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1984 Wrestler of the Year Contenders


goodhelmet

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WWF
Tito Santana & Greg Valentine – Classic feud for the ages. Maybe the best WWF feud of all time. Need to at least be mentioned.

 

Iron Sheik & Sgt. Slaughter – Another classic feud with a MOTDC to add to the resume. However, Sheik gets stuck with Volkoff and I need to see some more peak Sarge from that year.

 

 

NWA

Ric Flair – Classic matches with Steamboat, Kerry Von Erich, Race, Tenryu

Ricky Steamboat – Classic matches with Flair; Tully feud; Looks like he had a ton of matches with Wahoo & Dick Slater. God, I gotta see those Wahoo matches.

 

 

AWA

Nick Bockwinkel – Great matches with Hennig, Martel, teaming with Saito

 

 

TEXAS

Kerry Von Erich - Fabulous Freebirds vs. Von Erichs feud in full force plus classics with Jumbo & Flair put it over the top for Kerry.

Terry Gordy – Freebirds & Von Erichs feud plus great singles matches including MOTYC with Khan.

 

 

MEMPHIS

Jerry Lawler – Down year for Lawler on film but he does have the Savage feud that leads into the Bundy feud and a nice stop tagging in the AWA.
Randy Savage – Great year for Savage in Memphis feuding with Lawler, teaming with Lawler, teaming with Lanny, feuds with Idol and Rude.

(I feel like giving a shout out to Rich & Gilbert for their work with the PYTs and the epic breakup angle. Wish we had some blood feud matches between the two on tape)

 

 

MID SOUTH
Midnight Express – I am giving Eaton & Condrey props here. With Lane & Eaton, I always felt that Eaton was clearly better than Lane. With Condrey, I always felt they were equals but served different purposes. They lit the world on fire in Mid South that year with epic feuds with Watts, Fantastics and RNRs.

(Not much Ted DIbiase on film this year. What happened?)

 

 

NEW JAPAN

Riki Choshu – Clearly, Choshu was the highlight worker in New Japan in 1984. Part of great tags, singles and the super gauntlet.

Tatsumi Fujinami – He was still great in 1984, had classic tags with Kimura and was had the most memorable performance in the super gauntlet but he wasn’t Choshu this year.

 

 

El Satanico

Sangre Chicana

MS-1

- Amazing year on film for luchadores. Kris and Phil can tell me who is missing from this list.

 

 

 

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I've been waiting for 1984 so I could point out Satanico's 1984 being tremendous. That's the year he had the title matches vs Gran Cochise and Lizmark. He also had the brawls with Atlantis, Super Astro, and Shiro Koshinaka. He was had the tag with Espectro Jr vs La Fiera and El Faraon. He also had a 6 man teaming with MS-1 and Espectro Jr vs Atlantis, Ringo Mendoza, and Tony Salazar. That's just what made the lucha set. Not sure if there's more out there.

 

Even if that's all we have, it gives us a terrific glimpse into what was Satanico's physical prime. I'll go way more in depth about Satanico's 1984 in a few days in the Satanico thread.

 

Also wanted to mention the two Mocho Cota vs Americo Rocca matches were from 84.

 

Villano III probably deserves a mention. He had the singles matches vs Perro and Chicana in 84. The elimination match with those 2 plus El Faraon. Also a trios. Again, not sure what else is out there but his high end stuff from that year is terrific.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 3 weeks later...

After watching JYD vs Butch Reed in 2 matches on NWA classics from Houston and highlights from Mid-South that has legs for feud of the year.

 

That's awesome to hear. It seems like most of the complete arena footage we've had for years post-dates JYD at his peak in stardom, so it's good to have a better look at that now.

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  • 6 months later...

The thought has just occurred to me that 1984 is a real strong contender for best year ever in wrestling.

 

We always talk about 1989 and 1992.

 

Look at 84. It's mental!

 

Sarge vs. Sheik in WWF and Hogan becoming champ, a huge deal in history.

Tito vs. Greg

 

In Japan, AJ is kind of in a quiet time, but NJ has possibly the most rocking and rollingest feud in Japanese history with Choshu's Army vs. Inoki, Fujinami and the funboys, which has really got me super stoked while watching NJ set.

 

Will and others have outlined what else was going on, but the two biggest promotions in the US and Japan were on fire.

 

I think 84 might be to WWF/NJPW what 89 is to NWA/AJPW.

 

Just kind of a sleeper pick year that people don't often out into that discussion.

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