Skull Murphy v Alan Kilby
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What a difference when you get two pros who are prepared to take some stick in the interests of a good hard bout.
The afternoon changed gear as these two fought out a semi-final to face Johnny Wilson in the final of the 1984 Grand Prix, having previously wrestled to a one fall apiece draw in Manchester six weeks earlier.
As the intros were made we had scary close-ups of two scarred fizzogs, all cuts and black eyes. Two battered angels on a coffin belying the risks top-liners took on a daily basis to bring some electricity to wrestling shows up and down the land.
Referee Peter Szakacs displayed the Grand Prix belt for everyone to see.This bout was a combination of skill, impact, aggression and nerve. If you’re trying to convert a friend or family member to pro wrestling, show them this.
The two scores were great. There looked no way out at all from Murphy’s gator submission. And Kilby’s flying headbutt and savatte kick actually had clout rather than token placement.
Murphy was in truth as guilty as Kidd and Beck in the preceding bout of being slow in ceding the fall, the difference here being Kilby was faster in getting in once offered the opening, which rendered the whole manoeuvre enjoyable, believable and spectacular.
In this match, every contact was hard, every slam shook the ring. We noted yet again that in spite of all his skulls and crossbones, Murphy didn’t actually break many rules.
Maybe he was just on best behaviour today because he was destined to progress to the final thanks to a points victory. Nice to see Roy Harding go out on a high.
But the request by Kilby to know “How long left?” was met with the either hilarious or deplorable timekeeper’s announcement of “45 seconds” – scarcely useful to a deaf wrestler.
Note: This was one of our original Armchair Corner reviews. Later works became much lengthier, but we leave it in its original form as a measure of the site’s development. We wrote this in 2007 and added the photos in 2011.
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