July 1987

BIt of a difficult match to rate. I'll start with my criticisms. This follows a very simple and predictable formula. The match starts out with a face (Dusty Rhodes) dominating a heel (Arn Anderson). Then a heel (Tully Blanchard) comes in and turns the tables until another face (Animal) comes in and the faces go back to dominating. Repeat that until everyone is in and it's time to go to the finish. I just described the entire match. As a viewer watching 30 years of later, I really would have liked to have seen them change things up just a little bit, like having the heels somehow manage to keep the advantage even when it's even or for the faces to try to stay in contro…

PWF World Tag Team Champions Jumbo Tsuruta vs Stan Hansen & Ted DiBiase - AJPW 7/11/87 Jumbo & Misawa won the Tag Titles a week prior it was the first time Stan Hansen had lost the titles since he & Brody were inaugural champions in 1984 (Ted DiBiase was Brody's replacement). Interesting, Stan & Ted win them back here as it had to be known by now that Ted was WWF-bound as I got to believe this was his last tour. Austin Idol replaces Ted, I have a morbid curiosity to watch Austin idol in All Japan. Very good meat & potatoes match. Nothing that will rock your world or cause you to a write a letter home to mom, but I would never complain if wr…

Kind of a formative match for these two. The story is that Bull shocked the world and took the title off of Wanz, now the question is can the old champ withstand the beast and take his title back? Wanz was already pretty slow and couldn't do much anymore, and this wasn't as violent as some of their matches, but it was a fight like all their matches are. You could argue that there were a lot of restholds, but they always moved right back to beating the snot out of eachother. Vader was mostly interested in bashing Wanz's skull in, while Wanz for some reason did a lot of knee strikes and european uppercuts. These super minimalist, long Wanz matches really make you appreciate…

NWA US Heavyweight Champion Nikita Koloff vs Lex Luger - Great American Bash 1987 Steel Cage Match Nikita has spent all of 1987 as US Champion, but I think he spent most of it playing second fiddle to the American Dream in the Superpowers. He won the Crockett Cup with Big Dust and was a part of the winning team at inaugural Wargames a week prior. The build has been ascension of Lex Luger is academic and it is just a matter of time that Luger becomes a champion like Flair and Blanchard and he has his eyes set on the US Championship. They had one brawl a month ago but other than that not much of a personal build to this one. Stream of consciousness to save time baby: …

NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair vs Jimmy Garvin - NWA Great American Bash 7/11/87 Steel Cage The build to this was fantastic. Some of the best unhinged, obnoxious Ric Flair promos ever. He was a total wildman. When he gave the fur coat to Gorgeous Jimmy Garvin's Main Squeeze, Precious, only to have her back smooching Gorgeous Jimmy in the every fur coat in the next segment, was just classic and what made it all better was his Meltdown. Meltdown of the Century. It was a Meltdown that played over multiple weeks. There's a very good Flair/Luger vs Garvins match that builds to this where Gorgeous Jimmy gets the visual pin on Flair. Gorgeous Jimmy wants a title m…

The Rock & Roll Express defend the NWA World Tag Team Titles. Taped 7/2 in Landover MD. Talk about it here.

UWF Western States Heritage Champion Barry Windham vs Dick Murdoch - UWF 7/11/87 (Aired on UWF TV 8/1/87) Crockett has already purchased the UWF at this point and this was during brief run where they tried to keep it as a separate entity sending over Windham to anchor the babyface side. I think they missed a big opportunity of having Windham in the Garvin slot. I love the Flair/Garvin series especially 87 and am a Garvin fan, but they could have really built to the future with a Windham victory there. I have seen this match a bunch of times and loved it. I saved it for last because I thought it had a legitimate shot as the best Mid-South match. To my surpri…

Big Bubba defends the UWF Heavyweight Title against Dr Death. Bubba's manager, Skandor Akbar is bullroped and tied to Dusty Rhodes to prevent interference. Part of the 1987 NWA Great American Bash Tour. Talk about it here

I thought Dibiase did a really great job of selling leg damage in this one. The finish is a little abrupt, but Hansen puts on a pretty good show on the outside of the ring and while he's on the apron throughout the match. I liked when Yatsu tried to attack Hansen on the outside near their (Hansen & Dibiase's) corner, but he slaps him and tells him to bring it on. It's a good match.

HOLY SHIT! Flair comes out hootin' & hollerin' every week that he is this stud in the bedroom and that all the girls not only want to ride Space Mountain, but they never want it to end. "You cant be first, but you can be next." Thats what the Nature Boy says. Coming off his big victory over Jimmy Garvin, Ric Flair is acting like he is going on his very first date ever, like he is in high school! It is his Dream Date with Precious after all. Flair delivers one of his best deranged, obsessive, psychotic promos ever. Capped off by saying that he has been practicing night in and night out with a mannequin adorned with a blonde wig and some black negligee that's suppo…

The interview before the match is very interesting and straightforward, surprisingly sports-like. Casas is really stoic and matter of factly says that Santo is gonna be the crowd's favourite but he's cool with it and he even smiles very candidly when asked exactly where he's from (Tlalpan in Mexico City). But when Santo shows up he starts messing with the interviewer and trash-talking him a bit. Santito enters the arena in a red Cadillac and is carried to the ring by adoring fans. It's really one of the best ringwalks I've ever seen, perhaps only rivaled by boxer Jorge Arce riding a damn dancing horse to the ring. I believe this is what people refer to when they say stuff…

Hulk Hogan describes the brightest force in the world as Hulkamania and Mr. Fuji says now you see darkness. Khan spews the mist in his eyes. At this point, they are transitioning from Kamala as Hogan's monster challenger to Killer Khan. Solid angle to kick this off and plays well into the finish around the horn.

Taped on 6/24/87 Louisville KY. This is the first of nine televised matches between the two teams. The Angels WWF debut against Lelaini Kai & Judy Martin, Non Title match. Talk about it here . Available on the Network, Vault, Prime TIme Wrestling, 1987. July 20th episode. Starts at 25:40

I dig the chop exchange of Hansen and Tenryu this stars off with. DiBiase starts this with his ribs taped. DiBiase does an excellent job selling rib damage throughout this match. I think Ted's selling really drives the first half of the match, and I'd consider this a pretty memorable performance from him. I would say if your DiBiase fan (like me) and haven't seen this (like I hadn't), you would want to check this out. He might be a factor of the match too short of time for this to be considered a great moment, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Hansen does a good job carrying things once Ted is out of the picture. Hansen has some nice selling of fatigue and taking damage…

What is there to say? Maybe the greatest angle in the history of wrestling! Maybe the greatest thing I have ever seen! They are trying to film a Sex Tape in 1987!?! JJ Dillon is a voyeur! Ric Flair is an obsessed, sick freak! And Miss Atlanta Lively returns BABY! If you have never seen this, you gotta see it! I can't believe I had never seen this before. This is greatest piece of sleaze ever recorded! God Bless Pro Wrestling!

WWF World Tag Champions Hart Foundation vs British Bulldogs - MSG 7/25/87 If I am not mistaken, this is the last major match these two teams would have together. They went out with a bang. Definitely my choice for the best match these two teams have ever had with each other. Three Hart Foundation/Bulldogs matches have made WWE DVDs I cant believe this one has not. To me this is finally the match that rivals the stuff with the Bulldogs were having with the Dream Team. The Hart Foundation finally learns and attacks the Bulldogs during the Matilda routine. They isolate Davey Boy, while Dynamite gets Matilda out of harm's way. It is all for naug…

Honky Tonk Man had recently won the title from Steamer in an underhanded way. Originally this was supposed to be Jake. Honky is a really interesting character. As the IC champion the fans viewed him as an unworthy champion after the likes of Steamer,Savage,Tito, and the Hammer. So they work this match to really play up that story. At the bell Honky pearl harbors Steamer but turns the tide immedieately. Steamboat takes control and focuses on HTM's neck and back. Honky gets an opening and gets a little flurry of punches. Steamer blocks and in some great revenge spots punches HTM in the face. The crowd is super hot, and believes the title is a changing. Every near fall MSG b…

Rick Martel vs Tama - 7/87 MSG I cant find the match online anymore. This is my review from five years ago. I dont know that I would vote this over either Savage vs Steamboat matches or the Jumping Bomb Angels vs Glamour Girls match, but this is an insanely great match that if you can find it you must watch it. Zenk has departed the WWF and thus Martel has activated AWA World Champion mode. He says he would wrestle the two Islanders himself (in separate singles). Throughout this match, if you did not know any better it felt like it was of his really high end AWA World Championship defenses. Martel is such an offensive dynamo and Tama is trying his best to brea…

Ric Flair, Lex Luger, Tully Blanchard, Arn Anderson, War Machine vs Dusty Rhodes, Nikita Koloff, Road Warriors & Paul Ellering - WARGAMES II 7/31/87 Yeah so I am the WARGAMES hater. I just feel like it is a lot of battle royale brawling. I like blood, but seeing wrestlers with Crimson Masks is not enough for me. I hate being a downer because I do think the concept is really cool. Wargames '91 and '94 are legitimately awesome. I just felt again I was watching a battle royale with a lot of meandering. I mean at one point fucking Flair called for a bridge out of a pin spot with Nikita. I love Flair to death, but what the fuck was that. Lets run through some highligh…