VQ - Awful to Bad to Good to Very Good

 

1. David Schultz vs. Salvatore Bellomo

This is the best David Schultz match I've seen so far. It occurred. Bellomo basically got his ass kicked by Schultz the whole time. Schultz was able to muster up some stiff offense but nothing more. Schultz barely connected with a flying elbow drop and then later nearly let go of Bellomo on the vertical suplex that won him the match. So, I've learned that Schultz can't execute his moves or safely execute his moves. Remember, this is the best David Schultz match I've seen so far.

 

2. Dick Murdoch vs. Afa

Okay match. The match was worked around Afa's Samoan "skull of steel" as I like to call it. Murdoch would avoid headbutts to his own head but in the process hurt his forearms because of them getting headbutted instead. Murdoch also attempted a few punches but to no avail the pain went into his hands instead. He made some great facial expressions throughout this and had some amusing stand offs with Afa. He did some stumbling and bumbling selling once he finally did a headbutt to the skull. Murdoch took control some time later and used a lot of cheating tactics to withhold the advantage. He choked Afa with a cable wire then did the same with one of the tag ropes which was cool. For the most part though, Murdoch didn't have that great of a heat segment. Afa kept coming back with headbutts and Murdoch did his goofy selling along with it but this started to reach in the boring range and went on far too long. There was a nice near fall after an attempted Murdoch slam resulted in Afa falling on top of him. The match went to a draw which really wasn't necessary. It lasted twenty damn minutes. Murdoch challenged Afa to five more minutes and called him a "jungle bunny." That's not racist at all. Afa cleared him from the ring and he cowardly went to the back. Also, Murdoch's selling was fun but the face shine segment was a bit too long here. Things picked up a little too slow in this match for my liking.

 

3. Mad Dog Vachon vs. Rick McGraw

Mad Dog was interviewed before the match and said he was in the WWF to be mean or something. Who knows. This wasn't too bad. They started out on the mat. It was all very basic but okay. Then Mad Dog got control and was pretty uninteresting. He did a lot biting, chewing, clawing, and walking around aimlessly. McGraw every now and then would throw a forearm or two that looked pretty stiff. He finally got a good comeback after Mad Dog went shoulder first into a ring post. He got a near fall off of that then got a couple of other near falls after a decent dropkick and powerful body slam. He made a mistake and missed a second dropkick attempt. Mad Dog took advantage and won with a pile driver that looked fairly nasty. This ended up being alright at times and terribly unappealing at other times. Mad Dog just sucks to be fair and doesn't leave a lot to be desired in his matches.

 

4. David Sammartino vs. Moondog Spot.

David said he was happy to be competing in MSG and was all "Yes sir" and "No sir" to Gorilla in an interview before the match. This was another decent David Sammartino match helped out by a Moondog. Spot didn't have quite as effective of a heat segment that Rex did in the first of these David-Moondog matches but it was still fine. Spot worked on David's back and did a really good back breaker. There was a long sleeper spot which lost me so that hurt Spot's control segment for me. David has some nice punches and there was a cool fisticuffs fight going on to transition into David's comeback flurry of offense. Spot withstood the comeback though and connected with a knee. He went for a slam but David reversed into a pin for the win. Spot attacked him after the match but David got a hold of his bone and chased him out. Like I said, this was a decent mach carried pretty much by Moondog Spot.

 

5. Greg Valentine vs. Tito Santana (WWF IC Title)

GODDAMMIT! This match only goes six minutes but I'll be damned this was great shit. The thing is, the video quality suddenly went black, white and fuzzy. The next thing I know it goes to fucking white noise and the last two minutes or so aren't shown. It just comes back to preparations for the next match. I would probably nominate this but I can't because of the fucking video going out. Basically, these two beat the ever living SHIT out of each other with forearms and fist. It was violent as fuck. Edit: OJ found the Youtube link for this. Thanks again. And yes, this totally ruled. Tito bloodies Valentine with a chair and works the cut with some hard fist. He gets disqualified for excessive rule breaking. The crowd was off the charts here for this as well. After seeing the whole thing and a second watch of the first part, I'm confident in giving this an easy nomination.

 

6. Ken Patera vs. Rocky Johnson

Boring match for the most part. There was a lot of long holds that went nowhere and felt more like time filler for the exciting last two minutes. They did a few test of strength spots that one would expect in a match between two strongmen. Patera applied a terribly long reverse chin lock that bored me to tears. Rocky fought out of it and threw a few nice punches but then did his annoying dropkicks which never seem to connect properly. He went for a roll up but Patera reversed it and held the tights for the win. Once again, too many rest holds and time consuming head locks for my liking in this one.

 

7. Adrian Adonis vs. Sika

Eh, no good. Sika did this long wrist lock that just did nothing for me at all. Adrian didn't do too much over the top bumping in this either. This could have worked if he would have brought some of that into play. He got disqualified for using some sort of glove with spikes on it. I think it was from his entrance attire. Sika got a hold of it after the match and chased Adrian off. There was nothing good really at all about this match. It came and it went.

 

Johnny Valiant is interviewed to talk about his return to WWF and managing Brutus Beefcake. He says some shit about going from coast to coast and country to country. He then explains why Beefcake goes by such an absurd name in an absurd way that made no sense. I have no desire to try and explain what he tried to say. This went on way too long. Sarge got interviewed next and said some amusing and ironic shit about the US not having to worry about Iran because it's a small country but is always worrying about Russia. He said he's going to take it to Nikolai Volkoff. Ken Patera showed up for an interview and talked about how he wants revenge for his injury which was hilarious. He talked about holes in his muscles, some black man, and four white rednecks. These interviews took up a lot of time.

 

8. Sgt. Slaughter vs. Nikolai Volkoff

Sarge rules the world again. This was a total Slaughter carry job. The pre-match festivities are tremendous with Volkoff singing the Russian National Anthem and the MSG crowd eating him alive for it. Sarge gets a massive pop and I'm already enjoying this. The beginning of this is awesome with both guys taunting each other and Sarge doing some great taunts to get the crowd riled up. Not much happens for a minute. Then Sarge takes the fall and works underneath. All of the sudden this is in contention for nomination. Volkoff works on Sarge's back and lays in some nasty moves. He locks in a bear hug but the crowd is amped during this so everything feels big. Sarge takes three turnbuckle bumps that are all different. The first is his usual slam and slow fall to the mat. The second his goes into it harder then takes a wild bump face first off of it. Lastly, he goes full speed into the corner, ring post and to the floor. He had a nice comeback going before he did the third big bump. Next, Sarge was FIP on the floor where Volkoff slammed him back first into the ring post then gave him a nasty back breaker. Sarge does an excellent selling job here having to use the ropes to pull himself up. Volkoff goes for another attempt to knock him to the floor but Sarge locks in the Cobra Clutch as he's standing on the apron. The ref counts Sarge out because he was on the apron so Volkoff wins but Sarge won the war as he kept the hold in until Volkoff was out. I didn't like the finish all that much but I really enjoyed Sarge's performance here and Volkoff seemed inspired in this match and fed off of the crowd some. I will give this a solid nomination.

 

9. Brutus Beefcake vs. Tony Garea

This wasn't too good. Garea can move for his size and age so there was at least some excitement in this. It's amusing that Beefcake couldn't keep up with fucking Tony Garea in pacing. Beefcake's offense was horrible. Nothing looked effective at all and he just casually threw strikes. The finish was weak with Beefcake catching Garea with a terrible effort of a knee shot for the win. Yeah, Brutus ain't too exciting.

 

Fink reads the matches for the next card at MSG and announces that the MSG curfew has been uplifted for the night. This took forever.

 

10. Hulk Hogan vs. Big John Studd (Hogan loses belt if Counted Out) (WWF Title)

This was good but not enough to nominate. The Heenan debut match is far better in my opinion. I liked the opening exchange before the bell with Studd trying to take it to Hogan but Hulk just looked at him like he was a fool and gave him some sweet punches followed by a sick knee to the face. Once the match got under way, things slowed down a bit too much. Studd put in a long chin lock and it really killed the crowd. The count-out spot was really good in this as Studd slammed Hogan on the concrete and Hulk barely made it back at the count of nine. Hulk's comeback was okay too and Studd even kicked out after an elbow to the head but Studd really killed the momentum when he first took control of the match. It's okay though, because these two still had the great match in September.

 

Final Analysis

This ended up being a pretty good show. We got a solid nomination and an easy nomination. The cards are slowly starting to get better and really get into the boom period of WWF 80s.

The VQ on Tito/Valentine here isn't great, but you can see the whole thing -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqtwdpeujhA

Thanks OJ.