September 1984

WWF Intercontinental Champion Tito Santana vs Paul Orndorff - St. Louis 9/1/84 WWF invades the former capital of the National Wrestling Alliance taking over their TV after Sam Muchnick's retirement left St. Louis vulnerable. It might be happenstance but these two work a very workrate match and I think it has to do with the fact that they are wrestling in the heart of NWA country. Lots of chaining at the beginning and nearfalls down the stretch. As far as the WWF goes these are two of the less gimmicky wrestlers and they wrestle this mostly straight. There is a moment where they break after a chaining sequence and Tito has his dukes up and Orndorff is wheeling back int…

World Six-Man Tag Team Champions Fabulous Freebirds vs Von Erichs (Kerry, Kevin & Mike) - WCCW 9/3/84 Steel Cage Elimination Match Another raucous, chaotic brawl this time in the confines of the smallest steel cage in the history of pro wrestling. Gordy was taller than the cage. Mike had suffered a shoulder injury so this Kerry and Kevin going against their bitter rivals, the Freebirds. I liked this even better than the previous Badstreet match because the numbers game added an interesting wrinkle. Any time the Von Erichs looked to get on a roll, the free Freebird would bust it up. Also, the Von Erich would focus on things like double noggin knockers and other way…

WCCW TV Champion Jake The Snake Roberts vs Chris Adams - WCCW 9/3/84 I thought they could have done a cool Superkick vs DDT match, but Jake never even teased the DDT. Weird. Still a very good match. Adams is with Gary Hart, but this about a month before the turn on Kevin so he is a babyface. They tease the Superkick a lot early, which is great. I love Jake's selling of this and the way he backs into the corner. The match picks up when Adams misses a legdrop and Jake pulls out a foreign object and hits Adams in the throat. So Adams gets one from Hart but goes flying over the top rope before he can use it. Jake goes after the throat with a double thrust. Hart puts Adams…

Really strong storytelling here as Fujiwara comes across as the stronger, more-seasoned wrestler, who is content on grinding Super Tiger down at all times. It's a great dynamic for the entire match. He starts the match by grabbing Super Tiger and giving him a huge atomic drop, and then catches his first kick and just releases his grasp. Good dickhead type stuff there. Fujiwara grabs a triangle choke and, while it appeared Super Tiger tapped, the ref breaks the hold and the match continues. I'm not sure what happened there, he didn't seem to be under the ropes. Fujiwara catches a second kick, and turns it into a dragon screw takedown and we're back to the mat. Any time Su…

Originally aired on MSG Network. Not available anywhere else. For some unknown reason, Kamala's handler, Friday is the special referee

Way too much work these past weeks and not enough of wrestling for this fan! Time to catch up on reviews of what I have been watching and get down to bidness of watching more classic, badass wrestling Jerry Lawler & Randy Savage vs. King Kong Bundy & Rick Rude - Memphis 9/10/84 Randy Savage was over like all get out! He was more over than fucking Lawler! It was insane; literally every movement got a huge reaction from the crowd. He could have blown his nose in the middle of the ring and gotten a pop. He came over like a massive star in this match as time would tell he would go to be arguably the second biggest wrestling star of the 80s (Andre would be the onl…

Yamazaki is Super Tiger's protege (thanks wikipedia!) and Snuka was sometimes referred to as Cocoa Samoa. This one is pretty heatless, with an early highlight being Snuka having Yamazaki bent over with his hands pinned while Snuka would catapult himself up and bump crotches (twice!). There's one flurry where the guys start punching and kicking at each other, with Snuka firing off some headbutts. Otherwise this is pretty forgettable. Yamazaki wins with the german + bridge. This match was ranked 72/75 in the Other Japan 80s poll.

Now we'e talking with the mid 80s shoot style stuff. This is the finals of a mini tournament (Super Tiger over Fujiwara, Maeda over Mark Lewin). Good kicks from both with a slight edge to Super Tiger. The stand-up sequences that led to take-downs got pretty good as this went on. Lot of armbars and rope breaks, as is expected. Both guys do a reversal into a single crab off that submission. Crowd is hot for these big submission take-downs. Super Tiger is the first to break out some wrestling, hitting a somersault senton onto Maeda's back while doing some arm work. Pele kick from Tiger and he goes up for a knee drop but Maeda avoids. Everybody pretty much no-sells anything b…

The first fall of the match, unfortunately, just doesn't deliver. It sort of has a bland running through the motions with no emotion feel to it. I'd say overall, the match is disappointing. The finish is pretty cool, because Flair starts to go a little nuts wanting to demolish Tenryu's leg, but it's not enough to save the otherwise flat match.

Satanico, the challenger for the middleweight title, was younger and fitter and oozed confidence as he coolly outgrappled Cochise to take the first fall. He continued to dominate by attacking Cochise’s arm while Cochise retaliated in identical fashion. Satanico didn’t really sell the arm, which I think was for the sake of the story, as he continued to smirk and casually walk around. But Cochise’s resourcefulness allowed him to seize a second fall pin. Satanico offered an ambiguous handshake but Cochise preemptively kneed him in the back and launched an impressive submission-based assault, primarily targeting the back and neck. The arrogance turned into urgency and despera…

Brody & Hansen defend the PWF Tag Titles in San Juan

Jerry Lawler & Randy Savage vs. King Kong Bundy & Rick Rude - Memphis 9/17/84, No DQ It is not often the place-setter match for the wild brawl outshines, but unfortunately that is the case here. I was all revved up for a raucous, bitchin time. Don't get me wrong the match was good, but it was not the classic brawl that I think that these four could have. It is Texas Tornado style. I love the name Texas Tornado whoever came up with that is a genius. Bundy gets a chair broken over his head in the first big spot of the match, while Rude is earning his money with his excellent stooging. Savage comes flying out of the sky to the floor with a double axehandle twice.…

AWA World Heavyweight Champion Rick Martel vs Nick Bockwinkel - AWA Winnipeg 9/20/84 WOW! Until the finish, I think this was the best match I have seen so far as part of my 80s watching and is definitely neck and neck with Flair vs Kerry from August of 1982. It featured some of the best selling I have ever witnessed in pro wrestling. It was not just from Martel. It was from both Martel and Bockwinkel. It felt like a war of attrition between the two best wrestlers in the world. It was a game of inches and they were both so good that it was just going to be the details the decided the winner. The small detail was Bockwinkel's nasty little short jab to the ribs. It was h…

This is the battle of the French Giant vs the Ugandan Giant. Friday is barred from ringside. This is what you'd expect from these 2. A lot of kicks and punches. Andre throws a nasty headbutt. I enjoyed the early part with Andre working the back. This was fun while it lasted. It needed more time. We get a crappy finish to build to a rematch.

This was fun, it was MNX vs Fantastics after all and it could do no wrong. However Cornette behaved too much and the referee got involved too many times, if we consider that it was a No DQ match and technically the heels could have used any tricks in the book, if they wanted to. Still, this was pretty good and the MNX dominated Rogers for many minutes, while the crowd was getting quite vocal. The finish was quite good, as it protected the babyfaces due to the referee incident ***

Nick Bockwinkel & Mr. Saito vs The Fabulous Ones - AWA 9/30/84 So I am bitching & moaning in the Rock N Roll Express matches that they are too long, well guess what this was way too short. Wow! This was a humdinger of a tag team match. I was absolutely loving every minute of this and did not want it to end. These four were just being absolute dicks to each other. This felt very Japanese. Yes, it was double face in peril with the Fabs playing FIP, Fabs were double teaming and being pricks right with Bock & Saito. Plus there was constant nonstop run ins from the partners and just a general sense of competition and struggle. I really enjoyed it. Bock jumpstar…