Bob Backlund vs Masked Superstar, Spectrum 1/21/84.

The timing of this match is kinda funny because both Backlund and Superstar were getting near the end of their respective runs in the WWF. Backlund had just lost the WWF title a few weeks ago, and both he and Superstar would be out of the territory before year's end. Superstar would actually be gone in a few weeks.

This isn't a great match, going over seventeen minutes and ending by countout. The first half of the match has both guys doing slow grappling, and the last half of the match is Backlund trying to get Superstar's mask off before getting dumped to ringside and losing by countout.

There is, however, a brief exciting moment in the middle of the match where Backlund rolls out to ringside and Superstar attacks him at the guard rail. 

What caught me about this moment was how good Superstar was at getting heat without being able to emote with his face because of his mask. When a wrestler is masked, he loses the ability to use facial expressions, one of the tools in the toolbox for generating heat. Superstar does a great job with his body language in this clip to glean heat from the crowd.

This wasn't a good match, but even in bouts like this one, Superstar was a great heel.

Happy birthday Bill Eadie.