Ric Flair vs. Bobby Eaton (and more Dream Matches!)

Welcome back to more Dream Matches! First up, I have a very good TV match between World Champion Ric Flair and Beautiful Bobby Eaton in a rare singles match from 1990! Come see how they fill a 20-minute segment with a midcarder against the Champ! Then it’s a wonderful TV angle from 1984 Memphis, as the Rock ‘n’ Roll Express are up against the Southern Tag Team Champions, Phil Hickerson and the Spoiler, embarrassing them in non-tittle matches twice before the heels put the belts up.

Then I take a look at some amazing 1950s wrestling, as Ricki Starr, a prancing ballet dancer BABYFACE, embarrasses burly heel Frank Fozo in a 1950s comedy match that has the audience in wild hysterics! Finally, it’s more of indie “legend” Super Dragon, as he faces Christopher Daniels, who tries his level best to move his clunky-ass opponent around the ring!

NWA WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE:
RIC FLAIR vs. BEAUTIFUL BOBBY EATON (w/ Jim Cornette):
* It’s Eaton vs. Flair in a World Title match! I didn’t realize this had happened. Eaton was kind of idealized as a tag team wrestler- not a lot of promo ability and he looked like someone’s dad (albeit one with a great right hand), but he was a terrific worker. Flair is the babyface Champion, coming out in purple trunks- Eaton’s in white tights, with the world’s longest mullet.

Both guys lock up after slapping away at each other trying to find an opening, and Flair hits a chop that sends Bobby flopping all over the ring- haha dudes must have LOVED working with this guy. Eaton knees him to escape a top wristlock and pops him a few times, but loses an international and sits in a headlock a while, countering but stumbling across the ring after taking a shoulderblock. Flair whips him into the ringpost along the apron in maybe the only time I’ve ever seen that, then chops him to the floor. Flair both outwrestles and outfights him until Bobby lures him in and scores a headbutt to finally take over. But Flair quickly hauls him off the apron and throws him onto the guardrail! Flair continues kicking his ass, but as I start thinking “man he’s not giving Eaton shit”, cutting off comebacks even from eye-gouges, he ducks his head and takes a snap neckbreaker, rolling around the ring in agony like it was a serious game-changer. Bobby works the neck and throws punches for two-counts (dig Flair lifting his head INTO the punch to make his head-snap back look better). Bulldog gets two and Flair’s kickouts are weak, then he Flair Flips to the floor. Cornette jabs him in the throat with his tennis racket and Flair immediately bolts up to chase, but collapses from the accumulated damage. Hahah his outrage couldn’t surpass his durability.

Eaton nails Flair off the apron and then holds the neck against the ringpost, Cornette immediately using the ref’s admonishment to jab Flair in the eye. Flair knows EXACTLY how to use mini-comebacks to make this look less one-sided, fighting back repeatedly but always getting swallowed up, as Bobby finally knocks him down and chokes him to get the fight out of him. Headscissors and more choking keep this up, and Eaton scores another neckbreaker to cut Flair off again. Another head-figure four and I gotta say Flair’s “dramatic counters” are just not reading as well to the fans as the WWF-style “hand drops at mid-height and then stomp their feet to come back”, as he just kinda waves his arms around and stomps with a strange cadence. Cornette’s choking sets up a vertical suplex and flying elbowdrop, Flair hollering “Oh God!” until Bobby hits him with ANOTHER headscissors, Flair fighting back with more fire but getting tripped up from the floor. But Flair backdrops Eaton right onto the concrete, hiptosses & chops him on the floor, back in the ring Flair Flips again… but motherfucking HITS HIS MOVE OFF THE TOP ROPE (!!!) (also explaining why he doesn’t usually because it looked clumsy and awkward) and continues beating Bobby’s ass, but Stan Lane makes an appearance at ringside as Flair is getting fired up. Eaton makes his own comeback with a back elbow, but goes up and his Flying Knee is actually CAUGHT by Flair, who hits the Figure-Four! Lane immediately jumps to the apron, Cornette following with the racket, but Flair wallops him, spanks him with the racket, then clobbers Eaton (who flat-backs utterly) and casually flicks it out of the ring and casually pins him for the three at (17:23). Dirtiest player in the game, sunshines- don’t try that shit with the master.

A very interesting match- full-on effort from Bobby bumping around to start, then settles into a “basic TV match”, with some long holds in that head-figure-four to kill time and wear Flair down. Flair was good at those Savage-style “micro-comebacks”, bolting up to hit a few moves and needing to get beaten down again so it wasn’t the “late-game Savage Template”, and Eaton was good to match him. I like Eaton recognizing Flair actually fighting back and chokes him to wear him out some more. It feels like it wasn’t QUITE the “Top Effort” from Flair, but then I recognize the stuff I often review from him is the “Travelling Champion” deal working his ass off to put over Von Erichs, not “get a good TV segment out of a midcarder”- Eaton also had no chance and I think the fans knew it, as they were hardly going nuts for Flair the way you’d expect. BUT the wrestling was excellent- Eaton has great slick, tight offense and fights dirty enough to be believable against the physically way more muscular and credible Flair, and when Flair ramped up his selling (which was tbf iffy much of the match) he gave pretty good.

Rating: ***1/2 (two of the best going out there and having a very good TV match)

All of this good content is on here… but first! A SEXY MUSIC VIDEO starring Randy Savage and Lanny Poffo!

hahahahah this is amazing. This is 100% what I would expect a man named “Phil Hickerson” would look like. JUST LOOK AT THIS MAN. He looks so unpleasant and rude. Like you know he has a bad reputation in his neighborhood. I can just hear my mother saying “It was a lovely party until that damn PHIL HICKERSON showed up!”.

PHIL HICKERSON & THE SPOILER vs. THE ROCK ‘N’ ROLL EXPRESS (Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson):
(Memphis TV, Aug. 4th 1984)
* So the Southern Tag (Memphis) Champs are a couple of pregnant-looking dudes who look exactly what I expect Southern indie guys to look like- Hickerson is barrel-shaped with pastel blue trunks over red tights (so awful) and the Spoiler has a red “Andre singlet” over black tights. And a red mask.

So the bell rings right after Hickerson is jawing with Lance Russell on the commentary desk and he makes fun of Ricky Morton’s tights, Lance being SUPER annoyed (“Makin’ fun like he always does…”)- he pushes Ricky to the ropes and pops him one, turning around to Lance like “HAHAHAHA DID YOU SEE THAT?” and Ricky punches him in the jaw, drops him, and PINS HIM at (0:25)!! Hickerson sells this PERFECTLY, whining and complaining that the bell hadn’t even rung and this would never happen in a million years (Lance: “IT HAPPENED! You lost the match!”). Hickerson chats with the Spoiler and tells Lance he has a thousand dollars if they get back in the ring right now. HOLY SHIT THAT’S THREE YEARS PAY IN MEMPHIS! But his word is his bond, he says, and a promoter holds him to it.

Phil whining and complaining about losing, suddenly full of excuses.

PHIL HICKERSON & THE SPOILER vs. THE ROCK ‘N’ ROLL EXPRESS (Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson):
(Memphis TV, Aug. 4th 1984)
* Naturally the heels jump the smiling RnRs as soon as they hit the ring.

The heels pound the babyfaces down, Ricky gets dumped by Hickerson, but he turns around and accidentally waffles his own partner with Robert moves- and Robert PINS THE SPOILER at (0:10)! Even faster! The Spoiler flops around like a dying fish on the fall while Hickerson pounds his feet like a total asshole. They whine again about no bell being rang, Hickerson’s belly jiggling as he stamps his feet. He demands another rematch… but this time he’s putting the BELTS up!

SOUTHERN TAG TITLES:
PHIL HICKERSON & THE SPOILER vs. THE ROCK ‘N’ ROLL EXPRESS (Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson):
(Memphis TV, Aug. 4th 1984)
* The promoter agrees to put the belts up and the fans love it- they get to see a TITLE MATCH now! The Express hits the ring for a third time, immediately brawling evenly with the heels.

Gibson takes a beating from the Spoiler, but Hickerson does a great “drunk” sell, bobbing up and down off of Morton’s punches. But Gibson hits the ropes and Phil pulls the top one down, sending him spilling to the floor! And Hickerson immediately grabs a chair at ringside and smashes Ricky right in the face, drawing a DQ (0:34). ‘Twas a trick! Spoiler wraps a chain around his fist as Gibson is slammed into the post, and the heels just tee off on our heroes, raining blow after blow onto them, busting them open and leaving them flopping around. Both Express guys have great selling, as you might expect- Gibson usually falls to one hand, showing some fight left in him while Morton goes down like a broken doll, often bending a leg unnaturally as he flat-backs. Poor Morton goes into the commentary table and both guys are hit with lethal Spike Piledrivers as we’re out- just a totally unfair massacre by the heels- they lost twice in a row fair and square, but immediately cheat and fight dirty with the promise of a title match. “If that’s what it is to be a winner, brother… I’m happy… to be a Champion”. SCUM. You know what would be awesome? If Hickerson was DEAD.

SEX SYMBOLS.

We get competing promos afterwards, Hickerson insisting the Express will beg to have that win taken off their records, while the Express are all smiles, promising revenge. Amazing angle- total humiliation for the heels, but they lure the babyfaces in and just cheat like dogs, bloodying them up in a totally unfair massacre.

Rating: ** (tremendous heel beatdown and great selling- the postmatch was longer than all three matches combined, and ruled)

RICKI STARR vs. FRANK FOZO:
(Late 1950s)
* It’s RICKI STARR!! So Starr was a 1950s wrestler known mostly for having been actually trained in ballet, and so he would use very upsettingly flamboyant dancing in his matches… but as a babyface! See, instead of being a “sissy” like Gorgeous George or any number of gimmicks he would freak out the HEELS with his mannerisms, leaving them stumbling about like boobs. Starr is seen being given a “ribbing” by the crowd, already crossing his ankles in a very prissy manner, then doing the full dip (which of course everyone knows is called a “plie”). The commentator, with a classic 1950s voice, says he just can’t quite figure out him being from Dodge City, Kansas. Fozo is a burly Ontarian fellow with long-ish hair, said to be 240 lbs. vs. the svlete 190-lb. Starr who is indeed wearing ballet slippers. Starr makes comedy of the pre-match because he doesn’t want the referee touching him, repeatedly undulating his body to avoid the pre-match checkup.

So the bell rings and Ricki’s first move towards the impatient Fozo is to Starrt DANCING towards him, skipping flamboyantly as the audience keels over in laughter, then repeatedly spins around and does poses while Fozo is like “WTF is going on!?” and keeps shrinking back, then is unable to mount any offense as he keeps balling up his fists and the ref keeps stepping in. “I don’t know if I’m qualified to describe this one” chuckles the announcer, “We need somebody from FINANCE to take care of this”. Starr even does “sissy” moves like covering his head when Fozo balls up his fists. Starr even SLAPS him and then prances away, leaving Fozo lunging over the ropes to “get at him”. Starr keeps playing evasion with him (USING BALLET), then does a big leap… into a curled-up pose, then starts CRAB-WALKING towards Fozo, who freaks out so bad he’s chased across the ring and flees to the floor! “There hasn’t been a hand laid on either one yet, and Fozo’s out of the ring already!” laughs commentary. Fozo finally manages to punch him on the top of the head, and Starr hurts his OWN hand striking him in return, but then pulls off a perfect fireman’s takedown, then sends the audience into hysterics with some slaps. Fozo with a full nelson, but Starr starts that belly-undulation again, causing the heel to swap grip to pressure the stomach instead cuz he’s weirded out, Starr scooting around on his butt to break then SPANKING Fozo in the ropes!

Starr puts on a headscissors, stands up, and with perfect grace, does a cute little shimmy with his arms out and his hips swiveling, humiliating the heel.

Commentary puts over how Starr is very agile, contrasting how a lot of wrestlers get very musclebound and thus can’t compete. Fozo clobbers him a bit, but Starr fires back (hurting his hand again) then gracefully leaps onto Fozo’s back with his legs bent in a very serene ballet type of way. Fozo nearly makes the ropes but Starr turns him by spinning his head (SCIENCE!). Fozo finally makes the ropes and gets another spanking for it, then gets freaked out by more of Starr’s dancing. A takedown just sees Starr spin out into a headscissors, then he stands up and starts SHIMMYING while Fozo is in the hold, humiliating him while twisting his neck. Starr with the softest cross-body in human history, then pokes out his butt to prevent Fozo from scoop-slamming him, then hoists up Fozo himself… but Fozo lands on him and Starr has to spin out with such agility commentary is impressed- Fozo fires away with a knee, but Starr mounts a comeback with strikes then backwards rolls and backflips when Fozo tries to back-body drop him… and dropkicks him for the pin (7:06)! Right out of lucha! Which might not be a thing yet! *googles* no it was! Ricky embarasses the big dopey heel with his theatrics and then scores a quick pin! Fozo is upset and in denial as Starr sashays around, blowing kisses to the appreciate fans, then makes sure to bitchily slap ol’ Fozo with a sneak attack and skips out of the ring!

FANTASTIC. I have a feeling some of the guys who sold Starr’s stuff as upsetting and bothersome are the same dudes who were ranting at Harley Race in 1975 about “exposing the business”, haha. This was great, watching Fozo the doofus get all upset and rage against the “Sissy” embarassing him. Starr was PERFECT, looking every bit the wimp at first, but pulling out such great agility and athletic movements that you could 100% “buy” the heel being unable to deal with them. It was like watching a “Pot-Bellied Southerner” wrestler try to take on an acrobatic luchadore and get confounded the entire time, despite feather-light offense and moves that are more out of fantasy than reality. Several clips from this match were used in an A&E Biography about pro wrestling itself (the skipping towards Fozo and the headscissors). Fozo was just as good, looking hapless and SO offended, getting pissed off but never managing any real offense because he was so put-out and worked up.

Rating: **1/2 (great comedy match- a hapless boob embarrassed by a SISSY BABYFACE of all things)

KING OF THE INDIES TOURNAMENT:
SUPER DRAGON vs. CHRISTOPHER DANIELS:
(All Pro Wrestling, Oct. 26th 2001)
* Sweet deal! I went looking for more Super Dragon stuff based off of how hated he seemed to be, and I found a match against Daniels! It seems like the rest of Super Dragon’s career is either hard to search because his name is so generic, or just wasn’t recorded. I did find a 4-way match but it’s a half-hour long and probably wouldn’t be the best judge of him. Dragon, a skinny white guy, of course comes down to gangsta rap. Daniels still had hair at this point (BARELY), bleaching it blond. He’s shockingly ACTUALLY TALLER than Super Dragon, which right away shows why Dragon didn’t go anywhere. Dragon’s in black and crimson red leather gear, looking essentially like a combination of a Mortal Kombat ninja and Kwang’s entrance gear- like he invested in his gear, but not enough to make it actually look that good. Daniels is in blue shorts. As a tourney match, don’t expect MAX EFFORT or anything.

Already from a lockup you can tell Daniels is 100 times more athletic than Dragon is, with proper footwork and positioning- Dragon is way too stiff and clunky. lol Daniels goes for the trip and Dragon instinctively sucks in his leg and avoids it so Daniels has to reposition. Back up and SD fucks up an INTERNATIONAL, leapfrogging onto Daniels’s shoulders but accidentally tripping him with a slide move (the “slide through the legs one” goes sideways) so Daniels has to just shoot back up and do more stuff. If he didn’t know he was working with a scrub before, he does now. He appropriately slows it down, then uses the DISINGENUOUS HANDSHAKE~~ to take over, but gets tilt-a-whirl armdragged and windmill headscissored (thankfully moves far more reliant on the taker). SD hits a lead-assed pescado, then full-nelsons Daniels using his legs and hits Blitzkrieg’s corkscrew senton thing, then tosses Daniels again so he can hit another outside move- a tope into the guardrail. Of course he has to give the fans the “hey cheer for me” thing first.

Jobber crossbody from the top gets two, then Dragon awkwardly tries a grab but Daniels hits a good kick to drop him. Daniels hits a pumphandle toss for two intermixed with a lot of “walk & brawl” for lack of anything else to do with this scrub, then Dragon hits an awkward multi-step rollup for two. Daniels comes back with a jawjacker, abdominal stretch & Blue Thunder bomb for two, but can’t hit the Best Moonsault Ever- he lands on his feet and Dragon hits a big lariat to floor him. A springboard roundhouse kick to the back creates a double-down, then Dragon goes for the SHOOTING STAR PRESS of all things, splattering on the mat. Daniels pounces with a Rock Bottom into the Best Moonsault Ever (though I suspect he thinks Dragon’s selling means he’s gonna fuck it up, so he turns around and nearly tries to reposition him), then picks him up for the Last Rites (rolling cutter) for the three at (11:30).

Ooooooooooof haha- I was hoping for a match where Super Dragon looked bad, and hoo boy did I get it. He was just so CLUNKY- lead-assed and not hitting shit right and never being in the right spot. A wild contrast to Daniels who was always perfectly positioned and had a good read no matter what was going on, immediately fixing botches and more. Dragon was the worst kind of “Indie Dork”- he had a list of all the cool shit, so did all these dives and flying moves, but none of them looked great- he didn’t have the grace to pull off a good SSP (the uber flippy move of the early 2000s- I think a LOT of indie dweebs were doing SSP finishes) or anything- it was like if a dude with my athleticism was trying Lyger & Juvi offense. At least the “psychology” was fine-ish- Daniels was mean and heelish, Dragon hit comebacks, but then Dragon tried too big a move and that let Daniels hit all his big stuff in a row for the win. I mean THAT was sound, but it was so clearly a good worker taking on an awful, clunky one that I just felt bad for Daniels, and admiration for how well he managed to make it look. Like people HAD TO know Dragon sucked watching this… right? But Daniels kinda made it look like it was supposed to be that way?

Rating: * (god-awful indie garbage mixed with Daniels actually doing good work and impressively keeping it together)