Tuesdays with Daddy: Week 6: vs. The Mighty Quinn

Week 6 

Big Daddy vs. John Quinn 6/27/79

MD: I mentioned cheats last time and this feels a little like a cheat. The match goes 1:30 or so, but it’s worth seeing because of all of the pomp and circumstance. We rarely get to see Daddy in front of a huge crowd like this in a singles match. This was at Wembley Arena, ans to watch him come down to the ring surrounded by a mass of people is pretty amazing. Again, I have no connection to this guy but I do have connection to beloved babyfaces and he sure was one. Some kid leaned over as he was passing by to kiss him on his cheek, either to pass him some luck or get some luck. 

While it’s obvious he knew what he was doing and what would get an effect and he leveraged his size and charisma and the SYMBOLIC weight of what he did, there’s also a sense that he’s some guy who wished in a well to be the biggest star in England and everyone just kind of got swept up by the magic. Maybe that WAS part of the magic, that there was something unreal about him, like a… cereal mascot. Like Captain Crunch. Or Popeye the Sailor Man. Again, the world is accessible. Door’s open. Come on in. He’s not going to look down on you. You can leave your worries behind and join this strange, wholesome fantasy. He reminds me here of a Jimmy Valiant, not the sort of guy society is supposed to root for but an absolute folk hero, larger than life yet on paper much “smaller” than what society’s ideal person is supposed to be. 

Quinn was billed from North America, though he was mighty. We’re ROBBED of his Mighty Quinn entrance that we’ve gotten in Germany. He seems a bit smaller here a year or two earlier but maybe that’s because he’s not towering over Bob “UFO” Della Serra. Haystacks, cool as can be in his giant leather jacket, gets on the mic and berates Daddy and the fans are irate. This was a great way to stall the two of them facing, or to break it up, to have Haystacks as “mentor” to an invading Quinn. Daddy was announced as “Accepting the Challenge with Great Joy!” which was a nice touch.

This is pretty fascinating to start because instead of leaning into the shoulder blocks like usual, Daddy just takes them. This feels intentional. It makes it seem like Quinn is stronger and bigger than he is. Usually, Daddy is able to lean in and shove back and here, Quinn hits him even. In all the shoulder blocks I’ve seen Daddy do (and it’s a big part of the act!) in the last five matches before this spanning multiple years, he didn’t just take it like he does here. And it’s not that he’d be taking a night off in front of the huge crowd in Wembley Arena. I’ve seen him enough to think it’s intentional and it was to add in a bit of doubt (Walton was wondering as the bell rang if he could do it). It meant the crowd popped all the more when Quinn whipped him (and again, he moved well) and Daddy crashed through him. 

Quinn responded with a leaping forearm that staggered Daddy, and then a few more for good measure. That drew Daddy’s brother, Brian Crabtree, a fancy-clad off duty referee, to the apron and Quinn rushed over to clock him too. Everyone in the crowd knew what a bad idea that was. Daddy looked out to them and the mood completely changed. Quinn had crossed a line. It was one thing to forearm Daddy in the face, another to attack a bystander, especially a beloved one. Three big vaulting body slams followed (variation: I’ve not seen him really toss someone like this before either). 

This was a ten count death match of sorts. No rounds. No time limit. Quinn beat the count but then got hefted over for the waterwheel backdrop (not the cleanest but that’s ok when Daddy is still landing on the guy). Even Walton lost his cool when the count reached 8, as he got elated with everyone else at what was about to happen. The place erupted. 

I think this would have been unquestionably better if Quinn kept it up for another minute or two even, just a minute or two, a few more forearms, maybe getting Daddy to his knees, maybe having Haystacks tripping him and him going down for a few seconds. Then they could have done the bit with Crabtree, right? But on the other hand, that was completely unnecessary and I’m not sure if the extra heat would have made the end pop better than this sort of justified almost religious instant comeuppance of a bully was. Crabtree took the damage and Daddy meted out the justice. At this stage of the act, in 79, in front of this crowd, maybe that was exactly as vulnerable as he should have been. Just like in the last match with the Emperor (what if the Emperor DID get that sleeper on Daddy instead of his partner McMichael?), what if Quinn didn’t lose focus? What if he didn’t cross such a line and kept it more sporting? Maybe that was enough for people’s imaginations. Clearly it was not just for 79, but for years to come. 

So this is funny, but now it reminds me of Will Ospreay a bit. One big issue with his matches is that it’s impossible to believe that he’s beatable in any way because he’s such a physical specimen and bounces back from everything. The solution has been to have him sell, sell, sell, though he drops it while on offense because he’s just too much, too all-encompassing, too unbeatable. I’ve said it before, but the actual solution is probably to lean into it, steamroll people when it makes sense to, and have him be vulnerable in other ways. That’s very much what they did here with Daddy. Maybe Will Ospreay could learn a thing or two from Big Daddy.

ER: This is the best Big Daddy entrance of the matches we've covered. No comparison We've never gotten such full color crowd level shots of Daddy being swarmed by old British housewives before. It changes everything when you see it. Filming him through the crowd was essential, it captured a fanbase that doesn't exist in any way any longer, which might make all this "who could like Big Daddy?" talk irrelevant. It was them, people you don't know who haven't thought about wrestling in decades, but might still think about Big Daddy. Look at the working class men who can't wait to get a hand on Daddy, to help lift him up onto the ring apron, eight different men all fighting for a chance to get a palm on part of Daddy's belly and ass. Those people are believers. Daddy is in full sequins, an old couple is with him and they are decked to the nines too, and I'm sure the Wembley Arena crowd recognized them. 

But it wasn't just Daddy, it was also Haystacks. Have you seen how incredible Haystacks looked, seconding Quinn? He's mammoth, but wearing clothes like a man. Look how good he looks in his gigantic perfectly fitted fringe jacket and boot cut black Wranchers. That is a look I would sport right this second, without a chance of competing with Haystacks' aura. I blame the 400 or so pounds he has on me, and the fact that I couldn't grab a mic and draw nuclear heat by yelling, "THERE'S STILL TIME TO GO HOME, DADDY!" People saw this as a threat, and it made The Mighty Quinn feel like a real threat. John Quinn is someone Matt and I have written more about than anyone, by virtue of nobody writing about John Quinn. We saw the undervalued asset and Moneyballed the hell out of early 80s Germany that nobody else had interest in. This is before that, and I was shocked by how differently Daddy worked Quinn than anyone else. The way Daddy works Quinn, in a match that barely goes 100 seconds, made nearly 10,000 people believe the impossible may happen. 

Quinn starts the match hitting three shoulderblocks that Daddy absorbs, and doesn't knock back Quinn at all. The next exchange - even though it ends with Quinn pinballed across the ring by a Daddy shoulderblock - doesn't come until Quinn successfully shot Daddy into the ropes. That was huge for me, because I think that's the first time I've seen anyone complete any kind of whip into the ropes without Daddy reversing. Daddy is not someone who gets shot into the ropes off a side headlock, he's a guy who stands firm, widens his base, and cranks the headlock in more snug. When Quinn actually started pounding Daddy with elbows I actually yelped. These were square to the jaw, the first one delivered with a leap, the others hard enough to force Daddy into a deep lean on the ropes. I have watched many Big Daddy matches and you just do not see someone start slugging him while landing several in a row. In many matches he takes no offense at all, so multiple straight elbows to the jaw that send him leaning in the ropes felt like Quinn was landing a combination on Tyson. 

Daddy's brother gets the worst elbow, a running shot across the ring that sent him flying off the apron. When Daddy starts unloading full release bodyslams (throwing Quinn out rather than slamming him down) and crushes him with his waterwheel, the crowd explodes to their feet and actually surges toward the ring. When it was clear Quinn wasn't answering the count, the rush of crowd had an energy that made it feel like the result MAY have been in doubt, which sounds ludicrous in hindsight. Did they actually believe Quinn could beat Daddy? Their reactions in every second of this video seem to say "Yes". 

I wonder if there was any crossover audience who saw both Big Daddy and any of the late 70s Ramones European tours. There has to be someone. On any given night the Ramones would perform at least 10 songs with a runtime similar to this match. Art boiled down to the essentials, one appealing to dead enders and punks, the other appealing to pensioners and the working class. Two mediums, the quickest and most economic delivery system possible, two very different societies. 

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