Posted June 19, 201114 yr comment_5474443 1. Dick Slater v Crazy Horse Nice little squash match with Dick throwing some stiff shots including a big lariat. Crazy Horse is just preposterous for a jobber, a bunch of Native American gear and billed from Mexico City. 2. The Crusher/The Bruiser v Nick Bockwinkel/Ray Stevens – AWA tag title Cage Match 11/75 I sound like a broken record at this point, but it's really too bad that more of this stuff doesn't exist in full. This seemed like it was filmed with a roving ringside camera, it had blood and punching galore. Does any of this stuff exist? Obviously it did at one point since they show a lot of it in clipped form, but where did the rest of the footage go? 3. Kevin Kelly v Rich Winter Kelly squashes are kinda boring to me. This was alright, nice press slam, painful cravate, but he just moves real plodding and looks like the most juiced up Dauber from "Coach" ever. Madusa was not wearing much clothes. I didn't hate that. 4. Jerry Lawler/Bill Dundee v The Original Midnight Express – AWA tag title Well, shit, this on paper looks like it might be my favorite AWA match on the set. I told Rachel as we started watching it that "something will have to go horribly wrong for me to not nominate this". I don't actually know how many times I've seen Dundee/Lawler tag together, but it doesn't feel like many (if any), and this really came off like they were a regular tag team they had their schtick and psych down so rock solid. It's easy to say "Yeah well they're great wrestlers so of course they'll be a great tag team" but that doesn't always hold water. Great tag workers don't always have great singles matches and the same is true for singles workers having great tag matches. But THIS is fucking great. It's divided nicely into the first half being comedy and strutting and stooging, and builds nicely into actual assbeating. Lawler and Dundee did miscommunication babyface spots like they had planned this out months in advance. I can't say enough good about this, as all 4 guys look awesome here, and Heyman is great on the floor. Dundee outpunches Lawler here which is a feat. He was just popping dudes left and right. Lawler takes some big bumps (including a big one over the top off a punch). I was nervous the match would be worked too much as a squash by Lawler/Dundee, but when MX take over it is GREAT. They work over Lawler's back something fierce, with a big powerslam, a Vader bomb (!), and Lawler being one of the greatest FIP as he is just always BARELY out of position for Dundee. Dundee on the hot tag is just astounding, as he throws about 4 different styles of punches and each one looks somehow greater than the last. Phone shot to end it was well done and this was just a real engaging, awesome tag match. Easily my favorite tag out of the ones I've seen so far. EASY NOMINATION.
June 20, 201114 yr comment_5474477 2. The Crusher/The Bruiser v Nick Bockwinkel/Ray Stevens – AWA tag title Cage Match 11/75 I sound like a broken record at this point, but it's really too bad that more of this stuff doesn't exist in full. This seemed like it was filmed with a roving ringside camera, it had blood and punching galore. Does any of this stuff exist? Obviously it did at one point since they show a lot of it in clipped form, but where did the rest of the footage go? The problem was the film cameras back in the day. You could only run them so long before they either had to be shut down for a bit or you had to change film, or something. ALL the film from the era is like that. We have old film of my family shot in the same style and it's the same thing. I have always assumed they would film the whole thing if they could, but just couldn't....and the cameras needed to actually film whole matches without clipping probably cost a fortune.
June 22, 201114 yr comment_5474824 Dick Slater v. Crazy Horse This was okay I guess. Curt Hennig promo. Good promo on Wahoo. Paul E/Adrian Adonis promo. The Crusher/The Bruiser v Nick Bockwinkel/Ray Stevens – AWA tag title Cage Match 11/75 JIP and irrelevant. Kevin Kelly v Rich Winter Fuck Kevin Kelly Jerry Lawler/Bill Dundee v The Original Midnight Express Nominated already
