TYWGIGB is a series where Sam breaks down the wrestling that was in 1984 week-by-week. Always expect match of the week but a grab bag from there.

Match of the Week

Matt Borne vs. Rip Oliver (PNW 2/4/84)

Being the best bloody brawl of any given week is always going to put you deep into conversation for Match of the Week. You make it two bleach blonde boys you might find at the local watering hole? Now we are talking.

The match is a lot of Good Guy kicks the crap out of Bad Guy type of catharsis. The only real offense Rip gets is to give you a logical spot for Borne to get color. As soon as that happens, it is Borne punches for days. Soaking up the energy of the crowd. You even get a few “picking up my enemy off the mat before the three count”. I’m sucker for that spot since it works great for face giving the crowd just a little bit more ass whooping to get excited about and as a heel, makes you look like a Class-A prick.

All in all, it is less than ten minutes and has a bullshit finish that doesn’t take much of the heat off this one. Not going to log it as some all-time great brawl, it is a one trick pony of a match and they don’t do anything above and beyond on the Nasty Scale. But bleeding blondes scratches a particular itch that you don’t get in the year of our lord, 2025. Gotta hand it to ’em.

SUPERFLUOUS OF THE WEEK

Rematch of a Match I Should Have Talked About Last Week So Using That Opportunity Now

Americo Rocca vs. Mocho Cota (CMLL 2/3/84)

I know exactly how I messed this up. Years ago, I watched Americo Rocca against Mocha Cota from 1/27/84 and it got shuffled around in the notes. I feel sick to my stomach I made that mistake. Not only would it have been the match of the week, so far it is one of the front runners for Match of the Year. Get your shit together Sam, this is embarrassing.

The match from 2/3/84 is really damn good, it gets a recommendation. As a follow up, doesn’t quite match up. Honestly, if you swapped these matches around it probably would lift my opinion of this one. It is a little less snug, and has less of a narrative hook. Make this the set-up to a bigger, more intense match, and I would be saying some asinine shit like “there is a certain art to a build up match where you want to layer in some tricks but not overshadow what is to come”. The biggest trick being this bananas handstand spot where Rocca goes all the way over Cota for a pin in the first fall. That was a spot for two dudes who trusted each other.

But 1/27/84…WOWZA! From beginning to end, some of my favorite lucha grappling there is. The type of grappling they do quasi-reminds me of the grappling you get from Casas and Santo in ’97. I love the more typical lucha grappling we get, certainly, but the best of the best have this way of tapping into something with a little more grit. There is the moment in the first fall where Cota gets this single leg takedown, that makes it all click into place on my end. Sure, it isn’t abnormal to see a step through single leg in lucha, but there is a speed to that brought it closer to an amateur style.

The first fall was mostly Rocca though. There is a level of “I’ve been hitting the film room, I have the answers to the test” from him. Cota is moving in aggressively but it is a bit tit-for-tat where he can’t wrench on holds because he simply doesn’t have the time to. Plays into the finish as Cota tries running the ropes, hoping to take a bigger swing and moments later he is in a Gory Special crying for his mom.

The second fall is when the Cota show starts up and honestly, I don’t think it is necessary to create a separation between this and the third. Cota starts the second fall with this thick knee to the chest and it is all downhill for Rocca from there. Rocca sells his arm a bit unnaturally for a moment, almost feels like he’s inventing the opening for Cota but by god does Cota go to work. Using that arm as leverage to drive Rocca’s face into the mat. Just a nasty mother trucker.

Would say 80% of these falls are Cota kicking ass but lets talk about dropkicks for a second. Adore how these two implement them. Same move, two totally different ways of employing them. When Cota throws a dropkick, it is with bad intensions. He is trying to either remove his opponents head from their body or cave their chest in. Those are the two options. Rocca on the other hand is busting it as more a quick hit to get momentum. It is hitting R1 instead of R2. The dropkick isn’t there to be a kill shot, it is almost always used as part of a sequence of dropkicks. Same tool, different application, that stuff gets me going.

Finish is lucha bullshit, sure, don’t care. None of my business. Maybe you will care, but you shouldn’t.

OTHER MUSINGS

• World of Shield from Joint Promotions had some talent and even if it is a bunch of 2-4 minute matches, there is a hoot quality there. Probably not going to work for most who are looking for more meat on the bones. Each match is entirely set-up,punch-line. There are no wrinkles to what they are throwing out there
• Road Warriors vs. Jerry Laweler & Austin Idol have a hoot.. You get Lawler getting press slammed and the Road Warriors don’t make it look easy. I love when lifting full grown ass men doesn’t look easy. You come away thinking Idol and Lawler might be better wrestlers, but Road Warriors are bad asses.
• No one quite does FUN like WCCW, and you get that on 1/30 from them for a STAR WARS show. I’m not all about Chris Adams and Jimmy Garvin in da cage, but two Mike Von Erich matches manage to still give me tons of fun. Shocking to me slightly, except you get two dummy proof match types. Von Erichs versus Freebirds, you can swap out someone on either end and get something fun, and then against Ric Flair. If he managed to screw either of those up there would simply be no saving him. The Flair match in particular, I have written down in my notes, “Mike is not a real pro wrestler. This feels very much like the baseline for someone trained by the Von Erichs. Like…it couldn’t get worse than this.” I stand by that sentiment.
• Tojo Yamamoto vs. New York Doll from UWA Nashville is a fun oddity for the journey. Yamamoto I would go as far to say historically underrated? Now, I won’t go to this match as the first bout to get folks on board with that idea but still, a hoot see him in this environment. New York Doll…not a Hidden Gem wrestler based on this where they have one move and it is “Pretty Shitty Punch”. Not what you want. Now, if those punches were 2-3x as good, we are talking one of the greatest wrestlers ever. That is how these things go.
• There was a NJPW show on 2/3, it is fine.