Pro Wrestling Chronicle

Match # 32: Adrian Street vs Chris Adams (10/10/84)

All these years and I have never seen an Adrian Adonis match. I know the gimmick – psychologically manipulative, egocentric heel with a subservient female valet. Except he’s gay and she’s his “fag hag”. Gorgeous George did it in the 50’s; Adonis in the 80s; Goldust in the 90s; and as recent as a few years ago Rico Constintino did it in WWE.

Boyd Pearce does intros. Finally, some J.R. & Watts commentary. Wow, Street’s valet, Miss Linda is an ugly chubby chick. At least Rico had Jackie Gayda. Can’t say I’m excited to see a heel gay gimmick in M. S. country with Watts on commentary. Even great booking can’t escape wrestling’s offensive bigotry and homophobia.

Problem with Street is the gimmick does add heat in a cheap sense and does have depth when played as tricky baiting (they do allude to A. Street wig the gimmick to gain advantage, as if perhaps playing a character. All that said, the gimmick at best casts a shadow over the match and at worst, overtakes it.

Street is physically misleading a can grab holds. They work some rudimentary submissions and switches. You can see the fluid British style in both, through neither is Johnny Saint. Street does have good presence for his day.

Back and forth stuff. Street flips the vicious switch at times, becoming more maniacal/intense. That I like. Good sequence with Street showing up Chris Adams twice, and then getting super kicked out of the ring. Trying to relate it to “my day”, it’s a house show HBK vs Goldust in 96 – if HBK were taking it really easy. I’m still not sold on Adams, who I wasn’t sold on as a child watching late ‘80s world class either. He’s decent, but I’m not watching for decent.

The Reversal comes with a neon sign as Adams practically yells, “I’m gonna sell the knee!” The heat looked to be good (but they’d done a lot of slower sub stuff anyway), when Terry Taylor is out to force himself on Goofy Miss Linda. Yuck. Street gets D Red for throwing Adams over the top rope.
CRAP! 2 ¼ and 3/10

Match # 33: Fantastics vs Chavo & Hector Guerrero (10/12/84)

The Rock & Roll Exp. are the champs at this point, so the winner of this match gets a title shot. Right away the heels (Guerreros) do something I’ve wanted to do the whole last week: Fans come down the aisle with high fives and jackass smiles for the crowd, wearing bow ties and goofy jackets. One of the heels kicks Bobby Fulton right in the head through the ropes. Awesome. Fulton/Rogers actually react with some fire. Guerreros are great cocky heels.

Hector has great arm drag. Wow, he made me compliment an arm drag. It was that pretty.
It’s clipped! Damn, I was starting to get into it and they cut to a heel heat segment with the Guerreros on seller Bobby (not Morton) Fulton. That’s a good 5-7 minutes they must have removed. Lame. I am assuming, BTW.

Apparently the babyface Fantastics do a switch with no tag spot in every match. They do one here just like in the Midnight Exp. (8/9/84) match. They don‘t even play to the easy Houston crowd when doing it. I don’t get it, and it’s not done well either. It also ruined a great Rogers vs. Chavo pairing. This is my second Chavo match and I’m loving him. Fulton drags Chavo back to the face corner to make the tag. Match is really coming together.

Really fast paced stuff, and very good. Even Fulton’s offense – realize I’m not a fan of Fulton’s stuff on the set so far – is good enough. Quick tags from both teams and the heels wrestle away the advantage. Match is keeping the crowd well.

Standing suplexes from Hector for two counts. Asaulto Suplex for two. Buck body drop come back by Tommy R. (M.S. Trademark). Tease the hot tag and it’s a well played fake. This match rules! I think they announced ten minutes, which even without time cut would make sense. I guess he said “15 minutes”, which would mean about 6 minutes was cut. That sucks.

The Guerrero Brothers are the team that impress me. Not the Fantastics. They’re really working their butts off, as it Rogers selling. Would have loved to see the Guerrero Brothers vs. the R&R Exp. sling shot suplex and double teams.

Here is the test. Hot tag to Fulton. Yeah, he got over excited and didn’t know what to do for a second on two occasions. Overall better than before.

Visual fall for Fulton on Hector, but with ref distracted Chavo does an awesome somersault cannonball from the top rope onto Fulton’s back. Hector pins him for the Guer. Bros. win. Good call by Watts down the stretch.

Only thing holding this buck was the long term development as a story, the clipping, and Bobby Fulton at times. Very good hidden gem for a midcard match. Second one on this disk (Adams & Khan). 3 ¼ and 6/10