Pro Wrestling Chronicle

Match # 59: Rock N Roll Express vs Ted Dibiase/Dr. Death (6/19/85)

The first of a RNR Exp. Trifecta of matches. Should be state-of-the-art tag wrestling to go with the state-of-the-art Flair matches from earlier. My ballot is getting turned upside down this week, though I’ve since read others saw the Flair matches as more of an intrusion on the great Mid South set. Some went as far as to call them long boring matches. To each their own. Happy to enjoy I am.

RNRs are the faces of course because Doc and Dibiase are the heels. I can’t wait to see more Doc/Morton stuff, and with Dibiase in there, a TV match is just not enough time. Boyd Peirce tells us who is who mid ring. Dibiase/Doc are the tag champions. I can’t even remember if I knew that. RNR challengers. I can only hope for the best parts of their house show match from a month before.

Dibiase and Morton start with a headlock and a shoulder block. Dibiase gloats to the crowd as he takes control. Morton eats them up with drop kicks to both several times. They corner him and fun ensues.
Outside and inside, as we get stereo drop kicks from RNRs and one after the other monkey flips. The heels regroup as JR screams a lot of stuff, and somehow I like it more. You haven’t liked until you’ve seen a smaller man successfully monkey flip Doctor Death Steve Williams.

Go ‘round #2. Dibiase suckers in Morton with a kick to the gut. Somehow Morton ends up on Dibiase’s shoulders and pulls off a rana on Dibiase a decade before I saw Rey Mystero first do it on a trip to ECW. Doc and Robert Gibson in, and Doc kills him with power. Fun tight moves. Gibson pulls out a sweet trick in the corner and a roll up. So ahead of there time. This is better big man-small man tag stuff than Tully/Arn vs Demolition ever was. Gibson with arm drags and JR resists the urge to yell the move out. Stupid Joel Watts is babbling again. Doc cuts off Gibson and throws him into the heel turnbuckle violently. Very cool and I hope it shook sense into Gibson for all those years of running in so Morton could get beat up. A, Morton pays it forward by doing it to Gibson.

So this is a twist. Gibson is selling during the heat segment. I like it for the novelty. Hope spot elbows off a headlock (why the rest spot here, Teddy?). Gibson cut off with a knee to the stomach. Tag team wrestling from Doc/Dibiase. Doc with the sleeper-like hold. Elbows out again? Nope, Doc pulls him down by the hair. Doc goes for what possibly was a pile driver, but not today. He’s back dropped. Hot tag. Morton is THE house of fire after a passable, but uninspired, role switch for the faces.

It’s breaking down to sloppy brawling, but it’s been a fun one so far, and this usually means the end. Dibiase sent to the ropes and he plows into Gibson, who then is sent into the ref.

Great ending for “the ride” of a match. You think, “yuck, ref bump”, but it’s Morton who goes to get the ref. He’s the legal man. Dibiase grabs the loaded glove. He nails the already woozy Gibson, who bangs into the ref. The ref falls off the apron again, but you assume those evil heels are going over. Gibson falls through the ropes too, but Dibiase’s already turned to get rid of his glove. Meanwhile, Ricky Morton comes back in. Dibiase sees him (glove still loaded) and takes a swing. He misses, and Morton rolls him up off the ropes. Faces win, right? Well, Doc adjusts his elbow brace to somehow become a weapon and clothes lines Morton out of his boots. The ref comes in just as Dibiase pins Morton. Great finish.

Too short to really say much as far as the ballot and scores. It’s a shame, cause I’d enjoy this with more time. As it was, it was a fun opener or second match on a PPV. Clever booking and good workers, but not much of a match. If their first match had this ending it could have been a 3 ¾ to 4 star match, and this one would have been 2 stars. I’d have made that trade, but as it stands this is what ya get. 2 ½ and 5/10.

Match Discussion Here