Fire Fundraiser: Fit Finlay vs. Marty Jones

Fit Finlay vs. Marty Jones, World of Sport 11/84

Fellow SCer Matt D kindly and gently donated money to the cause, but then has such a good heart he asked me to watch and review a Finlay match. That's like buying a guy dinner or paying for his tank of gas. "Here's money for your friend, now YOU have to go watch FINLAY!" And it was awesome. Watching Finlay matches from 30 years ago is like watching old Negro Casas matches, in which you've grown accustomed to how great the elder versions of Finlay/Casas are, that you forget they were awesome in entirely different ways back then. They were super fast, bumped differently, moved differently, threw strikes differently, just different versions of the same awesome wrestlers. Finlay even has his John Oates permullet here so he and Casas even had the same old curly exotico hair. So yeah, "young" Finlay is a total treat. He bumps like mad, really fast and low, like he's aiming to hit the mat as quick as possible. He was always good at taking offense, but this was different. This was like Dynamite Kid with match structure. Marty Jones is a good hand. I think a lot of people use that term really low, tantamount to a guy being mediocre (while at the same time using mediocre as tantamount to bad), but I think being a good hand is impressive. Jones knows when to lay back and let Finlay be Finlay, knows when to step up and get the crowd into himself. He has great instincts and  knows his strengths, really seems like a guy who would be able to work with anybody (you know, like Finlay).

My favorite thing about this was the pinpoint strikes by both men. They did plenty of strike exchanges throughout, but none were mindless, and most were attacking specific body parts to then capitalize on different body parts. A Jones kick to the knee would buckle Finlay, allowing Jones to sweep Finlay's other leg. A Finlay front kick would drop Jones right into a Finlay elbow to the jaw. Both men threw gorgeous and violent elbows. They cut low, kept arms close to the body and exploded on follow through. At one point Jones hops on a buckle for momentum before launching his elbow low at Finlay's chin and sending him sprawling. Finlay bumped all over for him, a couple huge ones to the floor, a lightning fast one through the ropes after Jones' awesome dropkick (Jones may have a top 3 all time dropkick if you didn't know) that looks like Finlay got shot out of a cannon, super high backdrop bump, a flapjack bump that sent him down dangerously headfirst, just Finlay as wild Dynamite bumper. Finlay still does all my favorite "not letting a guy rest on his laurels" type stuff, constantly kicking and goading and smacking Jones while Jones is on the mat, little annoying mocking kicks to the cheek, temple, rib points; at one point Jones is on his hands and knees, and Finlay casually strolls up and kicks out Jones' left arm, the same way you'd kick out a kickstand on your bike. Holy shit. We also get Finlay's leaping knee to the head established as a near fatal move, with him taking an early fall by blindsiding Jones with one. And it was truly a beautiful flying knee strike. Finlay is a dick the whole time, really playing smart with his use of public warnings. Weighing the damage you can do to make it worth a public warning is smart business. If you can do something illegal that does more damage than something legal, it's kinda worth it as long as you don't care what the fans think about you (which Finlay clearly does not). The World of Sport fans themselves are glorious, women in their cable knit sweaters, men in their sweater vests. The whole lot is just so impossibly British and it's really my favorite thing about territorial era wrestling, that feeling of being part of a community while watching it.

Anyway Finlay abuses his public warnings and even risks doing things that could easily get him warned, like headbutting Jones immediately at the end of a fall trying to do things behind the ref's back. Finlay also does some hilarious things to goad Jones into snapping, like always dilly dallying at the start of each round, making sure to kiss Princess Paula while Jones is just waiting to gallantly fight.  Eventually it does lead to Jones snapping and getting TWO public warnings (though Finlay gets himself DQ'd right after, which is a rather LAME way for a match this awesome to end). These two matched up really great, which is not a shock as both guys match effortlessly up with most wrestlers, and really the only downside of the match was that it was JIP in the 4th fall (couldn't find a full version) and had that lame DQ title change ending. But this was all great pro wrestling. There are dozens of things I didn't even mention, as literally every exchange looked great and many of them had notable moments. It would have been a full novelization had I gone into more detail.

Thanks again to Matt for not only his donation, but for FORCING me to watch one of my all time favorite pro wrestlers.