The Sheepherders (Butch Miller & Luke Williams) vs. The Invaders (I y III) (July 1986)

 

This is a taped match. Invaders spend the early part of the match working over Luke's left arm until the Sheeps double up Invader I to take the advantage. Sheeps rough up Invader I before he could get the hot tag to Invader III who runs wild working over a cut on Luke's head causing him to juice. The match breaks down into a 4-way with Miller posting Invader I then doubling up Invader III in the ring but he holds his own until he gets crotched on the top rope. Sheeps then hit the referee before giving Invader III a spike piledriver which brought back Invader I who ran wild before the numbers game caught up to him with Luke getting handcuffs but Invader steals them from him and starts pounding Butch bloody as the crowd goes nuts forcing Luke to attack him with the flagpole for the DQ. The Sheeps continued their attack after the match using the flagpole to "break" Invader III's arm. This wasn't pretty but it was a good brawl and I'm throwing it on the block.

Outstanding tag match, largely because it build logically and organically. It started with the general babyface control spots from the Invaders, working the arm. All standard, but well executed, with the Herders selling everything well. They take over with the old knee to the back off of the criss cross and they controlled the match with punches and cheating. Really liked some of the fist drops and there was one really strong cut off spot. Off the hot tag it looks like things might change up, but instead we get a really compelling final portion of the match as one of the Invader's gets bumped to the floor and another gets isolated. This "go it alone" theme sort of dominates from that point forward with each guy trying to save the other and failing. There is another great cut off on a double crotch spot from the Herders and all of the stuff with the foreign object and flagpole DQ finish was really well pieced together. Post-match flagpole shot to the arm looked absolutely brutal to. I like matches that escalate from one stage to the next, so this was a home run.

August 2, 1986 from Aguadilla. The Sheepherders would defeat the RPMs the next day for the World tag titles.

I loved the hell out of this. The early face shine arm work is some of my favorite face shine work especially if the heels sell it well which the Herders do here. The old criss cross knee to the back is always a good way to start heat sections. There wasn't much that the Herder's did offensively that was impressive or out of this world but they cheated, distracted the ref, and I loved the fist drops. That's plenty for an effective heat segment. The hot tag and everything after was outstanding. Both the Herders bleed including one getting busted open by first wrapped handcuffs. There was awesome punching and strike exchanges. There were some incredible heel double teaming spots with the other face tag partner coming in to make a valiant save. The crowd was awesome and so on and so forth. This was pretty fucking great. EASY nomination.