Posted February 15, 201114 yr comment_5464558 Martel opened up with some cool spots and Garvin briefly took over but missed a knee drop and then Martel opened up on his leg. Really dug Martel's various attacks to the leg as he mixed in leverage spots, holds, strikes to the joint, et. Garvin is really great selling his shin breaker and desperately stretching for the ropes. Garvin comes back in and immediately takes a backslide for a nearfall. Martel also hit a nice backbreaker in here and thre some nice punches. Really great spot swings momentum to Garvin as Martel goes for a rana and Garvin just falls backward with Martel taking a sick snake eyes bump into the turnbuckle. Garvin tosses Martel to the floor and then hits a legdrop once he's back in the ring. I normally don't like Garvin's camel cluth spot that much but here he really hooks it nicely and Martel sells the fucking hell out of it. Really cool hope spot as Martel powers up and shoots Garvin into the ropes only for Garvin to hit a nice rebound forearm smash. Garvin goes to the ribs with some nice body blows and Martel sells it well but Garvin misses a big knee corner charge and gets tied up upside down. Martel lays the boots to him and then punched the shit out of him before hitting a nice suplex. Martel goes for a slingshot splash but Garvin gets his knees up. Martel hits locks on a cradle for a nearfall but Precious distracts him. Garvin ends up going up top but gets caught and takes a huge bump down leading to an elbow drop from Martel and the finish. This was a great match on par with or better than any Garvin World Class match.
March 25, 201114 yr comment_5468296 Rick Martel vs. Jimmy Garvin - Solid beginning with Jimmy missing a knee drop and Martel going to town on the leg. Such common sense and Jimmy sells it like a champ. Damn, the shine portion was really fun. When Jimmy takes over, he gets a little rest happy but Martel eventually fights out and the match picks up again. Weird ending with the face cheating for the win but good solid match.
February 13, 201213 yr comment_5494885 AWA World Heavyweight Title: Rick Martel © vs. "Gorgeous" Jimmy Garvin (3/7/85) Baron is with Martel here as Bertha von Raschke which is hilarious and Bertha spraying with an early bottle of Arrogance is classic. Bertha looks a lot like Larry Sharpe here and them doing the Garvin opening match schtick is awesome. Martel was just so damn good at this stage of his career that it was hard for him to have a bad match with anyone and Garvin was a good hand who got a bad label for his AWA run but in his matches with Martel he showed the goods that he showed in World Class. Garvin was solid on offense with Martel being awesome at selling the punishment which always helps before Martel would make his comeback and kicked off a hot finish run that ended nicely. This was as good of a Garvin match I've seen from him in the AWA for sure and a slam dunk nomination in my eyes.
