Coffey Posted June 19, 2012 Report Share Posted June 19, 2012 Consider this a recommendation thread in addition to a discussion thread. I am a pretty big Adrian Adonis fan but I want to see more of his work. So I was hoping to get some opinions and recommendations from more knowledgeable people. How much of his older stuff is even readily available? I would definitely like to see more of his tag team stuff with Jesse Ventura and his AWA stuff as a whole, really. Are there any good matches with Backlund? What about his bald-headed return to the AWA in the late 80's? I know he put on quite a bit of weight but was there anything good, worth seeking out? It's a damn shame that he died so young. "Good night, Irene!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goodhelmet Posted June 19, 2012 Report Share Posted June 19, 2012 Once the AWA set comes out, there will be plenty of Adonis recommendations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Dog Posted June 19, 2012 Report Share Posted June 19, 2012 One of the Wrestling Gold DVDs has a pretty good match with Adonis and Orton for some World Title that lasted for all of 2 seconds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al Posted June 20, 2012 Report Share Posted June 20, 2012 A match that aired on Classics on Demand that I loved (and pimped here before) was Adonis/Murdoch/Albano vs the Samoans and Sgt. Slaughter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chess Knight Posted June 20, 2012 Report Share Posted June 20, 2012 His tag team with Murdoch is one of my favs. v Samoans 6/16/84 v Briscos 12/28/84 v Fujinami/Inoki 12/84 that's the best stuff from them I've seen, I think. Never seen the Backlund matches, but I know some folk that think the 1/18/82 is like a top ten WWE match ever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted June 20, 2012 Report Share Posted June 20, 2012 I've never seen that Samoans match. I need to do that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Exposer Posted June 20, 2012 Report Share Posted June 20, 2012 He has two or three excellent matches with Buddy Rose and is also in a couple of really great tags opposite Rose. All of this is from Portland in 79. These matches are on Will's Buddy Rose Comp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coffey Posted June 20, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 20, 2012 This is great! Keep it going, guys. More help that I was initially anticipating. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dylan Waco Posted June 20, 2012 Report Share Posted June 20, 2012 Adonis/Savage v. Tito/Bruno in the Cage is a blast if you've never seen it, with the heels taking lunatic bump after lunatic bump. Adonis/Bob Orton v. Midnight Rockers is probably going to be one of the "sleeper" matches on the AWA Set. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Sorrow Posted June 20, 2012 Report Share Posted June 20, 2012 Adonis/Savage v. Tito/Bruno in the Cage is a blast if you've never seen it, with the heels taking lunatic bump after lunatic bump. Man, I remember seeing that live on MSG and going absolutely fucking nuts in my living room when I was 16. I would always pimp that match to people who'd never heard of it for years and it's so great that now it's so well known. Besides the well named "lunatic bumps", it's a fucking bloodbath. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khawk20 Posted June 20, 2012 Report Share Posted June 20, 2012 As noted, the AWA set has some good Adonis on it. He's long been a personal favourite. The list of available Adonis discs that I know of is actually pretty long including his AWA, Japan, and WWF material. Adonis is also I think an under-rated talker, which, when your first exposure to him was in a tag team with Jesse where Jesse did most of the talking, probably is not uncommon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khawk20 Posted June 20, 2012 Report Share Posted June 20, 2012 Never seen the Backlund matches, but I know some folk that think the 1/18/82 is like a top ten WWE match ever. 1/18/82 is good enough to make you wish that Vince's vault would release the rematch from MSG one day (it has never aired or shown up in the trading circles). Adonsi getting that title shot is one of the things I loved about the territory era. Adonis was working the AWA with Jesse up until December of 1981, and was getting a MSG WWF title shot 6 weeks later. Building someone in one area while they were finishing up in another area...very cool. I really wish they had reformed the East-West Connection in the WWF outside of the odd match or two, especially after the pair had exhausted their singles challenges to the IC and World titles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FLIK Posted June 20, 2012 Report Share Posted June 20, 2012 Never seen the Backlund matches, but I know some folk that think the 1/18/82 is like a top ten WWE match ever. 1/18/82 is good enough to make you wish that Vince's vault would release the rematch from MSG one day (it has never aired or shown up in the trading circles). Yeah that was a good one. I think their 3/20/82 match is the best of the Backlund/Adonis that i've seen. The lumberjack match from a week later is pretty great too tho. There's a Steamboat/Piper/JYD vs Savage/Race/Adonis Elimination match from Feb 1987 that I remember really liking a lot but can't recall off the top of my head how much of that was due to Adonis. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricky Jackson Posted June 20, 2012 Report Share Posted June 20, 2012 1/18/82 is good enough to make you wish that Vince's vault would release the rematch from MSG one day (it has never aired or shown up in the trading circles). Going over the results on Cawthon's site, the MSG card with the Backlund vs Adonis rematch (2/15/82--a Texas Death Match with Putski as ref) really stands out as one of the most potentially interesting "lost" MSG shows, as there was also a Valentine vs Morales "Brass Knuckles Alley Fight" on the card I'd really love to see. What's the deal with the MSG shows, like this one, that weren't televised at the time? Were they still filmed? Are there examples of untelevised MSG cards showing up in trading circles? One example I can think of is the 6/16/80 card (Backlund vs Zbyszko, Hogan vs Monsoon), which wasn't televised but was filmed, as clips were shown with the sports highlights on a local TV station, and a video of that is on YouTube. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khawk20 Posted June 20, 2012 Report Share Posted June 20, 2012 One example I can think of is the 6/16/80 card (Backlund vs Zbyszko, Hogan vs Monsoon), which wasn't televised but was filmed, as clips were shown with the sports highlights on a local TV station, and a video of that is on YouTube. Link, please...I did not know there were even clips of this around. The assumption is that *all* the MSG cards were filmed, but I don't recall an "unseen" show post-1980 coming out on the monthly WWE Classics on Demand Channel in as long as they have been around. I wish Bob Orton and Adrian Adonis had teamed up in the WWF circa 1981-82. I think they would have been amazing in that time frame. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricky Jackson Posted June 20, 2012 Report Share Posted June 20, 2012 Took me a while to find it again ("hulk hogan vs gorilla monsoon msg" finally did the trick) but here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2_N9Q36hNc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jingus Posted June 20, 2012 Report Share Posted June 20, 2012 There's a Steamboat/Piper/JYD vs Savage/Race/Adonis Elimination match from Feb 1987 that I remember really liking a lot but can't recall off the top of my head how much of that was due to Adonis.It's a damn fine match, but iirc Adonis is the first guy to be eliminated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khawk20 Posted June 20, 2012 Report Share Posted June 20, 2012 Took me a while to find it again ("hulk hogan vs gorilla monsoon msg" finally did the trick) but here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2_N9Q36hNc Interesting. Werner Wolf says it was shot by their own crew's mini-cam, so that footage was seemingly not provided by the WWF. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricky Jackson Posted June 20, 2012 Report Share Posted June 20, 2012 Yeah, makes you wonder how many MSG cards were filmed by outside sources at the time. The comments on the video suggest Wolf showed MSG highlights often, so maybe there are a few more gems out there somewhere waiting to be discovered. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bix Posted June 20, 2012 Report Share Posted June 20, 2012 One example I can think of is the 6/16/80 card (Backlund vs Zbyszko, Hogan vs Monsoon), which wasn't televised but was filmed, as clips were shown with the sports highlights on a local TV station, and a video of that is on YouTube. Link, please...I did not know there were even clips of this around. The assumption is that *all* the MSG cards were filmed, but I don't recall an "unseen" show post-1980 coming out on the monthly WWE Classics on Demand Channel in as long as they have been around. 12/28/82 wasn't aired, but it showed up on Classics on Demand, commentary (done for the CCTV audience in the Felt Forum) and all. It seems like all of those scattered unaired MSG shows from '80-'84 were shot for CCTV and had commentary like the televised shows based on what's shown up later (the above show, scattered matches on comm. releases, the 5/21/84 stuff on MSG Classics & the '80s stars DVD, WWE vault leaks, etc.). The unaired matches (Race-Backlund, Hogan-Andre) from that one show that DID air seem like the exception, as they didn't have commentary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khawk20 Posted June 20, 2012 Report Share Posted June 20, 2012 12/28/82 wasn't aired, but it showed up on Classics on Demand, commentary (done for the CCTV audience in the Felt Forum) and all. Forgot about that one...good catch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Superstar Sleeze Posted February 14, 2013 Report Share Posted February 14, 2013 Don't know where I am going to put all the North-South matches, I will be watching, but Cap'n Redneck seems to get plenty of love from the people, here. So might as well show the Adorable One a little love. Is it the North-South Connection or North-South? WWF World Tag Team Champions North-South Connection vs Sgt Slaughter & Terry Daniels 7/23/84 MSG http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xte2fc_ad...rt#.URz2ox19KSo I know I bitched about the Final Conflict and I am going to back and watch it. But, I couldnt help but think the babyface shine segment with Terry "Half-Squat" Daniels was done 1000x better than the Final Conflict one. You think Daniels would be the one over his head, but he uses his quickness and fundamentals (read: armdrags and dropkicks) to really throw Murdoch and Adonis off. Murdoch and Adonis do a really good job keeping something so basic so entertaining by bumping and stooging huge for this guy. This is the department where I think Adonis actually out-worked Murdoch for this one match. Adonis was just on fire with his movement and his bumping. Honestly, I felt that Daniels ended up with too much time on offense, but that might be the Crockett fan in me. I know the 80s WWF was babyfaces run show. The heat segment on Daniels was brief, but did include a sweet running Oklahoma slam by Adonis. Hot tag to Slaughter and he cleaned house that had the Garden rocking. The finish was excellent as Adonis knees Slaughter in the back during his cobra clutch. Daniels in with three dropkicks and then a cross-body block on Adonis, which people actually bought as a false finish. That is a testament to Slaughter's rub and Adonis/Murdoch bumping all over the place for "Half-pint". After some timely ref distraction. North-South hit Demolition Decapitation on Daniels to end a really fun match. This was really well executed popcorn match that made "Little" Terry Daniels seem like one of the giants of the industry. Sarge was an effective senior member of the tag team. Adonis and Murdoch were flying all around in this match. I really enjoyed this one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Superstar Sleeze Posted February 26, 2013 Report Share Posted February 26, 2013 We have a match that will give Tito/Muraco 1/84 a run for its money in suckitude in the form of Tito/Adonis 6/86. Adonis could clearly still work when wanted to see the killer steel cage match at MSG in July of 86 against Tito/Bruno with Savage. Holy shit was this dreadful. Incredibly boring for the first 10 minutes and then an absolute clusterfuck finish, which they actually have to redo the finish because they fucked it up the first time. Embarrassing match for two great workers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khawk20 Posted February 26, 2013 Report Share Posted February 26, 2013 We have a match that will give Tito/Muraco 1/84 a run for its money in suckitude in the form of Tito/Adonis 6/86. Adonis could clearly still work when wanted to see the killer steel cage match at MSG in July of 86 against Tito/Bruno with Savage. Holy shit was this dreadful. Incredibly boring for the first 10 minutes and then an absolute clusterfuck finish, which they actually have to redo the finish because they fucked it up the first time. Embarrassing match for two great workers. If you can get your hands on it, the two had a much better match in the summer of 1984 in St. Louis. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.