Posted August 9, 201213 yr comment_5512305 VQ - Excellent (24/7) 1. Paul Roma vs. Barry O This was probably better than it should have been and was well structured. They went the full twenty minutes and both guys actually had some variety to them. The work still wasn't spectacular but I was somewhat impressed that these two were able to come up with a few things. Barry O was better than Roma here in the end as Roma did end up repeating himself in the last few minutes. He looked confused down the stretch. Barry O pulled out a running power slam, a nasty knee and stomp to Roma's head, and did a solid job of working and mocking the crowd. Roma had a lot of offense he pulled out of his ass including a suplex, gut wrench suplex, dropkick, twisting power slam, and even locked in the figure four. Roma even took two good bumps to the floor. However, he did like three twisting power slams and he started to become repetitive in the closing minutes. Barry O had the reverse chin lock as his base. What a shock. The reverse chin lock was once again used as a fucking base for a match. As far as the structure goes, it was pretty good. Roma had some fun to start, then Barry O took control, followed by Roma's comeback which led into a back and forth to the time-limit draw. The time-limit expired when Roma put Barry O in the figure four. It was kind of amusing because Roma didn't even apply it correctly. He didn't really have it on good at all. To sum it all up, this was a passable match for these two but it clearly was way too long. Neither of these guys should be going past ten minutes in singles competition much less against one another. 2. Tony Atlas vs. Moondog Spot This was pretty run of the mill. It wasn't bad but there was nothing to it that made it special. Spot took control early and mostly did several variations of ax handles around his base which was of course the reverse chin lock. I will say Spot did a good job putting on the hold and Tony was solid working underneath with it. They made the hold more interesting by actually doing a pass out/submission spot with it. Tony came back and did his fun little strike combo. The finish was actually cool with Tony winning with a flying head scissors cradle. That was awesome. This wasn't much to talk about but was fine for what it was. 3. Pedro Morales vs. Bob Orton Jr. This is easily the best Pedro match I've seen since his comeback. Orton was great in this as the stumbling and bumbling heel. Pedro chases Orton right before the match starts and Orton trips and does a theatrical bump on the ramp that hilariously led to the bell ringing. Orton gets Pedro to come to the floor but catches him and throws Pedro threw the Boston Garden barricade. He then tries to suplex Pedro on the floor but Pedro blocks it. He is able to slam him on the floor instead. That looked like a spot where Pedro just couldn't get his body weight over Orton's head for the suplex so that had to resort to a body slam instead. It worked out though in the end. Orton stomped on Pedro's head and mocked the crowd. He attempted a suplex again but this time Pedro reversed and suplexed Orton on the Boston Garden floor. They finally went into the ring and Pedro gave Orton a few punches with the last one making Orton do a 360 and ram his head into the turnbuckle which sent him through the second rope and back to the floor. Pedro then went to the floor and tossed Orton threw the Boston Garden barricade. Orton then got pissed and tried to used the knocked down barricade as a weapon but Pedro slammed it in his face which made a loud thud and Orton staggered back into the ring. Pedro stayed in control but got whipped to the corner. He reversed an Orton charge into a tremendous near fall off of a great roll up. Orton then attempted to hit Pedro with his cast arm but Pedro ducked, gave him a stiff punch to the chest and got a small package for the win. Orton hit Pedro twice with his cast arm after the match and threatened referee Danny Davis with it too. I'm not sure how many post-prime Pedro stuff we are going to have on this set (not much at all) but I'm going to nominate this because it was a really fun and spirited brawl. I'll give this a low end nomination. 4. Randy Savage vs. Ricky Steamboat This is a little better than I remember from when I watched it on the Savage DVD. The start of the match is great with Randy getting a sneak attack on Steamboat but getting whipped chest and arm first into the turnbuckle really hard which causes his headband to go flying off of his head. Steamboat does some really intense and fun arm work that follows which Savage sells greatly. I loved Steamer catching Savage's arm in mid-air and immediately working over it again. The transition into Savage's control segment was really cool. Savage throws Steamer over the ropes but Steamer skins the cat. Savage was waiting for that and caught Steamer with a forearm and knee to send him to the floor. Savage's frenetic pace and wild control segment was a lot of fun here. He immediately goes to the top rope and hits Steamer with an ax handle who's on the floor. Savage then sneaks around the other side of the ring and runs full speed into Steamer with a knee to the back that sends Steamer over the Boston Garden barricade and into the front row. Savage takes Steamer back into the ring and does another top rope ax handle. Steamer starts to make a comeback and they go into this really fast paced back and forth finishing run that their matches are known for. Steamboat goes for a top rope cross body it seems but Savage body presses him off. Savage would miss his flying elbow from the top rope as well in this match. Steamer started to take control with some karate chops that Savage bumped great bump. Savage took a wild bump over the ropes and onto the apron from one of Steamer's karate chops. However, Elizabeth handed Savage a foreign object which the referee didn't see. Steamer when for either a back suplex or an atomic drop as he picked up Savage over the ropes but Savage nailed him in the head with the foreign object and picked up the win. After the match, Steamer and Savage got into it and Savage's foreign object fell out of his hand. They both then fell to the mat and wrestled for it with Steamer winning the battle and getting the foreign object. Savage high tailed it out of the ring and to the back with Elizabeth as Steamer chased him with the foreign object. This was a very good match and actually better than I remember it being. They worked at an excellent pace and everything in this match was very exciting. I'm giving this a solid nomination. 5. Bruno Sammartino vs. Roddy Piper This was fun but they've had better brawls with much better finishes. They both start fighting right away before the ring announcements and Bruno posts Piper who juices. Bruno beats on the bloody Piper for a few minutes until Piper low blows Bruno after Bruno was distracted apologizing with the referee after previously putting his hands on him. Piper got a near fall on Bruno from the low blow and began pounding on him. Piper tossed Bruno to the floor but Bruno returned to the ring and regained control. Piper tried to escape but Bruno caught him on the aisle twice and they brawled there for a second. Bruno sent Piper back into the ring. They had a back and forth brawl with both guys taking advantage at one point or another. Bruno was in control and taking care of Piper in the corner when Bob Orton interfered and caused a disqualification awarding the match to Bruno. Bruno avoided a cast shot from Orton and beat on him while also trying to unwrap his cast then continued to pound on Piper. However, Orton nailed Bruno in the back of the head with his cast arm as Bruno was wailing away on Piper on the mat. Piper and Orton double teamed Bruno for a minute and Piper assaulted the referee with a punch before they left ringside and celebrated. This was fun for what it was but Piper didn't get enough offense in and the finish sucked. Plus, these two guys have had much better hate-filled fights than this. 6. Tito Santana vs. Jesse Ventura (WWF IC Title) This was fairly by the numbers. Tito threw some good punches and worked on Jesse's arm to start. Ventura soon got the advantage and worked over Tito's back with a back breaker then applied a bear hug. Tito is good working underneath so this wasn't too bad. Tito broke out of the bear hug with an eye rake and came back with some punches. He put Jesse in the figure four but Jesse got to the ropes. Tito went after Jesse but Jesse tossed him through the second rope and to the floor. Tito got on the apron and brawled with Jesse but was unable to make it back in the ring to beat the ten count just as he knocked Jesse to the mat and gave him a splash over the ropes. Therefore, Jesse won the match by count-out but didn't win the championship as of course titles can't change hands on a count-out. This was very run of the mill but wasn't terrible at all because Tito was so good at this point in his career that he could carry Jesse through the match pretty well. 7. Hercules Hernandez vs. Scott McGhee This was pretty good actually. Hercules looks to be capable of having good matches and this is one of them. Scott McGhee is one of the better WWF 80s JJTS so this actually isn't much of a surprise. McGhee has some good fiery offense and showed it early with some nice dropkicks and a flying head scissors. McGhee missed a charge and took an awesome bump hard into the turnbuckle and onto the floor. Hercules took control and hit McGhee with a nasty knee and put on a reverse chin lock. Hercules applied the hold pretty well and McGhee was solid underneath so this was a decent base for this match. McGhee fought out of the hold and came back with another good flurry of offense. He got a good near fall off a cross body here as well. He got Hercules down on the mat and hit a top rope knee to the face that looked pretty nasty. He then went for a top rope somersault senton but missed and Hercules dropped an elbow to win the match. McGhee ruled in this match and Hercules did a solid job keeping up with him. Like I said, this was a pretty good match as they did some cool stuff and worked well together with the time they had. 8. Adrian Adonis vs. Lanny Poffo Fun squash with a great finish. They traded punches and eye rakes before Adrian took control. Adrian went for his running bulldog but Lanny countered it and threw Adrian into the turnbuckle who bumped wildly into it. Lanny then gave Adrian a monkey flip and whipped Adrian into the turnbuckle again but with this time Adrian doing the upside flip bump into it. Lanny then went for his moonsault from the top rope but Adrian put his knees up and Lanny landed right on them. Adrian covered him and got the win. This was a really fun sprint with an awesome finish. I know there's another quick Adrian-Lanny match from later in the month but I'll nominate this and we can see how they compare. I'm giving this a low end nomination. 9. The Dream Team vs. The Killer Bees (WWF Tag Title) This was pretty run of the mill and by the numbers. There wasn't any excitement to this and both teams just kind of went through the motions. The Bees worked had some fun to start on DT then worked over Valentine. Blair worked on Greg's leg and attempted the figure four but Greg blocked it and Beefcake came in and nailed Blair to start the heat segment. Blair isn't too great of a FIP. He's not terrible here but as I said earlier nothing is exciting. Valentine and Beefcake work him over and both whip him back first into the turnbuckle once or twice. Valentine starts to work on his leg to set up the figure four. He tags in Beefcake though and Blair kicks Beefcake in the sternum and crawls pretty much a whole circle around the ring so he can make the hot tag to Brunzell. Brunzell is not all that inspired and just rams Beefcake's head into the turnbuckle, gives Valentine an uppercut, and then bangs the heels heads together. Brunzell hits Beefcake with his dropkick for a good near fall. All hell breaks loose as everyone is in the ring brawling. Brunzell gets the sleeper on Beefcake but Valentine hits him with an ax handle to the back from the second rope and Beefcake covers him for the win and to retain the tag titles. This match had some pretty uninspiring performances form everybody. I've seen way better from both these teams and certainly from Valentine and Brunzell. The match wasn't terrible but just didn't bring any excitement and was really by the numbers. Final Analysis Pretty good show. There wasn't anything that was terrible but nothing was blow away great either. Savage-Steamboat was very good but wasn't quite great. There were a few fun sprints and brawls, two of which I nominated. Everything else was pretty much run of the mill and by the numbers stuff. Overall though, this was a pretty good and solid show.
