Tito Santana vs. Greg Valentine (LA Sports Arena 12/17/88)
-    Valentine is wearing the shin guard here and he wasn’t wearing it in Hamilton. Valentine jaws with Superstar Graham early on and that allows Tito to take advantage and almost take off the shin guard. The crowd is more fired up than Hamilton for this match also, Hammer must be prepping for Garvin because he just stiffs the shit out of Tito. After a couple of jabs by Tito, he hooks in the arm and stays in control. FOREARM WAR! Huge punches from Tito and the corner slams bring the crowd up. Tito drives Hammer’s head into the mat. Tito brings the nasty. He even crotches Greg in the corner on the ringpost. When Greg comes back in, Tito tries to attack the leg but gets a thumb in the eye. Valentine keeps trying to get a pin on Tito and he is hooking every limb to keep Tito from reaching the ropes. Awesome. Damn! Sanatana flips Greg in a sunset flip move but doesn’t pin him. He just starts slapping the hist out of him and slams his head again. This is vicious. Tito fucks up by jumping on Greg’s leg and landing on the shin guard. Damn, Greg smells blood and inflicts all the punishment. The way they fight for every pin is NUTS. And the crowd is with them every step of the way. These 2 continue to beat the shit out of each other. OH FUCK! After Tito kicks out of a pin, he shoot knees Greg in the face. FUCCCKKKK. They just start blasting each other. Fucking war. Greg gets Tito don and does some nasty stepover leg breakers, headbutt to the abs, and sets up for the Heartbreaker after slapping Tito in the face of course. Tito reverses. Stomach buster doesn’t keep Tito down. Greg tries a back suplex but Tito hits one of those knees to the head and then reverses a suplex for a nearfall. I would believe that the suplex was a nearfall in this war. No figure 4, Tito blocks, Greg chokes, Tito turns around and he chokes. Tito counters and hooks in a figure 4 of his own as the bell rings. These guys are the greatest of rivals. EASIEST OF NOMINATIONS. Top ten match. Superstar Graham summed it up perfectly… they fought like animals, man. 
 

These two had an amazing rivalry from 84 to 85. Here it's early hammer jammer era Valentine vs between Strike Force stints Santana, and it's still an amazing pairing. They don't hesitae to go after each other with the blows, Santana brings the fire, Valentine the dickishness and the crowd is hot for Tito. Some of those haymakers and strikes are nasty, and it just adds to the aggressivness on dispaly, you can tell there is history between them. I really liked the touches of Santana selling the hammer jammer when he hits it or gets hit by it. Also loved Santana just fighting off the figure four attempts by whatever means he had. Definite nomination. 

I love that every WWF arena looks different & has their own atmosphere & ambiance. It's so much better than every building looking the same nowadays. Valentine getting into it with Superstar Graham is great. I love Tito immediately going after the shinguard as it proves to be an effective weapon for Valentine. The boxing stance stuff is awesome. After some early antics, they bring the physicality & really ramp it up. There are so many great moments in this it's hard to mention all of them. Tito's head smashes to Greg on the mat look extremely violent. Amazing selling by Valentine too. Valentine tries to humiliate Tito by standing over him & slapping him silly. Greg gets pantsed by Tito. The crowd is loving this & so am I. Tito's mounted punches are incredible. Great spot where Tito goes for the leg but hurts his arm on an elbow drop as he lands on the shinguard. Huge back & forth momentum swings. I love how vicious these two are together. Hair pulling. Every strike looks like it hurts like hell. Greg flips the shinguard around & kicks the hell out of Tito. Awesome. The final stretch is great with a hot crowd & drama. Each guy really wants to get the figure four on. Tito finally does, but the time expires for a 20-minute draw. Great, great match with exceptional pacing. It's definitely a contender for the upper echelon of matches. Top 10-20. These two were meant for each in the ring. 

EASY NOMINATION

Don't need me to add but this was totally awesome, I could easily see this being a top 20 match. Really fun to see how good this matchup was years after their big feud. Slam Dunk