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Usual, solid Horsemen tag match with good crowd heat. The Anderson/Blanchard chemistry made this, offering some tight control segments and making Sting look very good for the way he could face them both, as him and Koloff had limited involvement here and this protected them. Good armwork on Koloff by the champions, with some good selling (and some goofy face expressions). Sting was a very good hot tag, even with the tainted time limit draw spoiling this for the fans. ***1/4

As usual, WWE/TKO higher ups are great at not addressing the issue itself or acknowledging it. Everyone hated 'Mania and they just refuse to accept it, as usual. They should kiss the floor every morning and be thankful that we live in a globalised 'quantity over quality' era, where you are not even asked to score a rating, to draw fans at a live show or to sell a PPV. All you have to do is film content and put it online, where the platform and the sponsors will pay you billions regardless. 'Clicking on Raw' and watching 5 minutes of it does not equate to watching it every Monday night on TV. On these terms, with their production value, customer base, resources and dozens of 'creative minds' on the payroll, offering a product that is less than 'very good' is nothing short of embarrassing. The same goes for the wrestlers. They are in a landscape where they don't have to draw, there is no quarter-hour rating and there is no backlash about how many buys a PPV will get if you're the main event. You get your salary, guaranteed, whether you match sucks or you go out there and kill it. According to cagematch, Roxanne Perez is the one that wrestled most matches last year, with 66 bouts... they wrestle once a week and are the most spoiled generation of wrestlers ever. For them too, anything less than putting on a good match on this terms, is unacceptable. If they have all of this time off, why can't Liv Morgan be taught to wrestle properly, instead of spending time rehashing for a lip-syncing entrance and dance? (By the way, why would a heel have a special entrance to wow the fans if they are supposed to be, you now, heels?) I don't understand why WWE wants to be the biggest thing out there in the sport entertainment world, charge insane amount of money and then be so butthurt when their subpar product is criticised. McDonalds' is the most famous burger joint in the world, but they sell a lot because they are way cheaper and aware that their burgers are not the tastiest. Ferraris are beautiful cars, but they sell only a few of them because they are very expensive. Why is WWE acting like it is completely fine charging Ferrari money for McDonald's output?

Fun match, the typical WWF style cage match with tons of heat, basic action and decent use of the structure. Savage sold his ass off, making DiBiase look good and getting a great amount of cheers, especially because Virgil tried to run in several times. Even the finish wasn't that elaborate of creative, but it worked very well in its simplicity, as Macho did well at fighting a Hogan style WWF title match. ***1/2

This had a big match feeling, as it was a consequence of the previous one that had a technical finish, but the match itself wasn't the best they ever put on together. Still, it was this two and so there was plenty of good stuff, effective struggle on the mat and a hot crowd. Fujinami started as an underdog here, but kept coming back, despite Choshu cutting him often and proving all of his experience. This lacked some more outstanding body-part heat segment, while I loved the underdog finish. ***1/2

This had better storytelling than Maeda's match against Yamazaki that took place the month before, as now it was time to elevate Takada, who was NJPW's top junior for a bit and tried to step up to the company's Ace in a good mix of solid mat work and functional strikes, to facilitate his limb work. I think Maeda wasn't too good here, as he seemed focused on the usual '5 minutes hold, a few strikes, back to the hold' and kind of ignored Takada's attempt to a 'more traditional match' for a bit. They got back on track somehow, but it seemed like they wanted to wrestle 2 different matches. ***

Giving 30 minutes to an undercard act could have been a total disaster, but this happened to be pretty good. The feeling of struggle for supremacy on the mat was clear and consistent, and especially the striking segments were carefully limited, without ignoring all the limb damage. On the other side, the pace wasn't the best at times and they were clearly killing some time, switching from a focus to another, despite some good armwork by Miyato. The finish wasn't the best, but these two definitely busted their butt. ***

A good match, with a reasonably exciting climax that didn't harm the first part of the match thanks to their fire and matwork competence. The champions worked on Jumbo's leg, with some convincing selling from Tsuruta and a heavily focused Tenryu. The escalation worked quite well and Yatsu had to step up for his team, as Jumbo wasn't well enough to lead action, but still helped taking Tenryu out, as Yatsu was left with Hara and managed to beat him. ***1/2

Their stuff from 1983-4 is still a notch above this one, but this was great stuff anyway. The limb work was good and heated, reminiscing their old series, showing a very aggressive side of Fujinami, who wasn't willing to share his newfound spotlight with his old rival. Great legwork by Choshu, capitalising on Fujinami's sole mistake, and it was the highlight of the match. Fujinami also fought without his shoe, trying to resist Choshu, but he couldn't stand and the match was thrown out. This was a 5 minutes away and a finish from being an all time great. ****

This was a wild brawl, with a very hot crowd and everything worked very smoothly. Los Invaders sold big time for the Starrs, but their offense was the highlight of the match, as it tasted like sweet revenge and people couldn't wait for the heels (especially Chicky) to get what they deserved. Plenty of heat especially when I's mask got ripped, but the heat segment on the tecnicos wasn't too long, just like the match itself. This was somewhat limited as it was a short match with a non-finish, but it was a great, great way to enhance the feud. ***1/2

This felt important, as it was the first main event of the new UWF version, but it lacked too much to be a classic. They featured compelling storytelling, as Yamazaki wanted the Ace spot and Maeda always struggled when his opponent was a great kicker (like in his Fujiwara matches), which led to Maeda eating a lot of kicks and Yamazaki desperately trying to resist the opponent's holds. The strikes were great and the matwork was fine too, but this lasted 25 minutes and it dragged more than once, because these two would need to 'reset' after a crazy striking sequence, almost like there was an imaginary round system, so the pace made little sense. Like many other UWF matches, this one is a tough one to rate. ***1/4

I actually agree on both points, but these are not very popular opinions.

This felt like a big deal as Lawler finally got his hands on a (dying) World Title, plus him and Hennig had enough chemistry to make this look easy. However, despite some awesome punches and good selling from Lawler, this was too slow at times and it featured the usual Memphis big match restholds/stalling that I dread so much. The crowd was into it at least and so it felt fine, despite dragging a bit. I also get the suspence of having an exhausted Lawler getting the pin, but a catapult wasn't exactly the best choice to end the match. ***

Another typical enjoyable New Japan elimination match from the 80s, however this was more spots driven rather than based on pacing and drama, as this mostly featured young lions. Hase/Koshinaka was the best pairing, Hase was bleeding and sold tons for the opponents, while Yamada was clearly the most athletic guy out there. Some of the eliminations got very loud pops from the crowd, despite the finish being a bit cold. ***1/4

Another great match in their series and I really wish we had the whole thing, as this is very hard to rate due to the continuous TV commercial cuts. Still, they showed 25+ minutes of incredible action, easily some of the best southern tag stuff ever shown on national TV. The great thing about the MNX was how good they were at selling their opponents' stuff, but then also cut them off and isolate them in a very oppressing way, like they did with Rogers here. Outstanding drama and blood (only harmed by the breaks), with such a surprising and feel good finish, without going to the classic scheme of the hot tag. ****1/4

Roughly a notch above the COTC title change, but a completely different match, as they had more time here and this made Luger in terms of babyface performance, thanks to the juice and his convincing leg selling against the relentless tactics of the Horsemen, but also fuelled by Windham's incredible form and fluid limbwork. The Windham heel turn was a good and shocking angle; it kind of hurt the match from getting even better maybe, but it came out of frustration and it made sense, despite being unfair to Luger. ****

I won't call this a miracle, but this was as good as a 30 minutes Brody match was ever going to get in 1988, so props to him and Tenryu. Some of the limbwork wasn't that great and a part of Brody's stuff went nowhere, while Brody himself sold his leg quite consistently at least. The pace got a bit more frenetic later on and this got quite pleasant towards the end, also thanks to a couple of good nearfalls. The non-finish was well done too, but it makes me wonder why they didn't just opted for a tighter 15/20 minutes bout. ***1/4.

CommercialMania! This is 'Turner buying WCW and not having a clue on how to run it' all over again, only 10 times worse.

Thank you for taking the time to reply in such detail! I appreciate that. My point was mostly around ringwork rather than being over, as unfortunately being attractive seems to be enough to be popular with the current fanbase. From the very little I have seen, people like Liv Morgan and Jade Cargill are very poor in the ring and were featured at 'Mania, along with the likes of the Bellas and AJ (who weren't even good in their prime). So, as people keep telling me the roster is actually good, I assume it's a creative issue then? Can't say I am surprised.

Can I spend a minute on the women and can anyone help me, as I haven't watched the product in forever and so I might have missed something? While the creative is terrible for everybody, we can all agree that WWE has some very competent male wrestlers at least, but I find the women's roster to be absolutely poor. Why is WWE overexposing them with 3 matches on yesterday's cards? You can't possibly tell me anyone seriously believed those matches would be good. What's the need of multiple, meaningless belts in the division?

Embarrassing.

Somewhat clipped in the middle, but hard to track as there is no official time for this match. The stalling at the beginning was whatever, but this got pretty good once they started doing something. Gilbert used a rope to tie and choke Lawler, which made him look like a threat, plus his cheap ways generated some good heat. Usual fun Lawler punches, but they abruptly went to the non-finish without a gradual transition, despite the fireball spot getting a huge pop. Fun bout, despite a few issues, but great angle advancement. ***

Famous match and mainly a Flair masterpiece, considering how green Sting was at the time (or the fact he's never had a match this good for the rest of his career!). The best part about this was making it an even match for the judges, which did wonders for Sting, as he looked resilient while selling and got a lot of offense in, much more than Flair usually would concede in a broadway draw. Tons of good drama and the last few minutes were very exciting, they did a good job at teasing that Sting could win with the deathlock before the time limit draw. Flair made Sting, despite not dropping the belt here. ****1/4

This was another 10 minutes masterpiece in a tag team setting, on the same night of Fantastics vs MNX. Really solid stuff from the Horsemen, even though Luger's legwork went nowhere after a bit, and that was the only real issue with the flow of the match. Great, great crowd in supporting Windham and then for the final moments, with a good feeling finish for the babyfaces and the title change. This was so different than MNX vs Fantastics on the same card in terms of style and pacing, which was very appreciated. ***3/4

All they had was 10 minutes and they did great. This was a notch below their previous TV bout, but they still planted some outstanding storytelling pieces, as they continued their heated brawl here and it was very enjoyable, clearly leading to a stipulation match down the line too due to the use of weapons. Very good heat segment on Rogers, even though it was very quick due to the TV restraints, but the crowd here added that extra boost. Very cool finishing run and even the Dusty finish was well done. ****

Great rematch of their previous bout, it was a clear upgrade, also thanks to the storytelling of Hansen having to prove a point after his shocking loss. Tenryu bled and ate a lot of offense this time, due to the aggression of his opponent, however Tenryu finally managed to work on the ribs on the gaijin with some nasty strikes, finding once again an opening to weaken the former champion. The match was the proof that Tenryu's victory was no fluke, as he hanged well with Hansen here too, both on the mat and when striking. Hansen stopping his own pin was a silly in terms of psychology, as both titles were on the line, but at least the DQ finish was done very well and it captured Hansen's fury and Tenryu's refusal to be bullied. ****