OJ's WWWF/WWF thread

[ohtani's jacket]

The Fabulous Rougeau Brothers vs. The Rockers (WWF, 10/10/89)

This is the most house show match imaginable except that it's wrestled on the first ever WWF show in the UK so the British fans don't know what to expect. That makes it a more special bout than it would have been if it had been worked on the usual WWF circuit. Michaels may have gotten hammy later on, but he was a solid FIP in his early days. The action here was much better than in the Hart Foundation matches. 

[ohtani's jacket]

The Fabulous Rougeau Brothers vs. The Rockers (WWF, 10/13/89)

The WWF's European tour continues with a stop in Paris. I thought this was more exciting than the London match as there was less stalling and the crowd was hotter. Others may argue that it was more of a sprint than the drawn out London bout, but the quick action hit the spot for me. 

[ohtani's jacket]

The Fabulous Rougeau Brothers vs. The British Bulldogs (WWF, 8/29/88)

This was the first WWF PPV I watched both on commercial tape and on free-to-air TV. I'm fairly sure this match bored the crap out of me as a child as I was only interested in the gimmicks and the match results at the time, but watching it now, it's a well worked opener with a ton of action and pretty good use of a limited Dynamite Kid. There's a guy minding Matilda at ringside who takes you out of the match at time, especially when he tries to reposition Matilda so that it looks like she's watching the match, but for the most part it is a solid opener. The MSG configuration seems different from how it was in the late 70s-early 80s and is fairly sterile, but I still buy this as a good WWF match. Superstar is great on commentary. Monsoon says SummerSlam is a happening at least three times. 

[ohtani's jacket]

Dick Murdoch vs Afa (WWF, 10/22/84)

This was a fun match. Of course, it was Murdoch doing a bunch of entertaining shtick almost like a one man comedy act, but it got me wishing that Dick had done a bit more in the WWF so that we could call him a WWF guy. He worked New Japan a lot with the WWF guys, but if he'd just had a few runs against Backlund, or even against Hogan, I think he'd be right up there with Valentine and Slaughter. 

[ohtani's jacket]

Dream Team vs. U.S. Express (WWF, 8/24/85)

I like the Dream Team. It gave Greg something to do after the Tito feud and featured Beefcake's best work. Beefcake was one of the workers who first appealed to me as a kid watching Superstars with my uncle, so I am totally fine with him as Greg's partner. This was a decent match with a hot finish. Barry dominated the early shine and came to blows with the Hammer. Rotunda played face-in-peril during the middle period. Barry made the hot tag and looked to have things in control until Beefcake blinded him with some sort of powder. Barry's selling was awesome. The Dream Team won the titles and the crowd seemed a little shocked that there had been a title change. Barry is another case where you wonder what might have been if he'd stayed in the WWF even though we were probably better off watching him in Crockett. 

[ohtani's jacket]

Dream Team vs. British Bulldogs (WWF, 5/19/86)

There are a million Dream Team vs. Bulldogs matches. This is the first one I happened to watch. It was a brisk and entertaining match. We got to see Valentine vs. Dynamite Kid, which was exciting. In the right setting those two could have had a match where they beat the shit out of each other. Fun finish with the heels thinking they'd won the title only for the ref to screw them. 

[ohtani's jacket]

Bob Backlund & Ivan Putski vs. Jerry Valiant & Johnny Valiant (WWF, 7/21/79)

The esteemed elliott calls this one of the best WWF tag matches of all-time, but I can't quite figure out why. It seems very similar to other WWF tag matches where one partner is injured and forced to leave the ring and the partner fights on two-against-one. Putski did look pretty good. I am gonna make a wild guess that he didn't look this good very often. Huge disappointment for me that the match doesn't continue when Backlund returns from the back. 

Bob Backlund vs. Killer Khan (WWF, 4/18/81)

This match was nowhere near as bad as I imagined it would be. It's very much a Bob Backlund wrestles Killer Khan and they do some light shtick match as opposed to one of Killer Khan's wild brawls or a match from a classic Backlund feud, but really the only problem with it is that it's too damn short. I was just starting to get into it and then it was over. 

[ohtani's jacket]

Hulk Hogan & Roddy Piper vs King Harley Race & Paul Orndorff (WWF, 11/24/86)

With all the crazy rhetoric flying around about Hogan at the moment, I thought it would be better to just watch a match, and who better to go to for WWF recommendations than elliott. This is a fun match from Hogan's peak years that seems him form a reluctant partnership with Piper, who winds up bailing on the match, leaving Hogan to face Race, Orndorff and Heenan on his own. Even though Hogan never gets to fully unleash, he's over like a mofo and the crowd are happy just to see him pose. 

[ohtani's jacket]

Hulk Hogan & Ricky Steamboat vs Randy Savage & Honky Tonk Man (WWF, 1/5/87)

Another fun match from the peak Hulkamania years. I would have eaten this shit up as a kid. There's a lot going on in this match without a hell of a lot happening in the ring. They give you a taste of Savage/Steamboat without spoiling your appetite for the big bout. There's a reminder of the bad blood between Savage and Hogan, and Honky looms on the horizon of both Steamboat and Savage. It's another bout where you don't get the full Hogan experience, and where everyone else in the bout is doing the work, but it's fun watching Hogan in the Andre role from a few years prior.

[ohtani's jacket]

Hulk Hogan vs. Randy Savage (WWF, 5/24/86)

Phil Schneider mentioned this match in his Yahoo article about Hogan's best matches. It's an awesome Hulk/Savage match from the Boston Gardens in what was arguably Hulk's best year in the WWF. Arguably, the Celtics' greatest year, for what it's worth.. Hell of a time to be a Bostonian. They work an excellent formula here. Hogan is on top early. Savage is running scared. He keeps putting Elizabeth in harm's way. Savage eventually takes over before Hogan hulks up, but instead of the usual shtick, Hogan ends up laid out on the arena floor and does one of those great Hogan bladejobs. We're all familiar with smoke and mirrors in a wrestling bout. This is an example of great smoke and mirrors. It even has an awesome visual of Hulk carrying Savage back to the ring after the bout to finish his Hulk up routine, but Randy manages to escape once more. Worth the price of admission and then some. 

 

[ohtani's jacket]

Paul Orndorff, Adrian Adonis & Hercules vs. Hulk Hogan, Roddy Piper & Billy Jack Haynes (WWF, 3/7/1987)

Fun, proto-Survivor Series match. A lot to enjoy here, from Piper firing up the Boston crowd in his "last" appearance in the Garden, to the ping-pong agility of Adrian Adonis despite all of that added weight, and Orndorff still managing to be awesome despite only having one working arm. Even Billy Jack and Hercules weren't bad, all things considered. It reminded me of the type of match I'd have with my WWF action figures.

Will brought up the mystery of Orndorff not appearing at WrestleMania III, and it's rather baffling all things considering. Was he the backup to Andre right up until the 11th hour? He was still working house shows, teaming with Bundy, so it wasn't the injury.

Man, when Hercules put Hulk up in his backbreaker, the size of Hogan in Hercules' arms was unreal. Hulk was a large human being. 

[ohtani's jacket]

Hulk Hogan vs. Killer Khan (WWF, 9/12/87)

This was a summer feud that the WWF ran in select markets. It was prompted by an episode of The Snake Tape they taped where Khan spat green mist in Hogan's eyes and blinded him (a great, over-the-top Hogan sell that got a chuckle out of me.) They had matches that aired in Boston and Philly. From the sounds of things, they were the exact same match. Not the best of the Hogan mini-feuds, but fun for what it was. Hogan went after Khan with a chair, which I wasn't expected, and even did his infamous back rake. He was incredibly over in Boston. You could barely hear his theme music when he entered. Definitely the best of times as far as Hulkamania was concerned.