WWF/WWE worst matches ever - a depressing journey

[Ricky Jackson]

10 hours ago, Matt D said:

Someone remind me to watch this.

One of my favorite match reviews on Titans of Wrestling 

Whole card. Also includes a great Backlund vs Larry Z match

[tcg91]

Dominic DeNucci vs Larry Sharpe (10/20/80)
Another bad DeNucci match, featuring yet another irritating stalling sequence, as Sharpe undressed very slowly to get some heat from the crowd. They did some decent arm-based limb work for a minute, but then Sharpe took over and simply started punching DeNucci in the back of the head for several minutes, leading to a few "boring" chants from the stands. DeNucci wasn't good at selling and his comeback had terrible timing, as he would get all fired up and create a lot of commotion just to hit his opponent once and then stare at him. Sharpe then punched DeNucci low right in front of the referee for some reason, but still lost to a small package 5 seconds later, so it's safe to say DeNucci had no balls. 1/2*

[Ricky Jackson]

There are good DeNucci matches, believe it or not. One is from your time frame, 11/3/79 vs Hussein Arab, a crazy brawl from Allentown, but it is tough to find, only a clip of it is on YT. Outside of your purview is DeNucci & Victor Rivera vs the Blackjacks from 1975, also a crazy wild brawl, but also not on YT. But trust me, they're great!

[tcg91]

12 hours ago, Ricky Jackson said:

There are good DeNucci matches, believe it or not. One is from your time frame, 11/3/79 vs Hussein Arab, a crazy brawl from Allentown, but it is tough to find, only a clip of it is on YT. Outside of your purview is DeNucci & Victor Rivera vs the Blackjacks from 1975, also a crazy wild brawl, but also not on YT. But trust me, they're great!

That is terrifying. I can't believe they kept him around until 1982.

[tcg91]

Pedro Morales vs The Hangman (11/8/80)
So sloooooooooooooooow. They stalled a lot at the beginning, then Hangman trapped Morales in a few holds and Morales always managed to get out of them, which was at least consistent, albeit not very smoothly executed. Hangman finally got the upper hand with a long armbar that completely silenced the crowd. He sent Morales shoulder first into the turnbuckle and the announcer screamed "RIGHT INTO THE RING!". The arm work wasn't terrible, but it was incredibly boring and lacklustre. Hangman kicked Morales in the face about 10 times in a row, but Morales didn't sell it at all and immediately started a comeback, winning with a small package about 20 seconds later. I hate these abrupt endings. 1/2*

[Ricky Jackson]

11 hours ago, tcg91 said:

That is terrifying. I can't believe they kept him around until 1982.

He was part of Bruno's inner circle, so basically untouchable. Probably not a coincidence he was gone shortly after Sammartino left

[tcg91]

Dominic DeNucci vs Killer Khan (2/16/81)
The MSG crowd wasn't too bad and kind of saved this. Their opening lockups weren't very interesting, as not much happened until Khan put DeNucci in a long armbar to kill some time. When a match goes 7/8 minutes, having a rest hold last for about 2 whole minutes is embarrassing. DeNucci finally made his comeback, throwing bad punches with his good hand, with his usual pace of throwing a punch and then staring at the opponent before hitting the next one. DeNucci then comically collapsed under Khan's weight once he lifted him, which fair enough as they were putting over Khan's size, but it looked so bad and uncoordinated. Khan went over clean after that. 1/2*

[tcg91]

SD Jones vs The Hangman (2/25/81)
Yeah, this was not good at all. They started with some average lockups, then SD began no selling Hangman's offense for some reason, getting up immediately after a bodyslam and even headbutting the turnbuckle a few times by himself to mock his opponent's attempts. After Hangman's boring armbar, the real mess began, as they seemed unsure of what to do and had a few obvious miscommunications. They were clearly waiting for the time limit draw finish, but they tried to go home early and ended up improvising very badly. At one point, they stared at each other for about 15 seconds to kill time, then went back to a lockup (so SD never had a comeback), which made everything feel even more awkward. They rang the bell at 9:13 to signal the draw, thankfully somebody realized that another minute of this would have felt like an eternity. -1/2*

[tcg91]

Jill Fontaine vs The Fabulous Moolah (4/8/81)
This was bad. Jill looked extremely green and Moolah either didn't want to make her look decent or simply couldn't. They did a stupid spot where the referee (finally) caught Moolah using a rope to strangle Jill, so Moolah strangled the referee himself and somehow wasn't disqualified. Go figure. Jill threw some horrible leg scissors and strikes, but she seemed lost and even tried a pinfall despite Moolah's legs being completely outside the ring. Moolah got her comeback when Jill was smart enough to spend 20 seconds pushing and arguing with the referee. Moolah then no sold a shitty running forearm from Jill, who fell to the mat like an idiot, before pinning her with a bad looking flapjack. Ugh. -*

[tcg91]

The Great Yatsu vs The Hangman (4/18/81)
This was a mistake. Yatsu wasn't a great hand yet and he had to wrestle Hangman for 20 minutes. They insisted on doing a test of strength despite the poor crowd reaction and then a bad looking double KO spot after just 5 minutes, then Hangman took over by working on Yatsu's head. Yatsu put in some decent work on Hangman's leg, and Hangman actually sold it well before completely forgetting about it and hitting backbreakers with his bad leg. FFS. Hangman also tried some unconvincing arm work during his comeback, ignoring the previous focus on the head, which didn't make much sense. They rang the bell for a time limit draw after 18 minutes and I can't blame the few fans that cheered when this happened. 1/4*

[Matt D]

On 6/8/2026 at 10:03 AM, tcg91 said:

Dominic DeNucci vs Baron Mikel Scicluna (10/11/80)
This lasted 10 minutes and felt like forever, thanks to the usual stalling at the beginning of the match. Scicluna's gimmick was all focused on hiding a foreign object in his trunks so the referee couldn't see it, which was stupid enough, especially when he got away with using it on three different occasions in the same match! Even between those spots, the match sucked, as Scicluna dictated the pace in a very slow and inconsistent manner, while arguing with the 3 or fans that cared about this. DeNucci tried a "Hulk Up" sequence at one point and things got even worse, as he followed it up with a comedy leg work routine that wasn't funny. DeNucci won with a bad looking backslide pinfall. -*

So I watched this.

And I think there are parts of it which are quite sublime. There's an element of performance art here where if remixed and done a little differently, could have worked. There are parts that did work. Scicluna gets heat every time he pulls out the object. The hiding of it is absurd, but also clever and varied. He puts it in his mouth. He hides it under his shoe. At one point, it's under his armpit. There's effort put in here to vary things up and not just do the same thing over and over again. He gets heat whenever he goes to the corner and puts his hands up to stop the action. The bit where he's going in and out of the ring, just one step at a time with DeNucci stepping with him is like something out of a Marx Brothers (or at least Stooges) bit. It all works. It all gets reaction. He's working the crowd. He's working the ref. He's working DeNucci. They go up almost every time DuNucci is about to hit him. They really enjoy the teeter totter comedy bits of comeuppance with the toehold (and I think that is comeuppance). tcg91 may not have enjoyed it, but the crowd chuckled at least. My gut says the issue is that Scicluna was so lame whenever he did actually do any offense, that it was all so low energy and none of it looked effective at all, even with the object, even with the selling. And then part of me wonders if him being actually formidable would break the whole thing because he has to be so lame for this to work.

And I think, no, that's not it. Because you could have Bobby Heenan do the exact same match, same stalling, same hiding the object but two things would be different. One, he'd be like a man possessed when he was using the object offensively or laying in kicks. And two, he'd make sure to put in two-three big stooging bumps in there, even if he did exactly everything the same, and it would have worked.

I think this did not work overall. I don't think it was a very good match. But I still think parts of it were beautiful and sublime in their bullshit. And I think the crowd probably did too. And I think there are things to be learned from this and things to be experimented with. I think, for instance, if he was still working, RJ City might be able to do something amazing with 80% of this match. He'd just make the other 20% work to make it all come together in a way that didn't at all. 

But if you see this and you don't think "Hmmmmm." at the parts that almost work and that barely exist at all today, then I'm disappointed in your imagination.

[tcg91]

9 hours ago, Matt D said:

So I watched this.

And I think there are parts of it which are quite sublime. There's an element of performance art here where if remixed and done a little differently, could have worked. There are parts that did work. Scicluna gets heat every time he pulls out the object. The hiding of it is absurd, but also clever and varied. He puts it in his mouth. He hides it under his shoe. At one point, it's under his armpit. There's effort put in here to vary things up and not just do the same thing over and over again. He gets heat whenever he goes to the corner and puts his hands up to stop the action. The bit where he's going in and out of the ring, just one step at a time with DeNucci stepping with him is like something out of a Marx Brothers (or at least Stooges) bit. It all works. It all gets reaction. He's working the crowd. He's working the ref. He's working DeNucci. They go up almost every time DuNucci is about to hit him. They really enjoy the teeter totter comedy bits of comeuppance with the toehold (and I think that is comeuppance). tcg91 may not have enjoyed it, but the crowd chuckled at least. My gut says the issue is that Scicluna was so lame whenever he did actually do any offense, that it was all so low energy and none of it looked effective at all, even with the object, even with the selling. And then part of me wonders if him being actually formidable would break the whole thing because he has to be so lame for this to work.

And I think, no, that's not it. Because you could have Bobby Heenan do the exact same match, same stalling, same hiding the object but two things would be different. One, he'd be like a man possessed when he was using the object offensively or laying in kicks. And two, he'd make sure to put in two-three big stooging bumps in there, even if he did exactly everything the same, and it would have worked.

I think this did not work overall. I don't think it was a very good match. But I still think parts of it were beautiful and sublime in their bullshit. And I think the crowd probably did too. And I think there are things to be learned from this and things to be experimented with. I think, for instance, if he was still working, RJ City might be able to do something amazing with 80% of this match. He'd just make the other 20% work to make it all come together in a way that didn't at all. 

But if you see this and you don't think "Hmmmmm." at the parts that almost work and that barely exist at all today, then I'm disappointed in your imagination.

Thank you for watching the match and taking the time to share your thoughts. I see your points, I just don't enjoy stalling that much. I guess I am somewhat biased against comedy matches, it needs to be 'great comedy' to please me. The same goes for movies, 'unfunny comedy' just doesn't do it for me and it feels much worse than an average non-comedy movie. Moolah's spots with the referees are another example, they're quite stupid and also badly executed on most occasions. I agree on Scicluna's execution. Heenan had a few amazing bullshit matches in AWA and I remember being higher than anyone else on Flair & Eugene vs La Resistance. Can't comment on RJ City as I am not familiar with his work.

[Matt D]

I'd argue that it's a bit of a tricky project in that case because so much of what's going to make these WWF house show matches "terrible" is going to be the stalling. 

For a Secret Santo project years ago I gave someone a match from Houston which had a lot of matwork. They just didn't like matwork. They wanted things moving. It didn't matter if it was good or bad or what. 

I'm trying to come up with a parallel. You figure food might be. Someone who hates spicy food having to judge a bbq competition where half the entries are spicy. Some of them may be good spicy, some may be bad, but they all come off as spicy to the person. I don't think this match worked nearly as well as it could have worked. It was to the point where the commentators were goofing on it a bit. But it did work pretty well for the crowd at times, and it's interesting to examine why. At least, it is to me.

[tcg91]

1 hour ago, Matt D said:

I'd argue that it's a bit of a tricky project in that case because so much of what's going to make these WWF house show matches "terrible" is going to be the stalling. 

For a Secret Santo project years ago I gave someone a match from Houston which had a lot of matwork. They just didn't like matwork. They wanted things moving. It didn't matter if it was good or bad or what. 

I'm trying to come up with a parallel. You figure food might be. Someone who hates spicy food having to judge a bbq competition where half the entries are spicy. Some of them may be good spicy, some may be bad, but they all come off as spicy to the person. I don't think this match worked nearly as well as it could have worked. It was to the point where the commentators were goofing on it a bit. But it did work pretty well for the crowd at times, and it's interesting to examine why. At least, it is to me.

Food is a great parallel and I fully agree, there will always be some meals, seasonings or flavours we prefer and some we don't really fancy. It's all subjective and the recent GWE ballots proved it once again. I'm just having fun watching the matches, writing a few words about them and interacting with others here!

[tcg91]

Dominic DeNucci vs Killer Khan (4/29/81)
Not good. Khan spent a few minutes smothering DeNucci and forcing an elbow against his face, while DeNucci did his signature bad selling by laying down on the first rope. DeNucci finally punched Khan on the nose and stared at him forever, hitting a punch every like 20/30 seconds and doing nothing else, so it would look like one of DeNucci's shitty punches meant much more than anything Khan did. Not only that, but DeNucci got immediately back on his feet after a cane shot from Freddie Blassie too. The referee apparently didn't know any of the rules, as he let DeNucci punch Khan to his contentment or Khan smother DeNucci into the ropes many times, until the official finally counted DeNucci out after he got trapped between the ropes. 1/2*

[Ricky Jackson]

I've talked and, to a lesser extent, written, about the DeNucci-Scicluna life parallels many times , and for years have been morbidly fascinated about watching all the matches on tape they had (mostly from 1980/81, including one at the 1980 Showdown at Shea-this one from Philly is probably the best). I remember watching the Philly match for the first time and suddenly being struck at the beautiful simplicity of this matchup. In a way it is pro wrestling at its most unpretentious, just two guys in trunks pretending to fight. Nothing more

[Matt D]

40 minutes ago, Ricky Jackson said:

I've talked and, to a lesser extent, written, about the DeNucci-Scicluna life parallels many times , and for years have been morbidly fascinated about watching all the matches on tape they had (mostly from 1980/81, including one at the 1980 Showdown at Shea-this one from Philly is probably the best). I remember watching the Philly match for the first time and suddenly being struck at the beautiful simplicity of this matchup. In a way it is pro wrestling at its most unpretentious, just two guys in trunks pretending to fight. Nothing more

The word “sublime” kept coming up, which I know is a little insane, but you see it too. 

[tcg91]

Steve King vs Johnny Rodz (6/27/81)
This was not terrible, easily the best match that I have seen so far in this project, but still quite a dull bout. I didn't mind the first few minutes, as they showcased some decent tests of strength, armdrags and upper-body holds. However, I felt that Rodz was very lazy during his control segment, failing to create any excitement and throwing some weak looking superkicks. He even moved out of the way of a crossbody too early, making King look silly for not being able to spot it. King also locked in a random toehold during the final part of the match and it went nowhere before Rodz won cleanly. This had a promising start, but it went downhill after that. 3/4*

[tcg91]

The Magnificent Muraco vs SD Jones (6/27/81)
Muraco, billed as "Morocco" for some reason, defended the IC Title here. Muraco took a few good bumps to build up SD's offense, while the challenger focused on a toehold. It wasn't the best, as they stalled quite a bit, but it was fine until Muraco completely ignored the leg work during his comeback and also started taking unnecessary moves, such as a punch from the top rope, without his ankle seemingly bothering him at all. There was also a very clumsy sequence where Muraco missed a punch on SD and they both fell on the floor for some reason, this was poor improvisation as SD stayed down selling despite the punch not landing. Good heel finish, but this didn't gel very well overall. 1/2*

[tcg91]

Dominic DeNucci vs The Magnificent Muraco (7/22/81)
Yeah, this didn't work for me. The crowd antagonized Muraco, who spent loads of time yelling at them and ripping a sign, while DeNucci argued with the referee like an old man complaining about a construction site. This might be entertaining to some and at least the fan got involved, but I feel like stalling for 5 minutes when the match only goes 8 is just lazy. Admittedly, it got even worse once they actually started wrestling, as they spent the next 3 minutes doing a bunch of unconvincing stuff. Muraco's strikes felt very light and DeNucci didn't contribute much of anything. Muraco spiked DeNucci in the chest and DeNucci threw himself out of the ring, losing by count-out. DUD