One and Only Demolition Thread

[goodhelmet]

Have at it!

[Victator]

They're awesome, cool face paint and gear with the aura they might do more than beat their opponents.

[Cross Face Chicken Wing]

Loved them as a kid because I didn't know any better.

 

Hate them as an adult because I have to make sure nobody else is around when one of their matches comes on. You get some really funny looks when someone sees you watching a Demolition match.

[Matt D]

I think I've said my piece. You never ever see Eadie do anything, or shortly into the run, Darsow either, and have to think hard for why they're doing it. They gave when they should give and didn't when they shouldn't. They made babyfaces and heels both work for every little damn thing that they got. Every hot tag was earned. Every comeback was earned (and usually cut off smartly a couple of times first). Every bit of offense heels got on them when they were faces was earned and it ultimately made the matches better since everything felt more logical. It was a way of protecting themselves much more effective than the no selling you saw so often from the warriors. It also almost completely eliminated heel-in-peril segments when they were the heels in the match. It usually felt like the babyfaces just trying to desperately survive when they got to work over the arm for a few minutes; containment, not control.

 

You can see trends over time in their matches, and they do have a few very good to great matches. If Shawn's the guy who looks worse when you break him down and analyze them as opposed to just yanking out GREAT MATCHES, Demos as a team are better if you break them down and analyze them instead of trying to find the great matches. They exist but it's not entirely the point.

 

But I've said everything I think I need to on them. Very smart, self-aware, effective workers.

[jdw]

There's a thread over on DVDVR on the Greatness of Demolition. Someone should link to it.

 

Either they work for you or don't. I wouldn't hold them up as a litmus test for appreciating WWF 80s Work, but I'm biased: I don't think tag team wrestling in the WWF was all that strong in the 80s. If I needed to appreciate *any* WWF tag team in that era to also appreciate the rest of WWF work, I'd be fucked.

 

John

[Matt D]

There's a thread over on DVDVR on the Greatness of Demolition. Someone should link to it.

 

Either they work for you or don't. I wouldn't hold them up as a litmus test for appreciating WWF 80s Work, but I'm biased: I don't think tag team wrestling in the WWF was all that strong in the 80s. If I needed to appreciate *any* WWF tag team in that era to also appreciate the rest of WWF work, I'd be fucked.

 

John

John, I know how you feel about 80s WWF tag wrestling. One of my major points is that I think a lot of your major general complaints against wwf tag work don't appear in the Demolition matches, though (with the exception of maybe one or two Bulldogs matches, because it's pretty damn hard to hold back DK).

 

I feel like I'm shouting into the wind here, but to me it's all the more impressive that they're able to avoid those pitfalls, or, in matches with things like the babyface team having an early offensive advantage, they're able to bring something to it by not just sitting there and eating the offense. They make it actually mean something, and create a far more even environment without resorting to no-selling and shrugging things off.

[artDDP]

My friend Thomas and I used to paint our faces like Demolition whenever we'd wrestle around the house. We thought they were the baddest tag team around because they had the best face paint, in our opinion.

 

I haven't watched much of their work since adulthood. I'll have to go back and look.

 

I have a question that I've thought about now and then: Why did they get booked in the post-intermission sort-of-squash match against Tenryu and Kitao at WrestleMania VII?

[Victator]

I think its because they were being phased out. Smash was due to be Repo Man and Crush was leaving.

[Moonsault Marvin]

I always loved the way they relentlessly beat down their opponents with the multiple axe handles and stomps. I really miss wrestlers shouting at the camera in the corner of the ring while they pulled on a jobber's face like Smash used to do.

[Victator]

If someone does not think Demolition is as great/good as I do, I can respect that. But if you think they sucked, you don't know what you are talking about.

 

I mean there is really nothing you can use against them. They have perfect timing and pacing. They know how to make things like chinlocks look painful. They are really working the hold and not killing time. They have a nice set of double teams, they bust out semi regularly. Now some might say something about the clubbering. Personally I love it and it was over with the fans. I think it added to the matches by giving the illusion of movement.

 

I think they were loaded with charisma and had tremendous presence in the ring.

 

I think the Brain Busters, Hart Foundation, Bulldogs* and Rockers** had their best matches with Demolition.

 

* If the Bulldogs/Demos match from MSG had a better finish, I would have no problem saying it was great.

 

**At the very least it was their best WWF match. Personally I think that MSG match is one of the best WWF tag matches ever.

[rainmakerrtv]

I am a huge fan of their 3 match series with the Brain Busters, particularly the story was told both within the individual matches and across the series. Granted, it has been quite some time since I have watched all of them.

[khawk20]

* If the Bulldogs/Demos match from MSG had a better finish, I would have no problem saying it was great.

Agreed. I watched this match originally when it aired on MSG network and it rocked. You didn't get a vibe like that out of most WWF tag matches in that time frame (at least I didn't), so when the odd one struck you like that one did, you remembered it.

[subatomic_elbow]

They always looked scary, but not in a cool way. They looked like a team of the uncles you aren't supposed to be alone with.

[Grimmas]

My favourite tag team, bar none. They had an aura, they had the wrestling ability and they were mega over. What is not to like?

 

Read the DVDR thread for match suggestions. It's really too bad they went out, the way they went out.

[Matt D]

It's okay not to like Demolition, but if you don't, and you actually watch some matches, then all I ask is that take a look at WHY I like them and if you're going to engage, engage me on either whether I'm wrong about those points and why, or why you just don't think they matter. The latter is perfectly valid. People have different tastes. But it's not some crazy random thing, me liking them. It's not a whim.

[rzombie1988]

I don't know what's not to like about the Demos. They were a big clubbering tag team with cool face paint and cool music. They were very believeable, versatile and always put in a good performance. Smash even had some charisma to him. I think the people that don't like them are doing so just to be smarky. They are an incredibly underappreciated tag team and they are the realest underrated team I've ever seen.

 

I totally agree that if you are looking for classics, you are missing the whole point of Demolition. They had many good matches, but they didn't work the 5 star style or the typical tag team style.

 

I hated the way they went out. They were the WWF tag team and they are practically forgotten and jobbed out. Whatever happened in the lawsuit must have been bad as WWE seems to have them on the Randy Savage list of people they won't bring back.

[Cox]

They've worked with Barry Darsow a few times after the lawsuit, so I think most of the bad blood is on the Bill Eadie side.

[S.L.L.]

I'm kind of a neutral party vis-a-vis Demolition, but I can't help but notice that they are on the receiving end of some truly bizarre complaints from detractors. I've seen them called too fat (maybe by 80's WWF standards, but certainly not by wrestling standards in general), too silly (definitely not by 80's WWF standards, probably not by wrestling standards in general), too gay (is there even such a thing as "too gay" in wrestling?)....I just don't get it.

[Matt D]

I never can get anyone to argue me on my points when it comes to them, which drives me nuts. Granted, in order to argue me on my points, you have to take sort of a comparative view, so I do understand. It goes against the "great match" mindset to some extent (not that they don't have some).

[Loss]

I don't know what's not to like about the Demos.

I don't know what's not to like about Megumi Kudo.

[goodhelmet]

The "too fat" argument is a perception argument from watching them live when they actually wrestled. As a kid, after seeing the Road Warriors, it was hard to take them seriously when the Roadies were ripping shit up in Crockett. Hell, I hated Dick Murdoch and BuddyRose on my tv screen too when iwas a kid. I thought Murdoch was too fucking old and Rose was a fucking slob. As an adult, I have both firmly entrenched in my Top Ten wrestlers of all time. Still looking for the great Demolition match that was great because of Demolition.

 

Too gay? Who made that argument? I get it with the bondage gear and S&M getup. Not really what was going through my mind when I was a kid.

 

Too silly? I never made that argument. Hell, if Eadie and Cooley would have remained a team, I could see them on my current favorites list. Every matching have watched so far, Darsow has been a buzz kill but I think he is one of the worst wrestlers of the 80s.

[Exposer]

After watching the Rockers match, Darsow really downgraded the level of the match. It's still very good, but he did things I hate in that match. The worst of which was his TERRIBLE Boston Crab. I HATE when a submission hold doesn't look at least marginally painful.

[Loss]

I would be very, very, very surprised if the best Barry Darsow match of all time is from his time in Demolition. It will be hard to beat the match against the Rock & Rolls when Morton and Gibson debuted in the NWA and won the tag titles from him and Koloff.

 

I watched the Arn/Tully match and thought it was solid at times, but that was entirely (entirely) because Arn and Tully were a really good tag team. The match felt really poorly laid out, and their gimmick conflicted with how they worked the match. They are not dominant and threatening enough to match the gimmick, and they aren't vulnerable enough to be compelling underdogs. There was no real emotion in the match. They were just ... there. A whole lotta there.

[Victator]

Still looking for the great Demolition match that was great because of Demolition.

That is easy when you do not want to find it. The Rockers match was all Demolition. Hell even Shawn Micheals admits that.

 

I watched the Arn/Tully match and thought it was solid at times, but that was entirely (entirely) because Arn and Tully were a really good tag team. The match felt really poorly laid out, and their gimmick conflicted with how they worked the match. They are not dominant and threatening enough to match the gimmick, and they aren't vulnerable enough to be compelling underdogs. There was no real emotion in the match. They were just ... there. A whole lotta there.

I don't think there is a real validity to this, regardless of the Demos/Busters match you are talking about. The MSG match was about Demolition not wanting to win the titles but wanting to crack skulls. The Demos were not suppose to be underdogs, when Tully and Arn were in control, they were trying to contain Demolition.

 

I don't even know how you can think there was no emotion in the match. It was all worked around Demolition being pissed off over losing the belts.

[Matt D]

Wow.

 

There's so much emotion in everything but the last Brainbusters/Demos match. That's just a weird title switch non starter.

 

I can give you very exact examples of where I think the emotion is. I wrote the thing up. Let me know if you want me to point it out.

 

In general, though, it's your opinion but I think that's a real quizzical one.

 

The SNME match is one of my favorite matches of all time, because of the story they told. The MSG match is just an awesome pissed off revenge mauling with Arn and Tully fighting for their lives.

 

That said, I love the RnR title win too, but we are talking a different language here.