Superstar Sleeze

Worst finish since the Fingerpoke of Doom. Nothing means anything anymore except the Pedigree. Just put the fucking belt on him. If that was HHH as a face then fuck this company. I'm going to let it play out. Everything is salvageable if this was a heel move but yes that is the worst finish since the Fingerpoke in my opinion.

Even if I overrated the Angels/Girls match, it definitely blows everything from WWF 1988 out of the water. I watched 12 matches this weekend and have done reviews in the past on about 15 more. Here would be my Top 5. 1. Angels vs Girls - Boston 3/5/88 2. Demolition vs Rockers - MSG 10/88 3. Survivor Series Ten Team Tag 4. Randy Savage vs Ted DiBiase - Cage Match MSG 6/88 5. Greg Valentine vs Tito Santana - MSG 11/88

Bret Hart vs Bad News Brown - WWF MSG 4/25/88 Did Bret plan his matches out in advance? I read his book a long time ago, but I recall him discussing planning the matches in the back maybe not to the level of Savage, but he is definitely no Flair. I think that's why his matches in the 80s feel so mechanical. Everything is super segmented. When Bad News is on top he is on top. There is only one hope spot! When Bret is on top, he is on top. Bad News is just a tackling dummy. This is my major malfunction with Bret matches in 80s. The excellent execution is there and the layouts are great, but they are so damn soulless. It is just logical point A to Point B to Draw. To me this is the definition of good wrestling. Babyface shine is Bad News blindsides Bret so he overcomes and throws him out Bad News pouts and thinks about leaving. Do that again. Bad News rakes the eyes on a backbreaker and then goes after the throat. Bret does not fight back just absorbs the blows and takes the punishment. Throws in a hope spot and misses the elbow drop so Bad News goes back on offense. Bad News showboats too long so he misses the move off the middle rope. Bret takes over with his usual moves. The finish is a little better as there is some struggle for about a minute at the end and Bret even acts like it is difficult to hoist Bad News into the piledriver. Then ref fucks up the finish as he wont count because it is a time limit draw but the whole point is that it is supposed to be controversial for the fans. So then he count probably cause Bret yelled at him and just makes it worse. Not much heat. Bad News was the ultimate generic heel. Overcelebrating, going for the insincere handshake, feigning the walk out. It came off as forced. Bret understood wrestling and was very good at executing the moves, but he is missing that emotion sometimes. Definition of a good match. ***

Blue Angel (Owen Hart) vs Barry Horowitz - WWF LA 8/13/88 Owen Hart in a Super Calo like mask is the Blue Angel. Owen is already technically more proficient than 95% of the WWF roster at this point and blows Gorilla and Superstar's mind within a minute with his moves. His outfit looks wicked bush league and Blue Blazer was definitely a big upgrade. Owen looked freaking awesome here. Superstar makes a great point saying he is doing cool moves, but is delivering the pain too. I love how he is always maintaining wrist control throughout all his cool, flashy chaining sequences. The shine is a really good one that really showcases Owen. Horowitz' best contribution is that funny pat on the back taunt. He hits a superkick on a criss cross to take over. At first, he is a pretty good heel, getting nasty going for the throat, choking. Then as Superstar and Gorilla speculate runs out of moves and hits the chinlock, which is pretty funny because it is probably true and exactly what I was thinking. Horowitz falls in love with a variety of cradles, which is oddly babyface of him. He goes up top and Owen kips up and saves us from this. Owen chucks him off and takes him to school. Big time missile dropkick, "Suplex City coming up" - Gorilla, backbreaker and then a moonsault do Horowitz in. Definitely sign that man! Owen looked impressive in this. As a match, I think it is fun as a novelty and exhibition of where Owen is at the time and how good he was at this point, but Horowitz just does not have enough on top to make this more than good. ***1/4

WWF World Heavyweight Champion Randy Savage vs Bad News Brown - WWF MSG 12/30/88 This will probably sound weird to those older than me, but I have never seen a Bad News Brown match. I liked how he carries himself. He just looks like a mean, street-tough man. In the ring, he is fine, nothing awesome, but it is fine. Savage was awesome in this! He was a total Wildman. He came out all cylinders firing swarming Bad News before the bell. I don't know why he is pissed, but I am happy he is. I thought we were going to get this badass street fight, but Bad News hits a clothesline in the ring and things settle down to the normal heat segment. Bad News was fine working on top with clobbering. Savage ends up reversing Bad News into the post and then hitting a high knee in the ring. Savage actually dives over the top rope onto Bad News. Savage is great! Double axehandle to the floor! Misses a double axehandle in the ring, but tosses Bad News off the top. He misses the flying elbow, but gets a small package to win. He is definitely being booked more like Bret than Hogan with these cradle victories rather than decisive leg drop wins. Bad News comes back with a trash barrel, but Savage sends him packing. Fun match, great Savage performance, Bad News is a solid heel challenger. ***1/4

WWF World Heavyweight Champion Randy Savage vs Andre The Giant - WWF MSG 9/29/88 Smartly laid out match given Andre's limitations. First five minutes was all stalling around Heenan accosting Liz and Savage getting pissed. Pat Patterson sends him to back under threat of suspension and a heavy fine. Savage should have decked that asshole. Andre blasts Savage from behind. Andre was slow, but packed a heavy punch. I thought this was pretty good Andre offense. The hope spot was Andre getting in the caught ropes. I liked when he got free he just started swinging that heavy hand and was knocking the Macho Man back. Savage was hitting double chops to knock Andre down, but missed the flying elbow. They end up on the outside and it is a double countout as Andre grabs Elizabeth's ankle as she tries to escape the chaos in the ring. Savage breaks her free and then carries her to the back. He has his priorities in order. Andre has the belt and is threatening the ref to declare him the new champion instead the ref issues a heavy fine. It was fine for what it is. Nothing to see again.

Randy Savage vs Ted DiBiase - WWF SNME 3/12/88 These two had great chemistry, I think that outside the restrictions of the WWF house style they could have had a classic. That being said this match is a perfect example of the WWF is better at than any promotion in history and that's advancing an angle within confines of a match. DiBiase has not only Virgil, but Andre in his corner. They do a great job highlighting the four major participants in upcoming tournament for the vacant championship and foreshadow the dark possibility of DiBiase and Andre teaming up to ensure the title ends up around one of their waists. Typical beginning to the match with Savage slapping Virgil and DiBiase taking advantage. DiBiase has been great on offense in this series, choking and taunting and everything feels urgent. I love that Savage needs to hit four moves in a row to really gain control climaxing with a nice double axe handle. DiBiase powders to break his momentum. It was a little too easy for DiBiase to take control back and would have liked to seen some more cheating. Macho Man misses a kneedrop. This could be interesting, but alas goes nowhere. Spinning toehold and the Million Dollar Man is kicked over the top. Andre looms over distracting Savage, who gets CLOBBERED by Virgil. Virgil is thrown out. We go to commercial and it is to the chinlock. Savage makes his comeback, big time double axe handle from the top rope to the floor. Ref gets bumped. Liz has run to the back as Andre beats the shit out of Macho Man. DiBiase wins by countout once the ref is revived. If the final ends up with Savage against DiBiase or Andre, the fans now have to worry that through chicanery Savage could really lose. They look to do a number on the Macho Man, but here is the Hulkster with a chair. That's the missing piece that was so crucial. The MegaPowers have each other's back and now it will be even at Mania! Good angle development strong match with a lot of energy and urgency. Loved the finish. Andre looked like a beast. ***1/2

Hulk Hogan vs Harley Race - WWF 3/12/88 Probably most famous for Harley's table bump, which oddly enough is no sold. Hogan is pissed because of being screwed out of title by the Brain and Million Dollar Man. So he takes it out on Race who bumps all over the place for him and Hogan even chokes him with the tape and then chokes Heenan. Jesse is appalled. Harley blindsides Hogan and it is bombs away...head butts, knee drops, belly to belly Suplex and pile driver. It is fun and different in the cartoony simple WWF. He tries for head butt and cracks the table but keeps going and will not be deterred and actually hits the top rope head butt kick out! HULK UP! Quick burst! Heenan takes a great bump on his own leaping over the top rope to the floor. Very entertaining one of Hogan's best in this era. ***1/2

Greg Valentine vs Brutus Beefcake - WWF 3/12/88 Beefcake was really on point with his barber puns. "On point" get it, yeah, barber puns suck. Beefer was cuttin' and struttin' into heart of Vince, who was ogling him in his risqué tights. Jimmy Hart was actually a great foil for Beefcake because of his ridiculous mullet so the threat of cutting his hair is fun. Valentine clearly goes to the same hairdresser as Judy Martin also makes for a great foil for the Barber. This is the blowoff to their year long feud as Beefcake is transitioning into a feud with The Hammer's stablemate, the Honky Tonk Man (another ridiculous quaff for Beefcake to cut) over the Intercontinental Championship. In fact, Honky makes his way to ringside while Brutus is selling his leg on the outside to berate and add some heat to their Mania IV match. Pretty damn good SNME match here. Beefcake is over and showed a lot of energy. Nice high knee and a pair of atomic drops. Valentine bumped and stooged like a million bucks for him. The stooging off the atomic drop was Rick Rude levels of awesome. The ref tries to get a clean break in the corner and the Hammer blasts Beefcake. That's the Hammer I know and love. I agree with Jesse that it was awesome that Valentine put the figure-4 on in the ropes and just when all out using the ropes to really ramp up the pressure to do some serious damage. This is when Honky lays the verbal smackdown. Back from break, Valentine tries to get the figure-4 back on, but Beefcake keeps pushing off. Brutus makes his comeback and calls for the sleeper, but Valentine collapses to the outside. Beefcake gets distracted by the Mouth of the South and a fun chase ensues. The finish is a back suplex with both men pinned, but Beefcake gets his shoulder up. Lame finish. With Beefcake going into a title match and it being the blowoff, you would figure he would be put over stronger. Beefcake des get to cut a lock of Valentine's golden hair. Fun little match with Valentine stooging and showing some great offense. Beefcake was energetic. Good stuff. ***

The Tito/Valentine draw from MSG November 88 is really good. Rockers/Demos in 88 is probably the best Demolition match ever and is also really good.

WWF World Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan vs Rick Rude - WWF Boston 1/9/88 One of the matches I have always wanted to see because Hogan/Rude is pretty rare (rumor is Rude did not want to job to Hogan because that's when you lose your value in WWF is once you have the Hogan series). Besides the fun, arm wrestling match that breaks out in the beginning of the match, this is a very routine Hogan. Beats up heel sends him running with atomic drop, blasts Heenan. They console each other. Rude uses hair and Heenan trips Hogan to lead to heat segment. Chinlock and Rude gets his Argentine Backbreaker, which is impressive. Hulk Up! Legdrop win. Posedown and then DiBiase & Virgil really do a number on Hogan busting him open. Really damn good sell job by Hogan. It is too bad they never really did Hogan/DiBiase blowoff.

Greg Valentine vs Ronnie Garvin - WWF MSG 12/30/88 I love when two Carolina Boys hook it up and lay into each other in a WWF ring. Valentine was so wasted in 1988 being stuck with Brutus Beefcake, Bloated Don Muraco and fucking old as dirt George Steele. He did have a great match with Tito Santana at the previous MSG show to this one. Valentine has hair that would make the Glamor Girls jealous so Lord Alfred Hayes starts gushing over Judy Martin and that Rockin Robin is too skinny and not enough woman for him. They start as one would expect just blasting each other with chops. Garvin nominally has control of this as he is always moving forward and winning the exchanges. They are just wailing on each other. I loved that Valentine goes for the Flair Flop and Garvin stops him with a choke. Garvin goes for the sleeper, but Valentine ultimately reverses into some nice armwork (great shoulderbreaker) and some brutal chops. Garvin mounts a comeback a little too early in my opinion with his headbutts and fists.. Garvin Stomp! Gets no reaction, which is funny. Valentine wrangles him into a kneecrusher and Garvin sells this beautifully and the finish run is pretty hot. Valentine is working the Heartbreaker gimmick (shinguard) that increases the pain and pressure of the figure-4 so Garvin is doing everything he can to impede Valentine including a monster right hand to Valentine's head. Garvin rips off the Heartbreaker and the crowd pops, but he cant hit him with it and gets rolled up for three as he is arguing with the ref. Garvin beats him with the shinguard. Honestly, I expected to like this a bit more. I love I good stiff Carolina chopfest, but this did not have much in the way of progression. It just felt like chop exchange, Garvin rallies and wins and Valentine bumps. That just keeps happening and there was no sense of build until the very end, which was very good. Entertaining because it is one of my favorite style of matches, but they have better matches in 1989 with each other. ****

WWF World Heavyweight Champion Randy Savage vs Ted DiBiase - WWF Wrestlefest 7/31/88 Similar to the April MSG match, but with some more bells and whistles. Savage is really unique as a babyface champion in Vince Jr's WWF as he is only one I can think of that didn't have a real go-to comeback, finish stretch. Even Bret who mixed it up a lot had the 5 moves of Doom, Sharpshooter and barrage of cradles. Savage really did not have much. Savage is distracted by Virgil approaching Liz with his #FuckMoney allowing DiBiase to get the jump on him. Savage makes a mini comeback and sends DiBiase packing. Energetic shine but not as focused or as long as the MSG match. DiBiase uses the leverage move and rams Savage's head against hard objects. I thought this heat segment made better use of hope spots liked the crossbody a lot and set up the use of the chinlock better. DiBiase bumps great off the turnbuckles, but Savage rams his knee into turnbuckle. Savage sold the knee really well throughout the rest of the match too bad they did not build around that. DiBiase goes for Spinning Toehold and ends up being kicked out of the ring. Savage's comeback, but when he goes for elbow Virgil distracts. DiBiase runs into Virgil surprisingly that's the not the finish. Virgil smashes Savage's head with a chair, but the Million Dollar Man cant get the job done and Savage wins with inside cradle. The heels put the boots to him and he rolls to outside and throws in a chair. Where's Hogan??? Oh yeah that hot dog is off filming a movie. Savage should dump that Hollywood wannabe's ass. Like I said a bit more bells and whistles, could have been interesting with more knee work, kinda lame finish. ***

WWF World Heavyweight Champion Randy Savage vs Ted DiBiase - WWF MSG 6/25/88 Steel Cage Couldn't find the May match so skip to the cage blowoff. I have seen this before as it is the Randy Savage Comp that WWE put out. This was way better than I remembered. Loved the urgency from both men and just how nip and tuck this was. DiBiase was fired up and just blasting Savage straight away. I liked stuff like Savage avoiding one fist drop, but then not the next one. It was just really good energy and competitive. I liked DiBiase using the cage to set up hope spots, but then immediately cutting Savage off. Then Savage gets more and more of an advantage especially creating his own opportunities to climb the cage, but now he has to contend with Virgil. Superstar Graham says the thing all women want to hear, "Elizabeth would still look beautiful 80 lbs heavier." Ever the charmer, the Superstar. The back half does drag a little bit with all the double clotheslines, but once Savage gets slammed in the head by the cage door it picks back up. They do have a pretty dramatic finish with DiBiase half out the door and then the famous double noggin knocker finish with the fan scaling the cage. Savage picks up the win. The best DiBiase performance in WWF great on offense at the beginning bringing the fight to the Macho Man and then some big ass bumps off the cage. Savage brings the energy and intensity. Parv is crazy for having this in his top 100 matches, but it is a great match. ****

WWF World Heavyweight Champion Randy Savage vs Ted DiBiase - WWF MSG 4/25/88 I made the statement that Jumping Bomb Angels vs Glamor Girls from Boston 3/5/88 was the match of the year for WWF in 1988. I realized I don't think it is even close and really thought there is no real standard classics for WWF in 1988. I think Survivor Series ten-team tag and Savage/DiBiase matches are the most likely candidates. I do remember a great Valentine/Santana match from a random MSG show. For as well-loved Savage is, there is not much talk about his one year reign as WWF champion and that really speaks to the forgettableness of 1988 WWF. He was mostly programmed with DiBiase then Andre before the MegaPowers Explosion angle. I think Savage/DiBiase is not as well remembered because it is not accompanied by a classic angle. It was just trotted out as a hot babyface and hot heel having great matches for title. I think an angle would have made the series more fondly remembered. It was just the classic three matches at the Garden that Vince Sr would run. I thought this was a pretty good first match in the series. Knowing Savage's fondness for long heat segments when he is a babyface I thought we were not even going to get a shine when he chases Virgil and DiBiase attacks from behind. Savage does manage to push DiBiase off into the post. Savage gets in a great shine. Tons of energy with a focus on arm work. Awesome bumping by DiBiase. Over the top, but really fun. I like it that way. DiBiase uses the trunks to send the Macho Man crashing to the outside. Good stuff at first with DiBiase using the railing and choking. Hell, he two moves off the middle rope! Then it look chinlock-y and kinda meandered. DiBiase misses the Tenryu elbow and here comes the Macho Man. Love the energy. Always dug the spot where he snaps the opponent's neck on the top rope as he jumps to outside...HUGE BUMP bu the Million Dollar Man. Gets the double axe handle, but ref ends up bumped. He goes for the flying elbow, but in a wicked bump that the camera kinda misses, Virgil shakes the rope and Savage jumps straddles himself and crashes to floor. Cant believe the WCW-level shoddy camerawork because that looked like an all-time bump. Great beginning and ending. Savage supplied great energy and DiBiase great bumping. DiBiase's heat segment dragged. Good start. ***

Watch out! Your inner smark is showing.

I don't feel desperate. Jumping Bomb Angels vs Glamor Girls 3/5/88 Boston Garden. WWF 1988 Match of the Year, Best WWF Tag Match Ever and Better Than AJ Styles vs John Cena! WATCH! WATCH! WATCH!

Absolutely loved their first match. This was pretty disappointing. Just doing a Cena/Owens tribute which was already a shitty template for a match. You bring up an interesting point about hypocrisy and as someone who is generally praised New Japan more often than not I don't think I'm a hypocrite. Here's why: New Japan tends to have finish runs for each guys. It is clear one man is in the driver seat and then there is a well-worked transition that switches momentum to the next wrestler. It was these sustained periods of momentum and smart transitions that separate NJPW from these Cena super-worker matches. Maybe it is because I've watched a lot of NOAH but I think NJPW is pretty stingy with the near falls. I would say there is only 1-2 false finishes per match before the finish. Cena/AJ every move was treated as a bear fall so there was diminishing returns. Cena/AJ was definition of My Turn, Your Turn it was very rare for one guy to hit more than two moves in a row. I would say it is about ***. However I think this another feather in AJ's cap for wrestler of the year. He has had a traditional classic with Roman Reigns which I'm on record saying it is the best match in twelve years and GOTNW thinks it is the a contender for the best WWF/E match of all time. He had a badass Extreme Rules match with Roman which is best live match I've ever seen. Now he has had Indy Superworker spotfest. He has crushed it in three different styles. He is the fucking man right now!

Barry Windham vs Mr. Hughes - WCW Saturday Night 9/21/91 Paul E says Mr. Hughes is "mad, bad and dangerous to know"! This a part of the ongoing Windham/Luger feud that stemmed from their double turn at GAB '91 with Hughes being the bodyguard for the champ & his manager, Harley Race. Really fun power TV match. Mr. Hughes really throws his massive body into everything. He looked like an out of control runaway locomotive. At the beginning he looks like he is going to topple Windham when he tries to take a hiptoss, but Windham stabilizes himself and hurls the big man over. Really great shine with Hughes bumping around and showing a lot of energy. He catches Windham with a power slam and the heat segment was good. Combination of strong power moves, Harley interference and great hope spots (loved Windham missing the dropkick and flying over the top rope to the floor on a missed cross body). The finish was a Mr. Hughes Figure-4, which I didn't care for because Windham promptly no sold it on comeback. Windham had a nice fiery comeback climaxing with a flying lariat. He gets distracted by Harley and wants to rub his face in concrete so Luger comes out and waylays him with a chair. I would have liked to seen Windham get another crack at Luger, but hand crushing angle is a great one. Fun TV match between two hosses, which is my favorite type of match. ***1/4

Ricky Morton vs Robert Gibson - WCW Great American Bash 1991 Richie, Rickard, Richard Morton as Tony has a hard time adjusting to the name change as Morton has turned heel and joined the York Foundation. Morton as a heel feels so wrong, but he does a really damn good job. As someone mentioned he does the Andersons proud targeting the bad knee of Gibson with laser focus. I like that it was not just one ring post wrap that did Gibson in, but he kept fighting and Morton just overwhelmed by attacking the knee. I thought Gibson was really good in this. Great brawl on the ramp to start and some really damn good punched. He wanted to get things cooking, but Morton kept powdering. Once Morton got on the knee, I thought the work was sound, but was missing character and energy. The figure-4 made sense, but just felt flat to me. Part was the crowd, but part was the wrestling were doing the right things but just didn't have the gusto. Liked Gibson's hope spots and then things ending like missing the dropkick. The enziguiri with the bad knee was a such a great hope spot logical and effective. Both of them going for dropkicks on the ramp was a nice touch with Gibson worse for wear with a bad wheel and now Morton is desperate cracks him in the head with the laptop. Loved the finish. Due to second nature both go for dropkicks but Gibson is hurt and Morton takes advantage with the laptop. Morton was great on leg and Gibson great on hope spots could have used more energy. ***1/2

You heard it here first, the Ruiner of Matches, Bray Wyatt will attack Orton to start feud.

Roman/Rusev looked primed to be the best brawl in years. Ugh.

YOU GOT TO BE SHITTING ME!

REAL MAIN EVENT TIME!!! Cena, AJ let me down...Roman, Rusev don't let me down

That Inside Cradle Driver is awesome. That should be someone's finish.