Braid Rheingans v. Boris Zhukov

 

Not good. I wanted to like this but these guys did not match up well. I did like the flash suplex finish for Rheingans though.

 

Little Mr T./Lord Littlebrook v. Little Tokyo/Cowboy Lange

 

We already have this.

 

Wahoo McDaniel v. Col. Debeers

 

I really liked Wahoo's quick escapes and tight groundwork early. Wahoo takes control briefly but ends up getting bumped big to the floor. They somehow managed to botch a low blow and then they go to a cheap over the top DQ. Fuckers.

 

Midnight Rockers v. Buddy Rose/Doug Somers

 

Holy shit the beginning of this is awesome as Rose challenges Marty to do a pushup so he does. Then he does kip up and tells Marty to match it and he does. Marty tags in Shawn who does a back flip off the top. Rose goes up to try one and Shawn shakes the ropes and Rose ends up crotching himself on the ropes. Shawn then does a nice sequence with Somers and then a really beautiful drop down rope running spot into an armdrag with Rose. Jannetty comes in and does his awesome spinout of the hip toss spot and takes Rose back down. Somers ends up trying for a corner charge and smacks into the steel full blast. Jannetty hits an awesome floatover take down and then he and Shawn hit a nice double team on Somers who tags in Rose. Rose comes in and does a single leg but gets kicked off. Shawn goes for the monkey flip but Rose cartwheels away and then struts around. Jannetty comes in and they do a similar sequence with Jannetty cartwheeling out. Jannetty gets backed into the heel corner but Rose ends up accidentally decking Somers. They go into an armstretcher and do a nice spot with Rose standing up on it only for Jannetty to punch him down. Rose does a nice floatover escape but gets taken back down. Shawn does a really sweet head over heels reversal and they do a double team spot and Jannetty comes back in. Rockers hit their fist to the gut/knee lift combo for a nearfall but Somers comes in and Shawn ends up getting caught with a sweet catapult into a sick looking forearm which is one of the better uses of that kind of spot I've seen. Shawn ends up isolated by the heels who work him over in the corner before Rose hits his awesome spinning back elbow for a nearfall. Shawn ends up reversing a suplex attempt and hits a leaping hot tag to Marty. Somers takes an awesomely high back body drop and then jannetty hits a nice spinning back elbow and powerslam for a pair of nearfalls. Rose ends up bumping wildly to the floor off of a double atomic drop and they work over Somers with some double teams. The refs tries to get Shawn out and Rose pushes Jannetty off the top with Marty taking a wild bump. Shawn vaults onto Rose on the apron as the ref counts down Marty for the finish. This was a great match. This was 86 and Rose still looked like someone you would rate right there near the top of guys in the U.S.

 

Tiger Mask v. Buck Zumhoffe

 

I will say that Buck was remarkably good at working the opening roll around doing escapes out of wristlocks stuff that you expect to see out of Japanese juniors. Cool roll through out of the Boston Crab by TM who also hit a nice dropkick. They also worked another really nice overhead escape. Mask got a pair of nice nearfalls off of a cross body and a really good looking suplex. For some reason Buck starts freaking out and tries to take the Mask off which is really bizarre in the context of this match. TM hit a really sweet back kick. Pretty amazing to see Mask hit a really nice looking vault plancha onto Zumhoffe who was shockingly adept at catching him. TM misses a dropkick when they get back into the ring and they go into a reversal fest that ends with Buck eating a suplex. TM wins with a really sick looking flip into Zumhoffe off of the top. This was a lot better than I was expecting to be honest. I assume based on timeline this is Misawa under the hood.

 

Fabulous Ones v. US Express

 

We have this already.

 

Giant Baba v. Bob Brown

 

You've got to call into question Verne's sanity when you see something like this. This was pretty bad though not as awful as it could have been. Still who the fuck books this?

 

Rick Martel v. Harley Race

 

Martel immediately takes over with a nice hip toss and I am impressed at how well Harley is bumping for Rick's take downs as he still had his speed and would get big height on everything. Martel ends up getting creamed coming off the ropes with a high knee and Harley goes a chinlock. They did a good job working out of this and came up for a nice cross body nearfall before Martel takes back over on the arm. Harley backs up Martel into the ropes and hits an awesome no hand headbutt sequence that Martel sells really well. Race hits a powerslam for a nearfall and goes for a suplex but Martel floats over on it and locks on a sleeper. Race ends up dropping Martel's face into the top turnbuckle to break the hold. Harley hits a neckbreaker but gets caught up top and slammed off. Martel with a knee drop for a nearfall. Race breaks his momentum with a headbutt to the guts but Martel comes back with some big punches. He tries to lock on a headlock but Harley suplexes. Harley misses his falling headbutt. Martel hits his backbreaker and slingshot splash combo for a really nice nearfall. Harley comes back with another headbutt and hits a piledriver and a falling headbutt for a nearfall. Martel tries to get some momentum going but airballs on a reverse crossbody and Harley hits a knee drop for two. Harley ends up getting reversed on an Irish Whip and takes an insane over the top rope bump. Martel with an inside out suplex and goes for a follow up elbow but misses. Race with a shoulder breaker for a nearfall and a neckbreaker for another. They do a double knockdown spot with Harley taking another wild over the top bump in the process. Race ends up going for a piledriver but Martel back drops out and hits a nice gutwrench suplex for a nearfall. Awesome nearfall as Martel had Race off the ground for a slam but Harley busts out a small package. Martel hits a dropkick off the ropes but Race gets his leg on the ropes. Martel goes to work on Race's leg. Awesome reversal as Race leverages down Martel with his free leg and then just bashes his face with his thigh. Race locks on a bearhug and turns it into a belly-to-belly for a nearfall. Harley hits some nice punches and goes for a suplex but Martel kills him with a sick looking suplex on a reversal. Martel goes for a splash but Harley gets his legs up. Crazy spot as Martel wildly slams himself and Harley over the top to the floor. They end up brawling on the floor with Martel getting posted right at the ten count. Post-match brawl is great and ends with Karbo pulling Martel away after he had escaped a Race piledriver attempt on the floor with a back body drop. This was your turn my turn in spots but it was so well done that it didn't bother me at all. Really fucking good match.

Brad Rheingans vs. Boris Zuhkov (4/20/86)

 

This wasn't much.

 

Little Mr. T & Cowboy Lang vs. Lord Littlebrook & Little Tokyo (4/20/86)

 

This was your standard midget's match.

 

Col. DeBeers vs. Wahoo McDaniel (4/20/86)

 

Wahoo is here on loan from JCP and he looks good here with DeBeers not so much before the shitty DQ finish.

 

"Playboy" Buddy Rose & "Pretty Boy" Doug Somers vs. The Midnight Rockers (Marty Jannetty & Shawn Michaels) (4/20/86)

 

This is one of the early matches in their feud so the blood lust isn't here quite yet. The horseshit before the match was fun ending with Rose getting crotched on the top rope as he wanted to try a backflip like Shawn. The start of this is all Rockers as they dominate on offense with the heels bouncing around like pinballs. Rockers are great at the double-teams but Michaels would end up getting caught in the heels' corner leading to their control section. They work over Michaels for a bit before he gets the hot tag to Jannetty who is a house of fire until he has Somers pinned on a bodyslam leading to Sherri putting his foot on the rope which starts the 4-way brawl. They get rid of Rose and double up on Somers but as Jannetty climbs up top, Rose pushes him off and Jannetty crashes to the mat with Somers covering for the win. Rockers cleaned house after the match though for good measure. This was a very fun match and moves forward.

 

Tiger Mask II (Mitsuharu Misawa) vs. "Rock n Roll" Buck Zumhofe (4/20/86)

 

Zumhofe ugh. TM II looked good here but damn was Zumhofe boring to me here.

 

Mike Rotundo & Barry Windham vs. The Fabulous Ones (Steve Keirn & Stan Lane) (4/20/86)

 

Funny moment before the match features Ken Resnick interviewing Rotundo/Windham calling them the former WWF tag champs. This is the only time these teams wrestled IIRC. Fabs gets some boos from the fans who knew of their Mid-South heel run probably and they play it up here. Fabs take a lot of offense to start the match with Rotundo/Windham looking really fluid but a missed running smash into the corner by Rotundo gave the Fabs the window they needed. The Fabs then went all out heel on offense using dirty tactics and double-teams to keep Rotundo grounded. Windham would get the hot tag and teed off with some great punches but Lane would stop that by smashing his head into the turnbuckle very hard. Fabs again are relentless on offense but Rotundo would eventually get the hot tag where he would get the airplane spin on Lane before Keirn tripped him for a nearfall. Lane would have Rotundo ready to put away but Windham would climb up top and caught him with a elbow and got the pin for the win even though he wasn't the legal man. This was a solid match and moves forward.

 

Giant Baba vs. Bulldog Bob Brown (4/20/86)

 

Damn this was stupid to book Baba like this. Bad match.

 

Rick Martel vs. Harley Race (4/20/86)

 

Good back and forth action to start with Martel keeping Race grounded but there is a small boring chant that circulates in the crowd. Race uses his headbutts to weaken Martel but Rick keeps going as both men still can't get total control getting nearfalls with some big offensive moves. Race would hit his piledriver then a headbutt for a nearfall before Martel again fought back until he missed a reverse cross body block off the middle rope hitting all mat. Martel would throw Harley into the corner where he took his wacky over the top bump to the floor but Martel couldn't capitalize as he missed a diving elbow with Race following up with a shoulderbreaker for a nearfall. Martel would catch Race though with a running cross body that sent Race to the floor but he would come back in before both men traded more big moves with Martel eventually working over Race's left leg. Then we got more back and forth action with both men going all out before they went over the top rope to the floor. Then we got the All-Japan finish as they battled to a double countout right as Race posted Martel but Martel would fight back before Race tried to give him a piledriver but countered with a backdrop. This was a classic Harley Race style match here and Martel was a tremendous opponent so everything worked out greatly to make this a strong match. This moves forward fairly easily.