Posted January 22, 201114 yr comment_5462632 Nick Bockwinkel v. Bruiser Brody JIP. Pretty sure this is Southwest. Interesting watching Brody sell for Bock. Verne Gagne v. Nick Bockwinkel JIP. I have to assume this is from the 70's as it is an outdoor show at Commiskey Park. Really like the opening of this as they do lots of neat throws, legsweepers, escapes, et. Gagne was moving around really well in this and was cinching in his holds pretty deep. Gagne ends up doing a huge smash onto Bock's arm and twisting into a hammerlock. Verne locks in a double arm stretcher thingy, which Bock tries to reverse a few times which is a lot of fun. Verne opens up with some big blows, but Bock takes over and posts Verne's leg. Bock works the leg and goes for the figure-four but Verne kicks him off. Verne reverses a hold into a cross armbreaker type position and starts laying in shots to Bock, but falls back on a body slam attempt for a Bock nearfall. Bock misses a knee drop to Verne's leg. They go into a pretty good back and fourth segment and Bock ends up hitting a piledriver and going for a second but Verne reverses for a nearfall. Gagne locks on a sleeper after a missed Bock dropkick and Verne wins the title back. Really good match overall. Hulk Hogan v. Nick Bockwinkel This is the FULL version of the infamous screwjob finish with Hogan not winning on the Dusty finish. This is the one that should make the set. Nick Bockwinkel v. Ric Flair JIP. Already nominated in a slightly more full form IIRC. Stan Hansen v. Nick Bockwinkel Hansen running around like a maniac pre-match is great. I was shocked by how quickly they went to a sleeper spot with Bock here. Hansen ends up sliding out to the floor and slamming Bock's head into the stairs. They end up going into a punch exchange that ends with Bock hot shotted on the top rope. Bock hits a suplex for a nearfall. Fuck they are just trading one move, near fall, one move, near fall. Dumbass ref bump. Fucking Steve O is the ref he shouldn't be knocked out off one boot. This end with an over the top DQ. Fuck this was disappointing as all hell. Nick Bockwinkel v. Curt Hennig This is from the Cow Palace. Lots of touch and go mat exchanges early though they serve their purpose and work well enough. Bock slaps Hennig which is how these matches always go. Curt works a headlock as a base and they do some decent up and down work out of it. Henning ends up taking a HUGE bump through the ropes all the way to the steel on a corner charge. Bock traps Curt's arm on the bottom rope and knee dropped it which looked really sick. Curt takes a huge bump into the corner and gets locked into an arm stretcher by Bock. Hennig comes back up and sneaks in some offense but then takes a nearfall after a boot and Bock goes back to the arm. Curt fights out of a short armscissors and goes to work on Bock's leg, locking on a figure-four to a big pop. Bock is really great selling at this point which makes it seem even bigger. Bock fights out of another leg hold by punching Curt in the face and Hennig takes a huge bump of of a Bock running knee. All this ends up resulting in a huge strike exchange with both guys really laying it in and Hennig taking a massive back bump into the turnbuckles that actually results in a believable nearfall. Great Hennig sunset flip for a nearfall. Curt with a great nearfall off of a crossbody and another nearfall after a minor edit. Curt hits "the Axe" but Bock grabs the bottom rope to break the count. Piledriver by Curt, followed up by a dropkick and another nearfall. Bock is reeling but manages a clothesline coming out of the corner and a back suplex. Curt of course wins this with the roll of quarters passed from Larry Z who was at ringside. Post-match controversy is a lot of fun. The finishing run of this was really great, and while this has some slow moments before it, overall this was a hell of a match. Nick Bockwinkel v. Masa Saito From Japan, and irrelevant as a result.
January 22, 201114 yr comment_5462678 Verne Gagne v. Nick Bockwinkel JIP. I have to assume this is from the 70's as it is an outdoor show at Commiskey Park. This is from July 18th, 1980, so it's eligible for the 80's set. Stan Hansen v. Nick Bockwinkel I *think* this is edited on this comp, so it may not be the full match. The full match is available as it's from the Wrestlerock show.
