Black History Month DAY 10

Rick Martel v. Booker T 1/28/98





Nothing is more WCW then some guy showing out of nowhere and having a fun little run. Mike Enos, Len Denton, Kendall Windham all guys who emerged from a distant past to have nifty little matches on Thunder. Rick Martel was the Model in the early nineties, MIA for five years and then had four really good months in early 1998. This match is another in the awesome Booker T TV title run.

Match was basic and solid, most of the early part has Booker working an armbar, in Martel and Booker working a lot of the fast counter wrestling that Booker did the Regal match. Martel takes over when he place possum after a fake foul. Martel works the back setting up the Quebec Crab for a near fall, and they have a hot finish section.

This match really reminded me a lot of the Butch Reed v. Dick Murdoch series in Mid-South, the same early slow work, leading to subtle heel work by the face, and a hot finish. Booker reminds me a lot of Reed (which is an appropriately racially tinged comparison for this month), same sort of solidly applied basics, match with crazy athletic moves, plus their both black guys.