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[1983-05-26-Southwest] Terry Funk vs Bob Orton Jr


Superstar Sleeze

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Terry Funk vs Bob Orton - Southwest 5/26/83 Southewest World Championship Tournament

 

Kudos to the modern guy who does commentary on this. He was not half bad and got the psychology over pretty well.

 

Holy shit! Why has no one talked about this match? Probably because it happened in Southwest! This may be the most logically progressive match I have ever seen. Like every move that one did to the other caused a reaction and had a consequence. It was a beautifully constructed narrative. Easily one of the best matches of 80s.

 

They start off with mutual respect deal and it is chippy, but respectful. Then Funk starts elbowing the back of the neck. Then he slaps Orton. That's the story of the early part of the match. Funk is disrespecting Orton and it backfires on him! Orton gets madder and madder. First Orton whips him into the corner hard and he goes to work on the back. Some of the best bearhug spots you will ever see and again Funk is using elbows and non-technical ways to get out. Finally, when Orton goes for a pin, Funk kicks out and LUNGES at him with a nasty JYD-style headbutt. It was one of the nastiest I have seen Funk throw. He throws two more nasty ones crawling at Orton hard. Orton takes a breather, but now Orton is fucking pissed. He gets in the ring and now he is slapping Funk. He throws Funk out hard right onto the Japanese photographer. Orton basically turns heel mid-match because Funk was being a dick to him! Plus we get two Orton control segments back to back that are totally friggin different!!! HOW COOL IS THAT! Funk's selling is so fucking awesome. Those Orton punches and Funk holding on for dear life on the apron. Holy shit!

BEST PART OF THE MATCH: Funk sort of half falls into Orton and half tries to attack him and Orton sees he is in a position for the piledriver and hits it for two. That's what I mean by logical progression.

Funk single leg pick up and just goes all out on the knee hoping to escape this match with the Spinning Toehold. Rake of the eyes because Orton is a douche. Funk is so sympathetic. Bang heads! HUGE Suplex Struggle! FUNK WINS TO EARN HIS CONTROL SEGMENT! God Bless this match! Funk works over the knee with a variety of toe holds, but is still out of it cant put Orton away. Orton crotches Funk on the top rope out of desperation. Orton is great in this. Orton brutalizing Funk with rights. SLUGFEST! We are getting it all. FUNK BALLSHOTS ORTON WITH HIS LEG! Perfect. Funk atomic drop and punches. Bell rings for a draw!!! NNNNNOOOOOOOOO!!! Still brawling!

 

I could have watched another 20 minutes of this easy. Nearly perfect wrestling. Only reason not to go ***** is it just does not feel complete. Like they had so much more to give. Awesome, awesome. ****3/4

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I really can't add anything to that review, you nailed it. This was just a great, physical struggle for wrestling supremacy.

 

One thing I want to say, in terms of the escalation and progression of the action, if you like that you should really watch all the World of Sport you can. Guys like Marty Jones, Pat Roach, Pete Roberts, Terry Rudge. Even Jimmy Breaks and Steve Grey. But the best WoS matches have that same kind of feeling, where you can see why one guy is reacting to a move in this way, that way, and you can see how the match unfolds as it does from the physical contest. Plus there's the awesome sense of progression, where it begins as a gentlemanly sporting contest, but then shit happens, someone goes too far or throws a punch or cheats or whatever, they retaliate and things escalate and eventually they find themselves in this nasty war throwing forearms and grinding and drawing blood and shit.

 

I guess my point in saying all this is that Funk vs Bob reminded me so much of a gritty British match, and that's high praise.

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Wow! Talk about a match that came out of nowhere. No need for a detailed review as Sleeze hit the nail on the head, but this match was a textbook example of escalation and progression. The clean start with contested lockups and attempts for control. The handshakes that soon became slaps. The wristlock and arm twists that became vicious elbows to the back of the neck by Funk or big bombs from Orton as Funk was draped over the apron. After delivering the scientific start and the brawling, they deliver the limb work as well with Funk's Spinning Toehold weakening the leg and playing a factor down the stretch. Like near falls? I do. We had a great one here on the Orton Piledriver, but they weren't overdone. It was a big moment in the match rather than part of any finisher spam that might take some out of the moment.

 

This was a real treat and one hell of a find as I'd never heard about this from even the most ardent Funk fans. I can't go quite as high as my man Sleeze given the finish, as those kind of snowflakes usually require a hot and convincing conclusion that builds upon the match, but we're splitting hairs here and this just below.

 

****1/2

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  • 2 months later...
  • GSR changed the title to [1983-05-26-Southwest] Terry Funk vs Bob Orton Jr
  • 11 months later...

I always wanted to see this even though Meltzer ripped this tournament in the newsletter at the time.

Funk and Orton are like dopplegangers at this time, so I really was excited for this; no wonder it finished as a draw (lame coinflip after the bell).

If I may nitpick, usually in heel vs heel, the fans will get behind one but these two guys kept selling as heels and the fans didn't choose a side. Front row looked bored because of the dynamic or maybe the lackluster torny.

Excellent technical match which progressed into a brawl. Just the characters didn't work for me. Problem is Orton couldn't be a face if he wanted to and 1983 Funk is top heel in the U.S.

 

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5 hours ago, War is Raw said:

I always wanted to see this even though Meltzer ripped this tournament in the newsletter at the time.

Funk and Orton are like dopplegangers at this time, so I really was excited for this; no wonder it finished as a draw (lame coinflip after the bell).

If I may nitpick, usually in heel vs heel, the fans will get behind one but these two guys kept selling as heels and the fans didn't choose a side. Front row looked bored because of the dynamic or maybe the lackluster torny.

Excellent technical match which progressed into a brawl. Just the characters didn't work for me. Problem is Orton couldn't be a face if he wanted to and 1983 Funk is top heel in the U.S.

 

Glad someone mentioned this. It's almost impossible to tell the two apart in this match at times, without looking at the tights. 

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  • 1 year later...

This progressed really well from a slow, drawn out technical battle to with Funk attacking the neck and then cranking on a headlock on Orton Jr before Orton fires back and is able to apply a tight bearhug of his own into a more scrappy fight with hard punches. I love how the heel and face roles switch constantly. Funk is disrespectful and violent early on but later Orton is willing to lay in some big punches to Funk while he’s on apron, not caring for the rules at all. Funk’s selling is tremendous. The classic wide eyed facial expressions, the staggering response to Orton’s punches. He puts Bob Orton over huge. Funk’s work on the leg is brilliantly worked into the match also.  Funk out of nowhere, just drops a knee onto Orton’s leg and attacks it, setting up the spinning toe hold. Orton’s selling is good in return. The final stretch of the match where both are throwing caution to the wind to get the win - Funk at one point hits a low blow - to get the win before the time limit expires. ****1/4

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  • 1 year later...

Everybody knows how great Terry Funk is, but more people need to show Bob Orton Jr. some love! The first half of this match is two pros putting on a mat classic, that is until Funk gets frustrated and slaps Orton! The hate slowly begins to creep in after that, with Orton returning the favor and slapping Funk. They start brawling and the bumping both men do after getting hit is a sight to behold.  Funk lands a low blow right in front of the referee during the final seconds, but I think the referee just happened to be in the wrong place, so I can't blame the wrestlers for that botch. The time limit expiring is a touch disappointing, but the action we got during the match makes up for that. ★★★★

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