King Tonga/Dino Bravo v. The Road Warriors

 

The announcers are fucking freaking out for Tonga here and it is really interesting to see how over Tonga was as he is presented as the absolute equal of the Warriors in terms of strength. This just gets going and suddenly they are out of time. What the fuck? Bizarre.

 

King Tonga/Gino Brito Jr. v. Sailor White/Pierre Lefebure

 

JIP. Man Sailor White can really get up for shit as he takes some good bump for a guy his size and generally flails around like a guy half his size. Lefebure looks like the long lost brother of Miguel Perez Jr, just totally disgusting covered in hair and grimy as fuck looking. I am not a fan of nerveholds, but Tonga actually looks like he is killing a guy when he puts one on and though they are working White over with holds they come up for enough spots to make this interesting. They are working a lengthy "heel in peril" here, including a "ref misses the tag" moment and Sailor White doing convulsing on the ground but the crowd is into it. Jump cut sort of takes me out of this some, but White takes some more cool bumps on the back end and Tonga hits a boss dropkick. Annoying finish as Lefebure hits a sick knee out of nowhere and steals a pin after the heels had done nothing all match. I found this entertaining but the cuts and total absence of heel offense make this impossible to nominate.

 

Jacques/Ray Rougeau v. Pierre Lefebure/Sailor White

 

Really cool opening as the Rougeau's come out hot and hit a neat sequence with a misdirection atomic drop, dropkick, leaping splash combo that looked really fluid and actually set up a cool near fall on Lefebure. White comes in and takes a great near fall off of a dropk down/crossbody combo and then another off of a sick looking Jacques double stomp, then Ray comes in and crushes White with a deep powerslam that actually got me out of my seat. White corners Jacques but ends up steamrolling Lefebure and then flailing around with some more big bumps. Really liked Sailor White's desperation in Ray's headlock as he is pulling hair, smashing his arm, complaining of a choke et. Sailor tags out, but Pierre eats a huge double dropkick almost immediately. Heels finally take over as Ray gets caught in the back coming off the ropes with a knee and White locks on a bearhug. Ray breaks out with a hip toss and goes for a sleeper but Lefebure breaks it up and ends up locking on his own bear hug, with Ray breaking free so Lefebure goes to an ab stretch. Jacques breaks it up, but Lefebure stays in control and the fans are throwing shit in the ring. Lefebure locks on a Boston Crab, which Jacques quickly breaks up and they do a nice rope running spot leading to a double knockdown with Jacques getting he hot tag. All hell breaks lose and the heels manager's walking stick ends up getting used as a weapon with the match getting tossed. Heel offense could have been better and the finish sucked, but this was a really fun match.

 

Jacques/Ray Rougeau v. Frenchy Martin/Pierre Lefebure

 

Heels go for the ambush, but the heroes cut them off and have them reeling right away. Man the Rougeau drop down/vaulting crossbody spot really is pretty cool. Fucking absurd criss cross spot with Frenchy running right through a dropkick. At this point the announcer claims this is just clips of a match that went a half hour - I have my doubts of this for a variety of reasons. Man Jacques's floatover and leaping press combo ruled, but he turns away from the action and gets drilled with a cheap shot to his leg. They are working over Jacques pretty nastily, including a moment where Frenchy seems to be deliberately grabbing his dick and yanking it. I have to give it to the heels as they are super expressive and look the part to the point where little shit like a smash on the apron comes across as really vicious. Minor cut here and Pierre misses a seated splash which leads to the Ray hot tag. Ray hit a pretty cool looking senton and then a nice floatover suplex for a near fall. Awesome sequence as Ray locks on the sleeper on Frenchy, but Pierre comes behind the ref and crushes Jacques with a nasty crotch drop on the top rope. Heels double team Ray, but Jacques comes to and hits the heels in the balls for a dq. I don't buy for a second that there is more than a couple of minutes missing off of this and what is here is really good stuff.

 

Abdullah The Butcher v. Dino Bravo

 

This is from Japan and thus not relevant for a Canada or Other Territories set. Still cool to see bloody Abby stabbing Dino in Japan.

 

Jos Leduc v. Dino Bravo

 

This is clips and pretty awkwardly done at that. Skeleton of a match that looked pretty good with Dino getting a hold of a chain and wreaking havoc at the end.

 

Rick Martel/Dino Bravo v. Sheik Ali/Jimmy Garvin

 

JIP. Ali and Garin is such an absurd team. Martel has taped ribs and the commentators are really putting that over. Faces control early, but Martel takes the old knee coming off the ropes and the heels go to work. This segment actually doesn't last as Dino tags in and the heels end up taking over on him, including a nice looking Euro uppercut and standing dropkick from Ali. I really liked the heels taking over with a rope of all things including an actual clothesline spot that Dino sold well. Also really dug Ali busting out a sick headbutt. Dino hits a big vertical suplex which Ali awkwardly undersells leading to a weird hot tag, but Martel is great selling his ribs as he goes on offense and Garvin starts throwing punches right to his ribs to take over. Nice sunset flip near fall for Martel and Garvin hits a big body slam and goes up top only to get caught by Bravo. He crotches himself and Martel scores the desperation pin while still selling the ribs. This was somewhat strange in terms of how it was put together but still a good match. Post-match Creatchman hands Ali his cane and they fucking kill Martel's back with it.

 

Sheik Ali v. Rick Martel

 

JIP technically but I think we miss the bell and nothing else. Ali gets in some offense but Martel fires back with a string of dropkicks and Ali bails to the floor. Fucking tremendous spot as Martel sells like death that he can't get Ali over for a hip toss, so he flips over and hits a great headscissors only for Ali to float around and lock on an arm scissors. Just a really cool sequence. Ali stays focused on the arm and goes for a diving knee off the top but Martel moves and follows up by posting his leg. Gotta love Martel as he is selling the arm despite the relative brevity of that attack from Ali. Martel goes for a single crab, Ali kicks off and Martel does a cartwheel to escape a monkey flip before going back to the leg. Ali escapes the attack by fucking clubbing Martel with forearms, but Martel goes right back to work off a nice counter. Martel goes to a spinning toehold, but Ali boots him in the ass and Martel takes the splat bump to the floor. Ali is in control and Martel goes for a body press but Ali ducks and Martel takes the big bump. Ali hits a knee and then a big crossbody but Martel rolls through for the finish. Good match.

 

Road Warriors v. The Alaskans

 

This is from the AWA and was probably sent in to hype the Warriors in Montreal

 

Man Mountain Moore v. Tony Stetson

 

Moore beats up a future TWA legend! Nothing to see

 

The Long Riders v. Sunny War Cloud/Buddy Lane

 

Scott is rocking the full blown biker look here. This was interesting to watch because it was basically an extended squash but done in such a way where the faces got in enough hope spots that it didn't feel needlessly long or boring. Irwins won with a nice superplex from Scott. Decent little tv match.

 

Kamala video. Strange

 

Dino Bravo promo with a car in a hockey rink? May have been a commercial

 

Bruiser Brody v. Abdullah The Butcher

 

Holy fuck Abby coming out as a face to Eye of The Tiger is so fucking great. This is a brawl right from the bell and it is pretty crazy to see Abby in an almost FIP role after the initial exchange. The biting spots in this looked silly, but the slugfest spots were actually pretty good and there was double juice. Brody goes for a high kick and then a second but Abby cuts him off with a back kick. Brody takes off his boot and starts decking Abby with it and the ref throws this out. Brody decks his own manager with the boot and they spill to the floor. Great camera shot as they close up on Abby pulling his object out of his boot and then stabbing Brody right in the face. Post-match they play Na Na Na Na Goodbye while Abby beats the fuck out of his old manager. The match itself is really short but an entertaining and bizarre spectacle. As a match I wouldn't fight for it for a set but it feels like it should be nominated. If we do a Canada set this would be a strong Extra.

 

Steve Strong in Creatchman's corner. Holy shit this is bad tv of the best sort. Thoroughly entertaining for the wrong reasons.

 

Sunny War Cloud v. Sweet Daddy Siki

 

Fucking Siki has the best ring gear of all time. Seriously dude had a tremendous look. This is not a great match or even a good one really but it is pretty cool to watch Siki do his thing dancing around, arguing with the ref, giving War Cloud everything he can to make him look credible. Fun.

 

David Schultz v. Hercules Ayala

 

There seemed to be a lot of excess going on in the ring pre-match and when they say this is a 60 minute time limit I almost shit myself thinking about how shitty an hour draw between these two would be. Leo Burke is Dr. D's second which is just bizarre. Man the announcing is unbearable in this and the wrestling isn't very good either. Creatchman came in and caned Dr. D ending this. Thank God.

 

Hercules Ayala v. Neil Guay

 

This sucked. Really slow, boring as piss match with nothing happening.

 

Steve Strong v. Chuck Simms

 

This is more of a quick angle than anything and not a particularly interesting angle at that.

 

Sweet Daddy Siki/Chuck Simms v. Dan Kroffat/Armand Rougeau

 

Siki and Simms have a nice exchange look. This match was a hell of a lot of fun as the heels were on and the babyfaces were on. Lots of fast and quick exchanges and big bumps from all parties. Kroffat was a ball of energy in this hitting a nice headscissors/headlock take down at one point and then a sick pump kick after. Later he does this crazy leaping dropkick to the head of Simms as he they have Rougeau sprawled out on a ringside table. Siki hits a really nice diving clothesline in this, the heels are good cutting off the ring, Simms surprised me with a cool suplex. Just tons of fun stuff. Kroffat gets the hot tag and lights up the heels, including a sick looking gutbuster for a cool near fall. Kroffat goes for a big splash but Simms gets the knees up and starts choking out Kroffat. Simms taunts are amusing and Siki is able to do more even at this age than you would maybe imagine. Another near fall off of a big Simms leg drop. Siki goes for a front face lock, but Kroffat counters with a walking reverse atomic drop. They tease a near fall but Siki grabs the leg only for Kroffat to hit an enziguri. Simms is Doug Somers like as the random blonde jobber taking the hug back body drop bump and flying around. Armand locks on the sleeper, but Siki breaks it up. The ref forces Siki out of the ring and Kroffat hits a sweet looking flash belly to belly for the pin. This was pretty awesome stuff actually.

Rick Martel/Dino Bravo v. Sheik Ali/Jimmy Garvin

 

JIP. Ali and Garin is such an absurd team. Martel has taped ribs and the commentators are really putting that over. Faces control early, but Martel takes the old knee coming off the ropes and the heels go to work. This segment actually doesn't last as Dino tags in and the heels end up taking over on him, including a nice looking Euro uppercut and standing dropkick from Ali. I really liked the heels taking over with a rope of all things including an actual clothesline spot that Dino sold well. Also really dug Ali busting out a sick headbutt. Dino hits a big vertical suplex which Ali awkwardly undersells leading to a weird hot tag, but Martel is great selling his ribs as he goes on offense and Garvin starts throwing punches right to his ribs to take over. Nice sunset flip near fall for Martel and Garvin hits a big body slam and goes up top only to get caught by Bravo. He crotches himself and Martel scores the desperation pin while still selling the ribs. This was somewhat strange in terms of how it was put together but still a good match. Post-match Creatchman hands Ali his cane and they fucking kill Martel's back with it.

They used Ali and Garvin killing Martel's back as one of the reasons he lost the title to Hansen, given this match occurred in that time frame. I remember seeing this match back-to-back with Martel vs. hansen 12/25/85 and then the 12/29/85 title change. In between the AWA bouts and the Quebec one they had martel in the dressing room post-tag match gettinghis back looked at by the doctor with Bravo watching closely.

 

At the end of the day it built the revenge angle vs. Sheik Ali as they had matches later on, and also laid the groundwork to bring Hansen in as champ with Martel as the challenger (martel scored a non-title pinfall on Hansen in one of their Quebec bouts).