Posted August 4, 201213 yr comment_5511877 VQ - Excellent (24/7) 1. Johnny V vs. Steve Lombardi This was blast! They lock up and one would think this is just going to be a by the numbers random WWF 80s match. Nah, fuck that! Johnny V throws a couple of bad punches but it's not long after that when Valiant starts choking Lombardi with the production wire. Then he's throwing Lombardi hard into the guardrail and slamming him in an open space in the crowd on the concrete. Lombardi limps his way back into the ring and returns the favor a few seconds later when he smashes Johnny V into the guardrail and slams him in the same place he was just previously slammed on the concrete. Lombardi then clubbed Valiant a couple of times over the apron but Johnny V would prevail and clothesline and elbow drop for the pin and the win. I'm not nominating this because some of the strikes were pretty weak and I wish it would have gone a few minutes longer but this was really fun. 2. Cousin Junior vs. Moondog Spot Moondog Spot worked his ass off in this. He did everything he could to make this match good. I often think Rex is pretty clearly better but Spot really did put in a tremendous effort. All of his offense was stiff and nasty. He beat on Cousin Junior pretty well. Junior was frolicking around and dancing like a scene from Deliverance for the first few minutes. Spot then beat his ass for a long time which was fun to watch. Junior got the shit kneed out of him by Spot on the apron and he took a pretty good bump to the floor from it. Spot knocked him off the apron again and rammed him into the guardrail then jabbed him in the ribs with a chair. Spot's base was a nerve hold but Junior would fight out of it and Spot would do some cool spots around it like a back breaker on the floor. Junior's offense sucked because his comeback only consisted of crappy looking mule kicks. He did get a really good near fall off of a splash. Spot knocked down Junior with a knee or something and jawed with Hillbilly Jim at ringside. Junior caught him by surprise with I guess a thrust kick or maybe a crescent kick but the jackass cameramen weren't paying attention and missed the finish. Junior got the pin for the win afterwards. This had a great performance from Spot who carried it to a decent match but Junior has no redeeming value at all. 3. Adrian Adonis vs. Tony Garea Solid match. Adrian is enormous by this point and the crowd started chanting, "YOU FAT PIG!!!!!" mid-match and after the match. Adrian stalls and mills around. Garea gets tired of his bullshit and things get under way. Garea has the advantage with a side headlock but Adrian takes him to the corner and throws some nasty knees to Garea's mid-section. However, Adrian missed a corner charge the other way and ran shoulder first into the ring post. Garea gave sent him back into the turnbuckle and gave him a back body drop followed by a body slam. Adrian was in trouble but sent Garea to the floor and we got an extended King of the Mountain FIP segment. Garea would try and get back into the ring but Adrian would either knee him, give him a nasty forearm, or stomp him to keep him on the floor. Eventually, Garea got his wits about him and got up on the apron. He blocked an Adrian punch and fucking threw some brutal fucking forearms and punches to Adrian's face with several of them looking like they connected. Garea then sent Adrian into the turnbuckle again with Adrian doing the upside flip bump followed by Adrian doing the same bump into the ropes where he gets caught in them. Adrian got out of the ropes and Garea went for something off the ropes but ran right into a really good DDT by Adrian who picked up the win with it. This was a pretty fun match and had solid work. It could have been more though so it really wasn't anything special. 4. Terry Funk vs. Salvatore Bellomo This might end up being a personal favorite (I'm sure Dylan will love it) but this was Terry at his best bumping, stooging, great offense, nasty, going nuts, fucking with announcers and referees, etc. This started out with a botched back body drop or airplane spin by Bellomo. I'm not really sure what his motive was but it was definitely a botch. This became an absolute Funking blast soon though as Sal sent Terry out of the ring who landed on the announce table and had a tremendous and heated confrontation with Gorilla on the outside. Bellomo then worked on his arm by slamming it on the ropes, the guardrail, and swinging Terry into the ring post really fucking hard as the camera angle caught the impact and one could see that Funk's arm clearing slammed into the steel. Funk got frustrated and starting arguing with the referee and almost got disqualified for his bullshit. This was a great transition into his "Fuck You!" low blow to Sal out of the ref's sight. Terry was great on offense here tossing Sal onto the announcer's table and yelling some crazed shit at Gorilla and Jesse while mocking Bellomo. Funk then threw some really good punches and starting doing boxing punches and shit. Sal had a cool hope spot where he started headbutting Terry in the mid-section but Funk dropped to the mat and did crawling headbutts to regain control. That fucking ruled. Of course, those headbutts effected Terry and he started wobbling around which led Sal to trip him and give him that cool spot where he crosses his opponents legs and splashes them. Funk took a tremendous bump off a mule kick from Sal that looked like it connected too. However, Funk would get in the sleeper but it was by the ropes and Sal was able to escape it. He mule kicked Terry again who flew over the ropes and on the apron. Bellomo suplexed Terry back in and got a great near fall followed by another awesome near fall from a running cross body. However, Sal went to the well too many times and Terry caught him in the sleeper in the center of the ring and Sal didn't respond so Funk wins the match and branded him afterwards. This was an awesome Funk match and Sal did a great job himself here with his comebacks and arm work on Terry. I'm giving this a solid nomination. 5. The Junkyard Dog/Ricky Steamboat vs. Don Muraco/Mr. Fuji Good match that had a hot crowd and a great opening three minutes. This finished 85 on the first set but this is close. I really enjoy hot crowds and the opening brawl and chaos was awesome but the work in the heat segment was a lot to be desired. The crowd kept it interesting but I was really focused on the work in this match. Nothing came out at me as an awesome spot or really unique. It was just a hot crowd to amp up the excitement. Steamboat and JYD start it off with a bang as they go at it with Muraco and Fuji in a pier six brawl with a totally insane crowd behind them. Steamboat chokes Fuji with his belt then lassos Muraco with it, chokes him with it, and whips him with it. He takes Muraco to the floor, throws him over the guardrail and hits him with chair in the crowd. Meanwhile, JYD is giving Fuji headbutts and at the start he was giving Muraco crawling headbutts. The match began to slow down as they all got back to the ring and Steamboat karate chopped Muraco for a few minutes then Muraco got his head and neck caught in the ropes so Steamboat starting karate chopping his head. The match began to falter during the heat segment. Muraco low blowed Steamboat after kicking out of a pin attempt and he and Fuji really didn't do anything terribly interesting. Steamboat is a great baby face and awesome at FIP but none of the heels offense really made you believe he was in a lot of trouble. There were too many nerve holds and nothing terribly interesting in between. Even with the hot crowd I began to lose interest. Steamboat's hope spots were good but they were ones he does in every match and there was nothing particularly special about them that made them stand out from those same spots in any other Steamboat match. Steamboat made the hot tag to JYD who threw some great punches and a few good headbutts but got kicked in the back by Fuji. That was a good spot but it was too late at that point. JYD made the tag to Steamboat a minute later. Steamer cleaned house on Muraco who tagged Fuji without Steamboat knowing. Fuji attempting to salt Steamer but Steamboat kicked Muraco into Fuji which caused the salt to fly in the air and Steamboat gave Fuji a sunset flip for the pin and the win. I liked that finish. That was fairly unique and cool. JYD was caught in the ropes by his neck and head after the match and Muraco and Fuji double teamed Steamboat. However, JYD freed himself and found his chain to chase off the heels. This is such a difficult match because it's on the border. The opening minutes were great and the last few minutes were too. However, I'm going to say no to this. I just don't think it had enough meat to fill the holes. The middle part of the match was very underwhelming for me. 6. The Hart Foundation vs. Swede Hanson/Lanny Poffo This match was actually pretty good. Poffo did most of the work for his team which was good because Swede isn't too good and is old as dirt by this point. Swede started the match but quickly tagged in Lanny. Lanny had a fun exchange with Neidhart where he couldn't shoulder block him down to the mat but took him down with a leg trip instead. Bret came in and bitched about hair pulling before HF took control after Lanny missed a charge knee first into the turnbuckle. Neidhart distracted the referee so Bret could slam Poffo hard on the floor. Lanny is a good baby face so the crowd was behind him in this the whole time. Neidhart wasn't at his best in this and resorted to front face locks and chin locks but Bret looked good. Lanny had a tremendous hope spot with a sunset flip on Bret but Bret kicked out. Lanny had another good hope spot with Neidhart where he got in a few stiff punches to the mid-section but was caught in a front face lock again. Lanny finally made the tag after Bret missed a charge. Swede did give some nice chops to Neidhart and had a great near fall off of a pile driver on Bret but other than that his strikes looked weak. Lanny came back in and dropkicked Neidhart who was planning to Pearl Harbor Swede but it backfired as the referee got distracted by Poffo coming in and Neidhart recovered and nailed Swede with a clothesline allowing Bret to pin him for the win. This had some good spots in it but everything else was by the numbers. 7. Randy Savage vs. Rick McGraw Outstanding performance from Savage here. McGraw was solid but Randy made this match. Savage acted like a douche towards McGraw to start and McGraw got pissed and threw his t-shirt at Randy and chased him around the ring but got caught and beat down by Savage who still had his robe and headband on. Randy put McGraw upside on the turnbuckle and stomped on him still with his entrance attire which was fun. McGraw fought back though and gave Randy a leg scissors over the ropes and to the floor. Randy would regain control though and absolutely crush McGraw with top rope double knees to the chest. However, Savage went to the well too many times and missed his second attempt at a top rope double knee and took a sickening landing on his knees. McGraw worked over his left knee for a while with a spinning toe hold, leg drop to the knee, and whipping it hard on the mat. Randy sold the knee excellently as he limped around gingerly the entire rest of the match. He ended up catching McGraw with a back elbow that sent McGraw flying over the ropes and to the floor. They had a nice exchange on the floor with Randy selling his ass off but at the same time convincingly pounding on McGraw. They got back in the ring and McGraw made his comeback by attacking Savage's bad knee. McGraw went up top and tried an aerial move but Randy caught him in mid-air with a stiff has punch which made McGraw woozy and allowed Savage to awesomely limp up to the top turnbuckle and hit a tremendous flying elbow. Randy made the cover while selling his knee so he made sure his knee was protected. That was really awesome. Savage got the pin for the win and limped out of the ring and couldn't even celebrate. This had a really great performance from Savage who sold his ass off but had convincing heel offense while selling. That's enough to give this a solid nomination. 8. Hulk Hogan vs. Brutus Beefcake (WWF Title) Really fun match that was pretty good too. Beefcake struts around the ring and avoids a lock up. Hulk does the same thing to Beefcake and Beefcake is pissed. There was some fun brawling in this on the floor and Hulk took a good post bump. Beefcake stooged for Hulk some but took control eventually and locked in a long bear hug. This was a really good spot as the crowd was totally nuts during this entire match. Hogan's comeback was really good and he nailed Beefcake with some really vicious clotheslines. He did the big boot then the leg drop but Johnny V distracted Hulk. Johnny V held Hogan's arms back and Beefcake took a charge with his knee but missed and hit Johnny V allowing Hulk to roll him up for the win. Besides maybe a few tag matches with Valentine this might be the best Beefcake singles match I've seen. This was really heated, a lot fun, and had some good work. I'll give it a low end nomination. Final Analysis This was an incredibly fun card with a wild crowd. Every match had something to offer and most of them were at least really fun. We got three nominations and a match from the first set that I decided to not nominate. Others can check it out if they want. This was really a blast to watch and I enjoyed myself the whole way through.
