While visiting my mum this weekend, I found a veritable treasure trove while helping empty her garage: a plethora of old tapes I’d left behind when I moved out years ago. Old WWF Colosseum videos and PPV’s, some ECW, CZW, RoH, XPW, ECWA and a load of best ofs. I’d intended watching ECW Living Dangerously 2000, my first ECW show, but mum’s video machine wasn’t working properly. Instead, I chose disc 1 of this WWE DVD, which had 4 matches that promised a lot.
Bob Backlund vs Pat Patterson (24/09/79)
The match is in Madison Square Garden and it’s held inside a mesh-style cage. The match is joined in progress in the early stages, as Patterson takes control and makes an early attempt to escape via the door. Patterson claws desperately to escape, which I love, in a frenzied attempt to get out. As the match progresses, it becomes clear that the story of the match is less that of an intense hatred, but that both are desperate to leave as champion. There are no big “moves” in the match (the biggest highspot is an atomic drop Backlund gives to Patterson), and most of the damage inflicted comes when they try to stop the opponent escaping, choking and clawing at him to prevent him leaving the cage. There is one really nice moment when both men are climbing the cage, only for Patterson to realise Backlund is closer to escaping than he is and so abandons his attempt to win in order to prevent Bob leaving. The end fits perfectly with the story, Backlund gets a slight advantage and crawls for the door, frantically kicking Patterson away like a wild animal, with the final kick actually propelling Backlund out for the win. A whole heap of fun and different to most other cage matches in execution.
Bruno Sammartino vs Ivan Koloff (15/12/75)
Another MSG match, this time from 1975. I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen a Bruno match before, which is a sizeable omission considering he’s the longest reigning WWF Champion in history. Bruno starts off by unloading bombs on the big Russian and it’s kind of fun to see two huge guys unloading on each other, especially as Koloff is bumping huge for Sammartino. It soon becomes clear, though, that this is a very one-sided match. Koloff’s offence is pretty much limited to one top-rope kneedrop and several optimistic attempts to escape (optimistic because he invariably gets in no offence on Bruno before trying unsuccessfully to escape). After a while, it becomes a little tedious, Sammartino dominates throughout, throwing the Russian Bear into the cage repeatedly and controlling the match. You realise Bruno hasn’t tried escaping yet and it feels like he could leave at any time, with the result that, when he does escape, it feels sorely anticlimactic. The crowd loves it though, so what do I know?
Don Muraco vs Jimmy Snuka (17/10/83)
Yeah, you may have heard of this one. The story of this one is pretty simple, aided by Gorilla Monsoon and Pat Patterson on commentary: Muraco wants to leave with his IC title, Snuka simply wants to hurt Muraco. Snuka dominates a lot of the match, though Muraco does get to bust the Superfly open with an impressive looking slingshot into the cage. Snuka is convincingly intense throughout, and Muraco bumps huge for him, including an insane one following a whip to the turnbuckle where he nearly lands on his head. The ending sees Snuka attack Muraco with a headbutt so viciously that it knocks Muraco through the ropes and out of the door, a finish that keeps the title on the Magnificent One and helps keep Snuka looking like a killer. After the match, of course, Snuka hits a Superfly Splash from the top of the cage and the seeds of the career of Mick Foley are planted.
Bob Backlund vs Stan Hansen (06/04/81)
Hansen inside a steel cage promises to be brutal. Certainly Bob Backlund thinks so as he seems very reluctant to enter the cage, prompting Hansen to admonish him with a yell of “Suck it up boy”. When Backlund gets in the ring, the two have a great exchange with Backlund almost giving as good as he gets, though everything Hansen does looks brutal. Backlund resorts to throwing Hansen repeatedly into the cage to wear down the big Texan and it’s fun to see an edgier side of Backlund, kicking Hansen in the bollocks to get the advantage, punching him on his bleeding wound and even “treating” the audience to a little Texas Moon when Hansen tries to escape. The end is pretty anticlimactic, Backlund drops Hansen face first on the turnbuckle and strolls out of the cage, but it’s interesting to note that good ole Bob Backlund has had the two most fun and scrappy cage matches on the disc.
No comments:
Post a Comment