IWA Mid-South Top 18 Matches, #16: John Wayne Murdoch v. Davey Richards 7/17/14

John Wayne Murdoch v. Davey Richards 7/17/14



PAS: It has been a long time since I watched a Davey Richards match, and I would like to make it along time since I watch another. I got the sense I might like Murdoch more when he wasn't jammed in the Davey Richards match structure, but he didn't do much for me here. All of the obnoxious Richards stuff was here, but mainly what stuck out to me is what an awful in ring actor he is. All of his selling was so hammy, he looked like a bad 1st year UCB improv student doing a pro-wrestler gimmick. Just utterly takes me out of the match, in the past he has been a guy with good execution, executing everything wrong, here his execution didn't even look good. This wouldn't even be a top 20 match for a random month of cards in 2002 IWA, much less top 18 of all time.

ER: I actually liked this match more than Phil, while at the same time seeing zero reasonable way that this match could be considered anywhere close to a top 20 of any individual year of the promotion's existence. I really loved Murdoch in this, made me want to see a lot more of him. He leans into kicks, has no problem being punched, does these cool backhand chops to the face, throws weird elbows, great knee drops to the arm, has some nice mat stuff. He also really does have that pasty Murdoch skin, skinny arms and the exact same torso as Dick (with the face of Trevor!). But holy fuck what is Davey Richards!? Please do yourself a favor and watch him around 14:55 and 18:25 of the linked video. Please tell me what in the actual hell he is doing. In this first clip he is in the middle of a strike exchange, but I have never seen a human move the way he moves here. It's like he's trying to do wobbly legs but the example of wobbly legs he was trying to mimic had a bunch of missing frames or…something. I have no idea what he thinks he looks like when doing that. At 18:25 he's trying to prevent a sunset flip in just the ugliest dorkiest pants peeing hilarious way possible. If Shawn Michaels had done this against Hogan in their match people would still be talking about it today as the most memorable instance of Michaels telling Hogan to fuck off. When I saw Murdoch was working Davey's arm a bunch I groaned - not because I thought the arm work would get forgotten and no sold, but because I knew Davey WOULD try and sell the arm, and Davey Richards selling is just the most awful selling possible. Phil likens it to a 1st year UCB student, but NO 1st year UCB student has this much unwarranted hubris. To get your arm worked on and respond by going "OH GOD NOOO! GOD! OH MY GOD NO!" is just the worst possible read. If that shit was in Troll 2 it would get one of the loudest laughter reactions at showings. Just…what the hell is this guy?