July 1985

Ted DiBiase vs Terry Taylor - Mid-South TV 7/3/85 Vero's Hero is set to take on Teddy Boy in a battle of former North American champions that are looking to get back in the hunt as everyone is jockeying to get a title match with the Nature Boy. Flair in tandem with Eddie Gilbert was getting tired of Terry Taylor's challenges and got him bumped off in favor of The Nightmare. Eddie Gilbert said The Nightmare gave his contractually obligated rematch to Terry Taylor and was owed no more. DiBiase had a beef with Taylor because he never got his and slapped the taste out of his taste to start this impromptu TV match off hot. These two wrestlers have reps for being a bit …

Don't watch the 11 minute edited version!!! The complete 23 minute match is available in on the WWE DVD "United We Slam, The Best of the Great American Bash". The whole segment from start to finish is over 34 minutes!!! ....Hold on, there is also a 31 1/2 minute version on the Network. Go to Collections, "Ric Flair Stylin and Profilin", An American Champion, July 6, 1985

Pro-wrestling is goofy. So, this is a lights out match. It is announced before the match : this is not sanctioned by the NWA. Ok. So why is Tommy Young in the ring, checking for foreign objects and all ? How can it officially be a TV title match ? Doesn't make a lick of sense. Pro-wrestling has always been crass. "This match is for the TV title and Baby Doll". Wait, what ? So, a woman is officially the same thing as a piece of luggage. They could have said "Dusty gets the services of Baby Doll for 30 days." Nope. "Baby Doll is his." Women as property. Ah, the good old days. As far as the match goes, it's okay. Let's be honest now. Dusty is just not very good. He…

WWF Intercontinental Champion Greg Valentine vs. Tito Santana - WWF, Baltimore 7/6/85 Steel Cage Match YES! I FINALLY FOUND IT! I loved watching the Valentine/Santana matches about two years ago, but couldnt find the big steel cage blowoff. The whole Valentine breaking Tito's leg only for Tito to learn the figure-4 to do the same to Valentine is one of the best damn angles I have ever seen. I have been watching a lot of WWF, but no Valentine so far. My God, he is playing a whole different game. He absolutely crushes Tito with those blows. The cage seems weird or maybe it is just Tito was super awkward trying to climb the cage but it seemed both men were having a har…

Nobuhiko Takada vs Yoshiaki Fujiwara - UWF 7/8/85 I'm hard pressed to believe that Maeda and Yamazaki both had more great matches in the Original UWF than Takada. Takada has looked really good in all his outings at the spirited young lion. Here it is the uptempo stand up game of Takada against grind it out style of Fujiwara. It is very basic, but very compelling because these are the two best sellers in Original UWF. I loved how Takada sold every legbar with cries of agony and throwing axe kicks to break the hold. While Fujiwara sold every takedown as a deadlift with tons of struggle. In the stand up, Takada would just send a barrage of really nice looking kicks at Fu…

Includes Paul Ellering, Road Warriors Hawk & Animal, Michael Hayes, Sgt. Slaughter, Greg Gagne, Nick Bockwinkel, Ray Stevens, Boris Zhukov, Steve Olsonoski, Buddy Roberts, Terry Gordy, Larry Zbyszko, Baron Von Raschke, Buck "Rock n' Roll" Zumhofe, Billy Robinson, Brad Rheingans, Curt Hennig, Larry Hennig, and Bob Backlund

Higgins is a wrestler who talked to my High School at an assembly in 89 or 90. Their was a picture in a yearbook with me who was the TE and our starting offensive line with Higgins who dwarfed us all. The only wrestler to ever speak at my High School. This was your basic technical baby face in Perez vs your big ugly heel in Higgins. Perez controlled him with arm drags and basic arm work. Higgins bumped well for his size and ate all of Perez's offense. Even a nice German Suplex for the finish.

This has a real fun stip. Akbar is cuffed to the corner post.Another rule is if Duggan gets by Kamala he can do what he wants to Akbar. Pretty much this is all story driven and crowd psychology. So the match does what it needs to do. Early on Duggan gets by Kamala and hits Akbar. Duggan tries it a couple more times, but is stuffed. Kamala gets heat on Duggan by using Akbar's riding crop. Duggan sells and when Kamala gets the powder from Akbar, Duggan kicks it right in Kamala's face. Duggan then gives Kamala the spear to the outside. At this point the crowd is going nuts because they think Duggan is going to get his revenge but Kamala recovers and 1/2 of the Zambouie Expre…

I believe this has never been seen. This was just a battle. The announcing put their history together so it made sense for this World Title Match to seem more personal. This was gritty. Both guys with brutal chops. Flair's 1st sell of the job was tremendous. His whole body gyrated from the force. Wahoo is 1st to bleed. Not to be outdone, Wahoo takes a bite out of Flair's forehead and spits the plasma out and Flair's bleeding. That was disgusting. I loved this match. A perfect example of non formula Flair. Their wasn't long heat and shine segments. This was just a fight. 4 1/4*

This was a ton of fun. The shine was so well done. Dutch and Pritchard are pros at bumping and stooging . So many great heel miscommunication spots. Fulton was great at getting the crowd riled up. Rogers and Fulton targeted the arm. When the time for the heels to get the heat Dutch was pretty good at it. Tom's work on top wasn't very interesting. Though the crowd made up for it. Their was a weird mis timed drop kick by Rogers, that he covered well. The crowd was eating this up. The finish looked a bit off. Fulton was good in the FIP role. Overall good stuff. 3 1/4*

NWA World Tag Team Champions Ivan Koloff & Krusher Khrushchev vs Rock N Roll Express - JCP 7/9/85 You wouldnt know it based on the crowd, but this is the Rock N Roll Express' debut in Jim Crockett Promotions. The crowd acts like they have been their favorite team for years chanting Rock N Roll throughout the match and popping so big for the title change. It shows that while you may not have had every territory's TV, fans were aware of the other major stars. This match is one of the best examples of Southern Style tag team wrestling and why the Rock N Roll Express are one of the truly great tag teams of all time. I think one thing this match has going for it tha…

Akira Maeda vs Yoshiaki Fujiwara -UWF 7/13/85 Missing the beginning four minutes of a 15 minute match. Overall, I was thinking the problem with some of these Original UWF matches is that they are too long. Shoot style is a hard style to do for a long time. Fujiwara/Super Tiger made it work but the other pairings aren't doing as well with the 20+ minutes timing on their matches. I thought this was much better with the compact style. This the most intense I have seen Maeda. These two were dripping sweat minutes into the match from how hard they were going on the mat. I loved the story of this match. Maeda was going low instead of high with his kicks. Even though Fujiwar…

Originally broadcast on the MSG Network. Available on the old Coliseum Video, Best of the WWF Volume 3. Not currently on the Network Available on the WWE DVD "The Bret Hart Story, Best There Is, Was and Ever Will Be"

Originally broadcast on the MSG Network. Available on the old Coliseum Video, Best of the WWF Volume 4. Not currently on the Network

Terry Funk vs Lanny Poffo - WWF MSG 7/13/85 Hot damn, I forgot how well Funk laid in his offense. This was a classic roughhouser vs gymnast match with a hint of NWA Championship title defense. Funk was awfully selfess in this match. He started off with his usual WOAH NELLY grab of the ropes on a criss cross that is such a great spot. Then he added a tangled up in the ropes spot and a big bump through the ropes on an atomic drop. He would pound away at Lanny with some serious blow, but Lanny was able to show some real cool offense and get this MSG crowd behind him. I really liked his standing arm stretcher and even busted out the moonsault. Funk went for the spinning to…

This was sort of the babyface version of Murdoch v Afa; not as much of a total carry job as Nightmare is a plenty fun stooge and holds up his own end fine, but it's largely built around Murdoch shtick and working towards big payoffs to it. First few minutes are all about him going to punch the Nightmare and the ref' stopping him. He cocks his fist, the crowd are ready...and Fergie steps in to remind him that a closed fist is illegal. Nightmare survives again and again because the ref' is trying to enforce the rules. Murdoch isn't happy about it but he plays along and tries to do things clean. Of course the Nightmare doesn't care about that and throws a bunch of cheap litt…

How's that for an all-star babyface team? It may be the best North-South Connection there never was. In some alternate universe we probably get an awesome Duggan/Murdoch North-South Connection v Koko/Eaton Midnight Express match that Joel Watts left the film reel of in his car to be destroyed by Louisiana sunlight. There were very many Dick Murdoch and Jim Duggan punches thrown in this, a bunch of different variations, from body shots to jabs and straight rights and Murdoch's awesome fist drop. The beefies provided some fun beefy moments and I completely blanked on Kamala hitting a splash off the top rope. The parts where we got two fatties crashing into each other looked…

This is my third contribution to the Secret Santo match trade and this one was given to me by SirEdger and is from the Quebec Territory of International Wrestling which I am glad to check out as after having read Pat Laprade's book "Mad Dogs, Midgets, and Screw Jobs" , It's one territory I've never seen a lot of. I researched the backstory of this while trying to find the date and this match is a follow up to 24.06.1985 called The "St. John Baptiste Massacre" where in a match with The Garvins taking on The Rougeaus, The Garvins attacked all 3 of them and left them beaten and bloody and Jacques Sr. being carted off on a stretcher with the crowd livid. So the video …

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs Super Tiger - UWF 7/17/85 Less than a month ago, Fujiwara got the monkey (or should I say Tiger) off his back by forcing Tiger to submit in the middle of the ring to a legbar. We are JIP (missing the opening 5 minutes of the 15 minute match) to a Fujiwara legbar. This is probably the most exciting Tiger/Fujiwara match, but it is a lot of flash and missing the substance that really makes the other matches classic. Tiger is just firing off wicked kicks and they are rapid fire. Fujiwara is backed into the corner just trying to cover up and catch one of these kicks when he has a chance. There is a lot of submission work too. Tiger gets a leg bar and c…

Rick Martel defends the AWA World Heavyweight Title

Ricky Steamboat vs Ace Cowboy Bob Orton - WWF, Cap Center 7/20/85 The Landover crowd is rocking for the recently debuted Ricky The Dragon Steamboat. I have to say Steamboat committed himself to the Karate gimmick better than I would think a lot of proud veterans would. He had working at a high level and he could have been badass Steamboat in the Carolinas, but he went out there and executed Vince’s vision, which is pretty cool. I think those intense spots where he is summoning his chi and what not aka flexing his bulging muscles got him over huge. Yes, this is during the time period where Bob Orton had the cast. Bob Orton was such a great midcard heel and perfect for …