Reel in Place

  vs The Midnight Express (Mid-South 4/21/1984) This is the second televised match, as far as I know, between these two teams. It is a pretty standard, but pretty good, television tag. Ricky and Robert are already over, getting the better of the Midnights, but then Cornette comes out in a dress and nails Ricky with his purse. The referee sniffs the whole thing out and calls for the DQ. Not a great match; it wasn't supposed to be, but you can see already that these teams are, probably not made for each other at this point, but sympatico for sure. vs Randy Savage & Lanny Poffo (Memphis 6/25/1984) This is the famous match that ends with Savage hitting a piledriver on a table. I think that moment had to have been transcendent in 1984. I have to say that the match leading up to that moment is fine, but I don't know if it is quite up to the level of violence for that to be the next logical step, but I suppose that just excentuates the unpredictability of Randy Savage. As for the ...

  vs Stan Hansen & Dan Spivey (AJPW 4/19/1990) Williams and Spivey start this off, but it really gets going when Gordy and Hansen just start mugging each other. This is just like a square dance of violence; guys tag in and out, they punch each other, maybe hit a few slams, maybe not, hit each other some more, and then tag out. That can't last forever, so we have to work some holds, which is not a strength of anyone in this match, but it is a necessary evil, I suppose. There are some diminishing returns, because it starts off so hot, but they can't keep up that pace, so each flurry is a bit shorter, a bit less intense, and at the end some of it verges on perfunctory. Still good, but man does it start off so incredibly great.  vs Bam Bam Bigelow & Davey Boy Smith (AJPW 6/1/1990) This is a lesser version of the previous match. Big moves in every combination, interspersed with little spots to buy some time to recover. In this match, there are a lot fewer holds, and a lot m...

  vs Dick the Bruiser & Wahoo McDaniel (AWA 6/9/1973) There's going to be this caveat for a lot of this 70s footage, and it is a beggars can't be choosers situation; a lot of it is clipped and edited, and not anything resembling complete. That's just the reality of a lot of older footage. I'm resistant to draw any big conclusions based on clipped matches, just because by their very nature they should be getting rid of the worst stuff, but we can take some things from what we get and not treat what conclusions we do draw as gospel. I like the structure of this match; Wahoo and Bruiser get DQ's for the first fall, use the advantage created to take the second fall, and take all the momentum into the third fall. I think that's a perfect structure. Outside of that, Bockwinkel looks good; he bumps well. Stevens, well, I can't say that he stood out to me in this.  vs The Crusher & Dick the Bruiser (AWA 6/30/1973) Another clipped 70s match. This has a lot in...

I've watched 200 matches for this project thus far and figured it would be a good time to check in on where things stand. Obviously, I've written about the teams and the matches in the individual posts, so this is just going to be a ranking and a tier system of the 20 teams so far. In 100 more matches, we'll check back again and update.  Great Tag Teams Akira Taue & Jumbo Tsuruta The Funks Los Gringos Locos Buddy Rose & Doug Somers Genichiro Tenryu & Stan Hansen Villanos The Fantastics The Highflyers Very Good Tag Teams Demolition MNM Rey Mysterio Jr. & Billy Kidman North-South Connection Nick Bockwinkel & Masa Saito Money Inc. The Enforcers British Bulldogs AMW Mr. Fuji and Masa Saito Bobby Eaton & Sweet Brown Sugar The Briscoe Brothers Kenta Kobashi & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi Pretty Good Tag Teams Faces of Fear Nightmares The Rat Pack Owen Hart & Yokozuna Los Brazos Dynamic Duo Ole & Arn Anderson Blue Bloods (Regal & Eaton) Marcus Bagwell ...

vs The Funks (SMW 7/3/1994) This is all tied into the big feud of Smokey Mountain at the time, which is Cornette vs Bob Armstrong. A lot of this has to serve that feud, and the builf to The Bullet getting his hands on Cornette. The parts of the match that we get that aren't entirely in service to that are pretty good. Dory hitting the mat, Terry stooging, some brawling outside of the ring, all those things are there and good. The match part is good, and the angle part is good, but the intersection of the two limits how good the match could be. Still good.  vs Arn Anderson & Brian Pillman (WCW 9/23/1995) This is a very solid, but short television match. Everyone has a very defined role, and wrestles to that archetype. Arn's there to kick ass and not do anything stupid. Pillman is there to win, and maybe do something stupid. The Armstrongs are there to have a sporting contest, and if Scott gets in trouble, Steve is there to save his little brother. All of that plays out here,...

  vs The Steiner Brothers (WCW 2/21/1998) Some would say that the Steiners eat up the Blue Bloods in this match; I don't think that is inaccurate, but typically that kind of thing is said about guys who don't deserve to have so little offense. I think it would be malpractice if Regal and Taylor took much more of this match than they got; the Steiners are the champions, Regal and Taylor are nowhere close, and so the Steiners work this match in their best interest. I've said it before, but man, I don't like Regal. I wouldn't like him anyway, but I especially dislike him because he allegedly is great in matches like this, and boy, when I watch them, when he does his prancing routine, and pulls his faces, and works some hold that looks like shit, I just don't see it. I think in a technical sense, he was a great wrestler, but his presentation sucks and I'm going to pretend I like it. Taylor is fine here; he's like if Regal was good.  vs Barry Darsow & Bob...

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 ...

vs The Midnight Express (Gulf Coast 8/31/1984) The crowd is super heated for this; they especially want to see The Fantatics get to Cornette, which they tease a few times. It is their pursuit of Cornette that leads them to ending up on the receiving end of some of the Midnight Express' offense, and even some cheap shots from Cornette. Bobby Fulton is on the receiving end of this, and finally fights his way over to his corner and tags in Tommy Rogers. Rogers has some early success, but Condrey grabs a handful of his hair while he's running the ropes. The Midnights work a pretty smothering heat segment on Rogers, with very little shine. Rogers finally gets in some offense, chiefly a dropkick that leaves both he and Bobby Eaton down, which leads directly into a double hot tag. In the midst of all four wrestlers being in the ring, Eaton throws Rogers into the referee. Condrey bodyslams Fulton, but Eaton misses a top-rope elbow drop. The referee rolls into the ring and counts three ...

vs AJ Styles & Amazing Red (ROH 3/22/2003) Red and Styles are ROH Tag Team Champions here, and have the future Mickie James with them. This is the sort of match that in 2026 you have to come to terms with. I guess how you feel about the modern house style kind of informs how you see this match, because it's got a lot of spots, it's got a lot of moves that may not look good, it's just got a lot of stuff going on. The stuff doesn't breathe, really; the stuff doesn't always register, but a lot happens. Here's where I stand on it: I appreciate it for the time period. It stood in stark contrast to really any wrestling that had happened in North America up to that point; it worked for the people in that crowd, to an extent, and it isn't anyone's fault here in 2003 that the majority of matches that take place in the world take more from this style than anything that came before it. Did I enjoy this? Not really. Did I find a few of the spots interesting or c...

vs Kenta Kobashi & Jumbo Tsuruta (AJPW 7/15/1989) This is violence right off the rip, and man, Tenryu and Jumbo what a pairing. Kobashi really isn't up to this sort of thing here in 1989; he's game, but he can't match what Jumbo, Tenryu, and Hansen bring in terms of presence and violence, plus he's only got one kneepad. Hansen and Tenryu bully Kobashi early, to the point that Kobashi pretty much runs towards Jumbo to tag out. When Jumbo gets in there, he really takes it to Tenryu, enough that he thinks Kobashi stands a chance. Kobashi tries, but he just isn't on the level. Tenryu is so dismissive of him, and Hansen doesn't give a shit and just jumps in the ring to beat on Kobashi for fun. Kenta escapes again, and Jumbo comes back in. Tsuruta grabs Hansen's arm and takes the tone down a notch. He gives Kobashi another shot, and Kobashi continues the arm work. Hansen eventually fights out and tags Tenryu back in. Kobashi fires up, nailing Tenryu with a bar...

vs Jesse Hernandez & Leon White (AWA 4/3/1986) Right off the rip, Rose is antagonizing Leon, taunting from inside the ring when White is on the apron. Rose takes it to Hernandez early, but Jesse fights over to the corner and tags in Leon. The absolute second that White tags in, Rose bolts out of the ring, goes over to Somers, and they regroup. Both Rose and Somers take turns bumping and selling for Leon. Buddy takes a chop from Leon, and bumps out to the floor. He crawls into the ring and tags in Somers. Somers finds a way to get Leon into the corner, and Rose rakes White's eyes. Buddy tags in, ready to take advantage of Leon, but Rose gets nowhere. Leon lifts him up over his head for a slam, goes for the cover, but Somers breaks up the pin. Vader tags out at that point, and Hernandez doesn't stand a chance once he gets in there. Rose and Somers just take it to Hernandez; they get him in the corner and just pummel him. Leon White comes in to save his partner, but the refere...