First, there’s the shock of the Freebird and Von Erichs on a team. Then you’ve got the fact it’s an odd three out of five falls match and it’s at Texas Stadium. Massive. Then you need to know there’s a $100,000 dollars on the line and it’s in two rings. The winner of the fall gets a new Lincoln car for the fall. Take a breath and we’ll check the match.

You’ve got Gary Hart, Jim Cornette, and Skandor Akbar all “presenting” wrestlers for the bad guys. They make an announcement of Ric Flair being unable to be in the match because of his ribs. Not sure what that’s about. The Dynamic Duo and the Freebirds are in a different ring. Overly involved, self-important ref David Manning gives a lot of instructions that I’m sure no one will follow. This will be too crazy to give blow-by-blow, so I won’t even try.

Right away I think this is stupid as they have two separate tag matches going on at the same time. This is a tremendous waste if this was the first time the Freebirds and VEs teamed up. I wish we would have at least gotten to see the build up where the two bitter enemies decided to tag, but maybe there wasn’t one. I love Dr. Death, but it’s a waste to see him in this environment. Kerry rolls up Gino, but Adams kicks him in the head and Gino gets the pin. Kerry is the first loser, which surprises me. They have to stop the match for the announcement. This is lame.

Kamala looks good from what I see, but so many people are everywhere that it’s impossible to know what’s going on. There’s another bell that the camera doesn’t pick up. Second fall is won by Gino Hernandez and his team. No idea who the fall was on, but Hayes was on the mat. Kamala and Kevin Von Erich is the highlight so far. Kerry pins Rip Oliver in decent action. 2-1 baD GUYS.

Roberts rings Gino out with a deep headlock. Doc works on Kerry, and I’d like to see both matches, just not at once. Sadly I guess we’ll never see the Freebird and the VE actually working together since they’re in different rings. Doc does looks good from what I can follow, and Gordy’s stuff has been good, but it’s a clusterfuck. I don’t buy Mike Von Erich running wild on Kamala, but they do it anyway. Buddy Roberts gets the fourth pinfall, on who I don’t know.

Kerry tries to slam Kamala, but Kamala lands on him. Hayes gets a really close nearfall that pops the crowd. Kevin dives over the double ropes from one ring to the other on to Dr. Death. The match mercifully ends. The Freebirds leave having never interacted with the VEs. Gary Hart orders the OMG to destroy the car with his chain. Mike Von Erich does the best running crossbody of his career in the endzone of the stadium to stop Gang. The Dynamic Dup get the chain from Ref David Manning and smash the windshield. Kerry has to be restrained.

There may have been some great performances, but with two rings and crazy camera work it was so hard to get a feel of anything or a sense of flow. There was a vague story to this, but it wasn’t nearly as satisfying as the Birds teaming with the VEs in a six on six single elimination match where the teams actually had to interact. This was nothing more than a cheap stunt of a gimmick for a stadium show. It had cool spots, but that’s about it. More notable for the post-match car bashing. 2 stars and 4.5/10

I believe this was held on the undercard of the first famed Misawa vs Jumbo match. Doc is awesomely intense here to start, going face to face with the young boy. Kobashi is The man yet, not even close, but the fans already love him. Doc was a good foreign heel. I’m not a fan of the fake slap wrestling and middle of the road amateur stuff at first, but Kobashi doing the cement mixer for a pin is pretty fun.

Doc just dumps him on his head once he catches him good. Kobashi gets to outsmart Doc once or twice, but it’s never for the same reason. I like that. Monkey flip once, shame on me. Twice? Kobashi is falling on his head. Kobashi gets his back smashed for following Williams outside, so we get some famed ‘bashi selling. Bear hug into belly-to-belly? That’s pretty cool. Kobashi fights it, stands up, and takes another. He really had the fighting spirit thing down with his strikes. I don’t know that that is something that can be taught. Maybe the timing… maybe.

Kobashi comes back and gets sent down. He’s trying. Figuring things out. The hope spots are a lot of fun because Kobashi’s been in the business about a year and already he knows the moves that pop the crowds. People really get behind him. They even let him hit the moonsault for a near fall. Crowd chants his name. Doc comes back with several stiff shoulder blocks. Glad we didn’t end on that as Kobashi kicks out.

Kobashi actually kicks out of the Oklahoma Stampede, which was big at the time, but can’t kick out of a top rope shoulder block. Doc wins. Neat little match that I recommend to those who like a bully Doc match or want to see Kobashi climbing the ladder early in his famed All Japan run.

This was set up a month before in a post-match TV angle we just covered in match # 146. Eddie Gilbert and Dick Murdoch tried to break Doc’s arm, with Murdoch stomping the arm into a steel chair from the top rope. Huge injury angle in those days, and sometimes even now (when bookers or writers are sane.

This looks like it may have been taped at the New Orleans Superdome. It’s a gigantic event at any rate. Murdoch has Gilbert with him, which seems like an odd pairing from what I’ve seen. Gilbert mugs while Murdoch gives a confident death stare during intros. Doc has a big cast on selling the right arm/wrist injury. Ref announces he loses if he uses the cast as a weapon. The winner gets the UWF Champion, Big Bubba Rogers. Here we go.

Match starts off with waist locks, wrist locks, and lock-ups. Basic stuff done well. Murdoch is already using the injured wrist of Dr. Death to his advantage. One minute in we go to commercial, but we come back exactly where we left. Thank you!

Murdoch ends up getting his arm worked over, so he goes and regroups. Murdoch does the little things like a roll out, a well paced stare and subtle shake of an injured body part. In that respect he’s up there with people like Flair to me for intangibles within ring work.

Jim Ross at ringside is announcing and has John Aires, UWF commish, with him. He notes Aires has been negotiating with Jim Crockett and Murdoch’s former tag team partner, Dusty Rhodes. This may play in.

Murdoch’s arm gets wringed and he begs off more than once. Doc outwrestles him at every turn, storyline-wise. The slower-moving Murdoch sneaks in some stiff elbows and then stomps on the downed Doc’s injured wrist. Five minutes gone by as Murdoch gets greedy and tries to send Doc to the ring post outside, but gets his left arm/shoulder smashed for it. The old turnabout is fair play spot. Doc stays selling the hand and my love for them both grows.

Murdoch, not using the injured left side, comes hard again with elbows on Doc. He stays selling too. More targeting the injured wrist. Commercial break. When we come back they’ve shaved at least a short amount of time because Doc has a left arm hammer lock on a downed Murdoch. Gilbert distracts the ref while Murdoch hits Doc’s arm with a mic stand from Ross’ desk. Creative . He does it again a minute later, so JR moves it. Haha. He doesn’t tell the ref, he just moves it. JR – journalistic integrity to not get involved in what he covers. Do I need to mention the commish is sitting next to JR?!

Doc’s hope spots are good in that it never looks like he can be taken out, only contained. I believe it with this babyface, and it’s fun watching Cpt. Redneck contain him. This time as he comes back Gilbert again does his histrionics, but now Murdoch grabs the ring bell as a weapon.

Looks like they missed something because Doc got a slam when it looked like Gilbert wanted to stop him and make it a quick hope spot. Doc continues and rolls all over Murdoch, who feeds him without being over eager. Nice change of pace. 15 minutes in, so we only got 3 cut from us.

Doc gets near falls with big punches, but falls victim to being posted. He blades under the ring as we go to commercial. We come back having missed most of the heat. We’re now 20 minutes in, so a few more were shaved.

A set up ref bump is obvious, but is executed well. Crowd pops big form this stuff. Eddie Gilbert gets hit with the cast. Murdoch gets hit with the cast. Ref crawls in and makes the count. Doc wins. I’m a little deflated by the end. Big Bubba is in for a stare down, which is cool. Akbar, Gilbert, and Murdoch kill Doc while Bubba watches. Dusty Rhodes hits the ring and fights for the babyface. I haven’t a clue why. He blades noticeably when they get heat on him. I roll my eyes. Dusty steals all the attention. I just wanted to see a good finish for Doc, who won, and yet didn’t. Couldn’t been a bias score from me, but it won’t be. 3 ¼ stars and 6/10.

Match Discussion Here

Doc sprints to the ring for this TV main event. Eddie Gilbert is going to have Dick Murdoch in his corner. He tells me so in a promo he cuts with Captain Redneck. Murdoch says he showed the brainbuster finish and Gilbert acts like a goof. Priceless. I’m a Gilbert mark, but even more so a Murdoch mark, so this should be amazing as an event. Plus Gilbert bumping for Doc, and all the shenanigans? Sign me up for two matches!

In the ring, just for those fans that need a visual, Murdoch makes motions to Gilbert about the brainbuster.

WOW! Doc shoulder blocked Gilbert out of the ring legit. Gilbert hams the sell up though, which is good. Gilbert tries to use headlocks and arm bars with Doc. Dumb idea but very entertaining. Gilbert is played as a serious wrestler here, which I like as opposed to a “you’re too small” manager. Doc press smalls him something vicious. Great early stuff to build up from and the fans eat it up. Murdoch helps Eddie sell on the floor.

Doc picks up Gilbert for a Oklahoma Stampede finish, but Eddie grabs the ropes. He falls on Doc for a pin, but he’s pressed off and out of the ring. Murdoch is a general here, giving advice and pointing. Now they need to transition into getting some heat or turn it up so as to not risk repetition. Then again, what do I know? These guys are great.

Instead Doc gets a near fall and they slow it down with an armbar. Oh well, it’s not bad, but I’m bored now. It’s a very weak arm submission. Commercial break.

Whoa, Gilbert has a sleeper on Doc and he’s got the crowd vocal. There is a woman yelling with the worst voiced I’ve ever heard. Crowd gets crazier as Doc risks to a knee and then vertical. Text book. Breaks free. Hope spots. Epic fail. Back into the sleeper. Nice.

Gilbert uses the ropes for leverage on the choke, but it’s gone on quite a bit long. Too long for me as they’ve stalled out a bit, but the crowd still gives that heel tactic heel. So it continues. Doc breaks free again, but sells very nice. Doc eventually runs wild on him. Hot Stuff cheats again to get some more heat. Great hope spot for Doc breaking up a brainbuster attempt.

Cross body on Doc, but Doc rolls through. Clean pin. Doc wins.

Post match Gilbert and Murdoch try to break Doc’s arm/elbow. Murdoch kills anyone coming out with a chair. So does Gilbert. No one can make the save. Awesome stuff. Barry Windham and friends out to finally break it up. Huge heated angle and Doc sells it like he’s in trouble. Slightly better then average match with a great post-match angle. 2 ¾ and 6/10.

Match Discussion Here

No need for a huge write up. We’ve seen many combinations of these four men in the ring during the last several Mid South Diaries. In fact, we’ve seen this exact match with this exact stipulation. Funny thing is the stip isn’t really changing much of the match, as it is wrestled as a regular tag.

Everyone hits there stuff. The work is actually tight much of the time. The crowd isn’t blown away, but they see the match as a big deal. The heels have that presence they usually do. The Babyfaces work is pretty inspired from an effort standpoint. Nothing is horrible about the match. Yet it’s very average, run of the mill, and at times I lose interest. It’s nothing you haven’t seen before from these men, and like I said, it’s JUST solid.

My biggest interest is why Sunshine was paired with the Freebirds? I never heard about that in Freebird history. Perhaps her and Hayes were a thing.

Hayes does make it more interesting during the heel when he uses his boot to beat a bloody Doc. Gordy bumps nicely as they tease a hot tag, and I’m realizing this is better then what I’ve seen in the last 5-7 matches, but that stuff was dull enough I’m burned out on it.

Hot tag to Dibiase, it breaks down to a street fight, and wouldn’t you know it they’re out of time! That old finish most remember from WCW Saturday Night as the show goes off the air without a finish to the match. The cool thing is they flip to next week where Michael Hayes is with JR heelin’ it up and watching the footage of what we didn’t see. We didn’t see Gordy just kill Doc with a clothesline like the bad ass he was. Or Hayes send Dibiase over the rail hard as hell. We are treated to a two-on-one beat down on Doc with a boot. Dibiase gets beat up by Devastation Inc. on the outside because he and One Man Gang in a feud. They leave and Doc lays beaten in the ring. A DQ in a Bad Street match. Hated a little less here than before, but yuck in general. 2 ¾ and 6/10.

Match Discussion Here

Apparently storyline-wise Terry Gordy is to blame for all of this. Gordy attacked the Fantastics recently, and we know he’s had a longstanding feud with Death – Dr. Death Steve Williams. This allows Hayes and Roberts of the Freebirds to slide into a feud with the Fantastics.

Early it’s the Doc and Gordy show. Doc shows fire fighting all the Freebirds, while Gordy is determined but ends up bumping a lot. I take issue with the way a big guy like Gordy bumped so much just because he could, but as fellow CHRON contributor Gene Boyer has pointed out, the difference between All Japan Gordy and Mid South Gordy is sometimes the style of the territory. True, I think it’s a weakness of Mid South in some cases that may have been one of the few layout ideas I think WWF did better.

The babyfaces all hit their big moves, but Gordy avoids trouble enough to help the heels to momentary advantages. The heels definitely stooge (as the kids are saying these days) for Dr. Death and the Fans. Buddy Roberts plays the head stooge well. Michael Hayes is then in to play clever, but then stogy. And we come full circle back to Gordy. Those were good segments.

They go to commercial and upon return we find out the Freebirds have the advantage on Bobby Fulton. It’s MNX level smooth and gets the fans all kinds of riled up. A lot of fun but nothing to write home about. Doc gets a hot tag and goes crazy being fed bumping heels. It’s Mid South, so it breaks down two seconds into the hot tag, all six men in, and they steal another RNR-MNX old tune: a finish. Accept they don’t use it as a finish. A roll up by Tommy Rogers gets ended hard by a Hayes clothesline.

It ends up going back to a Doc-Buddy Roberts legal man situation, but that goes nowhere once the Angel of Death ends up interfering again. The babyface semi-main event locker room empties and it’s a DQ finish. Decent but worthless match. Don’t watch this unless you’ve never even seen these men. 2 ½ and 4/10.

Match Discussion Here

It’s funny that Gordy and Hayes wear cut off T-shirts and jeans here as the cool heels, and a decade later Stevie Richards would do it as a “clueless putz”. I only bring it up because Gordy and Hayes are wearing shirts that are cut entirely too short. They look more white trash than usual. They also still rule. The faces wear their ring gear to the Badstreet Fight. I guess they don’t get it.

Heels bump like crazy for the faces in a brawl to start. The heels powder out and regroup after Dibiase runs them silly. Dibiase has his hand taped. They bring up the glove. Ross also brings up the piledrivers to both men and hospital visits. If you’ve never seen these feuds JR just made it assessable. Good one.

Doc and Gordy renew their feud. Looks even better in tag form where they can just go and tag out instead of bearhug and back move. Gordy uses the laces of his boot to start the heat on Doc. Hayes uses his boot. Gordy adds the sick clothesline. Ross covers for the ref because he’s trying to break up a choke in a no DQ match. Amazingly (Note: sarcasm), it’s Tommy Gilbert.

Hayes looks the worst he has of the matches I’ve seen. This is paint by numbers, but on a lazy day. Hot tag and brawl all over. Not great. Not the worst. Gordy ends up getting heat on Dibiase, and that rules. Hayes repeats what little he did with the boot. Hayes has been better riling the crowd on the apron. Odd exchange between Gordy and Hayes on a tag attempt.

Other than that it heats up at the end. Gordy bumps well for Doc. Hayes and Dibiase do well for themselves. So guy named “the Angel of Death” bumps around for the faces off a run in. The crowd is now pretty fired up. Gordy kills everyone, including Tommy Gilbert. This match just went up a quarter-point. That’s the finish – Gordy is the maniac big man. 2 ¼ and 4/10.

Match Discussion Here

This is getting to be a fun habit between these two. They start out brawling. Gordy is the aggressor. Doc holds his own and eventually wins out. Good execution of a common early match formula.
Gordy maneuvers out of a piledriver attempt, a big move many of their matches touch on in this series.

It’s been said a thousand times in all my Doc/Gordy posts, but these two do worked punches so well.
Doc hits Gordy with a big clothesline and really beats on him. There isn’t a lot of crowd reaction. I’m surprised. JR is on commentary and makes a great note. These two are “the big bulls battling”, and that comes across. Side note – Chavo Guerrero is on commentary with JR. Interesting.

Gordy sends Doc outside and they make the story Doc selling his back after being sent to the barricade. These guys do this story well as far as heel beatdown and selling. It’s the “feel and the finish” I’m worried about. Their last match left a dull taste in my mouth. Gordy makes me happy by staying right on the back with a snap suplex.

Bear hugs?! I’ve seen this one before. Maybe they’ll be more passion and variations in this version. Gordy dumps him on his head with a suplex, covers for two, and gets some crowd reaction. Much better. Then the bear hug again. This is the wrong kind of roller coaster. They go outside again to reaffirm Doc’s back is hurt. Back in the ring, still tedious stuff. Every time Gordy can’t wear him down he throws him outside, but this time Doc is ready. Gordy gets the barricade. Doc comeback in full. Shoulderblock of doom from Doc. A second – nope. Same as the last time, Doc sent outside. They brawl. Double count out. Brawl afterwards. SAME F’N SCORE AS LAST TIME. 2 ½ and 5/10.

Match Discussion Here

Match starts in progress, which I hate, and it seems deep into the match at first. Thankfully it’s only four minutes in, though they are already into Gordy getting the heat. The match is slow and plodding in the early going. It’s basically one big bear hug. Gordy does a few other moves to work the back, but the high spot of the first ten minutes is a Gordy German suplex on Doc. Even Doc’s hope spots are sleepy. I’d almost say for these guys, especially with the quiet crowd and how quickly they went to the back work, it’s a dull match so far. Perhaps they are building to something with the back, which would make this a relevant prolonged first gear.

Comeback is smart as Doc reverses a whip into the guardrail and sends Gordy in twice. Doc has a great suplex back into the ring on Gordy. He gets out of a pile driver attempt and lands one of his own. The pin…. Gordy’s foot was on the rope. Doc has really good offense here, especially his punches and surprising head butts. Two more big football tackles, and Gordy always sells the shoulder blocks big.

Doc sets up for a third big shoulder block, but there’s actually less crowd heat than you’d think. Gordy moves and sends Doc outside. Doc lands well so it doesn’t look bad, and then Gordy come outside. It’s a Double Count out. Yuck! Did they ever do a clean finish with these two. This is silly as all hell because Gordy doesn’t have the belt now and these two have feud about half a year. He should beat Gordy and then go after OMG to finally get that elusive title win. Screw this finish.

They do have a big tough guy brawl right after on the floor and Doc wins the exchange. They head back in the ring. Doc wants a pile driver but can’t get it. Gordy does get a lot of heat when he walks away.

Not much of a match except for Doc’s comeback. They do have a sense to everything they do, but it’s not always something that leads to bigger things. Here they built it so slowly that you were waiting for something big, and 15 minutes in they went with a cheap heatless finish. It was a risk, and I’m glad they took those in booking, but this one didn’t pay off. 2 ½ and 5/10.

Match Discussion Here

They put a lot of people in a bull ring in Little Rock, Arkansas. They even put in two side by side rings. War Games? It wasn’t even done yet (first War Games was ’87). I’d guess a battle royal, back when that was a big draw still. Duggan comes out before Doc and Gordy square off again. He wants the winner. In those days that meant Gordy wins automatically unless a big turn was coming. Duggan would play the Eugene character if he came around today. What a dope.

Duggan is to self involved of a babyface to leave for some reason so Michael Hayes comes out to try and make him. This touches off a brawl between all four men, with Skandor Akbar’s traveling circus of monsters of the week (One Man Gang and some giant Mr. T-looking dude) comes out to get Duggan.

Man I hate the top babyface role in most every 1980s promotion. Even today they suck. The heel is almost always a nicer guy even in a worked sense. Somewhere in here Jim Ross curses (raw tape as he was in commercial and said “shit”. Great moment) and Hayes breaks Doc’s arm over the steel outside barricade. The fans chant “USA”, I guess because those chants will help heal Doc in storyline fashion.
Visually it looked like a great heel attack/injury angle. Doc gets carried to the back. Ross tells us it’s the elbow that’s hurt. As he talks Doc’s music hits. We go to the ring. It’s taped up and Gordy goes right at it.

Gordy mostly works over the arm in a dull fashion, but it’s Doc that makes the match with his spirited comebacks. He jabs, head butts, hair pulls, and spears Terry Gordy every time he’s down. Crowd eats it all up. Every hope spot has a lot of purpose and impact. Gordy sells them well too.

Gordy on offense is arm bars and short arm scissors. Its okay, but not what I watch Gordy for. He’s at least focusing it all on the injured elbow.

Doc’s midpoint comeback ends with a shoulder in the top turnbuckle. Gordy goes back to the short arm scissors. His pissed off looks as he got up from selling were really believable. Between his arm work and Doc’s comebacks I should love this, but I’m finding it dull because Gordy is completely grounded in a less-is-more offense.

They do a double clothesline and double-ten count for the end of match comeback. Gordy goes to the top, which has no logical purpose or sense, but past that it’s a small flaw. He bumps off and I notice that Doc really has not used that injured arm in this comeback or match. Very nice. Shoulderblock from Doc and Gordy is on his ass. A Football tackle sends Gordy down again. Piledriver while selling the arm. Doc hits it and pauses a while as he can’t cover because he’s a bit out of it. Match is getting really good. Two count on Gordy. Doc kills Gordy with a clothesline. Sells a few moments, which leads to only a two count.

Gordy goes upside down into the turnbuckle! Ouch. A bunch of nearfalls and a hot crowd. Hayes is out to distract. Gordy puts on the brass knuckles and pops Doc with the fist/object. Gordy wins!

Maybe it’s because I’m such a Gordy/Doc mark, but their matches always build to a strong crescendo before the finish, and the finish is usually satisfying as well. This one was an angle/storyline based match, but the feud needed one of these. Nice to see them work this out a bit different. Doc was on another level here. 3 ½ and 7/10.

Match Discussion Here