Superstar Sleeze

WWF Intercontinental Champion Greg Valentine vs. Tito Santana - WWF, MSG 3/17/85 Lumberjack Match Here is the fun, popcorn match of the series. Don't get me wrong, there were plenty of hard blows from each men, but this was definitely more of a crowd pleaser until the ending. Valentine cheapshotted him at the beginning, but Tito came back and just popped Valentine really good right in the face. The Hammer was dazed and confused. TIMMMMMMBBBBBAAAAHHHHH! Santana just poured it on in the early going to the delight of the crowd while Valentine tried to figure out ways to get by the lumberjacks. Big John Studd was a helpful ally, but The Dragon quite the thorn in his side. I really liked Valentine trying to leap over the lumberjacks and the railing to get through the crowd. Valentine was really hamming it up in this one. Santana was on fire in terms of offense until he charged in and ate a hard knee. Valentine went to work on the leg. Santana and the babyface lumberjacks really sold the peril Tito was in. I liked when Santana was trying to mount a comeback that Valentine just starting trying to cave Tito's face in with these vicious forearms. He was fucking smoking Santana. I like Hammer's two prong strategy of working the leg and levelling him with big, heavy blows. There is a cool transition with Tito dropping down and popping up with his legs so Valentine lands face first into the turnbuckle. Absolutely awesome slugfest. Great camera angle of Santana's left jabs right into the face of Valentine. TIMMMMMBBBBBBAAAAAHHHHHH! Suplex from Tito, but it takes a lot out of him. Santana knee drop right to Valentine face and some really great detailed selling by The Hammer on. Santana thinks figure-4, but Valentine yanks the hair and bails, but the lumberjacks do their job. Flying Burrito and Valentine falls backwards and he applies to the figure-4! HUGE POP! Big John Studd pulls The Hammer to the ropes. Santana goes after Studd and Valentine comes crashing down with a forearm. Another heated slugfest leads to them knocking head and Valentine falls on top for the win. They were forced into a tough corner. They needed a finish and they wanted Valentine to go over to continue the feud into the summer. Not the best finish, but not a horrible one. It was representative of the war of attrition that these matches are. I think this is right in the same ballpark as most of the Santana/Valentine matches. I think the cage match & 6/16/84 stand out of the pack. This is more of the fun one. Besides teh October return/revenge match, I thought this was the most fun shine and the figure-4 got a huge pop. Another humdinger of a match in one of all time favorite feuds! ****1/4

WWF Intercontinental Champion Greg Valentine vs. Tito Santana - WWF, MSG 1/21/85 Could not find the November draw again on line, which means that is the only Valentine/Santana singles match that I have not seen from this run. We skip ahead to January of the following year and while this is still a very heated feud, the storyline has taken a turn to being more about the Intercontinental Championship. Santana was able to attack Valentine savagely in October, but after a draw in November the chances of rematches would be less and less probable. Thus why this match is a much slower pace. Tito does not want to risk disqualification like he did in October because his emotions got the best of him. In addition, when you get emotional that's when you make mistakes. As a challenger, he cannot afford mistakes. The inherent problem with this strategy is that plays right into the hands of the methodical Greg "The Hammer" Valentine. Don't get me wrong when Tito gets the chance he is going to pop Valentine in the face, but the match definitely shows the cautious side of both men. Valentine for his part as the champion is content to bide his time and pick his spots. Early on, Tito is able to wrangle a leg after the Hammer missed a drop toehold playing up the angle that Santana had learned the figure-4 from Jack Brisco. We get some victim blaming from that buffoon Gorilla on why Tito lost the title. How about the promoter or I don't know they man who perpetrated such a heinous act like Greg Valentine. It is a bit of a weak transition into a very good heat segment which sees Valentine just scoop Santana with a body slam. Valentine tries to hold him down in a wristlock, but Tito bridges our exposing the ribs which The Hammer knees with delight. This begins a really well-worked ribs heat segment. Valentine has it all the gutbuster, bearhug, ab stretch (Tito with a nice bit of pscyhology by grabbing the ankle to turn it over) and he throws in a couple slaps for good measure. Santana starts to get a head of steam, but Valentine really digs his fingers into the eyes and goes back to work on the back. He sets him up to come crashing down with all his weight, but misses. ARRIBA~! Tito capitalizes big time and just pours it on with punches atomic drop, chop...TIMBAAAAAHHHH! Valentine ends up on the apron and Santana brings him in the hard way, but is so fatigued that he does not pin right away and only gets two. Santana looks to kill two birds with one stone (injuring Valentine and winning the title) by working the knees with repeated knees to the knee. Valentine yanks the trunks on the figure-4 attempt and rolls to the outside. Tito gives chase and unloads with two rights. He throws him back in, grabs the foot and Valentine yanks the tights again to avoid the figure 4. He rolls back out and Santana again throws him back in. Now, Tito comes flying across with the Flying Burrito but Valentine had collapsed so Tito crashed and burned and ended up on the outside. I LOVED THAT SEQUENCE! The while thing just dripped with urgency and that complete and total commitment to winning the match. Valentine does what he does best once Tito finally crawls back into the ring drops the Hammer. I think they may have slowed the match back down too much and then when Tito is using Valentine's trunks to pull himself up, Greg slaps Tito before unloading on him with MONSTER FOREARM SMASHES! HOLY SHIT! He chucks Tito to the outside. He swings the Hammer Down on his chest and then fishooks him back in. Nasty shit. Valentine goes for the figure-4, but he gets shoved off into the turnbuckles. Double clothesline! Valentine crawls over for cover kick out. Tito with a head of steam FLYING BURRITO~! Sends Valentine crashing to the floor for the countout victory. I love Valentine selling the loss huge because he knows this means Tito will get another rematch when he himself was so close to winning the match. It really plays into how wins and losses matter even the DQ and countout ones. Tito was just so spent from this war he was going to have settle for the countout victory. This match had a different feel from the other ones and was wrestled at more deliberate pace, which only heightened the importance and magnitude of the match. Valentine had some great midsection work and Tito was his great fiery self. The sequence with Tito trying to get Figure-4 on only to wipe out on the Flying Burrito is one of the all time best sequences. I wish all the limb worked played more into the finish as both guys kinda stopped selling and Valentine even did a shoulder breaker after he was just selling the knee. Right up there with all their kick ass matches and different from their other bouts thus far. ****1/4

WWF Intercontinental Champion Greg Valentine vs. Tito Santana - WWF, MSG 10/22/84 I have watched the 6/16 MSG and I liked it so much that I want to sleep on it and watch it again before i give my final thought because I thought it was a total barnburner. The August MSG match was not up by I have watched it previously and ready my review from years ago (my how times flies!) it sounds like it was a strong angle based match. Valentine thought he had won the title (he had the same problems against Backlund, you think he'd would learn ) only to have Santana upend him. He was a sore loser so he broke Tito's leg with the figure-4. Then up in Canada about a month later, Tito being a fighting champion defended against The Hammer, who relentlessly attacked the knee. Tito was able to hit the Flying Burrito, but Valentine's foot was under the ropes and he thought he had successfully defended his title. Only to have Valentine knee him from behind and win the match by hooking the injured leg. Here we are in October with Tito getting a hero's welcome from the MSG faithful! Tito was red fucking hot to start as expected. Valentine tried wildly swinging the belt, but to no avail as Tito just kept firing away at his face. Then Hammer tried to match him blow for blow and Santana forearmed him so hard he was sent reeling through the ropes all the way across the ring. When The Hammer did get control, he was nasty about with fishhooks and eyerakes, but Tito was just a man possessed in this match. Valentine got a big atomic drop and was looking to attack that injured leg, but Tito fought him off. The match had a wild finish with them brawling on the outside. Valentine missed with chair bouncing it off the apron. He returned to the ring and Santana did not miss with a big chair shot. Santana repeatedly punched the open wound only to have the ref finally disqualify him. Santana got a modicum of revenge, but is thirsty for more. This was a great angle-based match to set up the next MSG match. It was super heated and short. It should be short. They were beating the piss out of each other and no reason for this to last long. Cant wait for the next one. ***1/2

WWF Intercontinental Champion Randy "Macho Man" Savage vs Jake "The Snake" Roberts - SNME 11/86 They were clearly pretty confident about turning Jake The Snake babyface at this point pitting him against the Macho Man in this nominally heel vs heel bout. Yes, they both pull hair at the beginning to establish they are heels, but make no mistake about it Jake is clearly the babyface in this match. Vince gets a good line in on Jesse, who is wearing toupee and if he was in this match someone who have gone home with a prize. Given Savage's propensity for laying out his matches meticulously beforehand it would have been hilarious if the crowd ended cheering for the Macho Man. The DDT was very over at the beginning. Jake scares Liz at the beginning with the Snake. Savage, like any good, macho man, goes to protect the honor of his main squeeze, but ends up being even more frightened and hides behind Elizabeth in absolutely awesome and hilarious spot. The most over thing about Jake in terms of his in-ring stuff is the DDT and he knows where his bread is buttered. The match worked around DDT teases and Savage is so good at playing up how deadly this move is with his mad, frantic scrambles for the ropes. Savage is way better than I remember in terms of working on top and working that full court press style of a barrage of knees and elbows from all angles. He does not have a lot of moves, but they are all nasty and he knows how to use them. Savage plays around with the Snake, but gets caught with a big knee lift coming back into the ring. Short-arm clothesline by Jake and you expect the DDT, but get a front suplex. That to me is weird psychology. The DDT tease and Macho Man frenetically escapes to hide behind Liz. Jake says two can play at that game and looks to brings out Damien only have Macho Man hit a high knee to the back to send him into the post. I love that spot. Double axehandles abound, but on the third one Jake hits him square in the face and there some really great Savage selling. The match gets really heated and they both toss the ref around triggering a double disqualification. Dave Hebner took a wicked bump on the second one. Savage is a maniac and brings in a chair, but Jake rubs the snake all over him to send him scurrying. This is a really entertaining TV match definitely worth mostly for the novelty factor. Jake really just brought the DDT to the table, which was was really over and got the crowd involved. I thought this was an excellent Savage performance and along with the rest of his work from 86 cemented him as the WWF Wrestler of 1986 and a dark horse candidate for best worker in the world in 86. ***3/4

OUI! OUI!

Magpie, you da man! Martel vs Bret in '87 hot damn! Now I am excited!

Ricky Steamboat vs Ace Cowboy Bob Orton - WWF, Cap Center 7/20/85 The Landover crowd is rocking for the recently debuted Ricky The Dragon Steamboat. I have to say Steamboat committed himself to the Karate gimmick better than I would think a lot of proud veterans would. He had working at a high level and he could have been badass Steamboat in the Carolinas, but he went out there and executed Vince’s vision, which is pretty cool. I think those intense spots where he is summoning his chi and what not aka flexing his bulging muscles got him over huge. Yes, this is during the time period where Bob Orton had the cast. Bob Orton was such a great midcard heel and perfect for his role. I really enjoyed Steamboat’s mannerisms in this. I thought he was intense and charismatic. I really liked him mocking Orton in the arm bar. Steamboat focused his shine working on injured arm, but they both always kept things moving. It began with an armdrag into arm bar and some nice karate strikes to the arm. Orton keeps it moving as he tries to get out in numerous ways including to go through ropes, a punch that was blocked and a bodyslam, but Steamboat always maintains control. Steamboat is really fun in this. Orton backs him into corner and starts laying on the heavy artillery. Headscissor by Orton tries again and goes flying over ropes into railing on the second attempt. He throws soda in Steamboat’s eyes and goes to town. Cool transition. Orton powerful knee lift. Good heat builds to the cast shot, but misses. Big chop by Steamboat but he missed a fistdrop. They slug it out in Carolina boy fashion. Orton midsection shots stops the Dragon rally, but he is backdropped out fo pilederiver. Top rope crossbody by Steamboat!!! 1-2-No! Great nearfall! Inverted atomic drop by Orton and Steamboat crumples to mat. Really awesome selling there by the Steamer. Steamboat skins the cat and enziguiri (not a good looking one, but he is trying). Orton takes a huge bump through the ropes. Another karate shot by Steamboat while Orton is on apron. Orton eyerake while on apron and Steamboat wins suplex struggle and brings him in hard way. Steamer eats knees on splash attempt. Orton adjusts the cast! Cast shot and DQ. Damn it was just getting good. Steamboat fends him with chops and kicks. Gene Okerlund “This guy had the guts to do whats right.” In reference to the ref DQ’ing Ace Cowboy, which I think in terms of grandstanding righteous indignation that has to rank up there. Steamboat wants some more of Orton, but Orton retreats. This was well on its way to being a great midcard match to get Steamboat over. I don’t mind the finish, it just rendered the match incomplete. Sometimes you get to that level finish and it feels right. I felt these guys still had more left to give. Plus I think that The Dragon was higher enough on the pecking order he probably should have gotten the clean win. I really fun Steamboat performance. ***3/4

For what it's worth, I thought Rude's match with Steamboat at Rumble '88 was very possibly the single worst match I've ever seen the Dragon participate in. Literally half of it was one long rest hold. Thank you for letting me know that as I will now be skipping that match. By the same token, they absolutely rocked in 1992 in WCW. Now, I was being a bit of a smart ass with my green comment. Basically, Rude had been wrestling since at least 1984 in Memphis so 4 years and still chock it up to being green seemed funny to me. Yes, it definitely seems that clicked pretty late for the Ravishing One.

Hate to see anyone get injured. I like Rollins more than most on here it seems in terms of both wrestling and character work. He is not super fantastic, but his character work with Kane & The Authority is light years ahead of anything Randy Orton could pull off. I enjoyed his really long match with Ambrose and his very fun babyface match with Cena at Summerslam. I am not a huge fan, but I like him. That being said, this is a great opportunity to really shake things up and get themselves out of a funk. Im really interested to see who wins. Definitely have my interest now.

I recently watched the angle that kickstarted the feud and that was fucking tremendous. If Rude is considered green in 1988 then he is one of the slowest learners of pro wrestling. Personally, I think Jake is a bit overrated. I finally found some Jake matches I liked in the form of the Steamboat matches. Like you mention Rude had a great matches with Warrior. My thinking is Jake and Rude are both low energy wrestlers however when paired with people can supply movement & energy ala Steamer & Warrior you seem their match quality go through the roof. I was going to check out some Jake & Rude stuff, but getting sluggish on 80s WWF and think it is time for a change sooner, rather than later. Hope this helps!

Hate to see anyone get injured. I like Rollins more than most on here it seems in terms of both wrestling and character work. He is not super fantastic, but his character work with Kane & The Authority is light years ahead of anything Randy Orton could pull off. I enjoyed his really long match with Ambrose and his very fun babyface match with Cena at Summerslam. I am not a huge fan, but I like him. That being said, this is a great opportunity to really shake things up and get themselves out of a funk. Im really interested to see who wins. Definitely have my interest now.

WWF Intercontinental Champion Tito Santana vs Greg "The Hammer" Valentine - WWF, Philly 5/5/84 By watching this match, I have watched every major recorded match these two had during their red hot 84-85 feud. The first two matches in the series are from Philly and are from before the feud really gets kicked off when Valentine breaks Tito's leg with the figure-4 and then Tito swears revenge by learning the figure-4 to break The Hammer's leg, which I still think is like the coolest angle ever. I think besides the cage match that these Philly matches are better than the MSG matches, which feel more like angle advancement. These matches are hard-hitting, almost shoot-style contests. I am going to go back and finish this series off, but that's my recollection. When Greg Valentine initially gets Tito in the corner and just pops him hard with elbows and then just tears into Tito's knee, I fell in love with The Hammer all over again. He is just the consummate bruiser. He was introduced as the master of the figure-4 and wasted not time targetting the leg. Tito sold the pain, but it was early enough that he was going to fight back and fight back he did with shoulder tackles. Valentine caught with a quick uppercut and then in as true heel started to attack the throat. It is such a cheap and nasty thing to do. He dropped Tito throat first on the top rope, dropped elbows and did the little catapult move that is so nasty. Santana was fighting back, but also selling by coughing really well. Once Santana could get a head of steam he blasted him with the Flying Burrito and then he just came at him with those fists of fury. Valentine started to go toe-to-toe with him but quickly realized that begging off maybe more effective. Santana caught his kick, spun him around and absolutely levelled him with a right. It was a perfect worked punch. I love that in desperation Valentine got the knee up when Santana charged into the corner he immediately went for the figure-4. He knew that he almost lost the match and it was now or never he needed to take the opportunity to win the match with his best shot. Furthermore, when Tito valiantly kicked him off, Valentine remained undetered and just tortured the leg of Santana, who kicking off with all his might. It was intense struggle and that was incredibly gripping to watch to see who came out the better. The finish of the match was incredible. Tito Santana took a HUGE HOLY SHIT BUMP! I thought they were going to do the whole crossbody and the momentum takes both men over, but Tito fucking clears Valentine and just went flying to the outside with nothing to break his fall. I thought that was the finish, but then he got back on the apron and they have a war on the apron. Valentine just grabs and him crotches him on the rope. This was not any crotch job. The Hammer threw him down balls-first on this top rope. I don't how much that Tito even had to "sell" he might have just been in straight up pain. This is just badass, logical pro wrestling that builds drama based on the strengths of both wrestlers it grips you as the match takes different turns. I think I liked the March Philly match a hair better, but awesome stuff again. ****1/4

WWF Intercontinental Champion Greg Valentine vs Ricky Steamboat - WWF, MSG 6/21/85 Gorilla Monsoon is the fucking worst. Nobody could take the sails out of hot comeback faster than him with his nonchalant "Nope, he is not going to get him." I will take Vince's bombastic and naive belief that every nearfall is a potential winning fall than Gorilla's constant undercutting of drama. This is the Superstar Sleeze dream match on paper and I think this would be a dream match for most wrestling fans. It does not quite live up OMG RICKYSTEAMBOAT VS GREG VALENTINE~! The beginning is pretty pedestrian surprisingly. For whatever, Valentine did not seem very engaged in the beginning of the match. He was content to bump and sell, but he was not his usual chippy self. Then Steamboat kept locking these holds on Valentine as if to contain him, but Valentine was not supplying energy. I think those clamps are perfect to keep a runaway babyface down or I guess really any explosive wrestler. Valentine was not demonstrating that on this night. I think Steamboat needed to provide more of the energy. He was at times, but he needed to go full throttle. The Valentine heat segment was good. I expect greatness out of The Hammer, so I could not help but be disappointed. It was the standard stiff shots and then setting up for the figure-4. On the flip side, it was standard great Steamboat selling. The entire match up until the finish felt very routine. Basically, it was each guy doing what he did well, but not really responding to each other. Then Steamboat wakes up on the outside and sort of Hulks Up and the crowd's interest is piqued. Then all of sudden it becomes a couple Carolina boys doing Carolina boy things in the ring when they fucking start wailing on each other. This is what I wanted. Steamboat had a tremendous comeback showing great fire and exuding charisma. It was either on a big karate chop or the top rope cross body when the crowd and the match were at a fever pitch that fucking Gorilla said "Nope, he is not going to get him." What a fucking asshole.Valentine had a brief spell of offense before Steamboat Karate'd his ass out of the ring to lose by countout. I will say Steamboat's kicks look aesthetically pleasing in the sense that when his kicking the air it looks smooth and well-executed, but man he just is not connecting at all. Of course, kicks were never part of his repertoire, but hey now he is the Karate Kid so he needs to do KICKS~! This reminds me Jimmy Hart was great in this match first worrying about all the Karate bullshit and then when Steamboat was down and out taunting by calling him the Karate Kid. Great Mouth of the South performance. It is a good match, but not at level I wanted it to be at. ***

Dream Team vs Can-Ams – MSG 1/19/87 Was looking for this forever and my main man, Ricky Jackson, found it and we reviewed it on Tag Teams Back Again #8. Ricky Martel and Tom Zenk may look similar, but Martel has so much more pep in his step that is differentiates him from Zenk. Standard WWF babyfaceshine using the armbar as base. I have always like the spot where they roll through bodyslam and maintain the armbar. Valentine fights back, but cant get anything going. Zenk is in and then Beefer, BOOOOOOOO. Beefcake takes an atomic drop and so does Valentine pinballing him into Martel TIMBBBAAAAAAAH! Martel back to arm, but Valentine drops him throat first on rope and Beefer goes to town. Dream Team double team Martel. Martel scores a big blow, but as Valentine falls down he grabs Martel’s wrist and pulls him with him to his corner. AWESOME SPOT!!! Beefer is at his peak as a work with great movement off a chinlock that was exciting. Then Valentine and Martel just have it out. Martel hits with Lawler like fists of fury! Valentine romps and stomps his way back into control. Suplex into a weird cover that was just lackadaisical and un Valentine like. Beefcake bearhug. Valentine figure-4 inside cradle. Slugfest in corner! Martel crawls over to Zenk. Zenk dropkicks and now double noggin knocker, but Beefer hits clothesline. They work the washboard abs of Zenk. Valentine ab stretch, gut buster and steps on Zenk on his way to tagging Beefer. Bruti tries to hold him down, but Zenk bridges out. Beefer crotches himself on Zenk’s knees tags in Valentine. Collision. Beefer rolls Valentine on top, but only for two. Do two false tags and Martel is PISSED! He throwing strikes but keeps getting forced out. He takes a couple cheapshots because of his frustrations. When Hammer put Zenk in the Figure-4, he launched himself across the ring and looks similar enough to Zenk to get the win! AWESOME MATCH! ****

The Dream Team vs Islanders - Boston 12/6/86 Tama is looking PIMP at the beginning of the match. That jacket is fuckin *****, maybe that's why I got distracted. beefcake add his one useful contribution drops down to the Superfly pose and does "Up Yours!". Haku/Tama start with early double teams on Valentine's arm. Haku gets him a figure 4 armlock and head headscissors and also a hammerlock pinfall attempt. Tama and Valentine have a nice vicious exchange and Valentine also takes a cross body from Tama. Haku veers off cours and starts going after legs: single Boston Crab and spreading his legs apart. Basically the first half of the match was jaw-jacking and then has been working over Valentine. Valentine has kept it interesting with some stogging, but I really want to see him light someone up. Valentine gets a wicked reverse elbow to turn the tide and send Tama crashing to the paraquet floor. Tama is milking it for all its worth and once back in gets thrown back to the outside to take some light Beefcake offense. Valentine brings him in a with a suplex. Tags in Beefcake, but before exiting steps on Tama. Beefcake distracts Haku & ref for more Valentine offense. Beefcake knew where his bread was buttered. Beefcake displays why he is a candidate for worst wrestler of all time with his lame offense. Tama is selling incredibly well and really trying to make up for Beefcake's shitty offense. In such a short time period, Tama has proved himself to have more versatility than most wrestlers display in their whole careers as he plays both an excellent sympathetic face in peril and a great douchebag heel. Valentine comes in and hits a reverse tombstone and then gets a figure 4, but Haku sensing the end is near breaks that up. Tama blocks a Valentine suplex and hits his own. Haku gets the tag and the place is rocking. Haku is a Tongan Tribal Fire Fully Ablaze!!! Haku is just killing the Dream left and right. TIMBAAAAAAAH! Beefcake is calling for timeout. The Islanders have the former champs where they want them. Haku hoists Valentine up and Tama comes acorss with the flying cross body and the bell sounds signaling the time limit draw. TAMA IS PISSED!!! He calls for 5 more minutes. The Dream Team tease taking them up on the offer before bailing. Gorilla gets a word with the three of them and it is a pretty non-descript promo. ***1/2

WWF World Tag Champs British Bulldogs vs Dream Team - 2 Out of Three Falls SNME 10/86 One impressive thing about this series so far has been that these teams have really gone out and had different matches each time. This match saw the Dream Team in control of majority of the match. Hell, Brutus Beefcake looked shockingly competent. Valentine gets a hold of Dynamite's knee early, but Davey Boy comes in and the Dream Team overwhelm him bringing the injured Dynamite back in. I got to give the man some credit, but the Beefer worked Dynamite's knee pretty well, before Valentine was able to wrangle him into a figure 4 and garner the first fall. They continue to work over Dynamite's leg at the beginning of the second fall. But Valentine goes for the always tempting second-rope elbow and misses allowing for Davey Boy to come in like the proverbial house afire. Bulldog hits his dropkick, delayed vertical suplex and running powerslam on Valentine before re-doing that wicked bitchin finish from the non-title match with Dynamite leaping off Beefcake and doing a headbutt on Valentine for the second fall. Towards the beginning of the 3rd fall, there is a strike exchange, which makes me wish there was a Dynamite vs Greg Valentine match. Snap suplex by Dynamite, but he misses the standing headbutt. Valentine is back on the leg, but Dynamite pushes him off on the figure-4 attempt and tags out to Davey Boy. Beefcake gets the tag simultaneously and cuts off Davey Boy (I always want to write Bulldog, but have to stop myself). Valentine hits a suplex and Brutus connects with a high knee, but Dynamite saves. Brutus goes in for a high knee in the corner, but Davey Boy side-steps and picks up the win with a fisherman's suplex. I would say it is close with the Wrestlemania II, but this is the my favorite match that I have seen between these teams. The match runs through the heels more, which is something I prefer. Hell, Beefcake came through in the clutch and proved me wrong in this match. Valentine was his usually violently awesome self. It is not like the Dream Team ate up the Bulldogs. The Bulldogs got in all of their offense and looked both resilient and impressive in their match. I actually think the other matches were too lop-sided in the favor of the Bulldogs that it actually made the Dream Team look like chumps. This match actually made the Bulldogs look more badass for overcoming the Dream Team in a way that just being on offensive never would. Dynamite sold really well throughout the match and Davey Boy is a really good hot tag. I would say this is my pick for best WWF 80s tag match I have seen so far. ****1/4

WWF World Tag Champs Dream Team vs British Bulldogs - Wrestlemania II Beefcake's total amount of time in this match is literally one minute. Thank God. At one point, Gorilla says Valentine has been in there a while and whilst the Hammer conferring with Luscious Johnny V remarks he can't believe Johnny V wouldn't advise a tag out. All I have to say is Gorilla have you seen Beefcake wrestle? Of course, Beefcake's one big move is actually a nice hammerlock slam that was perfectly fed to him by Davey Boy and perfectly setup by Valentine's arm work, but it doesn't stop Gene and Gorilla from going gaga over the Beefer's one move. Give me Dino Bravo every day over that chump. This begins as less of an offensive showcase for the Bulldogs. They still get in their assortment of suplexes (Davey Boy- delayed vertical and Dynamite's snap) and Davey Boy does a gorilla press slam, but Valentine is able to get in a few forearms edgewise throughout. I wouldn't go so far to call spot monkeys like the Steiners (who I love, even though I know most people around these parts arent too fond of), but you do get the feeling that don't really give much of a fuck about structure. Case in point, Dynamite forces Valentine to do the TIMBAHHH bump twice, when he could have done a better job to maximize its effectiveness. Valentine irks me as he randomly just picks up Dynamite at one point and gives him what can be best described as a reverse tombstone piledriver. It just annoys because it felt so much like "Ok now it is my turn" rather him even doing an eye rake to set that up. That does setup Valentine doing his best Flair impersonation, crotching himself and then taking the gorilla press slam. The Bulldogs go for the rocket launcher diving headbutt, but Valentine does some cat and mouse is able to the knee the fuck out of Dynamite (those were pretty vicious). Davey Boy comes in only for his shoulder to eat steel setting up the face in peril segment. Valentine shoulder-breaker and usual hammerlock related offense including Beefcake's sole contribution to the match, I mentioned above. Valentine makes the cardinal mistake of overconfident heels and picks up Davey Boy after the shoulderbreaker. Davey Boy throws Valentine off who collides with Dynamite head first standing on the turnbuckle. Dynamite takes a wicked bump off-camera and the Bulldogs win the titles. I actually like that finish as a callback to the SNME finish. This match was an outstanding one man effort by Valentine as he was bumping and selling for the Bulldogs better because he made this into more his style match as a brutal strike based match. However, he still let the Bulldogs get their spots in. As evidenced by Beefcake's inability to take Dynamite's hooking clothesline in the last match, he clearly was not the man to do that. I have watched the Funks vs Tito/JYD recently, while that is good. This match is still my pick for the best match at the woeful Wrestlemania II card. ****

WWF Tag Champs US Express vs The Dream Team - Philly 8/24/85 I am glad I went back and watched these two Dream Team matches because they could contend with the Islanders as my favorite heel tag team in 80s WWF. I will say one of the disappointments of Valentine sticking in one promotion for so long is that we did not get stuff like Valentine vs Windham one on one at length. Also, what I do not understand is why Beefcake seemed to suck so hard in '86. I mean Valentine barely let Beefcake wrestle in Wrestlemania II. He wrestled pretty decently in these two matches. He is still only the fourth best wrestler in these matches, but he is not sucking out loud. I loved the start to this match as the Dream Team jumps them and a melee ensues. The Windham/Valentine exchange makes me want that singles match so much. The faces send the heels packing. Valentine & Beefcake true to form work smart and try to break their momentum. We get Windham/Valentine proper and the two minutes we get is awesome. Valentine stops the runaway freight train with a knee lift. Beefcake loses this advantage and we go to Heel In Peril with some arm work. I actually think Beefcake sold this pretty well and Rotundo worked pretty well in this segment. The US Express even hits a double dropkick (way better than Rockers one) on Beefer. Beefcake works Rotundo to his corrner and he blind tagged Valentine, who came off the top with a sledge onto Rotundo. Valentine suffocates Rotundo and is relentless on his legs and Rotundo sells pretty well. Rotundo is good at working some strikes in his hope spots in the corner. I dig Dream Team double whip into the corner. We hit the front facelock for a while. I will say the Valentine drop toehold to prevent Rotundo from making the tag is one of the best of those kind. Windham and Valentine get back into it. I just love how chippy this is. Valentine hits his shoulder breaker. I dig the shoulderbreaker I think someone should incorporate it in their moveset, but it is weird for Valentine's moveset. Valentine gets kicked off by Rotundo on his figure-4 into his corner so he can tag Beefer. Rotundo and Beefcake knock heads and The Hammer throws the Beefer on Rotundo and it is a close two! The crowd lets out a collective sigh of relief. But Rotundo escapes and hot tag to BIG BARRY!!! I love how Windham steps through his punches. He hits Valentine with a bulldog, but Valentine KICKS OUT! Now that's a death sentence for a babyface. Windham goes for the second bulldog, but Beefcake puts "Luscious" Johnny V's hair product in Barry's eyes. Valentine hits an elbow to seal the deal. I love how Windham is writhing in pain while he is being pinned, perfect selling. The other match is definitely the better workrate match and the front facelock stuff does drag, but Windham & Valentine are really excellent. I wish they would some of that beginning melee stuff in other matches it gives matches a more heated feel. I thought this is one of the better title switches I have seen. ****

The Dream Team w/Jimmy Hart vs Tito Santana & Ricky Steamboat - MLG 4/21/85 This match sure lived up to the hype and may be the best Beefcake performance I have ever seen. This match was all about tempo. Santana was in his red-hot feud with Valentine who had broken his leg and taken his title. The crowd was molten for that angle. The babyfaces worked their entire end in an up-tempo, fired -up fashion. The Dream Team knowing they could not match this attempted every trick in the book to break their momentum and work a real grinding style. This led to a really good match. Early on Steamboat and Santana have a hot shine sequence with Beefcake and Valentine just bumping all over the place for them. I have been down on WWF Steamboat, but he was pumped for this match just flying around the ring. You know that Tito is going to bring the hate with his fists balled up. Beefcake and Valentine do their best to stall and break this momentum, but at first there seems like no end to this onslaught. Until, Tito goes for the figure-4 on Valentine, who grabs his trunks and hits a knee in the midsection. Once he hits a shoulderbreaker he consolidates the advantage for the Dream Team and grinds the match to a halt. They work on Santana with some double teams and Valentine slaps on an arm bar. Tito is almost able to make the tag, but Valentine knocks Steamboat off the apron and then Beefcake comes around and beats on Steamboat. The crowd was just eating this all up. The Beefer gets cocky and goads Steamboat. Tito is able to crawl past Beefcake and get the hot tag to Steamboat. IT IS BREAKING LOOSE IN TORONTO! Steamboat with his best hot tag I have seen. He unloads on both the Hammer and the Beefer with karate shots. The crowd was losing their shit for this. Steamboat grabs the sleeper hold, but Beefcake with an eye-rake. Valentine and Steamboat have a good exchange until an eye-rake does Steamboat in and Valentine consolidates with a gut buster. I preferred the Steamboat FIP is a better at selling and the Dream Team really unloaded with double teams and offense. Valentine starts to warm him up for the figure-4, but Steamboat knows his way around the figure-4 and grabs an inside cradle. Steamboat fights out of the corner and is able to Tito. ARRIBA! Double noggin knocker. Tito drops Valentine with a right. Flying Burrito to a huge pop! Beefcake saves. Melee ensues. They are double teaming Tito and Steamboat flies off the top onto Beefcake. Tito blocks Valentine's atomic drop and applies the figure-4 for the submission victory. ARRIBA! Wooooooooooooo, I am out of breathe after that one. This is babyface wrestling 101, folks. Steamboat and Santana gave maximum effort and I bet it is real easy when you have a crowd as hot as this one at the Maple Leaf Gardens. The Dream Team wrestled a smart match to ensure constant heat throughout the match as they built not one, but two really hot tags. In some of those double FIP AWA tags, the first hot tag is not all that hot, but in this match that Steamboat hot tag is just as red-hot as the following Santana one. Beefcake actually wrestled pretty well here and was not as awkward as usual. The Hammer is going to clog the lane every time and make sure that babyface earns every shot. This up there with the Bulldogs match as one of the best WWF Tags of the 80s. ****1/2

Yep it was an elbow, lean backed and I swear Savage kicked out at 2.5, but they called it 3. It is still on DM, If you wanna recheck it. Their chemistry was off the charts on the first meeting. Do you like the WM V match? I have never cared for it. I think the problem is me siding with Savage throws the dynamics off.

WWF World Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan vs Randy Savage - WWF, Philly 9/28/85 The most noteworthy thing about this match is just how much hair each man had at this point. Kidding, so this is the first match between arguably the most famous names in pro wrestling history and the most famous feud in pro wrestling history. Having recently watched the Memphis set, you could just feel how big of a star Savage was. It translated instantaneously to the big lights of the WWF. He skyrocketed up the card from the summer of 85 to facing Hogan in September. I have always admired Savage for portraying probably the most despicable and ugliest traits of a human. The way he was arrogant, a coward hiding behind woman, a wild man, spitting and just being a general mean bastard. He is just a plan awful person. I mean what is left for me to say about Hogan. I have run out of ways to describe the irresistible energy this man brings. He is one of those wrestlers that just seeing him puts a smile on your face. You know what I will use Dick Graham's words: "He is bigger than the world." Savage is in full Memphis heel stalling, get on your bike and ride mode. It was some really fun stalling complete with swapping spit. I really enjoyed Hogan mocking Savage and then getting caught for being a hot dog when he came back in the ropes. Savage is such a whirlwind on offense. His full court press is really the only way to combat Hogan's size advantage well that and cheating like a muthafucka. We get the Liz spot twice to awesome heat. Each time Savage takes over, it is because Hogan is trying to get back through the ropes and Savage is being a dick about it. Savage nails a double axehandle, but gets caught on the second one. Savage ends up on the outside and this time Hogan physically lifts Liz out of the way to get to the Macho Man. The finish is a good one with Savage crashing and burning on the big elbow drop, which Gorilla put over huge. Hogan dropped the elbow for three, but Savage kicked out pretty damn quickly at three "to keep his heat". I guess you could say. If this was the test run to see if the Macho Man could do the big three in a row at the Garden he passed with flying colors. ***

Honestly, I think that's the best compliment I could ever receive. I am glad you enjoy them.

Holy shit! Was that the best Raw of the year or was that the best Raw of the year. Best singles match of Kofi's career against Roman. Is there another one that's close? After months of spinning his wheels, Roman looked like the best wrestler in WWE again. Cesaro/Owens was a really fun, energetic Cesaro performance. Thought the women had a great finish sequence. Nice win for Nikki. Paige's turn could have been more impactful, but I am glad we got there. Good news is that Marty Sr. (I am a Junior) is a huge fan of Becky Lynch now so he wont complain during the women's matches well at least Becky's matches. Holy shit! Who is this Del Rio? He is an awesome heel. An actual heel doing heelish things in the ring! Of course it was all wasted because they were in San Diego. Alas, A+ for effort. VIVA LA MEX-AMERICA! They stole my Moms solution for the immigration problem just integrate the two countries. Loved the hard-hitting six man tag, great use of those guys. It felt really heated. Big E/Dolph was probably the weakest match, but still a really entertaining Big E. performance. Fatal 4-Way was crazy amounts of fun. SUPERMAN PUNCH OUT OF THE POP UP POWERBOMB HAD ME MARKING OUT LIKE CRAZY! I almost lost my laptop from that. The entire show was predicated around people who won at the previous PPV and then were vying to EARN the right to challenge Rollins. The booking was awesome. The in-ring work was dripping with effort. We can all shit on WWE, but when they kick ass lets give them some love!

WWF Intercontinental Champion Tito Santana vs Greg "The Hammer" Valentine - Philly 3/31/84 I am pretty sure this is their first major encounter with each other. This bout did not have the "I want break your fucking leg because you broke mine" element to take it to the next level, but still this is physical as all hell. These two are just so different from the rest of the WWF roster and just had such great chemistry. Everything is such a struggle. Little things like Valentine swinging and actually missing because Tito moved. Unlike most wrestlers who will half-ass their misses, if Valentine connected he connected; if he did't he didn't. During some of the comebacks, it really felt like Valentine would just wrangle Tito and drop a vicious elbow. You really got the feeling how much the Intercontinental Championship meant to each competitor. Santana frustrates Valentine with speed like the armdrags, moving from elbows and dropkicks. Valentine catches him with a kneelift, which is one of my favorite transitions. He does some quick great work in the abdomen including hanging him out to dry on the top rope. Santana starts to mount a comeback and Valentine finally drops a huge elbow to quell him. It feels almost shooty. Valentine starts to work over the legs with Indian Deathlock and then attacking legs. Santana would grab a headlock and a kneecrusher would stop him. I loved stuff like Santana launching his body at Valenine just any thing he could do. Santana was selling so well, but always working hard from underneath. Valentine even took time to revel in his glory while Santana is crawling around the ring. Santana goes for the leg, but Valentine quashes that with a inverted atomic drop. Valentine of course misses his second rope elbow. Huge rights by Santana and slams his head into turnbuckle. TIMMMMBBBBBAAHHHHH! I love Valentine because he is an ornery, mean asshole during his control, but when it comes time for that comeback he is always game for bumping, stooging, and begging off for the babyface. Santana works some side headlocks pinfall attempts, but is always energetic. I love the spot where Santana does an atomic drop, but did it on the hurt knee and Tito sells it so well. HUGE ATOMIC DROP BY THE HAMMER! Wow, I don't think I ever seen a heel hit that move. Tito sells the fuck out of it and you really believe Valentine has a shot now. Valentine big butterfly suplex, repeated shots to abdomen and a toehold as the 20 minute time limit expire. What?!?!? Valentine delivers some heavy shots, but repeatedly misses elbows and Santana challenges to come back and finish it. The finish really threw me a loop because you expect the babyface to end the match on top before the time limit expires. It is also interesting that Santana was making his comeback and Valentine was actually able to surmount this surge in momentum and regain control. The whole finish was a real curveball. Add on top of that the whole match had a real anything could happen feel to it. You never knew who was going to take control at any point. There were no neat little segments where one guy who take control and then a nice little transition would cause the next control segment. Still it never felt back and forth because of how well Santana sold everything from the abs to the knee to fatigue and how Valentine sold he could be overwhelmed. I really enjoyed this match, but I think the next matches in their series benefit from having extracurricular heat. ****1/4

"Rowdy" Roddy Piper vs Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka - Meadowlands 7/15/84 Holy shit what a friggin awesome brawl! You hear all about the Piper's Pit with the coconut-smashing, which is such a great angle from little details like Piper making sure to drop the coconuts on the table to prove they are legitimate to absolute obnoxious delivery. Piper is just so good at getting under your skin. We need a heat-seeking little fucker like him nowadays. However, I have never heard anyone talk about the consequent series that resulted from Coconut Pit. I was expecting a typically fun WWF match, but just did not hold enough water to be considered a classic. I would say this blood-filled, hate-dripping brawl stacks up pretty well during the time period. They both start off red-hot and Snuka overwhelms him early. Piper is begging off and Snuka is just relentless. Snuka is doing a great job keeping everything filled with hate and energy to pop the crowd. Piper gets his first break with an eye-rake. That does not last, but he crashes into the most hated referee in the universe, Dick Whirrly. The opportunity presents itself to crack the Superfly with a chair and of course he comes up sporting quite the gusher. Piper rams his head into the steel post and does a little King of the Mountain. Piper punches and bites the cut. Snuka is bleeding profusely. Both he and Piper are covered in Snuka's blood. Snuka finally realizes he is bleeding. He goes into that Coked Out Zone and it is rubber pants time for the Hot Rod. Snuka looks downright terrifying chasing Piper covered in his own blood, his shredded physique and crazy hair. Snuka beats the living shit out of Piper. Piper tries to escape outside the ring. Snuka follows him BY JUMPING CLEAR OVER THE TOP ROPE CRASHING RIGHT ON TOP OF HIM!!!!! Dick Whirrly lives up to his name and is a total dickwad and counts both men out. So Snuka headbutts Whirrly!!!! SNUKA IS THE GREAT WRESTLER EVER! Snuka continues to exact revenge on Piper until the JTTS crew restrain him. We get the official word that Piper actually won by countout. WHAT THE FUCK? Dick Whirrly is the worst ref ever. Piper sucker punches Snuka as he is being restrained and high tails it is out of here. Awesome, awesome heated brawl that sets up many more rematches. It eventually morphs into a tag feud with Snuka/Tama vs. Piper/Partner, but I hope there is an even better singles blowoff first. Given that is the 80s there probably isn't, but still this is a badass match. ****