Superstar Sleeze

WWE Intercontinental Champion Umaga vs Jeff Hardy - Great American Bash 2007 Umaga is the king of the missed move! I love it he uses his own missed moves to set up his opponents' offense. In order for you to defeat him, he needs to make the mistake. So Umaga retains his credible, but the onus is still on the opponent to put him away. Love the psychology. The heat segment is set up by a great Samoan Drop when Jeff tries to take it to the Samoan Bulldozer early. Then there is a loooooooonnngggggg Vulcan nerve pinch which drags this down. Once Umaga starts missing moves business picks up. Umaga slamming his groin into Jeff's knees. Going flying over the top rope. Missing his ass splash in the corner. Going flying into the steel post all set up great Jeff Hardy offense. Whisper in the Wind and the Swanton Bomb got huge pops and reactions for the two counts. Jeff was no slouch selling. He is the modern day Ricky Morton in my opinion, just insane babyface charisma. Umaga shoves him off for the Twist of Fate (I love how they left Jeff with one last move and then Umaga squashed his hope). Huge superkick, ass splash in the corner and Asiatic Spike which Jeff takes a nutty bump for to really sell it. Last five minutes are amazing. Umaga gets what it means to be a monster. ***1/4

Thanks for tipping me off on this, brutha. WWE Champion Randy Orton vs Shawn Michaels - Survivor Series 2007 Greatest Randy Orton match ever? I think most would say the Catcus match from Backlash 2004, but I think this one is definitively better. Is there anything else? While I do think Orton was great in this match, it was of course really the Shawn Michaels show. Some context: as an offshoot of the D-X vs Rated RKO feud in the beginning of 2007, Orton punted HBK to give his summer school vacation. Michaels came back in October and challenged Orton for the championship at Cyber Sunday, but Orton punched him in the balls to get intentionally DQ'd. So in the rematch, if Orton gets DQ'd he loses the title, BUT Michaels cant use the Superkick. This forces Michaels to wrestle a different type of match. There is a lot to love in the first ten minutes of this match. Michaels uses a ton of vice grips (cravat, front chancery) on the head and neck of Orton to control him and attempt to get an early pinfall. The hallmark of this was how tenacious HBK was applying these holds. Really controlling Orton and driving the knees into his head. Orton did a great job selling it all. It also shows that Michaels is going to try to win by taking it to the ground and outwrestling Orton. Orton's counter was punching him right in the face on a break in the corner. Great heel wrestling from Orton here. Then trying to goad Michaels into Superkicking him; Michaels fakes him out and chops him. Orton was really good at selling these fake out spots as Michaels knowing that as much as I love ground wrestling and tight psychology the live crowd needs something to pop them and so he hits a baseball slide and an Asai Moonsault, but the spots are really organic well set up because Orton bites so hard on the pump fakes. So many wrestlers knowing that they are going be faked out just go through the motions, but here Orton makes you believe that he believes he will be hit by the pump fake. Good stuff. Loved Orton rolling through a crossbody for two and then immediately decking him with a European uppercut. I loved the urgency there. Michaels shine ends with a Sharpshooter. Ten years since Montreal at this point. (I cant believe it has been TWENTY years as of this writing!). Crazy to think Michaels would be wrestling Bob Orton's kid for the championship ten years after the Screwjob. The Sharpshooter gets a good reaction of course. From there, Orton thumbs HBK in the eye and snaps his neck across the ropes. Great heel transition. Really good organic set up to the Hangsmans DDT. Orton has a solid punch and an amazing European Uppercut. I am starting to like him ten years after the fact. This is where the match does down a notch. First the customary Orton resthold and then the very basic Michaels comeback. The Michaels comeback requires both wrestles to go through the motions rather than feel it. Loved Orton's dropkick to stymie the comeback. Shawn's gets melodramatic after his elbow drop tuning up the band but it is a fake out to get a small package. Meh, overthinking it there. Just go for the pin. Too elaborate of a ruse. Then again I hate the whole I need to wait for my opponent to stand before I hit my big move. After this, the match gets awesome again. Michaels goes for submissions (Crossface, Anglelock) and Orton tries to punt his head off. Good stuff. The finish is awesome. Orton goes for the RKO, but Michaels pushes him off, hesitates on Superkick and that slight hesitation leads to BANG RKO~! First half was awesome, tenacious Shawn Michaels ground wrestling and Orton playing the heel really well. Great timed spots and sound psychology. Falls a little off the rails with some overly cinematic Michaels stuff, but comes roaring back with Michaels pugnaciously going for a submission victory but falling prey to the RKO when his instincts takeover to hit Sweet Chin Music. Magnificent. ****1/2

Triple H vs Umaga - Cyber Sunday 2007 Street Fight Umaga is the greatest Hogan opponent, who never got a chance to wrestle Hogan. He has such a strong grasp of what it means to be a violent, unstoppable monster. He is athletic, but still vicious. His grasp on how a monster should sell and bump is strong. He is the best at weeble wobbles but don't fall down selling since Blackwell. I love he takes HHH's best shot over and over again and he just keeps coming. They try to go for too much too soon with the spear through the entrance set. No pop and no real setup. They settle into a great David vs Goliath match. It is is really a testament to Umaga that he can make HHH into a sympathetic David. HHH is teeing off on Umaga and he just wont go down. I love it. He gets the garbage can puts him down for two. He swings for another and Umaga counters into a Samoan Drop, Then it becomes the Umaga show, Absolutely brilliant heat segment. Umaga is completely laser focused on the abdomen and never lets up. So many great cutoffs to the ribs. Great selling by HHH too, but Umaga just rocked this heat segment. I liked Umaga going for the chair when he cant put HHH away, but HHH uses the low blow and a DDT on chair for a hope spot. But Umaga just flings HHH off with a huge sidewalk slam. The big spot of the match is Umaga running across the announce tables and splashing HHH through the table. Great sell by HHH. I think that would have been a great finish to set up a rematch. Umaga misses a flying headbutt. I liked how it takes Umaga hurting himself to set up HHH getting the Sledgehammer. They do a great job with HHH missing the hammer, Umaga going for the Asiatic Spike, miss, Sledgehammer, weeble wobble, Kick Wham Pedrigee! Good stuff there, but honestly they could have gotten more mileage out of this feud because this was amazing. Does anyone actually remember this feud? Because I sure as hell don't and I was watching at the time. This is the absolute best HHH has ever looked as a babyface. Umaga crushed it. This was not your typical great uptempo street fight, but HHH cant do uptempo. So that's neither here nor there. I thought they did a great job telling David vs Goliath working in great body psychology and selling and really making Umaga this very credible monster that really takes a lot before he will go down. ****1/4

Rey Mysterio vs Finlay - Cyber Sunday 2007 Stretcher Match Coming off the heels of Finlay beating the holy hell out of Rey Rey by lulling him into a false sense of security by pretending to be so injured he was put on a stretcher. So the stretcher match makes sense. I thought this was a pretty good opener. No real shine as Finlay just suffocates Rey Rey from the get go. I thought they incorporated the stretcher well into the spots. They used it as a battering ram, liked how Rey Rey dropkick the stretcher into Finlay for a hope spot and the front suplex into the stretcher by Finlay. Finlay followed up with some good abdomen work before Rey made a quick comeback with a rana. Rey tried to get him across on stretcher and so Finlay thinks it is time to get the shillelagh (it was on a pole because that was a possible option). Finlay smashes him in the knee. They never stuck with one body part. It was too bad. I liked Finlay's knee from the apron to send Rey into the stretcher. The finish was the best part. Finlay is up against the apron. 619 that puts Finlay stretcher. Rey Rey then hits a somersault plancha while Finlay is on the stretcher. GREAT! Rey goes to push him across, but a TV cord impedes him. LOL! They actually improvise a good finish with Finlay missing with the shillelagh and then Rey flapjacking him onto the stretcher. Great use of the stretcher and the almost finish. ***1/2

WWE Champion Triple H vs Randy Orton - No Mercy 2007 Last Man Standing The Game's hot streak is snapped. Way too long. Last two minutes or so was great. But it is a slog getting there. If you watch the Umaga match you will see it is built around Umaga being impervious to pain and HHH's injured ribs. They go to the injured ribs way too soon. So within the first minute Orton is working the ribs and HHH is selling. Ten minutes later Orton is working the ribs and HHH is selling. There is no sense of progression. The match is stuck in a rut. Orton goes for the RKO on the announce table that took Cena out. HHH pushes him off so he crashes through another one. Now we are in the one move per minute portion of the match. Way too much downtime here. Total false epic. The RKO on the chair was nasty and you can always count on a good, gory bladejob from Hunter. I liked the Suck It in defiance of Orton and then catching his foot on the punt with a GREAT HULK UP! Ok, here we go! HHH does kick some ass, they cut him off way too early. They do some bullshit. The finish is great. RKO on the announce table and Orton gets a decisive win. There is some good stuff in here no doubt and the finish is awesome. It is just a slog to get to it. ***

Finlay vs Rey Mysterio - No Mercy 2007 Two of my favorite wrestlers of the mid-00s just going out there and kicking ass. It only takes a couple minutes to be reminded why Rey Rey is considered one of the greatest high flyers of all time. I love how Rey used kicks and dropkicks to the leg to set up his high flying moves. He is so great at making an opponent off balance whether it is through speed or attacking the leg. When he does let up, Finlay gives him no quarter throwing him hard into buckles. Again Rey uses a dropkick to the leg to stay on top. Finlay uses the skirt to blind Rey and club him. Then they use that great Rey slide on his belly spot to go into the post. Finlay decimates Rey's arm (always better than going after his leg). Good hope spots here. I loved Finlay's short arm clothesline and his clothesline cutoff to the 619. Finlay goes for the Shillelagh after using a smoke screen of taking off the turnbuckle cover. Rey mount his big comeback and he drops the dime while Finlay's head is between the ropes and Finlay takes a nasty bump from the apron straight back to floor. He lets us know a ruse. They put him on stretcher and then he hops off and beats the holy hell out of Rey Rey. I like the angle at the end to put some heat on the feud. They had a better match on Smackdown after this, but this is a good way to start the feud. ***

WWE Champion Triple H vs Umaga - No Mercy 2007 The secret to great Triple H matches is keep them short. I thought was a really strong babyface vs monster match. You don't think of HHH being good in this role, but he actually sold the ribs well and worked hard. Umaga is amazing and even in his short run should go down as one of the all time great monsters. I loved the constant Umaga no sells when HHH went to the head (DDT, steel steps, facebuster). HHH keeps firing, but you cant hurt Umaga. He feels like a real horror movie character like the Creature of the Black Lagoon as he just keeps coming and coming. HHH gets a great hope spot with the Spinebuster and Pedigree to a huge pop. Umaga catches him with a Samoan Drop and begins some amazing rib work. I liked his Black Hole Slam and headbutt to abdomen which HHH sold really, really well which shocked me. I really liked the finish with Umaga missing THREE times into the buckles finally enough to daze him long enough to nail a Pedigree. I loved that Umaga is such a badass monster he had to hurt himself to give HHH the opening to win. This was a great way to demonstrate HHH's resilience. Surprised by how damn good this was. ***3/4

WWE Champion Randy Orton vs Triple H - No Mercy 2007 It all came back to me watching this. Exciting period in wrestling because there was a lot of speculation they would bring back Jericho or Michaels back early to fill in for the injured Cena. What didn't come back to me was that Vince was apparently a regular character at this point feuding with HHH. He awards the title to Randy Orton with no match to get some heel heat. HHH insults Vince's manhood and finally gets this match. Basic pro wrestling match that is good but nothing too memorable. Orton trying to leave with the title almost immediately fits well with his cowardly character. Love that high knee as a cutoff by HHH. I thought Orton floating over and hooking the neck into his backbreaker was a great way to transition. Powerslam was a good cutoff for Orton. Orton's heat segment dragged. HHH made his comeback with big time clothesline. Then a nice superplex and spinebuster to big pops for nearfalls. Orton was damn good at selling and bumping for HHH. Multiple times the glassy eye selling or the way Orton would throw himself into bumps would catch my eye. Orton gets a nearfall off his Hangsman DDT. Lawler said "Vintage Orton", they have been saying that for at least TEN YEARS now! The RKO push off Pedigree attempt gets nuclear heat. Orton misses a kneedrop -> figure-4 should have been the finish! Orton makes the ropes. Orton runs into post and HHH rolls him up. Lame finish. Very well-structured with Orton giving a great selling and bumping performance. ***1/4

I'm sold. Ill watch this tonight. Never seen it before.

Chris Benoit vs Finlay - Smackdown 5/5/06 The closest thing to fucking BattlArts in a WWE ring. Just sheer brutality. Benoit gets busted open from the top of the skull at one point and I don't have a fucking clue how. Finlay driving the point of the elbow into the wound is something else. The opening matwork is just tremendous defensive wrestling. A real treat to watch. Benoit is tenacious going for the arm into the crossface early and Finlay has so many good leg trips. FINLAY BLASTS BENOIT WITH A CLOTHESLINE! The whole crowd nearly shat themselves during that. Benoit drives hard into the post. Finlay worked a great heat segment on the arm. Everytime Benoit got a hope spot like a Sharpshooter or Crossface attempt, Finlay would wriggle out and then just be all over him with a frenzied assault. When Benoit did finally fire back with chops to send Finlay to the outside, Finlay goes all Terry Funk and starts throwing chairs into the ring. Awesome! Benoit gets a dropkick to the knee while Finlay is on the apron to take over, great spot. Benoit is a machine. Crushing Finlay. Finlay's gets a Irish Whip counter into buckles. Finlay's second heat segment is the only drag. Lots of chinlocking, I get it when you are dealing with Benoit you want to sap his energy and just try to contain him, but there are more interesting ways. Benoit blasts his way back into this. Misses his diving headbutt always a cringe-worthy spot. Shillelagh time? Benoit fights through it dumping him out. Ref grabs the shillelagh but Finlay jabs Benoit with the chair and then hits the Celtic Cross. Awesome asshole finish. Brutal match with an amazing finish. It is Benoit vs Finlay need I say more. ****1/4

WWE World Champion Kurt Angle vs Chris Benoit - Smackdown 2/6/03 Kurt Kobashi powerbombs Chris Misawa into the turnbuckles only for Chris Misawa to duck under and hit a German where Kurt Kobashi lands on his belly. I am so glad "This is awesome" has NOT been innovated yet. Even with this bit of campy excess, I still thought this was a really good match. There is an authenticity that Benoit brings to the ring that is sorely lacking in today's WWE. The way he wrestles in the beginning, he is just out to overwhelm you. He is the Russians at Stalingrad, no steps back, only moving forward. It is just a barrage of strikes, holds and suplexes. It never looks choreographed. He looks like he is wrestling a legit contest. Angle actually matches him for violence at the beginning. One thing Angle lacks in my opinion is that viciousness, that mean streak. He shows glimpses of it here and I think when you are in the ring with Benoit, you have to have that. Angle's heat segment does drag between a chinlock and some boring clobbering. Benoit is an amazing comeback. Those chops are scintillating. You cant take your eyes off him. I thought the submission chaining between the Anklelock and Crossface was done better here than at the Rumble. Angle runs up the ropes, but headbutts Benoit by accident busting him open bad the hardway. That's when the aforementioned All Japan cosplay happens. Benoit misses the diving headbutt and Angle goes for pin that should have been the finish but they do one more Angleslam to really call it. I liked this. It was your typically solid Chris Benoit match. ***1/4

WWE World Champion Kurt Angle vs Rey Mysterio - WWE Smackdown 1/23/03 The night after the famous Angle vs Benoit Rumble '03 match. Angle has Heyman with him as the build to Angle/Brock is beginning. Sounds like Rey Rey just made a return. Rey tries flying around at a million miles per hour to discombobulate Kurt, but gets caught with a brutal sitout powerbomb. Awesome vicious heat segment by Angle climaxing with sick headdrop German suplex. Rey's comeback has some really fun spots. I thought they would have been better served in the shine than in the comeback. But the spots are awesome and quite inventive. Angle gets his Anklelock and then overhead belly to belly. Rey dials up 619, but gets caught, but hits his bulldog. Gets caught on West Coast Pop and nasty finish with Angle ramming his head into the buckles and then driving back with him, roll through and Angle wins. Among Angle, Mysterio, Benoit & Eddie, WWE was loaded with TV talent. Lack of selling by Rey hurts it which is why the comeback would have been great as a shine. Individual moves by both men were awesome and the speed was great. Gnarly finish too. ***1/2

Chris Benoit vs Charlie Haas - WWE Smackdown 1/23/03 Stephanie McMahon, at the peak of her hotness (she is still pretty hot), says the word "tonight" about 8 million times and then bends over and you get it. Benoit is such a great TV worker it is not surprising that there is no definitive list of all his great TV matches. This is a match that I have never seen pimped. I only watched it because it is on the same show as a Angle vs Rey Rey match that has been pimped. I was very impressed. This is such a breath of fresh air compared to the rote men's floor exercises that pass for pro wrestling today. This was intense, gritty competition to see who the better man is. The opening matwork was fast and furious with some great trips and counters. Benoit looks to get things going with a shoulderblock and clothesline, but before he can run away with the match Benjamin distracts long enough for Hass to slam his hand into the steps. Hass, who I liked growing up even if he was a little shallow in the charisma department, crushes this heat segment. Absolute laser focus on the left hand, wrist, and elbow. He is working great holds and keeping it moving. Benoit is amazing at selling. Truly a great seller. Well timed hope spots. Loved him trying to chop back only to have Haas wrench him down hard by the bad arm. When it comes time to make that comeback, Benoit just lets loose but never letting that left arm leave his side. Instead of rolling Germans we just get a release German. He cant hold onto a Crossface so he counters into a cradle for the win. That is the definition of finding a way to win all your weapons are taken away. Haas was great working on top. It was two wrestlers wrestling to see who the best was, Haas got the advantage in underhanded fashion and pressed it, Benoit ever resilient fought his way back and found a way to win. I love pro wrestling. ****

It is sad but I think the Fashion Files are dead. It was can't miss hilarious for a long stretch. The last episode was boring and this episode actually sucked.

Awesome powerbomb by Animal and he looked good. Hawk did a great dropkick too. This was a total squash and all of sudden Bangers take over. Double countout but they get to Doomsday Device which is a good compromise. Crowd is hilarious chanting Nitro sucks and Bischoff sucks during this shitty show with a skeleton crew with all the stars (Bret, Austin, Foley etc in Europe). Nitro was way better during this period. Now there is a sappy video tribute to Shawn set to Tell Me A Lie. What a shit show! Best part of this match is Lawler says Vince is out of touch. Doesn't know Nine Inch Nails & Marilyn Manson. Vince says some of it is fun. Then King says Butthole Surfers and Vince's "I beg your pardon" is hilarious and CRACKED ME UP!

Sunny is the greatest female character of all time. She does a great Rude impersonation! Then does some Flair. Marlena is awfully normal sounding person. Just weird. This segment was right after ECW invaded RAW and HONKY TONK MAN was doing the reffing. Vince was so desperate. Sunny throws powder into her eyes. Setting up the this good Goldust vs Savio match I'm watching.

They opened the show where ECW invaded the Manhattan Center in Feb of 97 filled with the Mutants against New Blackjacks. Weird choice for opener given the crowd but this was helluva lot of fun. Four big muthafuckas just hitting each hard and throwing them around. Barry Windham looked so weird with the mustache a lot like Dan Severn. They really should have pushed Bradshaw a lot sooner. Godwinns vs New Blackjacks was a lot better than the Stevie vs Guido match that followed.

The run of the British Bulldogs is crucial to both the candidacy of Davey Boy Smith & Dynamite Kid. I will be voting for Davey Boy (probably in the bottom 25) based on the strength of drawing at Wembley and being a strong upper midcard act from late 1995 (4 straight main events, then a two month run with Michaels in '96) through his departure in 1997. Couple this with being in the ace babyface tag team from mid-1985 to mid-1987 makes him a lock. You will never confuse Davey Boy for a MENSA member or a psychological genius, but he was very capable and very atheltic. He was the personifcation of a million dollar body and a ten cent brain. That meant great ring generals like Bret and Shawn (yes, Shawn!, dont roll your eyes at me, I can hear you.) could get a lot of mileage out of him. He is like a less over, but more technically sound Sting. Dynamite Kid does not do much for me. I think Benoit did everything just as well or better than Dynamite. Benoit is light years better at selling than Dynamite and Benoit is a total asskicking machine in the same way Dynamite was but Benoit had more competition that was willing to take it. The Bulldogs run alone is not enough to warrant inclusion and I thought Davey Boy was much better at both the hot tag and selling than Dynamite. The British Bulldogs remind me a lot of the Steiners in that they are just big, dumb fun. They clearly had a very Japanese mentality towards wrestling where offense and highspots mattered a lot more than selling and bumping. Dont overthink the Bulldogs they are just fun. http://ridingspacemountain.blogspot.com/2013/09/history-of-british-bulldogs-1985-1988.html?m=1

WWF World Tag Team Champions British Bulldogs vs Moondogs - Championship Wrestling 9/7/86 I realized that my only major gap in the Bulldogs WWF career was the summer of 86 so basically their title reign. The majority of their title reign was facing three teams: Dream Team (great SNME match in the fall and unfortunately the cage matches didn't make tape), Hart Foundation (I have watched enough of their matches to last me a lifetime) and Sheik & Volkoff (I read my reviews and it didn't sound like that was worth revisiting). I saw they defended against the Moondogs at MSG on July 12, 1986, but couldn't find the match so I settled for this. I don't know if these are the original Moondogs; Rex I think was different. They looked great here. I have always dug their look. They adapted to the cartoony, less violent 80s WWF with a well executed moveset (suplexes, kneedrops), good cheating (tripping opponent) and giving plenty of hope spots. It was not the awesome Moondogs of Memphis, but I thought they were solid and I would have pushed them harder. The Bulldogs were fine. Mostly Dynamite in a heat segment. He is just useless at selling so I don't get the point. Davey Boy's hot tag (he is a great hot tag) was not as good as usual but good high vertical suplex from him as always on the big Moondog. Fracas breaks out and Davey Boy leaps over everyone with a crossbody to pick up the win. I liked the finish. Perfectly acceptable wrestling.

WWF World Tag Team Champions Dream Team vs British Bulldogs - Philly 2/8/86 Greg Valentine is really good at wrestling like really good. So great in the opening shine, letting Dynamite win the amateur battle, the atomic drop into Davey Boy, the bumping. Coming back in with Brutus and getting slammed into it. The work on the apron all great. Heel in peril on Brutus is solid because the Bulldogs are very proficient at working the arm. The difference between heel in peril & a shine in my estimation is that heel in peril is more methodical, requires selling and works more holds whereas a shine is uptempo, focuses more on bumping and uses highspots. Couple good fake outs on the transition to heat with Beefacke's high knee and Valentine hotshotting Dynamite. The actual one is kinda lame as Valentine just breaks up a pin with an elbow. Valentine is total money in the heat segment busting shoulderbreakers and elbow. The ferocity of how he drives his knees into the hamstrings before a figure-4 attempt is great. love how he gets into a slugfest and just as he is going to lose he goes for a double takedown and tries for the figure-4 that's smarts. The finish again sucks. Dynamite going flying because Beefer ducked and Johnny V slamming his head into the post is fine. It was kinda lame that Beefcake suplexed so hard he hurt himself that resulted in a nearfall. Then Dynamite just small packaged him and Valentine just turned him over. Lame finish aside this is very good tag team wrestling. ***1/4

WWF World Tag Team Champions Dream Team vs British Bulldogs - Philly 1/11/86 Not essential viewing by any means, but it is a good match. Dream Team bumrush the Bulldogs to start. Dynamite clotheslines The Hammer and Davey Boy comes in slams him. Valentine breaks out of a leg lace. After watching all this 80s stuff, Beefcake is not that bad. He is just pretty pedestrian, but he is not actively bad. They work over Davey Boy's legs. Valentine is by far the best wrestler in this match with his stooging, bumping, literally showing ass and hard hits. Dynamite is a good hot tag (thought I prefer Davey Boy's take on it honestly). Beefcake repeatedly chumps out of taking Dynamite's hooking clothesline, but I don't blame him it looks stiff as fuck. The finish is terrible. Valentine breaks up a pin and Bulldog acts like he has been knocked out cold. Then Dynamite delivers a flying headbutt to Beefcake. So Johnny V just waltzes in and blatantly gets DQ'd. If you are going to be that blatant then put some heat on it. Terrible finish aside this was perfectly fine pro wrestling. ***

WWF World Tag Team Champions Dream Team vs British Bulldogs - Championship Wrestling 2/1/86 I FINALLY FOUND IT! The coolest finish ever! Bulldog powerslams Beefcake. Valentine comes to interfere he hoists the Hammer into a Fireman's Carry and then Dynamite jumps off Valentine onto Beefcake with a headbutt for three! Thus earning them a tag title shot at WrestleMania! WATCH THIS FINISH!

WWF World Tag Team Champions Dream Team vs British Bulldogs - Championship Wrestling 10/5/85 The first meeting of this iconic rivalry happened on TV shortly after the Dream Team won the championships from the US Express. This was to signal that Bullodgs and Dream Team would dominate the title scene for about the next six months. Basic match. Valentine and Beefcake shined up the Bulldogs. Davey Boy had a nice dropkick on Beefacke. Dynamite mowed people down. Johnny V saved his men when pushed Dynamite off the top triggering the DQ. Nothing special just established that Bulldogs mean business and in a fair and square match they should be able to wrest the titles from the Dream Team.

WWF Intercontinental Champion Randy Savage vs Tito Santana - Boston 3/8/86 Randy tells Gorilla before the match he is the greatest wrestler ever well that makes voting in this poll a whole lot easier. Tito is red hot. Savage tries to cool him down with some long stalling tactics. When the Macho Man does get in the ring, Tito is still revved up so Savage gets on his bicycle and rides. Tito eventually gets fed up and gives chase. It is on! Santana catches him and lays into him! YES! YES! YES! This is the Tito, I know and love. Tito throws him into the stands. Tito is gonna murder him I tells ya, murder him. Savage uses the tights to send him flying. Sneak attack and rubs his face on the ropes. He is so despicable. Then double axehandle gets two. Santana gets an atomic drop out of the corner. Tito just lights him up. FLYING BURRITO! ONLY TWO! He wants the figure-4, nada. He attacks him on outside. He starts raining down fucking forearms to the back of Savage's head like he is in the fucking Octagon. The ref tries to pull him off and Tito sends him flying across the ring. This is Tito in all his Latin temper glory! I love this feud! ***3/4

WWF Intercontinental Champion Tito Santana vs Randy Savage - Boston 2/8/86 Macho Man is the king of gamesmanship in the ring. He exploits every rule possible and really works into a fever pitch. It begins with going to the ropes to break holds because he cant best Tito on the mat. Then it suckerpunching him and running outside the ring. He is trying to get under Tito's skin. When Tito unloads and he is fiery, Macho Man looks to get the best of him with a double axehandle and Tito catches him. Love how it takes multiple attempts at cheating before Macho Man succeeds. Savage tries to play cat and mouse again Tito overwhelms him and atomic drop. This is a great shine! Savage goes deep in the eyes. Savage is committed to being a heel. Double axehandle gets two. He keeps going to eyes. Good selling from Tito. I cant believe I am going to say this. I wish Tito's comeback had a little more zip behind. I know the king of the fired up comeback Tito Santana gives us a kinda lukewarm one here. Savage misses a kneedrop. Now it gets good as Tito is obsessed with the figure-4 and Savage is DESPERATE! Famous finish where Tito goes for the suplex back in and Savage coldcocks him with the foreign object to get three and win the Intercontinental Championship. Savage was a tremendous heel in this and the finish run was spectacular. If Tito was his usual fiery self this would have been an all timer. ****