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Post by stunninggrover on Jan 18, 2018 20:58:37 GMT -5
Ric Flair vs Ted DiBiase (NWA Heavyweight Championship - Mid-South - 11/6/1985)
Ric Flair defended the NWA World Heavyweight Title against Ted DiBiase. Dick Murdoch approached DiBiase before the match and Murdoch told DiBiase that DiBiase didn’t deserve the title shot. DiBiase told Murdoch that Murdoch is yesterday’s news. Murdoch got angry and attacked DiBiase, who juiced. DiBiase’s head was bandaged and he wanted to fight Flair. Great match with a lot of action. DiBiase took a huge bump over the top rope and hit his head on the guardrail, which resulted in DiBiase getting counted out. Murdoch returned and attacked DiBiase once again. DiBiase was stretchered to the back. DiBiase would be out of action for a while. I guess this was an excuse for DiBiase to be off Mid-South TV for a while because he was going to participate in the All Japan Real World Tag League later that month.
The action of the match itself was great and if you consider the entire segment/angle that this match was part of, including the pre-match and post-match stuff, this is something I'd definitely consider for my top 100.
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Post by mvz on Jan 18, 2018 21:24:11 GMT -5
Second.
Such an effective babyface turn for DiBiase who shows guts and fire. Flair takes advantage throughout in a dickish manner. The action is really good and tight and the surrounding angle with Murdoch is classic. This is likely to be on my list.
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Post by thepumalives on Jan 18, 2018 22:25:56 GMT -5
Third!
I had this match in my beginning Top 10 and I’m guessing it winds up Top 20 pretty easily. The whole angle leading up to the match was classic, showing the importance of not only the World Title, but also the lengths to which the participants were willing to go to become champion. The pre match assault and verbal barrage from Bill Watts allowed the face turn and let DiBiase show some real guts and get over even more with the southern crowd. Flair is a shark that smells blood in the water, and doesn’t spare DiBiase even after the brain buster on the floor. You always hear about Florida having great finishes, but Mid South put out some great ones as well.
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Post by joeg on Jan 21, 2018 1:57:35 GMT -5
4th. This will make my top 50. The best 7 minute TV match ever. Its probably the greatest angle of all time and it happens on probably the greatest episode of wrestling tv ever. Its an absolute classic finish, It will be the second or third highest count out finish on my list.
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Post by superstarsleeze on Jul 22, 2018 19:10:02 GMT -5
Amazing TV Angle...will just miss the cut.
NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair vs Ted DiBiase -Mid-South 11/6/85
Perhaps my favorite angle of the 1980s and that's saying a lot, but just an awesomely executed angle from every aspect. Bill Watts is just money in putting over the guts of Ted DiBiase, the violence that had just occurred and the importance of a World Heavyweight Championship match. Jim Ross puts in one of his best performance. "I CAN'T BELIVE HE KICKED OUT!" "IF HE HAD HIM IN THE CENTER OF THE RING, I GUARANATEE YOU WE WOULD HAVE A NEW WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION"! Ric Flair was without question the perfect champion for this exact angle. He has all the credibility you need, but he is so selfless that he will give to DiBiase everything he needs to go from the most reviled man in Mid-South to their top babyface at a snap of the fingers. Flair can kick ass to make you believe DiBiase is climbing a massive mountain and let himself get his ass kicked that you really believe Ted can pull off the miracle. Dick Murdoch as the crotchy, old redneck that wants DiBiase to step aside and then lashes out in anger was awesome. That first punch!!! HOLY FUCKING SHIT! It sounded like a gun went off. At the end of the match, he looks crazed and calm at the same time before dropping DiBiase head first on the concrete after having done a five alarm blade job at the beginning. This is Ted DiBiase's career performance. Standing up to Murdoch, selling the attack, not backing down to Flair, giving it his all in the match. The powerslam and not being able to cover is such a dramatic moment. Fighting through everyone of Flair's offensive volleys was just pure babyface. The figure-4 attempts were riveting. When he took that tumble out on the floor and smashes his into the railing it looks devastating. It is a ***** angle, but as a match let's go ****1/2. No matter, what you do watch this angle! You owe to yourself as a wrestling fan.
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Post by midsouthratpack on Dec 24, 2018 11:33:31 GMT -5
My God. The angle and events leading up to this match combined with the aftermath delivers a BME 100 contention. Time and time again Teddy Dibiase shows everybody why he is one of the greatest wrestlers that ever lived. His ability to switch a crowd and manipulate the audience is unmatched and can always be a top of the card wrestler if given the opportunity. Its matches like this that I look back and wonder what history could have been with Dibiase on top as NWA champion. This match had fans in the front row grasping tightly to crying children and girls cowering away from the sight of blood flinging off of him as he chops Flair in the corner. Wonderful Stuff all around!! This is going to be high for me.
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Post by [Darren] on Sept 3, 2021 16:52:44 GMT -5
This is another match that I was not considering and finally watched and it blew me away. Of course you take into account the entirety of the piece and not just bell-to-bell and you get one of the greatest things I’ve ever seen on TV studio wrestling. This one has a guarantee of being somewhere in the last-third of my list at this point. What a damn, perfect, bloody blast this was.
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Post by KB8 on Sept 12, 2022 13:03:39 GMT -5
One of the great match-angle packages in wrestling history. When it first got some decent exposure in our circle of hell/the internet there was talk of it being the best double turn ever, and while I'm not sure that's the case I can at least buy it as being up there. DiBiase had been on a tear as the number one heel in the territory for the past four years. He had the loaded glove and it put away everyone he crossed paths with. After all that time it made sense that he was in line for a chance at the big belt, so when Flair rolled into town and Butch Reed couldn't make the match, DiBiase stepped up. Then Dick Murdoch, who'd been back for a few months as the lovable sort of good-natured southern boy that you wouldn't have taken for a closet white supremacist, took umbrage and asked DiBiase to step aside. Murdoch felt as though HE should be next man up. So when DiBiase refused to back down Murdoch cleaned his clock. The first punch he throws is one of the best punches ever, the sound of it being caught perfectly through Boyd Pierce's microphone. Murdoch rams DiBiase into the post and DiBiase goes bananas with the blade. After about ten seconds he's left an actual puddle of blood on the floor and he's covered head to toe. As we cut to commercial Flair grabs the mic and says he's heading for home, paycheque in the mail after an easy night's work. When we get back we hear that matchmaker Grizzly Smith has confirmed that there WILL be a title match on TV, and at that point DiBiase stumbles back out to the ring with a bandaged up forehead and generally looking like he's been robbed and beaten in the street. The match itself is short and honestly not all that different from most Flair studio matches. It's sort of amusing seeing how he'll still go to the top rope even in a promotion where top rope moves are banned, or how he'll corral DiBiase into headlock rope-running sequences late in the match when DiBiase is trying to sell can't-stand-up exhaustion from the blood loss. A man truly determined to play the greatest hits, when playing some other tracks might've been a more appropriate option. But this was all about DiBiase anyway, and as far as babyface DiBiase performances go this might be his very best. I guess the circumstances almost drive you to make the comparison with Austin, where both guys used an epic blade job to solidify themselves as men of the people. I don't really care whose performance was better or if they're even really comparable in the first place, but this is about as good as it gets for blood loss, last-legs selling to garner sympathy. He would not stay down and both Ross and Watts on commentary drove home the point that, even if he didn't have the cleanest of pasts, his technical pedigree was inarguable and clearly he had the heart of a lion. The bandage only stays on for a few minutes and a few minutes after that he's a complete mess again. I wish Flair drew some more attention to it, got a little vicious in that awesome way he sometimes would, but DiBiase drew enough attention to it with the way he wouldn't be able to follow up on moves, how he could barely even cover Flair, and then the bump over the top and his struggle to get back to his feet. If there was any question about Murdoch being a changed man then the brainbuster on the concrete made sure of it, DiBiase being carted out on a stretcher after convulsing on the floor, Murdoch with his shirt off as if he expected any sort of fight. Maybe those two will settle that new score at some point, and maybe it'll be good?
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Post by elliott on Sept 4, 2023 10:04:10 GMT -5
One of the all time TV segments. Great stuff.
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Post by lemming on Nov 19, 2023 14:03:16 GMT -5
So if we're counting the surrounding angle as part of the match here, then that first Murdoch right hand is 5 stars right there. I'm not kidding. DiBiase tapping a gusher and putting such a gutsy babyface performance to turn himself face are pretty swell too. Flair does what he needs to as the sleazeball champ. This whole thing is fire.
I voted this #52 this year.
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