March 1989

Pretty fun exhibition match with Tiger Mask Dos able to show off against then NWA champ and pick up some hot nearfalls off the frog splash and German suplex hold. Steamboat's chops are something else and the fans weren't happy with Ricky "stealing" the victory. Finish wasn't great and lots of headlock action but still worth checking out.

Bret Hart vs Ted DiBiasie - 3/89 Wrestling Challenge This felt like a NWA Touring title defense. As I have pointed out in the past, due to the compressed nature of the WWF style, each segment is shorter. This match had the feel that Bret was a plucky challenger and Ted the dominant champ rather than equals. Bret spent most of 1989 in singles action. Dont be fooled by the PPV tag team matches in 1989. When Bret was on the road, this was a test drive for his 1991 singles push. Vince saw something early with Bret, but this maybe Vince's greatest push because he did such a great job with the slow burn. DiBiase was on his way down, but was still a big deal and he just fas…

The Rockers vs The Brainbusters w/Bobby The Brain Heenan - 3/89 SNME What a sprint! I am out of breath just having watched this. This is the match I was really looking for from these guys. Busters blindside early. Tully goes for the kill with his slingshot suplex and Marty counters, but Tully counters into a rollup only for Shawn to cross body block Tully while in the rollup. Busters try to whip the Rockers into each other they do a little do-see-do and knock the Busters out. Crazy good opening sequence as Busters powder. Shawn press slams Arn off the top and it ends up with the Busters taking synchronized superkicks. Shawn hits a nice headscissors on Tully. A…

Pretty damn good young lion match. This was the earliest Suzuki I‘ve seen, but he was already firmly into the shootstyle thing. Lots of cool slick matwork with Suzuki locking in some clinical looking armbars and doing some really cool stuff, like turning a Fujiwara armbar into a pin. The cool thing was that they didn‘t make it look easy, both guys had to fight even for something like a snapmare. Watching this made me wonder how either guy would have done on a different career path, e.g. Suzuki staying in NJPW and Iizuka doing shootstyle. The last couple minutes rule with Suzuki hitting big throws and a great looking corner dropkick while trying to fend off Iizukas Sambo l…

IWGP Tag Team Champions Riki Choshu & Masa Saito vs Super Strong Machine & George Takano - NJPW 3/16/89 Even with a very high finish (13/175) in the NJPW 80s Project this is not a match you hear about a lot. Choshu & Saito are two of the greatest pro wrestlers who ever lived. Top native heels battling the likes of Inoki & Fujinami throughout the 80s. While to be frank, Supet Strong Machine (Junji Hirata) & George Takano (fka Cobra) looks like the greatest 80s New Japan jobber team. I don't know enough about 80s NJPW booking but there definitely seems to be a large gap in stardom here. But what Takano & SSM lack in star power they m…

This was a blast, opening matwork ruled, Morgan and Charles were commanding in control, doing all sorts of awesome cut offs, punching people, slamming their heads on the apron, attacking them from behind etc. but were also great at feeding the tecnicos, Atlantis and HRII had some beautiful highspots and the sequences where they would clean house were fluid and beautiful. Blue Demon Jr. was almost a non factor, Pierroth Jr. was a solid third string rudo that contributed some nice shots. Pirata Morgan's stooging here was something else-he was taking gigantic bumps and it ruled. ****

NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ricky Steamboat vs Ric Flair - NWA/WCW 3/18/1989 Two of the all-time great silent movie actors do battle here. What I love about this match is it as shot I believe as a fan cam and the only noise is ambient crowd noise. Occasionally, you can hear a Flair howl or chop, but other than that there are no sound effects. Yet what you watch on the screen is so engrossing. You can see how big each man's motions are. These are two larger than life characters. First 20 Minutes: I love how these guys take their time. The shine is 10 minutes and so much fun. I loved Steamboat slapping the taste out of Flair's mouth in the corner. How they ling…

Boston Garden - 3/18/89 I just caught this match on the 04/10/1989 edition of Prime Time on the WWE Network. This was a really fun match. Hennig is excellent selling and bumping for Garvin's punches. This is a really good example of how great Curt Hennig was around this time. It was a unique finish for Perfect in the WWF, and it's also right before he changed his tights to the classic Perfect look. It's worth your time.

Hulk Hogan vs Big Bossman – Steel Cage Match March 18, 1989 Madison Square Garden Interesting note about this match is they actually had two steel cage matches in the same night, one at MSG and one at the Boston Gardens (two, 15 minute steel cage matches and 4 hour travel in between that is pretty ridiculous). That is just an incredible example of the schedule McMahon expected out of his wrestlers as he was looking to solidify his position as the national promotion of America. Bossman was managed by everyone’s favorit Jive Soul Brutha, Slick and tag partners with Akeem The African Dream. Bossman and Akeem had been the tag team feuding with the …

I have been looking for more pre-1993 Akira Hokuto stuff when I found this match. Fantastic performance by her, full of urgency and focus, with a really good selljob of her bad leg. She looked very impressive even this early in her career. Chigusa continues her excellent 1980s run with another great performance as well. Terrific match and a hidden gem. **** 1/4

This is tecnicos vs. tecnicos. The best matchup of the primera is unsurprisingly the Atlantis-Texano chain wrestling interactions. The first tease of tempers flaring happens when Muñeco and Angel Azteca tumble outside of the ring. Blue Demon is as green as green paint here, yikes. Texano finally heels it up by punishing Atlantis’ leg and finishes him off with a Chicken wing armlock for the primera. Segunda starts with everybody on good terms and Angel hits an amazing flying arm drag on future rival El Dandy. Texano all over Atlantis’ arm and shoulder and both his partners follow suit. Finish comes when Antlantis catches El Dandy in La Atlantida for the submiss…

PWF World Junior Heavyweight Champion Masa Fuchi vs Mitsuo Momota - AJPW 3/29/89 King's Road is here baby! I had never heard of Momota is a mustachioed stocky little fella. He was over like rover. My God, they chanting his name incessantly. I couldnt figure out why until I read his Wiki. He is the son of Rikidozan! Well that explains it! I have never heard anyone in Japan, native or gaijin, get as much heel heat as Fuchi did in this match and he didnt do anything that heelish. I think Momota was just that over. Fuchi had just won the Junior Heavyweight Championship back from Mighty Inoue a couple weeks prior. Red hot start that sets the tone early. Momota hits …

This was one of the very first non-Eddie Guerrero/non-AAA matches I watched when I was getting into lucha way back when. 2v2 tags were my least favourite match dynamic in lucha even back then, but this stood out in a way none of the Gringos Locos tags did. Even back then, only really having scratched the surface with EMLL, this felt like a whole different kind of lucha libre. It felt legit. It felt PROPER. This was the lucha I needed to dive into. I suppose it shaped my tastes in lucha about as much as anything else and a goodly number of years later those tastes haven't changed too much (compared to American and Japanese wrestling, especially), but it doesn't quite stick…