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Welcome back to Board 8's Match of the Week where me bidoof and iceman extend each other's wrestling horizons - and perhaps yours as well.

This week is our final topic of the year which always brings to mind one of my favorite subject - the year end awards. If you haven't voted in Board 8's version yet head on over and do so now. But to me its an exciting time to look back and take stock of the year that was.

So now we take advantage of matches that were once named Match of the Year to go back and take a snap shot at some of the best wrestling of yesteryear, at least according to the wrestling fans of that day.

Without further ado, come with me back to 1984 WWF.

Sergeant Slaughter vs The Iron Sheikh in The Boot Camp Match
(June 16, 1984, WWF Madison Square Garden Show)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBAIbpNnQYI

For some quick background let me set the stage - it's 1984 and Hulkamania is in its infancy - he had only just arrived in the WWF a few months prior to this matchup and Vincent Kennedy McMahon's vision for the territory was slowly coming to life. This feud between Slaughter and Sheikh arguably was the first of those moving parts by Vince. In late 83 and early 84, Backlund had been feuding off and on with the villainous and dastardly Drill Sergeant Slaughter in some months and the tricky and sleazy Iron Sheikh of Iran in others. The two had a stare off and a few words passing each other between matches and Sarge began his face turn as the patriotic military babyface with over the top mannerisms and such that fit in perfectly alongside the about the debut Hogan. It helped that it being 1984, the US was in the midst of the Iranian Hostage Crisis and the fans were hungry for a patriotic hero to take on the Iranian Iron Sheik. In the midst of Sheikh and Sarge's feud Sheikh actually upset Backlund and then promptly lost the title to Hogan which set up this situation where Sheikh was feuding with Hogan on one circuit and Sarge, as the new #2 babyface in the company, on the other.

This match was the culmination of a series of wars in which the Sheikh and Sarge's hatred for one another spilled out all over the place - complete with modern staples like brawling all over the arena and the brawls being so wild that the referees had to keep tossing the matches out. It all came to a head here - the Boot Camp match. Everything goes, everything is legal, falls count anywhere, there must be a winner by pinfall.

This match begins with a nice amount of pomp and circumstance with the band playing the Marine Corps anthem and Sarge comes running out to the ring decked in his combat helmet and just fucking nails Sheikh with it. You won't find any chain-wrestling or high spots in this one, but it is a fascinating snap shot into the way that early 80s plunder brawls went down. These guys are getting tossed all over, taking off their belts and whipping each other, they're using completely non-gimmicked chairs with fucking padding on them. Monsoon and Gene Okerlund are losing their shit on commentary and the way its shot honestly feels a lot more like a CMLL show than what we have come to expect from even classic WWF. The crowd is going bonkers and it feels like the fans are right on top of Sheikh and Sarge and exploding at every dramatic turn the match takes.

There's a little bit of silly stuff - they are obsessed with this loaded boot gimmick - but the brawl is intense and bloody and absolutely stands up to today's standards in spit of a bit of that 80s cheese permeating the whole affair. Definitely worth the watch, especially if you've never seen either of these men work in their primes like this.

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