Posted July 25, 201213 yr comment_5511135 VQ - Excellent (24/7) 1. Brutus Beefcake vs. SD Jones Average match. I was bored most of the time but it wasn't terrible. Beefcake had a sleeper hold in for most of the match and cheated around the hold. Jones comeback was pretty good and I liked the finish with Beefcake giving Jones an awesome knee to the face for the win. Again, this was just an average match but did have a good finish. 2. Salvatore Bellomo vs. Johnny Rodz Sal was fun in this but Rodz was terrible in parts. Rodz offense looked atrocious and he seemed to be half assing it. However, he did take good bumps in this match. Sal is fun to watch and I like his high energy offense. His standing dropkick is a spot I always like. Rodz fucked up one last time on the finish when he was out of place for Sal's spring board cross body from the second turnbuckle. Bellomo won the match on that cross body. Sal thanked the US and kissed the MSG floor after the match. Awesome. As I mentioned, this was a fun match but Rodz didn't look good at all in parts. 3. Antonio Inoki vs. David Schultz Okay match. They both aggressively went at one another in the first few minutes. There wasn't much structure but nothing looked particularly bad. Schultz got in a suplex on Inoki for a near fall. He then body slammed him and went for a top rope elbow but missed it. Inoki did his signature kick and got the win. This ended up being a fine little match with some stiff stuff mixed in. 4. The Junkyard Dog vs. Paul Kelly Fun squash. JYD threw Kelly around some then gave him an absolutely insane clothesline that Kelly bumped for tremendously. JYD did a power slam and got the win. Oddly enough, Kelly kicked out of the finish like three times. It was totally bizarre. Anyways, this was a pretty fun squash with a really awesome clothesline and bump in it. 5. The Cobra vs. The Black Tiger (WWF Jr. Heavyweight Title) This was a decent match in the end. It started off really bad. Both guys were blowing spots left and right. It seemed at times that they had know clue what to do next. It was terrible. The match picked up towards the end though after Black Tiger gave tremendous clothesline to Cobra and taunted him and the crowd. He did a few neck breakers and then a tombstone but missed a flying elbow from the top. Cobra came back with a really good dropkick that Black Tiger bumped really well to the floor from. Cobra did a suicide dive to the floor and the crowd went nuts. They came back in the ring and Black Tiger got a near fall off of another tombstone. He went for a third but Cobra reversed it into his own. Cobra then went to the top rope and hit a fucking devastating senton splash for the win and the vacant WWF Junior Heavyweight Title. This was really bad in large parts but had some good and even great stuff. In the end though this came out as an average Junior's match at best. 6. Jimmy Snuka/The Tonga Kid vs. Roddy Piper/Bob Orton Jr. Very good and exciting tag. Piper and Orton stooged for Snuka and Tonga with the crowd going insane. Tonga was FIP during this and did a great job. Piper and Orton cut the ring in half and really worked him over. Tonga got a tremendous hope spot off a sunset flip for a near fall. Tonga eventually fought his way through both guys and tagged Snuka. MSG nearly exploded on that tag and Snuka cleaned house. He got two tremendous near falls on Orton in the finishing run. One was after Orton took a flip turnbuckle bump and another was off a high cross body from the top rope that the crowd nearly shit their pants for. Piper broke up the pin both times. All four men wildly brawled for several minutes and the building was fucking shaking. Piper and Orton collided on an attempt to take Tonga out. Snuka and Tonga were sent to the floor but both met together on the floor in a near collision and just looked up the sky and starting screaming and getting fired up. I'm pretty sure MSG was about done for the night by this point. Once again, all four wrestlers brawled with the ref throwing the match out and disqualifying both teams. Snuka and Tonga won the initial battle but Piper and Orton picked the scraps after the match and crotched Snuka on the ropes. Tonga brought a chair in the ring and chased the heels away to end the melee. This was an absolute blast and borderline easy nomination. However, I'm going to give it a solid nomination for now. 7. Mike Rotundo vs. Rene Goulet Good match. Goulet did some cool stuff like a double foot stomp and bumped really well. Rotundo wasn't a very compelling baby face here and that was the biggest problem. The spot of the match was Goulet taking a turnbuckle flip bump and hanging on the ropes afterwards. There were some down periods like a long claw and reverse chin lock but everything was mostly solid. In the end, this wound up being a pretty solid match. Award Presentation: Jack Tunney comes out to present awards to Cyndi Lauper and Captain Lou Albano for their contributions to the company and charities. Hogan, Richter, and Dick Clark are brought out to the ring to help present the awards. Lauper is invited out to the ring and excepts an award for her contributions. She thanks the fans and the WWF and gives WWF a gold and platinum record as a gift. She then calls out Captain Lou for his donations and raising money for multiple sclerosis. Captain Lou excepts the award and thanks everybody but Piper comes out. Piper says he was the reason all of this success happened because everything started on Piper's Pit. He then took the gold and platinum record that Cyndi Lauper had given to Captain Lou and broke it over Albano's head. Lauper jumped on Albano to prevent anymore attack but Piper awesomely kicked her out of the way. Dave Wolfe went after him but he got power slammed by Piper. Hogan came out for the rescue and Piper along with Orton walked to the back with the crowd going nuts. This was a really great angle and set the stage for the War to Settle the Score. Definite EXTRA. 8. Adrian Adonis/Dick Murdoch vs. The Brisco Brothers Extremely overrated match. If I wanted to show a video tape on how tag team wrestling should be worked I'd never suggest this. Heel in Peril has been a big issue with WWF 80s tags. This is a huge example of that. I want to first say that the work was good and that helps this match. If the work was bad this match would be absolutely terrible. However, I don't watch tag matches just for good work. I also want tag matches to have good structure. This match had very poor structure. The start of the match is solid. Murdoch and Jack lock up and go through a really cool exchange where Jack goes for the figure four with a step over. I liked that a lot. And of course, face shine segments are normal to start off a match. However, Jack and Jerry began to meticulously work on Murdoch's arm. It started to become a Heel in Peril segment. Now at this stage in the match the structure is still fine. It's perfectly acceptable to have a Heel in Peril segment to start a tag match. However, I believe it would need to transition into long FIP segments with brief face shine segments. That didn't happen here. I was really beginning to enjoy the match after Murdoch smashed one of the Brisco's with a tool box (?). There was a very good FIP segment going on. It wasn't quite long enough and then there was a hot tag. This is where the match began to slip. Murdoch has his leg worked on extensively. Now, don't get me wrong. He sells it very well and I loved the expression on his face as he sat in his corner of the ring looking like a disgruntled Texan. I would have much more preferred Murdoch having his leg worked on earlier in the match that was followed by a long heat segment where the Brisco's would make hope spots by attacking his leg. That happened a little later in the match and I enjoyed the spot but by that point the match had become too invested in Heel in Peril psychology. There was other good stuff in this though. They were able to manage another decent FIP segment with one of the Brisco's. I loved Murdoch's brain buster. Unfortunately, it didn't last long enough and the match went straight back to Murdoch kicking out desperately from several neat variations of pin attempts. It was almost like North/South were the faces in this match. At times, it felt like totally backwards tag wrestling psychology. The finishing run I liked a good bit. All four guys brawled on the floor. Murdoch whacked I think Jack over the head with a telephone which was tremendous. It ended in a double count-out while the both teams were still fighting on the floor. The Brisco's put North/South in simultaneous figure four's in the ring after the match. I know some people are going to still really like this match a lot. This will be hard pressed to make my top 100. I'll nominate it though because I should and really have to. Plus, I do think it is worth nomination. I just don't think it's more than a solid nomination at best. That's what I'll give it. 9. Barry Windham vs. Mr. Fuji Super quick squash. Barry throws a pair of dropkicks then plants a bulldog on Fuji. The rest is history. 10. Hulk Hogan vs. The Iron Sheik (WWF Title) Sheik yells on the classic MSG mic and says Cyndi Lauper deserves what she got earlier in the night. He then screamed "Go Iran!" or something. Tremendous. Fun sprint. Hogan won in three and half minutes but this was a blast. Hulk manhandled Sheik while Sheik was still in his uniform with a slam to start. Hogan did a nice back suplex but Sheik used his boot to slow down Hulk. Sheik kicked Hogan with his boot and got a near fall off a gord buster. Hulk came back after withstanding a few punches and gave Sheik a really good power slam followed by his leg drop. He got the pin and retained the belt. Again, this was a really fun main event sprint. Final Analysis Pretty good show. There were a couple of nominated matches and a very important angle that should be an EXTRA. I've completed the current batch of 84 I have and I'd have to say it's probably been more good than bad but with the good being great and the bad being absolutely terrible.
