Championship Wrestling from Florida

First off, Happy Father's day to any Dads reading, this is Brian's 1st as a dad and I hope he enjoys some quality time with his adorable son. Now, onto this review; it's basically a WWE 24/7 feature of Gordon Solie announcing old matches that have been restored to a pristine quality from the heyday of Florida Wrestling. This is the Mike Graham episode, so grab some crackers of the same name and turn off your Skype for just a sec to read over this review of such rare footage.

1) Mike Graham (his pro debut) v. Bobby Shane- 2
You have to love the no frills style Shane uses here just clubbing Graham like Solomon Grundy born on a Monday. Graham is greener than what Toxie shat out this morning, just sort of bending over whenever taking a shot as if that constitues a sell. Match ended in a strange DQ quickly.

2) Mike Graham v. Dick Slater (Florida TV Title Match)- 3
Graham has a better opponent here to mask his obvious shortcomings, that being how undynamic a performer he is. His selling is very confusing; he still labors around like he's having chest pains with every shot, but during a serious brawl between the two that looked like it could have taken place at any juke joint in Mobile on the weekend, Graham flies across the mat from an eye rake. I think all this stuff is clipped heavily. Everything Slater tries from the ropes is uglier than Madonna's soul. Really ugly looking figure four, you could see Flair cutting a great promo on Graham's dumbass over it.

3) Prof. Tanaka & Dick Slater v. Mike & Eddie Graham- 4
Liked all the opening transitions between Graham Sr & the Prof. Tanaka's cutoffs are really nice boring heel stuff , and helps set up the false hope tag to Eddie later on. Mike is painfully mediocre, can't believe he got his own special here. Eddie though is tenacious, throwing fists and feet with a real credible meanness. When Eddie takes a turnbuckle bump, I believe he may have lost a tooth; when Mike takes one, I think he ate too much raw oysters before the match. Both the heels took this beating like men and gave the father-son team tons of heat; Slater was bleeding showers of money.

4) Ric Flair v. Mike Graham- 4
Flair's timing is impeccable, he always puts on a show with less than comparable face opponents. They do some spirited college wrestling stuff then back to holds and all the way to brawling and each section feels like it progressed naturally to the next. Oh Shit, Fonzie is refing this old ass match. Flair does a lot more leg work to set up the figure four here, including a weakly held jiu jitsu anklelock move. Whoa, seriously? Flair gives up to his own hold from this hairy fuck? It built up well that's for sure

5) Tatsumi Fujinami v. Mike Graham (02/15/80)- 2
Tats is a wrestler; he gives you the scream you expect when he takes a shot to the throat. Awesome suplex on Tats, Eddie Graham hauls off on Tats like he did to Mrs. Graham when she forgot to seperate the green beans from the mashed potatoes. Not much to this, but apparently the figure four was his hold, Tats sold his submission tremendously.