10 Times Blood & Guts Made Wrestling AWESOME
9. Tully Blanchard Vs. Magnum TA (NWA Starrcade '85)
Even today, 35 years later, there isn't a major league wrestling cage match that doesn't look tame compared to Tully Blanchard vs. Magnum TA.
Magnum and Tully stooped to jarring levels of violence to draw an "I quit!" call from the other. This was a rugged, ugly war, not a minute of which looked scripted or choreographed, driven by a level of almost palpable hatred that can't be recreated in a wrestling environment like today's. Traditional holds and moves were eschewed for blunt punches, elbows, microphone shots, and guttural, agonised screams. A fight; not a match.
Its most famous moment came towards the end, as Blanchard broke a wooden chair to pieces then tried to skewer Magnum's eye with a jagged shard. The babyface blocked, reversed, and plunged it into the Horseman's own face, the flood of red intensifying. Simultaneously brutal, brilliant, awful, and awesome, it left nobody feeling good: not even the victor.
"Tully Blanchard, it shouldn't have been in any kind of 'I Quit' match," a bloodied Magnum said in his post-fight interview. "That isn't wrestling. That's what it took to get back what is rightfully mine."
Says it all.