December 1986

PWF World Heavyweight Champion Riki Choshu vs Ricky Martel - AJPW 12/03/86 If there is one wrestler I cant resist, it is Ricky Martel, baby! I enjoyed this match. I like a good narrative and the fact this didnt really have one puts a ceiling on how much I enjoyed it. However, besides a narrative, this had everything else I really enjoy in pro wrestling. Lots of struggle, trading holds, and huge charisma. You cant have a bad time watching Rick Martel work. He is so quick and moving with such vigor. Watch his side headlock into a toehold. Or watch his O'Connor Roll. He is such a joy to watch. Choshu is a total rockstar. Just a really hot opening to the match without an…

NWA World Tag Team Champions Rock N Roll Express vs Ragin & Ravishin (Manny Fernandez & Rick Rude) - WCW TV 12/6/86 I am going to sound like a broken record, but again I thought this heat segment on Morton was too long. I don't really think they needed to go 30 minutes in this match. They established their point and manufactured the drama, but prolonging the agony on Morton's arm only served to lessen the impact of the finish. I thought all three RnR matches I have seen are at about the same level and with the same issue. I would probably put this middle of the pack, but I think they are very close to each other. I liked the shine of this one a lot and probabl…

The Dream Team vs Islanders - Boston 12/6/86 Tama is looking PIMP at the beginning of the match. That jacket is fuckin *****, maybe that's why I got distracted. beefcake add his one useful contribution drops down to the Superfly pose and does "Up Yours!". Haku/Tama start with early double teams on Valentine's arm. Haku gets him a figure 4 armlock and head headscissors and also a hammerlock pinfall attempt. Tama and Valentine have a nice vicious exchange and Valentine also takes a cross body from Tama. Haku veers off cours and starts going after legs: single Boston Crab and spreading his legs apart. Basically the first half of the match was jaw-jacking and then has b…

Hulk Hogan defends the WWF Title in the Boston Gardens. Talk about it here

Antonio Inoki & Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Akira Maeda & Osamu Kido - NJPW 12/10/86 This is an IWGP Tag League match. I am not sure thats what the Tag League was called but I dont want to look it up via Wiki because I dont want to get spoiled on the rematch that happens the next night. Inoki vs Maeda is obviously the draw at the time, which I was definitely interested in as this is the first time I would be seeing them square off as I have not watched more heralded multi-mans yet. As a massive Fujiwara fan I was also very interested in that. I would say this match satiates both appetites. It took me a full five minutes to figure out what was weird about this…

Tatsumi Fujinami vs Kengo Kimura - NJPW 12/10/86 I absolutely loved their 1/2/87 bloody barnburner and apparently this is the set up match! It is on New Japan World so I was chomping at the bit to watch this. Fujinami & Kimura were the current IWGP Tag Team Champions. I can only speculate that this was some sort of respect feud or Kimura trying to step out of Fujinami's shadow. Interestingly, in contrast to the January it is Fujinami that is the more aggressive of the two. He jumps Kimura from behind at the bell. He really takes it to Kimura. Throwing him around and focusing on the arm. Lots of hammerlocks and double wristlocks. He is countering Kimura at every t…

Antonio Inoki & Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs Akira Maeda & Osamu Kido - NJPW 12/11/86 IWGP Tag League I believe this is the 1986 IWGP Tag League Finals as these two teams wrestled the night before where Inoki got counted out after nailing the ringpost with an Enziguiri. Looking to get to bed by 10pm so lets do this stream of consciousness style: Fujiwara and Kido to start. Greco-Roman Knucklock. Fujiawara into a hammerlock and sits down into the Fujiwar armbar but Kido keeps arm at angle. The cool Fujiwara Boston Crab counter happens again! Love that spot! Kido drop toehold into a crossface. Fujiwara hiptoss. Kido tags out. Maeda vs Fujiwara! Fujiwara/Inoki con…

Holy shit! Talking about best/favorite matches under 10 minutes?? Ted Dibiase is in two of my favorites. #1 vs. Magnum TA on 5/27/84 (pretty sure that's under 10), and this match is has to be pretty high on that list. Hansen starts this sucker off with a MONSTER lariat. Then they work over the head of Tenryu. I love Hansen cutting off the hot tag with his knee. Dibiase and Jumbo both dish out some nasty strikes in this match. Jumbo is truly amazing once he gets the hot tag. He's a madman. I loved the drama of Hansen hitting the lariat on Dibiase on the outside, and Jumbo crawling in to beat the count.

This is a solid tag, but it's set up for the NO DQ Christmas show. We get a solid shine for the babyfaces. Then Brown takes a bump to the corner and the ring breaks. I gotta give credit to the wrestlers. Sometimes you seem them fail sometimes pull it off. I thought they did a good job covering while the ring was repaired. The bread and butter was Taylor's FIP. He's busted open and the heels do a great job of working over the cut. The finish is what is needed to set up the stips for the next match. We got some fun post match promos. 2 1/2*

It was supposed to be originally going to be the Freebirds, but Hayes mom just died. So we got this match. It's a basic tag match with Rogers doing a good job as FIP. He made all of Angel Of Deaths offense look like it hurt. We get this hot tag. Fulton and Chavo try something that is totally botched. A solid tag though.

The Russians defend the NWA United States Tag Team Titles

British Bulldogs vs Bob Orton and Don Muraco.

Another compact and chaotic match, this time a tag match that was wrestled like it was a Texas Tornado brawl, whether it was one or not. I think this suffered a little bit only because Hansen and Colon were so ridiculously "bigger" and more charismatic than their tag team partners, but the junior team members did work hard and this was lots of fun. ***1/4

Midnight Rockers vs Buddy Rose & Doug Somers - AWA 12/25/86 To paraphrase Prince, “Excuse if I get excited, I was watching a badass Shawn Michaels shine.” This is a very controversial and your thoughts on it probably tells a lot about who you are as a person. As a person that is a bit of a ham that loves things over the top and outrageous. I love this shit. Where other people may find Shawn Michael’s to be a douchebag in this match, I saw a person that was excited to be kicking the ass of the men that had been keeping them away from the titles for months and had bloodied him on two occasions. Shawn Michaels as the serious asskicker in the beginning would have been fi…

AWA World Heavyweight Champion Nick Bockwinkel vs Curt Hennig - AWA Brawl in St. Paul 12/25/86 I really love the camerawork of the AWA. You can really hear the sound of flesh on flesh. It felt like you were actually in the ring with professional wrestlers. It was so gritty. It may be my favorite camerawork of all time. It really stood out to me during some of the badass tag team steel cage matches. I think this match is exemplary of the greatness of the AWA camerawork. You can hear Curt and Nick smack the shit out of each other. You can hear them yelling at each other and in pain. One of the hallmarks of the Bockwinkel vs. Henng feud is the progress of Hennig in t…

Some major bomb throwing to start. They take it to the floor. This is one hell of a brawl. Doc stomping on Gordy's hand was a nice touch, and could possibly take the Oriental spike out of play. Plus it's a nice touch of the OMG breaking Gordy's arm. These guys are just putting a beatdown on one another. This is real physical stuff. Gordy working the back.The psychology of Gordy working over Doc's back was smart and added a lot to the brawl. Gordy working over the back takes out Doc's Oklahoma Stampede. I can't put over the physicality enough. Gordy again with the bear hug. The bear hug went a little long, and he could have done something a little more engaging. These gu…

WWF World Heavyweight Hulk Hogan vs Kamala - MSG 12/26/86 This is the prelude to the famous Warpaint match the next month at MSG and I thought it was every bit as good. Kamala was great as the immovable object in this match. He was like a better Andre (Andre obviously having physical issues). His weeble wobble selling was great. The way they bounced off each other on the shouldertackles. Kamala's leapfrog and bowling Hogan over and then doing the leapfrog again as his celebration was great. Total commitment to the character. Loved Hogan going for the slam early and Kamala working the back over with chops. Hogan was beating the crap out of him but he would go down and …