Ricky Steamboat vs Bret Hart (3/8/86 Boston, MA)

Excellent match. The Boston Garden crowd is phenomenal throughout this entire show and they really get wild during this match. Bret starts the match by Pearl Harboring Steamer and getting the early advantage. However, Bret would soon get launched chest first into the turnbuckle and Steamer would take over. Steamer would then work on Bret's arm. The arm work here ruled and was really aggressive by Steamer. He used the turnbuckle to ram Bret's arm into and really wrenched in the holds. There was a tremendous spot where Bret tried to back suplex Steamer but Steamer landed on his feel and hit a beautiful crescent kick to Bret's face. The transition into Bret's heat segment was great too. He caught Steamer with a really nasty twisting neck breaker that looked like it legitimately could have broken Steamer's neck. This portion of the match was really awesome as well. Bret did a good job of pacing his offense and Steamer was terrific selling everything. All of Steamer's comeback were timed very well and I loved Bret slamming him on the Boston Garden floor. The finishing run was done quite well too. Bret had gotten several near falls on Steamer and now Steamer had his turn to get some offense. There were some great near falls towards the end. The referee got squashed in the corner and Bret hit a devastating clothesline but the referee was too rattled to make the pin. Bret hit a cross body on Steamer not long after that but Steamer reversed it into a pin attempt and got the pin for the win. The crowd went wild and so did an upset Jimmy Hart after the match. This was a really awesome and brilliantly worked match with a great crowd and a lot of excitement. EASY NOMINATION.

 

This can be found on the Boston 3/8/86 disc.

One of my all-time favourite matches. What sometimes gets lost is that at the time, Bret was almost completely a tag wrestler, and anyone following the WWF would have marked this down as a win for Steamboat before the match happened. These two ahd a match so good that by the end run you thought Bret could actually win, despite all logic to the contrary being entrenched in your head before the match began.

 

THAT to me is a mark of a great match.

RICKY STEAMBOAT vs BRET HART (03/08/1986; WWF Boston Garden; 00:15:52) 3 1/4*
-Bret sneak attacks to start and Dragon fights back as the crowd chants “Steamboat”. Ricky controls the arm and picks the crowd back up with a lifting wrist lock slam. No matter what, Ricky keeps that arm hooked. Hitman breaks out with a shot to the ribs but Dragon gets the arm drag and hooks the arm again.  Dragon dominating including a backflip into a karate kick to the face. As I type this, Hitman does a nasty neckbreaker to put Dragon down. Hart sends Dragon to the floor with a blow to the gut. Brings him in with a suplex and hooks a headlock. Steamboat fights back and they both get big moves and misses in the stretch run. Hitman powerslam for two. Steamboat karate chop for two. Back suplex. Two. More karate chops. Two. Hart Attack clothesline after a ref bump. No referee. A Hitman crossbody is rolled through for the Steamboat three. The crowd cheers but a portion is booing the decision. Or are they booing Jimmy Hart? Bret Hart… cool heel. EASY NOMINATION. 
This finished top 20 first time around. It still deserves a place on the set.