Posted July 18, 201213 yr comment_5510508 VQ - Very Good 1. Brutus Beefcake vs. Salvatore Bellomo Fink gives an announcement before the match stating Jesse Ventura is in a hospital in San Diego and unable to make an appearance at the show. He gives the fans information of the hospital for get well wishes. The fans booed mercilessly. Tremendous. He then announced that Hogan would face Big John Studd for the WWF title later on the card. This was okay actually. Bellomo did his usual dropkicks, arm drags, and patented mule kick to start off. Beefcake took control when Bellomo was caught in the ropes and he gave him a nasty looking clothesline on the top rope. Beefcake actually had an interesting heat segment as he worked over Bellomo's back and neck. He did a good job of changing things up with various neck vices and gave Bellomo a nice high back body drop. Bellomo came back with a some good punches and solid dropkick that Beefcake bumped well for. Shit, even the finish was good with Beefcake catching Bellomo on a cross body attempt and giving him a really aggressive 360 power slam. I'm not nominating it but this was a very exceptional opener. 2. Nikolai Volkoff vs. Chief Jay Strongbow Bad match. Strongbow is so fucking terrible. Volkoff didn't help his case by applying a ridiculously long nerve long. Volkoff won with a elbow drop after he countered the sleeper by ramming Strongbow's head into a turnbuckle. Don't think so. 3. David Schultz vs. SD Jones This was really bad. Jones did a couple of leg scissors some headbutts and threw shitty punches. Schultz tried to look menacing and tried to do moves including a dropkick that he fucked up for the finish which was followed by a terrible pin fall struggle with Jones that made no sense even though Schultz got the three count. It was all very bad and confusing. 4. Greg Valentine vs. Jose Luis Rivera Wow, this was good. Rivera went after Valentine before The Hammer could even get his robe off. He sent Valentine to the floor who was eventually able to take his robe off. Valentine came back in and took control. He worked on Rivera's midsection and did a lot of cool stuff. He gave him a gut buster, vertical suplex on to the top rope, stood on his stomach, stomped him really hard, and really pounded on him for a good while. Also, he gave him a shoulder breaker and did a really painful looking wrist lock hold. Rivera kept fighting back in the corner with some nice punches and got in a few body slams. In his last effort to come back he and The Hammer got into this really intense fist fight in the corner which ruled. Valentine won the fight and gave him a snap under hook suplex then applied the figure four for the win. He re-applied it after the match and other wrestlers came to the aid of Rivera after The Hammer left. I really enjoyed this and thought it was a very good JTTS match. I feel inclined to give it a low end nomination so I will. 5. Hulk Hogan vs. Big John Studd (WWF Title) Heenan's in the WWF now. He's managing Studd and they do an interview pre-match. Studd is AWFUL on the mic and of course Heenan is great. Ummm, this match is.........good. Good, like I'm nominating it. This was Heenan's debut and the crowd was hot as hell for this. Heenan was challenging Hogan and other great shit before the match. The match kicked off with a bang as Hogan threw some awesome punches at Studd and then did a full speed elbow smash to his face that fucking connected and looked brutal as fuck. Studd left the ring to talk strategy with Heenan then came back and got some more awesome punches from Hogan. Studd's heat segment was solid here in large part to the MSG crowd. He worked on Hogan's back with a back breaker and bear hug. The bear hug is not something I usually find compelling but it really worked in this setting. Hulk reversed the bear hug into his own and the crowd went nuts. Studd, however, knocked Hulk to the floor. Then, Hogan awesomely did FIP on the floor and got bloodied from Studd's relentless attack keeping him from the ring. Hogan bled buckets and saw his blood. In a tremendous moment, he got enraged and just gave a really great flurry of punches to Studd. They both went back to the floor and brawled pretty stiffly. Studd got back on the apron before the ten count and won the match but not the title. Hogan was livid afterwards. This was a shockingly very good to great match with tremendous heat, blood, great brawling, and it's the fucking debut of Heenan. This get's a solid nomination from me. 6. Ken Patera vs. Rick McGraw This was alright. Patera worked on McGraw's leg for a little while. McGraw had a nice fiery comeback and attacked Patera's leg. McGraw ate a huge clothesline then got tossed into the ring post shoulder first. He passed out to the full nelson for the Patera win. The match ended up being a fun sprint. 7. Sgt. Slaughter/The Wild Samoans vs. Adrian Adonis/Dick Murdoch/Captain Lou Albano Captain Lou cuts a fun promo before the match. Sarge ruled in this. The match was extremely chaotic with tons of shit going on but that fits with North/South better than anything else to me. Captain Lou kept leaving ringside and trying to leave the match. The crowd was absolutely insane during the entire match. Adonis and Murdoch bumped wildly for the Samoans and Sarge but it didn't last as long as usual. Sarge was a tremendous FIP in this. Adonis and Murdoch beat the living shit out of him with a microphone and there was some really great fist fighting going on between Sarge and Murdoch. The Samoans were totally all over the place in this but it really made the chaotic feel more entertaining and better. Afa did some FIP and wasn't bad then made the hot tag to Sarge who was awesome cleaning house. Sarge and Sika torpedoed Murdoch into Adonis who was caught in the ropes. That ruled. Murdoch tooks some bumps for a few minutes and Sarge put Captain Lou in the Cobra Clutch. Albano ran from the ring to the back and Sarge went after him. Adonis and Murdoch were in control on the Samaons when Sarge came back and body pressed Murdoch off the top rope to a massive pop for the face win. This match was loads of fun and had some really intense and chaotic FIP segments. I'm giving it a solid nomination. 8. B. Brian Blair vs. "Iron" Mike Sharpe This was pretty good. Sharpe stalled and then gave Blair a cheap shot by smashing Blair head first into the announce table. Blair got him back with stalling his own then grabbing his leg and smashing it against the ring post. Blair did some solid arm work on Sharpe but Sharpe used his heel tactics to eventually get the advantage. Sharpe worked on Blair's back for several minutes and did some okay stuff but put on a TERRIBLE Boston Crab and ultimately didn't bring enough excitement to this stage of the match. Blair has a nice comeback and landed a great forearm that was stiff as fuck. He got a flurry of offense before Sharpe used his "Iron" forearm sling to pummel him with. Sharpe pushed the ref and Blair won by DQ. This had the chance for nomination at times but Sharpe ended any concrete evidence for that. Fink announced the matches for the next card at MSG. Heenan then showed up and complained about Hogan retaining the belt after losing the match by count-out. Heenan issues a challenge to Hogan with a contract that states Hogan can lose his belt if he loses via count-out. Hogan comes out and signs the contract then Heenan calls him dumb and high tails it from the ring. This was cool as they set up another big match. Good stuff. 9. Kamala vs. Pat Patterson Fun match. Pat was great here finding different ways to attack Kamala. Kamala gave him a cheap shot before he could get his robe off. Pat gave him an eye poke. Kamala regained the advantage but Pat stopped in the middle of an exchange and slapped him in the face. Kamala went all arms flailing crazy going after him but Pat escaped to the floor and mocked him. Next, Pat tried valiantly to take Kamala down with shoulder tackles but kept getting knocked down himself. Then Kamala challenged him to a test of strength which Pat excepted skeptically. They started the test of the strength but Pat stomped on Kamala's feet which Kamala sold amusingly. After all the fun, Kamala took advantage for good and won with a big splash to the back of Patterson. This was a very fun match with Pat using a lot of creative ways to get after Kamala. Chief Jay Strongbow is randomly interviewed to give his thoughts on Nikolai Volkoff, Kamala, and the Hogan-Studd re-match. Strongbow said he thought Hogan made a bad decision by choosing to sign the contract to the match but I found it odd that everyone needed his insight on this matter. Final Analysis Great show. This is easily the most satisfying and best show I've seen so far. Part of what made it great was the unpredictability. On paper, this doesn't look like a gem of a card at all. I was wrong. There were several fun matches with solid work, two strong matches that I nominated, and another match that got a low end nomination. This show had historical significance as well as it is Heenan's debut and thus starts Hogan's first important feud as champion. Awesome stuff.
