Caribbean Heavyweight Title: Hercules Ayala © vs. "Gentleman" Chris Adams (1/6/88)

 

Ayala is really only good in bloody brawls but this was one of his better regular style matches thanks to Adams who is great at bumping and selling for him. Adams would hit the Superkick as the fans went nuts but Chicky would get involved and eventually threw Adams off the top rope with Ayala getting the win. Fun match but not a nomination.

 

Al Perez vs. Barry Windham (9/21/86)

 

Interesting matchup here. This was a fun your turn my turn match with both guys bumping well but it was a little on the short side. Perez would get the win using a foreign object which was a big win for him. Nice little match.

 

Next we get another midgets match.

 

Caribbean Tag Titles: The Kansas Jayhawks ("Hangman" Bobby Jaggers & Dan Kroffat) © vs. The Rock n Roll Express (Robert Gibson & Ricky Morton) (4/2/88)

 

Your standard formula RnR match to start as they dominate the heels before Morton goes FIP where he takes some punishment. Gibson gets the hot tag and the 4-way brawl is on until Jaggers comes off the top rope with the bullrope for the DQ. Good action but nothing special.

 

Universal Heavyweight Title: Carlos Colon © vs. Abdullah the Butcher (March 1988)

 

Another wild bloody brawl between these two and this was a total blast because this is what you wanted from these two. This moves forward although I liked the match from 9/21/85 a little better than this one.

 

Rick Martel vs. Kamala (1/6/89)

 

Martel is really good at selling and bumping for Kamala but that's about it here. Next we get a pole battle royal which was fun.

 

Terry Funk vs. TNT (10/15/88)

 

There was a scaffold around the ring and these guys climb that when they can and they brawl all over the stadium from the ring to the bullpen to the stands and this shit is fucking awesome as the fans are going total apeshit. This was just an insane brawl that the referee had no chance in controlling as Funk knew hat he wanted to do and boy did he do it as he was a one man show here. The referee eventually called for a DDQ but these guys continued to brawl everywhere. This is so fucking wild it's gotta be on the set.

 

Jay Youngblood vs. Domingo Robles (September 1984)

 

Nothing match.

 

Scaffold Match: Chicky Starr vs. Invader III (September 1988)

 

You can't do a whole lot in scaffold matches but these guys pound the shit out of each other on an extremely high scaffold. Chicky is gushing blood and Invader tries his best to get him to fall but Chicky makes a comeback and this becomes a battle of who will knock the other one off. Invader III hangs off and uses his legs to get himself back on the structure and on the scaffold as fans throw shit on Chicky from the stands to the top which was something. Invader attacks Chicky from behind and the crowd is going apeshit. Chicky eventually is hanging off and Invader just punches the shit out of him and he falls off ankles first on the mat. This was a very strong scaffold match and this is a easy nomination to me.

Hercules Ayala © vs. "Gentleman" Chris Adams

 

Watched this recently on youtube. I'd call this a pretty good performance from Adams, but it's not a match that made me want to nominate it then, and skimming it again now I don't feel any differently.

 

Al Perez vs. Barry Windham

 

This was a novel, fun match. Perez often comes off as lazy as hell to me, which is one of the reasons I find him so boring, but here he seemed inspired. I don't know if he was working to Barry's level, or if this was just an on night for him, but I genuinely enjoyed him in this. He took a couple of crazy bumps in this, and while I wouldn't say he outworked Barry, he held pace. Unfortunately the finish felt really early so I can't nominate it.

 

Irish Leprechaun v. Tiger Jackson

 

Really tedious midgets match. You know a midgets match is in trouble when I get no joy out of it, but this had me pining for Rufus Jones

 

The Kansas Jayhawks ("Hangman" Bobby Jaggers & Dan Kroffat) © vs. The Rock n Roll Express (Robert Gibson & Ricky Morton)

 

Watched this for the PR thread. Disappointing match.

 

Rick Martel vs. Kamala

 

Interesting match up on paper. Not very interesting in practice. Martel tried but this was given too much time. I imagine this could have been good as a five minute sprint.

 

Rest I've seen

Hercules Ayala vs. Chris Adams -

 

This was one of those matches that is split in half. The first half is boring as piss. The second half is real good. That equals a good match but not enough to warrant a nomination. Ayala is uninteresting and has no charisma. The stalling and standing around was annoying. I liked the King of the Mountain spot. Adams selling was good and the crowd got real into it. Adams comeback and the crowd going nuts when Chicky interfered was awesome. Adams bump on the turnbuckle was nuts too. It's too bad the first half of this was such a stinker or else I'd have the mind to nominate this.

 

Barry Windham vs. Al Perez -

 

This was decent. Barry did a bunch of fiery baby face offense and Perez stooged well for it. I liked Perez's missed shoulder tackle into the turnbuckle. Perez wins with a pair brass knuckles to Barry's head. It was enjoyable.

 

Irish Leprechaun vs. Tiger Jackson -

 

I actually liked this. I've seen several midget matches that are way better than this but I thought it was fun. The corkscrew spin on the head was great and the feet twisting was awesome. This may have been better than that midget match from the AWA set. I don't think it's good enough for a nomination though. I did enjoy it.

 

Kansas Jayhawks vs. Rock N Roll Express -

 

This match was boring. Bobby Jaggers looks like a poor man's Buddy Rose but I've seen poor man's Buddy's who are better workers. I did like his clothesline on the outside though. Morton did his thing, then Robert got the hot tag. This ended in a DQ from a bullrope use by Jaggers. Yeah, this was disappointing.

 

Universal Heavyweight Title: Carlos Colon © vs. Abdullah the Butcher (March 1988) -

 

This was a real good brawl. They threw a bunch of different strikes at each other. Abby's jabs always looked good to me. I like Colon's headbutts too. Colon is in control first and Abby tries to bring out the fork but the ref takes it away from him. Abby takes control with a low blow and punches Colon's head. He then does this really awesome and nasty eye gouging. He stays in control for awhile until Colon uses a fork of his own and beats the shit out of Abby all over the ring and on the outside. I loved the eye gouging payback spot the most. The ref takes a bump and Colon powerslams Abby and hits the top rope sitting splash. The ref is down and can't count the pin. Colon goes for the figure four but Abby pushes him into the ref. Abby gets out another fork and stabs Colon with it then hits a brutal clothesline and an elbow drop. A new ref shows up and counts the pin. I think they reversed the decision and called it a DQ with Colon winning. Abby then gets chased out of the building by Colon who's whacking him with the belt. This was what it was supposed to be. SOLID nomination.

 

Rick Martel vs. Kamala -

 

Kamala sucks. His selling was comically bad here and one of the worst things in wrestling history is long claw/nerve holds. I did like Kamala's leap frog but that's a small thing. So, this wasn't any good.

 

Pole Battle Royal -

 

This was fun and had some hilarious and crazy spots of trying to get the money. However, this was way too long. I wish it would have last three or four minutes less. It could be an EXTRA but the length is questionable.

 

Terry Funk vs. TNT (10/15/88) -

 

Funk stumbling around a baseball field, running from a ninja is the least shocking thing ever but I still loved it. The best parts of this were Funk dangling upside from the scaffold and falling on his head then later taking a wild over the top rope bump into the dirt. Of course, Terry Funk has great punches and we got plenty of that here too. TNT doesn't bring much but is a good babyface to be whipping Terry's ass. Funk loses his cool and tosses a table in the ring. We have a tug of war for the table that no one wins and eventually the match gets thrown out. Terry climbs the scaffold all the way post-match and TNT follows. Funk dangles from it again but this time safely comes down. More madness ensues before it cuts out. This is your standard wild man Funk 80s match but it's one of the more unique ones when the scaffold and table are considered. It's a bit short though. LOW END nomination.

 

Chief Jay Youngblood vs. Domingo Robles -

 

Yet another Domingo Robles troll. I have no clue. I still think he might have been Rip Rogers father-in-law. At least that was what Hugo alluded too on the last disc. Who knows. Robles make goofy faces and lost in a few minutes.

 

Scaffold Match: Chicky Starr vs. Invader III (September 1988) -

 

The craziest part about this match is that we have Invader doing flying missile dropkicks and suplexes on a scaffolding. That's a terrible idea in theory and a terrible idea in practice. The dropkick spot was "holy shit" level and the best scaffold spot of all time. The rest of the match was awesome because the only other thing anyone can do on a scaffold is punch each other. So, Chicky got his ass punched a lot and bled like a pig. I loved his near misses. My favorite may have been the hilarious collar and elbow tie up attempt. Invader shoves him on his ass and he nearly dies. The spot where Invader pulls himself back up was great but I loved the finish with Invader doing a JYD headbutt and stomping the fuck out of Chicky's fingers leading to the horrifying crash to the mat. Really, there's no safe way of falling off a goddamn scaffolding. This was insane and the best scaffold match ever. EASY nomination.