[1988-12-30-WWF-MSG, NY] Greg Valentine vs Ron Garvin

[Superstar Sleeze]

Greg Valentine vs Ronnie Garvin - WWF MSG 12/30/88

 

I love when two Carolina Boys hook it up and lay into each other in a WWF ring. Valentine was so wasted in 1988 being stuck with Brutus Beefcake, Bloated Don Muraco and fucking old as dirt George Steele. He did have a great match with Tito Santana at the previous MSG show to this one.

 

Valentine has hair that would make the Glamor Girls jealous so Lord Alfred Hayes starts gushing over Judy Martin and that Rockin Robin is too skinny and not enough woman for him. They start as one would expect just blasting each other with chops. Garvin nominally has control of this as he is always moving forward and winning the exchanges. They are just wailing on each other. I loved that Valentine goes for the Flair Flop and Garvin stops him with a choke. Garvin goes for the sleeper, but Valentine ultimately reverses into some nice armwork (great shoulderbreaker) and some brutal chops. Garvin mounts a comeback a little too early in my opinion with his headbutts and fists.. Garvin Stomp! Gets no reaction, which is funny. Valentine wrangles him into a kneecrusher and Garvin sells this beautifully and the finish run is pretty hot. Valentine is working the Heartbreaker gimmick (shinguard) that increases the pain and pressure of the figure-4 so Garvin is doing everything he can to impede Valentine including a monster right hand to Valentine's head. Garvin rips off the Heartbreaker and the crowd pops, but he cant hit him with it and gets rolled up for three as he is arguing with the ref. Garvin beats him with the shinguard.

 

Honestly, I expected to like this a bit more. I love I good stiff Carolina chopfest, but this did not have much in the way of progression. It just felt like chop exchange, Garvin rallies and wins and Valentine bumps. That just keeps happening and there was no sense of build until the very end, which was very good. Entertaining because it is one of my favorite style of matches, but they have better matches in 1989 with each other. ****