80s Europe #7

 Alan Kilby vs. King Ben, WoS 10/7/1981

Really unique match. I know Alan Kilby can be pretty great, while King Ben hasn't done anything for me, but they both went all out here in a contest that was basically worked greco roman mixed with some shootstyle holds and stiff strikes. Forget about the classy british grappling and reversals, most of this was built around really intense lockups, attempted and failed throws and struggling over pin attempts. At one point Ben breaks out a top wristlock, Kilby starts working an armbar on the ground... add in some stiff, awkwardly landing strikes (including a flying headbutt from Ben that almost KOd Kilby) and sheer wild eyed determination from Kilby and you've got yourself one hell of a match. This match felt like it belonged in the 1960s rather than 1981, but the folks sat there in awe and really appreciated this contest that just kept building and building. Great finish too.

 

John Elijah vs. Ray Steele, WoS 7/22/1982

John Elijah was this bear of a man, who looked like he had insane upper body strength. And this had a bunch of great hold for hold work mostly focussing on the upper body. Elijah had this way of selling when he was forcing his way out of Steeles holds as if he was performing insane feats of strength. There‘s an artform to working this way that is lost now, and they executed a really good match in this style. Slow paced but the crowd was hot for it and there were some great holds and generally really good work.

Fit Finlay vs. Young David, WoS 3/13/1982

A look at a Finlay match where he doesn‘t cheat. He doesn‘t even step on Davey Boys hands. This had some really good matwork and holds. You get the sense Finlay vs. Atlantis would‘ve been amazing. David didn‘t leave his mark on the match as much as Finlay, but he looked intense. A lot of this was like if you‘d ask what junior wrestling between two super athletic guys with no high flying would look like. Finlay had some awe inspiring bridging and both guys had some great looking suplexes. Overall good technical action although it didn‘t have as much heat or story as their better bouts.

 

80s Euro Compendium 

RIP The Patriot

  The Patriot vs. Bret Hart, WWF 9/7/1997

 This is a classic heel champ working around a cookie cutter babyface match with Hart doing an excellent job making everyone think The Patriot was gonna take the title. I am guessing the idea behind the masked Patriot was that he represents an everyman, and he has pretty fun everyman offense in armdrags and a really nice dropkick. The opening going was well laid out and the action solid, but inconsequential (some limb work that doesn't go anywhere). The heartpiece was the finishing stretch laid out around Patriot getting nearfalls with Bret hanging on by a threat and some shenanigans happening. I am sure those nearfalls stayed in peoples minds in 1997 and I loved the finish where the Patriot gets cocky enough to put Harts own move on him only for Bret to defeat him on a technicality.

The Patriot & Vader vs. Bret Hart & British Bulldog, WWF 10/5/1997

I don't remember Vader being this patriotic guy, but he is definitely somebody you want backing you up when the honor of your country is at stake. This was a flag match but there are pins and submissions, but we at least get the cool visuals of guys breaking their flags over each others heads. Vader is great here backing up the Patriot, coming in to take people out with big body checks and punches. He also has this insane moment where he goes for his moonsault and lands on his feet then beats the shit out of Davey Boy some more. The match could've used a better structure, Hart Foundation where making cutoffs and trying to isolate the faces but it never really came together for a proper FIP section, and what a weird thing for a match involving a character as southern fried as The Patriot to not be a southern tag,  but what we got was pretty fun.

The Patriot & Kenta Kobashi vs. Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama, AJPW 11/22/1996

It's an AJPW pillars tag baby, so you get the usual cool strike exchanges plus the fun novelty of having The Patriot slotted into the format. You won't get neck chops or martial arts kicks from The Patriot but he is really fun doing his shoulderblocks and clotheslines and dropkicks with real Oomph behind them to fit into the match. I loved the constant teasing and countering of the Full Nelson Slam, and how they protected the move. Great finishing stretch with Patriot first working some pretty complex exchanges with Misawa and Akiyama before some baller nearfalls happen and The Patriot ends up falling victim to the usual Misawa helping out his junior partner shenanigans. You can totally tell when the crowd really catches on fire for this match and it's really fun to watch.

80s Europe #2

Jim Breaks vs. Young David (Davey Boy Smith), 2/23/1980

  This was a great piece of pro wrestling. Breaks in his bumblebee trunks just carrying a barely in puberty Davey Boy like it's nothing. To be fair, David looked good in parts here, doing a decent job struggling out of Breaks holds and taking a big unexpected bump in the last round, but it  was plainly obvious that he could only do a handful of things. Most of his comebacks are just him bodyslamming Breaks over and over. He did however do a great job palm striking his way out of a submission and bloodying Breaks nose. Breaks was great here at first playing a more subtle version of his usual character before turning it up to 11. His submissions were just ridiculous, trying to sprain Davids ankle at first and then zoning in on the arm and bending it as far as humanly possible. This just lead out in a great way. Fun post match too with Davids mentor Alan Dennison coming in to smash things over Breaks head. 

Pat Roach vs. Pete Roberts, 2/13/1980

Pat Roach always looks like the hardest man on the planet to me. This was a pretty excellent contest with some nifty heavyweight grappling. Roachs judo throws rule, as well as his overhead arm suplex. Roach was playing nice early on, and Roberts was doing a really neat Fujiwara-ish performance trying to crack the giant. Once Roach was outsmarted, he just went beast mode and ragdolled Roberts about the ring. In the 3rd fall, Roberts made excellent use of ring positioning to chop Roach down. I liked the finish more than OJ as Roach was limping and in trouble only to launch an overzealous Roberts over the top rope, taking an insane bump on the outside. The smart player Pete Roberts being outsmarted himself was neat.  

Jeff Kaye vs. Tony "Banger" Walsh, 1/28/1980

This was a battle between two great looking wrestlers. Walsh is pasty with a bowlcut and Kaye has kind of medieval mid length hair and is dumpy looking. Kaye is super fired up here cartwheeling around and Banger Walsh was looking to give it to him, throwing shots and grinding Kaye down  with basic moves.  Walsh has really good basic stomps and clubs. If you are familiar with these type of European give and give back face/heel matches you won't be surprised by the structure here but they worked in so many high end exchanges that it stayed entertaining. Unique finish too. Really really fun sprint. 

Fit Finlay/Ian Gilmour vs Guy Mercier/Alan Mitchells 9/25/80

2/3 Falls match over about 25 minutes. Browsing through hundreds of French matches, and just out of nowhere a 22 year old Dave Finlay pops up in what is maybe his first ever televised match working like a seasoned veteran heel. Pretty cool. The saying about European tag wrestling is that they didn‘t quite know how to do it, but this match had pretty much the kind of structure you want: Fun babyface shine segment, followed by a heel beatdown before a series of cut offs before a comeback succeeds and then a finish. They fool you a bit here by doing a really long shine with the heels making several attempts at starting the beatdown and being cut off, but in the end the structure is there and even the 2/3 Falls formula is integrated well. This was a bit more holds and takedowns based and less about armdrags and ranas, similiar to what we know from British wrestling, but don‘t be fooled the pace in this match was lightning fast. These guys really do an absurd amount of stuff even in a long match, but everything is executed effortlessly. Guy Mercier is a former European champion and legit Greco roman wrestler with a look and aura that just screams tough old man, and while there wasn‘t a ton of extended wrestling in this match he looked like a classy worker. It speaks for the creativity of these old workers just how much they could do with moves like a body slam or hip throw. Finlay also did this cool thing where he misses a big splash in about the first minute of the bout and spends the next few minutes scurrying away while the faces twisted up his leg and launched him into the ropes. It didn‘t pay off in the long run, but it was a fun bit of selling to make the opening minutes more interesting. Once the heels got something going after what felt like 15 minutes of highly entertaining bumping and stooging, they basically focussed on getting the faces to the corner and stomping the crap out of them. Really simple and effective stuff that made me wish modern workers paid more attention to making simple things like a stomp look good, because Finlay had damn great looking stomps here. Another layer to the match was Michel Saulnier, who was grey and a referee by now. The match had some heel ref antics and comical amounts of babyface retaliation against Saulnier, while that is something that can ruin a lot of these Euro matches it was actually executed in a really fun manner here. The thing I loved most how delighted the fans were at the trick the heels used to get a pin here. No hard feelings, it‘s all good fun in France.

1980s EURO COMPENDIUM