Best matches in WWF Feuds, 1985-87

[BigBadMick]

Hi,

I'm compiling a watchlist of WWF matches for 1985-87 and as you can imagine it gets monstrously large very quickly. I'm looking to whittle it down a bit to the better matches.

 

With all the footage available, I was hoping for some guidance on the best matches in the following feuds

 

Santana/Valentine

Santana/Savage

Savage/Steamboat

Steamboat/Muraco

Hart Foundation/Bees

Hart Foundation/Bulldogs

Valentine and Beefcake/Bulldogs

Steamboat/Roberts

Hogan/Savage

Hogan/Orndorff

Orndorff/Rude

Hogan/DiBiase

 

 

Thanks!

[elliott]

Santana/Valentine

Santana/Savage

Savage/Steamboat

You'll want to just watch all of these for sure. Can't go wrong with these matches. 

 

Steamboat/Muraco - Not sure. My general rule of thumb is to skip Muraco matches. 

 

Hart Foundation/Bees - 2/17/86 from MSG is the one  you want

Hart Foundation/Bulldogs - Grimmas has 1/18/86 from Landover, MD as their top match between them. Grimmas is probably the world's foremost Bret Hart expert who isn't just Bret Hart so I'm inclined to trust them. 

Valentine and Beefcake/Bulldogs - Not sure. I haven't done the real tag team deep dive that I need to do for this era. I'm sure there are some gems. 

Steamboat/Roberts - 8/9/86 in Boston I think. 

Hogan/Savage - I'm a HUGE fan of their 80s matches. I think they have tremendous chemistry. The standouts are 1/27/86, 5/24/86, 10/10/89. 

Hogan/Orndorff - 4/21/85 from this time period but I have their best match as 7/7/84 from Philly. It seems like the Philly versions of matches are often the best

Orndorff/Rude  & Hogan/DiBiase - I haven't revisited any of these recently. I think Dibiase is pretty disappointing in the WWF, but I'd expect Rude vs Orndorff to be solid. 

 

That 1985-87 era for the WWF was absolutely loaded. In addition to all of the stuff above, I included some more things to watch from that era.  Its too bad we didn't get a proper DVDVR 80s set because the reputation that 80s WWF was a bad place for in ring work is completely wrong. There is so much good stuff just waiting to be found. Also don't sleep on 1984. Maybe the best singles match & the best tag match in the history of the company took place in 1984

Andre the Giant vs Ken Patera (WWF – 1/21/85)

Hulk Hogan vs Roddy Piper (WWF – 2/18/85) 
Hulk Hogan vs Ken Patera (WWF – 5/25/85) 
Bobby Heenan vs David Sammartino (WWF – 6/29/85) 
Roddy Piper vs Paul Orndorff (WWF – 7/27/85) 
Terry Funk vs Junkyard Dog (WWF – 8/18/85) 
Bruno Sammartino & Paul Orndorff vs Roddy Piper & Bob Orton Jr (WWF – 9/28/85) 
Terry Funk vs Junkyard Dog (WWF – 10/12/85) 
Bruno Sammartino & Paul Orndorff vs Roddy Piper & Bob Orton Jr (WWF – 10/26/85) 
Bruno Sammartino vs Roddy Piper (WWF – 12/7/85) 
Hulk Hogan vs Terry Funk (WWF – 12/15/85) 
Bruno Sammartino & Paul Orndorff vs Roddy Piper & Bob Orton Jr (WWF – 1/11/86) 
Terry Funk vs Junkyard Dog (WWF – 2/8/86) 
Bruno Sammartino vs Roddy Piper (Cage Match – WWF – 2/8/86) 
Hulk Hogan & Junkyard Dog vs Terry Funk & Dory Funk Jr (WWF – 3/8/86) 
Hulk Hogan & Roddy Piper vs Paul Orndorff & Harley Race (WWF – 11/24/86) 
Randy Savage vs Jake Roberts (WWF – 11/29/86) 
Hulk Hogan vs Kamala (WWF – 12/26/86) 
Bruno Sammartino vs Randy Savage (WWF – 1/3/87)
Hulk Hogan & Ricky Steamboat vs Randy Savage & Honky Tonk Man (WWF – 1/5/87) 
Randy Savage vs Bruno Sammartino (Lumberjack Match – WWF – 2/7/87) 
Bobby Heenan & King Kong Bundy & Big John Studd vs Big Machine & Super Machine & Lou Albano (WWF Big Event 2/9/87
Randy Savage vs Bret Hart (WWF Saturday Night Main Event – 11/11/87) 
Randy Savage vs Honky Tonk Man (WWF – 11/24/87) 
 

This is also nowhere near complete. I haven't watched everything from this time period so I bet there's a lot more good stuff out there.