Nick Bockwinkel v. Sgt. Slaughter

 

Zbyszko is Bock's second. I really liked how they started this as Bock gives clean handshake, does a clean break, but then bitches when Slaughter makes a few clean escapes. He blames them on hair pulls and then goes to sucker Sarge in the corner but Sarge avoids. Bock hits an arm drag off of a collar and elbow and does the most pretentious possible celebratory spot imaginable and then follows it up with a hip toss which he follows up by sauntering around the ring. Bock ends up retreated into the arms of Larry after Sarge returns the same string of moves, plus a body slam. Sarge takes over on Bock's arm and Bock is really great leaning forward trying to alleviate the pressure. Sarge drags Bock over to the corner with his arm but Bock punches him in the back of the head on the break and starts hardcore heeling. Slaughter with a great sternum first turnbuckle bump, which Bock follows up with a piledriver for a nearfall. Bock goes for a second piledriver but Sarge back body drops out and hits his own piledriver. Boris Zhukov shows up at ringside as Slaughter gets a nearfall on a neckbreaker. Sarge gets punched in the guts coming off the rope and takes a leaping face plant bump off it before Bock boots him face first to the floor. Crowd starts chanting USA as Sarge fights back into the ring on his knees. Sarge fires up and hits an epic looking forearm that Bock takes a nice bump for. Bock locks on his sleeper but Slaughter escapes and hits his clothesline. Slaughter locks on the Cobra Clutch but drops the hold and chases Zhukov out of the ring for the countout. Really lame finish to an otherwise very good match.

 

Jimmy Garvin/Steve Regal v. Road Warriors

 

We have this already. Some what notable match for the switch but not really worth watching.

 

Road Warriors/Ellering promo post-title loss. We have this on one of the Warriors disc.

 

Greg Gagne v. Larry Zbyszko

 

This is the match with Larry attacking Bock with the knumchucks post-match. EXTRA.

 

Rick Martel v. Stan Hansen

 

This is the dugout brawl from Comiskey.

 

Rick Martel v. Terry Gordy

 

The opening exchanges with standing switches, a nice Gordy sunset flip, and Martel hitting a sweet Backlund roll up was really sweet and somewhat surprising. Martel goes to a headlock and really cranks it. Martel hits a nice headscissors take over and they do a cool spot with Gordy flipping forward on a headscissors and slowly easing his way into an escape only to get trapped right back into the headscissors after going for a quick headlock. Gordy goes for another break but gets kicked off, monkey flipped and taken down with a headlock. Gordy forces Martel into a corner and hits some quick blows, but gets caught with a crossbody and trapped back into the headlock. Gordy gets back up again and ends up hitting a semi-flubbed cross body though the camera angle sort of protected it and Bock did a good job covering it on commentary. Weird moment as Martel gets tossed off on a headlock awkwardly and ends up eating a huge cross body for a nearfall. Gordy gets caught in another headlock and finally says "fuck this" and hits a back drop driver to break the hold. Really awesome snap suplex from Gordy for a nearfall. Gordy with a nice side slam and takes over with a neck crank of all things. Martel starts to fight back but gets caught with another nice side slam. They actually repeat this sequence again a few minutes later which is either thematic or lazy depending on your perspective. Gordy hits a neckbreaker for a nearfall and goes back to his reverse chinlock. Gordy goes for another side slam but Martel back flips through and rattles off a string of offense. Just as Martel hits a suplex the bell rings and it is a time limit draw. Post-match the Birds come back out and they ambush Martel, but Martel evades them and cleans house.

 

Mongolian Stomper/Nord The Barbarian/Boris Zhukov v. Curt Hennig/Jerry Blackwell/Sgt. Slaughter

 

Man when Blackwell tags in the fucking place explodes. This is old and gray Blackwell and he is still great firing up the crowd, avalanching dudes, et. Stomper gets isolated briefly and eats a nice dropkick from Hennig. Nord comes in and kicks Hennig's head off. Nord gets whipped into the corner and just tags in to Boris which was bizarre. Slaughter ends up isolated and blades off of a post shot. Sarge FIP is really short and he tags out after a dropkick of all things. Zhukov takes one of the phoniest looking bumps I've ever seen. Blackwell tags in after a brief Hennig in peril section and he throws a series of rapid fire punches that are among the best I've ever seen. Shit ends up breaking down and Blackwell drags Adnan in and they ring the bell. Blackwell is god in this but this is so disjointed I can't endorse it.

 

Post-match babyface interview

 

Highlight package of Blackwell feud with Adnan

 

Sitdown interview with Jerry Blackwell. Pretty great promo that Blackwell cuts on Brody for their "blowoff."

 

The angle with Gagne being dragged from the commentary both by Brody before a scheduled match with Blackwell. I have this tagged as an EXTRA elsewhere.

 

David Sammartino v. Stan Hansen

 

Hansen chopping the shit out of David, rubbing his forearm across his face, stiffing him with kneedrops, et. was fun. David working the arm? Not so much. Hansen just tossing David onto the front row almost seemed unnecessarily dickish. This went really long and the longer it went on the more impressive I felt the match was, but Sammartino was so boring on offense that I can't really go to bat for this. Though Hansen's dropkick was fucking awesome.

Nick Bockwinnkel vs. Sgt. Slaughter (October 1985)

 

Zbyszko is seconding Nick so Sarge is on alert from the start. This starts out scientifc with handshakes and the like but Bock complains about a hair pull and tries to sucker punch him on the ropes which changes Bock's attitude. Bock hits a hiptoss which he prances around the ring in happiness but Sarge comes back with some slams sending him scurrying to the floor right to Zbyszko. Sarge works over Bock's left arm before Bock catches him in the corner where he smashed his head a few times before aggressively going on offense. Nothing fancy here as Bock just takes it to him before hitting a piledriver for a nearfall but got countered on a second attempt leading to a Sarge comeback where he hit a piledriver of his own. Sarge gets a nearfall as Bock puts his foot on the rope which brings out Boris Zuhkov who distracts Sarge as he tries to put away Bock. Bock would hit some punches sending Sarge to the floor at Zuhkov's feet with fans chanting USA as Bock cuts off Sarge from coming back numerous times until he finally fights his way back in the ring. Bock keeps pounding on Sarge but he would make another comeback where he clobbers Bock until he gets raked in the eyes leading to a Bock sleeper hold. Sarge would ram Bock into the corner to break free before hitting the Slaughter Cannon leading to the Cobra Clutch which brings Boris on the apron making Sarge chase him out of the building to get counted out. Sarge would come back though and pounded both Bock & Larry until they left to please the fans. Cheap finish but a fun little match and a low-end pick at best.

 

Greg Gagne vs. Larry Zbyszko (November 1985)

 

Greg is rockin the camo shirt still but is back in his yellow tiedye tights. Larry is swinging the nunchux here so Gagne comes in with a chair to counter that. Some decent back and forth action to start with Larry doing a good job of making Greg look good with his bumping and selling. Greg takes a hard bump through the ropes to the floor and Larry attacks him everytime he tries to come back in the ring until Greg catches him with a shoulderblock through the ropes. Greg comes back in a house of fire with dropkicks sending Larry to the floor who grabs the nunchux and uses them on Greg for the DQ which brings up Bock from the announce table who tries to stop Larry until he gets hit with the nunchux along with Dick Woehrle as Larry stands tall until he gets ran out of the ring by the babyfaces. Good angle by AWA standards and should be an extra for sure.

 

AWA World Heavyweight Title: Rick Martel © vs. Terry "Bamm Bamm" Gordy (November 1985)

 

Dick Woehrle kicks out Michael & Buddy before the match making this one-on-one and they start at a rapid pace with a quick nearfall a piece. They would continue the fast pace while trading the advantage with Martel trying to keep Gordy grounded and Gordy trying to use power moves. Gordy has his bumping shoes on and pinballs around for Martel even trying to jump up on the second rope after being thrown in the corner to hit a splash but he would trip up hitting the splash anyway awkwardly but they would recover with Martel going back to a grounded headlock. Martel is very spunky here taking it to Gordy until he gets dropped hard on a German Suplex giving Gordy the advantage. Gordy works over Martel's neck and he's weakening Martel but the time is short here and Martel fires up with less than a minute left just giving Gordy everything he has as the crowd goes nuts. Time runs out as they battle but they keep it up after the bell rings until Michael & Buddy shows up to make it 3-on-1 but Martel makes his own comeback and leaves the ring on his own terms. Damn good match and a shame it wasn't longer as they sped up the comeback sequence to get to the draw. Solid nomination.

 

Crusher Blackwell, Curt Hennig, & Sgt. Slaughter vs. Boris Zuhkov, Mongolian Stomper, & Nord the Barbarian (1/24/86)

 

The fans are apeshit for Blackwell here as he splashes the heels and the faces start strong working over Stomper but Hennig would get caught and he took some punishment but he fought back before tagging in Sarge who would soon work as FIP even getting posted by Stomper bringing out the juice. Curt would get the hot tag and showed some fire before the match just slowed down with Hennig getting worked over before Blackwell came back in to bring back the excitement as he attacked all the heels before it broke down to a 6-way brawl and Blackwell bringing in Adnan prompting the referee to call for a DDQ as the brawl continued. Blackwell was really fun here.

 

Then we get some background on the Blackwell/Adnan/Brody feud along with Greg Gagne getting involved and this was really good stuff.

 

AWA World Heavyweight Title: Stan "The Lariat" Hansen © vs. David Sammartino (February 1986)

 

The story here is that David is getting revenge for his father but he ain't Bruno that's for sure. Hansen looks great here in everything he did on offense and just laid in the shots on David which looked like they had a little extra pepper on them. David wasn't that good here and this match went longer than it should have because it was a title match but if David wasn't so boring it would've been better. Hansen would eventually nuke David with a lariat to win.