Pedro Morales vs Bob Orton
Solid match, though neither guy feels like they’re really
stretching themselves. Orton is on the defence early, with a big goofy sell of
a slam and of an atomic drop. A good chunk of this match is built around
punches, but luckily both guys have neat looking strikes. Orton sends Morales
to the floor with a lovely flurry and slams him onto the concrete. Morales
shows some fire when he fires back with a nice range of punches himself. Orton
tries to suplex Morales to the floor, but settles for crotching him on the top
rope instead, drawing the DQ. Nothing bout, but enjoyable enough.
Nikolai Volkoff & the Iron Sheik vs Danny Spivey &
Corporal Kirschner
This was a very poor bout. Crucially, Kirschner is really
bad here, looking really lost in the opening matwork. Sheik would take him
down, then just roll over to try and give the impression that Kirschner had
reversed it. They heels work the heat on Corporal with Spivey yet to get in the
ring. It’s a brief heat, though they force in a false tag in those few minutes.
Spivey gets tagged in, not exactly a house of fire and is soon locked in a
really poor abdominal stretch by the Sheik. It’s so bad that both Gorilla
Monsoon and Lord Al call him out on how bad it looks. Sheik does hit a cracking
gutwrench suplex moments later, so it’s not all bad. Kirschner gets tagged back
in, looking barely trained with some awkward bumping, before Sheik “loads the
boot” and gets the pin following a kick to the gut (with Kirschner selling it
with a front flip bump, fair play for that). Terrible stuff.
Hercules vs George Wells
On the other hand, this goes less than 5 minutes and is
really great. Herc keeps it simple, but his punches look crisp and he hits some
great driven knee drops. Just nice connection. Herc goes up top, and Wells
catches a crossbody and nails a backbreaker. He immediately misses a corner
splash and Herc drives a forearm into his face for the win. Good, simple stuff,
executed really well, with one super impressive strength spot by Wells midway
through.
Bret Hart vs Jim Brunzell
Delightfully, this is really neat too. Bret reverses an
early wristlock to a headlock by yanking the hair, then really works the hold, keeping
it locked in despite getting whipped to the ropes. Brunzell starts working the
arm, yanking it on the mat whilst forcing Bret’s head away with his boot. Bret
turns the tide with a lovely knee to the gut, and proceeds to wear Brunzell
down by wearing down the torso, nailing headbutts and boots. Lovely spot where
Bret ties Brunzell in the ropes and charges, but Brunzell escapes and Bret gets
tangled up at extreme speed. Brunzell bites Bret’s nose, returning a move from
Bret earlier, and gets a great nearfall off an O’Connor roll. Brunzell gets the
win with a sudden backslide. Really good stuff.
King Kong Bundy vs Hillbilly Jim
Very brief match, but nothing much to complain about. Two
big lads hitting hard-hitting, yet unrefined bombs. Hillbilly avoids what looks
to be an unlikely Bundy dropkick early doors, but meets boots in the corner.
They do some shtick where Bundy won’t let Jim back into the ring, before Jim
gets the boots up on an avalanche. Jim gets a few moves in, but makes the
mistake of trying to whip Bundy into the corner. Of course, he reverses it and
nails the Avalanche, then hits a huge splash for the win.
Sivi Afi vs Ron Shaw
This puts an end to the “really good stuff” run, though I kind
of liked Shaw here. Big goofy looking guy, but he moved well, looked athletic
on a leapfrog and nailed a big jumping knee. His back breaker was pretty soft
though. Afi doesn’t do much here, few headbutts and a lot of armbars held from
armdrags, before a top rope crossbody gets the win. Meh.
Big John Studd vs Paul Orndorff
Orndorff is wearing a protective cast on his right arm,
which features prominently in this match. Studd is sluggish, but Orndorff is
fired up and works around the fact you can’t do much with Big John by milking
the most from every shot he hits. Studd catches him on a crossbody and roughly
slams him in the corner, but then bizarrely goes to the top rope, predictably
eating a cast shot to the stomach on his way down. Studd hits a sloppy looking
atomic drop and telegraphs Orndorff skinning the cat by clearly talking to him
and gingerly throwing him over the top rope. Orndorff hits Studd with a flurry
of neat shots and nails him off the top with his cast, but Heenan comes in to
break up a bodyslam, earning the DQ win for Orndorff. Great performance by Mr
Wonderful.
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