April 1988

Horsemen (Flair, AA, Blanchard) vs Sting, Luger & Windham - NWA Main Event 4/3/88 If I understood Tony correctly on the Clash, this is the inaugural episode of Main Event so they loaded it up with quite the main event! Something I would show people to get a feel of 80s Crockett as you have six of the biggest players all in one match. I know the finances of Crockett had gone to shit but damn if the product did not seem red hot at this time. Sting, Luger and Windham all feel like cant miss prospects. There is just an electricity around each and all three were really differentiated from each other. It is too bad it did not really work out. Super fun, summer block…

Tom Magee vs Misawa!!! Talk about it here

Fun hoss battle. First round wasn't much and consisted mostly of them trading basic holds. Match gets going when Murphy takes over, he carried the match nicely with his striking, he has very good cheapshots and I loved his Clothesline cut off. He put on a very strong selling performance here, loved he sold the threat of a Cobra Twist and the impact of Elijah's moves as well. Elijah looked solid but didn't do anything memorable outside of maybe the greatest Bearhug I've ever seen. ***

Pleasantly surprising match. The finish is thrilling because there are loads of nearfalls, it's difficult to figure out the winner. ****1/4

Rick Rude vs Koko B Ware - Primetime Wrestling 4/11/88 Sometimes it is just refreshing to watch really basic pro wrestling. Shine->heat and just watch a couple pros go at it no bells no whistles. Rude has not been pushed just yet. He is wearing bright tights with ugly gray boots. He looks like he has star potential, but is not totally there. Within the month, they would begin the Rude Awakening Kiss Segments leading to the big Cheryl Roberts angle and his airbrushed tights. Koko is such a great babyface. Rude is caught posing one too many times and Koko starts headbutting him and some good jabs. Great Memphis babyface that Koko B Ware. Rude was just a great body th…

This match is infamous because of Magee's incompetence, and it tells quite the story in two minutes. He starts the match almost looking like a competent pro wrestling, his chops and knees didn't look great but they were passable, he followed that up with some clubbing blows to Wajima's back, nothing really stood out as terrible. As Wajima climbs the apron he starts doing all these stupid kicks that just look laughable, and he manages to top it when he corners Wajima and starts throwing the most ridiculous and fake looking chops and kicks man has ever seen. By that point Wajima fights back and goes over, but the sight of Tom Magee and his dreaded spinning chop shall never …

NWA World Tag Team Champions Lex Luger & Barry Windham vs Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard - NWA World Championship Wrestling 4/23/88 Great tag team wrestling from these four. They did a great job emphasizing how important tagging is. Loved the heel in peril at the beginning Tully is so great at making faces look like a million bucks and Luger & Windham were so energetic. Loved how they would taunt the Horsemen by letting Tully getting close then dragging him away. Also fun was turning the "ref didn't see it" tag on its head by having him miss Tully's tag and forcing Arn to the apron. Tully used eye rake to break free and get tag, which is good heeling. Thou…

Bret Hart vs Bad News Brown - WWF MSG 4/25/88 Did Bret plan his matches out in advance? I read his book a long time ago, but I recall him discussing planning the matches in the back maybe not to the level of Savage, but he is definitely no Flair. I think that's why his matches in the 80s feel so mechanical. Everything is super segmented. When Bad News is on top he is on top. There is only one hope spot! When Bret is on top, he is on top. Bad News is just a tackling dummy. This is my major malfunction with Bret matches in 80s. The excellent execution is there and the layouts are great, but they are so damn soulless. It is just logical point A to Point B to Draw. To me…

WWF World Heavyweight Champion Randy Savage vs Ted DiBiase - WWF MSG 4/25/88 I made the statement that Jumping Bomb Angels vs Glamor Girls from Boston 3/5/88 was the match of the year for WWF in 1988. I realized I don't think it is even close and really thought there is no real standard classics for WWF in 1988. I think Survivor Series ten-team tag and Savage/DiBiase matches are the most likely candidates. I do remember a great Valentine/Santana match from a random MSG show. For as well-loved Savage is, there is not much talk about his one year reign as WWF champion and that really speaks to the forgettableness of 1988 WWF. He was mostly programmed with DiBiase th…

NWA US Tag Team Champions Midnight Express vs Fantastics - Taped 4/26/88, Chattanooga TN. Aired on NWA Worldwide 5/14/88 Midnight Express are the longest reigning US Tag Champs in history. JYNX! Another incredible match between these two teams they take the classic Southern formula and add really cool spots and high end selling to make it something special. I thought Stan Lane was incredible in this so intense throughout. When he was getting armdragged or countered he looked legit pissed that he could not keep up with the Fantastics. Very simple story in the beginning of the Fantastics frustrating the MX with their speed and ability to slip out of…

Akira Nogami, Tatsutoshi Goto, Keiichi Yamada, Kantaro Hoshino & Shiro Koshinaka vs. Kuniaki Kobayashi, Hiroshi Hase, Hiro Saito, Norio Honaga & Kensuke Sasaki - NJPW 4/27/88 Elimination Match Thankfully Team Choshu are all wearing their black & gold track suits so that I know what sides are. This is a Junior Heavyweight 10-Man Elimination tag pitting Team Choshu led by Hase against Team New Japan for a lack of better term led by Koshinaka. This will be my first time seeing Yamada pre-Liger. The only person I dont think I have seen otherwise is Goto. I saw AKIRA enough that I did distinguish him from Goto. Kobayashi was a little tough without his red bell…