Stephen-

This match is joined in progress and also heavily clipped so no rating. The highlights are pretty full of your standard action in a tag team bout, with a really nice hot tag from Watts and Wahoo McDaniel in the first fall. Billy Graham takes a punch on the apron and takes a lovely bump. Bill Watts tries to stop in front of the ropes after Ladd drops to evade him and finds himself hanging from the ropes...? I don't know how this has happened. He is freed in between cuts and we return to Watts convulsing on the outside and it looks so good. Wahoo McDaniel is comforting his teammate, and Watts is escorted to the back leaving McDaniel to complete the match alone. Ladd/Graham win the second fall, I assume by count out? I do not know. From what we have of the third fall, Wahoo gives a good account of himself but the numbers advantage gets to him. Yeah, I don't know, not enough of it to rate but it's an okay match.

This is a fine match. Verne is really amped up for this one and takes the fight to Valiant. It's one of the more fiery Verne matches, from my estimation. We get some good Heenan spots like the classic head clash with [insert Heenan wrestler] and Heenan flying over the ropes and accidentally taking out Valiant rather than Verne. Heenan rushes the ring at the end and immediately runs into a right hand from Gagne, that Heenan sells wonderfully. In my review, I think I am coming to really enjoy Heenan's performance in this more than the two wrestlers. It's not bad though. Just is what it is. ** 1/2.

I did not feel the promo at all, maybe it is lost on me with age, but the action speaks to me. We start off with Dusty being the ultimate chickenshit and after finding nowhere to run, using Dick Murdoch as a human shield! He takes a huge punch from Bruiser and bumps huge, in typical Dusty fashion, and it looks great. I now realize this match is clipped with it cutting to Crusher ramming Dusty's cranium into the metal post. On the opposite side of the ring, Dick the Bruiser is doing the same to Dick Murdoch. I now realize this match is a battle of dicks. Nasty blade job from Dusty and the blood is pouring from his eye down his chest. Sick. Dusty and Murdoch are sent head first into one another. Dusty is going to have a mean headache after this one. Dusty THEN takes a huge chair shot on the outside. God, why won't anyone think about poor Dusty? The crowd is eating this up though. And into the post once more. A finish happens? I am not sure what happened there. But Dusty and Murdoch take another beating after the match ends for their efforts. Also throughout my experience, I heard a slur from Verne Gagne on no less than 5 occasions. The match was fun. Nothing great. Dusty Rhodes was a great heel here to make Dick The Bruiser look great. ** 1/4.

Hahahaha this match rules so hard. This is so great. The match starts off with Baron Von Raschke splitting Wilbur Snyder's skull open with brass knuckles, so he's off to get bandaged. Bell rings and Andre beats the life out of Baron, and Baron sells everything so, so well. After about 5 minutes of a beating, Baron finally gets some offense in with the assistance of Bobby Heenan on the outside tripping Andre, and Baron claws at Andre's eyes and face. This essentially blinds Andre for the rest of the match, so enter the returning Wilbur Snyder to save Andre. Snyder unloads on Baron, and the referee just watches on. Maybe there was a stipulation I missed? Heenan also watches on, and only interferes a couple times to save Baron from this beating. This goes on. And on. Eventually Andre recovers to some degree after some wonderful eye selling, which was especially satisfying after watching Abdullah the Butcher no sell the same thing yesterday, and we get the ending sequence. Snyder has Baron firmly in an abdominal stretch, and Heenan steps in to break it up. Andre catches on and has a go at Heenan, Heenan tries to hide behind Snyder and Baron, and we get Andre chasing Heenan in circles around the two. THIS IS SO GREAT. But seriously, this is must watch. Check it out. *** 3/4

I don't know what I just watched. It's clipped to hell and back. The falls aren't even in the footage. But alas, this is really fun. If you're not an Andre guy, gal, or pal, I suggest checking this one out. Andre is running all over the ring kicking ass. Stevens and Bock are taking huge bumps for him. Dr. X is amazing here too and there's a nice sequence of shoulder tackles he does that popped me, but this is the Andre show. Not enough for me to rate but it's worth watching. Go check it out. It is maybe 6 minutes.

This match looks like mayhem. We have 7 minutes of THIRTY FIVE available, and I am a little bummed out that we don't have more. This is nonstop action within the footage we have. Dick the Bruiser and The Crusher are hounding on the Blackjacks. And Heenan is trapped in the cage. And Heenan is great here. Heenan pisses off special guest referee Jersey Joe Walcott towards the end and Walcott lands a peach of a punch on Heenan's jaw and Heenan dies. Because Heenan is the best bumper ever. We get the weasel coughing up blood at the end too from Walcott's blow. Nice! Anyways, highly recommend from what I can see here. It's great fun. *** 1/2 Also, on commentary. "Here comes Dick the Bruiser... he's pounding Blackjack Mulligan" what a line.

It is a fine match. Only goes about five minutes before Dr. X gets himself disqualified for dropkicking the referee as a way to escape Verne Gagne's famed sleeper hold. It's a bit of a lull. **

We join in the middle of the match and O'Connor is applying a toe hold. O'Connor is relentless with the toe holds in this match, and Bockwinkel displays some of the best selling of the leg I have seen. O'Connor is claimed to have boxing experience, and from this footage, I believe it. (side note: I am surprised I have not heard about this? I know of a Pat O'Connor that did box but he would not have been born when the wrestler began his career.) He throws beautiful punches, head and body, to Bockwinkel. I have not seen a lot of Pat O'Connor so this is mostly new to me and I understand why many are high on him. Bockwinkel has limited offense in this match but makes the most of it in pummeling the back of O'Connor's skull while O'Connor is trapped in the corner. This one ends in a roll up exchange with Bockwinkel narrowly escaping with the victory, in typical Bock fashion. I really like the action here and despite it being only around 7 minutes of the match, it's worth checking out. *** 1/4

It's a fine match but it drags out way too long. I was pretty disinterested for the latter half of the match. I thought Jim Brunzell was excellent here offensively, though. I would have enjoyed it more if it went 15. ** 1/2.

I saw this and thought, I am going to watch this because it cannot be that bad. My famous last words. This match fucking blows. Not due to Carlos Colon. He tries. Abdullah the Butcher fucking stinks. One of the select few worst wrestlers ever. And this is horrible. The match is built around losing sight and the guy can't even bother to close his eye? Also, for someone supposed to be a brawler, his punches are horrible. Just awful. If you like Abdullah the Butcher, great for you, the next good match of his I see will be the first.

We only have about half of this match available but it's pretty dang good from what we do have. Bockwinkel and Santana together were always amazing. Bockwinkel is just a huge prick in this match, Santana is one of the best faces ever, they both throw some great looking punches and the wrestling here is excellent. Also, that one sequence where Tito drills Bock's head into the ground and Bockwinkel sells it like he's been shot. God. Amazing. It's Bock, it's Tito, it's good. Not as good as the match they'd have later in the year but that's one of the best matches ever. Still, go watch it. *** 1/2

The match is clipped. It is explained in pre match segments that Baron Von Raschke is an "assassin" for Mad Dog Vachon, seeking revenge on Big John Studd and Jerry Blackwell for hospitalizing Vachon. We join with Studd applying a chin lock to Baron. Immediately standing out to me is Baron selling Studd's offense. It looks great. Studd drops the Baron and goes for a fist drop, but Baron counters with his famous claw. Blackwell, on the outside here, climbs onto the apron to disrupt Baron and Baron swiftly deals with him for his troubles. Baron then reapplies his claw grip to Studd and Studd submits. Blackwell storms the ring afterwards and is laid out by Baron (again). It's good. Nothing to write home about but we have maybe 3 minutes of footage from this. Not enough of the match presumably for me to rate it. If you're a fan of Studd or Baron, check it out.

I enjoyed this so much. This is what tag team wrestling should be. The dynamics of the teams together and opposing one another were amazing. The High Flyers wearing down Blackwell, Blackwell himself becoming a high flyer (LOL, but Blackwell was very agile!), Studd kicking butt. Greg Gagne takes a beating and there was one spot that is still in my mind because it was so unique to me and I thought hey, why does this not happen more often? Studd makes the hot tag to Blackwell and while doing so, holds the foot of Gagne so Gagne cannot do the same to Brunzell. BEAST. Anyways, eventually Jim Brunzell gets into the match and he solos the big men. At one point, he bodyslammed Studd. BEAST, AGAIN. This match devolves into mayhem and the ending comes with Studd taking out Blackwell with a punch by accident. Very good. I recommend. *** 3/4.

This was great. Big John Studd asserts his dominance early, and the counter from Vachon gets the crowd to erupt. They engage again, Studd is tripped and Vachon bites his toes. Studd flees, crowd erupts. Studd gets the better of Vachon in the next exchange, Vachon escapes to the outside this time and baits Studd into a huge chair shot. Crowd erupts. Yeah, Mad Dog was extremely over in this period and it rocks. This was a well worked match with Studd on top for a lot of it. Vachon does a great job selling the head damage he sustains from Studd's huge punches and also Studd forcing him headfirst into the corners. Mad Dog has one last huge rally in him in the corner and just as he starts to lay it on Studd, the referee pulls the two apart. While holding Vachon back, Studd decks Vachon causing the referee to disqualify BJS. Mad Dog Vachon wins. This was a very good showcase of two guys knowing how to work to their audience, and also it's Mad Dog so obviously.. it's good! I recommend watching. It's a lot of fun. ***

As the only poster in this thread, I will give a more detailed breakdown as well as my review. This starts off with a great segment where 'Mean' Gene Okerlund reveals Heenan's opponent to be Mad Dog Vachon, to which Heenan and Bockwinkel LOSE IT and Heenan gripes that Vachon has no interest in a wrestling match, but rather to rip him apart. Heenan is likely correct. We then cut to Mad Dog Vachon, who claims he feels ashamed to get paid for the match against Heenan because he is going to break [insert limb]. Heenan was correct. The bell rings after a good two minutes of Heenan absolutely terrified to start and Mad Dog immediately stalks him out of the ring. Heenan is warned by the referee for repeated attempts to flee. Heenan eventually chooses to simply turn his head and take his beating, and does he. Vachon rails his head into the turnbuckle a good few times, causing Heenan to roll out and vomit (maybe just spit? but i enjoy marking) on the outside. Vachon lands a peach of a right hand that Heenan sells like it came from George Foreman. The crowd at this point is hot and wants to see Vachon batter Heenan. Heenan strings together some stiff offense and works on Vachon as Mad Dog is trapped in the corner. Vachon maybe makes Heenan's offense look a little stronger than he should, but oh well. Vachon stumbles across the ring after a few more Heenan punches and takes a minute to recuperate, but Heenan pounces. Vachon eventually counters one of Heenan's punches, and makes Heenan pay in a serious way. After Vachon gets in his groove and starts raking the back of Heenan, Heenan decides he has had enough and runs out of the ring. Vachon wins by count out. This is pretty good stuff. Not the best from either man, and I do think Vachon probably should have dominated a little more than he did, but Heenan was such a damn coward weasel here and Vachon's constant stalking was terrifying. Vachon also sells his rear end off for Heenan, and again I do not think he should have to that degree, but it looked great. He made Heenan look like a serious threat. Heenan, in fairness, did have some beautiful looking offense to counter. I really enjoyed this! I think it's worth checking out. *** 1/2.

I don't know, it's not particularly amazing by any stretch of the definition but it's really enjoyable. Andre seems to take to this challenge very logically, and ends up winning. The ending sequence where Blackwell crumbles trying to lift Andre (and the commentators confuse it for a pin attempt for Andre) then Andre subsequently lifts and slams Blackwell for the win was just as epic for me as it was for the audience. I have only seen the short clip on Youtube. If there is a longer version available, I will update this review when I see it.

Not a match so I was going to skip over this in filing my reviews of '80s AWA, but have you seen the lateral deltoids daddy! Adrian Adonis is good in this promo too but Ventura is the star.

This is amazing. This is the kind of stuff I expect to see with Bockwinkel, and I am shocked to see with Dino Bravo. It was not entirely a carry job by Bockwinkel, though it was a pretty typical Bockwinkel worked championship match. We got an epic Greco-Roman test of strength where Bockwinkel dominates until Bravo rallies to overcome Bock and Bock takes a cheap shot to escape. Bockwinkel is grabbing hair at every opportunity, at one point being told off by the ref so he slowly raises his hand up Bravo's back towards the hair... great great cheating. We got an eye poke from Bockwinkel in between hip tosses to remain on top as Bravo fought valiantly to combat Bockwinkel's mat work. This is largely the Bockwinkel show both in his scientific wrestling but also his selling of the lower half throughout this is phenomenal. In this match, it really stood out to me even moreso than other Bockwinkel performances just how excellent Bockwinkel is at expressing pain and struggle with his face and body. Over time, Dino Bravo wears Bockwinkel down and just as Bravo all but has it won, Bockwinkel weasels his way out once again. Must watch. Career match from Dino Bravo. ****

This was a pretty fine match. It was mostly to get Jumbo over with the American crowd, I think, and Bockwinkel did an amazing job of making Jumbo look like a serious threat. I've seen better from both of them so I was not blown away by the action. There was some nice offense in here though from Jumbo. Jumbo's big offensive sequences got huge reactions out of the crowd and it's always great seeing Bockwinkel plead for mercy at the hands of the face, which he did well here and Jumbo did not let up. Not really much more for me to say on this match since it just was what it was. ***

One of many Bockwinkel matches that make me forever sad that we do not have the full footage. Even in the 5 or 6 minutes we do have, this ROCKS. I feel like a huge mark watching this, one because it is Bockwinkel and everyone is marked out for Bock, but also because there are some crisp punches from both Bockwinkel and Crusher in this one. I think early on in the clip, Bock busts Crusher open the hard way with a series of punches. Bockwinkel gets ragdolled around the cage on multiple occasions in one of the great showcases of Bock's bumping abilities. This is intense from the jump in the footage we have. Bock lands a flurry of left hands to Crusher's crown and the back of the skull that look mean. Bock attempts an escape and is sent flying off the top rope from a huge right hand. At one point, Crusher stomps on Bock's skull from the second rope and it is not a move I would ever want to take. The ending sequence is a near escape from Bockwinkel, the Crusher climbs up alongside him, sends him headfirst into the top of the cage, Bock goes flying, and Crusher pins him 1 2 3. This match is my shit. Just a brutal back and forth and Bockwinkel's bumping is an all timer here. I hope somewhere the entire footage of the match exists and I can properly rate it. No star rating since it's at most half the match. But I highly recommend.

This match is a classic. They tell such a great story with just the fundamentals of wrestling. The first third of the match is a Verne masterclass. Whatever solution Bockwinkel can come up with to Verne’s obstacles is negated by another hold or maneuver from Verne. The tide shifts with assistance from the ring post as Bockwinkel handicaps Verne after slamming his leg into the post. Then comes vintage Bock. The mental suffocation as Bockwinkel transitions from hold to hold and asserts his dominance. Verne has no answers. Bockwinkel eventually gets a little overzealous and Verne capitalizes on more than one occasion, locks in his sleeper, and Bockwinkel is out cold. Wonderful stuff. Must watch. If this were not clipped, who knows how high or low I'd rate it. I think I'm at ****1/4 as the match exists with what we have of it.

This is a thorough beating from Super Destroyer MKII. Gagne has a bit of success, once with a RNC and another time a huge rally late, both interrupted by the typical great heeling of Heenan. Sarge sells his ass off in Gagne’s rally, and Gagne is great in garnering sympathy here through his adversity. I had a lot of fun watching this, as you typically do with Sarge and Heenan involved. ***3/4

Heenan was a very fun heel here. He is always great. It was a pretty nothing match but Heenan still got a lot out of it, and your typical “weasel” chants following Heenan’s cowardice popped me. This was okay and good fun. **1/2

I do not think WWE lifers should be disqualified entirely, but I do struggle to see the argument for Jey as a top 100. I thought his title run was okay for WWE television, I mean it was better than Cena's heel title run at the same time. And there are a handful of good tag matches, but spanning across ten years makes it a lot more barren. I second them being overrated, not the most because Bully Ray and D-Von have that locked down, but they are up there. Their entire shtick was seeing how successful the Young Bucks were and being a total ripoff of them, but only 1% as talented as the Bucks and not even a full percent as innovative as the Bucks.