Universal Wrestling Federation
Date: June 7, 1986
Location: Tulsa Convention Center, Tulsa, Oklahoma
Commentators: Jim Ross, Michael Hayes

So last week was a white hot angle with Eddie Gilbert and the Russians humiliating Cowboy Bill Watts by covering him with the Soviet flag. That’s not going to sit well with Watts, who has already come chasing after them with a baseball bat. The house show matches are coming soon enough, but we’ve got some work to do on the way there. Let’s get to it.

Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.

The WWE Vault version of this show is missing almost 20 minutes so a match almost has to be missing. Or at least a music video. At least a lot of it will be entrances and bumpers due to music rights, because those things have to ruin a lot of classic footage.

We open with a recap of Dark Journey turning down Michael Hayes.

Commentary welcomes us to the show and Hayes claims last week was a misunderstanding.

Kamala vs. Mike Reed

One Man Gang and Skandor Akbar are here with Kamala. Before the match, Akbar says no team in the world can stand up to these two. I’m sure they could stand up to the monsters. Maybe not beat them but standing up can’t be that hard. Kamala jumps him before the bell and kicks him down, setting up a pair of splashes for the win. I didn’t hear an opening bell but we’ll say about 28 seconds.

We recap Bill Watts getting into it with Eddie Gilbert and the Russians, resulting in Watts being covered with the Soviet flag last week. JR is in his glory as he screams about what he is seeing.

Watts is at his house and talks about World War II and the Korean War and how everyone is sure that America is going under because we play by the rules. He’s not playing by the rules and is calling his friends to come help him. This was so AMERICA IS GREAT that it made my teeth sweat.

Here is Eddie Gilbert to introduce the Russians and mock Bill Watts.

Russians vs. Jeff Gaylord/Ken Massey/Perry Jackson

Ivan wrestles Jackson down to start and drops a leg before it’s off to Nikita. The quick tags continue as Massey comes in, with Nikita dropping him with the Sickle for the pin at 1:19.

Post match, Gilbert does the flag thing again.

Bill Watts talks to Dusty Rhodes and wants him to fight for America. Rhodes is ready to come to Houston and help fight, with Watts telling us not to come to the show if you don’t want to see mud, blood and beer. Watts: “WE HATE RUSSIA!” I’m not sure why Dusty was wearing a top hat but maybe it’s subtext.

Michael Hayes introduces a video on the Freebirds. Said video is set to Can’t Stop Rockin by ZZ Top so of course it’s missing from the Vault version. Oddly enough this seemed to be mostly if not all WCCW footage.

Eddie Gilbert and the Russians are ready for Houston.

Brett Wayne Sawyer vs. Jack Victory

Victory has the giant Lady Maxine with him. Sawyer takes him down to start and cuts off a boot to the ribs. Back up and Victory takes over by choking in the rope, with Maxine getting in a choke. Sawyer gets some boots up in the corner and walks into some dropkicks but avoids a third.

Maxine low bridges Sawyer to the floor and here is Dark Journey to glare at Maxine, which has the fans interested. Sawyer throws Victory over the top and tells the women to go at it, with the brawl kicking off. Victory pulls Maxine outside and we’ll call it a no contest (unless Sawyer was DQ’d for the toss over the top, but I can’t imagine it matters) at 5:00.

Rating: C. Obviously the match wasn’t the point here, as this was ALL about the women going nuts out there. That made for a good segment, and you could tell the fans were very interested. That’s not something you want to do very often, but dang it works when you have an angle the fans are into and you can feel the energy.

We look at the UWF Championship tournament, with Jim Duggan vacating the North American Title to retire it and then entering the tournament. This includes highlights of the entire tournament, with Terry Gordy beating Duggan in the finals, partially thanks to a pre-match brawl between Duggan and One Man Gang. Seeing the bloody Duggan fight for everything he had was great stuff as he knew how to make a comeback like few others. The recap eats up about ten minutes, none of which is shown on the Vault version.

TV Title: Buzz Sawyer vs. Terry Taylor

Sawyer, with Rick Steiner, is defending and Chavo Guerrero is here with Taylor. Hayes makes jokes about Mexican food as Taylor grabs a headlock and hits a crossbody for two. Another headlock doesn’t work so well as Sawyer is up with the forearms in the corner. Taylor is right back with another dropkick out to the floor but misses another crossbody, sending him outside as well.

Back in and a suplex drops Taylor but Sawyer misses a top rope splash. Steiner trips Taylor so Guerrero puts the foot on the rope and jumps Steiner as we’re rapidly running out of time. The credits start to roll and Taylor gets a small package for the pin and the title at 4:28.

Rating: B-. The pin taking place during the credits was quite the surprise as you wouldn’t expect to see a title change that late in the show. Taylor continues to feel like one of the bigger prospects around here, but the more I see of Sawyer, the more impressed I am. At the same time, it’s a shame that he was such a horrible person outside of the ring because it really brings the opinion of him down.

Overall Rating: C+. Here you have a show that is good enough on its own but brought WAY up due to the crowd. The fans were molten for everything going on and it made things that much better. It really is easy to see why this place was seen as a big deal and if not for the upcoming economic crash, the question of “what if” is so strong. Anyway, while not as big as last week’s show, this is still a breeze to watch and hopefully we get the Superdome or Astrodome show to wrap up the month in a few weeks.

Results
Kamala b. Mike Reed – Splash
Russians b. Jeff Gaylord/Ken Massey/Perry Jackson – Russian Sickle to Massey
Brett Wayne Sawyer vs. Jack Victory went to a no contest when Lady Maxine and Dark Journey brawled
Terry Taylor b. Buzz Sawyer – Small package

 

 

Remember to follow me on Twitter and Bluesky @kbreviews and head over to my Amazon author page with 30 different cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

Universal Wrestling Federation
Date: May 31, 1986
Location: Tulsa Convention Center, Tulsa, Oklahoma
Commentators: Jim Ross, Michael Hayes

So this was randomly posted to the WWE Vault and might be the next of their month long Throwback Thursday series. Either way, this is the renamed Mid-South Wrestling promotion and the promotion is still rather hot, with Bill Watts at the helm. That should be enough to carry things so let’s get to it.

Note that the WWE Vault version is about 32 minutes long and from what I can find, about ten minutes is edited out. A good chunk of this seems to be the bumpers saying “this wrestler is coming up next”, which are likely missing due to the music. Thankfully, a full version can be found online.

We open with a clip from last week, with Michaels Hayes calling out Ted DiBiase for a fight, with DiBiase heading to the ring.

Opening sequence.

Jim Ross and Michael Hayes welcome us to the show with Hayes talking about being attacked last week. They’re gearing up for shows at the Superdome and the Astrodome and Ross runs down the card. Hayes is ready for a big match at Reunion Arena in Dallas.

Rick Steiner vs. Perry Jackson

Buzz Sawyer is here with Steiner and hang on as Eddie Gilbert is here with a red flag. He talks about something that happened two weeks ago with Bill Watts, who woke Gilbert up with his fist and for being against America. Gilbert insists that he is NOT a Communist and wants to tell Watts face to face. Referee Tommy Gilbert (Eddie’s father) comes out to ask what Eddie is doing and Eddie walks out.

So we get the bell and Steiner gets slammed early on. That earns Jackson a shot from behind and Steiner rubs his face in the mat for a bonus. A suplex drops Jackson again but he gets in a crossbody. Jackson backdrops and slams him for two but Steiner is back with a shot to the ribs. Steiner’s belly to belly out of the air finishes Jackson at 2:22.

One Man Gang vs. Ken Massey

Before the match, the Gang reveals that he is the latest member of Devastation Inc. and is ready to slap and splash some punk. Gang, with Skandor Akbar, pounds Massey in the back and they’re quickly on the floor. Back in and the yet to be named 747 finishes Massey at 59 seconds.

Here is Dark Journey, who has been dealing with Lady Maxine and promises to take care of her no matter where. Michael Hayes says Journey doesn’t need to worry about “this Amazon” (Maxine) or Jack Victory. She just needs a journey down Badstreet with her, earning himself a slap in the process. Hayes: “SHE’S PLAYING HARD TO GET!”

Here is Eddie Gilbert once again to ask Bill Watts to come talk to him so Gilbert can show that he’s not associated with the Russians. Watts finally comes out, with Gilbert thanking him for the wake up call to show that he doesn’t need the Russians or their money. Gilbert wants to burn the Soviet flag and while he’ll still be with his wrestlers, he’s done with the Russians.

Cue said Russians (Ivan Koloff/Nikita Koloff/Korstia Kornchenko) to jump Watts and beat him with a chain, with Gilbert taking out a referee with a shovel. The Soviet flag is draped over the unconscious Watts as Gilbert’s Blade Runners hold off Jim Duggan, Steve Williams and Ted DiBiase. The three of them get through and clear the ring for the save. Bill’s sons Joel and Eric come in to check on him.

Now, that’s a hot angle in its own right as the most American star in the world, the Cowboy, was beaten down and humiliated in a way that would have him absolutely livid. That’s more than just about anything you could ask for, but what put this over the top was Ross’ commentary. Ross made it sound like he was seeing the most heinous, despicable thing that he could possibly imagine. He sold it like nothing else you could imagine and my goodness it made the whole thing that much better. Ross was the star here, with the fans going insane as they should have.

Steve Williams vs. Gustavo Mendoza

Williams’ entrance is missing, which I’m sure has nothing to do with his entrance music being Born In The USA. Williams is ticked off about Watts and hits some running shoulders to send him outside. Back in and a running clothesline takes Mendoza down again, followed by another shoulder. The Oklahoma Stampede finishes Mendoza at 1:17.

Jim Ross introduces us to Frank Dusek, who will be working with various charity shows. Ok then.

Here’s how to get a fundraising show! Yes this is edited out too.

Fabulous Freebirds vs. Terry Taylor/Ted DiBiase

Music gets rid of the entrances here too. Roberts backs DiBiase into the corner to start so DiBiase cranks on the arm. Hayes (now off commentary obviously) comes in and gets punched down to the floor by a fired up DiBiase. Taylor comes in for a headscissors as Ross runs down a bunch of upcoming shows.

It’s back to Hayes, who gets slammed a few times and then backs away from DiBiase, who runs into a raised boot in the corner. Roberts gets to drop a middle rope stomp to the head but some right hands knock Hayes into the wrong corner. Hayes breaks up a sunset flip though and it’s back to Roberts to take over on Taylor. That doesn’t last long either as DiBiase comes back in for a double atomic drop but a Hayes distraction lets Roberts get in a cheap shot, with DiBiase going head first into the post.

The piledriver on the floor is broken up but Hayes stays on DiBiase, who is bleeding from the forehead. The chinlock doesn’t last long as DiBiase is up with a suplex and it’s back to Taylor to clean house. Everything breaks down and the Birds are sent into each other but DiBiase is sent outside. That means Hayes can cheap shot Taylor and suplex Roberts onto him for the pin at 8:45.

Rating: B-. This was the only match on the show that got any kind of time and it shouldn’t be a surprise that the talented wrestlers had a good performance. DiBiase was so much different than he would become in the WWF and it’s rather impressive to see such a change of pace. As always, the Freebirds can work a crowd like no other and the whole thing worked.

And never mind as another referee comes out to say what Hayes did with his cheap shot and the decision is reversed.

Here are Eddie Gilbert and the Russians to brag about taking out Bill Watts. The Fantastics come out for a brawl (the Fantastics got an entrance (also edited out) but the match never started) but Watts runs in with a baseball bat to clear the ring as Ross ERUPTS to end the show. This might have had a better impact without the credits rolling over the whole scene.

Overall Rating: B. The wrestling was mostly short, but that’s just what you had to be expecting on a show from this era. At the same time though, MY GOODNESS what an angle that was with Watts and the Russians. It’s something that worked well back in the day and it completely holds up, even if the houses weren’t great as a result. Pretty solid show here and I could go for more of it.

Results
Rick Steiner b. Perry Jackson – Belly to belly suplex
One Man Gang b. Ken Massey – Splash
Steve Williams b. Gustavo Mendoza – Oklahoma Stampede
Terry Taylor/Ted DiBiase b. Fabulous Freebirds via reverse decision

 

 

Remember to follow me on Twitter and Bluesky @kbreviews and head over to my Amazon author page with 30 different cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

WWE Vault Grab Bag VII
Commentators: Vince McMahon, Bill Mercer, Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler, Joey Styles

It’s that time again as I have a bunch of matches ready to go from the WWE Vault (and maybe a few from some other WWE associated channels) and we’ll be looking at some random ones. I have no idea what’s going to be on here and that has made for some fun versions of this before. Let’s get to it.

From July 11, 2011, in Boston, Massachusetts, a dark match after Raw (and six days before Money In The Bank).

CM Punk vs. John Cena

Non-title, I think. Cena starts fast by sending him into the buckle a few times and they’re quickly on the floor. Punk is sent over and into the announcers’ table, with Cena pausing for a drink to spit in Punk’s face (our hero). Back in and Punk gets in a shot of his own, allowing him to wipe some of the water out of his face. Cena is sent into the steps (as tended to be the case in a lot of his matches), allowing Punk to grab the mic (uh oh).

He wants to congratulate Derek Jeter (who had just gotten his 3,000th hit) and hits Cena in the head with the mic and then congratulates himself for the cover. Granted it only gets two so Punk grabs a figure four necklock. That doesn’t last long so Punk gets two more off of a DDT. With that not working, Punk loads up the announcers’ table but Cena cuts him off and…misses a flying shoulder to send him right back to the floor.

A chair is brought in as I guess this is a street fight (makes sense) and Cena is beaten down again. The leg lariat cuts off a comeback attempt and we’re in the chinlock. Punk seems to load up the People’s Elbow but stops to yell at a fan (who might be John Cena’s father), even grabbing him over the barricade. Said fan (and said Cena’s father) punches Punk, allowing Cena to whip him into the chair in the corner. The AA gives Cena the pin at 9:24.

Rating: B-. It was clearly the kind of match where they weren’t exactly in high gear out there and that’s the point of a dark match. Having Cena Sr. get involved made it feel a bit more special and Punk’s Jeter deal in the middle was funny. They would have the big showdown in six days, but it was nice to see them do this king of match, as they’ve probably done it a hundred times.

From Minneapolis, Minnesota, August 26, 1984. I’ve been dreading and waiting for this one. There’s no way to put this as it’s the time Mean Gene Okerlund teamed up with Hulk Hogan.

Now since this is the best wrestling channel ever, OF COURSE they include the fairly famous training videos, with Hogan going to see Gene at five in the morning (ignore the clock saying it’s about 8:55) and finding him smoking a cigar. Hogan freaks out over Gene wanting to have pancakes, bacon and eggs and coffee so Hogan is going to make him breakfast. This means a bunch of raw eggs, which has Gene thinking twice (that image was in his Titantron video at Wrestlemania X7).

Hogan is willing to let it go for now because they need to run a few miles before the sun comes up. They go running (in the middle of the day) and Gene actually keeps up with him for the most part). Then Hogan tells him they need to do it again, this time with the Eye Of The Hulkster. The run continues (now with Gene in different clothes) through the streets but Gene stops for a beer and a bratwurst.

Hogan cuts that off and it’s time for Day 2, as they hit the gym (Hogan’s Mean Gene O Mania shirt is great.). It’s off to Day 3, with Hogan showing up at 6am and I guess they break into an empty arena to run the steps. Hogan even does one of them with Gene on his shoulders and then makes Gene do it with Hogan on his back (what an imagine). Day 4 sees Hogan using Gene as a wheelbarrow up a flight of stairs and Gene thinks he’s ready. That’s not enough so we go full training montage, set to Real American. Dang this was great and…oh yeah we have a match (the opponents haven’t been mentioned to this point.

Hulk Hogan/Gene Okerlund vs. George Steele/Mr. Fuji

As I try to get my head around Gene in trunks (and Hogan in blue, unfortunately not matching Gene in black), Hogan and Fuji start things off with Hogan sending him flying. Steele comes in for a pose off with Hogan and we’re clipped (“FULL MATCH” my spleen) to Steel hitting Hogan in the throat to take over. Hogan Hulks Up and slugs away, with Steele bailing out to the floor.

Gene even goes to the apron to stomp on Fuji’s fingers but stops to high five Hogan, which means a tag. Gene actually gets in to face Steele and immediately crawls through the legs and brings Hogan back in to fire away. We’re clipped again to Hogan beating on Fuji but having to cut off an interfering Steele. Gene pulls the salt away from Fuji and actually kicks him down, allowing Hogan to drop Gene onto Fuji for the pin at 3:30 shown (the whole thing runs about 10:20 so they clipped the heck out of it).

Rating: B. Ok I don’t think I’m spoiling much here when I say the match isn’t the point. This was ALL about the gloriously 80s training videos, with Gene going from a cigar smoking pancake eater to the peak of his physical prowess in about four days through the power of Hulkamania. It’s a great example of “so bad that it’s great” and I had a blast with the whole thing. If you’re a fan of 80s wrestling and haven’t seen…well if you’re a fan you better have seen it.

Post match Gene and Hogan clear the ring and pose, which is as amazing as you could imagine.

From Rochester, New York, June 5, 1990, a dark match at a Wrestling Challenge taping.

Rockers vs. Demolition

Demolition’s Tag Team Titles don’t seem to be on the line here and this is Smash/Crush as Ax (here too) is still recovering from his health issues. Michaels tries the speed on Crush to start but can’t get an O’Connor roll. Instead Crush pulls him out of the air, only for Jannetty to come in with a dropkick to the back to knock them down. Smash comes in and gets his arm worked over by both of them before Jannetty flips over him.

Michaels is back in with a high crossbody for two, though the kickout sends him outside for a cheap shot from Ax. That means it’s time to start in on Michaels’ back, with Crush getting in the required bearhug. A backdrop (eventually) gets Michaels over and the it’s back to the bearhug. We actually get a third bearhug before Michaels is driven into the corner.

Crush charges into a boot and Michaels gets in a harder than expected clothesline. Jannetty is in for the fired up comeback but Smash cuts him off. The Demolition Decapitator is broken up so Crush tries it again, this time with a bit more success. Michaels dives off the top for the save and the double fist drop connects. Smash makes his own diving save but Ax gets in a cheap shot to Michaels to give Smash the pin at 9:06.

Rating: B. This took some time but they were rolling by the end, with the Rockers being able to keep the pace going and Demolition, even this version, being good enough with the power. The big saves at the end were rather good and these guys had chemistry together. It’s a shame we didn’t get more of them, as it could have gone well on a big stage.

Post match Michaels staggers around like he’s drunk. Well, it’s a possibility. We also get a replay of the interference, making me think this was going to be released somewhere but wasn’t for whatever reason.

From August 4, 1986 in Fort Worth, Texas in the WCWA (WCCW).

Bruiser Brody vs. Abdullah The Butcher

Gary Hart is here with Butcher, who gets checked for weapons before the match. Shockingly enough Butcher jumps him on the way in and Brody is right there for the opening brawl (as opposed to the main brawl and likely post match brawl). Butcher’s kicks to the gut are shrugged off and Brody kicks him down to quite the reaction. Brody stomps him on the apron and grabs the mic but Butcher is back with the spike to the face.

Hart is offended that the referee thinks Butcher had a foreign object and Butcher slowly hammers away. Brody knocks him down but they’re both banged up and bloody so they need a breather. That doesn’t last long as Brody gets a chair to blast him in the head and of course they go out into the crowd. They fight behind a big door with Hart trying to hold it closed, only for Brody to come out with a piece of wood to knock Butcher back towards ringside. The referee throws it out at 7:33.

Rating: C. This is the definition of “you know what you’re going to get” and that’s exactly what happened. You have this match for the sake of pure insanity with everyone going everywhere and all the blood and such. It was another run of the mill match between them, though Hart trying to hold the door closed was worth a look.

Post match Brody stays on him until Hart hits Brody with a chair. That lets Butcher get the board and hammer Brody in the head. Some wrestlers come out and get beaten up as Brody is carried out. Hart still insists that Brody was the only one cheating.

From Monday Night Raw, June 28, 1999, the highest rated match in Raw history.

WWF Title: Steve Austin vs. The Undertaker

Austin is challenging, having made the match before he was cheated out of being CEO the previous night at King Of The Ring. Austin starts fast by taking him into the corner for the shoulders to the ribs. That’s broken up and Undertaker pounds away, only for Austin to come back with the Thesz press. The middle finger elbow gives Austin two but the threat of a Stunner sends Undertaker outside.

Back in and Paul Bearer offers a distraction so Undertaker can get in a big boot. Lawler says Austin doesn’t have a heart anymore, “like the Scarecrow in the Wizard Of Oz.”. They go outside again, where Austin’s piledriver attempt is countered with a backdrop. Back in and Undertaker clotheslines him into a chinlock as the fans are still right behind Austin.

Old School sets up another chinlock but Austin fights up again…and is knocked into a third chinlock. Back up and it’s a double clothesline for a double down but Undertaker sits up. The Stunner connects out of nowhere but Bearer pulls the referee out. Back in and another Stunner gives Austin the title back at 12:03.

Rating: C. This was oddly similar to the Mankind title win earlier in the year, as you could kind of tell that the title was going to change hands but the match wasn’t exactly great. It’s little more than a dull house show level match with the chinlocks killing the momentum, but you knew what was coming and that kept things interesting. Fans love it when big things like this happen, hence the giant 9.5 rating, even if the match wasn’t much to see.

Post match Undertaker jumps Austin again and busts him open.

From WCW Saturday Night, April 8, 1995.

Sting vs. Steve Austin

Austin has Colonel Robert Parker with him. Sting works on the arm to start but Austin is back up with a headlock. That’s reversed into a backdrop and Sting gets his own headlock. Austin gets up and backs him into the corner, with Schiavone wondering if we’ll get a clean break or not. Schiavone: “Not.” Sting shrugs it off and catapults Austin into the corner, with a rollup getting two. The splash hits raised knees though and Austin hammers on the ribs, including a hard whip into the corner.

The Boston crab stays on Sting’s ribs but Austin gets caught holding the rope. Sting is back up with the clotheslines and the running faceplant, setting up the right hands in the corner. A posting sets up a heck of a top rope splash but Sting misses in a huge crash. They fight over a Tombstone with Sting finally planting him but Austin rolls outside. Back in and Sting grabs a cradle for the pin at 12:58.

Rating: B. It’s kind of amazing how much better Austin got in such a short time. He only had about a month to go in WCW before moving on to ECW and discovering the personality that would make him a star. At this point, he’s a clearly talented but kind of generic heel, with Parker not exactly helping him. Sting was his usual self and the fans were into it, but this was a still developing Austin.

From May 30, 1986 in the UWF in Houston, Texas.

UWF Title: Terry Gordy vs. Jim Duggan

This is the finals of a tournament to crown a new champion but hang on as the One Man Gang is here. Gang says he heard there was going to be a tournament here and he never got an invitation, which is ridiculous because he can beat anyone. He issues the challenge right here right now, with Duggan telling him to make his move. The brawl is on and they head outside, where Gang gets posted. Duggan can get in a chair shot and they head back inside, with Gang hammering away as Gordy and Michael Hayes just look on.

Duggan’s right hands are shrugged off and Gang stomps him out to the floor. That doesn’t last long either as Duggan gives him a running forearm as Gang is already busted open. Some hard chair shots have Gang down and Duggan throws the referee into the cameraman. Gang misses the splash back inside and Duggan spears him out to the floor. The bloody Duggan can’t follow up though and Gang throws a chair inside.

We go to host Jim Ross, who welcomes us to the show and runs down the card. Ross throws it to Duggan (in a towel for some reason), who talks about the beating from Gang, who apparently left after Duggan went down from blood loss. Duggan was given five minutes to get ready and got up, but Steve Williams was there to tell him not to do it. That wasn’t going to happen either because he wanted the gray matter stuffed back in his head so he could fight.

Gordy pulled him back inside to start the fight and we see the last few minutes, with Duggan slugging away to put Gordy down. The spear connected but Duggan was too banged up, allowing Gordy to avoid another spear and send him outside. Hayes posted Duggan again and…well that’s it. Gordy would go on to win the match, which isn’t shown here. Not enough shown to rate but the brawl before the match was way better, as Duggan can do the brawling as well as anyone at this point.

From October 9, 2003 in Turku, Finland.

Smackdown World Title: Brock Lesnar vs. Undertaker

Undertaker is challenging and this was a Hidden Gem on the WWE Network. This is billed as presented in the most complete form possible, which usually means a music edit. Lesnar goes outside before the bell and yells at fans and we’re clipped to the match in progress and Lesnar bailing to the floor. It works so well that Lesnar does it again as the fans aren’t thrilled.

Lesnar grabs and throws down a chair before getting back inside and powering Undertaker into the corner. They finally lock up and go nowhere as this is absolutely a “we’re not really trying here” house show match to start. A big shove sends Lesnar outside and yep we’re stalling some more. Back in and Undertaker drops him with a shoulder into a hiptoss so….let’s go outside AGAIN.

This time Lesnar rips up a sign and goes back inside to lock up again. Lesnar takes him into the corner again and kicks away, only to get caught with some arm cranking. Old School connects to get the fans back on their side and Undertaker grabs la majistral of all things for two. We’re clipped again to Undertaker missing a charge and crashing out to the floor as I wonder if it was clipped due to fans chanting, as there are some loud ones.

A whip to the steps has Undertaker in more trouble and Lesnar cranks on the leg in a variety of fashions back inside. The leg is wrapped around the rope but Undertaker knocks him into another corner. That’s cut off with a big spinebuster to give Lesnar two and it’s back to the leg cranking. Undertaker fights back but gets caught in an F5 out of nowhere for a near fall.

Back up and Undertaker knocks him down, setting up a limping big boot for two. The referee gets bumped and Undertaker hits the chokeslam for a not very delayed near fall. Lesnar misses a clothesline and takes the referee down again so the Last Ride gets no count. Well Undertaker counts but that doesn’t count. I think. Lesnar gets in some chair shots and the referee gets up to count the pin at 14:47 shown. I can’t imagine they clipped much out of this one.

Rating: C. I’ve seen this one before and it’s quite a house show match. You can tell they weren’t exactly going at top gear here but it’s part of a European house show tour so they’re not going to have the most energy. It doesn’t help that Biker Taker and Lesnar didn’t have the best chemistry either. The match was perfectly ok for the spot they were in, but it’s not exactly great.

Post match Undertaker beats him down with the chair to get some heat back. Cue Rhyno to go after Undertaker but Eddie Guerrero runs in (on his birthday) to make the save.

From Terry Funk’s WrestleFest.

Rob Van Dam vs. Dory Funk Jr.

Bill Alfonso is here with Van Dam and Funk would be about 55 here. Before the match Alfonso insults Funk’s family, including his grandson by saying….yeah I have no idea, as was often the case with Alfonso. Van Dam poses a lot to start and Alfonso goes nuts with the whistle until Funk grabs a headlock. A running forearm puts Van Dam on the floor and we get more whistling.

Back in and Van Dam sweeps the leg for a corkscrew legdrop so Funk fires off the uppercuts. Funk mocks Van Dam’s pose and they go outside, with Funk being rammed into the apron. Van Dam’s big running flip dive barely graces Funk and they’re both down. Back in and Van Dam hammers away as Alfonso goes nuts with the freaking whistle. A springboard legdrop gives Van Dam two but Funk is right back with the uppercuts.

Eventually a butterfly suplex sets up the spinning toehold but Van Dam makes the rope. That means a Van Daminator can hit Funk and we pause for a bit before Van Dam can fire off more right hands. One heck of a Five Star gets….nothing as Van Dam just punches him again. Funk is back up with backdrop but gets small packaged for a rather near fall. Funk sits him on top for a nasty belly to back suplex, which is enough to shoot the half and cradle Van Dam for the pin at 11:35.

Rating: C+. This is a perfect example of a “well, that’s a match that actually happened”. The show was in honor of Terry Funk so of course Dory was there, and even in his mid-50s he could still more than handle himself in the ring. Van Dam wasn’t a big star yet but you could see the potential, and if Dory was willing to work with him, there must have been something there.

From February 23, 1990 in Detroit, Michigan, a dark match before The Main Event.

Dusty Rhodes vs. Mr. Perfect

The Genius is here with Perfect, Sapphire is here with Rhodes, and this is their only recorded singles match. They circle each other to start, with Rhodes mocking Perfect with some prancing. A pair of shoulders put Perfect on the floor and Rhodes brings him back in to pound away in the corner, reminiscent of a monkey with some funk. Back in again and they jaw at each other until Perfect sweeps the leg for the Robinsdale Crunch.

Perfect works on the leg in the corner and in the middle until Rhodes gets a small package so bad that it doesn’t even get one. The Figure Four keeps the leg in trouble but Rhodes finally turns it over and gets his far worse version. That’s broken up as well and Perfect is sent into the ropes, where his head gets tied up ala Cactus Jack. Perfect gets loose so Rhodes knocks him down for the elbow, only for Genius to offer a distraction. Sapphire goes after him so Perfect goes after her, allowing Rhodes to grab a rollup for the pin at 9:28.

Rating: C-. I can’t imagine you were expecting a good match here but that was not the point of Rhodes in the WWF. As usual, the charisma and energy were off the charts and Rhodes could get the fans behind him no matter what he was doing. If nothing else, it’s always weird to see Perfect lose, especially as this was just about a month and a half before his first official loss at Wrestlemania VI.

Post match, dancing ensues.

From (I believe) August 19, 1991 in Rochester, New York.

Undertaker vs. Ultimate Warrior

Paul Bearer is here with Undertaker and this is one of the first casket matches. Undertaker tries to jump him before the bell and gets sent face first into the casket instead. The casket is already dented (must be cheap materials) and they get inside, where Undertaker chokes away. Warrior shrugs that off and knocks him down, only to get caught with a kneeling uppercut.

A rather safe Tombstone lets Undertaker….come close to putting Warrior in the casket but he stops to choke instead. Undertaker FINALLY puts him in the casket but Warrior gets up, grabs the Urn, and knocks Undertaker silly (Bearer’s ridiculous reaction is the highlight of the match) to win at 5:50.

Rating: D+. There was nothing to this other than for a way to have Undertaker lose without getting pinned. Warrior was about a week away from vanishing from the company for good, resulting in Randy Savage having to be brought back out of retirement to take his place. I’d call that an upgrade, as Savage fighting Undertaker could have been awesome. Either way, not a good match to wrap things up with here.

Post match Warrior runs away as Undertaker gets out of the casket.

Overall Rating: C. Yeah this wasn’t one of the better overall selections, with very little worth seeing. The Mean Gene training videos were great old school fun, but that’s really about it. There’s nothing overly terrible (the casket match came close) but it’s really just a bunch of random stuff, which is the point of something like this. You don’t know what you might be seeing on any given day on the WWE Vault and it’s fascinating to see what they throw out there. These things are some of the most fun I get to have either way, as I love the randomness of the stuff they release, as it could be just about anything.

 

 

Remember to follow me on Twitter and Bluesky @kbreviews and head over to my Amazon author page with 30 different cheap wrestling books at:

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WWE Vault Grab Bag IV
Commentators: Marc Lowrance, Gorilla Monsoon, Jesse Ventura, Abraham Washington, Byron Saxton, Brett DiBiase, Matt Martlaro, Jim Ross, Chris Russo

This has become one of my favorite things to do lately as I’ll be looking at a totally random collection of matches from the WWE (or possibly WCW) Vault YouTube channels. You never know what they’re going to drop and it could be something even I’ve never seen before. We’ll be looking at another eleven matches here so let’s get to it.

From WCCW in Dallas, Texas, February 26, 1983.

Von Erichs vs. Freebirds

Lumberjack match. Hayes bails to the floor to start, which isn’t the most logical way to go in this kind of a match. Kerry and Gordy start things off and trade some fists until it’s quickly off to Hayes for the strutting. Hayes sends him into the buckle but gets punched down for two, meaning it’s off to David vs. Gordy.

David takes over rather quickly and hands it off to Kevin for the nice barefoot dropkick but Gordy sends him into the corner. Roberts comes in to choke on the rope and a pull of the trunks keeps David in trouble. A knee drop gets two and it’s back to Gordy to drive him into the corner. David gets a foot up to cut him off and it’s back to Kerry for the big hot comeback.

A snapmare into a knee drop has Gordy rocked but Roberts is right back in. Kerry gets dropped into a hammerlock and Hayes snaps the arm over the top rope. Hayes gets two off a hammerlock backbreaker and Kerry is sent outside where the lumberjacks…throw him back in without getting violent. Kerry manages the tag off to David and everything breaks down. Kerry and Roberts fight to the floor, leaving Hayes to come off the ropes with an ax handle. Kevin breaks up the cover though and David pins Gordy at 11:41.

Rating: B-. As usual, the match itself was only ok, but what mattered the most here was the crowd’s reaction. Make no mistake about it: nothing came close to getting this much heat in wrestling at this point, which is why WCCW is so fondly remembered to this day. It was the hottest feud in wrestling and that was the case for a very long time. Not great, but very entertaining.

Post match the Freebirds are ticked off before leaving. The Von Erichs thank the fans and want the World Title.

From Evansville, Indiana, February 3, 1998 in a dark match before Raw.

One Man Gang vs. Flanagan

The Gang gets quite the nostalgia pop and is a good bit slimmer than he was back in the day. Gang jumps him to start and chokes with a jacket before hammering away in the corner. Flanagan (Flash Flanagan, a longtime OVW star) comes back with a missile dropkick for one and some clotheslines, only to charge into a side slam. Gang splashes him in the corner but Flanagan is back with the usual assortment of strikes. Flanagan charges into a boot in the corner though and a huge clothesline puts him down again. The 747 finishes Flanagan off at 6:10.

Rating: C-. Oddly enough, the Gang didn’t look terrible here. He was out there doing his thing and looked decent doing it. The match wasn’t particularly good of course as Gang wasn’t great on his best day, but this was far from Earthquake’s disaster of an out of nowhere dark match. The other interesting thing is that Gang was only thirty seven here. It absolutely would not have been insane for him to still be going for a few more years so this was definitely worth a shot.

From New York City, New York, September 23, 1985.

Andre The Giant vs. King Kong Bundy

Yes this is the Colossal Jostle, which is a takeoff of Colossal Tussle, which was the planned name for the show that would eventually be dubbed Wrestlemania. Lou Albano and Jimmy Hart are here too. Andre powers him into the corner for the choke to start, with Bundy bailing out to the floor. Back in and Bundy hammers away in the corner but gets dropped with a quick headbutt. Bundy kicks him in the chest and boots him out to the floor for a change. Back in and Andre grabs an armbar and cranks away. Then he cranks some more.

Then they go to the mat with the cranking continues. We’ve been in this same hold for over three minutes now and there is just nothing happening. Wait, they turned over and rolled into the middle of the ring. Bundy FINALLY gets out of it after about four minutes and is headbutted outside for a heck of a bump. Back in and Andre wins a slugout before…well they might be loading up a tango. Bundy knocks him into the corner for more choking on the ropes but Andre cuts off a charge with a raised boot. Andre sits on Bundy’s chest but Big John Studd runs in for the DQ at 13:52.

Rating: D. Oh sweet goodness no. This was one of those matches where they were trying at the start and they could have done better if it was, say, eight minutes shorter. Having Andre work on the arm for almost a third of the match was quite the choice and it was hardly worth watching. They started fast and it was fun for a few minutes, but then reality set in and it got bad in a hurry.

Post match Andre rolls outside and grabs a chair, which he breaks over a table and chases the monsters off. Given that a ticked off Andre was a terrifying sight, I can’t blame them.

From WWC in Caguas, Puerto Rico, August 6, 1993.

Madusa vs. Luna Vachon

I believe that’s the date, as these two fought a few times in Puerto Rico around this time. They go to the mat to start with Vachon working on a hammerlock but getting reversed into a headscissors. That’s broken up and they head outside, with Madusa being sent (a long way) over the barricade.

Back in and Madusa grabs a slam but gets pulled into a nerve hold to put her back down. Madusa fights up and slaps her in the face a few times, setting up a chinlock. Vachon reverses into one of her own but that’s broken up as well, with Madusa grabbing a superplex for two. Back up and the missile dropkick misses for Madusa, allowing Vachon to get the quick pin at 7:30.

Rating: C-. Not exactly great stuff here, but women’s wrestling in 1993 was a very different universe. You could see the talent in there though and they were absolutely trying. It would have been nice to see things had they done this years later, but for now it’s certainly an interesting look at a rather different wrestling universe.

From New York City, New York, July 7, 2017.

US Title: AJ Styles vs. Kevin Owens

Styles is challenging at a house show. Owens stalls a lot before the bell and we’re clipped to more stalling, though the bell singes to have rang. The threat of a wristlock sends Owens bailing to the floor, with Styles following him out. Back in and Owens hammers away but his ram into the corner is blocked. Styles sends him into the buckle instead and they go outside, with Owens being sent crashing down.

Back in and the Phenomenal Forearm misses, allowing Owens to score with the superkick. Some right hands in the corner let Owens load up the Cannonball but Styles rolls outside, leaving Owens to chill on the top rope instead. A clothesline gives Owens two and we hit the chinlock.

We’re clipped to Styles getting pulled back down into the chinlock but he fights up again. A jumping enziguri puts Owens down as well and Styles hits the seated forearm. The belly to back faceplant gives Styles two but Owens bails from the threat of the Styles Clash. Instead Styles goes with the fireman’s carry backbreaker for two and they’re both down again. Another superkick gives Owens two but the Swanton hits raised knees. The Styles Clash gives Styles two and the Phenomenal Forearm connects to give Styles the pin and the title at 13:04 shown.

Rating: B. It’s no surprise that these two had solid chemistry together, but it’s also fascinating to see something like this happen at a house show. That really wasn’t the case most of the time but as usual, the Garden was just different. They had a good match, and Styles winning the title (even though he wouldn’t hold it long) is an easy way to go as Styles can make just about anything work.

Styles gets to celebrate for a long time and spends some time with the fans on the way out for a good moment.

From FCW in 2010/11. This is a bit different as it’s a look back at an entire rivalry with a few matches.

 

Queen Of FCW/Divas Title: AJ Lee vs. Naomi Knight

From FCW TV, August 29, 2010. Winner take all and that would be the FCW Divas Title, not the main roster version. There are a bunch of Divas watching at ringside too. Lee shoulders her down to start but runs into the Rear View. A backslide with the splits gives Naomi two as commentary is having WAY too much fun looking at these two. Lee flips her over and hits a running knee for two but Naomi blocks a headscissors on the floor. They crash out to the floor and slug it out until it’s a double countout at 2:31.

AJ Lee vs. Naomi Knight

From FCW TV, September 29, 2010 and a non-title lumberjill match. Naomi grabs a headlock to start but gets kicked to the floor, where she is rather aggressively thrown back inside. Lee grabs the chinlock but Naomi sends her outside, where the lumberjills throw her back inside as well. Washington: “That kind of turns me on.” Sweet goodness this guy is insufferable. Back in and a Rear View drops Lee again but she’s right back with a tornado DDT for two. Lee goes up but gets leg lariated out of the air to give Naomi the pin at 3:23.

Rating: C. Not much to see here, but this was a VERY different time for women’s wrestling. These two weren’t exactly given much time (as we’re at less than six minutes over two matches) and while it seems there is a story, it definitely feels like FCW saying “here’s a women’s match”. You need a bit more than that, though this was on the higher level of women’s wrestling at this point.

Divas Title: Naomi Knight vs. AJ Lee

From FCW TV, January 23, 2011 and Naomi is defending. Lee takes over to start and sends Naomi outside. Back in and Lee grabs a chinlock but Naomi fights up without much trouble. A spinning kick to the head gives Naomi two but a slingshot rollup is broken up. Lee knees her in the face for two, followed by the yet to be named Black Widow. That’s reversed into a backbreaker for two more but Lee is back up with a standing Sliced Bread #2 for the pin and title at 5:04.

Rating: C. This got a bit more time and that did help, but there is still only so much to get from this kind of a match. At least they were able to fit in a bit more with Lee evening the series. They’re also getting the chance to showcase their talents more each time and that was a great thing to see, as it was basically a preview of the coming years.

Divas Title: Naomi Knight vs. AJ Lee

From FCW TV, March 13, 2011 and Lee is defending. Lee takes her down into an early Fujiwara armbar. The Rear View connects but Naomi misses a big crossbody into the ropes for a heck of a crash. Lee is right back on the arm but Naomi kicks her down again. Naomi fires off more kicks, only to get kicked down out of the corner. The standing Sliced Bread #2 finishes for Lee at 1:34. Well that was pretty definitive.

From Portland, Maine, July 21, 1992. This is a dark match from a TV taping (they taped shows for different series that day), including the first ever WWF ladder match between Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels.

Undertaker/Randy Savage vs. Ric Flair/Berzerker

Holy Lethal Lottery match! Paul Bearer, Mr. Perfect and Mr. Fuji are here too and this actually aired on a German WWF show later in the year (plus on a Randy Savage Unreleased DVD). We get the big staredown to start until Savage (the WWF Champion) grabs the mic for an OH YEAH. Savage and Flair start things off as we’re over two minutes in with no contact yet.

Flair does the hand slap and then slicks back his hair, meaning it’s finally time to lock up with about two and a half minutes burned off. Savage’s headlock is quickly reversed but he’s right back with a hammerlock. Flair bails to the rope so Savage slaps him in the face to make it more serious. Another slap has Flair down on one knee, with Perfect not exactly happy with any of this.

Flair does a rare leapfrog before getting dropped with a clothesline, meaning it’s off to Undertaker. The forearms and chops in the corner have as much effect as you would expect so Undertaker hits a gorilla press (and seems to stumble a bit as he slams Flair down). It’s off to Berzerker, who gets choked into the corner but knocks Undertaker outside. That’s fine with Undertaker of course, who sends Berzerler’s hands into the steps for some rather hilarious staggering selling.

Back in and Savage’s top rope ax handle gets two but Berzerker tosses him into the corner to take over. Flair comes in for a running chop and we hit the chinlock. Savage is tossed outside for a cheap shot from Perfect and Berzerker gets to toss him outside as well. The ring mats are pulled up and Savage gets caught underneath them for a bit of a weird spot. Back in and Savage gets tied up in the ropes but gets out and crawls over to Undertaker for the big tag. We don’t waste time as it’s a Tombstone to Berzerker, a clothesline to Flair and the big elbow to pin Berzerker at 13:37.

Rating: B-. Oh of course this was fun. There was pretty much no way that they weren’t going to have a good time out there, as it was the always effective idea of combining two feuds into one. I had a good time with this and it’s the kind of rarely seen match that is worth looking at all these years later. Come on. Savage and Berzerker? Undertaker and Flair? What’s not to like?

From Hartford, Connecticut, August 27, 1986, a dark match from a Wrestling Challenge taping.

Hulk Hogan/Junkyard Dog vs. Paul Orndorff/Adrian Adonis

Bobby Heenan, Jimmy Hart and Bob Orton are here too as Lord Alfred Hayes is ring announcer, which oddly works. Orndorff charges at Hogan and hammers away to start but Hogan fights back with right hands of his own. Hogan clears the ring of all the villains, both the legal and illegal ones, before hitting a jumping knee of all things to Orndorff. They fight out the floor with Hogan hammering away even more, followed by Dog coming in for right hands of his own.

The all fours headbutts have the villains down again and the crowd is going insane for all of this. There’s a bunch of trash thrown in and we settle down to Dog vs. Adonis (which thankfully allows Orndorff to fix his trunks, which were riding up). Dog wastes no time in sending Adonis outside, where Orton gets in a cheap shot to take over. Hogan isn’t having that but gets choked by some kind of a belt to put him down again. Back in and Dog headbutts Adonis, who flips around in quite the bump.

A double clothesline drops Adonis again but he’s able to come back with the sleeper. With Dog down, Orndorff adds a top rope fist drop and draws Hogan in like a moron. The chinlock goes on but Dog fights up and a double right hand puts both of them down again. Adonis is right there to cut off the tag though and a jumping elbow hits Dog. That doesn’t do much good though as Dog is up for the tag to Hogan a few seconds later, meaning right hands can come flying. Everything breaks down and Hart’s interference doesn’t work. Instead it’s the big leg to finish Adonis at 9:18.

Rating: B-. More entertaining stuff here, with Hogan of course being over like free beer in a frat house. You could pretty much put anyone with him and have them feel like a huge star, with the Dog already being a big deal on his own. That’s a pretty good situation to have and it worked again here. At the same time, Orndorff was absolutely white hot at this point and the best villain going, with Adonis being more than able to hang in there with anyone. Fun match.

Post match, a lot of posing ensues.

From the NXT pilot at Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida, December 7, 2011.

Cody Rhodes/Drew McIntyre vs. Sheamus/Daniel Bryan

Rhodes is the Intercontinental Champion and says tonight they have defied time because this is tomorrow’s superstars today. This makes you wonder what happens if tomorrow never comes, so what about the current champions? Rhodes asks the people if they know who he is, because he may be the ugly duckling of the Legacy but he is the future of the WWE. He’s ready to define Daniel Bryan but here is Bryan (with banged up ribs and his Money In The Bank briefcase) to cut him off.

With Rhodes’ future wife Eden Stiles out of the way, we’re ready to go. Rhodes shoulders Bryan down to start but gets kicked in the chest for his efforts. That earns Bryan an elbow to the bad ribs, allowing McIntyre to come in and stay on those ribs. Sheamus comes in and gets knocked into the corner by McIntyre. That doesn’t last long as McIntyre is knocked to the apron for the ten forearms. Rhodes is sent outside as well and Bryan adds a running knee from the apron.

We take a break and come back with Bryan giving McIntyre a dragon screw legwhip but McIntyre goes to the ropes to save himself. Back in and Rhodes goes after the ribs, only to get pulled into a surfboard. Rhodes gets rolled up for two and rolls outside, going all the way into the crowd. Sheamus comes in and unloads with forearms to Rhodes’ back, followed by a forearm to knock Rhodes out of the air. McIntyre gets a blind tag and boots Sheamus in the face for two as we take another break.

We come back with Rhodes’ front chancery setting up McIntyre’s suplex for two on Sheamus. It’s back to Rhodes to stomp away in the corner as JR says that Rhodes has the X factor and will be WWE Champion one day. Fair enough actually. Sheamus picks Rhodes up for a toss and it’s back to Bryan to back up the pace, including the running dropkick in the corner. The Swan Dive misses though and Bryan is sent outside for a drop onto the barricade.

Bryan is thrown back in for an abdominal stretch from Rhodes, which includes an elbow to the ribs. McIntyre’s gutbuster gets two and the abdominal stretch goes on again. This time it’s broken up with a hiptoss and they hit stereo crossbodies. Bryan slides through McIntyre’s legs and it’s back to Sheamus for the powerhouse comeback. The Irish Curse gets two on McIntyre with Rhodes making the save as everything breaks down. The Brogue Kick finishes McIntyre at 25:27.

Rating: B. The time helped here as they were able to tell a lot more of a story, which is always appreciated. At the same time, this is a situation where you have four talented wrestlers who were given the chance of showcasing their skills, which was a big deal on this kind of a show. I got into this one and it was indeed worth a look.

Overall Rating: C+. This started slowly but ended well and that made things good enough. The good thing here is that there was a wide variety of matches, which granted is always the high point of these things. It’s another great mixture of what you can see from the Vault and I had fun with it again, which hopefully continues for a very long time.

 

 

Remember to follow me on Twitter and Bluesky @kbreviews and head over to my Amazon author page with 30 different cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

Survivor Series 1987
Date: November 26, 1987
Location: Richfield Coliseum, Richfield, Ohio
Attendance: 21,300
Commentators: Gorilla Monsoon, Jesse Ventura

This is the requested redo so we’ll go all the way back to the beginning of the series, which was quite the mess in its own right. The WWF had tried some elimination tags at house shows and they got over huge so it was time to run a full event of the things. If they could happen to screw over the NWA with its first pay per view on the same day, Starrcade 1987, so be it of course. Let’s get to it.

The Fink welcomes us to the show and introduces Jesse and Gorilla for commentary, which is a weird thing to see. I’m not sure I can ever remember WWF doing it otherwise. Monsoon’s first line of the show: “What are you doing Jess?” They intro the show and send us to the intro video, which could be on just about any weekend show.

Commentary goes over all of the matches in their always good conversational style. It’s fine that they disagree at times, but there are times where it feels like they are two people who respect each other and are even friends. That is so badly missing from commentary today.

We go over the rules of a Survivor Series match. It’s so weird having a time where that wasn’t commonly known.

The Honky Tonk Man is ready to go because he has an amazing team put together, even down to the managers. As for tonight, he might even SHAKE RATTLE AND ROLL ELIZABETH! Well that’s just not very nice. I love these group shots of the wrestlers, as not only do you get what most of them are, but it also screams 1980s so hard. Throw in Hercules looking like his head is about to explode and it’s even better.

Team Randy Savage wants to destroy everyone, with Hacksaw Jim Duggan especially wanting to take out Harley Race for hitting him with his own 2×4. Savage being all over the top is….well very Savage really.

Team Honky Tonk Man vs. Team Randy Savage

Honky Tonk Man, Ron Bass, Danny Davis, Harley Race, Hercules
Randy Savage, Ricky Steamboat, Jake Roberts, Jim Duggan, Brutus Beefcake

Entrances take forever, as we have ten people coming to the ring, with Jesse being in awe of Randy Savage’s entrance (fair enough, and Jesse was always a big Savage guy). Beefcake and Hercules get to make history as the first people ever to start a Survivor Series match, apparently as per the captains’ choice (which didn’t last long). A lockup goes nowhere so Beefcake tries strutting as Gorilla says the possible combinations of numbers are endless. Actually if my math is right it’s about 30 but I don’t question Gorilla.

A shoulder drops Beefcake but he’s right back with a quickly broken sleeper. Davis comes in and Beefcake cleans house without much trouble before pulling Davis back in. It’s off to Roberts to work on the arm and the good guys get to take turns on Davis. For some reason Roberts and Duggan tell Savage to hand it off to Steamboat instead of one of them, leaving Steamboat to miss a charge into the corner. Race comes in and gets in a few shots, only for Steamboat to chop him in the head.

Back to back skinnings of the cat leave Race frustrated so Steamboat throws him over the top instead. Steamboat brings Duggan in to slug Race outside and it’s a double countout for the first eliminations at 4:39. Back in and it’s Bass slamming Roberts but missing an elbow, allowing Savage to give him a running knee. Savage makes the mistake of going after Honky Tonk Man though, allowing the villains to get in a cheap shot. Bass comes back in and since it’s Ron Bass, Savage escapes with no trouble and brings in Beefcake for the high knee and the pin on Bass at 7:01.

Hercules comes in and takes over on Beefcake’s arm, allowing Honky Tonk Man to do the same. Beefcake punches his way to freedom, including a weird double punch that you would think someone else would have used before. Davis gets in a cheap shot from the apron though and Shake Rattle and Roll finishes Beefcake at 10:51.

As we get the world’s first and still only STEVE LOMBARDI RULES sign in the crowd, Savage comes in to chase after Honky Tonk Man but gets jumped by the legal Hercules instead. Dang man pay attention. For some reason Davis is allowed to come in and hammer on Savage, who elbows him in the head. It’s off to Roberts who can’t DDT Honky Tonk Man but can charge into a raised knee in the corner (which always looks painful). Davis comes back in (oh boy) for some shots to the ribs but Roberts shrugs it off and hits the short arm clothesline, setting up the DDT for the pin at 15:11.

Hercules is right there to take over on Roberts though, with Honky Tonk Man drawing in Savage, who is a bit too obsessed with revenge at this point (shocking I know). The chinlock goes on as commentary debates the merits of having the crowd on your side. Roberts fights up and knee lifts Honky Tonk Man away but Hercules is right there for his own chinlock. A jawbreaker gets Roberts out of trouble and the hot tag brings in Steamboat to clean house. The top rope chop to the head sets up the tag to Savage (Jesse: “Uh oh.”) for the top rope elbow and the pin at 21:04.

So it’s Honky Tonk Man vs. Savage/Roberts/Steamboat, with Savage missing a charge into the corner to give Honky Tonk Man a breather. Steamboat comes right back in and chops away before handing it off to Roberts to keep up the rotating beating. An atomic drop sends Honky Tonk Man over the top and that’s enough for him as he takes the countout (smartest thing he’s ever done) to wrap it up at 23:43.

Rating: B-. This is how you open a new concept show as you had stars that people cared about with a wide variety of eliminations and situations. It’s a good way to get the fans into what they’re seeing, with Savage doing everything he could to get his hands on Honky Tonk Man. Very fun match and a great choice to get things going.

Team Andre the Giant is ready to crush Hulk Hogan and friends tonight, with Slick being VERY over the top and Bobby Heenan being incredibly confident. One Man Gang, who is a huge man in his own right, being absolutely dwarfed by Andre is an amazing visual. Granted the closeup of Andre’s face as he says he’s coming for Hogan’s soul with his eyes bugging out is even worse.

Team Fabulous Moolah vs. Team Sensational Sherri

Fabulous Moolah, Rockin Robin, Velvet McIntyre, Jumping Bomb Angels
Sensational Sherri, Donna Christianello, Dawn Marie, Glamour Girls

It’s so weird to see a women’s match in this era but there is more than enough talent to make this work. For some reason Moolah is announced at 160lbs, which can’t be correct and certainly seems to offend her. Sherri jumps McIntyre to start fast and drops her with a running clothesline. Moolah comes in to beat on Sherri so Christianello comes in to get dropkicked by McIntyre. A victory roll gets rid of Christianello at 1:59 so it’s Robin coming in to dropkick Martin (Judy Martin of the Glamour Girls).

Sherri comes in for her own dropkick and hands it off to Marie (not THAT Dawn Marie, in a joke that no one has ever made before I’m sure), who is crossbodied for the pin at 4:11. Itsuki (of the Angels) comes in blows Jesse’s mind (you can tell he’s actually impressed) with her rollups and kicks to Kai. Sherri comes in and gets suplexed by Tateno, with Jesse being amazed that the champ is getting beaten up like this. Robin monkey flips Kai but gets pulled into the wrong corner so the beating can be on. Sherri hits a suplex to get rid of Robin at 6:56.

Tateno takes Robin’s place and is thrown around by the hair (OUCH) to put her in the corner. McIntyre comes in for a spinning crossbody (cool) and Moolah follows up with a dropkick. It’s off to Itsuki, who slams Kai off the top but misses a dropkick (popular move in this one). Moolah gets to hammer away a bit more but a blind tag lets Martin hit a clothesline for the pin at 8:57.

As commentary DOESN’T panic at the idea of the captain being eliminated, McIntyre comes in to Boston crab Martin. With that falling apart, McIntyre wisely switches to a bow and arrow, which doesn’t last long either. Sherri grabs a suplex, which leaves McIntyre landing kind of awkwardly on her neck/shoulders and she’s almost immediately over for a tag to Tateno. Martin suplexes Tateno for two and a bell in a rare timekeeper’s botch, with commentary IMMEDIATELY saying not so fast (take notes Michael Cole).

McIntyre’s back is fine enough to come in for a giant swing on Sherri, followed by another victory roll (which clearly in a lot of pain) and the pin at 14:56. Tateno comes back in as McIntyre can barely get out of the ring and has to almost lay on the apron. Kai blocks a suplex so it’s back to McIntyre, who tries another victory roll but gets slingshotted into an electric chair (that looked good) for the pin at 17:23. That would be McIntyre’s last match for over a month so there was something wrong.

We’re down to the Angels vs. the Girls with Tateno wasting no time in hitting a high crossbody to get rid of Kai at 18:43. Martin is on her own and starts with a fireman’s carry drop for two on Tateno. Itsuki comes back in for a top rope knee, Tateno dropkicks Jimmy Hart off the apron, and Itsuki adds a top rope clothesline for the pin at 20:18.

Rating: C. The wrestling wasn’t the best for the most part, but what is impressive here is that they had ten women who could put together a completely watchable match like this one. Women’s wrestling in the 80s gets a bad reputation but they were a genuine part of the card and had good matches in the right circumstances. This didn’t feel out of place whatsoever and the Angels were a total highlight so this was quite the fine use of 20+ minutes.

Team Hart Foundation, minus the national anthem singing Bolsheviks, are ready to win. A disheveled Jimmy Hart comes in and wants revenge.

Team Strike Force, not minus singing Russians, are ready to win.

Team Strike Force vs. Team Hart Foundation

Strike Force, Fabulous Rougeau Brothers, Killer Bees, British Bulldogs, Young Stallions
Hart Foundation, Demolition, New Dream Team, Bolsheviks, Islanders

If someone is eliminated, their partner is gone too. Volkoff jumps Martel to start and shrugs off a rollup without much trouble. Zhukov comes in and misses an elbow so it’s off to Santana for the flying forearm and the pin at 1:45. It’s off to Ax for the standard Demolition forearms to the back before Jacques gets to work on Bravo’s arm. The rapid fire tags leave us with Dynamite being dragged into the corner for a chop off with Haku.

Dynamite gets Haku over so the Bees can start in on his hamstrings and it’s off to Roma. Neidhart slams him down and Haku drops him with a clothesline. Smash’s slam sends Roma into the corner for the tag to Jacques, who is quickly dropped and pinned by Smash at 5:50.

Powers comes in and gets put on Neidhart’s shoulder for a top rope forearm from Haku (that’s a cool move and could have been a decent finisher for a team) and two. It’s back to Roma, who gets shouldered breakered and suplexed by Valentine. Smash misses a charge though and it’s Dynamite coming in to get kicked in the face. The beating continues but Smash throws the referee down and that’s a DQ at 9:22.

Powers sends Tama into the corner and gets clotheslined for his efforts as neither Gorilla nor Jesse can get Tama’s (Haku/Toma) name right. Martel comes in to dropkick Tama but he’s WAY too close to the ropes for the Boston crab. Neidhart makes the save so Santana comes in with the flying forearm, meaning Hart has to make a save. It’s such a save that Neidhart pins Santana at 12:05 as the field has thinned quite a bit (as it needed to).

As Jesse talks about his great great great grandfather Ephraim the Body coming over on the Mayflower, Bret hits a backbreaker on Powers and Tama adds a top rope knee for two. Oddly enough, Hart allows powers to get over for a tag to Roma, which felt rather out of the norm for him. It’s right back to Powers as Jesse wonders why the beaten up Stallions wouldn’t tag in a fresh Bee or Bulldog. Roma gets knocked into the corner for the tag to Dynamite, who suplexes Hart for a fast two.

Bulldog headbutts Haku over and over and somehow doesn’t knock himself silly. Powers misses a charge and gets taken into the wrong corner but it’s right back to Bulldog. The gorilla press gets two on Bret and the running powerslam gets the same on Haku. Dynamite adds the flying headbutt and knocks himself silly on Haku’s head, with Jesse going right into the rant about how stupid that was. A superkick gets rid of the Bulldogs at 19:59 and we’re down to Harts/Islanders/Dream Team vs. Bees/Stallions.

The Dream Team takes over on Powers as commentary talks about how the villains don’t really like each other anyway. The side slam drops Powers, who kicks away Valentine’s Figure Four attempt. That’s enough for Roma to come in off the top with a sunset flip to pin Valentine at 23:29.

Blair comes in for a jumping knee for two on Neidhart so Hart gets to try his luck. A headlock drags Roma over for the tag to Tama, who kicks Roma down without much effort. Haku misses a legdrop though, allowing Blair to hit his own legdrop for two. Roma comes back in and gets suplexed so Tama can rip at Roma’s eyes.

Haku hits a dropkick and Gorilla says he’d like to see Neidhart try that. Before the words are out of his mouth, Neidhart hits his own dropkick in a spot so perfectly timed that it had to have been a coincidence. Brunzell comes in and tries to slam Hart but Tama kicks him down…with Brunzell rolling through to pin Hart at 29:29.

So it’s the Islanders vs. the Bees/Stallions, with Tama going right to the nerve hold. Haku comes in for a nerve hold of his own before it’s back to Tama for the third nerve hold. A suplex mixes things up a bit for two but Brunzell manages to knock his way to freedom. Roma comes back in for two off a powerslam but Haku takes him down again. Jesse praises the Islanders for being saucy with hard heads as Haku misses an elbow, allowing the diving tag back to Brunzell. Gorilla isn’t sure what’s up with that as a masked Killer Bee (their method of cheating) slingshots in with a sunset flip to pin Tama for the win at 37:16.

Rating: A-. This was all about the talent involved as you had one great combination after another. The Stallions and Bees getting the glory in the end was a little weird but points for trying to put someone else over. Good stuff here and all the proof you need that this was the golden age for tag team wrestling, as there were all kinds of good to great teams in there and it doesn’t feel anywhere near the forty minutes that it runs.

Ted DiBiase talks about how great Thanksgiving is and we see a montage of him doing horrible things to people. Of note: a boy who gets a basketball kicked away from him is one Rob Van Dam. Then DiBiase has a catered dinner because he is one of the best villains in the history of wrestling.

Commentary talks about the show so far, with Jesse thinking that Honky Tonk Man did the right thing by walking away instead of risking an injury. This is the friendly chat that made their commentary feel real as compared to the constant yelling and insulting exchanges that you see too often with modern heel commentators.

Jesse is also REALLY impressed by the Jumping Bomb Angels, saying that the Glamour Girls (Women’s Tag Team Champions) are in trouble. He compares the Angels to a Dynamite Kid, a Ricky Steamboat or a Randy Savage, saying “that was fantastic, I enjoyed it”. That is how you put a team over. On the other hand, Jesse isn’t happy with the Killer Bees using their mask trick and wants an investigation. They’re both really looking forward to the main event though, because Hulk Hogan is getting back in the ring with Andre the Giant.

Honky Tonk Man insists that he is the real survivor and will face Hulk Hogan any time. This is pretty clearly intermission as they wait around on the main event, which makes sense on a four match show.

Team Hulk Hogan is VERY fired up with Hogan talking about how hungry the team is. That bandanna with the tassels hanging down over Hogan’s eyes is always a weird look.

Team Hulk Hogan vs. Team Andre The Giant

Hulk Hogan, Don Muraco, Ken Patera, Paul Orndorff, Bam Bam Bigelow
Andre The Giant, Rick Rude, One Man Gang, Butch Reed, King Kong Bundy

Bobby Heenan handles Andre’s introduction, which is a very Heenan thing of him to do. Hogan of course gets his own entrance, which is a very Hogan thing to do….but egads you can hear the reaction when he comes out with that American flag. Jesse: “I’m not even going to try to talk over this.” Gorilla: “Good thinking.” Muraco and Rude start things off with Rude hammering away in the corner. Orndorff comes in and knocks Rude into the corner so Hogan can come in for a very rare meeting with Rude (they didn’t like each other).

It’s off to Bigelow for the running headbutt and a gorilla press as they’re certainly starting fast. Patera screws up (shocking) by knocking Rude into the corner for the tag to Reed, who gets dropkicked down by Muraco. Orndorff hits some dropkicks of his own as even Jesse says Andre’s team isn’t doing so well so far. Hogan drops the leg and that’s it for Reed at 3:04….and it’s Andre time.

Some high fives to Patera count as a tag though and Jesse is ALL OVER Joey Marella for calling that a tag and trying to save Hogan again. Hogan protests too but doesn’t think about, you know, tagging right back in, leaving Andre to say the heck with Patera and hand it off to Bundy.

Some forearms don’t go anywhere so it’s off to Gang, who gets knocked into the corner by Orndorff. Rude comes back in and gets elbowed and slammed, with Jesse saying Rude just isn’t having a good night. Patera manages to crossbody Gang down for two but gets taken into the wrong corner so the beating can ensue. Gang and Patera hit double clotheslines but Gang falls on him for the pin at 8:44.

Hogan comes in to hammer on Gang (that’s his bread and butter), setting up a double big boot with Bigelow. Gang gets over to tag in Rude, who gets beaten down again by Orndorff. A cheap shot from Bundy breaks up the piledriver though and Rude grabs a rollup with trunks for the pin at 10:22.

Save for a house show feud with Rude, that was it for Orndorff in the WWF. Muraco comes in to powerslam Rude for the pin at 11:10, leaving us with Muraco/Hogan Bigelow vs. Gang/Bundy/Andre. Bundy misses a knee drop and Muraco is smart enough to go right after that leg. It’s already back to Gang, who falls on top of Muraco during a slam attempt. The big splash is enough to finish Muraco at 12:54.

Bigelow comes in and gets clotheslined right back down by Bundy. Hogan has to make a save, with Gorilla immediately saying that he has a five count to get out. Jesse doesn’t stand for that (good for him) as Bundy comes in to hammer on Bigelow. Jesse: “You won’t see any hair pulling here.”. It’s off to Andre but Bigelow rolls over for the tag to Hogan and OH YEAH the fans are into this. Hogan wins a chop/slug out but gets pulled to the floor. Hogan slams Gang and Bundy….but gets counted out at 18:13, leaving even Jesse stunned. Since it’s Hogan, he refuses to leave until he is threatened with a forfeit.

So it’s Bigelow vs. Andre/Bundy/Gang as Jesse praises Gang and Bundy for being glorified pawns to get rid of Hogan. Bigelow stretches a bit before jumping on Bundy to start fast. A clothesline sets up a falling headbutt for two but a dropkick doesn’t drop Bundy. Instead Bigelow takes him down by the leg and a slingshot splash gets rid of Bundy at 20:48. It’s off to Gang, with Jesse saying he can pick which of Bigelow’s tattoos he wants to hit.

Bigelow charges into a boot in the corner so Gang goes up top (uh oh) and misses a splash, allowing Bigelow to get the pin at 23:05. That means it’s Andre vs. Bigelow and I think you know where this is going. A big right hand knocks Bigelow into the ropes but he holds on to avoid a big boot. Bigelow rolls away a few times but gets caught in the corner for the shoulders. A butterfly suplex/hiptoss finishes Bigelow at 24:21.

Rating: C+. This was more or less the semi-sequel to Hogan vs. Andre at Wrestlemania III and Andre wins to help rebuild him. The big rematch was coming later of course, but for now, Andre wins and that is enough to keep things going. The rest of the match was only so good, but what matters here is getting Andre back to being a force and making Bigelow look like the next big thing, even if he was all but done in about six months.

Post match Hogan IMMEDIATELY runs out and beats up Andre to clear the ring. Andre wants to come back in but Bobby Heenan holds him off and says not until Hogan signs on the totted line. Hogan poses a lot and yeah there’s no defending how much of a sore loser he’s being here.

In the back, Heenan and Andre say if Hogan wants Andre, sign the contract for another title match.

Hogan is STILL posing and Gorilla is STILL defending him as Jesse is thrilled at the idea of getting out of Cleveland.

A highlight package wraps us up.

Overall Rating: B. The word here is fun. This is a show that had a concept and they RAN with it, giving us a very entertaining night. No it wasn’t anything that really mattered for the most part, but some of the falls and results could be spun off for months on the house show circuit. The big there here though is that they put a bunch of people (fifty wrestlers in four matches is nuts) on the show so you were almost guaranteed to see someone you liked and it would be hard to not have a good time. I’ve seen this show more often than I can count and it absolutely holds up as a hidden gem of the Golden Era. Check this out if you can.

 

Ratings Comparison

Team Randy Savage vs. Team Honky Tonk Man

Original: B+
2012 Redo: B
2022 Redo: B-

Team Sherri Martel vs. Team Fabulous Moolah

Original: C+
2012 Redo: C+
2022 Redo: C

Team Hart Foundation vs. Team Strike Force

Original: B
2012 Redo: C-
2022 Redo: A-

Team Hogan vs. Team Andre the Giant

Original: B
2012 Redo: B-
2022 Redo: C+

Overall Rating

Original: A-
2012 Redo: B+
2022 Redo: B

It’s still a good show but WHAT WAS I THINKING ON THAT TAG MATCH???

Here is the original if you’re interested:

And the 2012 Redo:

 

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and head over to my Amazon author page with 30 different cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

AND

Remember to check out Wrestlingrumors.net for all of your wrestling headline needs.

SuperBrawl VI
Date: February 11, 1996
Location: Bayfront Center, St. Petersburg, Florida
Attendance: 7,200
Commentators: Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan, Dusty Rhodes

It’s a double main event here and that should make for a good show. The two main events happen to both be inside a steel cage, with Randy Savage defending the World Title against Ric Flair, plus Hulk Hogan vs. the Giant. Other than that, we have the usual variety of title matches, plus a respect match between Brian Pillman and Kevin Sullivan which I’m sure won’t mean much. Let’s get to it.

The opening video is a very, very generic “here’s a voiceover listing off the matches”, though at least the guy doing the voice is energetic.

Commentary hypes up the cage matches.

Public Enemy vs. Nasty Boys

Thank goodness this is a street fight. It’s a brawl to start with the Nastys being sent outside with the Enemies following them. That means it’s already time for a table, but Sags chairs the heck out of the table wielding Rock. Grunge chairs Sags right back and the table is set up at ringside. Knobbs slams Rock off the apron and through the table for two (as street fight apparently means falls count anywhere) as Sags comes back with a trashcan (actually complete with trash for a change).

Back in and Sags piledrives Grunge through a trashcan, with Grunge getting a foot on the rope for the save. Knobbs suplexes Rock through a table at a merchandise stand which would only be there for this segment as fans wouldn’t be allowed near there. They take turns smashing each other with trashcan lids until Knobbs is laid on a table, with Rock missing a flip dive through the table. Knobbs hits him with a piece of the table for the pin at 7:49.

Rating: B. I can appreciate the idea that the four of them didn’t bother trying to do anything other than beat the fire out of each other. It’s not a good match and barely wrestling, but that’s exactly what they were going with here. That made for an entertaining match and I had a good time with the whole thing as they were certainly putting in the work here.

Gene Okerlund talks about how two former WWF champions could be on their way to WCW. I’m sure that won’t go anywhere. Anyway, Konnan is ready to defend the US Title and won’t let the fans down. He’s beaten the One Man Gang before and he’ll do it again.

TV Title: Johnny B. Badd vs. Diamond Dallas Page

Badd is defending and is putting up the title and the Diamond Doll (Kimberly) and the winner gets her remaining Bingo winnings, which is about six and a half million dollars (1996 WCW was weird). It’s a brawl on the floor to start with Page being whipped into the barricade. Badd flips him over the top, leading into the regular discussion of whether or not that counts as a DQ.

Back in and Badd gets in a snapmare into a backslide for two but Page knocks him down without much trouble. Page wants a TEN from Kimberly, who turns him down, and then talks a lot. Badd’s sunset flip gets two but Page is back with a running tornado DDT. Instead of covering, Page poses and yells even more (Heenan: “Oh no.”) so Kimberly gives him a ZERO.

Page chokes away and grabs the chinlock as things slow down a good bit. Back up and Badd gets two off a rollup, followed by an ax handle. Badd hits him in the ribs, with Schiavone saying it was right in the solar-plexus. Heenan: “That’s just outside of Phoenix. About 20 minutes.” A top rope sunset flip and a sitout powerbomb give Badd two but Page plants him right back down. The sleeper goes on but Badd jawbreaks his way to freedom, setting up a sleeper of his own. That’s broken up so Badd hits a quick Tombstone for the pin at 15:00.

Rating: C+. This was around the time when Badd had gotten rather good at everything he did and figured out his style to the letter. That was on display here, as his high flying stuff worked well and he felt like a star in the making. It’s also weird to see Page as anything less than the polished star he would become, but he was far different at this point.

Harlem Heat is ready to fight Sting and Lex Luger for the Tag Team Titles. Then they’ll move on to face the Road Warriors (who get the winners of Harlem Heat vs. Sting/Luger later tonight).

Tag Team Titles: Sting/Lex Luger vs. Harlem Heat

Sting/Luger are defending. Booker knees Sting into the corner to start so it’s off to Luger. Some forearms have Booker in trouble but he gets up a boot to stop a charge in the corner. It’s already back to Sting, with Booker grinding away on a headlock. Sing suplexes his way out and hands it off to Luger, who misses that big elbow that has missed every time ever, allowing the Heat to take over. The slow beating is on and we hit the nerve hold on Luger, with commentary talking about how hard it’s going to be to wrestle again tonight.

Booker comes back in for a heck of an ax kick and grabs the front facelock. Heenan wonders why Sting won’t come in and Rhodes says that Sting isn’t a dummy. Yes he is. Luger makes the tag but the referee doesn’t see it, but Sting comes in anyway and hammers away. Ray pulls the top rope down to send Sting outside, leaving Luger and Ray inside. Cue the Road Warriors to hit Ray in the ribs with something made of metal to give Luger the pin at 11:49.

Rating: C-. Rather boring match for the most part here, with a lot of laying around and going in slow motion, which shouldn’t be the biggest surprise as Sting and Luger have another match tonight. Sting and Luger are a big time tag team, even if they have some issues (to put it mildly). Not much of a match here, but there are some extenuating circumstances.

Post match Sting and Luger are happy with their win, though Sting doesn’t know what happened with the Road Warriors, with Luger moving them along before anything can be said.

US Title: Konnan vs. One Man Gang

Konnan is defending after taking the title from the Gang a few weeks ago. Gang hammers him down in the corner to start, which is about all you should expect from him here. Back up and Konnan hits a dropkick to send him into the ropes, where a crossbody sends Gang outside. A running flip dive off the apron drops Gang again but he drops Konnan again without much trouble.

Back in and Gang slowly hammers away, including a side slam, and we look at a WCW Motorsports driver in the crowd. Konnan fights up and hits some dropkicks but misses another, allowing Gang to hit the 747. Gang pulls him up at two and commentary realizes this is stupid. The middle rope 747 misses (ignore that Konnan had moved before Gang jumped) and a top rope flip dive gives Konnan the pin at 7:48.

Rating: D+. There’s just only so much you can do with this kind of a match. The Gang is someone who can do well enough, but that wasn’t the case here as he was just doing the big man offense and then screwed himself over. The interesting note: Gang was only 36 years old here. He’s one of those guys who looked WAY older than he was as I would have guessed he was in his early to mid 40s by this point.

The Road Warriors have no issue with Sting, but they’ll do anything to hurt Luger, which is why they took out Harlem Heat earlier. Tonight, it’s time to take the titles back. Hawk says they’ll be deviating septums and detatching retinas.

Taskmaster vs. Brian Pillman

This is an I Respect You strap match, as they’ll be tied at the wrist with a strap and you only win by making your opponent say “I Respect You”. They go straight to the brawl to start and trade some whips with the strap (which isn’t attached yet). Pillman grabs the mic and says “I RESPECT YOU…..BOOKERMAN” to give Taskmaster the win at 59 seconds.

Ok so what happened here. Basically Pillman was doing his Loose Cannon thing and he and Sullivan (or Eric Bischoff, depending on who you believe) decided to work everyone. This wound up resulting in Bischoff firing Pillman, who was supposed to go to ECW and then come back. The catch was he wound up signing with the WWF instead, which was basically what he wanted all along and needed to get out of his contract with WCW. In theory at least, as it’s one of those stories that has about 14 different versions over the years.

As for here though, Arn Anderson comes out in street clothes and he’ll be doing the match with Sullivan instead.

Arn Anderson vs. Kevin Sullivan

Anderson hammers him down to start and ties up Sullivan’s legs. That’s broken up and Sullivan gets in a low blow before whipping away. Back up and Anderson whips away as well, allowing him to choke Taskmaster in the ropes. That’s not enough yet so Sullivan fights back, only for Ric Flair to come out and call it off, saying it’s time to take out Randy Savage and Hulk Hogan. They seem to agree and we’ll call it a no contest at 3:25.

Rating: C. They didn’t have time to do anything here and that’s the smart move, as there was no reason for these two to be fighting. It’s a fine example of “they did what they could”, which was giving the fans the violence advertised, albeit not with the right people. I can’t bring myself to get mad at them here as it’s not their fault that they were thrown into a rough spot.

Post match they seem to agree, which feels like a way to fill time. Flair yells at some fans too.

The Giant promises to be really, really, extra super mega evil in the cage. Jimmy Hart shouts a lot.

Tag Team Titles: Road Warriors vs. Sting/Lex Luger

The Warriors are challenging. Luger tries to walk out but Sting gets him to come back…eventually, and we’re finally ready to go. Well hang on as Luger runs off again and has to be coaxed back, which finally allows the opening bell. Hawk runs Sting over with a shoulder to start and then hits a dropkick. Sting is sent outside but comes back in for a swinging neckbreaker.

They go down into some awkward grappling until Hawk grabs an STF. Sting makes the rope so Animal comes in for an armbar. That’s broken up and Sting gets over for the tag to Luger, who is tentative at best to come in. Luger kicks away but walks into a big boot from Animal, followed by a powerslam. Animal grabs another armbar before handing it off to Hawk to hit a corner clothesline. Luger is sent outside and into the barricade, which fires him up for some reason.

A clothesline drops Hawk and Sting is back in for a snap suplex. Animal comes back in and gets knocked down as well, only for Sting to do his falling low blow. Now Luger is willing to come in for an atomic drop but the threat of Hawk coming in means it’s back to Sting. The top rope splash hits raised knees and it’s back to Hawk to beat on Luger. The chinlock goes on but Luger hits a quick jawbreaker, allowing Sting to come in for…a lockup.

Animal is sent into the corner for the Stinger Splash but Hawk makes the save with a clothesline. Luger doesn’t seem to mind, prompting Rhodes to ask “WHAT IS HE DOING”. Hawk is right back with a chinlock and bodyscissors, followed by the same thing from Animal. Sting fights up again and hits a suplex but Animal pops up. Animal’s suplex makes Sting pop right back up as well (the fans like that) so Animal hits a dropkick. Everyone brawls to the floor…and the referee throws it out at 13:55.

Rating: C-. They were starting to go somewhere with Luger not wanting to get involved and the four of them brawling around. The problem is they didn’t get very far out of first gear and things were just picking up when they stopped. It was another case where they didn’t want either side to lose so we got this rather lame ending instead. Give it a finish and it’s better, but there was only so much to be gotten out of a match like this.

Ric Flair, with Woman, is ready to make Randy Savage bleed, sweat and cry in the cage, as Flair takes the title back.

The cage is lowered.

Ad for Uncensored. Oh sweet goodness that show.

Randy Savage is glad to have Elizabeth back and says it’s time to expect the unexpected in the cage. The blue and yellow are a cool color combination for Savage.

Commentary hypes up the World Title match.

WCW World Title: Ric Flair vs. Randy Savage

Savage is defending and Woman/Elizabeth are here too. Before the match, Flair gives Elizabeth one more chance to switch sides but that’s not happening so we’re ready to go. Flair is rather tentative about getting in the cage so Savage hammers away, only for Flair to chop his way out of trouble. The big knee connects and Flair slugs away….before knocking the referee down. Savage gets a backslide for no count and the referee is back up as Savage hits a clothesline.

Flair drops him with an elbow and fires off the chops in the corner, followed by another elbow to keep Savage in trouble. Savage catches him up top with the slam down and it’s already time for the Figure Four on Flair. The rope is reached but it doesn’t matter in a cage. Savage eventually lets it go and hits him in the face for two before climbing to the top of the cage (that can’t go well).

Flair punches him out of the air to take over again and a suplex gets two. Savage is sent head first into the cage and Flair just lets him hang there for a bit. The real Figure Four goes on, with Flair grabbing the ropes to no avail. Savage grabs them as well so Flair gets into it with the referee, who grabs Flair by the hair for the break. Savage fights back and sends him into the cage as Woman starts the shrieking.

Flair is busted open so Savage goes for the cut, with a few shots knocking Savage back down. Flair’s attempt at going up means it’s time for the trunks to come down (dang he loved that spot WAY too much). Savage covers for two (ignore the bell ringing) so Flair hits him low. Flair starts going up and we get the trunks pulled down AGAIN (thankfully with some censoring this time).

Savage is knocked down hard but Flair collapses as well for a double breather. Back up and Flair is sent hard into the cage, though he’s able to backdrop Savage into the cage (as we go wide because of the cut). Woman throws powder at Savage but misses, only for Elizabeth to hand Flair her shoe. The big shot to the head gives Flair the pin and the title at 18:56.

Rating: B+. These two were basically incapable of having a bad match so giving them the better part of twenty minutes in a cage with an emotional finish was a guaranteed hit. They worked well together and it’s fun watching them just trying to hurt each other. Savage never really came close to winning either, which wound up not even being an issue, as it was more about the violence and surviving than going for a win.

Post match Elizabeth is rather pleased with what happened and goes to stand next to Woman. Cue Hulk Hogan to chase them off and hit Arn Anderson (here to celebrate) with Flair with a chair. Savage is taken out after being hit in the eye, with Hogan being nice enough to help him.

Hogan (with his eye bandaged after a recent attack) rants about Elizabeth and thinks it might go back to when they officially separated four years ago. He does remember Elizabeth’s shoe coming off pretty fast on Nitro so maybe something was up. There won’t be any Savage having his back tonight so the big man upstairs will cover his blind side.

Hulk Hogan vs. The Giant

In a cage, escape only (note that you have two cage matches with different rules, because WCW), with Taskmaster and Jimmy Hart here too. Hogan sends him into the cage to start and fires down the right hands in the corner. A bite to the head and rake to the back keep Giant in trouble but he forearms Hogan in the back. The knuckle lock keeps Hogan down and Giant kicks him in the ribs a few times for a bonus.

Hogan is sent into the cage and then choked with a shirt, leaving Giant to rattle his neck. Giant misses the big elbow but Hogan isn’t able to slam him so early. The stomping continues and Hogan is sent into the cage for a bonus. It’s too early to go through the door so Giant gives him a backbreaker to stay on the back.

Hogan goes into the cage again and we hit the bearhug (of course). That stays on for a rather long time until Hogan fights out, only to get caught in the chokeslam. It’s 1996 though so Hogan doesn’t have to sell, meaning it’s time to send Giant into the cage over and over. Three legdrops connect and Hogan goes up, only for Giant to catch him on top. That’s fine with Hogan, who knocks him down and climbs out for the win at 15:04.

Rating: C-. You know what you’re going to get in a Hogan cage match and they didn’t deviate from the plan in the slightest. This was every box checked you could ask for, with Hogan surviving everything, including the chokeslam, and then winning. Giant popping up after three legdrops is stupid in its own right, but this was designed to give Giant lose without taking a pin, though it didn’t really protect him that well.

Post match Hogan grabs a chair and throws Taskmaster inside, leaving Giant cowering. Heenan: “Where’s the rest of the Legion Of Doom?” Cue Meng, the Barbarian, Hugh Morrus, Shark, Zodiac and the One Man Gang. That makes it eight on one…..and HOGAN BEATS THEM ALL UP. Even with the chair, that’s totally ridiculous, and here is Loch Ness, the new monster of the team, who is held back by the team and doesn’t actually get in the cage. Hogan poses to end the show.

Roll credits.

Overall Rating: C. This is a rough one, as the good is rather good, but the boring stuff brings it way down. That’s a problem throughout the show, as Savage vs. Flair (and the rather awesome Liz turn) can only make up for so much of the rest of the show. Sting and Luger’s stuff is interesting outside of the ring, but the parts between the bells….not so much. The Hogan stuff is just horrible though and you could see how ridiculous everything was getting at this point. Overall, it was clear that WCW had potential, but it wasn’t going to matter with Hogan choking the life out of the place.

 

 

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and head over to my Amazon author page with 30 different cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

Hulk Hogan Unreleased
Commentators: Vince McMahon, Bruno Sammartino, Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler, Jack Reynolds, Ken Resnick, Dick Graham, Craig DeGeorge, Nick Bockwinkel, Michael Cole, Tazz

Well you knew there were going to be a bunch of tributes after Hogan passed away and this was the first things posted to the WWE Vault. The idea is that we have a bunch of things that have never been released before, though WWE has an interesting definition of “unreleased”. I have no idea what to expect here as I’ve somehow never seen this before. Let’s get to it.

We open with a highlight package of Hogan’s career, starting even before the first title win over the Iron Sheik.

A quick intro recaps the start of Hogan’s career (there is a quick intro/history package before each match on the set).

From Championship Wrestling, November 13, 1979.

Hulk Hogan vs. Harry Valdez

This is Hogan’s first appearance in the promotion and one of three matches he would have at this taping. Hogan shoves him down to start and hits a slam, followed by the big leg. That’s not even worthy of a cover yet as Hogan sends him into the corner a few times. A slam and knee drop set up a suplex as the squashing continues. Hogan finishes with an Argentine backbreaker at 2:53. Total destruction and you could hear the adulation on commentary.

Hogan takes his time letting Valdez go. After the match, Freddie Blassie praises Hogan (with his hairy chest and back), listing off his measurements. Hogan wants nothing but the superstars and plans to squeeze them hard. This was nothing like the Hogan promo you’re familiar with hearing.

From New York City, New York, September 22, 1980.

Hulk Hogan vs. Andre The Giant

Freddie Blassie is here with Hogan, Gorilla Monsoon is guest referee, and Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler are on commentary for a weird twist. Monsoon tries to hold them apart but finally gives up and rings the bell. Andre takes him into the corner, where Monsoon grabs the hair to get them apart, which is a bizarre visual. Hogan is sent outside but comes back in, with Andre driving him into the ropes. They trade bearhugs with Hogan LIFTING HIM UP before dropping him back down.

Some shots to the back, including the legdrop, have Andre in trouble as JR points out that Andre was only 34 here. It’s bizarre to imagine him being relatively young. Anyway Andre fights back and breaks out of another bearhug but misses the splash. Another bearhug has Hogan in trouble and Andre plants him, only to hurt his back in the process. Hogan slams him (Lawler: “I don’t know if that had ever been done before.”) and then tries it again but Andre falls on him for the (rather fast) pin at 12:25.

Rating: D+. Yeah this wasn’t exactly much to see, as a good chunk of those twelve minutes were spent in various bearhugs. This is more of a match about the historical aspect of things and that’s just fine, though my goodness what a weird mixture. If nothing else, having JR and Lawler calling it completely straight was weird enough.

From Detroit, Michigan, April 29, 1986.

WWF Title: Hulk Hogan vs. Randy Savage

Hogan is defending and Savage….isn’t wearing the Intercontinental Title for some reason, though he does have Elizabeth with him. Savage jumps him to start fast and beats on Hogan with the belt, which is eventually taken away. Hogan fights back and knocks Savage to the floor, where Savage is rammed head first into the post.

Back in and Hogan lifts him up for a choke before blowing a kiss to Elizabeth, who is up on the apron for no logical reason. Savage sends him outside and kicks away from the apron, only to get rammed into the corner back inside. An atomic drop sends Savage over the top rope but they switch places, with Savage hitting a top rope ax handle.

Back in and Savage gets two off a clothesline as the fans are getting into these kickouts. The top rope elbow connects and naturally the kickout sends Savage flying. The Hulk Up is on and Hogan sends him outside, where Hogan makes the mistake of going after Elizabeth. Savage gets in a shot and tries the elbow again, only to dive into a raised boot….for the pin at 11:44. Well that’s a new one.

Rating: C+. These two always had great chemistry together but that ending was a great example of the problems with their feud. Savage gets to hit his big finish and Hogan basically shrugs it off, only to beat him with a raised boot of all things. They also hadn’t figured out how to make their matches work yet so it was only so good, but they would get better.

Post match Savage jumps Hogan from behind and takes the belt. Savage tries to steal said belt but Hogan pulls him back and hammers away.

From Houston, Texas, June 26, 1987.

WWF Title: Hulk Hogan vs. Kamala

Hogan is defending. Kamala slaps his stomach a bunch to start (as is his custom) and they trade shoulders. Hogan tries it again and Kamala LEAPFROGS HIM, leaving Hogan more than a bit stunned. Some big chops have Hogan in trouble but he comes back with the running clotheslines in the corner. Kamala drops him again and grabs the pectoral claw, with Lawler reminiscing about the times that he spent in the hold. Hogan isn’t having that and Hulks Up, meaning it’s the usual to finish and retain at 5:54.

Rating: D+. Yeah this one really didn’t work, with Kamala never being the most versatile opponent for Hogan (the leapfrog was great though). This felt like a really low level title defense for Hogan and unfortunately it’s only about three months after Wrestlemania III. Once you beat Andre, why is any other giant going to feel like a threat?

Post match Kim Chee jumps Hogan, who shrugs it off and steals Chee’s hat before posing.

From Philadelphia, December 5, 1987.

WWF Title: Hulk Hogan vs. One Man Gang

Hogan is defending and Slick is here with the Gang. They tease a test of strength to start and Gang shoves him away. Hogan’s headlock works a bit better but Gang shoves him off again and runs him over. The slow beating (as per Gang’s custom) begins, including some choking on the ropes. Back up and Hogan sends him into the buckle over and over before firing off the chops.

Hogan can’t knock him down though and Gang is right back with the nerve hold. Gang runs him over again and starts dropping some ax handles to the back. Another comeback is cut off again and Gang stays on the back, this time with knees and a bearhug. Hogan fights out again but a clothesline cuts that off as well, allowing Gang to hit the 747. This time it’s the Hulk up though, complete with the waving finger (which Gang follows for a funny bit). The right hands, boot and legdrop retain at 11:18.

Rating: C-. This was pretty much the same thing as the Kamala match, albeit a bit better. Gang was a bit underrated in the ring as he’s remembered as nothing more than another big guy, but he could move around well enough. He was also mixing up the offense on Hogan’s back so this could have been a lot worse.

Post match Hogan steals Slick’s hat (this is a thing for him) and here is Andre The Giant for a staredown.

From Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, March 13, 1988.

Hulk Hogan/Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Ted DiBiase/Virgil

Andre is here with the villains. It’s a big brawl to start with the good guys cleaning house. Hogan gets in the double noggin knocker and then knocks DiBiase’s noggin into Bigelow’s for a bonus. Virgil gets in a cheap shot to take over though and Andre chokes away on the ropes. Some more shots from Virgil set up more Andre choking before they mix it up a bit by having Andre choke instead.

DiBiase grabs the chinlock for a good while before a double clothesline puts both of them down. Back up and Hogan makes the tag off to Bigelow as everything breaks down. Hogan cleans house and Bigelow drops a leg on Virgil. DiBiase elbows Virgil by mistake and it’s the legdrop into the splash to give Bigelow the pin at 11:04.

Rating: C-. This was a pretty hot feud on the house show circuit but it was only so good here. The bright side of it is the shifting away from Hogan vs. the giants, as DiBiase was a different kind of villain. It didn’t help that it was a question of which one would pin Virgil, but the match was just kind of there for the most part.

Post match we get a bit more brawling and posing.

From Smackdown, June 6, 2002.

Hulk Hogan vs. HHH

For a World Title shot and they were the final two in a battle royal earlier tonight. HHH backs him into the corner to start but Hogan slugs his way out of trouble. Some right hands have HHH out on the floor and Hogan knocks him over the barricade. They get back inside where HHH chokes away in the corner, followed by a chinlock. Hogan gets up after two arm drops and hits the big boot but misses the legdrop. The Pedigree is blocked as well and now the legdrop connects for two. Hogan is shocked and the Pedigree finishes clean at 6:45.

Rating: C. Weird way to end the set, but it’s nice to have something from a different era to wrap it up. Hogan doing a clean job is always strange to see, but he was already fresh off losing the title so he was only going to get so many more wins anyway. Just a quick TV main event which felt more like a dark match.

Post match HHH goes to leave but Hogan calls him back in for the handshake. HHH cuts him off from leaving too though and they pose together.

One more look back at Hogan’s amazing career, including a look at his Hall Of Fame induction, wraps us up.

Overall Rating: C-. It’s not the nicest feeling, but this really wasn’t worth much of a watch. The matches cover a lot of ground but there is a reason these haven’t been released before. Most of them are either matches that aren’t very interesting or have been done better elsewhere. Granted this is the VERY slimmed down version (this is just shy of two hours, while the full version is around nine hours), but I wasn’t so much interested in this as much as I was wondering how much longer it had.

 

 

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Wrestlemania IV
Date: March 27, 1988
Location: Trump Plaza, Atlantic City, New Jersey
Attendance: 18,165
Commentators: Gorilla Monsoon, Jesse Ventura

DiBiase’s master plan isn’t over yet and we’ll be seeing it put into effect as the night goes on. However, the tournament plans have been drastically changed since they were originally put together. We’ll take a look at what was changed and why as we move on but you should be able to figure most of it out already. Let’s get to it.

The opening video is a bit more modern this year as it’s a slot machine spitting out coins followed by the Wrestlemania IV logo. It’s very fitting in Atlantic City and a nice change of pace from the basic yet effective openings of the previous shows.

The roof has these really cool blue and red stripes as their main design. I always thought those looked awesome.

Gene brings out Gladys Knight to sing America the Beautiful. I’m not entirely sure why she’s covered in patches and looks like she has about a dozen sponsors but I’ve seen stranger things.

Bob Uecker is here again and is doing commentary on the first match. He’s probably the best celebrity commentator they’ve ever had so I have no issue with this.

Battle Royal

Bret Hart, Jim Neidhart, Jim Powers, Paul Roma, Sika, Danny Davis, B. Brian Blair, Jim Brunzell, Bad News Brown, Sam Houston, Jacques Rougeau, Raymond Rougeau, Ken Patera, Ron Bass, Junkyard Dog, Nikolai Volkoff, Boris Zhukov, Hillbilly Jim, King Harley Race, George Steele

The winner gets a big trophy and you really should be able to see where this is going from here. Powers and Roma (the Young Stallions) are another pretty boy tag team, Sika is a Samoan, Brown is a tough guy and a legitimate bronze medalist in judo (never mentioned on screen), Houston is a cowboy, Patera is a strongman, Bass is an evil cowboy and Volkoff and Zhukov (the Bolsheviks) are evil Russians. Steele starts on the floor and never actually gets in so it’s not really clear if he’s eliminated or not.

Uecker is on commentary for this one and mentions that Vince McMahon called to ask if he wanted to be on the show. That’s not something you would expect to hear as Vince was just a commentator at this point. Houston, a smaller guy, is quickly put out and Sika, a much bigger guy, is gone soon after.

The fans go nuts at the prospect of Davis getting tossed. It’s rather impressive that he’s hung around so long with such a simple gimmick and so little skill. Steele pulls Neidhart to the floor and both Bees and Raymond Rougeau are quickly eliminated as well. Some cops walk in front of the first row as Dog eliminates Bass. Zhukov and others dump Hillbilly and Powers tosses Davis to the biggest pop of his career. Powers is eliminated a few seconds later and the ring is really clearing out.

Race and Dog go at it again and there go Nikolai and Patera. Jacques is eliminated a few seconds alter and we’re down to Hart, Roma, Race, Dog and Brown. Dog punches Race out almost immediately and Brown backdrops Roma to get us down to three. Brown hits Hart by mistake and the all fours headbutts have them in trouble. The villains take over with some double teaming and quickly toss the Dog. An agreement seems to have been reached but Brown gives him the Ghetto Blaster (enziguri) and tosses Hart for the win at 9:45.

Rating: D. This was a rather lame battle royal with almost no drama but it did accomplish a major goal by turning Bret face for the first time in his career. Neidhart would follow him to the good side soon enough and the Hart Foundation would become a force in the division all over again. Brown would soon feud with the new World Champion for a bit in some really good matches. I wouldn’t want to spoil the new champion for you though, in case you somehow haven’t heard about it in the last twenty seven years or so.

Brown comes back in for the trophy presentation but Bret jumps him from behind and destroys the trophy.

The Fink goes over the tournament rules but Gorilla and Jesse talk over him. They quiet down for a celebrity moment though as Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous’ Robin Leech reads a proclamation about the tournament, which basically says “we’re having a tournament.”

Here are the brackets:

Hulk Hogan

BYE

Andre the Giant

BYE

Jim Duggan

Ted DiBiase

Don Muraco

Dino Bravo

Greg Valentine

Ricky Steamboat

Randy Savage

Butch Reed

One Man Gang

Bam Bam Bigelow

Jake Roberts

Rick Rude

WWF World Title Tournament First Round: Jim Duggan vs. Ted DiBiase

DiBiase has bodyguard Virgil and Andre with him. Ted hides in the corner to start but Duggan fires off some right hands to take over. A big atomic drop sends DiBiase over the top and out to the floor with one of DiBiase’s perfect bounces. He’s known as a technician but he can tumble around very well. Back in and Duggan pounds away in the corner but he charges into a boot to give Ted his first control.

A sunset flip gets two for Duggan and Jesse freaks out that he knows a wrestling move. Duggan pounds him into the corner again and a slam looks to set up the Three Point Clothesline but Andre grabs his foot. The distraction lets DiBiase get in a knee to the back for the pin at 5:02. The replay shows Andre punching Duggan as well with the referee looking right at him. It would seem that DiBiase has bought off another one. Or that they screwed up and no one noticed.

Rating: C-. This is going to be a running problem tonight. These matches could be good but you can’t do much when you have so little time to work with. Five minutes is enough for a squash but you need more if you want to see something competitive. Duggan and DiBiase had some awesome matches in Mid-South but they were far different people at this point.

Brutus Beefcake threatens to cut Honky Tonk Man’s hair tonight after he takes the Intercontinental Title. Honky Tonk stole the belt from Steamboat just a few months after Wrestlemania III and has held it ever since.

WWF World Title Tournament First Round: Don Muraco vs. Dino Bravo

Bravo has Frenchy Martin with him while Muraco, now a good guy, has former WWF World Champion Billy Graham in his corner. Power vs. power here with Bravo taking him into the corner for some big right hands. Muraco comes back with a slam but is totally out of position for what looked like a Vader Bomb, meaning he has to just land next to Bravo and then cover him. A gutwrench suplex gets two for Bravo but he misses a knee in the corner to give Muraco a target.

Don starts working on the leg but gets kicked away so hard that his neck gets tied up in the ropes. Bravo follows up on the neck with a piledriver (Muraco’s move, though Muraco uses a tombstone) for two, followed by a double clothesline to put both of them down. Muraco takes over so Bravo pulls the referee in the way of a flying forearm for the DQ at 4:54.

Rating: D. Lame match here with an even lamer ending. They really needed to protect Dino Bravo in a World Title tournament at Wrestlemania? You can’t have him take a rollup loss to a former Intercontinental Champion? The ending didn’t do it any favors either and the whole thing was just messy. It could have been worse though.

Uecker, who will mainly be a backstage interviewer tonight, is looking for Vanna White but finds Honky Tonk Man and Jimmy Hart instead. A few barbs are exchanged about Uecker’s abysmal batting average and Uecker thinks it might be time for some haircuts. Honky Tonk threatens to backstroke up the Mississippi. Wouldn’t that mess with his hair?

WWF World Title Tournament First Round: Ricky Steamboat vs. Greg Valentine

Ricky has his son with him, who would wind up being Richie Steamboat in the early days of NXT. Steamboat runs the ropes to start and armdrags Valentine into an armbar as he is known to do. Some chops get two for the Dragon and he skins the cat before dropkicking Valentine in the back. In a rare botch, Ricky isn’t in the right place to roll Valentine up and has to cover him for two instead. Everyone can make a mistake every and then but it’s so strange to see it from Steamboat.

Valentine pulls Steamboat off the ropes for a big crash, giving me one of my all time favorite exchanges between Gorilla and Jesse. Gorilla: “Right on the back of the head! Right on the external occipital protuberance area!” Jesse: “The WHAT?” Gorilla: “That little bump on the back of your head.” Ricky flips out of a belly to back suplex and puts on another armbar. Greg gets back up with a big clothesline to knock Steamboat down. Gorilla: “Right on the external occipital protuberance. We talked about that Jess.” Jesse: “Ok. Back of the head for all your normal people out there.”

They slug it out as Jesse finally points out Donald Trump in the front row. Valentine can’t hook the Figure Four and Steamboat wins a slugout. Greg’s top rope chop sets up the Figure Four but Steamboat chops his way out again. Now it’s Ricky with a top rope chop to the head for two. After shoving the referee in a rare angry moment, Steamboat goes up for the cross body but Valentine rolls through for the clean pin at 9:11.

Rating: B-. Match of the night by far and while a lot of that is due to the talent in the ring, a lot of it is also due to the extra time they had. It let them build up a match instead of just getting all their stuff in, which is only a good thing when you have guys like these two out there. This would be it for Steamboat in the WWF as he headed back to the NWA after some time off.

The British Bulldogs have Matilda back after the Islanders (Heenan’s team) dognapped her. Dynamite says that Matilda has been trained for a weasel hunt (Bobby was known as the Weasel) and Koko B. Ware can’t wait for the six man tag tonight. Does this sound familiar to anyone else?

Bobby Heenan receives a package and actually TIPS THE DELIVERYMAN! Someone get him to a doctor!

WWF World Title Tournament First Round: Randy Savage vs. Butch Reed

Savage, now a full on face and the second most popular act in the company, and Elizabeth are in matching blue outfits. Reed shoves Savage down as the announcers debate whether or not Gorilla would buy a used car from Slick. Savage can’t suplex the bigger Reed so Butch suplexes him instead, followed by a hard elbow to the face. Savage’s elbows have little effect as Reed drops him again, only to spend WAY too much time yelling at Elizabeth as he goes up. Butch gets slammed down, setting up the flying elbow for the pin at 4:09.

Rating: D+. This did exactly what it was supposed to do as Savage is going to have a deep run in this thing so giving him a relatively easy first round match made sense. Reed was fine in this role as a power guy who posed a bit of a threat but ultimately had no chance. This would be his last match for the WWF before he headed for the NWA as well.

Heenan isn’t worried about the British Bulldogs or that mutt Matilda because he has the Islanders and a surprise to back it up. Uecker is offended and won’t speak at their outrigger dinner.

WWF World Title Tournament First Round: Bam Bam Bigelow vs. One Man Gang

Two monsters here as Gang is a big biker with Slick as his manager and Bigelow is a slightly smaller (6’4, 393lbs) guy who can fly around amazingly well for someone his size. He also has Oliver Humperdink (a pretty low level yet very colorful manager) in his corner. Gang jumps him from behind and splashes Bigelow in the corner as Monsoon talks about wrestling at 440lbs. Jesse is stunned and wants to hear about Monsoon’s diet back then in a funny bit that only the two of them could pull off.

Bigelow makes a quick comeback and hits a pair of headbutts, only to have Slick pull the rope down to send Bigelow outside, drawing a countout at 2:55. You would think that Bigelow being on the apron for about seven of those counts and having one foot in the ring at ten would be enough to save him but not quite. This was it for Bigelow for all intents and purposes as he needed knee surgery and would also be in the NWA by the end of the year.

Gene is in the back with Hogan, who talks about his rematch with Andre. After saying about what you would expect him to say, Hogan goes into a bizarre rant about slamming Andre and breaking America off from the fault line and causing everyone to fall into the ocean. Now things get even more insane and it has to be quoted for posterity’s sake if nothing else:

“So will Donald Trump and all the Hulkamaniacs. But as Donald Trump hangs on to the top of the Trump Plaza with his family under his other arm, as they sink to the bottom of the sea, THANK GOD Donald Trump’s a Hulkamaniac. He’ll know enough to let go of his materialistic possessions, hang on to the wife and kids, dog paddle with his life all the way to safety. But Donald, if somehow you run out of gas, and all those little Hulkamaniacs run out of gas, just hang onto the largest back in the world and I’ll dog paddle us, backstroke all of us to safety.”

So to recap:

1. Hulk Hogan basically just declared himself Jesus.

2. Wouldn’t everyone on his back drown is he backstrokes through the ocean?

3. What’s with the referencing to backstroking tonight?

4. Gene’s face during Hogan’s speech is bordering on terror as he tries not to let his jaw hang open and/or ask what on earth Hogan is talking about.

WWF World Title Tournament First Round: Rick Rude vs. Jake Roberts

These two would be about to start an awesome feud due to Rude trying to hit on Jake’s wife. Rude, with Heenan in his corner, is still a goofy ladies man here but he could be a heavy hitter when he needed to be. Feeling out process to start until Jake scores with some slams to send Rude into the corner. Jake starts cranking on the arm and even holds it when Rude punches him to the mat for a unique visual.

The wristlock stays on as they hit the mat, which sounds like the calling card of the fifteen minute time limit draw. Back up and a knee lift looks to set up the DDT but Rude bails to the floor. More stalling ensues until Jake slams him again but he misses another knee lift and crashes to the mat. The hip swivel and an elbow drop get a VERY slow two for Rude and we hit the chinlock. They’re not even hiding the impending draw. Even Jesse is wondering why Rude is doing something like this with such a short time limit.

Rude elbows him down for two and we hit yet another chinlock. Jake fights up with a belly to back suplex and Rude STILL won’t let go of the hold. Some stomps set up the fifth chinlock of the match and Jake looks asleep. The fans are loudly booing this until Jake finally escapes with a jawbreaker. It’s a remarkable improvement for the fans as they go from booing to just silent instead. Jake starts his comeback with a short clothesline but the DDT is broken up. A double clothesline makes the fans audibly groan. Rude is up first and grabs a rollup with his feet on the ropes but the bell rings for the draw at 15:13 (eh close enough).

Rating: F. Absolutely awful here as over five minutes of the match was spent in a chinlock. It’s easy to have a fifteen minute match go to a draw without boring the fans to death but they didn’t even try here. I know you don’t want to do another countout after the previous one, but what about a double DQ that eats up half the time or something like that? This was awful and just a way to waste time.

Here are the updated brackets:

Hulk Hogan

Andre the Giant

Ted DiBiase

Don Muraco

Greg Valentine

Ricky Steamboat

One Man Gang

BYE

Gene is with Vanna White (of Wheel of Fortune) but she’s never heard of Bob Uecker. They give us a quick preview of the second round and praise Hogan a bit. Vanna likes Elizabeth as “a woman person” behind Savage. White may not have been a huge wrestling fan but she knew how to have a great smile and a lot of charisma here. As I said earlier: it helps when they sound like they want to be here and Vanna seemed like she was having a good time.

Ultimate Warrior vs. Hercules

Warrior is relatively new (he debuted in October) and this is just a power vs. power match. They shove each other around to start until Warrior takes him into the corner for some hard chops. This is before Warrior had figured out the formula that made him a star so this is quite a different style. Hercules needs three clotheslines to put Rude down but Warrior pops up because they’re just clotheslines.

Ever the villain, Jesse suggests that Hercules choke Warrior out with the tassels on Warrior’s arms. It’s not a bad idea actually. They slug it out and don’t seem to know where to go next. I can understand that from Warrior but Hercules is a veteran at this point. An atomic drop puts Warrior down out of the corner and Heenan says slap it on him. There’s the full nelson but Warrior climbs the turnbuckles and falls backwards onto Hercules, raising his shoulder up for the pin at 4:36.

Rating: D. See, as boring as this one was, at least they kept it short and you had Warrior being all insane (character insane as opposed to real life insane) to keep things active. Like I said, this is completely different than the normal Warrior style and it was interesting to see something out of the ordinary.

Hercules comes in with the chain but Warrior takes it away and swings it around to clean house.

We see some Wrestlemania IV merchandise as we’re in an intermission.

Boxing legend Sugar Ray Leonard is here.

Long recap of Andre vs. Hogan, including the build up to Wrestlemania III, DiBiase paying Andre to bring him the title and the Main Event match which set up the tournament.

WWF World Title Tournament Quarterfinals: Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant

Andre has DiBiase and Virgil with him. Hogan charges right at the Giant but Andre is ready for him with a bunch of right hands. Some running forearms have Andre staggered and Hulk rams him into DiBiase for good measure. Andre gets tied up in the ropes but Hogan walks around forever, allowing DiBiase and Virgil to get Andre loose.

Even more right hands drop Andre and three straight elbows get two, only to have Andre grab Hogan by the throat to break up the cover. Andre sits on Hogan because he doesn’t like to make his offense that complicated. We hit the trapezius hold from the Giant but Hulk pops up with more right hands. A Virgil distraction lets DiBiase sneak in with a chair but Hogan takes it away and hits Andre. The Giant takes the chair and hits Hogan with it….and that’s a double DQ at 5:23.

Rating: D. Yeah the match sucked but my goodness how in the world do you call that a double DQ? Hogan hit him first and the referee was looking right at him but for some reason both guys are out. That sounds about as cut and dry as you can get but tournaments can cause some screwy results.

Hogan slams Andre and poses even though he’s out of the tournament. DiBiase runs and throws Virgil at Hogan to take the beating in the aisle. Gorilla turns into Yoda and says that “neither one of these men will be entitled to wear the belt of the champion.” As the posing ensues, Jesse thinks this was all part of the master plan. That’s because Jesse was one of the smartest commentators ever and gets common sense while Gorilla was a glorified Hogan fan. This goes on for WAY too long and feels like the end of the show while Jesse says we’ll know who the real greatest is in another hour.

Savage, now in pink to match Elizabeth again, says no one has ever defeated Hogan. Now that he’s out though, he’s going to make sure that the other half of the Mega Powers goes all the way.

WWF World Title Tournament Quarterfinals: Don Muraco vs. Ted DiBiase

The winner goes to the finals due to the double DQ. Muraco reaches through the ropes to get DiBiase (alone here) as the bell rings and Jesse freaks out because it’s not fair to Ted. Again, totally correct but Gorilla ignores him. A powerslam and a middle rope elbow get two each for Muraco so DiBiase rolls outside. That’s even worse as he has to run from Graham and his cane. Back in and DiBiase sends him hard into the buckle to set up some choking. That sweet falling fist drop gets two for DiBiase but he misses an elbow. Back up and Muraco charges into a stun gun to send DiBiase to the finals at 5:35.

Rating: D+. I find it interesting that DiBiase has won his first two matches without using his finishing hold. It’s always cool to see them mix things up like that instead of doing the same stuff over and over again. Muraco was a good choice to put DiBiase over here and the match was fine enough. Not good but fine.

Demolition says they’re going to hit Strike Force over the head with baseball bats to win the Tag Team Titles. Uecker is rightfully freaked out.

One Man Gang’s second round bye is announced to the crowd.

WWF World Title Tournament Quarterfinals: Greg Valentine vs. Randy Savage

This should be good. Savage goes for a quick rollup but Greg goes up top and drops a forearm to the back for two. Donald Trump is still in the front row and seems to actually be enjoying himself. They fight to the floor with Greg chopping even more, followed by some heavy elbows to the chest. Back in and Valentine starts in on the leg but opts for a suplex instead. Savage suddenly goes nuts and hits the top rope ax handle. He tries for a second but gets punched out of the air. Valentine can’t follow up but avoids a charge against the ropes. The Figure Four is countered into a small package and Savage advances at 6:07.

Rating: D. Quite the disappointing match here as you would expect far better chemistry from these two. Valentine barely touched the leg and was just going with the big forearms and elbows, which were normally only about half of his offense. Savage had one burst of offense and then won in the end on a fluke again, which is pretty standard for him. Not a good match here, which is a really bit surprise.

Here are the updated brackets:

Ted DiBiase

BYE

One Man Gang

Randy Savage

Vanna and Gene talk about the upcoming matches.

Intercontinental Title: Honky Tonk Man vs. Brutus Beefcake

This is one of Beefcake’s 283 or so shots at the titles over the year. Honky Tonk now has his girlfriend Peggy Sue with him (Sherri Martel as a dancing 50s girl). Jesse says he’s playing piano during Honky Tonk’s music. Unfortunately Beefcake doesn’t have his awesome music yet. The champ stalls forever so Jesse says hi to Terri, Tyrel and Jade (his wife and kids) back in Minneapolis as was his custom. A big atomic drop gives us the Honky Tonk selling and a right hand sends him outside.

Back in and Beefcake motions for a haircut before he sends Honky Tonk into the buckle over and over. Brutus finally misses a big elbow to give Honky Tonk an opening for his variety of stomping. Some choking looks to set up the Shake Rattle and Roll but the champ lets go. Jimmy Hart is confused but it turns out that they needed to move closer to the ropes so Brutus could block. I guess this is before backdrops were invented.

Beefcake grabs the sleeper but Hart knocks the referee cold with the megaphone. Instead of waking up the referee (why does that almost never happen?), Brutus goes for the scissors and cuts Jimmy’s hair instead. No one can wake Honky Tonk up so Peggy pours water over his face. Brutus tries to bring in the hedge clippers and the match is thrown out at somewhere around 6:00.

Rating: D. Another lame match here as Honky Tonk was all about the heat from the crowd and couldn’t have a good match to save his life most of the time. That being said, it made him more valuable than most of the roster as the people would pay to see him get beaten up every night because there was no way he could survive one more day as champion. Keep that up for over a year and rake in the money until you have someone to shoot to the moon as the new champion. Beefcake was never going to be that guy but he was an awesome repeat challenger.

There’s another major point to talk about here. Remember how I said the tournament we got wasn’t the original plan? Well that’s because of Honky Tonk Man. The original plan here was to have Savage beat Honky Tonk Man for the title but Honky Tonk talked Vince out of it/threatened to jump to the NWA with the title (depending on who you ask) and his reign continued.

Instead Savage was plugged into the World Title tournament and gets the major push as a result. The original World Title tournament saw DiBiase’s master plan paying off with him beating an exhausted Hogan to win the title, (the original brackets were aired on TV before they were changed to this version) setting up Savage winning it at Summerslam and going forward with history from there.

Andre puts his massive hand on Uecker’s shoulder to scare him to death while explaining the master plan. All he was supposed to do was get Hogan out of the tournament and he did his job perfectly. He chokes Uecker for fun, bugging Bob’s eyes out in a semi-famous bit.

Islanders/Bobby Heenan vs. British Bulldogs/Koko B. Ware

We get to see what was inside Bobby’s delivery earlier: a dog handler’s outfit, which Jesse calls a stroke of genius. Dynamite hiptosses Haku (formerly King Tonga) and Tama down to start before catapulting Tama over the corner and out to the floor. Off to Haku to face Davey in the power vs. power match. Davey gets two off a crucifix and we hit the chinlock on Haku. You don’t often see a heel in one of those.

Haku comes back with an eye rake and forearms. Jesse: “Heenan is saving himself Gorilla.” Gorilla: “Yeah for the senior prom.” Dynamite finally charges into a kick in the corner and it’s off to Heenan for some stomps. Jesse describes him as looking like “A Chinaman” and the cook from Bonanza.

A single right hand to the ribs sends Bobby running and it’s off to Koko for some meaningless headbutts. Thankfully the Islanders don’t sell because they respect racial stereotypes and it’s back to Heenan to work on Koko some more. Ware sends him into the corner though and everything breaks down with the Islanders slamming Bobby onto Koko for the pin at 7:31.

Rating: D+. So this was basically the Heenan Family replacing the Hart Foundation from last year. Heenan was funnier than Davis though and it almost made for a more entertaining match, but that beating that Davis took last year was a thing of beauty. Still good enough here and Koko continues to be the man you get when you need a filler.

Jesse is presented to the crowd again in another rather pointless segment.

DiBiase’s bye into the finals is announced.

WWF World Title Tournament Semifinals: Randy Savage vs. One Man Gang

Elizabeth is in black to match Savage’s robe but his trunks are purple. Savage gets smart and grabs the beard to start and snaps Gang’s throat over the top rope. That’s it for Savage’s offense though as the much bigger Gang drives him into the corner to take over. Gang gets two off a slam but Savage gets his foot on the ropes.

The big splash misses though and Savage ax handles him to the floor. A top rope ax handle to the floor has Gang reeling but Savage tries a slam like a schnook and fails miserably. Elizabeth gets on the apron for no apparent reason and Slick throws in the cane. Gang misses every swing but it’s a DQ anyway at 4:35.

Rating: D. They were setting up a fine match until the lame ending. How do you disqualify someone for failing to cheat? Then again this is the same show where there was a countout when someone was halfway in the ring and a chair to the head somehow setting up a double DQ. Savage should have won this off a missed charge and a quick rollup or something but instead they went with some botched cheating.

Vanna has to go to ringside for the final and Uecker shows up just a few seconds late. Gene says Vanna has no idea who Uecker is but he says she’s sent him a ton of letters. “Yeah some guy named Vance White.” I really hope there’s a joke I’m not getting there because that’s really not funny.

Tag Team Titles: Demolition vs. Strike Force

Demolition is challenging and has Mr. Fuji in their corner. Strike Force is the sequel to the Can-Am Connection with Martel teaming up with Tito Santana to win the Tag Team Titles from the Hart Foundation back in the fall. Smash pounds Martel down to start and the other two come in as everything breaks down. A double clothesline gets two on Smash as the crowd is quiet, likely due to exhaustion at this point.

Tito armdrags Ax down and Martel hiptosses Smash down for good measure. Smash is still strong enough to catch a charging Santana in midair and carries him over to Ax for a clothesline in a kind of prototype Hart Attack. Jesse gives tips on double teaming as Smash gets two off a suplex. Tito finally scores with the flying forearm, which Jesse says he learned in the Mexican Football League. It’s finally off to Martel to clean house but the fans just do not care. Martel gets the Boston crab on Smash but Ax sneaks in with the cane (a must have for any heel manager) to knock Martel out and give Smash the pin at 8:03.

Rating: D+. The fans reacted to the title change but there wasn’t much else for them to care about. The match wasn’t bad but it took a lot of time to get to the ending as this show feels like it’s been going on forever. Demolition would go on to have the longest reign in the history of the titles so this was quite the historic change. Strike Force was an underrated team and I was hoping to see them get back in the title change but it would never come.

It’s FINALLY time for the main event with Uecker as the ring announcer and Vanna as the timekeeper. Robin Leech is also here to present the World Title belt to the winner. Uecker gets a kiss from Vanna to wrap up the show long story.

WWF World Title: Ted DiBiase vs. Randy Savage

DiBiase has Andre with him but Virgil is probably still in the hospital after that one suplex. The final matching outfit sees Savage and Elizabeth all in white which feels appropriate for some reason. Savage is rightfully freaked out (freaked out freaked out) by Andre, who grabs Randy’s foot to make it even worse. The fans, proving that they are in fact alive, chant for Hogan.

They fight over arm control until Ted’s sunset flip is broken up by a right hand to the face. Some elbows to the back of Savage’s head changes control again but a knee to the back sends DiBiase outside. Savage goes up but Andre stands in front of him and says jump. If Savage jumps at him and gets attacked doesn’t that mean a DQ, which could mean Savage wins the title? Leave the planning to DiBiase Giant. Savage realizes something must be done and sends Elizabeth off to the back for help.

As Ted cranks on a chinlock, we get the obvious return of Hogan who sits down in the corner to keep an eye on things. Andre goes after Savage again but Hogan runs over with a right hand to even things up again. A suplex gets two for Ted but he gets slammed off the top, only to have Savage miss the elbow. DiBiase slaps on the sleeper but the referee goes to yell at Andre. Hogan comes in (wearing cowboy boots of all things) and chairs DiBiase in the back, setting up the elbow to make Savage champion at 9:17.

Rating: C. The match was fine but it came at the end of a far too long show. In their defense, the fans went nuts when Savage won, despite the blatant cheating from Hogan. As usual, Hulk continues to be really evil under the surface but to his credit Savage didn’t see what Hogan did. Good enough match but it came too late in the night.

Savage, Hogan and Elizabeth celebrate in the ring to wrap up the show.

Overall Rating: D. This was LONG. The show felt like it went on for about nineteen days with so many worthless matches (Bravo vs. Muraco and Warrior vs. Hercules?) and stuff not getting enough time because we needed SIXTEEN MATCHES on one show. Savage winning the title was one of the two best options along with DiBiase so I can’t complain there, but this really needed to be cut down by an hour and minus about six matches. Or get a shorter ramp to cut down on the way too long entrances.

This is a show that really could have benefited from the modern pay per view style as there are regularly scheduled twenty minute matches on most pay per views. The problem here was you had all those matches, meaning a lot of entrances to eat up time. It made for a VERY long night and the show felt like it was never going to end. Do yourself a favor and watch the first Clash of the Champions, which aired on the same night and partially at the same time.

Ratings Comparison

Battle Royal

Original: C

2013 Redo: D+

2015 Redo: D

Ted DiBiase vs. Jim Duggan

Original: C-

2013 Redo: C-

2015 Redo: C-

Don Muraco vs. Dino Bravo

Original: D+

2013 Redo: D+

2015 Redo: D

Greg Valentine vs. Ricky Steamboat

Original: C

2013 Redo: C+

2015 Redo: B-

Randy Savage vs. Butch Reed

Original: D

2013 Redo: C-

2015 Redo: D+

One Man Gang vs. Bam Bam Bigelow

Original: N/A

2013 Redo: N/A

2015 Redo: N/A

Rick Rude vs. Jake Roberts

Original: D

2013 Redo: D-

2015 Redo: F

Ultimate Warrior vs. Hercules

Original: D

2013 Redo: D+

2015 Redo: D

Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant

Original: C

2013 Redo: C-

2015 Redo: D

Ted DiBiase vs. Don Muraco

Original: C+

2013 Redo: C

2015 Redo: D+

Randy Savage vs. Greg Valentine

Original: C+

2013 Redo: B-

2015 Redo: D

Brutus Beefcake vs. Honky Tonk Man

Original: D+

2013 Redo: D+

2015 Redo: D

Islanders/Bobby Heenan vs. British Bulldogs/Koko B. Ware

Original: D+

2013 Redo: C

2015 Redo: D+

Randy Savage vs. One Man Gang

Original: D

2013 Redo: D

2015 Redo: D

Demolition vs. Strike Force

Original: C-

2013 Redo: C+

2015 Redo: D+

Randy Savage vs. Ted DiBiase

Original: B

2013 Redo: B-

2015 Redo: C

Overall Rating

Original: D+

2013 Redo: D

2015 Redo: D

I even got annoyed trying to write up the new ratings comparison. This show is that much of a mess.

Here’s the original review if you’re interested:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2011/03/11/history-of-wrestlemania-with-kb-wrestlemania-4-one-big-tournament-and-thats-it/

And the 2013 Redo:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2013/03/13/wrestlemania-count-up-wrestlemania-iv-the-biggest-tournament-ever/

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and head over to my Amazon author page with 30 different cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

AND

Remember to check out Wrestlingrumors.net for all of your wrestling headline needs.

Royal Rumble 1988
Date: January 24, 1988
Location: Copps Coliseum, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Attendance: 18,000
Commentators: Vince McMahon, Jesse Ventura

So this is the first of the Rumbles and it aired on live TV instead of on Pay Per View. The battle royal tonight is twenty men instead of thirty and we also have three other matches on the card on top of that. We also get a bench press demonstration from Dino Bravo (just go with it) and the contract signing for Hogan vs. Andre II at the first live Main Event which would happen in twelve days. In a KB related story, I would happen in about ten days. Let’s get to it.

Vince does the intro over what I thought was Rude’s music. Oh it was Rude’s music. No wonder they sounded alike.

Rick Rude vs. Ricky Steamboat

This should work well with a career face vs. a career heel. That’s another thing you never get anymore: matches for the sake of having a match. You know what? It could work today too. For the sake of simplicity, Rick will only be used for Rude and Ricky will only be used for Steamboat. Rude pounds away to start but Steamboat fires off chops in retaliation. Rude throws him over the top because he’s still new at this WWF thing. Steamboat skins the cat back in and throws Rude to the floor.

Steamboat does Rude’s pose and Rude complains of a pull of the tights. Back in and Rude wants a test of strength and Dragon, ever the slow one, accepts. Down goes Ricky but he finally hits a knee to the hand to break the grip, followed by a wicked spin out to take Rude to the mat. Steamboat cranks on the arm and does so for a good while. The crowd is pretty much quiet here, so we can hear the individual shouts from fans which give Vince and Jesse something to talk about.

Rude escapes but Steamboat chops him right back down and armdrags him down as only Ricky can do. An elbow puts Ricky down for a bit and Rick pounds away some more. Steamboat comes back with chops and another armdrag into an armbar. More slugging out occurs with chops vs. punches dominating the action. In something you don’t often see, Steamboat seems to botch a spot, resulting in him backing into a knee from Rude and falling (intentionally) to the floor.

Rick sends Steamboat back first into the apron and slams him down as Steamboat is in trouble. There’s a camel clutch by Rude as he finally has a body part to work on. Steamboat taps but that wouldn’t mean anything else for about six years. The referee checks the arm and they make a BIG error as Ricky lets his arm fall three times before stopping it on the fourth drop. Jesse FREAKS as only he can but the match just keeps going. Gotta love that live TV thing right?

Anyway Steamboat stands up and drops Rude on his back to put both guys down. It’s Steamboat up first but a splash hits knees. Back to the chinlock but Ricky makes the ropes and sends Rude into the buckle ten times. A chop to the face gets two and we hit the mat for some technical stuff and a pinfall reversal sequence. By that I mean about five pin attempts each and the crowd is waking up now. Ricky suplexes Rude down but Rude pulls the referee in the way of the cross body. Rude puts on the over the shoulder backbreaker (his move before the Rude Awakening) but it’s a DQ win for Steamboat.

Rating: C. The main issue here was the length. This runs about eighteen minutes and a lame ending didn’t help things either. At least you had two talented guys in there to make the match work a bit better. Still though, cut about five minutes off of this one and it’s WAY better all of a sudden. Steamboat would be gone in just a few months.

It’s time for the bench press lift record attempt. Dino Bravo is doing the lifting (in wrestling gear) and Jesse is spotting. Frenchy Martin, Dino’s manager, is here too. Dino presses 415 to start but first demands complete and utter silence. The 415lbs are easily lifted ten times. We’re going for over 700 by the end so this may take awhile. Next up is 505, which I believe is what Yokozuna weighed when he debuted. That one only goes up eight times as we’re at six minutes spent on this so far.

This time it’s going to be 555. Great this is going to take even more time now. Dino stops to yell at the fans a bit first and now we’re going to the lifting. This one gets about seven reps as this continues to take time. Now it’s 595. They keep talking about a world record, even though there’s no official there to confirm this is happening or anything like that. Wait let’s yell at the fans some more before he lifts it three times. We’re at ten minutes now.

Jesse yells at McMahon a bit and Bravo takes forever to do 655. Gene doing the used car salesman selling of this segment helps a bit due to how over the top and ridiculous it is. Now they go for 715, but the record would be unofficial because the bar will have to be weighed later. We stop to yell at the fans of course first though and storms off. As Bravo goes to finish, Ventura reaches down and pulls the bar up. Yep, that’s the actual payoff of over fifteen minutes of this nonsense.

Women’s Tag Titles: Jumping Bomb Angels vs. Glamour Girls

These are real titles (held by the Glamour Girls at this point) which have perhaps the most confusing history ever, as the belts were literally bought and sold between two wrestling companies. Anyway, they’re here now and the Angels (Tateno and Yamazaki) beat the Glamour Girls (Judy Martin and Lelani Kai) in the finals of the Survivor Series match which basically set this up. This is also 2/3 falls.

I’m not entirely sure which is which on both teams but Vince doesn’t even know the names of the Angels at all until someone tells him later on. The Angels immediately charge at the Girls and hit stereo dropkicks to take over. For those of you unfamiliar with the Angels, basically imagine the Hardys before they became poster children for what drugs can do to you but with long hair and wearing one piece female swimsuits.

We start with Kai vs. Yamazaki (the one in pink. Got it) and a knee to the back from Martin gives the Girls control. Yamazaki Matrixes out of a cover and rolls Kai up for two. Off to Tateno for a kind of suplex out of a piledriver position for one. Jesse asks Vince the names of the Bomb Angels and Vince has NO idea. He suggests calling them pink and red. Yamazaki tries a cross body but it literally bounces off the shall we say rotund Martin.

Off to Kai again so Yamazaki knees her down before bring Tateno back in. Both Angels fire off forearms to take Kai down and there’s an Octopus Hold (a freaky kind of abdominal stretch from Japan) from Tateno. The Angels put on stereo figure fours before it gets down to just Tateno on Kai. There’s a legdrop between the legs ala Jeff Hardy but instead Tateno spreads her own legs to spread Kai’s into the splits as well.

Yamazaki hooks something like a Sharpshooter while being off to the side of Kai. That’s incredibly painful looking and I don’t think I’ve ever seen it otherwise. The Angels get in a tug of war over Kai with Martin losing the war. Martin makes a tag but it doesn’t count because her feet weren’t on the apron. There’s a rule you never see enforced. Not that it matters as there’s the regular tag anyway. Martin comes in and beats on Tateno a bit before hitting a falling backwards facedrop out of a powerbomb position for the first fall. Big Show called that the Alley Oop if it wasn’t clear.

Martin pounds on Tateno after the break but Tateno bridges out in the Matrix move from the mat. Martin misses a splash and there’s Yamazaki again. A middle rope clothesline puts Martin down for two as Vince knows the Angels’ names now. The Angels cause some heel miscommunication but Martin loads up the same move that won her the first fall. In a classic example of PSYCHOLOGY, Tateno rolls through it into a sunset flip for the second fall this time. See? She LEARNED over the course of the match. That shows thinking, which is psychology! It’s not that hard! She slipped a bit on the flip but I’ll forgive it this time.

The third fall begins with a double clothesline from the Angels for two on Kai but Lelani pounds away on her in retaliation. Off to Martin who blocks a fisherman’s suplex and escapes a backslide out of the corner. A slingshot sends Yamazaki into the wrong corner and double teaming gets two on her.

Off to Tateno who is thrown around even more than Yamazaki was. Tateno comes back with a pair of release atomic drops minus the knees and it’s off to Yamazaki for a top rope knee for two. A double underhook suplex gets two on Kai but a senton backsplash misses for Tateno. With Kai trying to get in, the Angels hit stereo missile dropkicks on Martin for the pin and the titles.

Rating: B. For the late 80s and women’s wrestling, this was off the charts. The Angels are every bit as good as any male cruiserweight not named Mysterio you’ll ever see and when they’re against people like the Girls, their skills are shown off even better. This was beyond state of the art for this time period and is still amazing today. Check these chicks out and you won’t be disappointed.

We recap Hogan vs. Andre at Wrestlemania by getting the opening minute or so which saw Hogan trying the slam and Andre getting a “controversial” two count. Andre wants a rematch and has been sold to DiBiase, who wants to buy the world title. Andre showed how evil he was by attacking Hogan on SNME and easily choking him down, setting up the rematch in about two weeks and a match which drew an INSANE 15 rating on LIVE national TV on NBC. Today Vince would lose his mind at a 5 on cable, so this was unthinkable back then.

Oh and now we get the contract signing between Andre and Hogan on tonight’s show for the match on February 5 in Indianapolis. DiBiase is here too as Jesse points out how stupid the fans are for cheering for a song called Real American here in Canada. Even Jack Tunney is here. For those of you unfamiliar, picture Johnny Ace if he wasn’t dripping with charisma.

Gene actually calls Andre Mr. Roussimoff here, which you NEVER hear on WWF TV. Andre won’t sit down and then he won’t sign. Hogan signs but Andre wants to read the whole thing first. One thing to note: Gene has probably said the date of the match about ten times. It’s so simple yet so effective. Andre signs and beats up Hogan for fun to end this after a LONG time.

Jesse and Vince talk about the Rumble and say that if you go over the top, it doesn’t matter where your feet touch because you’re out. I’m assuming that means you have to hit the floor but it’s not exactly clear.

Royal Rumble

Okerlund explains the rules and the intervals are every two minutes here. If you don’t know the Rumble rules, you have no business reading this. It’s a battle royal, people come in every two minutes, there are 20 people in it (this year only) last man standing wins. #1 is Bret Hart and #2 is Tito Santana, and wouldn’t you know it their tag teams are feuding right now. I mean what are the odds?

They slug it out to start with no one having any kind of advantage. Bret finally takes him down and heads towards the rope as Butch Reed comes in at #3. This is a different kind of Rumble as heels don’t fight heels and faces don’t fight faces yet. They just kind of work together as you would expect them to. Tito is almost thrown out by Reed but he escapes and beats on both heels for a bit.

It’s Neidhart in at #4 as not a ton is happening so far in this match. This leaves Santana more or less down 3-1 and everyone pounds away on him. The clock is pretty lenient so far as there’s no way they’re going two minutes between each of these entrants. We get some slow triple teaming and after a choke on the ropes, here’s Jake Roberts in at #5 to quickly toss out Reed. We’ve got Roberts/Santana vs. the Hart Foundation which is quite the tag match when you think about it.

The Harts get beaten down and then thrown into each other but Neidhart breaks up the DDT. Bret piledrives Santana down and Harley Race is in at #6. The crowd is staying way into this which is a good sign for the future. Things kind of slow down a bit as the faces and heels beat on each other for a little while. Here’s Jim Brunzell at #7 to make it a six man tag for all intents and purposes.

Roberts goes EVIL by pulling on Neidhart’s beard. Only Reed has been eliminated so far. The good guys are in control at the moment with Race almost being thrown out. Here’s Sam Houston, Jake’s real life half brother, coming in at #8 to beat on everyone in sight. Well every heel at least. The Harts finally get together and throw out Santana to get us down to six people in the ring.

After about 90 seconds, here’s Danny Davis at #9. To be fair he’s barely a jobber so it’s not like this is going to give the heels any significant advantage. Oh wait he’s fighting Sam Houston so yeah, the heels are in control. Race gets caught in the ropes and Jake keeps knocking him back and forth in a funny bit. Davis tries to kick Jake and gets his leg caught, followed by a suplex from Roberts.

Danny escapes a DDT as we get Boris Zhukov at #10, maybe 80 seconds after Davis came in. Things continue to go slow as we’re trying to build up to a regular battle royal. Race goes after Boris in the first instance of heel vs. heel in this match. Race and Hart double team Brunzell for a bit as this continues to be slow. Don Muraco comes out as #11 but Nikolai Volkoff follows him out, apparently thinking he’s #11. Now there’s a story you don’t see that often but which could work.

Brunzell puts out Zhukov and apparently Nikolai is going to be #12 in a few moments. After way too long of nothing happening, Nikolai is officially #12. Brunzell is put to the apron but gets back in just as Race is eliminated by Muraco. We’ve got eight in there at the moment, which would be Hart, Neidhart, Roberts, Brunzell, Houston, Davis, Muraco and Volkoff. Race won’t leave ringside so as Duggan comes out at #13, he beats Race up on the way. This would lead to one of those so ridiculous it’s hilarious moments at the Slammys.

Duggan goes right after Neidhart because HE wants to be the Jim in this match. The place is way into him too so the crowd reaction is good. After maybe a minute here’s Ron Bass at #14. Volkoff dumps Brunzell as Jake and Neidhart collide. The clock gets even shorter as B. Brian Blair is #15. There are way too many people in the ring now. Everyone fights everyone as Hillbilly Jim is #16, and the fourth person in this match named Jim. He also dumps out Jim Neidhart to empty the ring a tiny bit.

Dino Bravo is #17 as Bass dumps Houston. Back to slow motion mode with everyone pounding on people near the ropes without really doing much. Ultimate Warrior (doesn’t mean anything yet) is #18 and Bret is FINALLY put out by Don Muraco. I timed this next one, and the One Man Gang comes out at #19, 53 seconds after Warrior. They’re not even trying here. Gang immediately pounds on Roberts so Warrior jumps on the big man’s back. This is WAY before he would have been able to slam him anyway.

Gang dumps Blair and Roberts in about ten seconds, which is the best thing that could happen in this match. The Junkyard Dog is #20, giving us a final group of Davis, Volkoff, Muraco, Bass, Hillbilly Jim, Dino Bravo, Ultimate Warrior, Gang, Duggan and Dog. Hillbilly and Gang hammer on each other as Duggan puts Volkoff out. Gang tosses Hillbilly as Bravo and Davis double team Duggan. This ends badly for Davis as Duggan dumps him to a BIG pop.

Bravo and Gang dump the Warrior as we’re down to six pretty quickly. Bass jumps the Dog and tosses him to get us down to five. Muraco dumps Bass and we have a final four of Muraco, Gang, Duggan and Bravo. Gang splashes Duggan in the corner, leaving Muraco to have to fight off both guys. He even takes Frenchy Martin down with a dropkick, only to have Gang clothesline him out to get us down to three.

Jim gets double teamed for awhile and Bravo drops an elbow on him. The same clothesline sequence the heels tried earlier backfires and Bravo gets clotheslined out. Duggan pounds on Gang in a Mid-South reunion but a single shot from Gang takes him down. Gang beats on him next to the ropes, so Duggan low bridges him to win the first Royal Rumble.

Rating: C+. This is one of those matches where the words “well, they tried” come to mind. That’s the best way to put this match: they didn’t really know what they were doing yet, but they tried. The lack of star power hurt this one as only Duggan and maybe Dog were big names here. It wouldn’t be until next year when the star power came into this and it became a main event thing. Still though, it’s certainly not a bad match and they would get better as time went on.

We recap (see? It even happened back then) the contract signing from earlier tonight.

Hogan is in the arena (in jeans, which is a weird image for some reason) and says that he wants Andre. Standard hype interview for a big match but it’s Hogan in the late 80s so you know it’s awesome.

Islanders vs. Young Stallions

Another 2/3 falls match here just to fill in the final part of the show. The Islanders have recently kidnapped Matilda and are recently back off suspension for returning the dog. Tama and Powers (It’s Haku/Tama vs. Jim Powers/Paul Roma) start things off and no one can get a real advantage in the early going. The Stallions beat on Tama a bit, with shots to the head for some reason, before it’s Haku in off the tag.

A cross body gets two for Roma and the Stallions work on the arm for awhile. Off to Tama who gets in like one shot before we cut to a camera angle from over the announcers shoulders. That’s a new one. Powers gets caught by a double headbutt and Haku hammers away on him some more. This continues to go nowhere so I think out of boredom it’s off to Roma vs. Tama.

Roma dropkicks Tama down but Haku low bridges Roma, sending him to the floor and injuring the knee. That’s good enough for a countout for the first fall and the Stallions take Roma to the dressing room to get his knee looked at. In other words, we need a reason to show the contract signing again and let Andre talk a bit. Just like Hogan, Andre doesn’t have much to say but it hypes up the Main Event.

Back to the match after the promo, the recap and a pair of breaks and it’s basically Powers in a handicap match now. You can see big gaps of seats where fans have left. For this one, I can’t say I blame them. Powers dropkicks him down and we hear about Giant-A-Mania from Jesse. Off to Tama who pounds away even more and kicks out of a small package at two. Tama’s jumping back elbow takes Powers down and it’s a little Samoan trash talk for good measure. Haku’s dropkick gets two and there’s a gutwrench suplex for two more.

It’s off to an abdominal stretch but Powers finally hiptosses out of it to get a breather. Haku misses a splash and things slow down again, but there’s no one for Powers to tag because of Roma’s knee injury. Roma finally tags himself in and Haku casually kicks the leg out to take over. Jesse wishes that was Vince’s knee because that’s the kind of guy he is. Tama puts on a half crab and the referee stops it.

Rating: D. This match is a victim of its spot on the card. The problem here is that everything else is done and this was the textbook definition of filler. It’s hard to care about something like this when there’s no story and no interest in this match, and on top of that it wasn’t even anything decent. This is one of those matches though where you can’t blame a lot of the problems on the wrestlers.

Jesse and Vince chat a bit about what we saw to end the show.

Overall Rating: C+. There’s one major thing to keep in mind about this show: it was on free TV. On PPV, this would have been bad, but to be fair they had no idea what they were going for here so anything good, which a lot of stuff on here was, was a surprise. This was a decent entry into the show, but they did WAY better next year when they had an idea what they were doing. Good first effort though.

As I did with the last series of reviews, I’ll be comparing the new ratings to the original ones and posting a link to the original review.

Ratings Comparison

Ricky Steamboat vs. Rick Rude

Original: C+

Redo: C

Jumping Bomb Angels vs. Glamour Girls

Original: B-

Redo: B

Royal Rumble

Original: C-

Redo: C+

Islanders vs. Young Stallions

Original: C-

Redo: D

Overall Rating

Original: C+

Redo: C+

This show hasn’t changed much other than a few tweaks here and there.

Here’s the original review:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2011/01/08/royal-rumble-count-up-1988/

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and head over to my Amazon author page with 30 different cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

AND

Remember to check out Wrestlingrumors.net for all of your wrestling headline needs.

Universal Wrestling Federation Championship Wrestling
Date: October 25, 1986
Location: Tulsa Convention Center, Tulsa, Oklahoma
Commentators: Jim Ross, Terry Taylor

It’s the second of two shows I’m looking at from this promotion in this era and that is kind of appealing. The first show was from about four months later so I’m not sure what to expect from this one. The promotion tends to be a pretty entertaining one so hopefully that continues to be the case here. Let’s get to it.

We open with a clip from last week with Devastation Inc. (Skandor Akbar’s group) in a brawl with a bunch of wrestlers.

JR and Terry Taylor welcome us to the show and run down the card, including three title matches and a bunch of recaps.

TV Title: Ken Massey vs. Buddy Jack Roberts

Roberts is defending and JR makes it clear that Massey isn’t very good. Feeling out process to start until Roberts takes him down and ties up the leg. The middle rope elbow misses but Roberts is right back with a neckbreaker into a bulldog to retain at 2:36. Just a squash.

Commentary talks about Savannah Jack being thrown out of Devastation Inc. and we see him being fired last week. This might have been over Jack being African American so the beatdown was on but Jack cleared the ring of Skandor Akbar, One Man Gang and Leroy Brown.

Akbar says he isn’t letting this go and promises to make Jack shine his shoes after everything is over. He doesn’t like these Americans with their backbones.

We look at Terry Taylor and Ted DiBiase beating the Freebirds in a country whipping (street fight) match last week. The Freebirds mauled them after the match, even stealing DiBiase’s famous loaded black glove to knock DiBiase out. JR is in full on Attitude Era mode here with the shouting and emotion and it’s rather awesome.

DiBiase, with a bandage on his head, is of these Freebirds busting him open over and over. Now they stole his glove and he is getting it back. So the good guy is mad that the villains stole his loaded glove. That’s an odd line of thinking.

The Fantastics are ready to defend their Tag Team Titles against anyone, including John Tatum and Jack Victory.

Jeff Raitz/Joe Savoldi vs. One Man Gang/Leroy Brown

Skandor Akbar is with the Gang and Brown. Savoldi can’t circle around the huge Gang, who pounds him into the corner without much effort. Brown comes in for the choke to Savoldi and some pounding to Raitz. Gang and Brown drop back to back elbows for the easy win at 2:00.

Michael Hayes has replaced Terry Taylor, much to JR’s annoyance.

We go to a video with JR talking to Bill Apter of Pro Wrestling Illustrated. The magazine is hosting a tournament starting on Halloween night for a cup and $50,000, so a bunch of wrestlers are already trying to get in.

Here’s the UWF Top Ten:

10. Chris Adams

9. Missing Link

8. Chavo Guerrero

7. Michael Hayes

6. Terry Taylor

5. Jim Duggan

4. One Man Gang

3. Ted DiBiase

2. Steve Williams

1. Buddy Roberts

And the UWF Champion is Terry Gordy.

Iceman King Parsons vs. Gustavo Mendoza

Hayes says the UWF is a very organized organization. Parsons hammers away to start and hits Mendoza in the head a few times, setting up a running knee. The hip attack sets up a splash to finish Mendoza at 1:35. Well that was quick.

Chris Adams isn’t happy with his situation involving the World Title. He’s coming for Terry Gordy and doesn’t care where he has to go to get it.

Tag Team Titles: Fantastics vs. John Tatum/Jack Victory

Tatum and Victory, with Missy Hyatt, are challenging. It takes the Fantastics a long time to get to the ring as they are rather popular with the fans. Bobby Fulton armdrags Victory to start and then does the same to Tatum, who complains about a hair pull. No one else seemed to notice it so Fulton monkey flips and dropkicks him. A double dropkick puts Tatum on the floor and a double backdrop does the same to Victory as the champs start fast.

Tommy Rogers comes in to slug away at Tatum and it’s back to Fulton, who gets caught in an armbar. That earns Tatum a headscissors and the champs clear the ring as we take a break. Back with Fulton being sent into the post, allowing Victory to drop him onto the barricade. Victory posts him again and it’s time to work on the arm.

Something close to a low blow has Fulton in more trouble and Tatum cuts the ring off to block the hot tag attempt. Fulton manages a knee lift though and there’s the hot tag to Rogers to clean house. Everything breaks down as Eddie Gilbert has come down with flowers for Missy. Tatum is distracted by Missy leaving ringside and gets rolled up to retain the titles at 12:50.

Rating: C+. The Fantastics are my favorite NWA/non-WWF 80s tag team so it’s fun to see these guys getting some time in a hot match. The angle was what mattered here though as Missy has someone new and the Fantastics just happened to be there. Tatum and Victory were fine for a heel team and I was thinking the titles might change hands here so well done with setting everything up.

Missy goes to leave with Gilbert but throws him back inside for the big beatdown. Gilbert’s friends Sting and Rick Steiner come in for the save and beat down Tatum and Victory. Missy even gets in a shot with the loaded Gucci bag (I love wrestling) to bust Tatum open (the slow motion replay makes it look even better). Tatum and Victory would win the titles before the month was over.

And now, with a little over a minute to go, it’s time for the UWF Title match with Jim Duggan challenging Terry Gordy. The credits roll over the entrances and we’re promised the outcome next week. See how much better that is than having everything wrapped up to end the show?

Overall Rating: C+. Good show here and I could go for some more of this stuff. I know the company was on its very last legs here but you could see what Bill Watts could do with the right resources. The energy was there and you could tell that it was set up to make fans watch next week, which is kind of the point. The ending alone made me curious about where things were going, which you just do not see today. Very efficient use of an hour, and it was an absolute breeze to watch.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and head over to my Amazon author page with 30 different cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

AND

Remember to check out Wrestlingrumors.net for all of your wrestling headline needs.