dawho5

So I just took about three weeks running through the Hart Foundation set and a lot of things struck me while watching it. I wanted to wait until the end to see what shook out and what didn't. I'll be starting from Austin vs. Bret at SS 96. This match is great and I love how much Bret puts over Austin, the career midcarder to this point. He gives him more than you would ever guess Austin could get on Bret. This match and the WM match of 97 are really the springboard for Austin's rise. I love watching both and this one you start to see what SCSA could be. Bret gives him the time and opportunity to work his character into the match and makes sure to give back enough that Austin's selling shines through as well. For a guy who just signed the biggest contract in company history, Bret sure seems to be willing to help make a new star in Austin. Also, Austin's facial expression when he comes out for this match is absolutely incredible. And then we come to the point where Shawn Michaels "injures his knee" and loses his smile rather than dropping the belt to Sid. If I didn't know better going in, I could believe Shawn as the repentant former heel who realizes he's got to make amends. But since I know he faked the knee injury to get out of doing the job to Sid, fuck you Shawn. And it gets worse. So as a result of this Austin/Bret is the main event of WrestleMania. Despite being non-title, it's the hottest program they have. That contract of Bret's seems like a good call, since he's coming through when Vince's boy Shawn decides to go home when he has to job and he's not the biggest deal on the show. It's all well and good that Shawn is a great athlete and performer. You can't count on the guy. Bret you know he's going to give you the goods on the big stage when he needs to. Now to the WM match. Bret and Austin do the double turn that has been teased for about the last month. The way they did it is brilliant. Bret goes from babyface Bret who takes care of business in the ring to the guy who has started airing his grievances with the way things have gone looking for sympathy. Austin has been unyielding and his confidence has grown in the build to this match. He's not worried about Bret any more. He's just gonna kick his ass. And Bret, post-match, sees that the crowd is still cheering for him a little bit. So he goes over and stomps on Austin just to get it across. I love the little things like that. Next Raw has an amazing promo from Bret cementing his heel turn. He goes over everything that he's gone through since he came back, plus some of the stuff on the side. It's beautiful stuff. And then he blames the fans for letting all of that stuff slide. LOVE that. If you're going to turn a long-beloved babyface heel, this is the way to do it. Enough unfortunate stuff that keeps him away from the title and change one thing about ho he reacts to it all. Bret pulls it off amazingly well, especially given Shawn's interruption of the promo. Knee is looking pretty beat up there, Shawn. Shawn decides to go all "shoot" on Bret, using insider terms and talking about how "Bret won't job". Coming from the guy who faked a knee injury to get out of doing the job on a title change that is pretty damn rich. The fact that he uses *that promo* to make himself a babyface is some kind of crime against humanity. Bret taking out Shawn's "injured" knee kind of proves what we all know. And I enjoyed watching that, yes. We get one more Bret vs. Austin match that looks like it was supposed to serve as the bridge to the eventual Austin win towards the end of April. Bret re-unites the Hart Foundation and it's another incredible promo. That investment by Vince sure looks like it is paying off. The Harts are in possession of all the gold except for one, the WWF Title. Bret wants that one and while he's chasing that, the rest of the Foundation is cementing their status as the elite of the WWF. Austin ends up winning the tag titles off of Owen and Bulldog with Michaels (because we can't have this without him). Tag titles around this time are screwy. No real meaning, just some shit to fill shows with and get potential singles matches teased as tags. Austin and Michaels are the only ones who can get one over on the Foundation. You tend to believe Bret when he presents Owen and Bulldog in the favorable light he does. They do great work when it's their time to shine. The ten man tag in Calgary is all kinds of great. The crowd keeps it at least good throughout. Bret vs. Austin to start it off was a blessing and a curse. It gets the crowd molten hot, but when guys like LOD are in the ring things tend to go downhill fast. Neidhart should have worked Shamrock at some point. Pillman, Bulldog, Owen, Bret and Austin are on fire all match. Shamrock holds his own for the most part. Owen making the run from the back was a mark-out moment for me. Match ends exactly the way it ought to with the Foundation on top in Calgary. Here I want to point out two things. Shawn's promos are 100% insufferable. I can't stand listening to the guy talk. He's supposed to be a babyface, but he's such a jackass. And the Hart Foundation are the dominant force in the WWF. They are over everywhere, but as faces outside the U.S. It's such a great, subtle dynamic that is shocking to see from Vince. And Bret is so great at portraying the indignant, holier-than-thou heel. It's almost the role he was born to play. Now the Foundation are up against...the Patriot and Vader. Seriously? That's what you got? Patriot does fine with it and Vader does too, even if he's a bit too giving as a babyface. Harts try to make them look like real threats and keep their own heat, which they actually accomplish. I'd say that's pretty big. And given that Bret has a much talked about clause in his contract for reasonable creative control, I'd say that he would have been well within his right to ask for a bit more. Here we come to July. Owen and Austin have a great match, but Austin's neck gets injured in an unfortunate botch by Owen. By the way, loved how the WWF decided to do slo-mo replays of this just for shock value. Austin had to be pleased by that as well. Here is something I hadn't thought of before, but there is a question to be asked here. Is this the catalyst for Montreal? Vince has to know that the Bret/Austin series can't go on the same way it had already happened. So that being the case, is this where Vince decides that he's got no more use for Bret? We've already seen two guys get over big as faces with more traditional heel gimmicks. So in Vince's mind, does he see that the future is in anti-heroes rather than the Bret Harts of the world? And following that logic, how long does Bret last after his eventual loss to Austin? Does he get shown the door after performing that one last service to the company? Lots of questions and only speculation can answer them. Coming back to one point above, here's about the point where HHH starts coming out with Shawn and doing their schtick. Which is possibly one of the most overblown, overrated and "go away heat" gimmicks I've ever seen. Have I mentioned I think their stuff is awful. If I thought Shawn was insufferable before, he just gets worse. Absolutely ridiculous that this got cheers. Let's fast forward a bit to DX yukking it up while the Nation of Domination, yes that midcard stable, beating up on the Foundation. I have so many problems with this that I need a new paragraph. First and foremost, the Foundation has been dominant for the last 4 or 5 months. Now the Nation, a lesser heel stable, can beat them down and send them running with even odds? Again, let's take a look at how Bret was abusing his creative control clause. Take a look at how this plays out. DX trashes the Nation's dressing room, puts up a bunch of Canada stuff and sets the Nation on the Harts. So the Harts are putting over DX and the Nation. Selfish bastards that they are. And DX is putting over DX at the expense of both. You'd think if Bret was a guy to abuse that creative control clause, this would be prime fodder. And during this same time period, Owen loses the European strap to Shawn. Bret does a tainted job to HHH via countout after a Shawn superkick. You know, if I didn't know better I'd say that the booking has turned might against Bret Hart and his guys. Wonder where that could be coming from. Vince very rarely has anything nice to say about Bret on commentary anymore either. The SS match was fine with the hate-fueled brawling and all. Nothing great, but I guess Shawn did give Bret a good shine and got over the heelishness during the heat. It was by the numbers good anyway. The screwjob itself was covered up quite nicely on the broadcast. I guess they didn't think Bret would be as quick to react. Bret spitting in Vince's face was the only clue we got. The next few Raws, Shawn is again completely and totally insufferable. In victory he's gotten worse. The whole midget Bret thing is beyond awful. And I have trouble believing that Vince is out of the loop on this stuff. Vince's interview is a load of garbage as well. I couldn't get through it after a while because of how disingenuous Vince is. Then Neidhart is booked to join DX and get beaten down by them after helping them win a match. Vince and Shawn twisting the knife, anyone? Which is capped off by the "nugget" interview. At least Shawn's jackassery serves a purpose as a heel. As a face it was infuriating because you know he's trying to be a babyface by spewing out nothing but bullshit. At least as a heel he gets boos and there is some kind of retribution, no matter how small. He still has "go away heat", but at least he's supposed to be getting heat. In closing, I'd like to say that I think Bret Hart was responsible for some of what happened. He could have found ways to make the transition smoother. But I think he takes easily the smallest slice of that pie. Vince had motive to get rid of Bret, so did Shawn. The booking leading up to SS sure makes it look like somebody wanted Bret to look bad. And if you're Bret Hart, I think you have a case for a lot of the things you did. Bret made Austin. He wasn't all the way there yet, but he was well on his way when Bret left. And it was because of Bret's cooperation and Austin's own work that he was where he was. So Bret makes a new star for Vince, then gets shit on for a few months and shown the door with a knife in his back. Did Bret's pride contribute to how this went down? Oh yeah, it was a factor. But you can't tell me Vince didn't know what the future of his company was and that Bret didn't have a part in it. What, two or three weeks later they started running the Vince promo about how the WWF was new and improved, not the hokey "good guy vs. bad guy" stuff of old. Given that, how much room was there for Bret and his contract in that setting? Especially since there wasn't going to be an epic SCSA win over Bret. And the other guy in the equation....Shawn. Go away. Forever. I'm still not the biggest Bret fan, but the guy put in a blue collar effort over the last year of his WWF career and got the shaft for it. I'd say we all have times where we were kicking ass and let our pride get the better of us. It's gonna happen, especially in an ego-driven profession like pro wrestling. So I can forgive Bret for that and say honestly that it's a fairly common mistake. But Vince and Shawn's parts in this were not mistakes. They were deliberate and malicious in the way they got a guy out of the way.

I loved this promo because of Bret's conviction throughout. And like most truly great heel promos, there is some truth to just about every part of it. Do the American fans really deserve to be run down that way? Probably not, but Bret has legitimate gripes with everybody else involved and the fans turning on him for it just ppisses him off more. And of course we get Michaels coming out and being as full of shit as ever. If watching October 1996 through April 1997 WWF while knowing about Michaels ridiculous backstage BS doesn't make you hate they guy, you must be a big Shawn fan. I won't hold that against anyone, but as much as Bret was doing everything he could to come off as a douchebag to the American audience while sticking to the facts, Michaels comes off as a douche for the simple fact that he is being the world's most giant asshole at the time. Otherwise, brilliant promo by Bret and definitely one of my favorite I've ever seen.

I thought the match was brilliant. They had been prepping the turn for a little while with Bret getting whiny about what had gone on since his return. It looked to me like Bret ad-libbed the post-match attack on Austin. He saw that he was still getting at least half cheers and made sure he had the majority of the crowd booing him before he left. Amazing match with lot of hate and visceral violence. Austin doing his El Samurai impression was pretty cool. Once Austin starts bleeding it's off the charts great on a level rarely achieved. It's a shame Shawn/Bret is the pairing they chose to go with as Bret's big rivalry in their version of history. Austin/Bret is a far better feud for matches and story.

Magnum vs. Tully Starrcade 85 Hansen vs. Kawada 2/28/93 6/9/95 AJPW Tag I'm pretty sure I'd need more than that to truly make me happy, but those are the ones I'll never give up.

I think if you want to make a big heel at this point in time, you give them the big push as the #1 babyface without the fans getting behind them beforehand. If there is any lesson to be learned from the Roman Reigns fiasco, that's the one. As far as the "shades of grey" deal, I think it could work in a world where wrestling promoters weren't stuck inside their own little worlds. In the post above mine, jcmmnx argues against the idea of the 50/50 characters from a (very popular around here) point of view that wrestling should be good guy vs. bad guy. And I tend to agree with that very strongly. Problem tends to be that most wrestling promoters also have their own idealized view of wrestling that comes out in their promotion when they have the personnel to and finances to do it. Vince certainly does. We know some of HHH's views on wrestling. I'm sure the same can be said for any wrestling promoter anywhere. These people aren't all interested in the most popular trends and ways of leveraging them into characters that appeal to the masses both as faces and heels. It could easily be done with enough people in the organization devoted to watching twitter, facebook, etc. But most of your wrestling promoters are also going to be more traditionalist in their views on wrestling as well. So I agree that given the right atmosphere it is possible. But it won't happen in the WWE for a very long time if my read on HHH is right. That brings up a question though. Let's say HHH has assumed control alongside Steph and the WWE takes a small hit. They can survive, trim some fat, whatever. But what if a promotion comes along that does look very closely at the memes making their way through social media and use them intelligently to make their shows appealing to a much wider audience? If that promotion got any kind of national exposure, would it suddenly become a real threat to the WWE? How would the WWE react, given it's obvious flaws in creative? Would it challenge more traditional wrestling fans to change their mind on what wrestling is? How long before pro wrestling has changed drastically and everyone in the business has to either stick to the traditionalist way of doing things to hold onto the old fans or adapt to get in on the new market?

Here are a few. Masa Fuchi - First time you see him, you tend to wonder what this scrawny guy with no real appealing physical aspects is doing in the ring with the guys he wrestles. Then you watch a few matches and you know. He'll kick a guy's ass and stretch him even if he's giving away 30 pounds. And quite the seller as well. Sort of like a smaller, more technically-minded Tenryu. Yoshinari Ogawa - I honestly think this is the guy right here. Shit strikes besides his enzuigiri. Not a whole lot of juniors style high flying. Not a technical wonder by any means. He's like the Japanese Tully Blanchard with all of the heel stuff magnified. And not near as gifted as far as what he can do in the ring. But he can make you believe that he has a shot of retaining the title against Kenta Kobashi in 2003. Jerry Lawler - If there is a guy who went as long as he did by simply "getting" pro wrestling I'd like to see who it is. In ring he's got all-time great punches, all-time great selling and bumping and....yeah, everything else is average at best. And yet he could still be a draw in Memphis today. Osamu Nishimura - This guy defines "smart worker." Nothing he does in the ring stands out beyond maybe his surprising Euro uppercuts. His selling, ability to lay a match out and ability to work the mat in a compelling fashion are all top notch. But they all tend to blend into the framework of the matches I've seen to the point where you can miss them very easily. Ultimate Warrior - Yeah, I said it. What did he have going for him? A shit ton of energy, a physique and being batshit craaaazy. Somehow it all worked and he ended up in good matches. So the sum total seems greater than the parts. Some more off the top of my head. Gino Hernandez, Buddy Roberts, Carlos Colon, Goldberg, El Samurai, Ryback (hate to say it, but the guy could have been something), Greg Gagne, Raven

Islanders vs. Strike Force 11/7/87 Philly, Tag Straps, 2 referees Tama is great talking trash with the Philly ringsiders. Love the Santana "punch the leapfrog" spot. Second ref is completely worthless on the outside. Great hot tag to Martel. Referees can't stop the brawl and they call it after being shoved down a few times. Great hot tag makes this match well worth your while. Islanders vs. Strike Force 11/7/87 Boston, Tag Straps, 2 Referees Gorilla on hand for the two refs. Guessing this is some other date, but who knows. It's a very similar match to the Philly match, but I thought the heat was better. Really got me amped up for the hot tag and Martel delivers. Real finish to this one and I would call it by far the superior of the two matches. Two referee stip comes into play here. Islanders vs. Strike Force 12/5/87 Philly, Tag Straps Islanders with the ambush to start. Haku fighting back during the shine is a great touch. Tama taking ridiculously snappy armdrags from Tito. That's a pairing that hadn't really impressed before. Martel's punches are all kinds of great in this match. Early match has more of a fight feel than a pure shine, which I like. I'm a fan of the transition from heat to shine as well. Good tag team psychology. Martel is again a spectacular hot tag. Great, great match that is just shy of 10/16 for me.

That was a fantastic piece of writing. Thank you for sharing that.

Islanders vs. Strike Force 9/21/87 MSG Once again, great shine. LOVED Heenan getting his hand stomped twice by Santana after the islanders retreat to the outside. Heat is a lot of fun. Islanders using the tag rope to choke was a nice touch. Martel gets his house of fire, but ends up stalling after a short time. I didn't think this one was as good as 10/16, but I can see why anyone would like it. Great match and well worth the watch! Islanders vs. Strike Force 10/10/87 Philly Spectrum Shine was a little off in this match. Timing just wasn't there. FIP on Martel was incredible. The use of the rope by the Islanders and Martel's selling of the chokes was great. Tama throws in one too many nerve holds for my liking, but Haku saves it right after. Good hot tag to Tito. I'm starting to think that the real money here is in the Tito heat/Martel hot tag setup. The other way works, but Martel as a hot tag is so fired up. Still a great match, but easily the lowest of all of the matches between these two teams for me. Haku vs. Tito Santana 10/22/87 Prime Time Fun brawl from the get-go. Santana starts working an arm. Haku working over Tito for a short while. Then we come to the real reason this match was here Tama looks to interfere and Martel stops it, so we get a double DQ with Strikeforce standing tall. Seems like any singles matches involving Haku are booked more as angles than matches. Good idea for an angle though. SF needs a little something in their favor at this point in the feud, so give them the appearance of getting the better of the Islanders but without handing the islanders a loss on TV. Fun match while it lasts.

There's no saying he couldn't be an announcer or manager or something along those lines. With as over as he is, he may overshadow anyone he represents as a manager though.

Islanders vs. Strike Force 10/3/87 Boston Garden Tama coming to the ring is some kind of revelation as a heel. He's got so much energy and he knows how to turn that around and make it a bad thing. The shine to this match is all kinds of awesome. Tama takes a dropkick and bumps into the crowd from the ring. THAT is commitment to making the babyface look good. Martel gets choked to turn the tide after the Islanders have been cheating dicks but not gotten anywhere. Crowd is so into this matchup and it's not hard to see why. Ditch has remarked in his reviews of AJPW matches from the 90s that Kikuchi/Kobashi and Kroffat/Furnas were made for each other. These teams would fit that to a T as well. Martel's hope spots have this great energy and urgency to them. FUCK did that crowd love the tag to Tito. And Tito is all over the Islanders! Absolute must-watch great match. Islanders vs. Strike Force 10/16/87 MSG So Tito and Haku start this one off and I am so happy about that about ten seconds in. When they just start punching each other in the fucking face! Shine is even better than the last match. We're told this is two out of three falls. Oh, and instead of Alfred as sidekick, Gorilla has BOCK as a color man! I'm not sure how to express the amount of joy this brought me. Bock is such a great heel but not really heel color guy. Tito gets his leg worked over by the Islanders after trying for a figure four. Islanders take the first fall, but the equalizing fall comes quicker than you expect. Bock explains why that is a bad thing for Santana and Martel. Have I mentioned how much I love Bock on commentary? Now there are lukewarm tags, there are completely cold tags, there are hot tags and there are FUCKING NUCLEAR HOT tags. The tag to Martel fits the last category. If you've ever seen the Bock/Lawler match with the HOLY SHIT punch comeback by Lawler, the tag to Martel and ensuing Martel offense had that same effect. This was an absolute epic tag and I don't give out stars. If I did, this would be an upper tier ***** match instantly on watching. Santana's selling of the leg during the heat, his brawl-y comebacks, the ridiculous Martel comeback...just beautiful pro wrestling here.

That Daniel Bryan segment was something special. I really don't have the words to describe it. That final "YES!" chant had me in tears and smiling as big as I can all at the same time. Five words spring to mind now. Why I love pro wrestling.

Islanders vs. Can Am Connection 5/30/87 Zenk is not in the same league as the other three. Tama's evil laugh is pretty cool. Heenan is out and the Islanders take advantage. Martel carries the shine beautifully. Heat is on Zenk and the Martel tag is so worth it. Not a great match, but plenty of fun and the angle is essential to the rest of the viewing. Rick Martel vs. Tama MSG GREAT start for Martel after a double team by Haku and Tama. Tama puts just as much energy into being a heel as being a face. LOVE IT! Martel is great during the shine. Big bursts of energy to cut off Tama assaults really get the crowd behind him. Martel looks like a future superstar. Punching Tama in the face when Tama goes for the hair during a leglock is brilliant. One thing watching some late 90s Crazy Max footage recently that irked me was CIMA never getting his own transitions. It was always interference that got him back on offense. Tama finally gets himself back in control and Haku only attacks after Tama is firmly in charge. Big difference between the two and it does the match and both wrestlers a ton of good. Tama's long term leg selling is pretty good. Nice short arm lariat from Tama. Tama does a great job of making Martel earn his comeback. Martel puts every bit of effort into selling and gaining sympathy, always fighting back but just not enough. Tama ramps up the cheating as Martel gets closer to a real comeback, nice touch. And then Tama bumps HUGE for the Martel comeback. Some shenanigans threaten the comeback. Post-match we get the obligatory beat-down by the Islanders. What a great match and almost perfectly executed by two high energy guys. Absolute must-watch. Rick Martel vs. Barry Horowitz Martel with the squash win and the Islanders come out to beat up on Martel. Here comes Tito! Loving the fire from Tito as he clears the ring. Jesse puts it over in his unique way. The promo where they call the team Strike Force is cheesy 1980s fun. Rick Martel vs. Haku Tama and Haku won't let Martel into the ring. Martel back to the locker room and TITO is all over it. Tito and Tama forced to go to the dressing rooms and we can start. Another great shine and this match is more of a brawl. Haku with a really good heat, but not up to snuff with Tama's. Comeback is a bit mroe lackluster on both Haku and Martel's part. Huge falling headbutt by Haku. Tama figures in the finish and Tito is again out to clean house. Less a match and more a setup to the feud proper between the tag teams. If I was to judge it as a match it would be quite a bit lower than the Tama match, but still a fun watch.

I used to do long, long PBP reviews. I'm usually down to a short paragraph now where I include what I liked and what i didn't. Then just a sentence or two to summarize. I try to give a general feel to how I felt the match went rather than try to explain the whole thing in a review. I enjoy reading reviews of matches from a lot of people though. Marty Sleeze (note the spelling) tends to do a lot of PBP stuff in his, but he keeps it really entertaining. I like reading Chad and Parv's reviews a lot because their personality comes through in most of them. And after I've watched a match I always like to see a good amount of reviews for it. Everyone notices different details about a match and it's fun to go back and try to find the things you didn't catch sometimes.

Islanders vs. Rougeaus 2/14/87, Philly Jacque misses a dropkick completely early and Haku makes a nice save. Islanders are the de facto heels. Jacques is pretty athletic for a guy his size. Haku is extremely athletic for a guy his size. Tama starts the actual heeling for his side. Tama rolls Jacques up off a 4 man argument for a super quick 3 count. Rougeaus hold the ring after the match. Definitely skip this. Islanders vs. Hart Foundation 2/21/87, Superstars This one's for the tag belts. Danny Davis gets nuclear heat as the newest member of the Foundation. Extremely short shine. Great double DDT by the Harts. Short heat but good reaction for the hot tag. Haku hits the big kick and tags, but Davis interferes with Tama's splash. Tama tkes a pretty mean bump and gets pinned. Fun for what it was. Islanders vs. Demolition 2/23/87, MSG Demos don't want to give up the masks. Good shine on Ax. Tama tossed to the floor and Demolition goes to work. Tama bruised his back bumping. Ouch. Islanders are making this heat work with hope spots. Good hot tag for Haku. Tama hits a big crossbody off the top that gets broken up and it's looking grim for the Islanders. Demos hit their double team finish for three. Fun match. Islanders vs. Rougeaus 4/26/87, Wrestling Challenge Tama bumps big for a reverse monkey flip by Jacques. More heeling by the Islanders. All four arguing again and they end up outside. Both teams counted out. Skip this one unless you really like both teams. Islanders vs. Demolition 5/2/87, Boston Demolition is now with Fuji, not Johnny V. Alfred is on commentary, I wonder if he was ever good as a color guy. Tama's running crossbody is great, so impactful and visually impressive. Big clothesline by Ax on Haku. Tama's elbow across the arm from the top is incredible when he hits it good. Knee to the back from Smash sets up the heat. Tama hung in between the ropes by an ankle. Owie. Hot tag to Haku, okay work here. Fuji's cane catches Tama in the throat after things get chaotic and we're done. Some good stuff here, but these finishes are starting to irk me. Islanders vs. Demolition 5/16/87, Superstars Short shine. Demos push is getting a bit bigger, Islanders offense is treated as ineffective. Fuji hooks Tama's foot off the top. There it is. Not a squash, but not far off either. Essentially a shortened for TV version of their earlier bouts with less Islanders offense.

Yeah, juniors are the undercard guys. You put a top junior against a middling heavy and the heavy has a big advantage.

Not sure about this whole debate. Is it really about workrate or anti-workrate anymore? I've seen "workrate" matches I absolutely love. I've also seen "anti-workrate" matches I love (probably a little more). I tend to worry more about what is happening and why than whether or not a guy is busting out a ton of moves or keeping things moving at a brisk pace. Sometimes a match needs a slower pace. That's not to say I haven't gotten bored when wrestlers sit in rest holds for the first 2/3rds of a match. I can also say that I've seen guys throwing stuff out at a million miles an hour and found other stuff to do while that match wrapped up. It's all up to the workers in the ring to make the match they are having work. Maybe I just don't get it, but I don't see the need for extremes in either direction. And if you are somebody who likes one end of the spectrum or the other, I don't see a problem with that. There's enough wrestling out there to cover everybody's tastes.

I'm right there with JvK. I can't stand DX in any iteration and never could. Never liked Shawn or Hunter, and Road Dogg was a 100% channel changer as soon as he showed up. Only member of the group that interested me in the least was Waltman, but everything after 1-2-3 Kid was downhill with him.

You act like it was just early DoD that had those problems. 1996 DoD had Ray Traylor join and then defect to the NWO. And possibly the most memorable failure of the whole DoD weirdness, Bron the Leprechaun. I'd never read that story about appeasing Hogan, but it makes sense. It's even more cartoonish than the WWF when he was really big.

I always thought it was easier to book the TEW universe guys because you could fit them into the mold you wanted. Real world wrestlers in the random settings of the game could come up either way short or far too good compared to what they actually were. It was hard to see some wrestlers picked out as massive superstars knowing what they truly were.

Islanders vs. Dream Team 12/6/86 Boston Garden Tama is hot at Johnny V pre-match after the finish last month. Lots of stalling by Johnny V and Beefcake getting the entrance attire off. A lot. Valentine gets his arm worked over in the shine. Valentine getting his leg caught and protecting his groin is a great stooging spot. Now it's on the leg of Valentine. Valentine's selling of the atomic drop is also top notch. It's become a heel in peril on Valentine. BIG over the rope bump off a back elbow by Tama. Tama's knee is hurt and it looks like there's heat coming. Ref misses the tag twice on a good heat, Tama popping himself sideways to get the hot tag is great. Crowd is definitely into this hot tag. Haku does good with the hot tag, but Beefcake seems to fall over or out of the ring just as Haku is getting his momentum built. Tama hits the big flying crossbody on Valentine, but the time limit has been reached and we get no finish. Tama wants 5 more minutes and the heels are not having it. Lots of boos. Great match with as little of Beefcake as possible. Islanders vs. Muraco/Orton Prime Time Wrestling 12/17/86 Haku has such a great dropkick. Orton has some really good stooging spots. And punches. Heat on Tama looks clipped. Mild tag to Haku. Tama on the apron is exceptional. Tama takes a tag and goes tumbling over the top with Orton. DCO and the Islanders menace the managers. Pretty easily skippable. Islanders vs. Hart Foundation Prime Time Wrestling 1/14/87 Toronto Tama is fired up tonight. Bret avoids Tama's double jump chop only to get it a few seconds later when he's celebrating his own minor victory. Haku side kicking Bret on the apron is a fun spot they like to repeat. Bret with the cheapshot from the apron to set up the heat on Tama. Anvil hits a really big lariatand Bret sends Tama off the ramp onto the concrete. Johnny V. on commentary is awful. Bret slapping Haku on the apron is a great spot. Payback in a small way for the earlier side kick and something for Haku to work off fo later. Bret eats a dropkick from Anvil. Hot tag and Haku again paintbrushing Bret. And we have the exact same finish as last time with some different referee manipulation. I'm guessing the previous match was not televised in all of the markets so they can get away with it. Body of the match was great, but the finish makes it just a fun wrestling match. Haku vs. Greg Valentine Superstars 1/31/87 Stiff brawl early. Interference by Beefcake, interference by Tama that the ref sees and we're finished. Good enough that I'd want to see a singles match between these two, but this is an in-ring angle more than anything else.

Islanders vs. Hart Foundation 11/8/86 Philadelphia Spectrum Nice shine for both Islanders. Hart has a really crisp sequence with Tama. Haku gets to beat Neidhart at the power game. Some double teaming on Neidhart, but he hits a nice slam on Tama and shoots Bret into a Rick Martel slingshot splash. Good heat, Tama starts fighting back and it looks like a hot tag after the sternum bump, but that gets cut off. Then Neidhart whiffs on a dropkick that was supposed to hit Bret but it is recovered. Ref misses the tag to Haku. Haku is HOT about that and won't settle down on the apron. Another nice Hart Foundation double team. Hot tag! Or, relatively hot I should say. Haku doesn't seem like a great hot tag, but the paintbrushing he gives Neidhart and the headbutt to Bret from the wishbone position work nice. Tama with a BIG splash and chaos leads to Tama getting crotched on top by Neidhart behind the ref's back. Bret covers for the win, but Haku clears the ring. Nice way to put an underdog team over and a really fun match. Islanders vs. Dream Team 11/24/86 MSG Haku and Valentine lock it up. Fun brawling and a Haku atomic drop that Valentine makes brilliant. Valentine with the flop after a double chop by both Islanders. Haku is sporting some kind of cut on his right shoulder that looks half healed. Haku with a HUGE crossbody that Valentine is hesitant to break the cover and Beefcake barely kicks out of. Valentine seems like he's getting sick of carrying Brutus. Heel in peril on Brutus. Hammer in and hits some big chops on Tama, then a variation on a tombstone. Valentine beating up on Tama is great. Short heat, lukewarm tag to Haku. Same finish as the Harts match with Beefcake getting the finish. This was alright, but very easily skippable.

Continuing my Haku footage from 1986 after my brief look at the 1996 run. Islanders vs. Moondogs 9/22/86 Fun brawl with the 'dogs, but I don't like Rex much. Anything involving Spot in this match is great. Tama brings such great energy to the ring as a babyface. It's hard to not like watching him work. Haku dancing like he's Iceman King Parsons is such an odd comparison to him working scary heel. This is a very fun match. Islanders vs. Jimmy Jack Funk/Mr. X 10/4/86 Ugh, do both Mr. X and J.J. have to stink the place up? Mr. X tries to work with Tama on early exchanges but is too slow and just doesn't seem like he gets what Tama's trying to do. Funk takes a nice Haku corner lariat. The heat on Tama was awful. Haku's hot tag is tepid at best. Mr. X falling over three feet in front of him twice before getting hit doesn't help. Skip this one. Haku vs. Nikolai Volkoff 10/20/86 Koloff kills Haku with a couple of lariats. Haku has some nice "martial arts" moves in response. Neat little brawl until Volkoff goes to the trunks in a meaningless spot. Volkoff gets rolled up after missing a second corner lariat, but squirms both shoulders off the mat 3 times each during the ref's three count. Did Volkoff go into business for himself here? Announcers had to do a lot of covering up for that finish.

Why would they talk about anything else? Their purpose is to work the crowd. If a wrestler can consistently get the crowd to react the way he wants, where is the problem?

On the next WCWSN we get a Hart promo looking for a title match with the Outsiders at Starrcade. The next week's Saturday Night we find out it is on as the FoF make their entrance. And proceed to kill High Voltage, giving them not a whole lot of offense at all. Fun squash. Ron Studd and Roadblock on the next WCWSN. Studd can barely move. Luckily this is short. Basically the same promo as last week from Hart pre-match. FoF against the Outsiders on Nitro just under two weeks before Starrcade. Good enough brawling around for a few minutes before Traylor hits the ring and turns on the Dungeon. Because we need everyone possible in the NWO. And the locker room starts to empty with the rest of the DoD, then the rest of the NWO, then WCW. And Ice Train gets leveled by Norton on the way to the ring, with Norton fighting alongside the NWO. Because nothing says "this is important" like doing the same exact thing that just happened less than two minutes ago. And he wheels are already starting to fall off... Starrcade and the tag titles. Outsiders give the FoF a nice shine. Short beatdown on Barbarian goes into a heel-in-peril on Hall. Patrick is the subject of scrutiny by the announcers for not counting Hall out on several moves And not checking Hall on a nerve hold by Barbarian. I get what they are going for, but it isn't the early 80s. Even if it was I don't think a simple nerve hold on the side of the neck is putting a main event guy out. Barbarian hits a big boot after a Meng inverted atomic drop. But he never tagged so why is he covering? Nash gets the tag, hits a big boot on Barbarian and Meng breaks the count at 2. Hall and Meng tumble outside, Barbarian misses the big boot and Nash powerbombs him for the win. So basically Barbarian goes down after about 20 seconds of offense following the FoF controlling 75% of the match. But they are in main event territory now and that's the kind of thing that comes with that. The last Nitro of the year it's Faces of Fear and Harlem Heat. Fun match while it lasts, Booker hits his big spots, the FoF hit a few of theirs. Then Parker comes out and gets attacked by Sherri. Jacques Rougeau is out to throw something in the face of Booker T, who eats a big kick from Meng. And while Meng is pinning him, Stevie Ray comes up from the outside, touches Meng's head and the pile rolls over with Meng taking the three count. HUH? Did somebody screw up royal on that finish? Was there even any clue as to what was supposed to happen? Anyway, that's the end of 1996 and I'm tempted to see what i can find on 1997. Nothing great, but they tend to make their matches enjoyable with what they bring to the table. I still maintain that properly booked, these guys would have made great gatekeepers between the midcard and the main event.