khawk20

There is a limited selection of material from his AWA run as Super Destroyer II available. There are a couple of more moments that have surfaced since this was put together several years ago, mostly interview segments: SD II vs. Larry Hennig (arm wrestling challenge from AWA TV, circa 1978. SD II & SD III (Neil Guay) vs. Verne Gagne & Mad Dog Vachon (AWA Tag Champs)--short bit of film from 12/79 Chicago. SD II vs. Dino Bravo (AWA TV 1979). Bravo was new to the area and pulls off a major upset. SD II fires manager Lord Al Hayes on TV and introduces Bobby Heenan as his new manager (a few weeks after his Bravo match from TV) SD II vs. Giant Baba (PWF title, Minneapolis 6/22/80). SD II vs. Greg Gagne (Winnipeg 1980) SD II vs. Nick Bockwinkel (Minneapolis 1980). SD II/ Greg Gagne vs. Nick Bockwinkel & Bobby Heenan (Winnipeg 1980, Weasel Suit Challenge) Add to that some very, very early footage available of Slaughter from IWE Japan: Higo Hamaguchi vs. Bobby Slaughter (1/6/75)--highlights MIghty Inoue vs. Bobby Slaughter (1/7/75)--highlights Great Kusatsu vs. Bobby Slaughter (2/2/75)--highlights The clips aren't long but it's the earliest Slaughter footage available as far as I can tell.

There is some Memphis stuff around too IIRC.

Correct. Only one on film, possibly their only meeting period.

Perhaps you might change your mind on his 84-89 run if you measured his volume of good stuff against some of the other top WWF-only guys of the time frame. I mean, all things considered, the Valentine, Savage, random Orton matches (and at least that one St. Louis Adonis match) and Strike Force stuff seems like a lot, all things considered. I might be wrong on that, of course, but who knows?

On one hand, I wish the AWA had a wider variety of opponents for them to face. On the other hand, we'd have seen less wars against the Midnight Rockers.

This link is all Adonis from all over. It should help. http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYj0Xa4mB9LNBZ0GadUKd_JNEi_rVjtyA

I'll throw Martel vs. Hansen at Super Clash I out here as an example, although it was criminally short and you might be leaving it out because of that.

As such, Dr. X vs. Verne for the AWA title on 8/31/68 is available. It's short (about 5 minutes) but worth a look.

Nothing substantative but I have been told that he was indeed extremely strong.

I agree, but it isn't my call, just throwing it out there. Some other older Destroyer footage from Japan that would probably merit watching for those with Beyer on their radar: 2/26/69: Toyonobori vs. The Destroyer (WWA title) (JWA Classics # 5) 3/5/69: Giant Baba vs. The Destroyer (JWA Classics #7)

If you haven't seen Andre vs. Mad Dog Vachon from 1972 it's worth checking out. He had a really long match in Japan vs. Kobayashi from June 1972 and another 6-man in that time frame that are worth checking out as well.

I've come across a match and some highlights of his 1982 work for Cannon's Superstars vs. Gino Brito that I can comment on when I get it in. Would his match vs. Verne in 1968 for the AWA title count here? He worked the Dr. X gimmick there as opposed to the Destroyer, but to me Beyer is Beyer. It's short but it's something from a prime part of his career. If it does fit, there is a bit of film of him teaming with Andre against Bock and Stevens from Chicago available. Dr. X was a big deal in the AWA and should not be discounted. Someone needs to get in touch with Steve Yohe and see if he has a Gordy List of some sort available for Beyer, just to educate those of us that know of him, but might not really know what he's all about.

I think the longevity aspect for teams that did last should add to their viability to some degree. If you aren't a draw, you won't be kept together or used in any sort of meaningful capacity for very long.

As a whole, I go with Martel there, but a big part of that is Martel had already spent many years working on his game by that point and was a more complete wrestler for more of the decade. Hennig debuting a year or so into the 80's meant his development didn't really begin to progress until the decade was half over.

Some matches to watch: 8/10/74, vs. Ray Stevens & Nick Bockwinkel, AWA TV, Minneapolis 7/7/77 vs. Blackjack Lanza & Bobby Duncum (AWA Tag Champs), Winnipeg. 3/1/81 vs. Jesse Ventura & Adrian Adonis, Minneapolis 3/22/81 vs. Jesse Ventura & Adrian Adonis (Cage match), St. Paul 5/14/81 vs. Ray Stevens & Nick Bockwinkel (#1 contenders match), Winnipeg 4/18/82 vs. Sheik Kaissie & Jerry Blackwell (Cage), St. Paul 6/8/82: vs. Rick Steamboat & Mr. Onita, Japan 8/29/82 vs. Tito Santana & Rick Martel, St. Paul (it's worth checking out the 7 or so minutes available of the end run of the first High Flyers vs. Strike Force match on 7/18/82 from St. Paul as well. Great energy considering it's minutes 23 through 30 of the match) 12/25/82 vs. Sheik Kaissie & Jerry Blackwell, St. Paul, Curt Hennig as referee 6/26/83 vs. Ken Patera & Jerry Blackwell, St. Paul 11/24/83 vs. Ken Patera & Jerry Blackwell (AWA Tag Champs), St. Paul, Ray Stevens as referee 2/7/85 vs. The Road Warriors (AWA Tag Champs), Winnipeg 3/28/85 vs. The Road Warriors (AWA Tag Champs), Winnipeg

To a point. He seemed to be a legitimately strong person, but apparently he was signed up to the CBS World's Strongest Man competition as a rib back in the day, and if that's true then I suppose it means those in the know who perpetrated the rib knew he wasn't quite in that class. He did do a lot of "drive a spike through a 2 x 4" type of gimmicks, though. Gimmicked material or not, I don't know. He is spoken of as a very strong wrestler but the line gets blurred in his case for me. Ken Patera deserves another mention as well. Am I wrong in thinking that Furnas had to have re-shaped his body for wrestling by the time he got into tagging with Kroffat? He always looks good, but not "super strong" good, like his many acheivements previous to wrestling would indicate he probably would have looked like..if that makes sense.

Thirded. Always the first one I think of. The original ECW One Night Stand (WWE version) is another one I remember having nothing but fun watching.

If you can find it, Blackwell's AWA debut in St. Paul at the arena from January of 1980 against Ron Ritchie is a wonderful example of Blackwell in Crush! Stomp! Destroy! mode. He had the crowd wanting him dead almost right away. It might have been his second Minneapolis arena match but this was the first one that made video.

Agreed on the point about his WCW run being cut off. I often wondered how the injury affected how he was going to be booked in the future.

I don't think so personally.

It's from Chicago, August 27th, 1976, Comiskey Park.

Obviously complete bouts are the true want, and there are some, along with plenty of film...some clipped up, some more complete. There is plenty of Luce film tags with Stevens and singles matches vs. Verne (and some of the Verne ones are pretty long), Bock vs. Jumbo in Hawaii in 1978, Bock vs. Martel in Hawaii 1978, 8 minutes of silent film from 2/11/79 of Bock defending against Baba in Minneapolis, vs. Rusher Kimura (IWE 1979), 10 minutes of film vs. Ernie Ladd in Chicago, 5 minutes of Bock vs. Robinson from a high school gym in or around 1974, Stevens and Bock vs. Bastien/Robinson from AWA TV in 1973, w/Duncum vs. Verne & Mad Dog from Minneapolis in Oct 79, Bock vs. Kintaro Oki from March 1980 in the IWE, vs, Zumhofe from AWA TV in 1979, 6 minutes of Bock vs. Greg Gagne from Minny in July 79, w/Stevens vs. High Flyers 8/10/74 TV. Plus a whole bunch of Midwestern films from the mid 70's featuring a bunch of Nick-Verne bouts, and some Heenan Family tags....might be another Robinson-Bock bout in there too, I can't remember exactly. I'm sure there is more. The shorter stuff and the heavily clipped stuff is probably better to see how he worked certain guys. Naturally there is a ton of 80's material to dive into.

Are you talking about a lack of footage from the 60's and early 70's?

There is a ton of AWA stuff that should help you, Bill. There are bouts vs. Bockwinkel that range from 1978-85 available. There are two title defenses against King Tonga (Meng) from Montreal and New Jersey worth looking at. There's the brawl at Comiskey Park vs. Hansen, 4 matches against Jumbo between May 84 and Sept 85 (Sept 85 is my personal favourite), Martel vs. Chosu, matches against all three Freebirds, Jim Garvin, Saito, Robinson, Lawler, Kamala, Zbyzsko, A surprisingly good series against Boris Zurkov in Winnipeg, face vs. face bouts against Brunzell and Bravo, tons of tags and 6--man tags...it's a long list. The AWA work is there, and it's good stuff.