This review was commissioned by CJ over on my Ko-fi account.
The tradition of the NWA World Heavyweight Champion fascinates me. There’s a certain level of skill implicit in being given the belt (at least up to a certain point in history), but up until the late 80s and the final NWA Title reigns with Ric Flair, there’s also a stylistic lineage that comes through. Take Harley Race in this match. One can draw parallels between what he does here and what Flair would come to do in the 80s in a lot of interesting ways. There’s the big obvious things like stooging for the babyface, which Harley does wonderfully here with some big bumps and selling that threads the needle between expressive and goofy. But there’s also smaller parallels like how both Flair and Race relied on these short range strikes to close distance and overwhelm their challenges. For Flair, it was that knee to the gut, for Harley in this match it’s the headbutt either right to the jaw or into the gut.
What results from all these things is a match that feels familiar and comfortable in its rhythm. The two out of three fall structure means that this whole thing gets divided up real easily into babyface shine, heel heat, and the final comeback into the finishing stretch, with each fall being punctuated by the transition into the next segment. Even with that kind of elemental shape to it all though, Race and Wahoo do well to bring smaller narratives to this to keep the entire runtime interesting.
Perhaps the most effective of those narratives to me is how Harley tries to manipulate Wahoo’s emotions to create openings in the match. Commentary hints at bad blood between these two already coming into the bout, but Wahoo does try to keep things simple and sporting to start. His main avenue of attack in the first fall is a side headlock, for example, with Race only ever breaking up control with those nasty little headbutts of his. One gets the impression that not only does Race use those headbutts to beat his way into control, but also to fluster Wahoo and open him up to be attacked.
It’s only after one of those big headbutt flurries too that Race gets an atomic drop that inadvertently sends Wahoo crashing headfirst into the turnbuckles and earning Race the first fall. The champion controls much of the second, before Wahoo escalates, taking the fight to the outside and getting the better of the champion against the ropes by thrashing him with those big overhand chops of his. It’s such a great little moment, one that delivers on that real old school feeling of, “Wow, he’s got his ass.” Seeing Harley get caught up in those ropes, getting the shit beat out of him by Wahoo McDaniel. That’s the stuff pro wrestling’s made of.
The third fall easily outshines the rest though. It’s here that a lot of the pretense of sport gets thrown out and things devolve into a bit more of a fight. It never goes all the way into brawling, but there’s a more guttural feel to everything especially after Harley gets busted up on one of the ringposts. Even with the weakened champion though, it’s never hard to keep rooting for Wahoo–especially when Harley tried to do the same to the challenger earlier in the match. Real great bladejob from Harley here, blood coming all the way down to his thighs, a great desperate image. As with the rest of the match though, as Wahoo keeps trying to dish out an ass beating, it’s Harley taking one small opening to grab the tights to retain the belt and steal one from the challenger.
It’s a match that takes its time developing and getting to its destination. And really, it’s the selling that makes it all work as well as it does. Those big stooging bumps from Harley, basically going vertical after eating Wahoo’s big chops. A much more nuanced selling from Wahoo too, dignified even, when eating Harley’s headbutts and getting rocked. It’s lovely stuff, the kind of attention to detail that makes the most out of very little.
That being said, at its lowest, it does tend to grind to a halt a bit. While I always appreciate a good headlock, Harley doesn’t do too much to keep the game interesting down on the mat outside from a few well timed grabs of the hair. He’s a little more fun working a hold, like when he seems to choke Wahoo just out of sight of the referee to retain a facelock on the mat. But there’s not a lot of intricacy going into those mat sections, which is unfortunate because it does take up a big chunk of the runtime.
That being said, when the strikes start flying and the blood starts flowing, there’s enough here to feel like a real gritty, mean title fight that got a little out of hand. Not some big explosion of violence, but an athletic contest that went a little sideways due to the pettiness of both men involved. If not perfect from moment to moment, still great on the whole.
Rating: ****
