Posted January 10, 201114 yr comment_5461784 Ox Baker vs. Tony Echaverria (April 1983) Squash. El Gran Apollo & King Tonga vs. Barrabas & Mr. X (April 1983) This starts in a 4-way brawl but it would soon go to a normal style where the tecnicos pretty much dominated with Tonga looking great and Barrabas being a great rudo with his selling. Mr. Tempest would run in to interfere but Apollo would attack him then cradled him for a pinfall which made no sense. Terry Gibbs vs. Victor Mercado (April 1983) Squash. We get a promo by The Invader regarding his return to the ring. Goro Tsurumi vs. Jose Santiago (April 1983) Squash. Barrabas vs. Chicky Starr (May 1983) One of the better TV matches I've seen so far as it's competitive and both men are fun here in their roles especially Barrabas. Good back and forth action until a screwy finish with the referee helping Chicky win. El Gran Apollo vs. "Nature Boy" Buddy Landell (May 1983) Hugo really gets the fans going on the floor. Apollo works a headlock fierce early on with Landell selling it like a champ. Landell would follow up by working a reverse chinlock before Apollo makes a comeback featuring some sloppiness on both men's part. Hugo would trip up Apollo from the floor which the referee saw and DQed Landell. Fun for what it was. The Invader vs. Steve Lawler (Summer 1982) Invader looks good here. The Assassins (Don Bass & Dirty Rhodes) vs. Jose Miguel Perez & Big Red Reese (Summer 1982) Competitive match with some decent action until the loaded mask would take out Big Red. Dick Steinborn vs. Tony Colon (Summer 1982) Spotlight match for Steinborn. Handicap: Mr. Kareem Muhammad vs. Rafael Rodriguez & Isaac Rosario (Summer 1982) Squash. We get clips of King Tonga being destroyed by Hugo Savinovich's army after turning on him. Next we get a really old Abby match from what looks like Sheik's TV from the early 70's with Lord Layton on commentary. Abby working barefoot is fun to see/ Handicap: King Tonga vs. Barrabbas & Pedro Valdez (March 1983) Tonga has just turned tecnico and takes his aggression out obn his opponents. Next we get clips of Buddy Landell in a benchpress contest against El Gran Apollo at one of the stadiums with Landell putting the weights on Apollo's neck of course. Ox Baker vs. Angel Diaz (March 1983) Squash. Chicky Starr vs. Keith Larsen (March 1983) Total tecnico match with some decent action. Terry Gibbs & "Nature Boy" Buddy Landell vs. John Bonello & Keith Larsen (April 1983) JIP and okay action. Ox Baker vs. Victor Mercado (April 1983) Squash. Chicky Starr vs. Dick Steinborn (April 1983) Steinborn tries to snooker Starr by faking an injured leg but Starr came back with an inside cradle to get the win.
June 30, 201312 yr comment_5549454 The Invader promo could work as an extra if it adds to the Ox Baker feud. The Apollo/Landell bench press stuff could be an extra. In a bit of fun serendipity, Miguel Perez Jr. would team up with Big Red 4.5 years later.
October 19, 201311 yr comment_5568059 El Gran Apollo & King Tonga vs. Barrabas & Mr. X I continue to enjoy Barrabas as this butterballish bumping guy, with deceptive speed, who is just fun to watch. I will say this for PR, they have about a half dozen guys on the regular roster who will take a nutty back body drop. Tonga was fiery as hell and his offense looked really good, especially when Barrabas was taking it. The brawl breaking out at the end was fun too. Nowhere near a good match really, but there was some fun shit in it. Barrabas vs. Chicky Starr Fucking Barrabas breaks out this crazy overhead leg roll here and it is awesome. Then on the stand up he does this badass over under exchange out of a half nelson. Chicky's selling was sort of spotty in this, but they did have a really fun punch exchange and Barrabas underneath cheap shots were fucking awesome. I fucking loved how Chicky would get in a spot and Barrbas would just lunge at him with a crazy headbutt to the gut. Barrabas tosses the official aside one too many times and the ref jumps on his back and Chicky ends up stealing a win right after. Barrabas fucking ruled in this, but it needed two or three more minutes to be a nomination. El Gran Apollo vs. "Nature Boy" Buddy Landell The criss cross spot at the front end of this was outstanding and Landell basically hip tossing himself at the end of it was something that would normally annoy me, but actually fit in this setting with the studio crowd going nuts. Awesome stuff off another rope running exchange as Buddy perfectly turns around and gets decked by a really good looking dropkick. Apollo works a headlock as a base really effective in this and Buddy is great trying to weasel his way out of it every way possible. The fans fucking hate Hugo and Buddy are cheering on him getting his ass kicked while they throw shit into the ring. The bit with Buddy getting his head cranked and Apollo letting go of the hold and Buddy faceplanting into a turnbuckle looked awesome. Apollo comes off the rope and gets crushed with a brutal looking Buddy clothesline that comes out of nowhere. Buddy goes to a chinlock which he uses as a choke while Hugo runs interference, which sounds dull but was very well worked. Awesome hope spot with Apollo going for a tackle and looking to make a run and Buddy crushing him with a high knee for a very good near fall. Apollo breaks out of a choke again and there is this great spot where Buddy goes for a knee to the gut and Apollo judges it and throws this blindside bump. Then Buddy takes a tremendous almost delayed bump on a back body drop and Apollo snaps on him with fists. This is looking to turn into a seriously great match when Hugo lamely interferes with a trip, but I still think this is a nomination and is the best studio match I've seen by far. The Invader vs. Steve Lawler Steve Lawler looks like Rico here. Invader was an underrated worker and he had some really fun spots in this. Lots of quick stuff that looked good and was well worked. Pretty fun pseudo-squash. The Assassins (Don Bass & Dirty Rhodes) vs. Jose Miguel Perez & Big Red Reese Holy fuck this is worth watching just for Big Red's gear. Unreal I'm not even going to try and explain it but it's great. This was a slugfest at it's best moments with a bunch of big dudes throwing wild roundhouse shots at each other. Unfortunately they weren't the best looking blows, but I at least appreciated the effort. Dick Steinborn vs. Tony Colon This was actually pretty fun. Not great, but some cool stuff from Steinborn. The Tonga beat down might be an extra. The Abby tape stuff was weird. King Tonga vs. Barrabbas & Pedro Valdez Valdez needs to get the fuck out of there and let Barrabas and Tonga have a ten minute studio match. If I had a time machine that would be my first move. Actually Valdez was fine here and they did some really fun spots in this as young Haku was really over with the crowd. I kind of loved how Tonga didn't put up with any of Valdez shit, then Barrabas came in and got an advantage and then Tonga opens up on him with same great shots and man alive Barrabas selling was awesome. God damn I wish we had more from this guy available. I think this could be a really fun EXTRA The Landell/Apollo angle is fucking awesome and I would argue for it as an extra if we have the space (depends on set length ultimately). Buddy beating his spotters ass was the best part. Chicky Starr vs. Keith Larsen Fucking bizarre to watch Starr doing this slow mo run through of a babyface trainee match. I can't even conceptualize it mentally and yet there it is. Some of the stuff looked good, some of it looked bad, but this is so novel I couldn't skip through it. Terry Gibbs & "Nature Boy" Buddy Landell vs. John Bonello & Keith Larsen Terry Gibbs rib breaker looks awesome. Actually all the heel offense is really good. Awesome cut off spot with Bonello going for a reverse crossbody and Landell catching him and just crushing him with a body slam. This was an awesomely fun squash. Chicky Starr vs. Dick Steinborn This was short but fun while it lasted.
