Jim Brunzell was one-half of the ace babyface tag team of the AWA, The High Flyers with Greg Gagne in late 70s-Early 80s. From the footage, I have watched they were a very fun babyface tag team of their time. They have some good to great matches with Crusher Blackwell & Sheik Kaissey. They are most well-known for their feud with the East-West Connection, Jesse "The Body" Ventura & Adrian Adonis. Some people have liked their AWA stuff so much that they were interested in seeing Brunzell's work in the WWF and see if holds up. I have liked Brunzell and thought he had a great match with Jumbo Tsuruta in Salt Lake City. I do not think his work is very special at all in the WWF. In a lot of way he defers to Blair and pretty much only works the comeback segment just hitting his dropkick. Brunzell definitely looked like a guy collecting his pay check and putting in minimal effort.
B. Brain Blair is most famous in wrestling circles as the guy Iron Sheik irrationally loathes. Sheiky Baby would very much like to humble him old country way. Blair is a non-descript wrestler that looks a lot like Mike Graham. I wonder if they ever tagged.
The Killer Bees were not a bad team, per se, just ultimately a very forgettable team. They did manage to have the one of the best Demolition matches I had seen though others have surpassed it, but it still a very good match. They, along with the Young Stallions, were the stars of the action-packed Survivor Series '87 match, for reasons still unknown to me.
Choice Cuts:
Killer Bees vs Demolition - Houston 9/87
Survivor Series '87
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| They did not have a prayer. |
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WWF Tag Champs Dream Team vs Killer Bees - Boston 12/85
Holy shit! It is Jim Brunzell with a beard! "He must got tired of looking 16." - Jesse The Body
Valentine is one of the best 80s WWF workers by far and away. He is always great to watch when he is in the ring. He works a great chain sequence with Blair similar to the '87 match. He takes a bunch of suplexes from the Bees He sells well for both Bees as they work over his legs. Of course, he works in TIMBAAAAAAAAH! Blair gets caught trying to put the figure 4 on Valentine. Beefcake comes in. He stomps around and makes a lot of noise but doesnt do much. Valentine forsakes grappling and earns the moniker "The Hammer" with his sledges from the tough. Blair is able to maneuver away from Beefcake to tag in Brunzell. Jim and all his nefwound masculinity overwhelm the Dream Team. His new look does not affect his dropkick, but it does affect his awareness as he gets hit from behind while applying the sleeper to Beefcake. That is the finish. It was a decent match, but demonstrates what could have been with The Hammer.
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The Hart Foundation vs Killer Bees - 2/86 MSG
The one thing I never got about the Killer Bees is how they were supposed to be faces with the Masked Confusion gimmick. Anyways, this starts off with the Bees doing some token leg work on Anvil (think Rockers, but not as exciting), which culminates in a figure-4 that Bret breaks up. Jimmy Hart, clearly 20 years ahead of his time, gets mocked for shopping at a Thrift Shop. Bret slips on the second rope while going for a second rope elbow (a rare sighting of this Bret bump). Brunzell is a house with a small stovetop fire, dangerous, but easily quenched by a blind knee in the back (the ultimate Hart Foundation transition spot). Usual Hart Foundation heat segment: bodyslam on concrete, Demolition Decapitation, and the irish whip sling shot move. I remember this being a little too front facelock-y. Brunzell hits his sweeeeeeet dropkick (Bulldog's is still more impactful), but cant capitalize. The Hart Foundation Irish whip sling shot misses this time around.
Blair is a house afire: punches, small package, bodyslams and atomic drops (Bret bumps into Anvil). After the Hart Foundation collision, Brunzell hits his dropkick, but alas we hit the time limit draw. I thought this was on par with 9/85 Bulldogs match just a solid match nothing to go out of your way to see. The Hart Foundation/Bulldogs would eventually exceed this match in 1987, but for now it is on par with that.
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Hart Foundation vs Killer Bees - SNME 11/86
This is not as good as their MSG match due to time constraints and the focus on getting over gimmicks, but it was a decent match. Bret ate a high knee early from Brunzell, which surprised me. Hart Foundation take over with the blind knee (somebody fucked up and ran the ropes towards the middle and Bret had to leap and slide to bury the knee in his back). Demolition Decapitation and then Anvil hits a freakin dropkick. Brunzell hits his dropkick, but cant capitalize that is a pretty good hope spot having seen it twice now. Both Bees end up on the outside: MASKED CONFUSION~!
Blair with an atomic drop on Hart sending him into Brunzell and now Anvil irish whipped into Bret. It is pandemonium in there, baby. Blair with the sleeper on Anvil, but Brunzell lets Bret hit a double axe-handle from the top that way he can switch with Blair while the ref is admonishing Bret. Bret gets the tag and eats the small package.
It was a decent match structured to get over the Masked Confusion gimmick, which went nowhere because the Bulldogs were firmly positioned as the lead face team until Strike Force took over.
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I'll cop to the fact that skipped over the Killer Bees vs Iron Sheik & Nikolai Volkoff early 1987 feud. When there is so much Greg Valentine to watch, Bees matches just don't seem that appealing. No offense to 'Ol Nik & Shieky Baby. Though anybody who watches them does Sheik humble Blair old country way?
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| Blair vs Muraco: That's the stuff of nightmares! |
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Demolition vs Killer Bees - 9/87 Houston 2 Out Of 3 Falls
Before I rave about this match (just the first two falls), Pete Doherty is the fuckin worst commentator ever.
This is the greatest Killer Bees match I have ever seen and I have watched way too many Killer Bees matches. This may be Demolition's best match as well, but it is still to early to tell and I hope they have better matches. On top of all this, I think the first fall is greatest heel in peril tag I have ever seen. I think it is a bit overstated that WWF tag matches were done in a heel-in-peril style. They usually had a normal babyface shine and any babyface limb work was perfunctory and short-lived. It is not the crux of the match and the face in peril is usually as long if not longer than the babyface shine. This match is heel in peril through and through and really well-done. The hook of the match is that Bees have managed to injure Ax's knee finally exposing a weakness to the seemingly indomitable Demolition. As Ax is struggling to tag Smash, you are happy to see Demolition finally writhe pain.
The match begins as most Demolition matches do with concept that Bees have no chance on their own against Demolition. They have to manage to get a member of Demolition in their corner so they can do frequent tags and double teams. They are leveraging their speed advantage into double team moves. Demolition use a lot of cheating to parlay that into power moves. There is a real sense of struggle from the beginning. One team is not dominating the other rather they are jockeying for position. Ax keeps grabbing a front facelock and Blair keeps relentlessly pounding away at his knee. Finally Ax's knee gives out and the Bees just go to town on Ax's knee with all sorts of double teams, stretches and holds. Ax is desperately trying to get to Smash, but there is no sympathy to be had for these brutes. Blair goes for coup d'grace: figure-4. Smash sensing the end is nigh makes the save. In the confusion, Blair eats knees on a splash attempt and Demolition go up 1-0 in a great first fall.
Ax tries to avoid starting the next fall even though he won the previous fall so Brunzell brings him in the hard way. Ax is able to tag out, but as Smash comes in he performs an atomic drop on Blair, who tags Brunzell while being hoisted up. Blair collides with Ax and Brunzell dropkicks Smash to win the second fall. It is all knotted up.
Brunzell goes after Ax's leg again forcing him to tag out. This has really rendered Demolition into a one person team. Smash is able to get his boot up so that Blair wipes out. This sets up the Blair heat segment. This is great illustration of Demolition doing their bare minimum. The heat segment mainly consists of Demolition doing frequent tags to slap on the vulcan nerve pinch. It is not like they are using this hold to contain Blair. They should be pressing the advantage more instead it feels like killing time. Smash takes the Bret Bump into the turnbuckles and Ax misses an elbow. Has Bill Eadie ever hit an elbow? Brunzell is a small campfire as he only gets two with his dropkick. As he is running the ropes, Ax hits Jumpin Jim with Fuji's cane and that's all she wrote.
If the match just ended after the first fall it would go down as one of lost classics. The second fall was actually perfect as the Bees deserved to win the first fall and got it all knotted up. The third fall was a bore and just dragged. As Meatloaf says Two Outta Three Aint Bad.
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New Dream Team vs The Killer Bees 10/87 MSG
I like Valentine enough that I thought this could be good. Actually before the shit finish, I liked the match quite a bit. Valentine did some really excellent wrestling with both the Bees working in a nice fireman's carry by Blair and grabbing a headscissors on Brunzell before tagging out. It was nice to see some actual grappling as a change of pace. Bravo was a little stiff in the ring, but he showed energy and even did a leapfrog. Brunzell played face in peril after Bravo threw him into the Valentine's elbow. I really felt that the Dream Team had the blueprint for how Demolition should work as Valentine has that similar rough and tumble style with a lot of elbows and general rough housing. He is just way more convincing than either of the Demolition, which look like a bunch of cartoon characters as they stomp on the ring. Valentine got kicked off on his figure-4 attempt. TIMBAAAAAAH! They throw Brunzell on the outside and it is Masked Confusion. It is not an inherently stupid gimmick. I think someone who played it off with a little comedic panache like Eddie Guerrero would have made it into a great gimmick. Instead these two white bread wrestlers just seem like dicks for doing this. This is a decent Valentine match, but it shows after a weak 1987 that 1988 does not look too much better for him. I believe he broke up with Bravo shortly after, but with the Hart Foundation & Demolition turning babyface in 1988 and the onset of the Rockers, I think they could have used a Valentine heel tag team to even the sides.
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Team Hart Foundation (Hart Foundation, Islanders, Demolition, New Dream Team & Bolsheviks) vs Team Strike Force (Strike Force, British Bulldogs, Rougeaus, Killer Bees & Young Stallions) - Survivor Series 1987
I knew this match was well-regarded, but I had no idea what outcome was. I can not believe the two bottom feeding babyface tag teams were the winners. More so, I cant believe the match was booked around the Young Stallions being booked as the stars. There was no reason before or after to understand this book decision as Strike Force and British Bulldogs continued to be the preeminent babyface tag teams for the near future with the Rockers, Hart Foundation and Demolition ending the next year as the top three babyface tag teams. Odd booking aside, this was a really fun match. They did not really try to weave a story, but it was action-packed and they busted out some pretty cool moves. The only story, I really noticed was the resiliency of the Young Stallions. Just because the Young Stallions were booked as the stars, does not mean they wrestled well, mind you. They were the worst wrestlers out there. Notably, Jim Powers was being a huge pussy for not taking the hotshot on 2 occasions.
The match started off with Martel/Volkoff tearing it up shades of how good their SNME match would turn out. Volkoff looked like a monster Tito hit the Flying Burrito to get the pin on Boris. Ax came in and did his usual Demoition bit. They establish the nature of the gimmick with tons of quick tags that keep the action fresh. One notable exchange was the chop exchange between Haku/Dynamite, where the hell was that in their matches. Everyone is hitting all their stuff with a lot of intensity. The Stallions get worked over a little bit. Jacques gets the tag, but crashes and burns on a reverse cross body and Ax gets the pin. The Stallions get crushed by a Neidhart backbreaker/Haku flying chop. The Valentine adds a sweet shoulderbreaker and a vertical suplex (he throws him more than slams him back). Dino Bravo hits like the best gutwrench suplex ever and they still cant pin the Stallions. Demolition becomes fustrated and gets themselves DQ'd by pushing the ref. Bret crushes Dynamite with a piledriver and cant get the pin. The heels just cant buy a win. Tama/Martel have a great exchange as usual, but Martel applies his Boston Crab too close to the heel corner and Neidhart clobbers him. Santana makes a similar mistake on a pinfall attempt and gets whacked in the big of the head by a Bret elbow and gets pinned!?!?!??!?!? That was the first sign something fishy was up.
Now there is a long Stallions heat segment with Valentine that is pretty decent because Valentine stiffing shitty wrestlers is always fun. Powers refuses to get dropped across the ropes properly because he is a mega-pussy. The match gets clipped here and we miss the Bulldogs getting eliminated. According to one review, I missed a Bret backbreaker into a Tama knee and other general awesomeness. Disappointing. When we come back, the Stallions are still getting beat on, so it appears as if you missed nothing even though you missed the number 2 face tag team being eliminated. Valentien goes for the figure-4, but Roma gets a sunset flip (blind tag) for the win. For shame, as the New Dream Team were the best workers. Though Hart Foundation and Islanders have been working pretty friggin well also. The Killer Bees have been non-existent and Young Stallions have sucked but been the crux of this match.
The Bees begin and Brunzell hits a pretty sweet high knee. Roma is back in to be the face in peril. Islanders start busting out their offense and look great. Brunzell is working offense for the faces, Stallions on FIP duty and Blair on the apron, just where he should be. smile.gif This is the best Brunzell has looked in the WWF. Roma gets the first bit of offense for the Stallions with a fist drop on Bret Hart, but that is short-lived with Bret hitting a suplex on him. Islanders again rocking it in the ring. Brunzell is in with the Hitman. He has the Hitman to be slammed. Tama dropkicks Hitman to get him on top of Brunzell, but Brunzell rolls through for the pin. At this point, I was in shock because I expected the top 2 heel teams to easily vanquish the two babyface jobber tag teams.
Islanders jump right on Brunzell to press while they still can. Islanders do a little too much vulcan nerve pinch, but Haku works in a shoulderbreaker and they are doing their best to keep Brunzell in their corner. Stallions get a quick powerslam, but Islanders are able to overwhelm them again. Blair gets tagged and swarmed (pun intended). Islanders always press their advantage. Wicked reverse elbow by Tama. Tama misses a big elbow, the key weakness of all 80s WWF heels. Brunzell, hot tag, double noggin knocker, DROPKICK~! Haku saves. Brunzell attempts sunset flip on Tama and Blair with mask jumps over and gets his own sunset flip to complete the upset. Brunzell puts on his mask too outside as they celebrate. MASKED CONFUSION~!
On one hand, the Stallions looked awesome by surviving and resilient because they got beat on mercilessly. But they only got in like two offensive moves and they sucked in the ring. Bees showed up half through the match and it was the best Brunzell looked in the WWF, but none babyfaces aside from Martel looked all that great. This was a great showcase for the heel teams as they had a ton of offense and really worked crisp and efficient. It is crazy to think in one years time there would be an utter dearth of heel tag teams and an overabundance of babyface tag teams. I went in with high expectations and it was a bit of a let down. It was action packed and 30+ minutes flew by which is a credit to the teams, but it lacked a great story to really make it classic. It was a great fun, action blockbuster.
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Team Hart Foundation (Hart Foundation, Islanders, Demolition, New Dream Team & Bolsheviks) vs Team Strike Force (Strike Force, British Bulldogs, Rougeaus, Killer Bees & Young Stallions) - Survivor Series 1987
I knew this match was well-regarded, but I had no idea what outcome was. I can not believe the two bottom feeding babyface tag teams were the winners. More so, I cant believe the match was booked around the Young Stallions being booked as the stars. There was no reason before or after to understand this book decision as Strike Force and British Bulldogs continued to be the preeminent babyface tag teams for the near future with the Rockers, Hart Foundation and Demolition ending the next year as the top three babyface tag teams. Odd booking aside, this was a really fun match. They did not really try to weave a story, but it was action-packed and they busted out some pretty cool moves. The only story, I really noticed was the resiliency of the Young Stallions. Just because the Young Stallions were booked as the stars, does not mean they wrestled well, mind you. They were the worst wrestlers out there. Notably, Jim Powers was being a huge pussy for not taking the hotshot on 2 occasions.
The match started off with Martel/Volkoff tearing it up shades of how good their SNME match would turn out. Volkoff looked like a monster Tito hit the Flying Burrito to get the pin on Boris. Ax came in and did his usual Demoition bit. They establish the nature of the gimmick with tons of quick tags that keep the action fresh. One notable exchange was the chop exchange between Haku/Dynamite, where the hell was that in their matches. Everyone is hitting all their stuff with a lot of intensity. The Stallions get worked over a little bit. Jacques gets the tag, but crashes and burns on a reverse cross body and Ax gets the pin. The Stallions get crushed by a Neidhart backbreaker/Haku flying chop. The Valentine adds a sweet shoulderbreaker and a vertical suplex (he throws him more than slams him back). Dino Bravo hits like the best gutwrench suplex ever and they still cant pin the Stallions. Demolition becomes fustrated and gets themselves DQ'd by pushing the ref. Bret crushes Dynamite with a piledriver and cant get the pin. The heels just cant buy a win. Tama/Martel have a great exchange as usual, but Martel applies his Boston Crab too close to the heel corner and Neidhart clobbers him. Santana makes a similar mistake on a pinfall attempt and gets whacked in the big of the head by a Bret elbow and gets pinned!?!?!??!?!? That was the first sign something fishy was up.
Now there is a long Stallions heat segment with Valentine that is pretty decent because Valentine stiffing shitty wrestlers is always fun. Powers refuses to get dropped across the ropes properly because he is a mega-pussy. The match gets clipped here and we miss the Bulldogs getting eliminated. According to one review, I missed a Bret backbreaker into a Tama knee and other general awesomeness. Disappointing. When we come back, the Stallions are still getting beat on, so it appears as if you missed nothing even though you missed the number 2 face tag team being eliminated. Valentien goes for the figure-4, but Roma gets a sunset flip (blind tag) for the win. For shame, as the New Dream Team were the best workers. Though Hart Foundation and Islanders have been working pretty friggin well also. The Killer Bees have been non-existent and Young Stallions have sucked but been the crux of this match.
The Bees begin and Brunzell hits a pretty sweet high knee. Roma is back in to be the face in peril. Islanders start busting out their offense and look great. Brunzell is working offense for the faces, Stallions on FIP duty and Blair on the apron, just where he should be. smile.gif This is the best Brunzell has looked in the WWF. Roma gets the first bit of offense for the Stallions with a fist drop on Bret Hart, but that is short-lived with Bret hitting a suplex on him. Islanders again rocking it in the ring. Brunzell is in with the Hitman. He has the Hitman to be slammed. Tama dropkicks Hitman to get him on top of Brunzell, but Brunzell rolls through for the pin. At this point, I was in shock because I expected the top 2 heel teams to easily vanquish the two babyface jobber tag teams.
Islanders jump right on Brunzell to press while they still can. Islanders do a little too much vulcan nerve pinch, but Haku works in a shoulderbreaker and they are doing their best to keep Brunzell in their corner. Stallions get a quick powerslam, but Islanders are able to overwhelm them again. Blair gets tagged and swarmed (pun intended). Islanders always press their advantage. Wicked reverse elbow by Tama. Tama misses a big elbow, the key weakness of all 80s WWF heels. Brunzell, hot tag, double noggin knocker, DROPKICK~! Haku saves. Brunzell attempts sunset flip on Tama and Blair with mask jumps over and gets his own sunset flip to complete the upset. Brunzell puts on his mask too outside as they celebrate. MASKED CONFUSION~!
On one hand, the Stallions looked awesome by surviving and resilient because they got beat on mercilessly. But they only got in like two offensive moves and they sucked in the ring. Bees showed up half through the match and it was the best Brunzell looked in the WWF, but none babyfaces aside from Martel looked all that great. This was a great showcase for the heel teams as they had a ton of offense and really worked crisp and efficient. It is crazy to think in one years time there would be an utter dearth of heel tag teams and an overabundance of babyface tag teams. I went in with high expectations and it was a bit of a let down. It was action packed and 30+ minutes flew by which is a credit to the teams, but it lacked a great story to really make it classic. It was a great fun, action blockbuster.
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| DROPKICK AND... |
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The Islanders vs The Killer Bees MSG 12/87
The Islanders have kidnapped Matilda from the Bulldogs as the Bulldogs have slipped to the #2 face team with Strike Force as the Tag Champs. Since the Islanders ended up losing their feud with the Strike Force in order to maintain their #2 heel status (behind the rising Demolition) they ran a program with the Killer Bees so they could collect some victories. The match was decent, but nothing fantastic it was just meant to reinforce the Islanders position on the card against the JTTS babyface tag team du jour of the WWF.
The shine segment is dominated by headlock attempts by the Bees. Tama is his usual excellent self as he tries to sucker Blair into shaking his hand going so far as to "crossing his heart, hope to die, stick in a needle in my eye" routine, but Tama telegraphs the kick too early and Blair hits an atomic drop and Brunzell claps Tama's ears. What the hell happened to Tama. He had so much natural heel charisma and he was no smaller than Savage. He could have had a short program with Hogan and had been a great asset in the upper midcard.
The Islanders take over on Blair when Haku hits a sweet back suplex out of a side headlock. The blandness of their match may result from the fact that I am writing Blair's name a lot more than Brunzell's name. Tama is really energetic in the heel heat segment with lots of choking and Haku add one his badass kicks to Blair's head. Blair, the most boring babyface ever, hits a couple flying forearms in there to flying get Jumpin Jim in there. Brunzell is a mild trash can fire which peaks with his dropkick and a beauty on Haku. He gets on the sleeper and end game commences. Blair chases Tama around the ring; Tama whacks Brunzell; ref holds Blair back; Tama hits the flying headbutt from the top on Haku and Haku is rolled on the victory.
It is the WWF so there is no reason for a clean heel victory. It only adds extra heat on the Islanders going into their Bulldogs feud to have the finish this way. It was a very decisive Islanders victory. The only real notable thing is how good Tama is at crowd interaction much better than the silent Haku and dont know what happened to him. Drugs? The other notable thing is B. Brian Blair could give Tom Zenk a run for his money in most bland wrestler.
The Islanders vs Killer Bees - SNME 3/88
Heenan cracks me up with his Beekeeper Net and Dog Leash to start as him and Jesse play off each other really well. The whole thing that is really holding The Islanders back is their lampshade tights. Brunzell starts off hot with Tama hitting a leg drop and doing a sweet double wristlock takedown into a pin. Does Brunzell have any worthwhile WWF matches?
Brunzell misses his patented dropkick when Tama hooked the ropes. Tama heabutts, back rakes and a vertical suplexes his way to a pinfall attempt. A Haku dropkick gets a two and intimidates the ref with the threat of a fist. Brunzell gets an atomic drop in the Islanders' corner, but Tama is able to tag in Haku. Double clothesline and her comes Blair with an atomic drop and a pair of bodyslams. The endgame is Blair has Tama in a reverse victory roll, but Haku clothesline the prone Blair to pick up the victory.
For less than 5 minutes of action (it must have been edited because Brunzell ended up with a bloody nose and the Bees seemed sweatier than expected), this was pretty fun and once again keeps the Islanders push going. Cant wait for the Islanders/Bulldogs matches!
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The Fabulous Rougeaus vs The Killer Bees - 7/88
This is the match where the Rougeaus finally turn heel. The best part of this is Jesse covering for the Rougeaus mixing up Memorial Day and Independence Day. I love The Body. There is a couple drop toeholds in this match, which is one of my favorite moves. Jacques stick his hand out to Brunzell at one point and then blows him off. Brunzell comes back and sticks out his hand, blows him off and rubs his hair in a nice sequence. They do a basic tag match only the Rougeaus start to cheat culminating in Raymond delivering a top rope double axe-handle to Brunzell while he was hoisting Jacques up causing Jacques to fall on top for the pin. I am sure these teams have had better matches against each other, but I watched it for the angle (not that I am going to find out). It was a really anti-climatic way to turn heel.
The Killer Bees left the WWF in mid-1988 because they recognized that there would be push for them. They would be stuck as the babyface tag team jobbers of the WWF. Brunzell stayed on as a jobber and I don't know what happened to Blair. I can't say I am terribly broken up about it as there were plenty of teams that earned their way ahead of the Bees.
The next time we will investigate the Hidden Gem Tag Team of 80s WWF scene: The Islanders!
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| A BEAUTY! |
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