October 1982

This was worked differently than I was expecting. Still I enjoyed it. I loved Gordy bumping huge for Dick's Bionic Elbow. Murdoch's arm work was really well done. Gordy threw some nasty punches in this.I also enjoyed Gordy's standing headlock a lot in this. The one from the mount position was beyond nasty. Murdoch even busted out a flying head scissors. This was a real good meat and potatoes match. The finish was a little anti climatic.Though the punches in this were awesome and Gordy bumped big for Murdoch's punches 3*

[This is the beginning of a personal watchalong of the Fujinami/Choshu feud, which perhaps might widen in scope into Ishingun's original NJPW run. This is partially to fill a major gap, but I also feel like I should be able to comment on this feud in order to write about Jumbo/Tenryu, its AJPW equivalent that would manifest in a few years.] Above: a photograph taken during Fujinami and Choshu's postmatch spat. [Click on the image for its full size.] The copy of this match on NJPW World is quite clipped, but the contemporaneous World Pro Wrestling episode broadcast it in full, and that's the version I watched. The match itself isn't essential, though it's t…

NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair vs David Von Erich - World Class Championship Wrestling 10/11/82 World Class was really obsessed with Star Wars, who knew Fritz was such a huge nerd! Flair and David both enter to instrumentals from the Star Wars movie. After Kerry came within just one controversial referee call from winning the world championship, Flair did what any champion in the early 80s would do he put out a bounty on Kerry. Gary Hart Presents The Great Kabuki did the dirty deed, but not dirt cheap by breaking Kerry's leg. An incensed David is out for revenge for BountyGate 1982. David might not be built like his brother, but he is one big boy. This is t…

Checkmate and Dragon is one of the odder teams you can think of but the contrast in their style melded together to make a fun team. Jose Lothario is someone that is receiving a huge reputation bump with the NWA Classics stuff coming out, and he delivered here with great strikes and surprising agility at points. Checkmate’s turtle and attack to gain heat on Lothario was awesome and unique. The heat segments were diverse and interesting enough to have myself and the crowd clamoring for a comeback. It was destined that this match would be a draw, but overall this is the type of match that is perfect to hold attention of a viewer across a whole hour of the show. ***

Steamboat gets a shot at LeDuc's TV belt. Studio is clearly behind the Steamer. LeDuc takes a powder to start. Steamboat using his speed to keep Jos off balance. LeDuc counters with roughhouse tactics. Steamboat is selling all of LeDuc's stuff. Steamer constantly firing up. Cross body for a great near fall. Dory Jr attacks. Jay tries to save finally the faces save. An al right match.

This is for the Universal title. This has a real big time feel to it. They have a hot crowd. My favorite part of the match was really the opening 10 minutes or so. Colon just destroys the arm. I mean this was textbook working the arm . My arm was hurting watching it. Flair sells it really well during the work, but drops it during his heat segment. It's your typical Flair segment so it's pretty darn good. He starts working over the neck to hurt his breathing. He starts mixing in chops with leg work, knee drops to the Figure 4. Eventually, we start working to the finish. This was well done. Their were a couple of hiccups in this, but overall this was an excellent match. 4 1…

Bob Backlund defends the WWF Title. Talk about it here

We get about 10-11 minutes of what looked to be joined in progress. If it wasn't, I'm not sure Flair got in more than five offensive moves the whole match. Not that this wasn't enjoyable, I just wish the offense was more evenly distributed. It's one thing if it is a one-sided match with, say, Vader, but Flair should be able to hang a bit more offensively with Piper. With that said, it was still lots of fun. Piper was a maniac -- even babyface Piper cheats like a motherfucker. We had boot scrapes, eye gouges, biting; all with the crowd going apeshit. Flair pays the cheating back in the end by laying his feet on the ropes for the pin. Again, I wish we had more and I…

AWA Southern Heavyweight Champion Nick Bockwinkel vs Jerry Lawler - Mid-South Coliseum 10/18/82 Let's see if this Jerry Lawler is all he is cracked up to be. I have seen a handful of Lawler matches from the 80s and they have been very good to great and am looking forward to watching him in detail. I figure much like how I started the Von Erichs off against the best. I should start Lawler off against the best, Nick Bockwinkel. Bockwinkel is master chessman in the ring and understands the use of strategy in pro wrestler probably better than any pro wrestler in history. Everything he did in that ring was internally consistent with what happened previously and what he wa…

This was worked pretty interesting. Slater didn't do a traditional shine. Gino would work spots and Slater would one up him. This happened for the majority of the match. Gino throws liquid in Slater's eyes to set up the heat. Gino hits him with a loaded fist for the 3. The crowd is going crazy. Gino attacks Slater post match and the ref reverses his decision. A different way to work the bout. Got a lot of reactions.

This has no commentary so I believe it has never been seen before. I was really curious with what Bock could get out of Atlas. Matt D and I were chatting and he said that it felt like Bock was working with Atlas like someone who could beat him, and not just a monster. I really agree with him. Flair I feel would have done the Sting formula with him. Here Bock was great as the World Champ. Their was no begging off. It was the champ versus #1 contender. We start off with some exchanging of holds and Atlas takes control on Bock's arm. He works it over for a bit, and then transitions onto the leg. Bock reverses it and delivers 6 quick nasty punches to Tony's leg. I really like…

Above: a photograph taken during this match. This isn't quite the first Fujinami/Choshu match, or even the first in circulation; there are audience recordings of earlier matches in 1980 and in 1982. This is, however, the first one of the feud proper. I'm watching this feud for the first time in sequence, so I can't comment on how this compares to the more famous later matches. However, this feels like a quintessential feeling-out match. While there's some heat before the bell rings, they keep things straight at first, grappling and work-holding each other for the first stretch. The bubble finally bursts around nine minutes in, as Choshu finally brings some of the int…

This was a really amusing match despite only going about 4 and a half minutes. They get the ongoing Tiger Mask/Kuniaki Kobayashi feud over by having him attack mid-entrance, and the two have a scrappy back and forth with Kobayashi getting the lead with some nasty kicks. That's the story going into this; Sayama is hurt, Les is not, albeit the latter sells it more like a head blow than general fatigue, so he's not really any slower or less capable, just hurting. These two had a match last year and it was....decent, but nothing special: the two don't really work that well together despite being fairly well respected wrestlers in their own right. They start off with Mask hurl…

Another hard hitting match with Wahoo and Valentine just laying into each other. I wish it was a little longer, but considering the intensity of the strikes, I'm not sure it would have sustainable over a longer period of time. One thing I liked was Valentine's repeated attempts to keep Wahoo's shoulders pinned. Like he realized that trying to go strike for strike with Wahoo wasn't gonna work, so he was just gonna out work him on the mat. Good match. ***¼

House show footage from Columbus GA. Talk about it here.

House show footage from Columbus GA. Talk about it here.

House show footage from Columbus GA. Talk about it here.

Mid-South Tag Team Champions Junkyard Dog & Mr. Olympia vs Ted DiBiase & Matt Bourne - Mid-South 10/27/82, No DQ, Loser Leaves Town While Bill Watts may be obsessed with bench presses, he was incredible at getting over the angle and motivations of each wrestler. DiBiase's lust for the North American Championship caused his turn to the dark side. He wants to remove JYD from his competition by defeating him in this Loser Leaves Town match and take his tag team championship. DiBiase had used Hacksaw Jim Duggan as a partner to relieve JYD of the championships in August, but came up unsuccessful. In this match, he invited Matt Bourne from Atlanta to help him in his…

These guys worked each other in Houston , so they bring their match to WCCW. We see some early grappling. Both guys using the arm drag. The lucha spot was a bit clumsy, but got over pretty big. Jose's left hook was so nasty. Man he has one of the all time great punches. Another big punch and Marcus is reeling. Top rope arm drag from Jose. Another fun match with a shit finish.