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Koko B. Ware vs The Red Demon (2/7/87) This was a disaster, and they were lucky that the crowd didn't completely shit all over it, despite clearly losing interest as the match went on. They did some decent stuff during the opening routine, but Demon's heat segment was totally lifeless and consisted of him overjumping and trying make his stuff seem impressive, only looking goofy in the process. He also had an all-time bad running hammer, which even the announcers couldn't put over. While going home, they also messed up the finishing spot, as Demon slid on the mat to avoid Koko's dive, but Koko just looked at him for a couple of seconds, seemingly completely lost, so Demon had to stand up like an idiot and run into a flying dropkick. DUD

Hillbilly Jim vs Mr. Fuji (12/26/86) The rules of this Tuxedo Match consisted of stripping your opponent. Not to be funny, but I have probably seen Bra & Panties matches that were better than this and not in cosmetic terms only. Hillbilly worked half of the "match" on his knees so Fuji could use some horrible offense and start undressing him, while the crowd was DEAD. This consisted of one of them grabbing the other and starting to strip him, without the opponent doing anything to stop it. At last, Hillbilly grabbed Fuji's trousers, and Fuji "ran" away from the ring, as he was exposed to polka-dot shorts. I could imagine Vince McMahon laughing so loud, despite the apathy of the MSG crowd. It was set as a comedy 5 minute "match", but nobody laughed or even popped until the finish. -*

This was a fun match, with the suggestive sight of Piper locked into the cage and able to take on Rude. This had good selling from both parts, but I didn't like the booking in terms of the match having to restart after a double escape, which kind of broke the magic of the first escape being decisive. That being said, the match got better from that point and Piper was such an underrated and intense babyface, hyping up the crowd and finally prevailing in a satisfying finish. ***1/4

Very hot crowd. This was a fun hoss fight, as Wanz and Vader had a suggestive war that had the right pacing, allowing them to sell each other's stuff without losing momentum. Vader looked impressive, bodyslamming his large opponent and dominating a large portion of the match, he would have surely won this on points. Wanz mostly looked good as a support and redeeming babyface, I didn't understand why he tried to work the leg randomly 20 minutes in, but he was great when he fed off the crowd's excitement and took the brawl to the outside, which led to Vader bleeding. Good, realistic KO finish. ***1/2

This was an exciting match and they built it quite well too. They brought the big fight feel and Choshu made Hashimoto look good, by taking his offense seriously and selling his hard kicks, as it looked for a while like the newcomer had Choshu's number and the veteran couldn't predict his intentions. They went all in with the bombs and Choshu ended up being in trouble again, but finally locked in the dragon sleeper thanks to his experience. I liked that Hashimoto didn't submit, but the sleeper caused the pinfall, as an additional way to make the underdog look strong here. ***1/2

This was an incredible match, with the titles on the line and of course the usual bragging rights. One of the things that made this outstanding was the ability of them to turn things around more than once, creating interesting dynamics but also stopping their opponents' somehow. Yatsu was wearing a protective helmet and that became the main focus of his opponents, which damaged both him and Tsuruta, while Yatsu himself was getting helped by medics. Yatsu's revenge made this epic, as he made Hansen bleed and this became meaner that it was. Very exciting finish stretch, made precious by a hot crowd, that could have gone both way. ****1/2

This had a very good presentation and approach, it looked like a classic title match and they focused a lot on trying to outwrestling each other. The end of the first caida was actually quite flat, but this picked up later and Dandy was very effective when selling his leg. Charles looked strong and only outsmarted at times thanks to Dandy resorting to the help of the ropes. Good finish and this was a very refreshing lucha match with a classic approach. ***1/2

George Steele vs Randy Savage (12/14/86) This actually made WrestleMania 2 look like a miracle, as that one was only 5 minutes long, indulged in some comedy spots, and wasn't as overbooked as this. The crowd was hot when Ricky Steamboat made an appearance while Savage was on the top rope, a classic Attitude Era spot, but this had all kinds of weird stuff and watered-down action, so Steele was clearly exposed here, and not even Savage could save him. In hindsight, Vince portraying Steele as a babyface while he kidnapped Liz and "locking her somewhere" as the announcers said, was hilarious. Steele did his usual messy turnbuckle spot and spent some more time arguing with the referee like a good babyface, setting up Macho's dirty victory. DUD

Jerry Allen vs Sika (10/4/86) Watching The Wizard being a completely out-of-place character almost a decade before his WCW debacle was funny, especially because the crowd was dead and you could hear Wizard practically calling the action at ringside. He even got a short interview during a chinlock, good God. Sika was exposed here, with horrible strikes and claw holds, looking quite uncoordinated while Allen tried to sell everything as good as he could, despite all odds. This felt like a prolonged 6 minute squash that could have lasted 2 or 3 minutes if Sika wasn't moving at 0.5x speed at all times. He eventually won with a completely non-impactful headbutt. 1/4*

Tony Atlas vs Ted Arcidi (8/9/86) This of course focused heavily on tests of strength and wrist locks, but it looked very rough, and the crowd didn't cheer either Atlas or hometown boy Arcidi. That made for about 3 minutes of silence while two large men tried to take each other down in a very anticlimactic fashion. If possible, things got even worse when the clinch ended, as they started the "your turn, my turn" sequence, literally scooping each other up without any attempt at self-defense and waiting for the opponent to get up for the next move. Monsoon started burying them for walking around and doing nothing, even calling out a "one-leg dropkick" by Atlas and a shitty Arcidi clothesline, saying it surely didn't hurt Atlas, "other than maybe the fall to the canvas." The crowd booed what Hayes called a "lacklustre performance." A shitty Arcidi bearhug led to both men clumsily falling outside the ring, where they immediately locked up in another very forced clinch. Mercifully, the referee counted them out as quickly as he could. This was horrible, but amazing for this thread's purpose I guess. -***1/2

Dick Slater vs Pete Doherty (8/9/86) Doherty was quite bad in terms of both selling and execution. Even Monsoon buried him for "clotheslining himself with the ropes" while trying to exit the ring at the beginning of the match. Doherty was clearly being positioned for comedy spots and an exaggerated losing streak, but his corny stuff, like the atomic drop selling and top-rope landing, didn't look particularly graceful and didn't do much for Slater. To be honest, Dick's heart clearly wasn't in this, or he was just having a bad night. Doherty looked awful, first attempting a neckbreaker and letting go of his opponent's neck too early, and then hitting the worst clothesline ever. "That wasn't a whole lot," said Monsoon, as Slater immediately sat up after trying to sell it. They luckily went home with a decent flying elbow from Slater, but this was a bad match overall. DUD

Junkyard Dog vs King Kong Bundy (6/27/86) Well, the fans were hot for JYD during his entrance, but this didn't save the match from sucking big time. They tried some bad-looking lockups and broke them a few times to stall, then Bundy left the ring in protest, which made the crowd go mild within a couple of minutes. They traded some bad-looking punches and splashes, creating a stalemate, and it got so bad that some fans actually threw garbage into the ring. Bundy took over with kicks that barely touched JYD. Dog started a comeback, then decided to grab his chain, and they started fighting over it in the corner, so the referee called for the DQ as JYD tossed him around. Boy, this sucked. DUD

Billy Jack Haynes vs Moondog Rex (6/27/86) "Fans are in for a treat," said Gorilla Monsoon. If only. This quickly drew "boring" chants, while Haynes looked very green and goofy during some simple exchanges with Rex. Rex focused on Haynes' back for a bit and it was actually making sense, but he didn't follow up on it. Haynes wasn't impressive while selling either, then started his comeback, and you could have literally heard a pen drop. They did some more random stuff until Haynes locked in the full nelson and Rex immediately tapped out. This lasted about 6 minutes and felt like 15. I'm not going extra hard on them, as the crowd was clearly completely out of it. DUD

David Sammartino vs Tiger Chung Lee (5/24/86) This sucked. Lee took 90% of the match, which consisted of horrible strikes and an inconsistent strategy: leg, arm, then chin, but nothing really stuck or was worked for very long. He failed to build anything worthwhile, and some people were already chanting "boring" 2 or 3 minutes into the match. David couldn't possibly look good here, not only because he was barely able to handle a man who looked like his grandad for 10+ minutes, but also because Lee messed up the babyface's comeback attempts. First, he couldn't get himself onto the turnbuckle in Flair style; later, he fell like a slow sack of potatoes when David grabbed his leg. With Lee still on top, David used a small cradle and essentially stole the match, as Lee kicked out at 2.9. Avoid. -1/2*

Sivi Afi vs Rene Goulet (3/8/86) This was not a good match, in a nutshell. Afi didn't look too polished, so Goulet had the job of carrying this, but he made a few gross mistakes himself. He was quite uncoordinated while selling Afi's bad-looking offense, but he was especially inconsistent during the heat segment. Goulet got the upper hand by hitting Afi in the chest, but then switched to working on his arm and then applying the claw, literally going against what he had established with his strikes. On top of that, the crowd didn't care, and the announcers started talking about cauliflower ears and what have you. To top it off, Afi had a bad comeback with a bunch of light offense and a finishing crossbody that was so clumsy he actually hit Goulet in the head with his knee! 1/4*

George Steele vs Tiger Chung Lee (2/8/86) This was entertaining bullshit for the crowd, but still a lot of bullshit. Steele ripped Lee's kendo stick in half and chased him around for a bit at such a slow pace, which at least ended the sequence of them standing there and staring at each other from afar, like 2 old men squinting at each other. Steele was somehow able to use a foreign object and did his usual turnbuckle-biting routine, while Lee got the upper hand and started to hit him from behind with some horrible-looking knees, that Steele mostly no-sold anyway. The exposed turnbuckle eventually came into play, as Lee was sent face-first into it and pinned. Thankfully, this was kept short at 5 minutes, as I couldn't take it anymore. DUD

This was a spectacle and such a miracle match. I don't want to overrate this, but it was one of the best tag matches of the decade and probably one of the very best in terms of formatting and storytelling. Tenryu and Hansen were amazing and pretty much wrestled 2 handicap matches here, isolating their opponents and making them look great despite the clear limitations. The blood added a bit of drama, as the two veterans tried their best but faced a duo that was even more dominant than Hansen and Brody at this point. Sure, there was a bit of sloppiness here and there, but it was very forgivable. Memorable finish. ****

A very cool babyfaces vs babyfaces match, even though the Harts kind of worked as heels here and did it pretty well too. The Harts worked on Michaels' back in a consistent and crisp way, by then it was clear that Bret was more than ready for a singles run and Gorilla was putting over his 'excellent' executions. This never really 'exploded' because the control segment, albeit good, didn't have much heat and the finish was a bit of a let down as well. ***1/2

A good trios match, mostly focused on hyping Dandy vs Charles, as they furiously brawled and bled all over the place. This felt a bit too corographed at the beginning, but all the caidas got decent time too. I would have certainly appreciated seeing more Atlantis for instance, but this worked well for what it was and accomplished its goal, also thanks to the rudo friendly finish. ***

This was a blast, of course it focused a lot on workrate and a lot of combined sequences, seeming to be a bit ahead of its time. The crowd supported this and the returning Bulldogs received good pops here, looking good against the Can-Ams. This was a bit long maybe, but still very entertaining as a showcase for two gaijin teams and also an early representation of Kobashi's diehard attitude and Fuchi's bullying approach. Good finish. ***1/4

This was a very fun match and an underrated babyface performance from Flair. Muta worked relentlessly on his leg after, getting a ton of offense in, and Flair put on some fine selling, while chopping his opponent and wobbling due to the bad leg. Unfortunately, Flair ignored this at times during his comeback, which was cut short by the non-finish anyway. Good crowd and surely a good TV match, but this was never designed to be an all-time great match. ***1/4

This was a great match, of course. They adapted to the stipulation and brawled throughout the bout, incarnating the real 'I Quit Match' purpose. The brawl was excellent and so was Funk taking over with the piledriver (albeit the execution wasn't very good), returning to the roots of their feud and forcing Flair to go all-out. The strategic and calculating Naitch was all gone, until he actually started working on Funk's leg on purpose as that was what he did best and possible the only way to get Funk to quit. I think the finish could have been done better, but this was still outstanding. ****

This was a very fun showcase of some of the best Mexican wrestlers ever. They wrestled this in a clean manner, which didn't generate much heat from the audience, but allowed them go out and pace this without much pressure for 20+ minutes. Good, competitive matwork and a young Eddy looked extremely polished already. I liked the first caida, that finished with a very cool flashy pin from Santo, but then the match plateaued a bit before picking right back up in the last few minutes. ***1/2

Cousin Junior vs Hercules Hernandez (11/25/85) I haven't seen much of Cousin Junior and, according to Cagematch, he had only about 50 matches under his belt at this point. He was probably the closest thing to Mick Foley having his first match ever in a backyard, as he was running the ropes and taking bumps that looked unsafe given his size. The match was boring anyway and had no business going 12 minutes, as Hercules worked a very, very long chinlock that was occasionally interrupted by some unconvincing spots. This was safely going to be an uneventful DUD and I was going to forget about it, but then they had 3 botches in a row during a very simple finishing sequence: first, Cousin lost his balance and fell on one knee; then he couldn't execute the roll-up properly after running towards the ropes; and finally, the referee missed the tempo of the outside distraction and 3 count, causing a very weird finish. -*1/2

Jesse Ventura vs Barry O (11/25/85) Ventura was a babyface here and got a decent pop, so at least he knew how to get undressed like a normal person. They did some subpar arm work before O took over with some weak punches that Monsoon called "heavy artillery." Ventura's selling left a lot to be desired, and his bump off a clothesline later in the match was one of the worst I've seen recently. O worked a long chinlock that killed the crowd, while Ventura did some heelish stuff during his comeback, but fans were completely numb by then. After a double-knockdown spot, Ventura hit O in the back once to set up the bodybreaker and win. This wasn't good. 1/2*