Hulk Hogan/JYD vs. The Funk Brothers

[Al]

I am a classic footage junkie. Whenever an older match comes my way, no matter the participants, I try to check it out. So when WWE Jukebox offered up this match, I gave it a look.

 

Three of the four wrestlers in this match are Hall of Famers, and the Junkyard Dog is in the WWE's Hall of Fame. Despite their reputations however, this match works mostly as a quasi-comedy match. Hulk Hogan is whipped into the turnbuckle, so JYD runs across the apron to protect Hogan from the buckle (a nice move I had never seen before). Hogan later throws Dory into the buckle and Terry attempts the same move, but Dory reverses and Terry inadvertently protects his opponent.

 

Terry at points becomes entangled in the camera cables while stumbling outside. For many heels all this would make them seem ineffective, but Terry makes himself look like a wild, dangerous, menacing heel, and in a way it works. Hogan sells his injuries from Bundy's avalanches and has his ribs taped. The Funks work over Hogan's ribs at times, and Hogan sells it, but they are not a prominant feature of the match.

 

The finish occurs as Jimmy Hart distracts the referee, Terry Funk grabs a rope and attempts to choke out the Junkyard Dog over the top rope, as Dory holds his legs. Hogan runs into the ring, clotheslines Terry, and gets the pin. While a clothesline sounds weak, Terry sold it well enough to make the pinfall convincing. Overall, this was a fun match. Certainly not a mat classic, but a good house show main event.

 

One issue is that the streaming video frequently paused to re-buffer. I don't know if anyone else has this problem with the match. I run DSL, and I did not have that issue with other matches.

[Guest Bruiser Chong]

What was this from (i.e. MSG show, SNME, etc.)?

[Al]

According to Graham Cawthon's site, the match occured on March 8, 1986, and aired on Prime Time Wrestling months later (was this common?). The match has never been available on a commercial release.

[Strummer]

According to Graham Cawthon's site, the match occured on March 8, 1986, and aired on Prime Time Wrestling months later (was this common?).  The match has never been available on a commercial release.

yes, Prime Time would air matches taped at house shows (or TV tapings) sometimes months and months after the fact. They stopped airing "Main Event" type matches around 86/87.

In fact I don't think they ran a first run Hogan match after 87, but I'm not sure on that. Starting around 87/88 they would usually (almost always actually) show matches with midcarder v midcarder as the Prime Time Main Event. I remember Rick Rude v Koko B Ware, Rick Martel v Haku, Harts v Young Stallions, etc. all main eventing. This being 80s WWF I would say at least 75% of them had indecisive finishes. Starting around 89/90 Prime Time starting airing more repeat matches from the syndicated shows from the previous weekend and the "first run" matches started to lessen.

 

And of course when Prime Time changed into the "Talk Show" format hosted by Vince, Heenan, Piper, etc. the wrestling took a backseat and the skits became the focus of the show