Ric Flair vs. Rick Martel in an NWA/AWA World Title Unification Match (and more Dream Matches!)

Welcome back to more Dream Matches! This week, I have a headliner I’ve wanted to get to for a bit: NWA Champion Ric Flair vs. AWA Champion Rick Martel! In 1984 All Japan! Ooooooooooooh I can feel it- we’re gonna get a clean pin for sure! Next up, it’s another match from “Dollar Tree Haystacks Calhoun” Solomon Grundy, as the barefoot hillbilly from Pig Knuckle, Kentucky takes on World Class Champion Al Perez in the dying days of 1988 World Class! Then it’s a representative of WCW’s “Rick Fuller Division” of giant jobbers, Rick Fuller, taking on Ice Train on 1997 WCW Pro! And finally, a look at the PWI 500 loser names, as we find MBM out of Belgium! And he’s teaming with white European Luchadore Ultimo Sombra against Close Personal Friends, Just Joe Lando & Danny Black as they do an ROH-Style Flippy Double-Team match in a random indie! Then I look at a clip of MBM vs. Joey Janela as Janela proves once again why he’s unworthy for TV!

NWA TITLE vs. AWA TITLE UNIFICATION MATCH:
RIC FLAIR (NWA) vs. RICK MARTEL (AWA):
(All Japan, Oct. 21st 1985)
* OOOOOOOOOOOOOOH baby! It’s Ric Flair vs. Rick Martel! Champion vs. Champion! An NWA Title vs. AWA Title Unification match! In 1980s All Japan! Gonna be Clean Finish-amania all up in this bitch! Martel is 28 years old here with big ’80s hair and has all his chest hair at this point, and Flair is about 35, with flowing white locks and red trunks. They go face-to-face, revealing Flair is a notch bigger, while commentary says this is the first time such a thing has happened in 80 years! And a cursory Google check reveals this to be true enough that I don’t feel like researching further! That means it’s a fact!

Flair is called “the silver-haired prince” as he takes Martel down, and Martel gets a fantastic reaction when all he does is roll in a straight line out of Flair’s attempts to do something, haha. “The match of the century is something that couldn’t have happened even in America, the home of professional wrestling. But the person who made it happens is, of course, the great thief, Giant Baba-san” (I assume “thief” is lost in translation) he says, kissing up to his co-commentator boss. Interestingly, Martel has the “eager young Turk” stance while Flair is more calm, yet Flair is the one being aggressive. Martel bats him down with a shoulder and Flair backs off. Flair has issues escaping a wristlock and Martel doesn’t trust him on the corner-break, and the crowd pops for Flair backing off. Martel overpowers Flair out of a top wristlock and they shake hands, the more chain-wrestling has them at another impasse. Flair fights out of a headlock but is shouldered down again and loses an International to a hiptoss and gets press-slammed. Ah yes, famous press-slam enthusiast Rick Martel, totally not running Flair’s match, haha. Flair does his trademark sieg-heil sell and HOWL of agony as he begs off and Martel is all FIRED UP and UNCONTROLLABLE. Flair’s pulled out of the corner, but next time manages to use the break to get an inverted atomic drop and take the lead.

Rick Martel, famous for his press-slam, totally not just going through a “Flair Match”.

Flair chops & dumps Martel, then puts his arm into the post so he can work a hammerlock in the ring. He even goes up on his toes to work a count, then switches to a lazy pithold but jaws with the fans to keep them into it. Martel fiiiiiights up out of a top wristlock- nope- hairpull brings him down. Martel gets pissed after another one and quickly wins a slugfest and just wallops the SHIT out of Flair, whose selling is incredible as he’s picture-perfect on selling each shot like it’s got him dead on his feet and he’s knocked down twice, then loses more and more slugfests and gets backdropped out of the corner- Flair pops him with a knee, but uses it to call a spot and gets inside-cradled for two and the fans pop for that. Flair gets slammed but dodges an elbow to set up a butterfly suplex for two and works an abdominal stretch, pulling tights and denying it, until Martel gets his head under the arm and reverses it- Flair misses his own elbow and gets Saito suplexed for two. He dumps Martel to buy time, but Martel counters a suplex back in with an O’Connor Roll and that spot pops ’em, too! Ten punches in the corner and Flair Flip! lmao fans are so used to double-count-out finishes they EXPLODE whenever someone gets thrown back into the ring. Martel gets a cross-body after a duck-down and the crowd loves it, but Flair tags him in the corner again and kneedrops him for two. But he tries another and Martel GRABS THE LEG, and Flair howls as he’s pulled into his own Figure-Four Leglock!

Flair twists and screams, nearly getting counted down, and finally escapes after almost exactly 1 minute (ah, so they do that here, too). Martel tries another but gets shoved off, and a headlock has him suckered- Flair segues right into his kneecrushe. He dodges Martel’s knee in the corner and does his sit-out on the knee in the ropes… but sells his own leg! He limps as he hits a vertical suplex, and his own Figure-Four is easily countered as a result. Next try- Martel rolls him up for two. So he goes to the suplex again, but this one is reversed for two! He punches the leg to buy some separation, but goes up and is Flair Tossed off for two. Flair elbows him for a double-down, Martel gets a sleeper off another duck-down whip spot, and Flair backdrops out after a minute. Flair dumps him but goes into the post and there’s ANOTHER pop for both guys getting back in- Flair provokes him and gets his bleeding forehead punched repeatedly and… Flair Flop! Martel counters a piledriver and powerslams him for 2.8, then smashes him into the turnbuckles- Flair’s punched over the ropes but Martel is wise and brings him in the hard way for two. Martel pulls out a SLINGSHOT SPLASH (!!) but nooooooo Flair limply gets a foot on the ropes. Martel smiles, hits a backbreaker, but a second-rope splash… hits knees! Fans go nuts when Martel does the “bridge-out with Flair back-first on top of him” spot, then a backslide… but another duck-down whip spot sees Martel hit a cross-body, but Flair flings them backwards over the top rope, and NOOOOOOOOOOOOO- All Japan Fuck Finish at (29:52 of 34:03 shown)- Double Count-Out!

Flair looking like only he can look after an arduous, bloody match, and a Japanese lady tapping him and running off like “TEEHEEHEEHEE EWWWWWWWWWW!”.

This was such a classic Flair match, haha- obviously called by him all match long (every time he takes a headlock he shoves his face into Martel’s chest or hides his mouth with the arms, and he’s constantly ducking down to chat), it has him suffering the classics of his “all selling” match style- begging off, Flair Flipping, eating a press-slam, taking punches, etc., with his reliable “back into the corner and pop him one” being the typical transition. Hilariously, the fans are so used to All Japan Fuck Finishes that they were earning pops by NOT doing them, and thus sorta convincing the fans they were going to see a real finish- PSYCHE! Kind of funny they’d tease that over and over again before doing it for real, but it definitely had the fans biting on all the nearfalls, even if it’s a Standard Flair Match (which, by 1984 and in All Japan, was possibly a Totally New Kind of Match, haha). Like, when the fans are thinking backslides and cross-bodies are definitely gonna do it, you got ’em. Interesting that it was LONG but missing 4 minutes- I could see one obvious clip in there. Martel’s babyface energy was solid but generic- lots of “putting up his dukes and looking to the fans and nodding his head” which is like… the proper MOTIONS but it’s not exactly Peak Hogan or nuthin’. The match length meant they had to do some resting, but it was well done- a 1-minute hold here or there and most of the time it was treated as dramatic and guys yelled and twisted so they’d work up a sweat and put over the physical toll, and all these slow-downs led to a lot of excitement whenever there was an Irish whip, as they’d do nearly every nearfall off of Martel ducking a Flair shot and hitting something very sudden. There were also bits of psychology- Flair tries to work the arm early but it eventually goes nowhere, so after the Figure-Four he is able to target the leg… but since he had it done, TOO, he was being hampered and couldn’t capitalize on his own stuff.

Rating: ***1/2 (classic Flair, and back when he was way more fit- that they could go 34 minutes and keep things moving the whole time was remarkable)

AL PEREZ (w/ Gary Hart) vs. SOLOMON GRUNDY:
(World Class, 1988)
* WOOOOOOOOOOOOO I found another match from Solomon Grundy! And he’s taking on roided “shoulda-been but he says turning down Pat Patterson’s advances killed his career” Al Perez, who was at this point a top guy. This is a non-title match, as Perez is the “World Heavyweight Champion” (lolllllllllll dying World Class acting like this is World Title-tier). But Terry Gordy gets on the mic before the match to talk shit. Despite Perez being a heel managed by a heel, Gordy wants a title shot since he’s been beating up (rhymes with “taps”) in Japan to earn one, then Chris Adams comes in to say that all the heels make him want to “puke” and HE deserves one since he’s beaten Perez many times, which draws Gordy in and it’s a FIGHT! Grundy even gets involved, dry-humping Gordy’s manager Roberts in the corner, but Hart wisely holds off the Champ until he can get a cheap shot, wiping out Adams after he enzuigiris Gordy. haha, NICE. Then he’s right back to holding Perez away from the action. Gordy hits the Asiatic Spike to torture Adams and Kevin Von Erich and other babyfaces clear the ring. Five minutes in we FINALLY have action.

We’re JIP just after the bell sounds with Perez working punches, a snapmare and a chinlock, repeatedly using the hair to pull Grundy back down, missed by commentary. Perez works the belly (even commentary points out that’s a risky bet) and goes into the corner, but gets his foot up on Solomon’s charge. Solomon wins a slugfest but Perez is right back on him until Grundy slams him, but he misses an elbowdrop. Perez with some punches, Grundy with some punches, Perez with some punches, then Perez bounces off Grundy’s shoulder into the corner, but he dodges an avalanche and hits a big running elbow smash and pins Grundy at (3:50). Well that was easy! Somehow a 4-minute match was 75% chinlock, but at least it was short (given how limited Grundy seems to be).

Rating: 1/2* (really just a chinlock and some aimless punching back and forth into the finish- Perez seemed okay but didn’t have much to work with)

ICE TRAIN (w/ Teddy Long) vs. RICK FULLER:
(WCW Pro, June 8th 1997)
* FUCK YESSSSSSSSS screw Flair/Martel, now THIS is a Dream Match! The Rick Fuller Division erupts as Ice Train’s pseudo-push continues! Really Train maybe shoulda been in there given how green he was, but if you can’t improve squashing Rick Fuller, there’s no hope for you in wrestling!

Fuller throws some overhand clubs to start, but Ice Train leapfrogs him and hits a powerslam and vertical suplex, but gets careless and walks into an eyepoke & throat-thrust. Zbyszko on commentary chides Long for not teaching his guys about how silly “sportsmanship” is (“You gotta tell your guys to GET AGGRESSIVE!”) as Fuller hits a spinkick, then a legdrop. Fuller heads to the top, but eats a Flair Toss and a clothesline, and the Train Wreck (high-jump splash) finishes at (1:44)- Ice Train wins! Like most Fuller matches, it could be almost-good but was kept short and limited. I did like that Train was aggressive to start, got too careless and ate a bunch of moves in a row, but then FULLER got arrogant and got launched and quickly pinned. Beating guys in the “Rick Fuller Division” was a great way to establish your powerhouse wrestlers with impressive wins given how big these dudes were.

Rating: * (perfectly fine for a quickie match)

So I recently FINISHED my long-form look at the PWI 500 #500 guys! Blue Kane/Memes was the last one, as I’d done Cereal Man near the beginning of my list! But I still have a bunch of “now who’s THAT guy?” dudes to run through. Starting with… SOME SCRAWNY FOREIGN GUY!

THIS WEEK’S PWI 500 GUY: MBM:
#500 appearance: N/A (#485 in 2023)

-MBM has been wrestling since 2016, and is a Belgian wrestler with one of the worst looks I’ve ever seen. Hiding his “nothin’ to write home about” body behind a shirt, he has simply terrible balding hair in his early 20s (I feel his pain but HOLY SHIT shave your head young when that happens, don’t grow it “1980s wrestler long”!) and sometimes does “convoluted indie comedy spots” but isn’t actually athletic enough to do the flippy stuff so looks really awkward in those matches. I’ve flipped through a couple other ones against more generic guys and he comes off okay in those- a typical *-** indie worker who can bump and sell. He mostly teams with fellow Belgian Ultima Sombra in “Rivality”, doing matches in Belgium, France and other European countries, but appeared in the PWI 500 once.

RIVALITY (MBM & Ultima Sombra) vs. CLOSE PERSONAL FRIENDS (Just Joe Lando & Danny Black):
(Lucha Wrestling Puroresu, Gardeina, California, March 30th 2023)
* Looking up matches, it was either outdoor stuff in front of no fans, this, or a 35-minute Joey Janela match so I know what I’m picking. You can tell it’s an indie match because all four of them look completely harmless. Ultima Sombra is another Belgian wrestler, doing a luchador gimmick. No real physique to speak of, but he’s bigger than CPF, a pair of English wrestlers who are pencil-thin and barely come up to the ring apron. They’re in matching pink & black tights, Black with awful tattoos and facial hair & Lando looking like he’s 15 years old. They come down to Backstreet Boys music, in any case. MBM has maroon tights, long hair, and the ECW T-Shirt of Shame, while Sombra has maroon & silver swirly gear and a mask. For some reason, commentary is actually broadcast over the building’s mic, which is half play-by-play and half hype.

MBM & Lando promptly do a cooperative indie routine, making zero contact and frequently bumping before the other person does anything (the old “sweep them then go for a pin” has Lando smoothly leaping onto his back for no reason), Lando kipping up for the “pause for applause” but MBM just sitting there cuz he can’t do one, haha. Sombra & Black go, Sombra immediately grabbing his hand and Black being helpless to just stand there so Sombra can do a Rey Fenix multi-jump bit into an armdrag. Oh dear. I especially love how Black just calmly stood and watched until he remembered he was supposed to be in a match. Another scamper-y indie routine ends with Black having his kick blocked, using the momentum to spin into an ax kick. They double-team MBM with an enzuigiri & lionsault, then Lando does the “running shove” tope to Sombra and Black’s standing moonsault gets two (“WHAT ACTIONNNNNNNNNNNNN!” cries commentary). These bits are very funny because it’s clear Rivality are nowhere near as acrobatic as CPF so they just have to mostly stand there while the kids flip around them.

MBM does a spinning headscissors & Sombra nails a flying crossbody, then feather-light sentons (one off MBM’s back) get two (“That’s gotta do it- AW are you kidding me!?”). Lando fights out of a chinlock then backflips into one of those uber-fake cutters (Sombra headstanding for no reason) so Black gets a hot tag and “chops” both guys, then uses a rana to force Sombra to “spear” MBM. hahah jesus- the pause between the rana and Sombra doing it looked AWFUL. Black with a weirds sweeping Samoan drop to Sombra then Wrestling’s Fakest Move, the standing Spanish Fly, to MBM for two. Everyone kicks everyone else, then a knee smash/snap-German hit MBM but he double-clotheslines them. Commentary declares this fake bullshit a tribute to Antonio Inoki (“and what a tribute it is!”). A bad-looking “kick” to German takes down Lando, who simply gets up so he can move into position for a backwards leaping 2nd-rope Cutter from Sombra while MBM does a “dive” so bad it looks like I would do it (unable to actually leap far, he instead rolls out of the ring and pokes Black with his leg)- for TWO! Lando takes MBM off the apron and they hit a finisher- Black holding Sombra in a facelock so Lando can hit a Shooting Star Press to his back for the pin at (7:42).

haha this was such fake bullshit. As bad as overly choreographed wrestling can be, it doesn’t usually look THIS bad, with guys obviously not making contact and openly helping each other move around or taking bumps before the other person touches them. Too much hesitance and delays make already fake-looking moves look EVEN WORSE- the Standing Spanish Fly is the fakest thing in wrestling history but looks even worse than normal because MBM was clearly doing a forward roll for no reason. Never mind rana-ing someone into a spear, which ALMOST looks like it could work if you don’t just stand there and THEN charge into your opponent. MBM looked like a generic pro wrestler, almost helpless to actually DO any of the flippy dumb stuff the others were doing because he’s naturally unathletic, and instead just sorta acted as a pillar for them to bounce off of. Since he was the least awful of the group I took a look at his other stuff and yeah- he’s mostly a Generic McWrestler but inoffensive and just can’t handle this style. The fans were appreciative but almost seemed politely going along- there weren’t a lot of them but they were SOME, and they didn’t even give this shit a “This is awesome!” out of pity.

Rating: DUD (sort of a parody of the overly-choreo’d Ospreay Style everyone makes fun of)

Okay to assess MBM further I took a peek at this one off and on and HOO BOY. He seems perfectly capable in that he isn’t a total fuckup but then the match is way too long and they take stupid risky bumps for such a small match. They do a GERMAN SUPERDUPERPLEX of all things, which not only looks like shit (Janela releases his grip entirely to just hug MBM’s upper chest with one arm so they can flip unencumbered) but it INJURES poor MBM, smashing his knee so the ref has to perform chiropractic care by repeatedly holding it up while they chat. But OH NO that can’t be the ending, cuz Janela gotta get his shit in- he piles in chairs and a board, hits a DVD and package piledriver ONTO the chair… for two cuz that’s the plan. Then they have an open spot-calling and he places MBM on a board, which shatters under his 156 lb. weight. This whole thing just makes it clear that Janela is a fucking imbecile and was rightly driven out of any potentially important company- MBM is clearly injured and needs help but NOPE- gotta do ten more minutes of shit. Janela cracks me up in a way- like how do you have NO UPSIDE? “So we’ve got this guy named Janela, see, and get this- he not only can’t have good matches… he also looks like shit, to the point where it makes anyone who fights him look like a pussy for not beating him in 45 seconds. He’s also irresponsible, selfish, and doesn’t care if you get hurt while wrestling him! AND he has a terrible personality and will embarrass your company online!”.