"Macho Man" Randy Savage vs. Huracan Castillo (September 1984)

 

Savage jumped Castillo at the bell and hit the diving elbow off the top rope to win in seconds. This was a huge angle at the time because they played it up as Castillo almost died from the impact and retired from wrestling because of it. This was total insanity as guys were trying to get him out of the ring but Savage was a total wildman even taking out Carlos Colon. Slam dunk extra and this almost caused a riot.

 

Mighty Igor vs. Tiger Jeet Singh (Summer 1987)

 

The match sucks but there is blood.

 

"Russian Bear" Ivan Koloff vs. Ricky Santana (July 1989)

 

Koloff wins quickly.

 

Then we get clips of a Joe Savoldi/Domingo Robles match.

 

Street Fight for the WWC TV Title: Super Black Ninja (Keiji Muto) © vs. The Invader (4/2/88)

 

Both men are in their street clothes here and Ninja beats the piss out of Invader from inside the ring to the grass with Invader juicing heavily through his mask. Invader was forced to hit Ninja in the balls to get the advantage and then he took over using a chair on Ninja numerous times which brought out the juice. Both men just continued to pound each other from pillar to post in a war of atrition featuring both men hanging the other and using piledrivers. Invader would intercept Profe and used his metal case to KO Ninja to get the win. This was a great fucking brawl and a definite nomination.

 

Next we get a video of Hugo showing up at Terry Funk's house with him getting up out of his bed in his pajamas and this is fucking fantastic.

Slam dunk extra.

 

Universal Heavyweight Title: "Sadistic" Steve Strong © vs. Abdullah the Butcher (August 1989)

 

Abby is a face here and the crowd fucking loves him as he beats the shit out of Strong. This wasn't very good though.

 

Then we get clips of Rip Rogers/TNT.

 

War Games: Abdullah the Butcher, Hercules Ayala, Grizzly Boone, Iron Sheik, & Chicky Starr vs. Bruiser Brody, Carlos Colon, The Invader, Dutch Mantell, & TNT (December 1987)

 

You have to handcuff every man on the opposing team to win here and everyone is in at the same time so it's 5 on 5. This is total insanity with all sorts of blood and violence and quite the spectacle ending up with Colon being submitted by Iron Sheik and buried under the Iranian flag which was fucking wild. This is a definite nomination.

"Macho Man" Randy Savage vs. Huracan Castillo

 

Really not a match at all. As an angle it was well done and really awesome, though I don't know that it had any real impact going forward in Puerto Rico. The main thing this did was make me wish we had a full Savage v. Colon grudge match. This is great stuff and an EXTRA but still somehow disappointing as you wish we had some great in ring performance from Savage.

 

Mighty Igor vs. Tiger Jeet Singh

 

At least they didn't waste a good wrestler on Singh. This sucked. Maybe should have sucked worse than it did actually, but still sucked. The best part was Hugo on commentary

 

Ivan Koloff vs. Ricky Santana

 

Enjoyable match. Ivan showed his age once or twice, but he still worked hard. Santana looked really good here. His offense was explosive and his selling was strong. He took a really crazy bump to the floor for Koloff at one point off of a spot that wasn't nearly as impactful as Santana made it look. The last two spots in this also looked really good. This was not as short as Kris makes it sound, but I still feel like this would be a stretch as a nomination.

 

Joe Savoldi vs. Domingo Robles

 

This seemed really out of place on this tape.

 

Terry Funk promo with Hugo is fucking hilarious as he's in long johns talking shit, Terry starts stripping down to the horror of Hugo at the end of this. EXTRA

 

"Sadistic" Steve Strong © vs. Abdullah the Butcher

 

Fucking nuts to see Abby get such a huge baby face pop when he ran out and hit Strong in the back of the head with a huge board. That's not something you see every day. Strong tried to sell and play the fool on the ground and it worked to a degree, but the problem is that the thrill was watching Abby work as a babyface aggressor. The other problem with this is that Strong was not a good offensive wrestler at all, though the guard he used on his arm at least covered for his shit strikes some. Having said that I thought Abby's selling as a FIP was shockingly compelling. I especially loved when he would take a single shot and slump up against the ropes, blood pouring out of his head, as it looked like a slobbish guy having a stroke. But what makes this a nomination to me is Abby pulling the fork out of his boot to a massive pop. Yeah the DCO comes almost right after that, but man it is a great moment when Abby stabs this fucker and is treated like a hero. This probably wouldn't finish super high on any ballots, but it's one of the more novel things I've watched and I could see using a personal on it.

 

TNT v. Rip Rogers

 

Rip Rogers creepily saying the crowd was throwing money at him because he's a "hustler" in a voice eerily reminiscent to the old guy from Family Guy was not something I was expecting. Anyway, this wasn't clipped (unless it was expertly done), it was in full and was a good match. Very strong heat and the crowd was packed here. Rogers getting control off of a sneaky low blow early was a great spot and the match was well worked from there with Rogers using good heel tactics to maintain control. TNT was good selling underneath and they did some good teases before the TNT comeback. This ended up with a run-in from Abuddadein and and Invader making the save. Work wise this was good enough to be nominated, but the finish hurts it a good bit.

 

Another Savoldi v. Robles match is on. There is some running joke with Rip Rogers here that I don't understand.

 

the other matches on here I have seen and seconded as nominations

"Macho Man" Randy Savage vs. Huracan Castillo -

 

Savage squashes Castillo and wins with the flying elbow drop. That injures Castillo and Savage hits more flying elbow drops. Castillo gets put on a gurney and Savage gives him the flying elbow again. The fans are incensed and start throwing all sorts of things into the ring like crushed up coke cans and hair picks. Colon comes out and has this insane brawl with Savage that almost causes a riot. This was fun madness. EXTRA

 

Mighty Igor vs. Tiger Jeet Singh -

 

You know this wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I liked Singh's weapon attack at the start. Too bad Igor's selling is comically bad. Then we got Igor punching Singh who doesn't want to give anything. Singh gets a weapon and hits Igor with it and is disqualified. The post-match sucked. They were doing this bear hug or whatever. They were making these goofy faces. It looked like two best friends who had an emotional reunion. This was pretty bad actually.

 

Ivan Koloff vs. Ricky Santana -

 

This was alright. Ivan's offense is light. Santana had to do a lot to make it look credible. I did like Santana's offense especially his dropkick. Ivan took a good bump into the ropes. The final sequence was set up nicely and done well. It was cool to see Ricky Santana but that was the only really good part about this match.

 

Joe Savoldi vs. Domingo Robles -

 

I ain't got a clue. I did like Robles' eye pokes though.

 

Street Fight for the WWC TV Title: Super Black Ninja (Keiji Muto) © vs. The Invader (4/2/88) -

 

This was an awesome brawl. Muta beat the hell out of Invader's head. Invader bled through his mask which is always cool. Muta used a bunch of weapons including a wooden chair but Invader was the ass kicker here. He stiffed the fuck out of Muta with the wooden chair, Muta's boot, and the belt. I loved when he ripped of Muta's chair and Muta got shoved into the front row. The strike exchanges in this were awesome with Invader getting at least a few insanely stiff shots in. Muta choking out Invader with the production wire was great and Invader escaping by pulling Muta neck first over the ropes was nasty. Muta hit a great moonsault for a near fall. The tumble to the floor was nuts and the visual of both guys laying their in landscaping gear all bloodied looked like a neighborhood murder scene. Invader chokes the life out of Muta with Muta's belt. Then we get the last few minutes with El Profe trying to get involved by tossing in his briefcase. Invader gets the briefcase though and crushes Muta with it for the win. This was a nutty brawl with some great asskicking by Invader. I'm calling this an EASY nomination.

 

Joe Savoldi vs. Domingo Robles -

 

Oh, okay. I think Rip Rogers's father-in-law at the time was Domingo Robles. At least that's what he said. Robles had a nice assortment of eye gouges and eye rakes. Savoldi beat him with a sunset flip though. Rogers's was shocked.

 

Terry Funk Promo -

 

This was fucking hilarious with Terry terrorizing Hugo and taking off his pajamas in a fit of rage. EXTRA

 

"Sadistic" Steve Strong © vs. Abdullah the Butcher -

 

Abby's face here and getting huge pops. I really hated his weak shots with the 2X4. Abby's not know for stiffness but this was hurting the match for me. It got better once Strong bled out. Then Abby just hit him with jabs and hung him on production wires. Strong got the advantage back in the ring and bloodied Abby with a slew of forearm shots. Strong's forearms were weak too but I did like how he kept it going after Abby started to bleed. This got boring quickly but I did like the cut off spot where Strong gave Abby a shoulder tackle even if it didn't have the best execution. Abby pulls out the fork in the end and stabs Strong in the throat with it. The match ends in a double count-out and we get a fun post-match with Abby slinging the ref to the ground and chasing Strong with the fork into the dugout. Besides the bleeding and prerequisite working of cuts, this was boring and had terrible offense. I did like Abby's selling but I'm going NO here.

 

TNT v. Rip Rogers -

 

This was a good little title match until the finish. One major problem with bad finishes in the 80s is that there will be stipulations for a match and the finish will be inconsistent with that stipulation. This match is the blue print for that. We had a nice match going with Rogers using the No DQ rules to his advantage. He gave TNT a low blow on a cut off, used a chair, etc. I liked all of the hope spots here and TNT had good timing with all of them. TNT had a fun comeback even though his offense was a little too loose for my taste. He gets Rogers in the Cobra Clutch and then Abuda Dein shows up and attacks TNT. The fucking ref calls for the bell in a No DQ match. Invader saves TNT but if this hadn't had such a stupid finish I might have considered it for a low end nomination. Such is 80s wrestling.

 

Joe Savoldi vs. Domingo Robles -

 

This was ridiculous. Rogers went nuts and Robles cheated with every offensive move. Savoldi won with a side suplex. Hugo was disgusted.

 

War Games: Abdullah the Butcher, Hercules Ayala, Grizzly Boone, Iron Sheik, & Chicky Starr vs. Bruiser Brody, Carlos Colon, The Invader, Dutch Mantell, & TNT (December 1987) -

 

This was quite the novelty. The rules are cool and I thought this had some great moments. Overall, it was messy, disjointed, and hard to keep up with but I think that was the point. My favorite parts of the match were Chicky Starr no-selling a low blow and trying to escape but being unable to due to the cage roof, Chicky taking an insane head first bump into the cage, Chicky getting handcuffed and Invader punting him in the nuts over and over, and Colon saving Invader from a beating causing a huge pop from the crowd. The last several minutes were tremendous heat building with Colon getting handcuffed with Chicky Starr, the heels winning the match, and then having Colon getting mauled. I loved the spot with Invader giving it his best shot against Chicky. The last part of this was awesome and with total distaste when Iron Sheik covered Colon with the Iranian flag. I don't think this was a great match but it was a novelty and showed some great booking. I'll call this a SOLID nomination.