1990 WWF Curiosity

[Smack2k]

I think the dream feud was doomed when Ax couldnt go fulltime anymore, so they had the 6-Man thing...but still, the LOD - Demos (all 3) could have been good still, with Ax working here and there in BIG shows..

 

Harts, yeah, I got nothing...I dont get why Rhythm and Blues at all...Power and Glory were taillor made for that feud and were hot, just destroying the Rockers...makes no sense...

 

Then, after Savage was ready (when he is come October as they fight all over) there is your world title feud

 

Hogan - Earthquake and then Hogan - Slaugther in there as well and things look better...

[Superstar Sleeze]

WAHOO~! 1990 tag scene and the collapse of the WWF Tag Bubble. It is hard for me to pick a favorite year of WWF Tag Division as most are just good and there anything that is truly blow-away great all year. I am partial to 1987 because how incredible the Islanders are especially against Strike Force. Though The Rockers' 1989 campaign is pretty ridiculous. The problem with the WWF Tag scene is evident right at '88 Survivor Series that their current model was unsustainable as soon as Demoltion turned babyface. You had loaded the babyface side with Demolition, Hart Foundation and the Rockers. The heel roster was so thin that the Hart Foundation did not even wrestle in the tag division except on the big shows. Bret Hart's loop was mainly matches against Perfect with odd match against Valentine, Bravo, Martel etc... In fact, 1989 Survivor Series, Hart and Neidhart are not even on the same team. In a very shrewd move, Vince realized that the singles was still a little too stacked for Bret to break through and held his singles push off year, but if you looked at his '89 campaign you know he was ready for primetime. You couple this with Powers of Pain going bust, the Busters leaving and Colossal Connection being a short-term band-aid. You are looking at a fucked division after Wrestlemania VI.

 

The reasoning I have for the late '89-early '90 Hart Foundation/Rockers tag feud is to slide Hart Foundation back into the tag ranks. I don't think there is anyway Vince would ever turn Bret heel and then have him re-turn babyface to go singles the next year. He wanted to push Bret so he wanted to give him another tag title run to bolster him even further before the '91 run. The one thing that I don't think Bret gets enough credit for is how amazing he is at face vs face matches. He is absolutely great at playing the subtle heel. I really liked the Hart Foundation/Rockers MSG '89 match because of him.

 

Now I would not say that Demolition was turned JTTS until after Survivor Series '90. They had already run Hart Foundation/Demolition around the horn from post-Wrestlemania through Summerslam. They could not do it in the fall again. You have to remember Ultimate Warrior/Road Warriors vs Demolition was considered a main event feud. They ran it as the main event at MSG in 9/90, Boston 9/90 and Philly 10/90. They ran it on SNME and Survivor Series. I cant even remember what Hogan did after Summerslam. Unless, I am forgetting something that was the Main Event Feud of the Fall (Sept-Nov). I think the idea was to establish the Road Warriors as main event attraction like they were elsewhere, but WWF was so anti-tag it fucked Warrior even more.

 

There is only one way to squeeze in a Rockers title reign. I have said it before, but LOD fucked them hardest. You need to give Bret his shine, use the Nasties as transition champions to get to LOD at Summerslam. So the phantom title win would have been pretty well timed, but still I think the tag title did Bret more good because more people thought of him as a champion and a winner, easy pill for people to swallow when he goes singles. I really liked the Nasties/Rockers match from '91 and think they could have had a sweet series for the belt. Unless you extend the Rockers' run into 1992, I say Vince showed great restraint and did the right move by not putting the belt on them

 

I watched the Demolition (Smash & Crush) vs Rockers from MSG 11/90 and thought it was pretty sweet. If you keep them together and Haku & Barbarian add in the Nasty Boys you actually finally have the first decent WWF heel roster since 1988 when Demolition were heel champs. I am not really into fantasy booking, but I don't think you can get past the lameduck champion route before Summerslam '91. Bret gained more by just having the belts than he really did defending it. If you don't believe me, you just have to look elsewhere besides here.

 

If you venture outside here, Hart Foundation is constantly claimed to be one of if not the greatest tag team because their run is conflated with Bret's singles run and they won the title twice. They just did a whole Place To Be Nation podcast where the Hart Foundation won Best WWF Tag Team of post-1984 era and a lot of was predicated on the above two factors not on the fact they wrestled R&B around the horn the fall and winter of '90. The McMahon hype machine always wins.

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I usually don't like fantasy booking, but the one place I do think you can sneak a Rockers' reign is if you never turn Demolition babyface and you give them the Busters run. I think that would be fuckin' awesome and it would remove the awful blight on the wrestling world that is babyface Demolition. Matt D, I got you back whenever we discuss heel Demolition, but you are on your own when it comes to babyface Demolition. Clearly, this would be considered stupid because the Demos were so over that you almost had to turn them and that's why I don't like fantasy booking it is self-indulgent and there is no payoff. My mind could not resist and I thought Rockers/Demos in mid'89 could even top the Islanders/Strike Force feud.

[Matt D]

I usually don't like fantasy booking, but the one place I do think you can sneak a Rockers' reign is if you never turn Demolition babyface and you give them the Busters run. I think that would be fuckin' awesome and it would remove the awful blight on the wrestling world that is babyface Demolition. Matt D, I got you back whenever we discuss heel Demolition, but you are on your own when it comes to babyface Demolition. Clearly, this would be considered stupid because the Demos were so over that you almost had to turn them and that's why I don't like fantasy booking it is self-indulgent and there is no payoff. My mind could not resist and I thought Rockers/Demos in mid'89 could even top the Islanders/Strike Force feud.

I know you're not a Twin Towers fan, but for educational purposes, I would suggest bittign the bullet and watching the 3-4 match series we have with them. That's the best example of Babyface Demolition (if you hate the Brainbusters matches which I understand where you're coming from there) and you can see how they adapt to the situation in ways you wouldn't expect on paper. Those matches are all about containment, selling, and comeback. Ax's fired up babyface "house afire" in one of the matches is one of the coolest things they've ever done.

 

Also, please watch the Colossal Connection match from MSG in December 89. I don't think you did. As always I can point to my writeups for these.