March 1988

This match wasn't much, mostly because Terry Gordy's performance was god awful, Memphis TV undercard matches had more intensity than he did in this match. The structure was quite dull too, the foreigners pretty much took the entire match, and it just doesn't make for an interesting experience to see someone get cut off over and over and over again, especially knowing more shitty worked punches await. There were some nice moments of violence when Hansen would get it on, and Hara's comeback punches looked great (unlike his headbutts, which looked terrible, backyard level headbutting your own hand), Tenryu's role was kept to a minimum, he had a couple off stare offs with Han…

This is the seventh of nine televised matches between these two teams. Originally broadcast on NESN Sports network in Boston. Available on the Network, Vault, Prime Time Wrestling 1988. May 16th episode, starts at 40:50. Jumping Bomb Angels defend the WWF Women's Tag Team titles against Lelaini Kai & Judy Martin. Talk about it here

Jumbo Tsuruta vs Tiger Mask II (Mitsuharu Misawa) - AJPW 3/9/88 Jumbo is the NWA International Heavyweight Champion, but this is non-title. He had some interesting title defenses that I do want to track down in this run. This match sneaks up on you. At first you are like this is a solid match and then all of sudden you are whipped into frenzy love it. This is very much proto-90s All Japan. Tons of Big Bombs and High Drama down the stretch. The first half Misawa works the headlock and doesnt deviate from this strategy. Jumbo is able to get momentary respites through kneecrushers or European Uppercuts but Misawa always clamps it back on. Misawa hits an awesome re…

PWF World Heavyweight Champion Stan Hansen vs NWA United National Heavyweight Champion Genichiro Tenryu - AJPW 3/9/88 I would say this is an important match rather than a great match thought it looks like most disagree with me, putting this at #36 for All Japan of the 80s, which seems very high to me. So it begins, we are officially on the road to the Triple Crown! Tenryu defeats Hansen in a shocking, sudden upset with an Inside Cradle and becomes the first man to my knowledge to hold two of the three most important singles titles in All Japan at once. I think it is very interesting that it is Tenryu not Jumbo that has this honor. You could even make the case that th…

Two years before the beginning of the Jumbo/Misawa feud, this is the first high-end All Japan six-man. It should come as no surprise that a match with Kawada and three guys who would end up in WAR would have plenty of hate and violence, although most of it comes from Jumbo's team. Kabuki provides the match's highlight when he unloads on Fuyuki with a punch combination that would leave Bill Dundee green with envy. Overall, though, Jumbo is the star of the show, as he plays the ace role to perfection. He shows enough vulnerability against his lower-ranked opponents to make them look credible, but he's always a chop or a big boot away from reasserting dominance and showing t…

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Hiroshi Hase vs Nobuhiko Takada - NJPW 3/11/88 Takada is scary over in this match. Like build a whole promotion around him over. That's exactly what happens in the 90s. We are two months away from the rebirth of the UWF in May of 1988. They do everything they can to protect Takada in this match. Hase goes full heel jumping him before the bell with a lariat. Second Lariat and Takada goes into oversell mode. Knocked loopy. Big Takada chants through the three sleepers. Takada is totally discombobulated and this looks to be a rout. Takada reverses an Irish Whip and chops Hase in the face. Belly to belly Suplex! He goes for a s…

This is the eighth of nine televised matches between these two teams. Originally televised on the Prism Sports network in Philadelphia. Also available on the old WWF Coliseum Video "High Flyers" (WS903). Not currently on the Network. Talk about it here

Greg Valentine vs Brutus Beefcake - WWF 3/12/88 Beefcake was really on point with his barber puns. "On point" get it, yeah, barber puns suck. Beefer was cuttin' and struttin' into heart of Vince, who was ogling him in his risqué tights. Jimmy Hart was actually a great foil for Beefcake because of his ridiculous mullet so the threat of cutting his hair is fun. Valentine clearly goes to the same hairdresser as Judy Martin also makes for a great foil for the Barber. This is the blowoff to their year long feud as Beefcake is transitioning into a feud with The Hammer's stablemate, the Honky Tonk Man (another ridiculous quaff for Beefcake to cut) over the Intercontinental C…

Hulk Hogan vs Harley Race - WWF 3/12/88 Probably most famous for Harley's table bump, which oddly enough is no sold. Hogan is pissed because of being screwed out of title by the Brain and Million Dollar Man. So he takes it out on Race who bumps all over the place for him and Hogan even chokes him with the tape and then chokes Heenan. Jesse is appalled. Harley blindsides Hogan and it is bombs away...head butts, knee drops, belly to belly Suplex and pile driver. It is fun and different in the cartoony simple WWF. He tries for head butt and cracks the table but keeps going and will not be deterred and actually hits the top rope head butt kick out! HULK UP! Quick burst! H…

Randy Savage vs Ted DiBiase - WWF SNME 3/12/88 These two had great chemistry, I think that outside the restrictions of the WWF house style they could have had a classic. That being said this match is a perfect example of the WWF is better at than any promotion in history and that's advancing an angle within confines of a match. DiBiase has not only Virgil, but Andre in his corner. They do a great job highlighting the four major participants in upcoming tournament for the vacant championship and foreshadow the dark possibility of DiBiase and Andre teaming up to ensure the title ends up around one of their waists. Typical beginning to the match with Savage slapping Virg…

NWA US Tag Team Champions Midnight Express vs Fantastics - NWA Pro 3/26/88 After being away from the 1980s so long, this is Chicken Soup for the Pro Wrestling fan's soul! Just that down home Southern Cooking that Mama Crockett always provided her fans baby! Midnight Express are one of those acts that I just cant help but smile when watching them wrestling. Whether it is Beautiful Bobby's Beautiful right or the wacky hijinx they end up in you cant help but be entertained. The story early is MX trying to control Fantastics with headlocks but everytime they break free they are able to armdrag or shouldertackle MX over. Shows Fantastics quickness and frustrated MX. Then w…

I watched this last night, and with some of the praise that Shibata/Goto received for their recent bout at WK11, I couldn't help but think of it while watching this. I think the phrase was "hoss battle." Well, that is what this is. Man, these guys stand toe to toe and really lay it into each other the entire match. Hansen is OUT FOR BLOOD in this match. That sounds like a Steven Seagal movie, but seriously he is a man possessed here. He is pacing before the match, and when the bell rings he's shot out of a cannon. He nails Tenryu above the eye and works the cut during the majority of the match. I'd go about ****1/2 right now. It's a fantastic brawl. He's not alo…

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NWA World Tag Team Champions Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard vs Lex Luger & Barry Windham - NWA Clash of the Champions I My post was eaten so we are going short and sweet just like this match. Balls out sprint! Luger killed it at the beginning. Manhandling the Horsemen and he came to win. Signals for Torture Rack and hoists Blanchard up, but AA attacks the leg. I love babyfaces going for quick victories. They work a short but energetic heat segment on Luger's leg, Luger kicks Arn into Tully and they knock heads. Here comes Windham to kick some ass. Powerslam, Lariat and sleeper. Love Blanchard in this he is a total schmuck in the best way possible. AA rubs …

Dusty Rhodes & Road Warriors vs Ivan Koloff & Powers of Pain - Clash of the Champions I Barbed Wire Match So the night before at 6:05 Eastern on Muthaship, Dusty took exception to Tully roughing up Magnum TA and savagely attacked him with a baseball bat and in the fracas nailed Jim Crockett. They devoted the rest of the show to Sullivan, Cornette and Dillon calling for Dusty's head and people like Sting shook by it. Great angle, Why he is out here now though? I don't get it. Could have furthered the angle by not having him out. Match was not violent enough. Very pedestrian. Could they not bleed on TBS? Stupid stipulation then. Animal's orbital bone was cra…

NWA US Tag Team Champions Midnight Express vs Fantastics - Clash of the Champions I FUCKING AWESOME! Have loved this match for years nothing has changed, it is fucking incredible! If it was not for the Dusty Finish, this would be my choice for the greatest US tag team match of all time. I don't understand why it never gets *****, probably due to the finish who care they fucking deserve it! I almost feel like I don't need to write a review because everyone and their mother knows about this match and its sheer awesomeness. The energy and urgency is unreal. This is pro wrestling! This is what it gets me going! I will tell you what really added to this viewing watching th…

NWA World TV Champion Mike Rotunda vs Gorgeous Jimmy Garvin - Clash of the Champions I Amateur Rules The evil Kevin Sullivan has subverted the good All-American boys of Rotundo and Rick Steiner to give them the edge they need. Now that I understand the Varsity Club angle I love it! This played out in the December 1987 TV that led to the formation of the Varsity Club. I skipped ahead to Clash because I got impatient so I don't know the exact story what I know is Hayes left while Freebirds were vying for the tag belts and he was feuding with Flair (why he left for rinky dink World Class I don't know). So now Garvin and Sullivan have a Prince of Darkness match (blindfold…

This might be the best match I've ever seen where one of the participants is so limited as Sting is here. Flair gives an incredibly generous performance bumping around all over the place to get Sting over, flying over the ring ropes and over the judges table at one point. There's great psychology throughout with how Sting is physically dominating Flair right from the very start with the test of strength. Flair only ever regains momentum because he takes advantage of Sting getting a bit carried away sometimes, it's a veteran occasionally outsmarting a stronger young opponent to just about keep himself in the game. The flaw in this match is the middle section does get a bit…

Bam Bam is super agile here, busting out cartwheels and a high cross body. That's it. That's all the praise I can find for this. This consists of Bam Bam and One Man Gang punching each other around the ring, until Slick interferes by pulling down the top rope as Bam Bam tries to run them. He falls to the outside and is eventually counted out. The worst part about this is that all the interreference happened right in front of the referee. Blah match with a blah finish. ¾★

A 20 man battle royal for a massive trophy kicks off the event. Ron Bass, Sam Houston, Jim Powers and Ken Patera all make their sole Wrestlemania appearances during this. The Rougeaus are still here, and they still are yet to turn heel. Like most battle royals, there isn't much to write about the majority of the competitors are eliminated. They spend way too long with a full ring whilst Bob Ueker bickers with Jesse Ventura. The last three wrestlers are Bad News Brown, Bret Hart and Junkyard Dog. The heels double team JYD and eventually eliminate him. Brown and Hart celebrate, until Brown blindsides Hart with a Ghetto Blaster and eliminates him. Post match sees Hart destro…

A decent enough match hindered by a burnt out audience. Ax and Smash look the part and do a good job of being big bullies, cutting off the much quicker team of Martel and Santana. Demolition look cool as hell and even receive some cheers when they steal the win as Mr Fuji hands them his cane to use as a weapon. If this show was 30-60 minutes shorter, I'm sure this bout would of been better received. ★★¼

Since we last saw him curtain jerking at Wrestlemania III, Muraco has decided to turn face and become a Body Guy. He's tanned, jacked and becomes a babyface by recruiting Billy Graham as his manager. He looks awkward as hell working as a face and getting his shine in and he hits the world's worst Vader Bomb. Bravo's not much better, but he's always been mediocre. We get a crap finish as Bravo pull the referee into harm's way. He lands a piledriver on Muraco, but the referee decides to disqualify Bravo instead of counting the pin. This was too short to be anything too offensive, but it's still one of the many weaker matches on this event. ★½

Hercules has got on a lot on his plate as he's got to get something decent out of a green Ultimate Warrior. The crowd pop big for Warror's entrance, but he's still not hit his peak in popularity as the audience quiet down once this gets going. Very basic stuff here. Warrior doesn't sell much for Herc, as it takes three clotheslines to knock him down. Hercules gets his full nelson locked in, but Warrior pushes off the turnbuckle and gets the deciding pinfall. I don't know why they didn't just have Warrior steamroll Herc if they wanted Warrior to look dominant. Questionable booking aside, this was exactly what you expect out of a Warrior match. ★

Honky is no Misawa in the ring, but he knows how to give the crowd all they need to get them to react. Sadly, Beefcake isn't much of an opponent and this has yet another cheap finish as Jimmy Hart knocks out the referee as Beefcake has his sleeper hold locked in. Beefcake makes himself look stupid by celebrating like he's won the title even though the bell hasn't rung. There's nothing worse than making your babyfaces look dumb. Beefcake doesn't win the championship, but he gets the disqualification win as well as giving Jimmy Hart a unwanted haircut. It's at this point when the show is really starting to lose me. ★½

Andre's even more broken down than he was at Wrestlemania 3, so they keep this short and sweet. The crowd eat up everything that serve up and even Trump has a smile on his face during this. Dibiase tries to get involved and this is thrown out once both guys are swinging chair shots at each other. The double DQ is mind boggling as Hulk clearly swung first. Whatever. Hulk takes out Virgil with a suplex onto the concrete and body slams Andre as the Trump Plaza erupts. Not exactly a great match, but a decent angle to further the story of the entire tournament. ★★