DVDVR Puerto Rico 80s Set: Invader I vs. Ron Starr (Street Fight) (8/17/86)

Disc 3, Match 1: Invader I vs. Ron Starr (Street Fight) (8/17/86)

Well, I'm not regretting starting the PR set back up. That's for sure. This was a blast. There wasn't a whole lot to it structurally or narratively but when you have a set piece like this, you don't really need much.

Here you had a retreating Rambo Ron Starr and a pressing Invader I brawl around a baseball stadium. That's pretty much the match. Starr took it to him from the start. Invader fought back and got the best of him. Starr started running, mounting rear offenses when he could manage, and they ultimately ended back in the ring, trading punches, kicks, stomps, belt shots, and finally more punches, all with escalating selling, paying off with one of the most believable, well-executed double KOs in wrestling history.

Past Invader's selling (with Starr dancing backwards and in heels to match) and the sheer consistency of the driving and retreating pressures, the stadium was the star here. It's just cool to see two guys brawling across a diamond, let alone up into the stands with fans swarming and no real security to be found. I appreciated that Starr didn't break out the belt as a weapon until he was clear of the fans' hands on the dugout roof (and smart that he did since that brought out the bottles). At one point they even end up on top of a truck, somehow trapping the camera in a place where it can't reach the action. You just hear the banging of blows and see distressed WWC employees (I assume) until it finally catches up with things and you see the two of them going at it up there.

This was a war that, instead of crescendoing, diminuendos, the two of them wearing each other down until there's just the still of broken, exhausted bodies and the stretchers to go along with them. I can't wait to see their September match.