June 1985

NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair vs Terry Taylor - Mid-South 6/1/85 My recollection is that this a contender for one of the best matches of the 1980s and is one of my all-time favorite Flair matches lets see how it holds up. First Twenty Minutes: Fuck yeah, this holds up. Incredible opening twenty minutes. I love how Flair always starts off clean against Taylor before working himself up into a lather. I think he underestimates Taylor and thinks he can take him by conventional means only to realize he is in for one helluva fight. I love Taylor's body language in this. He is confident and you believe in him to become the world champion. Taylor grabs a couple…

WWF World Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan vs Ken Patera - Championship Wrestling 6/1/85 Interesting the Heenan Family did not have many matches with Hogan in the first half of 85. I would reckon they were mainly working with Andre as the big hair cutting angle was at the beginning of the year and of course Andre/Studd bodyslam match at Mania. Hogan was facing a rotation mainly of Beefcake, Muraco and Orndorff. While training Hillbilly Jim and Mr. T were his main focuses in terms of angles. In April of 85 following Mania, they started running Orndorff shaking Hogan's hand after matches and they cemented the babyface turn once Orndorff saved Hogan from Piper/Orton a…

AWA Southern Heavyweight Champion Randy Savage vs Jerry Lawler Memphis, Mid-South Coliesum 6/3/85, Loser Leaves Town, No DQ This is not your standard Loser Leaves Town, you see. Jerry Lawler has gone on record stating he will not wrestle anywhere but Memphis effectively meaning a loss will put Lawler out of wrestling for a year. This is the anti-workrate classic. It proves that you don't need flashy MOVEZ~! and action every second to deliver a highly entertaining bout for the ages. In the first five minutes, there are only three punches thrown, but that is all they need to tell their story. In interim, you have the lunacy of Savage taking center stage, jawin…

What the hell is Butch Reed doing in Montreal???

Only 6 1/2 minutes shown. PM me if you have questions

Mid-South TV Episode 300, Available on the Network. Original airdate June 8, 1985. Starts at 15:00 mark

WWF World Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan vs Tatsumi Fujinami - NJPW 6/11/85 VinnyMac is here to officially sanction this as a WWF Title defense. It is a good, solid match. Hogan takes the vast majority of the match which is very surprising for anybody that has watched a lot of WWF stuff. He does it scientifically. If you have watched enough Hogan, you have seen him bust out his Cross-Armbreaker takedown and his drop toehold. The Bow & Arrow might have been new for him. Because Hogan was dominating scientifically which is Fujinami's game. Fujinami countered with speed instead. When Hogan would miss a move, he would nail some dropkicks or try to chop down th…

Come for Andre, stay for Hoshino! Watching 5'7" Hoshino trying his hardest to fight Andre was hilarious. People sleep on Hoshino way too much. Tony St. Clair is mainly here to give Andre a rest when he needs to, but he shows his worth by peppering in some slick World Of Sport exchanges with Sakaguchi and Hoshino. Andre's body was starting to break down by 1985, and his match with Stan Hansen just a few years prior feels a lifetime ago, but he uses his monster presence, charisma and surprisingly stellar comedy skills to make up for a lack of workrate. I won't spoil all the comedy bits, but I loved everything about this. If you're having a rough day and find yourself with t…

NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair vs Magnum TA - NWA WCW 6/15/85 Ric Flair is what is cookin'. They just ran an ultra hot angle with Nikita Koloff the previous week on Worldwide with Nikita decking David Crockett after Koloffs felt Flair was ducking him. Flair defends David by charging into the ring during a Nikita match, big time heat. On the flip side, Ric Flair is being an obnoxious prick to Magnum TA buying him suits from Michael's in Kansas City so he doesnt have to dress like a bum. This is a great Studio TV Match angle. Mags puts up $1000 says he cant beat him in 10 minutes. Flair was scheduled to wrestle someone else but says it is time to shut this ki…

This on paper sounds awesome. Manny early on tries to get in Barbarian's head, and to out quick him. Barbarian tries to out muscle him, but Mannt catches him. Manny then tries to shrink the Barbarian by takjing him to the mat and working over the leg. Manny is constantly working the leg. A Paul Jones cane to the throat sets up the heat. Barbaraian with big dropping headbutts. Barbarian with a bear hug. Top rope headbutt and he misses. Manny taking it to him. A huge tope' by Manny.Jones interferes. Valiant for a save only to eat a piledriver. Fun bout.

NWA United National Heavyweight Champion Genichiro Tenryu vs Riki Choshu - AJPW 6/21/85 Choshu takes the UN Championship and just throws it away like yesterday's garbage. Oooooooooooooooooo! They take a couple swipes at each other before the ref even checks them. Things are definitely chippy. Choshu definitely got under Tenryu's skin as Tenryu starts off red hot, but makes the mistake of trying to go up top early and Choshu is able to chuck him off. Choshu was definitely in favor of grinding this out and looking for opportunities to put on the Scorpion Deathlock. Tenryu was revved up with the focus being on taking away Choshu's lariat by targeting the right arm wi…

Kido matches are the best when he's being taken out of his comfort zone and forced to work a more proactive technical style as opposed to how he can look like in many a match to come in his career: very calculated and tricky on occasion, not exactly Mr Excitement at the end of the day. Mechanically this match is pretty great: Maeda and Kido are fantastic when it comes to working the technical portions, making their transitions and counters natural, like they're figuring it out in real-time as opposed to just doing them for the sake of the move. For example, Kido doing the Billy Robertson headscissors in side mount bit is a pretty basic submission in terms of shoot-work, y…

WWF Intercontinental Champion Greg Valentine vs Ricky Steamboat - WWF, MSG 6/21/85 Gorilla Monsoon is the fucking worst. Nobody could take the sails out of hot comeback faster than him with his nonchalant "Nope, he is not going to get him." I will take Vince's bombastic and naive belief that every nearfall is a potential winning fall than Gorilla's constant undercutting of drama. This is the Superstar Sleeze dream match on paper and I think this would be a dream match for most wrestling fans. It does not quite live up OMG RICKYSTEAMBOAT VS GREG VALENTINE~! The beginning is pretty pedestrian surprisingly. For whatever, Valentine did not seem very engaged in the begin…

WWF World Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan vs Don Muraco - MSG 6/21/85 Steel Cage Match Definitely the best of the series as we get a good old school, double juice steel cage for the World Championship. They go for a slower pace, war of attrition feel. Both blocking cage shots early with Muraco using a ballshot and the Asiatic Spike to take control. Hogan Hulks Up and rams the Magnificent One into the cage drawing blood. As Hogan is running wild, Muraco sidesteps him and sends him into the cage. It is a catapult into the cage that busts Hogan wide open. The blood is flowing. Two great spots to end the match with Hogan gnawing on the open wound on the top rope driving M…

Continental is a real blind spot for me. I could probably count on one hand the number of matches I've seen from when it actually became Continental Championship Wrestling, and not too many more from when it was still Southeastern. The TV set up in the Boutwell Auditorium (in Birmingham, Alabama; "deep in the heart of Dixie," as Gordon Solie puts it) has a similar sort of aesthetic to some of the early AAA shows. So there's a thing for you. Anyway this was a real blast. Basically every time I watch the Nightmares they're a hoot and I probably come out of every one of those matches thinking I should watch all the Nightmares footage I can get. This was another awesome pinba…

Southern Tag Team Champions Fabulous Ones vs Sheepherders - Memphis 6/22/85 "The bloody rulebook is my Bible." - Lord Jonathan Boyd The Sheepherders in question are Boyd and Rip Morgan. Morgan sucks. Lane cuts a "Love it or leave it" promo before this and Keirn says that Fabs feel their hands are forced to put up the tag titles on TV. So we get a studio TV match. Different shine than we were seeing before. PYTs are in the mold of MX with bump, schtick and stooge. Herders are definitely more gritty and ornery. I like Boyd he looks like a scummy, scrappy asshole. Lots of headlocks from Fabs. Morgan is just useless, no presence, he is just a big body. Keirn has nice …

WWF World Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan vs Big John Studd - Boston 6/22/85 Just one day removed from working a bloody, grueling cage match against Don Muraco, Hogan faces off against perhaps his most frequent challenger, Big John Studd. I have loved their matches in the past and I think this is their best one ever. There is something about Studd that makes him seem so credible and love the psychology of the bodyslam matches. Because this one day removed from the cage match, Hogan has a huge bandage on his head and Studd reopens that cut within minutes of the bell sounding. His white trunks were covered in Hogan's bloody. This is a great bloody brawl. Studd throwing …

Aired on 6/23/85 on WWF All American Wrestling

Road Warriors defend the AWA World Tag Team Titles in Montreal.

.....I CANNOT believe what I just saw as the finish of this match!!!!! Michael Hayes accompanies Terry Gordy and Buddy Roberts to the ring. "Come along with me, to the land of make believe, Rock and Roll is King!!!" The crowd is chanting "Go home, Freebirds". Buddy Roberts and Robert Gibson start the match, locking up, then both reverse a hammerlock. Roberts with a rope break, which seems to further incite the crowd. Gibson reverses a takedown into a head scissor on the mat. Gibson tags in Morton who grabs Buddy as Gibson hammers his chest. Hayes yells at the crowd, "I'll show you some rock and roll". Morton monkey-flips Buddy and squares off with hi…

This was thrown out early but they get brawling. Duggan is out with a protective match. Super spirited brawl. Akbar throws powder at Duggan. Kamala goes after the mask and Duggan's eye is a mess. Kamala is after the eye. Hits the eye with the mask. Duggan biting Kamala's forehead. Total chaos and the locker room is out.This breaks down into like the Brock/Taker Raw brawl. Except this was better. Awesome stuff.

We are JIP about 6 minutes in. This is Flair touring champ match. I enjoyed Flair's arm work in this. I liked how Flair used TA's momentum to toss him to the outside to set up his heat. The finish was sloppy in the sense that it was reversed.. I loved the post match with Wahoo kicking ass. 4*

This was pretty interesting. Jake carried it for his side. He was in the spot of the match when Jake got caught in the ropes and the Rock N Roll did a hit and run on him while the ref tried to stop them, and Barbarian chased them around. Jake took a face 1st bump after getting out of the ropes. Structurally this was worked differently. We start off with a little back and forth. Around the 5 minute mark we get the shine sequence. This was good, and then we get the heat. I loved the finish of the cluster fuck where Jake sneaks in and DDT's Gibson for the win. Good stuff. 3 1/4*