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Post by elliott on Nov 26, 2019 15:37:08 GMT -5
Midnight Express vs. Bill Watts & Stagger Lee (MS - 4/22/84)
Great match. I don’t mean to be all “back in my day!” old man shouts at the clouds (hey this match is 6 months older than me!) but this is fucking wrestling right here. This is really mostly just punches and people understanding wrestling psychology and crafting a great match out of it. Smart and simple with a hotter more invested crowd than you’ll see these days.
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Post by mvz on Mar 1, 2021 6:51:19 GMT -5
I love the midnights and even with a resume of wild, memorable stuff, this is the match I go back to most often and it hits all the right notes for me.
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Post by mvz on Nov 20, 2021 7:52:13 GMT -5
I am going to include this on my ballot and want to flesh this out a bit and move this to nominees.
First off, you can see the dynamic in the match well enough, but watching the build to this match will help. Cornette and the Midnights have antagonized Watts to the point where he is going to get back in the ring and make them pay. And he is bringing back megastar JYD under a mask with him. If I were local and watching at the time, I would have been begging my dad to take me. Even now, I am thinking "Take all my money."
The heat for the match is off the charts and the crowd sticks with the match every step of the way. Watts basically gives the Midnights the ass-kicking he thinks they have deserved. It is basically punches, but great punches that the Midnights sell brilliantly. We talk a lot about Lawler's variety of great punches; here I was thinking about the variety of ways the Midnights sell the punches and how much that adds to the match. There is one where Eaton gets lifted onto and over the ropes that I basically haven't stopped thinking about since I first saw it. Condrey is great at selling the effects with his body language. And both guys are busted open.
When we get to the heat, they are doing all the cheap shots right things to get the crowd ticked off and more and more invested in the match. We know who the better people are and we know Cornette is a brat who deserves to get beaten, and everything they do reminds you of that ad makes you believe that the heels are going to pull of this injustice and steal one. So when the faces battle back the crowd just explodes. And you better believe they are bringing the win home.
This is my highest rated Midnights match but it has a lot less of the flash that they are known for. But they are bumping around and cheating and doing memorable work. Watts and JYD are a great ass-kicking team. This is a case of having the best possible match with the people involved and all the factors are there for a great experience. Just loads of fun.
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