Greg Valentine vs SD Jones
This is for Valentine’s IC title, a belt you’d really have
to suspend your belief to imagine SD winning. This is pretty slow in places,
but I kinda dug it. Valentine adds a bit of flavour to the match, faking off
from a Jones attack, getting his boot caught when trying a kick then getting
spun into an atomic drop that he sells with a comical sell. He misses an elbow,
and Jones wisely starts working over this arm as his focal point. In turn,
Valentine focuses his attack on SD’s legs in preparation for the figure four.
However, Jones grabs a big old handful of tights to stop him locking the hold
in. They fight on the floor, but Valentine gets in first due to Jones being
slowed by his hurt leg, and Valentine is able to hit a back suplex for the win.
Nikolai Volkoff vs Rocky Johnson
This was much less interesting. I liked Volkoff repeatedly
teasing to the audience behind the refs back that he just might have a foreign
object in his tights, drawing decent heat, especially as it never actually
plays into the ending of the match. Volkoff’s actual offence is sloppy here
though, missing a kneedrop awkwardly and hitting really weak boots to the gut.
Johnson is nicely fired up, really liked him peppering Volkoff with a few
shots, which Volkoff counters with a wild swing that misses. Nikolai controls a
bulk of this match, but Johnson makes a comeback, only for Volkoff to use this
momentum against him and drop him throat-first on the ropes for the win.
Davey Boy Smith & Dynamite Kid vs Goldie Rogers &
Bobby Bass
The future British Bulldogs aren’t billed as such here.
However, this feels like a great showcase for them. They spend the majority of
the match outsmarting and outpacing the heels, who stooge about for them
wonderfully. The heels even work a fun sequence of spots where the one on the
apron won’t tag in for fear of taking some of the Bulldogs’s offence. This must
have looked so ahead of it’s time, as the Bulldogs are an offensive dynamo.
There’s a slight bit of heel heat as Davey Boy gets worked on the mat, but by
the end DBS is able to plant Bass with a tombstone and hoist an onrushing
Rogers onto his shoulder, allowing Dynamite to leap onto Rodgers as a launchpad
to hit a diving headbutt for the win.
Andre the Giant vs Kamala
I realised as they approached a steel cage on that familiar
rampway, that I’ve already reviewed this match for the WWE’s True Giants set.
Didn’t like it then, still found it dull here. Andre attacks at the bell to at least start this with some fire, and Kamala at plays the character well by acting like a scared caged animal, but nothing really happens. Andre hits some big chops, but a lot
of this is just Kamala trying for the door and Andre grabbing his leg. For nearly
twenty minutes. By the time Andre finishes Kamala with a pair of buttsplashes,
I was desperate for it to finish. Not a good match.
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