Posted July 25, 200718 yr comment_5419773 Vol. #9 featuring The Rock-n-Roll Express 06/28/85 Rock-n-Roll Express vs. Jake Roberts & Nord the Barbarian (23:30) This was a total blast, and may be the best Mid-South R+R's match I have seen so far, Jake is great of course, and this is long enough we get a bunch of face offesne before Morton gets Mortoned, I especially loved the comedy spot with Jake Andreyed in the ropes. The finish was almost NOAH juniors elaborate too. Without a doubt on a tape Vol. #10 featuring Butch Reed 10/11/85 Butch Reed vs. Ric Flair (25:20) These guys match up really well with each other. Basic Flair match, with Reed being awesome, I still don't know if I liked this as much as Reed v. Slater, but it makes a DVD although I need to watch all the other Reed v. Flair matches Vol. #11 featuring Kamala 03/22/85 Kamala vs. Butch Reed (lumberjack match) (7:24) Fun, but it kind of looked like Reed was pulling his punches a bit, this stays off 01/31/86 Chavo Guerrero vs. Steve Kiern (no DQ loser is painted yellow match) (19:23) I think my expectations of this were so sky high that I was a little dissapointed, still plenty nasty and fun enough to make a set. Keirn has a lot of fun heel cheap shots, and Chavo was a great ethnic babyface, all of the early matwork before the brawling ruled too. The idea of 80's lead based yellow paint getting poured into open wounds is grizzly. Vol. #12 featuring The Fabulous Ones 01/24/86 Fabulous Ones vs. Chavo & Hector Guerrero (Mexican death match) (27:32) Fuck yeah, Texas death rules with all of the guys beating the shit out of each other. Four way blood, piledrivers, chair shots. Fabs were total cocksucker heels too, with Lane singing the Frito Bandito song over the mike, the ending was beyond awful, the chair beating Hector took was pretty epic though.
July 26, 200718 yr comment_5419802 06/28/85 Rock-n-Roll Express vs. Jake Roberts & Nord the Barbarian (23:30) This was a total blast, and may be the best Mid-South R+R's match I have seen so far, Jake is great of course, and this is long enough we get a bunch of face offesne before Morton gets Mortoned, I especially loved the comedy spot with Jake Andreyed in the ropes. The finish was almost NOAH juniors elaborate too. Without a doubt on a tape I would love NOAH juniors if they figured out how to work in this type of comedy spot. This is a definite pick. Nord is completely inoffensive here and I dug his facial selling of frustration with the RnRs. 10/11/85 Butch Reed vs. Ric Flair (25:20) These guys match up really well with each other. Basic Flair match, with Reed being awesome, I still don't know if I liked this as much as Reed v. Slater, but it makes a DVD although I need to watch all the other Reed v. Flair matches I have seen better Reed v Flair but this is high end enough that not putting it on set because the two have higher end seems silly. You really can't do "guy gets pissed cause heel chops him in corner instead of getting clean break" spot in 2007. It's a shame. Vol. #11 featuring Kamala 03/22/85 Kamala vs. Butch Reed (lumberjack match) (7:24) Fun, but it kind of looked like Reed was pulling his punches a bit, this stays off I remember really liking the finish to this. Which is weird for two reasons. 1)It's a lumberjack match so creative finishes seem like a bad idea. 2) I don't remember the finish. For a match that I watched and went "wow that's a cool finish"--for the life of me can't tell you what it is. Vol. #12 featuring The Fabulous Ones 01/24/86 Fabulous Ones vs. Chavo & Hector Guerrero (Mexican death match) (27:32) Fuck yeah, Texas death rules with all of the guys beating the shit out of each other. Four way blood, piledrivers, chair shots. Fabs were total cocksucker heels too, with Lane singing the Frito Bandito song over the mike, the ending was beyond awful, the chair beating Hector took was pretty epic though. This was really really great. I don't think I've ever enjoyed Stan Lane's martial arts offense as much as I did here, as his kicks looked like they landed with force. Also so used to heel Stan Lane as part of MX where Eaton took the role of bumbler, that seeing Stan play that role was neat. Ending a Texas Death Match with a count out finish is incredibly unsatisfying but the body of this is absolutely great.
November 29, 200717 yr comment_5424667 The Barbarian & Jake “The Snake” Roberts vs. The Rock n Roll Express (Robert Gibson & Ricky Morton) (6/28/85) This was a great match that got a lot of time and both teams looked great especially RnR who after watching all their matches on this set, this ranks as one of their best performances. Barbarian was good in his role as the power guy but he shone in his role as the big goon trying to save his boss in the cartoon routine with Jake in the ropes. Jake was tremendous as usual in every way. The finishing sequence was really hot putting the icing on the cake for this being a definite nomination. NWA World Heavyweight Title: “Nature Boy” Ric Flair © vs. “Hacksaw” Butch Reed (10/11/85) This has a lot of similarities to their other matches and all of them were great so this one falls right in and is an easy nomination even with the shitty finish. Lumberjack Match: Kamala vs. “Hacksaw” Butch Reed (3/22/85) This is a brawl at the bell and Kamala would soon dominate Reed but Reed would make a big comeback. Barbarian got Reed in a full-nelson on the floor then rolled Reed in so Kamala could cover him for the victory. This was okay but nothing special. No DQ Loser Gets Painted Yellow: Chavo Guerrero vs. Steve Keirn (1/31/86) This started out with both men just throwing bombs on each other and you could tell that this wasn’t going to be pretty. Chavo would do some good legwork on Keirn with Keirn going to the floor to regroup but he would come back in the ring for more of the legwork and even a surfboard into a camel clutch. Keirn would go to Chavo’s eyes to stop Chavo’s offense and then started his own using a lot of dirty tactics with some great punches mixed in. Chavo would come back though and we have a big slugfest. Chavo would get some nearfalls in the middle of his punching but would fuck up his Northern Lights Suplex and dropped Keirn face first. Keirn would fight back but Chavo would lock him up in a German Suplex hold for the win. Chavo would go for the paint as Keirn would load up his fist and he would KO Chavo then Tommy Gilbert but Chavo would recover and piledrove Keirn. Stan Lane would then come in but Chavo would attack him although it would become 2-on-1 and Chavo would get painted. This is a definite nomination. Mexican Death Match: Chavo & Hector Guerrero vs. The Fabulous Ones (Steve Keirn & Stan Lane) (1/24/86) God the Fabs stuff before the match was great and man were they fucking great heels or what and the Guerreros were perfect opponents for them in Houston. This had all the dirty tactics, punching, piledrivers, blood, & steel chairs you should expect to see in a match like this. The heat here was great and you got the feeling that both teams just hated each other. I hated the countout finish but it built up the feud so I guess it worked. This is a slam dunk nomination.
