Boy this was actually a great match. Yes Patera is pretty comical selling as a babyface working underneath, but aside from that this was astoundingly good. One thing I really enjoyed here is that they worked this traditional AWA style with each face getting an FIP and a shine. It allows for more teaser spots and breaks the monotony a bit. Tanaka was really great in this taking multiple massive bumps of of back body drops including one where he rotated onto his face, throwing his sneaky little thrust and moving around like a speed demon. Set up to the first face in peril was great as Rheingans locked on a Boston Crab on Tanaka as they had been working on the heels back. Ref goes to grab Patera and Diamond fucking kills Rheingans with a clothesline. Rheingans was really good as well as his FIP segment was extremely well developed with some great teases including the old Ricky Morton corner charge spot, a roll through on a body press and a neat looking flash small package off the ropes. I really loved the way he worked simple little mat exchanges with Diamond early and the monkey flip spot with Tananka which looked great. Lots of good subtle things in this like Tanaka holding the rope on a Rheingans dropkick attempt which was a great visual escape and Rheingans clearly trying to stop the cross armbreaker by clenching his hands and then trying to power out only to be pulled back down. Really good heel cut off spots in this too. Diamond took his fair share of good bumps including a crazy over the top bump off an atomic drop that I thought was setting up the finish, but we got yet another teaser. Patera's roll into the hot tag was pretty amusing. Finish with the ref getting creamed by a Rheingans lariat and then the heels accidentally costing each other the title do to a shot with DDP's "ring" was well executed. This got plenty of time and got a really big reaction in front of an anemic AWA crowd. This should definitely make the set.

AWA World Tag Titles: Badd Company (Paul Diamond & Pat Tanaka) © vs. The Olympians (Ken Patera & Brad Rheingans) (3/25/89)

 

DDP had the Diamond Dolls en masse for this entrance and it was great. I always dug Patera the babyface for some reason and he was good in that role here and along with the always solid Rheingans they made a really fun team. Plus they had fantastic hair to go along with Badd Co's fantastic hair and DDP's fantastic hair this was a hairdresser's dream match. All four men were really good here at bumping and selling for each other especially Rheingans & Tanaka who were awesome on defense. Like Dylan I also enjoyed they went full on AWA tag psychology with both faces getting nice sized FIP sections allowing the heels to have plenty of offense to showcase. Rheingans would get the ultimate hot tag and he ran wild on the champs getting some nearfalls before missing a dropkick although he recovered before taking out Gary DeRusha with a clothesline. Tanaka would eventually hit Diamond by mistake with one of DDP's rings with Patera throwing DeRusha back in the ring to make the count and the crowd went nuts. Very solid match here and one of the better matches of this year of the AWA. This moves forward fairly easily.