Light Up The Sky Like A Flame

Randy Savage VS Ron Garvin - ICW Steel Cage Match 1982/1983

JJZ: Right off the bat the commentary is trash cans. As for the match, it's different than I expected but totally won me over by the end. It was more of a fight than a match honestly. A back and forth slugfest. Everything was super snug and hit with intention. The build to get to the piledriver  by both guys was really well done and the payoff was so well executed. Love the finish. There was a few moments that I thought to myself "I ain't playing this one forward!" but something about it really spoke to me. I dunno man, maybe this is a swing and a miss but I think these guys told the story they intended to.

CJD: Put some respect on Leaping Lanny's name! His commentary isn't exactly edge of your seat here, but for something clearly recorded in post (and not pretending otherwise) I thought it was a perfectly fine piece of business. John I can see why you'd second guess playing this match forward. It is slow for the first 5 minutes or so, no doubt. There's a weird hybrid of amateur wrestling and something that almost resembles what would become MMA? Catch wrestling maybe to an extent? And it's interesting, but not exactly the most engaging. But man, this match is so well executed overall, to borrow one of your comments. This is 1982 or 1983 (I don't think a firm date has been established, which is crazy). ICW was supposedly way ahead of its time but really think about that. The entrance music, the big cage blow off, the top rope moves, the super violent nature of it. It's not so much that nobody else was doing any of this stuff, World Class was certainly right there with them. But this is state of the art for the time. It might not have been a homerun but it's a triple that knocks in 3 ribbies. Sorry to use a baseball metaphor after the Phils heartbreaking loss. This match does so much right, including that fucking note perfect finish, that I'd sit through 10, 15, hell 20 minutes of slow burn grappling. This is a piece of pro wrestling history I was totally unaware of, and I'm so glad you brought it to my attention!!