Well Ya Wanna Catch A Saint

Johnny Saint VS Steve Grey - Joint Promotions 2/11/1981

CJD: Well if this match had been on my first ever Johnny Saint comp I'd have been in absolute heaven. This great generation of light heavyweights had lots of these fast paced, super athletic types of bouts. You'd get a different energy with a Rocco or a Breaks in there but a lot of the spots were very similar. Even if you've seen a bunch of this kind of match I still think this was something special. The way these guys are both able to improvise and adjust so flawlessly even within intricate sequences is mind blowing. And I think the psychology was sound too, with Saint trying to use leverage and grind the faster more explosive Grey, but still dancing with him step by step when the time was right. And even with a finish you could see coming a mile away they still had me biting and second guessing what would happen next. "How can there be a loser??" indeed, Kent Walton.

JJZ: This was an insane match buddy. The mastery Johnny and Steve display during this bout is ridiculous. The smoothness left you just saying to yourself, "In what world can they flow from move to move like this??" Flawless. I'm sure I've seen one fall British matches from this era before but I got excited when the ring announcer laid out the rules. Also, was it just me or did that ring give you Rocky 1 feels? I'm also pretty sure I've seen Bryan, Hero, Quackenbush and/or Claudio do almost all those moves before. It's amazing to think that those guys really helped bring this style back to life. I don't think I could ever get bored watching these matches.

CJD: It's funny you say that, because I've heard Regal say before that the highly technical British lightweight style evolved out of necessity due to them basically wrestling in tiny boxing rings. So big or physical bumps were few and far between. And I always love that about this style, how flat back bumps are treated like a big deal, and could believably knock the wind out for a 10 count. Glad you loved this one as much as I did!

Your Kiss Is On My List

Fit Finlay VS Johnny Saint - Joint Promotions 1/5/1988

JJZ:  I've watched several Fit Finlay matches that weren't bad but I was left disappointed. Matches against Jackie Turpin, Doink the Clown and Eddie Guerrero. All of them very different but each ended with me saying to myself I can play forward something better than this. After watching Johnny versus Fit I said, I can't wait to play this forward. Listen baby. This was pure entertainment. Saint and Finaly really play their roles to a level that needs to be studied. Fit and Paula have a tremendous little soap opera going on between rounds that actually had me laughing to myself. Johnny is so good man. I really never know what he is gonna do. Really hope you enjoy this one.

CJD: Man, that collection of Finlay matches you watched sounds like a trip. That's fun research even if you didn't unearth anything amazing. This match was actually one of the first Saint matches I ever saw, on a comp of his I got to better educate myself on 80s British wrestling. I was disappointed with this match at the time but I think it was because I didn't understand what a big deal catchweight matches were in the territory and what a disadvantage it was seen as. I also hadn't seen a lot of Finlay's more dastardly heel work and was hoping for more of the Bellfast Bruiser. Watching it again decades later I actually much prefer this version of Finlay's heel schtick to begging off, crossing his heart Dave Finlay. Princess Paula is fantastic here. This match accomplishes a lot without doing too too much. It endears Saint to the fans even more (when the one older woman helps pick him up is such classic British wrestling), it gets some of Finlay's offense over huge, and it really builds anticipation for what happens next for both guys. They didn't run a lot of angles or story driven feuds but this does leave you with a sense of "what now??" Really effective pro wrestling that I was just not quite ready for when I first watched. But I just might have some technical wizardry more along the lines of what I was expecting up the sleeve of my robe for you next week!