Nick Bockwinkel & Harley Race vs. Stan Hansen & Bruiser Brody (and other Dream Matches!)

Welcome back to more Dream Matches! This week, I found all sorts of bizarre stuff, including some requests! First off, a wild All Japan tag match between AWA Champ Nick Bockwinkel and NWA legend Harley Race up against Stan Hansen and Bruiser Brody in 1984! Two of the biggest stars of the 1970s vs. two of the biggest from the 1980s! Next up, a match that I’ve read was part of the origin story of Ring of Honor- “The American Dragon” Bryan Danielson vs. Low-Ki in All Pro Wrestling’s “King of Pro Wrestling” tournament in 2001! Come see them wrestle for thirty minutes!

Next up, the TV debut of Kurt Angle in some podunk Memphis indie as he takes on “Yellowjacket” Kevin Lawler in 1999! And finally, a wild 1997 Halifax indie match between the future Edge & Christian, Sexton Hardcastle & Christian Cage, vs. Rick “The Model” Martel & Don Casablanca, aka Don Callis when he had hair and could wrestle!

NICK BOCKWINKEL & HARLEY RACE vs. STAN HANSEN & BRUISER BRODY:
(All Japan, 1984)
* AWWWWWWWWWWWW yeah, DNice turned me on to this one- a match of superstars! An 11-minute video with the biggest stars of 3-4 different promotions in 1984 All Japan? Sounds like a recipe for a good, clean finish! The crowd is chanting along to Brody’s “Huss!” like crazy. It’s still messing with me to see a relatively skinnier Hansen in those days. At least Race still has the pot belly and perm (the man is so badass he looks dangerous even with a perm!). Bockwinkel is like 50 here. He’s in white trunks, Harley’s in red, and Stan & Brody are in black.

We’re JIP with Bockwinkel backdropping out of Hansen’s headlock, but Stan pulls out a highly technical reversal of a front-facelock by picking Nick up and hauling him over to Brody, who axehandles him off the top. Brody slams him with more authority than anyone besides Jumbo Tsuruta, so Harley grabs Brody and Nick throws some punches, only to get kicked trying a back body drop and doing his great two-fisted “AHHHHHH DAMMIT!” cringing sell. Harley & Stan go, Stan desperately avoiding Harley’s suplex until Harley powers him right into it- crazy how much heat they could get off of vertical suplexes in 1984. Stan backdrops out of a piledriver and just dives onto him with an elbow for two and Harley eats a double big boot. He comes back with a headbutt and he & Nick club away at Brody, their double-team tactics hilariously similar to what Demolition would later use, but Brody gets his foot up in the corner. Bockwinkel manages to slam into him in a Thesz press/crossbody mess, then Brody pulls him out of a bodyslam and drops knees- very ugly but fitting for his style. Shit’s falling apart so Nick can’t get outta there fast enough, tagging Harley, who drops his headbutt and chinlocks Brody for a chat. The big guys just WALLOP him with a double football tackle, so Nick pulls Stan off the pin and they start brawling, but Stan clobbers Harley and sets up Brody’s kick and chop. Brody slams him (humorously just going “ah fuck it” and releasing him at the peak elevation), but misses an elbow. Harley charges into a dropkick, but Nick yanks Brody’s hair, provoking Stan into scrapping with him- Brody misses his Kneedrop finisher and he & Harley brawl to the floor for the All Japan Fuck Finish count-out at (7:30). Brody & Harley duel with chairs, and when Stan tries to help, in comes Nick with a giant handful of streamers to choke him out in a colorful barrage, hahaha. Everyone scraps and the crowd loves it, delighted fans fleeing from Stan’s march through the stands with huge smiles on their faces.

Well ya knew how THAT one was gonna end up- a lot of “just good enough” wrestling and no real finish attempts, leading to a DCO finish because that’s how Baba rolled in those days. Some fun brawling, mixed with what looked like miscommunication between Brody & Bockwinkel, which is probably why he tagged out and Harley handled the entire rest of the match.

Rating: **1/2 (this seems like a common rating for AJPW stuff I see from this time period- people seemingly unwilling to job or the bookers not wanting to give stuff away, so a lot of messy quick bouts with early finishes)

KING OF PRO WRESTLING TOURNAMENT:
FINAL MATCH:
THE AMERICAN DRAGON vs. LOW-KI:
(All Pro Wrestling, Oct. 27th 2001)
* It’s the third of the 2001 trilogy Manjiimmortal recommended to me! He said this showed how two guys can improve over time, as they I guess got better! So let’s see! I was **1/4 and ***1/4 on their last two. Low-Ki’s in white baggy pants again. I wonder- when does he start doing the “Huffanpuff” thing as his default “I’m SOOOOO TOUGGGGGGHH” stance? I was all gearing up to make fun of it but he hasn’t picked it up yet. Bryan is now billed at 185 lbs., despite looking the same as he did under 168 lbs. Don’t tell me a pro wrestling announcer would spread mistruths about weigh-ins!

We start off with the LONG INDIE LOCKUPS as they shuffle for advantage- Bryan works the mat judo-style before putting on a dragon sleeper and attempting the Ki Krusher (leg-hook michinoku driver), which seems to be lost on the crowd. They lock knuckles and fish for advantages but just end up tangled on the mat a bunch- looking like a UFC fight when both guys are tired. Dragon works a cloverleaf and then tumble over the top to the apron for a pause 6 minutes in- oh yeah, this is going long. Bryan wins a headbutt fight with another knucklelock, Ki kicking away at points until he hits the mount and they do the mandatory “bridging knucklelock with the guy balanced on top” spot. You know it’s the early 2000s in an indie when THAT spot shows up. Ki again kicks the inside of his thigh repeatedly in a spot that draws “OHHHHH!” reactions. Man, get the camera outta there- they’re having an open chat and the cameraman’s zoomed in on their faces, haha. They trade back-kicks and Ki wins a striking contest until Bryan swipes Ki’s cartwheel enzuigiri, haha. Crowd is appreciative though it’s supposed to be him being a dickhead. Now we enter the “stiff chops” portion of the match and Ki hits his own cartwheel, much better than Bryan’s as you might imagine. Dragon powders off of that, but wins a grapple via a cool bow & arrow variant, and oh no it’s time for the BOTH GUYS DOING A HANDSTAND WITH INTERLOCKED LEGS indie spot! They slap each other’s titties a while until Ki hits a front facelock.

Dragon gets a snap suplex and now it’s Work A Limb time, as he picks the arm. Ki actually does sell at this point- I was gonna critique his inability to shout and yell in pain but he actually IS at points- the sound just ain’t great. His facial expressions are on point, too- he just lacks the body language- if you didn’t see his face or hear him you wouldn’t know he’s supposed to be in pain. Dragon gets cocky and ramps up the speed, which works in Low-Ki’s favor via his rolling kick. He can’t get the Ki Krusher, nor Dragon his suplex, but Ki takes over with strikes again. He misses a 450 thinger but wins a Gamengiri kick war and puts Dragon on the floor, where, like last match, AD awkwardly stands there so Ki can hit a flying flip dive to the floor. Bryan’s actually up first and a strikefest leads to his backdrop superduperplex for a double-KO. Dragon gets two, and they mess up a Dragon Suplex (Ki mostly lands ON Bryan) so AD gives up the bridge to sell it. He tries another suplex but Ki lands on him this time and hits a miracle comeback with the Dragon Sleeper. He rolls him into the ropes and Dragon fights for Cattle Mutilation but can’t get it, and Ki just hits the Ki Krusher out of nowhere. He can’t capitalize, so they trade kicks, Ki winning but once again tries his cartwheel and Dragon dropkicks his wrist out! Cattle Mutilation hits, Ki selling it like a resthold, sorta vaguely waving his arms and stomping his feet once in a while rather than thrashing around in agony, so Dragon eventually “gets tired” and releases.

Recovering, Dragon uses his Dragon Suplex for two, threading into Cattle Mutilation again… and Low-Ki taps! Except slowly, and to the ref’s blindspot as he’s too close to their faces and doesn’t see it. So Bryan just keeps it on until he tires out again, and Ki has stopped tapping and is out. Exhausted, Bryan keeps fighting for three-counts off that. Dragon ultimately tries a Dragon SUPERPLEX, but Ki elbows out and hits a Super Ki Krusher instead. It’s 30 seconds (EVERY big spot has a 30 second break, I notice on YouTube) before he can try a pin, getting two. So he tries the cartwheel again, but this time Dragon leaps in and CATCHES him, instantly hitting a Dragon Suplex into Cattle Mutilation, and Low-Ki taps at (29:50). Other wrestlers come out after the match, and the two share disgusting exchanges like HANDSHAKES OF RESPECT, which Ring of Honor would modify into it’s “Code of Honor” (this happens on all the early 2000s indie stuff I’ve seen, so it makes sense they’d codify it, lol). Bryan is the King of Pro Wrestling.

This was LONNNNNNGGGGGGGGG, lol. Lots of time-killing spots to run out the clock- getting 30 minutes out of maybe 20 minutes of action, often with powders and “hesitant lockups” to start. And you can see the impetus for the “Early 2000s Indie Style”. I haven’t seen as much ROH but what I have is quite similar to this- the “state of the art” of the day was “do stiff strikes and chops, wear kickpads and kick the back, do long grapples, a knucklelock bridge spot and Work A Limb because that’s what Psychology means”. Bryan was trying to be a dickhead here but it wasn’t really landing- it’s possible the APW crowd didn’t know he was swiping Ki’s shit to be an ass? Bryan shoulda ramped that up to be an asshole and build the match a bit more, but instead they just did more stuff. The execution was usually quite good, with only a few minor mess-ups here and there (which’ll happen in a long match with wilder moves). One issue I notice is the Cattle Mutilation- I used to think this was rad, but now I realize the fact that the arms are trapped AND the guy’s face is hidden are major hindrances for both the live crowd and the TV one. So instead you just see flailing arms and some stomping toes. This, tied with Low-Ki’s issues selling (he learned to facially react, but not to sell with his whole body in desperation) means he just gets worn down subtly as Bryan keeps hitting it until he wins. Overall, the match was GOOD, but you could definitely see room for improvement- there were huge swaths of time-killing, perfunctory exchanges, Bryan did have his character stuff down yet, and Low-Ki struggled with connecting to the fans and selling. Granted there were only like 50 people here but you’d think they’d be losing their SHIT based off of all the YouTube comments, but they really only popped big for the moves off the top and the kickouts.

Rating: ***1/2 (good, even very good in parts, but flawed and not as good as they would have later)

KURT ANGLE vs. YELLOWJACKET:
(Power Pro Wrestling, 3/20/1999)
* KURT ANGLE’s first TV match! He was already working with the WWF at this point, but he gets some experience over in PPW, an indie I’ve never heard of. Harvey Wippleman is in this promotion as “Downtown Bruno”. Angle comes out in a goofy 1999-era leather vest and black shorts, and talks like a dork about how the WWF guys are telling him how rough PPW is. But then he gets a bit heelish, repeatedly emphasizing that he is the best (“That’s right, I am the best- let’s hear it”). He’s taking on Yellowjacket, who is actually Jerry Lawler’s OTHER son, Kevin! I love the outfit- plain black tights, a yellow shirt covering his entire torso, and a Tieneblas mask with the black visor. 1999’s version of “low-rent”. If this was 1991 it’d be an Assassin mask.

Yellowjacket hits an impressive armdrag, but celebrates like an idiot and immediately walks into a perfect Belly-To-Belly Suplex, Angle pinning him instantly at (0:10). Quick night of work!

Rating: 1/4* (okay it got over what it was supposed to- that Angle doesn’t F around and will just pin a guy in seconds, lol)

SEXTON HARDCASTLE & CHRISTIAN CAGE vs. THE SUPER MODELS (Rick “The Model” Martel & Don Casablanca):
(Atlantic Grand Prix Wrestling, 07/20/1997 or 8/24/1997)
* Oh, haha. What a random thing to find. Edge & Christian before their WWF run made them famous, back when they were Canadian indie dorks trying to get made, and Rick Martel on the late backswing of his career. And Don Callis as a tall, skinny guy with long hair. Don is beloved by a lot of Canadian wrestlers, a couple of which have said he’s got a great mind for the businses (Translation: He never drew any money, but the boys think he should have). In other words, he had ’em hoodwinked, cuz he’s almost never gotten over. Yes, he’s been incapable of drawing anything in pro wrestling for thirty goddamn years. The video says it’s IWA, but I think it’s actually Atlantic Grand Prix Wrestling, an indie out of the Maritimes. Someone in the comments concurs! Sexton (AMAZING wrestling name) is in black tights, Cage is in a blue singlet, Martel’s in blue trunks, and Don is in pink trunks. Good heel dweeb look, to be honest.

Everyone farts around in the ring for a while, the heels hugging it out. Don & Christian keep throwing headlocks on and I’ll admit Don has some good heel mannerisms, like hiding in rope-breaks and stuff. They keep throwing some tight, fast Internationals and you can see right away why these guys got snapped up by the WWF in a hurry. Martel comes in and accidentally nails his own partner, making sure to do the big “Oh NO!” reaction as Cage rolls him up for two. Martel misses Cage tagging out and gets caught trying a cheap shot, eating E&C’s double-Russian legsweep. Sexton & Martel do their own basics (Martel is OLD but can still keep up with the youn’uns) and the babyfaces trade off in a heel spot to annoy the bad guys, but Martel tags out. Don throws some well-executed knees & punches to Sexton. The heels run into each other and pout on the floor, but manage to double-team Sexton and… uh-oh, had to replay but Don lands badly on his ankle and immediately collapses, so Martel improvises some solo cheating, Don rolls in for the tag-out, and Rick has to stand on Sexton in the corner, work a front facelock, etc., while Don is leaning over the ring apron, doubled over in pain. Oh, you know it’s bad when they do the DOUBLE “babyface fights up from a front facelock” spot (like, one after another).

Martel keeps coming back, and finally Don hop-limps back in after his three minute breather. He manages some “walk and stomp” strikes and his OWN front-facelock (oh no improv), then cheats a bit and then they do the “missed tag” spot off a FOURTH facelock (poor Christian probably thought he was supposed to go in, especially as the ref turned at the worst possible time and saw the tag, but they acted like it didn’t happen), and Sexton stays in that facelock (it’s been like four minutes straight of this), and we do a SECOND missed tag, but Sexton manages to stop a double-team and roll Martel up for two. Don gets tagged back in and has seemingly gotten better, as he blocks shots and flies off the second rope and eats a punch, but still comes back on Sexton until he eats the turnbuckle. The worst hot tag ever sees Christian just win a slugfest with Don while Martel just goes “aw no!” on the apron over the tag but not go in, robbing Christian of most of the shine for his spots, haha. But Martel gets slugged to the floor and Christian hits a back elbow & clothesline, then a neckbreaker- Martel interferes, drawing in Sexton- Christian & Don get whipped into each other and Martel hits the floor in a weakass shitcan spot (lol just slowly rolls over the second rope). Sexton follows him out there and Christian has to pull a chair out of Martel’s hands and hits a dropkick, but trying to suplex Don in has Martel grab his leg and they do THAT old finish, him holding Christian’s leg for the pinfall at (20:15)- the heels win! They get back in to fight the babyfaces again for some reason, beating on Cage until Sexton runs in with a chair, beans Don with it, then they double-team Martel into eating it in the head, while Don grabs the ropes and flees.

Sadly a total mess because of injury- it sucks but it happens. I was here to throw some sass at Don Callis but he was perfectly fine, doing quick wrestling and heel mannerisms until he got hurt. I mean, he sold more in the first seven minutes than he has for his entire AEW career! His ankle injury leads to the dreaded EMERGENCY IMPROV, as they sit in a resthold for like 4 minutes of variations just to pad out the clock and maybe see if they can get back on track, as their plan beforehand is probably screwed now (moreso cuz the heels have to win while one is clearly hurt- not ideal for bad guys). Don thankfully recovers a bit so they can do whatever they had planned, but Don’s now moving a lot more slowly. Martel didn’t look the best- his WCW run the next year is fairly popular but he was probably rusty at this point (it’s his only Cagematch bout of the year) and taking some soft-ass bumps. Don was going swimmingly until he got hurt, and you could tell the inexperience of the babyfaces led to everything getting dumbed down hard- Martel was a 20 year veteran or so by this point but probably wasn’t gonna call a whole indie tag match by himself. The “worst” thing aside from 4 minutes of front facelocks to kill time and wait out Don’s ankle was the hot tag- wasting it on “just punching” one guy and slugging Martel on the apron once was poor. Those spots should be the HIGH POINT of the match and you could see it snuff out the fans’ excitement.

Rating: * (was probably gonna be **+ if it’d gone as planned, but whack injuries happen and it wrecked everything, grinding the match to a halt)