THE TOURNAMENT TO END ALL TOURNAMENTS: Fourth Round, Brackets XXI-XXIV

BRACKET XXI

"Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff VS Andre The Giant

Orndorff had legit strength, but nowhere near enough to withstand the onslaught of perhaps the largest athlete based on body index to ever walk the Earth.  Andre in six minutes.

BRACKET XXII

Pat O'Connor VS Gene Kiniski

I've seen Pat O'Connor wrestle Buddy Rogers before, and it was incredible.  Watching Gene Kiniski fight Lou Thez was kind of a let down.  Honestly, despite Kiniski beating Thez and Gagne in their prime and coming within an eyelash of making it all three with Sammartino, I gotta go with O'Connor.  Guy was a world champion in his own right, in fact the only man to hold the NWA and AWA World Championships simultaneously.  No shame in Kiniski's game, but for my money, O'Connor was better.

BRACKET XXIII

Charlie Haas VS Verne Gagne

A battle between two Mat-Wrestlin' Minnesotans.  Obviously Gagne gets the duke, but Charlie Haas would put in a good twelve minutes before retiring in such a clinic.  (Read: Haas was underrated.)

BRACKET XXIV

Meng VS Giant Baba

Perhaps the hoss fight to end all hoss fights.  Meng has been dubbed by the boys in the back as one of the legitimately toughest human beings to lace a pair of boots, and Giant Baba was a seven foot tall beast who held the NWA Championship on three occasions.  Thing is though, despite watching Baba get a fall on Bruno Sammartino in a 2-out-of-3 falls match, I'm actually going to with Meng.  When Meng was King Tonga in 1986, I saw him wrestle a style more like Ricky Steamboat than a Face Of Fear.  He has a deceptively deep move set beneath the hard core (meaning impenetrably solid, not just, y'know, "hard core").


Recap:

Andre The Giant defeats Paul Orndorff
Pat O'Connor defeats Gene Kiniski
Verne Gagne defeats Charlie Haas
Meng defeats Giant Baba

Come on back for Brackets XXV-XXVIII!