January 1986

WWF World Tag Team Champions Dream Team vs British Bulldogs - Philly 1/11/86 Not essential viewing by any means, but it is a good match. Dream Team bumrush the Bulldogs to start. Dynamite clotheslines The Hammer and Davey Boy comes in slams him. Valentine breaks out of a leg lace. After watching all this 80s stuff, Beefcake is not that bad. He is just pretty pedestrian, but he is not actively bad. They work over Davey Boy's legs. Valentine is by far the best wrestler in this match with his stooging, bumping, literally showing ass and hard hits. Dynamite is a good hot tag (thought I prefer Davey Boy's take on it honestly). Beefcake repeatedly chumps out of taking Dynam…

Hulk Hogan & Andre The Giant vs Heenan Family (Bobby Heenan, Big John Studd, King Kong Bundy) - Philly 1/11/86 "I'm Manager of the Year" - Bobby "The Brain" Heenan "You are Weasel of the Year" - Andre The Giant Fun, popcorn match. Andre and Hogan both bodyslam Studd at the outset to massive pops! Heenan takes a nutty bump. I loved Heenan pushing Bundy on top of Hogan when he was going for the slam. Great opening minutes. The heat segments on Hogan and Andre are big and fun. Heenan bumping around for Hogan at the end is a ton of fun. Fun way to spend ten minutes. ***

NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair vs Nick Bockwinkel - AWA, Winnipeg 1/17/86 I would imagine that Bockwinkel was disappointed in this match and honestly so am I. It is a great and enjoyable match, but Flair is not very interested in working anything but his match. In his defense, he was in Winnipeg, a place that had never or rarely seen him so all his spots would be incredibly fresh. That being said he was going up against NICK FUCKING BOCKWINKEL!!! Not Rufus in the parking lot of a used car dealership in Bumblefuck, KS. We are joined in progress and miss about the first ten minutes. One of the first things we see is a beautiful, masterful drop toe hold…

Regal and Garvin defend the AWA World Tag Team Titles

NWA TV Champion Arn Anderson vs Dusty Rhodes - JCP Atlanta 1/19/86 Steel Cage Fallout from the famous Horsemen break Dusty’s leg in the cage. In the weeks prior, Dusty broke Ole’s leg in revenge and saved Baby Doll who got hit by Tully. Now he wants to break Arn’s leg in a steel cage. Big match for Arn probably his biggest singles match to date. Dusty is a lot like Giant Baba the very charismatic boss whose shit doesn’t always look great but they make up for it by being so over and so cool charismatic. Dusty targets Arn’s leg and Arn makes this so much fun. Great heel Selling by Arn. Loved Arn charging into the cage and his knee slams into it. Great stooging. Ar…

NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair vs Ron Garvin - JCP 1/19/86 Clipped up but we get a lot! Worth the watch! As these two always are together. You gotta love when Flair gets trapped in a firefight and is forced to trade leather and no one forces his hand better than Ron Garvin baby! Lots of jaw jacking to start, Flair got knocked out cold by the Hands of Stone on TV the day prior. It looks like Flair is forcing Tommy Young to remove the tape around the fist. Besides maybe the exception of Vader there’s nobody better at using the corner in a match Flair. They trade heavy leather in the corner. Flair registers and sells so well. I love how he crowds and bull…

This is come as you are. Anything goes. This was a total blast. Just mindless fun with plunder. Though pay attention because things are happening between friends and enemies. 2 3/4*

This is a famous feud and I always thought it was one of Jakes. Early in the match we see Jake teasing the DDT, and then again. The crowd was so hot for this. I also like how Jake is keeping an eye out for Journey outside the ring. Jahe threw a nasty elbow and followed up with a big knee lift. Crowd is chanting DDT. The shine was pretty solid and effective. The ref blocks a Jake punch which sets up the heat. During the heat I enjoyed Jake's fire. Slater was good in giving Jake openings only to cut him off. Slater comes off the top and Jake nails a lariat. Jake misses a big knee lift, and Slater puts him in a sleeper. Slater counters another DDT. He has a foreign objec…

The Fabulous Ones vs The Guerreros - Houston 1/24/86 Mexican Death Match I didn't know the Fabs worked heel and guess what they were absolutely fabulous at it. Easily one of the top tier heel tag team performances I have seen so far even outclassing the MX performances so far. Stan Lane was such a great obnoxious dick mocking the Guerreros while Keirn was the mean, sadistic prick that loved flipping off the fans and telling Guerreros to kiss his ass. I loved Lane at the beginning saying i have never heard of this stupid Mexican match, you can make all the Mexican rules you want and we are going to kick your butt. Really should said Mexican butt. Mexican Death Match is…

This was a good tag. I liked the babyface shine here. The crowd was hot for the faces. Dick Murdoch totally carried his side. I didn't like how the heat was set up. The ring breaks and the heels don't miss a beat and use it as a weapon. I really enjoyed the finish here as well. 3*

This was a pretty good match. Taylor was focusing on the arm. They worked spots around the arm bar. Hit a high spot or 2 and back to the arm. Sawyer eventually got some heat. A real good bout. I really loved the post match angle. 3 1/4*

This is the Sheepherders debut in Houston, and what a way to get a heel team over as dangerous. They get super heat and just beat the crap out of both faces. They leave the faces a bloody mess. This was had a real gritty and violent feel to it.

Magnum defends the US Title against NWA TV Champion Arn Anderson

NWA World Champion Ric Flair defeated NWA National Heavyweight Champion Dusty Rhodes via reverse decision; Rhodes originally won the match and title at around the 20-minute mark after hitting Flair with his cowboy boot but referee Tommy Young, who was at ringside, told referee Sonny Fargo what happened with Fargo then changing the call

Chris Adams vs Gino Hernandez - WCCW 1/27/86 This was billed as hair vs hair, which I thought was odd given they just broke up a month ago. It turned out it was an angle, but it was an angle that went nowhere as Gino died five days later. Still it was a fantastic angle. Gino had the infamous Freebird hair cream. I loved Adams intensity early and Hernandez bumping for him. Adams missed a middle rope splash. Gino actually worked pretty strong on top. I feel like I got to see more Gino as a great heel in this match than in the tags. Gino missed a Tenryu elbow. I liked the symmetry. SUPERKICK~! Posts Gino a couple times, but he wants to dish out more punishment like a pil…

One of the best tag matches of the decade. Just non-stop action with intensity, violence, blood, psychology and selling. Incredible amount of hate too. My favorite spot is where Jumbo is seconds away from being beaten but Tenryu is more concerned with beating the fuck out of Choshu at ringside than saving the match. **** 1/2

Interesting match to revisit. I first watched this about 10 years ago when the Tiger Mask Misawa DVD was released. I thought the lengthy arm work was terrible and fast forwarded through much of it, but I found myself fascinated by the chaotic and bloody finishing run. It was a bit hard for me to figure out what to think overall about a match that seemingly had such a great last few minutes but such a long stretch of forgettable work before that. Now that I'm older and I'd like to think wiser, I can see that this is both far deeper and more coherent than I initially gave it credit. The key to keep in mind throughout is that this is Tiger Mask's first big singles match…

This is the loser gets painted yellow. I love stips like these.Fists flying early. Chavo winning both punch exchanges. Chavo working the leg early. Loved the hamstring kicks into an Indian Death Lock. Keirn makes the ropes. Chavo continuing his shine gives a knee to the back. Keirn with an eye rake to set up his heat. Keirn biting the forehead opening up a cut. Now Keirn is punching the cut. Bootscraping it for good measure. Chavo fighting back. Like the revenge spot of trying to bust open Keirn. A Bret Hart turnbuckle bump into a Chavo German suplex for the win. Fabs attack Chavo postmatch and cover him in yellow. I loved the angle. The match was a tad more technical t…

These guys would have a fun run together as a pair of heels.Gilbert gets heat with his version of the Fargo strut. Taylor gets the early shine. Here we see them working holds early. Humperdink doing baseball signals during the bout. I loved the payoffs that were set up in the match.Gilbert works the neck. They're throwing hands down the stretch. Taylor with a 5 arm for the win. 2 3/4*

This is the famous match that Ken Hoffman reported the finish of because Jake was leaving the area and headed to the WWF. Watts was so furious that he changed the finish and put Jake over here. I've really enjoyed this feud. This is a NO DQ match. Jake taunts Slater to start and Slater starts just kicking the crap out of him. Slater just taking it too Roberts. Jake's comeback is good with great looking punches. The crowd is 100% behind him. Slater cuts him off and delivers some surgical punches of his own. This bout has a real sense of urgency. The hate comes off the screen. Jake is bleeding and Slater delivers a pile driver. Slater is after the cut. Slater biting the cut…

6 man action in Houston. They're meshing some of their top feuds in umbrella story fashion. They're calling this a tag team war so the bar is raised with that build. Ref trying to maintain order. Murdoch teasing friendship with Duggan. Crowd is hot. Duggan and Murdoch finally lock up. Duggan strikes. Buzz is in and its on. Pier 6 brawl now. Folks it's out of control. Babyfaces standing tall as they clear the ring. Duggan and Murdoch are back at it. Teddy now getting a piece of Murdoch. Eye rake by Murdoch . Faces turn the tide. Nothing the heels do can stop the momentum. The heels sucker Doc into the corner, but his strength is too much to handle. Eventually they cut off …

The history between Lane and Robert Gibson goes way back. So I was a little excited to see Lane work Ricky. This was a solid undercard match. They did some neat stuff that had payoffs. The guys did a good job engaging the crowd. Still their was some moments of eh. Still as an undercard bout it worked.

The 1/24/86 is essential viewing as it's a hot angle to set up the Chicago Street Fight on 1/31/86. This is a decent brawl, made all the better by the incredible crowd heat. I can't put over how much heat the Sheepherders generated here. Houston is easiest one of the more patriotic cities in the U.S. For crowd heat the match gets 5*, for work it gets 2*. Combined I'll go 3 1/4*.