Pro Wrestling Chronicle

Match # 150: Eddie Gilbert & Dick Murdoch vs. Lightning Express (7/21/87)

Here we are. The end of the journey of vote-able matches. We go out with somewhat of a whimper, but we do have four solid workers in there. Murdoch and Gilbert as heels and Tim Horner and Brad Armstrong.

Lots of Random thoughts on this match. I’ll try to piece it all together.

Jim Ross and Missy do commentary. I shouldn’t and won’t take it out on the match rating, but she is terrible. Really brings down the match. Crowd seemed very canned at times too, but I can’t imagine the mic’ing of the audience was very sophisticated in 1987. Again, it’s a small detail that wouldn’t have mattered if I was more into the match.

Okay, this wasn’t a bad match. I definitely see why it’s on the set. A lot of worse matches exist on the set of 150. But there are easily 100 matches I liked more. 50 at the least. The men work well and there’s nothing to wrong, but it lacked fire and passion I was hoping for.

Murdoch uses a piece of wood as a weapon. Problem one they never show us how he gets it. It happens during a commercial. Problem two, it’s used more than once at the beginning and once at the end. Thought it was way overused and the ref should have seen it. More so, it leads to problem three – there was no blading. The stick was used as a choke on the throat. Now I realize I’m theoretically supposed to judge it by the merits of the day, but even then why did the man no pass out or have a way to make his throat look wounded. Just bad silly logic in the way this played out for me.

The pacing and work inside the ring was also a bit to slow and never picked up. The faces sealed the match for me. I could not get emotionally involved in the solid but dull work of Armstrong and Horner here. I was a fan of Armstrong with Dibiase, but not here. Murdoch always has his moments and Gilbert is a clever bump machine, but this didn’t hold up to the rest of the set. Nothing inspiring to say the least, and there’s a run-in DQ finish at the end. Screw that. 2 ¼ and 4/10.

Match Discussion Here