Hennig is great early taking all of Gagne's offense in rapid fire fashion, making Greg's strikes look great, and just wildly flailing all over the place. Greg is too aggressive and ends up smacking into the turnbuckle on a corner charge when Hennig slides out of the way. Hennig is a stiff @#!*% her and does everything with the cruelest of intentions and a scowl on his face. They work in some really cool cut off spots in this. I mean really @#!*% awesome. At one point Hennig takes a big turnbuckle shot to tease a comeback. Later Gagne hits the steel on a corner charge for another cool cut off. There is a brutally stiff strike exchange at one point where I really thought Greg was going to make his comeback but he goes for a dropkick and Hennig does the single greatest "hold onto the ropes to avoid dropkick and let face smash canvas spot" I've ever seen. That is not hyperbole and I defy anyone to come up with a better example of this spot. Hennig literally turns and starts to spring into the move and then at the last second clutches the top rope allowing his entire body to be pulled wildly off the ground, slinging him away from the move. Totally awesome and I would nominate the match just based on that and crowd heat alone. Hennig ends up missing a diving knee and takes a wild bump into the ropes as Greg goes to work on his leg. Greg locks on his Indian Deathlock which is seriously an awesome move and probably my favorite thing Greg does but Hennig rakes his eyes breaking the hold for yet another great cut off spot. Gagne finally makes his comeback after winning a strike exchange and slingshotting Hennig all the way to the @#!*% top of the ring post where Hennig blades. Hennig's selling of this is really incredible as he staggers around and ends up taking another bump into the steel. He runs through two dropkicks from Greg making them look awesome but Larry Z shows up and breaks up the pin for the DQ. Post-match Hennig takes a huge bump over the top after Stevens makes the save for Greg. This was a great match and I didn't even mind the finish to be honest. Hennig was incredible in this and Gagne was solid too. I'm not sure how long this went - definitely no longer than 8 minutes - but this is one of the best sub-ten minute matches I've ever seen.

AWA World Heavyweight Title: Curt Hennig © vs. Greg Gagne (5/30/87)

 

The former friends collide here with Larry Zbyszko sitting ringside. Greg is extremely fired up here with Hennig bumping and selling like a motherfucker making Greg look like a million bucks. Curt would bounce back though and was very aggressive on his offense which was great as he was just starting to work heel. It wasn't easy though as Greg was extra fired up and tried to fight back even after missing a big shoulderblock in the corner hitting all post. The crowd is nuts here for everything as these two are going to fucking war on each other bumping like crazy. Greg breaks out his awesome Indian Death Lock and just wrenches that fucker in until Curt rakes his eyes which gave him the advantage back but again Greg comes back with a slingshot into the top of the ringpost which brings out the juice and Curt was so awesome here selling the pain. This is just awesome stuff as Greg has him ready for the kill when Zbyszko runs in for the DQ which sucks. They work over Gagne until Stevens comes out making the fans go nuts. This was so great and a grand slam nomination in my eyes even with it not being a longish match.