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Taped on December 15th. Pretty great TV title match and Flair made Garvin in one night, basically. Garvin matched the champions' efforts on the mat and used tough chops, making Flair look like his reign was in constant danger. In a fun bit, Flair actually tried to stand toe to toe with Garvin to humiliate him, but consistently failed at overpowering him until the DQ finish, as Flair was desperate and felt like he had no way out. This was perfect for what it was and Garvin looked like a star ***1/2

This was a decent match, pretty match at the same level of their November bout, but a bit of a let down in terms of them choosing an easy and lazy angle match, using the stipulation to build for a future contest rather than exploring something different. Still, it worked decently for about 10 minutes and Buzz did some fine work on Duggan's back (minus the chairshots). Fun finish, which again wasn't anything spectacular, but fit the stipulation and Duggan's character too ***

This bout had good psychology, as a draw was all Hansen and DiBiase needed to win the RWTL, while Choshu and Yatsu were extra aggressive in their attempts to score a decisive win. Choshu and Hansen had great exchanges, but also Yatsu did very well in the legwork segment against Hansen, who sold big time for him; DiBiase mostly did support stuff and seemed a bit out of place at times. This had a decent climax towards the end, with the non-finish being a bit of a pity, yet an understandable way to close the match ***1/4

This was quite ambitious, as they went for 30 minutes despite all the limitations from Baba and Dory. When they threw bombs, this was fun and benefitted from a hot crowd; the limb work parts, however, were not as good and lacked some consistency. This was despite Baba giving his opponent a lot of offence and having fun exchanges with Tenryu, who was an absolute di**head to Baba and didn't respect him at all. The draw was quite obvious, but there was a good countout tease before that ***1/4

This felt like a big deal, due to the previous time limit draw and this match being the one that assigned the new tag belts. Inoki and Fujinami showed good chemistry again and repeated the figure four spot from their September classic, but the youngsters had a lot of confidence and even Sakaguchi felt pray of their double moves, while he managed to stay out of trouble in the match from the previous week. No time limit here, so they passed the 30:00 mark this time until the shocking finish of Fujinami getting a clean pinfall on Inoki ***3/4

First time ever and they gelled perfectly, despite this only being a 10 minutes feeler with nothing on the line. Steamboat worked on Savage's arm in a very convincing way and Macho was so good that he kept selling the arm even when he was the one on top, putting over simple spots like missing his elbowdrop from the top or having to use a lariat. Savage still looked competitive, despite stealing the victory with a clever and dirty finish, that unfortunately both the camera and the announcer missed at first ***

This was a very good clash of wrestling generations. Of course, Inoki vs Fujinami was the main pairing after their classic bout and, despite this never getting 'too aggressive', it was very competitive and the crowd mostly sided with the underdogs. The veterans worked on Kimura's leg and they carried the match well, despite their stamina limitations. Fujinami shined towards the end and got to go toe to toe with Inoki again, with the time limit draw saving the veterans from an unexpected loss ***1/2

Good match, as the chemistry between these two teams was clearly growing fast. While a few times it seemed like they were stalling and that this was surely going to the distance, the matwork was solid throughout the match and they took care of the different pairings; Choshu would wrestle Jumbo with a careful approach, while him and Tenryu would just throw hands as Choshu knew he had a little edge on him. Good hot tag for Jumbo and we got a few nearfalls, ultimately the time out was predictable but useful ***1/2

Slightly clipped. Pretty good title match, but they didn't shine and none of them seemed over enough to carry an epic title bout. Reed had his usual good headlock to kick things off, but Slater did the best stuff of the match when he worked on Reed's leg to soften him up for a future match with Ric Flair. Reed got enough support in his comeback and got a bit of buzz, even though the selling was not always on point, until the flat non-finish **3/4

This was a fine match, not a great main event but the crowd heavily supported it anyway. Flair sold Dusty's stuff quite well, even though they didn't always click perfectly and it almost looked like Dusty freestyled this more than Flair wanted him to. Usual good legwork from the Naitch, but it lacked the drama that a Starrcade main event should have, despite Dusty being consistent with his pain intolerance. I didn't care much for the Dusty finish in hindsight, even though the crowd did and it was quite surprising as a result ***

This was an amazing match, despite being a very unorthodox bout with little wrestling and a lot of brutality. With such an unique stipulation, they told a consistent and great story of wanting to hurt each other as much as possible, causing their movements to become basic, ugly and even sloppy at times: none of them could lose in the dog-eat-dog world, nobody had the time and luxury for fancy holds or a defined strategy. Incredible screams and drama, that was even better thanks to the silence of the astonished announcers, leading to an all time great finish ****1/2

Good match and great angle, as Flair sold the DDT before the bout like he got murdered and this got the crowd very hot. However, they forgot about it once the bell rang and Robert never even attempted to hit another one or work on Flair's neck, which was very silly as the crowd was chanting "DDT" all along. The match itself was fine and featured Flair changing gears multiple times to compete against Roberts, stealing the victory with a lucky small package, but the DDT stuff really disappointed me ***

This was a good title defence for Flair, who pretty much made Koko look great and made this go beyond expectations, thanks to the usual Flair formula. Koko was good at selling and threw some awesome punches, that Flair sold like they were bullets and were put over by the announcer. Also, having Dusty doing stuff at ringside was quite cool, even though it spoiled the result in hindsight. Really good heel finish, you couldn't help feel bad for Koko, as he did everything he could despite the odds here ***1/2

This was a good little brawl, they went at 100 miles an hour from the start and it got bloody right away. It didn't drag at all. The crowd was heavily involved and was rooting for Duggan to finish Sawyer as soon as possible, which helped thanks to Duggan cussing and grunting to put more emphasis on the fight and his struggle. However, I wasn't a big fan of the count out finish, especially because Buzz returned to the ring to fight after losing the match on purpose ***

Taped on November 6th. Not sure about this being a 'great match' per se, but it was definitely a great angle. DiBiase turned face during this bout, thanks to Dick Murdoch assaulting him and ruining his title shot, as he had to fight Flair while heavily taped and gave all he had. This was a very satisfying brawl, some of the best 7/8 minutes one could ask in terms of intensity and storytelling. The non-finish was pretty much obvious and logic, as it protected DiBiase and his 'never give up' attitude. Fine as a 'match', but an amazing angle ***1/4

Big match atmosphere, as Jumbo and Choshu finally went one on one. Unfortunately, they also went 60 minutes, but without delivering an all time epic, which was clearly what they tried to do here. Most of the limb work was fine, Choshu showed all of his potential and Jumbo was somewhat generous with his leg selling. However, they didn't pace this well enough and there were a couple of weird 'restart segments', plus a quite flat 10 minutes before things started to pick up. A bit of a disappointment, considering this was their first bout ***

Slightly clipped. This was a prestigious unification match, so anyone could predict the political non-finish here. That being said, this had great matwork and the usual goodness of a Flair formula match, when his opponent could go for 30+ minutes. However, the crowd didn't fully embrace Martel as a babyface here and they both kind of ignored the leg selling towards the end, which took this down a notch or two. The latest punches sequence was great, also triggered by Flair's bloody forehead, but of course this ended with the lamest double countout ***1/2

This couldn't touch their amazing 50 minutes bout, but it was still a very good one. Once again, Reed got most of the initial offense, his armwork was effective and he grounded his opponent. In a cool stipulation and psychology bit, Reed's TV title was only on the line for the first 15 minutes, so Murdoch got upset when they expired, as he had nothing to gain and everything to lose at that point. Murdoch did some amazing leg work on Reed, who got all the crowd support at that point. Perfectly satisfying flashy pinfall ***3/4

This surprised me a big deal, as I was expecting Martel to wrestle as a heel and instead he didn't, despite Memphis being on Lawler's side of course. Despite that, Martel led most of the match with a good focus on Lawler's leg, then gradually getting more heelish when he was getting frustrated and worried. Fun Lawler comeback, even though he stopped selling the leg at one point. Of course, there was a non-finish, but it was a dull one and the announcers looked like a fool when he announced a title change that clearly didn't happen ***1/2

This was better than their previous matches, as they didn't have to fill an hour with restholds and Flair looked very eager. However, I still maintain that their chemistry wasn't amazing and Reed wasn't massively elevated by the Flair formula. Reed still did pretty good stuff on the mat anyway, with the usual and persistent headlock, while Flair got most of the offense to work towards his figure four. This felt a bit disjointed at times and the finish also sucked, an involuntary ref bump was such a silly excuse for a DQ ***1/4

This was a satisfying match, with a feel good feeling, as the feud got a heated blowoff in front of a very receptive crowd. The match wasn't that exciting, though, and it felt a bit flat despite the nice environment. This featured good pace and some fun spots, as they went very quick for the 10 minutes they got, but this never caught major drama and the No DQ stipulation was only used for the powder spot. Felt like a solid match to get to the shaving angle, rather than a good old blowoff ***

Slightly clipped. This was the best Jumbo ever looked in America and the best Martel did as a babyface since his Portland days, as they just embraced the roles the crowd gave them. Jumbo was nasty in his control over the champion, as he got tired of the way he hanged with him on the mat in all of their matches, which led to Martel fighting and scratching from underneath. This was mostly Jumbo destroying Martel and the champion not giving up, as he would come back at all times, getting a flashy pinfall in the process ***3/4

This was a good match once again, Flair and TA were so familiar with each other by then and their chemistry was clear. As this was an 'A show', they refreshened their act a bit, with some classic Flair heel limb work on the opponent's arm and TA's raw power. I liked that Magnum was the one that started focusing on the leg, which caused Flair issues when he tried to use the figure four. They repeated the ref bump into the belly to belly here, but at least we got a finish ***1/2

This was a really good bout, as they had enough time to tell a compelling story and the MSG crowd seemed to enjoy it too. Obviously, Bret and Dynamite did the best stuff together, but Neidhart was quite useful here during Kid's babyface in perils segment. The back selling was on point, but it lacked 'extra' drama at times. I liked the finish, Davey got a nice pop as he was finally tired of the Harts' tricks and turned one against them to get an unexpected victory ***1/2

This was an amazing bout and they did wonderfully, considering they went for 45 minutes and this was never dull. The initial part made a lot of difference, as the long headlock from Reed and the armwork from Murdoch were not purposeless rest hold and ended up carrying the bout for a good chunk of it. Reed was very careful in fighting with one arm only and they kept selling even when the match climaxed, with a great leg selling sequence by Murdoch. He's no Ric Flair, but fed Reed like the Naitch couldn't do. The leg pain led to the non-finish, it was well done, but I just wished this had definitive finish ****1/4