I enjoyed CapitalTTruth's Fanpost Five Matches WWE Fans Should Watch, and in that spirit I decided to post this list of suggestions.

I still think mid-1980s Jim Crockett Promotions was the best pro wrestling ever, and believe it or not I did not ride a horse and buggy to the telegraph station to get their match results. They were on at 6:05pm Saturdays on WTBS, and I ate many a TV dinner, which is what we called roast turkey and cherry cobbler in those days, while positioned in front of their broadcasts.

I haven't rewatched every one of these matches in the last week, so my specific memory of them is variable, but I remember all the greatness. These are matches from a time when the story was always put before the moveset and bookers could take months or years to resolve feuds.

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Rick Steamboat and Jay Youngblood vs. Jack and Jerry Brisco, Starrcade '83

This match was on the first modern Supercard, and was for the World Tag-Team Championship. One team had a former world singles champion, and the other had a future world singles champion. And since that future world singles champion was Rick Steamboat, there was really no way for this match to fail. Plus you can see pre-WWE Jerry Brisco in action. Steamboat and Youngblood were an exciting young team, but sadly Youngblood died after a match less than two years later.

Magnum T.A. vs. Tully Blanchard, Great American Bash '85

This was the first "I Quit" match, and nothing the original ECW ever did was more violent or disturbing. This was a super-hot feud and these two guys beat the living daylights out of each other. Obviously this was not a very technical match but the hatred feels, and for all I know was, completely real.

Dusty Rhodes vs. Ric Flair, Great American Bash '86

This is my favorite match ever, and not just because my man Dusty took down Flair. Both men were veteran workers and they were both master storytellers. It's in no way an athletic showcase but it was for the NWA World Championship, which at that time Flair had held for over two years -- which was not considered a particularly lengthy title reign. The match was for the biggest prize in wrestling and it is a serious, weighty event. Also, when Dusty pins Flair the crowd goes absolutely freaking nuts.

War Games 1, Great American Bash '87

From the imagination of the great Virgil Runnels jr. comes the first War Games match. On one side, the Road Warriors (Hawk and Animal), the Superpowers (Dusty Rhodes and Nikita Koloff), and the Road Warriors' manager, Paul Ellering. On the other, the Four Horsemen! Flair, Blanchard, Lex Luger, and Arn Anderson, along with their manager J.J. Dillon. So basically you take all the wrestlers in all the hottest feuds in the organization and you throw them in a huge cage with "submission or surrender" the only victory condition. It was innovative and violent and it was a huge thing.

Road Warriors vs. Tully Blanchard and Arn Anderson, Starrcade '87

The end of this match is painfully, classically bad, but it's two of the greatest tag teams ever, both in their prime, battling for the world title at the biggest show of the year. Hawk and Animal are awesome and terrifying and Tully and Arn are clever and vicious. This was JCP's first PPV, but it was held outside of the promotion's traditional territory, and is generally considered to have been a bad night economically. Nonetheless the actual wrestling was great.

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I really wanted to get a Rock n' Roll Express - Midnight Express match in here, but none of their matches particularly stood out in my mind, probably because they were all good. Mid-'80s wrestling can look very different from what we see today, but at heart it's the same -- only better! The story is and always has been the most important part of pro wrestling.