Posted February 13, 201114 yr comment_5464401 Buddy Rose/Doug Somers v. Midnight Rockers JIP. This starts with Shawn in peril on the floor selling his ribs. Heels start spiking Michaels with head drops for two counts. The heels offense is actually really great as they whip out ddts, piledrivers, superplexes, modified backbreakers, et. Michaels finally gets the hot tag and Jannetty comes in with big rights. Rose takes an insane bump through the middle and bottom rope to the floor and The Rockers hit a suplex/diving splash for the title switch. This is about five minutes of a twenty match. I'm almost positive this exists in fuller form. Post-match "age of the Rockers promo is funny Nick Bockwinkel v. Boris Zhukov JIP. Starts with Bock in a knuckle lock. They actually work a pretty good comeback tease for Bock but Boris powers him back down. Bock finally reverses to a huge pop. They go the dreaded Bockwinkel headlock. They keep the crowd with them and they do some decent stuff with it but it really comes across as killing time. Bock ends up taking a really piss poor looking corner charge bump. Bock ends up selling the arm after a posting of it and Boris "works" a hammerlock. This is all fairly tedious though there was a cool reversal into a headlock that went nowhere. Finish is semi-botched and lame. Not awful but not good either. Greg Gagne/Nick Bockwinkel v. Mr. Saito/Larry Zbyzsko JIP with Bock in peril. Gagne gets the hot tag and cleans house. His offense doesn't look terribly impressive here but the heels bump well for him. Larry ends up in Greg's Indian Deathlock variation which is a legitimately awesome move. They really milk the leg stuff and ends up with Saito in a leg lock and Larry breaking it up to lead to a Gagne FIP spot. There is really nothing wrong with the work here but it's also not inspiring at all. Heels win. Boris Zhukov. v. Leon White Holy shit Vader leading a "Bull Power" chant and then steamrolling Zhukov was awesome. White dominates early and Zhukov is not bad bumping around for him. They end up on the floor with Adnan distracting White leading to an opening for Zhukov. Since White is a fat guy, with fat based offense, Zhukov grabs him in a rear wastelock and charges him into the corner of the ring working over his obesity which is actually good psych. White takes a nice bump to the floor and now Zhukov is working Missing Link style headbutts to his mid-section. Crowd starts in with a pretty big U.S.A. chant and Bull Power takes a back tumble through the ropes to the floor. Zhukov foolishly locks on a bearhug so White powers out and then picks up Zhukov by the throat but Zhukov counters with a leaping kick to the gut. White has enough and start firing back with clubbing blows and hits a fat man avalanche but his primary weapon is his gut which is still hurting. He fights back up and hits a nice powerslam for a nearfall and then goes for a big splash but he gets the knees to the guts. Zhukov locks on an ab stretch but Vader counters out by latching onto his arm and he ends up doing a strange spot where he appeals to lead Boris through a dance twirl and then drills him with a short arm shoulder block. White hits this another time and he goes for it a third time but White takes another shot to the gut. Boris gets White down and goes for a diving headbutt but White moves. Vader starts throwing bombs and goes too finish him off with a three point stance charge but Zhukov ducks and White bumps to the floor. White pulls Boris to the floor and they end up in a double countout with both guys brawling on the floor. Story of ultimate fat man wrestler having his obesity worked over by dangerous communist with a hard head probably should not have worked this well but it did. Curt Hennig/Scott Hall v. Nord The Barbarian/Boris Zhukov. Some of the Hall/Nord stuff was fun and some was just terrible as they badly botch a hot shot spot of all things. Hennig comes in a house of fire and they do some isolation work on Boris before Curt gets nailed with a headbutt. He fires back with some dropkicks and Nord takes a wild as fuck bump on the floor which Zhukov then follows up with one of his own. Hennig ends up working FIP. He hits a cross body out of nowhere for a nearfall but Nord tosses him to the floor on the kickout. Hot tag was pretty uneventful. Verne says Nord is the twin brother of Brody only younger. Okay then. Nice double clothesline spot with Hall and Nord. For some reason the timekeeper rings the bell or something strange happens and everyone just walks around. Verne claims Adnan ring the bell but I never heard a fucking bell. Heels end up DQ'ed after Boris comes off the top. Hennig was great but this was a clusterfuck. Sgt. Slaughter v. Earthquake Ferris Ferris dancing around and shaking his ass at Sarge wagging his head, et. was so fucking great. Ferris bumps to the floor. He hits one splash on Sarge but he's too fat to get up the ropes and misses the dive. Sarge hits a diving clothesline for the finish. Well that was fun at least. The Longriders v. Scott Hall/Curt Hennig JIP with Hennig in peril. Curt takes a wild over the top bump. Nice double bump off the ropes with Curt. Hennig ends up isolated and does some great staggered selling, falling around but always ending up in the heels corner. Nice boot to the face from Curt to set up the hot tag. There ends up being a ref bump and one of the Riders takes off his boot and they start beating on Hall for the DQ. Midnight Rockers v. Buddy Rose/Doug Somers The early going is great as they have a push up exchange pre-lock up. Watching Rose work fast paced spots and matwork even at this point you realize he was a total natural as he was totally out of shape in look but still aces in the ring. Somers ends up getting worked over and the Rockers hit a nice splash on his arm. Somers pushes Marty into the corner but accidentally tags Buddy who takes a huge bump damn near into the first row. Jannetty ends up going FIP and man alive are the heels great. Rose hits an awesome spinning back elbow. Really awesome strike exchange with Marty and Somers that ends with an eye rake which is something I mark for every time. Marty wins a war for a suplex and tags out but ends up back in and going back on D. Cool spot as the heels actually successfully whipped the faces into each other which NEVER works. Somers takes a huge bump off the top and Marty hits a crossbody for the finish. This was a good match, though not blow away great and pretty darn short. Midnight Rockers v. Boris Zhukov/Buddy Wolfe Really fun double teams early by the Rockers. Wolfe comes in and hits a nice fireman's carry and then takes a good headscissors counter. Man I really liked Wolfe's amateur stuff as it was really mean spirited looking. Michaels gets trapped in a full nelson and backed into the corner and the heels end up taking over on his arm. Michaels really sells the hell out of his arm and Wolfe is damn good at coming forward on him every time he makes an escape. Shawn also takes some nice corner bumps on the shoulder. FIP goes a while and is really well done. Wolfe ends up getting reversed into the corner and takes a really big bump himself and Shawn tags out. Rockers hit a double dropkick for a nearfall. Holy shit the heels hit the double face whip in the second straight match I've watched which is insane. Jannetty ends up taking a big bump off of a hard irish whip. Lots of well done nearfalls in this down the stretch as they went to a time limit draw. I thought this was really well done especially when you consider how transparently makeshift the heel team was.
February 13, 201114 yr comment_5464421 Buddy Rose/Doug Somers v. Midnight Rockers JIP. This is about five minutes of a twenty match. I'm almost positive this exists in fuller form. It does. Curt Hennig/Scott Hall v. Nord The Barbarian/Boris Zhukov. For some reason the timekeeper rings the bell or something strange happens and everyone just walks around. Verne claims Adnan ring the bell but I never heard a fucking bell. Heels end up DQ'ed after Boris comes off the top. Hennig was great but this was a clusterfuck. If you watch this again, check out the bottom part of the screen after the bell ringing. You can see Verne motioning all the combatants to keep going, sincce the bell ringing was an obvious fuckup by the timekeeper. You can even hear Verne whispering some stuff about it while still mic'ed. Verne frantically waving them back together is hillarious, IMO, but the fuckup really ruined what I thought was a very good match up until that point. Midnight Rockers v. Buddy Rose/Doug Somers Somers takes a huge bump off the top and Marty hits a crossbody for the finish. This was a good match, though not blow away great and pretty darn short. If this is the match I'm thinking of, I'm pretty sure this is the first televised match between the two teams ever, before either was considered in title contention...both teams had just arrived and started teaming at this point. I'd bet the Rose/Somers team was not even expected to be together or in title contention aty any point when this match happened. My, how things changed.
January 4, 201213 yr comment_5491696 First 3 matches are clipped up. "Bull Power" Leon White vs. Boris Zuhkov (2/18/87) Leon as a fiery babyface with the fans chanting Bull Power was awesome. Leon was in great shape for him here and he was more mobile than even he would be as Vader. He put on a helluva performance here as well even making "Boreus" look good as he spent most of the match working over Leon's gut. Zuhkov was really good here with his stomach work and Leon was just as good making it work from a selling perspective. Leon made a fun comeback hitting a big slam for a pinfall but he lifted up Zuhkov in an inexperienced mistake as he wanted to hit his big splash but Zuhkov got the knees up allowing him to go back to work on the stomach. Leon though would grab Boris' left arm and started working it over as fierce as Boris was working over his gut but again Boris would counter back into some stomach work before missing a diving kneedrop from the middle rope. Leon made another comeback hitting a big splash in the corner and kept on the offensive before missing a bull rush going to the floor. Leon would soon drag Boris down with him and they would brawl to a double countout finish. This was a blast as Leon was great here. Fairly easy nomination. AWA World Tag Titles: Scott Hall & Curt Hennig © vs. Nord the Barbarian & Boris Zuhkov (3/13/86) There were some fun bumping by the heels which surprised me considering who they were and Hennig was pretty fun here as usual but that finish was all sorts of fucked up with Verne trying to play traffic cop keeping the guys going when the bell rang by mistake. Sgt. Slaughter vs. Earthquake Ferris (3/13/86) Nothing match. Next we get a clipped Hall/Hennig vs. Long Riders match. The Midnight Rockers (Marty Jannetty & Shawn Michaels) vs. "Playboy" Buddy Rose & "Pretty Boy" Doug Somers (3/13/86) This is in fact their first televised match so these guys don't have any beef yet and this is just a match between guys. It's a pretty fun match though with everyone looking pretty good but this was a short sprint style match and we have way better from these teams. No on the nomination. The Midnight Rockers (Marty Jannetty & Shawn Michaels) vs. Buddy Wolff & Boris Zuhkov (2/18/87) Wolff is old as dirt here and this is definitely not an inspiring heel team so the Rockers are going to have to work their asses off to make this good. Larry Nelson wearing his Midnight Rockers sweater as he is ring announcing is hilarious. The Rockers put on a pretty damn good performance here carrying these slugs to a decent match but it's not enough for me to warrant this as a nomination.
