Glass Hand Dissolving: Buddy Rose & Doug Somers

vs Jesse Hernandez & Leon White (AWA 4/3/1986)

Right off the rip, Rose is antagonizing Leon, taunting from inside the ring when White is on the apron. Rose takes it to Hernandez early, but Jesse fights over to the corner and tags in Leon. The absolute second that White tags in, Rose bolts out of the ring, goes over to Somers, and they regroup. Both Rose and Somers take turns bumping and selling for Leon. Buddy takes a chop from Leon, and bumps out to the floor. He crawls into the ring and tags in Somers. Somers finds a way to get Leon into the corner, and Rose rakes White's eyes. Buddy tags in, ready to take advantage of Leon, but Rose gets nowhere. Leon lifts him up over his head for a slam, goes for the cover, but Somers breaks up the pin. Vader tags out at that point, and Hernandez doesn't stand a chance once he gets in there. Rose and Somers just take it to Hernandez; they get him in the corner and just pummel him. Leon White comes in to save his partner, but the referee cuts him off, which at first leads to Hernandez getting pummeled even more. Buddy Rose takes that opportunity to taunt White some more, and paintbrushes Leon over the ref's shoulder. This leaves the future Vader incensed, and Leon White chases Buddy Rose all around the outside of the ring. While that's happening, Somers pins Hernandez and Rose, and Somers get the win. A lot of this is about getting Leon White over, and especially Buddy does a great job of that, maybe to the point of being over the top. 

vs Scott Hall & Curt Hennig (AWA 5/17/1986)

This is for the AWA Tag Titles; Hennig and Hall are the champions.  The story coming into this match is that Scott Hall isn't 100%, and this is essentially the last day for them to defend the titles and not be stripped. Hennig controls the early parts of the match, first against Buddy and then Doug. Scott Hall tags in, and he is also able to get the better of both ends of the challengers. Hennig comes back in and works on Buddy's arm for a while, but Rose is able to get out of the hold for just enough time to tag in Somers. Somers gets nowhere with Curt. Hennig gives Hall a turn, and Scott Hall works a hammer lock on Somers in the middle of the ring. Buddy climbs to the top rope, but crotches himself due to Hennig shaking the ropes in the corner. Hall continues to work the arm, using the hammerlock to throw Somers into a couple of turnbuckles. Hennig tags in and gets to work on the arm. A knee to the guts gives Somers space to tag in Rose. Buddy siezes the opportunity and gets right to work, choking Hennig on the mat. Rose and Sommers tag in and out, working over Hennig. Curt can't muster much offense, but he grabs a few pinning combinations that get near falls. Those fluster Buddy enough, and Hennig is able to create a little space and tag in Hall. Hall comes in on fire, takes it Buddy, and Buddy gets stuck in the ropes. Somers comes in to save Buddy, and Hall dispatches him quickly. Buddy has freed himself from the ropes and comes after Hall, but Hall grabs a lifting chokehold. Somers comes in to break it up, but eats a Henning dropkick, which draws Sherri Martel onto the apron, which draws the referee's attention. Colonel DeBeers, who was at ringside scouting, enters the fray, which distracts Scott Hall. Buddy uses the distraction to cheapshot Hall and then slam his head off the ring post. Scott Hall can't answer the ten count, and Rose & Somers win the AWA Tag Team Championships by Count Out. This was fine, a pretty good territory tag team match, but nothing that really jumped out to me. 

vs The Midnight Rockers (AWA 9/2/1986)

The story early on in this match is that Buddy Rose can't keep up with Shawn Michaels. Buddy goes over to the corner and discusses things with Doug, and when he gets back to the match, he eats a superkick, kicks out at two, but throws Shawn out onto the apron when he kicks out. This allows Doug Somers to grab Shawn, while Buddy distracts the referee. Somers rams Shawn's head into the metal turnbuckle, and when Shawn finally comes up, he's bleeding. Buddy doesn't let Shawn breathe, going right towards him and stomping him out. Buddy tags Somers in, and he does much of the same, hammering Shawn. Rose and Somers tag in and out, taking turns to beat on Shawn and gloat. Somers in particular is really great here, really getting over how much he's enjoying this. Somers hits a back body drop, followed by an elbow, and finally goes for the cover. Michaels kicks out, and the crowd pops; it is the first sign of momentum for the Midnight Rockers. Somers decides to take out some frustration on Shawn with a handful of punches, but Michaels starts punching back, and buys himself some space. Shawn is inches away from tagging in Marty, but Somers cuts him off. Shawn crawls to the apron for some respite, but Buddy Rose is waiting there for him. Michaels goes to the outside, and does a great job of getting the blood loss over, fighting to get to his feet and then back into the ring before the ten count. Shawn gets in the ring, and he still has a little bit left in the tank, blocking Buddy's punches and throwing a few of his own. Somers comes back in, and he doesn't have much luck throwing punches with Shawn either. Marty finally gets the tag, and the crowd goes nuts; he's on fire with punches. Buddy comes in to get Marty, but he's no match either. Marty rams Somers' head into the ring post, and Somers is busted open. Sherri Martel gets involved, and that distraction is enough for Buddy to get a cheap shot on Marty and cut off the Midnight Rocker's momentum. Buddy uses that to take it to Jannetty, mostly with punches. This busts Marty open. So now both Rockers are bleeding, as is Somers.  Buddy gets Marty into the corner and unloads with some punches, and Somers gets a few in for good measure. Somers comes in, and he's not reinventing the wheel; he just keeps on Marty with punches. Somers mixes things up with a dropkick, but mostly he's just pounding Marty. Jannetty doesn't have much to offer; he's punching and flailing, and he does enough to wear out Somers, who tags in Rose. Buddy isn't ready for Marty's offense. Marty and Buddy trade punches, and out of desperation, Marty bites Rose. Buddy is fired up, and turns up the temperature on his punches, but there's too much being one, and Marty falls back right into the corner and tags in Shawn. Michaels comes in and unloads, absolutely unloads on Buddy. When Doug tries to slow down Shawn, Marty jumps in to even the score. All four men go at it, Buddy gets bumped to the outside, as does Marty, leaving Somers and Michaels both down in the ring, while their partners are down on the outside. Buddy slams Marty onto a chair on the outside; Shawn and Doug are in the ring brawling. Buddy comes into the ring, and the referees try to restore order, but they get assaulted and thrown out of the ring. The locker room empties to restore order. I think this is the best match we've seen thus far; I know it has a lot of hype, and I think it exceeds that. Sometimes you have a match where it has hype, and you watch it, and it's just a match where a guy bleeds; this is a great match, where the blood enhances the match, not an average match that is buoyed by blood. 

vs Greg Gagne & Jimmy Snuka (AWA 9/20/1986)

Greg gets the better of Buddy early and tags in Snuka. Buddy wants no part of Snuka and tags in Somers. Snuka grabs an arm and goes to work on Somers, which creates space for Buddy to climb to the top, and for Gagne to shake the ropes to crotch Buddy. Greg tags in and keeps on the arm.  Snuka and Gage pretty much work a heat segment targeted on Somers' arm, complete with cutoffs and near tags. Somers hits a kitchen sink knee lift and tags in Buddy. Buddy hangs with Snuka and Gagne, and gets Greg into the corner where he can choke Gagne with the tag rope. That swings the momentum, and Buddy gets to work, smothering and clubbering Gagne. Buddy grinds Gagne with an abdominal stretch, but gets caught grabbing the tights. Greg gets an abdominal stretch of his own, and in the aftermath of that, both guys tag out. Snuka takes it to Somers. Snuka gets a couple of near falls and then commits to a headlock.  Greg tags in and gives Somers maybe the best offense I've seen out of Gagne. Chops and slaps, and dropkicks, and punches, all leading into the Gagne Sleeper. Sherri gets on the apron to provide a distraction; Buddy climbs to the top and cheapshots Greg and continues the assault. The referee throws away the match at that point. Ovbiously, this is not on the level of the Midnight Rockers match, but it also isn't really on the level of the Hall & Hennig match. I would say that outside of what is the faces working a heat segment, this is pretty much the Rose & Somers template match. It is a good match; it will pretty much always be a good tag match because of that template. 

vs JT Southern & Big Steel Man (Windy City 12/8/1988)

Buddy bumps early for JT Southern, rolling to the outside and attempting to call a timeout, but settles for tagging in Somers. Somers leads Southern into the corner, where Buddy chokes him, and from there Somers and Rose pour it on, Buddy from the outside Somers from the inside. Southern eventually tags out, and Big Steel Man comes in and beats the brakes off of Buddy, so much so that Somers doesn't even want to tag in. After a brief discussion on the outside, Somers is willing to tag in. They lure Big Steel into the corner, and again, Somers works in the ring, and Buddy works from outside the ring. Somers climbs the top rope in a bit of hubris, and gets caught by Big Steel and slammed, and another slam from the future Tugboat and Southern tags back in. Southern hits a few moves and goes for the cover. That brings Rose into the ring, which brings Big Steel back in, and ends with everybody brawling outside of the ring. The referee throws the match out. A solid piece of TV wrestling where Buddy and Somers bump when they need to and cheat when they have to. 

Verdict

This is a great tag team. Buddy carries the narrative weight of the matches, but Somers pulls his weight in the matches. The matches are varied enough so as not to seem repetitive. Their template can get good matches out of lesser teams, but they also throw parts of the template away when it suits them.