The Barbarian vs. Terry Taylor (6/9/85)

 

We are at the Myriad in OKC for this one. Taylor does a lot of armwork early with wristlocks and a reverse hammerlock trying to weaken Barbarian’s power game but he would come back with a tight headlock. Taylor would back Barbarian into the corner to break the hold and started an offensive flurry that wouldn’t last long due to Barbarian clubbing Taylor in the back of the head. Barbarian kept roughhousing Taylor before going to a reverse chinlock to rest. Taylor would drive elbows to the gut to break out but missed a dropkick before Barbarian locked in the full-nelson. Barbarian wrenched it in with Taylor trying to make it to the ropes when Jake showed up at ringside. Taylor would spring off the ropes to break the hold to the fans delight and Barbarian followed with a missed diving elbow and leg drop. Taylor starts hulking up and fires the punches off finishing with a dropkick before yelling at Jake on the floor. Taylor would hit another dropkick for a nearfall when Barbarian pressed Taylor on Carl Fergie. Jake climbed up on the apron and hit Taylor with his boot so Barbarian followed with a legdrop for the victory. Pretty fine match.

 

The Snowman vs. Pat Rose (6/9/85)

 

This is from Tulsa and a squash.

 

Kevin Von Erich vs. Gino Hernandez (6/9/85)

 

This is a brawl at the bell with both men fighting in their robes. Akbar comes down to ringside to taunt Kevin but the Tulsa crowd is giving him hell. After some back and forth action early, Kevin goes right for the claw but Akbar would come in to jump Kevin for the DQ. Gino & Akbar would hold Kevin down until Kamala showed up who then hit his diving body press off the top rope. This match went all of 3 minutes.

 

The Nightmare vs. Brad Armstrong (6/9/85)

 

Armstrong wants the mask checked before the match and Gilbert pitches a fit saying there is nothing there. Armstrong uses a lot of counters early in the match to keep Nightmare on the mat but Nightmare would get going with his power game and would just pound Armstrong down before going with different variations of a reverse chinlock. Armstrong would get out and started firing away with punches before Nightmare would throw him to the floor and kicked him right in the head. Armstrong would get in the ring and caught Nightmare coming off the middle rope with a punch to the gut before making his comeback. Armstrong would hit a high kneelift before being sent into the corner where he tried a 180 splash but was caught by Nightmare who dropped him neck first on the top rope before finishing him off with the piledriver. Fine match.

 

“Private” Terry Daniels & “Cowboy” Bill Watts vs. The Dirty White Boys (Tony Anthony & Len Denton) (6/9/85)

 

Daniels has enlisted Watts in his vendetta against the DWB’s and they break out the American flag before the match as Tulsa goes nuts. Watts nails both DWB’s early and often here sending them to the floor to recover. Daniels would come in and looked good early getting a nearfall on Denton before tagging in Watts who once again took care of both DWB’s. Daniels would get back in and it wasn’t long before he was beaten by both DWB’s for quite a while but after a double KO it seemed like he would get the hot tag to Watts but Denton cut him off. Denton would miss an elbow drop off the middle rope and this time Daniels got the tag with Watts WALKING TALL but Denton would get a small advantage before failing in an attempt for a piledriver. Watts would grab Anthony off the top rope and hit the Oklahoma Stampede for the win. As a result of losing the match, Denton had to salute Daniels’ dress blues jacket and the heat for this was tremendous. I liked this a lot and it’s a maybe nomination for me.

 

“Private” Terry Daniels & “Cowboy” Bill Watts vs. The Dirty White Boys (Tony Anthony & Len Denton) (6/9/85)

 

This is the OKC version of this match. Daniels was in this one a lot more early on than the Tulsa match and got quite a bit more offense but he didn’t look sharp though. Daniels would get chunked to the floor as Anthony taunted Watts and when Daniels got back in the ring he would suffer more punishment. DWB’s did their damndest to keep Daniels from making the tag to Watts and beating his ass at the same time but Anthony would miss a diving headbutt that gave Daniels the chance to tag in Watts. Watts would come in throwing punches all over the place but Denton would get him down on the mat before holding him up for Anthony to come off the middle rope for a double axehandle but Watts would duck and Denton got hit. Watts would then give Anthony the Stampede for the win and Denton would have to salute again. I preferred the Tulsa match over this one because Watts was more of a factor in that one but the DWB’s actually performed better in this one.

The Barbarian vs. Terry Taylor (6/9/85)

This is the best Barbarian has looked in a singles match. As his offense looked good , I enjoyed his bumping and his vocal interactions (calling Terry Taylor and ref weasels) really gave him an amusing Boo Radley feel. That said can stay off.

 

The Snowman vs. Pat Rose

squash

 

Kevin Von Erich vs. Gino Hernandez (

I think Kevin is the Von Erich who had a reputation of being a crowbar. And fuck he appears to be potatoeing Gino non stop. Not really a match.

 

The Nightmare vs. Brad Armstrong

Basic match. I don't see this being any better or worse than the Brad v Dibiase match that Phil hates. More chinlocky I guess but lots of cranking and changing up chinlock variations. Brad does an almost Terry Taylor style bump out of ring. they have a fun back and forth Brad reversing every Nightmare spot with a punch to belly, and Brad hits a high knee that Nightmare takes really well on the road to finish.

 

“Private” Terry Daniels & “Cowboy” Bill Watts vs. The Dirty White Boys (Tony Anthony & Len Denton) (6/9/85)

This feels like a nomination to me. Not as good as the DWB v Dundee/Daniels match. WQatts promises to make the DWBs salute the marine uniform which is brought to ring in a dry cleaning suit bag. Crowd is realy really hot. DWB do the bump around for Watts at start then go to work on Daniels with lots of nice double teams and cutting off ring stopping hot tag stuff. Neat ripping apart Daniels arm in fip section. Leading to Watts clearing house.

 

Private” Terry Daniels & “Cowboy” Bill Watts vs. The Dirty White Boys (Tony Anthony & Len Denton) (6/9/85)

 

Really the lesser of the two matches. Daniels gets more time as face in control and he isn't that good at that (although not as bad as one would expect from him) and the face in peril section is very abdominal stretchy and not as much about nasty abuse. Daniels does take a nice bump to the floor here but really the lesser of the two matches.