Face shine segment is fun as we get a cool collision spot with the heels and a nice double team sequence on Somers among other things. The heels try to replicate a slingshot/forearm shot that the Rockers had pulled on Rose but Marty ducks and decks them. Jannetty goes FIP. The heat segment starts slow and is actually kind of weak in the early going but then the ref gets distracted and Marty takes a crazy bump over the top which is the sort of thing you want to see in a match like this. Strangely Michaels gets the tag almost immediately after this and goes on a run before getting caught with a boot to the face. Cool backbreaker/elbow combo from the heels. Nice gutbuster from Somers and they do a really cool spot with Michaels crawling down on a back body attempt and hitting a nice sunset flip for a hope spot. Rose tries an overhead backbreaker submission but MIchaels kicks off the rope and gets another good hope spot nearfall out of it. Michaels ends up on the floor getting tossed into the steel and bumping on his face at one point. Shawn really sells his ass off out there as the heels keep him at bay with kicks to the head. Rose hits a DDT for a nearfall and then Somers comes in and hits a piledriver for another nearfall. Rose hits a really nice superplex for another good nearfall. Rose hits a sick backbreaker for yet another good near fall. The near falls keep coming and Michaels keeps kicking out. This might have gone on a hair too long but the spots all looked good so it's a minor complaint. Michaels hits the hot tag off of a boot to Somers. Rose takes a double superkick and takes his crazy bump through the ropes to the floor. Marty and Shawn hit the suplex/splash combo to win the belts. Probably the least of their longish matches (the Cage matches, Wrestlerock and the match from Blood On The Sand) but still very good with a great ending.

AWA World Tag Titles: "Playboy" Buddy Rose & "Pretty Boy" Doug Somers © vs. The Midnight Rockers (Marty Jannetty & Shawn Michaels) (1/27/87)

 

Larry Nelson is at ringside with his zebra sweater vest countering Sherri Martel and this is basically the final showdown between these teams because this was the Rockers' last chance at the belts. This was odd though as they had the big cage matches before this regular match which was to be the blowoff so that was in reverse order and made this match hard to compete against the awesome matches before it. The work here was great as usual but there were some minor issues such as the length like Dylan said and the early portion didn't have the heat you would've wanted from this great feud. This is still a damn good match and an easy nomination but not like the epic matches before it.

That sort of booking happened a lot in the AWA (re: cage match placement in a feud with a title involved) as they almost always stuck to cage bouts being non-title. The one exception I can think of was the Zurkov-Martel cage match in Winnipeg which was made a title match. They made a big deal about it too, since it pretty much was never allowed.