February 1983

I don't know if this match has been in wide circulation before, but it got uploaded to Dailymotion earlier this month, and it's off-the-charts great. If it's not the best New Japan tag of the 80s, it's absolutely in the conversation. The rough uncooperative grappling in the opening minutes sets the tone, as they maintain the intensity throughout and never work like they're going through the motions. I liked how whenever Choshu or Saito got in trouble, they'd bullrush the opponent into their corner to set up their double-teams and cheap shots. It wasn't Southern-style cutting the ring in half, more like 90s All Japan style in embryonic form. Saito's stomps were incredibly …

NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair vs Terry Gordy - WCCW 2/4/83 I thought this match was supposed to be a knock against Flair?!?!?!?! This match is fantastic!!! I really want to hear what people's complaints are. If your complaint is that this should have been so much more. I am sorry, but a 12 minute heel vs heel match is not going to get much better than this. In fact, Flair detractors should love this match because it is not Flair formula at all. It is Flair working de facto face, but with more of a heel edge. It is really cool. The match begins with Kerry hauling off and smacking Gordy as this is less than two months since that infamous Christmas cage ma…

Time to go back to the 80s for some soul food! Michael Hayes vs. Kerry Von Erich (2/7/83) After hearing about the legendary Freebirds vs Von Erichs feud (I would say the most famous territorial feud), I was very excited to finally watch the feud in action. According to Bill Mercer, this is the first encounter between Kerry Von Erich and Michael Hayes since the dastardly deed was perpetrated on Christmas night 1982. They laid out a very smart first match in the series based on strong face-heel dynamics. With a blood feud that started with such a hot angle, it is tempting to go to the pay windah right away with violent brawl sprints, but they paced themselves well by …

The Rat Pack (Mid-South tag champs) face JYD and Dusty Rhodes in a non title match. Available on the Network, Vault, WWE Hidden Gems, 1983. "The Common Man's Best Friend". Never before seen footage. Talk about it here

Kerry Von Erich defends the Missouri State Title

NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair vs Bruiser Brody - St. Louis 2/11/83 Two Out of Three Falls First Fall: I was very curious to see how this was worked. I was wondering if Brody would sandbag Flair. If Flair would wrestle him more like Hawk or Kerry Von Erich. In a way, I am a bit disappointed because this has been a routine very good Flair match. Brody has no problem selling or going down for Flair. He even took a hiptoss from Flair. Really there was not much out of the ordinary for the first fifteen minutes. They worked a really good headscissors. Flair eventually went to the eyes and chucked him outside. Brody started marching around and came back in with p…

Fabulous Freebirds vs Von Erichs - WCCW 2/18/83 Lumberjack Match Go home Freebirds! Now we get into the meat of the feud by watching some badass six man tag action. There is a great struggle between these two teams throughout the match. They did not make much use of lumberjack stipulation, but I do not hold that against them. The match starts with Kerry fighting off all three when Gordy is trying to get him in that corner. Kerry unloads on Hayes, who bumps out and thrown back in. David/Gordy is up next, Gordy has a really cool bump off top rope basically Vaderbombs himself and needs to be seen. Gordy was a massive bumper in this early on. OH HELL YEAH! Here comes …

The day after a serious natured MSG show, the WWF crew arrives in Philly and produces this match which is a shit load of fun. The faces and heels are all cracking smiles at various points and it really feels like the type of match where everyone goes back to the hotel and pounds a case of beer afterwards. That isn't to say that people are taking it easy, they just knew the notes to hit to garner a reaction and they did so. Rose is bumping all over the place and being a pain in the ass. Fuji pops off a shockingly fast belly to belly to gain a fall on Bellamo. Muraco is in his prime run and has some more interaction with Snuka that will build later of course. Rocky fires of…

This isn't walking tall Duggan.This is Rat Pack Duggan and he's a heel. I liked this match, but would have been better served if it was only booked to go 10 minutes instead of 14 and change. I really liked the 1st 6 minutes or so. I loved Duggan trying to tease an opening handshake that Mike turns the table on. Duggan bumps big and hard early to establish Sharpe. I love the Sharpe looking for approval from the crowd to stomp Duggan. I love when wrestling can be interactive in a good way. They do some more brawling. Then they shift gears and goes to a test of strength. This transitions into Duggan working the arm. I thought this was well done, but not what I need from a Du…

This was interesting. The crowd is totally with both wrestlers. Back in 1983 the wrestling was more character driven. Kamala was an incredible who drew money from 82-85. Tony Atlas was a big star and drew money everywhere he went . I liked Tony's psychology early of stick and moving against Kamala. He gets caught and Kamala is pretty violent in his beatdown. Then he transitions into a nerve hold. The crowd is totally into this. They're totally behind Atlas when he's making a comeback. Even on Atlas's comeback he's selling the nerve damage. Kamala cuts him off and goes back to the nerve hold. They're beginning to lose the crowd a bit. We get a ref bump and Duggan comes out…

This is a non title match. So the goal is simple. Make Chavo a threat, and make the audience believe he will be the next AWA World Champ. In the match I feel they accomplished this. Bockwinkle along with Buddy Rose are the 2 best at working different type of matches. It starts with Bock trying to slow the pace and use the weight advantage. They start an over the head wristlock battle. This transitions into Chavo working Bock's arm. The arm work here is real nifty. Chavo also is good at keeping Bock off balance with his speed. Eventually Nick escapes and because his arm has been worked over uses his legs and puts Chavo in a body scissor. This is something all wrestle…

I thought this was tremendous. Ted is bumping big for the Dog. Borne takes this awesome looking bump through the ropes. I'm sure he learned this from Rose since it was a signature bump of Buddy's. The shine here is so good. Both JYD and Mr. Wrestling 2 have tons of charisma. On top of it the heels are doing some grade A stooging. Finally they cut off 2 and get some good heat on him. The crowd is totally behind 2. Dibiase and Borne come across as a top level team. They build to a chaotic finish. 3 3/4*

This is interesting. Conway Jr. has looked good on the footage we've seen. He been a convincing baby face. Horner has always been a solid underneath baby face. The Moondogs are most famous for their brawling, and when they're allowed to like in Memphis they get over big. These guys got around 18 minutes so they got the time to have a good match. We get an opening shine where we see the faces work over the legs. This is good solid wrestling. The faces get cut off and the Moondogs just beat down Horner. Horner does a good job getting sympathy from the crowd. The work on top of the Moondogs was pretty ho hum. Horner though connected with the crowd and the crowd rallied b…

This was a very good match, Rose was absolutely gold as usual and Adams made a great impression on the crowd. Adams had a knee injury, but the plot of the match was not the usual one, as Rose couldn't get his hands on his opponent's injured body part until the end of the bout. Adams outwrestled his opponent, with a good arm work, and managed to keep the pace up despite Rose's attempts to take a break from him. All hell broke loose in the last falls, with a few good near falls and a great Adams dive too, but finally Rose managed to hit his bad knee and got the cheap countout win ***1/2

Gran Apollo had a look of a star. Steinborn is a really good worker who I need to see more of. All his stuff holds water. This was a good solid match. No real bells or whistles. Just good stuff. 2 1/4*