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[1985-04-21-AWA-St. Paul, MN] Jerry Blackwell & Sgt. Slaughter vs Sheik Adnan & Masked Superstar & King Tonga (Handicap Cage)


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Crusher Blackwell & Sgt. Slaughter vs Sheik Adnan, Masked Superstar, King Tonga - AWA Starcage 4/21/85 Steel Cage Match

 

I love AWA tag team steel cage matches! I love Crusher Blackwell! I love Blackwell & Sheik in a cage! This is when the other shoe drops. Perhaps, I overhyped myself, but given the level of hype this match got I would say this was disappointing. It was just as great as Mad Dog/Blackwell Death Match and it is a great babyface revenge match. Hell, I even watched the Brody & Abby turn on Blackwell after a battle royale to get myself pumped, but I felt like I watched a great cage match, not an OMG ALL-TIME CLASSIC and that's why I am disappointed. Superstar, Tonga and Slaughter just dont feel AWA. I would have loved to seen Blackwell team with an old rival like Da Crusher or Mad Dog to take on Sheik's army. I get Sheik just pays off mercenaries, but it lacked that personal feel with those two. In addition, the other awesome AWA steel cage matches had a ton of intoxicating energy. Either it was Greg Gagne or Shawn Michaels flying around like madmen or Blackwell and Sheik taking bumps at a million miles per hour. This felt like a violent tag match with cage shots and some revenge for Blackwell at the end. If you are going to do that I wish they would had more of a story. I know the hook is Blackwell finally getting his hands on Sheik, but they did not enough in the match to really make that payoff huge. Where was Sheik running around like a coward at the beginning? In the middle, there were some slaps, but he needed to be more dastardly. The finish was spot-on perfect. Like best possible finish, so I want to give them huge kudos for that.

 

Superstar seemed to bump more here than I remember he did as AX, but he was getting long in the tooth by the time he was in Demolition. The lack of movement is noticeable from the beginning. I know Blackwell can provide that as a heel, but he was not providing much as face and there is no one in the ring, who seems like they can. Not they necessarily had to. Superstar sends Blackwell into the cage and bust him open. Transition was fine, but it seemed abrupt and out of nowhere. I thought the shine was very lacking in this match. Blackwell was a great face in peril, fighting back at the right times. Haku, Superstar and Sheik were suitably violent working the cut and gnawing at it. Like I said, I would have liked to seen Sheik run scared more and just be more of a dick. For instance, Blackwell sends Sheik into the cage and Blackwell does a great zombie sell that he cant make it back and Sheik keeps coming at him. Eventually, he retreats to Haku, but I felt like he could have made a bigger deal out of it. Slaughter was pretty useless trying to help Blackwell. Blackwell's strikes to send Superstar down were awesome.

 

The funniest moment of the match is on Sarge's house of fire, he tries to go all Superfly and ascend the top of the cage. Then he kinda gets stuck, realizes how far down it is, says fuck it and comes off the top rope. I wouldnt take that bump either Sarge. They bust Sarge open and I thought this part of the match was pretty ho-hum. He sends Sheik into the cage, which sets up the awesome finish run!

 

Splash in the corner on Sheik, powerslam and YES BABY FINALLY BLACKWELL HITS THE TOP ROPE SPLASH!!!

 

This is an indisputably a great match and a great babyface revenge match. The finish run is awesome and Blackwell finally hitting the top rope splash to win had me marking out. I just don't think it is a top ten AWA match of the 80s. I will definitely revisit to make sure I am not crazy. ****1/4

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  • GSR changed the title to [1985-04-21-AWA-St. Paul, MN] Jerry Blackwell & Sgt. Slaughter vs Sheik Adnan & Masked Superstar & King Tonga (Handicap Cage)

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