How the Mighty Have Fallen, Like They do Every Time, and to Rey You Come Crawling with Your Crown at Your Side

Rey Mysterio v Kurt Angle (Summerslam, 8/25/02)

I have perhaps mentioned before that this is a great pairing. I think this was the first one-on-one iteration of it as well and they got off to a heck of a start. Angle is hyperactive and wants to throw Rey around and Rey is obviously great at being thrown around, jumping into those throws in interesting ways, having his stuff reversed so he can then be thrown. He's a great Angle opponent because he'll let Angle lean into his maniac go-go-go style without letting him totally run away with it. We've seen things like the armdrag reversal to the Angle Slam plenty of times over the years, but it felt fresh here and the crowd responded like it was a big moment. Angle's also a really strong base so all of Rey's flying looks great. Ultimately it's Tom v Jerry, but in this version Tom catches Jerry and breaks his ankle. 

Rey Mysterio v Randy Orton (No Way Out, 2/19/06)

Randy Orton is such a strange animal. His highs are fairly high and his lows are bottom of the barrel and there's this big chasm of whateverness in the middle. I remember this being a weird time for Orton, one where he'd pretty recently bombed as the world champ and then been surpassed as the future star of Evolution by a guy even older than the current star. They obviously still saw him as an important piece of WWE going forward (I mean we're 17 years down the line and he's still a main event player), but it also felt like he was sort of in limbo here, not quite next man up, not totally in the doghouse. Either way this was an excellent match with an excellent Orton performance, the kind of thing he's always had in him even if he's never actually showed it as often as you'd like. At a bare minimum he's motivated here and his smugness is off the charts, just the most hateable scumbag walking. Even though the whole thing with using Eddie's death to get heat is hackneyed he at least took it and ran with it. He tries to get under Rey's skin by condescendingly backing up on a rope break like "oh I nearly lost you there you're so little," then slaps him across the head on the next one and is extremely pleased with himself. It was college jock picking on someone half his size and there were also moments where he'd waste Rey with huge uppercuts from his knees, the faux cruelty turning into actual cruelty. Rey's strikes have some extra mustard behind them in response and structurally the match is about what you expect. Orton mostly works from above without being definitively in control, Rey sprinkles in hope spots, then he builds up some momentum and Orton kills him for real. The blocked apron hurricanrana leading to him whipping Rey into the post like the latter was a baseball bat was awesome and the arm stuff after that was all really good. He would just grab Rey's arm and wrap it around the rope and twist it in really nasty ways. Cole was maybe a weeeee bit grating on commentary trying to force home how DESPICABLE Orton is and at a couple points he could've toned it down a touch, but the way he almost went silent in disgust after Orton grabbed the ropes to win was great. 

Rey Project

Eddie's Been up and Over Mountains, Lost in the Sea of Change, Built Shadows so Deep He Could Not Remember Sunrise

Eddie Guerrero v Kurt Angle (Wrestlemania XX, 3/14/04) - GREAT

Eddie isn't my favourite Angle opponent and Angle certainly isn't my favourite Eddie opponent, but I always thought they were a good pairing and worked well together. They'd usually incorporate some decent matwork in their matches and the opening 6-7 minutes of this is still really good stuff. We often talk about how Angle, for a legitimate Olympic-level wrestler, never really worked THE MAT~ in WWE. Whether that was a restriction imposed by the house style or one imposed by Angle's philosophy towards working doesn't really matter 20 years later -- he was a world-class amateur wrestler who never incorporated much of it in his professional wrestling. Along kind of similar lines Eddie Guerrero is a guy who cut his teeth wrestling folks like Blue Panther, El Hijo del Santo and Negro Casas. We have a match with him and those three guys where Eddie is 22 year old and they're all working incredible mat exchanges. So it's a shame we never really got to see Eddie stretch out on the mat more as well. The grappling here was all relatively simple stuff, but it was worked with great intensity and had that attention to detail that really makes a matwork segment pop. Even something like the way Angle practically nipped up out of a headlock before immediately grabbing an armbar made him look like a pit bull. I thought they teased and threaded their signature stuff into this really smartly, obviously making a point of not blowing through everything they had in their first match of the series. During the matwork section they came up for air at one point and Eddie tried for the Three Amigos, hit one before it was reversed into a triple German attempt, but Angle could only hit one of those before Eddie cut him off. Angle tried to hit the top rope Angle Slam midway through, Eddie shoved him off, then tried to capitalise with the frog splash only for Angle to move. That Angle never managed to hit even a regular Angle Slam - the first was countered with an armdrag, then Eddie turned the second into a DDT - was another thing they left on the table for future matches. The one finisher kickout was from the frog splash and it felt appropriately big, so the match certainly never suffered from Kurt Angle main event bloat. I've always really liked the finish and if you're going to go with one like that rather than a decisive clean one then at least make it creative. This was definitely that and further adds to the idea that Eddie can and will use every trick imaginable to win.

Complete & Accurate Guerrero Brothers

Michaels, Benjamin, Batista. Christ Masters! Other folk!

Shawn Michaels, Chris Benoit, Shelton Benjamin & Mick Foley v HHH, Randy Orton, Batista & Ric Flair (RAW, 4/12/04)

These multi-man matches are just about my favourite match type. I know I say that about five different match types all the time but each proclamation is true in the moment. This was on the road to Backlash so there was lots going on and every feud felt hot -- Benoit/Helmsley/Michaels gearing up for the Wrestlemania rematch, Foley/Orton building towards their street fight, even Flair/Shelton had stakes given the backdrop of Benjamin being a thorn in Evolution's side. Flair was simultaneously the best and worst wrestler in the match, which I wouldn't reckon is something you see very often. He was a mad pensioner bastard of the highest order and it was amazing fun, but he was also blatantly calling spots and directing traffic in the most obvious ways. At one point you could see and hear him telling Benoit to "get Mick in" and there were about four instances of him clearly telling someone when and how to hit him. He chops Shelton Benjamin, Shelton chops him back, Flair shouts "PUNCH" so Shelton punches him. But really I can't not get a kick out of him Flair Flopping inside 15 seconds and biting and clawing Shelton's bandaged forehead and dropping knees right to the cut. Him and Benoit fucking chop each other to ribbons and if Flair's skin was anything other than shoe leather it would've been ravaged. Foley looks like a vagrant who's rolled in off the street in his flannel shirt, Levi's and bog standard Backlash t-shirt. Did he just raid the merchandise table for that t-shirt? He has terrible punches but he works with INTENSITY and a couple times would run in and jump Orton on the opposite apron, and the moments with him and Helmsley throwing down were a very cool flashback to another multi-man match on RAW that also happened to be awesome. I think he was wearing a flannel shirt and jeans then too the fuckin tramp. Benoit was a very good wrestler. Michaels was having a great time. Batista caught a Shelton kick and shouted "FUCK YOU" before swinging him around and getting hit with the Dragon Whip. Orton carried himself like someone who would definitely shit in a woman's purse. The parts where both aprons cleared and a melee started were tremendous and the crowd ate everything up and then the finishing stretch ruled. My favourite match type. 

Shawn Michaels v Chris Masters (Unforgiven, 9/18/05)

Apparently Masters was only 22 years old here. He does not look 22 but he IS absolutely yoked to the moon and back so perhaps there's some correlation there. Remember when he just all of a sudden got really good and was having a bunch of super fun matches on Superstars around 2010 or so? He wasn't as good in 2005 - maybe he needed that sabbatical to "slim down" a little first - but you could see the signs at least. I don't remember how this came about now but the commentators make several mentions of a torch being passed, so I'm guessing they needed to put Michaels in a programme after the Hogan feud where they could turn him babyface again and they figured Masters would get decent enough heat as the cocky upstart. Nobody had broken the Masterlock (which Ross refers to as a "jacked up full nelson" and if that's not accurate I don't know what is) at this point either, so before the match he hooks it on Michaels as the latter is doing his pre-match posing. When the bell rings he goes right back to it and Michaels escapes by dropping to the mat, but as JR notes it's probably not ideal that's he's had to play that escape card so early. You know, assuming Masters hadn't considered that particular move as a possibility in the first place. Then Masters grabs it again and Michaels' next escape card is mule kicking him in the balls. The bulk of this is built around Shawn Michaels back work and as has been established several thousand times over, that's a thing you'll either be completely fine with or actively hate, in part because of the looming shadow of the dreaded nip-up. If nothing else it started great, with Masters powerbombing Michaels back-first into the ring post. Masters doesn't have a huge bag of offence to pull from, but his workover is mostly compelling and Michaels will always have strong timing on comeback attempts. Michaels is frantic in trying to avoid the Masterlock at the end, can't actually break the thing on his own so has to force the ropes and ref' to do it for him, then as Masters gets frustrated he walks into the superkick. I liked this. 

Welcome to Suplex City...Eddie Guerrero???

Eddie Guerrero v Brock Lesnar (No Way Out, 2/15/04) - EPIC

A DIFFERENT KIND OF HIGH! Look, it's impossible for me to be impartial about this for obvious reasons. That finish is one of my favourite moments ever and the post-match celebration will never not put a smile on my face. No joke, I can remember exactly where I was when I saw this match, my exact reaction when the ref' counted three. I'll always cherish it, as stupid as that sounds. The actual match almost feels like a precursor to Suplex City, if for no reason other than the size difference. Obviously 2004 Lesnar didn't have the same aura as 2014 or current day Lesnar. He hadn't demolished any legitimate MMA heavyweights or won a World Title in a combat sport yet. He isn't quite as menacing in 2004, a bit less imposing, not as juiced and has a regular human being skin tone as opposed to the demonic purple hues he has now. But he was an even more spectacular athlete, even more explosive and agile. He throws Eddie around and asks for more, then Eddie charges and gets thrown around again. For the first half he's about 90% on top, with Eddie's hope spots coming sporadically. It of course looks like an uphill struggle at best and an impossibility at worst. Lesnar's work on Eddie's midsection is good and Lesnar can apply a regular bodyscissors or lying bearhug and it'll look painful just because of who he is. There's never really a point where Eddie's in control of things, he can never fully swing momentum in his favour, but he'll chip away at Lesnar where he can and almost all of it is focused around taking out the knee. I think the first real bit of offence Eddie gets leads to him wrapping Lesnar's leg around the post, but he only manages it once before Lesnar uses that leg to just yank Eddie face-first into it instead. It highlighted the sheer gulf in raw strength, that Lesnar, from his back with zero leverage, could outmuscle Eddie like that. Eddie doesn't get a real opening until Lesnar misses a high knee in the corner, something he hit successfully earlier before Eddie painted a bullseye on it. After that Eddie works the STF, the figure-four, and a couple ugly variations of them both with Lesnar's knee twisted at awkward angles. He'd throw a bunch of low dropkicks whenever it looked like Lesnar was picking up steam again, and soon the low dropkicks would open Lesnar up to being dropicked in the head. Lesnar grounding Eddie and trying to squeeze the life out of him after that made sense and Eddie breaking it by punching Lesnar in the knee was great. You could tell Lesnar was getting frustrated as well, telling Eddie to just die already, whipping him around the mat in a waistlock like a gator with a deer in its clutches. There was one German suplex where he almost lost grip but Eddie was already airborne so Lesnar just hooked him by the hips and snapped him to the mat, Eddie landing almost flat with the back of his head smacking the canvas. The stuff with Goldberg probably needed to happen and I'm honestly not arsed about him being involved. I don't think it cheapened Eddie's win because ultimately in the end he used his resourcefulness to counter the F5. As a match it was Lesnar's power and savagery against Eddie's strategy and smarts and veteran wiles. It might've been WWE's best approximation of Hashitmoto v Fujinami if Fujinami was a lying cheating bastard. And again, there's the post-match. A moment that's 99% sweet and 1% bitter, if only because we never got the chance to see him celebrate winning another one. 

Complete & Accurate Guerrero Brothers

The CRUSHER Blackwell

Crusher Blackwell & Sheik Adnan Al-Kaissie v Mad Dog Vachon & Baron Von Raschke (Taped Fist Match) (AWA, 3/13/83)

I've gone down a Jerry Blackwell rabbit hole lately and let me tell you, it's been an absolute hoot. What an awesome portly boy. It's been over a decade since I last watched this and I'm happy to report it's still amazing. Honestly it's one of the simplest wrestling matches ever put together, which makes sense considering two of the participants are near pensioners and another had settled into a semi-regular role as a manager by this point. Plus simple is all you really need when you're working with absurd, volcanic crowd heat. People always told me it was the southern territories that had the raucous cauldrons and the AWA was a stodgy homestead for headlock-merchants. What a lotta horse shit that turned out to be. There were no headlocks here, not a one of them! Your opening segment is basically two broken down legends punching and biting the heels while the heels lean into everything and get bumped everywhere. It was perfect. Vachon grabs Kaissie by the head at one point and bites his ear, then walks over and spits a chunk of it at Blackwell. Loved the bit as well where Vachon was beating on Kaissie in the corner and you could see him looking sideways because he knew Blackwell would try and blindside him, then when Blackwell does come rushing in Vachon moves and Blackwell obliterates Kaissie in the corner. It will always infuriate me to lose a transition spot because of a tape jump, but the heat segment on the Baron was obviously great. He bleeds and the heels kick his broken carcass up and down the place. The crowd is somewhat loud during these few minutes. Hot tag is one of the hottest in recorded history and Von Raschke slapping the claw on Blackwell about blows the roof off the place. They'd teased throughout the match how much the babyfaces want to avoid getting clobbered by those ridiculously thick taped fists of Kaissie and Blackwell, narrowly avoiding or blocking being hit by them at previous points in the match, so when Kaissie wallops the Baron in the back of the head and Blackwell squashes him like a bug you know it's over. And of course the post-match is one of the craziest near-riot scenes in wrestling history, with Verne coming in to stop a mugging only to get mugged himself, the Sheiks having to be escorted to the locker room by actual police while fans surround them on all sides swinging punches. Okerlund grabbing the house mic and shouting "will someone get the paramedics up here!" adds another layer of insanity and I'm surprised nobody tried to legit stab one of them. The very best pro wrestling.

Jerry Blackwell v Colonel Debeers (Ladder Match) (AWA, 11/27/86)

Man does Jerry Blackwell have an awesome elbow drop. This thing looks like it would shatter ribs and puncture lungs, like having a piano dropped on you. Blackwell was babyface here so it wasn't a performance built on fatboy pinballing or stooging or getting walloped by mad old bastards with four teeth. He got to break out a little more offence, the elbow drops of course, but also his amazing running powerslam that also looks like piano murder. A man the size of Jerry Blackwell in a ladder match is a terrifying prospect and the couple times they used the ladder as a weapon made every climb feel like it could go horribly wrong. It also made those slow climbs feel necessary, not just there for building drama. Debeers - a large man in his own right - gets slammed on the thing, Blackwell hits a running splash and catches nothing but ladder, the ladder is thrown about the ring haphazardly; if I'm 400 pounds you better believe I'm climbing with some trepidation. Debeers taking a wild hotshot off the ladder was pretty crazy for 1986. 

Big Time Becks v The E.S.T.

Becky Lynch v Bianca Belair (Wrestlemania 38, 4/2/22) 

I thought this was fucking tremendous and honestly, maybe the best women's match in company history. Becky was so good in this. Last year I actually watched a Bianca v Doudrop match from an early 2022 RAW and Becky was on commentary, and even from that I thought her freshly-turned heel character seemed really fun. While that run Becky went on in 2018 where she got red hot leading to winning the belt at 'Mania was very cool, I was always pretty whatever on her in the ring and eventually the distaff Conor McGregor shtick wore thin. I do not know what precipitated this turn and the change in look but all of it landed great on the night. She comes out in a white Escalade and has the big shades and ridiculous eye shadow and the new hair and she looks like something from Cyberpunk 2077. As far as looks go it was pretty awesome. I knew what had happened at the previous Summerslam when she won the belt off Bianca in like 20 seconds. I didn't know who won this one though, so when she hit the chokeslam right at the start I bought them actually doing it again. The crowd absolutely did as well and I think the fact it was midway through Night 1 and not a main event fed even further into it. If they're going to repeat a questionable booking decision for the shock factor then they'd be more likely to do it there than in the main, and I guess they're more likely to have the heel champ retain in the middle of the show. So they used a booking call that got slated before and teased it happening again at a perfect moment. It was a great way to start out and really they never looked back from there. Becky was channelling Randy Savage at points with how hectic and desperate she worked. I don't even know how many pin attempts she made in the first few minutes but she wanted the match over EARLY and after a while she was about pulling her hair out. WWE - or maybe modern wrestling promotions in general? - are all about wrestlers showing ANGST and self-doubt after a nearfall or big kick, out and while Becky doing it within 30 seconds was kind of stupid it did at least feed into her character portrayal on the night. She also was not the least bit interested in letting Bianca build momentum and use any of her athleticism, but of course there were times where she couldn't outright stop it and Bianca would do something awesome like the middle rope 450. When Bianca did inevitably go on a run I thought Becky was great again at showing desperation to halt her any way she could. At one point that meant rolling out the ring after the KOD, then literally rolling all the way across the ring and out the other side after Bianca threw her back in the first time. The part where Becky dragged Belair out the ring by the braid, used it to yank her into the post and then follow up with the Manhandle Slam on the steps was fucking amazing. Even some of the sloppy moments came off well, like Becky's legdrop while Bianca was draped over the ropes just because of how Bianca wound up landing, and then of course Becky's middle rope senton that she undershot and turned into a koppu kick that about caved Bianca's face in. The finish was what it needed to be to remove the stain of Summerslam, and if beating Sasha the previous year was her ticket into the club then this was her taking the thing over. I haven't followed WWE much at all in recent years so I had no real expectations for this, but it snuck up on me in a big way.

There's a Voice that Finlay Can Hear Sometimes out There on the Mountain, when it's Dark and the Sky is Pouring Acid Like a Fountain

Finlay v Chris Benoit (Judgment Day, 5/21/06)

Probably the definitive Fit Finlay v Chris Benoit slobberknocker. I always remembered this for the violence and obviously it's stiff as a bastard, but watching it this time I felt like the stiffness was only the fourth best thing about it. A thing that maybe we should be hesitant to find enjoyment in given the history of Chris Benoit's brain, but that can be a bridge of self-reflection for another day. Either way, this was all about the struggle. The whole thing was a struggle. Nothing ever comes easy with Finlay and he'll make you earn absolutely everything. Obviously Benoit has some of the best move execution ever and obviously he worked stiff anyway, but Finlay was the perfect opponent for him because he'd make sure Benoit had to fight to get anything off. Every strike felt meaningful, every chop or forearm, everything that was attempted that didn't come off, and I know that sounds silly on the surface but it was honestly the vibe I got from this (and the same went the other way, with Benoit making Finlay earn his keep). Basically every hold or move had some kind of resistance from the opponent, some kind of pushback that meant it couldn't just be carried out like the person taking it was a warm body. The early matwork is about as close to Battlarts as you'll ever get in the WWE and it all looked snug and mean and painful and extremely uncooperative. Benoit hits the triple Germans and Finlay is trying to stick a finger in his eye in between suplexes. Benoit will not be turned over into a pin so Finlay just cranks his neck and forces him onto his back. Finlay tries to kick Benoit in the gut and Benoit grabs his leg and rips him into a dragon screw and it did not look like Finlay was prepared to manoeuvre himself into that bump. Then there was plenty of the regular savagery with them throwing forearms to the back of the head and headbutts and elbows to the neck and slapping the jaw off each other. That slap Benoit threw from his knees was unbelievable and Finlay's reaction was tremendous, backpedalling like a bully who bit off more than he could chew and did not in fact want the smoke. It's been ages since I've watched Finlay and I still love him, for all the reasons mentioned already but also for the little moments of shithousery in amongst the bastardry. He called Robinson over at one point to check his eye, clearly trying to draw Benoit into letting his guard down, and Benoit just stood there without taking his eyes off him, knowing exactly what the play was. When Finlay knew it wasn't working he waited until Robinson moved across Benoit's line of vision and basically used the wee fella as a shield so he could clonk Benoit with a forearm. When he took over for the first time it was with an eye poke and there was nothing feigned about that one, then he clotheslined Benoit out his boots. In general I liked how the match was structured, with the early parts mostly worked even, everything being laid in enough that something simple felt like it could swing momentum, before Finlay managed an actual run on top. The heat may have started to dip a little before Benoit's final comeback, but they sure brought the crowd back after the German on the floor. I thought the finish was great too, the sort of thing that works especially well in a match where even the low end stuff looks like it could end the thing. It's also sort of jarring how much Finlay here looks like my da does now, although thankfully my da never beat the brakes off me and I should count myself lucky that he merely abandoned me as a child. This might be a top 20 WWE match ever. 

Finlay Project

Piper Took a Step, Lost a Bet, They Cut off His Tongue, Now They're Full of Regret

Roddy Piper v Rick Rude (Cage Match) (WWF, 12/28/89) - EPIC

Well this might be the best WWF cage match ever. I had it as a nice ***1/2 affair back in 2010 and once again I am disgusted by the stupidity displayed in my youth because that's about four and a half stars too low. These are two of my ten favourite wrestlers ever and I'll have Piper top 30 on my GWE list so it was damn near impossible that I wasn't going to love it in the year 2023. It doesn't have the regular WWF escape the cage rules, there's a referee this time because pinfalls and submissions count. So you can win by escape or decision and Monsoon and Hillbilly Jim do not know what to make of it. Gorilla wonders if Finkel's rundown of the rules was actually correct. Did he go off script? Did Howard Finkel decide to go into business for himself and create a new version of cage match? Surely this added wrinkle of pinfalls in a cage match cannot be correct, can it?! Piper and Rude conk heads late in the match and the ref' puts on the 10-count and Gorilla calls him an idiot who clearly doesn't understand the rules and I'm like motherfucker NEITHER DO YOU! Right at the start Rude takes a crazy back bump into the cage and it's the big blue one so you know it sucked. Piper starts biting him and takes Rude down whilst gnawing at his forehead, no half measures from the Rowdy one. Rude actually bleeds after a face-first cage bump and I did not recall any deliberate bleeding from this period of WWF, so that was a welcome surprise to the bloodthirsty degenerates among us. Rude was an awesome chickenshit and really just wanted out of there. He'd try and climb the thing and one time Piper cut him off by biting him on the arse! I said the other day that the near-escapes through the door in Slaughter/Backlund were the best ever, but these weren't far behind. There were a couple amazing struggles, plus this had the added benefit of Heenan at ringside being a nuisance, trying to help Rude escape while preventing Piper from doing so. Piper drags Rude back into the ring by his trunks and in very Rick Rude fashion he wrestles the last seven minutes with his bare arse out. They do a restart after both of them escape the cage and drop down at the same time, then when they get back in Rude hits the Rude Awakening but crawls to all of the wrong corners because of the blood in his eyes, which is a pretty great way to circumvent the whole "just walk out the door there" issue with the escape rule. Rude is a narcissist on the level of Christiano Ronaldo so him climbing the cage to hit a kneedrop off the top rather than, you know, leaving, works well for me. You pretty much need to make at least one allowance for that in all of these cage matches and this one was fine. When he goes up again Piper shakes the cage and leaves Rude hanging upside down with one leg caught in a cable and it looked fucking wild. Heenan slamming the door on Piper's face as he goes to walk out was amazing and I thought for sure Rude was winning after that. The comeuppance with Heenan handing Rude the knuckle duster and it backfiring was of course the perfect finish. One of the most fun WWF matches ever. 

Complete & Accurate Hot Rod

The Sergeant and the Sheik!

Sgt Slaughter v Iron Sheik (WWF, 5/21/84)

On its own this is really good, but as a lead-in to the Boot Camp match, within the wider context of the feud, it's excellent. I loved Slaughter at the start, staring dead-eyed at Sheik who was slapping and spitting on him, finally retaliating with a right hand to a monster pop. When talking about the Backlund/Slaughter feud a few days ago I said the January match was really effective as an opening match in a series, one that made you want to see the heel get his clock cleaned. This was maybe even better in that respect and it's cool that Slaughter's role has completely flipped here. Sheik is a total scumbag and spits on Slaughter and flicks sweat on him and shadow boxes while Slaughter is crawling around on the floor. People are pelting the ring with garbage and any time you achieve that sort of heat-garnering then you're doing okay in my book. Solidarity with the Sheik, unless he was a paedophile or sex offender or something in which case I retract any demonstration of solidarity. They worked in the loaded boot perfectly. Slaughter careens into the post with his awesome signature bump, but he doesn't blade at that point. He saves that for when Sheik loads up the boot, puts it on the top turnbuckle and rams Sarge into it. THEN he blades and holy fuck this is an 11 on the Sgt Slaughter blade job scale. Slaughter's blood loss selling is about as good as it gets, then he tries to take Sheik's boot and it leads to the non-finish you knew it was leading to. Sheik hightails it with boot in hand as Sarge is willed to his feet by the crowd. Slaughter reciting the Pledge of Allegiance is incredible jingoism and at least a couple hunner of those folks in the crowd were at the Capitol Building on January 6th, especially the wee lads and lassies in full military uniform being flung about by their mas and das. You'd absolutely buy a ticket for the rematch, whether you were born in East Rutherford or East Fife.

Sgt Slaughter v Iron Sheik (Boot Camp Match) (WWF, 6/16/84)

And of course the rematch is still amazing. From word one the heat is off the charts and it doesn't dip below nuclear for even a millisecond. The way they used the boot was great again, and kind of subtle at a couple points. There was one bit where Sheik had it on the turnbuckle and rammed Slaughter's head into it, the same way he did in the previous match to bust Slaughter open, but he hadn't "loaded" it yet so Slaughter sold it like a regular shot. When Sheik loaded it up a bit later he didn't actually use it right away, and when he did it was a regular kick to the stomach that Slaughter sold like he'd been blasted with a shotgun. I mean that's just cool as fuck, right? Attention to detail and all that. Slaughter dominating early ruled, whipping Sheik with a swagger stick, bonking him with a helmet, then putting the helmet on and clonking him with a headbutt. It was some of that revenge he never got in the last match and the people were rabid for it. Sheik's first bit of offence is an Irish whip reversal and Slaughter flies into the post with the signature bump. Again I like that he never went to the blood right there, instead saving it until later when - yes yes you have guessed it - Sheik rammed his head into the loaded boot. At that point Slaughter very much went to the blood, staggering around dead on his feet while Sheik was clobbering him in the head and biting the cut. The revenge spot with Slaughter loading his own boot and hitting a stomp to the head off the middle rope was great and Sheik must've bladed a line straight down the top of his head because he's bleeding EVERYFUCKINWHERE almost immediately. The fatigued selling from both of them down the stretch was incredible and it felt like life or death for every single action. Even something like Slaughter punching Sheik in the ribs to block the gutwrench suplex felt huge, then Sheik manages to hit it later and boy does the Sheik have an awesome gutwrench suplex. After he hits it he just falls back like he has nothing left to give and you absolutely believed it. Sheik taking his boot off and trying to use it as a weapon was some proper desperation stuff and Slaughter countering with the Cannon was fucking amazing. Then he does the slow crawl over, grabs it, whomps Sheik in the face with it and the whole entire bastard roof is off. A sensational bitta business. 

Macho Madness v Hulkamania

Hulk Hogan v Randy Savage (Lumberjack Match) (WWF, 2/17/86)

This is still a blast. I had it as the 99th best match in WWE history during a WWE matches poll way back forever ago, and at this point I feel like Savage v Hogan is pretty much a can't fail prospect as a match up. The early Savage/Hogan matches are my favourite and I thought this was the best of them. Hogan comes in with a big bandage around his waist from the recent Bundy angle, but early on he throws Savage around and doesn't appear to be hampered by it. Savage works super small here and it doesn't feel like he really has a chance of winning. He takes over when Hogan ends up on the floor and Bundy and Muraco squash him against the post. When he rolls back in I love how Savage just throws him back out immediately so Bundy can squash him again. It's hard to argue with the strategy. After that Savage goes for the ribs and hits a couple top rope axe handles to the midsection. There was one point where Savage had unwrapped Hogan's bandage and was using it to walk him around the ring like a dog, putting the boots to him before hitting another top rope axe handle. Savage even landed on his knees off that one and it's no wonder his legs were shot to pieces a decade later. I also liked how Hogan would make a point of not kicking out of pin attempts, but rather shrugging his shoulder out at the last second, basically rolling out and looking like it was a struggle to even do that. Savage's top rope elbow being a catalyst for the Hulk Up is the sort of thing that might drive people crazy and I must concur that there was probably a better way to go about it. The set up for the legdrop was cool though, with Steele tripping Savage from the floor to further their own feud. 

Randy Savage v Hulk Hogan (Wrestlemania V, 4/2/89)

This wasn't as good. It's certainly different and they get much more time to work with, but I'm not sure that's a good thing. 9-12 minutes feels like the sweet spot for them. Savage stalls early and I'll always get a kick out of Randy Savage stalling. Savage is wound up like a 10-day clock, twitchy and ready to snap but unwilling to engage unless it's on his terms. Hogan grasses him up to the referee for bailing, because of course Hogan would grass you up to the referee. Hebner's like "Hulk mate I'm a terrible referee but also I can see him and what do you want me to do?" Hogan wins the early exchanges with his strength advantage and even does a swank hammerlock takedown that Fujinami probably showed him, so Savage goes to the armbar and yanks Hogan's flowing wisps to keep him on the mat. There was one bit where Savage must've been holding Hogan's hair for about eight seconds trying to pull him to the deck and Hogan was shouting in Hebner's face like "any chance you could check him there, buddy?" and Hebner did not move once inch. I'm honestly astounded Gorilla never called him a disgrace to his profession. I still don't know what caused it but Hogan gets a cut above his eye and I liked that Savage went after it a little. Nothing overt, no biting or blood-drinking (unfortunately), but he'd rip at it once or twice and throw a few punches to the cut. When he hits his axe handle to the floor - from 20 feet in the air, according to Gorilla - Hogan hits his throat off the rail, so Savage goes after that for a minute as well. A two-pronged attack, very much the precursor to King's Road. It was decent, even if the lengthy choking segment was a wee bit goofy. The stuff with Elizabeth didn't actually feel overbearing. She checks on Savage a couple times and Savage is having none of it, even after she outright stops Hogan from ramming Savage into the ring post. Then she checks on Hogan and Savage is apoplectic and Hebner throws a rager and tells her to leave ringside. He got right in her face about it as well, like this was Fuji or Heenan getting up to no good. If the elbow drop being a catalyst for the Hulk Up was bad before then it could be argued that this one is EGREGIOUS. Elbow drop, kick out, Hulk Up, boot, legdrop. When it comes crashing down and it hurts inside.

Backlund v Slaughter...in the cage!

Bob Backlund v Sgt Slaughter (Cage Match) (WWF, 3/21/81)

It's interesting watching Backlund through 2023 eyes, thinking about what my eyes from 15 years ago told me. Almost none of the Backlund I've watched in the last five years has landed with me the way it did in 2008, and that's okay because I have way different tastes now. But honestly this kind of did. I wouldn't call it a top 10 match in WWF history like I would have before, but it might be top 40 so that's still pretty good, right? It's probably my favourite escape-the-cage cage match ever and I thought they worked around that aspect of the stip about as well as you could want. It's also one of the most satisfying matches ever. I mean, look, this was a crowd that wanted to see Bob Backlund fucking murder Sgt Slaughter and if the aim of the game is to send the crowd home happy then I don't think that could've been achieved any better short of literal murder. It was pretty much a perfect Backlund revenge tour and in some ways it makes me reconsider my SCATHING critique of the January match for not having an extended Backlund payback section at the end. The crowd were desperate for Backlund to rip Slaughter apart after Slaughter took him to the cleaners, but just as it looked like Backlund was about to do that the ref' called a halt. I guess that makes the match less satisfying in a vacuum, but it really elevates this one because we get Backlund ripping Slaughter apart and more. Maybe there's something to be said for delayed gratification and all that. It's not even about the match as a whole being one big piece of revenge for Backlund; there are individual moments of revenge within it that are tremendous. Slaughter outright punches Backlund in the dick three times during the match, the first time just to kill some of Backlund's early momentum, and Backlund's payback low blow later is maybe the GOAT ball shot. Slaughter was climbing the cage and Backlund went low to high like a Mortal Kombat fatality where Slaughter would've been cut in half from gooch to cranium. Slaughter takes about a dozen bumps into the cage, most of them face-first, some vertical, some horizontal, some into the mesh parts, some into the support beams, and obviously by the end he's a whole entire mess. Rudman is damn near perverted on commentary after every bump wondering if it's led to blood being spilled. Sarge also takes one of the wildest piledrivers ever, legs flailing as he lands all awkward on his forehead. Some of the escape teases were amazing. As soon as the match started Slaughter tried to climb out the thing and then at various points after that he'd make a beeline for the door. A couple times he'd almost be through and Backlund would need to drag him back in, really having to work for it while we'd get close-up camera shots of Slaughter's fingertips holding onto the cage for dear life. Backlund eventually slamming the door on Slaughter's face and stomping his fingers into the cage to force the break ruled. When Slaughter does muster some offence he chucks Backlund into the cage, and I liked how Backlund would take those bumps by really leaning his shoulder into them to play up a previous angle where Hansen injured that shoulder. Has this always had a jump in the tape towards the end? This version does and it's pretty annoying as it comes right before the finish, but the finish itself is great. Both are on the top rope, Backlund smashes Slaughter's head off the cage, he falls and ends up tangled between ropes and cage, Backlund walks out the door in triumph, hands aloft, the people in raptures. If we're judging matches based on what we think they ought to be within the context in which they're worked (crowd, setting, where it's placed in the feud, to what ends they're working, etc.) then this feels like it might actually be a top 10 match in WWF history. Look at me writing this much about a Bobby Backlund match in 2023. Time really is a flat circle.

Backlund v Slaughter

Bob Backlund v Sgt Slaughter (WWF, 1/10/81)

Mother a god what a phenomenal Slaughter's performance. His early nonsense playing to the crowd and getting more and more riled up was a hoot, then he was feeding into armdrags and bumps and stooge spots with a seamlessness that's sort of astonishing for a guy his size. The early Backlund arm work is fine as Backlund arm work usually will be, but I was most interested in how Slaughter would sell it or bump back into it when they came up for air. I don't remember how he took over now but after he does he controls a lot of what's left of the match; a decent bit more than I remember being the norm for Backlund matches. Most of it was fairly basic but his stuff looked nasty, like the knees to the lower back and especially his headbutts, a couple that landed right in Backlund's face. There's a bit of back and forth after that with Slaughter taking a huge bump off the top and Backlund hitting a piledriver (that RUINED Slaughter according to Rudman), and the crowd were into it so you know, that's cool. It felt like they were building towards a finish, then they took it in a different direction. It get really great after that, when Backlund spills to the floor and Slaughter won't let him back in. This was one of the best King of the Mountain segments ever and Slaughter was so good at turning the heat up bit by bit. The backbreaker across the barricade fucking ruled and I love that he did it right in front of the person with the sign calling him a goober. Backlund taps an artery and Slaughter jumping for joy when he notices the blood was AMAZING. Then he clonks him with the ring bell! The ref' was trying so hard not to toss the match but was clearly at the end of his tether with Slaughter, and eventually he started counting as fast as possible whenever Slaughter tried to go out after Backlund. I really wish we got a few more minutes at the end for some Backlund revenge because that would've pushed this up another level. I mean, what we got was fucking great. Slaughter's post bump was ridiculous and then he goes face-first into the barricade and you KNOW he went wild with the blade at that point. I'm glad I got around to re-watching this because if nothing else it reminded me how good peak Slaughter was. I thought their cage match was tremendous the last time I watched it as well so I'll re-watch that thing soon. 

Piper Rode in from the West with an Eye for a Dollar to Make. He Pitched Us a Sale About Healing and Oil from a Snake

Roddy Piper v Hulk Hogan (WWF, 2/18/85) - GREAT

The War to Settle the Score! Holy Toledo this is just the perfect encapsulation of Hulkamania WWF. Hogan! Piper! Madison Square Garden! All the celebrities are out, or at least a few of them! Gene and Gorilla EVISCERATING some poor bastard referee on commentary! It's the fuckin Dubya Dubya Eff, baby! Bell to bell this is probably less than 10 minutes but it's absolutely electric. It's amusing how Hogan basically does the exact same offence as Piper - punches, eye rakes, all very traditional babyface stuff, know? There was one eye rake battle that ruled where they just took turns trying to rip each other's eyes out, which Piper won as any real Scotsman who drinks in the Bay Horse or its Saskatchewan equivalent naturally would. Piper applies a sleeper and Gene and Gorilla are apoplectic at the ref' for not checking if it's a choke, then they decide for themselves that it absolutely is and that this referee is not fit for purpose. Pair a fuckin eejits, the two of them. Orton gets involved and then so does Orndorff and all hell breaks loose with Lauper getting up on the apron and Orndorff knocking her hat off and Albano having a heart attack and Mr T jumping the rail. Monsoon ponders if a man with no wrestling experience getting in there with the likes of Piper and Orndorff is wise and it's the most sense the silly bastard's made all night. Of course T gets pummelled. Orndorff has great stomps, just full of intensity with a real snap to them. When Hogan comes to again it's a full on PIER SIXER and swathes of security break it up and Cyndi Lauper is jumping around like yer da's new girlfriend who's been on the Bacardi Breezers and trying to fight yer ma and her new boyfriend. Gene interviews Hogan and Mr T and a whole bunch of other folks backstage and then talks to DANNY BY GOD DEVITO who must only be about 40 and he says he'll definitely be back to watch the professional wrestling. Piper walks in wearing a towel and spits UNHOLY FIRE and calls Hogan a piece a crap and AS GOD AS MY WITNESS PIPER IS THE GREATEST OF THEM ALL! As a match this is probably only about eight stars, but the total package? Eleven and three quarter stars. No wonder Wrestlemania did business.

Complete & Accurate Hot Rod

Whiskey & Wrestling 1100!

Eleven hundred posts! Who'd have thought I'd make it to ONE hundred?! Not me, I can tell you. To celebrate the previous 1099 posts, I watched some wrestling. Like with Whiskey & Wrestling 1000, and 900 and 800 before it, I picked out a few of my favourite matches to re-watch, a couple for the first time in nearly 15 years. Here are some, dare I say, takes. Read them or do not. It is truly your own choice. 

Terry & Dory Funk Jr. v Abdullah the Butcher & The Sheik (All Japan, 12/9/78)

The word that came to mind when watching this match was TURBULENCE. I am a wordsmith, you see (I am very not). I've been on many a plane in my long and stupid life and honestly, I don't particularly care for it. It might be a control thing. You know, like if that puppy goes down then we're all fucked and there's nothing I can do about it, no hand in my own fate, a literal passenger on the road to my own demise. Dramatics aside it's not that I have a crippling fear of flying, but I always feel just a little on edge when I'm up there. I'm most on edge when the turbulence hits. When it starts I just find myself waiting for that next jolt, everything else a secondary concern. The first half of this had that turbulence. It would hit and the thing would shake and then they'd peel back for a smooth thirty seconds, but I was always on edge, always ready for that next buck, a part of me wondering if it would be enough to tear the whole thing apart. The difference here of course was that I wasn't on a fuckin airplane and that anticipation was laced with a little something other than dread. Instead I wanted the thing to go up in flames and I think the crowd did too, because there was a good chance the Funks would be the ones to set it alight. Look, if you've seen one Abby and Sheik match then you've seen a hundred and I don't say that to dig them out. I like their shtick and I could watch it those hundred times and be entertained. This felt like the pinnacle of it though; not just Abby and Sheik's hide and stab routine but the foreign object bit at large. They had that crowd on absolute strings, and of course the Funks went above and beyond to sell it all, but the way it was milked by Abby and Sheik was just perfect. It also didn't hurt that this was some of the most brutal looking stabbing and fork jabbing ever. The first shot looked like it about tore out Terry's throat and with the way Terry sold it you'd have believed it. When it was Dory's turn Sheik was just spearing him right in the face with this thing, jamming it in his eye while Dory was wailing like an animal. It was maybe the most visceral selling we've ever gotten from Dory, who's not someone you really think of as a big vocal seller (not like his brother anyway). There was one moment early, before the blood started flowing, where Abby had Terry in a headlock and Terry backed him into the ropes. Abdullah slowly reached down to his boot and as soon as the crowd noticed there was palpable alarm, that turbulence hitting again, which Terry picked up on and immediately and frantically started trying to punch his way out of it. I don't even know how many objects Abdullah and Sheik had with them but it felt like they had a whole fucking arsenal, the way they'd pass a fork or some scissors between each other when the ref' went to check, how they'd magic another something to stab someone with when the previous thing was knocked from their hand or thrown away to avoid being caught. It was masterful stuff. Then Dory goes full PTSD war vet on a cuppla bastards. The knock on Dory is that he's boring and bland and not very expressive and generally speaking I would agree with those things. This was a different side of Dory, the side where he'd been pushed past his limits and wanted to literally take someone's hand home in a bag. He goes Michael Myers with this fork and tries to stab a hole through Sheik's hand, relentless in a way we've never seen from him at any other point in his career. Meanwhile Terry and Abdullah are brawling around ringside and then Abdullah gets stabbed in the face and ring boys get stabbed in the face. Dory is a man untamed, untethered, unleashed. It was the best Dory, and also the best Terry and Abby and Sheik, but maybe somehow not even the best tag match between these teams. Spectacular madness. Watch them all. 

Jerry Blackwell v Mad Dog Vachon (Algerian Death Match) (AWA, 5/22/83)

Holy cow. The Mad Dog promo leading into this is a phenomenal bit of pro wrestling insanity. Vachon is in a woodshop building a pine box, which is very obviously a big bastard coffin. He's been out of wrestling for two years at the hands of Jerry Blackwell, and he's spent that time strengthening his body working down a mine. While delivering this promo - to a slightly concerned Gene Okerlund - Vachon is haphazardly swinging a hammer at randomly placed nails, adding pieces of wood to Jerry Blackwell's pine casket, the hammer reminding him of many nights in the mine where he would have nothing but a pickaxe and the thought of what he would do with it to Jerry FATwell. As you can imagine the crowd are bonkers for the Mad Dog and you don't need perfect video or audio to know they erupted when he charged Blackwell at the bell. I loved how they flipped that hot opening though, with Patera and Al-Kaissie immediately pinning him in the corner so Blackwell could crush him. It was three punches, the tease of some sweet revenge right out the gate, then squash. Blackwell's corner splash is such an incredible spot, probably the best of its kind and this one looked like it made every one of Vachon's organs explode on impact. When he follows it up with a regular splash - which looked equally amazing - you're thinking the wee feller is dead. I guess it's easy for Vachon to garner sympathy considering he's in his 50s and just spent two years living in a mine, but his selling for both splashes was basically perfect. An Algerian death match is essentially a Texas death match, just with an EXTRA 30-second rest period between the fall and the 10-count. Even your regular 10-count can fuck with the pacing of otherwise awesome brawls, but it actually works here because it allows Vachon some vital time to recover after getting squashed to bits. Vachon's eventual comeback is amazing, staring dead-eyed at Blackwell before unloading with shots, looking every bit the Mad Dog. Blackwell takes two absolutely screwball head-first ring post shots, no hands right into the thing. Vachon then wellies a chair off his head, rams him into the post again (another screwball no-hander) and Blackwell is bleeding like Vachon actually got to live out those pickaxe fantasies. Vachon fish hooking Blackwell and spinning him around like he's trying to rip off his mandible looked brutal, then Vachon does this thing where it looks like he tries to reach inside Blackwell's mouth and pull his fucking tongue out! Blackwell missing the splash off the top rope will always be madness. A man in a state of such morbid obesity should not be subjecting himself to that and then Vachon adds insult to injury with his own top rope knee drop. It had been a while since I watched any Blackwell and clearly I forgot how great he was. Selling, bumping, every bit of offence looking devastating, he fucking ruled here. This was awesome and probably one of the best sub-10 minute matches ever. 

Shinya Hashimoto v Riki Choshu (New Japan, 8/2/96)

I've written about more than a couple Hash v Choshu matches on this here blog. It may in fact be the most featured match up over the 13-year, 1100-post history of Whiskey & Wrestling. I'm sure our man Shinya is grinning wide from beyond the grave. Anyhow you know what these two are about. It might be the definitive Hashimoto v Choshu match, though every bit as easy to follow as their other bouts. By this point Choshu is past his peak, no longer the force he was even five years ago never mind ten. On the other hand Hashimoto is bang in the middle of his peak, the Ace, the IWGP champ, one of the best on the planet, out to win his first G1 tournament. The struggle over everything is just amazing, from the opening lock-ups to the strike exchanges to the selling of exhaustion, the whole match feels like an ordeal and best of all they didn't need forty minutes to achieve it. Hashimoto fucking annihilates Choshu with those overhand chops and Choshu looks like a man who's questioning his decision to keep at this game. The roundhouse kicks are some of the meanest of Hashimoto's career and I thought Choshu's selling was perfection, how he'd try and catch one only to quickly realise that's impossible, crumpling to his knees just the same as he would've had he not bothered trying in the first place. The part early on where Choshu just clocked Hash with a straight punch was incredible, like a man who knew he was fighting a juggernaut but would do so the only way he knew how. Christ if anything that hierarchal gap only made him even more belligerent, and that is a fuckin BAR to clear when you consider the history of Riki Choshu. But with age comes experience and I loved how he tried to snap Hashimoto's leg with the basement dropkick rather than going right to the lariat. Hash was on the apron and as soon as Choshu made a move towards the ropes there was a ripple of anticipation, just a roll of the shoulders from Choshu enough to make the crowd sit up, and a few years ago he would've hit those ropes and tried to decapitate Hash with the momentum he'd gathered. This time he knew the moment wasn't right, knew Hash needed softened up a little more, so he took out the leg and went from there. Nobody does defiance in the face of inevitability better than Hashimoto and that finish is one of the best there's ever been. You might need to kill him to keep him down but he'll look you dead in the eye while you do it. Going out on his shield is the only way he knows. 

The Hart Foundation v Steve Austin, Goldust, Ken Shamrock & Legion of Doom (In Your House 16: Canadian Stampede, 7/6/97)

I would give this four hundred and fiddy stars. It might be the closest the WWF ever came to peak inter-promotional New Japan v WAR/New Japan v UWF, which is just about the highest praise I could give something. Incredible crowd, molten heat, searing hatred. Early on Bret stomps a mudhole in Austin and the place is going bananas to such a degree that the fucking camera is shaking. That happens about five more times, usually when the Hart Foundation corner someone and just put the boots to them. This was a biblical Austin performance. I mean my god. Even on his way to the ring he's shit-talking everyone, swaggering like a man who knows he's about to bring some ruckus. He and Bret start the match with an amazing exchange, then at literally every point after that he's doing something interesting whether he's actually in the ring or not. The camera would pan to him on the apron and he'd be climbing the turnbuckles giving people the finger, shouting at fans, wrestlers, Helen Hart, everybody. Bruce Hart is front row next to his da and the other dozen Hart offspring and I know very well the look of a person who's had fourteen beers at a sporting event and Bruce was absolutely up to his eyeballs. Austin wraps Owen's leg around the post in front of the Hart family and Bruce throws a pint at him, so later on Austin knocks the shades off his face (wearing sunglasses indoors - another sign of inebriation) and grabs Stu by the collar and while I bet Stu knew it was a work I don't know if Bruce did. The more people got on Austin's case the wilder he acted and it was unbelievable. Pillman was also a fucking lunatic. He'd just run in and claw people's eyes and spit on them and then at some point he decided he was going to terrorise Ken Shamrock. Look, Shamrock wasn't very good. Working shoot style in a Fujiwara promotion is different from working WWF and he was clearly still getting used to this funny world of Sports Entertainment. There were times where he looked a wee bit lost or wasn't sure what to do next, so any time that happened, any time he paused to consider his next move, Pillman would blindside him or tackle him or punch him in the neck. There was one part where he told Anvil to throw Shamrock outside and then Pillman launched him over the announcer's table and I do not think Shamrock was expecting this one bit. When the Americans finally get a hold of him they all get their shots in and Austin swings him around the ring by the back of his trunks, Pillman's naked keister bared to the world. Almost every match up worked to some degree, though some less than others. Everything with Austin and Bret was tremendous, whether it was together or with someone else. Goldust and Bret had a nice exchange and I got a kick out of JR bringing up Dustin being the son of Dusty Rhodes, which couldn't have happened often in the Goldust run before then. Owen and Animal had a nice 45 seconds and Animal's powerslam looked killer. Other times it felt sort of "gettin' our shit in," which isn't inherently a bad thing in a setting like this, but it did feel a bit sloppy, like everyone had ideas that now and then got in the way of each other and it maybe brought things to a brief halt. That said, I'd much rather watch something with some raggedness than something where every moment is mapped out meticulously and you can see them checking off each bullet point as they go. At least the former feels legitimately unpredictable even if it doesn't always work. Also thought they managed to keep things well heated even after Austin left for a spell. Not as heated as when he was there because that would be impossible, but the others managed to carry the load admirably. Austin going tonto in the post-match is one of the finest moments in the history of our great sport. They put him in handcuffs and he's still kicking people and cussing out cops and Bruce Hart stomps him in the head like a craven and I think Austin might've honest to god throttled him if he wasn't in cuffs. The bent over bird-flipping as he's escorted up the ramp is the cherry on the cake.

El Dandy v Negro Navarro (IWRG, 11/18/01)

Man what a beautiful wrestling match. Beautiful is not a word I tend to use a lot when talking about wrestling, I guess because wrestling is not typically a thing I would describe as beautiful in the general sense. I don't really want beauty from my wrestling either. I want ugly and grotty and mean and disgusting. Mostly, anyway. But I guess wrestling can be beautiful as well and nothing in wrestling is as beautiful as the lucha libre and sometimes a little beauty is good for the soul. Probably. This was 27 minutes all told, and other than about 30 seconds at the end of the tercera it's basically all matwork. These are two of my favourite mat workers ever so obviously I'm going to love it. Navarro might be the king of maestro matwork but Dandy is right up there as a lucha grappler. I don't know if I'd say he's underrated because at this point in wrestling discourse I'm not sure anybody is underrated in any capacity, but he doesn't always get mentioned among the best of them and I really think he belongs in the discussion. There was so much good stuff here, especially in that primera. They spent about two minutes fighting over a figure-four, rolling and twisting for leverage, Navarro trying to grab Dandy's arm and apply a wristlock to force openings elsewhere. When it ends in a stalemate Navarro shifts instead towards trying to pin Dandy, and by the end of that Dandy is almost bridging fully on his neck, practically vertical, while Navarro tries to force his shoulders to the mat. The segunda was extensive by lucha title match second fall standards and they keep everything rolling into the tercera, which was exceptional. Was it a bit too exhibitiony at times? If you don't actively like lucha matwork then maybe, but even then it never felt like they slipped into that hold-release-hold back and forth that you'd get with IWRG later in the decade (which coincidentally Navarro might also be the king of). They never sacrificed the struggle for the beauty and at no point did I feel like they were just feeding holds. A wonderful match. 

So there we have it. 1100 posts. Raise a glass. 

To 1100 more. 

Fujiwara v Maeda!

Yoshiaki Fujiwara v Akira Maeda (UWF, 8/13/89)

Another corker from one of the best match ups in wrestling history. This was more of a shoot style brawl, not a whole lot of matwork, but the grappling we did get was niggly as hell and served as a nice punctuation between them trying to knock each other unconscious. It couldn't have started any better. They clinch right away and end up in the corner, then Fujiwara hit one disgusting headbutt followed by an even more disgusting headbutt, the second one from a running start where he drove the top of his head right into Maeda's cheekbone. Fujiwara threw a number of them throughout the match and I loved how Maeda would respond with some of his own, at one point throwing about seven in succession that almost had Fujiwara through the ropes. There will always be moments in Maeda matches where his temper boils over and this time he tried to volley Fujiwara's liver into the fifth row off a break. Fujiwara was winding him up the whole match as well, as is Fujiwara's wont. Maeda would just about cinch in a hold and Fujiwara would briefly scream in pain, then he'd readjust and alleviate some of the pressure, and there were at least two instances where he went to grab the rope for the break but pulled back right before it. He'd tease it, pull back, tease it again, pull back again, and pretty soon the crowd picked up on it. He had no intention of grabbing the rope, had no intention of giving Maeda the satisfaction. He was being a prick and that was the long and short of it. He would also throw a bunch of kicks and the ref' kept having to admonish him like "you're not wearing kickpads, you can't be fucking doing that!" Of course he kept doing it anyway and eventually Maeda dropped to all fours as a challenge, something to get him in close, "come over here and wrestle." Fujiwara throwing another kick as his answer was perfect Fujiwara. I thought the finish was a wee bit of a lukewarm one, not the molten hot crescendo of the best Maeda maulings, but at the same time Fujiwara was made to pay dearly for all of those kicks. Maybe he should've listened for once. 

Some '94 All Japan

Toshiaki Kawada v Steve Williams (All Japan, 4/16/94)

The first thing I noticed here is that Kawada has all of his teeth. Truly a sign that I've spent too long talking about wrestling with our good man elliott on the GME Discord. I thought this was mostly good and in points really good. Williams was pretty awesome as the human embodiment of a mountain you needed to scale, especially if that mountain was almost entirely comprised of cliff faces that were trying to throw you off them. All of his little shuffling on the spot was fun jock shit and at a couple points he'd pick up Kawada and throw him with legitimately absurd ease. The Doctor Bomb was the prime example but there was another moment where he just hoisted Kawada up and planted him with a powerslam that made Kawada look like a small child. The best parts of the match were when he'd haul off and punch Kawada dead in the face. The first time he did it was a single shot by way of response to one of Kawada's kicks, and the Kawada KO sell is as dead a horse as any horse can be but I thought this was one of his better KO sells ever. A punch from a unit like Williams would shatter many a chin (though I guess not Bart Gunn's). Then later Williams threw an ungodly flurry where the final roundhouse about took the fuckin jaw clean off Kawada's face. It was an awesome mess with the bull and you get the horns performance from Doc. I thought Kawada was excellent at getting across how dangerous Williams was too, and especially how dangerous his big bombs were. The first time Williams even attempts to grab Kawada's waist Kawada scrambles away, then every instance after that he would try and buck or twist or outright leap for the ropes if there was a hint of backdrop driver (or Oklahoma Stampede at another point). The one time he couldn't he was already half out on his feet and by christ did Williams murder him with this thing. Kawada rolling to the floor made sense because at that point what the hell else do you do? The first tiger suplex was also one of the nastiest versions of that move ever, and it came from a great little slow build where Williams used a seated ab stretch, moved into a sort of chickenwing, then grabbed both arms and launched him. Williams sold being slowly chipped away at really well down the stretch and I loved him trying to fight off that last powerbomb by almost going dead weight, probably not even sure where he was but instinct telling him he didn't want to be there. 

Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi v Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue (All Japan, 5/21/94)

Having watched the '93 Tag League final a few months ago, this felt like progress. Not just for the Holy Demon Army, though mostly for the Holy Demon Army, but for Kobashi as well; Baba's long-term booking in all its glory. Prolly. In the '93 match there was never really a point where I felt like Kawada - never mind Taue - was on Misawa's level. They were an annoyance to Misawa and even Kobashi's relative inexperience as Misawa's partner wasn't enough to force the latter into much of a sweat. He could've gone at them both alone and won the thing. This felt a bit different, like the gap had been closed somewhat, which I guess is what you want in a long-term storyline. Misawa was still the unquestioned Man but it didn't feel like anything came as easy to him here. Part of that was Kawada and Taue being a little nastier than before, probably a little smarter too. Kawada was as ornery as I've ever seen him, as mean and combative as you'd need to be to step to the Ace at this point in time. You saw it in the early stages when he'd boot Misawa off the apron and glare in disgust, or when he'd just stomp on Kobashi's kneecap. The work on Kobashi's knee felt like a receipt for the Tag League as well. Kawada didn't forget, not about the beating his own knee took that night and not about how Misawa treated him like an afterthought. In that match there was only one instance where Misawa even acknowledged Kawada, and in that moment he gave him a quick look of annoyance and shut him down immediately with an elbow. He never needed to do anything else, such was the gap between them. He even fed Kawada's corpse to Kobashi at the end, one last insult. There was a moment here where Misawa was driven past annoyance into legit anger, which didn't happen often. It was when Kawada started booting him in the face. Misawa's response was one of the best "do you know who the fuck I am?" looks before crumpling the wee fella. Then he tagged in Kobashi, because Kawada was still beneath him. I feel like narratively speaking people saw Kawada as being closer to Misawa's level at this point, especially leading into the June title match, but having watched the surrounding matches over the last few months I keep getting the impression Misawa is waaaay out in front. Kawada's Napoleon Syndrome has only gotten him wellied in the face. There was a bunch of other good stuff here as well, obviously. Kawada and Taue flipping the script from the Tag League and going after Kobashi's knee was a nice touch and Kobashi largely sold it all the way to the end, even past the point where it was a proper focus, like when he hit the first moonsault and couldn't really capitalise because knee hit canvas in the process. I also liked how he paid Kawada in kind a bit later by doing the shinbreaker on the announcer's desk. Another thing about having seen all of this stuff before -- it can be easy to project, maybe see things that aren't really there, find setups that you convince yourself are paid off later. Maybe that's the case here but I thought it was cool seeing what looked like the early formation of the "isolate Misawa's partner and pray we can keep Misawa out the way for a while" strategy. A couple years later they had to flip that and isolate Misawa while keeping Akiyama out the road, better the devil you know and all that, but for now the smart course of action felt like targeting Kobashi. It never worked but fuck it, you live and learn. Kobashi also felt way more capable of holding his own. In the Tag League final he wouldn't have lasted 10 minutes without Misawa, but he went toe to toe here and probably came out on top as often as not. That he picked up the win for his team without Misawa actively feeding it to him was a huge step, and there was one save off a powerbomb that was absolutely vital. Great finishing run, because obviously. Look, I'm pretty confident that there are about a dozen styles of wrestling I prefer more at this stage of the game, but it's tough to keep me engaged for a 40-minute match and other than the two times I paused it to go pour more whisky, this pretty well managed it.

Eduardo Guerrero v Dallas Page!

Eddy Guerrero v DDP (Worldwide, 11/2/96) - GOOD

I forgot how cool the spinning WCW ring was. I think they only rolled it out for the B and C shows, which I'm guessing was a logistics thing and it was confined to Centre Stage, because you can bet Hollywood Hogan would've cut some incredible shithousing promos in the dark in that spinning ring if they'd been able to take it on the road. Imagine pieces of rubbish being thrown from all corners of the arena as Hogan played air guitar while making direct eye contact with every drunk redneck in the Georgia Dome. This was a super fun eight minutes between two guys that are always going to be super fun with eight minutes to play with. One thing about DDP, certainly in '96 but probably further back as well, he was always creative and always willing to mix things up, try some inventive stuff, really use the time he had to do something interesting. That's the sort of thing I really appreciate as a wrestling fan at this point, probably because I'm more inclined to watch a bunch of shorter matches, which is where you get to see who's motivated to bust their tail and put some thought into things. 14 minutes on Nitro or a PPV is one thing, but seven minutes on Worldwide? Plenty of more highly thought of wrestlers than DDP have gone out there in similar situations and gone through the motions. Of course Eddie is another guy who's worth watching in basically any environment and both of them match up great. Eddie's early dropkicks looked awesome and the second one ruled. It sent Page through the ropes, but on the way out he caught himself as if he was mid-619, so Eddie followed up with another dropkick that sent him all the way out, then followed up on that with a plancha. Page takes over by hucking Eddie into the buckles and working over the midsection, first with some really mean looking sternum-first whips into the corner. He hits this awesome gutwrench gutbuster and would cut Eddie off with body shots. This was around the time WCW were pushing Nick Patrick as a heel ref' so the finish is shitty, but everything before it was really some of the best WCW B show stuff you could want. 

Eddy Guerrero v DDP (Saturday Night, 6/20/98) - GOOD

This might've been even better and if nothing else had an actual finish (and an amazing one at that). The roles were reversed here, with Page red hot as a babyface heading into a PPV main event at Bash at the Beach. Even more so than in the previous match he could've come out and coasted through the six minutes they had, but he didn't and they worked something really nifty. This time Eddie works over the ribs of Page and Eddie Guerrero working a body part will always work for me. He hits his hilo to the lower back and stretches Page with a single-leg bow and arrow, really digging his knee into the kidneys. Tenay and Hudson mention how Page watches wrestling tapes from all over the world, from his opponents in WCW for scouting purposes, and honestly I can believe it. I could easily see DDP reading the old DVDVR newsletters and buying New Japan tapes and cribbing a bunch of stuff. They also mention the Diamond Cutter and how he has a knack for hitting it from anywhere. The first time he tries it here it's from a running start, but Eddie holds firm and shoves him off. The next time Page has a chance he goes for a powerbomb, spins Eddie in the air and plants him with the Cutter. An unnecessary setup perhaps, but a great one nonetheless. 

Complete & Accurate Guerrero Brothers

The Hulkster, the King and the Killer (Khan)

Hulk Hogan v Harley Race (Texas Death Match) (WWF, 6/14/87)

Man this was fucking good. White trunks Hogan is like headband LeBron or arm sleeve Kobe or silver Nikes Ronaldo -- the absolute pinnacle of their respective sport. They never pissed around and went right at it, Race charging in while Hogan was halfway through the ropes, Hogan somehow using Race's momentum against him and backdropping him over the ropes. I've said this before but the late 80s WWF run might be my favourite period of Race's career. As an old man bump machine he was a hoot and he took a few great ones here, including that backdrop out the ring, his signature corner bump, and later he went for a falling headbutt on the floor and ate nothing but concrete (accompanied by an audible SPLAT). Hogan absolutely wellies him with a chair - and actually breaks the thing over Race's head - and there's even a wee bitta blood! Race hitting a piledriver on the concrete after taking over was wild and I loved Heenan running around in a neck brace having heart palpitations. He really was the GOAT. The finish is awesome, with Race coming off the top with a diving headbutt and Hogan sliding the title belt into his path. This might be one of the best sub-10 minute WWF matches of the decade. 

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

This was very much Hogan v Monster formula. Hogan v Monster formula is rarely a dud so the floor on it was already pretty high, but Khan is one of the better monsters you could put in there with Hogan and unsurprisingly this ruled. Khan jumps Hogan early and we get some whipping with the title belt, then he goes to spit his green mist/poison/Buckfast in Hogan's face, but Hogan moves and the ref takes it instead. Khan is way fun in control and looks real imposing, plus Fuji will stab a motherfucker with the cane to very much abuse from fans. When Hogan takes over he runs riot and wallops Khan with a chair, but rather than head to the finish Khan gets another little run of offence. There's going to be a fairly low ceiling on how compelling a nerve hold will be but this one was at least passable. Finish is so great. Khan tries to spit (or spew, as Monsoon says, as if Khan is some sort of reptile race from...Star Wars or something. Sector 7 G) more green mist, but this time Hogan gets his hands up and then rubs those mist-coated hands all over Khan's face. Legdrop, 3 count, roof comes off, many muscles were flexed. One of my favourite Hogan v Monster matches.

Lawler and The Macho Man...together!!!

Jerry Lawler & Randy Savage v Rick Rude & King Kong Bundy (Memphis, 9/10/84)

This might be the earliest supernova babyface Randy Savage performance on tape. In everything before this he'd been heel, and obviously he'd been a maniac, but this was something else. The energy, the VIGOUR, the presence and charisma, he looked every bit the superstar he'd become in the not too distant future. About half of this, maybe more, was his show. Lawler was content to step back and let Savage have the spotlight and obviously Savage made the most of it. Every interaction was pure electricity, every time he held up an elbow from the apron so Lawler could ram Rude into it, every time he put his dukes up for a fight, every time he jumped in to even the odds when the heels tried to double up, the heat just went up and up and the more it did the more he fed off it. At one point Bundy backed Lawler into the corner and wellied him with a huge punch, whipped him across to the opposite corner, then when he went in for the splash Savage ran across the apron and yanked Lawler out of dodge at the last second. There was another bit where Bundy had Lawler in the corner and went to clobber him again, so Savage snuck in and hooked Bundy's arm long enough for Lawler to crack him. The first proper Savage/Bundy showdown consisted of Bundy playing intimidation tactics by spitting on Savage and Savage spitting on him right back, Bundy left almost befuddled that someone would do that, then enraged when Savage did it again, then befuddled once more when Savage not only never backed away when Bundy charged but in fact met him head on. When Bundy grabbed a chair in frustration Savage grabbed a metal post and I think everyone knew he would use the thing. Rude gets punched around the ring and he doesn't quite have his shtick down yet, but he was fun getting punched around the ring and even took a big atomic drop in very Rick Rude fashion. Savage gives him maybe the best airplane spin ever caught on film, hits him with the double axe handles off the top, and at any given moment it felt like Rude would turn around and Savage would be perched on the top rope like a gargoyle ready to strike. He fucking terrorised Rude and it was amazing. Even in a lower key role Lawler was still a really strong face in peril, just turning the heat up little by little until the mad bastard on the apron gets the tag. When he does the lid comes off the place and then Savage's own lid comes off and the ref' gets decked and you know where that goes. The post-match brawl rules and I guess I'll watch the no DQ rematch next. 

Lawler v The Macho Man (again)!

Jerry Lawler v Randy Savage (Memphis, 4/9/84)

"This Macho Man is as wild as anyone you'll see." Lance Russell is, once again, dead on the money. They're wrestling in Kentucky here, in Angelo Poffo's OUTLAW~ ICW promotion, and I love how everything feels a little more hectic than usual. Savage in general, Hart in his corner constantly shouting nonsense that's picked up by Lance's mic, Angelo Poffo in his leather jacket running around like a HOODLUM. Just the ambience of it in the dark arena. Savage was the perfect blend of stalling and shithousing early, everything he did laced with a little Macho Madness. He was chucking Lawler full across the ring by the hair, then when Lawler gave him a receipt Savage was hopping out the ring threatening to take a swing at Lance, that paranoia on full display. Savage backs Lawler into the corner and goes to throw a punch, the ref' grabs the hand to stop it, so Lawler pops him while he's distracted. Usually that spot will be flipped and it'll be the babyface who's restrained, but I like how they gave Lawler that shot here considering the deck was fairly stacked against him otherwise. They settled into some nice hold-working after the early stuff, a couple armbars, some hair-pulling, building the heat in simple ways. The matwork actually lasted a little longer than I would've expected (or remembered, because I remembered not a thing about this) and it gave it a bit of a slow build title match feel. Lawler worked the headscissors and Savage would try and headstand out, so Lawler would hit one of those mini piledrivers to shut him down. Savage would try and shift his weight around, Lawler would really crank on it, Savage would get visibly frustrated. It was really good and if nothing else it makes me wish we got to see Savage work the mat like this more often. Inevitably he sacks the idea of even trying to do it clean and just drags Lawler to the floor and launches him into the post, which Lawler goes full screwball into as is his wont. Savage is great working King of the Mountain segments, just super animated, attacking from above, off the top, the side, along the apron, head on, all of it awesome. Lawler turning the tables by grabbing a drink off a front row fan and hucking it in Savage's face was amazing and we all consider making a joke about Lawler getting away with things that MJF won't but then we immediately reconsider making jokes about things Jerry Lawler has gotten away with over the years. The last stretch of this felt like an extended finishing run and I thought it was pretty outstanding. There were the incredible punches, one double knockout spot that was as good as any of its kind ever, a couple jab combos that would bring a tear to the eye, Savage taking an insane posting, and the way they built to the big fist drop was great. Lawler tries it a couple times and Savage moves at the last second, just a squirmy, twitchy maniac that's impossible to pin down. It's a shame that when he does finally hit it - off the middle rope no less - they kind of speed through the next sequence, a Savage piledriver, a bit of distraction before Lawler rolls him up with a schoolboy. It was a two-minute segment condensed into thirty seconds so they had to kind of blow off the selling you'd expect from moves of such consequence. Weirdly paced ending aside, this was awesome and I liked it even more than their cage match. 

Was Chief Jay Strongbow...actually pretty great???

Greg Valentine v Chief Jay Strongbow (WWF, 7/21/79)

Strongbow is a weird animal. For one I can't read his name on a match list without immediately having flashbacks to my teenage years of drinking 2l bottles of cider down the park, or indeed my 20s and now 30s, drinking 2l bottles of cider down the park. As an actual wrestler without any of those cheap cider connotations, he'll take an absolute whipping in some circles for being awful, terrible at selling, having shitty offence, just not at all good at the pro wrestling. In other circles - much smaller ones, I'd imagine - there's a recognition that you don't end up that over with a crowd as consistently as the Chief was without knowing how to fuckin WORK. Those chops didn't look great but you better believe he knew when and how to use them! Prolly. Maybe Chief Jay is the poster boy for Smart Work, right next to old broken down Andre. I have no dog in that fight and I've probably seen four Chief Jay Strongbow matches in the last twenty years, but I know what I like and this was a super fun busted old man performance from Strongbow. The staredown before the match starts is amazing, with Strongbow on the floor looking almost pensive, an old warhorse ready to saddle up again, years past the point where he thought he'd need to, staring a hole through Valentine. The camera pans around Valentine's shoulder and the look on his face would pin a man to the floor, staring straight back at the Chief. The WWE go for all sorts of cinematic nonsense in their camerawork these days and most of it is legitimately nauseating and not a single instance of it has come off as great as this (the commentators not ramming it down our throats didn't hurt either). This is a revenge match from a previous angle where Valentine went after Strongbow's knee, so the Chief comes in swinging chops to the head, wearing a big knee brace that he uses as a weapon. He rams Valentine's head into it, throws kneelifts with the braced-up knee, and after a few minutes Valentine is bloodied. Strongbow really leans into the revenge aspect, bonking Valentine in the head with a microphone, using the chord to choke him, then bringing in a wooden stool, bonking that over Valentine's head, snapping one of the legs off it and bonking THAT over his head as well. Strongbow's fired up war dance was more of a dying ember at this stage of the game, but that added to the charm of his performance and the crowd were ballistic for it. Any time Valentine tried to bail or create some distance Strongbow would be on him, at one point dragging him out to the floor and winging him head-first into the barricade. The finish is one of those rage-inducing things that, as a fan in the arena that night, you'd immediately hope would lead to a rematch. With any luck it would be one that would prevent Valentine from shithousing his way to another count out victory. 

Another from the North-South Connection

Dick Murdoch & Adrian Adonis v Rocky Johnson & Tony Atlas (WWF, 2/10/84)

A common theme with the North-South in their WWF run is that they tend to spend large chunks of their matches on the back foot. A lot of stooging, a lot of bumping and selling, a lot of WWF heel in peril. You know, the common theme with every WWF tag of the era. I personally love the North-South in that situation because both are really great at those heel in peril things, and with how I consume wrestling I don't typically watch enough of the same thing back to back for the extended babyface shine segments to wear thin. And I will reiterate that Murdoch and Adonis are fucking awesome as heels in peril. The structure plays to their strengths, even if there are times where I do wish they'd get to play to their other strengths and work from above a little more. And well, this is one of those times where they get to work from above a little more. It was basically an extended mugging and an amazing one at that. Before the match starts Adonis gets run along the apron and flung into the post, taking the shot like a man with zero regard for his clavicles, then falls off the apron doing three pirouettes while trying to remove his jacket. I don't know what had happened before this but Rocky Johnson has a big forehead bandage that's already seeped in blood and Gene and Vince are yammering on about refereeing incompetence for letting the match even begin. Did any other wrestling company in America spend as much time ripping a hole through their officiating group? Or just any other company that does anything? A Premier League referee was literally stood down recently because he forgot to do his job properly and the commentators were less caustic towards him than every fucking commentator in the WWF is towards their referees. It's hard not to feel sorry for him when Murdoch and Adonis are being this big a pair of bastards. I'd love to see Okerlund keep a lid on things. Let's see McMahon take a better stab at it. Ah fuck it. They beat the whole entire brakes off Rocky Johnson, basically. That bandage was never long for the world and sure enough they rip it off and clonk him with a chair and Adonis bites him in the head and Murdoch measures him and punches him right in the cut. Once again they're both great at cutting the ring off, one of them holding Johnson's leg after tagging out so the other can properly measure their next shot. Adonis chokes him with the tag rope while Murdoch lifts his legs up and Tony Atlas tries not to pick up a skinny white referee and throw him into the fourth row. I never noticed how knock-kneed Tony Atlas was. They put that man on the road in his 50s to babysit Mark Henry and I bet he had arthritis like a bastard. Hate to see it. The North-South have a bunch of cool offence they can roll out and always add something new every match, this time Adonis' running bulldog being the highlight. In the end the match does get thrown out, whether it was a disqualification or a blood stoppage I'm not sure, but either way it was warranted. I'm guessing this leads to a rematch and I'm guessing it was good. 

Piper Might've Took a Few Wrong Turns, Down a Few Wrong Roads, Wound up in a Few Wrong Towns, Where Nobody Cares or Goes

Roddy Piper v Jimmy Snuka (WWF, 7/15/84) - EPIC

I've seen a few of these Piper/Snuka matches now and all of them have been good fun, but nothing that really goes over the top and has the crazy heat and madness you'd really expect from the feud. Those other matches were from the spring so clearly they were waiting until summer before going over the top. This is the one right here. This is how I would expect an actual murderer to set upon a man who wellied a coconut over his head on live television. Piper wants no part of it, begs off, pleads for a reprieve, an antagonistic bastard but a real craven underneath it all. His only offence in the first half is a rake to the eyes. Snuka doesn't have the greatest strikes but his headbutt looks pretty impressive just from the height he gets on the lead-in jump. Then we get the ref' bump and you know Piper will seize his moment. Everything from then on is blood-soaked magic, first with the chair shot and Snuka's insane bladejob. Snuka is covered in blood and Piper is punching him in the cut and biting him in the head and Piper looks like a fucking wolf who's just devoured a stag, blood all over his face and chest. Snuka absorbs some of Piper's shots and kind of stands there dead on his feet, not really no-selling but not quite doing it in a way that would suggest to the audience he's building to a comeback. The comeback is amazing when it does happen though, with Snuka trying to cover up and pulling his hands back to finally notice the blood, Piper realising that he might've gone too far, Snuka seeing red and roaring into some furious vengeance. Snuka grabbing Piper by the ears and repeatedly smashing the back of his head off the mat is even a touch disturbing given what we know about Snuka's past experiences with delivering head trauma. Piper predictably bails so Snuka wipes him out with a fucking incredible no-hands dive over the top! This was one of those dives that managed to look graceful and reckless and beautiful and wild all at once. The count out finish is a bummer, but Snuka clonks the ref' - I imagine Gorilla thought it was deserved - and then has to be restrained by a few ham 'n' eggers. Of course Piper lands one final cheapshot before hightailing it.

Complete & Accurate Hot Rod

The Islanders and the Moondogs

The Islanders v The Moondogs (WWF, 9/22/86)

This is the earliest Islanders in MSG footage I've seen. I'm not sure the crowd were completely sold at the start but they were fairly rocking for them by the end. Hayes is on commentary with Gorilla and calls them Haka and Tomma. He tells us the Moondogs are rich in wrestling proficiency but perhaps wont to neglect their homework. Hayes says a lot of things. The Islanders' start was super energetic, especially Tama who was leapfrogging the cavemen and hitting big knife edge chops, while Moondog Spot was bumping around with some real VIGOUR. Spot was great in this, getting to stretch out and show some nice athleticism on bumps, stooging big when it was required and being an imposing presence when the Moondogs were on offence. Rex was less about the stooging and bumps but he brought some big pieces of offence, including a cool delayed powerslam. The transition into Tama in peril was great, with Tama running the ropes and Spot pulling down the top rope, Tama going hurling outside and flying into the barricade. Lord Al's point about the Moondogs not being ones for scouting opponents rings true when Spot throws exactly one headbutt that Tama absorbs, then as Tama starts firing up Spot immediately shuts him down with a big inverted atomic drop. Not once did Spot or Rex make the mistake of throwing another headbutt, so if nothing else perhaps these Moondogs are capable of learning on the job. Tama's splash off the top really is the blueprint for all Samoans hitting a top rope splash. Just a beautiful thing.