He was hitting running dropkicks instead of knife edge chops. Nothing was methodical; he was all energy, whether he was working the apron or coming in off the hot tag. The Valentine feud was in full swing so he was after him the whole time, getting super nasty by grinding his knuckles right into Valentine's nose (Valentine had broken Flair's nose not long before this) and popping him with elbows, rapid punch flurries to the gut, it all ruled. And man was he an awesome face in peril. He took two stints being beat on and both were great, but the second was where he got cut open and that was the strongest run of the match. Valentine was obviously being a nasty fuck, and the Sheik was a ton of fun throwing cheapshots and biting the open wound, but it was Flair's selling and sympathy-garnering that really made it. There was a great spot where he came in off the hot tag earlier and went for a big elbow on Valentine, really stopping to measure him before landing it, then when Valentine rolled out the way Flair just took an extra step in his direction and dropped it on him anyway. They repeat that spot during Flair's second heat segment, except this time Valentine drops four elbow attempts and Flair moves out the way each time, eventually scrambling into a neutral corner and leaping off the middle turnbuckle with a big Dusty style elbow of his own. It was as good a hope spot, with as perfect a sense of timing, as you could've asked for. Even the finish was great. After all those times we've seen him almost get caught out with a backslide, who'd have guessed he had the best backslide in his locker all along? Killer match. Everybody did their bit in it, but this was a Flair performance even the most jaded of us can appreciate.
 

[SAMS]

1980-09-06
MLW
Great Hussein Arab & Greg Valentine vs. Angelo Mosca & Ric Flair
Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Card
★★★

Angelo Mosca apparently was a Canadian Football League star and here, when matched up against Valentine, he looks like a big deal. The crowd were rabid for this, as they always were in Toronto, and they were popping for Angelo. So working on top against Valentine I was pretty impressed considering I’d never heard of him before, but then when Great Hussein (aka Iron Sheik) came in, the warts were exposed. But I’d say that this presented Hussein in an equally bad light.
In fact, I’d say Hussein was the worst man involved. He didn’t do much in the way of selling and I hated his approach to bumping. He’d get a clubbing blow to the back of the head and then would stand up right, spin around, and take a back bump instead of collapsing to the floor face forwards as you would expect.
It was Flair and Valentine who carried this match though, and while I enjoyed this quite a bit, more than anything it just made me want to watch their singles matches together. Valentine was great as I said, making Angelo look fantastic, and he was great matched up with Flair also, but Flair was an absolute workhorse here. For almost the entire second half of the match he took over, working a phenomenal FIP sequence with several excellent hope spots, and after he finally managed to get the tag out, he was only on the apron for a minute or so before he came in for a hot tag of his own and that was excellent as well! Most of what we see from Flair is him working to stay over, and I’ve hardly seen much of him working to try and get over (not that he wasn’t already a big star here), but I think there are subtle differences and he definitely came across as more aggressive here and proactive compared to the well known travelling champ style match he’s famous for further into the 80s.
By the time this wrapped up Flair was a bloody mess, but he had enough in the tank to take Valentine down with a backslide and the crowd went crazy. 

[tcg91]

This was an enjoyable match, plus a good skirmish of the Flair/Valentine and Mosca/Hussein respective feuds. It was quite good to see Flair as a courageous babyface that wanted revenge on Valentine for breaking his nose, but he was the one that ended up bleeding and selling for most part of the bout, which of course ruled. Mosca did his bits quite well and the crowd was into it, especially when he had to respond to multiple cheap shots from Hussein. While this wasn't a match of the year contender or anything like that, it worked perfectly well as a 20 minutes "all star" main event, with good action, heat and a clean finish to boot
***1/4