[1974-06-08-CWF] Jack Brisco vs Harley Race

NWA World Heavyweight Champion Jack Brisco vs Harley Race - CWF 6/8/74

An abridged walk today. Looking for something short & sweet. At 8, 9 minutes of footage no rating but still very revealing. Coming off watching so much WWWF footage from the mid-70s. This is night & day. I think what is most revealing is the Southern workrate style is pretty much fully realized at this point. Compared to the WWF style of romp em stomp em with power holds, in 90 seconds you’ll see a back body drop, piledriver, and a missed diving headbutt. You see some big bumps. I counted three different Suplex variations. Superstar Graham brought the big bumping North so that’s not uncommon but the offense is very different compared to WWWF. The other thing to note is how fully realized Harley Race. This is 1974 so he already did his stint as the transitional champion between Junior and Jack but all the Harley staples are there. Big bumps, begging off, tons of bombs and high spots. He does the Harley bump booking the top rope and the press slam off the top. These clips show you there is not much novelty to what Flair and Steamboat were doing in the Mid-Atlantic in the late 70s through the 80s. BUT ORIGINALITY IS OVERRATED! Watching Harley here there are so many Flair spots but it is how Flair does them that makes him better. It is Flair charisma, his unique organic fight or flight reaction to pro wrestling that underpins everything he does that makes him the GOAT and makes Harley look stilted and forced. It is not a Lu what you do. It is how you do it. That’s why Originality is overrated.  Sadly we don’t get the finish. Cagematch says Brisco wins but not how. Interesting clips.