October 1987

Nominate: Terry Rudge vs. Franz van Buyten, Hamburg 10/1/1987 I re-watched this classic. Still a kickass match. These Hamburg shows were much more rowdier than the tame british TV wrestling, so Rudge was allowed to go all out. Of course the main selling point is that this is a match to see Rudge at his most aggressive and violent in an important match against the top babyface. But this match also has a simple, effective structure going for it, where they make the most out of using the round system. The first round is the feeling out and establishing of the characters. In the second round, they do some really slick wrestling about arm whips and a headscissor. Simple …

Ric Flair defends the NWA World Title in a steel cage. Talk about it here.

Strike Force vs Islanders - WWF Boston 10/03/87 I couldnt find any of the classic Strike Force vs Islanders matches I have reviewed. So I decided to check this out. Man, I have I said many times, many ways, Tama should have been a heel megastar. He is such a cocky asshole. He takes three king-sized bumps early. The biggest is off a dropkick over the top rope to the floor and then over the railing. Martel is such a joy to watch. He is always high-stepping his way into your heart. Tito Santana is a great blood feud worker. I loved him just punching Tama right in the face on a leapfrog. The heat segment is set up nicely by Martel knocking heads with Haku and falli…

Ok, so here's the thing. I kinda watched this match. I didn't sit down and stare at the screen for two hours, since not even my love of Inoki is that strong, but I went through the entire match in a span of, idk, 20-30 minutes steadily skipping ahead, because I needed to know what happened in it. And what impressed me more than anything is how badass the whole thing looked-there was prety much an unlimited number of amazing shots. The setting is as big of a part of the match as anything the workers do, as you get these amazing shots of mountains and the ocean while Inoki and Masa Saito are fighting, really it's something you'd expect to see on a "Visit Japan" commercial w…

NWA International Champion Jumbo Tsuruta vs NWA United National Champion Genichiro Tenryu - AJPW 10/11/87 Jumbo Tsuruta came to fight in this match! He was full of piss and vinegar in this match and it was glorious to watch. The whole match was very chippy, which is a place that Tenryu excels. Jumbo was pissed. That high knee almost took Tenryu's head off. Tenryu was smart to go to the headlock to try slow Jumbo down and sap some of that energy, but to no avail. As Jumbo came storming out with a flying armbar takedown and wrenched the arm. Tenryu then tried to slap Jumbo. Bad idea, brutha! Jumbo lit his ass up. He even hit a piledriver. It got so bad, Jumbo ac…

The treasure trove of NJ HH footage delivers us what seems to be a previously unearthed New Japan 10 man elimination match. The other Elimination matches finished very high on the NJ DVDVR 80s sets, and this might be a slight step below a MOTD level, it is still really awesome. This was worked at a super sprint pace which works well with all of these guys in this match, and with Choshu, Muto and Fujiwara we have some of the greatest sprint wrestlers ever. I actually really loved Takada in this, he was about as violent as I have seen him, he really kicks the shit out of Choshu and at one point mounts him and lays out some nasty ground and pound. I also love Sakaguchi as a …

WWF World Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan vs Ted DiBiase - Houston 10/9/87 DiBiase never got a huge singles run with the Hulkster matches here and there kinda like Roddy Piper. DiBiase major singles run was against the Macho Man holding down the fort in the Hulkster's absence. In early 88, he was a part of series tags either with Virgil or Andre against Hogan/Bam Bam Bigelow. The Million Dollar Man is such a great gimmick. He comes out says he is going to offer a Hulkamaniac a chance to win some money but wants to wait for Hogan to come out. He cuts a promo saying he wanted Hulk out there so he could watch one of his Hulkamaniacs embarrass themselves groveling for…

NWA World Tag Team Champions Rock N Roll Express vs Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard - NWA Pro 10/3/87 Welp, looks like we never got out classic from these two teams as this is an angle to transition the titles to the Horsemen and move RnRs into a feud with MX. The Midnights jumped RNRs before the match injuring Morton. Gibson gives a "gutty performance" (Johnny Weaver) and honestly it is the best I have seen Gibson looked. I thought he was great during the shine, just a ball of energy overwhelming the Horsemen, but also being cautious given the circumstances. I liked how he went for the standard RNR moves and then was like oh fuck, Ricky aint there. Horsemen beatdo…

Somers & Ustinov defend the AWA World Tag Team Titles at the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis, TN

Strike Force vs The Islanders - 10/87 MSG 2 Out of 3 Falls I couldnt find this one either. Strike Force try to start off early, but the Islanders are wary of this and bail. Bock is on commentary again and does not know what to make of it when Gorilla posits that The Brain maybe in drag somewhere in the building. Neither do I, Bock. Was there an angle at the time? There is obviously the Weasel Suit, but I know nothing of drag. Anyways, Strike Force starts off hot with Strike Force controlling the action. They use a headlock as a base in this match. Tito hits a pretty sweet Thesz Press that only gets two. Haku catches Martel with a back suplex while in the headlo…

Another rare V3 mask match and a true treat. Rambo comes out firing brutalizing Villano with nasty punches and postings. He sweeps the first fall, and dominates the second until Villano is able to make a quick comeback and win with a top rop armdrag. In between falls they show a close up of V3 face and his mask is ripped and he is covered in blood, he looks like a gunshot victim. Third fall has some clipping which makes it a bit hard to follow at the beginning, but once that ends we get an epic lucha apuestas third fall with Rambo taking some big bumps, dramatic near falls and both guys masks getting soaked. Villano has really great headbutts and knees, you can see why he…