December 1987

Antonio Inoki & Dick Murdoch vs Masa Saito & Yoshiaki Fujiwara - NJPW 12/4/87 Four of my Top 100 Wrestlers of all time hooking up in a dream dream tag match! HELL YEAH! I can tell without pause why this did well in DVDVR Polling (#52) because this match is Headbutt City. If you love headbutts, this match is for you. It is a 30 minute draw that is worked like a 30 minute draw but still very good because these four are awesome even if never reaches that next level. The headbutts are the real drawing card. I am not a huge headbutt guy with the exception being Fujiwara of course who is the God King of Headbutts. There is a clip in the match, I think we lose …

Genichiro Tenryu & Ashura Hara vs Jumbo Tsuruta & Yoshiaki Yatsu - AJPW 12/5/87 Real World Tag League. Tenryu & Hara are the PWF World Tag Team Champions coming into this, but not on the line because of the tournament. Live watch: Jumbo & Hara start off not much of note. Hara tags out. Jumbo tags out as a sign of disrespect to Tenryu, who gives him a sideways glance. Tenryu bowls him over with a tackle and snapmare into a chinlock. Nice almost escape by Yatsu, but Tenryu is tenacious. Yatsu destabilized him enough to convert into a wristlock and tags out to Jumbo upon standing. Tenryu backs away and tags out to Hara. More mind games. Jumbo grabs …

NWA World Champion Ric Flair vs Michael Hayes - 12/5/87 Flair said in his pre match promo that this is his first title defense on TV in two years. Seems wrong to me. The Flair strut vs Hayes moonwalk was awesome! Typical Flair title defense on TV. But just a treat to watch. Pay attention to how Flair builds energy through bumping at the beginning then takes it down with chain wrestling. Watch how he tries different strategies first off the ropes, then using the ref in corner and then holds. It allows Hayes to beat him in different ways to keep the fans on their toes. Hayes was great in his intensity and energy. Flair creating offense on defense is another grea…

Genichiro Tenryu & Ashura Hara vs Stan Hansen & Terry Gordy - AJPW 12/11/87 Tenryu & Hara are the current PWF World Tag Team Champions but the titles are not on the line as this the Real World Tag League. I am going to do this stream of consciousness style to save some time as I want to get to bed before midnight: Hansen & Gordy won their match over Jumbo & Yatsu via countout after Hansen creamed Yatsu with a Lariat out of nowhere. I skipped Tenryu & Hara vs Jumbo & Yatsu for now because I am in a Hansen groove. Joe Higuchi in his powder blue referee outfit looking snazzy as fuck. Hansen and Hara to start. Hansen a little more s…

Hulk Hogan defends the WWF Title. Talk about it here

La Gran Guerrera I: Carlos Colon, Invader I, Bruiser Brody, Dutch Mantell & TNT vs Abdullah the Butcher, Hercules Ayala, Chicky Starr, Kareem Muhammad & Grizzly Boone 12/12/87 WWC This is a match where the result is almost better than the match itself. The opening of this is a bit like a battle royal, guys lean against the ropes and punch eachother. Invader #1 is by far the most enthusiastic guy here, throwing hands and really punting Chicky in the balls with a vengeance, while Colon is the one who pops the crowd. The handcuffing stuff doesn't look great altough I dig that Abby has forearms too huge to be handcuffed easily. It comes down to Iron Sheikh vs.…

Curt Hennig defends the AWA World Title against Greg Gagne in this never before seen match. Verne Gagne and Larry Hennig are strapped to each other at ringside!!! Available on the Network, Vault, Hidden Gems, 1987. "AWA Christmas Night 1987". Talk about it here

Shawn & Marty take on the AWA tag team champions, Randy Rose & Dennis Condrey (w/ Paul E. Dangerously) in this never before seen match. Available on the Network, Vault, Hidden Gems, 1987. "AWA Christmas Night 1987". Talk about it here

Both guys I totally dig. Announcers are fat shaming Adonis. Pretty lackluster to start. Adonis has clamped on a lazy arm bar. Big chop by Wahoo has Adonis crumpled in the corner.Adonis using his girth on Wahoo. We get a ref bump. Adonis hits wahoo with the phone to get the heat. We get the 3 count, but refs waves it off because Wahoo had his foot on the rope. This was a bad match.

Ricky Steamboat vs Rick Rude - MSG 12/26/87 I often forget that Steamboat stuck around after dropping the IC Title to Honky Tonk Man. The result was a feud with Ravishing Rick Rude, which I have never watched before (it is not as critically acclaimed as their '92 WCW feud). Rude is such a great character. He doesn't quite have that swagger when he tells all the New York Sleazebags to piper down while he shows all the ladies what a real, sexy man looks like but it was definitely there. Steamboat did not look pumped here. Very subdued entrance. I am guessing he took a lot of time off for his newborn and doesn't seem invested. Nice opening shine with Steamboat skinning t…

AWA World Heavyweight Champion Curt Hennig vs Wahoo McDaniel - AWA 12/27/87 For me, the AWA died on May 2, 1987 when Hennig beat Bockwinkel for the championship. Nothing against Hennig, but Bock was the AWA and was never the same after that. Hennig was Cool Curt a cheating, bumping heel. This is not a hot take but Jesus Dolph Ziggler is a modern Curt. Hennig was bumping like a pinball for the immobile Wahoo. This was a couple goofy facial expressions away from being Michaela vs Hogan. Hennig was finding all sorts of innovative ways to bump for chopping. What's crazy is Wahoo takes like 95% of the match. Besides blading off a post shot, Hennig was just bumping.…

The Original Midnight Express (Dennis Condrey & Randy Rose) defend the AWA World Tag Team Titles against Shawn Michaels & Marty Jannetty

Before there was ECW, there was fucking New Japan in 1987 BABY! Right out of the ECW playbook, this was a series of impromptu matches that led to a mega-hot debut and apparently a riot at the Sumo Hall. New Japan World has an excellent 38 minute video up covering it all. So it begins with Saito cutting a promo in the ring with Choshu and Vader. This is after the very famous Island Death Match. I am presuming Saito is introducing Vader as his assassin. Inoki comes out. It is a bit confusing but we end up settling into a tag team match pitting Masa Saito & Riki Choshu vs Tastumi Fujinami & Kengo Kimura. Masa Saito & Riki Choshu vs Tastumi Fujinami &am…

Here we have a matchup of two guys who would go on to bigger and better things. Yamada would go on to become Jushin Liger while Funaki would change his first name to Masakatsu and become a pioneer of MMA in Pancrase. At this point, however, they're just a couple of young lions toiling away in prelims. This is a pretty basic match built around a contrast of styles-Funaki wants to establish separation so he can throw his kicks while Yamada would prefer to stay on the mat. The biggest highspot for most of the match is Yamada powering out of a triangle choke. There is some questionable no-selling toward the end. Yamada goes for the shooting star press but gets tossed off the …