Tuesdays with Daddy: w/Jones vs. The Barbarians

Big Daddy/Marty Jones vs. The Barbarians (Karl & Wolfe Kramer) 2/13/88

MD: I thought it was worth seeing some later Daddy here. This is early 88. Daddy is 57! That’s one thing I haven’t noted previously. While he was in great shape when he was younger and apparently kept his cardio up even when older, the start of this run has him in his mid 40s and by the time we hit 80 he’s already fifty. Plus he is carrying all this weight. Maybe that’s a strike against him but I think it’s wild he’s able to accomplish what he did in the ring even at this age. Some of that is working around it but some is what he works towards.

Biggest takeaway from this match is that the danger just wasn’t there. Not at all. Barely for a moment. Some of that is that Jones is probably higher up on the card and more skilled/experienced and the Kramers/Barbarians are not formidable opponents. They had a weird gimmick, Barbarians, barefoot, judo jackets and skill, facepaint over the eyes brothers. Karl was only 18 and the larger one. They barely hit anything meaningful all match so who knows what sort of offense they would have. 

Point being, they barely hit anything. Once or twice Jones got too close to the corner and got caught. Once one came in to get him to try to pull him back, but Daddy came right in to stop that with a double headlock charge (first time I’ve seen him do that, a point for variation and/or changing up bits). He got a public warning for that, but who cares? Jones would get whipped in but always got his foot up or came right back. He was never in danger. He was just, at best, in danger of being in danger, and I do think that affected the match. It was celebratory and the kids clapped and chanted but there was never any sense of tension here. I’m not sure if that was a trend for 88 or just a blip because of the opponents and because of Jones but it is a mark against this one and sort of an exception that proves the rule for Big Daddy's act. I just don’t think it works without that (reassuring, mind you) sense of peril. 

Past the headlock spot, Daddy did do a few things differently, including a double noggin knocker to start (the old standby of opponents getting a cheapshot in on Daddy’s partner before the bell), and he knocked Wolfe off the apron with a forearm and hit a nice wallop on Karl after the whips back and forth into the corners, but not until he tapped him on the shoulder, which is another nice addition. I haven’t seen him do a ton of strikes up until now. Look, you might think this stuff doesn’t matter, but I am looking for an intellectual laziness to his act as a strike against him, and I’m just not seeing it. The structure was quite often the same. The engine was the same. But the trappings have been different in little ways in every match I’ve seen so far, and to me, that does matter, and it is a strong defensive point for Daddy.

As noted, the issue here wasn’t the trappings or the details, but the engine itself, which didn’t go quite as well, not due to age, but due to the lack of real peril that Daddy was always good at ensuring was in his earlier matches. This did lead to a post match challenge for a hair match(!) from Drew McDonald, so again, at least they were keeping things interesting now and again. I don’t think I’ll see any more matches from this late in the run, but I’m glad I got to see at least one.

ER: I'm really happy we covered some late era Daddy because there ARE changes, even if they wouldn't have been as noticeable if we hadn't been writing about him every week. Most of the changes are to his physical form, as his legs are much less muscular, which actually affects his center of gravity. There's a moment in this match where he's knocked back on his heels by a much smaller man, in a way I don't think ever happens earlier in the decade with much larger men running into him. He incorporates more strikes (this is the first match of his we've covered that sees him kick someone!) and still his his incredible pulling strength, but those legs kept standing out to me. 

The Barbarians were about as Memphis goofball as a team could get, in cherry red gi with spiked arm bands, black eye paint like Daryl Hannah in Blade Runner, plus a downright brutal hairline on Wolfe. Both come off inexperienced, but in a way that adds to their demise. Karl - said to be 18 and looking no younger than 36 - had nothing but fun bumps, not taken like normal fully trained bumps, much more like a man getting knocked about and just falling over hard. He takes armdrags straight down onto his shoulder, no floatover, just spiking himself into the mat, and there's a fun spot where Jones catches a kick and keeps lift Karl's bare foot straight up until he just falls back in a heap. Jones really looked like he went out of his way to fuck this teenage middle aged man up. Daddy, too. 

Daddy really compresses Karl's vertebrae on a battering ram spot, using his shoving power to toss this guy top of head first into an abrupt wall of his brother. It probably felt better than Marty Jones dropkicking him as hard as he could. Jones kept laying in his dropkicks and Karl was great at just walking unprotected into them. The first dropkick must have left a mark on his chest, he runs into a boot on a corner charge that went straight into his face, and Jones' dropkick off the middle buckle looked like a finisher. He didn't fare any better against Daddy. Karl got knocked ass over elbow with a charging belly bump, and when Daddy grabbed him by the gi and whipped him with tremendous power across the ring, it didn't look like he had any legs under him. Daddy sent him flying and he was going to wind up wherever he wound up. 

Daddy's great little kick comes after he's splashed and pinned Karl, after sending his brother Wolfe into his brother with a tumbling bump. Daddy sits down on Karl while throwing a kick straight to Wolfe's temple. Wolfe goes through his own bad stretch with Jones, getting whipped hard chest first into the buckles, knee dropped onto his face, but nothing compared to Jones's full weight middle buckle senton that leaves Wolfe visibly gasping for breath as he holds his guts. Brutal. 

After the match Drew McDonald issues a hair vs. hair challenge to Daddy while wearing a t-shirt advertising a Scottish men's big & tall clothes boutique. Can't get that anywhere else.