[1985-09-02-WCCW-Fort Worth, TX] Kevin Von Erich vs Chris Adams (No DQ, Gino Hernandez in a Shark Cage)

[Superstar Sleeze]

Kevin Von Erich vs Chris Adams - WCCW 9/2/85, No DQ

 

This is the singles blowoff to the Kevin/Adams singles feud that started at last year's Cotton Bowl show and kicked off the Dynamic Duo/Von Erichs feud. Gino is suspended in a cage above the ring. It does not start off as hot as expected as Kevin goes to the bodyscissors, but once Adams takes over. He really kicks some ass and throws Kevin around. It must be exhausting wrestling Kevin, you have to stay on him to stay on top. Adams thinks piledriver, but Kevin kicks off. Kevin is thinking Claw. I love it! You hate that muthafucka you use that claw. Adams retreats to the ropes and Kevin tenaciously puts the claw on the abdomen and Adams basically has to fall out the ring. Adams throws a chair into the ring. Then match gets wicked hot. They struggle on the outside and leads to Adams choking Kevin with mic cord so Kevin puts the CLAW ON ADAMS!!! Love that escape! Kevin pulls Adams across the ring with Claw. Adams ballshots him to get Kevin off. KEVIN HITS HIS SPLASH! Wow! He almost always misses it! The ref is bumped and Gino throws down some knuckledusters to Adams, but he loses them and Kevin blasts him to win the match.

The post-match is glorious, one of the best in wrestling. Lowrance had told us throughout the match that Dynamic Duo had been cutting people's hair and that was a double hair match on the table. So they pull Gino into the ring via the cage. Kevin humiliates Gino by ripping his clothes off, but Adams attacks Kevin from behind with a belt and locks him in the cage. GINO HAS SCISSORS!!! OH SHIT! Kerry of course saves and Kevin is so pissed he accepts the challenge for the hair vs hair match!!! Which will take place at the Cotton Bowl!!! AWESOME! Match is great, but not the classic I was hoping for. Just a great heated blowoff match. ****

[KB8]

Imagine how much hair was torn out by health and safety boards across the country in the 1970s and 80s whenever they caught wind of a "person locked in a cage" match at one of the stupid pro wrestling shows. Some poor bastard locked in a too-small cage thirty feet in the air, hoisted up there in the first place by six people pulling on a rope, the rope then held in place with a fisherman's knot anchored around a stack of chairs partially bolted to the floor. Gino couldn't even stand fully upright in this particular cage, had to ask the small handful of people in charge of raising him to the ceiling to hold on for a second so he could say something on the house mic, then the thing never stopped swaying around when it was actually up in the air. I'm pretty sure people were still sitting directly underneath it, like a cage with a person in it hanging over their heads was just an everyday thing. This was the lead in to the double hair match between the Von Erichs and Dynamic Duo, so of course the heat was nuclear and everyone was completely fucking rabid. It actually started out a little cleaner than you'd think. The intensity was high, but Kevin never went straight for the throat and instead worked the body scissors. And Kevin Von Erich has a great body scissors, the way he'll lift the recipient up and drop them back down hard, really squeeze as hard as possible. Before long it spills to the floor and the last few minutes are manic. Adams was really awesome at desperately fighting out of what Kevin threw at him, and then being vicious in response. Kevin would try for a piledriver and Adams would smash him in the ears by bringing his knees together, then he started choking Kevin with the microphone chord and jabbing the whole microphone into his throat. Adams was not the least bit interested in enduring the claw for the fourteen-thousandth time since he's been in Texas, but Kevin wasn't for giving it up and I loved the bit where he basically dragged Adams into the middle of the ring with the claw hand. You knew Gino would get involved at some point, and it's Texas and there's a Von Erich in there so you probably knew it would backfire, and the finish and post-match scene was insanity. Gino gets his SWANK suit torn to pieces but he and Adams manage to stuff Kevin in the cage (which was lowered to the ring through no small amount of effort by referees and Kevin himself), then Gino whips out scissors and tries to cut Kevin's hair! The fight over the scissors after Kerry hits the ring is borderline terrifying and I'm kind of surprised nobody wound up stabbed. I remember the hair match being awesome so I'll maybe watch it again later. Maybe.