wrestling / Columns

Csonka: 6 Matches From The 80s You Should Watch

December 12, 2018 | Posted by Larry Csonka
Tully Blanchard Matches

Welcome back to column time with Larry! If you’ve followed my writing for any amount of time, you likely know that I am older than the vast majority of the 411 staff, I am a child of the 80s and that I grew up as a diehard National Wrestling Alliance/Jim Crockett Promotions fan. I loved the 10-pounds of gold, I loved the gritty production, the hot crowds, the great wrestling and the blood baths. To a young Larry, Hulk Hogan was a jacked up pretender to the throne, because Ric Flair was my world champion. My fandom evolved, I started watching WCCW, AWA and eventually WWF (and obviously well beyond), and you have no idea how happy I was when the real world champion showed up on WWF TV. So today I want to look back at some of what I feel is some of the very best of the 80s, and not just matches to watch, but matches that should be studied. The Flair vs. Steamboat trilogy is a given, go watch it if you haven’t for some reason. So I want to focus on matches that I absolutely love and feel today’s fans need to see. The matches I list today are matches that shaped my childhood, and wrestling fandom. They are all excellent to amazing in my opinion, and matches that if you haven’t seen, that you should certainly take the time to do so. By no means is this a “shit was better back in the day” column, or a definitive “best of the 80s” list. These are just matches I feel everyone who loves wrestling should watch, appreciate, and even study. I hope that you enjoy today’s column, and feel free to share your thoughts. It’s wrestling, we love it and will disagree. The only rules are “have a take, be respectful of other’s opinions and don’t be a dick.” And don’t be afraid of sharing your predictions. Have fun, and always, thanks for reading.

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6. ALLEY FIGHT: Pat Patterson vs. Sgt. Slaughter (4.21.81 – New York, New York) : This is what I call an epic resolution to a blood feud, and I love me a good blood feud. In the early 80s, Sgt. Slaughter would do shows of strength with his cobra clutch, offering $5,000 for anyone who could break it. Slaughter at one point wants to prove himself the top dog heel, calls Pat Patterson a coward and offers him $10,000 to break the hold. They do the challenge, Patterson is about to win, but Sarge is a dick heel and beats him down before he can escape. They slowly build the build and we get the Alley Fight in MSG. This is not a match; this is a fucking fight with no ref, no rules and a brutal amount of ass whooping. The blade job by Sarge is nothing short of sick and or tremendous; it just depends on your taste for that sort of thing. They made you believe that they hated each other and that they would kill each other; and that’s just beautiful. This was a simple feud built on hate and taken to the extreme where they deliver in every way possible. Unfortunately, many of today’s fans know these guys as a stooge and the guy that randomly pops up on old school Raws and shit. But in the early part of the 80s, this right here was the shit, and if you have never seen the match, you need to do so; it’s simply excellent.

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5. The Fantastics vs. The Sheepherders (9.16.86 – New Orleans, Louisiana): This match is from the Crockett Cup 1986, and is a case of “strange chemistry.” But the thing is that The Fantastics and The Sheepherders had a ton of great matches. Now while a lot of people only know about “The Bushwackers,” and will be surprised that this match is on here, it completely deserves it. This is a special match born in a world of violence and brutality. The Fantastics do their thing and constantly clean house, but the tide turns when Fulton eats the post and taps an artery. They work the hot tag perfectly with the false tag to Rogers, and then the hot tag happens and it goes insane. Everyone gets busted open, the ref gets bumped, the Herders use part of the flagpole to inflict even more damage until Fulton finally gets the weapon and starts to inflict his revenge. It breaks down into one of the wildest brawls you’ll ever see, and ends in a double DQ when the ref is finally revived. The Fantastics had a lot of great matches, and easily gave the Herders their best in ring efforts. This was violence as an art form, and helped legitimize the Fantastics as more than pretty boys. Tommy Rogers was way ahead of his time in terms of being a skilled smaller worker that had a limited ceiling due to that. He was quite incredible at times.

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4. WORLD TITLE MATCH: Ric Flair vs. Barry Windham (1.20.87) : It seems that when you discuss the greatest workers of the 1980s, you always get the names Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat. I am not here to disagree with that at all, but I do feel that certain guys get overlooked. In the 80s in North America, when discussing the best workers I always think of guys like Flair, Steamboat, Savage, Morton, Adonis and Windham. While Steamboat, Dusty and Sting usually get named Flair’s greatest in ring rivals (for different reasons), in my opinion you have to include Barry Windham in there as well. The match that makes the list is their TV draw from Worldwide, which is on the Flair DVD set. This is your classic example of an “NWA Title Defense,” and I mean that in the best way possible. First of all, Flair and Windham are tremendous, which should go without saying. They work a break neck pace for 45-minutes, never losing the crowd. The match makes both men look good as Flair survives as the champion, while Windham is isn’t defeated. The finish is great as Windham makes the huge comeback, finally gets the big lariat, covers ONE, TWO, THR… the time expires. Perfectly timed, the crowd wanted the title change, thought they had it for a moment, but the hero just couldn’t quite finish the deal. This was the good old the NWA booking, Flair retains and looks vulnerable; the face looks like a million bucks and most importantly, they were able to came back to the match and make money. I completely feel Barry Windham is under appreciated, as most only remember his work after the injuries that completely ruined him as the great worker he once was. In the late 80s he was one of the very best in the world, and is a man someone like Big Cass should have studied extensively to learn movement, foot work and how to work as a tall man that doesn’t have the dexterity of a mummy from a 40s movies. Simply put, this is a spectacular match.

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3. I QUIT MATCH: Ric Flair vs. Terry Funk (11.15.89 – Troy, NY) : There are times when you look back on a year, and you say to yourself, “that was wrestler X’s year.” While Flair and Steamboat’s trilogy makes them neck and neck for the honor, the instant transition into the Funk feud is one of my favorite pieces of booking, ever. The men would feud, and while Flair would win at the GAB, it wasn’t satisfying, and they agreed on the I Quit match to settle the score once and for all. This is one of those matches that when people ask me about it I say, “it is classic NWA.” And by that I mean it has great workers, a great story, a great crowd and an excellent match was had. Not only that, but the match has the underlying story of Funk not wanting Gary Hart’s help, because he needed to beat Flair on his own. Flair finally getting the figure four and Funk’s selling in the final seconds “Never! Never! Oh God, never! Ughhhhhh! My leg! My leg is breaking! Yes. Yes, I quit.” is powerful, emotional and is the perfect ending. This leads to Muta attacking Flair, Sting making the save, leading to the Starrcade: Future Shock PPV Iron Man Tournament with Flair, Sting, Muta and Luger, which was another seamless transition in storytelling even if the tournament wasn’t all that good.

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2. Tiger Mask vs. Dynamite Kid (8.05.82 – Tokyo): In my opinion, the matches featuring Tiger Mask vs. Dynamite Kid should be required viewing along with Flair and Steamboat for all singles wrestlers. Why? Because this match happened back in 1982, and back in 1982 this shit was state of the art. Hell, not only could you put this on TV today and entertain people with it, it is way better than most things you’d see today, that’s how far ahead of their time they were. Tiger Mask vs. Dynamite Kid is the feud that got me into lightweight-cruiserweights, they set the standard for what lightweight-cruiserweight matches should be, and they are what guys of that size and style should look to for a source on inspiration. This is one of my all time favorite matches, put on by two men that should get a lot more credit than they do frothier impact on the wrestling business. For different reasons, the Tiger Mask vs. Dynamite Kid feud is just as must-see as Flair vs. Steamboat, they should be studied, loved, and appreciated for influencing wrestlers for decades. Dynamite Kid may have been an asshole (admitted by friends, family, and even himself in his book) but he’s also a cautionary tale of a smart and gifted worker who made a ton of bad decisions that killed his career and led to him living half of his life in complete misery.

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1. I QUIT STEEL CAGE US TITLE MATCH: Tully Blanchard vs. Magnum TA (11.28.85 – Greensboro, North Carolina): While I love a great wrestling match with good work, a great story, possibly some flippy shit and superkicks, man I like superkicks; I do have a wide variety of things I enjoy in wrestling. Tully Blanchard vs. Magnum TA is a match that has that different stuff, much like the Slaughter vs. Patterson match I discussed earlier. I love a good story, a good feud, a reason to get to a match and a reason to escalate the odds. And I like a blood feud, and by that I mean a match between to motherfuckers that hate each other and want to do everything they need to destroy their foe. Magnum TA was one of the hottest baby faces for the Crocketts, and at the time of this match was about a year away from the rocket being strapped to his ass. The popular thinking is that he could have been their Hogan, but that all ended after a car accident ended his career. Anyway, Tully and Babydoll screwed Magnum out of the US Title, and the feud escalates and we get a US Title match, in a cage, under I QUIT RULES to make sure that shit goes down proper like. “Five letters, two words, I quit.” This is a stage production in beautiful violence, with revenge and the ultimate climax. Magnum overcomes the odds, fights back after Tully’s beat down, and then, using the chair that was tossed in by Babydoll, grabs the broken portion that now appears to be a spike and starts to DRIVE it into Tully’s forehead and eyes demanding he quits, and finally, in that beautiful moment, Magnum gets his revenge and his title back as Tully yells, “YES! YES! YES!” to the question of quitting. I mean; that’s some next level shit when you’re trying to gouge out a man’s eye with a spike fashioned from a wooden chair. My love for this match will never end, people have been in various ways trying to recreate the match, and it always fails. You can steal the layout, you can steal the finish, but you cannot steal the heat that was crafted in this feud, so stop trying.

– End Scene.

– Thanks for reading.

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“Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye Felicia!”