Superstar Sleeze

Mid-South Tag Team Champions Magnum TA & Mr. Wrestling II vs Midnight Express - Houston 1/27/84 I cant remember the last time I smiled this much watching wrestling, oh yeah, it was probably the last time I watched a Midnight Express match. Tremendous shine! Wow! So much fun! TA & II hit the ring and they are all business. The MX take back drops still in their ring robes. They try to retreat. They can run but they can hide. Basically TA will go out chase one of the MX members back into the ring and that will leave them at the booty-shaking mercy of Mr. Wrestling II & his Knee Lift. Eaton does an incredible sell of the knee lift. No one sells overwhelmed and discombobulated as well as the Midnight Express. After about five minutes of insanity, the match finally settles down enough that we can get some one on one action, but still the MX are outmatched. They try to cheat but every effort is overwhelmed by the intensity of the TA & II onslaught. Condrey tries to rake the eyes but TA just punches his way out of it. The MX do their standard punch each other by accident spot. They are totally flummoxed and look completely out of sorts. I love how good Eaton & Condrey are at heel selling. I am not supposed to feel sympathy for them. I should be pointing and laughing and thats whats happening. TA & II are great babyfaces showing amazing fire and some really, really good punches from TA. I just noticed how good Mags is at punching during that match with Ole but it is true here also. For a babyface shine that is pretty much all punches and kneelifts, this is one of the best of all time because of the emotion all four men are conveying. I thought the transition to heat was a little weak. Condrey just kicked II in the gut and then drove his head into Eaton's knee. I love how much choking and cheating there was the MX. Nothing fancy just a ton of urgency on frequent tags and being nasty. II was great at selling notice how he is not bumping all over the place. He is staggering and sometimes he will take a knee. Only towards the end does he end up on his back. He is protecting his character. He is a tough son of a bitch. Heels bump. Babyfaces sell. II is selling his ass off, but he is not dying. He is fighting back and making the MX earn their offense. I noted this before but the frequency of tags by the MX is great stuff and really shows how hard they working to keep II in their corner. They are taking shortcuts going for the throat and eyes and they even use a chair. A lot of headbutts by Condrey to the midsection. The big highspot of the match is Eaton lands a kneedrop from the middle turnbuckle. He takes time to mock the "Two" chants! Condrey in for the pin but only two, wasted too much time. Backbreaker and gets two. Whip and sets too early KNEE LIFT! II on his knees crawling and tag to Magnum! Magnum decks anything in his path! IT IS RED HOT IN HOUSTON! Magnum seems to get distracted by Cornette and the MX double team II when all of sudden Magnum OBLITERATES a wooden board over Bobby Eaton's head! HOLY SHIT! I popped for that. Mags & II start beating the shit out of the Midnight Express with pieces of wood triggering the DQ. I thought this was even better than the rematch which made the Mid-South set. Classic Midnight Express match that is designed for maximum pleasure put a clean finish on this bad boy and you got a MOTYC! Outrageous energy from both teams! ****1/4

AWA World Heavyweight Champion Nick Bockwinkel vs Ricky Morton - Houston 7/2/82 Two Out Of Three Falls Dream Match Alert! Only fitting that this is the first of revealed Houston Wrestling matches I see because how much I love both. First Fall: May I just say how much I missed Nick Bockwinkel! I love how he throws himself into everything. Look at that rip of a side headlock takedown that was reminiscent of Lou Thesz against Buddy Rogers. The shouldertackle too. This is a great classic veteran heel champion against young upstart babyface that is full of piss & vinegar. Bock's dander is raised almost immediately as Morton keeps avoiding the lock up. Then Morton climbs up Bock to get a snapmare. Then it is Morton with a sitout on an amateur takedown. Finally it is Bock falling flat on his face. It goes from Bock being nonplussed about the situation to being downright pissed. He traps Morton in the corner and lays in some big blows including a big time kneelift that sends Morton to the floor. Morton gets himself out of the headlock and even manages to hit a bodyslam. What a sell by Bock and then his shameful retreat back to the corner. Again Bock traps Morton in the corner with shoulderblocks. I loved the missed reverse crossbody by Morton and Bock diving out of the way. After all the times, Morton evaded Bock now Bock returns the favor. He pounces with a piledriver. I forgot this was two out of three falls and I was like thats a shame that wont be the finish because it is a great fall. 1-2-3! I popped! I remembered it was 2 out of 3 falls. If I was booking, I was use the miss reverse crossbody then piledriver 8 million times, I love that 1-2 punch. Amazing first fall. Bock up 1-0. Second Fall: If the first fall is where Bock shines, the second fall is where Morton shines doing what Ricky Morton does better than anyone else and that is sell. He is selling the neck. Right hand on the neck as he is using the left jab to keep Bock at bay. He keeps bucking Bock off. Bock does a great move throws his left hand up to distract Morton and tries to hook him with the right but again Morton bucks him off. Bock eventually gets a front facelock and in the standup drops the hammer on the back of the injured neck. Then he starts throwing the back of Morton's neck into the turnbuckles. Morton is doing a great job throwing himself into this and selling. Morton gets a flash sunset flip for three! He celebrates like he has won the World Title and tries to take a shot at The Brain. I thought there was a decent chance Bock would win in two straight so this was a nice wrinkle. Tied 1-1. Third Fall: This is the fall where they really got to sell Morton winning and he comes out hot. Kneedrops galore. Bockwinkel is selling like he is totally overwhelmed. Morton does not apply the Figure-4 properly needed to get that left foot on Bock's left ankle. I like how they do the Flair spot where the ref kicks the hand away but they do it three times and then Bock hugs the ropes. BIG LEG DROP ON THE BAD LEG! That was great! Bock is getting scrappy! He yanks Morton down by the hair. Morton nails a hurricanarana in 1982! Morton goes for a big dive but hotshots himself and Bockwinkel collects him for the pinfall and escapes with the title. A classic Bockwinkel title defense just missing the King of the Mountain, you had him getting flustered early, taking advantage of opponent's mistake and big, meaty heavy blows. Morton was already great in 1982 amazing selling in the second fall. A classic AWA Championship match everyone should see. ****

Goc, said the Mexican Death match is better. Is that the general consensus? I am trying to figure what to watch from Houston for GME?

Happy Epiphany Sunday! Pro Wrestling Love is back looking at Mid-South & Houston Wrestling between 1983-1987. This list is already invalid as I post it thanks to the great work of NWA Classics which revealed to us die-hard pro wrestling fans many great Houston Wrestling matches that I have not yet seen. We can consider this the Best of Mid-South/Houston Wrestling pre-2015. You will find plenty of Ric Flair gems including perhaps the greatest pro wrestling TV angle of all time featuring Flair, Ted DiBiase and Cap'n Redneck Dicky Murdoch along with classics from Butch Reed, Terry Taylor and Chavo Guerrero! All this and much, much more in Pro Wrestling Love vol. 29! https://ridingspacemountain.blogspot.com/2019/01/pro-wrestling-love-vol-29-best-of-mid.html

The Rockers vs Hart Foundation MSG 11/89 For my money, the most underrated match in WWF history. This is an amazing transformative babyface vs babyface match where you see tempers flare and by the 20 minute time limit blood is boiling over. To me, easily the best Hart Foundation match and the second best Rockers match in the WWF a close second to the Rougeaus match in London. Making this one of the best tag team matches in WWF hitsory. This match is equitable without trading spots back and forth with not rhyme or reason. If there is one thing that is Bret's bread and butter it is the face vs face matches. He is an incredible subtle heel. Most babyface vs babyfaces matches establish a sense of equality between the combatants. Heels are usually inferior in some way to their face counterpart which incites their underhanded tactics. Not to be disappointed, this match at the beginning is very symmetrical. Bret hits a move. Marty hits that move. Bret misses an elbow. Marty misses an elbow. So on and so forth, you can sense that brimming tension from experience you just are waiting for the Hart Foundation to get so frustrated they cheat. It is that tension that keeps you in suspense becuase just dont know when it is going to happen. Anvil actually has a really good sequence with Shawn. Shawn attempts to shoulderblock Anvil, but cant. He smartens up and tries a high cross body and Anvil catches him, but Shawn rolls through into a pinning combination. Once again, there is that sense of frustration. Anvil just needs to get a hold of this quick little bugger and Shawn is frustrated that Anvil is so much stronger that it creating such an obstacle. When Marty comes in, he gets steamrolled and Anvil feels like he finally go it. Then Marty hits a drop toe hold into a front facelock. Marty breathes a sigh of relief and Anvil is like "Fuck, again". Anvil gets frustrated tags out and Bret misses an elbow. Eventually Bret gets an atomic drop and he tags in Anvil. Finally, Bret has enough and he slides and buries the knee in Shawn's back while he is running the ropes, vintage Hart Foundation. It blows off Act One of the Tension. One thing I really like about this is that while it is super segmented like most Bret matches there is more of a sense of struggle. Shawn is not just a rag doll for the Harts he is fighting back and getting pinning combination of the Harts. He just cant get to his corner. Anvil is working the lower back with power holds and Bret is employing his usual crisp offense. Shawn is easily the best FIP they have ever had. This is the best Hart Foundation heat segment I have seen. Anvil misses the slingshot splash and they got me on that one.Instead, it was a missed elbow by Bret that gave Shawn the opportunity for tag to Marty. I didnt think the crowd was in step with Marty, but it was a good hot tag by Marty. He was focused on getting pinfalls as opposed to big spots, which I think fans are used to. Backslides, cross bodies, and sunset flips not vicious holds, but quick barrage to try win the match and again a lot of suspense. When Bret grabs with a double leg takedown and stomps him in the gut. Finally breaking the momentum of Marty. He sells the breather so well. It expresses "I weathered that storm. Damn that little fucker is fast". Bret ducks and Marty high cross bodies nothing but the concrete floor in a nasty bump. Marty tags out quickly. Shawn gets steamrolled by Anvil and bumps out of control for that one. Still only 2. Now standing dropkick by Shawn gets 2. It is just a barrage of nearfalls back and forth between Shawn and Bret. Shawn wrangles Bret into an abdominal stretch. Anvil comes in break this up and Marty is hot comes in shove Anvil. Bell rings signaling a draw. Both teams go at it, but mid card babyfaces come out to break it up. The tension comes to boiling point, but it is not allowed to spill over. This one is a well-structured three Act play. You see the frustration that neither team can get the advantage, which ends with Bret burying the knee in Shawn's back. Act II is FIP, which has the usual tension of when will Shawn get the tag. Act III was a just a barrage of nearfalls where you were wondering who would get the duke and if maybe someone's temper would get the best of them. Instead we were robbed of a finish, but in a good way that made you want to see it climax later. ****1/2

NWA Missouri Champion Kerry Von Erich vs Greg Valentine - St. Louis 2/11/83 Dream Match Alert! Surprisingly enough it lives up to my lofty expectations. This is from the same card as Flair vs Brody 2/3 Falls and both were taped for Japanese TV. Basically Greg Valentine vs. an over babyface is always going to be over in my house, but this match had a lot of great transitions, brutality and some world class selling. Kerry won the opening matwork, trademark NWA Championship style stuff. Kerry nails a picture perfect dropkick right in the mush. I love how Valentine sells this covering his mouth and telling Kerry to back off then going to the apron. It really looks like he is hurt. Kerry slaps on a front facelock. Nice inverted atomic drop! Thats new favorite move. It is so sudden and so impactful. Kerry does a great job selling, trying to create space and get away from the Hammer. The Hammer is in his ZONE! I mean big time forearm shivers. Just tons of brutal elbows. Kerry does his best to fight back. Valentine does not drop him down on the top rope throat first...he whips him down onto the top rope throat first. Long sleeper by Valentine as the ref checks in. Kerry tries to Hulk Up but another wicked Hammer elbow and a piledriver quell the rally. Valentine goes after the leg and then it is a figure-4. What I love about this is how they actually stay in the reverse the pressure for a meaningful amount of time. Both of them are on spaghetti legs. They really do a great job selling and THEN Kerry goes after the leg! I was pumped during this part. He was doing a great job making his dives on the leg extra BIG for the crowd. I really wanted him to slap on the figure-4. Valentine made the ropes on a toehold and then shoved off another attempt. We never got the figure-4, but we did get the CLAW~! Fortunately for Valentine, he collapsed into the ropes. Kerry is kicking ass now. Big time dropkick again caught him flush in the mouth. Second one the Hammer avoids and Kerry is selling his midsection. I like how much Valentine went to the eyes late in the match. After the Claw, he is in full desperation mode and is willing to do anything to win. Valentine throws him out and plays King of the Mountain. Big Hammer blows on the apron, big bodyslam back in the ring only gets two and sends him back out. Hammer blows on the apron and back suplex back in the ring only gets two. He drops the Hammer from the middle rope, but misses! Valentine goes for a suplex, but Kerry floats over and schoolboys him for three. Put a real finish on this bad boy and you got yourself a Match of the Year Contender. As is, it is one of the best grinding heels against one of the best fight from underneath babyfaces in the perfect match for each other. The figure-4 and Claw spots felt huge. The finish was tepid. Two men who knew themselves and played their roles perfectly. ****

NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair vs Ronnie Garvin - JCP 9/25/87 Steel Cage Match Flair vs Garvin is always a flesh on flesh, man on man firefight. However, unlike most of their other matches together, they go long in this match. It is a steel cage match where the cage plays a factor more in Flair's strategy. Flair loves to powder to both regroup and to break his opponent's rhythm. He also loves to hurl his opponent out the ring where his opponent will take a bad bump and where he can slam his opponent into hard metal objects. David Crockett does a great job pointing this out that Flair is being forced to face Garvin. Flair loses a criss cross eating a hiptoss, but cant powder. He goes for a top wristlock he lets out a couple Woos but ultimately ends up on his back. He makes back on his feet and chops Garvin but Ronnie immediately responds with his own stiff chop. That dominates the next bit where Garvin uses his chop to repel any Flair offense. We see Flair eat hiptoss, back drops or bump off the chops. Flair tries to use the corner to position the ref so that he can sneak in a knee. The only other time to cage comes to play in the first half is Flair wants to use this advantage to slam Garvin's head into the cage, but instead Garvin blocks and chops his way out of problems. That is what would dominate this portion. Garvin would use a hold such as the front facelock to control Flair and whenever Flair looked poised to comeback Garvin would chop his away out of trouble. One good spot was Flair suplexed while in the front facelock and Garvin tenaciously hung on. Flair finally gained an advantage on a criss cross scoring a reverse elbow. This is one of Flair's favorite strategies use the criss cross to create an opportunity to take over. Garvin deviated away from his hold and chop strategy. Flair started working on the left arm. It was chop, chop, chop and work on the left arm. Some really good hammerlocks and wristlocks using the ropes of course. Garvin used his dominant hand to break the wristlock, but it was badly injured. He tried his best to keep his left away from Flair by going to an Unorthodox stance, but Flair was able to regain control with the chop. Flair hit the first kneedrop. Then on the second Garvin caught it and transitioned into a figure-4 and then a single leg crab before Flair made the ropes. At the halfway point, I really liked the match thus far. Garvin did a great job selling the left arm. They established Garvin's chop like it is Misawa's elbow. They also established that Flair cant use the outside anymore to his advantage: both to powder and to throw his opponent into hard, metal objects. I have seen this match before and I have the same complaint that I did before and that it is a bit low energy for me. They are working hard, but the front facelock can only be so interesting. Lets see how the second half shakes out. The last half is pretty much every Ric Flair trick thrown at you in relentless fashion so if you love Flair you will love it. Garvin comes out swinging after the half crab and it looks like Flair is overwhelmed. He grabs a kneecrusher and applies a figure-4. Garvin escapes, but Flair gets another kneecrusher. On the third, Garvin blocks and KOs Flair with the Hands of Stone, but his leg is so messed up he cant capitalize. Flair comes up desperate and goes for the sleeper. When Garvin escapes that, Flair tries to throw Garvin into the cage, but he ends up going into the cage and he is bloodied. Flair tries to escape but Garvin bounces his head off the top of the cage. Garvin gets a top rope crossbody for two. We see the two versions of the backslide by Garvin that Flair loved to use in his matches. What makes Flair so good in my opinion is so he reacts to getting his ass kicked. It is so quick and swift. He is always in fight or flight mode. There is no in between. Yes he will holler, but it always quick. He is going to roar back and run away. You see both sides as I said he tried to escape the cage. The other is he will just start ripping into Garvin with chops only to get his ass kicked. One of my favorite Flair spots that is very underrated is the inverted atomic drop coming out from the turnbuckles spot. When he does right, it happens so sudden that it is electric. On the second time, Garvin blocks and knocks Flair back down with a punch. Garvin Stomp! Great sell by Flair! This is Flairism in excelsis! Even the most ardent Flair fan as myself, can find this hard to process all at once. Flair true to form tries to escape from Garvin desperately. He rakes the eyes, but Garvin recovers quick enough to press slam Flair off the top. Garvin hits a suplex and then an elbow drop. Flair is so good at selling. This is such a Flair performance he throws out a short kick to the midsection and starts laying in the chops. Garvin starts flying back with the chops and Flair wants to escape. He flips so quickly between fight and flight that's an incredible. His mind is always thinking. Garvin bounces his head off the cage and Flair falls on the top rope nuts first. Sunset flip from the top 1-2-3! The Most Unlikely World Champion of All Time! The second half is just so ridiculously over the top Flair that it is beautiful. I feel like this match defies rating. The first half is basic fundamentals executed really well. The second half is Flairism in all its CHAOTIC glory. Flair is such an instinctual wrestler this really benefits his matches feeling organic. The second half is chaos as Flair vacillating between fight and flight in the matter of microseconds. We think of the world in black and white so often. Certain people are brave. Certain people are cowards. That is not true. People struggle everyday between these survival mechanisms. Flair captures the desperation for survival better than anyone else. It is all so human. Ric Flair is the most human human who ever humaned. Lets call it ****1/2 I need to digest all this. I feel like I need to re-watch all Ric Flair over again but using this new "fight or flight" lens.

Happy New Year! I hope everyone is looking forward to 2019. I know I am, but there is some bittersweetness to it. This should be the year I have seen it all from America and Japan with the Greatest Match Ever deadline fast approaching I will be watching pro wrestling fast & furious. While I look forward to that, it will be sad because it means that there is an end. Of course, Lucha Libre, Joshi and World of Sport await me. The good news is the WWE seems to be finding new matches from the 80s all the time. They found the Holy Grail of the Last Battle of Atlanta, they found an amazing Piper vs Valentine match from 7/9/83 and they have uncovered many AWA gems! This list could be invalidated as I am publishing it. If there is something better than the top two matches on this list, then we are in for a treat because one of those matches is my pick for the best American tag team match of all time and the other is potentially my selection for the Greatest Match of All Time! So come enjoy the greatness of the AWA, Nick Bockwinkel, the Rockers vs Rose & Somers and of course some Sheik Ayatollah Crusher Blackwell! Have a great 2019 everyone! Best of AWA Pt. 2 https://ridingspacemountain.blogspot.com/2019/01/pro-wrestling-love-vol-28-best-of-awa.html

NWA World Tag Team Champions Sgt. Slaughter & Don Kernodle vs Ricky Steamboat & Jay Youngblood - MACW Final Conflict Steel Cage Match I was underwhelmed when I first watched this five-six years ago. I have an open mind. Babyface shine: A 12 minute heel in peril segment that features Kernodle complete and you know what I loved it. Yeah there were a lot of headlocks, but the spots in and out of the headlocks were great. It really established Steamboat & Youngblood as a great babyface team. I loved Steamboat using his foot to avoid being thrown in the cage and then applying a headlock. Or how Steamboat gets in the way of Youngblood to stop him from going into the cage. Steamboat & Youngblood had good babyface offense plenty of dropkicks and flying chops. Kernodle sold more and more as time went on. The best part for me were all the false tags. Usually see it for the babyfaces, but here Kernodle almost makes the tag, fingertips away and another time Slaughter is out of position when Kernodle finally made it back to the corner. This was really great textbook tag wrestling from the babyfaces and the heels were great stooges for it. The tag to Slaughter was a little anti-climatic as Kernodle just gets his fingers jabbed into Youngblood's side. They faked me out the shine continues. Youngblood throws Slaughter into the cage back first and then head first. He is the first into the cage and typical Sarge fashion he really throws himself into the cage. He tries to throw Youngblood into the cage, but Youngblood uses his foot and it is a battle of wills. Youngblood wins and tags out to Steamboat who is immediately on Slaughter. Big time clothesline gets two for the Steamer. Tag out. Youngblood flying chop and then a great standing dropkick gets two. It has been all Steamboat & Youngblood, Daddy! Criss cross, Youngblood is flying and Sarge uses his own momentum against throwing him hard face-first into the cage, this has got to be the break Sarge & the Pride of the Carolinas has been looking for. Heat/Finish: What the fuck was I smoking way back when? This is a BARNBURNER! Quadruple juice! Slaughter flying off the cage like he is Jimmy Snuka! Steamboat & Youngblood going wild! I thought the heat segment on Youngblood. A couple times I thought he died but he came back to life. Heel offense was perfect, punches working the cut, choking and Sarge looking for the Cobra Clutch. Youngblood sends Slaughter and Sarge does the most blatant bladejob on camera in history. Steamboat was a great hot tag and I LOVE Slaughter pushing Kernodle out of the way as Steamer gets color too. Steamboat is the one who sends the Pride of the Carolinas into the cage to complete the Quadruple Juice! Slaughter coming flying off the cage brings Youngblood into it who is a total house of fire! The ending is absolute mayhem. Double catapult of the heels into the cage! Cobra Clutch and Sleeper simultaneously on the heels! Slaughter bowls over Youngblood into the ref. He loads the Slaughter Canon with a foreign object and takes out Youngblood. Steamboat sends Sarge into the cage and puts Youngblood on top. The footage then cuts to the babyfaces winning, which is a shame. Way, way, way better than I remember. The last half is an action-packed Crockett match where there's just a ton going on. Steamboat/Youngblood were a great high-energy tag team, tons of offense and some great selling. I thought more than the blood and the big Cage spots, that what really held this all together were the commitment to babyface/heel dynamics. ****1/2

Happy New Year! I wake up every morning and I think how can improve this already awesome package. I rattle off the accolades & superlatives. I go to the dictionary and thumb through to find adjectives. I am thirsty for those adjectives and thats when it hit me. Hydrated! Thats the adjective I want for 2019. I want to be well-hydrated. So my resolution to all you my friends is that I am going to drink more water and be well-hydrated. Of course, we keep the resolutions of previous years: walk at least 30 minutes a day, sit up and stand up straight and no more nail biting. Just as conquered these, I will be drinking more fluids and pissing like a prized, stud race horse, BABY! Girls, you can just call me Secretariat. WOOOOOOOOOO! Enough jibber jabber, thought I would have loved to cut that promo in front of "Mean" Gene Okerlund. Have you had time to check out the lateral deltoid? There were many a classic pro wrestling promo cut in AWA in front of Mean Gene with the likes of Nick Bockwinkel, Bobby The Brain and Jesse The Body. Thats the subject of today's Pro Wrestling Love it is my favorite promotion form the 1980s the American Wrestling Association run by famed pro wrestler Verne Gagne out of Minneapolis, Minnesota. The 1980s AWA is centered around one of the all-time great pro wrestling villains, the erudite & urbane Nick Bockwinkel (those two words were for you, brutha, rest in peace my man). He had classic series with Curt Hennig & Rick Martel. Also inside you will learn about one of the great hidden gems of the 1980s: Sheik Ayatollah Crusher Jerry Blackwell, call him what you will, but you will call him "awesome" when you watch him. Finally, you just get enough of the famous Rockers vs Rose & Somers feud to whet your appetite. It is Mega-Sized Pro Wrestling Love for the New Years! Happy New Year! https://ridingspacemountain.blogspot.com/2018/12/pro-wrestling-love-vol-27-best-of-awa.html

Pete, you were nicer in your review than I am about to be but we end about the same spot. I'd be closer to **1/2 but not far off. NWA World Heavyweight Champion Harley Race vs Ric Flair - MACW 7/9/83 We get Picture in Picture of the 5 year old girl fan! I marked out for that. They lock up, they barely touch Harley hits a kneelift and then calls for a suplex, but Flair floatovers to avoid. Well if thats not the most Harley thing ever! I just came from Beyond Wrestling's New Year Eve show and every single wrestler has better psychology than Harley Race well except Orange Juice fuck that dude. Seriously, a very good show from Beyond Wrestling top to bottom. Great street fight brawl in the main event between Gage & Briggs and a great traditional style match between Thatcher and Simon Gotch (Im sorry I didnt catch his new name). They got some great heat-seeking heels in Stokes and David Starr. I will definitely go again. This is such a weird match. In the first half, it is like Flair did not get give a shit. He is usually a fired up babyface but he just worked holds and then Race butted him in the midsection. Then he just let Race hits headbutts and stuff. Flair did not even fight back. It was so weird. Race misses the headbutt on the cement. Nice spot! Race wants the chair, but Flair steals it and whacks him right in the skull in the plain view of the ref. Jesus! Ref just pull a cameraman and just look at the fans. There were times when Flair tried to get the crowd into it. Like going into the crowd as he had Race mounted to fire off punches and Wooo before he threw a chop but overall he seemed very subdued. Theres a ref bump as Flair comes off the top. This costs two potential falls off the diving elbow and a really nice back suplex (it was very All Japan-esque). They do the Starrcade 83 finish but Race kicks out. Figure-4! Race escapes and back drops Flair over the top rope to trigger the DQ, but, but, but what about the steel chair. Oddly heatless and very much a Harley Race match spot, spot, spot, instead watch Powerbomb.tv's Beyond Wrestling show from this New Year's Eve, great spotfests, heat seeking heels, great pure technical wrestling and a great bloody street fight in the main event. This is on the other hand is totally skippable.

I didnt watch anything besides main roster WWE this year so my opinion is invalid, but I am so happy that Rousey vs Jax is getting some play! That first match was just ferocious. El McKell said she liked the second better I thought that was a level below, but still excellent also. To me at least in terms of Main Roster WWE, Rousey has to be a shoe-in for Wrestler of the Year. Two MOTYCs with Mania & Jax at MITB. Then legitimately great matches (****+) with Jax again, Charlotte, Nattie (check my review on here) and Nikki Bella. She ruled this year!

NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair vs Bruiser Brody - St. Louis 2/11/83 Two Out of Three Falls First Fall: I was very curious to see how this was worked. I was wondering if Brody would sandbag Flair. If Flair would wrestle him more like Hawk or Kerry Von Erich. In a way, I am a bit disappointed because this has been a routine very good Flair match. Brody has no problem selling or going down for Flair. He even took a hiptoss from Flair. Really there was not much out of the ordinary for the first fifteen minutes. They worked a really good headscissors. Flair eventually went to the eyes and chucked him outside. Brody started marching around and came back in with purpose and Flair powdered. I thought that was pretty much the most unique thing was how intimidating Brody could be. They worked a bearhug. Flair is great at taking the bearhug because he gets so high up. He gouges the eye. He tries to suplex but Brody suplexes him. He tries to bodyslam but Brody bodyslams him. Larry Matysik is overdubbing the Japanese commentary and says nobody can slam Brody. It is funny he takes a hiptoss later. Also because Matysik is overdubbing we lose the sound effects! Which sucks I love hearing the sound effects of the ring. The crowd is definitely rabid for Brody. Brody works front facelock. Flair just does a snapmare out of the corner and works a front facelock. They work a fast paced sequence eventually and it sees Brody eat the hiptoss, but Flair misses the elbow drop and Brody gets two kicks to the head. It has been fine thus far nothing special. Brody comes off the middle turnbuckle with a chop. Brody is relentless to head. He signals for his big King Kong Kneedrop and it hits! 1-2-3! Crowd goes wild. Brody 1-0. Second Fall: Brody looks to press his advantage but runs into a knee on a corner charge. Flair begins work on the arm. Solie said something I didnt realize but theres no muscle underneath the armpit and Matysik also points out this is a spot all men are vulnerable, which is interesting because I have never thought of that. It makes those Flair punches to the armpit mean so much more. Flair is actually really good at textbook arm work and busts out a couple good double wristlocks. Brody goes to the eyes to escape after five minutes or so of this. He really claws at the eyes so much so he can actually hear Flair howl. Brody misses a kneedrop I thought for sure we were getting the figure-4, but instead Flair goes piledriver but is reversed. Brody hits a dropkick, but Flair is too close to the rope. Brody looks to punch Flair repeatedly but now Flair goes for the eyes. Definitely a tenacious match. Flair hits a suplex! Flair only gets two and then the abdominal stretch. Brody reverses into his own shitty one, which is a cool idea instead of the hiptoss reverse. They end up in the ropes. Flair just loses his mind and starts choking the life out of Brody. The ref breaks it up and Flair goes back to choking. Brody chokes him back and lifts him high up...good visual. Brody is back on top, bodyslam and sets him up for the King Kong Kneedrop, but he misses. Brody actually does a really good selling this. Flair punches the head repeatedly. Brody sells really well outside on the powder. For some reason, Flair does not want to go for the knee instead he wants to trade hands with Brody and he ends up taking a bump over the top rope. They brawl around ringside and Brody back drops into the ring but Brody falls from the apron. So Flair wins a countout talk about a cheap way to win a fall. Well at least that about Brody holds true he refused to look weak. Overall, this has been pretty good, not as good as the Wahoo match, but Flair is still putting on an entertaining performance. Third Fall: Brody is pissed at himself at such a dumb mistake and takes out his anger on Ric Flair. Flair does a great job selling that he knows he is in deep shit. Flair wraps himself around Brody in a sleeper. Flair has a great sleeper. Brody escapes and applies his own sleeper, not as good as Flair's Matysik says Brody aint technical. Brody hits a bodyslam after Flair had gotten to the ropes to break the sleeper. Kneedrop??? Nope he goes for the Atomic Legdrop, but Flair moves. Now we get the Figure-4! Brody turns it over. Now it is the race against the clock. Big boots abound...Flair is press slammed off the top...suplex...bell rings...time expires. I would say we are missing around ten minutes of sixty minutes of action all from the first fall. Second & third falls are complete. I thought this was a very good Flair title defense. I didnt think Brody added too much nor do I think he took anything away except maybe how lame that second fall finish is. ***1/2

NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair vs Wahoo McDaniel - CWF Battle of the Belts 9/2/85 First Fall: If you wanna watch a great individual Flair carryjob performance watch this match. He takes a very old and limited Wahoo McDaniel and creates magic through his selling. There is a top wristlock battle in the beginning but then it is exactly what you would expect a chopfest. Flair is taking bumps, running over cover and selling his face like his life is dependent on it. He gets an eyepoke and starts working in on Wahoo, but Fonzie catches him using the ropes on a pin attempt. Eventually Wahoo chops him back down. Wahoo, Flair takes a ridiculous bump into the front row. Wahoo has a nice drop toehold. He works the leg and Flair is just hollering like he is in the worst pain imaginable. Flair tries his best to fight fire with fire, but Wahoo just keeps chopping him down. Flair eventually gets him to the outside where he drives the arm into the steel post. This gives Flair his first advantage. Thus far they have established Wahoo has a lethal chop and Flair needed some outside help to gain control. Flair works the arm really well. Nice tight armbars and wristlocks. He uses the ropes liberally and even uses some finger manipulation pulling on the pinky. I love Wahoo's desperation headbutt to break Flair's control. Flair sells this shot so well. He goes back to the arm, but Wahoo chops him down with his free arm. Wahoo goes tenaciously for the pin but cant keep Flair down. Flair looks to be in trouble and does not have an answer for Wahoo's standup game. He tries to create movement coming off the ropes but gets caught in the sleeper. WATCH FLAIR SELL THIS SLEEPER! So, so, so good. I love his fingertips were just brushing the ropes as he was fading. He gets counted down to three to give Wahoo the first fall. Flair through selling has created a compelling match out of a dude who pretty much can only chop. Second Fall: Flair tries to come out roaring, but Wahoo is fighting back. Wahoo ducks a chop and blisters Flair with his own. Wahoo goes for a side headlock and then slips into a sleeper and Flair desperately gets the ropes before it is fully applied. He powders. He trips Wahoo up from ringside. He pulls him over time to work on the leg. Flair knows down 1-0 and with the sleeper almost applied again that he needs to get his ass in gear. Great legwork from Flair and he applies the Figure-4. There is a cut and he is trying to apply it again, but nothing doing so he goes to his other offense: elbow drop, kneedrop, suplex, but Wahoo keeps getting his shoulderblade like an inch off the canvas. Flair is getting pissed. Here come the chop battles again. Fonzie gets bumped on a shouldertackle. Flair hits a short knee that may have been below the belt. He throws Wahoo head first into the steel post twice busting him open. A kneedrop on the open wound and Flair ties the match back up. Great Flair performance here. Back against the wall, he turns up the heat and gives one of his better control performances. Relatively brutal way for him to pick up a fall. Yes, cheap because he needed the post, but more violent than a cheap schoolboy with his feet on the ropes. I really liked the Flair vs Wahoo match that is from a month prior but that one was like 20 minutes or so from Mid-South. I am really impressed that they have been able to keep my attention now for 38 minutes. Third Fall: Given Flair now has it tied and they are late into the time limit, I expected him to wrestle more conservatively but he opts for the good offense is the best defense strategy and pays for it. He goes for a suplex right out the gate, but instead is blocked and suplexed. He tries to go back to the outside, which has been his best friend: hurt Wahoo's arm, leg and head using the outside. However, this time Flair is busted open against the post. Wahoo does his Wardance and chops Flair. It looks like Flair has squandered all his advantage from the second fall. SLEEPER! This is how Wahoo won the first fall. Flair is fading...can he get the ropes...fading...he kicks off the ropes...he lands on top of Wahoo...1-2-3! Wahoo didnt let go! Flair retains. Way better than it had any right of being. Flair is The Man! ****1/4

The climatic conclusion to the Best of World Class Countdown! Missy Hyatt read my blog & Kevin Von Erich thanked me for my kind words. Wow! Mark Out City Baby! I live a crazy cool life. For me, these are basically love letters to Kevin Von Erich because I think he is one of the most unique pro wrestlers I have ever seen. No one wrestles like Kevin Von Erich. He is always struggling against his opponent. He is always throwing himself into every move with reckless abandon. He is perpetual motion. He personifies "Think shoot, but work". He told me today in a message that his Dad told him "Always fight back" and that he never forget. Talk about taking your Dad's advice to heart! His two Championship matches against Harley Race & Ric Flair that make this countdown are two of the best of either man's career (in my opinion it is the best Harley Race match ever) because Kevin is Mr. Pugnacious and he is always fighting back making his opponent earn their offense. The edition features the Von Erichs against the Dynamic Duo and the Freebirds. Also there is ONE match of the 12 that does not have a Von Erich in it (ok Kerry is the ref), who spoiled the clean sweep? In addition, there is a bonus match from Joe Blanchard's San Antonio-based promotion Southwest Championship Wrestling that I included. Check it out! Aaaaaaaahhhhhhh I am still marking out! http://ridingspacemountain.blogspot.com/2018/12/pro-wrestling-love-vol-26-best-of-world.html?m=1

Midnight Express vs Barry Windham & Ronnie Garvin - World Championship Wrestling 5/16/87 US Tag Team Titles Tournament Finals Watching all this Crockett, I am fiending for sorme Midnight Express. At this point, we are in the Eaton & Lane version of the Midnight Express. That version did not seem to explode into the great workrate team until the following year against Fantastics. Who were they working the rest of '87? The RNRs? Road Warriors? I really enjoyed this as a great Southern tag team match with a double face in peril. Nothing too fancy just a great meat & potatoes match. The beginning was very intense some great lock-ups. I liked how Garvin's first instinct was to bully Eaton into his corner so he could tag in BW and who punched Eaton in the face. Eaton throws a great punch, but he also knows how to sell it. Barry Windham is a match up nightmare for the MX as he much bigger and longer than the MX. Windham bullies Lane no problem. The MX get a lucky break when Garvin is knocked loopy on a shouldertackle spot. The MX is able to take advantage begin to work over Garvin in earnest. I love how pugnacious Garvin is. Look at that drive in his leg while he pushing Eaton towards his corner in a headlock. It does not look like Eaton is just letting him, Garvin is really straining himself. Eaton hits Alabama Jam for two. Lane hits a double stomp and then chops Garvin. Bad idea. Eaton tries the same thing and Garvin wakes up. Garvin beats the shit out of Eaton here comes BW. Good house of fire. SUPERPLEX! That was a great superplex he really threw Eaton. Windham goes up top again and misses the kneedrop. Lane comes in and starts doing his Karate and we enter the second face in peril. BW is definitely better at selling. Nothing spectacular just a solid heat segment. Eaton & Lane are still a pretty new tag team I dont think they have quite hit the stride they would hit in 1988 together. Chemistry can take a little while to develop. Eaton misses his top rope elbow drop. All Hell Breaks Loose! The ref goes down, there is tennis racquets and steel chairs! Watch it to check it out, it is a good crazy finish. The end result is that Midnight Express are the new US Tag Team Champions. I thought this was a great Southern tag match with two good face in perils it was missing the usual great MX offense or MX stooging to really put it over the top, but still a rock solid match. ***3/4

NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair vs Barry Windham - Worldwide 1/20/87 BW had the Nature Boy beat the week previous when the Four Horsemen got involved and saved Flair's title. This is the very famous return match that I watched a ton when I was a teenager because I had the Ric Flair DVD set. First Twenty Minutes: I am surprised the Florida match is the more heralded match now that I am finally watching them back to back. I thought this one had the better narrative. There are more touchstones like Windham's side headlock and Flair's arm work that gave the action a sense of purpose without losing any the intensity and attrition of the Florida match. Here when Windham outwrestles Flair it is always to get back to that side headlock. Flair tries to chop his way out of trouble and get the party started, but Windham just rallies. He kicks ass and hits a dropkick. Flair has to powder. Windham does a great job of mixing the technical with the fists. I liked that the way Flair was able to take over on Windham was on the outside. He could not best Windham on the inside either via wrestling or striking. He needed the outside and throwing Windham into hard metal objects to take command of the match. That really illustrates that Windham is the better pure wrestler and Flair needed to cheat to get an advantage. At this point, Flair begins his work on the arm and also attacking with some big, meaty chops. I love a strong Flair heat segment. Windham fights back with punches, got to make Flair earn it so Flair trips him with a drop toehold and goes for a half nelson pin with the feet on the ropes. I love the struggle. Each man is making the other work for it. Windham's selling is just as great as in the Florida match. He sold Flair's punch to the face so well, theres a chop he sells with the spit flying out of his mouth as he collapses and as a said in the Florida match theres nobody better at taking the over the top rope bump. He takes a backflip and then hits the railing. These two have some great stand up battles. Windham re-earns control just by punching his way out of trouble and Flair does a great job selling all this with plenty of Flair Flops and just a general sense of being overwhelmed. Flair takes that wicked shoulder first bump into the top turnbuckle. This is when those two great moments of Barry Windham selling happen. Nice hope spot for Big Barry as he floats over on a suplex and hits a lariat for two. Flair hits trademark back suplex which is his setup for the Figure-4. He uses the ropes, but gets caught. I have liked this so far more than the Florida match. It has the elements of Florida I liked the great Windham selling and the fists, but there feels like there is more progression and more structure. Last Part: I think what Flair is better at than anyone else is creating a sense of drama and tension through little moves. Flair never has long control segments one way or the other. Everything is broken up by little moves. Some people see this chaos as a lack of psychology. I see it as being far more realistic. If someone is kicking your ass, you are going to throw out a short knee or throw out a desperation punch or chop. It forces the opponent to earn their offense. He also makes sure his babyface never dies. How many times have see see a heat segment go on and on? It does not make the babyface look resilient. It makes the heel look like a choke and even worse the match can look credibility. Flair by always calling for hope spots ensures his babyface never dies and that benefits himself and the match overall. Coming out of the Figure-4, Flair is thinking leg, but Windham keeps fighting back and even gets a sunset flip. So Flair tries to further sap his energy with a sleeper but Windham slips out. Flair keeps pressing, but misses a kneedrop and now Windham works on the leg to set up the Figure-4. Flair creates an atmosphere of excitement because of the unpredictability. Windham has taken a lot of punishment but he is clearly very much in this. The last five minutes is a barrage of Windham nearfalls: missile dropkick, lariats, cradles, backslides, vertical suplex, but he cant muster his patented floatover after execution of the move. Ultimately the time limit expires and Windham comes up short. I liked this a lot even moreso than the Florida match. I thought Flair looked strong and needed to use the outside to gain control. I thought there were plenty of great stand up battles between these two and Windham's selling was great. The finish stretch was very compelling and dramatic as Windham raced against the clock to pin Flair's shoulders to the mat. Definitely a US Match of the Year Contender. ***** Re-watched this after the Crockett Cup match and this totally smokes the Crockett Cup match. I agree with everything I said, but I am upping my rating to the full *****.

To me no feud defined the first half of the 80s in the United States more than Ric Flair vs Von Erich Boys. Flair had such a great dynamic with each of them. Also there's plenty of Freebird vs Von Erich matches and the Dynamic Duo vs Von Erich's. It is basically a Love Letter to Kevin Von Erich! Pro Wrestling Love Vol. 25: World Class Edition! http://ridingspacemountain.blogspot.com/2018/12/pro-wrestling-love-vol-25-best-of-world.html?m=1

NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair vs Barry Windham - CWF Battle of the Belts II 2/14/86 Ric Flair coming out to Easy Lover is so iconic. Probably the most famous match out of Florida since I dont believe we have much of Florida from its Golden Age. First Half: To me what makes this match special is Barry Windham's selling. Without a doubt, this is a Ric Flair Championship formula match. We see Windham outwrestle Flair early. He bests him tests of strength, amateur grappling and countering holds. Windham ends up with a nasty mat burn or bruise somehow. Flair has a weird accident running the ropes where his head snaps against the top rope. Flair tries to use motion and chops to take control, but still nothing. Windham does not fall for being lured into the corner. Windham is willing to punch Flair lights out. Windham gets a nice series of moves: Boston Crab, Suplex and Abdominal Stretch. He runs into a knee charging into the corner. It was here I was most impressed with Windham as his selling was superb. I liked that Flair did not immediately take over. He went for a suplex but Windham fell on top of him because Flair was still not strong enough to carry his weight. Flair throws him out and Windham takes a hard bump on the ring steps. I am sure Flair forgot those were there. Big chop and Windham is busted open when Flair slams him into the guardrail. Flair is looking good in control. He misses the kneedrop and Windham slaps on the figure-4. Flair is so good at selling the figure-4. Flair makes the ropes but Windham starts pounding away with rights. The other dimension Windham adds to this match is that he is a good puncher too. Windham misses a dropkick and Flair is able to back over. He locks in a Figure-4 headlock to recuperate and make Windham carry his weight. Windham escapes out the back. So far this is definitely a classic Ric Flair title defense and a contender for Match of the Year, but I have not seen anything that says this is Top 100 of all time material yet. Second Half: Watching more, I think what Windham brings besides A+ selling is the ability to add brutality, violence and a sense of attrition to the Flair Championship formula. Steamboat thrives on energy and speed to generate heat and buzz. Windham is more about punching Flair hard in the head and ramming Flair into the post to draw blood. I like how Flair was so committed to the piledriver he gets the first one for two. He desperately wants to get back to it, but Windham keeps countering. Lariat and now Windham regains control. Like I said the pace does not pick up, but the violence does as it is all fists and blood. Flair gets a desperation inverted atomic drop where Windham fires off a punch before collapsing to the mat in a heap. Great selljob. Flair uses the sleeper to cement his advantage. Windham escapes that only to eat a suplex. Flair goes for the leg. Figure-4! Windham is really putting on a selling clinic. He turns it over. The last ten minutes is something truly special. I think the moment that captures the match is when Windham misses his kneedrop. The pain and agony is etched on his face while Flair who escaped is hobbling over. It has been a true war of attrition. I love Flair's double stomp. Why did he ever stop doing that move. The ref gets bumped which allows Flair to chuck Windham over the top rope. Is there anyone better at taking that bump than Windham? I dont think so! He just melts across the apron and it looks painful as hell, but it never hurts him. BW will not be denied! MISSILE DROPKICK! No ref, bullshit! They run through some great Windham nearfalls: Sleeper, Lariat and floatover suplex. I was biting on everything, really hot series of neafalls. Windham goes for another lariat, but Flair ducks and comes back off the ropes and it is the crossbody over the top rope. They take turns yanking the other from the apron and it triggers the double countout. Stone cold classic. Just pitch perfect Championship Wrestling. Flair's formula works and it is perfectly suited for Windham who is so damn athletic. Like I said Windham was selling great and I liked the feel of this match. To me this falls short of those classic Flair Championship matches against Steamboat, Kerry Von Erich & Terry Taylor. It has a shot at the Top 100, but it is on the bubble. ****3/4

NWA US Heavyweight Champion Greg Valentine vs Roddy Piper - MACW 7/9/83 Great discovery by the Network. I need to read more about this feud. The ear psychology is already in play as Piper has his ear bandaged and is looking to take an ear for an ear. The open strike exchange is red hot. Piper just overwhelms Valentine with overhand chops and fists. Valentine powders and Piper spits on him. It is on like Donkey Kong! Piper is incensed and Valentine is apprehensive. Piper has that look in his eye like he is really gonna hurt The Hammer. The Hammer rocks him with some of is famous big elbows. Piper powders then explodes back into the ring. It was furious! Great moment where the crowd went wild. He jabs the fingers into the throat of Valentine who powders and chokes. You know you are over when the crowd does the sound effects of your strikes for you and Piper is over. Valentine tries to cover up but Piper is throwing every limb and body part he can at the Hammer. He is one whirlwind of anger. Piper goes for the ear, but Valentine blocks and a short knee leads to a gutbuster. This Valentine's first sustained offense and it comes as cutoff as Piper was finally going after the ear. I love Valentine so much. He is such a stiff badass. Piper does the 'ol Three Stooges poke to the eyes. Valentine begs off. Piper wrenches the ear and punches the ear! For an ornery bastard, Valentine can be such a great cowardly stooge as he begs off while Piper goes to work on his left ear. Valentine retaliates by clawing at Piper's bandaged ear and then just hammering him with big forearm blows to the bad ear. Piper headbutts out of desperation, but The Hammer just brutalizing the head and ear of Piper. This is definitely a Valentine match lots of standup and brawling. HOLY SHIT! In the spot of the match, Valentine takes Piper's head and bounces the side of it off the post. Then he just grinds the bad ear against the steel. I love how Valentine can switch from sadist to coward at a drop of the hat. Valentine is beating the tar out of Piper, but notice Piper never bumps. He stays on his feet because he is the valiant babyface. He might be hurt and he might be discombobulated but he is a tough son of a bitch. There is some great boxing in the corner with Piper ducking and dodging setting up his own punches then he TACKLES Valentine and hits a massive kneedrop. He gets his receipt throwing Valentine ear-first into the post and now it is back to work on the ear. Double juice! I love the standup towards the end where they are just firing away at each other and Piper goes to the middle turnbuckle to throw a punch and that finally takes The Hammer off his feet. VALENTINE EXPLODES! He tackles and chokes Roddy. Roddy scrappy as ever fights back and chokes Valentine and then is going to bite his ear, Valentine has him by the throat, it is a battle of wills, Piper wins and PIPER BITES HIS EAR! WOW! It is spills to the outside and Piper dives on him form the apron. Valentine is just trying to survive and escape. Piper gets the rope that separates the fans from the wrestlers. He wraps it around Valentine's throat, he rubs it first, OW rope burn and then HANGS HIM! Valentine foams at the mouth. The locker room clears to break Valentine free, but Piper keeps breaking free to attack Valentine. Drenched in hate. Piper was a man possessed in this. Valentine knew he pissed off Piper and was trying to survive throughout the match. Terrific standup slobberknocker. Some of the best stand up exchanges you will ever see. I loved the ear psychology. Piper wanted to injure Valentine's ear and Valentine could use Piper's ear as a cutoff. The finish was insane. You really believe Piper wanted to kill Valentine. A must-see match that helps make the Dog Collar classic that much more special. ****1/2

NWA National Heavyweight Champion Tully Blanchard vs Ronnie Garvin - Great American Bash 7/26/86 Taped Fist Match Some people really like their Worldwide contest earlier in the year for the National Title (a Georgia title inherited when Crockett absorbed Georgia). I found to be way too long and all over the place. The narrative was really hard to follow. This was a pretty basic and fun match. It is round-based, three minute rounds. It is treated more like a boxing match. Tully & JJ are the kings of these gimmick gaga matches. They have so many tricks up their sleeves. Tully looks to charge before the bell and is backdropped still in his robe and with the belt around his waist. Garvin KOs before the bell. Blanchard is laid out with the robe and belt still on. Dillon dumps water on him and fans him with a towel. Blanchard gets his ass royally kicked for the first two round. It is just Garvin pummeling him and Blanchard being the best stooge ever. Dillon busts out smelling salts to revive Blanchard. Blanchard is even more of a chickenshit gimmick than Flair ever was. Blanchard shows signs of life in the third round as he yanks the trunks causing Garvin to go head first into the corner. He follows Garvin to the outside but takes a swing at Wahoo and is atomic dropped into a fist! Blanchard is out cold on the outside at the end of third round. I love JJ throwing the water. Tully is back to getting his ass kicked. Garvin is holding him up so he take extra shots. Dillon tries to stop the count. He throws water in Wahoo's face and slips Tully some knuckledusters. Wahoo and Garvin are busy with JJ. Blanchard KOs Garvin with the foreign object. They are both down. Blanchard gets up before 10 and retains the title. This is more of a fun gimmick match with lots of bells and whistles. It is really the Tully & JJ show more than a violent slugfest. Enjoyable way to spend 15 minutes. ***1/2

NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ronnie Garvin vs Ric Flair - Starrcade 1987 Steel Cage "Garvin Sucks! Garvin Sucks! Garvin Sucks!" not exactly what you want to hear when your babyface world champion is making his shine in the main event of your first ever pay-per-view broadcast. Dusty & Nikita were played out. They could have gone all in on Barry Windham. I still like my out of the box idea of turning Ric Flair babyface and setting him up against Tully Blanchard & Four Horsemen. It was clear here that the fans wanted to cheer Flair and I dont think that just because they disliked Garvin. I love the Flair vs Garvin feud. I think it is one of the most underrated feuds in history. Garvin was consistently the number three face in Crockett and a member of the Risky Bidness boys. People act like Ronnie Garvin was some nobody, but he was a constant Flair challenger since late 1985 and they set the wheels in motion for this to happen in early 1987. Do I think it was bad booking? Yes, but this did NOT come out of left field. It is Flair vs Garvin so this is WAR! I like the all out, balls to the wall fire fight they have on TV in 1985, but this is a great classical Championship match. I just love the sound of flesh on flesh, man on man that Flair vs Garvin brings. Flair gives as good as he gets but Garvin always overwhelms him. I love they come up with different variations of this. Garvin chopping him down or bieling him or the Flair Flop. The best one is Flair chops Garvin hard and Garvin STRIKES HIM DOWN! I dont if Flair snap back bumped or Garvin just hit him so hard he had to go down. Flair looked completely overwhelmed. So he goes low to the balls. Really good Flair heat segment. Lots of chops, taunting and great leg work in the lead up to the Figure-4. That was a nice climax once Garvin turns it over that they dont immediately go to the comeback even though you know it is coming. You see Flair tries to up the ante and throw Garvin into the cage, this backfire and he goes into the cage. This is Garvin's open. Flair gets cuts open bad. Garvin slams him off the cage a bunch. Garvin gets his own figure-4 which is always a crowd pleaser. Then we hit the finish a ton of nearfalls for Garvin including a cross body from the top, Hands of Stone but the ref was out of position and a sunset flip from the top which is how he won the title. However he gets hotshotted into the cage for the Flair victory. Really strong physical kickass match between these two that was very efficient. Plenty of that flesh on flesh violence that we have come to love from these two but with some classical tropes of a heat segment and big time comeback centered around the cage and busting Flair open. A fitting ending to one of the best feuds of the 1980s and even though I think it is the wrong choice, I am happy that Ronnie Garvin got to call himself World Heavyweight Champion. ****1/2

I really dont think there is a wrong order when it comes to the Sting/Vader trilogy and then put Rude/Steamboat Ironman on top, I just dont see Wargames '92 even as a top three match in its own year. Memphis Pt. 2 here you go... Lawler takes five out of the top six spots. Click to find out who is able to stop Lawler from running the table (hint: they are FABULOUS!). Lawler vs Dundee is obvious, but do they finish number one? Which Lawler match has what I consider the best heel finish in Memphis history? Which match do I declare is Lawler's true masterpiece? All this and much, much more in Pro Wrestling Love vol. 24. https://ridingspacemountain.blogspot.com/2018/12/pro-wrestling-love-vol-24-best-of.html

Four Horsemen (Ric Flair, Lex Luger, Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard, JJ Dillon) vs. The Dream Team (Dusty Rhodes, Nikita Koloff, The Road Warriors, Paul Ellering) - WARGAMES I Definitely one of the best WARGAMES matches of all time. Much, much better than Wargames II and overall it had a lot more energy & zip than the other ones that I have seen. The Road Warriors remain the best suited for this environment. Road Warrior Animal may have gotten one of the loudest sustained roars I have ever heard in my life. That was enough to power the city of Greensboro. Animal must have been jacked! He was just steamrolling Anderson & Blanchard. Then he did his two spots with Blanchard lawn darting him to next ring and the sit up spot. I thought Dusty vs Arn was a better five minute opening. Dusty was ballshotting and flipping off the Horsemen. Also, Dusty used the roof of the cage twice. You know Dusty wanted to be the first to use the roof since that was his innovation. Tully & Arn stooging for the Double Bionic Elbow before settling in to work the leg was good. I covered Animal. Flair was a ton better in this. I love when just jumps on somebody. There were ballshots galore in this match. Flair was definitely in the right mindset here, just brawl mode. I liked Flair trying to cut Nikita off at the pass at the door by raking the eye. This made the Double Russian Sickle all the sweeter. Koloff was just Sickleing everything he saw. Luger came in and started beating on Nikita and then moved on. I really liked the fact they did TWO Spike Piledrivers on Koloff, who had a n injured neck remember he had a neck brace on at the Crockett Cup in April. Some actual strategy! Hawk came in and not quite as good as Animal, but was just a wrecking ball of energy. I love the Road Warriors! JJ was of course completely ineffectual. Paul Ellering brings in his spiked wristband, which I dont love. It is too small. When you have eight behemoths and two managers, two ring and a massive cage, you should have something HUGE so everyone can see. I feel like that Spiked Wristband is too small. DOOMSDAY DEVICE~! JJ breaks his collarbone. They ram his head into the cage and he surrenders. I feel like that finish was still anti-climatic, but the energy level was through the roof. This did NOT feel like a battle royale, much, much better. ****1/4

Ric Flair, Lex Luger, Tully Blanchard, Arn Anderson, War Machine vs Dusty Rhodes, Nikita Koloff, Road Warriors & Paul Ellering - WARGAMES II 7/31/87 Yeah so I am the WARGAMES hater. I just feel like it is a lot of battle royale brawling. I like blood, but seeing wrestlers with Crimson Masks is not enough for me. I hate being a downer because I do think the concept is really cool. Wargames '91 and '94 are legitimately awesome. I just felt again I was watching a battle royale with a lot of meandering. I mean at one point fucking Flair called for a bridge out of a pin spot with Nikita. I love Flair to death, but what the fuck was that. Lets run through some highlights. Dusty vs Arn was a good opening. Arn is a great stooge and Dusty has a lot of fun offense. Arn gets busted early. I love Dusty's reaction to AA going for the leg. He gets the hell out of Dodge and regroups. Arn goes for the eyes so The Dream goes for the balls. Dusty rakes Arn's face against the cage. Definitely a great, violent five minute opening. War Machine (Big Bubba Rogers) is the replacement for JJ. I like Bossman, but he was useless in this match. Hawk is in next. I will say the Road Warriors are incredibly well-suited for this match. To me they really shine in this environment. Wargames is all about hitting your spots and then moving on. Hawk & Animal have BIG spots. Flair is in next. Flair is terribly suited for this match. He does not have big spots. It would have been hilarious if he came in and took of bunch of bumps and squandered the advantage. Flair has to ballshot Hawk to make him sell. Nikita comes in. I expected him to be like Roadies and be great at this but he kinda just alright. Hawk and Nikita both no-sell piledrivers. Thats kinda unfair to the Horsemen that they are just going up against invincible humans. Tully comes in and attacks Dusty. Interesting Dusty has been in there the longest and is bloody. They leave War Machine against Hawk & Nikita that does not go well. Animal comes in and rules! Tully does sit ups into the cage, which is the only spot I ever remember from these Wargames and then Animal finally lawn darts into the next ring. Luger comes in and it is pretty non-descript. Ellering comes in with a spiked pad. Why the fuck is Paul Ellering manhandling Ric Flair? Jesus. Animal has the spiked pad and War Machine submits in anti-climatic fashion. The Road Warriors were the MVPs of the match and Dusty vs Arn was a good five minute match. Other people probably likes this way more than me, but I thought was just pretty alright. ***