Superstar Sleeze

Gotta disagree with Loss, here. This match is not as good as the Eaton one in my opinion. The shine segment is the best of three matches as Anderson plays to Steiner's strengths during that better than anyone else did in this gauntlet. However, he was not able to construct as interesting of a heat segment as Eaton was. Though in fairness part of the problem was Steiner no-selling Anderson's King of the Mountain work. The finish was stupid and the booking was atrocious. This may have been salvageable if you swapped the position and finishes of the Flair and AA matches. Pete, I am interested in why you think Eaton has more "elite physical skills" than "The Enforcer" Arn Anderson. AA is stockier and always seemed to me presented as the more rough and tumble customer than the high flying member of the Midnight Express. I grant you that Bobby has the big right hand that comes all the way from Sweet Home Alabama, but I think that Anderson is considered the more physical of the two. Both are tough and both love to show ass and stooge. So I am nitpicking a little, but it was an interesting comment.

Great TV match, much better than the Flair one. Before I thought that Eaton was second to Flair in terms of best worker in America in 1990, but matches like this make think he may have superseded Flair. Nice bump from Eaton off the Steinerline to the floor, the early going establishes Steiner as a powerhouse. I like how Eaton when for an ab stretch early; it was contested; Steiner came out on top versus Flair just cutting off Steiner with chops and punches and Steiner throwing out a random spot. The tennis racket is a very, very smart transition. Eaton rules on offense. The clothesline and the backbreaker come to mind immediately. The Frankensteiner was definitely the right finish. This is why I love the yearbooks. I did not even know this match existed making my 2:30 am just that much more pleasurable. Lance Russell mentioned that the Steiners beat the MX for the US Tag belts. I know that the Steiners vs MX have had a couple matches over the years. Can anybody give me the dates of their best matches? That would be much appreciated.

Worst Flair match, pre-1991, I have ever seen and actually it has very little to do with booking. I actually think Flair took too much of this match. Now there is a sentence I never thought I'd write. That should have been my tip that he was jobbing. Steiner is pretty awful at selling so I don't think a match with this much Flair offense was playing to his strengths. While I get Loss' point that Scotty should work underneath, but Loss you have watched 20x the amount of Flair footage I have, but isnt it pretty rare for him to have anybody work underneath against him especially when he is a heel? It is not that Flair dominated it is the exact 50-50 nature of the match that irked me. What was literally like Steiner would do a spot and Flair would cut him off. Flair would do a spot and Steiner would cut him off. I think they were trying to sell it nip and tuck, but it just felt jarring and disjointed. Plus as bad as Steiner's selling was, Flair's selling was not much better. He got rammed into the ringpost and goes back on offense almost immediately. Flair being de-pushed seems a little strong. You needed Sting to try to go it on his own without Flair to be a crutch so that necessitated Flair being cycled down, but Flair got 50% of the offense in this match and was heavily protected in the finish. Finally Scott Steiner vs Ric Flair with Rick Steiner has to be an announcer's nightmare. EVen Lance Russell was having trouble. I can only imagine how JR would have butchered this... "Steiner with a Steinerline on Ric. Steiner. I mean Rick Steiner. *pause* He did the Steinerline. *pause* The Steiners were All-Americans out of the University of Michigan..."

I have been meaning to watch this match ever since this match took a hit in popularity. When I first watched it in like 2006ish, I remember liking it a good deal and specifically remember thinking the Sting dive was wicked cool and Luger ruled in this match. Fast forward to 2013, shocker of all shockers, Rick Steiner is the best wrestler of the four by a country mile and Scott Steiner is the worst of the four by equally large country mile. The bump Rick took off the Luger shoulderblock was awesome. It is amazing that without reading these comments I felt the same way about the beginning of the match. I was all like, "Jeez who pissed in everyone's corn flakes". The answer was Scott Steiner. I am a pretty big Scotty Steiner mark (one of my guilty pleasures in wrestling), but he was a no-selling, premature celebrating loon out there. The Russian Legsweep spot with Luger was one of the weirdest I have ever seen and almost on cue here comes Ricky with a pretty decent flying bulldog on Luger. I will say Luger still looks pretty good here before the Flair debacle. Finally outside of the tombstone reversal spot (which always rules) after the bulldog it seemed like they were filling time until Nikita came out. The finish made sense as it was a face vs face matchup and it set up the "big" Sting/Koloff for the next PPV. This is still a pretty good match with some shining spots it is just disjointed due to Scotty Steiner's worse tendencies shining through. Luger looked like he was ready to be World Champ and it is so sad what ended up happening. Sting looked like his overpepped, chipper self. Rick Steiner gave one of his best performances in my eyes. There is enough in this match for them to stay clearly on the right side of good. So I know Rick Steiner/Lex Luger had a title match later in the year, this match makes me want to see it, but the more rational part of me says that match will suck out loud. Only one way to find out...

Clearly not as as good as the excellent RnRs match earlier, but still a killer match. I might have to watch more Midnight matches to really affirm this assertion, but I think MX is like the Ric Flair version of a tag team with their ability to be totally outclassed in the first ten minutes only to look totally boss in the next ten minutes. I liked the shine just fine as there were plenty of good spots to establish that the MX were lost without James E. Also, noticed JR was using "scintillating" and "vintage" in 1990, but I guess Zenk's rights werent carcinogenic (the worst JR modifier) as they were pathetic. Pillman over the top -> neckbreaker on floor -> Pillman's standard bump to railing was such a good transition to a FIP segment. That Pillman bumps ranks as my favorite stock bump from anyone. Slingshot. Backbreaker. Bobby Eaton is my hero and heroes are forever. I thought it was weird they let the faces kick out of Alabama Jamma and the Rocket Launcher, but the explanation give above suffices in clearing that up for me. I missed the loaded boot too due to the shitty dailymotion quality (I know, I know, eventually I will buy this ) and couldnt really hear the crowd. This match will definitely has some rewatchability for me as I thought it was a very good match that just missed that second gear to really put it over the top. Lastly, I know Stan Lane takes some flack for his kicks and understandably so, but is there anything else he does that gets on people's nerves because I actually think he is a really effective heel and brings a lot of personality to the team. I need to watch more Condrey, but I don't think the gap is as sizeable as people make it out to be.

What I think is so amazing about this match is its ability to seamlessly transition from comedy to dramatic wrestling. So many matches would have felt disjointed or directionless given this format, but that is why the Midnights and RnRs are the best of the all-time because of their deft execution of this format. This has to be one of the best face shine segments in the history of wrestling. It establishes the RnRs as clearly the best tag team, the Midnights bump & stooge in a way that keeps that million-watt smile on your face and it never feels like heel in peril. It is so good nobody has mentioned that cool spot where Morton climbs up on Eaton and delivers a fist drop onto Lane. That was a holy shit moment for me. They just jammed so many damn good spots in that opening segment. Next thing you know Bobby Eaton and Ricky Morton slug it out and end up tumbling outside and Lane delivers a wicked slam and we enter Ricky Morton's bread and butter. The Midnights have so many MOVEZ~! but they never get lost in just tossing them out and everything is filled with great heelish behavior: the tennis racket shots, the eye-rakes and cutoffs. Morton is in his element. Is this considered the best RnR/Midnights match? I have not seen them all, but I don't think I have seen a better one as even before the finish it feels amazing. The face in peril segment I believe is in excess of 10+ minutes, but it never once drags. The finish is great and I am happy the Rock N Rolls go over because in such a feel-good match it was the perfect touch to have the Rock N Rolls pick up the duke. Right now, my two favorite matches to watch are this one and Ricky Morton vs Flair Steel Cage GAB '86. Ricky Morton is a Godsend to wrestling.

Who are you to doubt Keiji Muto? :D In fairness to your prognostication, Muto didn't work that match and I agree with you he couldn't have pulled off this match, but to his credit we both agree for that one night on August 11, 1991 he did produce something better with Chono. I had seen the finals once about six months ago and last nigh due to me scanning through this section. I just finished watching this match. I don't know how wildly this claim may come off, but I think if Chono didnt get injured he could have been the greatest Japanese babyface heavyweight of the 90s. Kobashi and Misawa are very good in their own ways, but I feel like Chono reigns in the histrionics of a Kobashi, while being more expressive and having better matwork than Misawa. Now of course, the injury derailed this and Chono turned into one of the greatest heels in the history of puroresu, but am I crazy for seeing how friggin good Chono is as a babyface in these matches against two very different opponents. 1990-1991 NJPW heavyweight action was so very good it is disappointed it became hit and miss as time progressed before it really went to hell.

Damnit, I'm from Boston, but couldnt go due to a combination of my new job and my brother being burnt out. I will have read/check it out when I get a chance.

John, Yeah reading it back, I see your point. I think watching wrestling live is a very similar experiencing to watching music live for me where I just enjoy it for the atmosphere, presentation and being there with my brother and/or friends. If I watched that show on a TV, I probably would have found myself agreeing with all of you wholeheartedly. When I was writing that I was trying to reconcile the amount of fun I had with what I truly felt. For instance, I think Cena/Rocky bit the big one besides a couple spots, but it was tremendous fun rooting on Cena in the pro-Rocky environment. The audible groans from Rocky fans when he went for the Five Knuckle Shuffle -> FU -> Kick out -> Huge Pop was an awesome moment. I didn't explain that clearly, which was due to the fact the Michigan game was starting to get away from us at that point. I truly do think the card was better than the past two Manias from a "watch on TV" perspective, but it was such a fun atmosphere that is why I am giving this card a pass. I was a little harsh on the crowd. I softened my stance on the crowd as it became more good-natured in their chants. It would get tiresome if a smark crowd showed up every RAW, but once a year, it is a nice twist. The continual singing of Fandango's entrance was tremendous. Did anyone catch the real highlight of the night? When Orton came out to cut his promo, he said a line and then stopped walked over to Sheamus and from his mouth you could read "What's my line?" My brother and I were rolling especially when all he had to do was ask the crowd if they wanted to see him kick Show's ass.

I have only seen the opening segment, but fuck this crowd. My brother said it sounds like all the assholes from the Hall of Fame (the most disrespectful and embarassing crowd I have been a part of) showed up for this. The smarky Miami crowd was fun and playful with all their "Yes!" fun. These are just a bunch of jaded pricks. Though watching Cena worked them was excellent. I don't want to see a face vs face match for a long time. This news comes to great disappointment to me as Mark Henry was fresh and interesting fodder for John Cena. I am higher on Ryback than most, but this is not an effective use of him. Ryback mowing down the Shield is what would be the best.

While the basketball game is at halftime (Lets Go Blue!), might as well write up my thoughts on last night show, which I was at live and in vivid technicolor. I was also at Wrestlemania XXVIIII last year and I thought this one blew it out of the water. I had way better seats this year though as I was in the lower bowl as opposed to on the floor by the ramp. Raked stadium seating is so much better unless you in the first couple rows on the floor. I never felt cold, but I was layered up. I am a sucker for pomp & circumstance as much as any wrestling fan, but I think this was fine as there were a ton of fireworks and cool entrances from Taker & CM Punk. It could have been better, most definitely, but it was better than Miami. I think it is a valid criticism that they were a little no-nonsense when I like a little bit of nonsense, myself. I agree with Childs' breakdown on the top three matches. Each was very distinctives and there is plenty of room to judge the matches very differently. Now where I am shocked is how lukewarm you all were towards the undercard. I thought that was something where this Wrestlemania kicked the past several Wrestlemanias in the ass. I really dug the Shield/Babyfaces matches. I was irked that the fans booed Sheamus while they cheered Orton. I would hear arguments for other, but I think Sheamus is the best worker in the WWE since last September. He is the best offensive wrestler they have. The ring was not mic'd well, but you could still hear his shots. I love his physicality. I agree that Show playing Ricky Morton was so strange when Sheamus is also so good on the defensive side of wrestling. What I think this match did so well was play up all the babyfaces spots. It was just an incredibly fun babyface shine segment. The Shield did not play up their gimmick with their chaotic pack mentality as much, but in the situation they still worked fine. This worked as a great opener because of the hot babyface action and great work by the Shield. you could tell the Big Show was just shoehorned into the match did fill out the sides by the ending, which only pissed off more than Ryback wasnt in this match. Mark Henry vs Ryback was so disappointing. Ryback is so much better than a Goldberg/Warrior because he can actually work a normal wrestling match due to his willingness to sell/bump. This match was plodding and just was an underwhelming. I liked the finish a lot because 1. It was great psychology 2. Sets up the rematch with the question, Can he Shellshock him? Then of course the post-match was retarded for reasons already explored. The crowd (very stereotypically smarky) was red hot for Daniel Bryan. The callback to last year was a great false finish as everyone around me popped up. I thought the match was a fun collection of spots, but that was it. The Shield match outstriped this one for me, but that isnt really a slight against this match, which was a fun popcorn affair. I was very happy to see Bryan get the duke with a diving headbutt. Big E has the fuckin worst-looking finish in the WWE right now. So fuckin awful. Jericho vs Fandango was a bit better than I think you guys are giving it credit for. Besides the obvious Lionsault fuck up, I didn't see any sloppiness from Jericho, but watching it live you can miss these guys. I thought Jericho was wicked phsyical and really brought out some nice violence lighting up Fandango while in pissed off babyface mode. Then he was taking some nice bumps to make Fandango make him look like a million bucks. Fandango was there and I think he needs some more seasoning. I had this right in there with the Shield match and was a really nice undercard match. Del Rio vs Swagger was overall pretty forgetful. I am a Swagger mark. This gimmick sucks for him, but I am always impressed by his stature and overall athleticism. I love watching him on offense especially the Swaggerbomb. The spot of the match was Del Rio gouging Swagger's eyes while he had him in the cross-armbreaker. Of course, they got a little intricate in their ode to Shawn Michaels with the reversals. The finish was out of nowhere and just felt anti-climatic, which was the theme of the night. CM Punk vs Undertaker was a match totally elevated by the crowd. Holy fuck, besides the Raw before Money In The Bank 2011, I have never heard a crowd so fuckin hot. The smarks were reveling into their douchebaggery by cheering for CM Punk and that got the rest of us really vocal for Taker. The angle for this set this match up to be so much better than the Lovefests with the Kliq the past four years. Undertaker came out hot because he wanted to fuck Punk up and thus they worked a much tighter style. Even though the finish was never doubt, the ride getting there was most definitely great. That slimy, scuzzy, summy CM Punk got his comeuppance at the hands of the Ultimate Authority of the WWE and other finish seems silly. My one quibble was the GTS -> Tombstone (only with even more No-Sell) should have been finish instead of the false finish because the finish was just a little cooler than that. The spot of the match for me was the Undertaker powering up out of the Anaconda Vice. Out of the big three matches, Undertaker was the one most going for revenge that is why I think some babyface no-selling is in order because it is his emotion that renders him impervious to pain. HHH vs Brock - this was nowhere near the incredible bout they had at Summerslam (yes, I truly believe that bout last year was a legitimate MOTYC and will defend that match until I am blue in the face). This match has zero heat. Dont let anyone fool you. You could hear a pin drop in that arena until the finish. I love Brock to death, but HHH is not very good as a babyface at all (not that you didnt really already know that). This match went way too long and had some of the normal HHH deadspots, but it was not a fucking awful match. It was a decent match that didnt deliver. I think with one simple booking change they could have made this into a great match. You just do the Valentine/Tito storyline from '85. Tito learned the figure-4 in retaliation just so he could break Valentine's leg. If you run 4 weeks of vignettes of HHH learning the Kimura to break Brock's arm, how fuckin badass would that have been. Then all of sudden those Kimura attempts by HHH would have meant extra. What was nice about this match was the finish was actually hot and the climax because they didn't bust a zillion finish and it was actually built up logically. I think on rewatch with some piped heat by the WWE sound engineers I will like this match a lot more on rewatch. This match did not deliver, but it was not awful Rock vs Cena II fuckin sucked. It was the worst display of WWE main event/Kliq epic I have ever seen. The callbacks were the only thing fun about this, but learning of The Rock's injury maybe that can excuse this. There was a small boring chant during the Rock's sleeper and the heat was nowhere near the heat level in Miami. The right guy went over. I have been a Cena fan since Money In The Bank 2011. I know, I know I am a Johnny-Come-Lately, but better late than never. Well this was the worst Cena match in forever. I know someone brought this up that this was similar to Punk/Cena and he thought it was hypocritical to like one and not the other. I couldn't disagree more. I am no Punk fanboy and that TV match was incredible. It wad laid out perfectly as a way to Cena earn his victory by unlocking his level of his offense (yes there was a little bit of that in this match) before each had to bust moves that the other wouldnt expect (piledriver vs 'rana) to pick up the win. I am willing to elaborate more on this but we under halfway to go before the game ends. In sum, I thought this was way better than the past two Wrestlemanias (and I was at the Miami one) and was a really fun live experience. Even though, the main event sucked, my brother and I still had fun ragging on it. Oh yeah, as a huge 80s metal fan, seeing Living Color live was wicked bitchin' I don't feel like this was at all deserving of all the jeers it has been getting. I thought it was a good show with a fun undercard, an incredible match with Punk/Taker, a well-structured albeit underwhelming Brock/Trips and a shitty main event hey they can't all be winners.

I liked that match a lot and I actually reviewed in the Nick Bockwinkel thread (the one drawback of these styles of threads). I really loved the pace they cut and how continuous the action was throughout the match. So I got the impression from the match that Bock was actually presented as a babyface in this match. I definitely remember th ecommentator remarking how weird it was that Bock was getting cheered in Memphis. So it may have been heel vs heel, but the fans choose the outsider Bock to root for, which demonstrates how bitchin Savage is as a heel. Savage is such a greta heel because he has no redeemable qualities. He is such a low-down, paramoid, jelaous, cowardly prick that you can even turn Bock babyface in Memphia against him. Savage is my favorite wrestler ever and he is so good at character work in matches. I loved the finish. There is just something epic about a ballshot-piledriver combo. It just seems so final. Lastly, as always I want to mention how awesome Bock's knee lift and drop toehold are.

Brock Lesnar w/Paul Heyman vs Triple H Summerslam 2012 Los Angeles, CA My brother and I were on the fence about ordering Summerslam for the third time in four years. Given Lesnar’s unique performance earlier in the year against Cena, we decided in favor of ordering plus there was a match between family favorites Dolph Ziggler and Chris Jericho we wanted to see. Unfortunately, that match for a myriad of reasons did not live up to expectation. However for the main event, my family was left very satisfied with the performances of both men. The internet was not so kind to the match deemed “slow, disjointed”, “an uneven effort”, “booked too even”, “too formulaic, Brock dominated then hit the finish” and “that Brock looked too much like an ordiniary wrestler and HHH did not bump well for him”. Was this bout the Match of the Year? No, but I think it was in the top handful of matches from WWE this year. As you can see from some of the purported criticisms, the critics are even fighting amongst themselves with what’s wrong with the match. The story going into this match was that Brock Lesnar had broken HHH’s arm and quit the WWE over not meeting his contractual obligations. Paul Heyman acted as Brock’s agent and did a serviceable job (at times, very good, his post-Summerslam promo was his best yet in this role) as his mouthpiece. After some goading and lackluster booking, the match between the WWE, legendary, rugged stalwart (HHH) and the bully invader (Brock) was booked. For extra heat, Brock broke Shawn Michaels’ arm sending HHH into a tizzy. Helmsley stressed to the official that under no circumstances was he to stop match for anything other than a pinfall or submission because he wanted a true finish to this match. Thus making the match a de facto no disqualification match. Brock Lesnar hits the ring in his MMA gear (read: Jimmy John’s advertisements adorn his MMA shorts and mouth-guard) with Paul Heyman. Triple H enters with his normal ring entrance. Upon the completion of the super special ring introductions, Brock charges at Triple H and double-legs him into the corner. Brock maintains control in the corner with strikes. HHH briefly displays a flash of wrestling acumen by executing a back heel trip, but Brock escapes that easily. Brock targets the arm with his dreaded Kimura (this is the hold that broke HHH’s and Shawn Michael’s arm) and there is the impressive visual display of Brock applying the Kimura and a standing body-scissors on Triple H while Triple H holds onto the ropes. Normally this would necessitate a rope break, but without the power of disqualifying Lesnar, the referee is powerless to force Brock to break the hold. What follows is the short babyface shine segment with Triple H being able to knock Brock out of the ring twice. All this serves to do is piss Brock off, this is visually symbolized by Brock taking his gloves off. After another double-leg takedown, Brock lands vicious shot to the back of Hunter’s head. The announcers do a good job putting over that would be illegal in the UFC, making it seem extra dastardly. This serves as the transition to the heat segment. Brock dominates Triple H with a hammerlock slam on the announce table, which continues the arm psychology. Brock heads back into the ring for some taunting (as any good bully would) meanwhile this illustrates the no-countout stipulation. The verbal selling of HHH during this portion is well-done with Brock working over the arm. There is a smattering of desperation spots. Normally, I would term them hope spots, but the viewer has very little hope that HHH is going to overcome the Beast. Rather these spots seem like a man lashing out in pure self-preservation rather than attempting to win a competitive bout. Brock sends HHH into the steps and Triple H does not bump as hard as he could have. In another impressive visual display, Brock tips the announce table on its side; mounts it; delivers a superman punch. Then weirdly Lesnar goes for an inside cradle pin, which Triple H kicks out before 1. This leads to the first and only rope-running spot of the match, which sees Lesnar deliver one helluva lariat to HHH. However, Triple H is able to block a vertical suplex attempt into his own. He attempts a Pedigree, but his arm is too injured and Brock is able to send him crashing to the floor as HHH takes his normal corner bump, without the usual vigor. This is the hook of the entire match: in an act of utter self-preservation and total fortune, Triple H uses a leverage move to send Brock crashing abdomen first into the edge of the announce table. Immediately, Brock is double over in pain and selling so well that he snookered my dad into thinking he was legit hurt. The selling was truly fantastic with Heyman putting it over with his concern “Are you hurt?”. His tone was perfect. Brock spits up and there goes the mouthguard. HHH capitalizes on this stroke of good luck by attacking the abdomen with unrelenting fury, punches first then the vaunted HHH knee. For those that do not know, Brock Lesnar legitimately had a disease known as diverticulitis that caused huge portions of his intestines to be removed. This is the driving force for his retirement from UFC. It was a great bit of storytelling that hooked my entire family into the match. While Triple H was ravaging Brock with knees to his gut, Heyman was screaming “Stop doing that” and again his tone was so spot-on. We head to the finish after HHH hits the spinebuster. A couple of finish reversals before Brock kicks out of the first Pedigree. Brock then hits a wicked low-blow and follows that up with the F-5, which only gets two. So Brock goes back to his bread and butter: the Kimura and HHH makes the ropes, but there are no rope breaks. However, Triple H is able to escape due to punches to the mid-section (abdomen psychology). HHH hits another Pedigree, but when Triple H was trying to turn him over for the pin, Brock in a flash caught him in the Kimura. Then proceeded to break his arm and HHH was forced HHH to tap out. Almost no wasted motion throughout the fight and a well-thought story made this seemingly an easy thumbs up from me. I am a sucker for Monster Heel takes on Franchise Babyface (see Vader/Sting). I think Brock did a good job emulating Vader especially in the corner. He was just absolutely relentless on the arm and going for the Kimura. I did not care one iota about the lack of variety in his offense. It was logical for him to keep vicious and arm-focused. He broke it once before, why deviate from that. The pacing was a bit on the methodical side, but it was never intended to be a sprint. It always had my attention and never felt like it dragged. I do not see the disjointed argument at all. The match layout was very typical: Heel domination -> Babyface Shine -> Heat segment with hope spots -> Hope Spot finally connects -> Babyface comeback -> Finish. The blow to the head transitioned to heat segment and the leverage move that “discovers” Brock’s weakness transitioned to the comeback. The transitions were accomplished and logical thus negating the "disjointed" arguement. Cena was able to defeat Lesnar because of a fluke chain shot. The idea was to put over that Cena was able to survive the onslaught. This match was built on that premise of HHH discovering a weakness to the monster he could exploit, but it was too little too late for our hero. This type of inter-match storytelling almost never happens in the WWE and I was eating it up. The dueling arm/abdomen psychology was bordering on brilliant for WWE’s typical ring work. Did I mention how incredible Lesnar’s selling was? He is not known for his selling, but he put over the abdomen injury so well. I thought Triple H started off selling very well for Lesnar, but then almost seemed to get a bit lazy. Sure he did the bare minimum and not move his left arm, but where were the grimaces and the verbal selling. Also, this may be due to HHH's old age, but he was not throwing himself into bumps as well as he normally does. I think the Cena/Lesnar match is way better, but this match is still very good. I have no idea how Lesnar came off as ordinary. He used a bunch of amateur/MMA moves and worked over a body part that almost never happens in WWE. In addition, they ran the ropes exactly once and used Irish Whips threes times. This match along with Cena match is the closest WWE has gotten to shoot-style ever. This felt like nothing else I get to see on a regular basis. In conclusion, I felt like I got my money’s worth for being able to see this on HD TV live. It was a tremendous match that I enjoyed greatly with my family. I think you can improve HHH’s bumping and selling, but he is limited by age on one of those fronts. Also, while I loved the flash submission victory. I thought the finishing sequence was a bit tame with the usual finisher reversals. A grander false finish could have been employed to get the crowd more involved, which admittedly seemed dead during the majority of the match. The high points were definitely Brock’s offense, his selling and the match layout. On the very same card, Jericho had taped ribs and Ziggler did nothing but a token attack of the ribs. I would love to see more body part psychology in WWE, but for now I will just take Brock being an utter beast and having two MOTYC’s to his name having wrestled only two matches on the year.

After Cena's tremendous performance against Punk this past February, they had me transformed into a huge Cena fan. I was already to cheer Cena onto victory against The Rock and they dissipated all the goodwill they built up with me with these atrocious promos. I kept waiting for these promos to turn the corner and they never did. When The Rock absolutely decimated Cena in the debate when he said The Rock has never failed. I cringed because I knew The Rock was going to crush that meatball. I don't understand the booking for these past couple weeks because everything post-Punk match has failed to impress. Cena wins, but this is the toughest of the three to predict. I acknowledge that Punk/Taker angle is incredibly tasteless, but it is at least refreshing that the Undertaker feud of the year actually has some hatred in it as opposed to the Lovefests against the Kliq we have been treated to the past 4 years. I have also like they have gone with a more physical build. Undertaker wins in the easiest of the three to predict. I may be alone on this board, but I am looking forward to the HHH/Brock. I wish it was an "I Quit" match instead of No Holds Barred, which we basically got last Summerslam. I thought the HHH/Brock match from Summerslam was one of the best of last year and am still perplexed at the amount of hatred it received on the internet. I am going to post my review of the match in the subsequent post. Personally, I think Sheamus is the best worker in the WWE right now and The Shield is one of my favorite acts (though they have cooled down since February) so I am really hoping this gets a decent chunk of time on Sunday. What irks me is that Ryback is not in this match. Ryback has been The Shield's number one target and the guy most fucked over by The Shield. So now at the big blowoff he won't even be present is such fuckin dumb booking. 80s Vince would have never let that happen. The silver lining is that we get Ryback/Mark Henry. My brother is a bigger mark for Ryback, but I like the big lug. He sells more than a Goldberg or a Warrior would. His match against the 3MB this past week was my Match of the Night and one of the better squashes recently. I dont think I need to explain that Mark Henry is all kind of awesome and that he splits wigs for a living. I dont get who thought the Fandango character was a good idea. It seems like the WWE is once again cashing in too late on a pop culture fad. I like how Jericho has upped his physicality in his matches. Those are some vicious chops he is laying in. I am looking forward to this match. Del Rio is a guy I want to like so bad, but bores me to tears. Swagger is an athletic beast and I know he can be so good in the ring, but he cant buy a good angle.

I will be at Wrestlemania for the second year in a row, just cant get enough of Rock/Cena. Actually, I am from New England, so logistically this will probably be the easiest one for me to make for quite some time. Last year's was a graduation present and I figured with it New York City. I couldnt pass up the opportunity again as I really enjoyed going with my brother. I will be also at the Hall of Fame to see Bob Backlund inducted. jdw, are you doing the induction? I may be alone in this, but I am actually looking forward to this one moreso than last year. I think HHH/Brock was one of the most under-rated matches of the last year. Punk/Taker is a real wild card, but looking beyond the distasteful build; I appreciate this feud for the level of heat compared to the last 4 years of lovesfests between the Kliq and Taker. If they give the Mark Henry and Shield matches time, this could be the best Wrestlemania undercard in a long time. I have no hopes for Rock/Cena.

Just watched this again, I just feel it has always been overhyped to me. I watched this back to back with the Slaughter match and I think the Slaughter match is much better, but does not get the same level of praise. It is a good tit for tat match where both guys shows they could do the same things to each other, which gets across the point how evenly matched they are. Even though in the fans' eyes, Hogan is clearly superior. I have always wondered what the point that knee injury was to serve because at first I always thought it was a dickish move by Hogan to increase his babyface heat at the expense of the new babyface, which is at least logical. If it is a shot at Sting that just strikes me as a stupid way to cut out Warrior's knees from under him (that was fully intended). The chinlocks and bearhugs were a little too much for me. The best part of this match was the finish. I thought that was really well executed and you really had the feeling that you had no idea who was going to win. Betting against Hogan, just never seems like a smart move. The Warrior Splash not getting the pinfall followed by the Hulk-Up was just perfect bait for the eventual missed leg drop followed by the Warrior Splash victory. I feel like Loss nailed it by saying that the parting scene is the best part of the match and it really feels like the start of a new era. I feel that is what Vince is better than anyone else at achieving is iconic, timeless moments. The matches he produces/book don't always produce the greatest bell-to-bell results, but he always delivers on a powerful image that will resonate you forever. I think it is this ability to distill wrestling down to static, iconic images is the reason he is one of the greatest promoters of all time. Hogan/Warrior is more about the image after than it is about the match.

This one is a tough one for me to rate definitively. There are some really bad botches from Adnan that have already been noted. In addition, I didn't like the transition of Hogan getting press slammed off the top. It just doesn't make sense. He hadn't run through his arsenal yet so there was no reason to bust out a "big bomb" only to be caught. Then there was the whole Hogan being next to the ropes during the Boston Crab and only to grab the ropes when they were there the whole time (I thought he was going to power out). My other big problem is my general problem with 80s WWF (much like the fact 80s Metal didn't really die until 91/92, I think the same can be said for 80s WWF): neatly defined control segments with no sense of struggle within them. For that ordained amount of time, this wrestler will be a ragdoll for the other. It is not that matches can't transcend this handicap for me. It is that they are handicapped by it. At one point Gorilla says "We are seeing the Hogan of the 90s", I couldnt disagree more. I felt like we are seeing the brief return of 80s Hogan in this feud that had left us in late '87. It was not just the return of the Bleeding Hulkster, but a Hulkster, who himself was out for blood. He seemed more violent and grittier than he had been since Harley feud in '87. I absolutely loved the Hogan no-sell of the chair. It just sent that message of "Not today, scumbag. Your ass is grass and I am about to smoke it." One of my favorite stretches is when Hogan whips Slaughter into doing the Slaughter bump, high knees him and then catapults back into the turnbuckles. It was that type of urgency I felt was missing from most of Hogan's matches. There was two stretches of punches that kind of took me out of the match before Slaughter got on offense as they just felt weak. Though of course what made it was Slaughter bumping like a madman for Hogan. Hogan is always at his best when someone is there ready to bump like crazy for him. From the get-go, Slaughter is ready to bump off the collar-elbow tie-up and a shoulderblock, you just know this is going to be good. Slaughter was actually really good on offense too. They blended "I will get DQ to retain the belt" and back psychology really well. The Boston Crab wrecked Hogan's back and the chair busted him wide open. This all culminated in the Bloody Camel Clutch, which I feel like would be a more iconic scene if Savage/Liz didn't precede it and Hart/Austin did not supersede it. The hope spot out of the Camel Clutch rather than a full-fledged comeback was a nice wrinkle. It allowed to get that extra bit of heat when he covered him with the Iraqi Flag to get that extra bit of heat to really drive the finish home. I was actually a little disappointed by the lack of Hogan cheating in this. I only remember a solitary eye-rake and one back scratch. If there was ever a time for Hogan to "heel" it up, I feel like this was the time. I remember seeing the last 10 minutes of the Desert Storm rematch these guys had in MSG that seems like wild, chaotic brawl between the two you wanted and they delivered in spades in that one. So I know they can get more violent, but this was a very good Wrestlemania-type match with great visual imagery. I thought this was a really good 80s style match by two of the biggest 80s workers in the context of early 90s WWF. I would say this match is definitively (not that I am opposed to arguments for the other matches) Hogan's best match at Wrestlemania.

The Midnight Express vs The Road Warriors - Starrcade: Night of the Skywalkers - Scaffold Match Even though, I own this on DVD, I have never seen it due to my blind prejudice towards scaffold matches (I have never seen one). I am actually terrified of heights myself. I felt bad for the wrestlers more than anything else. Road Warriors portrayed badasses well enough on that rickety structure. The MX use powder to get heat and try to blade to salvage this. They do a chicken spot and taking some pretty massive bumps. This is the match where Corny goes up there like a good manager and Bubba forget to catch him and Cornette just drops straight down on his feet and fucks up his knee. Ouch. I don't really want to see this match again, but part of me is glad I at least watched one scaffold match. With Magnum out for the show and they couldn't run Flair/Dusty for the 3rd time in a row in Starrcade, was the Skywalkers match supposed to be the major drawing card for this show? Also, I have the WWE DVD copy of the Andersons vs RnR and it is friggin clipped. Is the full match available?

AWA World Tag Champs Road Warriors vs The Fabulous Ones I would be remiss not to mention that The Crusher is in Fabulous Ones' gear complete with bowtie and suspenders. The Fabs were not up to task and were not able to deliver a match on par with the High Flyers or the Freebirds. Though it was more due to the Road Warriors unwillingness to work and sit in chinlocks during the heat segment. I liked the opening (wasnt really a shine) because the Fabs were the first tag to take it to the Warriors. The Roadies shrugged it off in their own way, but I was digging the opening bit. Then the heat segment started ok with your standard Roadies offense, but then they just ground everything to a halt with those chinlocks. Lane puts his knees up on an Animal splash attempt. Keirn does a quick house a fire sequence before a lame donnybrook breaks out that is an insult to all donnybrooks for causing a No Contest. The Crusher in his ridiculous, albeit fabulous outift, sends everyone packing. They could have a great match, but was very disappointing.

NWA World Tag Champs Midnight Express vs The Road Warriors - 7/12/86 It has been much too long since I lapped up some down-home cooking from Crockett. I found this to be much more entertaining than the High Flyers, albeit that one did feature more actual wrestling content, whereas this one was all about the Midnights making the Roadies look like a million bucks with their bumping, stooging and stalling. All the while the Roadies stand tall and playing the irresistible force and immovable object at the same time. I think Hawk no-selling the piledriver in this case actually enhances the match because it just screams badass and makes the Midnights shit their pants. Another great sequence sees Eaton powder on a criss-cross -> do the universal gesture that he is smart -> get military pressed back in by Animal -> steamrolled by Hawk back to the outside -> Animal steamrolls him. Just beautiful. Hawk goes for a top rope move and crashes and burns and this allows for Loverboy to whack him with racquet thus continuing the theme that only the Road Warriors can hurt the Road Warriors. The heat segment is well-worked lots of cheating, eye-gouges and double teaming, but way too short and Hawk sucks as a face in peril (not that Animal is any better, actually he is probably worse). Animal comes in and it is dropkicks galore and a big powerslam before the schmozz with Cornette hitting Animal with the tennis racquet to draw the DQ. I would be remiss not to mention that during the post-match shenanigans Baby Doll cold-cocks Cornette to the delight of the crowd. I think the High Flyers and this match are about equals in overall performance, but get to the same place in very different fashions. AWA World Tag Champs The Road Warriors vs The Fabulous Freebirds - AWA Superclash I I felt like the Life Cereal kid about this, Sleeze liked it, I really liked it. It was as good as the Midnight Express in all the ways the MX match was good and delivered a much better heat segment. First off the Freebirds are painted up with Confederate Flags on their faces, which I think is just a badass HEEL move. They get their asses handed to them by the Road Warriors on a couple different occasions and even Bam Bam is nervous to enter the ring with these behemoths. Eventually Hawk is overzealous and runs his shoulder into the post. Thus continuing the theme that only the Road Warriors can hurt the Road Warriors. Hawk is a much better face in peril here. Now, is he Ricky Morton? Fuck no. I actually kinda like how he is almost a machine insofar as he is constantly struggling to get to his feet after a Gordy suplex (the Gordy taunt after is bitchin), Hayes sidewalk slam and a Gordy piledriver. It feels like these guys are wrestling the Terminator and all they can do is stun it. Hawk is selling "dazed", but not to level of a traditional face in peril, which is actually really logical. Hayes gives him a bodyslam and goes up for a press slam. Up until that point, the Freebirds were giving Hawk no breathing room. Just by creating that much space, the Terminator erm I mean Hawk, rose again, and press slams Hayes off the top. Now Gordy is in, but they knock heads and everyone is down. HOT TAG TO ANIMAL~! Animal atomic drop on Gordy and now a powerslam. Here comes Hayes. Outside, Buddy Roberts fuckin nails Ellering with a chair so Hawk comes out and beats the shit out of Buddy. Animal press slams Gordy, powerslam to Hayes, clothesline, shoulder block, pins Gordy, no ref, Hayes fist drop off the top, GORDY PINS!!!! Clearly the decision doesn't stand, which is always a shitty finish, plus who the fuck does a Dusty Finish for the heels. That is stupid. Even with the shitty finish I have this over the MX match (which in retrospect, I am downgrading a little bit) and right there with the High Flyers match. If they just put the Road Warriors this would be the best Road Warriors I have seen. I watched the Bundy/Blackwell tag a while ago and thought that was a snoozefest; I just watched the Hennigs so it is better than that. Unless the Fabs can pull out an outstanding performance for themselves and the Roadies, I think the Freebirds will co-own the best Road Warriors match with the High Flyers.

So in the High Flyers thread, I casually tossed out that match ranked among my favorite Road Warrior matches of all time. Then I realized I couldnt really think of any Road Warriors matches I really liked. So it is time to go back let myself reevaluate the Roadies' body of work. The Road Warriors vs Stan Hansen & Harley Race (Florida, 1985) When I saw this on the marquee, I knew I just had to see it. Could Stan Hansen make the Road Warriors sell? Unlike Greg Gagne, Stan Hansen was largely unsuccessful in making the Road Warriors sell. This match was quite the clusterfuck and never really found a rhythm. Hansen goes all "Leroy Jenkins" on poor Harley and runs up the ramp to beat on the Roadies. Harley does get a nice cowbell shot on Hawk while Hansen and Animal do some decent brawling. At this point, I was digging the match. Then they got in the ring and shit hit the fan. Animal did some blase headlock, arm work while Hawk and Hansen randomly took back to the outside. The Road Warriors looked like they had no clue what to do on offense. So Hansen and Race take over with some suplexes, headbutts and a piledriver, all of which Hawk quasi-no-sells. Hawk keeps cutting off Race/Hansen and it is just really hard for anybody to build rhythm because the Road Warriors keep cutting off these guys to do chinlocks. One of the best sequences is when Harley does a delayed vertical suplex and Hawk immediately tries to get up only for Harley to wrangle him and get a nearfall. Then Hawk just starts punching Harley in the head. Harley, who dos have an established hard head, just starts to no-sell it. Harley goes to headbutt him, but Hawk eye-rakes him. This clusterfuck is finally ended when Stan Hansen just chucks Bill Alfonso out of the way and brawls to the double DQ. This match had so much promise, but these guys could never get on the same page. The Road Warriors looked friggin' clueless out there for the most part. While it obvious why this occurred, but just looking at them makes the following a funny statement. Greg Gagne was more successful at getting the Road Warriors to sell than Stan Hansen. That is bizarro world stuff. AWA World Tag Champs The Road Warriors vs The Hennigs Starcage '85 The announcers explain to me before this match gets underway that this is a blood feud, which does nothing but elevate my expectations for violence. Yet the violence was on par with just any other plain 'ol match. I was expecting some brawling outside and some real deal violence. Larry The Ax and The Road Warriors do the irresistible force vs immovable object work, but it is not terribly interesting. Curt is the shining star of this match with his face in peril work, in terms of both hope spots and bumping/selling. Curt bumps big, yet tastefully, for the Road Warriors' offense especially one clothesline. Hawk showed some brutality with headlock punch and his big chops. Animal had a big powerslam. From what I have seen, the Road Warriors were not very good at the military press. I think it is because they didnt set it up right i.e. they try to deadlift their opponent. The best sequence of the match is at the end of the babyface shine Curt unleashing some high-octane babyface offense (high cross-body, dropkicks, a nasty chops), but gets caught trying to sunset flip Hawk. Nothin' doin' on that one. The heat segment does grind to a halt due to the chinlockery that the Road Warriors employ that bores me. Finally we hit the home stretch with Larry The Ax coming in with some clubbering. Tags Curt back in who hits one very awkward missile drop kick (he hits him at a 45 degree angle at his chest). Precious Paul interferes. Katie bar the door we have a pier six brawl a brewin. Everything gets thrown out. It was a pretty weak brawl, which makes this a weak finish. I definitely like Hawk more than Animal now. I know the Animal was the cooler head of the two, but is the general consensus that Hawk was the better worker? Still this is not a very good match outside of some Curt offense and bumping. But at the same time, it is a not bad match, but if they were going for blood feud match this definitely fell short of the mark.

High Flyers vs Road Warriors - 2/85 Winnipeg This is not the match on the AWA set, but actually the one that sets that one up. I was surprised by how much the Road Warriors were willing to give in this. I shouldn't have given that the Road Warriors knew where their bread was buttered. This match is almost all High Flyers and the Road Warriors are totally willing to sell for them and hell even Hawk takes a bump to the floor off a Brunzell dropkick. Initially, the match looks like it is going to be the Road Warriors gobbling up their opponents before the Brunzell dropkick and then the arm work. I actually dug that Hawk was "like enough of this shit" and basically dragged one of the High Flyers over with him and tagged in Animal. It displayed that Hawk was getting frustrated, but at the same time was still strong enough to escape the nuisance. Thus now in my mind I am thinking "Oh shit, so what will the High Flyers have to do to overcome this." The Road Warriors offense looks great here and it is just your standard power fare. In a really interesting wrinkle, Animal hurts his own knee because he does a backbreaker too hard. It is a transition I have never seen before. Basically the message there is the only way a Road Warrior can be harmed is by fucking himself up. The High Flyers do some really high quality leg work and Animal to his credit really milks by doing stuff like desperately trying to tag Hawk while Brunzell is holding his leg. The finish is Brunzell has Animal in a figure 4 and Gagne cuts Hawk off at the pass with the Gagne Choke Hold before Ellering gets involved and everything gets thrown out. I was not expecting to enjoy the High Flyers control segments as much as I did. They were really worked and the Road Warriors put them over big. It felt like a much more emotional, heated match than the random AWA tag with Backlund. I have as much trouble as anyone buying Greg Gagne's look, but he was never put in a position that made him look out of place against the Road Warriors. He spent most of the time out-smarting and working the mat against the Road Warriors so it was all logical as far as I was concerned. This actually ranks among my favorite Road Warriors matches of all time, but I think speaks more to overall quality of Road Warriors matches as this was more just an entertaining affair than anything truly amazing.

As I continue my campaign through the AWA parties (killer stuff, bruthas), they were going through the Bob Backlund & Brad Rheingans vs Butch Reed & Larry Z and given my love for my man, Bobby B, I thought I'd write this one up. Butch Reed is someone I have heard a lot about once I found this board, but have not yet seen a lot. I do like Larry Legend's run in WCW and watched the cage match with Bruno from Shea Stadium, where I thought he was excellent. I watched Rheingans vs Bockwinkel and I thought he was plenty serviceable as Olympic wrestling babyface. Of course, Backlund rules all. Bob Backlund & Brad Rheingans (aka Verne's Ragin' Hard-On) vs Butch Reed & Larry Zbyszko (aka WTF) Is this part of Pro Wrestling USA? Is there any backstory for this? The usage of Rheingans is pitch perfect until the finish. He comes off as the Olympic powerhouse with his scientific ability overwhelming the brute of Reed and guile of Zbyszko. Then they don't use him again until the House A Fire section so the entire match makes him look like a million bucks and doesn't mean that he has to do any selling or build any heat. Basically, he capitalizes on the heat the other three generate, which I think is a great way to develop a talent. When Bob is doing his headlock and working over Butch's arm, it is like being reconnected with a long lost friend. O, how I missed you. This does not last long as the heat segment begins, which makes perfect sense, this is not supposed to be a Backlund showcase. Backlund is in there to generate heat so that Rheingans can look like a boss when he cleans house. Reed and Zbyszko are actually gelling pretty well. Power & wile are always great complements to each other. I definitely am in the Dylan camp insofar as Zbyszko is totally outworking everyone in this match. It feels like he is out to prove something as puts on the greatest abdominal stretch, I have ever seen. Jumbo must be jealous of that shit. I was not digging the Reed bearhugs and chinlocks as much as Will & Johnny. I wish I could defend Backlund in this, but he is just gobbled up by the heels. I guess that is my defense. He wasn't allowed to get anything in the form of hope spots into the match so that forced in a very generic, bland role. Then this all leaves me totally perplexed during the home stretch. Rheingains comes in and does his thing. Backlund is back in and there seems to be some miscommunication between him and Larry Z, but it does end with Backlund taking his usual headbutt to the gut, which doubles Bob over. The perfect setup for Bob to be piledriven only he back body drops him over to win the match. Besides some awkwardness, the finish in a vacuum seems like a very good one. I see where Johnny and Will are coming from that perspective. My issue is how it syncs up with the rest of the match. On one hand, it seems like they are trying to make Rheingains look like a big money ball player, but instead he just feels like a non-factor because he didn't figure into any important spot of the match. On the other, you have Backlund is delivering an uncharacteristically bland performance but scooping up all the heat by getting the heat. It was just weird. The match felt pretty heatless to me and I didn't get emotionally invested in it. It was a very basic tag formula and besides some great spots from Larry Z, it just felt very ho-hum.

I was a HUGE WCW fan at this point (in my defense, I was 10) and remember most of the Nitros from this era, but Thunder was definitely hit or miss in my viewing pattern. I can't believe I had never heard of this angle. So I immediately had to go watch this. It was totally bitchin. You know when Savage is dropping Bangles references that we are in for a fun ride. Whenever, Savage says "You're the man!" in his voice it always sounds so hilariously saracastic. He also uses that line against DDP at Uncensored 1997 to great effect. Also, this is something I miss sorely from WCW and is one of the few things I like about TNA is how they would cross storylines and make everything mesh. There are times when McMahon is good about this, but usually he has very linear booking pattern. It is definitely one thing WCW had on him was there ability to use past history and leverage it into cool, little angles like that. Of course, the problem with WCW is that don't follow-up on this at all with a Savage/Rey match. If only we could have WCW's matrix booking with Vince's ability to be coherent and follow things up to a logical conclusion. Anyways, back to the angle, Savage with all the girls just seems like a huge deal. He really still seems like one of the biggest stars in wrestling. He was my favroite wrestler in early 1998 and was really excited he was being pushed right back to main event status in 1999. He comes off great in this segment. I didn't like the amount of heat they put on Gorgeous George rather than Madusa, but damn if seeing Gorgeous George didn't remind my 10-year old self how hot I thought she was. Finally, Savage's piledrivers looked vicious that was some Bob Backlund-esque stuff. You may just have me hooked on 1999 WCW again. I will also reiterate everyone's points that this is definietly my must-read thread now that I discovered it. I am going to have to go back and really peruse the rest of it.

I can work with this. I'll accept Bret-Steamboat as a personal moment of recognition instead of something that is more widely recognized as the point of "his big step". Those rare house show matches, where you knew that nothing "big" was really going to happen, that grabbed your attention and actually had you guessing about how things were going to play out even though you know how they will play out, always really stand out for me. I ain't gonna deny you your personal feelings. Like I said from hindsight, you could tell Bret has all the tools. The fact that SNME is telecasted to one of their biggest TV audiences and was actually given time to developed just feels more like a "coming out party". Nice to see you agree with me, John. Fuck going in order Randy "Macho Man" Savage vs Bret "Hitman" Hart - SNME 11/87 Unless I am forgetting some Rockers match, this is definitely my pick for best match in SNME history. Make no mistake about it, this is the Randy Savage show and one of the few times in his whole WWF career where Bret takes a backseat to someone in a match. As much as we can debate whether this is Bret's coming out party, this is definitively Savage's coming out party as the number two babyface in the company. Johnny Sorrow will be happy to know he still cheats like a muthafucka. Thus it is only logical that Savage is the star of the match, but that being said, there are very few heels at this point in time in the promotion that could have delivered the same performance as Bret did in this match. I think that is really when a match transcends into something special is when both wrestlers are crucial to the success of the match in such a way no other wrestler could take their place. To state in the converse fashion, neither wrestler feels like a generic, warm body to partake in the routine of someone else's match. Even though, Savage is my favorite wrestler of all-time, I have not viewed many of his matches through my new revisionist lens. I have been a bit afraid because I thought he may not hold-up. Have no fear, I enjoyed this match more than I remember upon first viewing. Savage is not a fan of extended segmenting in his matches especially he likes short babyface shines when he is a babyface. What I like about this is that adds a sense of struggle in a way that most WWF matches lack. Bret is almost getting in "heel hope spots" during the shine just to spice things up. They establish Macho Man will have plenty of extracurricular to concern himself early. This is also the first instance of the rather proliferate Bret bump off the apron onto the guardrail. Was that a Savage bump that Bret adopted or was that just the first time Bret did that? Also, one thing I love in my wrestling is urgency. Has there ever been a more urgent North American wrestler than Savage? Savage crashes and burns on his double axe-handle to the guardrail. Bret delivers a piledriver that would make Bob Backlund proud before ramming his shoulder back into his post. Savage does a mini-control segment before being back dropped over the top rope and onto the floor. Thus begins Savage's Emmy campaign. If you have force me, I would say I prefer Savage' knee selling over Toshiaki Kawada's by a hair. Savage is just so excellent on fighting on one leg. Elizabeth helping Savage take off his boot is such a nice touch. Bret is in his element working over the leg. They work this to such a fever pitch that crowd pops huge for Savage's desperation inside cradle off a bodyslam attempt to win. An excellent match that illustrates how the WWF style had the potential to deliver powerful stories even if they didn't always. I loved this match and I think it is a harbinger of Bret's future and a testament to what Savage could be as a babyface.