Some stuff has been written about the racial politics of this feud before that I won’t get into again, but it’s definitely evident and interesting to follow. Slater goads Reed into putting the North American title on the line, with the stipulation that if Reed wins, he gets the services of Dark Journey for 90 days. This is a terrific TV match. Slater didn’t make much of an impression with me the first time around on the Mid South set, but this match was solid. I loved Slater’s elbow cutoff when Butch put his head down for the back body drop when Slater came off the ropes. They cut a hard pace in this one. Slater ends up winning after pulling the tights, but Tommy Gilbert saw it and ordered the match to continue, which is a great way to increase the stakes. Slater ends up hitting Reed with Journey’s loaded boot after a ref bump to get the win. Really fun match.

 

***

This was fun to watch. They did just randomly threw out some big moves out of nowhere and never really followed up on them, although Bill Watts was trying hard to have it make sense on commentary. Finish was pretty interesting with the ref almost immediately reversing his decision after he counted three.