Posted October 30, 200816 yr comment_5435440 The Freebirds make their full return to World Class in a promo from Fort Worth about the Parade of Champions. Extra material. Kevin Von Erich vs. “Handsome Halfbreed” Gino Hernandez (4/5/85) Adams comes out with Gino to be in his corner. This match has a slower more methodical start than the other matches in this feud and it wouldn’t be long before Bronko Lubich banishes Adams from ringside due to being a distraction. This was a tight match with both men laying in the shots and Kevin would get the win with a 180 splash off the top rope after Gino missed one of own. Gino then got the iron claw afterwards but he ducked and ran. This was a good match but not a nomination. Then we get a press conference from Sunshine where she introduces her newest charge in The Great Kabuki. Hercules Hernandez vs. “Handsome Halfbreed” Gino Hernandez (4/19/85) Hercules Duggan comes out jumping Gino at the bell ripping off his ring jacket and attacks him. Gino bumps and sells his way to the floor then gets back in the ring for more punishment and this plays to his strengths because he was so awesome with his facials and selling. Gino would send Hercules to the floor and nailed him with the Texas title belt but doesn’t get DQed for some reason. Gino throws some good punches on Herc as he tries to get back in the ring then takes control with a reverse chinlock but of course Herc would make a comeback until Adams ran in and nailed him with a Superkick for the DQ. The Duo then ties him up in the ropes but Kabuki would come out to make the save and had a Superkick standoff with Adams. The post-match was great here and Gino made the match better than what it was. “Modern Day Warrior” Kerry Von Erich vs. “Loverboy” Dennis Condrey (4/19/85) Adams is in the ring before the match and Kevin joins Kerry at ringside where Adams says that he couldn’t compete here tonight due to a head injury thanks to Kevin. Condrey substitutes for Adams here and this is a welcomed fresh matchup. Condrey brings the Southern stooging schtick to the match starting with a test of strength spot with Kerry taking his hands to the mat and stomping on them. Kerry had some good looking dropkicks and Condrey would break out a couple of great clotheslines for a nearfall but would fall victim to a backslide for the loss. Adams would come back afterwards along with Gino to attack the Von Erichs. The match was criminally short but combined with the angles pre and post match this should go on as an extra. “Modern Day Warrior” Kerry Von Erich vs. One Man Gang (5/5/85) Gary Hart must be handcuffed to Fritz Von Erich and if Gang loses then he must get his head shaved for life. The crowd at Texas Stadium isn’t as big as it was the last year but still a good sized crowd nonetheless. Kerry was fired up here on offense but Gang would keep the pressure on him with Kerry trying to apply the iron claw but Gang cutting him off. Kerry starts firing the punches including some discus punches followed up with a dropkick that puts Gang in the ropes. Kerry would then lock on a sleeper but Gang would drop him head first on the top turnbuckle. The fireworks would go down on the floor with Fritz keeping Hart in check as Kerry got the iron claw on Gang but he would get to the ropes thus breaking the hold. Kerry would then get a slam on Gang but somehow Kerry fell forward on impact and Gang rolled him up for a nearfall. Gang would then slam Kerry and went for the 747 but Fritz tripped him up with Kerry covering him for the win. Hart would get his head shaved after the match not without a struggle. This was a great fun and Kerry was on fire here so this definitely moves forward. 3 out of 5 falls w/2 rings: The Dynamic Duo (“Gentleman” Chris Adams & “Handsome Halfbreed” Gino Hernandez), Kamala, “The Crippler” Rip Oliver, One Man Gang, & “Dr. Death” Steve Williams vs. The Fabulous Freebirds (Terry “Bamm Bamm” Gordy, Michael Hayes, & Buddy Roberts) & Kerry, Kevin, & Mike Von Erich (5/5/85) This is a wild clusterfuck of a match but loads of fun and Flair was supposed to have been in this match but he was injured in his match with Kevin. Everyone was working hard here and the action was all over the place with the referees basically having no control. The finish to the 5th fall was fucking awesome as Kevin flew across both rings hitting a tope suicida on Doc to win the match and the Lincoln. Gary Hart orders the One Man Gang to destroy the car with his chain but the Von Erichs cut him off and as this happens the Dynamic Duo are lurking in the shadows then Gino would come running out taking the chain and breaks the windshield on the car. This was a fucking awesome angle in 1985 and great even now plus a tremendous end to this match along with being a great catalyst for the Von Erichs/Duo feud. Slam dunk nomination for this match and angle. The Dynamic Duo (“Gentleman” Chris Adams & “Handsome Halfbreed” Gino Hernandez) vs. Scott Casey & The Great Kabuki (5/5/85) Everyone did their jobs here as The Duo looked great here as they got a lot of offense in on both faces even Kabuki but Casey of course sold better. Adams would hit Casey with a Superkick then brought in Sunshine to attack her but Kabuki made the save and spat the mist in Gino’s eyes for the DQ. Fun stuff but not a nomination. Then we get the awful green jacket angle with Casey stealing Cornette’s jacket in Fort Worth. Corny hated this angle so much but made it good with his promos. Extra material. The Great Kabuki vs. One Man Gang (5/17/85) This is quite the matchup here and it’s always odd to see Kabuki as a face. This wasn’t a good match but it was fine for what it was and had a good bit of heat plus it was fun to see Kabuki attack Gary Hart. Mercer then takes a ride with Gary Hart in a limo where they meet up with One Man Gang then rides horses with Scott Casey and this is all extra material. Scott Casey, Bobby Fulton, & The Great Kabuki vs. The Midnight Express (“Loverboy” Dennis Condrey & “Beautiful” Bobby Eaton) & “The Crippler” Rip Oliver (5/31/85) Now that’s a WAR team on the babyface side. There is a pretty big clip at the beginning of the match and we miss quite a bit it looked because there was some sweaty guys here.
November 19, 200816 yr comment_5435821 int: Freebirds Solid promo. This could be an extra. Badstreet video. This is a sure fire extra.Greatest wrestling music video of all time. 1. kevin Von Erich vs Gino Hernandez This was alright. I liked the finish. - Sunshine press conference; she introdes Kabuki 2. Gino Hernandez vs Hercules Hernandez I thought this was good. Gino did a good job working Hercules. Hercules is agile at this stage in the game. 3. Kerry Von erich vs Dennis Condrey I thought this was good while it lasted. 4. Kerry Von Erich vs One Man Gang - Texas Stadium I use to think the OMG was the coolest gimmick. OMG was one of the great monster heels who lost his aura once VKM cut his balls off in the WWF. Gang does take some tremendous bumps for a man of his size. The bump off the 3 discuss punches was gold. This was good stuff, The payback trip that lead to the finish from Fritz was great. Hart gets a haircut that he kept until he passed away. Overall, the match and post match was great stuff and a nomination. 5. 2 ring, 12 man team match; 3 out of 5 falls - Texas Stadium Lowrance put the stips over big.This is all action. That was so killer when Kerry did a roll up on Gino and Adams gave Kerry the superkick. What a great finish to a fall.The dog pile with OMG and Kamala on top of Kerry was a nice moment. The Double Hart Attack finish from the Freebirds on Gino was a great fall as well. It wasn't hit clean, but still cool.I liked Hayes reaction when he told Adams got up before 3 and didn't win the stips. This got the stips over. Kevin big dive across both rings for the final fall was incredible. This was some great stuff. It was hard to follow at times, but I'll cosign the nomination.The post match angle was awesome as well.It was neat to see MVE with the crossbody in the end zone on OMG was neat. The Duo then getting to the car after the Von Erichs and the fans thought it was safe was superb. 6. Chris Adams + Gino Hernandez vs Kabuki + Scott Casey That was one hell of a bump from Adams off a Kabuki spin kick. Gino is such a jerk off. Adams had his working shoes on here. He looked tremendous. I thought this was good stuff and was nearing a nomination, but not quite. I give it a no. - Scott Casey steals Jim Cornettes jacket - Ft Worth This is a possible extra. How awesome was that finish from Casey. It was a combination Atomic drop/German suplex. int: Jim Cornette This was another great promo from Cornette. 7. One Man Gang vs Kabuki Kabuki was throwing a nice right upper cut to OMG.This was better than I thought it was going to be, but not a nomination.Gang worked hard to make Kabuki look strong. He did his job. int: Bill Mercer w/ Gary Hart in a limo This is a possible extra.Some great banter here. The Asian race profiling is great in the form of wrestling. - Bill Mercer rides horses with Scott Casey Wow we have the black hole of charisma on the screen. He was better in SWCW. 8. Midnight Express + Rip Oliver vs Fulton + Scott Casey + Kabuki The green jacket is a shit angle, but Cornette still gets it over. Not much is shown, and their is a clip job here.
February 13, 201015 yr comment_5447812 int: Freebirds The Birds are back! Extra. "Badstreet USA" Music Video 360 tomahawk jam slam dunk extra. Kevin Von Erich vs. “Handsome Halfbreed” Gino Hernandez (4/5/85) Good little match. - Sunshine press conference Sunshine was so great. After everything she's been through by this point, you really feel for her and want to get behind her noble quest to clean up pro wrestling, even if it means being subjected to Great Kabuki matches. Maybe extra. Hercules Hernandez vs. “Handsome Halfbreed” Gino Hernandez (4/19/85) Good match with a really good angle afterwords. “Modern Day Warrior” Kerry Von Erich vs. “Loverboy” Dennis Condrey (4/19/85) I agree with throwing this on as an extra. “Modern Day Warrior” Kerry Von Erich vs. One Man Gang (5/5/85) I love Andre the Giant, but no fat guy wrestler gets caught in the the ropes better than the Gang. This is a good match, but Kerry dominates practically the whole thing, and Fritz cheats to win. I'm honestly not sold on it as a nomination. The post-match stuff would definitely be extra material, but I have to say "no" to the match proper. 3 out of 5 falls w/2 rings: The Dynamic Duo (“Gentleman” Chris Adams & “Handsome Halfbreed” Gino Hernandez), Kamala, “The Crippler” Rip Oliver, One Man Gang, & “Dr. Death” Steve Williams vs. The Fabulous Freebirds (Terry “Bamm Bamm” Gordy, Michael Hayes, & Buddy Roberts) & Kerry, Kevin, & Mike Von Erich (5/5/85) This was about as crazy as you'd expect it to be. Strangely, it was pretty hard to follow at first (including the cameraman missing the first fall), but it actually seemed to get easier as it went along. It seems like a lot of the action was confined to one ring starting in the second fall, which probably helped. By the end it really felt like they had the hang of the gimmick. Did a good job building up the drama with the heels taking the first two falls and the faces fighting to catch up, which coincides nicely with the match actually becoming followable. If things didn't start falling apart the way they did in '86, this would have made a nice annual match for World Class. Hell, you could dust it off now and have WWE build their nine gajillionth PPV around it. Post-match angle was awesome, too. Mike cutting off OMG with the running crossbody is one of the only cool things he ever did. This moves forward. The Dynamic Duo (“Gentleman” Chris Adams & “Handsome Halfbreed” Gino Hernandez) vs. Scott Casey & The Great Kabuki (5/5/85) The Duo are great as always, but Casey and Kabuki had their working shoes on and were able to put this over the top for me. Really great back-and-forth action, and a well-done screwy finish with the Duo going after Sunshine and Kabuki spitting the mist while trying to save her. I thought this was fantastic, and I'm throwing it on the block. Jim Cornette jacket angle stuff I don't see what was so terrible about this angle, nor do I think Cornette's promos were particularly strong by his standards. The Great Kabuki vs. One Man Gang (5/17/85) This match is being totally undersold. Both guys looked great here. Gang was awesome being bugged out over Kabuki's rituals, and when he overcame it, he laid in a hell of a beating. Kabuki is working almost as an underdog here. It is weird to see him in that role, but he actually does really well with it, selling well and taking a nasty spill to the concrete. Gang is not to be outdone in the bumping department, of course, and takes two huge bumps over the top rope, one onto a table, one straight to the floor. Kabuki's offense, which often looks lame and gimmicky outside of some of his kicks, all looked really good here. It didn't hurt that it was Gang eating his stuff, I'm sure. But he was really fired up, and it looked like he was gonna kill Gary Hart at the end. You kinda were wondering how Sunshine was gonna get him to calm down when it was all over. This is probably the best Kabuki singles match I've ever seen, and even with two strikes against it, I still say it's an easy nomination. int: Bill Mercer w/ Gary Hart in a limo Extra.
