November 1982

Yeah, like Inoki hasn't buried those IWE dweebs enough!! How about burying them all in a single stroke! Admittedly, this was some highly entertaining pro wrestling. The IWE boys couldn't really play the number's game at first, so Inoki just ate them all up, busting out lots of cool shit in the process. We also got to see referee Kotetsu Yamamoto tackling guys trying to run into the ring like the world's greatest security guard. Inoki slowly tires out and the IWE dudes go to town on him. Kimura hits some really stiff chops and Hamaguchi is just a dynamo in this match, attacking Inoki's leg like a terrier and taunting him. Hamaguchi ain't backing down from anyone. Inoki loo…

In their first match-up, Fujinami is the assertive champion, rushing Choshu out of the gate with strikes and tossing him out of the ring, as if dismissing the challenge and Choshu’s credibility. He still maintains that spitfire energy that made him such an exciting junior heavyweight and Choshu is a bit more hesitant and methodical. What this match represents is a long feeling out process, as the two fight over holds, at times almost bumbling along with little to no selling and that lack of familiarity seen in subsequent contests. The end result is a double count out but Choshu continues attacking Fujinami’s leg after the match, setting the stage for their rematch the fo…

Kobayashi was always one of my favorite juniors and I’m reminded why watching this. He goes move for move with Tiger Mask and has an impressive variety of kicks at his disposal. This is better than the Dynamite Kid match, if only because you get the feeling watching those that fans are just waiting for the next big move. Here, the crowd even got into the submissions, chanting loudly for Tiger Mask when Kobayashi locked in the cross armbreaker. There is some sloppiness from Sayama here yet again, but he’s opposite a guy who seems to have the perfect understanding of how to work opposite him, so it doesn’t detract from the match as much as it does in some other cases. Kobay…

The crowd is hot here. Hogan/Andre is a dream team for the AWA. Going against the groups top heel group in the Heenan Family. Andre calls them the Weasel family. Leo Nomellini is the ref. Former NFL star. Andre saves Hogan right off the bat from a quadroople team. Hogan and Andre are standing tall. Hulk's clothesline on Duncum looked nasty. Big time shine from the faces. Heels bumping and stooging for the faces. Andre has some pep in his step here. None of the heels want a piece of Andre. Bock's butt spot with Andre popped the crowd. Loved the tug of war spot over Bock. Such a great spot that needs to be lifted. A big boot by Patera and sets up the heat on Andre. The heel…

AWA Southern Heavyweight Champion Nick Bockwinkel vs Jerry Lawler - Mid-South Coliseum 11/8/82 Title vs Hair No DQ match Nick Bockwinkel is at his sadistic best in this No Disqualification bout where Lawler has put his hair on the line against Nick Bockwinkel's Southern Heavyweight Championship. Lance Russell always lets us know that Lawler is a slow starter, but he picked one helluva night to have an ultra slow start. Bockwinkel absolutely creamed him in the first five minutes. It all began with Bock using the hair to maneuver Lawler into the and hitting him with a huge forearm sledge. After that, he just teed off at will and was getting in some great shots. One palm…

We had 6 minutes of this before. Now we have the full ~20. I had seen 82 Andre in NJPW lately so my hopes were probably a bit too high. This is still very good for what it tried to be. It was a perfectly logical story. For the first act, Andre controlled as Bockwinkel tried to make the gloating most of every chance at an advantage only to get overpowered and forced to retreat. The second third came on a fun transition (Bockwinkel getting his knee up on the corner butt ram), and consisted of him working on the back long enough to lock in the dreaded Singapore Sleeper. While I'm sure Bockwinkel's facial expressions were great enough to carry this for the live crowd, and whi…

House show footage from Columbus GA, with commentary. Talk about it here

House show footage from Columbus GA, with commentary. Talk about it here

Chavo is a wrestler that really is a trend setter. He'd fit in the 90's on Nitro working the same style. Bobby Jaggers was the journeyman wrestler that was in every territory in the 70's, and 80's. Jaggers was a solid worker who could work heel or face. Singles or tags. These guys have a real fun underneath match. Chavo uses his high end offense. Jaggers was good in his role also. Chavo gets the win with a Victory Role.

This was really good. They cut a good pace. Their was constant movement. Even when in headlocks, they were constantly working it. They even play up some 80's tropes when Grappler hurt his arm on Tiger's head, The Grappler is Len Denton. He carried this, but Tiger was a really game baby face, 3*

This is an opener. It was a match to get the audience going. So the babyface goes over with his finisher in a real nothing match. 1 3/4*

Man I was excited for this. Though watching it I wasn't. The guys seemed like they mailed it in. Ted was happy to use a headlock for a long portion of the match, and Slater was fine to sit in it. Slater did some solid arm work. At times Ted would pick up the pace, but ultimately had a bad match. 2 1/4*

WWF Heavyweight Champion Bob Backlund vs Buddy Rose –Philly 11/25/82 Lumberjack Match It was the year of the lumberjack matches, I got to say I prefer cage and Texas Death Matches to the lumberjack match. The Playboy cracks me up asking where Bob Backlund where his women are. I know Bob has a wife and even has a daughter. Bob Backlund interacting with a woman to me is just plain hilarious. WellYouSeeMissIThinkYouAreKindAndVeryATTRACTTIVEAndIAmAGentlemanAndASportsmanAsSuchIWouldLikeToTakeYouOutToDinnerSometimeMaybeAfterwardsWeCouldDoTheHarvardStepTestTogetherIfYouAreSoInclined. Backlund having carnal relations is even more ridiculous to me. They follow suit wit…

We start out with a Mil Mascaras promo where he puts up his mask verse Gino with Tully suspended in a cage above the ring. Then the Dynamic Duo come out and they are incredible as is Paul Boesch. That was an incredible segment. The match starts and we see Mil just own Gino on the mat. The 1st few minutes it's just Mil tying Gino up like a pretzel and stretching him on the mat. Gino would escape and ask Tully for advice. Rinse and repeat. Mil then using some really stiff strikes . Gino uses some rough house tactics on his heat segment. We get a ref bump. Mil gets the brass knucks and uses them on Gino and gets the win. The promo segment was amazing, the match could ha…

I really like Leilani Kai's belly flop bumps. Princess Victoria had a good connection with the crowd. Kai after the arm. This is a fun work rate match. Loved the body scissor spots. Loved Kai going back to the arm. Super fun match. 3*

This says 29 minutes so these guys are going to get some time. The Grapplers are also the DWB's. A fun shine by the faces with quick tags. Faces are great at keeping the heels off balance. I'm marking out how the faces are using the headlock in a super effective way. Morton with an awesome atomic drop. Double drop kicks, hell yeah. Love Boesch teasing the loaded boot on commentary. Loving the Grappler's shining up the faces. Grapplers cut off Tiger, but is able to tag in Morton who misses a dropkick and the Grapplers start to work him over. Specifically the shoulder. The Grapplers heat segment is really focused. Tiger is good on the outside. Loved the heel switcheroo draw…

Tully is a great heel. Scott Casey is a solid babyface. Casey has a early shine segment. Tully cheats his way to a heat segment and does a real good job working over Casey's leg. The work is really heelish like dead legging the leg. Tully has a way to get under the fans skins. I really liked Casey's comeback. He focused on Tully's leg and did some really neat revenge spots. Then we build to the finish. 2 3/4*

This is the 1 st of Pierre Martel i've seen. Being the brother of Rick I've always been curious how he worked. Here we have a really fun match. We get a a nice opening shine. We see the faces tag in and out just working the arm. Eventually the heels cut them off. They work over Pierre and toss him to the floor. He gets up and he's gushing blood. Los Mercenarios do a great job working over the cut. He gets a hot tag to Dellaserra who holds them off for a bit. Babyfaces come out to take Martel to the back. Dellaserra is selling big here. Martel comes back out and we get a schmozz . I liked the opening shine. I enjoyed the working of the cut. The angle worked. Overall good s…

Crusher Blackwell vs Butch Reed - St. Louis 11/82 Loved the simplicity of the first fall. It was all about establishing the impressive strength that Butch Reed possesses. He is constantly overpowering Blackwell into the ropes. He even lifts Blackwell into a bearhug which is an incredible feat of strength. Blackwell has to resort to eye gouges. I love when giants cheat. There is something so purely scummy when a dude with a significant size advantage is forced to cheat. On the second eye gouge, Blackwell finally turns the tide and he sticks with good heel wrestling of choking and strangling. Reed gets a solid kick out out of a elbow drop that shows he doesn’t give up…