Posted February 14, 201114 yr comment_5464473 Leon White/Jerry Blackwell v. Boris Zhukov/The Blaster I don't know how to set the stage for this really as Bull Power appears to make out with a male fan pre-match, the Blaster has the strangest BDSM outfit I've ever seen on, and Adnan starts jawing with a fan in trucker hat while screaming at Thorngard and Francis "is that your brother?" The first five minutes are really just heel stalling. Then White starts throwing Vader style strikes and they do a cool spot with White holding off the heels in the corner and then moving just before Blackwell hits his avalanche splash. God Blaster is just distracting as fuck as he has really pronounced man boobs, to go along with the quasi-Machine look. Man the pacing of this match was really strange and though he looked good on offense Blackwell almost seemed uncomfortable. Seriously Blackwell was a fine FIP here but he looked SO tired you almost felt bad for him in the wrong way. Even still I would love to see Blackwell/White team against a pair of even semi-interesting heels. Sadly this match was not that match. Also worth noting that this match was really inexplicably long for a match with a really out of shape, old, fat guy and young, green, fat guy v. makeshift heel team of poor workers dressed as Soviet Hare Krishnas and pre-op sexual sadist. Sherri Martel v. Christina(?) Montagus(?) Martel was thoroughly enjoyable here heeling, bumping, jawing with the fans, et. They do a great spot where Montagus has Sherri in an arm stretcher and Sherri reverses slickly into a headlock, slyly smiles, suck her thumb and then jabs into the faces eyeball. They end up on the floor and Montagus takes a nice bump. Montagus comes back and Sherri takes a couple of nice bumps but Sherri ends up doing a slingshot over the top to the floor for a lame DQ. Good effort but this needed more interesting work from the lady who's name I couldn't make out. Buck Zumhoffe v. Sheik Adnan Al-Kaissie Nothing doing match that really only seemed to exist so Zhukov could run in and attack Zumhoffe with his boombox. Stan Hansen v. Paul Barnett Squash. For some reason Bockwinkel comes out and hides under the ring and then attacks Hansen right in front of the ref a few minutes later. Hansen ends up destroying the announce table. Midnight Rockers v. Nord The Barbarian/Boris Zhukov Nord always bumps big and with nice impact. Michaels going for a body press and getting caught with a backbreaker was a cool spot. Zhukov is not awful but he leaves a lot to be desired. Jannetty goes FIP after getting caught in a bearhug and eats a nice boot on a corner charge hope spot. Heat section was really thin and Rose ends up coming out and costing the Rockers the match. Midnight Rockers v. Boris Zhukov/Sheik Adnan Al-Kaissie Jannetty does a pretty awesome looking reversal of a hip toss and then hits a nice slam. Camera man also misses a flip out of a monkey flip. Nice double leapfrog into a double dropkick spot by the Rockers. Adnan is amusing getting trapped in the wrong corner, trying to tag in Jannetty, et. Rockers work distraction spots, double teams, et while Adnan and Boris get angrier and angrier. Adnan also is remarkably good at taking quick bumps and coming up for some quick spots when they are needed. Jannetty ends up isolated and the heels go to work on his arm. Again Adnan is great when he is in throwing really deliberate spots and egging on the crowd. Jannetty ends up taking a couple of really big bumps one of which all the way to floor. Michaels does some good apron work and was a fun house of fire after he tagged in. Jannetty continued to sell his arm as they cleaned house and Michaels got the clean pin off a crossbody. Good match. Buddy Rose/Doug Somers/Col. Debeers v. Nick Bockwinkel/Brad Rheingans/Steve Pardee Buddy was on fire pre-match during the intros, taunting the crowd with his robe removal ceremony and then doing his one armed push ups only for Bock casually lean over and show him his ass in response to his challenge. Buddy takes a huge over the top bump when Bock ducks down. Bock is a lot of fun in this working subtle heel stuff and infuriating the heels. Debeers comes in and Bock gets cornered but escapes through the Col's legs and Debeers ends up hitting Buddy who bumps to the floor. Rose then ends up getting a cup of liquid tossed all over him by a fan he is shit talking. Rose hits a sick drop toehold and floatover on Pardee but then gets reversed. Solid work leads to a melee. Rose takes a huge bump off a kick and then ends up following backwards through the ropes on his head. Debeers flies wildly over the top too. Pardee ends up isolated and getting elbowed in the throat by Buddy. The heels go to work on Pardee beating on his leg. Pretty good strike exchange with Pardee and Somers leads to the hot tag. All hell breaks loose again with Buddy taking a wild flip into the corner and then getting tosed to the floor. Rheingans gets a somewhat out of nowhere sunset flip pin. Rose looked like the best wrestler on Earth here so I am nominating it. Nord The Barbarian v. Nick Bockwinkel You have to give Nord credit. He cuts a good pace and bumps well. Now his selling? Well getting his arm whipped into the post five times should have not been followed up by Nord throwing punches with same hand so easily and taking over on offense. I did like Bock's escape of the piledriver and Bock took a bump off of the kick off figure-four attempt that was pretty good looking. Nord took a really nice over the top bump off of a Bock dropkick. Nord winning after a big boot, even with the Adnan interference, was fairly shocking. Stan Hansen v. Jerry Blackwell Hansen chases Larry Nelson from the ring and we have a fight. Hansen just rushes forward with his gear on throwing blows but Blackwell takes back over with headbutts and forearms driving Hansen to the floor. Hansen finally manages to pull Blackwell to the ground and pounds on him biting at his head. Blackwell actually looks really immobile here but they work around it pretty well with Hansen bleeding and some nice back and fourth slugfest spots. Hansen is a bloody mess early which also helps. Ref bump and the ref misses a count on a big splash. Hansen takes off his boot and cold cocks Blackwell with it and then beats him to hell with the boot busting him open. A new ref runs in and dives on Hansen to stop him. Hansen beats him up and Blackwell gets the boot and lays in some blows. I don't know. This would have been a lot better if Blackwell had bee in better shape. They did everything they could to make it work but I don't think they hit a home run. I'll toss it on the dock, though this feels like more of an EXTRA to me.
February 16, 201114 yr comment_5464625 Sherri Martel v. Christina(?) Montagus(?) Good effort but this needed more interesting work from the lady who's name I couldn't make out. Despina Montegues. She later teamed with the rockers against Rose/Somers/Sherri in a thanksgiving 6-man bout, so you'll see her again. Stan Hansen v. Paul Barnett Squash. For some reason Bockwinkel comes out and hides under the ring and then attacks Hansen right in front of the ref a few minutes later. Hansen ends up destroying the announce table. This was part of the build towards Hansen-Bockwinkel at Wrestlerock and for their feud beyond that. Nord The Barbarian v. Nick Bockwinkel Nord winning after a big boot, even with the Adnan interference, was fairly shocking. Stan Hansen v. Jerry Blackwell This would have been a lot better if Blackwell had been in better shape. They did everything they could to make it work but I don't think they hit a home run. I'll toss it on the dock, though this feels like more of an EXTRA to me. Both bouts were from the AWA Battle By the Bay show on ESPN, 6/28/86. It was Hansen's last title defense as he would forfeit the title to Bockwinkel the next night after walking out of the arena in Denver.
January 7, 201213 yr comment_5491876 Crusher Blackwell & "Bull Power" Leon White vs. The Blaster & Boris Zuhkov (3/7/87) I love this team of Blackwell & Leon but man this went way too long with some shitty heels involved. Sherri Martel vs. Despina Montagus (3/7/87) Sherri was fine here but this was nothing special. "Rock n Roll" Buck Zumhofe vs. Sheik Adnan Kaissey (3/28/87) Not good. Stan "The Lariat" Hansen vs. Paul Barnett (5/17/86) Hansen wins in a squash and this is just an angle for Bock to hide under the ring then attack Stan afterwards. Nord the Barbarian & Boris Zuhkov vs. The Midnight Rockers (Marty Jannetty & Shawn Michaels) (5/31/86) Decent for the heels involved but we get a crappy finish as Buddy Rose comes out crotching Shawn as he climbed up top. Rockers were starting to come into their own here as the fans were hot for them and everything was starting to gel. The Midnight Rockers (Marty Jannetty & Shawn Michaels) vs. Boris Zuhkov & Sheik Adnan Kaissey (5/31/86) Jannetty was really fun here both on offense and working FIP where the heels try to destroy his left arm. The early Rockers offensive run had an RnR Express feel to it and Adnan was fun taking the punishment. Shawn was damn good after the hot tag and the fans were hot for everything and I loved Marty still selling his arm during the beatdown. Shawn hit a big cross body off the top on Boris to get the win and this was really fun. Good stuff and a low-end pick at best. Nick Bockwinkel, Steve Pardee, & Brad Rheingans vs. Col. DeBeers, "Playboy" Buddy Rose, & "Pretty Boy" Doug Somers (5/31/86) That is quite the babyface team there. Rose is on fire here hemming and hawwing with Bock early on who is also great doing his own heeling but as a babyface which I loved as Bock didn't change his style after he turned. It helped that half of the guys in this match were PNW stalwarts and there was chemistry going on with Pardee and Rose/DeBeers. Rose made Pardee look like a worldbeater here on offense and really everyone had their working boots on. The heels catch Rheingans and work him over before Buddy takes a wild bump letting Brad tag in Pardee with the faces running wild again but it wasn't too long before Pardee got caught by the heels. This is a fun control section as Pardee gets his left leg worked over fierce by the heels but it doesn't last long as Brad gets the hot tag and we get a really fun 6-way brawl with Brad getting a sunset flip on Somers to win. This was a total blast with Rose being fucking awesome. Easy nomination. Nord the Barbarian vs. Nick Bockwinkel (6/28/86) This is one of the better Nord matches I've seen as Bock was really good at leading him along but Nord had some nice bumps here and some decent selling. Nord did have his plodding moments which would drag the match down a tad but Nick was fun taking the punishment. Bock would lock on the sleeper and Adnan would clock him behind the ref's back allowing Nord to get the big win. This was pretty decent. AWA World Heavyweight Title: Stan "The Lariat" Hansen © vs. Crusher Blackwell (6/28/86) This is Stan's last match in the AWA which is notable and this is what you want from these two men as they just beat the shit out of each other. I don't mind Blackwell being in not the best of physical conditions here as he just clubbered Stan and we got some good juice from him. Blackwell would start juicing as well as Hansen waylayed him with his boot and this is a fucking slugfest. Hansen gets DQed but Blackwell doesn't give a fuck as he gets the boot and pounds Hansen with it for good measure. This was pretty great shit here as you got what you wanted from these two in this type of match at this stage of Blackwell's career at least as he was starting to slide down. Solid nomination.
