[1989-01-13-WWF-Boston, MA] The Rockers vs Tully Blanchard & Arn Anderson

[paul sosnowski]

Originally televised on NESN sports channel in Boston.    This is available now on the 2018 WWE DVD "Shawn Michaels The Showstopper Unreleased", disc one.  Talk about it here.    

 

[Zero]

I remember watching the Busters/Rockers series years ago, and enjoying the matches. So, I decided to go back and re-watch em. 

Arn & Tully couldn't catch their breath in this match, with the Rockers just swarming them. They finally get the upperhand after a sick double team drop on the top rope. The finish was similar but different from their previous encounter at the Spectrum the month before. 

[tcg91]

This was a blast and a fresh matchup, both for the competitors and for the WWF landscape. Typical good Southern tag team action in the north east, even though the Brainbusters were not super aggressive and mostly relied on smart teamwork here. The Rockers looked good and sold for the heels for several minutes, especially Jannetty, who was incredibly crisp during his comeback. It looked like the Rockers could so much more and were told to slow things down, despite this being solid with a good heel finish.
***1/4

[donsem43]

Some great character work by Tully and Arn in the early going of this one. They make it clear that a couple of himbos like the Rockers weren't going to beat a couple of men - real men - who knew the meaning of life. Of course, the Rockers see every cheapshot and blind double team attempt coming leading to both Tully and Arn doing some high quality stooging. Despite this the Rockers never really ever take full control of the match leading to Anderson grabbing Jannetty when attempts a flying headscissors on Blanchard and hotshotting him on the top rope. The Brain Busters don't actually control for very long before hit the finish which itself is kinda borked with Michaels clearly having his foot on the middle rope at an angle that the ref should have seen. The way the match is structure it comes of as a slightly better than what you would usually see on Prime Time or a Coliseum Video exclusive but nothing special.