1980s Texas Set Ballot Discs 4-6

The next 3 discs of the Texas set took a bit longer to get through than the first 3. That's not to say the quality of the wrestling was significantly worse on these matches, it just felt like the feuds and storylines were a bit less engaging through these years than the beginning of the project. While the Garvin/Adams cage match is just about a lock for my top 5, their feud on a whole wore out its welcome. By the end of disc 6 The Dynamic Duo VS the Von Erichs feud is red hot, but it felt a bit slow developing. Still, the top 20 or so matches I've got ranked below were all great or bordering on it, and the set is still very engaging.

If Sunshine was the valet who blew me away on the first 3 discs, then the manager who turned me into a huge fan on the next 3 discs was Gary Hart. I had really only seen Gary during his stint managing the Great Muta previously, and never got a good sense of what he was about during that era. Here I completely understand his character, and much like Sunshine it's so different and compelling compared to what we usually see from this kind of manager. Gary isn't evil for the sake of evil, he doesn't yell and shout and make promises he can't keep. Gary is logical, cold, calculating, and a man of his word. You can tell that the crowd respects him as much as they hate him, which is no small feat for a heel manager.

Otherwise the top guys generally still look good to great, Flair continues to deliver when he comes through, and we get a trio of awesome tags from the Midnights and the Fantastics. The less said about Mike Von Erich the better, but he was carried to at least a couple good matches. Killer Khan continues his series of great matches from around the world throughout the 80s with a classic Texas DeathMatch against Terry Gordy. And personally my favorite matches on these projects are the ones you never see coming and totally win you over. On the NJPW set one of the best examples was Riki Choshu & Masa Saito VS George Takano & Super Strong Machine from 3/16/89, and although it's a very different match I couldn't help but think of it when I watched Iceman King Parsons & Brian Adias VS Super Destroyers from (1/30/84). Parsons has been good but not a favorite thus far, and I had little to no knowledge of Adias or the Super Destroyers coming in. But man did I love everything about that one.

Here's the first draft of my rankings of just the matches from discs 4-6. I'm putting my ballot together a bit differently this time around, with a few separate mini rankings that I'll then shuffle together like a deck of cards at the end. I think this will help me rank things from different years a bit better than I was able to towards the end of the NJPW project.

1. Jimmy Garvin vs. Chris Adams (Cage Match) (1/30/84)
2. Terry Gordy vs. Killer Khan (Texas Death Match; Special Guest Referee, Kerry Von Erich) (11/22/84)
3. Iceman King Parsons & Brian Adias vs. Super Destroyers (2/3 Falls) (1/30/84)
4. Terry Gordy vs. Kerry Von Erich (World Title Match) (5/7/84)
5. The Fantastics vs. Midnight Express (12/25/84)
6. The Fantastics vs. Midnight Express (1/11/85)
7. Gino Hernandez & Chris Adams vs. Kerry & Kevin Von Erich (Lumberjack Match) (2/22/85)
8. Kerry Von Erich vs. Michael Hayes (Loser Leaves Town Cage Match) (11/24/83)
9. Ric Flair vs. Chris Adams (2/3/84)
10. Michael Hayes & Jimmy Garvin vs. Mike Von Erich & Chris Adams (Penalty Box Match) (4/16/84)
11. Kevin Von Erich vs. Chris Adams (10/27/84)
12. Chris Adams vs. Kerry Von Erich (2/8/85)
13. Gino Hernandez & Chris Adams vs. Kerry & Kevin Von Erich (Texas Tornado Match) (3/22/85)
14. Ric Flair vs. Kerry Von Erich (5/11/84)
15. The Fantastics vs. Midnight Express (3/8/85)
16. The Fabulous Freebirds vs. The Von Erichs (Badstreet Match) (7/4/84)
17. Gino Hernandez, Chris Adams & Jake the Snake vs. Bobby Fulton, Mike & Kerry Von Erich (10/27/84)
18. The Freebirds vs. The Von Erichs (Six-man Elimination) (11/21/83)
19. Jimmy Garvin & Terry Gordy vs. Kerry Von Erich & Chris Adams (2/3 Falls) (11/28/83)
20. The Fabulous Freebirds vs. The Von Erichs (Bunkhouse Elimination Cage Match) (9/3/84)
21. Ric Flair vs. Kerry Von Erich (5/6/84)
22. Chris Adams & Stella Mae French vs. Jimmy Garvin & Precious (Losers Leaves Town Cage Match) (7/4/84)
23. Iceman King Parsons & Skip Young vs. Pretty Young Things (8/17/84)
24. Terry Gordy & Killer Khan vs. Chris Adams & Iceman King Parsons (5/18/84)
25. Iceman King Parsons vs. Chris Adams (10/8/84)
26. Gino Hernandez, Chris Adams & Jake the Snake vs. The Von Erichs (12/31/84)
27. Chris Adams vs. Jake The Snake (9/3/84)
28. Jimmy Garvin vs. Chris Adams (4/2/84)
29. Chris Adams vs. Kerry Von Erich (1/11/85)
30. Terry Gordy & Killer Khan vs. Kevin Von Erich & Chris Adams (7/6/84)
31. Kerry Von Erich vs. Terry Gordy (Lumberjack Match) (8/17/84)
32. Terry Gordy vs. Chris Adams (2/3 Falls) (11/12/83)
33. Jimmy Garvin vs. Chris Adams (4/15/84)
34. Iceman King Parsons vs. Buddy Roberts (12/12/83)
35. Gino Hernandez vs. Kevin Von Erich (8/17/84)
36. Ric Flair vs. Terry Gordy (1/11/85)
37. Iceman King Parsons & Chris Adams vs. Jimmy Garvin & Missing Link (3/2/84)
38. Dynamic Duo, Kamala, Rip Oliver, One Man Gang & Dr. Death vs. The Fabulous Freebirds & The Von Erichs (3/5 Falls) (5/5/85)
39. Gino Hernandez vs. Kerry Von Erich (7/20/84)
40. Iceman King Parsons vs. Gino Hernandez (7/6/84)
41. The Fabulous Freebirds vs. Kevin, Mike & Fritz Von Erich (Badstreet Match) (5/6/84)
42. Kamala, The Missing Link & Super Destroyer #2 vs. The Fabulous Freebirds (3/30/84)
43. Michael Hayes, Buddy Roberts, Jimmy Garvin & Killer Khan vs. Kevin Von Erich, Junkyard Dog, Chris Adams & Jules Strongbow (5/28/84)
44. Michael Hayes & Buddy Roberts vs. Mike Von Erich & Chris Adams (7/20/84)
45. Michael Hayes & Terry Gordy vs. Kamala & Missing Link (3/16/84)