This was really similar to their match from the Meadowlands a couple weeks earlier, just less heated and didn't have an insane Snuka dive. But the layout was basically identical and if I remember right so was the finish. That's what you get with having a chunk of footage from a feud that was worked around the horn - sometimes you get the same match in different markets depending on that particular stage of the feud. It's not the worst thing in the world. Sunka got absolutely clobbered with a couple chair shots and opened himself up nicely, then Piper spent a few minutes ramming him into the post and scurrying away again. The Snuka comeback was the same as it was in the Meadowlands match. Eventually he takes one too many shots and the sight of his own blood snaps him back to life, unflinching as Piper punches him in the face and even bites the cut. He roars and goes at Piper like a demon or at least a very peeved individual and then the referee gets clonked with a headbutt, such are the perils of trying to keep these men in check. Piper sneaking in three or four cheapshots after the bell as half a dozen people restrain Snuka was sublime. It's hard to go wrong with this feud, really. You just wish Snuka was as good as the Tonga Kid.
Roddy Piper v Ric Flair (WWF, 10/28/91) - GREAT
If you'd asked me for my perfect idea of Roddy Piper v Ric Flair in 1991, this would've been pretty close to what I could've drummed up in my head. Flair in MSG for the first time in 15 years? Coming into the WWF's home turf after spending the last 10 years as The Guy for the enemy? In the Garden against Rowdy Roddy Piper?? Where a whole shit load of those fans would know the history between the two? Come on. I'm all about spectacle and that screams spectacle and sure enough this was a fuckin spectacle, carried by personality from two of the biggest personalities ever. The early parts were all about the heat-building. Piper would clock Flair and Flair would hit the deck staring up at Piper aghast. He's the real world's champ and this skirt-wearing idiot couldn't care less. The disrespect. Flair backs Piper into the corner and levels him with a chop, so Piper reels off a seven-punch combo and Flair is on his back again. Even something like Piper spitting his gum at Flair and Flair's disgusted stare, the people were on strings for all of it. Piper's a really fun Flair opponent in the same sort of ways that Savage is a really fun Flair opponent. At times Flair will do something that he might do in every match, but Piper will throw a bit of chaos in there and force things off the beaten path a little. Here it was when Flair chucked him to the floor and in a burst of adrenaline Piper rushed back in and charged. Flair rolled with it and threw him out again, so Piper immediately got back and ran at him. On the third go Piper didn't get back up and there was one fan in the front row who reached through the guardrail and grabbed Piper by the hand to check on him. I wish they'd left a bit more on the table here even with the cheap win, but the chair shot nearfall before that was amazing and everything else pretty much ruled.
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