June 17, 1983
Reunion Arena
Dallas, TX
1) The Mongol/ "Wild" Bill Irwin/ Fishman v. Chavo Guerrero (Classic)/ Jose Lothario/ Chris Adams- 4
2) Jimmy Garvin v. David Von Erich (Texas Heavyweight Title)- 5
3) Buddy Roberts v. Iceman King Parsons (Hair v. Hair Match)- 4
4) Kamala v. 3 jobbers - 1
5) Harley Race v. Kevin Von Erich (NWA Title)- 6
6) Michael Hayes/ Terry Gordy v. Kerry Von Erich/ Bruiser Brody- 4
I want to mention, first off, how near and dear World Class is to my heart. I used to catch it every day at 4 pm on ESPN when I was a youngster and it was the first wrestling I'd known besides WWF. And just like every other young fan, I loved the Von Erichs'. They had so many great characters and wrestlers it just captured my imagination every day, from Bill Mercer's steady, monotonous voice to Iceman's Butt-Butt manuever to the fancy red colored ring. It's a real treat for me to be able to go back and watch some of these old shows and relive so many classic memories. Onto the show:
Okay, you're workshorses are Chavo Classic who could really fly in his day and Fishman, who they say is from Mexico but I'm not really sure. He has that old school Lucha style of bumping where everything is choreographed and is all safe. Not sure about the name though, i was at least hoping to see a big fat carp on the side of his trunks, but no go. Adams has some fire but is not in for long; apparently he's fueding with Mongol, whose pretty crappy for a big man- all the faces whip his ass. Lothario (who you may remember as HBK's mentor during his first title run) has some Sable-esque sagging funbags but still breaks out a few nifty moves. This was perfectly fine for an opener neither rememberable nor disappointing.
Garvin had a real fine run as a prissy heel with slutty Precious, and he keeps up with David here, but not getting to see him in my youth because of his early passing, it's nice to be introduced to his work. He's damn fine in the technical department and he gives a lot to his heel opposition. They keep on the ground mostly for this as David's not the high flyer but he can work rest holds very well. Some of the faces he makes are pretty frightening though, and the finish to this was a quick cheap pinfall out of nowhere- aftermatch went on almost as long.
Let's talk about Buddy Roberts; for a dirty shitbrick heel, he's great in his role. He doesn't get a lot of cred as part of the Freebirds, but I don't think it would have worked without him. He's the guy who can get pinned in a lot of matches but he still gets tremendous heat because he's a little worm and he's a halfway decent worker. He had some great singles fueds with Kevin & David, as well as Iceman here. Parsons isn't half the worker I remembered but the fans love his funky mojo act so this match is pretty well received. The stupid shit here was Roberts bringing down a "secret formula" for killing hair follicles that he and the Freebirds concocted. What, now they're all part time chemists? You're telling me Terry Gordy was using fucking Bunsen Burners and Hayes knows the atomic symbol for Boron? Get the f*** out of here with that. Lot of good dirty punches and kicks here but pretty short in it's own right.
Kamala, in the gimmick's infancy, trounces 3 guys, one from Japan, one from Africa and one from US. The japanese wrestler's last name was Yatsu, but I don't think it's the same guy that tagged with Haku years later. Anyways, this is downright garbage- the selling is atrocious and all Kamala does is chop until he hits his really vomit-inducing splash.
Man, this was a huge ass whooping! If you want to see a man (Harley Race) just get beaten into embarrassment, this is one to watch. Kevin unleashes loads of wild haymakers that all find their way to Race's facial extremities. This match also had a great pace as Von Erich seemed to have Race on the ropes early but Race waited for his opportunity and capitalized on it, wearing the barefooted brawler with brutal kneedrops and strange headbutts. Kevin tried his bodyscissors several times but Race didn't have the strength to hold him up at this point in his career. This was well on it's way to a higher score except David Von Erich came in after Kevin was struggling with his knee and we got a DQ.
Here we go, main event time, Kerry enters, ugly gray trunks, foggy eyes like and He and Brody just sniffed some industrial glue in the back. Hayes and Gordy had the crowd going and the match turned intoa brawl quick with the faces on the winning side. Brody actually got cornered and beat on for a few minutes but made the hot tag and this one wasy over pretty quickly after a normal cross body off the rebound from the ropes. pretty disappointing.
Overall, this show was decent but unfortunately, it wasn't complete. There was at least 4 to 5 matches left off that featured tons of huge names from Japan and the states including Giant Baba, Jumbo Tsuruta, Ted Dibiase and Andre. I'd love to get my hands on the complete show of this to give it a proper review.
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