Hercules vs. Tito Santana (MSG 12/26/86)

Honky Tonk Man is still celebrating from his match before. Tito comes down for his match & faces off with Honky. Honky blindsides Tito & smashes his knee on the steps. Tito is hurt badly at ringside & it’s not sure if he can compete. Heenan is on commentary & interrupts because he’s Herc’s manager. Heenan declares if Tito doesn’t wrestle that Hercules will be awarded the victory. Herc then beats away at Tito & takes him into the ring. The match starts as Herc attacks Tito’s bad knee. Tito’s selling is remarkable. Herc beats on him for several minutes & focuses his entire offense on the knee. Herc makes a mistake by going up for a top rope splash, but Tito gets the knees up. Tito hits a desperate flying burrito. Tito with some headbutts to Herc’s midsection. Tito does a chop block & goes after Herc’s knee! Hell yeah! The crowd is going nuts now. Tito smashes Herc’s knee against the ring post several times. Tito is doing all of this while still masterfully selling his knee. This is great. Heenan is flipping out on commentary. Tito puts in the figure four to a huge pop. Heenan freaks & rings the bell out of nowhere. The match comes to a halt & there’s tons of heat for this. Tito believes he’s won, but the referee corrects the situation & proclaims the match must continue. Heenan stays in Herc’s corner for the remainder of the match. Tito keeps up the attack on Herc’s knee. He goes for the figure four again, but is kicked into the bottom rope. Great bump. Herc distracts the ref as Heenan punches Tito’s bad knee. This allows Herc to hit a running knee to Tito in the ropes & Herc gets the 1-2-3. Both guys are selling the knee attacks wonderfully after the match. This whole thing is awesome. The Herc knee attack in the first half is a bit slow at times & the crowd is pretty quiet for it until Tito makes his comeback. Otherwise, this has a fun pre-match angle, Heenan shenanigans, & awesome limb work & selling. 

STRONG to EASY NOMINATION 
 

I can't believe how much heat there is for this match. I live the psychology of Hercules attacking Tito's leg but if there is a criticism, its that the work isn't very dynamic. He isn't cranking on the holds or yanking Titos leg out of socket, just "applying" pressure. There were also moments where Tito sat in a hood and was mere inches from the rope. Grab the rope dumbass. These are minor complaints.  Still completely different on how I expected this to unfold. Everything after Hercules misses the top rope splash was awesome. Tito hooking on his figure 4 and hearing the crowd was surreal. I didn't not expect this to be a battle of two dudes with bum legs. The stretch run was awesome as well with Tito getting a near fall because Herc couldn't slam him and Herc avoiding the figure 4. Even Heenan distracting Tito paid off huge with the ambush and Hercules hooking Titos bum leg like his life depended on it was just the perfect ending. The selling after the match was awesome. This is an EASY NOMINATION and my new contender for best Hercules match of all time. Completely different from the Warrior match but both awesome.