Posted April 20, 200916 yr comment_5438628 Rick McGraw vs. El Santo Negro (3/21/83) This is JIP and McGraw wins. SCW Commission Lou Thesz then announces that SCW would be creating their own world heavyweight title and the tournament that would take place in Houston 2 months later. This is a definite extra. Southwest Tag Titles: The Grapplers (Tony Anthony & Len Denton) © vs. The Dynamic Duo (Tully Blanchard & Gino Hernandez) (3/21/83) This is a rare heel vs. heel match but the Duo were getting the cheers although they still work their normal style. Tully works early FIP and the Grapplers take it to him with Tully bumping around the ring. Gino would get the tag and he comes in fired up beating on both Grapplers but would get kicked in the head so he tagged back in Tully. Tully would get the advantage on Grappler #2 before both made tags and Gino would get the quick advantage on Grappler #1 with there being quite a bit of switching in and out. Tully would get back in and played FIP again with both Grapplers taking it to him. Tully would eat a nice swinging neckbreaker for a nearfall before tagging Gino but Jack Howell didn’t see it. Gino would tag in and was fired up again getting a dropkick for a nearfall before tagging Tully back in. Gino would then accidentally hit Tully and countered a slam into an O’Connor Roll where the Grappler would knock heads with Tully and Gino got the win. The Duo win the titles and Tully decides to attack Gino with his title belt. Tully pounds on Gino relentlessly who blades but Gino would recover to run Tully off until the Grapplers decided to start destroying him until Gino made a comeback cleaning house on the Grapplers and Carson. This was a solid match with Gino getting over bigtime as a babyface afterwards in this legendary angle and this is a nomination. “Bruiser” Bob Sweetan vs. Ali Bey (3/21/83) It’s a hard act to follow the hot angle that happened before the match so these two just break the second rope on the ring. They try to tighten the rope but the guys continue to work on the loose rope causing problems for the ring crew so they leave and just let these guys continue to work. Gino comes out during the match and declares the Dynamic Duo is dead and he would destroy Tully. Extra material. Steve Stack then recaps the Duo split with Lou Thesz. “Hangman” Bobby Jaggers vs. Frank Monte (3/21/83) Competitive squash. Jaggers then cuts a promo after the match and wanting to be the world champ. Terry Funk sends in a taped promo putting over the world title tournament. This was a great promo. Eric Embry vs. Tonga John (3/21/83) Another match JIP with Embry getting the upset on a schoolboy. Bob Sweetan then cuts a promo about being the Southwest champion and going for the world title. “Gorgeous” Gino Hernandez vs. Tonga John (The Barbarian) (4/11/83) Tonga attacks Gino at the bell but Gino would comeback to get the win. Bob Orton Jr. then comes out for a promo about not being in the tournament and just waiting on the winner. Lou Thesz then cuts a promo showing that they have invited Bob Backlund, Nick Bockwinkel, & Ric Flair to be in the tourney. Bob Orton Jr. vs. Arias Romero (4/11/83) Pretty much a squash. Adrian Adonis makes his return after a New Japan tour cutting a great promo. Adrian Adonis vs. Scott Casey (4/11/83) Adonis hits a flying headscissors early on just proving what a great athlete he was even with his odd frame. There was some damn good matwork to start here with Adonis working over Casey’s left knee relentlessly and Casey was good here at gathering sympathy. It would turn into a slugfest with Casey recovering to fire shots while selling his left knee before missing a legdrop that led to Adonis throwing Casey into Jack Howell. Adonis climbs up to the top rope and hits a diving elbow drop but Jack Howell saw it and called for the DQ in a shitty finish. I really liked this a lot and even with the shitty finish I’m putting it up on the block for consideration. Gino then cuts another promo Tully and talks about returning to Houston to face Tully. “Bruiser” Bob Sweetan vs. “Hangman” Bobby Jaggers (4/11/83) Orton does commentary here for this one. Sweetan works a headlock for the early part of the match while sprinkling some punches in there but Jaggers would make a comeback using a lot of elbows and punches. Sweetan starts throwing some bombs himself before Orton jumps on the apron to distract him so Jaggers could roll him up but as that happened Sweetan ducked a shot by Orton and pinned Jaggers to win. Fun stuff. The Grapplers (Tony Anthony & Len Denton) vs. Mando Guerrero & Rick McGraw (4/11/83) Grapplers work over McGraw’s left leg trying to immobilize him and this goes on quite a while with both men tagging in and out keeping the fresh one in the ring. McGraw tries to fight back using his right leg and is finally able to get the hot tag to Mando who comes in a house of fire. Soon enough the 4-way brawl starts up before Mando would nuke Grappler #2 with a backdrop suplex followed up with an airplane spin for a nearfall. The match then settles back down into a normal match with the faces working over Grappler #1’s left arm. Grappler would hit a powerslam though on Mando that stopped that before the match again turned into a clusterfuck as guys didn’t know what to do. The faces then went after Grappler #2’s mask for a bit before he tagged in his partner and McGraw went to work on his left leg as payback from earlier. Grapplers though would get back on offense and went back to work on McGraw’s left leg again but it didn’t last long as Mando got the tag back in and another 4-way brawl would start up. Everyone is fighting here with the cameras having a hard time to follow as the bell rang for the TV draw. This was a fun match but very disjointed which hurts it as a nomination.
