I'll give this a solid nomination. The crowd is hot here and the wrestlers work hard. They start off with Tully in control for 45 secs or so. He tries a top rope body block that Kernodle turns into a power slam. Tully is great at eating all of Kernodle's offense, and he has some interesting stuff. Tully gets some seperation and gets heat on Kernodle for a bit, but not for long. Kernodle catches Tully with a Cobra Clutch. Kernodle focuses on Tully's neck. Finally Tully sneaks his way back into the heat. So he goes after Kernodle's neck as revenge. Kernodle makes a comeback and looks on the verge of winning till Baby Doll causes the DQ. Magnum TA comes out for a fun post match angle. Man this match had some ebbs and flows and Tully made you believe Kernodle was on the verge of winning the title.

NWA World TV Title: Tully Blanchard © vs. Don Kernodle (5/8/85)

 

Magnum is out with David on commentary so Baby Doll comes over to him and she sends him a warning to not get involved in their business. Great to see Kernodle get a high profile singles match on TV and Tully is tremendous to start bumping and stooging around for Kernodle as the fans go insane thinking that Kernodle was going to put him away early. Tully was on the ropes before chunking Kernodle to the floor which is where he got the opening he needed to take control or so he thought as Kernodle would fight back to again work over Tully. Kernodle even got the Cobra Clutch on Tully but Tully would get to the ropes for a break. There is a commercial break during the match but it doesn't look like we missed much as Kernodle is still trying to put away Tully. Kernodle was so pesky here as any time Tully thought he had the advantage Don would take it right back to him. Kernodle though would get greedy and tried to put Tully away instead of trying to pin him so Baby Doll would jump up and tossed him off the top rope for the DQ. Magnum then runs down and he gets into it with Tully before Dusty would come out to make the save. The match was so damn good that even with the shitty finish which was done for the angle afterwards I'm going to pass this forward as a nomination.