Will be very cool to see what the two of them could put together in 82.

ONLINE NOW! North American Title Match from 11-19-82: TED DiBIASE vs. DICK SLATER!

I was underwhelmed by the match. I had high expectations going in, but the guys felt happy to sit in rest holds.

Welcome to all of the DiBiase matches I had to watch to make the DVDVR Mid-South set

Bullshit. Ted was pretty fucking great in Mid South. I blame Slater.

This match was basically Phil's talking point all wrapped up with a bow on it. The finish was Ted in figure 4. Hits Slater with glove. 123. Though this is the worst match Ted has had on Classics.

You can't always get Mil Mascaras - Tully Blanchard . . . at any rate our next upload will be a double feature. NICK BOCKWINKLE vss JUNKYARD DOG non-title match and HARLEY RACE vs. EL HALCON for the NWA World Title!

Oooh exciting!

Bock vs JYD

 

This was just what it was supposed to be. A match that made JYD look strong. Bock did everything to have JYD smelling like a rose.

Harley vs Halcon

 

What can I say this was a great match . It also ties into other segments like how the Tully/Mil segment from earlier. It starts with a Killer Tim Brooks essentially saying wrestlers are afraid to face him in a Dog Collar match. This leads to Brody coming out and saying he isn't afraid of Brooks. Finally Harley comes out and Brody and him have a skirmish and we get a great promo.

 

Match opens in the ring and Brody refuses to leave. We get a Harley brawl and Brody fucks him up. Halcon is out and must unmask before the match starts. He does and it's on. Halcon focuses on Harley's cut, and finishes him off quickly. The 2 nd fall is short as well but Harley wins with an Atomic Drop. The 3rd fall is the real juice of the match. We totally see mixing of the styles here. Race is great mixing his style with Halcons. Halcon using some wacky Lucha submissions. Race eventually gets it going and imposes his will on the match and eventually gets the win with a suplex. Again this felt like an incredible segment topped off by a super fun NWA title match. 4*

I know everyone's watching Funk vs Orton today, but I'm totally with Pete on Harley vs Halcon and the promos/pre-match/post match around it. This feels exactly like another one of those "Great Nights of Wrestling in Houston." One of those angles that if we had on tape 15 years ago, we'd be talking about on the list with some of those Memphis or Mid-South shows. Race is extremely good at playing a vulnerable champion, often times too good because the situation doesn't merit it. Here, it absolutely does and he absolutely shines. I was really expecting a lot of clowning and stooging against Halcon doing all of his quasi-lucha moves but that's not at all what we got here. What we got instead was Race fighting for his very life after Brody's riot. Halcon was quick to bite and do that ridiculous but awesome over the top straight haymaker. I loved Harley using the Atomic Drop as his primary cut off/killshot move. The way he held him up for the first one really let it set in for the crowd before dropping him made it work for what it was meant to be in a way it might not have otherwise.

 

Yeah, this was really good. I ALMOST want to see the follow up Brody vs Race match (almost. I saw some of his kicks at the end when he was doing the post-match run in and that made me want to see it a little less). Everyone should catch this one ASAP though. Harley doing what he does best at a time when he had all the reason in the world to do it.

So I watched Atlas vs Markus. It is a singular match, an amazing match in some ways. There are really strong elements, namely the focused backwork from Markus in the second fall and some of the selling of said backwork by Atlas. They do a lot of things right from a layout standpoint throughout the match and Atlas certainly is broad in everything he does, with Markus almost as broad in some of his selling and reactions.

 

But past that few minutes of backwork and selling, and even some of that, the execution here is just brutal, painfully brutal. What they do is so on point, for much of the match, in that it's called well, in that it's enthusiastic and focused, that you can't hate the match, but you can sure as hell pity it. The awkwardness is like very little I've ever seen. You'll never be bored by this one. You may try to rub the image of it out of your eyes for the next two weeks though.

 

It's a beautiful disaster.

On paper I thought this was going to be a train wreck. Atlas is an athletic guy who looks like a million bucks. Yet usually needs a ring general to bring him up a level. I though with working with a luchdor might mean train wreck city.

 

I was pleasently surprised. They told a pretty good story with Marcus being really focused on the back. Atlas selling it, but lacking the gravitas that the great sellers give you. I also enjoyed Marcus using the loaded mask. I've got to give Marcus a lot of credit by keeping the story simple and easy to follow. I'm a story telling guy so this match checked that box.

Brody vs Gino

 

I'm not a Brody guy, but I'm all in on Gino. This match worked for me. Gino allowed Brody to be the best possible Brody. The 1st fall is Brody just beating Gino all over the place. Gino is bumping and frailing away. I also loved the finish of the 1st fall with Gino stealing the fall. Gino is a bloody mess. Gino's offense consists of brawling along with cheapshotting. These guys worked well together. Once Gran Marcus enters the fray the crowd is pretty nuclear. 2 3/4*

Actually really good Brody stuff here. He took a lot at the beginning (probably as he should have). The image of Gino, prone, going for the handshake, is hilarious and they went to it twice. Gino trying and failing to use a chair was great too. But Brody gave a ton in the second fall. In fact, REALLY, I think they should have given Brody the first fall here if the match was going to end like it did. I love Gino as a Brody opponent.

Harley Race isn't my cup of tea these days but I enjoyed the Halcon match. The great thing about lucha holds and submissions on the mat is that it makes the non-mat high spots seem more important. Both times Halcon hit the belly to belly, it felt important. The finish to the third fall, which I won't spoil (SPOILER: it's nothing mind blowing), felt like the exact right escalation and ending to this match. Halcon's also got a nice in ring tope.

I think of the matches listed previously, what I'm most curious about now is Patera vs Lothario.

Rocky vs Gino

 

Man alive I had a smile on my face the whole time this was going on. Gino was in full on stooge mode. Rocky was a total sports entertainer. This also reminded me of Memphis too. Gino was great escaping the punch. We see Gino just generating heat with looks and body language. Gino's stooge bump when Rocky missed him with the punch only to eat a dropkick is easily one of my favorites of all time. The biggest pops were when Rocky spanked Gino. This isn't a good match in the classic sense. For what they were going for it was. 3 1/4*

Not a lot to say about Johnson vs Gino. It was a great coming out party for early heel Gino and I bet Boesch was super proud of him.

 

Brody vs Valentine (Buddy Roberts) was extremely interesting. The best way I can explain it would be like a lucha title match Brody (or to a lesser extent a NWA title match), in that he did a lot things on the level and there was more wrestling, even if it was more headlocks than anything else. It's a testament to Roberts how different he is as Dale Valentine but he really is a poor man's Johnny/Greg. Here, though, I think he was in a position to show a little more. This is a Brody I've rarely seen and I think he wrestled the match extremely appropriately, with a lot of the positives without many of the negatives you usually get from him. If we had a whole career of this guy acting this way, I could see him as more people's favorite. Let me put it this way, there's a moment early in the headlock sequence where it's pretty obvious Valentine is calling spots with him. The level of cooperation was there. They still had their limitations, both of them, but it was a lot better than I was expecting coming in and it frankly has me optimistic for other 78 Brody matches we've yet to get but might like the Wahoo, Dusty, and Bockwinkel ones (And even some more of the Rocky Johnson ones).

Brody vs Valentine

 

 

This was ok. It was weird seeing Brody on the mat. He was working it in like a Dory Funk Jr. mold. Still this wasn't very exciting. Like what Matt says Dale is working a Johnny Valentine clone and it doesn't really click because he's not Johnny. 2*

*

Super Sunday on NWAclassics.com! The Von Erichs (David, Kerry & Kevin) vs Hart's Army (Maniac Mark Lewin, The Spoiler & Gary Hart) in a 2-of-3-falls, 6-man tag from September 21, 1979. A spectacular night at the Sam Houston Coliseum that starts off with a Captain's Match between Maniac Mark Lewin and David Von Erich. Thirty-eight minutes of wrestling as it should be!

I tried to warn you that Buddy as Dale Valentine was not as good as Buddy as himself.

I'm more inclined towards dull matwork than others. That said, the most fascinating part of the match is constrained Brody. I thought it was effective but a little dull, yeah.

 

Can't wait for the long form Von Erichs stuff. I have my expectations raised by the Halcon/Race and Tully/Mil angles. Who was booking Houston in 78-79? Hart?

Hart supplied talent. Boesch booked , but Hart had an influence on the book. This is what I believe Hart said in his book.

Lewin vs David

 

This is a captains match. The winner gets the 1st fall in the tag later. This was solid wrestling. Lewin was focused on the arm. Some of the arm work was done really well . Some of it fell flat. I thought Davd's selling was really well done. His work underneath looked good. The match lacked pizazz. Which is flaws from both wrestlers. 2 1/2*

 

6 man tag

The story of the match was Hart avoiding getting into the match. As a story this was done well. The payoff was Hart eventually getting caught in the ring. So far as story it was done well. Some of the work contained in the story could have been better. Still I thought this was fun. 2 3/4*

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