October 1984

JIP, as the first 5 minutes or so were not broadcasted on TV. However, despite missing the first part, this was easily their best one so far, thanks to strong matwork and a good crowd support for 20+ minutes. Martel was once again treated as a major threat, despite Jumbo dictating the pace and showing that he was ready to be the Ace, as he dished punishment but also sold his back well, like someone like Flair would do. Non-finish yet again, but it was well done at least and a quite climatic end to the late match crescendo ***1/2

This was fun. It was Street using his schtick to carry the match. Mantell was solid, but Street was a lot of fun. 2 1/4*

This was a quick fight. I dug Ladd's work in the corner. This was a masterclass in putting some one over. Master G was the guy Watts wanted to replace JYD as the face of the company. So Ladd is on him for about a minute. Master G makes a comeback with a big move off the top and makes Ladd submit. You can't blame Ladd for Master G failing. Ladd put him over as big as possible.

This is an interesting match. It had a lot neat stuff, along with things that surprised me. The card this match was on drew a 33,000 dollar house. . I thought the shine was well worked. Dundee and Duggan played off each other well. The shine had a lot of energy to it They did a big brother/little brother thing. Like the did the Duggan pose together.Plus both Duggan and Dundee are great at connecting to the crowd. I marked out big for the Doc/Dundee slam off where Dundee used leverage to cause Doc to get a wedgie every time he tried to slam Dundee. Duggan had some fun spots. The guys did a good job mixing in the comedy with the tag spots. Eventually Dundee is the FIP. T…

Shoe and I reviewed this match as a part of our tribute to Tommy Rogers for Tag Teams Back Again Episode 6. Link is here. I had forgotten most of the match (the finish stuck with me) so I rewatched it and liked a lot more this go around. I was having a hellish time at work when I first watched it and am on vacation right now so I am going to chock it up to that. http://placetobenation.com/tag-teams-back-again-episode-6-special-edition-tommy-rogers-tribute/ The Fantastics vs The Guerreros - Houston 10/12/84 The Guerreros were big stars for Houston Wrestling. There are people way more qualified to explain Houston wrestling, but in simplistic terms it is simila…

I only watched this because I remember being blown away by the Texas tornado rematch with a fiery crowd a decade ago on a WWE Legends DVD, but it's fun as hell and has a fiery crowd itself so I think people should see it too. WWF tags could have a habit of doing heel in peril but I think what opens the match here is more of a traditional (was it traditional in 1984? Hell) babyface shine, because it was more Sheik and Volkoff stooging and getting tossed around than it was rest holds and reaching for an out. Once that's over though they get right into Slaughter reaching for an out, and there's maybe the closet non-tag I've ever seen in this. They got Slaughter nice and bloo…

Caught on fancam, almost fully preserved bar minute or so cut off due to some minor corruption. Cuban's hardly much to talk about in terms of how he fits into UWF (even this super early incarnation of it where we were still having random lucha guys showing up) not to worry; he's with Fujiwara who can make exchanges over who can stick a hammerlock on look actually cool and engaging. After a few minutes of the two on the mat (surprisingly half-decent!) we go into more scrappy/comedic work as Fuji gets a lot of mileage out of Cuban's usual brawler shtick while throwing some pretty hard shots when it comes down to the handbag slinging with his usual headbutts and stiff slaps …

With this match being fancam recorded in-full I am very certain that this is the earliest footage of Danny/Dan Kroffat we have around of an actual full match in action (there is earlier with him showing up for a televised Stampede taping last year, but only for sparingly few minutes and most of it involving him talking than wrestling). so that's cool. Match is eh, alright. Even someone with as little experience as Kroffat still looks good enough when him and Maeda are having solid ground work focused around Maeda attacking the arm with key/double wrist locks, and of course Kido is as smooth as expected. Tapu is the odd one out here; he's a short stubby guy who's past his …

So this was a really awesome Andre performance, first and foremost. The amount of sympathy that he garners while making Kamala look like a dangerous killer is astonishing. Here you have this giant of a man that the crowd loves and he takes Kamala's chops and bites and stumbles and staggers around the ring, carrying himself like some brittle big target that's being beaten down. There is a part in the match where Kamala goes for the door to escape and Andre uses all his strength to go after him and stop him, selling the entire time, slumping into the ropes after he's made the save. Kamala is always fun to watch and his wildness adds to the match. What he lacks in ph…

This is a early house-show test of the December Korakuen and it shares a lot of the characteristics of it in particular; very long, focus on prototype shoot-styleisms to come, and arguably a bit boring in places. The first five minutes are virtually nothing but prancing around, occasional wiffed kicks and maybe one or two grappling bits that end in the ropes. Takada then dominates as he mostly takes control when on the ground. Yamazaki gets to the ropes and they reset. And....yeah nothing much happens for a bit after as well, it's mostly just them trading submission attempts at a fairly slow pace. I will say it's not even half-bad wrestling in that regard, it's just somet…

Akira Maeda vs Kazuo Yamazaki - UWF 10/22/84 They took a helluva long time to get going in this one. Just a lot of listless time on the mat in wristlocks. Everytime it looked like someone was going to make some in roads with some kicks they would grind it to a halt on the mat. There would be the occasional good snapmare or bridge by Yamazaki. Still, there was not much struggle. Maeda is too deliberate. He has no explosiveness to make this style work. Very little charisma from what I have seen. I liked Yamazaki from that one Hashimoto match. After about 15 minutes, they finally kick in the finish run which is a German by Yamazaki, missile dropkick then another German …

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs Nobuhiko Takada - UWF 10/22/84 Takada came out to So Happy Together and Fujiwara Ride of Valkyries. God Bless Japan! Why the fuck did I wait so long to get into Fujiwara! He is the best at coming up with completely plausible way to hit pro wrestling moves in a match. His backbreaker was tight. I really like these two together. Takada has so much to prove against Fujiwara, who is as confident as he was against Super Tiger. I loved the early grappling. It was quick without lacking the grit and struggle. Takada had some nice early gymnastics and Fujiwara/Takada did their bridge/snapmare sequence. It was grappling with highspots. The ultimate hig…

WWF Intercontinental Champion Greg Valentine vs. Tito Santana - WWF, MSG 10/22/84 I have watched the 6/16 MSG and I liked it so much that I want to sleep on it and watch it again before i give my final thought because I thought it was a total barnburner. The August MSG match was not up by I have watched it previously and ready my review from years ago (my how times flies!) it sounds like it was a strong angle based match. Valentine thought he had won the title (he had the same problems against Backlund, you think he'd would learn ) only to have Santana upend him. He was a sore loser so he broke Tito's leg with the figure-4. Then up in Canada about a month later, Ti…

So why did Chris Adams join Gary Hart in the first place? Kevin Von Erich vs Chris Adams - WCCW, Cotton Bowl 10/27/84 It seems that Adams has already semi-turned heel by joining Gary Hart. However, he is still wrestling clean for the most part, but he seems on edge. There are a couple fans with Benedict Adams signs. Pretty standard wrestling at the beginning with Kevin getting the best Adams at every turn with amateur wrestling and Adams getting more and more pissed. Then on a break out of the corner Adams hits a cheapshot. Adams then proceeds to wrestle like its 2016 with one of the best superkicks of all time to jaw of Kevin and then a suicide dive! Wow! WCCW co…