Rock and Roll Express formula match, which is always a fun match. A couple of awkward spots, but a bunch of cool shit too, with Sags getting busted open and Ricky Morton looking especially awesome

This is a match I liked. One of the Nasties better bouts.

Man the body of this was excellent stuff. I don't want to ever hear any other motherfucker claim the Nasty Boys weren't a very good team. They are green as grass here and there are a couple of moments where Sags clearly doesn't know what Ricky is going for, but they recover well and this is still a very good match. Fun to see the Rock N Rolls so over with a non-Southern crowd. Ricky's corner charge bump looked fucking brutal here and set up a really spirited FIP, which included Sags creaming him with a shoulder breaker and lots of good double team/ref distraction spots. Sags takes a brutal looking corner bump to set up the hot tag and the dosey do dropkick spot was great. Finish with all hell breaking loose and Sags bleeding from the fucking face was an omen of things to come for the Nastys. I will back this pretty strongly for the set.

 

AWA Main Events

Dylan, can you edit in the disc you got this from?

Gibson was really great early on, smartly escaping the heel corner twice, assisting Ricky on the piledriver, biting Knobbs’ nose to escape. Damn, showing the personality. Ricky Morton plays Ricky Morton notable for an UGLY clothesline from Saggs. Saggs was a bloody mess in the end and I didn’t like the finish but this was fun enough.

The Nasty Boys (Brian Knobbs & Jerry Sags) vs. The Rock n Roll Express (Robert Gibson & Ricky Morton) (4/16/88)

 

A rare matchup between these teams which Lee Marshall calls a main event anywhere in the world. Always fun seeing RnR work outside their comfort zone and the fans are into them pretty good here. Nastys are still in their first year as a team and it shows at times but damn did they stand on their own here. RnR work their style early and around some Jerry Sags' issues with figuring out what Morton was going to do but they are effective nonetheless and their shine section is really good. Interesting that RnR actually incorporate some AWA tag psychology here as Gibson gets worked over for a bit before Morton comes back in to setup his FIP section. Gibson didn't do that much so this was a treat. Morton runs his shoulder hard as shit into the ringpost and now the Nastys go on offense working over the injured shoulder. Nastys on offense was good especially with Morton being great at selling their offense. Sags nearly killed himself by running into the corner busting himself wide open hardway allowing Morton to tag in Gibson who cleans house before Morton could join in. Sags is bleeding and discombobulated but still knows how to bump. Gary DeRusha loses control of the action and calls for the bell for a DDQ which sucked but the fans were hot for the action as these teams were brawling around ringside. This may have been the best Nastys match in AWA and a definite nomination in my eyes.