Pro Wrestling Chronicle

Match # 69: Ted Dibiase vs Butch Reed (7/25/85)

This TV match starts out as Butch Reed facing a young Tommy Pritchard (Dr. Tom, a Heavenly Body and Bodydonna, as well as brother of WWE office man Bruce Pritchard). It never gets started because Ted Dibiase jumps in the ring and ring announcer Boyd Pierce gets a mic on him. Dibiase says He came out 3 weeks ago and challenged/beat Terry Taylor (our match # 63). He should be the # 1 contender for the North American title. But all the “sports writers” are saying Butch Reed is the top contender. Dibiase says Ric Flair called him to take care of Reed, and Dibiase said he’d do it for free and not come after Flair’s title (why?). Butch says he has a match already, but Dibiase hits him. So Tommy Pritchard gets tossed out by Reed, and we’ve got a Reed vs Dibiase # 1 contenders match.

Reed hands Dibiase his ass to start and Dibiase bumps big to get him over. Dibiase sent to the outside and jaws with fans. Back in he pulls the old Flair formula: he begs off as the crowd goes crazy for the stalking Reed, and then hits Reed in the gut. No Dibiase works over Reed with shots. Reed in an awkward exchange gets a backslide. Cool headlock segment (it wasn’t much, I’m a mark for them) by Reed on the heel.

It’s not that I think Reed isn’t good, but people act like he’s the biggest star everyone missed, and I’m just not into him at a full main event level. But then, half the main eventers of the last decade were just guest stars in my mind.

JR is yelling and excited on commentary, by the way.

Reed still working the headlock as they’ve found ways to grind it, do roll up pins and Dibiase tight grabbing off in, among other things. I love how active the refs were, especially because these guys really muscle4d and worked each other in the corner and Karl Fergie was always jumping in there. Reed gets his knee up when Dibiase runs at him after a whip to another buckle. Both men down selling.
This match is decent, but it’s not on the level of the Taylor-Dibiase TV match for me, or my beloved Armstrong-Dibiase TV match. I also disagree with some popular thought that Dibiase wasn’t a good short form TV match guy, but a very good long form arena match wrestler. I think his TV stuff was all really interesting, and his interviews and heel stuff amplified that.

Dibiase comes at Reed with a minute or so of strike offense, and Reed can’t fight it all off. He grabs a hold because he blows up, and that becomes a hope spot for Reed to power out of the rear choke. That’s another big spot in Mid South – rear chin lock to power reverse to heel grabbing hair and sending face down to keep the chin lock. They milk this one with dropping Reeds arms, but Reed gets up, and sends Dibiase’s head into a turnbuckle to get out.

Eventually the match falls apart as Dibiase is loading the glove. Some people hate the glove loading, I’m still into it because I didn’t watch this over years, but rather months, and it was all new stuff. That’s not why it falls apart though. It falls apart because both men can’t seem to stay on the same page, and moves and sequences start to fall apart. People will love that Dibiase misses with the gloved glove several times and Reed smashes the glove into the top turnbuckle, theoretically hurting Dibiase’s hand even more. Reed BACK BODY DROPS Dibiase and a shoulder block finishes it. Reed pins Dibiase.

The fact Dibiase loses clean and the glove backfires on him will be attractive to a lot of people. I can see people saying this was a neat little match, and that wouldn’t be a lie. But it did not flow for me, and I like these two. It also fell apart at the end and then just finished, and while a shoulder block may have been Reed’s big move, it didn’t do much for me in this situation. This was a good Dibiase match, but not a great one, and I’m still not sold on Reed. 2 ¾ and 5/10.

Match Discussion Here