May 1983

AWA Southern Tag Team Champions Fabulous Ones vs Moondogs - Memphis 5/2/83 Stretcher Match One of the best violent, Southern tag brawls I have ever seen with a fantastic finish. They two teams just rip into each other the whole match. I love the double stomp and the Fabs use it liberally. They are clawing at the Moondogs eyes and raking their boots on their faces. There are no wrestling moves just fighting. Lane has a chain, but it goes flying out on a collision. Lane disoriented gets smashed in the head by the bone and ends up that Bloody Lane will be playing face in peril. This match sees Lane doing more selling, but Kerin is very active and adds that drama. I love…

Jos LeDuc defends the NWA TV Title at the Charlotte TV Studios (WPCQ). Talk about it here

Landell is doing a great job stooging for Apollo. Landell's work is very sneaky when he's working on top. Apollo's comeback is full of spirit. The finish was what it was. 2 1/4*

Maybe this match feels a little better than it actually is just in comparison to the bloated NOAH matches I've been watching recently, but this struck me as a great sub 10-minute match that probably would have done well were it included on the DVDVR set. They work a really tight structure that packs an epic feel into a short match time. It's very simple work: Andre works the crowd into a frenzy -> they do some cat and mouse stuff -> Andre demonstrates his power by downing Maeda with a single chop -> Maeda gets in some licks and takes the giant off his feet -> Andre gets serious and demolishes him. Andre's body language makes everything he does feel so big and …

Lawler defends the CWA International Title, from the Mid-South Coliseum.

We have seen this match up a few times on Titans. I liked this much more than those. Backlund sold his ass off here. He did everything to get over Afa's terrible nerve holds. Now Bob vs Bock I can get behind. We also get some promos, and Bock was great. 2*

This was the opening match of a loaded card where the WWF and AWA world titles are defended. This was just a solid match. The job of the opening bout is a good back and forth that would be easy to outshine.Allows people to get a coke or beer. We see Rich do a lot of headlock take overs. Work the arm a bit. Gran Markus would use cheapshots to get heat. He was getting Tito next week. So the other purpose of this is for Markus to look good in winning. Markus wins with his finisher of the double elbow drop.

This would be called a dream match and it wouldn't be hyperbole. The AWA World Champ vs the 2 time former NWA World Champ and biggest box office draws around. This card was called a Night of Champions and had both the AWA and WWF titles defended on the show. This is the 1st match in a 2 match series. So the point of the 1st match is to make people believe that Dusty can win the title and have a screwy finish to set up the Bull rope match next month. It starts with Ted Dibiase issuing a challenge to the winner. We open with a lock up and early on Dusty knocks Bock down and we get a Funky Like A Monkey strut .Bock is fun in stooging for Dusty and coming up ways to ea…

Man this was a really great match, and I agree with Bruce this might have been Mil's best performance in the states.We get a really great extended shine sequence with Tito being the rugged fighter, while Mil showed a lot of flash. It's obvious on commentary Boesch has designs to make Tito his new ethnic babyface in the Jose Lothario role. Both heels made the faces look great in the shine. I was shocked Mil played FIP. He was good at it and the crowd was super hot for it. Tito gets the hot tag. He's on fire, but gets cut off and we get total chaos at the finish.3 3/4*

Another very interesting match. The heat for it is off the charts-the chants for Hogan and especially Inoki are just insanely loud before the match even starts. Andre is in the first row so you know what kind of BS finish we're getting here. The matwork consists of the most you can get out of Hogan-basic leg holds, headlocks etc. but it looks fine enough. What impressed me most here were the little things Inoki did-he'd go for a Figure 4 attempt, and Hogan would kind of stand up and shift his weight, but it's Inoki's facial expression and the way he put Hogan's feet back on the floor that *sell* the idea he was putting up any kind of defence. Inoki kicking Hogan when he g…

Sheik Ayatollah Blackwell vs Mad Vachon – AWA 5/22/83 Algerian Death Match As one would expect, an Algerian Death match is a Texas Death match complete with pinfalls necessary to trigger the ten count. The Mad Dog and Blackwell promos before this match are must see as Mad Dog promises to Blackwell in the pine coffin he is building. Also, it is important to note Mad Dog has been out for 2 years due to Blackwell so the feud culminates here in this Death Match. Also a cool outcome of the last match in this feud is that Verne fulfilled his promise that the High Flyers would not have to worry about Blackwell & Adnan as contenders because Adnan has been transitioned…

Patera defends the CWA International Title from the Mid-South Coliseum. Title vs $5,000.

WWF Heavyweight Champion Bob Backlund vs Sgt. Slaughter - MSG 5/23/83 The year 1983 is a year of transition for the WWF as it is the first full year under Vince Jr. It is not considered one of the great years in WWF history as Vince is trying to get his building blocks in place for his national expansion thus he keeps the belt on Bob Backlund for the year and uses a retreads as his challengers (Muraco & Slaughter) with Masked Superstar being the one new challenger. Slaughter, being such a great bumper, is one of Backlund's best opponent. While this is not as good as their '81 Philly series, this is still a great Backlund title defense. Apparently, Slaughter attac…

Terry Funk vs Bob Orton - Southwest 5/26/83 Southewest World Championship Tournament Kudos to the modern guy who does commentary on this. He was not half bad and got the psychology over pretty well. Holy shit! Why has no one talked about this match? Probably because it happened in Southwest! This may be the most logically progressive match I have ever seen. Like every move that one did to the other caused a reaction and had a consequence. It was a beautifully constructed narrative. Easily one of the best matches of 80s. They start off with mutual respect deal and it is chippy, but respectful. Then Funk starts elbowing the back of the neck. Then he slaps Orton.…

Man I really liked what we got here. My problem was the match went 10 minutes and felt like it should have gone 20. I liked Mil's work on the arm. He constantly was working it and had movement. So we had a fun shine segment. Superstar's strikes were credible. He got some heat on Mil. Everything Superstar did held water. I wish he didn't use his damaged arm to hook on a front face lock. Superstar uses his size to gain an advantage. We go to a comeback and finish. Fun stuff. 2 3/4*

This was fun. It was pretty much kick punch fight. Their were a few momentum shifts back and forth.Tito going after the mask Clearly Boesch wanted to make Tito his Spanish star. Super Destroyer comes out to interfere. Dusty comes out to even the odds. This leads to promos. 2 1/2*

Fabulous Freebirds/Jimmy Garvin vs Von Erichs/Iceman Parsons - WCCW 5/27/83 Elimination Match This match is not worked Survivor Series style, but basically as a 4 vs. 4 battle royale where eliminations can happen by pinfall, submission or being thrown over the top rope. This match is wicked chaotic and I actually liked that feel a lot. The Faces start off hot. They shoot all four Birds into the center for a 4 way collision. Gordy goes for piledriver. Kevin hits a crossbody and they pig pile on top for him for three. Loved the pig pile! I did not expect Gordy to be the first eliminated. That’s a huge coup for the Von Erichs. The eliminations are rapid fire. Parson…

This was a fun and energic match, albeit a bit messy at times and not exactly fought with the same spirit of a "modern" elimination bout, as it was very quick and it only lasted about 15 minutes. As mentioned, the first few minutes created a bit of chaos, mostly to get rid of quite a few competitors, but then the match became a very attractive 2v2 deal with a nice crowd reception. Hayes got tons of heat here, this and Roberts worked well as a duo and made Kevin look very strong as the sole survivor ***1/2