WWF 305 Live: SIR MO! DIESEL! MOONDOGS! BLACKJACK!

Blackjack Mulligan vs. Moondog Rex WWF 11/10/84 - FUN

ER: I like this kind of quick no nonsense mid 80s WWF brawl. They weren't going to draw blood but you know they'd throw a couple heavy hands and take a couple big thuds on bumps, then go home early. Moondog is throwing hands, which is exactly what should happen when you don the frayed denims of a Moondog. Blackjack really uses his size in an impressive overpowering way, without actually working as a Stan Hansen. He definitely never works as stiff, but his movements read big and that contributes to the visuals. I like how Moondog misses an elbow, and I like how he really starts throwing his stiffest punches when Blackjack is on the apron, making Blackjack fight to get back in the ring and really earn it. Blackjack's flying back elbow is a cool big guy finisher for the era, and I'd be into seeing a feud of these two.


Diesel vs. Sir Mo WWF Raw 8/6/95 - GREAT

ER: I was absurdly excited for this one, for multiple reasons. First, this is one of only three Mo singles matches we get during his ENTIRE three year WWF run. That's kind of incredible in retrospect. He had a match against Owen the year before, this match, and a match against Undertaker later in the year. That's weird! But I also love hierarchy booking and the booking of this match and segment was so easy that by the end of the 10 minutes I was hyped for Mabel/Diesel at Summerslam, Lawler/Michaels at next week's Raw, and potential future Mabel/Michaels and MOM vs. Michaels/Diesel matches. It's such an easy formula to have the second banana tag partner of the upcoming PPV title challenger, challenge the champ a couple weeks before the PPV. So you get Mo trying to derail and soften up Diesel before the PPV, Mabel gets to come out, Michaels gets to come out to balance things, Lawler yells at Michaels, just an uncluttered way to focus on several programs and matches at once. Today it feels like they can't even focus on the one pushed program, let alone set up matches for future weeks. Is it because they no longer trust people have the attention span to focus on more than one program? I don't know, but I loved this. Mo is such a great lower totem pole guy who will still talk trash. The opening show quickie head to head promo of his was so funny, and he made a line like Big Daddy Fool actually work where others would have crashed and burned.

The match was simple, part of a larger and more important segment, a match that would stand on its own but was far more interesting with all of the moving pieces. Early on Mo ducked through the ropes to back Diesel up, but then smacked him right in the eye the second the ref wasn't looking. Diesel laced into him with nice back elbows and even better kneelifts, Mo attacked with downward strike elbows and clubbing shots to the back. The camera catches a great angle of Mabel lurking down the aisle in the background, and his presence-as-distraction keeps giving Mo little advantages. Diesel takes a nice big tumbling bump over the top to the floor, and when Mabel creeps over that's when Michaels comes out to even things out. But that allows Mo to bum rush Diesel in the ringpost. It's all so easy but it's also possible that it comes off easy due to each guy knowing exactly when to hit their notes. Mo drops nice elbows, but misses a nasty elbow off the top, really crashing right onto his hip and elbow point. Everyone knew that Mo was eating that Jackknife eventually, and of course he does. Mo really looked like he was the one exclusively doing the lifting, my dude looking like he had to do a full midair sit-up just to not get dropped on his head. The second Mo is pinned Mabel is already in the ring hitting a lariat and dropping the big leg on Diesel, we get the awesome breakdown where Michaels gets caught by Mabel on a pescado and then crushed into the ringpost, Diesel comes off the apron with an axe handle, Lawler mocks Michaels, it all made for an awesome, super effective segment.


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