09/20/1984: AWA World Title Match: Rick Martel (c) vs. Nick Bockwinkel

Larry Nelson and Billy Robinson did commentary, and honestly, they weren’t bad together. Robinson was particularly good, and clearly the Bret in this Hart Foundation announce team, but Nelson did much better than he normally did. I loved how Nick and Martel started because Bockwinkel dominated the first few minutes until missing a knee in the corner, which finally gave Martel the advantage. Eventually, it does follow a more formulaic style because Martel of Martel’s early shine, but it’s not nearly as rigid as being formulaic as today, where the babyface seemingly always dominates immediately. Martel’s long hold on the mat on Bockwinkel’s knee was dull, and you could hear the occasional “boring” comment in the crowd, but because of the way Bockwinkel sold the knee the rest of the way and how it played into the story of the match, it made up for it. Nick was so fucking good at logically selling the knee. Even when Nick got the heat, he was still falling down and somewhat frantically trying to walk off the damage. He threw Martel out of the ring, and every time the future Model tried getting back in, Nick would send him crashing to the floor so that he could try walking around and getting the knee to work again. Just a fucking Master Class in pro wrestling selling. I’m not a crotchety old man who thinks we can take the business backwards in how it’s presented or worked. However, something like this would probably help get a match over today because it’s different than what everyone else is doing and is logical. Because of the dull matwork on the knee early and the selling mentioned above, when Martel posted Nick’s knee, the crowd went wild. Nick’s career-long subtle flailing when he took physical abuse as a heel also aided quite a bit. There were a lot of believable nearfalls that the fans bought into at the end, with quick finish attempts like the small package. It wasn’t done at a frantic pace like a Steamboat match, but the crowd bought it just as much. The referee took a great looking bump when Nick hiptossed Rick out of an abdominal stretch, leading to Rick applying a Boston crab and legit BAD MOTHERFUCKER Mr. Saito to come out and throw salt in Martel’s eyes, leading to a Nick pinfall while holding the tights at 19:54. During his celebration, the referee overturned the decision and gave it to Martel for the rare heel Dusty finish. It builds to another rematch because Nick almost walked out with the title, but it’s not as satisfying as a finish here. A slow start, but once it got going, it was very good, and Nick showcased some of his best skills here. ***1/2