Loss

Some outstanding matwork between Fuchi and Joe to start us off, all with the announcers calling Joe the “#1 shooter” in the background. Every pairing works in similar fashion, and I suppose I’m surprised that Kabuki can hang on the mat with everyone else. But Joe Malenko is just an amazing wrestler to watch here, fluid in a way that very few have ever really been. That’s enough to make up for the fact that this would be a pretty bland match otherwise, considering there isn’t much of a layout and there aren’t really any repeated themes. It’s just a series of well-worked exchanges with everyone pairing getting some time. Sometimes, good wrestling is enough on its own. ***1/2

All the Flair-Sting sequences you’ve come to know and love in what I think was the first televised match these two ever had. Within the first three minutes, Flair goes up for two press slams. Still, this is fun because at this point, this is a fresh matchup. The feud hadn’t really gotten started yet, and Sting was just a UWF reject midcarder, so Flair did a lot to get him over as a worthy challenger, completely bitching out (yeah, I said it) for the test of strength and letting Sting shrug off his chops. The no-sell of the vertical suplex was a rare spot at this point since the Nikita feud was over a year old and the Luger feud hadn’t kicked in yet, so that got quite the reaction. After the first commercial break, Flair is working over Sting’s arm but we missed the transition, but even that offense is about putting Sting over by angling him in ways to show off Sting’s physique to the camera and letting him constantly tease comebacks. When Sting tries to strong arm his way out of it, Flair catches him with one of the best low blows I’ve ever seen. This is fun just because it’s such a lively match, and it even gets really good when Flair starts building heat with the figure four. But the stories of Arn and Tully watching Flair matches around this time and not getting why Flair was working like this and trying to talk to Ric about it sure make sense. Flair had no strong babyface opponents and felt like he had to work overtime to get all these Johnny-come-latelies over as credible challengers. It’s also a great display of the contradictions present in Flair’s work that cause a lot of the debate around here – there’s no real setup for the figure four and he’s generous to a fault in the opening segment. But no one can time nearfalls, make someone look like a million bucks and manipulate a crowd into reacting in the desired way quite like Ric Flair. (We don’t get a finish, as the show goes off the air, but we get a good 15 minutes of action.) ***

The going narrative was always that fans were sick of Dusty by 1988 but this crowd sure loved the guy and that’s what made this match fun to watch. Arn and Tully are definitely a team that will maximize any opportunity they have to work with a super over babyface, so they went in a direction you might not expect with Dusty as FIP. Tully is such a great heel opportunist. The stone face during ring intros is a great contrast to the try-hard types like Jeff Jarrett who pander for the heat. Tully can be an asshole just by standing there – he’ll do asshole things, but he gets heat because he *is* an asshole, not because he acts like one. Nikita had a really fun hot tag before the match ended in DQ when Tully threw Koloff over the top. Flair hit ringside but Luger made the save and went right for Arn. They were wisely keeping Flair and Luger apart in these types of segments at this point. Super fun TV match. ***

These two had a solid match, but it’s hurt by a few things like JJ taking too much heat for himself in the interference spots and Garvin just not being very over anymore after the title win and loss. Arn worked over Garvin’s arm and did some nice work, but the match didn’t really play to Garvin’s strengths as much as his matches with Flair usually did. It says something about the state of JCP at this point that people didn’t really start getting into it until they really started with the booking to show the finish was coming. I’m glad I saw this because it’s not bad, but it’s just an average TV match.

Kimura slaps Fujinami during handshakes, knocking him off his feet and setting the tone for the match. Kimura completely dominates the first half of this, leading to quite the excitement when Fujinami finally rallies back. It’s like an abridged version of Liger-Samurai in terms of the layout. Fujinami bloodies him up and the match gets pretty spirited and stiff. Great match with an upset win from Kimura, and I really like this as a budding feud for 1987. I don’t know if this is true for the context of the time, but I went into this expecting a technically strong match between friends and ended up getting something even better. ****

The finish was hurt by the crowd not really popping for it.

Some stuff has been written about the racial politics of this feud before that I won’t get into again, but it’s definitely evident and interesting to follow. Slater goads Reed into putting the North American title on the line, with the stipulation that if Reed wins, he gets the services of Dark Journey for 90 days. This is a terrific TV match. Slater didn’t make much of an impression with me the first time around on the Mid South set, but this match was solid. I loved Slater’s elbow cutoff when Butch put his head down for the back body drop when Slater came off the ropes. They cut a hard pace in this one. Slater ends up winning after pulling the tights, but Tommy Gilbert saw it and ordered the match to continue, which is a great way to increase the stakes. Slater ends up hitting Reed with Journey’s loaded boot after a ref bump to get the win. Really fun match. ***

Two expiration of time matches on the same show? I take it one of the dates is off, but I’ll still go with 1/1 for both until or unless I’m corrected. Eaton and Ware are a heel workrate machine as a tag team, although I think part of it is the overall sense of urgency. This is rushed since it seemed like they wanted to get in the body of the match before the show went off the air, but it’s very good all the same, and the benefit is that they do get in opening shine, heat on Taylor and a hot tag to Rougeau, so the match doesn’t feel like it’s missing anything. I’d love to see these teams in a longer arena match. ***1/4

Usually, the best expiration-of-time matches don’t strike me as just filling time, even though that’s all they are doing even in kayfabe presentation. But this never really shifted gears past the usual and became a back-and-forth wrestling match. The action was fine – Jacques showed some athletic promise and Jesse Barr looks like a very good early 80s worker -- but they didn’t build much heat until over halfway into the match, and when they did, it didn’t last. It’s hard for me to get into 80s matches where the heel doesn’t get some real time to dominate the action and work the crowd into a frenzy. Barr works the lion’s share of the match for his team, but Adrian Street seems to be the booking focus based on Dundee chasing him and the announcers talking about him more than he’s there. Apocalypse has an awesomely camp-looking mask, which makes it a little disappointing when he works like an ordinary heel. Cornette is at ringside and Dundee helps him earn his pay by chasing him around the studio and keeping him involved in the match. Cornette is fine here, but he hadn’t fully hit his stride as a manager yet, as he was still picking up tricks of the trade. Overall, I’d say this is a perfectly decent match that reinforces some of the big feuds at the time (mainly Dundee-Street) and presents Rougeau and Barr as two guys with potentially bright futures, but beyond that, it’s pretty average, without a sharp layout to make it sing.

This isn’t complete, but we still get well over 10 minutes of action, definitely enough to make a critique of the match. You watch them in comparison to their WWF feud in 1991 and it’s not so much that they lost a step as they got older as it is that seeing them do the same act doesn’t carry the same excitement when it’s two dudes in their 40s. Piper is a house afire on Flair to start until Flair hits a desperate knee to the balls to turn the tide, although even that doesn’t work in Ric’s favor very long. It’s easy to say “Oh, Flair is too giving”, but I think that’s a blanket critique that doesn’t allow for much variation. Considering how hyped the crowd was to see Piper take it to the champ, it was the right match for this crowd. There was the low blow mentioned before and even the shinbreaker that Flair used in an attempt to set up the figure four, but Piper just overwhelmed him and came back quickly in both cases. This is worth seeing for a crowd really into Piper, and they do work hard, but it’s more a fun match than it is a good one.

This isn’t complete, but we still get 22 minutes of footage with a healthy amount of action from each fall. I don’t think it’s clipped much. Fun seeing Dusty work the mat! The early part of this is Dusty working over Ric’s arm and going for quick pins while Flair tries to bridge out. Dusty is a competent mat wrestler. It’s wild seeing this because I’m used to the more character-driven flip-flop-fly-type action from these two where they stay vertical and Flair plays pinball for Dusty’s elbows. So seeing them do a chess match where they fight over a gutwrench suplex is something else. The crowd stays with them for this though, probably because they are in St. Louis and both guys are stars, so they can get away with it. I’m also impressed with how they pace this in such a classic way – lots of slow build with bursts of really fast action before they slow things down again. Athletically, Flair was at his peak in the early 80s, so every quick burst of action looks really good. I love the finish of each of the falls. The first fall finish puts Flair over both as a great wrestler and a cheating asshole, and it’s kind of a surprise to see Dusty take a pin from the champ in the first fall of a match, especially when it’s relatively clean. The second fall was Dusty’s retaliation and a decisive victory, coming back after Flair dominated the early part. They really do a great job putting over Flair’s resourcefulness in this one. He’s managed to be dominant before the third fall without even going for the leg, which makes it a bigger deal when he finally does. There’s a great sequence where Flair throws kicks at Dusty, which pisses him off enough to try to stand right up and fight him, but he collapses under the weight of his bad knee. Then Flair locks in the figure four and we get a time call of 30 minutes elapsed about 19 minutes into the clip, so not too much shaved at all. Pretty typical finishing stretch that was still fresh at the time, with Dusty putting Flair’s own figure four on him. Then Dusty goes for a press slam and his bad knee gives out, with Flair collapsing on top for the win. Great booking and surprisingly great action makes a great match. ****

1. Keep up with the current scene. That doesn't mean watch every show in full, but it does mean try to at least catch whatever matches get buzz pretty quickly, even if it's after the fact. 2. Go all in on Wrestling 365. 3. Finally start the Wrestling In The 90s podcast. 4. Write some stuff.

We never did really get the confetti after each post. There's always next year.

Great workers tend to overcome those things. How many times did Daniel Bryan get a crowd hot by the end of a match in 2010-2011 when they had zero interest to start? It's part of what a great worker is supposed to do. Yes, you want advantageous booking and they've been put in tough spots over and over for a few months now, and yes, I agree they should be able to rehearse if that's what they need to do to make the match work. There's nothing wrong with calling them limited workers and it's not even an insult -- it's on WWE to see that and put them in positions to succeed. But it's also on them to be able to deliver a good match (and win the crowd over when the crowd isn't initially receptive) when they are given the time. Maybe that would be a fair point if the idea of a match winning over a crowd despite being presented as unimportant was something unprecedented.

I think it's a match where if it did well, the storyline would be largely arbitrary. WWE, as they usually do in the build to Wrestlemania, would bank more on the dream match between big names factor than trying to make a compelling story that makes sense for both of their characters. In this case, though, I think the reason it doesn't hold much appeal is because their characters don't really mesh well. In spite of all that, I still think the odds of a financially successful match are strong. Debra managing The Rock in the build to Wrestlemania X-7 and Hogan attempting to murder Rock with a semi always come to mind when I think of these huge matches with a terrible storyline going in.

I don't know that I have a real point in saying this, but I just wanted to say this. I see my #97 as a ringing endorsement. The #97 wrestler on my ballot is among the top wrestlers of all-time. I feel strongly about my #97. I'd go to bat for my #97. We talk a lot about who is in contention for #1 on our ballots, but I find myself just as excited about guys in the 75-100 range. They aren't GOAT candidates, but who cares? My question is, do others agree that how we rank our 80-100 deserves just as much scrutiny and thought as how we rank our 1-20? If you disagree, what is the cutoff where you think the ranking becomes more arbitrary?

I might grade him on a curve because of how much I like the glam electrocution style he and Kevin Sullivan had in 1991. Still not sure he'd make a top 100, though.

Undertaker at Wrestlemania loses something without the streak, but I don't know that Undertaker at Summerslam or Undertaker at the Royal Rumble or Undertaker in a TV match means appreciably more or less.

Not that the presentation was advantageous (in fact, I'd say it was actively disadvantageous) but are we seeing workers like Sasha and Becky exposed when they don't have weeks to layout, practice and memorize a match with the help of a team of seasoned veterans? Is it possible that part of the issue is also their inability to improvise? A large part of it goes on the setting, but I think it also speaks to their limitations as workers.

I think it's worse to be blissfully unaware than it is to be trying stuff that isn't quite hitting the mark.

They are clearly creatively bankrupt, but they also don't seem to be asleep at the wheel at the moment. It's a pathetic progress I can at least halfway admire.

They are trying, I'll give them that.

I don't believe that. If that was true he wouldn't have had him come back for Bray Wyatt. Or Brock again. Or Brock for the third time. Or the Wyatts again. Or possibly the Royal Rumble. Whoever he is scheduled to face at Mania XXXII. I think if that was the reason given, it was just an excuse to justify the finish without making Taker look bad. Undertaker passed out and was rushed to the hospital before the end of Wrestlemania 30. He was in rough shape anyway before the match, and Vince made a last-minute call that afternoon that if they were ever going to end The Streak, it was their only chance. It's not at all inconsistent with what the thought was at the time that Undertaker was probably done. He ended up bringing him back because Undertaker said he could do it after all. Then at WM31, he told everyone he felt better physically than he had felt in a long time. So they added more matches. Circumstances change.

It was more simple than that. He thought it would be his last year.

In fairness, "X-Pac heat" is not apathy, and I'm with Coffey on that one. The issue is being confused.