Glass Hand Dissolving: Nick Bockwinkel & Ray Stevens

 

vs Dick the Bruiser & Wahoo McDaniel (AWA 6/9/1973)

There's going to be this caveat for a lot of this 70s footage, and it is a beggars can't be choosers situation; a lot of it is clipped and edited, and not anything resembling complete. That's just the reality of a lot of older footage. I'm resistant to draw any big conclusions based on clipped matches, just because by their very nature they should be getting rid of the worst stuff, but we can take some things from what we get and not treat what conclusions we do draw as gospel. I like the structure of this match; Wahoo and Bruiser get DQ's for the first fall, use the advantage created to take the second fall, and take all the momentum into the third fall. I think that's a perfect structure. Outside of that, Bockwinkel looks good; he bumps well. Stevens, well, I can't say that he stood out to me in this. 

vs The Crusher & Dick the Bruiser (AWA 6/30/1973)

Another clipped 70s match. This has a lot in common with the previous match. Bockwinkel and, to a lesser extent, Stevens spend a good chunk of this selling. It is what should happen in a match like this; no one wants to see Bruiser and Crusher work 50/50 with anybody. Bockwinkel, again, stands out. Stevens, on the other hand, does not look exceptional here. He gets a little bit of offense, and it's kind of a mess, like he just puts his hands in Bruiser's face and pushes him into the corner. With that being said, this is pretty good. The finish is very 70s, Crusher has Stevens pinned, Bockwinkel breaks it up with a punch, and that's enough for Stevens to get the pin. Outside of that, and it is a product of the time, this is pretty solid, from what we see. 

vs Red Bastien & Billy Robinson (AWA 11/6/1973)

This was a pretty solid TV tag. I think what we get here that we don't get in other matches, is that we get to see Bockwinkel and Stevens work a significant heat segment, and it is really good. It's convincing and violent and smothering. So much of the other stuff we've seen is them selling, and they certainly do a lot of that early on here, but it is nice to see them get a control segment and shine. The other interesting thing here is that Robinson and Bastien take both falls, which I wouldn't have expected. Bockwinkel still outshines Stevens here, though. 

vs The Highflyers (AWA 8/10/1974)

This is the match where Stevens and Bockwinkel debut Bobby Heenan as their manager, so well, there is a match here; this devolves into an angle by the end of the match to cement the partnership. As for the match, this was the first match where Stevens looked more impressive than Bockwinkel. I think what Stevens can do better than Bockwinkel is he can pummel guys, stay on top of them with kicks, and convey a real sense of violence. As a match, this isn't on the level of the previous match, but as a piece of wrestling television is really pretty great. 

vs Larry Zbyszko & Super Ninja (AWA 4/4/1987)

This is pretty great too. It's near the end of Bockwinkel's career, and Ray Stevens is sort of coming back to help his old partner even the odds against Zbyszko. Stevens wasn't lighting the world on fire in 74, and he's a lot more limited here in 87, but he has his moments here. The Bockwinkel and Zbyszko stuff is especially heated and eventually gets too heated and spills to the outside, barrels out of control, and ends the match without a real conclusion. For a 'not as good as I once was' sort of match, this is pretty great. 

Verdict

I think initially, I was underwhelmed, and to a certain extent the limited and clipped nature of the early footage means you can't make the case for this really being an all-time great team, but I do think you can see that, even if Stevens was limited, this team worked and understood tag team wrestling on a certain level.