Pro Wrestling Chronicle

Match # 12: Buddy Roberts vs. David Von Erich (3/18/83)

More Von Erich/Freebirds magic, with the oldest Freebird versus the second oldest Von Erich brother.

Buddy has a decidedly great fearful pout. David looks like he wants to kill him. Kevin gets one good punch to the face, which I love because then they back away and let the crowd react. Test of strength goes to David, but he’s into that weird armbar/shoulder lock from the Flair match. His shoulder block and arm drag takeover aren’t pretty, but I guess I should just give up on trying to see David do something smooth. I will give him points for his chop and his fireman’s carry. See, I’m fair.

David keeps going back to the shoulder lock. Buddy’s bumping pretty well for him, which I remember being a strong suit from his Mid South work. Buddy delivers a knee lift off the ropes about five minutes in. Buddy is a great skuzzy weasel heel getting the heat on David. This match isn’t technical at all, but it’s all effective stuff. David gets a hope spot by doing the claw to Buddy’s balls. Yikes. Buddy keeps wrenching David’s head and neck. It’s getting great heat, support building for Von Erich. Buddy continues to cut off David’s comebacks. Funny part comes when Buddy holds David on the mat and they have a somewhat audible, long thirty second discussion about the next several moves. World Class production was almost too good. Ten minutes gone.

The match has a decent flow and Roberts in charge with David coming back is a story, but David bores me and Buddy is only so dynamic (by that I mean dynamic enough, but not big match leader dynamic). Buddy takes a great back body drop and then a flying knee for the clean pin in eleven minutes. Buddy is gold after the match showing his butt to fans to mock them, but then falling off the ring steps.

How to judge this? I’ll consult Gene (still watching with me, allowing to steal his talking points for this blog), who agrees that David does nothing for us. This was a tighter match than Hayes and Kerry, but had less heat. We both liked Buddy, but there was something missing with David as the comeback face for us; something uninspiring about him, even if the finish was decent and clean. Ultimately I liked it more than Gordy versus Kevin, but not as good overall as Hayes vs Kerry (Gene disagrees with this last point, but neither will sniff my top 40, so who cares). 2 ½ stars and 5/10.