Pro Wrestling Chronicle

Match # 54: Ric Flair vs Terry Taylor 5/4/85

Odd, this match and the last are from the same event, but this one looks like it’s off a commercial DVD. Great quality video. Both Flair and Taylor look more intense and ready than the last match they had, but maybe that’s the video quality impressing me.

Paul Boesch is awesome. Take back all those old irrelevant man comments about his commentary (great promoter. Never knocked him there) Boesch takes a minute at the very beginning to completely put over the history and importance of the NWA World Heavyweight Title. Very cool to see the touring champ get this type of treatment in a non-NWA territory. In fact, I hope every territory put over the belt like this, and wish everyone did in the modern era.

First ten minutes are VERY similar to the 4/28/85 match between these two. Slow start, feeling out process, and working holds. Can’t say it’s better or worse, but it’s all good. Flair is slow on the mat but has a lot of good technique he didn’t display post ’89 (which is practically two decades now). Slowly but surely Flair gets more frustrated with Taylor, who he shows respect to after each exchange, and the pace quickens. I noticed after reviewing the last match when finally getting to the comments link (Death Valley Driver) someone mentioned that Flair cheated out of necessity to win, and not just because he’s “evil”, and both of us enjoyed that. Makes it more relatable to me because it’s something you’d see in real life.

Taylor, by the way, is definitely under-rated simply for not being colorful enough, and it’s a bit unfair.
Flair sends a few knees hard to the mid-section and Taylor pauses and they sell the moment. It’s the bridge from Flairs fairness but frustration in mat wrestling to when Flair strikes and completely decides to cheat. I love the narrative of matches like this. Taylor stays with the headlock base he’s been working after a few running the ropes spots he came out on top of. They’ve focused in the last few minutes (probably minutes 8-12 so far) to show that Flair can’t figure out how to defeat the headlock.

Flair takes the advantage 14 minutes in by avoiding the headlock and doing a hip toss. This is his latest line of defense. Then he starts working a bit more high impact, with a bodyslam and huge sweeping take down (hip toss). Guess he’s working on the back, though Taylor breaks free and does Flair’s exact moves to Flair. Now the frustration is boiling over. No more respect, we get shoves and then a slap to Flair’s face. Taylor stands above him as if to say, “I’m not being bullied, big shot!” I love the progression here.

15 minutes in Flair has regrouped. He stares him down. He waves the ref off and Taylor in. He reveres Taylor into the corner, chops the crap out of him, and sends him to the outside. Now he’s going to work on him with strikes and small dirty tactics. Again, this closely follows and extrapolates from their 4/28 match.

Awesome segment where Flair is trying to work Taylor over in the corner and set the pace. Taylor keeps firing shots back and fighting out every few seconds but Flair controls his body back into the corner. Taylor keeps coming and firing at him, chopping him all the way to another corner. Flair even takes a back body drop and has that classic Flair desperation face on the mat. Complete with “Noooooo” in the corner and the face first bump. Flair’s cut off of Taylor is the high knee to the groin, as it was the match. Sold well.

@0 minutes in. I was wondering where the closed-fist spot had gone to, and I get my answer a moment later. Ref lets Taylor punch Flair a million times to a great fan reaction, steps in and grabs the fist while Flair’s in the corner (his cue), and Flair goes low with the knee. So they just changed up the timing of the fist/low blow with the fight out of the corner spot. Yeah, I’m geekin’ out with my match microscope. Deal with it.

Flair gets the heat on Taylor for a while. Chops, short punches, a suplex, and an outside posting. Flair methodically dictates the pace and begins to work over Terry Taylor’s left arm. They do some similar spots to the 4/28 match in teasing a Taylor punch and Flair pulling him down by the hair. Fan’s rally behind Taylor, and Flair milks it by letting him get close and yanking Taylor down by his hair. He does the ropes for leverage spot to taunt the fans again. 25 minutes in.

Paul Boesch would be fine if only he had a broadcast partner. The guys forced to fill up to much space with his voice. Poor guy. He starts babbling nonsense, and he’s actually a pretty good lead announcer with some decent analysis at times.

Taylor’s hopespot toss takeover is aggressive as all hell. Flair cuts him off and Taylor keeps progressively getting closer to coming back as the crowd builds. It even includes “eye for an eye” spots where he attacks Flair’s arm effectively. Flair tries to slow it down with a sleeper. Taylor sells for a minute before running Flair into the top turnbuckle to get out. It eventually leads to Taylor getting the sleeper on Flair. Let’s see if they do the Flair foot on the rope spot from the other match. They do. The lead up might have been even better.

Taylor in control beating Flair pillar to post with both men working their asses off. Flair desperation head butt to Taylor’s mid section, and Taylor sells the hell out of it. I’m curious if the ending will be the same considering the match layout is almost exactly like the match from days before.

The home stretch is filled with the advantage switching momentarily back and forth. The pace is really quick for the time, especially over 30 minutes in. The pin attempts and reversals are a lot of fun, with Taylor again and again almost pinning the world champion. As a fan I don’t know how you couldn’t nervously think Taylor was taking the title that night in the arena. Some kickouts are really strong and others subtle, like Flair putting his foot on the rope and never moving his shoulders at 2 ½.

Flair ends up winning in odd fashion. Taylor is dominant and close the victory. He sends Flair into the ropes and Flair collides with him coming off, sending Taylor down via body block. Flair pins Taylor, who hasn’t been weakened in a while, when Taylor puts his foot on the rope at 2 and the ref doesn’t see it.

Flair sweeps it off with his hand after the ref counts three to leave with the title. This totally enrages the fans, especially those at ringside. I respect the finish and outcome, but I don’t think it was executed as well as possible for two reasons. First, Taylor didn’t sell the beating/exhaustion well enough to be down so much that he needed to use the ropes instead of kicking out. He could have, but chose the fired up face those last few moments. Second, a shoulder block or weak collision was a fine idea, but it didn’t visually look like it was worthy of the finish.

All in all, I liked parts of this more than the 4/28, and other parts less than 4/28. It was essentially the same match though, and that is a compliment overall. 3 ¾ and 8.3/10.
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