khawk20

Bockwinkel match list = DROOL (please get me a towel) Funny enough, most of those matches were written about in the Weston Family of mags with various stories. I remember a Rich vs. Bock article specifically, and I have an old AWA promo of Bock and Heenan talking about the upcoming Slater match. Some very exciting stuff coming when all that gets put up. The AWA match rights question is interesting but the reverse rule should ring true in your favour, Bruce. If the footage was sent to another area to promote a wrestler, it became part of their library as a result. it's why footage sometimes popped up in VKM's library before he actually had the rights to it via purchase. "You got a copy, you can use it as part of your own library/promotions/etc." is what the rule seems to have always been. What are the two matches from Minneapolis you have? Very curious if they are "new".

Effective and believable. Not sure if they make my list or not without a rewatch of some of their stuff.

Man I loved this team. Most of the footage we have of them is vs. The High Flyers and those matches are all really good in my eyes. Other matchups they had were against Tito Santana and Ray Stevens (2/20/81), and Bruiser and Crusher (clips of two bouts from later in 1981), vs. Verne and Mad Dog from 1980, and a 6-man with Blackwell vs Hogan and Andre. For a look at them in a different/non-AWA setting, there is a E/W vs. Domenic DeNucci & Tony Parisi match available from later 1981 in Toronto, and a match vs. the Strongbow Brothers from MSG IIRC mid-1982 Jesse on the mic is a thing of beauty in their interviews, so much so that I didn't know Adonis wasn't so bad on the stick himself until many years later. On the other end of the scale, Adonis was amazing in the ring, so much so you could easily ignore Jesse's flawas as a wrestler...Adrain had it covered. Adonis as the Wrestling Machine and Ventura as the Eye Candy/Muscle was an effective mixture. Again Variety of footage may be an issue but their blend as a team and my own personal memories of their work as AWA tag champs make it likely they would make my list.

The birth of this team into AWA tag title contenders was an excellent angle, where they as a new team were given a non-title match in Chicago to replace a Japanese team "that couldn't make it". They won that match, earned title matches because of it, and made an extended run at the tag titles and had an excellent feud with the High Flyers, almost winning the titles many times. (The post non-title win interviews from the High Flyers are great FWIW, they are pissed that their act of helping Wally Karbo fill a hole in the card results in the Sheiks earning title matches.) One thing to consider here might be "variety of opponent", specifically in regard to matches available on video. High Flyers, Dog/Baron, Dog/Brunzell, Verne/Dog...you can see where this went. My memory is fuzzy at this time of the day but I'm not sure how much outside of what I listed for opponents for these two is around in terms of matches that were complete enough to accurately rate this team. Same problem as Blackwell/Patera have IMO. Of course, your individual mileage may vary on whether there is enough. I would say that in my case it isn't impossible I would include them on a Final List, but it isn't any sort of slam dunk. I have the luxury of remembering the impact of their interviews and angles when they happened and of course that will enhance anyone's standing. But going on pure available footage, does enough exist?

I liked them as a team but they really didn't do anything outstanding as a team. The "Sheik's Army" concept when you add Kaissie into the mix made them a team that could drive many angles in a positive direction, and both Patera and Blackwell being powerhouse wrestlers with high-end pedigree made their team believable as a Championship tandem. Outside of the High Flyers, most of the teams they were paired with were makeshift in nature (Dino Bravo/Steve O, Bruiser/Mad Dog Vachon, Jerry Lawler/Blackjack Mulligan, Baron Von Raschke/Mad Dog Vachon, Vachon/Rick Martel). Outside of the Lawler/Mulligan match, I'm not even sure how many complete matches we have of them. There are few that are "long enough", but not nearly as many as I would want to make a real call on them as a team. At the end of the day, I don't know if there is enough available matches to accurately judge their body of work which, as a team, was pretty short to begin with (May 1983 through May 1984). I would probably have a hard time including them on my list. I love how they came together, the hatred they generated as a team in the AWA, and I thought their timing in getting the belts was just about perfect. As far as making this list, I'm not so sure.

Actually thinking about it, I believe I got that in a trade from Steve Friedlander.

No idea how long it's been available but I did not find it all that long ago really.

I would also recommend viewing my awa 1982 set as you will get a better sense of Gagne's mic skills, which are pretty good.

I to grab a few of those matches but the various grabbers I tried would not recognize that there was a video to DL. Anyone else run into this?

For me it's random and when I have time, but once I start watching and cataloging something, if it's multi-disc I have to pretty much see it through until the end. I have a lot of larger sets that I am hesitant to start watching right now for that reason...Time dictates, right now, that my one-off discs or maybe 2 or 3 disc groupings are the way to go.

Weird, I knew him as Hussein Arab first, Iron Sheik second. Depends when you started watching, I guess (insert old man reference *here*)

Great read, thanks for putting it up.

I may have a match or two, I'll check tonight.

Did he not work over in Japan as "The Canadian" under a hood at some point?

Ask him if there has been one "Holy Shit!" moment when going through the Houston footage so far, one match they discovered that he and his cohorts truly went "WOW" above all the others.

I think if their first match was available from MSG, where Bob does a stretcher job, you would see that your assessment of Snuka in a monster-heel style was pretty much spot on. It was exactly as I remember he was portrayed during his challenge of Backlund. Missing the first bout of this series on video is as bad as mising the MSG return between Backlund and Adonis, or Backlund and Masked Superstar...leaves the story incomplete. At least in this case we get the payoff match (and boy does it pay off!)

Depends on who you talk to or listen to. Sheik always says that happened, the Gagnes always said it didn't. Wouldn't surprise me if it did happen, but I often wonder if it was an offer thrown out in pure anger that Verne didn't really mean. Sheik hadn't even spent any time in the AWA since the late 70's and I get there is a loyalty factor there, but it isn't like Verne would have been reaching out to someone freshly stolen. EDIT: I also don't doubt that Sheik could have hurt Hogan if he was of the mind to, but really, in a pro wres match, anyone could do that if their opponent didn't suspect anything. Same as Hogan could have hurt Sheik badly had the situation been reversed and Sheik didn't suspect anything was amiss.

Did we all have that experience today? I was watching, very randomly, some Piper shoot interview/podcast clips on youtube this afternoon during a slow bit at work. Weird.

Wow. RIP. Apparently died in his sleep of a heart attack.

I've talked with the uploader, he's a nice guy. He uploaded a ton of AWA TV taped out of the Twin Cities from 1983 a few years ago with local promos that probably haven't been seen since they originally aired. I wish he had more but he said he pretty much emptied his AWA cache on the uploads.

Similar to Boon's premise make it an open booking sheet for the already established guys...everyone could claim a week or two of writing, and the next guy would take whatever got started in it's own direction. Would be a good place for weird or off-kilter ideas that the writers have that can't fit it properly into their home promotions. Guys without a promotion could sign up for weeks here and there too, as noted. Just a suggestion from a reader. Might be fun if all the writers had a spot to read where they didn't really know what was happening next, or how they would have to adjust their own ideas when their turn with the Indy book and that group came up.