What was the Junkyard Dog's best match?

[CM Steel]

With black history month now coming to a close. It will appear that the WWE will not run a BHM tribute on the WWE hall of famer the Junkyard Dog. He was also a pioneer in african-americans breaking ground for other african-american wrestler's to come up in the business. It's going upon 10 years since the late JYD was inducted into the WWE hall of fame. But in your own opinion. What was the Junkyard Dog's best match?

Mine would have to be the Junkyard Dog vs Greg "the Hammer" Valentine at the very first Wrestlemania in New York City for the IC title. It was a decent match between two guys who were apart of wrestling history that night at WM1. But JYD came up short in his match against the hammer for the IC strap.

What about yours?

 

[VencomHardcore]

He had a number of great matches but I would say the one he should be remembered for was the First ladder match against Jack the Snake. That match was groundbreaking although it happened in stampede.

I had the opportunity to see him wrestle many times as a Kid in the NWA. He always put on awesome tag matches with Jimmy Valliant. It was something about the similarity of styles that drove the crowds crazy. His WWE work was great but I loved his NWA era stuff more.

 

[enviousdominous]

Junkyard Dog was one of my early favorites as a kid, he had a really good connection with fans. He was used more like comedy relief in the WWF during his run there, WCW wasn't much better to him. He probably enjoyed being a fun part of the show, but he was a damn serious performer early in his career.

Thanks to the information age I can delve into parts of a performer's career that happened before I was ever born and have a new found appreciation for their hard work.

This is an obscure gem in the archives of pro-wrestling, Junkyard Dog's run as the Mid-South North American Champion when he took on his friend Ted DiBiase. Skip to 5:00 for the match.

[YOUTUBE]qBK0BXRZmSw[/YOUTUBE]

Check out the series of spots at 8:00, the powerslam and kickout at 10:16, epic selling at 10:35 and the epic heel turn at 11:15. I love this match because Junkyard Dog was allowed to carry himself like a benevolent super hero and it's one of his lesser known high points from his career.

 

[closet_fan]

JYD made a very brief run in 1989-1990 with, then, NWA. He had a program against Flair for the heavyweight title. By this time, JYD was past his prime. But Flair being Flair, he made JYD look better than he actually was by that point and got the most out of him during the match.

I wish I could find the video. It was an excellent match. One that really stands out to me compared to his WWF run.

 

[Fabulous Freebirds]

I have the legends of mid south DVD and there is a great match between JYD vs Butch Reed in a street fight. Well, a street fight in the sense that both guys were in street clothes. Nonetheless, great match.

 

[FlairFan2003]

JYD made a very brief run in 1989-1990 with, then, NWA. He had a program against Flair for the heavyweight title. By this time, JYD was past his prime. But Flair being Flair, he made JYD look better than he actually was by that point and got the most out of him during the match.

I wish I could find the video. It was an excellent match. One that really stands out to me compared to his WWF run.

That match you reference was at a Clash Of Champions, it was a pitiful 5 min squash match that ended with outside interference, I once saw it referred to as the Flair's worst match.

As for JYD, in terms of his best matches, you have to back to the NWA BEFORE his WWE run. WWE in general during the Hogan years would not let performers have longer or more physical matches because they would outshine Hogan, therefore you had a decade of fairly basic, average, short matches by the entire roster. The only time this really changed was during Savage's two title runs, two periods in which Hogan wasn't around. Even at WrestleMania it was odd to see more than one high quality match because you couldn't embarrass Hogan.

JYD vs Harley Race and Jimmy Valiant come to mind from his earlier days.

 

[justtxyank]

JYD made a very brief run in 1989-1990 with, then, NWA. He had a program against Flair for the heavyweight title. By this time, JYD was past his prime. But Flair being Flair, he made JYD look better than he actually was by that point and got the most out of him during the match.

I wish I could find the video. It was an excellent match. One that really stands out to me compared to his WWF run.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xc4wlp_junkyard-dog-vs-ric-flair_sport

Here is the video.

JYD was way past his prime and was terribly out of shape. It was probably better than his WWF work, but that's because this is still when WCW wanted matches that looked like real contests while the WWF was about fun shows.

JYD actually stuck around for a while longer than just 1990. He lasted with WCW until 1993 though it got worse and worse for him in terms of quality.

 

[GameOver]

one match comes to mind vs Jake The Snake the first ever televised Ladder Match for the time this was groundbreaking and JYD was still in shape. was in Stampede Wrestling in 1979