WWF/WWE worst matches ever - a depressing journey

[tcg91]

Koko B. Ware vs Frenchy Martin (3/19/90)
Ugh. This got 13 minutes, and the crowd really couldn't give a shit about it, which made it even more painful. Martin lost most of the weak wristlock sequences, but managed to dominate the match with the longest and dullest nerve holds, making me miss the Samoans this time around. The crowd chanted "boring" on a couple of occasions. Martin hurt his knee on a missed attack and limped for 5 seconds, but that spot was then ignored for the rest of the match. What made this match worse were the referee's pinfalls, which were slow and often out of place. Martin missed a clothesline at one point, but Koko ignored that and fell to the floor anyway, which looked very dumb. After the sixth or seventh nerve hold, Koko finally blocked the next one and had a quick comeback, first hitting a shitty dropkick and then winning with the Ghostbuster. -1/2*

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Tugboat Thomas vs Pez Whatley (3/19/90)
I loved this, it was so ridiculous. The MSG crowd was very tepid here and watched Tugboat strut goofily before hitting some unimpressive power moves on Whatley. Whatley broke free of a shitty bearhug with a simple poke and so Tugboat took a couple of silly bumps that made the Fingerpoke of Doom look like a masterpiece in comparison. Later on, Tugboat hit some kind of ridiculous standing splashes using his belly in the corner, then they started stalling and wobbling around, which was very weird at that stage as they should have been begged to go home early. Tugboat used another clumsy slam, a goofy running clothesline and a decent splash to win. This lasted too long, and one could tell Tugboat was nowhere near ready or fit for a push. DUD

[tcg91]

Nikolai Volkoff vs Sgt. Slaughter (9/21/90)
Gorilla and Heenan put over both men's shape, which... okay. There was quite a lot of stalling here, which didn't sit well with the crowd, as they didn't want to cheer for either of them and so they were quite numb to must stuff. They tried some shoulder blocks to establish a power stalemate, and MSG went silent for a bit. Volkoff got a shy pop for a scoop slam before Slaughter retreated again and took over with eye pokes and back rakes, which didn't get him much heat at all, as the execution wasn't particularly good. We got "boring" chants as of a result of this not working at all. Later Volkoff hit a horrendous clothesline, and Slaughter somehow manage to connect with an even worse one for a double knockdown. spot Slaughter got up first and used the camel clutch to win. This was bad. DUD

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Ronnie Garvin vs Bob Bradley (9/21/90)
The MSG crowd didn't give this a chance, being very numb towards it from the get-go and chanting "boring" very early on while they were doing a side headlock sequence. However, they went 12 minutes here, and they had no business doing that, which made things worse despite some decent stuff here and there. Bradley's limb work went nowhere, and he tried to do some poses and cartwheels to get some heat, but he failed miserably. Garvin sat in holds for several minutes, then came back with headbutts (despite his head technically hurting due to the long holds) and worked on Bradley's leg for about 10 seconds before they never went back to it again. They did some awkward roll-up sequence at the end, with Garvin getting the pinfall. 1/4*

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SD Jones vs Mike Sharpe (10/19/90)
Sigh. The crowd kind of supported this at the beginning, as Sharpe did all he could to be annoying and it worked. Their routine stuff was nothing special and SD probably paid homage to DeNucci here as he looked at Sharpe, hit him once... looked at him some more... got to the ropes... hit him once again... looked at him getting up. Sharpe took over when SD missed a corner splash and indulged in some armwork that was fine, albeit quite boring and ignored by both the crowd and the announcers. Sharpe changed his focus to the neck without much rationale. SD had a bad comeback, until Sharpe won by hitting his opponent with a loaded forearm. DUD
 
Tugboat vs Dino Bravo (10/19/90)
Bravo assaulted Tugboat straight away and tried hard, at least for a bit, but Tugboat was quite weird with his bumps and clotheslines, so Bravo had to oversell an atomic drop and it admittedly looked hilarious. They wasted some time and then did a test of strength that didn't accomplish much. Tugboat hit some horrible kicks, then Bravo used a chinlock and at least the match wasn't too horrible when he was in charge. Bravo hit an impressive atomic drop and capitalized by... another chinlock, which didn't make a lick of sense. Tugboat's comeback wasn't too long, as he took a bad bump to the floor and won by DQ as Bravo didn't allow him back into the ring. Stupid finish, but this wasn't nearly as bad as I expected it to be. 1/4*

[tcg91]

Jimmy Snuka vs The Warlord (12/28/90)
Very quiet crowd. Warlord looked so roided up he could have exploded at any moment, but his strikes were extremely weak. Bad tempo and chemistry from both sides, as Warlord bent his head too early on a rebound and stayed like that for an awkward amount of time before getting hit. Snuka was very 'heavy' himself, moving strangely and throwing some weak chops before taking a sad-looking bump to the outside following a big boot. Snuka was visibly taking it easy to catch his breath, including while 'selling' a dull bearbug, before starting his comeback in a silent MSG. Not much to write home about and Warlord got disqualified for choking Snuka into the ropes, yawn. DUD

Saba Simba vs Greg Valentine (12/28/90)
Both men took a very bad approach to the match, walking and pacing just a few inches from each other without any guard or realistic self-defence stance. Simba hit some subpar strikes on Valentine and did a dance, which surely entertained McMahon. Valentine applied a heatless chinlock, then used a goofy takedown and suddenly started working Simba's leg, which was very weird and didn't go anywhere anyway. Simba no-sold Valentine's attacks (and the leg), proceeding with weak headbutts before the worst clothesline of Valentine's career took him down. Valentine got on top but pushed the referee out of the way and was disqualified. While definitely not the worst match of this era, this was easily one of the most random, purposeless and least coherent bouts I have seen in a long time. -*1/4

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The Ultimate Warrior vs Sgt. Slaughter (2/16/91)
The crowd was very quiet here, apart from a few moments during Warrior's attacks. Warrior ignored Slaughter to chase Sherri under the ring, which took a fair amount of time, before he ripped her shirt off. Slaughter used that to take over, while Sherri put her hands on Warrior at least twice right in front of the referee and nothing happened. They also messed up a simple slap spot, as Warrior ducked to make Sherri slap Slaughter by mistake, but it didn't land. Slaughter was at least consistently targeting Warrior's back, but his chokes and hammers were very weak, while Sherri had to slap the mat a few times to wake the fans up. Warrior hit Slaughter with the WWF Title, but for some reason, it wasn't a DQ. He then pushed and clotheslined the referee for literally no reason, other than them needing a finish for this match. DUD

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Jake Roberts vs Rick Martel (3/24/91)
I always hated this match, but I re-watched it twice here just to make sure I gave it a fair chance. Some parts of it were actually quite fit for the Blindfold stipulation: Roberts using the fans reaction to find Martel or moving to the right after an irish whip, assuming Martel was going to be in front of him (makes you wonder why nobody does it!). However, this mad major flaws, starting with the way the hoods looked and the way they moved around, as it felt like they could clearly see though them anyway. My biggest problem with this match was the way they wrestled when they actually caught each others: when having an opponent in a hold, they should have been able to squeeze it with their eyes closed, or they should have been smart enough to keep their fists up in defence every now and then. At times, rather than a match between two blindfolded wrestlers, it looked like 2 untrained blind guys. Roberts hit the DDT and, despite dropping people on their heads hundreds of times in his career, we were also supposed to believe he didn't figure out Martel was going to be on his left side. -*1/2

[tcg91]

Butch & Luke vs Brian Knobbs & Jerry Sags (4/15/91)
This was mercifully short, as it didn't look very promising. The Bushwhackers did their usual bad-looking double-team offence on the Nasties, and seeing the big guys sell for that weak stuff wasn't very appealing. You'd figure Butch and Luke would change their combinations depending on their opponents, but that wasn't the case. The Nasties collided awkwardly and were forced out of the ring a couple of times, to a fairly responsive crowd reaction, before they got the upper hand on Luke. It lasted about a minute before the (non)hot tag, though. They messed up a spot later on, as the babyfaces had Knobbs pinned after a combination and Sags made the save too late, so the referee somehow had to stop counting the pinfall to allow Sags' rescue. Thankfully, the Nasties won shortly afterwards, following the usual referee distraction. 1/4*

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Butch & Luke vs Hercules & Paul Roma (4/22/91)
They stalled for ages at the beginning, which was probably about 5 minutes but felt like an eternity. Power & Glory fell prey to the Bushwhackers' stupid spots, which got a very tepid crowd reaction and gradually turned into the fans not caring about anything else. The babyfaces indulged in some more comedy spots that watered down the match and didn't get over very well. On top of that, Butch's clothesline on Hercules and his subsequent selling looked absolutely horrible. Finally, the heels took over, and the match became at least barely watchable, but you could hear a pen drop, as nobody cared and they wrestled in near-total silence. Butch tried his best after the hot tag, which wasn't much, while the referee, as usual, lost all control of the match. The finishing stretch, unsurprisingly, wasn't good either, and Roma pinned Butch as Luke tripped on the ropes and couldn't make the save. Yikes. -3/4*

[David Mantell]

On 11/2/2026 at 8:54 AM, tcg91 said:

The Ultimate Warrior vs Sgt. Slaughter (2/16/91)
The crowd was very quiet here, apart from a few moments during Warrior's attacks. Warrior ignored Slaughter to chase Sherri under the ring, which took a fair amount of time, before he ripped her shirt off. Slaughter used that to take over, while Sherri put her hands on Warrior at least twice right in front of the referee and nothing happened. They also messed up a simple slap spot, as Warrior ducked to make Sherri slap Slaughter by mistake, but it didn't land. Slaughter was at least consistently targeting Warrior's back, but his chokes and hammers were very weak, while Sherri had to slap the mat a few times to wake the fans up. Warrior hit Slaughter with the WWF Title, but for some reason, it wasn't a DQ. He then pushed and clotheslined the referee for literally no reason, other than them needing a finish for this match. DUD

These matches weakened Warrior's stock also since the cage matches ended in Slaughter climbing out of the cage which according to WWF rules was a clean win.  This undermined any protection Warrior got from the screwball Royal Rumble finish where Savage hit him with the sceptre.  With the fair and square cage match wins compensating for the previous foreign object loss, Slaughter became a more legitimate champion and Warrior a more legitimately defeated ex champion.

(Bear in mind Warrior at this point was still, in theory, heir apparent for when Hulk finally went off to Hollywood forever - it took the Summerslam money argument and the greater fallout from the steroid scandal to finally change that.)

[tcg91]

12 hours ago, David Mantell said:

These matches weakened Warrior's stock also since the cage matches ended in Slaughter climbing out of the cage which according to WWF rules was a clean win.  This undermined any protection Warrior got from the screwball Royal Rumble finish where Savage hit him with the sceptre.  With the fair and square cage match wins compensating for the previous foreign object loss, Slaughter became a more legitimate champion and Warrior a more legitimately defeated ex champion.

(Bear in mind Warrior at this point was still, in theory, heir apparent for when Hulk finally went off to Hollywood forever - it took the Summerslam money argument and the greater fallout from the steroid scandal to finally change that.)

Well, the insane part of me wishes Warrior had a longer run lol.

[tcg91]

Kerry Von Erich vs The Warlord (4/22/91)
The crowd wasn't very invested in this match, and I guess they were rewarded with a performance that reflected their interest. Kerry and Warlord had a test of strength, and both men's physiques looked outstanding here, but this was a lifeless match despite some early efforts to get the fans involved. Warlord used a bearhug and did some squeezing, while Kerry didn't use his arms or legs to fight it or do anything about it, all in front of a silent crowd. Warlord also did some posing and looked gassed early in the match, but at least he sent Kerry back-first into the post to keep his offence somewhat coherent. Kerry's sunset flip was absolutely horrible, which broke my heart considering who he used to be. Kerry nailed some decent punches before applying a sleeper, and they both fell outside the ring with a very light bump, then fought like idiots instead of getting back inside to beat the count. DUD

[David Mantell]

9 hours ago, tcg91 said:

Well, the insane part of me wishes Warrior had a longer run lol.

The long reign was supposed to come eventually when Hogan was gone permanently.  The one we saw was a dry run.   Linda Hogan was pregnant for the second time with Nick so once again a paternity cover champion was needed like Savage had been when Brooke was born.  Apparently Plan A was for one year as champion from WM6 before 65K at the Toronto Skydome to WM7 before 100K at the LA Colosseum, however when the disappointing PPV rates for WM6 came in, Vince went on a rant about babyface matches and how Pedro/Bruno in 1972 drew only 28K to Shea Stadium and vowed there would be an interim heel champion for the handback to Hogan.  Initially this was going to be "Sheik Tugboat" until they got Sgt Slaughter in who was rather less preposterous but still only sold 15K.   The irony was that Hogan-Warrior-Pat Patterson 2  was about the only matchup they had  with a cat in hell's chance of selling out the LA Colloseum.

"He'll have more World title reigns.  This one will end at Wrestlemania." - Wrestling Superstars magazine 'The Champions And The Men Most Likely To Take Their Titles - Hulk Hogan Will Defeat The Ultimate Warrior For The WWF World Championship'  (They also predicted "Lex Luger will defeat Sting for the NWA World Championship" which was apparently the plan at the time  - and ultimately went ahead at GAB 91 with Sting replaced by Ric Flair replaced by Barry Windham.  And the WCW title instead of the NWA title. )