The Spur Match

Arizona was "hardcore" before everybody else and his brother started brawling and added this word to the profession's jargon. I do not recall the date, but out of the many bloodbaths I saw in Arizona, one of the worst was a Texas Spur Bout (Why a "Texas" spur and not an "Arizona" one is a mystery of the ages) between Chris Colt and Tito Montez. It would have been sometime in the early 1970s.

Someplace I still have photos of this, including one final shot of Tito Montez looking anything but a winner, leaning against the ropes with blood all over him and the spur in his hand.

The irony is this match solved nothing, for Montez and Colt had been going at it since 1968 or so and would continue to hammer each other long afterward.

I do not remember the reason for the bout. These two didn't need a reason.

As with most main events in Arizona from the 1920s through the 1990s, this match was 2/3 falls. A spur hung on a pole over one of the turnbuckles and of course, much time was spent trying to get at it.

I seem to think Colt got it first, then lost it and after bloodying Montez, ended up bleeding himself.  They traded falls, but in the final moments of the match, Montez won the third pin with a sunset flip.

By that time the combatants and the ring were covered with blood in a match that would have put ECW to shame.

Colt ran to the locker room, with fans still throwing garbage at him and calling him names, which serves to show just how much "heat" he had in Phoenix. In other places, having been bloodied and beaten down like this would have killed him off in the eyes of the audience, but in his case he was sodetested, thew crowd still wanted him hurt worse.

It was back to the drawing board for the bad guy. As he beat a  quick exit, Tito stayed to relish his win, while the crowd roared.

For a moment anyway, good had triumphed over evil.

I am trying to remember the undercard as well, but cannot recall too much as this main event overshadowed everyone. I seem to think Spike Jones, Rudy Navarro, Paul Harvey and Nano Ortega were there.  Spike and Nano might have faced each other.  

Then, maybe they didn't.