Posted January 19, 201114 yr comment_5462260 Finish of Adonis v. Brunzell with Jesse helping Adonis win. Angle with East West/Blackwell destroying Hogan. East West Connection/Jerry Blackwell v. High Flyers/Hulk Hogan Basically a chaotic finish that is shown. East West Connection v. High Flyers This was nominated from one of the Adonis discs. Ventura/Adonis narrates the finish run of another East West/High Flyers match East West Connection promo. Really good spirited promo by Jesse alleging a conspiracy. High Flyers interview Lee Marshall narrates package on the High Flyers Clips of Crusher/Bruiser v. East West East West Connection v. High Flyers JIP. There is a little bit more than half of a match and it lacks the arc you would want on a super high end match but I think this is good enough to nominate anyhow. Adonis takes a couple of massive bumps into the turnbuckles here, Brunzell hits some really nice shit as well. Gagne and Ventura are really just there but neither guy is offensive. Really did like the finishing run a good bit as they did a good teased piledriver spot and the High Flyers end up falling victim to a sick spike piledriver behind the refs back. More "out of control" than a a standard formula tag, but still good stuff. East West Connection v. High Flyers JIP. Man Brunzell throws a good forearm. Cool face plant bump from Adonis that I'd not seen before. Brunzell gets spike piledriven again to take the fall. Nowhere near enough shown here to nominate. East West Connection interview East West Connection interview High Flyers interview East West Connection interview High Flyers interview Clips of East West v. High Flyers East West Connection behind a steel cage grate, with clips of the finish from the previous show playing over them. EXTRA East West Connection interview behind the cage again. High Flyers promo behind the Cage. High Flyers v. East West Connection (Cage Match) I have watched this already several times but am rewatching it here. This seems like it might be a more full version, but maybe I'm crazy. I know it picks up about six minutes in or so. Jesse blades early as the heels are getting battered all over. Adonis takes a ridiculous twisting face first bump into the cage off of a dropkick. Faces are dominating until Brunzell misses a dropkick with Adonis desperately hanging onto the ropes to avoid it. Brunzell gets busted open. Brunzell does a good FIP here as you really feel for him even though the heels don't hit THAT much stuff on him. Good cut off with Adonis going into the cage and Brunzell's legs buckling on a slam for a heel nearfall. Nice rope running spot and Adonis takes another crazy face bump into the cage off of a dropkick to set up the hot tag. Gagne locks a sleeper on Adonis but Ventura hits him with a foreign object. Great finish with Adonis missing the leap off the top of the cage. This is probably almost exactly half a match, but the more I think about it the more I feel like this pretty much has to be on the set. Hulk Hogan interview announcing Andre as his mystery partner EXTRA East West/Blackwell interview reacting to announcement of Andre as mystery partner EXTRA Hulk Hogan/Andre The Giant v. East West Connection/Jerry Blackwell We already have this. East West Connection v. Kenny Jay/George Guradasky(?) Man Adonis was a lot of fun on the mat. Gotta love the crowd getting amped for Kenny Jay when he tagged in. Awesome moment as Jay actually takes the first fall with a nice sunset flip on Adonis. Adonis comes out for the second fall pissed and Jay is taking Adonis style spinning bumps off punches, as Adonis just tears into him. Great nearfall for Jay as he hits a sunset flip on Ventura, but Adonis makes the save. East West go ballistic and beat the shit out of the ref and hit a spike piledriver on Jay. Face locker room empties and Karbo comes out freaking out. EXTRA East West Connection interview Dominic Denucci/Tony Parisi v. East West Connection Where is this from? Don't think it's the AWA.
January 19, 201114 yr comment_5462265 Ventura/Adonis narrates the finish run of another East West/High Flyers match This is a clip of the Flyers regaining the tag titles from Green Bay. Ventura and Adonis are pointing out how the Flyers cheated, as I remember. That match only exists in clip form. East West Connection v. High Flyers JIP. There is a little bit more than half of a match and it lacks the arc you would want on a super high end match but I think this is good enough to nominate anyhow. Adonis takes a couple of massive bumps into the turnbuckles here, Brunzell hits some really nice shit as well. Gagne and Ventura are really just there but neither guy is offensive. Really did like the finishing run a good bit as they did a good teased piledriver spot and the High Flyers end up falling victim to a sick spike piledriver behind the refs back. More "out of control" than a a standard formula tag, but still good stuff. This was a non-title match after the Flyers had regained the titles. This one is the Minneapolis match, the other spike-piledriver ending is the Winnipeg one. East West Connection v. Kenny Jay/George Guradasky(?) Man Adonis was a lot of fun on the mat. Gotta love the crowd getting amped for Kenny Jay when he tagged in. Awesome moment as Jay actually takes the first fall with a nice sunset flip on Adonis. Adonis comes out for the second fall pissed and Jay is taking Adonis style spinning bumps off punches, as Adonis just tears into him. Great nearfall for Jay as he hits a sunset flip on Ventura, but Adonis makes the save. East West go ballistic and beat the shit out of the ref and hit a spike piledriver on Jay. Face locker room empties and Karbo comes out freaking out. EXTRA It's George "Scrap-Iron" Gadaski. This match was done to get the Connection suspended from the AWA. It happened in the first week of December 1981, and Jesse and Adrian wwere already working in the WWF at this point, going back and forth between the two promotions. Adonis got a title match at MSG a little more than a month later. Ahhhhh, the Kayfabe era! Gotta love stuff like that. Dominic Denucci/Tony Parisi v. East West Connection Where is this from? Don't think it's the AWA. Bonus match from Maple Leaf Gardens, in around the late 1981 time frame again. Also FWIW that Vachon/Gagne vs. Ventura/Adonis match on disc 1 is all that has ever been shown of it, be it on regular AWA TV or WWE 24/7.
January 12, 201213 yr comment_5492179 Just hitting the nominees here. The East-West Connection ("Golden Boy" Adrian Adonis & Jesse "The Body" Ventura) vs. The Hi-Flyers ("Jumpin" Jim Brunzell & Greg Gagne) (8/9/81) This is a non-title match that looks deeply JIP which was a shame because what we had was really good. If we would've had more it would've been a nomination. Steel Cage Match: The Hi-Flyers ("Jumpin" Jim Brunzell & Greg Gagne) vs. The East-West Connection ("Golden Boy" Adrian Adonis & Jesse "The Body" Ventura) (10/25/81) Yeah this may be JIP but this is one of those iconic matches from the AWA in the 80's and we get a good at least 75% of it here so I think it must be on the set as a nomination as a slam dunk.
June 15, 201213 yr comment_5506637 Just for clarification... the date on this is definitely 10/25/81? The date on the screen is different.
June 15, 201213 yr comment_5506675 This is from Clawmaster's results: 3/22/81 St Paul, MN Non Title Cage Match Greg Gagne & Jim Brunzell beat AWA Tag Team Champions Adrian Adonis & Jesse Ventura Cage Match Baron Von Raschke beat Jerry Blackwell Nick Bockwinkel beat Pat O'Connor Tito Santana beat John Studd dq Bobby Heenan beat Buck Zumhofe Brad Rheingans beat Steve Regal Curt Hennig beat Billy Howard ...I thought it was after the Flyers won the tag title too.
June 15, 201213 yr comment_5506677 Before double-checking the date I thought the bout happened later than it did (Flyers won the tag titles in May of that year). Claw's date is the correct one.
June 15, 201213 yr comment_5506709 Sorry to belabor the point but clawmasters results have April 26, 1981 as a cage match but not 3/22.
June 18, 201213 yr comment_5507011 Sorry to belabor the point but clawmasters results have April 26, 1981 as a cage match but not 3/22. I got the 3/22 result right from Claw's lists (on a different site than the S&W site where he also lists his AWA stuff). The 4/26 result I looked at on S & W has a cage match but it's from Green Bay. That same list doesn't designate the cage matches on the 3/22 card. 3/22 is correct based on everything I've looked at.
