Baron Mikel Scicluna vs Mac Rivera
Joined in progress opener. Scicluna controls the majority of
this with some unconvincing offence, mainly weak blows. Rivera makes a comeback
after Scicluna misses a wild swing that was obviously nowhere near Rivera’s
head, and Rivera isn’t particularly dynamic on offence either. Rivera at least
plays to the crowd. The Baron does hit a nice knee lift before a Rivera hits a
sunset flip to give him the win.
Tony Garea vs Johnny Rodz
Liked Rodz throughout this one, especially at the start
where he ducked around and tried antagonise Garea, begging off and then hitting
a sucker punch. Rodz misses a splash, fully committing to the miss, and Garea
takes him down with an armdrag. Garea holds onto the arm for A LONG time. Just
holding Rodz on the mat and armdragging him back down every time. Rodz
continues to enhance the match with a nice leaping forearm, decent legdrop and
a hilarious bump into the ropes where he just gets totally caught up. The end
of this got quite exciting, back and forth shifts in momentum that make both
guys feel like believable winners, before Garea gets an O’Connor roll for the
win.
Superstar Billy Graham vs Jules Strongbow
Is it wrong that I actually enjoyed this match. Took me by
surprise how much I dug this, all pretty simple stuff that told a simple story.
Strongbow works the arm of Graham, in a far more interesting manner than Garea
did in the previous bout, actually making it seem like he was trying to hurt
the limb. Graham grabs him in a bearhug…then has to release it as his arm is
too damaged to maintain the hold. Loved that. Graham has a brief period of
control before Strongbow fires up with a war-dance and locks on a sleeper to a
giant pop. The crowd honestly went nuts for it. Graham escapes though, and hits
an illegal karate chop to the throat to get the victory. Totally effective.
Salvatore Bellomo vs Ray Stevens
Thankfully, a chunk of this is clipped after we endure a
lengthy Sal headlock. Stevens bumps around a bit to try and fire this bout up,
but Sal offers very little here, going back to the headlock at the earliest
opportunity. They exchange fists and end up fighting on the apron, leading to
both men getting counted out. That’s it? Stevens tried to make this
interesting, but there’s basically zero content here.
Bob Backlund vs Don Muraco
World champion vs IC champion, though only Backlund’s world
strap is on the line. This is billed as a Texas Death match by Monsoon, but
this just means there has to be a winner by pin or submission. Though it only
seems to be Monsoon who knows this, as he chastises the ref for counting for
rope breaks and breaking holds. This starts with some fun schtick based around
Backlund holding and maintaining a headlock on Muraco. He works the hold too,
which at least keeps it interesting for a while. There’s a great spot where Muraco
finally breaks a headlock and wearily climbs the rope, only for Backlund to
leap to the top and take him back down with another headlock. This does go on
too long though, nearly ten minutes, and it gets tiresome after a while. It
finally picks up when Muraco takes control, dropping Backlund headfirst on the
steel railing and hitting a legdrop on the ring apron. Muraco wastes some time
celebrating though, and gets rammed into a ringpost and busted open. Backlund
works the cut, before Muraco hits a sudden powerslam from nowhere. He’s too
worn down to make the cover though, selling the bloodloss and the lengthy
headlock. The ending is pretty great, nice back and forth as Backlund gets an
Argentine backbreaker, Muraco uses his feet on the top rope to flip out,
Backlund locks in a chickenwing, Muraco gets the ropes and Backlund finally
hits a German suplex for the victory. The overlong headlock spot was really
tedious, but the second half of this really delivered.
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