Verne Gagne & Mad Dog Vachon vs Sheik Ayatollah Blackwell & Sheik Adnan Al-Kaisse - AWA 4/24/83

 

We get the angle that brings Verne out of retirement to be Mad Dog's partner to wrestle the Sheiks to main event Super Sunday. Super Sunday features the one of the infamous screwjobs of Hulk Hogan out of the AWA World Championship.

 

Verne's early shine shows he is better on offense than most wrestler everything was landing crisply and snugly. Blackwell was the perfect person to sell and bump for him. We get all his specialties: the Bret Bump, weeble wobble and the back body drop. Sheik uses the cast to get Mad Dog down. Mad Dog tries to use the bell, but that gets knocked out his hands and he throws in a mic stand. This gets him popped and busted open. Mad Dog doesnt give a fuck and throws in a chair. For 1983, these are some pretty snug chairshots. Mad og just starts no selling and throwing some wicked punches. The crowd begins to roar and for the hot tag to Verne they explode. Verne kicks some serious ass and throws a better dropkick than his son. Verne telegraphs a back drop and Blackwell hits a powerslam, but misses his splash. Then misses the splash in the corner. SLEEPER!!! Sheik Adnan sees his opening and Mad Dog intercepts him. Mad Dog slams Sheik's cast into Blackwell. Yes! Verne and Mad Dog become fixed on getting the cast off. They smash the cast over the Sheik's head. MAD DOG CRACKS BLACKWELL IN THE SKULL WITH A CHAIR! HOLY SHIT! Verne kneedrops Sheik's arm while Mad Dog holds it for the win!

That chairshot was a straight late 90s chairshot to the head. Wow! From the hot tag to the finish this was gold. It was a little weird how he went for the sleeper and then they just became fixed on Sheik Adnan. It was almost like two finish stretches. It did not have meat for me on he Mad Dog heat segment. It was a pretty fun match. ***3/4

This was alright, I guess, but it was not my cup of tea. Vachon's revenge on the Sheiks got Gagne back in the ring for another hurrah and the crowd seemed into it, at least. Blackwell was once again very generous with his selling, but sadly this featured the babyfaces destroying Kassie for the most part (which kind of made sense). It was fun to see Gagne and Vachon winning this, but the match was flat and even the finish didn't accomplish much
**1/4