The Final Conflict: How a Tag Match Breaks Down

In the opening moments of this tag title bout, it’s easy to forget that it’s a cage match. Despite commentary’s insistence that there’s no holds barred and anything goes, this starts rather civilized. That’s not an inherent flaw. Many matches that have incredibly heated build ups open up slower than expected. In some contexts, it works, in others it doesn’t.

As far as The Final Conflict goes, it makes sense for the match to start off a little cautious. From a narrative standpoint, the babyfaces might need to temper their thirst for revenge with a little care as their tenure as a tag team is at risk here. Commentary points out that despite being the challengers, Steamboat and Youngblood might just have more to lose in this match than the champions.

That being said, it does take a while for this to get going. While the babyfaces do control much of the early match, it’s not wrestled in the explosive and flashy style of the southern tags that would follow later on in the 80s. Steamboat and Youngblood eschew the big bumping and high octane action of the likes of The Rock ‘N’ Roll Express for something more grounded. In fact, much of the first ten or so minutes is built around simply grounding Kernodle with a very persistent series of headlocks.

I have espoused the value of an extended headlock sequence on this very newsletter before, but Don Kernodle is no Antonio Inoki. There’s not a lot of very interesting struggle around that headlock outside of the occasional tug of the hair. Steamboat and Youngblood tag in and out just enough to keep the action going though, and they throw in these real slick headlock takeovers throughout, but the actual work on the mat itself does leave a little to be desired.

Luckily, Sgt. Slaughter brings the heat in this.

As we’ve discussed previously, Slaughter’s an absolute natural playing a heel getting his comeuppance in a gimmick match like this. The bumps he starts taking immediately electrify in a way that nothing in the match previously has. So much of it has to do with his size too, he just has so much weight to throw behind every single bump. He throws himself into the walls of the cage, either going face first into the steel or even taking a delightful back bump into the cage wall over the ropes.

It’s after the heels get to start tagging in and out that things start to progress. The referee has a harder time keeping things in check once the bodies start flying around into the steel. It’s also noteworthy that the creativity of the match becomes clearer here too. All four men find great ways to emphasize each moment of impact against the steel. They often come as a result of dodging an attack or a manipulation of momentum. It’s rare for someone to just be rammed into the steel straight out, there’s a real cleverness to how they ensure everyone gets punished here.

The final third of the match also benefits from blood beginning to flow. The babyfaces probably could have benefitted from a little bit more of color on them, but Slaughter’s an expereinced hand at this kind of thing. He starts flowing pretty immediately, and by the time all four men are bleeding it’s a pretty good time all throughout.

By the end, it falls just on the right side of great. Held together by a sensible structure, if not exactly the one I would have chosen for this match, and also bumps and bleeding. Bad guys leaking is always welcome in my pro wrestling.

Rating: ***3/4