Posted August 18, 201213 yr comment_5512990 VQ - Excellent (24/7) 1. Lanny Poffo vs. Rene Goulet This was a good match. Lanny read an awesome poem on the importance of wrestling in MSG. Lanny got the advantage right away but it didn't last long as he missed a charge in the corner and took a tremendous bump upside into it. Goulet went straight to a reverse chin lock but put a lot of pressure on it and worked the hold solidly. The mat work in this was really good. Lanny worked a head scissors and Goulet was always trying to find a way out of it. At one point he used the ropes as leverage to allow him to flip over into a pin attempt. That ruled. After working through some more mat work they went back to full speed fun. Goulet took a good bump for a fifty year old and plus man to be taking off of a monkey flip. They eventually went back to the mat and Goulet worked a reverse chin lock again, then did some cool leg work with Lanny working to fight out of it. Goulet got on El Scorpion or The Claw and Lanny kept trying to bridge out of it which was neat. He got out of it and went crazy with dropkicks, choking, and breaking rules with Goulet bumping great for him. Later, Goulet did a fucking cross arm breaker and Lanny tried to bridge out of it and got a pin attempt on Goulet while still in the hold and shit. Meanwhile, Goulet was pulling on his fucking fingers while still wrenching the arm. FUCKING AWESOME. Goulet then let go of the hold and stomped on Lanny's hand and fingers. YES. Both guys then stood up and stiffed the shit out of each other with nasty chops, slaps, and punches. That was a tremendous exchange. Lanny got the upper hand and gave Goulet a back body drop. Shortly thereafter, he got Goulet down on the mat, choked him for good measure, and hit his top rope moonsault for the win. This match was fun, nifty, and actually well worth a look. Low end nomination. 2. King Tonga vs. Les Thornton This was disappointing. These two just worked like it was another day at the office. There were some stiff strikes thrown but the pacing was bad and both guys lacked enthusiasm. They opened the match up with mat work and later Thornton started to target King Tonga's leg but everything was such uninspired work. The MSG crowd gave the loudest "BORING!" chant I've heard yet too. That doesn't speak too well for this match. King Tonga won with a nice thrust kick to Thornton's face followed by a top rope flying headbutt for the pin. I was hoping for a war but instead I got two guys going through the motions. 3. The Hart Foundation vs. The Killer Bees Tremendous match. I'm someone who thinks this might be HF's best match ever. This had a lot of the same spots and similar structure as their previous match in Boston but with a really hot crowd, a better face shine segment, and an awesome finishing run. Brunzell and Anvil started. Anvil was much stronger than Brunzell so Brunzell was getting outmatched in lock ups. Therefore, Brunzell slipped in a drop toe hold instead to get the big man down. The Bees then began working on Anvi's leg really aggressively. The leg work was great here and Brunzell did his spinning toe hold which ruled. Blair put Anvil in the figure four and Anvil looked to be done but Bret came in and gave Blair a leg drop across the throat to break the hold. Blair was now FIP and HF worked him over. This section was mostly Bret working a reverse chin lock and Anvil getting in some cheap shots behind the referee's back. Bret went for a second rope elbow drop but slipped and had a nasty crash to the mat. Blair was able to make the tag to Brunzell who came in fired up. Brunzell threw some great punches and strikes but was caught with a knee from Anvil that set up another FIP segment. HF worked on his back pretty extensively here. Brunzell was excellent as FIP and the crowd really got into it during this portion of the match. HF did the back breaker/second rope forearm on Brunzell. Bret also swung Anvil full speed and shoulder first into Brunzell into the corner which looked painful as hell. Bret got in a front face lock which I love when that is used and Brunzell worked hard to try and fight out of it to make the tag. Brunzell got a great hope spot off of a sunset flip for a near fall during all of this as well. He was tossed to the floor and Bret slammed him on the MSG concrete to further hurt his back. Back in the ring, Anvil held Brunzell up and Bret dropkicked him. Not long after that, Brunzell had a tremendous hope spot where he connected with an awesome dropkick on Bret. They did the spot where the referee doesn't see the tag. However, Brunzell managed to finally make the tag and Blair went on a wild offensive flurry. The crowd was off the charts by this point and HF were great stooging for the Bees. Blair got a near fall off of a small package on the illegal man Anvil which was a slight annoyance but then later got some great near falls on the legal man Bret with some fun heel stooging spots. The finish is awesome with Brunzell hitting a terrific dropkick on Bret but time expiring shortly thereafter as Anvil went to break the cover and a mini-brawl broke out. The match went to a time-limit draw and the Bees were the last team standing in the ring and the fans cheered them afterwards. This was a brilliantly structured and executed match with another outstanding performance from Jim Brunzell. This is one of the better WWF 80s tags ever. Easy nomination. 4. King Kong Bundy vs. George Wells Quick but fun squash. They lined up like a football game in the trenches and Wells caught Bundy by surprise and sent him flying into the turnbuckle. Wells threw a dropkick too but it wasn't long before Bundy gained control and methodically worked over Wells. He dropped a big knee and elbow. He missed another elbow and Wells had a nice little comeback going before Bundy hit him with the Avalanche in the corner. Bundy hit a big splash right afterwards and got the win. Wells was helped out of the ring after the match. Again, this was a fun squash match and it did a good job of putting Bundy over for his Mania match with Hogan. 5. Ricky Steamboat vs. Don Muraco (Martial Arts Match) This was pretty bad. I think this is the match Will was talking about in the other thread. There were a few botches and Mr. Fuji totally fucked up the interference. This was a condensed version of their previous match and much more boring, uninteresting, and had worse shit. Steamer did these cheesy ass blocks of Muraco's chops. Muraco stooged for Steamer for the first few minutes and wasn't all that compelling at it. Fuji got involved way too many times. Muraco's heat segment sucked even after bloodying Steamer with a catapult into a chair held by Fuji. Muraco got bloodied after missing a charge and hitting the ring post head first. Then there was this terrible finishing run with interference bullshit, a small package, and Fuji fucking everything up. King Tonga was in Steamer's corner to be an equalizer against Fuji for the match and came in and helped Steamer with the small package. Steamer got the pin off of the small package and Muraco Pearl Harbored and tombstoned King Tonga after the match. Steamer ran Muraco and Fuji off after the attack. This was definitely a shitty match. There wasn't really anything about this that was good except the blood I suppose. Yeah, Will I think this is one of more shitty Steamboat matches I've ever seen. Gorilla interviewed Captain Lou w/George Steele, The Iron Sheik & Nikolai Volkoff w/Fred Blassie, and Randy Savage. Captain Lou talked about how he respected Adrian Adonis but said he'll have to deal with Steele later in the night. Steele said several words describing Adrian and that was that. Volkoff and Sheik said funny things and Blassie was pretty good. There was that. Then Gorilla mocked Savage about his Lumberjack match with Hogan in the main event and Savage grunted and growled a few times before we went back to the ring. None of these interviews were too exciting. 6. Tony Atlas vs. Barry O This was pretty quick and there was nothing much to it. Barry O couldn't match strength with Atlas so he pitched a couple of fits. Barry O then got in a few cheap shots and had very little offense before Tony took full advantage. Tony tossed Barry O around and got the win with a press slam. This wasn't much of anything and wasn't really good or bad. 7. Adrian Adonis vs. George Steele This was similar to the last match in that it was short and there was noting much to it. Adrian stalled and ran away from the crazy Steele and Steele headbutted turnbuckles and stuff. Adrian then finally decided to wrestle but just got tossed around by Steele and bumped wildly for him. Steele bit him in the arm too which I did think was funny and cool. Jimmy Hart attacked Captain Lou with his megaphone. Steele intercepted the megaphone when Hart tried to give it to Adrian and used it on Adrian instead. Steele was disqualified and Adrian was awarded the match. This was fun in parts and whatever in others. There was nothing much to this like the previous match. 8. The Iron Sheik/Nikolai Volkoff vs. Cpl. Kirschner/Dan Spivey This was pretty uninteresting and not very good at all. Sheik and Volkoff's pre-match stuff was great and Sheik's taunting was too. Everything else actually sucked pretty bad. Kirschner did some amateur stuff with Sheik before tossing Sheik around for a minute. Kirschner then got worked over for a few minutes before he tagged in Spivey who briefly cleaned house before going into FIP himself. Sheik applied the Cobra Clutch on Spivey but Kirschner came in and broke it up. Spivery soon made the hot tag to Kirschner who took care of the heels for a minute. There was this really uninspiring finishing run. Spivey and Volkoff ended up on the floor and Sheik loaded his boot and kicked Kirschner in the stomach. Kirschner did a front flip to sell the impact of the kick but it came across as stupid and an unnecessary way to take a boat off of a loaded boot shot to the mid-section. Sheik covered him for the pin and the win. This was not good at all especially when one considers Volkoff, Kirschner, and Spivey all being in one match together. Ultimately, this was a pretty fucking bad and unappealing match to watch. 9. Ted Arcidi vs. Terry Gibbs This was quick and that's about it. Arcidi tossed Gibbs around and flaunted his strength. He ended up winning with a bear hug causing Gibbs to submit. I can't really give this proper analysis because nothing really happened, it was less than three minutes, and it was clearly a fast squash match. 10. Hulk Hogan vs. Randy Savage (Lumberjack Match) (WWF Title) I liked this a good bit. Hulk went right after Savage before Randy could get his entrance gear off. Savage sold Hogan's offense tremendously. Hulk still worked pretty stiffly at this point so his offense looked good too. Hogan was tripped by King Kong Bundy and Don Muraco who were lumberjacks on the floor. He threw a punch at both guys and Savage soon took advantage from the distraction. Savage kneed Hulk in the ribs and hit a top rope ax handle sending Hogan rolling back to the floor. Hulk brawled with the heel lumberjacks and ended up being Avalanched by Bundy twice against the ring post while being held by Muraco further injuring his ribs. Savage did the top rope ax handle a few more times and unraveled Hulk's taped ribs to further damage them. I loved him holding onto the unraveled tape as he did another top rope ax handle on Hogan. Savage got several near falls but Hogan wouldn't stay down. Randy hit his top rope elbow drop but Hulk kicked out at two and no-sold it. That was a bit annoying. Hogan through some punches, swung and hit Savage with a big boot, and withstood a rake to the eyes. Savage put on a side headlock and Hulk pushed him to the ropes for a criss cross spot but George Steele tripped Savage who fell on his back and Hulk hit his leg drop instead for the win. I thought this was a really good seven to eight minute match with a strong beginning, middle, and end despite Hulk's bullshit no-selling of the Savage elbow. With that said, I'm giving this a solid nomination. Final Analysis This was a good show. I liked three of the matches a good bit but everything else was sub-par. There was one really great match, one very good match, and another definitely worth checking out. That is a pretty solid show in my book even with the negatives included. 1986 WWF looks to be a great year.
