Duggan v the One Man Gang! With a chain!

Hacksaw Duggan v One Man Gang (Chain Match) (Houston, 1/9/87)

I thought this was a tremendous match with an awesome Duggan performance. He gets clubbed in the head with a chain-wrapped fist right at the bell and his selling of never quite being fully recovered after that was so good. His timing on hope spots, the way he'll milk each shot, how he sells fatigue and blood-loss and the general WEIGHT (literally and figuratively) of the Gang, his crowd connection, obviously the punches, it was top drawer all across the board. He was bleeding inside about eight seconds. Whenever he tried to fight back he'd rock the Gang, but Gang is gigantic and Duggan is fighting uphill so it would only take one big blow from the OMG to cut him off. I loved how when Duggan could string together more than a single shot Gang would try to just roll out to the floor to get away, wisely opting against getting into more of a brawl than absolutely necessary with a blood-fuelled maniac. When he finally does manage to get away Duggan just rolls out with him and recklessly throws a chair at his head. Everything Duggan does has the crowd going nuts but his big scoop slam - after milking two attempts before that - ruled and his roar after it was incredible. Every time Gang tries to squash Duggan in the corner and he hits the buckles it sounds like the ring is about to break. All of the attempts at touching the four turnbuckles get huge heat and the roof about comes off whenever Duggan can string three together. The struggle over those moments really stands out, the way neither guy is allowed to just walk over and touch the turnbuckles without a fight. The best example might be when Duggan is trying to drag Gang over by the chain to he can touch the buckle, his other hand using the top rope as an anchor, looking like Captain America in that scene where Bucky's trying to fly away in the helicopter. Finish ruled too. Akbar trips Duggan as he's running the ropes (which followed an incredible leaping clothesline to Gang) and as he falls the OMG pulls a length of chain taut, Duggan landing throat-first across it. Gang then follows up with a chain-assisted clothesline and huge splash. Duggan will not relent until he succumbs to sheer exhaustion and the crowd were with him every second he tried to pull the Gang back with that chain. I loved this. 

Magnum v Nikita - for all the marbles!

Magnum TA v Nikita Koloff (JCP, 8/23/86)

Man if this ain't perfect pro wrestling. It's match 7 in the best of 7 series for the US title, and even if some of it is probably me putting things together in my head, seeing things that the wrestlers maybe weren't actively aiming to present, I loved the progression from where the series started seven weeks earlier (even if we only have some clips of match 1 and nothing from matches 2 and 3). Nikita had gone up 3-0 and Magnum needed to fight his way back to level footing. Match 4 at the end of the Bash tour had everyone on edge and Magnum worked it early with a lot more hesitancy than normal, cautious of making even one mistake, refusing to be goaded into anything while Nikita was confident and relaxed with his substantial amount of breathing room. Magnum was on the back foot for most of that match, got bloodied up pretty badly, and Nikita took his time punishing him. Magnum managed to pull it out in the end with a sunset flip without ever looking like the real force he was. After that though he rifled off two more wins (we don't have match 5 but match 6 is tremendous) and he had momentum coming into the decider. There was a tension to this that was palpable, right from the lock up at the start that was as rugged as any lock up you'll see. Obviously the crowd was going to be molten for everything but the wrestlers treated every action with the importance it deserved. The fight over the hammerlock that Magnum turns into a pinning situation, Nikita using his gargantuan neck to bridge out, Magnum trying to roll him over onto his shoulders, it had WEIGHT. They both roll to the floor with the hold still applied and I loved Magnum just throwing Nikita shoulder-first into the post, then perching himself up top before coming off with an axe handle, setting the tone and pushing the pace early like he wasn't a couple matches ago. Confidence can be a hell of a performance-enhancer and Magnum had it in spades. When Nikita takes over he works the back and I know these Crockett crowds were rabid anyway, but watch how Magnum sells and teases comebacks and layers in hope spots and tell me that guy wasn't fucking amazing. The crowd connection he had was truly special. The place erupts when he breaks the bearhug and then the last couple minutes are as good as it gets, from what Magnum and Nikita are doing in the ring to what Ivan is doing on the floor, Tony and David on commentary, the crowd's reactions, even Tommy Young. Magnum responding to Ivan grabbing him by the hair from the floor by rolling out and hitting a piledriver on concrete is one of the most badass things I've ever seen. Magnum stood up after it, paused for a brief second to take in the crowd, and right there everyone in that building would've gone to war with him had he asked them to. Then there's the finish, with Nikita wrapping the chain around his arm and decapitating Magnum while another Russian tries to interfere, Crockett in hysterics as Tommy Young counts the fall, Schiavone repeating "oh, no" in an almost hushed state of shock. That crowd reaction was pure outrage and immediately people were pressing the barricades. I half expected a riot, FULLY expected the ring to be pelted with trash, and sure enough the latter happened while the former was narrowly avoided. "The Russian nightmare has come true." 

Hogan/Steamboat team! Bitta AJW!

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

Super fun pairings that made for a super fun if sort of low key match. Savage barely made any physical contact with anyone and even still he was a force of nature, constant motion, everywhere at once. The babyfaces couldn't get their hands on him because any time they tried to he'd run away, but he was always ready to jump in and take a cheapshot or jump off the top and Hogan and Steamboat needed to keep their head on a swivel. It was one of the best apron-working performances I've seen in ages. Honky was a stooge for the backest of back rows and got clobbered up and down the place. Steamboat was Steamboat in peril for a few minutes and Hogan was an electric Big Man On Campus. A good time had by all.

Chigusa Nagayo v Devil Masami (AJW, 1/9/87)

This was really good. I had a decent idea coming in that it was going to a draw but they never telegraphed that and the pacing and STRUGGLE always made it feel like they were actually trying to win. The grappling early had a nice sense of urgency but also felt choppy in a good way, how they'd intersperse bursts of movement with pauses so they could scowl at each other and consider taking things down a saltier path. Devil was the one who folded first in that regard as she ran Chigusa along the apron into the ring post, then after she recovered on the floor Chigusa stared at Devil with pure contempt, which I think Devil took some satisfaction in. From there they moved away from the matwork as Devil went after Chigusa's leg to some big time heat. There was one point where Chigusa was writhing on the mat and Devil just stomped on her ankle. About halfway in, after getting wheel kicked in the face once too often for her liking, Devil went outside and picked up a stick that she very obviously wanted to use as a weapon. So Chigusa grabbed a chair and waited in the ring, both of them at a standstill until Devil finally chose to keep things on the level and get rid of the stick. The final stretch was pretty heated and had enough selling of fatigue that the back and forth nature of it worked for me. Once or twice Chigusa almost caught Devil with a cradle and Devil's expression of surprise and rage without being overly hammy is the sort of thing only a handful of wrestlers have in their locker.

Dump Matsumoto & Bull Nakano v Jumping Bomb Angels (AJW, 1/9/87)

Very different from Chigusa/Devil in that while that match was rough yet ultimately a fair contest, this was sometimes fair - or at least more fair than many a Dump tag - but also had people getting smashed with a stick or clonked on the head with a metal bucket. I like how the JBA were in no mood for Dump and Bull's shit though, not fighting fire with fire necessarily, but instead by dragging things back ON the rails to keep it moving as a wrestling contest. Which was pretty badass. They also tried to kick the shit out of them and that was cool too. Dump will always revert to type and try to cause mayhem and Itsuki Yamazaki was fully at the end of her tether. Her and Dump have history and Yamazaki was in no mood to be dealing with that nonsense again, and I love her making a point of using wrestling moves to put Dump in her place rather than resorting to the weapons. Tateno wasn't quite a whipping girl but she wasn't driven by furious vengeance the same way Yamazaki was and I guess that was borne out by how Dump and Bull could take over by going after her a little easier than they could with Yamazaki. I'm not entirely sure what the finish was all about but it looked like there was some ref' shenanigans and an official sitting ringside taking umbrage so Dump hit him with a stick. As soon as that bell rings at the end, best of luck getting Dump and Bull to agree to a restart.