October 1980

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This went 20 minutes and it dragged.This was pretty boring. Even the crowd is yawning. The most interesting thing is Brower pretending to hear voices , and his facials. This was the epitome of sitting in a headlock.

This had its moments. Gary Hart in the Straight Jacket. Lewin keeps staring down at Hart. I like Hart sitting down next to the cop so the fans don't sucker punch him. I loved the finish of the 1st fall. This match felt like it was missing something.

I liked Boesch's intro here. We start with some real crisp exchanges on the mat. Kimura after a knee bar. Again after the left knee,Chavo though gets the arm, and now the leg. Into a standing surfboard. Kimura the master of arm locks is after the arm. Chavo looking for position. All the work is snug. Loving Kimura with the knees, and European forearms. Jumping pile driver by Kimura x2. Big dive by Kimura and he crashes and burns. Chavo wins by c.o. 2 3/4*

This is a No DQ, Tap Out and Knockout Only, Loser Leaves Town match that goes about 35 minutes. Despite the length it's a real goody, maybe the best match of the year. Dieter is the local babyface technician who can kick ass if necessary. Morowski was a canadian worker who is used to these stipulation matches. No gimmicks required, they just beat the shit out of eachother. The technician vs. brawler story makes this unique as it leads to some unusual matwork and struggling. Dieter wants to do holds and takedowns into a pin, but Morowski throws punches and pulls his hair. This leads to Dieter visibly aquiring Morowski's tactics over the match and fighting fire with fir…

1980-10-08 Joint Promotions The Royal Brothers (Bert Royal & Vic Faulkner) vs. The Rockers (Peter LaPaque & Tommy Lorne) Southend, Essex, UK ★★★★ What started as a comedy match devolved into a down and dirty scrap, and then towards the finish, veered its way back into the realms of comedy. There wasn’t a second wasted and the action was brisk. Faulkner was certainly the star, leading his team’s mischievous tactics and then taking the brunt of the beating when it was time for the Rockers to take over. The Royals had a sort of Funk Brother vibe, it could have just been Bert’s receding hairline, but he definitely felt like Dory’s straight man to Faulkner…

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I find the general aesthetic of IWE charming, and it’s definitely a company I am excited about exploring much more since so much of it seems to be uncharted waters. This wasn’t something I think I’ll remember but it was a good match with a nice layout, and they kept the action going very well. Rose and Quinn are really good working like an American heel team with the cutting the ring in half and all of that. Inoue and Hamaguchi are the home country babyfaces and have a good amount of charisma. Inoue in particular has some nice offensive flurries. I really liked his sentons. The match is less than 15 minutes, but is worked like something much bigger and longer. I think the…

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1980-10-11 WWF Ken Patera (c) vs. Andre the Giant WWF Intercontinental Title Match Philadelphia Spectrum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA ★★ Card This was a great character performance from Patera for sure. When he was on top, he wouldn’t stop running his mouth, denigrating Andre the whole time, which made the comeback all the more sumptuous as Andre repeatedly beat away at Patera’s braced knee and Patera sold that like an absolute champ. They perhaps spent too much time with Andre in a front face lock and the finish, with Patera deciding to cut bait and leave, wasn’t the most satisfying, but they delivered something fun at least for a sub ten minute matc…

1980-10-18 MACW/MLW Greg Valentine (c) vs. Ric Flair NWA United States Heavyweight Title Match Buffalo Memorial Auditorium, Buffalo, New York, USA ★★★ Card The first long singles match I’ve seen of Flair so far on tape for the year. This definitely had a house show vibe, and a house show finish, but to just go out there and deliver a strong 3 star match shows what these guys could do. This was chunked up into a beefy shine sequence -> heat -> comeback stretch -> finish. Flair seemed to handle Valentine pretty handily for the first 5-8 minutes. He had the bravado and the ADHD energy and after the initial use of punches and forearms to the head, …

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1980-10-22 AJPW Terry Funk & Billy Robinson vs The Asteroid & The Avenger Civic Gymnasium, Wakkanai, Hokkaido, Japan ★★★ Card This was a major step up for Robinson as a tag worker compared to his showing paired with Wahoo. He seemed a lot more comfortable here, spending a large chunk of the first half working as the face in peril, and we even got a fired up hot tag from him at the end - which was a nice shift, as I often view him as a clinical technician, especially in Japan. I won’t belabour any discussion on Terry, as he was excellent in all the ways you would expect. In fact, he was so good despite it feeling like he was merely going through th…

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Thornton is a guy who has a good resume of classic title matches with Dynamite Kid, Tiger Mask , and Tony Charles the Checkmate. Here he works Gino and this is worked in a whole different manner than he is used too. Gino is just a master at getting heat just riling up the crowd and being a cheating bastard.This was the best we've seen Hart on the footage. He truly came across as a threat to Les. I loved Les leg work and it played into the first fall. The 2nd fall Gino is cheating bastard stage. The 2nd fall is Gino just working over Thornton. The 3rd fall Gino is on top for a bit. Thornton makes a comeback and he's pissed. No more technical wrestling for him. He's throwin…

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This was a good match. We get some fun spots milked for comedy that got over big with me. Stasiak's main weapon is the Heart Punch. In the 1st fall he teases it like Jake Roberts teasing the DDT. Finally he hits it and Andre sells it like he's shot in the heart. Though it's a DQ because the Heart Punch has been banned. In between falls Andre is selling like death. Finally he recovers and the 2nd fall starts. Basically Andre is pissed and kicks the crap out of Stan and goes over. 2 1/2*

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