Posted July 29, 201213 yr comment_5511470 VQ - Excellent (24/7) 1. Rocky Johnson vs. Charlie Fulton Quick but solid opener. Rocky gets in some decent mat work with a good head scissors. Fulton takes him to a corner and throws some nasty forearms before Rocky does some fast rope running into a sunset flip for the win. This wasn't much of anything but fine for what it was. 2. Barry O vs. Rene Goulet This was pretty solid. It was a very basic match but everything looked okay with the exception of a few awkward moments with Barry O. The early mat work was really solid. There wasn't much to it but there was some struggling and decent counters. Goulet's offense was very stiff and he had a violent slapping exchange at one point with Barry O. His knees looked really good too. Barry O got near falls off of a good body slam and power slam. Goulet got caught with a small package and Barry O scored the win. The match wasn't spectacular but it was another match that was perfectly acceptable for what it was. 3. Jim Neidhart vs. SD Jones This was an eh match. SD Jones isn't as bad as people remember but he's still not very good. Neidhart is pretty uninteresting most of the time as well. SD Jones confused Neidhart with some rope running then got a hot shot for his troubles. Neidhart kind of worked on Jones windpipe for a few minutes. Jones made a short comeback but ran into a power slam and Neidhart won the match. This pretty much just happened and that was it. 4. King Kong Bundy vs. Jose Luis Rivera Bundy totally kills Rivera. He gave him a sick knee then lifted him up after the two count for more punishment. Rivera got a little mini-comeback with two dropkicks but Bundy ended up tossing him in a corner and splashing him. That was followed up by a massive elbow drop for the win. Then Bundy asked for a five count which ruled. This was a cool squash. I like Bundy and think he's a solid worker. Mean Gene interviews Hulk Hogan and Mr. T. This was amusing Hogan and Mr. T just grunted and rambled incoherently about WrestleMania and shit. Fun stuff. Piper's Pit: Mr. T as Guest This is pretty entertaining and I'll give it a shout as an EXTRA. Piper was extremely racist as he usually is in these segments calling Mr. T a "gorilla" and asking Mr. T if he understood Jimmy Snuka's language. Piper then showed he few paintings he made for Mr. T with Mr. T in casts then put a Mr. T wig on to mock his hairstyle. They almost came to blows but Piper and his gang left before anything else could happen. Mr. T vowed to take out Piper at WrestleMania. This was good stuff and as I mentioned before could be an EXTRA. 5. David Sammartino vs. Matt Borne Average match. Nothing too exciting happened at all. Borne took good bumps and was really stiff with his strikes. David threw some good punches and executed a nice suplex. Borne was very uninteresting on offense when he wasn't unprofessionally punching or slapping David. He just put in a reverse chin lock and a variation of the Camel Clutch. David did escape the Camel Clutch in a cool way when he crawled to the center of the ring and sling shot Borne off his back who took a great bump into the second turnbuckle. The finish was real lame and elementary with David reversing a body slam/power slam into a pin fall for the win. Again, this didn't end up being anything special and was just there for the most part. 6. Andre The Giant/Jimmy Snuka/The Junk Yard Dog vs. Big John Studd/Jesse Ventura/Ken Patera Fun match with a couple of great performances. The match re-starts early in the match but it's shown in full after the re-start. I think it was something wrong with the person who ordered this On Demand I guess. Andre and Patera were awesome in this match. JYD and Jesse were okay and Snuka and Studd were dog shit for the most part. Andre immediately savagely attacked Studd with vicious chops but Studd retreated and everybody got things together. Patera had the privilege to start the match for his team and he was great here as the stooge for his team. Andre and JYD took care of him as he bumped greatly for Andre and took JYD's crawling headbutts really well too. Patera said fuck this and left the ring to talk strategy. Ventura came in and was okay as the back-up stooge but didn't come close to as good as Patera was at the same role. JYD got caught in the wrong corner at one point but tagged out to Snuka who eventually did FIP. He wasn't very good at it and all three heels just did bear hugs with Patera's being the best. There was a tremendous spot with Andre though where Snuka was stuck in a bear hug from I think Studd and just kicked Studd in the back hard as fuck and it made this incredible smacking sound that reverberated through the entire building. That was fucking awesome. Later, Patera was a great prick and prevented Andre from body slamming Studd. The finish to this match was fucking brutal and ruled too with Andre violently assaulting Studd then giving a big boot to the just tagged Ventura. Andre tagged Snuka and Snuka gave Ventura an incredibly stiff Superfly splash from the top rope for the win. Andre got torpedoed into Patera and Studd after the match by both JYD and Snuka. Then Andre smacked the shit out of Studd who hauled ass to the back. This was a lot of fun with Andre and Patera being great but everyone else was so so and there were large chunks of this match that didn't deliver at all. 7. Ricky Steamboat vs. Terry Gibbs This was nice and quick. It wasn't much of a match. Gibbs cheating some and Ricky did a few chops and stuff then hit a top rope cross body for the win. End of story. 8. Greg Valentine vs. Tito Santana (Lumberjack Match) (WWF IC Title) Great, violent match. These two are going to have several matches on this disc. I actually think it's unavoidable. Every single one of their matches are different. The one thing they do have in common is that they're brutal as fuck. Greg Pearl Harbor's Tito to start the match with vicious clubs to the back and neck. Tito fights back however and gets the advantage. He basically wins a nasty slug fest. The Hammer does his face plant bump, takes a nice atomic drop and other stuff to transition into the Lumberjack breaks where he goes to the floor and the heels try to keep him so he can rest but the faces toss him back in. Valentine destroys Tito with a front atomic drop early in this match as well. Tito's got the advantage for the most part until he runs into a savage knee that sounded painful into his chest. The Hammer is in control now and starts to work on Tito's leg to set up the figure four. Valentine nearly takes Tito's head off with a brutally violent forearm which Tito sells magnificently. He throws in some nasty knees and Tito gets tossed to the floor for some Lumberjack breaks as well with the faces helping him to rest and the heels tossing him back in. Tito's comeback was tremendous and violent with him just exchanging nasty blows with Greg. I mean these motherfuckers were killing each other with strikes to the face. Greg starts to high tail it towards the end since Tito is gaining back the advantage. Tito reverses a figure four and kicks Valentine out who tries to scurry away but some faces toss him back in the ring. Tito hits him with a vicious forearm then locks in a figure four of his own to an awesome pop. However, Big John Studd pulls The Hammer to the ropes to break the hold. Tito gets pissed and attacks Studd which allows Greg to get in a cheap shot. Both guys have a tremendous slug fest before Tito is whipped to the ropes and they have a violent head on collision that makes a cannon like thud. Greg falls on top of Tito after the impact and gets the win to retain his title. This was a borderline tremendous match but it was a tad bit too short for that. These two guys just have an incredible hatred when they get in the ring together. This feud should have great representation on this set. So this is definitely an easy nomination. Final Analysis Good show with a great main event, fun semi-main event (although it wasn't technically the semi-main event but let's be realistic) and some decent other stuff on the card. We got one nomination out of this which was the main event. I'm looking forward to the rest of 85 as I'm confident the work will improve a good bit as the year progresses. So far that I can tell things are looking up in WWF 1985.
