May 1984

WWF Intercontinental Champion Tito Santana vs Greg "The Hammer" Valentine - WWF, Philly 5/5/84 By watching this match, I have watched every major recorded match these two had during their red hot 84-85 feud. The first two matches in the series are from Philly and are from before the feud really gets kicked off when Valentine breaks Tito's leg with the figure-4 and then Tito swears revenge by learning the figure-4 to break The Hammer's leg, which I still think is like the coolest angle ever. I think besides the cage match that these Philly matches are better than the MSG matches, which feel more like angle advancement. These matches are hard-hitting, almost shoot-style…

World Six-Man Tag Team Champions Fabulous Freebirds vs Von Erichs (Fritz, Kevin & Mike) - Parade of Champions 5/6/84 Badstreet Match Michael P.S. Hayes is back BABY and in style with the most badass theme song in wrestling history Badstreet USA! The Freebirds returned winning the Six-Man Titles before the big Parade of Champions show, which was the bittersweet highwater mark for World Class Championship Wrestling, which honored David Von Erich and featured Kerry Von Erich fulfilling his two year quest to win the world championship from Ric Flair. It was only fitting that there was a major Von Erich vs Freebirds match. They keep Mike's involvement to a minimum. Frit…

NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair vs Kerry Von Erich - Parade of Champions 5/6/84 Great match? Not really. Awesome moment? OH HELL YEAH! I have seen this match a handful of times, but watching after seeing the other Von Erich bouts in order really hit home for me last night. I was as excited as every one of those 32,000 people in Texas Stadium (announcer claims 50k and the largest audience ever in attendance to watch pro wrestling) to see Kerry Von Erich capture the World Championship achieving his dream and honoring his late brother. The entrance was perfect with Kerry coming out with the Yellow Rose and wearing "In Memory of David Von Erich" on his jacket and…

NWA World Heavyweight Champion Kerry Von Erich vs Terry Gordy - WCCW 5/7/84 I am such a mark for Kerry to have the belt. I love the title victory and just love seeing the NWA World Championship around his waist. I don't think he would have made a great champion mostly due to personal problems, but I wish it was a bit longer. This match against archrival Terry Gordy is the day after the Parade of Champions. This match is actually worked like a 90s workrate sprint. There is not a terrible amount of selling, it is mostly about Slam! Bang! Action! I think they do a great job laying in everything and making it exciting. They just don't tell much of a story. I love how …

This was a blast. Taylor is selling a neck injury. He has a neck brace on. Taylor is all over Reed to start. An eye rake by Reed, but Taylor fires back. Taylor charges Reed, but hits the ring post instead. Reed focuses on the neck with a swinging neck breaker. He picks Taylor up and drops him neck 1st on the rope. Reed snaps the neck again. Headlock by Reed, and he has a knuckle duster and hits Taylor with it. The crowd gets really heated here. Taylor is busted open. Reed attempts a piledriver, but Taylor counters with a back drop. Taylor hits an Atomic Drop, and then he nails Reed with a Piledriver. Theffcrowd is totally with Taylor now. Taylor with a flying drop. He fo…

The match was ok. It was just give and take brawling. Nothing to write home about. No blood was spilled in the match itself. Now the postmatch is off the charts. Duggan starts having Volkoff read off the Pledge Of Allegiance. Then Darsow and Reed enter the cage and all 3 Russians destroy Duggan. The crowd is molten hot here. They start to put shaving cream on Duggan and it's mixed in with his blood to a disgusting sight. The babyfaces come out and save Duggan and his hair. Amazing angle. 2 1/4* match though.

Jose Lothario has been a favorite of mine on the Houston footage. He's a guy who was considered a big deal in Texas. Finally we're getting footage of him and understanding why. This is JIP about 5 minutes in.The match is more of a backdrop for the Guerrero heel turn. We see a little shine from Lothario and Guerrero. At one point Lothario delivers an amazing looking knee drop. So we Lothario as FIP. It's set up by a rope run into an Ito knee into the back. This results in some back work . Eventually Lothario is busted open. Their is some work on the cut, but they don't want to take away from the story which is the turn. Lothario picks Khruschev up for a slam and nail…

This was a really good match that was part of a card that drew a 60,000 dollar house. Which for Sam Houston Colliseum was a near sell out. 9,000 people was a sell out. I liked TA working over Wrestling 3's arm. He would work spots around the arm. I loved TA's big wind up punches to the arm. Wrestling 3 was great at feeding TA and taking bumps for him. Wrestling 3 nailed a knee lift to stop TA dead in his tracks. TA made his comeback really quick. I was shocked about that. Though it did set up Wrestling's 2 interference. TA is great at selling his ass off here and getting sympathy from the crowd. TA bleeding added to the drama. The screw job finish was spot on for thi…

This is a non title match. The 1st match between the 2 legendary teams in Houston. This is coming off the huge match between Midnight Express vs Bill Watts and Stagger Lee that drew a $102,000 house. Here they drew a $60,000 house which is around 8,000 people. This match was awesome and deserving of their legend of the teams. The crowd is super hot. Both teams get incredible reactions just by high fiving their partners. A lot of wrestlers in today's era would pay their salary to get a reaction like that. The 1st few minutes is both teams playing to the crowd. Establishing a dynamic with them. Taking their time. We see both Gibson and Morton do rope running spots by u…

Stagger Lee vs Mr. Wrestling 2 (Houston Wrestling 5/11/84) This wasn't much of a match. It was really short. Pretty much the Mr. Wrestling 2 good bye tour.

This was fun. 1st off we got some shots and angles that we haven't seen from the footage before. Landell was great at stalling here. Williams basically midget tosses Landell in this. Buddy was great at putting over Doc's strength. This is a loaded card and it really has something for everyone. Doc is a force of nature. Landell is so good at generating heat. A look here, A look there. Him using the ref as a human shield was so well done. Fun match.

NWA World Heavyweight Champion Kerry Von Erich vs Ric Flair - WCCW 5/11/84 Coming off his recent loss of the World Championship to Kerry Von Erich, Ric Flair is out to prove he is still The Man. Wow, does that give this match a totally unique feel compared to other Flair vs Kerry matches. Flair is wrestling with a challenger's mindset even if this is non-title and he is here for a fight. He establishes this with a slap to Kerry in the corner. He is here to fight. People want to talk about matches that do not follow the Flair Formula, well here you go because this is a sprint where Flair is crazed and desperate. His hyper-offensive mindset is a double-edged sword as …

AWA World Heavyweight Champion Jumbo Tsuruta vs Rick Martel - AWA 5/13/84 Thank God for the Japanese without them we would have such little footage. This is an AWA World Title defense taped for Japanese TV because Jumbo is the World Champion even though Jumbo will be dropping the belt in this bout. Basically, Jumbo was utilized like a gaijin would be in All Japan as a transitional champion to bridge between two major stars. Conventional American booking wisdom would have Martel take the title from the longstanding heel champion, Nick Bockwinkel,. but I liked the wrinkle of using Jumbo. I think it adds a little spice to the Bock/Martel series that Martel never beat Bo…

Southern Tag Team Champions Tommy Rich & Eddie Gilbert vs PYT Express - Memphis 5/18/84 Falls Count Anywhere Now this is more like it! Super heated brawl! There is really not much to recap. For about 12 minutes, it is a balls to wall slugfest. With all due respect to Norvell and Rich, Gilbert and Koko (or should I say Stagger Lee as the announcer keeps calling him) owned this. Gilbert was a heat seeking missile for Pretty Young Things just tackling them at every turn. A Koko Ware vs. Eddie Gilbert from 1984 is a new dream match for me. Holy shit! They had insane chemistry. I loved Koko breaking a cane over Gilbert's back and then jabbing him in the throat. In fair…

I don't know how well circulated this match is, it's never really talked about when people are talking about the Sheik/Slaughter series. It very well could just be essentially the same match as the 5/21 MSG match that they have only 2 days after this one and I guess I'll find out soon as I plan to watch that next. But this is a pretty good match, not as good as the first MSG match and not nearly as hot of a crowd although they're definitely into the match. Slaughter starts the match and just kicks Sheik's ass for the first few minutes. Slaughter throws him over the top rope and then hits him twice with a chair both looking like fairly safe working chair shots (I menti…

Sgt. Slaughter vs Iron Sheik - WWF, MSG 5/21/84 They slowed down the match but did not sacrifice hatred one bit. Again, most wrestlers would be over the moon to have this be their blowoff match and Slaughter and Sheik are just getting started. I loved the beginning of the match with Sheik spitting and slapping Slaughter and Slaughter just needed one slap to level him. Slaughter tortures Sheik much to the joy of the MSG crowd again. This time he adds the fun wrinkle of loading his boot up and driving it into the face of Sheik. Danny Davis is forced to check boot, but Sarge plays these moments off great. Sheik is so great at just being a total chump wuss when it is necessa…

I haven't been high at all on Harley Race during his early 80s AJPW run. Here we get him against the Nature Boy in Japan. The biggest problem I've had with him during all this is that he won't sell for anyone. He also gives a lazy vibe at times. I feel like Harley was selling a little more for Flair than others, but he's still kicking out at one and cutting Flair off a bunch. Some of the headbutts look good, but basically Flair just works his ass off to get something out of Harley here. His reward is Harley winning. This was ok.

Wanted to give this another look as a number of folks were touting it as one of All Japan's best from the 80s. Really strong start with some work around holds and an amateur exchange where Kerry looks credible while Jumbo looks confident and ready for the NWA World Champion. Great butterfly suplex following Kerry's struggle to block it. Some nice arm work from Kerry follows but Jumbo counters with a crossbody for a nice near fall. Big fan of how he throws some nice wrinkles into amateur & power offense. Our first tease of the Claw comes with Kerry fighting out of a kneebar. Jumbo blocks it so he grabs the stomach and sells it well when they' standing. Enough…

Pretty interesting to see this following KVE's match with Jumbo 2 days prior. Especially after thinking that match with Jumbo might be the best of KVE's career. This match starts very similar with a little amateur spot, but then sets its own pace. KVE takes the first fall with the claw, and Flair takes the second with the figure four. While this match is good, it just doesn't compare to the passion and emotion shown in the Jumbo match. KVE still has two impressive showings here close together. Flair pulls out the W in the third fall with a pretty anti-climactic roll up.

This was just a hate filled brawl. Both guys bleeding. Lothario's punches were so on point. Hector bumping big for them. Hector's punches were pretty great too. We got nasty chair shots. The crowd was going crazy here. These guys were so awesome. The brawling was so intense. I totally bought into the finish. 4 1/4*

Man Reagan seems to have some charisma. He has a nasty looking knee surgery scar. This was a solid underneath match. I liked the Pritchard match better. 2*

This is from St Louis, and while only just under 7 mins, is an absolute blast. We all know the feud coming in and that translates perfectly to the frenzied sprint we get here. As you would expect, there isn't much 'wrestling' in this, but there is just pure energy, chaos and intensity. There is lots of brawling on the outside and the hate the two guys have translates perfectly to the type of match they are having. I say a match, but its very much a fight. There is also that sense of both occasion, but also that a regular official wouldn't be able to handle the match, by having Lou Thesz as the special referree. He doesn't do much, but adds gravitas without overshadowing t…

Mid-South Tag Team Champions Rock N Roll Express vs Midnight Express - Mid-South TV 5/23/84 Can you smell That Smell? Fun, little TV match. It was NO DQ and early on the RNRs are throwing that in MX faces with double teams and throwing them over the top rope. Basically throwing all the MX shit back in their faces. Morton misses a dropkick. He then is rammed into the post and finally a powerslam puts him into the FIP. I love how modulated his selling and it took him three moves before going into the FIP. He is thrown over the top rope. He comes back in and then tags in Gibson. This kicks off one of the best finish runs I have seen in a tag match in a wild. It is to…

Easily one of the best sub 10 minutes matches that I have ever seen. The beginning wasn't great or anything, but it quickly picked up and Magnum sold his forehead so well that the female teenagers sitting front row were horrified by the scene. Great work on the cut by DiBiase and a very hot crowd in this, including a cool way for Magnum to set up the belly to belly. I really wish this had a tighter start and maybe a few more minutes down the end, as things were going really well at one point ***1/2

NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair vs Ricky Steamboat - MACW Night of Champions 5/29/84 Flair had just regained the World's Heavyweight Championship from Kerry Von Erich in Japan a week ago, but there is no rest for the wicked. He was in Meadowlands here defending against his arch-nemesis, Ricky Steamboat. I understand why people may hold up Garvin or a Windham as Flair's greatest opponent, but when it comes down to it, it has gotta be Steamboat. He may be the best all-around performer in wrestling history. In The First Twenty Minutes: You see power in the form of the press slam. Speed in the form of dropkicks. Physicality in the form of chops. Ability to w…