The Final Conflict

Date: 03/12/1983

Location: Greensboro, NC

Announcers: Bob Caudle & David Crockett

The Setup

Okay, yes, this show is out there, BUT (and it’s the size of a butt that would make J-Lo envious) it is missing a one-hour draw between Ric Flair and Greg Valentine in 1983. Fucccckkkkkk. Well, at least we still had Mid-Atlantic wrestling in 1983, but there’s no doubt that match was incredible.

This show was the climax of a fucking tremendous feud between Sgt. Slaughter & Don Kernodle with Ricky Steamboat and Jay Youngblood. Steamboat and Youngblood were the walking definitions of a blowjob babyface tag team, and the special stip here was that if the babyfaces lost, they could never team again. If you’ve never seen asshole Drill Sgt. Slaughter, you’re doing yourself a disservice.

The Business

JCP sold out the Greensboro Coliseum, with 16,000 people in the building, plus an additional 3,000-5,000 turned away at the door. That is what the kids (or slightly out-of-touch adults) call fire right there, folks.

The Results

Gerald Brisco v. Ken Timbs: Brisco was an amateur wrestler babyface, so he worked like one here. The match was a very solid squash capped off with Brisco winning with a butterfly suplex and figure-four in 3:48. Solid stuff. They did some fun mat wrestling in the beginning. *1/2

Mike Rotunda v. Ricky Harris: The future Black Bart as a job guy, Ricky Harris, has always been a guilty pleasure of mine. He always maximized everything he did with the crowd with these charming oversells and slightly comedic bumps. Rotunda was RIPPED here, which is a sentence I never thought I’d type. If you told him he’d be wrestling in a dress shirt in seven years, he’d probably spit in your face in 1983. This match had all the usual Harris trademarks, and Rotunda won with a very cool-looking airplane spin at 4:44. The first match was solid, but go back and watch that and then watch this one. They work so much better with the crowd here and get so much out of so little, especially Harris, who holds a biased place in my heart. **

Johnny Weaver & Jim Nelson v. Gene Anderson & Road Dog Lane: If you ever wondered if Boris Zhukov was any good before that character, I give you Private Jim Nelson to laugh at your idiocy. Weaver was super popular with the crowd and also a genuine relic from the past. He looked old and out of place. Gene and Lane were good here, hiding how bad their opponents were, at one point feeding into about ten straight bodyslams by Nelson, requiring as little effort from the future fake Russian as possible, much to the crowd’s delight. At least they were bumping for him. Nelson eventually won the match for his team with a small package at 5.53. Poor Gene was just a guy in a random lower midcard tag match. It was like watching Peyton Manning in his last year in Denver. *1/4

TV Title Match: Dick Slater (champion with Gary Hart) vs. Roddy Piper: Piper was far and away the most over guy on this show so far. His angles and mic work as a heel are memorable, but he was a better babyface worker in the ring. He was so fiery in character, and the crowd loved that fire when he made his comebacks every time. Gary Hart was a good heater here, even taking a bump on the apron from a shove from referee Freddie Fargo. Slater was bumping, selling, and playing the cowardly heel just right, per usual. They did a false finish where Slater threw Piper over the top behind the ref’s back, suplexed Roddy back in the ring, and got the pin. The ref eventually saw Piper’s leg on the ropes and restarted the match, with Piper winning with a running fist drop (?) of all things in 14:15. The referee was distracted and then turned around to count the pin. Still, it took forever, leaving Slater to sell this fist like Piper had a knife in his hands. This match was a lot of fun, and they had the crowd, but the finish with all the extras was lame. After everything, the ring announcer told us the match went seventeen minutes (even though it didn’t go fifteen legit) and that Slater was still champion because TV title rules say you have to win the match in less than fifteen. Oof, the old fifteen-minute rule on top of the poorly-executed finish, plus they didn’t even go fifteen? My brain hurts, much like all of this hurt the match. ‘rim shot’ ***1/4

World Tag Team Titles/Cage Match: Sgt. Slaughter & Don Kernodle (champions) v. Ricky Steamboat & Jay Youngblood. Everyone worked this very well. You can argue it was too slow in the beginning with the babyfaces getting a lot of headlock time on Kernodle, but the crowd was still fucking hot. Then, they began building up to the violence and double heat. All four men bled, with Kernodle probably being the most covered in his own plasma. They broke out all the stops here with Slaughter jumping off the top of the cage and missing Steamboat. Slaughter was a big fucking man to be trying that spot. It escalated into an even bigger brawl when both teams blatantly disregarded the tag rule (after obeying it for the rest of the match without a disqualification). Slaughter loaded up his sleeve, clotheslined Youngblood, and put Kernodle on top of him. As the ref finally got Slaughter out of the ring, Steamboat put Youngblood on top of Kernodle for the win and title change in 32:43. I liked this finish because you keep the real emotion of near falls alive when matches end in different ways. As mentioned, the start was a bit slow, but it built into something great, and to everyone’s credit, the fans were engaged from start to finish. This is what the drama of pro wrestling is all about. ****1/4

The Verdict

Thumbs up. I’m sure an hour of Flair vs. Valentine probably made this one of the best shows of 1983, but what we saw was very good. There was some stuff early that wasn’t much, but the matches that got time were worth watching, and the main event delivered. You want to see this, definitely the main event. Fuck, I love Mid-Atlantic tag team wrestling!