November 1986

WWF World Tag Champs British Bulldogs vs The Hart Foundation 11/1/86 Editor's note: The majority of this review was written in 2013 but I watched it again recently and updated my thoughts. How much a difference five years makes? I thought the finish sucked the meat missile in this one, but five years ago I thought it added drama. I thought it was way too slow and plodding. Davey Boy was just hanging on the apron forever. The rollup was so slow. Just contrived all around. Last time we saw these teams face off was about a year ago. The Bulldogs have wrested the titles off the Dream Team in a fantastic and defended the title against the teams ye …

I was so close, but I think burnt myself out on Hogan. WWF Intercontinental Champion Randy Savage vs Ricky Steamboat - Boston 11/1/86 Tremendous match this pre-dates the larynx crushing angle on TV by a couple weeks so this wrestled more straight. Savage is the consummate heel. I have said this time and time again. In that ring he is utterly despicable. Here it is the stalling, the hair pulling, and foreign object. He is such a product of Memphis, but this is what the WWF needed as variety from your Studds & Bundys. Steamboat is a great white meat babyface here. He does a great job not losing his concentration during Savage's stalling tactics. He is committed …

While it is hard for me to call this a feel good match considering the beating Chigusa takes for most of the match, the ending and postmatch have such a satisfying overcoming the odds feel to them. This has a more commanding Matsumoto performance as compared to 8/85: strutting around arrogantly, beating up the referee, torturing Nagayo. Chigusa delivers yet another epic selling babyface performance. Her wandering around, dazed and half blinded by blood is quite the visual. The hope spots are great and the crowd reactions enhance everything. Great finish that works as the perfect payback spot. Dramatic and emotional. Must-see just like the first hair match. **** 1/4

This is a Country Whipping Match/I Quit match. This was tons of fun. It was structured like a southern tag. except everyone whipped each other. The faces really took it to the Birds. Hayes might be the best ever at taking a country whipping with his selling. Roberts is no slouch either in this department. At the finish Hayes has had enough and takes a powder. This leaves Roberts alone. Doc whips him good till he quits. I'd like the match more if they would have done the I Quit a couple of times and built to it. Still fun stuff. 3 3/4*

This is a pretty ho hum tag, but the Fantastics do a good job keeping things interesting. The finish was pretty awesome.

Another great, compact brawl with a very different feel from the previous one. When Colon missed the jumping knee in the corner, I thought, he's Stan Hansen and they're doing a brawl, no way is he going to go after the knee, but he did! And it was great! And he managed to do limb work that fit the chaotic nature of the match. They followed suit with Hansen missing a lariat and crashing into the ringpost which led to Colon targeting Hansen's arm during the mayhem. This feels like a super high rating for a match this short, but if anything, I wanted to go higher. I do think of the two brawls, this is the slightly better worked ones, although both have their merits, and I'm …

Man when Taylor saw the booking sheet he must have wondered who he pissed off. Two green opponents, and a partner the boss wants over and he's green too. I thought Rick Steiner was pretty good here. I dug him trying to trick Taylor into their corner. Taylor did a good job ring leadering this. Both teams worked the arms. Their was one ugly spot with Sting. They also got Jack the pin so overall mission accomplished. Solid match. 2 1/2*

Wait, what the fuck? There's a match with Fujiwara and the Tonga Kid on opposite sides and this is the first I'm hearing about it?! You'd look at those names and think this couldn't be as fun as it promises, and I mean sure, things could always be MORE fun, but life is like that sometimes and this was still very fun. Perhaps the perfect amount of fun for a10-minute midcard trios that happened to involve one of the biggest stars in the history of wrestling. I loved all of the parts with the Samoans encountering someone with a harder head than them. First the Wild Samoan rams Fujiwara into the post and is perplexed when Fujiwara shrugs it off. Then he elbows Fujiwara in the…

AWA World Heavyweight Champion Nick Bockwinkel vs Curt Hennig - AWA, Showboat 11/21/86 What can I possibly say about not just possibly the greatest one hour draw of all time, but possibly the greatest match of all time? It was totally engrossing. I love professional wrestling, but my mind will always wander it is just natural for me. Now you take two men put them in a single bout that goes roughly 2-3x longer than the average match and I am going to lose focus at some point and have to rewind. I have watched this match multiple times and that has never ever happened to me. It is just as gripping to me now as when I bought the WWE Curt Hennig comp. I think there are tw…

Hart Foundation vs Islanders 11/16/86 Maple Leaf Gardens Best match from the Hart Foundation I have seen so far and it was really good for a WWF Tag. The Islanders, hot damn, I had never seen them before and they were perfect babyfaces for the WWF in the way Rougeaus never could be. They kinda got fucked with the elevation of Strike Force as number one babyface. It doesn't strike me that they would be very good as heels, but we shall see. I have dug Martel and Tito a lot, but the they have a lot of ground to cover to match the sheer energy The Islanders brought to this match (I would be so wrong on both accounts!). As for this match, Bret does a little bit…

WWF Intercontinental Champion Randy Savage vs Ricky Steamboat - WWF Superstars 11/22/86 "I think he may have swallowed his tongue and that's a horrible thing to say." - Vince McMahon doing an excellent job calling this angle. This is actually a great TV sprint before the big angle. You know because it is TV in the 80s there will be an angle, but they went about 8 minutes and just gave it there all. I would say this is like a Best of Savage vs Steamboat, all the hits are there and they are flying around. They are all able to portray eveness without it coming off like an exhibition. I think that is Savage's true strength is that he sort of innovated the longer seque…

Tito Santana vs Jake The Snake Roberts - WWF Houston 11/26/86 Tito is one of my all-time favorite WWF workers. He always wrestles with such vim and vigor. Jake the Snake is a wrestler that I have never really thought was all the great. Everytime, I see him, I thought 1 or 2 spots would be interesting, but the rest of the match would be dreadfully dull. I would say this more of a Jake the Snake match than a Tito match, but because Tito is involved one of the better Jake matches I have seen. First off, Jake or should I say the DDT was way more over than Tito. It was clear they would have to turn him babyface and by Wrestlemania III that would be the case. I actually don…

Rockers & DESPINA vs Buddy Rose & Doug Somers & Sherri - AWA 11/27/86 At first, I thought this was an interesting booking progression to go from the red hot bloodbath to a more lighthearted match. The middle portion of the matches gets hot, but the finish run bring back that 80s camp fun. We begin with a more comedic to start with Buddy Rose bumping and stooging. Sherri tries to help, but Michaels kicks hand off. We find out this is an INTERGENDER tag match as Despina gets arm wringer on Somers and he sells it. Somers finally gets a short jab to the face of Shawn and works him into ropes. Sherri gets shouldertackles on Shawn and Shawn looks to car…

NWA World TV Champion Dusty Rhodes vs Tully Blanchard - NWA Starrcade 1986 First Blood Dusty playing Red Light, Green Light with Tully using bionic elbow will always be one of my favorite spots in wrestling history. To me it epitomizes the fun that pro wrestling can be. I always have the biggest smile on my face watching this match. It is a total master class in psychology, an anti-workrate classic and a testament to the intoxicating, infectious charisma of the American Dream and the brilliant cowardice of Tully Blanchard. The beginning with Dillon trying to put headgear on Tully and the Vaseline is so much fun. Dillon tries to give Dusty a piece of his mind and Dusty…

NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair vs Nikita Koloff - NWA Starrcade 1986 Before match there is this weird music video of Magnum TA running to the beach to what appears to be his mother, but there is this horrible post-grunge song with the chorus of "her life is like a box that is always empty". I just couldn't believe that a song that sound like it was from the mid-90s would be used in the original segment. I knew I had seen this before. I took to google found my post from here. (Hey remember Comments That Warrant A Thread!). I am still apparently the only one who cares about this. Zellner informed me that Wind Beneath My Wings was originally the music set to th…

NWA World Tag Team Champions Rock N Roll Express vs The Andersons - Starrcade 1986 Steel Cage Match NOW GET READY TO BOOGIE! It is the consummate babyface tag team against the consummate heel tag team, so you can bet your ass this is pretty damn spectacular. I really enjoyed early on Arn tries to bully Robert Gibson into the cage only to be rammed into it and then in his dazed wandering over to Morton and getting nailed. The early portion of the match feels like a great tag team match that just so happens to take place in a cage. Morton is teeing off on Ole. I love in the 80s how quick the tags were in the early going. Gibson charges after Ole and his knee rams th…

Ronnie Garvin vs Big Bubba Rogers - NWA Starrcade 1986 Louisville Streetfight Simple, but elegant. Only in pro wrestling can you describe a man being busted open with a roll of nickels as simple, but elegant. The only convoluted section was when Garvin brought out some rope. It was clear that Ronnie Garvin had spent time in the navy as he had no idea how to hogtie Bubba. Before and after the match was exactly what it should have been. Garvin using his speed to hit and run early tagging Bubba with some big shots. Bubba was such a good bumper. He takes a great big spill on the floor off a Garvin punch. Bubba throws Garvin out but he keeps landing on his feet. Bubba uses…

WWF Intercontinental Champion Randy "Macho Man" Savage vs Jake "The Snake" Roberts - SNME 11/86 They were clearly pretty confident about turning Jake The Snake babyface at this point pitting him against the Macho Man in this nominally heel vs heel bout. Yes, they both pull hair at the beginning to establish they are heels, but make no mistake about it Jake is clearly the babyface in this match. Vince gets a good line in on Jesse, who is wearing toupee and if he was in this match someone who have gone home with a prize. Given Savage's propensity for laying out his matches meticulously beforehand it would have been hilarious if the crowd ended cheering for the M…