Reel in Place

vs The Moondogs (Memphis 4/4/1983) This is just good old-fashioned bawling territory wrestling. From my limited exposure, the Fabs are the best babyface team when it comes time to kick ass. Morton and Gibson don't come across as fighters; Tommy Rogers does a bit, but Fulton doesn't. Stan and Steve, though, can believably throw hands with the Moondogs. With that being said, they are also willing to come out on the losing end of that sort of thing against the Moondogs, and then resort to trying to wrestle a bit, trying to win with pinning combinations. Steve Kiern really starts to take it to one of the Moondogs, just smothering him with punches, but he gets too enthralled in that violence, and gets blindsided with a giant bone, and the Moondogs get the win. Good stuff. Promising stuff.  vs The Road Warriors (WWC 9/21/1985) There isn't a ton to this one. It's mostly a back-and-forth match for a few minutes, until the Sheepherders show up at ringside, and the Fabs would rat...

  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...

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...

  vs The Fabulous Ones 10/18/1984 Bockwinkel starts off isolating Kiern in the corner, and he and Saito work him over for the early parts of the match. Gene Kiniski is the special guest referee, and he's already on Bock's case. Despite Bockwinkel's best effort, Kiern can crawl over and tag in Stan Lane. Lane is out for revenge, smashing Saito's head into the turnbuckle, side-kicking everybody. He tags back in Kiern so he can get his pound of flesh. The Fabs take over from here, first Bockwinkel and then Saito, both of whom don't take too well to having the tables turned, and you can see the frustration on both.  When Bockwinkel gets in there, he's going to do anything to turn the tide, and so when he gets the chance, he gouges Lane's eyes, and then rakes them with his boot laces. Everything seems to be going in Bockwinkel and Saito's favor, but Saito gets a bit overeager, and Stan Lane schoolboys him for the win. A very solid performance from Saito, espe...

  vs Blackjack Lanza & Bobby Duncum (AWA 7/7/1977) Greg Gagne is kicking ass to open this match, and then he tags in Brunzell. Already, I gotta say, this seems like a great team, and this is a match from 1977, which I would guess is before they're peak. Brunzell has Duncum in a hammerlock for a good bit, before tagging in Gagne, who goes back to working the arm, this time with an old-school pro wrestling armbar. Brunzell gets back and continues working the arm. Duncum is finally able to get the tag in Lanza, but Brunzell is all over him and works over Blackjack's arm for good measure. Lanza struggles for a bit, but is finally able to whip Brunzell into the corner and tag Duncum back in. Duncum and then Lanza work over Gagne for a bit before Brunzell is able to tag in. Brunzell is game for a bit, but Lanza and Duncum take back control fairly quickly. Things go back forth for a bit. At one point, Greg Gagne is spamming superkicks like this is PWG, but things are still mostly ...