Posted January 21, 201114 yr comment_5462620 Video package reviewing controversy of a Gagne/Bock match. Basically an extended sit down with Heenan/Bock while slo mo highlights from a Gagne/Bock match plays. This is good stuff, but I'm not sure this is from the 80's. Nick Bockwinkel v. Billy Robinson JIP. This is from Christmas day 81. Starts with Robinson in control with a headlock. End up coming up from it and Robinson throws some stiff strikes before Bock bails to the floor. Back in the ring and they do an awesome knuckle lock spot, with Robinson bringing the British escape, leg whipping Bock and trying to go back to the headlock before Bock scrambled back to the floor. Another fun Robinson escape before taking Bock back down. Real cool sequence with Robinson going for another escape, Bock kicking off, a cartwheel escape from Robinson, who eats a back body drop and then goes for a hip toss but ends up "throwing his arm out" in the process. Billy bails to the floor and Bock keeps him at bay. Fun spot with Robinson fighting back in the ring, but just collapsing when he tries to throw a combination. You wish Bock was a bit more compelling working the arm, but Robinson sells well enough that it's not a big knock on the match. Cool spot with Robinson in effect arm dragging himself when Bock holds on to a hip toss attempt. There is a really awesome spot with Robinson fighting up to his feet off an armbar and locking in a deeper double chicken wing, but Bock backs him up against the ropes and punches him in the face driving him to the floor. Billy effectively hulks up on the floor and comes in and beats the piss out of Bock with a great neckbreaker, knee drop and the sick body drop to the back of leaning over opponent move that only he and Terry Funk do. He follows that up with his great backbreaker for a nearfall. Robinson ends up going out to the apron, but Bock traps him in a sleeper. Robinson leans off the ropes and drives onto Bock for the ridiculous double pin finish. Really loved this one, but the double pin finish was SOOO over done in the AWA. Clips of Bruiser v. Bock from AWA show in 78. Crusher v. Nick Bockwinkel (Cage Match) JIP. This is from 79 so it is irrelevant anyhow. Mad Dog Vachon v. Nick Bockwinkel JIP right at the five minute mark with Bock in trouble. We have this elsewhere in a more complete form. Blackjack Mulligan v. Nick Bockwinkel JIP at about 4 mins and Bock gets flattened with a really athletic looking back elbow off the ropes from Mulligan. Bock is really fun in general in the early going doing everything he can to avoid Mulligan and getting caught with single shot blows that have him reeling. Bock knees the shit out of Mulligan and there is a fun spot with Bock having to climb up Mulligan's back to apply the sleeper. Mulligan slowly goes down, but then works his way back up and drives Bock backwards into the ropes, only for Bock to lock it back on. Mulligan fights back to his feet and this time stumbles forward into the turnbuckle with Bock taking the big face bump. They reset and go into a punching exchange which looked really good and allowed Blackjack to make a big babyface with Bock wildly bumping for his punches. Blackjack brings Bock into the ring and they do a stupid ass finish with Heenan punching Mulligan for the DQ. I liked this a lot except for the finish was pretty god damned terrible. Wahoo McDaniel v. Nick Bockwinkel JIP at about 7 mins. Wahoo is lighting him up, punting him, chopping him, suplexing him, et. Bock comes back and punches Wahoo who takes a wild bump to the floor. Bock keeps him on the floor by scooting along on his hands and knees and headbutting Wahoo. They end up getting into a stiff strike exchange with Bock on the inside and Wahoo on the apron and guess who wins that? Awesome suplex for a near fall from Wahoo. Bock goes to lock on the sleeper but Wahoo keeps rolling through and when he gets to his feet he dances his Indian jig and stiffs the shit out of Bock with multiple chops. Heenan gets on the apron so Wahoo brings him over the top with a slingshot and then chops the piss out of Heenan who takes a crazy bump. This ends in a DQ at that point. This is almost exactly half the match and what is shown is really fun, though not on the level of the other Wahoo v. Bock match we have in full. Nick Bockwinkel v. Pat O'Conner JIP with Bock trapped in a leglock. Pretty sweet takedown from O'Conner who looks fired up to be working. Damn O'Conner is hitting multiple really sick takedowns and his toehold looks sick as fuck. Bock has enough and rakes his eyes, but O'Conner comes back with a downward right and then a nasty looking uppercut to Bock's throat before hitting a backslide for a nearfall. O'Conner takes a crazy looking bump off of a hip toss, but then locks in an ab stretch off the ropes which he immediately sweeps into another backslide for a nearfall before locking a hammerlock back on! Holy shit O'Conner is fun to watch in this. Bock stands him up and backs into a corner and slips an elbow into O'Conner's guts. O'Conner is actually really good here selling the impact of the turnbuckle shots before coming back with some super stiff looking punches to Bock's face, throat and stomach. He is throwing neat controlled combo's to the mid-section that look great an dthen locks on a sleeper before Bock just collapses deseprately into the corner to break the hold. O'Conner rolls through off of a shoulder tackle and goes for a backward roll, but Bock rolls through a takes the fall. I'm not sure how much we missed on the front end, but this was fun as all hell and makes me want to watch lots of Pat O'Conner. Baron Von Raschke v. Nick Bockwinkel JIP. Watching Bock sell the effects of the claw to his head while running the ropes was fun. Baron locks on a stomach claw. Bock is selling the shit out of his ribs and the Baron gets a great nearfall off of a sunset flip of all things. Bock goes for a slam but falls down and Baron gets another good nearfall. Bock takes a couple of turnbuckle shots and just collapses onto the bottom rope, nearly all the way to the floor. Holy shit, Baron hits a suplex and then misses with one of the worst looking legdrop attempts I've ever seen. Bock takes over with straight up heeling and hits one dropkick but misses a second. Baron fish hooks Bock and then creeps up behind him and rakes at his face and back. Bock locks on a sleeper out of the blue. Baron's arm almost goes down three times but it stops just short and he slowly pulls up and then locks on a claw while still in the sleeper. They fall into the ropes and both guys break. Baron starts to comeback, but Bock knees him in the face on a corner charge and goes back to the sleeper, only for Baron to fall toward the ropes and duck Bock into the top buckle. Baron goes to the second rope and goes for a diving claw(?) but Bock rolls him up for the fall. Notable as a clean win for Bock and a match where the Baron's over the top act actually added to the match at points, though at other points it was super hokey. Nick Bockwinkel/Heenan promo on Adnan. Bock says that Adnan will be killed by Arab Nationalist if he doesn't beat Bock. Awesome. EXTRA Sheik Adnan Al-Kaissie v. Nick Bockwinkel We have this already a few places. Nick Bockwinkel/Heenan interview again on Adnan. We have this already. Nick Bockwinkel v. Sgt. Slaughter JIP. Slaughter is wearing a mask, so this may be Super Destroyer era? Anyway he takes a fucking crazy bump to the floor, where he appears to hit his head on the turnbuckle on the way out. Crowd is super hot as Slaughter tosses his mask off and beats the shit out of Bock, throwing him dangerously into the turnbuckles with whiplash bumps, choking him, stiffing him with clotheslines, hitting a sick lariat, et. Heenan intereferes and knocks Slaughter out with something to cause the fall. Only about three minutes shown, but it was great. EXTRA Nick Bockwinkel v. Hulk Hogan This is the finish with Heenan interfering and costing Hogan the match/title. EXTRA Nick Bockwinkel v. Bill Dundee This is from Memphis and thusly irrelevant! Bockwinkel/Lawler face-to-face interview with Lance Russell in Memphis. Not pertinent to the AWA Set but fun to watch! Video package of Lawler/Bock match. Backstage, post-match interview with Bock/Lance Russell. This is the punch promo which never gets old. Nick Bockwinkel v. David Schultz No clue where this is from, but it is a fun tv match with Schultz getting ambushed and getting his ass kicked for several minutes only for him to fire back with a bunch of strikes, get a crazy good nearfall, miss a diving elbow, and then wins with a running foot to Bocks' face.
January 22, 201114 yr comment_5462676 Video package reviewing controversy of a Gagne/Bock match. Basically an extended sit down with Heenan/Bock while slo mo highlights from a Gagne/Bock match plays. This is good stuff, but I'm not sure this is from the 80's. It's from the early 70's, from Chicago, during Bockwinkel's chase of Verne for the AWA title. Crusher v. Nick Bockwinkel (Cage Match) JIP. This is from 79 so it is irrelevant anyhow. Never take the dates they put up on the screen for AWA bouts at face value. They got them wrong a TON. This match was actually from February 3rd, 1980, in St. Paul. I have the opening and possibly a longer version of what has been shown of this kicking around, so you may want to re-review it at some point later. Baron Von Raschke v. Nick Bockwinkel JIP. Watching Bock sell the effects of the claw to his head while running the ropes was fun. Baron locks on a stomach claw. Bock is selling the shit out of his ribs and the Baron gets a great nearfall off of a sunset flip of all things. Bock goes for a slam but falls down and Baron gets another good nearfall. Bock takes a couple of turnbuckle shots and just collapses onto the bottom rope, nearly all the way to the floor. Holy shit, Baron hits a suplex and then misses with one of the worst looking legdrop attempts I've ever seen. Bock takes over with straight up heeling and hits one dropkick but misses a second. Baron fish hooks Bock and then creeps up behind him and rakes at his face and back. Bock locks on a sleeper out of the blue. Baron's arm almost goes down three times but it stops just short and he slowly pulls up and then locks on a claw while still in the sleeper. They fall into the ropes and both guys break. Baron starts to comeback, but Bock knees him in the face on a corner charge and goes back to the sleeper, only for Baron to fall toward the ropes and duck Bock into the top buckle. Baron goes to the second rope and goes for a diving claw(?) but Bock rolls him up for the fall. Notable as a clean win for Bock and a match where the Baron's over the top act actually added to the match at points, though at other points it was super hokey. This is from June 28 of 1981 and was Bockwinkel's first title defense after being awarded the AWA title in the wake of Verne Gagne's retirement. Even though the Baron is the #1 face when this match was booked, the crowd that turns out is abysmally small, and it would not surprise me if that's why this ended up being a one match series between the two. Bockwinkel was programmed with Kaissie next and kaissie was so hated that it served as a catalyst for the fans to accept Bockwinkel as the champion again (Bock being handed the title back did not go over well with the fans at all). Nick Bockwinkel v. Sgt. Slaughter JIP. Slaughter is wearing a mask, so this may be Super Destroyer era? Slaughter = Super Destroyer Mark II. This match happened after SD had a falling out with the Heenan family, who he was a member of for a time. Nick Bockwinkel v. Hulk Hogan This is the finish with Heenan interfering and costing Hogan the match/title. EXTRA I wish more of this one existed, it's sort of a "lost match", as the common ones are April 1982 (first defense) and April 1983 (Super Sunday). The Heenan/Bock vs. Hogan handicap match was the only other one of their bouts out there before this turned up. They spread out the series over a whole year in most places. Nick Bockwinkel v. David Schultz No clue where this is from Stampede, from a Bockwinkel tour there. He went there to defend the AWA title several times. Parts of matches against Schultz, Leo Burke, and Bret Hart exist on film. The Schultz one is the only complete one.
