Posted June 26, 200916 yr comment_5441180 Falls Count Anywhere Match for the American Heavyweight Title: King Kong Bundy vs. Fritz Von Erich "I can dig the heat and the historical significance of the match, but beyond that, don't think it has a strong case for nomination. Shoe mentions that you'd probably want Fritz selling more and Bundy delivering more of an assbeating. Fritz not selling more I understand. Frankly, he did just enough in that regard. Having the claw as his one sure thing to protect him from the younger and stronger Bundy was definitely the highlight of the match. Bundy not delivering the assbeating is a problem. If the psychology if the match is that Bundy is a young badass and Fritz is a tough old guy who has to rely on cunning, and Bundy doesn't deliver the badassery, then things start to fall apart. I think it gets held together well enough by Fritz, and the result is a very good match, but not a great one." David Von Erich vs. The Mongol (Texas Heavyweight Title Match) The Mongol's sheepskin parka is pretty amazing. David looks good here, as this is into that last year of his life where he actually got interesting to me. That said, not much to the much other than David doing a nice job roughing up The Mongol and The Mongol blading off of the Claw like a man. King Kong Bundy vs. David Von Erich (American Heavyweight Title Match) A few years before the prior match, and you can see how far David came from here. Loose, sloppy looking brawling backed by sketchy selling....oh, but a bunch of his fellow wrestlers said nice things about him, so clearly, he must have been the best Von Erich. Bundy tries, delivers a nice beatdown, but reveals an odd flaw in his game: he's really bad at bumping refs. And that's not good in a match that ends with a double ref bump, the first being especially bad as David drops down while Bundy runs the ropes, and when he goes over, he sort of tentatively goes out of his way to hit (an admittedly somewhat out of position) David Manning, and even then it's not clear that he even makes contact with him. The second is a little better, as David dropkicks him into the backup ref, sandwiching him between Bundy and the turnbuckle, except Bundy rolls to the side a bit off of the dropkick, so it looks off. Not a good match. The Von Erichs vs. The Freebirds (Six Man Tag) (8-12-83) (15:14) "Pretty good, but these two teams had beter matches than this against each other." Kevin Von Erich vs. Jimmy Garvin This was one of three matches between these two that were on "WCCW Dallas/Ft. Worth 6/83 - 7/83 (Disc 1)", and I didn't really comment on the first two but pushed heavily for the third. That said, first two matches are still really good matches, and the first has since been nominated and we all signed off on it as being worthy of inclusion. With that in mind, this should probably get a nomination as well. Great showcase for Kev's athleticism, busting out a gorgeous flying headscissors, a rolling escape from a hammerlock into a dropkick that lands right on Garvin's chin (which gets a much deserved slo-mo replay), and finishing with a running splash that gets great height. Garvin delivers the goods being his usual douchey self and taking some nice shots at Kevin while on offense. It's more of an appetizer than a meal, but it's a great appetizer. American Heavyweight Title Match: Terry Gordy vs. Kevin Von Erich "I've seen these two wrestle each other a billion times now (I counted), and it's reached the point where it's starting to turn into one great big block of largely great but hard to identify wrestling. This is not one of their better matches." Ric Flair vs. Kerry Von Erich (2/3 Falls for the NWA World Heavyweight Title) I have this one in my notes somewhere, but I can't figure out where. I thought this was one of their less inspiring bouts.
