July 1980

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Nick Bockwinkel has been AWA World Champion since November 8, 1975. He will lose it eight days after this to Verne Gagne in Chicago (7/18/80). Well, I thought this was complete, but there is a "5 Minutes" call at 23 seconds of the footage. Arrgh...it's JIP and clipped!!!! Mean Gene Okerlund is doing commentary from ringside. He mentions that Bobby Heenan was run out of the arena by Greg Gagne during the opening of this match. The special referee is Buck Zumhofe. We start the footage with a lockup, Bockwinkel with a hiptoss. They tie up again, Bockwinkel pulls Bravo's hair and sends him into the ropes, this time Bravo gets a hiptoss and Bockwinkel rolls outside t…

1980-07-12 PNW Rick Martel (c) vs. Ed Wiskoski NWA Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Title Best Two Out Of Three Falls Match Sports Arena, Portland, Oregon, USA Card ★★★ Ed got to stretch his legs here with a singles title match. They worked this around Wiskoski retaining control around a front facelock hold. Martel repeatedly hit offensive moves but Wiskoski would keep that hold locked on. Eventually Martel managed a second big suplex to dislodge himself from Wiskoski’s grasp. They built to that relatively simple spot so well that it had much more impact than it should have had. Martel took control and started the beatdown on Wiskoski. His selling was still …

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IWA World Heavyweight Champion Rusher Kimura vs Spike Huber -IWE 7/20/80 IWE is mostly famous for two matches: Strong Kobayashi vs Andre The Giant and Verne Gagne vs Billy Robinson. Its main star from 1975 until it closed in 1981 was Rusher Kimura, who I dont think I have ever seen wrestle. I am coming off watching a lot of St. Louis footage and look who it is, Spike Huber! If you have watched a Spike Huber match, you have heard it a million times he is the son-in-law of Dick The Bruiser. I shit you not, I hear the Japanese commentators say "Spike Huber" then some Japanese and then distinctly "Bruiser" I really hope they were saying he was the son-in-law of Dick…

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1980-07-26 WWF Larry Zbyszko vs Ivan Putski Philadelphia Spectrum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA Card ★★★ Little over five minutes in total but absolute non-stop action. Putski was a madman here. He looked coked off his tits before the match even began. Even before Larry had even made his way to the ring. And once the match did get underway he went full steam at Larry and just battered him for 3-4 minutes. He was a complete powerhouse and his stuff looked like it was killing Larry. This certainly was a match where the commentary added value. These are the usual duo for the Spectrum shows at this time but I’m not sure either man knows much about wrestli…

1980-07-XX AJW Jackie Sato vs Mami Kumano Best Two Out Of Three Falls Match ★★ This was an excellent performance from Jackie Sato. Easily the best she’s looked all year. Kumano as well gave a fine heel performance, however this match overall was dragged down by everything surrounding it. The ring was surrounded by a number of other wrestlers, including Monster Ripper, Kumano’s partner Ikeshita and Tomi Aoyama, a key babyface in the company. The heel wrestlers seemed to have carte blanche to do basically whatever they liked at any time. The second fall finished with Monster Ripper hauling Jackie into a Fireman’s Carry and then lugging her around the outside…

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