Big John Studd vs. Uncle Elmer WWF MSG 8/10/85 - VERY GOOD
ER: Anyone who says the Hillbillies were not an insanely over act in WWF's main touring markets is an outright liar who has never actually watched any Hillbilly matches. Because on this night in 1985 there were 22,000 people packed into MSG and they lost their collective minds when Uncle Elmer made his comeback, and it was glorious. The whole match is a lot of clobbering and stomping, with Studd jumping Elmer the moment Elmer crossed the plane of the ring ropes. Studd clubs and stomps Elmer so much that Elmer isn't even on his feet until his actual comeback! Studd clubs him to the ground and then stomps away while Elmer rolls around in a daze, and when Studd drags Elmer to his feet (lifting him up by his overall straps), that's when Elmer starts clubbing Studd in the ears and throwing a couple great forearms to the chest, then hits a big avalanche in the corner.
When Elmer calls for the powerslam the MSG crowd loses it, just an insanely loud crowd reaction for these Hillbillies. And just as Elmer is about to lift Studd, Heenan flies into frame and starts throwing stiff as hell shots at Elmer, and the crowd loses it all over again when Hillbilly Jim gets in the ring to punch Studd in the head as Elmer starts to choke Heenan. I immediately go to look up where the follow up Elmer/Hillbilly Jim vs. Studd/Heenan matches happened, and of course Elmer never had any kind of interaction with Studd OR Heenan after this match. WWF had this very bizarre habit during this era of using an MSG match for an angle to set up a molten hot return match, and then never cashing in on that return match in any way. This whole match was maybe 4 minutes (including the excellent post match Heenan involvement) and it is so weird to me that something this and a match this fun was sadly both angle AND blowoff.
Big Boss Man vs. Dusty Rhodes WWF SNME 11/25/89 - FUN
ER: This was good but really should have been great. Instead it was a short match that served as more angle than match, bringing Sapphire from exuberant ringside Dust fan to Dusty's new manager and setting up a run of house show stips matches. There's a lot of Slick distraction, a lot of Boss Man and Slick yelling at Sapphire, and some fairly unnecessary arm work from Boss Man. But there are also several memorable exchanges. Every time they are throwing strikes is great, with nothing but exciting right hands from both. We got some nice flashes of young Boss Man's speed when he chased Dusty to throw him into the ringpost. Best moment of the match is a real beast of a kitchen sink that Boss Man buries in Dusty's belly. Boss Man's kitchen sink was so great that it would have made a believable finisher, and I love how Dusty bumped for it. There are a few fun big misses, like Dusty missing an elbowdrop and Boss Man missing an avalanche and winding up draped over the top ropes, but the schoolboy finish is incredibly weak. The match would have been way better if they had just brawled to a count out, and we didn't ever get another TV singles match between them.
Labels: 305 Live, Big Boss Man, Big John Studd, Dusty Rhodes, MSG, SNME, Uncle Elmer
1 Comments:
That Elmer/Studd deal is an incredibly fun 5 minutes. Wrestlemania 2 is one of the first shows I ever watched in full, and Elmer has fascinated me since, just so strange that a 50yr old obese journeyman got a one year WWE run in the twilight of his career. That avalanche where Studd was away from the corner and Elmer just flattened him was awesome
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