[1983-03-12-MACW-Greensboro, NC] Sgt. Slaughter & Don Kernodle vs Ricky Steamboat & Jay Youngblood (Cage)

[Timbo Slice]

Easily one of the best builds for a blow off match ever leading up to this one. While it took a while to get going, once it did, it became one of the great tag matches of its time. Slaughter bumped like a freak and even decided to come off the top of the cage, which is always legitimately insane at a time where those cages looked so rickety anyone could fall off of it. Kernodle tapped an absolute gusher and was great doing the dirty work in the match. Some fantastic spots in the match, including a favorite of mine in a cage match where Slaughter knocked Kernodle out of the way on a Steamboat cross body and Ricky ate nothing but cage.

 

The callbacks to everything leading up to the match were awesome. The blood playing off the bloodbath that laid out Youngblood a few months earlier, the Cobra Clutch avoidance, figuring out how to avoid the Slaughter Cannon, which is now one of my favorite double team moves ever and then an all-time great finish. In talking about this with Will and Kris, I don't see how this could be anything below the Top 10 when the 80's NWA set ever gets made, and right now, I could totally talk myself into making it into my Top 5.

[Wade Garrett]

This would rank as one of the very top matches/programs/stories ever produced in pro wrestling. Just may be the best tag-team program of all-time. Then again this wasn't rare in the tag ranks of JCP in the 70's thru the mid 80's. For my money Steamboat/Youngblood were the best babyface tag-team in JCP history.

[Loss]

I wish we had Flair-Valentine from this show too. Possibly an all-time double header candidate.

[BruiserBrody]

I found it amusing to see "The Final Conflict" in Greensboro was followed by a pair of rematches with the teams in the same building in the following weeks.

 

The final blowoff drew 6200 fans with Piper putting his JCP career on the line vs. Valentine as the co-feature

[NitroFan]

i really wanted to love this match but it fell a little short of my expectations. the shine in the beginning is boring. chinlock chinlock armlock armdrzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. who wants to see that shit in a blowoff cage match? once it moved beyond that it got a lot better, but the thing that annoys me the most about the match and makes it impossible for me to really love was the constant enforcing of the tag team rules by the ref trying to keep one guy out, including such a thing leading directly to the finish. in a fucking no dq match ffs. i cant stand that shit.

[Microstatistics]

Excellent match. The slowish beginning actually worked really well because the way the match escalated was superb. Tons of neat little touches, an all time great performance from Slaughter, and a clever finish. **** 1/4

[NickH]

On the Ricky Steamboat documentary the pinfall is shown, does that mean WWE has the master copy and possibly Flair/Valentine? What source is this pinfall footage from? I thought Jim Nelson's copy was the only one that existed with the missing fall.

 

 

 

From the Mid Atlantic Gateway interview w/ Jim Nelson Feb 2004

Q: Did you have a copy of the tape of the Final Conflict show before you left?

 

A: I think it was that following Monday after the Greensboro show, we knew the show had been taped, so we asked Emerson Lawson, who produced the TVs then, if he would make us a copy, and he told us he would if we brought him a VHS tape. There wasn’t room for the Flair/Valentine broadway so he didn’t include that. I bought the best quality VHS blank I could find and brought it to him.

 

Hopefully with Mid Atlantic coming to the WWE Network we get the full Final Conflict show along with other JCP taped events.

[Superstar Sleeze]

NWA World Tag Team Champions Sgt. Slaughter & Don Kernodle vs Ricky Steamboat & Jay Youngblood - MACW Final Conflict Steel Cage Match

I was underwhelmed when I first watched this five-six years ago. I have an open mind.

Babyface shine: A 12 minute heel in peril segment that features Kernodle complete and you know what I loved it. Yeah there were a lot of headlocks, but the spots in and out of the headlocks were great. It really established Steamboat & Youngblood as a great babyface team. I loved Steamboat using his foot to avoid being thrown in the cage and then applying a headlock. Or how Steamboat gets in the way of Youngblood to stop him from going into the cage. Steamboat & Youngblood had good babyface offense plenty of dropkicks and flying chops. Kernodle sold more and more as time went on. The best part for me were all the false tags. Usually see it for the babyfaces, but here Kernodle almost makes the tag, fingertips away and another time Slaughter is out of position when Kernodle finally made it back to the corner. This was really great textbook tag wrestling from the babyfaces and the heels were great stooges for it. The tag to Slaughter was a little anti-climatic as Kernodle just gets his fingers jabbed into Youngblood's side. They faked me out the shine continues. Youngblood throws Slaughter into the cage back first and then head first. He is the first into the cage and typical Sarge fashion he really throws himself into the cage. He tries to throw Youngblood into the cage, but Youngblood uses his foot and it is a battle of wills. Youngblood wins and tags out to Steamboat who is immediately on Slaughter. Big time clothesline gets two for the Steamer. Tag out. Youngblood flying chop and then a great standing dropkick gets two. It has been all Steamboat & Youngblood, Daddy! Criss cross, Youngblood is flying and Sarge uses his own momentum against throwing him hard face-first into the cage, this has got to be the break Sarge & the Pride of the Carolinas has been looking for. 

Heat/Finish: What the fuck was I smoking way back when? This is a BARNBURNER! Quadruple juice! Slaughter flying off the cage like he is Jimmy Snuka! Steamboat & Youngblood going wild! I thought the heat segment on Youngblood. A couple times I thought he died but he came back to life. Heel offense was perfect, punches working the cut, choking and Sarge looking for the Cobra Clutch. Youngblood sends Slaughter and Sarge does the most blatant bladejob on camera in history. Steamboat was a great hot tag and I LOVE Slaughter pushing Kernodle out of the way as Steamer gets color too. Steamboat is the one who sends the Pride of the Carolinas into the cage to complete the Quadruple Juice! Slaughter coming flying off the cage brings Youngblood into it who is a total house of fire! The ending is absolute mayhem. Double catapult of the heels into the cage! Cobra Clutch and Sleeper simultaneously on the heels! Slaughter bowls over Youngblood into the ref. He loads the Slaughter Canon with a foreign object and takes out Youngblood. Steamboat sends Sarge into the cage and puts Youngblood on top. The footage then cuts to the babyfaces winning, which is a shame. 

Way, way, way better than I remember. The last half is an action-packed Crockett match where there's just a ton going on. Steamboat/Youngblood were a great high-energy tag team, tons of offense and some great selling. I thought more than the blood and the big Cage spots, that what really held this all together were the commitment to babyface/heel dynamics. ****1/2

[Captain Redneck]

On ‎2‎/‎8‎/‎2015 at 2:38 PM, Wade Garrett said:

This would rank as one of the very top matches/programs/stories ever produced in pro wrestling. Just may be the best tag-team program of all-time. Then again this wasn't rare in the tag ranks of JCP in the 70's thru the mid 80's. For my money Steamboat/Youngblood were the best babyface tag-team in JCP history.

I don't know, but I would rank the Flair & Valentine vs. the Andersons as a better program. Imagine the hated Andersons going babyface? Ole teaming with Wahoo because Gene is "injured" . Bonkers!