April 1984

American Heavyweight Champion Chris Adams vs Gorgeous Jimmy Garvin - WCCW 4/2/84 The women are out with their men for this straight up championship bout. Garvin likes showing off scientific abilities early on in matches. He also loves yelling "He is going down, tonight, BABY!". Garvin loves using this to set up one-upmanship later on in the match. I think it works on the level that Garvin is the challenger so he starting right into the heat. He is really good at working the arm with a variety of strong arm holds, but he allows Adams to keep the crowd involved into it with cool spots like his bridge out of the armstretcher and his general energy. So it works almost as …

This was a fun tag match. Of course the heat is pretty hot here. We start out with a wild brawl. It settles down into a pretty good tag match. They use the AWA formula of the double heat section which I'm a fan of. We get a strong shine segment with Duggan standing tall. Duggan in Mid-South might be the greatest standing tall baby face . Eventually the Russsians get the heat on Duggan. The crowd is unglued here. Duggan takes a beating, but gets the hot tag to to Taylor. He's on fire until he's cut off. Finally he tags in Duggan and he's standing tall. The faces look like they're on the verge of winning, but that rat bastard Butch Reed is out to screw the faces over. 3 1/…

This was a good southern tag. The MX did a good job of trying to get the faces over. They gave them a real long shine. Which makes sense since they needed to establish them as a contender. Cash has a lot of charisma. When the MX get the heat they really get the crowd going. The hard work and good story telling gets the crowd really into the match. Cornette was good at picking his spots. I liked the finish, except was surprised Dundee didn't eat the fall since he was the sub. 3 1/2*

This is for the North American Title. I've been on record as saying I like 2 as a babyface more, but here his heel work was incredible. It's start out with a quick burst of offense by TA. 2 starts his game plan and it's to take TA down to the mat so they're the same height. 2 knows TA has the strength and size advantage. Everytime 2 would take down TA, Magnum had a counter. Magnum would gain control with a headlock, and eventually a head scissors. This is working the neck. 2 would play a game of cat and mouse. TA would chase him into the ring and 2 caught him with his million dollar knee lift. That was a nasty shot. 2 starts to work on top just wrecking TA's arm and s…

This is a feud that has generated some good matches. This may be one of Jake's last matches before heading to WCCW. Love the reaction when Jake face plants on a tie up. Totally dig Ronnie using the leg scissors as a weapon. I love how Garvin takes the mount from Jake. These guys are making everything a struggle. Jake is good at selling the ribs. Jake looks to be focusing on the arm. Jake with some nasty punches and elbow's to the back. Jake's size is causing problems for Garvin. Jake ,back to the arm some more. Controlling the arm, more so than working it. I loved the tape spot with Jake. He's positioned it so the ref can't see. A great idea to get heat and to get the c…

Ric Flair defends the NWA World Heavyweight Title This is great with Ole and the nutty fans. Love Ole doing the double take introducing Gary Juster. We are JIP maybe a minute or 2 in with Jack working the headlock. The picture on this is incredible. Jack cranking that neck with his knee in their for good measure. Flair constantly working for escapes. Flair teases the leg to get a break. Neither man backing down. Everytime Flair looks to get an advantage Jack cuts him off.Jack has his sprawling down. Brisco starts to soften up the arm. Jack's short arm scissor is a sight to behold. Jack is working all over the place to soften up Flair.We've seen the neck and now the a…

This on paper really intriqued me ultimately it fell short. We get an opening shine on Kerry that felt short changed because of Buddy's stalling. Buddy gets the heat and works over Kerry. The crowd was into this. They make the crowd happy with the claw finish.

AWA Southern Heavyweight Champion Jerry Lawler vs NWA Mid-American Champion Randy Savage - Lexington, KY 4/9/84 Lawler ventures to Savage's home turf, but crowd seems split as Jimmy Hart is in Savage's corner and Savage is in total heel mode. I loved the beginning with Savage using the hair only to have Lawler really whip him down by the hair and Savage throws a hissy fit. Savage is really into taking walks to break the rhythm of the King. Savage is such a great character. If this was 1997, he would have decked a camera man or ring announcer that was all that was missing. Definitely one of all time favorite stallers. I wish wrestling had more bullshit stalling in it …

Main event of the Universal Wrestling Federation's debut show. Talk about it here

This match is the answer to the burning question: "What happens when you try to have a bloody, heated lucha brawl in front of a Japanese audience?" Via la Mexico! Before the bell Aguayo sucker attacks Hamada and throws him to the outside. Aguayo has a crew of four guys with him, and they are all over Hamada, in a good attempt to draw some killer heat. Doesn't really happen though as the crowd just sits there. These guys have a great, stiff match with some nice lucha sequences and very few holds. Hamada's second (masked guy) tries to fire up the crowd, often pointing out when Aguayo is cheating. Hamada hits a big dive to a nice pop and then things spiral out of control. Ag…

This is a number one contender's match to determine who will face AWA World Heavyweight Champion Jumbo Tsuruta next month

This was JIP and somewhat clipped. Such a fun match, as Watts returned to the ring to face Jim Cornette's MNX and teach them a lesson, along with a JYD in disguise. The match goes as one would expect, with the MNX bumping big time for the babyfaces and then building the crowd's anticipation during the heat segment. The heels were put over as a force, as they managed to dominate the legendary Watts before the last few minutes, with tons of drama following the blind tag sequence. As expected, Watts and Lee overcame the odds with a clean finish and the crowd exploded. Very easy to watch and appreciate this match ***1/2

Is Fujiwara going to UWF one of the greatest acquisitions of wrestling talent in history? I'd say so. This debut match was something that the company badly needed; it's all good having Maeda on board, but if he's just going to spend every main event squashing foreign talent that NJPW/AJPW hadn't locked in (and believe me the ones remaining after that aren't worth the trouble for the most part) then that's a bit of a waste all things considered. Fujiwara is not only fresh, he also has that inherent heat from being a outsider native with a fearsome reputation. I thought what worked about this match was that the two were not only working to get over the dynamic of the m…

The most impressive thing about this match is that in 90 minutes there is literally no downtime at all. Even the Inoki vs. Choshu matwork was compelling. The crowd heat is insane and the fact that that level of heat was consistently maintained for 90 minutes is even more insane. I would say Fujinami was the MVP with Animal as a close second but everyone was great in it. Incredible match to say the least but one I have had trouble rating because it is difficult to distinguish the individual pairings from the overall story.

Midnight Express vs Bill Watts & Stagger Lee - Mid-South 4/22/84 Watch the video package that hypes this match. Other than Duggan/DiBiase feud, my favorite build. Watts talking about taking the Law into your own hands is one of the best Walking Tall promos and going out to find the Dog to be his tag partner is great. The ultimate heat-seeking, work around people's limitation, feed and bump match. The first five minutes is an excellent use of all parties involved. Junkyard Dog picks up an MX member and feed him into Watts to be punched. The Midnight Express bump and stooge for the babyfaces. My favorite one is Eaton actually bumps onto the top turnbuckle only t…

Bob Backlund vs Greg "The Hammer" Valentine - MSG 4/23/84 A lot of people say this is the least of their series, I am the polar opposite, I think it is the best match of their series. I pretty much love all Backlund/Valentine matches and I do need to rewatch the draw so it definitively, but I really, really love this match. This is my third time watching it and it has not lost any of its luster. Where it succeeds where so many matches fail is the natural transitions between limb work through the match and the sustain selling in and out of segments by both men. The commentators are going on that Backlund may have to hang it up if he loses this one. I think Backlund had…

Sgt. Slaughter vs Iron Sheik - WWF, MSG 4/23/84 Slaughter's babyface turn is one of the most perfectly executed in history. I had seen it before, but watching it again recently just really hit home for me. Sheiky Baby was having a match with Eddie Gilbert and the Allentown crowd was chanting for Slaughter because of a standoff they had a week or so prior. Sheik applied the Camel Clutch and then spat upon his fallen opponent and Slaughter just erupted into the ring to chase him off. The place came absolutely unglued. Slaughter delivered the patriotic promos of all patriotic promos and then the Pledge of Allegiance. Wow, when the crowd started reciting with him that's fuck…

This was a great bout and Breaks worked his butt off, both in the ring and with his whiny character, looking like the best nemesis for the teenage sensation Collins. No matter what he did, Breaks just couldn't catch a break against the brave Collins and got extra whiny and aggressive, getting the crowd, the referee and even the announcer against him. Breaks finally started to gain some momentum with his usual armwork, Collins sold really well (especially when bleeding) and started punching back his rival, as his respect and good manners progressively faded during the match. Very strong bout, the finish was too flashy for me but it definitely made sense due to Collins' und…

Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiro Tenryu vs Stan Hansen & Bruiser Brody - AJPW 4/28/84 The biggest native team vs the biggest gaijin team! Had a big fight feel to it even though no titles were on the line. Very much in the All Japan style of a lot of action and frequent tags for both teams. So heat is not sustained a single person with the idea to build to the hot tag, but rather there is just a steady state of heat from the perpetual motion of both teams. I would say the story of the match was that native team just could not get anything going. Jumbo starts hot out of the gate with a Thesz Press and the native team would not take the lead again until the end of the …

Southern Tag Team Champions Tommy Rich vs PYT Express - Memphis 4/12/84 I could watch GIlbert & Koko punch each other day all day long, sadly that's only a small part of this match. Rich & Gilbert are working a New Fabs gimmick with Footloose as their entrance music. PYTs are Koko Ware and Norvell Austin. The match totally peaks in the shine. Ware & Gilbert slugfest is awesome and climaxes with Ware punching Austin in the face. Then Rich gets Austin in a full nelson only to turn around at the last second to have Ware blast Austin again. PYTs argue with Austin telling Ware he is supposed to hit the blond white dude not his fellow black man. They hug it out.…