January 1984

AWA World Heavyweight Champion Nick Bockwinkel vs Jerry Lawler - Mid-South Coliseum 1/1/84 Watch this match for Lawler comeback! Like right now! Fast forward past the nine minute top wristlock! Watch Lawler unload a feverish can of whoop ass like I have never seen before! I was infected with his energy and was cheering as wildly as if I was in Mempho on New Year's Day 1984. Unfortunately, a 30 second spurt of unadulterated awesomeness is not enough to make a match excellent. The one knock you hear murmured about Bock is he will sit in a hold. It is hard to describe his nine minute top wristlock as him sitting idly, but it was not exactly exciting either. You can only …

Bob Backlund vs Samula January 3, 1984 Hamburg, PA Availability WWF All Star Wrestling - January 7, 1984 WWE Hulk Still Rules DVD

Fabulous Ones vs Moondogs - Memphis 1/9/84 I love Keirn's punches and kicks. They are so crisp and such nice form. The Moondogs have a crutch and they are going to town. They try choking Keirn, but Lane gets the crutch and hits him in the Kibbles & Bits, if you will! Crutch is broken and Lane is wailing away! Another tremendous brawl from these two teams. I love all the choking, weapons, and hatred. It is total, raucous mayhem. I love the Moondog not making the backdrop so he takes a header into the table topples it. There is another crutch and the Moondogs regain control with it. They throw a table in! OH HELL YEAH! Lane takes a nasty bump into the table.…

This is a Texas Tornado match. Right when Another One Bites the Dust plays the crowd goes crazy. This is super heated. We get a super fun spot to start. Then the rest is kick punch and it works. These guys though come across that they hate each other. That's the key. It's all in the drama. Post match Butch Reed joins the Russians and the heat turns into an inferno. We get trash thrown into the ring. Tito Santana out to even the odds. Post match promos from the faces to boot. 3 1/4*

Holy crap this was amazing. It's basically your 1998 Jerry Lawler vs Bill Dundee match. Where it's a match based around great punches, super intesity, great crowd psychology, cheating behind the refs back, and heat. The only thing missing was Gordman getting on the mike and talking shit during the match. Both wrestlers were tremendous in this. Lothario is making a run here as an ultimate baby face. I'd like someone to make an Observer HOF punch list to compare him to others in the HOF and guys on the ballot. 4 1/4*

This is about a month before the MX win the tag titles. They've worked Houston once before. This is a bout to establish them and give them a good win. Bracero is an established wrestler in the Houston area. These guys have a good match. Early on we get Bracero one up the MX and the crowd is eating it up. I loved Eaton doing the Fargo Strut to only eat a dropkick in the mush. Poffo is in and he does a real neat segment with Condrey working a head lock and hair pull. The crowd goes nuts for it. I love how crowds cheer the faces doing illegal things. Eventually the MX take a powder and the faces doing back flips in the ring. Condrey is calling for a timeout. The MX …

This is a really good bout. Reed was good here, but Tito put on an incredible baby face performance. We get an opening shine with Tito working the arm, and by working I mean cranking the shit out of it. Reed fights out and starts to get some heat on Tito. Tito is just fighting underneath the whole time. Gets some hope spots makes a mini comeback. Reed cuts him and really is awesome in his heat segment. Reed is really good going after Tito's neck. Again Tito is great in his selling. The Soup bone from the top rope was a great nearfall. Tito makes a great comeback and they build to the finish. They cut a real good pace, both guys made everything mean something. They told a …

I thought this was a master class in rudo wrestling from Satanico, from his great selling of everything Atlantis does, to the mask ripping, and committing fouls so quickly that he turns rulebreaking into an art. Lots to like in a very good match. You can read my full review, as part of the 365 Wrestling project.

This was an easy night’s work for Jumbo, but an otherwise forgettable match aside from the relative novelty unless you're a big Kabuki fan. He does the lion’s share of the work in this match, and when the Freebirds have control over him, they clap and chant his name like a diehard Southern rasslin’ crowd rooting for Ricky Morton to make the tag to Robert Gibson. Check out my full write-up on this match as part of the 365 Wrestling project.

WWF World Title Iron Sheik (c) vs Hulk Hogan January 23, 1984 New York, NY Availability WWF on MSG Network - January 23, 1984 WWE Hulk Still Rules DVD

The first fall has the greatest lucha matwork this side of Dandy/Azteca. Cota's assault on Rocca's arm second fall onwards is truly incredible and the selling is great. I even like the controversial finish, thought it was a nice twist and fit the narrative. One of the best matches of the 80s. ****5/8

This was a solid brawl that was worked spot on as a 1st match in a feud. Totally leaving the crowd wanting more. Reed did everything right in attacking the cut. Neidhardt's come back was solid. The crowd was really hot for this. 2 1/2*

This is a 6 man tag based on the 1/13/84 Texas Tornado Match. This is a loser leaves town for 60 days. I think it's the only people who leave are people who get pinned. We start of with a wild brawl. It settles down and the heat just simmers for a bit. We get some back and forth for a bit. The faces take control and work over the arm. It breaks down and Volkoff is the 1st to be eliminated. He's pissed and him and Tito have a hate filled brawl on the floor and Tito is counted out. Match is on and the hate is really hitting at a high. A lot of brawling and eventually JYD and Darsow are counted out. This leaves Duggan and Reed and we have one helluva a fight. Darsow comes ou…

This is another match that has never aired. It's a doozy. We get a wild brawl to start. That morphs into an incredible shine. Both TA and Wrestling 2 look like a million bucks. The MX are so good at getting their opponents over. Eventually we see the MX get heat on 2. It is pretty great. 2 is a really good FIP. The hot tag blows the roof off the place. We get this wild finish. Again the heat here is ridiculous. The MX are masters at getting heat. 4 1/4*

"Gorgeous" Jimmy Garvin w/Precious vs "Gentleman" Chris Adams w/ Sunshine - WCCW 1/30/84 Steel Cage Match World Class was way ahead of its time. Better TV production values, entrance music, cool badass heel stable and catfights! Was there any place doing catfights before Precious & Sunshine? This is for the vacant American Heavyweight Championship. I don't know why it is vacant, but I do know why Sunshine dumped Garvin it was because he hired Precious as her valet and that of course led to problems. I should really watch those angles. This was pretty outright boring for the first half of it with all the excitement coming from the women and whether they wou…

The storyline here is that if Mike can last ten minutes with Flair, then David gets another shot at the NWA Title. This obviously isn't up to the usual standards for Flair, but, this is a nice example of seeing the Flair formula at work. Flair helps lead Mike through some early mat work, and goes out of his way to stooge and sell huge for Mike, when he tries working some offense of his own. Flair has some fun torturing him for a bit with an abdominal stretch and then the figure four. David shows up to cheer on his brother, and Mike makes the comeback and keeps Flair in a sleeper until the time runs out.