Tower of Doom Ten Man Tag Team Match
Kevin Sullivan, Mike Rotunda, Al Perez, Ivan Koloff, and Russian Assassin 1 vs. Animal, Hawk, Ronnie Garvin, Jimmy Garvin, and Steve Williams
NWA Great American Bash 1988
Welcome to this edition of ‘I Can’t Believe Someone Ok’ed This’. We’ve got a three story cage construct. The object is for two men to start in the top cage then work their way down to the bottom cage where Precious will unlock the door and let them leave the ring. This is achieved by the wrestlers going through trap doors that open every two minutes while another teammate enters the top cage. Got that? It’s done shockingly well in execution.
We start with Ron Garvin and former WWWF Champion Ivan Koloff. First of all, the ladders these two have to climb to even get to the top cage constitutes a work out in their own right then these two have to brawl in a tiny shark cage twenty plus feet off the ground. Spectacular, not to mention that the thing sways every time someone hits one of the top two cages.
This is lunacy. Obviously there isn’t much the wrestlers can do aside from throw hands for two minutes so that’s exactly what they do. They work some psychology in with like choke holds and working over the legs but again there’s only so much you can do. To be fair, the crowd is completely into this.
With two men left a huge fight breaks out between the eight that have exited the match…it lasts a couple seconds then they just go back to milling about waiting for either Jimmy Jam or Kevin “Built like a frozen turkey” Sullivan. Spoilers, Jimmy wins because Sullivan pushes him through the door so he can lock himself in the cage with Precious. Jimbo and Hawk then have to re-climb the giant ladders and work their way back down to save Precious.
The lunacy that came from Dusty Rhodes (I assume) was just on another level. This is possibly the most insane I’ve seen outside of the really out there deathmatch stuff. The structure is rickety as hell, the wrestlers are limited, and surprisingly it’s not awful. You feel every second of the two minute intervals but the crowd is having a blast so that helps.
Shout out to Tommy Young who was charged with reffing the door on the top cage and looks absolutely terrified every step of the way. Mans wanted to be anywhere else in the world. The poor dude was cradled against the cage and moved as little as he had to.
Additional shout out to Mike Rotunda who exits the cage looking like he just fought his way out of a POW camp with his bare hands.
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