Superstar Sleeze

My name is Martin. I keep meaning to do one of those introductory posts and I am going to head over there now. I really appreciate the shout-out. You hope after watching all that footage that you will find a hidden gem and I am glad that you enjoyed it as much as I did. I will say you really have to watch the feud progress from Islanders turning heel on the Can-Ams on TV, Zenk being a pussy, Martel saying he would fight them both on his own (Tama match is so friggin good), Tito getting dragged into it, and then the badass tag matches. I am glad that unlike the Legends of Wrestling Roundtable this did not become a Ray Stevens wankfest. In their defense, it was Pat Patterson and Bock on the same show, so you knew those two were going to put over Stevens huge, but they would never stop talking about their respective teams. If I remember correctly, Patterson kept trying to hint his was the better team, but Bock kept respectfully replying well we didn't see each other's matches. It was a fun bit of passive aggression. This had a bit more variety than that show, but did lack the bitchin' Ray Stevens stories from Bock & Pat. I thought this was a good mix of opinions. Whoever said the Rockers was the best tag team is a wicked awesome dude! Whoever did not like the Fantastics, well you suck! If that is the same person, I guess it is all rendered mott. I know Chad's, Charles' and Peter's voices, but I still get Justin and Scott confused. I don't think the Rockers are the best tag team ever. I am a huge Midnights mark. I just like that people are coming around to placing the Rockers in that elite category. Chad, you hit every single elite Rockers match I would mention. To pick nits, I prefer the Hart Foundation 11/89 MSG match to the phantom switch, but you rattled off all of them. It is really the variety of great matches with a variety of teams that should be the Rockers hallmark. I think they are really even, but I give the edge to Marty because he is just as good as Shawn at the FIP, but much better at the hot tag. Shawn had better charisma and ring presence. Hell why stop at Martel. I think we can make the case for Tito being better than Steamboat. There are huge gaps in Steamboat's activity and some real dull stretches. I think all three are real close. Obviously, Steamboat has some really high peak profile matches, which are really hard to overcome, but I think all three are close. I have watched the vast majority of Strike Force matches and what separates Martel from Tito as a tag worker is that Tito is content to just sell during the heat segment, but Martel will work in hope spots. Santana was very rarely a tag worker in his career from what I have seen so kudos to him for being as good as he was. I preferred the Midnights/Fantastics series to the Midnights/RNRs series for the longest time. Wrestlewar '90 match bridges the gap, but I need to go back and rewatch all that. Hart Foundation are wicked overrated. I don't mind the repeated spots as much, but it is just the mechanical feel of the matches. There is something I can't put my finger on, but Bret is way, way better singles wrestler. I have never seen a Owen/Yoko match and you guys got me interested. Hardys late run in '06 sounds really interesting and I will give that match against MNM a look see when I get a chance. shoe, Bock is a spot on pick. Bock & Saito fuckin' rules. So can I now pick the Steiners as my most underrated tag team? I have been writing about the Islanders forever, but I will give a shout-out to the Islanders as a great underrated tag team. They worked really good matches against Hart Foundation, Dream Team and Demolition as babyfaces and Bulldogs as heels and then excellent matches against Strike Force as heels. The Windham & Dustin team was a really good tag team throughout 1992 that sometimes gets overlooked. Best tag worker I will go with Eaton. My underrated pick would be the Hammer as he was really good with Beefcake and Bravo. Weirdly enough, I couldn't find any of his matches with Honky. Imagine if we had Valentine & Flair footage. Great show and I am like 6 matches away from finishing my big late 80s WWF tag series then I am never watching another tag match. I kid, I kid, but seriously it is getting tiresome.

I love how Johnny puts over Don Muraco as a man who rips families asunder "He is a man whose family has spent time with me and we still can't agree on Don Muraco." This is when you guys really shine as this was the weakest disc yet (Valentine/Bruno seems interesting) and this is definitely the most fun podcast going today.

More Bob in Japan! Bob Backlund vs Riki Choshu 8/24/84 New Japan Choshu King Prick vs the respectful All-American Boy in Japan and really shows how over Choshu heel run was given the crowd reactions. Backlund extends the hand early as a sign of respect and Choshu ignores him. This is a really tough and gritty match. It feels like a real struggle in every moment of the match to gain the advantage on your opponent. I am not accustomed to this much Choshu matwork (I have only watched 90s Choshu and some of the All Japan tags), but it is Backlund match so this was a cool showcase for this side of Choshu. Some of the highlights was Backlund's bridge out of the headscissors and Backlund's ridiculous short-arm scissors pick-up. What I love is that Choshu does not just let Backlund slap him; he hits an immediate cross-body, which was really cool. Choshu goes for the Scorpion, but Backlund fights him off and the go back to the knucklelock for the third time and Choshu goes for the fireman's carry out of it, but again Backlund blocks. Choshu finally says "Fuck It" and kicks him in the gut. At about 15 minutes in, that is the first strike of the match and Backlund sells this kick as well as you will ever see a kick to gut. That was such a great climax to all the tenacious matwork for Choshu King Prick just to kick him in the gut. The ref has to hold Choshu back from following up, but Backlund kicks out at 2. The Japanese crowd actually cheers Backlund's comeback, but that is stopped short by a clothesline. However, Backlund press slams Choshu off the top rope, before picking him up in the airplane spin. This has debilitating effects on Backlund too as they both tumble to the outside where they both struggle to beat the count, but it is a double countout. Again, Choshu ignores the Backlund hand shake. Ooooooooooooo! The finish is pretty lame and yeah I know it was commonplace in Japan, but just because the standard operating practice doesn't make it good. I loved the build to Choshu finally just kicking Backlund in the gut. If this had a better home stretch it was an all-time classic. It was some real good gritty matwork, with a great hook, but missed that final piece to really put it over the top.

One of my favorite short-live babyface tag teams is Strike Force. We really lucked out when Zenk decided to be a chump. I have already spoken about the quality of matches with the Islanders ad nauseum. Instead, their break up angle was the first for babyfaces of the Hulkamania Era with Rockers much more famously following suit. Their matches with each other and other singles stars in the mid-card were always heated. Tito was having great matches with Mr. Perfect all the way into 1990. Santana along with Valentine, Backlund and Savage are mortal locks in my Top 5 80s WWF workers. Martel's run here with Strike Force extends his claim as one of the all-time best 80s babyface workers. Crank up Girls in Cars (or Careless Whisper, if you are so inclined, thanks to Dave Musgrave!), watch Strike Force kick some Islanders' ass and shout ARRIBA! http://ridingspacemountain.blogspot.com/20...to-santana.html

I listened to this entire podcast just to listen to your reaction to the Mother of All Dropkicks. You guys did not disappoint. I can't wait to follow along with the Lucha set.

Lets go through Demolition vs Rockers 1990 feud... WWF World Tag Champions Demolition vs Rockers - SNME 7/90 Since this is 1990, this is not going to be anywhere near the 1988 match and it was a backdrop to transition the three-way feud from Rockers/Hart Foundation to Rockers/Demolition to Demolition/Hart Foundation for Summerslam. Crush is really not good when he is asked to sell for the Rockers. It is pretty heel in peril to begin with for the first five minutes or so with none of the Demolition trademark work. Marty even gains controls without double teaming. They go through the usually team moves to clear the ring. There is a really poor rana by Shawn where he just hooks underneath the shoulders and Jannetty dropkicks over him. They work over Crush's arm and we get some Warlord-inspired selling here. Marty slides underneath Smash, but Ax smokes this smarty-pants. Crush is actually halfway decent on offense making him better than Warlord and Akeem in my book. Jannetty sells pretty well and takes the Bret Bump, before hitting a reverse bulldog to tag in Shawn. Double dropkick. Double fistdrop, but Crush saves. Shawn goes for that Bret roll-up off the ropes, but Ax crushes him with a lariat for the win. Hart Foundation & LOD are out to complain, but decision stands. This is a pretty by the numbers match and illustrates the continued drop in quality of Demolition performances since 1988 and they are starting to lose heat also. The Rockers looked pretty good, but nothing outstanding. The finish does not even build the Hart Foundation/Demolition match all that well. ----------------------------------------------------- Rockers vs Demolition - MSG 11/90 Holy shit, this match totally snuck up on me and I thought it was really good. It was not an elite Rockers match, but this was still really good. This is by far the best Smash & Crush match and I am favorite Crush match of all time. This is a good speed vs. power match without huge bumps, but still good work. The opening Jannetty/Crush bit is the best thing I have ever seen out of Crush. It is light-hearted, but still establishes the dynamic of the match really well. People should watch it because there is too much good stuff for me to write down every single thing they do. It is punctuated by Shawn with a dropkick to tabletop Crush. I really dig the tabletop spot. Crush throws Shawn around, but Shawn bites out of the bearhug. Rockers showing a bit of a vicious side. Smash comes in and I love the Smash/Shawn bit too. Smash thinks he outsmarted Michaels by ducking, but Shawn hits Smash with a fist and then Smash does some weeble-wobble selling before crashing down. Rockers do their quick tag arm work and Smash sells discombobulated about as well as you can. In a spot I fuckin love, Marty runs the ropes, but halts before getting hit by Crush so he gets hit from behind by Smash. The heat segment is decent with the highlights being Crush hitting a double axehandle onto Jannety's back and a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. We hit the bearhug. Smash hipchecks the turnbuckle. Smash tries desperately to stop the hot tag, but you can't deny Marty Jannetty. Shawn busts out the flying shoulder tackle, which I don't like for his size. Shawn really wants to hit a sunset flip, but Smash is holding onto Crush and Marty leapfrogs over Smash and breaks that up, sunset flip only gets two. The Rockers hit the worst double superkick ever. They do one a little better and Shawn hits a rocket launcher fist drop, but Crush pulls the ref out for the DQ. They are still protecting Demolition!?!?!?!?!?1??! This match is a ton of fun and even though it lacks the big spots of Powers Of Pain match, this one definitely required more finesse from Demolition. In that match, Rockers adapted to Powers of Pain to deliver a great match. In this match, Demolition can contribute to the match. The Marty/Crush and Shawn/Smash segments require better work from both parties. I loved those. The heat segments and home stretch were good, but not at the level of the shine segments.This is another great speed versus power match from the Rockers that continues to bolster their case as an all-time great tag team as it is still different than first Demos & POP match. It was wrestled as a cross of the Rougeaus and Demolition match, which was really interesting layout. So finally, Demolition has reached their 1988 peak again and it's a great match to end their run (well I am not watching their '91 stuff). Demolition work way better as heels to me.

Hell, I cant believe it has been over a month since I watched me some Hammer that Owen match was pretty bitchin'. The Dream Team w/Jimmy Hart vs Tito Santana & Ricky Steamboat - MLG 4/85 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. -------------------------------------------------------------------- WWF Tag Champs US Express vs The Dream Team - Philly 9/85 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. 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. 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. Actually lets rank the title switches (I don't have the Colossal Connection switches yet) 1. Bulldogs/Dream Team 2. Dream Team/US Express 3. Hart Foundation/Strike Force 4. Demolition vs Hart Foundation 5. Demolition vs BrainBusters MSG 9/89 6. Demolition vs Strike Force 7. Demolition vs Brainbusters - SNME 8. Hart Foundation vs British Bulldogs 9. Hart Foundation vs Nasty Boys -That heat segment fuckin sucked.

So I watched this mostly because I have been immersing myself in the 80s WWF tag matches and I wanted to take a step back and see what more casual observers remembered of the matches. The best part of the show I will admit is knowing that Soup will be on soon to break down the tag teams soon so I will definitely be listening to that. So lets break it down: In the Sweet Sixteen: 7 of 16 teams were 80s tag teams (I exclusively have been watching 80s tags). 7 of 16 were 90s/Attitude Era and the remaining two were from the Cena era. The recent era has had a lot of thrown together tag teams so I understand the usual bias against them even though I have not watched them with a careful eye. I would say that in general I have that biased also. Just some quick notes on this and the early rounds. I would debate the NAO going over on the Steiners based on being a draw so I thought you all got it right. I think you called the resuscitation of tag division with Owen/Bulldog way too early. the tag division was not revitalized until the NAO took the belts. Outside, of the title switch to Austin/HBK, Owen &Bulldog really were not featured as a team and did not have any "great" matches. Owen & Bulldog strike me as one of those teams that remember more fondly than their push or matches. I think don't feel like the Shield are out of place as a Top 20 team in WWE history, they have been pushed strong and have a great resume of tag team matches. The Quebecers are so much better than the Rougeaus and I glad you didn't pick the Rougeaus because they are such a lackluster tag team. Rougeaus are perhaps the most boring tag team in WWF history. O yeah, the Killer Bees are not underrated either, they are just boring as all hell. The Quebecers Rule with great matches against the Steiners, Kid & Marty, and the Harts. January 1994 is this weird bizarre month where WWF has the best tag division in the world with Quebecers, Kid & Marty, Harts, Steiners and Headshrinkers. Then by mid-'94 you have Headshrinkers and Diesel/Shawn barely defending the belts. The Elite Eight: 7 of 8 teams are 80s teams! There is just one 90s team. I think this is a function of the WWF never really having a very good tag team division. So the 80s since there were a lot of tag teams people associate that when it was good. I have enjoyed the Rockers and the Islanders/Strike Force, but wallowing through it I find there is more mediocre/blase than there is good. Twin Towers out and out suck. I am taking this an ironic love because Akeem may be the worst gimmick I have ever seen. From a match quality standpoint, the Rockers are the best WWF tag team and one of the best tag teams of all-time Demolition & LOD had shockingly good matches against each other in 1990. The Warrior six-man tag from SNME 1990 is wicked good and they had a straight tag match from 11/90 that maybe Crush's best match ever. I watched the LOD face the Hart Foundation in '91 and again it was a pretty good match. LOD was definitely revitalized by this run. I love the Demolition Love. They were the aces of 80s division and there was no tag team pushed harder than Demolition for that period of time. If I was going from a strictly business/kayfabe perspective, throwing out match quality (not that Demolition did not have quality matches) I would say Demolition is the greatest WWF Tag Team. I am so glad you didn't go they were Road Warrior's ripoff and just shit on them like so many other fans. Hart Foundation vs Bulldogs, I was dreading this. Two of the most overrated tag teams of all-time. Bret Hart was an incredible ring general in his tag matches, but he shined in singles matches in the 80s against Steamer, Savage, Perfect, DiBiase and Martel. The Bulldogs have the Dream Team feud, which is one of the best WWF tag feuds ever. After the Dynmaite injury, they never really were the same. The Hart Foundation's face run is incredibly lackluster: a feud against the Rougeaus (that sucked), Bret's '89 singles run (so no feuds, just one-off matches), the '90 run against a decrepit division (Demolition & Rhythm 'n' Blues) and the shitty tag title loss to the Nasties (I think Bret still may be in that camel clutch, yawn). Bulldogs take this because of Dream Team feud. I am going to pretend you taking the Brainbusters over the Hardys did not happen. If you include the NWA stuff then it is Arn & Tully in a walk, but the WWF run is just two programs: Rockers & Demolition. My thoughts on the Demolition program is they gotten eaten alive and I know others who have watched the footage disagree with me, but I was not a fan of that series. The Rockers SNME sprint is one of the best matches of the era, but I do not think Busters have nearly enough on their resume to warrant beating the Hardys. Like you all said, the Hardys is not just the Attitude Era their reunion stuff was some of the best tag team stuff of the Cena era. Edge & Christian is pretty overrated due to their awesome promos, but never really dug them as an in-ring tag team. What's interesting is I am more inclined to see the Busters over E&C than Hardys, but you guys took them over both. Final Four All 4 are 80s tag teams! Demolition vs Rockers '88 MSG match is one of the best tag matches in WWF history, definitely check that out. Whenever I see lists like this, to me there are two type of pro wrestling lists. The Hogan List that's a llist that emphasizes the attributes that would allow Hogan to claim he is the greatest wrestler of all time. And the Flair list that that emphasizes the attributes that would allow Flair to claim he is the greatest wrestler of all time. Demolition is my Hogan List champion for WWF tag teams and the Rockers are my Flair List champions. It is a pick 'em and I would say this was the side of the bracket, I most agreed on. I really think there is absolutely nothing the Hart Foundation can claim that is the consistent level of Busters/ Rockers, E&C/Haryds/Dudleyz, Bulldogs/Dream Team, Rockers/Everyone, and Demolition as a draw. The Hart Foundation have the Bulldogs feud, but it is underwhelming due to the injury and then for '88-'89 Bret was in the singles ranks barely paying attention to the tag ranks. By 1990, the tag division had shit the bed. I feel like the Hart Foundatuion is everyone's default answer because of how hard WWF has pushed Bret Hart as this all-time great and the only reason the Rockers don't get the same treatment is they never won the tag titles. Championships do matter and it is why teams like Hart Foundation get elevated above these other teams. I have watched Hart Foundation against pretty much every opponent. Their matches are solid, but they are really not that good. Hogan List Top 4: 1. Demolition 2. New Age Outlaws 3. Hardys 4. Edge & Christian/Dudz (I would want to hear arguments for a 4th team) Flair List Top 4 1. Rockers 2. Hardys 3. Islanders 4. Strike Force To me when you are talking the greatest tag team of WWF, it is a three team race between Demolition, Hardys and Rockers. From a ring quality, I do not think anyone can touch Rockers and since I am a fan of in-ring quality they would be my pick. Anyways fun show that was breezy and was cool to get people's perspective that are not so immersed in 80s WWF Tag Wrestling. EDIT: We do have Busters vs Bushwackers, but WWE.com does not have up in full. I have not checked it out, but if that is indeed the finish that is some Hogan-Era WCW booking right there.

Brutha, don't blow the gimmick, I am Superstar SLEEZE The Ultimate Warrior entrance to this match makes this entire project worth. I have not laughed so hard at wrestling in so long. The Ultimate Warrior & Legion of Doom vs Demolition - MSG 9/90 This match was way, way better than it had any right to be. Easily, the best Demolition match since the Rockers '88 match. The only problem was that went too long that Animal FIP killed the momentum of the match. The opening shine sequence was pretty good with Hawk hitting a wicked dropkick and shoulder tackle. As LOD's big debut, it was a good way to put over their offense. Oddly, Warrior plays the FIP in a really well-done segment. Warrior missed a splash and in almost Shield-esque swarm Warrior and just suffocate him with body shots and triple teaming. It definitely felt like some good old-school Demolition. The only reason I found it weird because Warrior was the Champ at the time is all. Animal breaks up Demolition Decapitation and Warrior does a disco roll over to Animal to tag him in. I thought Ax was actually going to take Doomsday Device for a second, but it was broken up. We get a boring Animal FIP where chinlocks abound, which disappoints me because if they just went home after the Warrior FIP I could would say this was a remarkably good match. Warrior gets the hot tag as expected and mows down everyone. The crowd gives him a pretty good pop, but is hardly molten or bananas as Gorilla says. Warrior splash gives the Warriors a victory. I thought I was going to recommend this match only for Warrior's entrance, but it was surprisingly good and the Warrior FIP comes off great, but the Animal FIP sours the match a bit. --------------------------------------------------------- It is like Vince heard my prayers from 2013 and put on the following match, which was bitchin' The Ultimate Warrior & Legion of Doom vs Demolition - SNME 10/90 Take all the good parts from the last match and subtract the Animal FIP you have this match and it is awesome. Yes this match is a pretty much verbatim performance from above the MSG, but I was digging that performance so much, but this time they go home after the Warrior FIP and it is a great match. This match is like the opposite of the Hart Foundation vs Rockers, where the SNME match is hurt by seeing the "full-length" MSG match. The difference is the home stretch where Hawk looks friggin great. He does not have to sell and he just bowls people over. He tags in Warrior for a Warrior Splash. I definitely recommend this one over the the MSG show. ----------------------------------------------- Demolition w/ Mr. Fuji vs Legion of Doom - 11/20/90 Demolition with Mr. Fuji just feels right. This match harkens back to the glory days of Demolition with spirited cut-offs and well-worked segments. The home stretch is a bit messed up due to poor positioning by some people, but overall it is a pretty good match. It is weird though as there is zero heat for this match except for the hot tag to Animal. You would not know this DEMOLITION VS THE ROAD WARRIORS from the way the crowd is reacting and it is a good power match. Animal and Crush do a little tit for tat symmetry that establishes the two teams as equals. Hawk runs through a bit of his offense. I am a big fan of his shoulder tackle. There are elements of the old Demolition ethic where Crush interrupts a suplex attempt by Hawk. Demolition made LOD work for it. Fuji hooks Hawk leg and Smash blasts Hawk to the outside from behind. Fuji gets in a cane shot onto Hawk's back and they zero in on his back throughout the heat segment. They hit Demolition Decapitation to zero heat in a weird moment, but Animal saves. Hawk gets a clothesline and Animal gets the hot tag. In a pretty impressive feat of agility, Animal actually flips out of a double belly to back suplex and clotheslines Demolition members. They tease Doomsday Device, but Fuji hits Hawk again. Demolition take it to Animal with a Crush knee drop from the top and Smash hitting a suplex to zero heat. Before, Smash gets himself in position to take a top rope clothesline from Hawk to give LOD the victory. Afterwards they deck Fuji for good measure. The home stretch did not feel urgent enough, but I thought all the stuff leading up to it was really well-worked. The finish was messed up by Smash facing the wrong way on his piledriver attempt. I was pretty much dreading this series and this was the most fun I have had watching Demolition since they were heels in 1988. I will say I remember liking LOD's match against the Hart Foundation. None of this stuff has been earth-shattering, but LOD definitely feels revitalized in the ring and trying their hardest even though the crowds have been lukewarm. ---------------------------------------------------------------- The Warriors (Ultimate Warrior, Texas Tornado, Legion of Doom) vs The Perfect Team (Mr. Perfect & Demolition) - Survivor Series 1990 This is nothing all that great and I would not watch this again, but it is largely inoffensive save for the Perfect heat segment on Warrior drags. I really liked Animal tackle out of Smash it really felt out of nowhere. Smash plays pinball early before Animal gets in trouble and Hennig looks good with his strikes. Animal hits his powerslam and Perfect pinballs well perfectly for the Warriors. As expected, Ax takes the pinfall from Warrior, it was sad seeing how degraded he can he became as he was totally out of position for Warrior and just looked bad. I actually like the Hawk/Demolition stuff as Hawk was the best offensive worker for all 8 guys and it was nice to see them do his thing. The lamest brawl ever gets LOD/Demolition DDQ leaving Perfect against Von Erich and Warrior. Von Erich had zero offense besides the punch. He actually was moving pretty decent, but I still don't get why they put the IC strap on him. Warrior runs Perfect and Brain's head together. Warrior seemed to really whip the Brain over the barricade, I actually felt bad for him. Perfect beat Von Erich on teh Perfectplex after Kerry's head hit the exposed turnbuckle. Warrior comes in and hits his head on the exposed turnbuckle, but kicks out of the Perfectplex that really should have been the impetus as opposed to the boring 5 minute heat segment that ensued. Perfect has some offense, but they have built to the Warrior's head into exposed turnbuckle into the Perfectplex rather than start with it. After watching these matches, I have to say it feels like the WWF World Champion is slumming it. In the NWA, the Road Warriors were the equals of the Horsemen. In the WWF, it feels like Warrior is losing heat by being a part of this feud. Not to mention, he is in the curtain-jerking match. At this point, it feels like Martel/Roberts has a way hotter feud than anything Hogan or Warrior is doing. 1990 was not a very good year for WWF, but after Summerslam until Wrestlemania VII must have been brutal. Don't worry about this match, watch the SNME match.

Up there with Stan Hansen bowling over a flower girl in AJPW 1990. For the amount of hours I put into watching WWF Tag Wrestling, this made it all worth it.

Can Bret pull off the same miracle as Shawn & Marty? Hart Foundation vs Powers of Pain - Wrestlefest '90 It is worth noting that the Hart Foundation are once again talking about winning the tag titles foreshadowing that Bret has returned solidly to the tag ranks. The short answer is no with a caveat. This would be a very good match if Warlord did not suck out loud. The Rockers made Warlord look good by making him take some bumps early and bumping huge for him. Bret actually makes him sell arm work. Yes it should be on Warlord for sucking, but Bret should recognize this and adapt. God if Barbie just had a different partner. The way Warlord just sat in those arm holds was just embarrassing to watch. Counter to this was Barbie/Anvil battle of the bulls and then Bret crawling through Barbie's legs to let Anvil clothesline him. This was some fun face shine, but gets bogged down once Warlord is in there. The transition was lame as it was Warlord just picking up Bret and giving him a backbreaker. Warlord wrung his arm at least. Barbie hit his wicked sweet headbutt and big boot to Bret. Watching all this Bret reminds me how great his selling is. For so long I was focused on how amazing his offense was for a North American wrestler. Bret hits a boot in the corner and the Anvil is hot. Fuji trips up Anvil and a melee ensues. Fuji hits Warlord with his cane and Anvil beats the count for the victory. POP try to get their heat back, but Bret apprehends the cane and goes to town. Nothing worth going out of your way to see, but it is pretty decent. The second best Powers of Pain match I have seen, not that is high praise. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fuck, it looks like I would have to buy the new Bret Hart DVD to see the Twin Towers match. Who knew Akeem would be a draw in 2013? On second thought, omitting that match and just wrapping up Hart Foundation with Busters may be for the best. ----------------------------------------------------------------- WWF World Tag Team Champs The Brain Busters vs Hart Foundation - Summerslam '89 Non-title Non-title due to this match being signed before Busters' title victory. The Busters just loved to bump and sell for WWF babyfaces. Maybe, it was not Eadie's fault at all, it may just be how the Busters wanted to work. Like I am not a person to claim heels need to be a faces level because they really should not. The babyfaces should be better except the heels utilize nefarious tactics, but at the same time heels should not be out and out jabronis. I didn't mind this match as much because we do get a heat segment (on Anvil, weird), but still the Hart Foundation gobbled them up. At first, I felt a bit hypocritical for enjoying this match a lot more than the Demolition matches especially after raising such a big stink. At the end of the day, I rather watch Bret Hart's offense than Demolition's offense. I still don't think it is one of the elite tag team matches of 80s WWF, but it is still very good. I would actually put it around the Summerslam '89 six-man tag in terms of quality. The Hart Foundation establishes the arm-based attack on both Busters each time they come in. The best spot of this segment really encapsulates Bret and something I never really thought about. Arn executes a drop toehold into a hammerlock, but rides high and Bret counters to a headlock. Bret just has this look on his face that was just like one big eye-roll and I immediately thought of Tenryu. Bret is amazing at displaying contempt for his opponents. He is one of the few wrestlers that is not only condescending on the mic, but is actually condescending in the ring also. Bret does an excellent top wristlock bridge transitions into the Busters double top wristlock spot that always gets a huge pop. Arn blindsides Bret, but this was not the transition as Bret is back on offense. However, Arn pulls Tully out of the way and Anvil eats the turnbuckles. We get the Anvil FIP, which is weird and no spinebuster. It is decent stuff, but you know it can be better. They do Arn's head collision spot and Bobby's facial expression that makes it. Then the Hart Foundation sliding knee on the apron is the transition. After watching basically every major Hart Foundation match, I marked out that Bret did that to transition. I have watched this match twice before and I never even batted an eye. This time I was like "Of course that was the transition. That's genius!" Bret kicks some serious Tully ass and then runs through Tully. It is breaking loose in Tulsa and Anvil is slingshotted in (love that spot) and then slams Bret onto Tully. Heenan distracts the ref and Arn second-rope elbow costs Hart Foundation the match as AA gets the pin. The nice little touch is he uses Bret's arm to cover his head so that ref won't notice. This is a really fun match, but like a lot Hart Foundation matches I have watched, but it feels mechanical and exhibition-y at the beginning. However, it is still a fun match that is enjoyable. I am just happier with the idea that Bret Hart vs AA & Tully exists more than it in practice. I know one of the things that people go after the Rockers for not having that money feud, but Hart Foundation did not have one from 1988-1991 that's pretty incredible. It was just how WWF tag scene was booked with Demolition going from POP, Towers, Busters, Colossal Connection, but they pretty much leave all the other tag teams to float in the wind. With that match, I close the book on Hart Foundation and Busters. I just have some Demolition and Rockers matches to finish up. Maybe I will sneak in some more Valentine.

The last match before I complete my Strike Force Blog...all good things must come to an end. AWA World Tag Team Champions High Flyers vs Rick Martel & Tito Santana - 8/29/82 St. Paul These four guys go balls to wall for 15 minutes struggling to score a victory. It is two babyface vs babyface teams where neither team plays a subtle heel that you would often see in face vs face matches. It actually feels like puro in that way, it is a pure competition to see who is the best. The beginning of the match is very focused on Strike Force working over the High Flyers with headlock. I would say Martel is the better of the two in working the headlock. These are some really fast-paced headlock sequences. Martel/Gagne go through a wild headlock/headscissors exchange that would challenge anyone's cardio. You really get the feeling right out the gate that both teams are focused on picking up the victory. Santana, unlike Martel, is a little more content to sit in his headlock. Gagne tries working a crossface on Santana to break it up and feels really heated. Once Martel gets back in, he will run up the ropes and in order to do side headlock takeovers. Martel rules! They work some sequences in between these headlocks, but everything is very focused on the headlocks by Strike Force, which I like the concentration. At this point, we get a clip and now the High Flyers change the focus from headlocks to some really wicked leg work that is bitchin'. Gagne drops a knee on Tito Santana's knee and does his inverted deathlock (Gagnelock?), which looks pretty wicked given how he is applying it. Brunzell follows up with a figure-4 and then a spinning toe hold. Eventually, Santana kicks out and finally Martel gets in, but we find that Martel is selling his knee, which we must have missed in the clip. One last time for the Strike Force Fans, "IT'S RICKY MARTEL TIME, MUTHAFUCKAS!" but he is cut short because he hits a backbreaker, which hurts his own knee! Killer. Martel tags Tito and Gagne dodges this dropkick. This may sound weird. But I marked the fuck out for that. The force that Tito threw that dropkick and how quick Greg moved out of the way. Gagne hits a shinbreaker on the ailing knee of Santana and then applies Spinning Toe Hold. Martel gets the tag and runs through some more offense punctuating with a backbreaker. Tito back in with a wicked cross-body and he rattles off a ton of moves, but Gagne grabs the GAGNE CHOKE! Santana snapmares out and hoists Gagne up, but unbeknowst to Tito, Gagne tags Brunzell. Then Brunzell hits the most HOLY SHIT dropkick on Tito. He dropkicks him right in the head for the win. That was the best damn dropkick. I think any match that can make you mark out for a missed dropkick and a dropkick is a pretty damn incredible match. The story of this best match to prove you were best tag team in the AWA. It was wrestled clean, but that does not mean they wrestled like nancy boys and were polite. They were out for the victory. The tenacity shown on the headlocks and leg works was enthralling. The home stretch was one of the best with Martel's knee going out, Flyers going back to the legs, Tito rattling off moves, before the Mother of All Dropkicks. I don't want to say this blows all WWF tag team matches out of the water, but it does makes most of them look second-rate. This is an excellent showcase on how to work a heated face vs face match without any subtle heel tactics.

Ask and you shall receive, brutha. The Rockers vs Powers of Pain w/Mr. Fuji - MSG 1/90 This one has been pimped in the 1990 yearbook and very rightfully so. This is the Rockers' David vs Goliath masterpiece. They have the incredible sprint against the Brainbusters, a dramatic "face vs face" tag match with the Hart Foundation, a wicked entertaining light-hearted match with Rougeaus, a speed vs power Championship match with Demolition, bloodbath against Rose & Somers and an ultra-hot PPV opener against the Orient Express. (Yes, I mention this all to build to upcoming post on why the Rockers are worthy to be in the discussion with the Rock n Rolls). This takes on a different dynamic than the Demolition. The Demolition match reminded me how the RnRs wrestled the Russians it was speed versus power, but not necessarily size. In those matches, the heel teams use their power to attack specific body parts and work holds. This match worked more like a David vs Goliath spotfest (I mean that in a good way). The Powers of Pain are just throwing out all these badass bombs to defeat the Rockers. The Rockers are attempting to overcome pure power and are treated more like smaller wrestlers in this match. Out of all their classic matches, this has to be the most surprising because Powers of Pain really did suck. Look, Barbarian has the raw talent, but did not seem to pull altogether into one solid match until this match where he looked like the next big power heel in the WWF. Hell, the fuckin' Warlord looked great in this match. Jesus, if that is not an achievement I do not what is. Barbie chucks Shawn around early to establish the power advantage. Marty dropkicks Shawn on top of Barbie to demonstrate that the Rockers will need to use teamwork and tricks to overcome this power advantage. The Rockers clear the ring with a series of double teams done continuing the theme of teamwork including a Marty dropkick to help Shawn over on a rana and they tabletop Warlord. Warlord catches Marty with a wicked powerbomb eventually the Rockers were going to get caught and POP made them pay. Let the shit kicking commence. HOLY SHIT! The height that Marty takes on that back body drop needs to be seen. Holy shit now they just throw Marty up in the air and let him land hard on the canvas. A big boot by Barb sends Marty to the outside to take a cane shot from Fuji and Barbie rams him back first into the post. This onslaught ends when Barb missed second rope elbow. Shawn sunset flips Warlord, but Marty clothesline him, it is all about teamwork! In all the chaos, Shawn gets tripped by Fuji's cane and as he is getting up Barbie stops him in his tracks with an elbow for the win. Shawn in a fit of rage (Shawn temper tantrum? No way, right?) dropkicks Fuji, but Powers of Pain take control and beat the ever-loving shit out of Marty with the cane and a Hart Attack. I love this match in a string of great Rockers performances this one stands out for how concentrated they were on telling the teamwork story and how great Marty was at eating all the POP offense. For one match, Barbarian took all this athletic spots finally lived to his potential with some great work throughout the heat segment into the finish. Barbie chucks Shawn around. Shawn regroups with Marty. Marty cross bodies Shawn on top of Barbie. Rockers quick, Barbie throws them together. Double supekicks and double coltheslines & clears the ring. Marty bandaged. Warlord just punches. Marty dropkicks him over in a Shawn rana. They tabletop Warlord. Warlord catches Marty with a powerbomb and showboats. HOLY SHIT that back body drop! Holy shit that throw up in the air. Shawn saves. Barbie chokes him on apron. Warlord holds him & Barbie jumping headbutt to back. Barbie big boot -> Jannetty outside -> Fuji cane shot -> Barbie back first into post -> Huge clothesline. Marty hope spots ends with Barbie catching him into powerslam. Barbie misses second rope elbow. Shawn with hot punches. Shawn sunset flip Warlord and Marty clothesline him over. Marty dropkicks Shawn onto Warlord and Barbie elbows Warlord. Fuji trips Shawn with cane and Barbie elbows Shawn while he is getting up for the win. WOW! Shawn dropkicks Fuji out. POP beats the shit out of Marty with Hart Attack and cane. Killer match right up there with Rockers best stuff and a contender for best Hulkamania Era WWF tag team match. ---------------------------------------------------------------- The Rockers vs Orient Express w/ Mr. Fuji - Wrestlemania VI The Rockers should have came to "White Punks On Dope" for this match because this is wicked slow for a Rockers match. It reminds me of one of the March Busters match where stuff would happen, but it just felt lethargic. Pat Tanaka rules and I need to see more Badd Company from AWA. We do some standard fare Rockers double teaming to clear the ring. I will say whether sober or high as shit, The Rockers were never good at synchronizing their double team moves. It is not because one guy is more athletic or anything their timing just was always off on the superkicks or dropkicks etc. Sato holds the top rope and Jannetty spills onto the outside where Fuji takes liberties with him. It is a psych-job as Marty tags in Shawn and they hit a double dropkick. Crowd seems pretty dead for this (this Wrestlemania more than most feels like a one match card). Tanaka kicks Shawn in the head and Sato hits one of the best gutbusters I have seen. Tanaka follows it up with his explosive cross body and then holds Michaels for Sato to hit a knee drop from the top. OX is bringing the high quality offense before the vulcan nerve pinch. OX came to play, too bad the Rockers didn't. In a moment that encapsulates the match, Shawn hits Tanaka with a desperation clothesline except ti felt like Tanaka was waiting for it. Everything seems off and even Gorilla calls this "lethargic". The Rockers absolutely blow a double dropkick. They set up Tanaka for the double fist drop, but Fuji uses his cane to bring Jannetty down. Sato throws salt in Jannetty's eyes while he is stalking Fuji for the countout loss. Then in the spot of the match, Marty actually walks over the guardrail and faceplants to sell the "salt" in the eyes. That was frigging' awesome, it looked so real. This match sets up their loooooooooong feud as the tag division was starting to get pretty thin. They had not yet built up the chemistry they would have at Royal Rumble '91 where they tear the house down. -------------------------------------------------------------------- The Rockers vs Orient Express - 6/17/90 They are definitely clicking a lot better in this match, but it is nowhere near the level they would achieve at Royal Rumble '91. This match has way more heat and energy as both teams are bringing it. It has its slow patches, but they are definitely working more towards putting on a compelling match with struggle and urgency. The Rockers clear the ring per usual with some double team moves, but Tanaka cuts this short with a wicked punch on Michaels. Michaels fires up out of the corner with punches of his own. Both teams trade some armbars and this is the boring stretch of the match that does not really have that struggle and it seems like is going down the same road as Wrestlemania VI even though there is more energy from the Rockers. There is a really well done leapfrog into a partner collision spot during this stretch that gives you hope. Same heat transition spot only Jannetty gets kicked in the back of the head and he takes the cane shot here. Tanaka does the leapfrog over his partner to crash down on Marty's back. They hit the chinlock. They do some tag teases, Sato gets two off a fist drop and here comes Shawn who is a house afire. There is even a wicked clothesline by Shawn, man, Shawn really could go. Melee ensues and things break down on the floor. The Rockers beat the count back in. I preferred this match to Wrestlemania VI because of the energy of the match, but they still were not firing on all cylinders.

You would think if they drew 20k or less that would be an indictment on Verne as a babyface draw instead of Bock as a champion draw. Instead, they needed a different person to unseat Bockwinkel. Instead of saying, Bockwinkel's entire 5 year reign comes down to this card and how well it draws. Yes, you could make the argument that people were tired of Bock, but they certainly were not up for Verne so I would expect a different face would have helped. Also, who did Verne defend against? Sheik Adnan Al-Kaissey only? Maybe some Crusher Blackwell, could be interesting?

AWA Wrestling Party inspired me to watch some Bock/Verne! AWA World Heavyweight Champion Nick Bockwinkel vs. Verne Gagne - 2/10/79 Chicago This match felt a lot like a WWF Title Defense with a lot of babyface offense. It that a commonplace among Northern promotions? I will say moreso than most 70s matches they were really laying in their offense on each other. Verne may have looked like an old man, but he was kicking some serious ass against Bock. Bock was no slouch. In a common spot, where Bock goes to jumps down on Verne knee and misses, but instead of just missing he slams his ass into the mat. It is simple, but such commitment. It is JIP, but there does not seem like there are any other clips and it seemed pretty intact. Gagne was migrating and gyrating flustering Bock and then busting out a pretty sweet double arm scissors. After that he goes to the Indian Deathlock, but Bock uses the tights to break it up. Verne goes after the arm tenaciously, but Bock cuts this off with punches, lots of choking and onslaught of boots, but Gagne fires up with lots of bodyslams and strikes. Gagne misses the knee and here comes Bock. Gagne immediately turns over the figure-4 and then Bock whiffs on jumping on Gagne's knee. Gagne rakes Bock's face with his boot. Verne getting down and dirty! They fight over a headlock pretty fiercely with Bock dragging Verne over and raking his face over ropes and choking him. Verne spreads his leg on Bock's piledriver. I feel bad for the fan behind that view. Bock takes the back body drop. Verne cross bodies Bock over the top rope and they got me to bite that as a double countout finish. GAGNE CHOKE! Bobby tries to prevent this miscarriage of justice and gets dragged in. He hits Gagne for the DQ. Verne, justifiably pissed, whips Bobby into the turnbuckle and he taps a gusher. Verne showing he is more of high flyer than his kid hits a flying knee from the top. We get a great view of Bobby's crimson mask. Personal preferences aside (I like longer heat segments), they cut one helluva pace and Gagne's offense looked really credible. In the Verne's age versus Greg's physique debate, Verne overcomes his inherent disadvantage better if you ask me. Some of the early stuff can feel a little like an exhibition of Verne's offense, but halfway through they were really struggling over their holds and working to counter each other. Of the 70s matches, I have seen this has been one of the better ones. I would rank this a bit below the elite Backlund & Bockwinkel stuff, but still a very fun watch. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- AWA World Heavyweight Champion Nick Bockwinkel vs Verne Gagne - 7/18/80 Chicago They did not cut the same pace as the above match. This one went 22 minutes and we got about 15 minutes, which is not too bad. Bock starts off the match hot with a nice Thesz Press and gets an early nearfall. Bock bitches out for Verne a bit, but Bock is able to grab a top wristlock. The top wristlock and double wristlock (Verne uses in response) are two of the harder holds to make entertaining even are wicked holds in MMA (props to Brock for getting it over). They do well by armdragging and slamming out of it, but holding on. They make Baba proud with a surfboard test of strength (if this had Japanese commentary, I am sure they would be losing their shit). Verne starts laying in some shots in the corner that look really good especially kneedrops, but Bock is able to trip him up from the outside and wrap his leg around the post. Once again, Verne cuts Bock off a little early for my tastes especially since he is going over by breaking up a leg lace with his free leg. Credit to Verne, he is selling the leg like a champ and Bock is really good at selling fatigue. Verne's knee gives out on a bodyslam attempt, which I always dig, but Bock misses his knee drop onto Verne's knee (variation of transition spot above). Verne has one heavy sunset flip and then they knock heads pretty violently. Bock gets the piledriver, but no win and he goes to the well one too many times. Verne misses a dropkick; Bock tries to pounce and whiffs; GAGNE CHOKE! Gagne wins! Babyfaces flood the ring to celebrate. This is a step down from the previous match because of the lack pacing and there are less strikes. They are working holds more and holds that are hard to wrench in a good wrestling way. After the leg work by Bock, the match picks up, but still it is not enough to get the match over the top. Again, I have feel like Verne gobbled up Bockwinkel, which was weird since he was going over so he could have had a real sweet comeback to take the win. Of what we saw, it was sound, but nothing that sets your world a fire. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- AWA World Heavyweight Champion Verne Gagne vs Nick Bockwinkel - 5/10/81 St. Paul Verne's Retirement Match Win, lose or draw he is retiring and trying to be the first to do it as champion. This match is similar to the one above, but has a way better home stretch and it feels more intact as I think the time announcement may have been gimmicked. I could not find the actual match time on this one, but we have 19 minutes of footage (though includes intros and post-match). If you tack this home stretch on the beginning of the '79 match, I say you have an all-time classic, but I think I would go the '79 match by a hair. Instead of the hot Thesz Press, they do a tenacious lock-up. Bock wins with a top wristlock and they do a little test of strength before some Gagne armdrags with Bock holding on, which I enjoy. Verne eventually gets him into an armbar, but Bock uses the hair to get out, but Verne is able to transition a armdarg into an armbar to see Heenan flip out at ringside makes that spot. There is a commercial clip (forgot that) and Bock ends getting his legs stretched as if he had a cramp in there during a basketball game (this is why I like '79 match better). Verne works the spinning toe hold well before Bock grabs the crossface. Bock is usually the one that instigates that chippiness and the earlier he can the better the matches are. They work a ref bump into the match, which I dig as it is an interesting wrinkle. Verne gets two dropkicks, but no ref. "Wicked" Nick gets him from behind with a double axe-handle and a dramatic two count. Gagne makes a mini-comback. Jesus, dude, let Bock have some sustained offense. Bock gets the piledriver for 2 and he is in disbelief trying two more pinfalls. Bock is going for falls after everything trying to scrape a win together. GAGNE CHOKE! HUGE POP! Bock reverses into the ORIENTAL SLEEPER! Gagne is fighting it with all he has got and is selling really well, before executing a belly to back suplex for the win and to retire as champion. I liked this finish better than the others, but the work at the beginning was the same sound, solid work as the '80 match. So I am going with '79 match as the match to watch between these two. There are two mentalities: the babyface always goes over in the end and upon leaving you do the job. Something had to give. Personally, Gagne going over Bock in a non-title setting for his "retirement" match may be better from a long-term standpoint, but they said on camera they drew 17,000 for this sweet gimmick of can Verne retire as champion (think Sampras at 2002 US Open that's some sweet shit). I think most people would agree that it was how they handled just giving the belt back to Bock was the issue. However, there was a real drop off after Bockwinkel, he seemed to defend against Tito a lot during '81 (Thanks Mookie!), but they probably would have had to gotten a big name outsider to really draw.

Tito Santana vs "The Widowmaker" Barry Windham - Primetime Wrestling 10/89 This felt like a 80s WWF version of a mid-00s WWE match as they were just throwing out offense against each other in order to make themselves look good. It is a bit above that because Windham sells and bumps well for Tito early on and Tito does settle into a heat segment. The first portion is a bit too spotty as they are really not letting their spots breathe. I don't mind it being nip and tuck per se, but there was less of a sense of struggle and more just using parity to display both wrestler's moves. Barry would at times let Tito stuff take effect, but he would go for the shinbreaker so quickly or an eye-rake. They were just packing way too much in there. On the flip side, Tito was not letting him build momentum, but as the babyface he should be coming. Tito does have a great punch. Windham needed to pick something to cut him off that was the jawbreaker into the ab stretch. Barry's heat segment was pretty tedious and instead of a constant build in heat it lets off a lot of heat. He takes the Flair throw off the top rope, but it is just a hope spot as he is able to hotshot Tito and grab a powerslam. Barry taunts and showboats more than I remember, just a WWF thing I suppose? Tito punches the left leg to cut off Windham and applies the figure-4 and the heat to the match is restored instantaneously. Barry gets a rope break and goes back to underhanded tactics like the eye-rake and fish hook. He can not sustain as Tito blocks Barry's suplex attempt and hits one of his own. They collide heads, I have no idea why, but it was a "cool" 80s spot. Tito whips Barry over the top turnbuckles and slams him into the post. He delivers the Flying Burrito, but the bells rings signaling a draw. Tito has wicked tunnel vision and is still putting the boots to Barry and another FLying Burrito sends him packing. They definitely packed way too much in this match and still managed to have a dead segment in terms of Barry's heat. Windham was strange in the WWF ring, he felt like he needed to show boat more and play a character I guess. Tito was the most exciting part of the match, but still there was no real story. They were both just tossing moves and spots like candy to show off. It is worth to see the one notable match of Windham's 89 run, but nothing that gets above decent.

O HELL NO!!! My brother and I were dying of laughter every time, Austin would say "Mo in stealth mode, fly one the wall, recording audio WHOOP-ASS!" He better keep saying that with the new guy. Austin is fuckin' hilarious though. My brother and I get a kick out of his working man gimmick and his constant "Is that a straight shoot?" He is definitely my go-to podcast right now as he is wildly entertaining, but still dropping that 411 and breaking it down for all us working cats.

What's funny (Keller does not touch on it in his response, which I only skimmed) is that the story is a hammy-down Kliq story. It is actually a Nash story, which makes more sense as Nash was with Dallas in '92. Nash tells this story verbatim on the Steve Austin Show only with him in the room with Dallas. I understand why Trips used this story because it fit the answer he wanted, but it is just a Kliq story to show how some boys take the dirt sheets too seriously. Nash does not tell it in a way to make the dirt sheets look fickle as Triple H does, but just to say you can't get all caught up in that. I like Kliq interviews for the most part, but usually prefer Nash, Hall and Waltman to Michaels & Hunter.

I have been busy with a non-wrestling related vanity project in the form of Vivid Technicolor Radio. It is a podcast me and my childhood friend are doing on music videos and the machine behind pop music. We just released our first episode. I thought it was good insofar as we sounded intelligent and there were not that many dead spots. However, I think it could have been funnier (not everyone can be Johnny Sorrow there first time out) and a even more insightful. Once, I feel like we start hitting stride, I will probably double my posts here with anything from that. In the meantime, I have reached the halfway point of my series on WWF 80s tag wrestling by looking at the lackluster and underwhelming Fabulous Rougeaus, who never ceased to bore me. They did imporve wit their heel turn, but by the time they figured it out against the Rockers, it was too late and they were programmed to their death against the Bushwhackers. An ignominious end to an ignominious team. Since it is the half way point, I did some rankings of the matches and teams so far that we had seen. I excluded all singles matches and non-WWF tag matches from the rankings. Best Tag Teams of 80s WWF so far: 1. The Islanders - Great babyface and heel run that got cut short by Tama leaving. Excellent feud with Strike Force. 2. British Bulldogs - Even though I was down on them for their Hart Foundation work, they had an excellent series with the Dream Team and proved they could still go against Demolition in '88. 3. Demolition - Great matches, but not real money feuds so far as their program with Strike Force was disappointing. Still great matches with the Rockers, Hart Foundation and Bulldogs cant be denied. 4. Hart Foundation - Bret Hart is a great ring general, but he is much better at playing the subtle heel than the out and out heel. I like Bret a lot and he showed a lot of promise, but he did not always deliver. 5. Rougeaus - Rockers match saves them from the last spot. 6. Killer Bees - Inoffensive, but not much going on. Best Tag Matches of WWF (1985-1991) so far: 1. The Fabulous Rougeaus vs The Rockers - London 10/89 2. Islanders vs Strike Force - MSG 9/87 3. WWF World Tag Champions British Bulldogs vs Dream Team - SNME 10/86 2 Out of 3 Falls 4. Islanders vs Strike Force - MSG 10/87 2 Out of 3 Falls 5. WWF World Tag Champions Demolition vs Rockers - MSG 10/88 6. WWF World Tag Champions Dream Team vs British Bulldogs - Wrestlemania II 7. WWF World Tag Champions Demolition vs Hart Foundation - Summerslam '88 8. WWF World Tag Champions Hart Foundation vs Strike Force - MSG 11/87 9. Survivor Series '88 10. Rick Martel & Rougeaus vs Tito Santana & Rockers - Summerslam '89 11. Islanders vs Demolition - MSG 2/87 12. Survivor Series '87 13. WWF World Tag Champions Demolition vs British Bulldogs - MSG 7/88 14. Demolition vs Killer Bees - Houston 9/87 http://ridingspacemountain.blogspot.com/20...n-boys-wwf.html Viva Le Quebec!

I watched it twice, but I guess that was over six months ago. My appreciation of matches definitely follows the inverse-square law with time. I have a tendency to underrate matches I have not seen in a while and I overrate matches I have just seen. I will try to watch RNRs vs Russians again this weekend.

I agree with this. No way would the Rockers have that kind of match with the Russians. On the flip side, I can see the RNR having better matches with the Rougeous/Powers of Pain and just as good if not better matches with Rose/Somers. The Rockers match with POP would most likely be better than an RNR match with the POP by a healthy margin. RNR never worked power spotfests very well. Later on in 1990, they wrestle Doom in what is considered a pretty disappointing match because Doom just kinda does holds with no real heat. I think we all agree that Doom is way better than POP. Rockers played to POP strengths and just said do power moves and we will bump like crazy. I am not trying to take away from the RNR, but their best matches in my view are against teams like MX, Bodies and the Horsemen. I don't think they always clicked for me against power teams like Russians, Ragin' & Ravishin' and Doom. Their heat segments tended to be too drawn out in my opinion. You think that would be the easier story to tell, but something seems to be missing. I actually think Rockers/Demos & Rockers/POP is better than any match the RNRs did with a power team including the Russians. I still want to do a bigger write-up, but I think the Rockers had more great matches with more teams than the RNRs. Of course, I have only seen the Bodies matches from the 90s, so maybe there is more and I don't know too much about their Mid-South run except the stuff with MX. Rockers has Rose/Somers, Demolition, Hart Foundation, Rougueas, Orient Express, Powers of Pain, and Brainbusters. The RNRs have MX, Bodies, Russians, Ragin' N Ravishin, and Horsemen. Yes RNRs had the better feuds and Rockers only had Rose & Somers, but the Rockers delivered as that popcorn babyface tag team to pop the crowd on each card for the WWF. I think the RNRs are better, but just not by as much as people think.

Here we go... The Rockers vs Rougeaus - 10/89 London, England This is pro wrestling. I know pro wrestling can be a lot of things, but this really captures the fun, light-hearted aspect of wrestling that develops into a dramatic story: can Shawn Michaels make the tag? It is such a simple hook. I often feel compelled to dig deeper to prove that it is more impressive match. In this match, it is beauty is how shallow it is. It is two pricks trying to show up the good guys. The good guys goofing on the bad guys and having fun at their expense. The crowd is laughing along right with them. This level of entertainment and fun is what is missing from most WWF face control segments. Until the pricks can grab a handful of hair, then it becomes a dramatic effort from Michaels to get the hot tag to escape an incredible onslaught from the dastardly, underhanded bad guys. The amount of offense Michaels takes and his selling is the drama that most their WWF heat segments are missing. The go home stretch calls back to the opening with the good guys using the bad guys own dirty tactics against them to pick up the victory. Who are these guys and what did they do with the Rougeaus? The Rougeaus have been the most underwhelming tag team that I have seen in my viewing. Their heat segments tend to be borefests and Raymond seems devoid of any charisma. In this match, the Rougeaus look like the best WWF heel tag team ever in this one match. They stooge and bitch out like the Busters and they have the offense of the Midnight Express in this match. I understand the beginning can be tedious for some, but I like bullshit. You will see that Marty does want to lock up twice, but each time Jacques calls him a chicken and goads him into doing the relatively easy feat of athleticism. I am a sucker for heels that congratulate themselves over simple feats. However, now the Rockers get the idea how they can really show up the Rougeaus with Shawn's moonsault and shaking the ropes for Jacques. How much Jacques throws his head being rammed into the top turnbuckle is awesome. I laughed again (only thing I laugh at each time). I love how Jacques scurries away into the protective embrace of Raymond. The MX used Cornette to bitch out for them, but here the Rougeaus do it themselves. The leg work is incredible and the best Rockers control segment with all the switches without tags. Jacques, the ref and crowd just make this segment so great and another stretch where I can not stop smiling. Then while Jacques is arguing, Raymond will actually get to the corner, but he wont be there. I just love that stuff. Hell, even Raymond is great for all his work within this hold and constantly keeping it moving. Eventually, Jacques grabs Shawn's hair and Raymond rams a pretty nice knee into Shawn's back transforming this match from light-hearted to a dramatic affair. Already, you can tell Rougeaus are game for what I consider the best heat segment in WWF 80s tag wrestling. Shawn takes his Flair Flip bump into the turnbuckle and bumps huge off a double chop. The stars are just aligned in this match as Shawn is having his best FIP and the Rougeaus are just fucking on. Raymond's savate kick sends Shawn tumbling over the top rope and they start working on Shawn's back. They do the Boston Crab/knee combo and then Raymond throws Shawn onto Jacques' knee. Seriously, where the hell have these Rougeaus been. "We are really seeing the Rougeaus at their absolute best." - Tony. Tony always knows what's up. Jacques does a fake clap for a tag and the crowd boos the shit out of him. I love this crowd! Raymond busts out the rolling short arm scissors into a pin combination and Shawn reverses. I love this match! Jacques knees Raymond by accident and lets out a nice, hearty "Fuck!". Here comes Marty doing his best Rick Martel. Hands above his head, so energized just hitting anything in blue and yellow including the Mouth of the South. Raymond trips him from the outside allowing Jacques to get a piledriver. Now the Rougeaus go for the coup d'grace the Megaphone, but Shawn is able to get it and hit Jacques for Marty to get the pin. Once again, the Rockers give the Rougeaus a taste of their own medicine. I love the MX/RNR Wrestlewar '90 match and I really don't think this is far off of it. I think this is probably the match I select as the best WWF tag match of the Hulkamania Era (84-91) when all is said and done. It has the best control and heat segments with an actual, logical finish with a really good transition that bridges light-hearted with dramatic. The criticism I know is that there is a lot of bs in the beginning, but I enjoyed it and it played into the control segment well with the Rockers still fucking around with the Rougeaus and it sort of fuels the Rougeaus fire to really kick their ass even though they were the ones that instigated it. Shawn is really off the charts selling and bumping for the Rougeaus.

I have been meaning to watch that match forever and I am avoiding the reviews for now, but I will try to contribute soon. WWF World Heavyweight Champion Bob Backlund vs Ivan Koloff - MSG 8/78 This is pretty fuckin' awesome match and a real eye-opener to how good Uncle Ivan was in comparison to other 70s heels. Although, I thought he was bigger, he seemed pretty small against Backlund. Unfortunately, there is some clipping in this match so you do not get all the transitions, but what I did see was really great matwork and a very energetic match. That being said and maybe it is because I am missing some transitions I felt that some of the selling was neglected as the match progressed. It almost comes across as a matwork spotfest. Backlund uses the headscissors instead of the headlock as his go-to work hold and they do some really cool stuff as compared to Murdoch/O'Connor (a total borefest in my opinion). Backlund transitioning out of a double wristlock to a headscissors was incredible as well as Koloff's work to get out of this headscissors. The bridge work is an excellent display of Backlund's crazy strength. Koloff uses his strength to place Backlund on the top turn turnbuckle, which is important for later on. We go from knucklelock to a Koloff headscissors, but Backlund headstands out and gets his own headscissors after a dropkick. Backlund gets his side headlock, but Koloff pretty quickly gets a hair pull into his own headscissors, which I really liked. Backlund working his hardest to get out of headscissor with a sweet bridge and Koloff is smart to realize he is about break out and just breaks it himself to drop a knee. Koloff has a pretty sweet offensive flurry before Backlund catches his foot and does some pretty solid leg work, but due to cutting Koloff ends up in a short-arm scissors so that Backlund can do his dead weight lift spot to place Koloff on the top rope and punctuates it with a slap. Backlund gets a nice back body drop and right back to the leg, not exactly selling the arm. I love a double gut stomp, such a great heel move. They do some intense tussling and they knock heads causing Backlund to fall out of the ring. Koloff kicks Backlund's ass, but Koloff whiffs on a kneedrop. Koloff hits a pretty wicked stomp from the top onto Backlund's head when he is on the apron, which busts Backlund open. Koloff levels him with a big boot in the face, but huge Backlund comeback that is wicked with the ref throwing the whole thing out before the Backlund atomic drop. I loved the mat work and all the struggle. They do a lot of heated transitions even if it is just a dropkick or a knee working hard to progress the match. You get a lot of Backlund spots: mirror dead lift spots, the great work in the holds and Backlund's heated moves. Also, compared to so many heels, Koloff really has a lot of offense and is really trying to match Backlund's energy in these holds. The ending stuff is a really good display of Koloff as a 70s offensive dynamo with backbreaker, vertical suplex and flying kneedrop. The climax of the match was that really sweet stomp from the top that would looks good enough to put on TV right now and use it as a spot to write someone out. Backlund's comeback makes me really want to see the rematch, but I don't see it uploaded. I expected this to be gnarly, dastardly foreigner against clean cut super babyface, but it is almost worked as a face vs face mat clinic with Koloff heating things up with nasty knees. I thoroughly enjoyed this as one of the better WWF clinics that cut a great pace. So John or anybody else, do we have the September MSG match?

Loss, if it is any solace, the Alex Wright dance move is always over like rover at the club. So is Norman Smiley's Big Wiggle...now that I think about all my club moves are wrestling-inspired. Who needs Ballroom dance classes when you have Monday Night Nitro!

I agree it was the best Bruno I have seen, but granted I have not seen a lot of them. I do want to eventually track down the Stan Hansen series. It was nothing I would go out of my way to see it again, but it was a decent match. WWF World Heavyweight Champion Superstar Graham vs Dusty Rhodes - 9/77 MSG This is NOT the match to show people to prove to them that 70s wrestling can be exciting and good. This is definitely one of worst matches I have seen in quite some time. The positives were both had tremendous outfits could draw great heat in their respective roles. Dusty's migrating and gyrating routine will always be over with me. I did like how they built the match around Dusty's elbow, but besides that this match just kept going and going. I have never seen a shittier lock-up in my life. It was just one shitty lock-up after another each time Dusty throwing him off and Graham bumping pretty well. You can tell Vince holds Dusty's character in disdain calling him rollie-polie and getting in other subtle digs. Dusty gives him a couple wags of the finger, before Graham gets him in a test of strength, but Dusty is able to stomp on his fingers. Grahma remains undeterred, if strength won't work then he will cheat. He gives him a couple fingers in the throat. There is early shades of "Karate" Billy Graham. Graham locks on a chinlock and then a bearhug here is where they really build the elbow as the devastating last resort that Dusty needs to apply. After a couple of teases, Dusty finally unloads the elbow, but misses the follow-up elbow. Graham in the most impressive spot of the match hoists Dusty up and applies an over-the-shoulder- backbreaker, but he can't hold him. So he unleashes a series of elbows, but finally misses one. Graham goes up top, but takes the Flair bump off the top and the a back body drop over the top to give the American Dream the countout victory. There is a pretty loud bullshit chant and Dust gets on the house mic to say "Superstar, I came along way to whip your ass!" TEXAS DEATH MATCH BABY! Those lock-ups actually should be seen just to see how remarkably shitty they are. These two are not exactly offensive dynamos and it lends itself to a pretty boring match. You can get by on shtick pretty far with me, but you got to have some compelling work in there to build to the finish. Dusty was pretty bad at selling Superstar's shitty offense and Superstar moves around the ring in a very awkward manner. I plan on watching the Death Match and Bullrope match, but I do not have high hopes. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Superstar Graham vs Dusty Rhodes - Texas Bullrope Match MSG 8/78 I have the American Dream's DVD from when I was in high school and I bought originally just for the promos. I do not think I have watched even half the matches on it. I remember this match piqued my interest and when I put it on it turned me off of 70s wrestling until recently. You know what, I still think it sucks. We are joined in progress, but thanks to Fink's announcement, we know we only missed at most 90 seconds off the beginning. This is does not stop Dusty from fibbin' saying "Remember this was JIP, we were going a lot longer before that". Always working. They establish early on Superstar has nowhere to run with the bullrope attached to his wrist. Graham is the absolute worst on transitions as he just starts choking Dusty and hits with the bell to bust him open. He goes up top and Dusty yanks him off. Now it is Graham's turn to bell getting smashed with the cowbell. After some unheated back and forth, Dusty hits a home run with bell and Strongbow (Parv's favorite wrestler) counts out Superstar. Superstar displays more fire in the post-match when he chases off Fink then he does in the whole match. There are no transitions, no heat, Graham is the among the worst control wrestlers. Even Dusty seemed off his game as he was not really hitting his spots with gusto. Lets see if the Death Match can save this series.