Bock v Hennig - The Broadway!

Nick Bockwinkel v Curt Hennig (AWA, 11/15/86)

I watched this over ten years ago and thought it had a great first half and a good second half. A ****1/4 affair, if you will (prolly). This time I thought it was all pretty great and not a chore to sit through at all, which perhaps unfortunately in my old age has become the single most important component of my viewing enjoyment for any match longer than like 18 minutes. But I mean, this is a whole entire 60 minutes and I was engaged from beginning to end. It's a pretty easy story to follow, not one you won't have seen before if the wrestling you've seen in your stupid life includes just about any Ric Flair touring broadway. Bockwinkel is babyface and, other than a quick dropkick at the opening bell (which felt more wily than dirty), he works like it for about half an hour. He works from above more than Flair usually would, but either way he's respecting and not taking shortcuts or doing any of the questionable shit we usually associate with him. Then the longer it goes where he can't shake Hennig he starts to dip into his old bag of tricks, starts to work way more surly, uses the ropes now and then, grabs the trunks, not overtly acting like a dickhead but you know what they say about a tiger and its stripes. Matwork in that first half is super high end for mid-80s US matwork. It's really tight, they don't sit inactive in holds, they target a body part but it feels fluid and they'll adjust where they need to. Bock will work a really snug headlock (this was some excellent headlock-working), Hennig will try for the headscissors, then he'll move to the arm, Bock will shift focus and go for the leg, it was all pretty awesome. They sell the cumulative damage and they throw in lots of cool little subtleties, like Bock using the ring post to stretch out his arm and Hennig draws attention to his leg basically the entire match. In the back half they start moving away from the matwork and things get a bit more frenzied. The violence gets bumped up a notch too. Bock acts more like the Bockwinkel we know and roughs up Hennig, but then Hennig comes back and gives as good as he gets. You get the sense Bock won't be able to shake him and pretty soon he's fully on the ropes. I love how he keeps asking the timekeeper for updates on how long is left. The King of the Mountain segment feels desperate as well and he gets to the point where you can see he'd absolutely take that count out without a worry. Last ten minutes or so with Hennig bleeding are great and his blood loss selling rules. He's on his last legs but he has youth on his side and he even manages to mount a comeback. In the end Bockwinkel hangs on by surviving the figure-four, but it feels like Hennig is either a few more minutes or a slight tweak in strategy away from winning the belt. This was Federer/Nadal at Wimbledon 2007. The Man held on and took home the title, but you could tell it was only a matter of time before Nadal would beat him on the stage Federer made his own. Pretty good candidate for best AWA match ever, even if I'm more inclined to lean with your blood- and guts-fests like Midnight Rockers v Rose and Somers.