1980-10-08
Joint Promotions
The Royal Brothers (Bert Royal & Vic Faulkner) vs. The Rockers (Peter LaPaque & Tommy Lorne)
Southend, Essex, UK
★★★★

What started as a comedy match devolved into a down and dirty scrap, and then towards the finish, veered its way back into the realms of comedy. There wasn’t a second wasted and the action was brisk. Faulkner was certainly the star, leading his team’s mischievous tactics and then taking the brunt of the beating when it was time for the Rockers to take over. The Royals had a sort of Funk Brother vibe, it could have just been Bert’s receding hairline, but he definitely felt like Dory’s straight man to Faulkner’s wild insanity.
The nominal heels, Lapaque and Lorne, played their part of the fools to start with, but when the real action got under way they acquitted themselves really well. As a team they were cohesive and they laid a real beatdown on Faulkner in particular. 
It would be hard to go through each point of action piece by piece here, and I presume it would be a terrible read, but believe me this match had character bursting from the seams and the already lively crowd were brought to a fever pitch at various different points. Comedy matches often have a ceiling for me, but this certainly was brushing up against it - an absolute blast to watch.

This was a blast, it was actually more "fun" than "good", but still good enough for me. Not only it's refreshing to see the Joint Promotions style on a tag match, but the fans were really hot here, making Southend one of the loudest crowds of the year so far. I didn't like the beginning, as they tried really hard with some weird comedy spots, but then the action got crisp and technically sound. Faulkener was the man of the match, hands down, but the Rockers were a bit goofy at times. Still, something different from the rest and I'm happy I saw this
***1/4