Superstar Sleeze

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 Championship. In fact, Honky makes his way to ringside while Brutus is selling his leg on the outside to berate and add some heat to their Mania IV match. Pretty damn good SNME match here. Beefcake is over and showed a lot of energy. Nice high knee and a pair of atomic drops. Valentine bumped and stooged like a million bucks for him. The stooging off the atomic drop was Rick Rude levels of awesome. The ref tries to get a clean break in the corner and the Hammer blasts Beefcake. That's the Hammer I know and love. I agree with Jesse that it was awesome that Valentine put the figure-4 on in the ropes and just when all out using the ropes to really ramp up the pressure to do some serious damage. This is when Honky lays the verbal smackdown. Back from break, Valentine tries to get the figure-4 back on, but Beefcake keeps pushing off. Brutus makes his comeback and calls for the sleeper, but Valentine collapses to the outside. Beefcake gets distracted by the Mouth of the South and a fun chase ensues. The finish is a back suplex with both men pinned, but Beefcake gets his shoulder up. Lame finish. With Beefcake going into a title match and it being the blowoff, you would figure he would be put over stronger. Beefcake des get to cut a lock of Valentine's golden hair. Fun little match with Valentine stooging and showing some great offense. Beefcake was energetic. Good stuff. ***

The Tito/Valentine draw from MSG November 88 is really good. Rockers/Demos in 88 is probably the best Demolition match ever and is also really good.

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 & Virgil really do a number on Hogan busting him open. Really damn good sell job by Hogan. It is too bad they never really did Hogan/DiBiase blowoff.

Greg Valentine vs Ronnie Garvin - WWF MSG 12/30/88 I love when two Carolina Boys hook it up and lay into each other in a WWF ring. Valentine was so wasted in 1988 being stuck with Brutus Beefcake, Bloated Don Muraco and fucking old as dirt George Steele. He did have a great match with Tito Santana at the previous MSG show to this one. Valentine has hair that would make the Glamor Girls jealous so Lord Alfred Hayes starts gushing over Judy Martin and that Rockin Robin is too skinny and not enough woman for him. They start as one would expect just blasting each other with chops. Garvin nominally has control of this as he is always moving forward and winning the exchanges. They are just wailing on each other. I loved that Valentine goes for the Flair Flop and Garvin stops him with a choke. Garvin goes for the sleeper, but Valentine ultimately reverses into some nice armwork (great shoulderbreaker) and some brutal chops. Garvin mounts a comeback a little too early in my opinion with his headbutts and fists.. Garvin Stomp! Gets no reaction, which is funny. Valentine wrangles him into a kneecrusher and Garvin sells this beautifully and the finish run is pretty hot. Valentine is working the Heartbreaker gimmick (shinguard) that increases the pain and pressure of the figure-4 so Garvin is doing everything he can to impede Valentine including a monster right hand to Valentine's head. Garvin rips off the Heartbreaker and the crowd pops, but he cant hit him with it and gets rolled up for three as he is arguing with the ref. Garvin beats him with the shinguard. Honestly, I expected to like this a bit more. I love I good stiff Carolina chopfest, but this did not have much in the way of progression. It just felt like chop exchange, Garvin rallies and wins and Valentine bumps. That just keeps happening and there was no sense of build until the very end, which was very good. Entertaining because it is one of my favorite style of matches, but they have better matches in 1989 with each other. ****

WWF World Heavyweight Champion Randy Savage vs Ted DiBiase - WWF Wrestlefest 7/31/88 Similar to the April MSG match, but with some more bells and whistles. Savage is really unique as a babyface champion in Vince Jr's WWF as he is only one I can think of that didn't have a real go-to comeback, finish stretch. Even Bret who mixed it up a lot had the 5 moves of Doom, Sharpshooter and barrage of cradles. Savage really did not have much. Savage is distracted by Virgil approaching Liz with his #FuckMoney allowing DiBiase to get the jump on him. Savage makes a mini comeback and sends DiBiase packing. Energetic shine but not as focused or as long as the MSG match. DiBiase uses the leverage move and rams Savage's head against hard objects. I thought this heat segment made better use of hope spots liked the crossbody a lot and set up the use of the chinlock better. DiBiase bumps great off the turnbuckles, but Savage rams his knee into turnbuckle. Savage sold the knee really well throughout the rest of the match too bad they did not build around that. DiBiase goes for Spinning Toehold and ends up being kicked out of the ring. Savage's comeback, but when he goes for elbow Virgil distracts. DiBiase runs into Virgil surprisingly that's the not the finish. Virgil smashes Savage's head with a chair, but the Million Dollar Man cant get the job done and Savage wins with inside cradle. The heels put the boots to him and he rolls to outside and throws in a chair. Where's Hogan??? Oh yeah that hot dog is off filming a movie. Savage should dump that Hollywood wannabe's ass. Like I said a bit more bells and whistles, could have been interesting with more knee work, kinda lame finish. ***

WWF World Heavyweight Champion Randy Savage vs Ted DiBiase - WWF MSG 6/25/88 Steel Cage Couldn't find the May match so skip to the cage blowoff. I have seen this before as it is the Randy Savage Comp that WWE put out. This was way better than I remembered. Loved the urgency from both men and just how nip and tuck this was. DiBiase was fired up and just blasting Savage straight away. I liked stuff like Savage avoiding one fist drop, but then not the next one. It was just really good energy and competitive. I liked DiBiase using the cage to set up hope spots, but then immediately cutting Savage off. Then Savage gets more and more of an advantage especially creating his own opportunities to climb the cage, but now he has to contend with Virgil. Superstar Graham says the thing all women want to hear, "Elizabeth would still look beautiful 80 lbs heavier." Ever the charmer, the Superstar. The back half does drag a little bit with all the double clotheslines, but once Savage gets slammed in the head by the cage door it picks back up. They do have a pretty dramatic finish with DiBiase half out the door and then the famous double noggin knocker finish with the fan scaling the cage. Savage picks up the win. The best DiBiase performance in WWF great on offense at the beginning bringing the fight to the Macho Man and then some big ass bumps off the cage. Savage brings the energy and intensity. Parv is crazy for having this in his top 100 matches, but it is a great match. ****

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 then Andre before the MegaPowers Explosion angle. I think Savage/DiBiase is not as well remembered because it is not accompanied by a classic angle. It was just trotted out as a hot babyface and hot heel having great matches for title. I think an angle would have made the series more fondly remembered. It was just the classic three matches at the Garden that Vince Sr would run. I thought this was a pretty good first match in the series. Knowing Savage's fondness for long heat segments when he is a babyface I thought we were not even going to get a shine when he chases Virgil and DiBiase attacks from behind. Savage does manage to push DiBiase off into the post. Savage gets in a great shine. Tons of energy with a focus on arm work. Awesome bumping by DiBiase. Over the top, but really fun. I like it that way. DiBiase uses the trunks to send the Macho Man crashing to the outside. Good stuff at first with DiBiase using the railing and choking. Hell, he two moves off the middle rope! Then it look chinlock-y and kinda meandered. DiBiase misses the Tenryu elbow and here comes the Macho Man. Love the energy. Always dug the spot where he snaps the opponent's neck on the top rope as he jumps to outside...HUGE BUMP bu the Million Dollar Man. Gets the double axe handle, but ref ends up bumped. He goes for the flying elbow, but in a wicked bump that the camera kinda misses, Virgil shakes the rope and Savage jumps straddles himself and crashes to floor. Cant believe the WCW-level shoddy camerawork because that looked like an all-time bump. Great beginning and ending. Savage supplied great energy and DiBiase great bumping. DiBiase's heat segment dragged. Good start. ***

Watch out! Your inner smark is showing.

I don't feel desperate. Jumping Bomb Angels vs Glamor Girls 3/5/88 Boston Garden. WWF 1988 Match of the Year, Best WWF Tag Match Ever and Better Than AJ Styles vs John Cena! WATCH! WATCH! WATCH!

Absolutely loved their first match. This was pretty disappointing. Just doing a Cena/Owens tribute which was already a shitty template for a match. You bring up an interesting point about hypocrisy and as someone who is generally praised New Japan more often than not I don't think I'm a hypocrite. Here's why: New Japan tends to have finish runs for each guys. It is clear one man is in the driver seat and then there is a well-worked transition that switches momentum to the next wrestler. It was these sustained periods of momentum and smart transitions that separate NJPW from these Cena super-worker matches. Maybe it is because I've watched a lot of NOAH but I think NJPW is pretty stingy with the near falls. I would say there is only 1-2 false finishes per match before the finish. Cena/AJ every move was treated as a bear fall so there was diminishing returns. Cena/AJ was definition of My Turn, Your Turn it was very rare for one guy to hit more than two moves in a row. I would say it is about ***. However I think this another feather in AJ's cap for wrestler of the year. He has had a traditional classic with Roman Reigns which I'm on record saying it is the best match in twelve years and GOTNW thinks it is the a contender for the best WWF/E match of all time. He had a badass Extreme Rules match with Roman which is best live match I've ever seen. Now he has had Indy Superworker spotfest. He has crushed it in three different styles. He is the fucking man right now!

Barry Windham vs Mr. Hughes - WCW Saturday Night 9/21/91 Paul E says Mr. Hughes is "mad, bad and dangerous to know"! This a part of the ongoing Windham/Luger feud that stemmed from their double turn at GAB '91 with Hughes being the bodyguard for the champ & his manager, Harley Race. Really fun power TV match. Mr. Hughes really throws his massive body into everything. He looked like an out of control runaway locomotive. At the beginning he looks like he is going to topple Windham when he tries to take a hiptoss, but Windham stabilizes himself and hurls the big man over. Really great shine with Hughes bumping around and showing a lot of energy. He catches Windham with a power slam and the heat segment was good. Combination of strong power moves, Harley interference and great hope spots (loved Windham missing the dropkick and flying over the top rope to the floor on a missed cross body). The finish was a Mr. Hughes Figure-4, which I didn't care for because Windham promptly no sold it on comeback. Windham had a nice fiery comeback climaxing with a flying lariat. He gets distracted by Harley and wants to rub his face in concrete so Luger comes out and waylays him with a chair. I would have liked to seen Windham get another crack at Luger, but hand crushing angle is a great one. Fun TV match between two hosses, which is my favorite type of match. ***1/4

Ricky Morton vs Robert Gibson - WCW Great American Bash 1991 Richie, Rickard, Richard Morton as Tony has a hard time adjusting to the name change as Morton has turned heel and joined the York Foundation. Morton as a heel feels so wrong, but he does a really damn good job. As someone mentioned he does the Andersons proud targeting the bad knee of Gibson with laser focus. I like that it was not just one ring post wrap that did Gibson in, but he kept fighting and Morton just overwhelmed by attacking the knee. I thought Gibson was really good in this. Great brawl on the ramp to start and some really damn good punched. He wanted to get things cooking, but Morton kept powdering. Once Morton got on the knee, I thought the work was sound, but was missing character and energy. The figure-4 made sense, but just felt flat to me. Part was the crowd, but part was the wrestling were doing the right things but just didn't have the gusto. Liked Gibson's hope spots and then things ending like missing the dropkick. The enziguiri with the bad knee was a such a great hope spot logical and effective. Both of them going for dropkicks on the ramp was a nice touch with Gibson worse for wear with a bad wheel and now Morton is desperate cracks him in the head with the laptop. Loved the finish. Due to second nature both go for dropkicks but Gibson is hurt and Morton takes advantage with the laptop. Morton was great on leg and Gibson great on hope spots could have used more energy. ***1/2

You heard it here first, the Ruiner of Matches, Bray Wyatt will attack Orton to start feud.

Roman/Rusev looked primed to be the best brawl in years. Ugh.

YOU GOT TO BE SHITTING ME!

REAL MAIN EVENT TIME!!! Cena, AJ let me down...Roman, Rusev don't let me down

That Inside Cradle Driver is awesome. That should be someone's finish.

That belt is a letdown

HELL YEAH!!!

Nikki vs Becky is going to be killer!!! Awesome match!

NIKKI BELLA IS BACK!!!! All is forgiven

I really liked Ambrose as a de facto heel. Not a perfect match but I actually see a future for Ambrose as a heel. Good heel work.

Love Cena. Love AJ. I'm shell shocked. That it was just a my turn your turn spotfest with Cena doing over the top self doubt. I have not been this disappointed in a long time.

This match was so disappointing. The first match was a MOTYC. This was just Cena/Owens IV. Ugh. Plus all the shitty cinema bs. So sad.

Bobby Eaton vs Ricky Morton - NWA Saturday Night 9/29/90 Classic Southern TV wrestling. Is this their biggest singles match on TV? Eaton is running the gauntlet if he can win three matches in a row he will win $15k, but if anyone opponent beats him then the three wrestlers each get $5k. Really cool concept for the midcard that should be lifted. Shine was a little ho-hum. Morton controlling with speed and wrestling. Once Eaton hotshots him into the turnbuckle, the match picked up. Eaton is so good at offense just the snap on his suplexes is great. Cornette uses the racket and Morton is so great at selling all this. Love Eaton using the eyepoke to stymie Morton's comeback. There is a 15 minute time limit and as it is running down Eaton charges into the turnbuckles, but Morton cant get the pin. They go into a 5 minute overtime. Morton is about to win, but Cornette distracts the ref and here is Sweet Stan. Eaton blindsides Morton with a knee to pick up the win. Just really classic Southern-fried wrestling. That heat segment was pitch perfect and loved the screwjob ending with the Midnights getting one over on Morton who has no one to watch his back. Surprised the shine was so subdued why only complaint. ***1/2