Posted February 14, 201114 yr comment_5464480 Sherri Martel v. Kristina Montagius(?) JIP. This comes in with Montagus eating the double knees on a splash and Sherri follows up by punting her around. Sherri is really great in this actually. She hits a nice headscissors, really lays in her blows, and has great facial expressions throughout. Rose's cringing facial expression on the semi-botched powerslam spot actually made you forget how awkward the move looked. Buddy trips Montagus on an inside out slam attempt and Martel wins. This was really fun. I actually hope it pops up in full. It should exist for sure. Post-match stuff with the Rockers coming out was really cool too. If nothing else this would be a good EXTRA Buddy Rose v. Marty Jannetty Pre-match Jannetty grabs the mic and calls Rose's wife fat. Rose is livid and goes over to the commentary both and announces that he's not even married. Buddy is stalling like crazy early. The crowd was counting along with the ref and Rose just kept bailing. Funny moment as the ref has enough and starts rapid fire counting so Buddy comes in, offers his hand, swings at Jannetty and then gets floored with a belly-to-back suplex. Rose comes back in, but Marty reverses him again and ends up atomic dropping and then dropkicking Rose to the floor. Rose milks the shit out of the count then comes in the ring and tries to call a timeout! Buddy goes for a kick but gets his leg caught. He goes for some jabs but he can't reach Jannetty and then ends up getting knocked on his ass. Cool stuff as Rose tries to bail to the floor but Michaels is on that side of the ring and just pushes him right back in. Rose takes over with some cheap shots and Jannetty takes a fucking crazy high face first bump off a rope running spot. Rose hits a really great looking slingshot into a sitting backbreaker spot that they milk. Rose is on his knees mocking Shawn after Jannetty takes a good bump on an Irish Whip. Jannetty took an insane bump over the turnbuckle to the floor on a hope spot attempt and back in the ring Rose is just standing on his stomach celebrating. Rose gets caught cheating on an ab stretch and goes for another off the ropes but Marty reverses and gets his own locked on only for Rose to hip toss out for a nearfall. There is a bit of strange double knockdown spot that leads to a comeback from Marty. Marty reels off some hot offense but goes up top and Rose catches him with a slam. Marty gets his legs on the bottom rope to break the fall so Rose decides to try and dive on it but misses. He goes up top but Marty falls on the ropes and Rose crotches himself. this time Rose gets his leg on the rope. Somers tries to trips up Marty on a slam replicating the finish from the Women's Title match from the previous week. Jannetty escapes but this results in all hell breaking loose and double DQ. Post-match there is some great stuff as these guys brawl all over the place with Michaels almost killing himself vaulting over the top and fans trying to follow this melee to the back. Naturally I would have preferred a clean finish, but this was still a damn good match. Earthquake Ferris v. Ken Timbs Bizarre match with Timbs briefly working the arm and then fleeing the ring after Ferris got in some offense. Larry Zbyszko v. Jimmy Snuka Larry did a great job getting this going early. Snuka really doesn't have very many tools so Larry plays chase with him and looses. Gets tied up in the ropes upside down and lets Snuka punt him. Eventually fires off a dirty low blow and flips off the fans and screams at the ref while delivering blows to the downed Snuka. the fucking crowd HATES Larry as a result of all of this and they pop huge when Snuka blocks a piledriver and makes his comeback. Snuka goes up top but Debeers comes from the back and shoves Snuka to the floor and my fucking god did his bump look brutal. Then Debeers comes out and hits a sick looking flapjack on the floor as well. Snuka is a bloody mess and they haul him out on a stretcher. Definite EXTRA Mike Rotondo v. Doug Somers I am not a Rotondo fan but I am a huge fan of criss cross spots and rope running leapfrogs and shit like that and they bust out a couple of nice ones early. Rotondo ends up working a headlock. Somers misses a diving headbutt and Mike gos back to the headlock. Somers hits a low blow to break it up and then a nice gutbuster. Somers comes across as really vicious here and Rotondo does a pretty solid job selling. Rotondo blades. He drags Somers down and posts his legs but Somers headbutts him when he comes back in the ring and bites his cut. Somers takes a huge bump on a back body drop and Rotondo fires up. Somers ends up tossing Rotondo out to the floor but on the outside in suplex Rotondo falls forward and scores the pin. Somers was really good in this but I find it hard to believe this would stand up under scrutiny. Jimmy Garvin v. Rick Martel JIP at roughly the five minute mark. I may have watched this already, but I don't recall a Garvin v. Martel match being this complete. Some solid mat work type stuff that builds to some good exchanges. I really liked the spot with Martel making a comeback, missing an elbow and then getting pitched over the top behind the refs back. Garvin is posing in the ring while Martel is selling the bump to the floor. Martel fires up on the floor and comes in throwing bombs. Martel hits a backbreaker and his slingshot splash for a nearfall but Garvin gets his foot on the ropes. Precious hits Martel with a foreign object and 'wins the belt" and I realize that I have definitely seen this before. Good but it falls short of nomination. Nick Bockwinkel v. Sgt. Slaughter We have this in full already and it is a nomination. Col Debeers v. Curt Hennig They really milk the opening face off and the initial lock up is done with Debeers beret on which amused me for some reason. Hennig is working really aggressive here and throws some nice shots which the Col. bumps well for. These guys really lay in some blows in this and Hennig works the arm as a base pretty well. Debeers takes over and Curt does some great wobbly legged selling. Horrible DQ finish on Curt that makes no sense and it is literally impossible to even see what the fuck he was DQ'ed for. Nick Bockwinkel v. Verne Gagne JIP at about 8 minutes. Not sure what here this was from but it was definitely before 85 as Heenan was still with Bock. Both guys do some cool shit here. Bock throws some great body shots early. I really liked the way Verne worked the arm as he had a variety of holds he utilized, including a hammerlock/half nelson combo for a nice nearfall. Bock takes over and starts working over Gagne's leg. Verne sells the shit out of he leg but Bock doesn't work it all that well. Good teased comeback off some nice punches and Verne's rolling avoidance of a rope running Bock set up a great looking dropkick. This ends up going really back and fourth down the stretch with some good nearfalls but nothing that blows you away. Verne ends up winning after a false finish with Bock scoring a fall, Heenan coming in the ring, et. I enjoyed parts of this but this feels more like an EXTRA
February 16, 201114 yr comment_5464626 Sherri Martel v. Kristina Montagius(?) Despina Montegues. Col Debeers v. Curt Hennig Horrible DQ finish on Curt that makes no sense and it is literally impossible to even see what the fuck he was DQ'ed for. Did he come off the top rope onto DeBeers? At various points in AWA history that's a DQ. they at least sold that finish once and the idea was that Curt, just returning to the area, forgot the AWA had the no top-rope rule. That may not be the case here, I don't remember the match off the top of my head so just hazarding a guess. Nick Bockwinkel v. Verne Gagne JIP at about 8 minutes. Not sure what here this was from but it was definitely before 85 as Heenan was still with Bock. Both guys do some cool shit here. Bock throws some great body shots early. I really liked the way Verne worked the arm as he had a variety of holds he utilized, including a hammerlock/half nelson combo for a nice nearfall. Bock takes over and starts working over Gagne's leg. Verne sells the shit out of he leg but Bock doesn't work it all that well. Good teased comeback off some nice punches and Verne's rolling avoidance of a rope running Bock set up a great looking dropkick. This ends up going really back and fourth down the stretch with some good nearfalls but nothing that blows you away. Verne ends up winning after a false finish with Bock scoring a fall, Heenan coming in the ring, et. I enjoyed parts of this but this feels more like an EXTRA I get the feeling this is Verne's retirement match from 5/10/81. if so, the false finish you mention was supposed to be the real finish but the ref (Doug Gilbert) fucked up. Verne was apparently very pissed. This should exist in almost full if not full somewhere else.
February 16, 201114 yr Author comment_5464630 The Hennig DQ appeared to be for being "over aggressive" because he threw about four punches while the ref was admonishing him. Literally that was the only thing I could come up with
February 16, 201114 yr comment_5464632 Still don't remember it, but if the finish was that lame, I probably expunged it from my brain decades ago.
February 16, 201114 yr comment_5464636 You should not have given Dylan the correct name. I think it would have been a blast to see how many different ways he could butcher that horrible name.
February 16, 201114 yr comment_5464645 I always thought it was Mantagas. She would go on to become Tarzan Goto's wife.
February 16, 201114 yr comment_5464692 I always thought it was Mantagas. She would go on to become Tarzan Goto's wife. Poor girl. The AWA spelled her name about ten different ways, I don't even think my version is correct.
