Falls Count Anywhere

11-01-07

My skin suit just didn't fit.

FlashBack: 1983
I didn’t watch RAW. Why not? Well, I wasn’t in the mood for one thing, and secondly, I was very busy watching an old tape that I’d almost completely forgotten about. That tape happens to feature one of the greatest matches I’ve ever seen.

The tape in question is My 1997 compilation of wrestling. Mostly, these matches are from Tim Davis’ collection, but a few of them are from other sources. There’s some Japanese wrestling, a little WWE that’s not easy to find, and a bunch of stuff from Starrcade. The best of that stuff was the Piper vs. Greg Valentine Dog Collar from 1983 which was right before Piper went to the WWF and I don’t think Valentine was that far behind. That match was the one that I always watched as a kid and remembered it was brutal and bloody and turn-your-head-so-you-won’t-see-it good.

And it still is.

You see, Piper and Valentine had one of those feuds that you just can’t beat. The two had been going at it for almost a year. These two were about the same age (I think Valentine might have been a year or so older), and the two had become big stars over the previous year. Piper had been going strong in Southern California and Oregon for a while, becoming a hot property with his feud against Chavo Guerrero. Piper and Flair had parallel paths and there were those who thought that Greg would be the bigger star. He wasn’t nearly the talker that Flair was, but he was a hell of a worker. The two were both big names in The Carolinas in 1982 when they started feuding.

At one point, Valentine did some damage to Piper’s ear. I’ve never found out if it was a legit injury that they turned into an angle or if it was just a planned angle. I’ve always thought it was a planned angle, but I’ve read folks who said the opposite, so I haven’t been sure. They made this match for the biggest show of the year, and one of the biggest shows ever.

The location was Starrcade 1983, the first Starrcade headlined by the classic Harley Race vs. Ric Flair cage match. They called the show A Flair for the Gold. The show brough guys from all the territories, including a match between Abdullah the Botcher and Carlos Colon from Puerto Rico. All the stars were there and it’s arguable that Piper vs. Valentine was the third match from the top since it was for the US Title.

They started started off treating the chain like barbed wire. Valentine was totally afraid of it and Piper was the Sabu of his day, grabbing it and making threats of hitting Valentine with it! Greg’s facial expressions were perfect and I’ve often wondered why he didn’t stay in the Carolinas and transition to WTBS where he could have been a real star against Dusty Rhodes, the Garvins and so on. Piper whipped Valentine a few times and when he tried to roll out of the ring, Piper dragged him back in and hit him a few times. At one point, Valentine was on all fours and Piper was too which allowed him to give him a ramming headbutt. That was big offense in those days. Folks don’t realize how much has changed in the last twenty years, but if you watch matches from 1983 and then another from 1987, you’ll see how much changed in just those four years.

Valentine got the advantage by whipping Piper in the ear with the chain and then using the chain as a pair of knux. That was Old School hardcore. Piper took a beating and bladed and then came back and wrapped Valentine’s head in the chain and put a strand through his mouth! That was a cool bit. Piper bladed and there was blood a plenty! Finally, Piper got the pin by tying up Valentine’s legs with the chain.

This was a brawl, so much so that they used not a finisher, like Valentine’s Figure Four or Piper’s Sleeper, but they used a tie-up. Far more legit. The announcing by Gordon Solie and Bob Caudle was great as Gordo always managed to get over the important aspects of a match and Caudle called the color parts with perfect clarity. The two were a great team even though Solie really didn’t need a color man for his style. The violence of the match was amped up by the way Gordon called it.

The match would not seem to fit in with ECW in the 1990s and certainly not stack up against the 1990s Japanese FMW/Garbage scene. It wasn’t even nearly as brutal as the Concession Stand Brawls that took place in Tupelo a couple of years earlier. This was ultra-violent because of the way they presented it on the biggest show of the year. Wrestling, and the way people took things seriously, has changed so much.

So, I missed RAW to watch this match and I feel like I got the best deal.

More on Monday!

Talk about today's column in the forums!

Chris Garcia