Steve Regal v. Buck Zumhoffe

 

JIP. This is probably the most spirited affair I can recall from these guys as they start off at a quick pace, work some compelling stuff around the headlock and Buck even bust out a front flip escape out of a back body drop attempt that was fairly shocking to me. Naturally Regal takes over with his elbow off the ropes. Regal's taunts aren't particularly compelling but he's trying at least and in other matches you often get the feeling he's not trying. I liked Buck's underneath work enough in this one as he engage the crowd pretty well and keeps Regal from laying around and doing nothing which you know he is content doing. Buck shows good fire coming back and even though Regal's bumps look like shit I enjoyed this segment of the match. Zumhoffe gets a series of near falls including one off of his big Vader Bomb style corner splash. Larry Z ends up showing up and distracting Buck allowing Regal to score the pin. It would be easy to identify enough flaws with this to dump it in the trash bin but I am going to forward it along as I figure at least one of these opening card style matches is going to make the cut and this is as good a candidate as any up to this point.

 

Sheik Adnan Al-Kaissie/Abdullah The Butcher v. Baron Von Raschke/Crusher

 

JIP at about ten minutes. Pretty much just a finish. Nothing to see really.

 

The High Flyers v. The Freebirds

 

This is Roberts and Hayes. The opening with the Birds stalling and avoiding contact setting up a nice flash run from Brunzell off of a Hayes rope running exchange and leading to the Birds bailing to the floor while the faces mockingly danced in the ring was good stuff. They sort of continue with this theme for a few minutes which is sound as the Birds are good at working this sort of match. They actually worked a really effective arm sretcher spot with Hayes being thwarted trying to sneak in, Buddy escaping with stomp to Greg's face, a cross body attempt from Greg, and a nice punch exchange on their knees all coming out of the hold. Greg ends up in the heel corner but Hayes misses a big knee and Brunzell comes in and takes over on his leg. Cool spot as Hayes breaks this up by punching Brunzell in the face but as soon as Buddy is tagged in he is dragged back in and eats a knee drop off the ropes from Greg to his leg. Greg locks on his Indian Deathlock and they do a cool bit with Hayes trying to come into the ring several times only for Hayes to be scared off by the crowds screaming which alerted the ref every time. Brunzell comes in and locks on a figure four but Buddy quickly rolls to the heel corner and tags in Hayes while Brunzell is still applying the hold which allows Hayes to take over. The heels do a nice job isolating Brunzell who has to resort to an eyepoke for a hope spot. Cool to see the knee to the rope running faces back used as a cut off spot here as that is usually used at the beginning of a heel heat segment. Gagne gets the hot tag and the match quickly turned into a melee with everyone in the ring slugging it out. Brunzell ends up locking on a figure-four on Buddy but Hayes leaps off the top with a diving knee as Greg is tied up with the ref for the finish. I thought this was as pretty awesome little match.

 

Super Destroyer 2 v. Greg Gagne

 

JIP at about four minutes with Gagne missing a corner charge and taking the shoulder bump to the steel. This is pre-Slaughter Slaughter working as SD 2 and or "Matt Burns." SD hit a nice shoulder breaker and was punching Gagne's arm before he ends up taking some nice looking uppercuts and then taking a wild bump over the top off of a kneelift. SD sneaks in the ring and tries to wrangle in behind Gagne but Greg turns around just in time. Destroyer ends up taking Gagne over anyway and trapping the arm. Cool stuff as he starts splitting and yanking at Greg's fingers while kneeling his arm then he stands up stomps on Gagne's hand. They go into a drop down spot and Greg locks on a sleeper but gets distracted by Heenan. He chases after Heenan and eats a knee to the back for a nearfall. Destroyer starts to take back over on the arm but ends up getting reversed into the ropes for one of those epic style Sarge bumps up and over with Bobby bitching at the ref for a DQ. They go to another drop down this time with a double bump as SD goes to the mat and Gagne spills to the floor. Gagne gets his face smashed into the announce table and crumples to the floor. They do the AWA staple with the face bumping on multiple attempts to enter the ring and then catching SD and posting his leg when he tries one too many times. Greg snaps and starts wailing on SD knocking him to the floor. to Greg's credit he really sells his arm while he is stalking around in the ring and SD sells the hell out of Greg returning the favor by keeping him at bay on the floor with face smashes, punches and ultimately a double noggin knocker with Heenan and Sarge. Greg teases a dive to the floor which would have been insane but instead slingshots SD in and goes for a huge splash in the corner but Burns ducks and Gagne takes a nice bump. Really nice nearfall for SD off of a good looking lariat. SD hits a tombstone but Greg kicks out. SD 3 comes out and distract SD 2 allowing for a nice ricochet bump into the corner and a surprisingly believe flash pin for Gagne. Setting aside some awkward delivery, This was pretty great.

 

Curt Hennig/Greg Gagne v. Ray Stevens/Nick Bockwinkel

 

This is nominated already.

 

The Freebirds v. Crusher/Baron Von Raschke

 

JIP at about 3 minutes. It may have been silly but Crusher blocking a snapmare by punching Buddy in the gut and then grinning while slamming the Birds head together does give you a pretty good glimpse at the appeal of Crusher. Baron works a headlock on both Birds which is not bad as they both sell it really theatrically. Hayes bumps around for some punches from both faces, then sprints on his knees to tag in Roberts who slowly creeps into the ring. Buddy ends up back in the headlock but gives Hayes a blindside tag and Hayes takes over with a diving double axe to Baron's head. Hayes running over and dancing a jig in Crusher's face was really awesome and set up the heel double team/cheating portion of the match well. Baron puts together a nice hope spot that ends in a clothesline from Hayes and an awkward looking spot off the top from Buddy. Baron fights back and locks on the claw but Buddy hits another blindside tag and Hayes gets in a cheapshot before going for a comically cocky cover. Hayes cuts off another Baron comeback and goes for a suplex but Baron reverses it. I thought for sure the hot tag would come here but Buddy makes it in in time to break it up. Kind of a poorly executed hot tag with Hayes pushing Baron to Crusher after a somewhat flubbed missed neckbreaker from Buddy. Naturally things break down from here and Baron gets the claw on Buddy but Hayes sneaks in and decks Baron with a foreign object for the finish. The build to the hot tag was really good even though the last spot to set it up was weak. Still this was a really good match. Far above expectations and the dynamic of cocky rock n roller kids v. cranky old men made the somewhat goofy mannerisms less schlocky then they might have otherwise been.

 

Boris Zhukov v. Buck Zumhoffe

 

JIP. I actually liked the opening of this with Buck working the arm, Zhukov being over aggressive and looking vulnerable and the Russian coming back with classic heel tactics. The commentators suggesting that Boris would be killed by the Russians if he lost the match made me chuckle. Nice Buck nearfall off of a sunset flip. Buck ends up taking a nice bump off of a missed dropkick and Boris takes back over and hits his clothesline and then the leaping heabutt for the finish. Not enough shown to nominate but better than I would have guessed coming in.

 

Angelo Mosco/Andre The Giant v. Big John Studd/Jerry Blackwell

 

We already have this.

 

Baron Von Raschke v. Jacques Goulet

 

JIP with Goulet executing his version of a claw on the Baron and vice versa. Literally they spend the opening of this battling over claw holds and then Baron wins randomly off a corner charge. Strange.

 

The Freebirds v. Baron Von Raschke/Crusher/Larry Hennig

 

JIP. Hayes is bested by the Baron. Gordy comes in and throws some nice blows but gets taken down. Crusher comes in and gets dragged to the heel corner. Buddy ends up taking a bump off the top and the Baron scares off the rest of the Birds with his goose step before taking over on Roberts. Birds overwhelm Baron who sells the shit out of a piledriver from Gordy. Hayes is awesome on the apron moonwalking around and taunting the crowd while Gordy shit talks the faces in their corner. They end up doing a drop down spot that ends with Hayes in the claw but Gordy takes a blind tag and locks on the Spike. Baron ends up fighting to the rope which I wouldn't have minded if it didn't last so long. Baron ends up locking on the claw but Roberts tags in and hits him with a double axe. Roberts goes for a piledriver but Baron body drops out of that and makes the hot tag to Crusher. Birds having to sell for Crusher just looks sad but the Axe comes in and hits a nice big corner charge before foolishly trying another in the heel corner only to eat shots from Gordy and Hayes. Baron comes back in and locks a claw on Buddy and all hell breaks loose. Hayes hits Baron with a loaded punch and the heels win amidst chaos. This had some really good moments, but everything after the Oriental Spike spot was really weak and poorly put together.

 

Buck Zumhoffe v. Billy Robinson

 

Nice monkey flip from Buck early pisses off Robinson who ends up locking on an ab stretch. Buck ends up in a full nelson but manages to escape and lock one onto Billy who immediately gets to the ropes. Billy goes full blown heel and takes over with kidney shots and a kick to the face. Robinson hits his awesome neckbreaker. Really nice strike exchange leads to Buck firing off some rapid fire offense. Buck gets in some offense that Billy bumps around for but ends up airballs on a monkey flip attempt and Billy wins with his backbreaker. This was super fun and felt just about the right length for a match like this. Probably too simple to hold up at the end of the day, but I think it's something worth other watching if nothing else.

AWA Lt. Heavyweight Title: "Mr. Electricity" Steve Regal © vs. "Rock n Roll" Buck Zumhofe (5/23/85)

 

JIP and yet another match in their endless series. I will say this both men showed more fire than normal especially Regal and the work here was pretty good although still a little slow. After a decent stretch run Zbyszko would come out to distract Buck allowing Regal to win. I'll push this as a low-end nom but I see it falling off in the end.

 

The Fabulous Freebirds (Michael Hayes & Buddy Roberts) vs. The Hi-Flyers ("Jumpin" Jim Brunzell & Greg Gagne) (5/23/85)

 

Hayes & Roberts were working a lot together at this time due to Gordy becoming a regular in Japan and when they were in matches against teams like the Flyers they were at their best. The Flyers worked this like a technical version of the RnR Express and this played to the strengths of everyone in the match with some great selling and psychology. The shine segments were fun and the finish run was well done as well with the Birds going over in a big win. This is a really good match and a nomination.

 

Greg Gagne vs. Super Destroyer Mark II (Sgt. Slaughter) (5/1/80)

 

This is JIP but not by much and I loved that Mark II's gimmick name here was Matt Burns. There was some great bumping by both men here and Sarge was really fun at pounding on Greg who when he was on offense used his speed and technical advantage to get over on Sarge. I loved Greg going nuts on Sarge putting the boots to him before crashing and burning allowing Sarge to pound on him even using a tombstone piledriver. SD Mark III would come out distracting Sarge so Greg could catch him from behind to get the win. This was really fun and moves forward.

 

The Fabulous Freebirds (Michael Hayes & Buddy Roberts) vs. Da Crusher & Baron Von Raschke (6/13/85)

 

This is what you would expect here as the Birds sell and bump all over for the heels especially Crusher, Baron works FIP and does a good job, Crusher comes in from the hot tag and runs wild before Baron would get clocked by Hayes using a foreign object for the win. With those expectations it was a really good match considering Crusher was in here as the Birds were on point here being great foils. This moves forward.

 

The Fabulous Freebirds (Terry "Bamm Bamm" Gordy, Michael Hayes, & Buddy Roberts) vs. Da Crusher, Larry "The Axe" Hennig, & Baron Von Raschke (7/18/85)

 

You would think adding Gordy to the equation would make this match even better than the regular tag but it wasn't although there was some fun stuff here. If the stretch run would've been better and not as clunky then this could've been a nomination.

 

Billy Robinson vs. "Rock n Roll" Buck Zumhofe (1/5/84)

 

What's funny about this from the start is that Okerlund is on PBP here two days after making his WWF debut on a TV taping so this was probably his last AWA show. Robinson was just brutalizing Zumhofe here working tight and Zumhofe was fun taking the beating. The problem here was this was way too short and it's not enough for a nomination.