Women's Battle Royal

 

Martel steals the match! Well the finish of this was fun at least.

 

Sgt. Slaughter v. Kamala

 

Pretty sure we have this either JIP or clipped elsewhere but I am watching it here because this is the full deal. Funny to see sarge outsmarted by Kamala as Kamala asks for a test of strength and then chops him in the head instead. Maybe this was an allegory for third world guerilla warfare tactics v. marine imperalist. I doubt it. Kamala hits a nice avalanche and then does the splash with Slaughter upside down on the pin attempt bit. Sarge takes a version of his great corner bump. Kamala goes to a nervehold working over Slaughters boob. Akbar passes a weapon to Kamala who uses it behind the refs back. Sarge starts making a comeback but Kamala gets a hold of the whip again and gets in another shot cutting off his momentum. Sarge makes his comeback and hits a pretty crappy dropkick but I forgive him because there is a guy running around ringside with a mini-flag to stage his comeback. Slaughter hits a clothesline for a nearfall. Sarge locks on the Cobra Clutch. Akbar gets involved and this ends in a DQ. Pretty good overall but nothing special.

 

Scott Hall/Curt Hennig v. The Longriders

 

I enjoyed the early cat and mouse spot and Bill Irwin bumping for Curt. They do some more spots with the faces out smarting the heels and then they do an AWESOME strike exchange that Hennig wins with a sick running forearm. Fun spot with Irwin bumping big on a corner charge and Curt taking him back down. Curt does the double drop down spot and crawls Bill out of the ring which came across way better here than it did in their Winnipeg match I recently watched. Hennig with a really nice knuckle lock monkey flip into a pinning combination. Curt finally gets caught with a throat jab and goes FIP. Hennig took an insane spinning bump off of a clothesline. Wild Bill ends up missing a splash off the ropes after a few minutes and Hall gets the tag. Hennig gets tagged back in and hits a nice running dropkick. Hennig ends up hurled over the top behind the refs back. Hall gets thrown out but Hennig comes off the top with a dropkick for the pin. Scott Irwin runs in with his boot and murders Hennig who takes a huge bump. This could have used a longer FIP but Hennig was pretty great in this and I dug the finish.

 

Larry Zbyszko v. Scot Ledoux (Boxing Match)

 

This is interesting as Larry is allowed to work takedowns and does so effectively early. The Ninja as the corner man is hysterical to me. Larry's selling of the early jabs was great. Second round Larry hits his back kick to the ribs. Ledoux ends up backing him into a corner. Totally bizarre to watch Larry stalling here and they do a spot where Larry hits an armdrag but flies away after getting punched once. Larry's boxing stance is comical. Third fall Larry hits a shoulder breaker of all things and actually some nice punches with Ledoux reeling. Larry did a late takedown in that round too. Larry is dancing around in between rounds and just dismissively shrugging off Ledoux in between rounds. In the fourth round Larry misses his back spin kick and Ledoux takes over with thumbs to the eye and turnbuckle smashes of all things. Ledoux hits a really great looking right hand right before the bell. Larry gets DQ'ed almost immediately in the fifth for ramming Ledoux into the post. Super Ninja ends up running in and destroying Ledoux from behind. Larry Hennig knocks Zbyszko out onto the floor. I have no clue what to make of this. I enjoyed this but it went too long and I'm not sure what the hell the fucking rules were even supposed to be. EXTRA

 

Nick Bockwinkel v. Stan Hansen

 

Hansen clobbers Nelson pre-match and they end up doing some fun stuff in the ring pre-match with both guys moving forward and sort of dancing around each other. Hansen throws Bock to the floor pre-match and starts to smash him. The grappling looked really intense and Stan throws some great shots. Loved his dismissive kick off the ropes and some of his elbows looked concussion level stiff. Bock hits a really nice arm drag that sort of surprised me. Really awesome sequence of chops leading to a series where they exchange headbutts/reversals/takedowns/et. Bock ends up getting a great looking sleeper locked in off of a corner charge and they tumble to the floor. Hansen smashes his face into the steps and kicks him in the head. Bock blocks a posting and fights his way back in. Great punch exchange and Hansen hits a sick looking hot shot for a nearfall. Hansen and Bock trade nearfalls and the ref gets knocked out on a slam attempt by Hansen's leg. Bock hits a cross body but there is no ref. Bock hits a dropkick and a piledriver but the ref is still down. The ref gets up and DQ's Hansen for an over the top back body drop onto Bock. Stupid finish and there were some "off" moments in this which is isn't surprising considering how these guys thought about each other. Still this was a big time fight.

 

Nord The Barbarian/King Kong Brody v. Greg Gagne/Jimmy Snuka

 

We have this already.

 

Verne Gagne v. Sheik Adnan Al-Kaissie

 

We have this already.

Women's Battle Royal won by Sherri Martel (4/20/86)

 

It was what it was.

 

Americas Heavyweight Title: Sgt. Slaughter © vs. Kamala (4/20/86)

 

Kamala dominates early using his weight to weaken Sarge and also gets help from Akbar's riding crop. Sarge is basically getting squashed here but he would eventually fight back hitting a big dropkick then a big bodyslam which got the fans going leading to an offensive barrage by Sarge. Sarge would hit his big clothesline for a nearfall before locking on the Cobra Clutch which would bring Akbar into the match although he got hit by Kamala as the referee called for the bell for a DQ. This was okay I guess.

 

AWA World Tag Titles: Scott Hall & Curt Hennig © vs. The Long Riders (Wild Bill & Scott Irwin) (4/20/86)

 

Hall gets the Most Popular wrestler of the year award before the match. Funny seeing the Irwin's not in wrestling tights but that was the rules set in this match because of their boots being "illegal." Irwins are on defense early in the match with Curt & Bill having some fun exchanges. Curt would eventually get caught in the Irwin's corner and they worked him over bigtime. Hall would come in with the hot tag but didn't last long as Hennig came back in with a great dropkick and went to work on Bill before it turned into a 4-way brawl. Scott would chunk Curt over the top rope behind the ref's back then chunked Hall through the ropes to the floor and as this happened Hennig hit a dropkick off the top on Wild Bill to win the match. Scott Irwin would get the boot and nailed Curt after the bell before walking out. This was a pretty decent match and I think it's a low level at best.

 

Different Style Match: Scott LeDoux vs. Larry Zbyszko (4/20/86)

 

Larry Hennig & Ninja Go (Ryuma Go) are at ringside here. This is quite the spectacle as Larry is able to use takedowns here against LeDoux's boxing but LeDoux used moves as well. This could be extra material due to it's weirdness.

 

AWA World Heavyweight Title: Stan "The Lariat" Hansen © vs. Nick Bockwinkel (4/20/86)

 

Hansen attacking Larry Nelson before the match was great. Stan is just a machine here on offense using his power advantage while Bock fights back using his grappling and speed advantage. Bock to his credit though showed some fire as well using some hard knees to the chest to setup his sleeper hold. Bock then would trade punches with Hansen holding his own before Hansen just drops him throat first on the top rope for a nearfall. Both men would then trade nearfalls until we got a ref bump as Bock picked up Hansen for a bodyslam. Bock would hit a cross body block but there was no ref then hit a dropkick before hitting a piledriver. Hansen would backdrop Bock over the top rope and Steve O would call for the DQ in a shitty finish. This was a fun hard hitting match and even with the shitty finish moves forward.

 

Steel Cage Match: Greg Gagne & "Superfly" Jimmy Snuka vs. Bruiser Brody & Nord the Barbarian (4/20/86)

 

This is Snuka's first match with the AWA and if the faces win then Verne gets a match with Sheik Adnan in the cage for 10 minutes. Gagne takes an ass beating well and it's fun watching Snuka & Brody battle it out. They really push Snuka strong here as he gets to shine on both monster heels and Gagne gets some revenge as well but he would still take some big punishment including being run hard into the cage forcing juice. Brody then hit a big piledriver but Snuka would break up the count. Gagne would muster up enough to get the hot tag to Snuka who would ram Brody into the cage forcing him to juice then followed up with a big diving headbutt off the top rope for a nearfall as Nord broke it up. This would then turn into a 4-way brawl with Brody continuing to take more punishment than normal. Snuka accidentally hit Gagne with a chop off the top rope giving the heels a chance to recover but Brody would accidentally dropkick Nord over Snuka's back and Gagne pinned him to win. They would brawl outside the cage and into the crowd to end this. I liked this one a good bit but I think it falls just short of a nomination. Better than I expected though.

 

Steel Cage Match: Verne Gagne vs. Sheik Adnan Kaissey (4/20/86)

 

This is what you would expect.