DVDVR Puerto Rico 80s Set: The Invaders vs. Chicky Starr & Ron Starr (3/29/86)

Disc 2, Match 9: The Invaders vs. Chicky Starr & Ron Starr (3/29/86)

One of the things I'm looking forward to the most with this set is Ron Starr, a lot of Ron Starr. I've seen him in Canada and Portland and Georgia and Japan and St. Louis, but not much of his Puerto Rico run. When I was watching Portland a few years ago and first came across him as Adonis' tag partner in 1979, I had never even heard of him, and that's after having been part of the community for a decade. It's a little like how I hadn't seen much of Crusher Blackwell before the AWA set. Starr was all over the place, a total journeyman, but he was new to me. And he's good, a fiery babyface, a stooging heel, someone who can effectively work so many facets of a match. It's so great that they were able to bring him as a mainstay as Chicky's cousin.

This was nice to break up the string of Rock'n'Roll RPM matches, which were fine so far but I was ready for something different. The Invaders are in masks here, which is their tag team gimmick. They talk about how Invader I uses the heart punch. I haven't seen that yet but I do love the heart punch way more than anyone should as the world's only Stan Stasiak fan. Ron and Chicky are a really natural pair, not quite big dog/little dog, but with a little bit of that combined with Ron's ability to stooge as well and the fact that they have visual similarities.

I thought the match itself was fun, but not perfect. In the grand scheme of things, the shine took up a bit too much of the match and the hope spots came a little too quickly after that. During the heat Chicky used an object at times but there was no focus to it. It was just part of the litany of heeling that they did. They were more than solid in doing interesting things while on offense (including a Hart Attack). The biggest problem with the match was the time limit finish. It may be realistic or believable that a match would just end in a time limit draw without any sense of urgency but it doesn't make for good drama. Wrestling is fake. As something that is fake, they should be able to maximize moments like that in order to craft the best ending possible. They didn't here. Really, this had me excited to see more Chicky and Ron more than anything else.