July 18, 1985. Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Greg Gagne takes on Nick Bockwinkel in a match that can only be won with a sleeper hold. Ray "The Crippler" Stevens interferes in the match.
...especially in a pair of white trunks, reminiscent of a pair of tighty whiteys... I'd have loved to see Nick torture Greg in a neck-straddling middle rope choke, laughin at Greg's humiliating agony as he bounces on Greg in front of the crowd, ending with a cocky sneer on his face that says "this feels fkn goooood!"...and just picture him here, riding and punishing Greg in a camel clutch, just rough enough to make him suffer, but not submit, so as to have Nick enjoy it for a good long length of time
It's the Bockwinkel sleeper hold vs the Gagne choke hold. For most of the match Bockwinkel wipes the floor with Gagne, but then Gagne tries to choke out Bockwinkel, and then for no reason he attacks the referee. Ray Stevens then intercedes on the referee's behalf, and stops Gagne from attacking the referee again. Then Bockwinkel puts on his sleeper hold for a no controversy victory. Then Wally Karbo comes out and takes away Bockwinkel's victory and gives it to Greg Gagne for no reason. This is nothing short of highway robbery.
Greg never should have been scripted to wrestle Bockwinkel for the heavyweight world title. Just because his daddy owned the company and gave himself the title a million times, he should have kept Greg in the tag-team spotlight. That's where his acrobatic talents lay with Jim Brunzell. Greg Gagne was about as worthy to be given a reign as AWA World Champ as Vince McMahon should hand the WWE title to Shane. Nepotism at its worst.
I get your point and agree that Rambo Gagné was not World Heavyweight champion material (gosh, that would have been terrible), but I think booking a series of matches between him and Nick made plenty of sense when you think of the long history between them. Nick feuded with Verne over the championship for years, Nick and Ray Stevens tried to take out the High Flyers in the 70's, both were two of the most familiar faces to AWA fans....I think it's logical that Greg got his share of matches against Bockwinkel, like him or not.
There was nothing wrong with giving Greg a title match. It was booked as a sort of underdog story of Greg going against the odds. It WOULD have been wrong to give Greg a reign as AWA champion, but that never happened.
5:50 to 5:58...Bock, in his "tighty whities" being literally f@g bashed by Gagne...I wonder how many times Greg watched this part, on loop, and just enjoyed it to complete alpha-feeling satisfaction? 🤔
Oh look, another moron clicking on an obscure pro wrestling video just to say "it's fake", as an attempt to show his superior intellect and that he's above a scripted sport! Idiot. 😒
