KB8

Man this was awesome. Shibata is someone I love in the right setting and roll my eyes at when he indulges his New Japan main event side, but this was was almost exclusively what I like about him condensed into thirteen minutes. Sakuraba is in his mid-40s and looks it, graying at the sides, his scraggly facial hair and his J League superfan ring gear. Shibata kicks lumps out of him and there's a great bit where he's doing his running corner dropkicks as Sakuraba just lays hunched up like a man who's forgotten why he's still doing this. He can't strike with Shibata, he'll lose that battle every day, so he has to dig into his bag and use everything that made him the Gracie Hunter. I loved all of his quick throws and submissions, going for kneebars to set up armbars to set up chokes like a man younger than his years. At points he was literally crawling all over Shibata, tying up his legs and his arms at the same time forcing to Shibata to grab the ropes with his teeth. My favourite was the fight for the cross armbreaker that he managed to turn into a choke with his fucking ankles. Some of Shibata's selling was unbelievable, especially while in the chokes, and I about lost it when his eyes started rolling back like he was about drop (crowd picked up on it and popped huge too). Shibata getting back into it with the strikes was probably inevitable, but I thought it was great how he went to the choke to wear Sakuraba out for the penalty kick, knowing that it didn't work going for it off the bat earlier. I loved this.

I feel like I should watch more Real Japan from 2010. I've only seen a handful of RJ matches from that year but they were mostly fun, and Tenryu/Sayama was fucking awesome. 2010 FUTEN was about as strong a year as there's been this decade, though. IWRG was really damn good in 2010 as well, but I thought FUTEN was so good that the second place promotion would be a fair bit behind. Figured ARSION might've gotten a bit of love. No CMLL in 1990 is probably where I'd disagree most. Having gone through most of the TV for it out there, it's definitely one of the strongest years any promotion had in the 90s.

Sensational five minutes of pandemonium. Shibata is basically the prototype for your chest-puffed, dick-swinging tough guy and Tenryu is an old man who doesn't have time for his shit. Tenryu has no interest in bragging about how hard he can hit someone, his interest lies in the hitting itself. The opening exchange was truly wonderful and ended with maybe the best double punch spot I've ever seen, followed by Shibata grabbing a guillotine and refusing to let go. It pretty soon spills to the floor and Shibata is such a smug prick beating on this pensioner, kicking him up and down the place, throwing him into ring posts, even threatening him with a bottle until the ref' talks him down. Of course this just sends Tenryu off on one and he cannot be talked down. The old man is pissed and about ready to glass someone. Shibata just keeps pushing it, though. Slaps Tenryu, punches him in the face, goads him because he thinks Tenryu won't use the bottle. Tenryu punches him back, but he still won't drop that bottle and the ref' is pleading with him because he obviously knows Tenryu better than Shibata does. I don't know if it was brinkmanship or blind stupidity. Maybe he thought riling Tenryu up was the easiest path to victory, but either way he cracked him once too often. Tenryu jabbing him in the throat with the bottle and smashing it over his head was about the greatest payoff to ninety seconds of build that there's ever been.

What an insanely fun five minutes. In a lot of ways it probably went how you thought it would. Nakano is clearly in way over his head, but he's a capable striker, has a submission game, and perhaps most importantly he's willing to engage in any slugfest you put in front of him. Tenryu is one of the most giving top guys in history and he usually manages to do it without compromising his status, so if nothing else you figure this would work stylistically. And I mean, obviously he'll slugfest with anyone. Tenryu's selling for Nakano's strikes was pretty amazing, how he'd get rocked and make those knockdowns feel important. Nakano probably never had a chance of actually winning, but Tenryu at least made it look like the miracle could happen. He'd hit back with the sumo slaps and I'm utterly astounded that Nakano's nose never exploded across his face for a change. I'm not sure who Tenryu started shit talking in the crowd - maybe Takada? - but whoever it was gave Nakano enough of an opening to kick Tenryu in the head some more. Tenryu scoring the win with leg kicks and a half crab was a pretty great fuck you to them UWF boys, too.

Yeah, I don't think anybody's ever likely to argue that Savage/Steamboat was the money match on that card. The tag matches that really stood out for me when Grimmas was doing his Bret Hart project (and I was following along) were the Islanders matches. Face Islanders vs heel Hart Foundation was good stuff. Man, I love Islanders/Hart Foundation. The 11/86 match from Maple Leaf Gardens is a personal favourite of mine and I basically watch it once a year at this point. I know there are other matches between them out there (the Philly Spectrum match gets a decent amount of time too, I think), yet for some reason I haven't checked any of them out. Heel Islanders v babyface Rockers is a total dream match for me and I'm gutted that it never happened. The Islanders were awesome.

This is about as close to a joshi Ikeda/Ishikawa as you'll get, with the added wrinkle of the submission/KO only stip. It had Hotta playing crowbar Ikeda and Kandori playing tough as shoe leather Ishikawa; not quite pure sriker v pure grappler, but you knew what each woman's bread and butter was. They put across the uncooperative grittiness straight away with the rough scramble that lands them on the floor, then Hotta ratchets the violence all the way up by punting Kandori clean in the face. Many outrageous kicks to the face were thrown in this match and Hotta was responsible for basically every one of them. She also tried to break Kandori's guard by headbutting her a bunch of times and this led to her own forehead being split open. Kandori's selling was really tremendous at times, particularly when she was trying to beat the ten count after one of Hotta's kicks to the head or face or ear. She'd also yank Hotta into chokes and armbars, then reach that point where she got fed up being cracked in the face so she'd start throwing headbutts and palm thrusts in return. My favourite moment of the match might've been when she was repeatedly headbutting Hotta and her bleach blond hair wound up covered in Hotta's blood, which left her looking like Flair after he's had his face ground into a cage. Finish was pretty great as well. Hotta hits a mean high angle powerbomb, and maybe she's disoriented from the blood loss or whatever, but he tries to transition straight into a pin. Ref' tells her no, after a few seconds she comprehends, but Kandori snatches her and locks in a triangle for the stoppage. A supremely violent twelve minutes and a great find.

This was alright, though more like your red hot New Japan juniors fare than what you'd typically associate with Battlarts. Still, red hot is red hot and it had excellent heat. You'd think they'd hit a point of diminishing returns with the nearfalls considering literally every pin attempt from word one was a 2.999 count, but the crowd didn't seem to peak early. Tajiri was rolling out all sorts of lucha submissions like a nippy little Blue Panther and you're reminded that he worked Mexico for a minute there. I don't love Tanaka, but he's crisp and his stuff looks good so...that's a thing, I guess.

Yeah, I actually read something about Beaver being injured in that match. I feel like I should check out some Rougeaus babyface stuff from around this period. I remember nothing about their Wrestlemania match now, but they've gotten to bust out a bunch of cool offence on a couple other shows I've checked out. I should probably watch the Hart Foundation match(es).

I may finally create a Facebook account to participate in this.

I watched Wrestlemania 3 over the last few days. It wasn't an amazing show from a match quality standpoint, but I didn't think anything outright sucked (probably because the stuff that might've sucked was kept short), the guys you'd expect to look good looked good, and it had an all-timer of an IC title match. Plus I think it maybe did okay at the box office. Can-Am Express v Bob Orton & Don Muraco - Nice fun little opener. With more of a heat segment this could've been what the hipsters call "a ***1/4 affair," but as is we got plenty of neat babyface shine. The Can-Ams mostly work the arm with arm-wringers, a few quick tags and your hiptoss/armdrag takedowns. Orton thinks he's shaken Zenk, but Zenk keeps hold of the arm and drags him back to the mat face-first. The double monkey flip was cool, Orton's bump over the top looked good, and I liked the finish with Martel hitting the crossbody as Zenk crouches behind Muraco for the schoolboy trip. Doesn't top Rockers v Haku/Barbarian for under the radar Wrestlemania tag openers, but I wouldn't be surprised if it ended up being one of the three best matches on the show. Hercules v Billy Jack Haynes - Herc's HGH gut is wild. It's not quite at that point where it's super distended and blocky, but he is absolutely juiced to the gills and somehow makes Billy Jack look natural in comparison. This wasn't great or anything, but I expected it to be a bag of shit and it wasn't that either so...happy days? Hercules absolutely slabbered Haynes with a clothesline early and that set up a spell of back work, which Haynes sold pretty well for a minute there. He was hunched over and it gave him so much bother he couldn't even suplex Herc. Herc wasn't amazing on offence or anything, but he did hit one big vertical suplex that he really threw himself into, almost turning it into a brainbuster. The post-match beatdown was a touch nastier than I remembered and Billy Jack blading was something else I'd forgotten. You kind of grade these 7 minute matches between guys who aren't all that good on a curve, and for what it was I thought this was fine. King Kong Bundy, Little Tokyo & Lord Littlebrook v Hillbilly Jim, Haiti Kid & Little Beaver - Imagine being a midget wrestler. Yahoos like Hillbilly Jim picking you up like you're a literal child and condescendingly patting you on the head. You're either a goofy comedy act or a psychopath that bites people in the arse (Hornswoggle). Sometimes both (Hornswoggle). I'd have taken my shit to Mexico. That said, Little Beaver absolutely deserved to be squashed like a grape. If nothing else Bundy should be commended for treating him like an equal! What did he expect? You slap Bundy's keister and keep pushing his buttons you better believe he'll react. Raylan Givens said it best: "Y'all go poking the bear and it's his fault when you get bit." Harley Race v Junkyard Dog - King Harley and Queen Moolah. I could see Harley being an okay king. Hard but fair. Firm but not inflexible. Maybe not loved by the people, but in time I could see them coming to at least accept him. Moolah, though. Like Cersei Lannister with none of the good parts (...youthful exuberance?) and all of the worst dialed up to eleven. Call me a fool, but I thought this was pretty fun! Again, it only lasted a few minutes, but it was a highlight reel of old man Harley Race bumping. He faceplanted on a missed headbutt off the fucking apron to the floor, took an over the top rope bump where he hit his face on the apron, conked JYD with a falling headbutt that did more damage to himself (as a black man JYD has a four inch cranium, obviously), took his signature flip bump from the apron back in the ring, even gave us the slowest Flair Flip in the corner you've ever seen. He knew he had four minutes and he was going to make it count. I say this probably once a year, but I ought to do a mini-deep dive on Race. I'm pretty confident that his stuff in Japan does nothing for me at all, but his post-world champ run usually delivers the goods. Rougeau Brothers v Dream Team - I watched this three hours before writing about it and I didn't remember a thing that happened other than the Beefcake turn at the end. I actually forgot it even happened until I went to Wikipedia to check how long the next match lasted. The Rougeaus are a fun babyface unit, Valentine is great and Beefcake can be fine so I'll assume it was watchable, but that's honestly all I have. It was short. Things happened. Blanks must be filled. You can do it. Roddy Piper v Adrian Adonis - I've got a lot of time for Piper dropping Springsteen lines in his pre-match promo. "No retreat, baby, no surrender!" Tell'm, Hot Rod! I loved every second of this madness. The crowd are red hot for the whole thing and I loved Piper flinging Jimmy Hart all around the ring early on. He flung him into then onto then damn near through Adonis, whipped them both with a strap, people were going ballistic. Then Adonis took over and I'm a fan of him playing to the exotico gimmick by raking Piper's back and chest. Piper's punch drunk selling ruled and he managed to throw in his GOAT-level eye poke. Adonis and Hart celebrating prematurely after Goodnight Irene, Beefcake morphing into The Barber right before our very eyes (don't know why he was actually out there, don't really care), Adonis smashing himself in the face with a big fuck off pair of shears, the old carny trick of smacking a guy on the neck to wake him up from a sleeper hold, the post-match head shaving, Adonis audibly shouting "WHAT THE FUCK?!" when he sees his reaction in the mirror, I loved all of it. One of the most fun sub-ten minute spectacles in WWF history. British Bulldogs & Tito Santana v The Hart Foundation & Danny Davis - This was alright. Bret looked motivated to get his ten minutes on the card and took a couple big bumps, including his sternum-first turnbuckle bump. Dynamite also yanked him about five feet off the canvas by the hair and I always cringe when he does that. Danny Davis entered the match twice, threw two kicks, grinned, tagged back out, and got more heat than anyone all night. Davey Boy finally running rampant on him was sort of terrifying in one of those Steiner Brothers murdering enhancement talent ways. Perfectly solid six-man. Butch Reed v Koko B. Ware - This is an honest to god dream match of mine, but four minutes on a Wrestlemania midcard isn't the same as twenty minutes in the Sam Houston Coliseum. We got some great punches, TWO awesome Koko Ware dropkicks, a big bump over the top from Reed, and then a double dropkick from Tito and Koko as Reed STEALS one with a handful of tights. Reed was probably past his best in '87, but I still want to believe there's a Reed/Santana match on a Boston or MSG card that's as good as their Houston match. What are we if not dreamers? Randy Savage v Ricky Steamboat - I'd gone back and forth on this for years. I always wanted more hate, I wanted blood, I wanted Steamboat to throttle Savage. It had always left me underwhelmed until about a decade ago when I watched the entire feud. Context helped it and so did that interview that was an extra on the Wrestlemania 3 DVD or whatever, with Steamboat talking about this being his last chance at the belt, how he'd come back from injury and let his temper get out of control and how it never got him anywhere. It might've been a convenient way to get out of someone bleeding in the blowoff to the big blood feud, but if nothing else it worked and added the layer that made it all click. I'm not sure I'd still call it a top 10 match in WWE history, but it's a great match. The main takeaway I had this time was that they built the hell out of this thing. It wasn't like it started out with no heat. People were into it from the start, as you'd expect. But by the end, even with the phantom heel pinfall and the fact they never COMPLETELY pulled the trigger on that clean win, the place was molten hot. Hebnar was gassed out of his mind towards the end and people were just losing it for every roll up and nearfall. It had lots of cool little throwbacks to the major points of the feud. Some of them I wish they maybe did a bit more with, like Savage working the throat and Steamboat playing up those moments where he'd turn loose, but I thought things like the nearfall off the finish to the Toronto match and Savage going for the bell came off great. Even Savage coming out and moving Elizabeth as far away as possible from Steele touched on the history. I suppose they could've done more with that brief bit of arm work. I'd maybe have liked for them to do away with a bit of the back and forth so Savage could have a longer stretch on top. I'll never love that phantom pinfall. It didn't really matter, though. What they gave us was an exceptional bit of pro-wrestling and one of the more iconic matches the company's ever had. Jake Roberts v Honky Tonk Man - Pretty by the numbers, but Honky was effective as a heat magnet around this point so at least the crowd were into it. Jake threw some okay punches and took a nice bump into the guardrail, while Honky did the Terry Funk teeter-totter spot in the ropes and shook his hips to rile folk up. I don't know if Jimmy Hart is terrified of snakes or what, but he sure wanted no part of Damian post-match. If it came to a fist fight between him and Alice Cooper, my money would be on the Colonel (for some reason I totally forgot Gorilla would always refer to Jimmy as that. "The Colonel Jimmy Hart." Was that just a Gorilla thing or was it an actual moniker he used in the WWF?). Killer Bees v Iron Sheik & Nikolai Volkoff - Also by the numbers, but we got a Jim Brunzell dropkick so you take the five minutes of by the numbers. Compromises and whatnot. Volkoff singing the Soviet national anthem pre-match is always great because people will start flinging rubbish at the ring and it never gets anything but crazy heat. I also love how Slick came back out to the ring with his clothes all torn up after the Tito mauling from earlier. Hulk Hogan v Andre the Giant - I've always liked this. Hogan's had better matches built around bodyslamming a larger opponent, but he has every single person in that stadium on strings and if nothing else it's certainly a spectacle. I thought it was worked smartly as well. Andre is nearly immobile so he's mostly clubs, headbutts and a bearhug. He uses the clubs and the bearhug to work the back, which they establish as a story point early when Hogan fails to slam Andre the first time. The bearhug isn't riveting or anything, but they never lost the crowd and the reaction for Hogan fighting back from the brink is special. The headbutts were my favourite, because when they connect they're sold as being devastating. Then when they miss they're sold as being devastating. The first time he misses he headbutts the turnbuckle and it gives Hogan an opening. Andre cuts him off after a brief flurry, but they establish a way out for Hogan. Avoid the headbutt and maybe you can use it against him. The second time they escalate it as Andre headbutts the post, and that's really Hogan's inroad. I guess they backtrack on that idea when Andre backdrops Hogan on the concrete (well, that was the intention. It didn't come off great), but Andre was groggy from then on out. Everyone goes ballistic for Andre being taken off his feet, then more ballistic for the slam, then EVEN MORE BALLISTIC for the legdrop. It's one of the defining moments of Hulkamania and a cool way to cap off one of the most successful wrestling shows there's ever been.

This was pretty wild. The uncooperative aspect obviously stands out, with the hair grabbing and rough lock-ups and both of them always being on the cusp of dropping any pretense of competition and punching the other guy in the mouth. There were a couple moments where you could see Oki about ready to put a boot in as Inoki's on the mat. Like, you could buy that he was truly itching to. Inoki grinding his forearm across Oki's face might honestly be the nastiest version of that spot I've seen. Then Oki throws the first headbutt and Inoki's sell of it is wonderful. You can tell it hurt him, but he wasn't giving Oki the satisfaction of taking a back step. He sold it like the unexpectedness of it wasn't really enough to jolt him out of his state of adrenaline, like you'd expect in a real fight when someone peppers you with a dirty shot like that. The second one he expected but that only made it sting even worse. The moment where he finally had enough and cracked Oki in the jaw was tremendous. Really cool, unique match.

I fucking love Kurisu. Never has there been a grumpier potato-farming bastard in all of the pro-wrestling. What a highly unpleasant little man. This was basically ten minutes of two guys who will crowbar you stupid crowbarring each other stupid, so of course it was tremendous fun. Kurisu was headbutting Hash in the ear and cheekbone, really laying it in with the kicks, all to set him up for some steel chair mauling. He's determined to get Hash out the ring long enough to smash him with that chair, but Hash knows Kurisu's game and keeps scooting back in the ring. Kurisu is obviously vexed by this and starts throwing chairs around and then he just punts Hash in the balls. When he finally gets his chance to unload with the chairs you know he makes the most of it, breaking one over Hash's head and bringing it into the ring with him as a pet. Hash was buck wild with the kicks, just hammering Kurisu under the chin, walloping him in the ear with overhand chops. And the DDTs. Good grief. That first one was absolutely hellish and I thought he'd killed the wee fella. He'd have deserved it too, you know.

I actually did not think of that. Fair enough.

dont understand how three people left hogan off their ballots and six people left Bruno off their ballots. Savage at number one was shocking to me. I was all but sure that number one wouldve been hogan or Austin. Wow. Thx for the chance to participate in the voting. Hope PTBN does a greatest wrestler ever for Crockett Yeah, I'm sort of baffled that guys like Hogan, Austin and Cena aren't unanimous votes. Bruno and Rock as well (though maybe in Brunos case I could see a lack of footage possibly being an issue, or not being big on the in-ring work from the era...I guess?). I'm surprised Michaels made it onto every ballot and those guys didn't. I thought for sure some folk would've left him off. Flair being a unanimous vote and those guys missing ballots is weird. Even if you want to ding Austin for longevity, or Hogan if you're not big on him in the Workrate category, or Cena for being stale for a while and cutting corny promos, those three still feel like absolute no-brainers to me. Hulk Hogan, fer chrissakes!

I haven't followed WWE closely for ages so I had no idea Harper and Rowan were teaming again, but I like the idea of big bearded bastards running around with warhammers. More people should do that thing they did where they legitimately try and murder someone with mallets and shit.

Pro-wrestling. There really is no other business like it.

Yeah, I learned about the rape trial as well whilst pursuing the whole Juicer thing. I didn't know that was what essentially ran him out of Portland (I mean, you can't really blame them), and I guess what eventually sent him to EMLL.

I subscribed to the Observer site for the month and I'm currently reading through the old newsletters, starting from '91 (disappointingly I learned after paying for my subscription that there aren't any from '89, which bummed me out as that was the year I really wanted to jump into. No matter). In a couple issues Dave has referenced someone called The Juicer while recapping WCW shows. I had no idea who that might've been and I assumed he was doing that thing he did where he'd refer to someone he thought was shitty by wittily spinning their name. Like how he'd call the Ultimate Warrior the Anabolic Warrior or the Junkyard Dog the Junkfood Dog. I was racking my brains trying to think of who this might've been. I figured it had to have been someone who was, you know, juiced, but I kept drawing blanks. So I went to Graham's site and checked the results and it turns out there actually was someone called The Juicer! Further investigative journalism revealed that it was just Art Barr doing his Bettlejuice gimmick but changing the name for copyright purposes. I hope you've all enjoyed my fable.

Maybe a little disappointing given who they are, but they never really went for epic. It was a wee bit more understated than that and in some ways it actually felt more like WAR Tenryu than All Japan Tenryu, where they laid it in and it was built around that laying it in more than the bomb-throwing. The powerbomb was the one bomb that was thrown and they certainly made use of it. Just after the intros while they're still in the process of clearing the streamers out the ring, Tenryu, totally unprompted, powerbombs one of Gordy's crew. I don't know who it was, but there didn't seem to be any reason for it. There was a person there to be powerbombed and so he powerbombed him and we one and all marvel at the man that is Tenryu. Gordy naturally took exception and powerbombed Tenryu right back, and Tenryu basically sold this powerbomb for the rest of the match. It was awesome, sometimes subtle, but you never got the sense he recovered from that move at any point forward. He'd try and fire back, maybe hit a lariat or a gamengiri, but then he'd grab the back of his head and sort of stumble, clearly groggy, and that would let Gordy regain the advantage. Gordy was mostly punch-kick on offence, but he threw in some big corner lariats and Tenryu sold them like the clobberings they were. Good match, but it feels like they've got something bigger in them.

The first fifteen minutes or so of the 1990 Rumble are pretty great because the heat is sky high and Piper, DiBiase, Savage and Jake (there were others, but mainly those four) carried the shit out of it. The booking of the '92 Rumble is really great, with Flair/Davey Boy being the meat of the first half, all the heavy hitters being saved for the second half, and that brief little Flair/Piper mini-match in the middle that I actually thought was the best part of the whole thing. Plus Heenan does the best commentary job there's ever been for an hour straight.

I'd gone back and forth on this for years. I always wanted more hate, I wanted blood, I wanted Steamboat to throttle Savage. It had always left me underwhelmed until about a decade ago when I watched the entire feud. Context helped it and so did that interview that was an extra on the Wrestlemania 3 DVD or whatever, with Steamboat talking about this being his last chance at the belt, how he'd come back from injury and let his temper get out of control and how it never got him anywhere. It might've been a convenient way to get out of someone bleeding in the blowoff to the big blood feud, but if nothing else it worked and added the layer that made it all click. I'm not sure I'd still call it a top 10 match in WWE history, but it's a great match. The main takeaway I had this time was that they built the hell out of this thing. It wasn't like it started out with no heat. People were into it from the start, as you'd expect. But by the end, even with the phantom heel pinfall and the fact they never COMPLETELY pulled the trigger on that clean win, the place was molten hot. Hebnar was gassed out of his mind towards the end and people were just losing it for every roll up and nearfall. It had lots of cool little throwbacks to the major points of the feud. Some of them I wish they maybe did a bit more with, like Savage working the throat and Steamboat playing up those moments where he'd turn loose, but I thought things like the nearfall off the finish to the Toronto match and Savage going for the bell came off great. Even Savage coming out and moving Elizabeth as far away as possible from Steele touched on the history. I suppose they could've done more with that brief bit of arm work. I'd maybe have liked for them to do away with a bit of the back and forth so Savage could have a longer stretch on top. I'll never love that phantom pinfall. It didn't really matter, though. What they gave us was an exceptional bit of pro-wrestling and one of the more iconic matches the company's ever had.

The Network has a bunch of pre-90s WWF shows from MSG and the Spectrum and Boston in full. I wanted to watch the Hogan/Kamala main event from this show anyway, so I just ran through the whole thing. I may check out more shows from around this time because the midcard had some studs and Hogan main events are usually fun. Mike Sharpe v SD Jones - Fairly putrid. I have a bit of a soft spot for Sharpe the jobber as he's really vocal and looks like he's always trying to make himself look like a fool. Some of his stalling and horse shit was kind of amusing and he clubbed Jones in the ear one time. Otherwise this was about four minutes that felt like eight minutes. Mike Rotundo & Dan Spivey v Jacques & Raymond Rougeau - I liked some individual parts of this, at least in isolation. The Rougeaus have nice offence and brought some fun arm work, then some fun leg work, then some fun stuff that was neither leg- nor arm-specific. Rotundo was in the ring for the majority, but I never felt like he was actually in any sort of danger because he never sold like he might've been. It was babyface v babyface so the Rougeaus never exactly put a traditional work over on him, but a few times he sort of got up and could've tagged out but didn't and effectively reset the match, like everything before it hadn't happened or meant anything. Spivey threw one or two forearms that connected nicely, then it got testy and the ref' threw it out, getting in everyone's face with the making money gesture. Heavy fines may have been issued had conflict escalated. I can't think of a babyface team I'd be less interested in watching than Rotundo and Spivey, but if babyface Rougeaus match up with decent opponents then I'd be up for watching some of that. Harley Race v Pedro Morales - It's pretty cool that this match even exists. Former NWA champ in his goofy crown with chin strap against former WWWF champ. Morales is at the tail end of being able to do much here, mostly throwing a few nice body shots, but Race turned it into a bump show and I was totally fine with it. At one point he took a backdrop from a standing position after it was Morales who came shooting off the ropes, which was pretty impressive as Race is not a small individual and Morales wasn't a youngster in 1986. Harley's taken a whipping in some circles over the years for maybe throwing out offence willy-nilly, but he was basically the sole reason this was fine so I don't mind him running through piledrivers and suplexes. How many kings have shared that same entrance music? Has the king gimmick been a staple in WWF for over thirty years now? Must there always be a king in the WWF in the same way there must always be a Stark in Winterfell? This match has raised more questions than it's answered. Dick Slater v Steve Lombardi - Eesh, Slater is called 'The Rebel' here and kitted out with his confederate flag jacket. Gorilla says you'll struggle to find a braver man than one willing to wave a confederate flag in the Boston Gardens. Slater's balls are so big he's the babyface, naturally. Lombardi is just plain old Lombardi at this point and hasn't donned the torn up shirt and jeans. This was like five minutes, had some okay arm work from Slater (minus the worst Russian leg sweep this side of Shelton Benjamin) and a pretty butterfly suplex. I'll be honest, I had no memory of Slater being in the WWF. I'm guessing he was only there for a cup of coffee and did nothing of note? Little Tokyo & Lord Littlebrook v Pepe Gomez & The Karate Kid - This got off to an exceptional start as Littlebrook made a point of ripping on Gomez and Kid for being tiny. I couldn't tell you the last time I watched one of these matches so I don't know if all of the spots are staples or just some of them (I mean, some of them DEFINITELY are), but it was pretty amusing and got a chuckle out of me. Nobody wants any part of Karate Kid's martial arts, not even Little Tokyo who is a master of the martial arts in his own right being Asian and whatnot. Gomez is wearing plastic bandoleers and looks like Hector Guerrero from my avatar on PWO. My favourite part was when the ref' admonished Tokyo for something or other, so Tokyo climbed the middle turnbuckle, kicked the ref' in the gut and took him over with a sunset flip as Karate Kid counted him out. A real show of midget solidarity, there. I can only conclude that the ref' purposely made them all look stupid at the end by botching the finish in embarrassing fashion. Can you say 'political hit?' Adrian Adonis v Junkyard Dog - Good grief Adonis is humongous. He does not look adorable in the slightest but man did he go all in on that gimmick. This wasn't good, but it was short, had a few okay headbutts, some lukewarm stalling early on, and a pretty awesome turnbuckle bump from Adonis where he went upside down Flair-style then wound up on the apron tangled up in the ropes Andre-style. If nothing else it's impressive that he managed to combine those two signature spots as relatively smoothly as he did given his portliness. Jimmy Jack Funk v Blackjack Mulligan - Mulligan's cowboy boots and Yosemite Sam shirt combo really is something. I couldn't even tell you the last time I watched any Blackjacks but Mulligan is huge and super imposing, like way more so than I remembered. Jimmy Jack is wearing a Zorro mask and probably the worst Funk there's been. This was also not good, just sloppy and clunky and uncoordinated. But it was only about five minutes so at least they were merciful. The Islanders v The Dream Team - Beefcake's involvement in this was basically limited to stooging, mugging and hitting a few stomps. Bulk of the heel end was held up by Valentine, and you may not be shocked to hear that the match probably wasn't hurt because of it. First stretch is total Valentine in peril. Usually you want Greg to be fish hooking people and elbowing them in the temple, but I dug him getting schooled by Haku and Tama. Tama is, once again, the funnest motherfucker in wrestling. His energy is utterly infectious. Then he eats a Valentine back elbow and SOARS over the top rope with an awesome bump to the floor, and good golly is Tama just about the greatest under-the-radar bumper ever. Brutus runs a few distraction spots and mostly sticks to the background so Valentine can deliver the ass beating, which includes a fucking Ganso Bomb-style piledriver! If there's a Tama/Valentine singles match I need to seek it out, because no way it wouldn't rule. This was fifteen minutes that flew by. Dino Bravo v Corporal Kirchner - I guess this was fine for a piss break before the Hogan Show. Dino hit a few decent suplexes and a crazy piledriver that was somewhere between that and sit-out powerbomb, then Kirchner came back and hit a few things, then Johnny V ran distraction and it ended. This ref' is the same one from the midgets match and boy he isn't having a good night. He has a touch of the inverse Hebners where he counts super slowly all through the match then speeds it up x12 at the finish. Gorilla slaughters him for it as was Gorilla's wont, but it's hard to disagree with him on this occasion. The young man is quite frankly a disgrace to his profession. Hulk Hogan v Kamala - The Ugandan Headhunter is a way cooler moniker than the Ugandan Giant. This was a super fun eight minutes of Hogan formula. They establish early that Kamala is a big fuckin unit as Hogan barrels into him and looks out wide-eyed to the crowd when Kamala doesn't budge. Hogan tries to slam him, almost gets him up, but the back gives out and Kamala takes over. It's Hogan v Superheavyweight 101. Kamala working on top is fine enough initially, but then he stabs Hogan with the Fang of Shang-Chi or some nonsense and it gets pretty awesome. I always assumed WWF had banned blood by this point, but Hogan gigs himself and gets some big time colour. I loved Kamala biting and gouging at the cut, and in a gruesome spot he licks Hogan's blood off his fingers, apparently enjoying it as he's a cannibal and a fan of such delicacies. Hogan's bloody convulsing is kind of goofy, but it's one of those Hoganisms that I find at least amusing. We get the comeback, the slam, the boot and the legdrop, the posing, the Hulkamaniacs seeing what they came to see -- it's the ultimate WWF experience! I'd like to check out the rest of the Hogan/Kamala matches because I bet they'd all be fun.

Perfectly solid midcard bout. When Muraco can't be arsed he's hard to watch, but this was apparently his first appearance in MSG so maybe he was up for it. Martel is Martel and thus awesome and usually enough to drag something to watchable on his own. The rough collar and elbow tie-ups early suggest these two might've had a nice heated feud in them somewhere. Martel's headlock work was pretty decent, really grinding it in and kicking his legs wildly when Muraco tried to suplex his way out of it. Muraco has a taped thumb gimmick which I always thought was reserved for wrestlers who'd just come back from extended excursions to the orient. It's been so long since I've seen a Muraco match that I couldn't even tell you when he started doing that. Was he doing it from the start? He works Martel's throat after taking over, jabbing him with the lethal thumb and slingshotting him up into the bottom rope. Martel's bump at the end certainly looked like it could plausibly keep a man out of the ring for a count of ten, so I'll take that as a count out finish. Muraco tends to swing wildly from being really good to really atrocious, but if he was motivated I could see this being a super fun twenty minute match. Would've been an interesting comparison with Muraco/Steamboat if nothing else.