Dusty Rhodes vs. Harley Race 12/17/79

Where: New York, NY

Backstory:

I make it policy to put the city and state for where a match is taking place, but Madison Square Garden is a such a huge place for wrestling that I slipped and wrote that instead. Anyone reading this blog probably has a great match they loved that took place at MSG.

While the WWE/WWF/WWWE always had a stronghold there, they used to bring in outside talent for their shows before they transformed into a national promotion. This show had Dusty Rhodes, who worked mainly out Florida, but became a huge star during his feud against Superstar Billy Graham. Bret Hart pointed out in his autobiography that the New York crowd was used to, and preferred big musclular guys that relied more on showmanship than solid technial ability. This worked perfectly to Dusty's advantage as he used his insane charisma to win over crowds that ordinarly would have thought he didn't bring a lot to the table as far as looks or ringwork.

His opponent tonight was the NWA World Champion, Harley Race. For those that aren't familiar with the NWA, they were an alliance of many small regional promotions that all worked together to protect their company. The NWA champion was the top guy, and would travel all over the world. It was a great concept at the time, and made those dream matches that are so hard to find in this era of wrestling.

Vince McMahon (without absolute power over North American wrestling) is the announcer and tells the crowd that this is the rubber match as both men have traded the World Title in their last two encounters.

In Ring Analysis:

Dusty stars with some flamboyant trash talking, and dances around the ring like a boxer. He has probably taken a lot of his character from Muhammed Ali. The much less showy Race just stands there and does not respond. They lock-up and Race gets the first shot, but Dusty comes back with a flurry of showy punches that look really cool, but use a lot of wasted motion.

Dusty then poses to the crowd to get them into the action. The lockup again, and Race gets a side headlock, and hits a running shoulderblock off the ropes. Race runs the ropes again and gets back body dropped for 2.

Rhodes then gets a headlockand the match slows down. Race fights out of it and has a suplex attempt reversed into an atomic drop. Rhodes gets a two count again as his foot is on the ropes. I feel its a little eary to go for pinfalls after back body drops, elbow drops and atomic drops, but Dusty is limited and is using this to stretch the match out without having to do too much action.

Rhodes gets another headlock, and Race throws him into the ropes. Race gets him up for a bodyslam but Dusty is too heavy and Race falls back for another 2 count. Race gets back on track with some knees to the gut and punches. He misses is headbutt drop, and Rhodes comes back with an elbow drop and a front facelock.

So far I find this match to be very very plodding. It was almost 30 years ago, so the style is different. Race fights up from the front facelock, and tries another suplex attempt, but Rhodes is too big. Dusty does a great job of interacting with the crowd to show that he's too big for Harley to lift him up. Dusty's size limiting Race's offense is becoming a theme for the night. Dusty hits his own suplex while the crowd applauds. Rhodes misses an elbow drop, but Race misses another headbutt attempt. Race has always said that was a bad move to do physically, so to do it twice in one match must have hurt.

Dusty back to the front face lock, but Races gets him in the corner and starts laying in the shots. Race irish whips Dusty into the turnbuckle, but Dusty reverses and take the over the top rope bump that Triple H, Sgt. Slaughter and Chyna all liked to use at various points of their career.

Rhodes gets him back in and hits him with a piledriver which was a finishing move back then. Race gets his foot on the ropes as he goes for the pinfall. Race comes back with a headbutt to the gut and 2 to the head. Race then measures Dusty for a stiff looking footstomp and knee drop. Out of nowhere Rhodes does a super human comeback and stands up. He does his flamboyant moves to let Race and the crowd know that he's okay. This is pretty much the Hulk Hogan comeback before there was a Hulk Hogan comeback.

Rhodes takes Race down and goes for another cover for a 2 count. Race hits Rhodes with another headbutt, and finally gets a suplex on Rhodes. Race then goes to the second ropes and hits a diving headbutt. Unlike Chris Benoit his was much less reckless. He then goes to the second rope and hits a knee drop which draws blood from Rhodes.

Race then works on the head with punches, and rams him headfirst into the ringpost. Dusty then gets fired up and makes another big comeback which is much less about showmanship. The referee tries to stop Rhodes to see if his cut is too bad to continue, but Dusty is relentless. Both men butt heads together after running the ropes and their both down.

Winner by ref stoppage in 13:20: Harley Race **

Afterwards Dusty gets back in the ring to fight which makes the ref stoppage look kind of silly for pro wrestling. The crowd hates the finish as they chant the standard profanities for such an occasion. I know you have to find ways to keep a feud going, but at MSG, they might have wanted something a little more definitive.

Overall the match was okay, but I was a little disappointed in Race. I kind of got what I expected from Rhodes, but Race seemed to work down to his level. I will know his style better when I watch more of his matches, but overall this was a disappointment to me in several ways.