Posted April 14, 201015 yr comment_5449563 Mike Von Erich vs. Ron Cheatham (JIP) Kerry Von Erich vs. The Missing Link Michael Hayes/Terry Gordy Interview Seen these. Scott Irwin vs. Rick McCord Lengthy squash. Irwin keeps it interesting. Kevin Von Erich vs. Killer Khan Seen it. Mike Von Erich & Chris Adams vs. Michael Hayes & Buddy Roberts So one of the stock putdowns used against guys like us is mocking us for our preference of "smart" matches over "good" matches. I guess "good" matches are actually supposed to be stupid. Whatever. "Smart" matches are "good" matches, and this is an excellent example of why. I think we can all safely agree that Mike Von Erich sucked pretty hard, and were this match not as smartly worked as it was, he would've dragged it down big time. Instead, they do the smart thing with Mike - use him as little as possible without taking him out of the picture entirely, and when he's in the ring, just have him do really basic stuff that he can't screw up that bad. The match is structured as such: Mike controls the 'Birds early on, but does so with drop toe holds into deathlocks, which he does pretty well. Not as well as Kevin or Jimmy Garvin, but well enough that you won't fault him for it. Chris Adams comes in, and the Freebirds take over. Normally, this match shouldn't work, as while Adams can play FIP just fine, eating a beatdown is the one thing that Mike is really actively good at (besides drop toe holds, I guess), and Adams has great-looking offense, so you'd think having Mike as the hot tag guy instead of Chris is setting the match up to fail. Not so. Mike gets the hot tag, and grabs a headscissors takedown that pulls Roberts from the apron into the ring. Not bad-looking, but also not the kind of offense you'd expect for a hot tag. Not to worry, as Hayes goes after Mike, leading to a brief FIP section before Adams gets the hot tag, allowing him to fill both major functions of the tag match without completely marginalizing his partner. Superkicks galore. We get a great finish, as the Freebirds retake control with double teams, but Mike keeps pulling Hayes off of Adams when ever he goes for the pin. David Manning chastises Mike, which allows the Birds to double team Adams again while Manning is distracted, but Mike pulls Hayes off of Adams, which leads to Manning chastising Mike, which distracts him him so the Birds can double team Adams again....and so on and so forth until Adams counters a double team into an inside cradle, and Manning turns back in time to count the three. Alan4L would probably complain that Mike didn't bust out enough high-end offense. I say that Mike is lucky when he can execute low-end offense without looking like shit, and the smart work here makes this an easy nomination. Buck Zumhoffe vs. Buddy Roberts Seen it. The Missing Link vs. George Weingroff Weingroff actually give the Link a run for his money, including busting out the dropsault almost 20 years before the name "Paul London" meant anything to anybody. Link doesn't take that shit for too long, though, and takes Weingroff out with his Asai falling headbutt pretty quickly. Gary Holder Interview Holder is the chaplain of World Class, which I think ensures him a special place in Hell. This is a little general profile of the man, and I thought it was actually kinda interesting. Might be an extra. Buck Zumhoffe & Mike Reed vs. The Pretty Young Things The PYT's World Class debut isn't one of their better outings. Jules Strongbow vs. Buddy Roberts These two had a match that was close to a nomination before. This one was even better, with Strongbow really ripping up Buddy's arm and Buddy having some cool interactions with David Manning, whom he was feuding with at the time. Jules picks up the win in a finish that seemed kinda abrupt, and held this back from being a nomination, but it was a really close call. Chris Adams vs. Kelly Kiniski (JIP) Kerry Von Erich vs. Gino Hernandez (JIP) Seen these. Second one cuts out in the middle as the disc ends.
