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[1985-06-28-Houston Wrestling] Rock & Roll Express vs Jake Roberts & Barbarian


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This was pretty interesting. Jake carried it for his side. He was in the spot of the match when Jake got caught in the ropes and the Rock N Roll did a hit and run on him while the ref tried to stop them, and Barbarian chased them around. Jake took a face 1st bump after getting out of the ropes. Structurally this was worked differently. We start off with a little back and forth. Around the 5 minute mark we get the shine sequence. This was good, and then we get the heat. I loved the finish of the cluster fuck where Jake sneaks in and DDT's Gibson for the win. Good stuff. 3 1/4*

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That Jake spot was amazing. Have the RnRs done that elsewhere? I don't remember ever seeing it. This was another match with a babyface chinlock that was a momentum killer. This time with Gibson doing it to Roberts. The heat on Morton was solid, though, and all of the heel communication was a blast. You don't think of Jake as a stooging heel but he was here.

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That spot with Jake tied up in the ropes while the RnRs pepper him with shots and the Barbarian scrambles around chasing shadows has stuck with me since I first watched this on the Mid-South set back in '08. It's an awesome spot, and I also don't remember seeing it any other time, which is weird because why would you not want to do that spot all the time? Loved Jake in this. All of his nasty sleazeball touched ruled, like stamping on Morton's fingers and yanking the tassels on Morton's tights so he couldn't scoot away to the corner. He was clearly directing traffic and carrying things for his team, to the point where I thought it was obvious enough that it might've been intentional. As in, Nord was blatantly looking to Jake for direction at points and made no real attempt to hide that, while Jake worked the whole thing as team leader directing his meat head buddy. I mean, Nord is obviously green as hell, but I thought it in a way it actively added to the match. Hectic finish run was really good as well, and you can't really go wrong with the finish. Pretty great match.

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I'm not sure how long after this was Jake's turn but Boesch talked about how he might have wanted the crowd's admiration for purely monetary reasons. THAT specific crowd wasn't going to cheer for anyone but the RnR (you can see the girls in the crowd and how concerned they were at points, etc), but the work itself had a lot of miscommunication and even more than that, just not being on the same page. Jake would want the tag after Barbarian got clowned a bit and Barbarian refused. Barbarian would have firm control, tag out, and Jake would lose it. Lots of little things, even before they crashed into each other a bunch at the end.

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I actually remember a few points where Barbarian was adamant he had things in hand (in a "he caught me once, but I've got it this time, don't sweat it" sense), though at the time I read that more as him wanting to "prove himself" rather than miscommunication or them not being on the same page*. Some of the things you mentioned might've stuck with me a little more if they never wound up winning in the end. Then I might've read it as "Jake's mind is elsewhere and he and Barbarian aren't on the same page, but the DDT is the DDT and got them out of trouble."

 

 

*by miscommunication I assume you mean that in a "working miscommunication spots" etc. sense?

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  • paul sosnowski changed the title to [1985-06-28-Houston Wrestling] Rock & Roll Express vs Jake Roberts & Barbarian

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