[1980-08-29-Houston Wrestling] Bruiser Brody vs Gino Hernandez

[shoe]

I'm not a Brody guy, but I'm all in on Gino. This match worked for me. Gino allowed Brody to be the best possible Brody. The 1st fall is Brody just beating Gino all over the place. Gino is bumping and frailing away. I also loved the finish of the 1st fall with Gino stealing the fall. Gino is a bloody mess. Gino's offense consists of brawling along with cheapshotting. These guys worked well together. Once Gran Marcus enters the fray the crowd is pretty nuclear. 2 3/4*

[SAMS]

1980-08-29
Houston Wrestling
Bruiser Brody vs. Gino Hernandez
Best Two Out Of Three Falls Match
Sam Houston Coliseum, Houston, Texas, USA
Card
★★★

I really feared the worst when I booted this up. I’ve been pretty down on Houston in ‘80 and the last time I saw Brody he was stinking up the joint in Japan.  I will say though that this really worked for me. Gino and Gary Hart as a duo did a good job in the first fall to work the numbers to their advantage and allow Gino to steal the fall, and Bruiser generally pancaking Gino the rest of the time was good stuff. Bruiser’s offense looked very good here. He had a nice punch, good clubbing blows and he looked motivated - non-stop movement and no downtime. When Gino managed to find an opening, Brody was also willing to bump for him as well.
My favourite sequence was the finish of the first fall, where Bruiser slammed Hart’s arm into the turnbuckle, which distracted Brody long enough to allow Gino to jump him from behind and grab the pin. Then during the break Hart, injured from the attack, was being helped to the back and Bruiser came over and perfectly timed a chair shot to his back as he was doubling over in pain from his arm.
Markus, Gino’s partner at this point, came down and his interference was integral to the final two pins, both times using a foreign object in his mask to try and take Brody down. The first took him out but gave away a fall via DQ. The second backfired and we got a double head bump between the pair which gave Brody the win to a massive pop from the crowd.
This peaked in the first fall but it never fell away too much afterwards and while I wasn’t a massive fan of Markus’ involvement, at least it was kept to a minimum and the work the two guys put in throughout the body of the match really was good stuff.