SLL's All-Request Friday Night, Phaze One

Well, I promised this would be back on the 8th, but somewhat unsurprisingly, it's not back in full. Yeah, was not expecting to be as sick as I was today. I did consider reviewing the Edwards/Richards match anyway, if only to induce vomiting, but thought better of it. Still, I promised an All-Request Friday Night, so here's a little something to get you started while my head clears and I sort out the rest. You're probably used to this by now, anyway.

Jim Brunzell vs. Bret Hart (WWF, 5/4/1986)
Requested by Lacelle

Apropos of something, there's a discussion going on on ProWrestlingOnly about the viability of 80's WWF in general, and of the commentary stylings of one Gorilla Monsoon in particular. Personally, I'm pretty fond of Gorilla, but I grew up with early 90's WWF, and watching his stuff now, it's very clear to me that nostalgia is the only reason I like him. Granted, nostalgia protected his standing with me far better than it did, say, The Ultimate Warrior, which I guess says something positive about him. But damned if I know what, and certainly, had I been following other promotions as a child, I doubt I'd have much tolerance for some of his bullshit. I'm mentioning all of this because one of the things that really stood out to me about this match was that Gorilla's call of it (ably assisted by Bobby Heenan) was actually quite good, and may be indicative of why some of us remember him fondly...even people like me who should know better. It probably helps that Bret is in the match. Bret is, of course, the one guy who Gorilla really had a hand in getting over on commentary - even if just in a small way - by coining the "Excellence of Execution" nickname for him. He doesn't actually drop that title in this match, though he gets the same point across ("He is devastating in everything that he does, because he does the moves to perfection") and otherwise puts him over strong (citing him as the obvious most improved wrestler of '86). He stays on top of the match, and any sidetracks are relevant. He doesn't try to put himself over. He doesn't bury the heels (quite the opposite with Bret), merely acknowledging their heelishness (which is legitimate), pointing out how annoying Jimmy Hart is (which is the whole point of his character), and calling Heenan on his bullshit (which is both obvious and funny). In fact, he's pretty even-handed in this regard. Brunzell is working the match with a taped left forearm and hand, and while he does note that it probably would have been approved for use in the match ahead of time, he doesn't dispute Heenan when he points out something fishy about natural righty Brunzell throwing a flying left forearm late in the match, and after winning the match by DQ when Bret crotches him on the top rope, notes that Brunzell could very well have been DQ'd himself earlier in the match for the taped forearm shot. Beyond that, it's Gorilla and the Brain, and for whatever other faults Gorilla had as an announcer, I still find his interplay with Heenan to be priceless. It's not an all-time great call of a match or anything. I just thought it was interesting to see an example of Gorilla firing on all cylinders.

As far as the match itself goes, it's pretty darn good. Jumping Jim isn't really bringing a whole lot to the table tonight. He sells and bumps OK, but it's nothing special, and his offense all looks really tame. Fortunately, Bret works for two here. His early dominance had a lot of great looking punches, elbows, and even a nice headbutt for good measure. Then Brunzell takes over for a little while, working over Bret's leg, and Bret sells it well enough to make Jim's middling offense look convincing. Bret goes to the eyes during a figure-four attempt, and has a nice offensive run that takes us through most of the rest of the match, including a fun headlock segment. Jimmy Hart is appropriately cheesy throughout.