All Time MOTY List HEAD to HEAD: Killer Karl Kox v. Dick Murdoch V. Marty Jones v. Mark Rocco

Marty Jones v. Mark Rocco World of Sport 6/30/76

ER: Cool match that exceeded all expectations. It gets a bunch of time and it ramps up real nicely. As the match goes on Rocco starts acting like more and more of a jerk, really riling up the fans by sneaking in cheapshots or slamming Jones into the ropes. The opening couple rounds have a bunch of  cool cravate reversals and wristlocks and hammerlocks, both guys wrenching stuff in nicely and tricking the other into reversals. We get some cool tricks and show off spots, really like both guys breaking out flashy handsprings out of snapmares, leading to Rocco getting blitzed by a dropkick after getting up from one. Both guys start picking away at limbs, looking for an opening. Jones yanks on Rocco's legs in cool ways, and Rocco is the one who starts going after Jones' arm, and the more he picks away at it the cooler Jones' subtle selling gets. I loved moments where they'd be separated, and you'd see Jones' left arm hanging more than his right, or little ways he would hold it closer to his body. Rocco keeps picking cheapshots and Jones resists, firing back instead with really nice dropkicks, and eventually flat out uppercutting Rocco with some awesome uppercuts. It did seem like they had Rocco dominate for too long to have such a relatively quick comeback win from Jones, but I suppose they were trying to express that Rocco tired himself out quicker by being an aggressive asshole. This was among my favorite Rocco matches I've seen. Later on he kind of became the WoS Kurt Angle, but here he was on point and vicious. This is a Rocco you could grow old with.

PAS: Really great escalation, as the match starts with some friendly grappling and really devolved into this vicious street fight. Rocco really showed great aggression going after the arm and Jones did a great job of selling the injuriy. Classic match of the virtuous babyface walking though hell to defeat a dastardly villain. I did think the ref got a little involved which hurt the flow of the match, I get that is the style, but having the ref in the faces of both wrestlers got annoying. I have no problem with the public warning system as a storytelling device, but here it was overshadowing the work in the match


Kox v. Murdoch review

Verdict:

ER: I wasn't really expecting this to be a close challenge, but it turned out to be fairly close. Kox/Murdoch gets the nod from me still, as two guys punching each other for 20 minutes is going to be tough for me to vote against, but this was a real blast, makes me want to see more 70s Rocco.

PAS: Yeah I liked this a bunch, but it didn't grab me anywhere near as much as KKK v. Dick