Terry Gordy vs Bruiser Brody (WCWA, 5-4-1986)

WCWA 3rd Von Erich Memorial Parade of Champions, Irving, TX

This is a barbed wire match at Texas Stadium in front of 24,000-plus, an impressive number on the surface, but less than half of what they’d done for the first Von Erich Memorial Parade of Champions in ’84, honoring David. Still before the bottom truly fell out on Fritz & Co., as they would only do 5,000 in ’87 after Mike died, too.

Multiple folks worked multiple matches on this show, including Brody and Gordy, who did his and then went into Brody vs Rick Rude for the World Class title, which was followed by Gordy teaming with the other Freebirds to lose to Kerry Von Erich, Lance Von Erich, and Steve Simpson.

We’ve got barbed wire around the ropes, or near enough to the ropes at any rate. And it’s BARBED WIRE, in 1986, and that is wild for the time. It’s still pretty wild, I guess, when you shake off the desensitizing years.

This has Japanese commentary because this match is too violent for fragile American eyes. Brody is pacing around the ring as Gordy carefully climbs in, and they circle each other, these two genuine bulls ready to throw down and get nasty.

They lock it up, then fight in a wristlock trying to whip each other into the wire. Neither man goes and they have to hit the reset. Brody backs Gordy into the corner and they fight some, Gordy coming up and hammering a shot into Brody’s big ass head. They claw at each others long hair and walk around the ring. Brody gets Gordy against the ropes and bends him back, his neck hanging over the top rope near the wire.

Both continue to grab at the other man’s head as we see the open roof of Texas Stadium overhead from the ringside camera shot. Brody with some kicks to the gut and the scoop slam, dropping Gordy down in the middle of the ring. Gordy sent off the ropes, and Brody hits him with the big boot.

Brody looks to slam Gordy’s head off the top turnbuckle, but Gordy blocks with his foot. They grapple around some more near the ropes and thus the wire and Gordy goes to the eyes to ground Brody. Brody hangs on to a safe spot in the wire and Gordy stands over him, trying to drive him into it, and ultimately failing.

Right hand from Gordy, then more leaning against the ropes. Finally, Gordy gets the wire against Brody’s head and we’ve got some blood. I say “finally” but this has only been going on a few minutes. These type matches have a way of making time stand still.

Gordy cocks a right hand and then decides to hit a piledriver instead. He covers and gets a two count. More of Gordy putting Brody’s head into the wire, bloody, good camera shot again from ringside. Brody gets up and staggers about, Gordy right behind him. Brody starts fighting back with strikes, a bunch of kicks to the midsection, and Gordy backs down, walking across the ring, almost hopping a bit from the kicks.

Now Gordy tastes the barbed wire, first on one side of the ring, then on the other. Brody grinds the wire into Gordy’s flesh, then walks up and kicks him in the chest. Gordy, too, is bloody now, of course.

Brody kicks Gordy down almost as soon as he can stand. He walks over and punches Gordy on the top of the head, then Terry gets up and throws a couple haymaker right hands of his own, then a third. Brody barely budging, his hair flying with each shot. Brody back with more kicks and Gordy sells the shots big, then walks over to the corner and Brody chops and bites him.

Gordy backs away, putting his fists up like a drunk who’s somehow still standing after getting tagged outside the bar, before Brody whacks him again and puts him down.

Gordy meets wire again, Brody just torturing him with it in the corner. You get some “oohs” and “aahs” from the crowd for this stuff, and so they wander a moment, then go back to the ropes to do it again. Gordy turns around and goes to Brody’s eyes, but a corner whip is reversed.

Now, Gordy goes into his trunks, puts on some KNUX, and punches Brody in the gut. Brody staggers, stunned, falling across the ring before hitting the mat — and it’s hard, at least for me, not to imagine a similar scene in his last moments in Bayamón. He is stunned by the Gordy shot to the gut, never seeing it coming, first of all, and also because Gordy is wearing the KNUX, he is more surprised by the sudden extra power on Gordy’s shot. So he tries to stay up like he normally might from a Gordy punch to the gut, but it overwhelms him, and he falls across the ring and down to the canvas.

Gordy and the referee fight over the knux, then Gordy walks into a boot from Brody. Brody has the weapon now, cracks Gordy in the head, pins him — and that’s that.

Rating: 3/5. I feel so little from matches like this, even though I am meant to feel everything. The same goes for Brody-Abdullah walk-and-bleeds, which I enjoy to this exact level, basically. It’s Brody and Gordy so it’s pretty good at worst. Their every movement puts the barbed wire over as something dangerous that even these two big bad country motherfuckers don’t want much of anything to do with, but at the end of it all I am left feeling nothing over what I have watched, at least nothing beyond simply enjoyment for 7 or 9 minutes or however long this wound up going — which is plenty enough for me to be happy I watched the match, but not enough that I’m ever going to fuck with it again.