ohtani's jacket

Killer Bees vs. Hart Foundation (WWF, 9/18/87) This was a match from the Spectrum that aired on Prime Time Wrestling, and actually got a decent amount of time (13:28). It was part of Prime Time Wrestling's build towards the big tag team elimination match at Survivor Series '87. We never got Prime Time Wrestling in New Zealand. I gotta say, I thought it would be flashier. For what it's worth, I thought the Bees were sporting their best look here. Boots, kneepads, and the bee trunks. None of this tennis shoes bullshit.

It's been forever since I've watched match from my boy, Low Ki. Unfortunately, he's second fiddle here and the match is more about the build to Punk vs. Aries. Ki has his moments, but the storyline is about how hard Aries has been pushing himself as champ and how even ROH officials are warning him to slow down. There's a couple of cool spots from Low Ki, but he basically could have been anybody.

This was a decent match. It wasn't a patch on their WrestleMania classic, but if you ask me they booked this too soon after WrestleMania. I would have preferred a rematch later in the year. Michaels' promo before the bout was atrocious and having Coachman on commentary watered this down even further.

Another exciting Spanky match. Perhaps he's the guy I should have been watching all along. I've got to give credit to Aries, though. As much as I've questioned the decision to give him the bout, and as unconvincing as his fighting champ gimmick has been, he's basically busting his tail so that he's banged up for the Punk title change. You can't deny how hard he worked while carrying the belt.

Killer Bees vs. Hart Foundation (WWF, 6/2/87) This was a short Superstars bout where the Bees won after Danny Davis was escorted to the back and the Bees slipped on their masks and did their illegal man trick. Little OJ would have been amped to see this on Superstars. Afterwards, there was a recap of The Honky Tonk Man defeating Ricky Steamboat for the Intercontinental Championship where their pre-Mooney guy, Craig DeGeorge, goes backstage to the heel locker room to capture the reaction. Interestingly, Randy Savage is the most excited heel.

Will do. Got pointed to your list thanks to the Wrestling Playlists newsletter.

The Killer Bees vs. Hart Foundation (WWF, 2/15/87) This was a decent Bees vs. Hart Foundation match from the Maple Leaf Gardens. It was a non-title bout, but that worked in the Bees' favour as they got to do their mask gimmick and get one over on the Hart Foundation. The only problem I had with this was that the bees were wearing black tights under their trunks and looked more like bumble bees than killer bees. They also had their custom designed tennis shoes on.

The Killer Bees vs. Hart Foundation (WWF, 9/10/85) This was an exciting, action-packed TV match from All-Star Wrestling. It only went four and a half minutes, but it was one of my favorite Bees vs. Hart Foundation bouts. It ended in a brawl after Brunzell hit Bret with his dropkick. It's interesting how much the WWF changed in presentation from 1985 to 1987 despite the fact that this had Gorilla and Jesse on commentary. It was quite an amazing growth period for the company.

The Killer Bees vs. Hart Foundation (WWF, 2/23/87) This was from the year before I started watching wrestling, and while we're inching closer towards the WWF that I grew up on, it still feels like a foreign product to me. The Hart Foundation are tag champs and have Dangerous Danny Davis in their corner along with "The Colonel" Jimmy Hart. This is kind of a slow Bees vs. Hart Foundation bout, though it does feature a bunch of cool front facelock work from Bret, which is my favorite spot from this series, and the Bees' hot tag is pretty good. Gorilla and Bobby talk too much, and you can't really hear the crowd properly. Vlad is in attendance.

This was a really good big man vs. little man match. The best ROH match since Danielson vs. Spanky, and one of the better ROH matches of the year. I kind of question putting the secondary title on Joe if you want Aries to have any legs at all, but you can't argue with this being a standout bout.

The Killer Bees vs. Hart Foundation (WWF SNME, 11/28/86) I never got to enjoy Saturday Night's Main Events as a kid. The only time I saw anything from it is if it was recapped on Superstars. I can only imagine the excitement of watching these shows live as a young wrestling fan. This was a sprint, but it contained an enormous number of beats for a sub-10 minute match. It was like an edited version of their 5/86 Philly match. Highly entertaining, especially when Jesse blows his top over the Killer Bees' masks tactics. He's completely right, but it's the kind of babyface BS I would have loved as a kid.

If you can ignore the angle between Kurt Angle and Booker T's wife, this was another *** match between Angle and Booker. Disturbingly, this angle didn't even finish in the top 5 for the Most Disgusting Promotional Tactic in the WON awards. I have no doubt in my mind that Angle was one of the top tier workers of 2005. Hopefully, this angle is finished with and he can move on to better things.

The Killer Bees vs. Hart Foundation (WWF, 2/17/86) This is arguably the Killer Bees vs. Hart Foundation match. It's certainly the bout that made me think there was merit to watching the rest of their matches. This is where it all clicked. The Killer Bees vs. Hart Foundation (WWF, 3/23/86) This was a truncated version of the 2/17 match. I don't like it when the Hart Foundation wear blue, but the work was solid and I liked the finish.

Now that you mention it, he doesn't use a lot of heel shtick in the matches and doesn't really cheat that much.

Hulk Hogan vs. Bob Backlund (WWF, 4/12/80) Hulk Hogan vs. Bob Backlund (WWF, 5/10/80) I really love these matches. They're slow burning Bob Backlund matches worked in his typical style (like "baking a cake" as he'd put it.) They don't lead to anything decisive -- they trade count out wins -- but it's fascinating hearing Dick and Kal call the matches with no idea what the future will bring. Hearing them gush over Backlund while dismissing Hogan as a 25 year-old kid is amusing. You forget how huge of a human being Hogan was until you see him wrestle Backlund. There were moments where I'd stare at the screen and think "Jesus, Hulk Hogan had a huge head." Hogan, for his part, was pretty good. If he hadn't turned face and become the biggest star in the business, he would have carved out a pretty decent living as a heel, especially if he'd begun cutting promos like Superstar Graham.

The Killer Bees vs. Hart Foundation (WWF, 2/8/86) Not my favorite era of WWF wrestling, but I'm a mission to watch Killer Bees matches. This is from Boston. They never get out of second gear, but it's a decent bout and there's some decent Bret vs. Brunzell action. Gorilla and Jesse call the match, but they haven't got their schtick together yet and it's pretty toned down by Gorilla and Jesse standards.

The Killer Bees vs. Hart Foundation (WWF, 5/31/86) This was a decent Killer Bees/Hart Foundation match, but what made it really special for yours truly was that Dick Graham and Kal Rudman got to call it. It wasn't vintage Dick & Kal, but it still made a guy feel good. The faces winning with heel tactics is a very Rock 'n' Roll era move.

This was some kind of gimmick match where the wrestlers entered at timed intervals. The problem is that nobody seemed to understand the rules. Not the announcer, the commentators, the referees, and least of all the crowd. It appeared to end when the captain was pinned, but there were eliminations along the way and the captains were never announced. That said, it was basically more of the same albeit in a weird format. Some decent spots and interactions but nothing especially memorable.

This was a good match, I thought. They matched up well size-wise and I didn't have to worry about whether Aries looked credible against his opponent. I'm not really sold on this angle of Aries trying to defend the belt everywhere and raise the profile of the title while still acting like a dick, but the match was good. I kind of wish his finish wasn't a 450 splash though as it has some convoluted set-ups.

Adrian Adonis & Dick Murdoch vs. Brian Blair & Bob Backlund (WWF, 7/7/84) Quite a strange match for Backlund to sign off with as he spends much of the bout on the apron watching Brian Blair do the heavy lifting. Adonis & Murdoch are quite good in this. On the few occasions where Murdoch and Backlund squared off, I wondered what it would have been like if they'd taken that matchup around the horn. I'm still in two minds about whether there was a place for Backlund in the Rock 'n' Roll era. I'm fairly sure they could have done something with him for at least a couple of years.

This was more of the same in terms of Perros del Mal picking on poor Mistico, but it featured a fired up tecnico performance, which is always a plus, and the tercera was pretty good. Bonus points for them giving Casas something to do and for Hector Garza finding new ways to amuse me each week.

This was okay. They were always going to have a hard time following up the 75 minute match, so they didn't really try. Instead, the focus was on whether Danielson would win the belt. ROH is really toying with the fan expectation that Danielson is going to be the champion at some point. They tease that here fairly effectively, but then Aries puts him away with his 450 splash, which is about as definitive of a finish as it gets. Danielson is clearly beaten in a bout where a bit more ambiguity might have helped. The altercation with Joe after the bout doesn't really make it feel like ROH has moved on from Joe and kind of defeats the purpose of Aries going over Danielson so cleanly.

Meltzer was super high on this match. He gave it **** 3/4 stars, which was one of his highest ratings for the year. It's a very Meltzer-ish match. If you've ever been to one of these matches live in Japan, they're fun to watch as the crowd are so into it. That's lost a bit when you watch the match on tape as the camera angles frame the match differently from the view you get in the bleachers. Selling & smaller details become important when you're watching it close up. In the bleachers, it's the nearfalls and the crowd reactions that are the visceral aspects of the bout. The impression I get from Dave is that he's really into that vibe. This is a crowd pleaser with a hot finish. I won't remember any of the details tomorrow, but I will remember that the crowd were hot for the finish.

Hulk Hogan vs. "Dr. D" David Schultz (WWF, 6/17/84) Loss mentioned this match in his newsletter this week. It's notable for Hogan returning to Minneapolis as the WWF finally invaded AWA territory and sees Hogan square off against an old AWA foe. Hogan hadn't really worked out his formula yet, and it's interesting that his comeback came mid-way through the match instead of during the finishing stretch, but it's a pretty good smoke and mirrors match with Hulk bleeding and Schultz garnering some decent heat. Personally, I felt that Hulk got better at these types of matches after a couple of years on top.

Jack Witzig vs. Sky Hi Lee (NWA Chicago, 03/05/1954) This was a fairly typical big man vs. little man match, but the nice thing about it is that in the 50s they gave the workers plenty of time to work their match so there was a chess match element to it. The finish was kind of wild for the era as the top rope came undone and Lee tried to use it as a weapon.