ohtani's jacket

I can't find the last Bees vs. Harts match I'm looking for, so here's a singles match instead: Bret Hart vs. Jumping Jim Brunzell (WWF, 5/4/86) This not the Bret vs. Brunzell match you imagine in your head, but to be honest, I'm not sure if Bret in 1986 was capable of the Bret Hart vs. Brunzell match that I'm imagining. Instead, it was a typical house show match. Bret was wearing a red version of the Hart Foundation tights that I've never seen before. The action was decent if you consider that it was meant to be a cookie cutter heel vs. face bout.

I hate how Triple H has attached his name to the Hell in a Cell gimmick. It's not your personal gimmick match, asshole. I had low expectations for this as I haven't really enjoyed the Batsita/Triple H feud so far. Batista does a pretty shitty job of cutting promos during the highlights package. He's not bad at talking normally, but when he needs to deliver a savage one-liner he sounds like a pencil neck geek. This is a good match, though. It's mostly built around weapon shots and blood, and they didn't actually need it be a Hell in a Cell match, but at least Hunter finally lost one. JR kept on harping on about the sadistic personality of the cage and how it shortens careers. Meanwhile, they worked some pretty smart nearfalls using the props in the ring. I really liked the finish. That was a creative ending. The much maligned Triple H took a hell of an ass whooping in this match and has now put Batista over three times in a row. Yeah, he's annoying and sometimes you wish he'd just go away, but he was nowhere near as bad as wrestling fans made out at the time. This wasn't a great feud, but Triple H did the right thing for business. Don't you be comparing him to Hollywood Hulk Hogan or any other selfish headliner.

The Killer Bees vs. Hart Foundation (WWF, 5/31/88) This appears to be the last Bees vs. Hart Foundation match that made tape. It's a match from Fresno that aired on Prime Time Wrestling. It was part of the Hart Foundation face turn, which in the late 80s WWF I grew up on meant turning on your heel manager. Slick was on commentary, which was amusing. My first memory of wrestling was Hacksaw Jim Dugan hitting Andre the Giant with his 2x4, which had to be around this time.

This wasn't one of the greatest matches in ROH history, but it did live up to the hype of Aries defending the belt against Punk in Punk's final ROH match. The crowd reaction sounded artificial at times, and the finishing stretch was awful, but there's no denying that Punk winning the title was a special moment. He undid all that with a promo that was laced with the type of half-truths that make marks even angrier. It was kind of weird how it all turned into a groveling Christopher Daniels promo, but I guess that was all apart of the spectacle. I still think Punk beating Joe would have meant more than this.

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.

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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.