Wrestling Gold Volume 1: Busted Open
1) Sherri Martel vs. Judy Martin
Decent little "girls" match. I say girls because that was what the announcers were saying at the time. "Now it's time a girl's wrestling match." Sherri definitely looks a lot different from what most have seen or could recognize her as. First wrestling match I've seen her in. Good showing.
**
2) Shawn Michaels vs. Ken Johnson
Yes that is the same Shawn Michaels we all know. This was his rookie year so to speak. And despite that he still looked pretty damn great in the ring. It looked like he was a veteran of 10 years or something. Pretty good match. Ken didn't get in too much offense, which really didn't matter. It's not like anyone's ever heard of him.
**1/4
3) Gino Hernandez & Tully Blanchard vs. The Grapplers
Decent tag match. I wouldn't call it a clusterfuck but these guys were just everywhere around the ring, making tags constantly, throwing each other around. The best thing here was the postmatch stuff. I loved it. After Gino and Tully won the Southwest Tag Team Titles, or whatever they're called, Tully turned on Gino and just slammed the belt right in his face. Not like you see these days. Tully started beating on him, then Gino came back and ran out Tully, then The Grapplers start beatng on Gino, then Gino fights back and runs out everyone. It was great.
**1/4
4) Gino Hernandez vs. Tully Blanchard
This DVD is called busted open for a reason, and this match started the trend. A good bloody brawl that of course had been built up following the last match on the DVD. A professional boxer was the guest referee, but I can't remember his name. haha. He didn't take any shit from these two, which played out in the finish. The thing that kind of hurt this match was there was no commentary. But that's alright though because Jim Cornette and Dave Meltzer have a commentary track throughout the whole DVD you can switch to anytime you want. It's actually really inciteful and enjoyable... But anyway, good stuff.
**3/4
5) Bob Orton Jr. vs. Adrian Adonis
Now this was what I was waiting for. This came to my surprise but it was a great surprise. Really good contest. A true hidden gem I'd say. Great technically sound wrestling from both of these guys. This match was big, because it was the finals of a one night tournament that would crown a new Southwest Heavyweight Champion or something like that. But on top of that, the winner was going to be awarded the 75 year old belt that Lou Thesz was the last holder of and had possession of. So this was huge. And with Thesz at ringside, you definitely wanna put on a good showing. And these two did. Both guys were really impressive. I'd like to see more of Adonis. Hell of a performer for a guy his size. I'll be shocked if anything on the entire 5 disc set tops this.
***3/4
6) Bruiser Brody vs. Abdullah The Butcher
Man was I disappointed. Talk about starting a trend, here came the trend of matches joined in progress. All this was was these two bloodied outside the ring, only to come in the ring, throw around the ref, get DQ'ed, then just brawl around the arena for 2 or 3 minutes. Nothing very good. I want some good Brody damn it.
N/R
7) Larry Zybisco vs. Scott Casey
Joined in progress. Only saw the last 5 or 6 minutes. Nothing special. On a side note these guys were in really good shape compared to a lot of wrestlers at this time.
N/R
8) Jerry "The King" Lawler vs. "Bruiser" Bob Sweetan
Ugh. Awful. I hated this. This was markeed(sp?) as the battle of the piledrivers, since that's both their finishers, but this was just shit. It makes no sense why they would decide to put this whole match, all 15 minutes of it, and join so many others in progress... This literally took 10 minutes to get started. The timekeeper says it's 10 minutes in and Lawler is still running around the ring doing the old heel shit. God awful.
DUD
9) Gino Hernandez & Tully Blanchard vs. Terry Funk & Ivan Putski
Joined in progress. Ughhh. This couldn't have been any longer than 4 minutes. And it wasn't that good either. The finish was just, no. A random wrestler, Ricky Morton, can not just come out and magically be a referee and count to 3. And on a random side note, Ivan Putski seriously looks deformed to me. Too much muscle buddy.
N/R
10) Steel Cage Match: Dick Slater vs. The Mongolian Stomper
This sort of came out of nowhere. It was pretty entertaining. I liked it. There's not really much I have to say about it other than I liked it. haha.
***
11) Bruiser Brody vs. Nick Bockwinkel
Joined in progress. But this time it wasn't that bad. Solid stuff for what we saw. This kind of goes along with what you guys have been talking about with Brody, how he doesn't like to job to people or whatever. Brody won, but he won by countout, because Bockwinkel walked out. This was for the Heavyweight Title of whatever promotion this was so it makes sense. Title didn't change hands. Lou Thesz was the guest referee btw. I'll give this a rating even though it wasn't the full match.
**1/2
Overall: This wasn't a great DVD, but it wasn't a bad DVD either. It has it's up and it's downs but overall I'd say it was enjoyable. I was in the mood for some old school so I decided to pop in the Wrestling Gold 5 discer and review each disc. Also I decided to put them in this thread opposed to the Indy thread pretty much because all the guys were at some time stars in WWF, NWA, or WCW, etc.
Official WWE DVD Help/Discussion/Review Thread II
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