Superstar Sleeze

Chief Jay Historian strikes again! I know I did Portland and Georgia with you all. I am definitely going to do some Florida and Georgia soon. I am just doing this first because it is on Impact+ and I want to get my money's worth.

NWA World Heavyweight Champion Harley Race vs David Von Erich - St. Louis Wrestling At The Chase 5/27/79 As my good buddy, Pete/Shoe would say this is a great piece of business. Officially this is a gauntlet match pitting Harley vs David & Fritz Von Erich. David is going first. David had just taken Harley to the limit down in Dallas and now it looks like they are building him up in St. Louis to draw a house at the Kiel. If Harley loses, match is over, if not he faces Fritz. If you were smart to the business at this time, conventional wisdom says Harley wins the first fall and the drama is in the second. When they go with David in the first fall, I was confused. I appreciated the swerve with David going OVER big in the first fall, we are talking "Iron Claw, Bladejob, Pass out from Blood Loss" big! I dont think you could go over bigger! Huge booking! On top of that we get nearly 15 minutes of uncut action that is just fantastic TV wrestling and I am far from a Harley guy or even a David guy preferring both of his brothers to him. David starts the match off Steamboat/White Meat Babyface style with a nearfall barrage and an abdominal stretch. Harley goes to the eyes and woman in the front row literally gets out of her seat and approaches ringside to admonish him. What a time to have been alive! Normally, I dont like how robotic Harley is and how he ragdolls for his opponents, but I liked how three times he did not give a clean break. Twice, it was the headbutt and once a shouldertackle. The first two times David came back and showed his ability to persevere, which I appreciate. David was working the headlock and using youth/quickness to his advantage. Nice back drop out of the piledriver on the floor. The third time was a charm for Harley with the headbutt on the ropes. Harley took charge and looked poised to win. In a very 2010s wrestling finish, David Von Erich caught a diving Harley Race with the Iron Claw as Race was attempting a top rope headbutt. I marked out. Harley blades in the Claw! I love when they do that! He sells it well and does a complete pass out. During the promo with all three Von Erichs (Fritz, David & Kevin), Harley is barley conscious and being helped to the back! Talk about putting someone over huge! Kickass TV wrestling with a badass finish! ****

Thanks brutha for the tip! That sounds interesting even given the circumstances. Disc 2 is more from 1979! Harley Race vs David Von Erich deserves its own thread. We see clips of Harley Race defending the title against Jumbo in Japan, Martel in Australia and Randy Alls (Rose) in Atlanta. All surprisingly clean victories and the last two with the delayed vertical suplex, I didnt realize he had a finish move and if he did I thought it was the headbutt so that was cool to learn. Fabulous Moolah vs Winona Littleheart was workrate because they knew the crowd was not into them. So they just kept moving. Smart strategy. Where's Joyce Grable? I liked her. Dory Funk Jr vs Jobber only say Funk hit a piledriver, suplex and Spinning Toehold. I like Dory usually. Ric Flair vs Jobber ok Flair begs off against this jobber and probably shouldnt BUT and there is CAPTIAL BUT he did throw a kick right into the breadbasket when he lured him into the corner so it was strategy. Flair wins the Criss-Cross with a reverse elbow after firefighting didnt work. See strategy shifting in 1979 squash matches, you gotta love Flair. Flair kicks ass now with the delayed vertical and the Figure-4. Bobo Brazil vs Two Jobbers, this is my first Brazil match, he is HUGE! He was 55 at this point. He had plenty of charisma. His heel jabronis did not. I got to see the Coco Headbutt so that was cool! I got work to do so that's it for the night. We get some famous 1960s footage of Wrestling At The Chase, in black & white at the Chase Hotel in its Ballroom. I know I have seen this before because the setting of well-dressed patron at long dining tables watching the pro graps made quite an impression on me. Johnny Valentine vs Bill Frazier - Joe Garagiola is pretty funny on commentary calling Valentine the Baking Soda man because of his Arm & Hammer finish which is just big Hammer Elbows. Greg didnt fall too far from the tree. He teases Frazier about not missing any meals and that his head resembles a bowling ball. Decent match. Solid grappling and such . Valentine is a good roughhouse wrestler like his son. Frazier tries to play king of the mountain with Valentine but that just draws his ire and Valentine waylays him with some Arm & Hammer shots. The Baking Soda Man! Pat O'Connor vs Lorzeno Parente is just beautiful wrestling! If you havent seen it, you simply must. It is gorgeous all around. Pat O'Connor is someone I feel we are missing out on big time to have seen in this time period would have been a joy. This is real deal chain wrestling how we mean it. The best part by far is how O'Connor maintains controls of the hammerlock even through snapmares. This is a technical babyface vs babyface classic. They keep it clean and they work wonderfully in and out of holds. What's amazing is after 3-4 minutes of chaining they both stand up and the crowd applauds. The more things change, the more they stay the same! That wouldnt be out of place at an Indy today! They work a terrific workrate finish that's bing bang boom and O'Connor ends up on top for the win. ***1/2 Now if you havent seen O'Connor apply wrestling holds on Joe Garagiola, I implore you again, you simply must! This is tremendous TV! From there they segueway into Kevin Von Erich applying the body scissors on Larry Matysik but it is not quite as fun as the previous segment from the 60s. Then we get a long, but action-packed tag pitting Missouri Champion Dick Murdoch & Bulldog Bob Brown vs Kevin Von Erich & "Big Thunder" Gene Kiniski. About 17-18 minutes long with a great Dicky Murdoch promo to set up the Murdoch vs Kevin Missouri State Tile Defense the next week. Triple face in peril. St. Louis Wrestling is Gorilla's dream promotion as they have two refs for tag matches but that does not stop the cheating. There is a triple face in peril. Murdoch works strangling with the tag rope into multiple situations. Kiniski was 51 years old but similar to his eager beaver performance at Starrcade 1983 had plenty of energy. Him and Bulldog Bob looked like twins but Bulldog Bob is a little shorter and squatter. Vigorous action though throughout. Kevin is wearing boots, but not quite as feisty. Murdoch carries this as expected with his heel shenanigans. The Iron Claw is applied mid-way through the match. Murdoch sells it for all its worth. Funny spot is when Brown comes over to tag, Murdoch walks to a neutral corner. He has no desire to get back in there with the Iron Claw. They work a fake finish with Murdoch feet on the ropes and the second ref calls it off. Double DDQ is the real finish, they love brawling at ringside and so do I! Murdoch and Kevin bash each other into the announce table and it looks great. I am wicked excited for the singles clash between two of my all-time favorites! *** Duck Murdoch vs Kevin Von Erich - Two of my Top 50 favorite wrestlers of all time. Murdoch cuts a great promo about how Kevin is a boy and that he shouldn’t be out here if he’s going to sound like he is crying. It is true the Von Erichs were pretty terrible promos. The match did not live up to the hype in my head. Kevin didn’t wrestle very Kevin-y if you watched a lot of Kevin in World Class you know what I mean. The easiest way to describe it is like it felt like no one told Kevin it was a work. He was always struggling always fighting back and it gave his matches a unique feel. I don’t know if it was because this was St. Louis instead of Dallas or if he didn’t develop style until later (this match took place in 1979-1980, all the World Class I have seen is from 1982 on). It is still a good match but it is not extra special. Murdoch forces Kevin to wrestle from underneath. Kevin wins a test of strength in great fashion and Gorilla would be incredibly impressed by his abdominal stretch as it is absolutely perfect! Murdoch also is not quite as Murdoch-y in this match. Not much in the way of fun heel shenanigans or torturing a body part. Both just give good performances. Kevin kicks out at 1 from the Brainbuster. Giant Splash eats knees. Iron Claw really well done and dramatic. Bulldog Bob Brown attacks Kevin before Murdoch gives. Massive pull apart that really builds to the Kiel match in a week. Nice little TV match to build to the house show match but not extra special sumthin sumthin. ***1/4

Thanks Kelly! You’ll be my first call when I cover World Class! “Work smarter not harder” was something my Junior year math teacher always said and appreciate it Brutha!

I have become fascinated with 1980s US Wrestling. The territory system and the mystique of so many of these larger than life stars has ensnared me again. I think Parv did a deep dive on this footage with Pete maybe in podcast form. I have flickers of memories of this, but I could be mistaken. The famous Larry Matysik's St. Louis 12 disc set is on Impact+ Streaming Network of all places. My free trial rolled over and I figured I should get my money's worth out of it now. I hope to watch a disc a day, we shall see! Shorter form notes than my usual long reviews: Larry Matysik's hair in 1979 is I dont know how to describe it. I will say this I dont know how any human could ever get their hair to look like that. It is truly a feat of 1970s hairspray. I believe all the footage on this disc is from 1979 David Von Erich vs Gene Stevens is a very entertaining competitive squash. Larry M only mentions Kevin & Fritz on commentary no mention of Kerry. I have never bought into the whole David was the anointed one story. He was the most unattractive, gangly and less charismatic of the brothers. Kevin and Kerry were both very good looking, superior workers in my estimation (in fairness David is the one I have seen the least) and more charismatic. I thought David looked really strong here so really nice mat wrestling and wristlocks. This reminded me of the 1986 squashes on Crockett TV against an Action Mike Jackson or Rocky King or a higher ranked jobber as Gene Steven got plenty of offense in. I liked David's dropkick a lot. Strong finish with repeated kneedrops in the corner and then a Vaderbomb to win. Workrate was alive and well in 1979 St. Louis, brutha! Really solid match, I dug it. *** Brusier Brody & Bob Sweetan vs Bryan St. John & Billy Starr is a very boring, competitive squash. I was surprised how long this was. The heel stars not being able to put away these chumps was weird. I was shocked when Brody covered after a backbreaker and there was a kick out. Brody has an aura to him for sure, but given how competitive this was. He did lose his luster. Bob Sweetan gets lumped in with Bulldog Bob Brown and Bulldog Bob Brower as lumpy old dudes that are just kinda there for me. Sweetan is the one who usually screws up and lets a face jobber tag, but as Matysik correctly points out Brody&Sweetan have tagged like 20-30 time compared to the jobbers and let have not put them away. David is pretty good on commentary. No mention of Kerry again. I looked it up Kevin is the oldeest then David then Kerry. Kerry would have only been 19 at this time. Kerry would only be 60 today, same age as my Dad that's crazy. We could have had Kerry matches as late as 2010 if he was still alive. Kerry Von Erich in TNA would been nuts! Anyways, thats a tangent. It looks like they are building to Brody vs Andre which definitely have have been a spectacle. Brody one-arm bodyslam and Flying King Kong Kneedrop to win. Brody promo: Apparently, inclement weather kept Brody from tagging with Flair against Andre. Instead it was Flair & Murdoch vs Andre & someone that would be awesome to see! Dick Murdoch vs Andre The Giant is being built to. I would love to see Dick Murdoch vs Andre, do we have that? Flair vs Andre does that exist? Brody is a solid promo, but I dont know I wanted him to sound more unhinged or like a savage ruthless. He challenges the winner of Murdoch vs Andre. Brody wins a Handicap Match that is competitive but at least shorter than tag. It is a one-arm powerslam and flying kneedrop. I think there's another promo. This is more about gunning for Harley's World Championship. He mentioned he defeated three previous world champions, I cant remember which ones and that Flair is too pretty to be World Champ. A shoot perhaps? Battle of the Dicks: NWA Missouri Heavyweight Champion Dick The Bruiser vs Dick Murdoch. Murdoch was scheduled for a squash against St. John, but Dick The Brusier comes out and wants a piece of Dick Murdoch. Sam Muchnick comes out and makes the match official for the Missouri Championship. DB had defeated Murdoch for the Championship but Murdoch I guess was hounding him. Looks like this is from March 18, 1979 as Murdoch wins the Missouri Championship which until Muchnick retirement on January 1, 1982 was probably the second most prestigious title after the World Heavyweight Championship in the NWA. The Brusier was 51 at the time. He was not bumping or selling for shit. There were some fun Murdoch moments. I loved how hard Murdoch would try to ram his head into the buckles but Brusier would resist, Brusier sold resistance better but Murdoch's face made it. They brawled on the outside with DB slamming his head into the table. 1979 St. Louis has workrate and brawling! DB gets a stomach claw and a couple bodyslams too close to the ropes. I liked that the Brusier slammed Murdoch's head into the buckles. Further symmetry, Murdoch slammed Bruiser too close to the ropes, but he scooped DB's leg off before the ref could see and count the fall. Winner and new champion! A very heel controversial finish! St. Louis was not dry at all. The fans hated Murdoch too. Murdoch did the best he could, but DB was a load. NWA Missouri Heavyweight Champion Dick Murdoch vs Pat O'Connor: These two have a match from All Japan 1975 that I should revisit to see if I have more patience for it. I remember it being dry with a headlock/headscissors dominating most of the match. O'Connor is 56 years old! He moves a lot better than the Bruiser and this is a much better match. Murdoch controls with a side headlock, O'Connor Roll as a hope spot! O'Connor works some great armdrags reminiscent of Jack Brisco or Ricky Steamboat. Very technically sound match. Murdoch's heat segment is great at one point he tries to rip O'Connor jaw apart. It is always a joy to watch Murdoch great blend of comedy and torture. Finish is alright. O'Connor has him in the sleeper and TV crowd goes wild! They really want him to win. Murdoch milks it but gets up and rams O'Connor's head into the buckles. Matysik says he sees red but I dont. Dick The Bruiser comes out and attacks Murdoch triggering the DQ. It makes sense as Bruiser was trying to prevent further injury to his fellow old-timer. Murdoch's heel promo is great! He talks about beating up everyone Jack Brisco, Ted DiBiase and Brusier with Brainbuster and Larry reminds him that those Brainbusters were illegal outside the ring. After one, Murdoch says you shouldnt have moved the ring. Which popped me! Oh I loved Murdoch calling the ref Muchnick Stooges during his matches. He calls Larry a Muchnick stooge. 20 years before Austin vs McMahon there was Murdoch vs Muchnick. He accuses Muchnick of conspiring against him. Awesome promo! Dick The Brusier vs Mike Bowyer - DB uses some nerve holds and test of strength. He throws Bowyer outside. Slams him into the table over the table into the chairs. Ice water to the face and then beats on the stairs. Pins with a flying stomp. If Dick The Bruiser was not 51, that would probably have been great. Larry talks about how no wrestler has been suspended more than Dick The Brusier and how he is a general ruffian. Question traditionally roughhouser were heels and the clean technical wrestlers the babyfaces. Was Dick The Bruiser the first sort of blue collar, everyman roughhouse babyface? That's very influential if true as he would be the ancestor of Stone Cold Steve Austin. Da Crusher was also similar but I find Da Crusher more entertaining. Larry tells us the next matches are clipped for a Best of Wrestling at the Chase episode they ran in 1979 of 1978 matches. Bruiser Brody (a St. Louis mainstay, it is from St. Louis we get all the Flair vs Brody matches) beats a jobber with a Boston Crab. It is interesting that Muchnick and Verne Gagne has reps for loving technical, classic/traditional wrestling but featured a lot of roughhouse brawls like Brody, Dick The Bruiser and Da Crusher. Terry Funk wins with a Sunset Flip over Tank Patton, good Funk selling performance. Dick Murdoch beats the crap out of Steve Hall. Murdoch was feuding with Andre and Dick The Bruiser at this time. Great Murdoch performance. Joyce Grable (babyface) vs Leliani Kai (heel) was awesome! Bodyslam on the floor starts these clips. Throwing themselves into catapults, belly flops and flying hair mares. The ref gets caught in their Tasmanian Devil tornado of dust to delight of the fans. Nice pinning combinations. I believe Grable got the duke. Pat O'Connor/Joyce Grable vs Bulldog Bob Brown & Suzette Star, the first clip we see is Grable hop on O'Connor's back and slap Bulldog. Bulldog got hot. That spot was over. O'Connor worked Brown. Suzette came into do the same spot but Bulldog collapsed from exhaustion. Grable wins the match. Grable was a good wrestler from these clips. Dick The Bruiser beats the shit out of a jobber. He was Missouri Heavyweight Champion. They were building to a Harley Race World Heavyweight Title shot. Bruiser beats him around the ring and over the table. Flying stomp and a piledriver. Harley Race vs a jobber. He beats him down with some high knees. Dick The Bruiser is out and has an extraordinarily husky voice. He puts on the NWA Championship to taunt Race. Race goes for the Piledriver on the floor but is backdropped out. Dick The Bruiser might old as dirt but he is over as rover. Next we go to Ted DiBiase finally a babyface under 50. Powerslam and Figure-4 gets the win for him. Ric Flair vs Pat O'Connor which I think we have in full somewhere else. Ric Flair is a breath of fresh air after all this old man footage. Flair Flip. Flair ends up taking over and kicking ass. I love he maintains control of his Figure-4. O'Connor gets to his belly and Flair snaps him back over in the hold. O'Connor was a very athletic man compared to the average wrestler back in the day which were a lot of tough guys and strongmen. Flair rams O'Connor hard into the post and O'Connor is really bleeding. Flair taunts DiBiase and throws water in his face. It is on! Great pull apart brawl as DiBiase kicks some ass until some midcard heels help Flair and then the midcard babyfaces save DiBiase. I know we get Flair vs DiBiase in that epic Mid-South angle but I would love to see what they could with some time at the Kiel Auditorium. Clips of Ted DiBiase vs King Kong Brody (sorry for incorrectly using Bruiser Brody, anywhere Dick The Bruiser worked, Bruiser Brody had to work as King Kong Brody). Brody kicks his ass as we are JIP, great King of the Mountain. Brody is shorter than I thought he was. This could be a combination that DiBiase is taller than I gave him credit. I would say both are in 6' 2"-6' 4" range. Brody takes a Sunset Flip. I think Brody not bumping is a little overstated and may have more to do that he worked Face against Flair and also he worked Japan a lot. So those two contexts would make sense for him not to bump as opposed to here where DiBiase had him on the ropes. Brody bumped for the dropkick and DiBiase repeatedly going for the Figure-4 with Brody clearly reeling. This being Superstar vs Superstar we get the Double DQ/DCO finish with Brody and DiBiase going wild into the announce table. DiBiase crowns Brody with a chair. Pretty damn good little brawl. I would check out a DiBiase vs Brody arena match in full based on this TV Match. Clips of Dibiase & Orndorff vs Harley & Bulldog Brown - Orndorff is a dude I have no idea what he was like before WWF. Some preliminary research shows he was a big deal in Georgia at the time. He looks good here, I liked his Irish Whip heel into the other heel spot. This is all about DiBiase vs Race. Lots of the young upstart Ted DiBiase showing up Race at the beginning and then on the floor back dropping out of a piledriver and then in the grand finale pinning the World Champion with a bridging German Suplex. Crowd popped huge and DiBiase celebrated big. I wouldnt read into this too much insofar I dont think he was going to win the Title tomorrow. I think it clearly shows the NWA was high on DiBiase and that he was being groomed for big things, but to say he was in contention to be the Man after Harley Race would be a stretch. I think this was more looking into building him as a potential champion after Flair in the Late 80s if the NWA stayed with the same business model. Harley Race beats Gary Young interesting Gary Young is a protege of Pat O'Connor were their higher hopes for Gary Young than realized? Overall Thoughts: The best part of St. Louis since it is a town that flies in all its talent from around the country, you get an all-star feel and a nice cross-section of what was out there. There is a lot of heavy hitters like Flair, Brody, Murdoch and Race for the time. You get the young upstarts like DiBiase and Von Erichs. You get plenty of old-timers like Dick The Bruiser and Pat O'Connor. Negatives were I would have liked to seen more promos or angles. The angle between the two Dicks was very fun even if the match was not so more stuff like that would be great. Pat O'Connor vs Dick Murdoch was my favorite match with the David Von Erich competitive squash being a close second. Dick Murdoch is who I enjoyed most based on his in-ring work and that one promo. Dick The Bruiser to me is an intriguing figure even if he looks as old as dirt. Looking forward to the next disc...looking ahead there's a Dick Murdoch vs Kevin Von Erich match that if it is clips will be enjoyable and if it is in full with a clean finish is a possible MOTYC on paper. Murdoch & Kevin are both in my Top 50 of all time, really looking forward to this!

Pro Wrestling Love Goes Audio! On the Place To Be Wrestling Feed! Thank you to JT & Scott for hosting us! My brother says you can get access to "Place To Be Wrestling Feed" on Spotify and if you have an iPhone you have the purple Podcast app you can search for "Place To Be Wrestling" Feed and it will come up. I assume Apple Music/iTunes has it. Here is the web link: https://www.podbean.com/eu/pb-5wwux-f3d63d https://placetobe.podbean.com/ The hook in my opinion of the inaugural episode is my guest who is none other than PWO stalwart @El-P! I am so glad to have a chance to have an at length conversation with Jerome on pro wrestling as it was the most fun I have had during the Pandemic. Thank you so much for joining me, Jerome! We are discussing our Top 25 Matches in TNA/Impact Wrestling History. Of course when you get two PWO fans together there was no way to house all this goodness in one episode. So the first episode is just #25-21! We will continue to do it in 5 match chunks as we countdown to the Best TNA/Impact Wrestling Match of All Time. We hope you all enjoy this and please we welcome all feedback! Agree, disagree, thought we missed a match, please let us know! It was a blast to do this and we hope you all enjoy!

Baltimore has Waffle House. It is in the South, brutha.

NWA World TV Champion Tully Blanchard - NWA Great American Bash 1985 Light Out Cage Match Baby Doll & Tully stole the Championship from the American Dream when Baby Doll threw a foreign object into the ring. Tully Blanchard says he has dealt with the dealer. To ensure himself of that, he used Abdullah The Butcher to attack the Dream. In a tag team match, Baby Doll handed Tully some flash paper and he threw a FIREBALL in Dusty's face. I am a staunch believer that wrestling needs more Fireballs. Dusty was left singing the Hard Time Blues. Kinda outta nowhere it seemed in the build he wanted to have a Barbed Wire Match. Tully starts dressing up like a cowboy mocking Dusty but it is set a Barbed Wire Match as the inaugural Great American Bash. I think the match is actually a Lights Out Cage Match meaning you win by knockout, I think. Also on the line is some money vs Baby Doll for thirty days. It is one thing for heel creep Ric Flair to win a date with Precious and then get coldcocked by Ronnie Garvin for being a sleaze it is another for babyface All-American Dusty to think he can control a woman for thirty days. I hope we have this is in full...here we go...the ref is checking for foreign objects and there is a fan hollering to check his elbow pad which is just great. Bionic Elbow to start sends Tully reeling. Tully struts out of hitting the cage. We get a little Dusty strut and booty shaking. Dusty bodyslam on Tully. Tully is a great stooge. Tully fights out of a toehold and uses the tights to throw Dusty into the cage. Dusty taps a gusher. Tully works the cut. Tully chinlock while Dusty bleeds. Dusty misses an elbow drop as Tully gets his. Tully bars the arm. Dusty punches out of the arm bar. Bionic elbow. Repeated. Dusty gets the crowd more involved. Hurls Tully into the cage and bashes Tully's head into the cage repeatedly. Big baseball swinging double axe-handle. Double Juice! Dusty grates his bloody face across the steel. This is not as good as later Tully vs Dusty matches. Not much zip/heat to their wrestling. Dusty is great at selling headbutts on jelly welly legs. Tully throws off the ref and as he attacks the cut while Dusty is slumped in the corner. Big chop by Dusty. Bionic Elbow. Tully wants to escape out the door, but it is locked there is no refuge from this danger. Big clothesline from Dusty as the crowd roars, gets a two count. This match might just need a three count to win. Figure-4 by Dusty! Tully reverses the Pressure and it keeps on for quite a bit of time. Tully lunges at the leg. Dusty responds with a Bionic Elbow. Dusty backdrops out of a piledriver. Baby Doll hands Tully a foreign object over the cage, but Tully never has a chance to use it. Dusty nails for a piledriver for the three count and a massive pop. It is Dusty I am not expecting a workrate classic, but this fell kind of flat for me. I think their 1986/7 matches were much more energetic, heated, charismatic whatever word you wan to use. This had its moments but it just didnt string them together. Still enjoyable. ***

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 kid up. Flair marches to the ring. Chop, Magnum punch drops Flair where he stands. Criss cross ends with a Magnum dropkick. Blistering chop by Flair. Flair eats the Back Drop and Flair is begging off. Flair Flop. Flair short knee. Flair tosses Magnum out of the ring, but he storms the ring. Mags blocks the suplex. The Andersons, Flair's cousin, have arrived on the scene. Flair kneedrop. Flair gutwrench suplex. Abdominal Stretch with use of ropes is such a great heel move that should come back. Mags hiptoss. Flair headbutt to gut. Small package by Mags. Mags wins a firefight, Flair Flip, Flair crashes to the floor. Double axehandle by Flair and standing elbow drop. Flair belts him with a chop and shoulder into the post. An old cut on Magnum's forehead got busted open. Magnum whips him hard into the buckles and it doesnt look good for the champ. Flair tackle. O'Connor Roll by Magnum. Mags Punch. Very Crockett workrate style match. Magnum has a great punch. Magnum goes for the Steamboat Splash and eats knees. Backslide battle. Magnum wins the battle but not the war only gets two. Big Press Slam from Magnum on Flair. Magnum pummels him in the corner. Magnum goes for broke with a dropkick, but crashes and burns. Flair gets two. Magnum misses the crossbody. Flair is pumped. Flair goes up top but press slammed off. MAGNUM APPLIES THE FIGURE-4!!! Flair is in a bad way. There is less than a minute left. Ten minutes up! Flair tries to go after him. Atomic drop and the Andersons attack Flair. Flair hits a massive top rope kneedrop on Magnum. I love this angle. I think the young lion challenges the World Champion to a ten minute time limit match is such a great way to build the young lion and build the real championship matches for the house show loops. So simple yet so damn effective. ***1/2

The Fantastics vs The Sheepherders - Crockett Cup 1986 Quarterfinals I dont think I realized quite how stacked that inaugural Crockett Cup was. I believe both teams are representing Watts' Mid-South or they would both be there soon. As they would be having multiple steel cage matches in May of 1986. This is the most famous version of Sheepherders (Butch & Luke) with Jack Victory as their flag-bearer at the end of the match they had the Mad Max girl whose name I think was Maxine. This match is most famous for being awarded five stars by Meltzer as he was at this even live however there was no way of knowing if the match was that good because it was clipped to hell on the commercial release. The Network released this in full a couple years ago to little fanfare, which shocks me. While it is not the Last Battle of Atlanta, this was still very much a holy grail. Does it live up to the hype? Well it is not ***** in my opinion, but I didnt have that lofty of expectations I did think this was a pretty choice slab of violent pro wrestling. I think you if you want to show Fulton was every bit as integral to the success of The Fantastics as Rogers this is a good match to show people. He is the star of the show. Rogers was the workrate guy of the team. Fulton was the gimmick/charisma/showman of the team and they complemented each other well. In the famous 1988 Midnights series, Rogers stands out because that's more of a workrate feud, but here is where Fulton shines. Fulton leans into USA vs World angle. He gets a U-S-A chant started and then leads the crowd in the Pledge of Allegiance before the match even gets started. I always say this in Fantastics matches but it bears repeating: we need more high-fiving and booty-shaking. Fantastics use the dropkicks to open the match. We get a little anti-shine with the Herders working Fulton's arm, but Fulton uses a monkey flip and a dropkick of course to regain control. Rogers does some stuff. Fulton has a terrific punch. It looks fucking perfect. Nice right cross with a little uppercut action. Beautiful. Fulton back in and atomic drops one Herder into the other. I'll be honest I dont know which Sheepherder is which I always feel like the darker hair oned is Butch but I think I am wrong and it is Luke. The action spills onto the outside and that's when this match ratchets up in a big way. Fulton eats the posts and ends up wearing the Crimson Mask. Rogers throws a Herder into the railing and the railing collapses onto the fans which was a crazy moment. Victory stomps Fulton. This one very Southern fan loses his shit on audio calling for a DQ, it was awesome. "Ref you saw that. Where's the DQ?" You tell him. Roger sees the blood on Fulton's face and has joined the Disqualification bandwagon. The number one reason this is a classic is because of Fulton's selling. The blood definitely adds to it, but this is also an all-time great selljob from Fulton. I cant describe it, you just gotta watch it and bear witness for yourself. Nice clothesline from Fulton but it is just a hope spot as the Herders cut him off. Good clubbering offense from the mean & nasty Sheepherders. They slam him back into the railing. Fulton is selling like a million bucks, brutha. Fulton throws three desperate kicks from the mat that are just awesome. They do the false hot tag to huge heat. The ref is busy detaining Rogers, the Herders look ready to double team Fulton and slam him into the Flagpole. Fulton stops and drives "Luke" into the pole and he taps a gusher! Awesome spot! Love it! Fulton makes the tag. Rogers opens a can of whoop ass on Luke who take a huge bump off a fist. Rogers bites the cut! Big punch off the top. Katie Bar The Door it is a Pier-Six Brawl! Fulton gets thrown into the ref which wipes him out to the outside. "Butch" is pounding on Fulton. Fulton comes back with those sweet right crosses but Jack Victory distracts him. "Butch" has the pole and jabs it into Roger's back. Fulton is fucked on the outside. Fulton trips up Butch so he cant pulverize Rogers with the pole and instead Rogers nails Butch. Then they nail Jack Victory. We may have ultra-rare Quintuple juice. Tug of war over the pole, but Fulton dropkicks the one Herder. Maxine is out. The brawl does not let up. This is a great way to set up the May Steel Cage house show loop between these two teams. This was a great blood-filled brawl. The referee calls for a double disqualification. The Fantastics are pissed with the ref's decision and look ready to clock him but they think better of it. This match was raging once Fulton got busted open. The beginning was solid, but picked up real steam during Fulton's heat segment and Roger's hot tag. Give this a real finish and it is a real classic, baby! ****1/4

Their rematch (23-Nov-20) was also of similar caliber. These two have great chemistry!

NWA US Heavyweight Champion Magnum TA vs Nikita Koloff - NWA Worldwide 8/16/86 Match #6 This match was light years better than #4, in large part because Magnum really picked up the slack and was a more active babyface. I liked the shine especially the part where Nikita was looking Sickle only for Mags to nail the dropkick. Magnum worked the arm really well, against a better opponent I really could see that going somewhere. We go to a break and we dont see how Nikita got control, which is a bummer. Nikita charges the buckles with his bad shoulder, but regains control. Nikita was working a lot with chinlocks and front facelocks, but I thought Magnum's selling and constant work from underneath made this a much more spirited contest. I liked the suplex hope spots. The finish was solid. Magnum has a really great punch. I would have liked to see what he could do in Mempho with Lawler or Dundee. Krusher messes with the match. Mags yells at him Nikita crashes into him with a knee but also bumps the ref. SICKLE~! Magnum is outside the ropes but new ref doesnt see that. Old ref waives it off, in all the commotion Belly 2 Belly Suplex to send this to a decisive Match 7! Dont let Match #4 sour you on the series, this is quite good.***3/4

Midnight Express vs Original Midnight Express - Starrcade 1988 Let me say this to start, I implore everyone to watch the angle building to this. It will really enrich the viewing experience brutha. Corny gets a call on a telephone during a Saturday Night Squash a week after they dropped the belts to the newly heel Road Warriors. He is his usual incendiary self when all of sudden Loverboy Dennis and Randy Rose hit the ring. Cornette who is in all white gets busted open by Paul E’s Brick Cell Phone. The next week Corny brings out the jacket and cuts a babyface promo to end all babyface promos. He says his Mama says he needs to come home and it is too dangerous. He casts his Mama aside and says he is standing on his own two feet. The studio audience popped huge and so did I over 30 years later. That promo was delivered with such conviction and you couldn’t helped but be engrossed. Paul E was good and effective but in the weeks leading up to the showdown, Jim Cornette was in a class all by himself. You really wanted to see the Real Midnight Express whup The OMX. Jumpstart. MX back drop OMX out of the ring. Cornette and Eaton are great heels but my God are they great babyfaces too! Cornette has the crowd eating out of the palm of his hand. He was whipping the crowd into a frenzy with his antics. He was terrific. A shine is supposed to be fun and this put a big smile on my face. All the challenges to Paul E! The best part was when Condrey or Rose was on the outside he would whack them when the racket. The crowd would go nuts! Paul E would ring the bell wanting a DQ and the crowd would be all over him. Great pro wrestling! Also it was so nice to finally see Eaton let his hair down and cut loose. No need to worry about feeding & bumping, he could let the fists fly and let rip it. Eaton has the offense of an amazing babyface great fists of fury AND high flying, high octane offense. Loved seeing Condrey & Rose shine up the MX, they did a great job. Great transition to the heat segment with Eaton taking a hard charge into the buckles. Condrey was the grit of the MX and so he was perfect working the heat segment. I do think Lane is a better seller than Eaton especially working all those years in the Fabs but so much of the story centered around Condrey’s sudden, inexplicable departure. Eaton felt betrayed by Condrey and vice versa so it only made sense we got this heat segment. Rose is a solid hand like a Doug Somers but Condrey is where the heat is at. I am a huge mark for great transitions. The heat segment builds to the OMX Rocket Launcher which they had been using in squash matches in the lead up to this. They feel they have Eaton sufficiently beat down for this. Rocket Launcher Crashes & Burns as Eaton moves! Great climax to a great heat segment! Hot tag was short but sweet. Lane gives a great fired up performance ref is bumped and Paul E cracks the brick cell phone over his head. Jim Cornette is in, has Paul E by the mullet and clocks him. Great bump by Paul E. Ref finds the phone, waives off the cover. TOTAL ELIMINATION(called Double Goozle) here! Great quick clean finish for the babyfaces. OMX attacks post-match but Eaton beats them back with the racket. Pure MX fun but it feels so so refreshing because they are wicked over babyfaces. It was so nice to see them unleash that offensive arsenal to applause and so nice to see Cornette use his charisma to win the crowd over! Very underrated match and very fun! ****1/4

NWA World Tag Team Champions Rock N Roll Express vs NWA US Tag Team Champions Midnight Express - NWA Worldwide 7/11/87 I am proud to be PWO's Official #1 Stan Lane fan tonight. Not only did he kill in the ring on this night, but he cuts a bitchin' promo on the outside. Corny gotten taken out the week prior by the RNRs I think to cover for a surgery or something related to the fall from the Scaffold. Lane calls Cornette a good Christian who gives 80% of his income to charities and co-wrote We Are The World. I popped for that! Terrific match! This is the type of pro wrestling I just live for. Stan Lane gives this feud a fresh new dynamic. He sells his ass off in this match. Whether, it was letting himself be kicked in the ass through the ropes or how he sold the leg work, the man put on a helluva performance. I liked how he would maneuver the ref so he could yank Morton down by the hair after Eaton had just been falsely complaining Gibson was pull his hair in the segment prior. Morton rockets him with punches. Dropkick. Lane pinballs for the Rock N Rolls in awesome fashion. The leg work by Rock N Rolls is so good, so tight. The key is Lane. He keeps it fun and entertaining. Heel in Peril at the beginning of 80s tag whether up North or down South is a tough thing to work. Lane the way he was verbally selling everything made it. I LOVED Eaton finally getting the tag ONLY to fall prey to a drop toehold and end up right back where his partner was. Finally Eaton crashes on Gibson with a knee from behind. Lane shows that mean streak. Snake Eyes on the railing and chokes with he cord. Strong heat segment. We dont see of those Beautiful Sweet Home Alabama rights but we get some real mean, nasty work from Lane. They work a spot where Morton keeps getting so incensed they are able to hurl Gibson over the top rope which is illegal. Gibson is good about selling, but not too much peppering in those pinning combinations to give the crowd hope. Eaton finally goes up for one of his highspots. He misses a gorgeous top rope elbow. Here comes Morton. He is full of piss & vinegar. Looks great. A meeting of the minds! Morton is directing traffic to set up DOUBLE DROPKICK on Eaton but he bumps the ref. Here comes Big Bubba Rogers who plants Morton with the Bossman Slam. He throws the ref back in. 1-2-3! New World Tag Champs?!? Wait?! I thought...huh...oh here's another ref to reverse the decision. Finish keeps it from my Top 3 MX vs RNRs matches but this will safely make my Top 100 JCP/WCW matches. Check out Stan Lane's performance not far behind is Gibson who is a great face in peril. Gibson will definitely make my Top 100 Wrestlers next time. The two unsung members of their tag team give standout performances in this banger. ****1/4

Tully Blanchard vs Ricky Morton - NWA Worldwide 9/19/87 Texas Death Tully & Morton are embroiled in the red hot Arn & Tully vs Rock N Rolls feud. I kinda panned the really long tag match that was around this. I was told either my footage of the match ended prematurely or I ended it prematurely. I will have to go back and watch it at some point. It is really, really long so I think I go to save that for a weekend night. Lets rock on this one! No tag title change yet. Chad/Soup gave this high marks, but does it live up to the hype? Firefight in the corner, Morton wins and Blanchard is overwhelmed and falls outside the ring. Morton gives chase and gives him a couple more licks for good measure. This is a great fistfight so far. Morton comes charging in and eats a knee in the corner. Thus stymies Morton and this is a very quick end to shine. Slingshot Suplex?!?! NO! Morton reveres O'Connor Roll 1-2-NO! Morton nails him! I should have known a shine never ends that quick in Crockett. Huge Rock N Roll chant as Tully powders. Criss Cross, Morton gets the better of that, fist drop and Blanchard tries to escape to the outside, but Morton gives him no sanctuary. Punches him in the face. Tully is stumblin and bumblin outside the ring. Tully rubs some dick cream on Morton's face. I dont know what else to call it. He was futzing him with pants and then rubs Morton's eyes after touching himself. It was most likely a phantom object/chemical. I rewound, it looks like it may have actually been a rag of some sort. Perhaps with ether. Tully hurls him over the top rope. Morton sells well. I hope we get to see Tully show a mean streak. Morton peppers in some shots and Blanchard uses the tights to send him into a post. Tully jumps off the apron and elbows Morton. Morton nails Tully right in the face. David Crockett points out Morton can fight not just fly around. Hell Yeah! He is more of a puncher than anything else and God Bless Him for it. Tully is working the leg. David points out that you have to be able to stand to not lose so this is smart psychology. Nice dropkick by Tully, you dont see that too often! Nice bridge by Morton to avoid the pinfall. Kneedrop by Tully. Morton back drops out of the piledriver. Morton punch and rake across the top rope! Tully is so good at selling. Morton claws at his face as Tully tumbles to the outside. Tully finds a cord under the ring. Trips Morton with it and the chokes him with it. Versatile foreign object. Morton starts working a comeback. Morton brings him in the hard way with a back suplex. Morton punches to the face. We head to commercial with Morton punching Tully repeatedly. David Crockett lets us know during the break JJ nailed Morton with a shoe. Tully does not get the pin and Morton comes from behind with O'Connor Roll. Top Rope Cross Body for 2! They do this insane workrate sequence that needs to be seen to be believed. People would go nuts for that in 2020. Morton works the leg. Very Crockett in the sense that Morton has looked very strong and taken most of the match. Tully is such a great seller. Morton climaxes with the Figure-4 but JJ rakes eye. I like matches with more meaningful momentum shifts and less quick transitions, I have to admit. Blanchard crashes down with elbows on the apron. I will say this is the strongest Blanchard has looked compared to most matches I seen him in. Blanchard gets caught coming off the top as I write that sentence and it is back to Morton. Blanchard yanks him by the tights and through the ropes. Both men look exhausted and this been a war of attrition. Tully goes for the Slingshot but reversed into a Morton suplex, that is a very common Tully spot. Dropkick by Morton and punches. Morton Atomic Drop, Tully Ricochets off the buckles and they crack heads. Both men do not look like they are going to make to their feet by ten, but at a count of 9, Morton makes it to his feet. Tully is out cold. Arn comes in and GORDBUSTER on Morton! Lets get some heat on this! Where is Gibson? Here comes the trash! Tully whips Morton like a dog. Barry Windham chases the Horsemen off. I thought this was very good, definitely better than the Superbouts match. I thought match was a little noisy for my tastes and this is a problem I think I have with Tully. I think a lot of the complaints people have towards Flair is how I feel about Tully. With Flair, I see the psychology and also Flair is much stronger offensive wrestler. With Tully, I just see a dude that is perpetual motion and it is just action for the sake of action. That being said it is not devoid of its entertainment, Tully commitment to heel selling, feeding & bumping makes this must see. I thought he out-sold Morton. Morton was phenomenal on offense. I just would have liked to see stronger momentum shifts. ***3/4

NWA World TV Champion Tully Blanchard vs Ricky Morton - Superbouts 6/27/87 I got sucked down an Ole Anderson shoot interview rabbit hole along with trying to find any discussion around the fascinating, mysterious Jim Barnett. Oh my boy, I simply must get back to reviewing matches to meet deadline of this project. The website I found with the Superbouts match listing says this was aired on 6/27/87 which before the proper build to Tully/Arn vs Rock N Rolls. This is more just general Horsemen vs Babyface savagery. Superbouts was Crockett's answer to Primetime Wrestling. This is a consequence of the great Tully TV title defense against Gibson. Firefight erupts in the corner that Morton wins of course. Atomic Drop! Atomic Drop is such a great babyface move, we need to bring that back. I think Dark Journey was gone by August 1st. You barely noticed her. I thought they were going to transition to JJ with Luger and have Tully with DJ. Keeping JJ with Tully renders her redundant. Morton bodyslam as Tully goes for the eyes. Morton fights through the pain and bodyslams him, but misses the elbow. Tully nails the second rope elbow. I like it. Morton was desperate and the bodyslam was the last gasp. I wish it was more impactful than an eyerake but this could lead to a good heat segment, much quicker than expected. We come back from break and Morton is on the outside in distress. Morton starts rally with punches to the head from the floor, rubs his face in the mat. Tully great heel selling to JJ. Rope rake. Tully selling well. Tully regrouping on the outside and has DJ's shoe and nails Morton in the breadbasket. NOW that's the type of transition I am looking for! Tully pummels Morton. Morton uppercut, sidekick, Morton DDT! Rock N Roll! Morton rubs Tully's face in the mat. Morton nails him in the face. Tully yanks him by the tights through the ropes. Morton comes back with a top rope crossbody...dropkick! JJ feeds the dropkick! Morton back drops him over the top rope triggering the DQ. Morton clobbers Tully to stand tall. Very typical Crockett style match. Good but does not stand out of the pack. *** They are ran this angle on 8/1/87 edition of 6:05pm Saturday Night: They are building to Arn & Tully vs RNRs as Tully & Dusty has wrapped up and it has come time for Tully to take a backseat to Luger. Morton cuts a promo with Tony and when we come back from commercial with Tully/JJ getting ready for a promo but Morton antagonizes him by slapping him. Morton kicks Tully's ass in the ring. Lots of good punches and feeding by Tully. Tully tries to escape but Gibson throws him back in. Morton is giving him a shellacking. Gibson prevents JJ from getting into the ring. Teddy Long has come to the ring. Morton crossboy but Tony says we are short on time and see you next week. What a tease!

NWA World Tag Team Champions Rock N Roll Express vs Ric Flair & Lex Luger - NWA Superbouts 8/1/87 There's just something about the Flair/Luger team I am a mark for. Even when I was a kid and they teamed up in 2000 I thought it was the coolest thing ever. They were dubbed The Dream Team a month or so prior and that's how I feel. In the promos on Saturday Night leading up to this, Horsemen has noticed everyone has gold but Arn, but they arent dogging him. They want to help him get tag team gold. Tully Blanchard out of the kindness of his heart has volunteered to be his fulltime tag partner in the quest to win tag gold. Pretty cool storyline. Interesting that we still get this match and I am really glad we do. Stream of consciousness style: Flair to start against Morton. Oh Hell Yeah! Flair strutting and looking like he is having a ball. Morton tackle. Flair slaps Morton, Morton decks The Champ. Flair chats with Luger. Top wristlock by Flair, Flair is getting overwhelmed and uses the hair. Morton slaps Flair. Flair is incensed. Firefight breaks out and Morton wins that! Kneelift by Flair, chops, but Morton forcefully switches, ten count punches, hiptoss, dropkick. Flair needs to tag out and bring in the Big Man. Luger vs Morton, I am excited. Headlock by Luger. Takedown. Morton uses the headscissors to escape. Morton grabs a headlock and is able to takedown the Total Package. Luger throws him off. Morton is not able to tackle Luger. Flair is strutting and Wooing that he finally has someone who wont take a bump on his team. Bodyslam, nope, Morton, O'Connor Roll! Luger is shocked and Flair is incensed. Almost a quick loss from the two major Singles champions. Morton tags out. Luger flexes trying to psyche out Gibson. Lockup to start. Luger asks Flair is Gibson crazy for trying to bodyslam the Package. Gibson cant pick up the big man. Luger flexes and cant believe he would try. Leapfrog, Pick up Slam, Dropkick and Gibson knocks Flair off the apron and bring him to punch him. Flair walks across the ring just to feed Morton on the apron and pinballs for the Rock N Rolls. We come back from break with Flair bearhugging Morton, but that does not last long. Morton is able to get in motion and grabs a headlock. Flair is hollering in agony. Flair bullies him in the corner. Big chops and Morton grabs the beak! Gibson is punching the nose. Backslide by Gibson. Ref shoving spot. Flair grabs a headlock but can hold it. Back in motion...Double Figure-4 always a crowd-pleaser! Flair hurls Gibson over the top rope. Luger rams Gibson into the railing. Here we go baby. Lets Go Horsemen! Gibson is left hobbling back in the ring and Luger helps him back in the ring the hard way. Flair chopping and punching in the corner. Double Clothesline by the Dream Team. Gibson high cross body gets two for a hope spot. I wanted to see some sweet Luger power offense. Flair nice reverse atomic drop, Gibson has a great sell. Luger comes crashing down with double axehandle. Luger chinlock. Flair takes advantage of a Morton distraction and Flair switches in. Great heavy deadlift vertical suplex and then right into the Figure-4. Oh cmon Tony we just had a commercial break! We come back with Flair hitting the kneecrusher and crashing down on the knee. Luger kicking the knee from the apron. Gibson moves his leg and Flair lands on his ass hard. Luger tags in. Luger works a standing toehold. Luger yanks Gibson away from Morton. Flair tosses Gibson out to the concrete floor. Luger smokes Gibson with a double axehandle. Sunset Flip hope spot from apron. Gibson grabs the sleeper, but too close to Luger who tags in and punches Gibson. POWERSLAM! The prelude to the Torture Rack. He is calling for it. Gibson avoids it with the O'Connor roll. Flair big, heavy chop. Gibson crawls through the ropes. Morton is house afire. punches for everyone. Morton posts Flair after punching him over the top. Flair is trying to escape but Morton is slamming Flair's head into everything. Morton flying body attack. Katie Bar The Door! There's A Pier Six BRAWL A Brewin'! DOUBLE DROPKICK! LUGER SAVES! WOW! Gibson trips Luger on a double clothesline and restrains him. Morton O'Connor Roll on Flair! Isnt this the finish to the famous Russians match? Luger breaks free...CLOBBERS MORTON FROM BEHIND WITH A CLOTHESLINE! FLAIR FEET ON ROPES! 1-2-3! Holy shit! I cant believe that was the finish. Great finish too. How come this was not for the Tag Titles? The standard very good Flair vs Rock N Rolls with Luger not taking anything away. I really liked the heat segment on Gibson and throw in a really good heel finish victory makes this a cut above typical fare. ***3/4

What is there to say? Maybe the greatest angle in the history of wrestling! Maybe the greatest thing I have ever seen! They are trying to film a Sex Tape in 1987!?! JJ Dillon is a voyeur! Ric Flair is an obsessed, sick freak! And Miss Atlanta Lively returns BABY! If you have never seen this, you gotta see it! I can't believe I had never seen this before. This is greatest piece of sleaze ever recorded! God Bless Pro Wrestling!

HOLY SHIT! Flair comes out hootin' & hollerin' every week that he is this stud in the bedroom and that all the girls not only want to ride Space Mountain, but they never want it to end. "You cant be first, but you can be next." Thats what the Nature Boy says. Coming off his big victory over Jimmy Garvin, Ric Flair is acting like he is going on his very first date ever, like he is in high school! It is his Dream Date with Precious after all. Flair delivers one of his best deranged, obsessive, psychotic promos ever. Capped off by saying that he has been practicing night in and night out with a mannequin adorned with a blonde wig and some black negligee that's supposed to be Precious. Ric Flair who purportedly has a monopoly on the female population and mocks Morton for his teenie bopper fanbase is making out with a mannequin to prepare for his dream date! This is why he is The Man. There is a lot of macho men that would never do this because they would be afraid to look like a fool and it would undercut their appeal with the ladies for a shoot. Not Flair. This whole angle required his MOST OBNOXIOUS, OUTRAGEOUS, DOWNRIGHT MANCIAL performance and he delivered. There was not an ounce of cool about this. He was a sick puppy, a real creep. Jimmy Garvin calls him out for it in his promo, great job. Ric Flair is the GOAT, baby, because he played it to the hilt and would not even let any creep possibly live vicariously through this. JJ was great in all this, egging it on. Tony was terrific playing it off as we have finally crossed the line and this is wrong. Absolutely terrific and whats amazing is they topped themselves the following week. You gotta watch all the build before this and you gotta watch this before you watch the Dream Date!

NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair vs Jimmy Garvin - NWA Great American Bash 7/11/87 Steel Cage The build to this was fantastic. Some of the best unhinged, obnoxious Ric Flair promos ever. He was a total wildman. When he gave the fur coat to Gorgeous Jimmy Garvin's Main Squeeze, Precious, only to have her back smooching Gorgeous Jimmy in the every fur coat in the next segment, was just classic and what made it all better was his Meltdown. Meltdown of the Century. It was a Meltdown that played over multiple weeks. There's a very good Flair/Luger vs Garvins match that builds to this where Gorgeous Jimmy gets the visual pin on Flair. Gorgeous Jimmy wants a title match but Flair says only if he puts up Precious. If he wins, he gets date night with Precious. He sounds like a psycho creep and it is just so amazing. The other reason I am interested in this match is I have no idea how Flair is going to work this match. Jimmy is not technical, workrate like Steamboat/Windham, he is not a small, quick guy like Morton/Koko, he is not a musclehead like Nikita/Kerry/Luger, he is not a stiff brawler like Ronnie Garvin or Wahoo. My guess is the default template is the musclehead template but man Jimmy Garvin doing press slams sounds awfully funny to me. Unfortunately, this is clipped too, I would love to see it in full. Garvin starts off with stiff, wicked over hand chops in the corner, maybe he will be in Ronnie's category...hmmm...Flair Flop. 1-2-No! Garvin goes for chinlock/smother. Flair goes for the balls. Well we might just get the Flair heat segment so maybe we will never find out. Snapmare. Garvin press slams him off the top rope. Well everyone does that spot so not surprising. Garvin applies the Figure-4. Another common Flair trope. Flair hollering never gets old! They are working the Figure-4 very well. Ahh shit from Flair. Jimmy goes for it again, but eyerake from Flair. Garvin has been blinded and a big punch to the breadbasket. O'Connor Roll by Garvin as a counter to a Flair suplex. 15 minutes has elapsed missing the first ten minutes. The firefight in the corner is not the best. Garvin throws him into the cage and again. Flair is the best. Garvin rakes his face across the cage. We have blood baby! The cage bumps gives Garvin something to do without having rely on his own spots. Moon Over Greensboro! Precious hopes she does not have to see that tonight! Garvin slams his head into the top of the cage, but still not enough. More Cage throws and rakes. Ten count punches in the corner. Flair back drop. Garvin goes down on a leapfrog. Since Garvin is a babyface, I think it is legit (i.e. not playing possum). It is. This is Flair's opening. Jimmy Garvin is a better heel and is similar to Flair when he wrestles thats why this could be interesting. Flair is so great at working the leg. Kneecrusher and the way he stomps the knee. Jimmy is selling like a million bucks plenty of verbal selling. Ronnie Garvin is out to exhort him. Flair is on cruise control and Jimmy's sell is carrying it. Flair is hip thrusting at Ronnie and Precious. Another kneecrusher. Woooooooooooo! Jimmy fights back from his knees and the crowd and Ronnie comes alive! Flair chops him down. Flair on top is a thing of beauty. The chops and the work on the knee. Kneedrop on the knee! Flair is the king. Double goozle in the corner. Awesome firefight breaks out in the corner. Garvin beats him down but he collapses. Flair climbs and Garvin's knee does not hold up. There's a lot of Flair ass in this match. Flair crotches himself! 1-2-NO! Crowd bit hard on that nearfall. He is going to try for the Brainbuster, but his knee gave out. Now we go to school! Figure-4! Is this the finish? Flair has the top rope for extra leverage. Some fan really wants to defend the honor of Precious tries to scale the Cage but it is actually harder than it looks apparently and security yanks him down. Tommy Young looked ready to fight him. It kinda undercuts the moment as Garvin just submitted and the defender of Precious muddied the water. Flair has a hold of Precious. HANDS OF STONE! Flair is left to scurry out of the ring on his knees! This is all to build to the big Garvin vs Flair confrontation later in the year. This was better than it had any right to be. **** I could see it being higher if we have the full match.

NWA US Heavyweight Champion Nikita Koloff vs Lex Luger - Great American Bash 1987 Steel Cage Match Nikita has spent all of 1987 as US Champion, but I think he spent most of it playing second fiddle to the American Dream in the Superpowers. He won the Crockett Cup with Big Dust and was a part of the winning team at inaugural Wargames a week prior. The build has been ascension of Lex Luger is academic and it is just a matter of time that Luger becomes a champion like Flair and Blanchard and he has his eyes set on the US Championship. They had one brawl a month ago but other than that not much of a personal build to this one. Stream of consciousness to save time baby: Nikita has a neck brace on...I dont know why...hmmm...lock up to start. Piledriven twice during Wargames, I had forgotten that, been a couple years since I have seen Wargames. Nikita is pretty over. There is a pretty sneaky clip. They show a random fan and come back to the action. The only giveaway there is a clip is that Luger went from being dry to sweating profusely. I dont know how much we are missing and if there is a full version. Luger rams Nikita into the top turnbuckle and chokes him on the middle rope, reverse elbow. 1-2-No. Nikita fights back from his knees. Luger is registering those shots to his midsection so well. Chinlock by Luger. This chinlock is quite long. Very uncharacteristic for Crockett. Not a chance brutha by Luger was nice trash talk. Ring announcer says 25 minutes has elapsed. I would say we are missing 20 minutes easy then. Making this pretty much impossible to rate. Nikita is working to a vertical base. Koloff breaks free only to eat a Swinging neckbreaker. Luger rips off the neck race and throws it outside the cage. The beatdown is on. Massive clothesline by Luger. that looked great and only gets two. Luger is thinking Piledriver which makes sense give the injury. Koloff with one last gasp back drops Luger out of it. Full nelson by Luger. I am a pretty big Luger fan and I thought these two worked well together in the Crockett Cup Final, but this is not doing much for me. Luger is trying, but isnt doing much. Slugfest erupts. Luger goes to the eyes and again leans on Koloff as he drapes over the ropes. Shin across the throat. Luger/Nikita arent exactly two guys you really want going 30 minutes unless it is with Flair. I think if this was short, sweet power match this could have been great. Another chinlock. Does not even seem like a match I want to seek out in full at this point. Koloff breaks it by ramming Luger into the buckles. Koloff repeatedly punches him in the breadbasket back to a slugfest but this time Nikita is roaring back. Ten count punches in the corner. RUSSIAN SICKLE BUT HE HITS LUGER AND REF! Covers, but there is no ref! JJ throws in a chair for Luger. Waffles Nikita from behind. He throws the Smoking Gun out to JJ. Luger hoists him up into the Torture Rack as the ref comes to at the perfect time to call for the bell since Nikita has been knocked out. This was pretty much the end of Nikita as a main event act and this began the rise of Luger. Outside of an awesome heel finish, there's not much to this match. I would say we get about 10 minutes.

NWA World TV Champion Tully Blanchard vs Dusty Rhodes - NWA Worldwide 6/13/87 Originally, I skipped this match, but this was the major angle going into Great American Bash that all the promos centered around so I figured I'd go back and watch it. This is NOT just for the Television Championship, it is also for a $100,000 jackpot with each man contributing 50 grand of their own money. This stems from Tully's $10k challenge. Stream of consciousness, if you will... The Dusty vs Tully singles feud probably defined Crockett more than any other singles feud in this era. It was woven from beginning to end. Dusty drops Tully face first into the match. Armdrag. Now it is time for shucking and jiving courtesy of the American Dream. Tully in response decides to take a walk. They have added Dark Journey to Tully Blanchard Entreprises. She does not add much like Baby Doll. Big hiptoss by Big Dust. Dusty flashes the Elbow and Tully powders. Dusty gives chase. Tully ties to sweep the leg. Tully feeds for the Bionic Elbow and Dusty obliges. Tully powders. Dusty is rolling. Big chops in the corner by Big Dust. Bionic Elbow sends Tully packing. Dusty is whipping the crowd into a frenzy threatening to injure Tully's leg still playing off that Dusty leg injury. Dusty stomps the leg. Tully tucks tail and retreats to the corner. Tully is pissed, humiliated and left hobbled. Dusty wrenches the leg around the steel guard rail. The crowd love it. Tully is limping. I thought Dusty was going to wrap Tully leg around the post but instead takes Magnum's cane and whacks Tully with it. They have been bringing Magnum out with Dusty to pop the crowd and give Mags a little love. Figure-4 by The Dream! Tully makes the ropes. Mags/Tully confrontation. Mags takes a swing at Tully. Dusty rams Tully's head into the railing. FIGURE-4 ON THE FLOOR! I am glad I went back and watched this. Pretty damn entertaining. Tommy Young tries to unravel them and JJ stomps Dusty in the head. Tully is still hobbling. Dusty is selling the leg I am not sure why, but Tully has applied the FIgure-4 in the ring. Dusty reverses the pressure and Tully is left hollering for JJ who pulls him to the ropes. Tully's leg selling is phenomenal. He limps into Dusty who hits the DDT! Both men are in a bad way. Tully uses JJ's shoe to whack Dusty's knee and then wrenches it around the bottom rope. Dusty punches his way out of trouble. Dusty is amazing selling all this. Tully likes trying for the Slingshot Suplex and usually leads to a reverse. Here Tully floats over. Mid-ring collision on the cross-body block. Bionic Elbows by Dusty after each Elbow, he takes a rest in the corner. Tully charges High Knee to turnbuckles! Dusty Figure-4?!? Time? Tully goes for the eyes to avoid it. Fight over a backslide, Dusty wins that battle. Dusty atomic drop and Tully face first bump. The Dream is in control down the stretch. Dusty Sleeper. Tully makes the ropes. DUSTY HITS THE SLINGSHOT SUPLEX! 1-2-3! Tully gets his foot on the ropes too late! Crowd goes wild. JJ STEALS THE MONEY! THE COPS ARE FOLLOWING! THEY ARE ON THE TAKE! Young has called the match off erroneously! Dusty is chasing JJ and Tommy Young counts Dusty out! WHAT THE FUCK! Tommy Young must have thought that Tully had gotten his foot on the ropes in time. What a travesty of justice! This also leads to a Barbed Wire Ladder for $100,000 at Great American Bash. DUSTY WANTS HIS FUCKIN MONEY! DUSTY SWEARING UP A STORM! I LOVE IT! Holy Shit! They took a feud that was way past its expiration date and just reheated it and made it taste oh so good! Incredible! ****

NWA World TV Champion Tully Blanchard vs Robert Gibson - NWA Pro 5/16/87 This match was hyped up on Chad's excellent Carolina Dreamin' podcast so lets check it out, in order to save time, stream of consciousness style, jack: Bob Caudle on the call always warms my heart. The crowd loves them some Rock N Roll of course. TV Championship and Tully's $10,000 challenge. Tully wants Gibson to shake his hand. Gibson has seen this movie before and ducks the cheapshot. Atomic Drop and hiptoss. Blanchard powders. We are off to a red hot start. Knucklelock? Collar elbow tie up. Gibson evades the punch in the corner. Blanchard wrist control nope Gibson reverses takes him down with an arm bar. Crowd is wild for the Rock N Rolls. Gibson is one step ahead of Blanchard. You got to get up pretty early in the morning to get one over on Gibson. Nice Hammerlock takedown by Gibson accentuated by the great sell of Tully as he was being taken down. Hammerlock/Half Nelson pin attempts. JJ messes with Gibson. Gibson gives chase. As Gibson chases JJ into the ring, Blanchard attacks in the ropes. Just a tease! Gibson dropkick! Tully powders again. We go to a break as the rout is on! It looks like we are going to have a new TV Champion and Tully is going to be $10k lighter, baby. Short knee by Tully. Kneelift again. Hiptoss by Gibson, dropkick. Tully needs to stop setting his opponent into motion when he starts to get an advantage. He should just be conservtative and take them down. It is his major flaw. Arm stretcher by Gibson, Tully rolls up on it, but Gibson reverses into a headscissors. Gibson working a clinic. Tully throws a knee again. Swinging neckbreaker not my favorite move but this could be the transition. THESZ PRESS! ROCK N ROLL! ROCK N ROLL! ROCK N ROLL! Sorry Jim Ross not on the call. Schoolboy but ref was messing with Morton. Come on Ricky stop beign a glory hog! Tully clobbers Robert with a punch. Knee/Shin across the nose. He hurls Gibson on the floor. Snake eyes on railing. Morton cant help himself and this affords JJ the opportunity to rake the eyes of Gibson. I would have liked a more emphatic transition to heat. Tully uses the tights to try to pin Gibson. Tully goes up top and somebody has been hanging out with Flair way too much at the Marriott as he gets press slammed off the top. Backslide...1-2-No! Wild swing and Back Suplex by Gibson but Gibson is selling the impact too as we go to commercial. ENZIGUIRI! IN 1986! Gibson is cooking. Tully Flair Flops. Tully gets the foot on the ropes. Gibson sleeper! They end up in the ropes. Small package by Gibson. Tully is looking Slingshot Suplex, but Gibson reverses it on Tully. Ref bump as Gibson biels Tully into him. Tully uses the tights to launch Gibson into the middle turnbuckle. Sunset Flip! Morton counts 1-2-3! Morton punches JJ and Gibson sends Tully over the top rope. I think that will be a DQ win for Tully. Flair is attacking Morton. I would love more matches between those two! The Horsemen double team, Top Rope Kneedrop by Flair and Figure-4 by Flair. Gibson saves with chair. I dont think this went anywhere as the Road Warriors, Garvins and Superpowers were their main adversaries. I dont think I was quite as high on this as Chad. I thought this was very entertaining but it did not stand out too strongly in the pack of action-oriented Crockett matches. I really liked all the gaga and the antics at the outset of the match. At the end of day, it was a heavy babyface match. Gibson looked great, I will give him that. This was a very Flair match but Tully doesnt quite have all the tools that Flair has. Plenty of great action from Gibson down the stretch and great feeding/bumping/stooging from Tully. ***3/4

NWA World TV Champion Tully Blanchard vs Barry Windham - WCW Sunday Edition 5/10/87 NWA was so hot that they had to go to another night! They have rekindled that Tully/Dusty feud now for the fourth time. It is officially getting old. The crux of the feud is money. Tully is bragging how he came from money and he is money. He dont care for the plight of the common man or any common man success stories. Dusty Rhodes is putting up Fifty Thousand Dollars of Common Man Money against Tully. Even if the feuds are recycled, Tully is in his prime. Windham spent the first third of the year as Flair's primary challenger. Flair is moving onto the Garvins, his promos have been great. Windham has been shunted back down. Stream of consciousness style, daddy: This is in the TV Studio and there is $10k of Tully's money on the line. Lock up to start and into the ropes. We get a beak and then Blanchard falling out of the ropes. BW armdrag and Tully powders. Barry has filled out at this point of his career. He is a tall drink of water, baby. Short knee by Tully and some European Uppercuts and now to the breadbasket, BW comes roaring back. Big punch and stomps him out of the ring. Pretty basic shine thus far. Solid. Tully shoves BW as he is incensed & humiliated. Firefight. Barry gets the better of it. Ten count punch. We go to a break. We come back and they are tussling on the mat. Tully throws a wild left showing his desperation. Knucklelock but Barry creams him with a punch. Dropkick. Tully knees him in the side to break up the pin interesting way to do that. Tully is starts to build momentum until he sets BW in motion and gets nailed with a reverse elbow. Lariat out of the corner. JJ distracts the ref for two. Windham catches a sleeper. Tully uses the hair and they tumble to the floor. Windham maintains the sleeper on the floor. This has been all Windham, baby. Back to commercial. We come back with Windham piston punches to Tully. Tony says it has been a see-saw battle. I dont know what match he has been watching. This has been all Windham. Tully uses the JJ's shoe and it only gets two! Wow! I bit on that nearfall hard. Tully nails the suplex. Standing elbow for two. Tully uses the tights to throw BW to the floor. Tully teases a piledriver on the floor, back drop out of it. BW Slugs Tully. Gutwrench suplex by Windham. Powerslam. 2. Barry is pouring it on. GO BARRY GO! Tully short knee and is thinking figure-4 but BW kicks off. Floatover suplex by the silky smooth Windham. Tony lets us know there is 1 minute to go! Dropkick, eyerake at 2 to break it up. I am like these physical break ups by Tully. They brawl on the outside as the bell rings as the time limit expired. Solid match. Nothing to really write home about. It was a very Crockett workrate, action-packed type match. Windham controls the majority and overcomes cheating, short heat segment and I liked that he poured it on as we went to the draw. ***1/4

Rock N Roll Express vs Horsemen (Tully Blanchard & Lex Luger) - JCP 4/3/87 I am not sure of the date we want to use. I believe this was shown on SuperBouts on the Superstation 5/30/87, but I dont know how to find the cards for that. Cagematch makes me believe this is when the match takes place. Please move and/or re-date to the appropriate place. Decided to skip ahead and check out 1987 because of all the Crockett years, it is the year I know the least about and the one I have seen the least footage. The Flair promo giving Precious the mink coat only for her to take the coat and return to kissing Gorgeous Jimmy is the best angle ever! Ric Flair was in his element! Just some of his best material ever! At this time, Ole has departed and Luger is in. Luger instantaneously presents such an interesting dynamic. Teaming with Flair, Blanchard or Double A is immediately interesting. Ragin' & Ravishin' are still World Tag Team Champs, I really should look into if they had any title defenses against the Road Warriors or anyone else because it is a forgotten run. Rock N Rolls would be awarded the belts after Rick Rude left for WWF. Stream of Consciousness style: JJ looks concerned for some reason. Rock N Roll Express are still over like rover baby. The Total Package is such a great moniker. Luger is a giant compared to everyone else. Rock n Roll chant to start as Gibson cheerleads from the apron. Blanchard short knee on the lockup but Morton counters with a dropkick, bump and powder. Morton gives chase immediately and punches Blanchard repeatedly. Firefight breaks out and Morton wins, Morton ten count in the punches. Dropkick! Luger coming off the apron feeds and bumps for Morton dropkick. Horsemen are in a disarray and they powder to break their rhythm. Tully & Gibson now. Tully short knee again, but Gibson grabs the sleeper as Tully calls for Luger. Double Sleeper! Nice crowd pleasing spot. Tully reaching out for a tag oh so close, ref didnt see it, and Rock N Rolls change as the ref blocks Luger. It is always fun when the faces throw this back in the heels face. It is ok because the Rock N Rolls have so much history with the Horsemen. You dont need to re-establish that in every match. We continue with the heel in peril, a second time the ref misses the tag to Luger. This is good role reversal. JJ is on commentary complaining about some home cookin' from the ref to appease the fans. Finally tags Luger only for Luger to eat an armdrag! Hilarious! It was a COLD tag! That's great! Luger is a great verbal seller. Luger kneelfit in the ropes. Gibson crossbody for two and armdrag. Rock N Rolls continue to mess with the Horsemen by switching without tagging behind the ref's back. Luger bullies in the corner but Luger charges and misses, eats buckles and another armdrag. So simple but so fun. Gibson comes in with a slingshot kneedrop on the arm. I will admit the arm bars could be tighter and more snug, but the whole messing with the Horsemen hook keeps this fun. Tully loses his cool and this leads to more Rock N Roll double teaming behind the ref's back. This is inverted Southern Style. Morton working the hammerlock. Luger is trying to make the tag desperately and finally makes it. Tully comes in and tries to clubber his way to victory, but Morton is rock n rolling with those rights! JJ pulls down the top rope as Morton tumbles over the top rope and crashed to the floor. Finally we are moving to the heat segment. Tully drives him hard into he apron. Tully clearly tags in front of the ref. Luger steps on Morton's throat. Luger reverse elbow. Luger shoots Morton in to make the Bearhug look cool. Luger looks amazing. Morton escapes the bearhug but Luger hurries over to tag Tully to keep the advantage as we go to break. Morton reverses a suplex on Tully as we come back from break. Double tag. Gibson dropkicks Luger! Punches Tully! Punch to the breadbasket by Luger, bodyslam on Luger, fist drop, 2 count. Morton schoolboy on Luger. Oklahoma Side Roll. JJ thinks there is only 2 minutes left. Morton's back gives out. Morton catches the knee. You know what they means. Double Figure-4! Crowd loves it! JJ rakes the eye of Morton to save Tully. Tully suplexes Morton, but takes a bad bump on it too. Small package by Morton, kick out. 30 seconds. Backslide by Morton, 2. Morton Top Rope Crossbody as the time limit expires. Double Dropkick on Tully to send the fans home happy! Not as good as the Anderson time limit draws. The gaga with cheating babyfaces flustering the Horsemen kept the double heel in peril entertaining. I wish we got to see more of Luger's offense. I actually like the fact that Rock N Rolls had more time to try to desperately win the match. I wish the Andersons matches had that. Yeah, not as much meat on the bone. ***1/2