[1983-04-24-AWA-St. Paul, MN] Nick Bockwinkel vs Hulk Hogan

[Superstar Sleeze]

AWA World Heavyweight Champion Nick Bockwinkel vs Hulk Hogan - AWA 4/24/83

 

Watching the six man match from like a month prior to this, you could see Hulkamania in full force. Oddly enough, I did not think Hogan was as over here, he was over, but not HULKAMANIA over. I think it is because he was not running wild and unbridled. The Hogan of like 1984-1987 has just incredible amount of effusive energy that is irresistible. He is almost subdued against Bockwinkel. Bockwinkel gives a great bumping heel performance, but he is supplying a lot of the energy, but he is not that over as a heel. I just thought of this right now, but I think he is most over of the two combatants should be the wrestler supplying the energy. Bock was pinballing off Hogan to establish Hogan's strength game. I liked the tit for tat with Bock repeatedly kneeing Hogan in the ropes only for Hogan to turn around on Bock. That was Bock's great equalizer using short strikes to the ribs like he did against Martel. Overall, he got very little offense in and this was mostly Hogan kicking ass or missing a move. He did have more offensive range in this match, but ti goes to show you it is not how many moves you know, but how you do them. The Hulk Up was definitely not down pat and things just did feel HUGE like you would expect this title match to feel. I actually liked the finish run quite a bit with Bock desperately trying the sleeper three times and the first two times Lord James Blears is wiped out only for the third time Hogan to hurl the champion over the top rope, bring him back in and hit the legdrop for the win and the AWA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP! As one would know, Bock has the belt returned to him on the technicality of the ref being bumped. It was a fine match and I was actually impressed with some of Hogan's moves like his Oklahoma Slam and his clothesline, but it was missing that spark. Bock was fun as a heel, but would have been nicely he was a bigger mountain to climb in this match. ***

[tcg91]

Pretty good match, despite them using smoke and mirrors here and stalling a little bit at the beginning. Bock was good, he played the part of the coward heel and bumped around for Hogan like he was supposed to do. I always heard how Hogan was safe in the ring and managed to get reaction out of little things and this match was a good example of that, despite not being great or anything. Still, this lacked major drama or good focus segments and it's a shame, because Hogan was over enough to pull off a powerful comeback. The finish was a bit of a let-down, even with a 2024 mindset, as Hogan got screwed again despite being the clear winner here
***

[DMJ]

Some thing that struck me, watching this for the first time (but on silent, so maybe I missed context given by commentary), but at one point, Hogan gets what very clearly looks like a 3 count and the referee - Lord James Blears - stops counting. 

- Was Blears a heel who was "helping" Bockwinkel by not counting 3 that time but then, in the end, makes the actual 3 count because it was "undeniable"?

- Is it just bad camerawork where we can't really see Bockwinkel get his shoulder up? (It is hard to see in the video)

- Or is it just a miscommunication/mistiming where they just kinda had to pretend Bockwinkel kicked out?

[soup23]

Think that is just Blears flubbing it as he is the ref in the Verne return match right after and calls it straight not helping the heel in any way.  

Finished up my April 1983 watching and this remains a perplexing match where they were put into a booking corner and should have just bit the bullet and had Hogan win the title and appease NJPW.  The finish as presented is so deflating and really covers up a lot of great work before it.