Reel in Place

vs Hart Foundation (WWF 9/23/1985) The Bulldogs take the early parts of this; for the most part is pretty basic stuff. The Hart Foundation take over on what is a pretty subtle heel move where Bret grabs the trunks to shoot Davey off into the ropes, and then hits a kitchen sink knee. To me, it is just too subtle to really work for changing the momentum in such a drastic way. Bret and Jim work over both Bulldogs for the bulk of the match from that point, and the moment that turns that momentum just isn't impactful enough. Bret ties Dynamite in the ropes, and attempts a running attack of some kind, but Bulldog frees himself, Bret gets caught in the ropes, and Davey Boy tags in. Davey takes it to Brett for a bit, but Bret hits a backbreaker that gets momentum back for the Hart Foundation. Bret hits a top rope Hart Attack, but while the referee is getting Anvil back to his corner, and Bret is covering Davey, Dynamite hits a top rope headbutt, rolls Davey out, and covers Bret himself for...

vs The Young Pistols (WCW 8/3/1991) This is an interesting structure for a match. The Young Pistols take an early advantage, and then do a double switch, sort of twin magic, sort of deal, and the procede to work a pretty heavy and vicious segment working Arn's arm. Arn gets to his corner eventually, and tags in Larry. Larry doesn't have much success, and the Young Pistols work over his arm too. The camera occasionally cuts to Arn, still selling the arm on the apron, but Arn still has enough fire and smarts to overcome the bum arm. He gets to work on Smothers' leg. He and Larry get to work on the leg, and it is really some of the best limbwork we've seen up across the 30-some teams we've watched so far. Arn gets Smothers to tap to a half-crab and a pretty good match ends with what feels like a well-earned conclusion.  vs Robert Gibson & Tom Zenk (WCW 8/10/1991) This is a piece of business right here. Larry and Robert start things off, but the match quickly devolv...

vs Chris Chetti & Louie Spicolii (ECW 3/29/1997) This is a house show match, which means we start with a lot of schtick, and we have a lot of schtick up until the ending stretch of this match. I can get behind the FBI act and especially Tommy Rich. That's never going to make a match more enjoyable for me, but I get it; I understand why it happens. The closing stretch ends up being pretty solid, and Chetti and Spicolli get the win.  vs Lance Storm & Chris Candido (ECW 3/6/1998) This is pretty solid, and is devoid of any of the typical FBI antics, which is nice. Tracy Smothers carries the bulk of this, and really goes out of his way to make Candido especially look good. Guido doesn't factor in much, but he does what he's asked. Not a great match, but solid, and certainly a good match to have in your resume.  vs Nova & Blue Meanie (ECW 5/3/1998) There's a lot of schtick in this, maybe even more than I'd expect. I mean, we are talking mid-teens indie wrestle...

  vs Pedro Morales & Ray Stevens (San Fransisco 12/27/1975) We're watching this short, silent, 8mm footage instead of anything else for one reason really, and that is, unless there's some extenuating circumstance or outstanding reason not to, like a "five star" match I want to revisit, I want to use these posts to watch new stuff, not stuff I've seen before. I've watched, to my knowledge, all of the All-Star Wrestling from the Fuji and Saito era of WWF, along with all of the house show footage from that period. That doesn't leave a ton to watch, and this, if nothing else is novel. We get to see a little of Fuji working his schtick, Morales hit a really big backbreaker, and some brief moments otherwise. No much to be gleaned, but Ray Stevens is one of those mythical sort of guys with limited footage and a big reputation, and is worth investigating. He doesn't do much in this short sample, I'll say that.  vs Andre the Giant & Rick McGraw (WWF...

  vs Rock n Roll Express (JCP 8/2/1986) The Andersons are a great foil for the Rock n Rolls. They can convincingly get heat, they can sell in a way that keeps their credibility, but doesn't hurt their opponent. In a short tv match, they can get that kind of thing across; that doesn't make the match great, but it does say something about the team, their position, and their abilities.  vs Kansas Jayhawks (JCP 9/6/1986) This is interesting because the Jayhawks work a heat segment on Arn Anderson for the bulk of it. It's somewhat novel to see the Andersons working from behind; it creates a scenario where Ole makes almost a hot tag, where his offense isn't really any different, but because of the context, the crowd responds in a different way. It doesn't make the match good; it is mostly fine, and ends in a DQ that makes Ole and Arn look bad, but it is another wrinkle.  vs The Galaxian & Pat Rose (WCW 12/16/1989) In what may be the craziest bit of foreshadowing I...

  vs Giant Kimala & Jun Izumida (AJPW 11/15/1997) I just watched Giant Kimala in 1990 WWC and came away impressed; this is seven years later, and he's much more limited. Izumida isn't much better. That makes this match more about Hayabusa and Shinzaki building their match around their offense, with a short section where they sell for Kimala. It isn't very good; I wouldn't say it was bad, but it didn't really do anything for me either.  vs Akira Taue & Toshiaki Kawada (AJPW 11/23/1997) These All Japan tags, especially the ones featuring the stars of the promotion, don't take on a standard match format; they just turn into rock fights, with varying degrees of big move sequences. As far as those go, this is fine; it's a pretty good match, with an interesting combination of guys, not anything I'd say is an all-time good match, but a very solid match. I think a lot of what carries these matches is the novelty of FMW's big stars being in All Japan ...