January 1988

All the Flair-Sting sequences you’ve come to know and love in what I think was the first televised match these two ever had. Within the first three minutes, Flair goes up for two press slams. Still, this is fun because at this point, this is a fresh matchup. The feud hadn’t really gotten started yet, and Sting was just a UWF reject midcarder, so Flair did a lot to get him over as a worthy challenger, completely bitching out (yeah, I said it) for the test of strength and letting Sting shrug off his chops. The no-sell of the vertical suplex was a rare spot at this point since the Nikita feud was over a year old and the Luger feud hadn’t kicked in yet, so that got quite the …

These two had a solid match, but it’s hurt by a few things like JJ taking too much heat for himself in the interference spots and Garvin just not being very over anymore after the title win and loss. Arn worked over Garvin’s arm and did some nice work, but the match didn’t really play to Garvin’s strengths as much as his matches with Flair usually did. It says something about the state of JCP at this point that people didn’t really start getting into it until they really started with the booking to show the finish was coming. I’m glad I saw this because it’s not bad, but it’s just an average TV match.

The going narrative was always that fans were sick of Dusty by 1988 but this crowd sure loved the guy and that’s what made this match fun to watch. Arn and Tully are definitely a team that will maximize any opportunity they have to work with a super over babyface, so they went in a direction you might not expect with Dusty as FIP. Tully is such a great heel opportunist. The stone face during ring intros is a great contrast to the try-hard types like Jeff Jarrett who pander for the heat. Tully can be an asshole just by standing there – he’ll do asshole things, but he gets heat because he *is* an asshole, not because he acts like one. Nikita had a really fun hot tag before …

Greg Valentine vs Koko B. Ware - SNME 1/2/88 Valentine is a full-on singles again and is being managed by the Mouth of the South, Jimmy Hart. The New Dream Team broke up after Survivor Series '87 when Johnny V left. You think Valentine might get a renewed push but spends '88 stuck in programs with George The Animal Steele and Don Muraco with Superstar Graham in the midst of the worst babyface runs in history. Valentine had so much to give. This is a squash match and Valentine is great kicking the shit out of Koko. He can bump great and come off the top. Valentine really looked great. Beefcake comes out to remind everyone of this feud. Then he leaves. Um, ok. Koko …

WWF World Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan vs King Kong Bundy - SNME 1/2/88 BUND-A-MANIA! BUN-DY! BUN-DY! BUN-DY! Maybe it is because I loved Married With Children, but Bundy is such a great name. So what happens to Bundy leaves a couple months after this and doesn't wrestle until 1993?!? What's the scoop, dudes? Another solid Hogan match. This one had a little more drama not just because of the Avalanching of the Ref, but Bundy hits NOT one, BUT TWO Avalanches on Hogan. I thought Hogan mixed in a lot of offense and some good selling(hand going numb on the armbar). You knew Bundy was not going to win, but the two Avalanches at least made the Hulk Up seem big, Bundy…

At this point Vader has figured out some of the stuff that would later become his trademarks like the clubbing blows and the body tackles/attacks/how do you even call those things? Wiki has running body block but that's not something I've ever heard used in real life. But he also does goofy headbutts that aren't really fitting for his gimmick. What's interesting about this match is just how far Inoki goes in putting Vader over. Vader takes control of the ring positioning making Inoki retreat to corners. When Inoki throws some of his punches/slaps he usually uses to surprise his opponents early on and throw them off their game Vader easily shrugs them off. When Vader throw…

This is the fifth of nine televised matches between these two teams. Originally broadcast on NESN Sports network in Boston. Judy Martin & Lelaini Kai defend the WWF Women's Tag Team titles. Not currently available anywhere else. Talk about it here

WWF World Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan vs Rick Rude - WWF Boston 1/9/88 One of the matches I have always wanted to see because Hogan/Rude is pretty rare (rumor is Rude did not want to job to Hogan because that's when you lose your value in WWF is once you have the Hogan series). Besides the fun, arm wrestling match that breaks out in the beginning of the match, this is a very routine Hogan. Beats up heel sends him running with atomic drop, blasts Heenan. They console each other. Rude uses hair and Heenan trips Hogan to lead to heat segment. Chinlock and Rude gets his Argentine Backbreaker, which is impressive. Hulk Up! Legdrop win. Posedown and then DiBiase & V…

This is the fourth of nine televised matches between these two teams. Judy Martin & Lelaini Kai defend the WWF Women's Tag Titles. Originally broadcast on Prism Network in Philadelphia (afternoon show), not currently available anywhere else.

AWA World Tag Champions Midnight Rockers vs Adrian Adonis & Bob Orton - AWA January 1988 The Rockers have returned to AWA, which has now become a refuge for hangers-on and older timers like Adonis, Orton, Manny Fernandez and Wahoo McDaniel. It has been picked apart by WWF and is now in total free fall. Leave it to the Rockers to have probably the last great AWA Classic. Orton and Adonis were fun Backlund opponents last time I saw them bumping and stooging for them. I am excited for them to unleash some offense on the Rockers. It is 1988 and yes Adrian Adonis is humongous, but still moves around pretty well. First thing is first, Donna sucks! She was brutal on …

NWA World TV Champion Nikita Koloff vs Dick Murdoch - NWA 1/16/88 I think I am going to like this Dicky Murdoch character. I really like camp in my wrestling and find Murdoch’s selling entertaining without affecting the gravity of the contest too much at least in this match, but I can see if he kicked it into overdrive he could undercut the match. The match turns the standard TV title defense on its head with Murdoch (the heel & Jim Cornette’s mercenary) pouring the offense on late to win, but because it was started with a Cornette racquet shot (the ref was decked by an errant Russian Sickle) you are left rooting for Koloff to be resilient and withstand this barra…

From Charleston WV. I'm loving this early '88 run from Arn & Tully. Here they're playing around with all sorts of illegal tags in front of Tommy Young, I think more than anything to see how he'll react. And to Young's credit he's not taking any nonsense. JJ Dillon is fun commentary here too, lots of extra touches surrounding an already rock solid match. Windham might actually have the best performance of the four, with such great energy and fire. Sting is dull and shitty at times but then sells and bumps his ass off other times, overall I'd say he brings more positives to the table but it's close. In the long run though the champs set the pace and tell the story throu…

A match where the interactions between Misawa and Kawada are the least interesting thing to happen! Seriously-it was mostly pretty forgettable workrate stuff, though there was a nice moment where Kawada avoided Misawa's body press and almost took his head off with a spin kick. Kawada looked better than Misawa here-he still has some junior offence I could live without like pulling out a handspring elbow, but he showed good fire trying to hand with Yatsu. Tenryu was just out of this world great here-acting like the world's greatest prick. His slaps, chops and Lariats all looked amazing, but he would also bust out head stomps to break up pins that looked as vicious as what h…

Western States Heritage Champion Barry Windham vs Tully Blanchard - NWA World Championship Wrestling 1/23/88 Besides the obvious Magnum match, I think this is the best Tully singles match I have ever seen. The complaint oft leveled at Flair of being too weak I think is much more apt for Tully, who is far more reliant on bumping and stooging than Flair ever was. However, on this occasion, Windham forced Tully to work on top through his commitment to great selling. I thought Windham was just incredible in this and the match was really worked through him, True to form, the match starts out with Tully bumping and stooging for Big Barry. I love a hot shine and I though…

This is the sixth of nine televised matches between these two teams. Available on the Network, Shows, PPV's, WWE, Royal Rumble. January 24, 1988, starts at 38:55. Judy Martin & Lelaini Kai defend the WWF Women's Tag Titles in a 2 out of 3 falls match. Talk about it here

Ricky Steamboat vs Rick Rude - WWF Royal Rumble 1988 It is generally unusual that matches that happened in WCW are more fondly remembered than the ones in the WWF, but this is for good reason as Steamboat/Rude's series in 1992 is lightyears better than the matches in late 87 and 88. I thought this was a condensed and more pedestrian version of their MSG draw a couple of months or so before this, the inaugural Royal Rumble. Rude does not have Heenan, which does lessen the fun. They do the spot where Steamboat skins the cat and sends Rude flying. The issue with this match is Rude just isn't as good as in the MSG match. He is not bumping as big. His offense is so…