Hulk Hogan vs. Moondog Rex WWF 8/29/84 - FUN
ER: This started out a little rough, with some sketchy striking. Hogan did these weird jabs where he threw with his left hand to the left side of Rex's face, but wasn't really throwing to connect with anything. Later, Rex went for a kneedrop and the camera angle showed a lot of light between that knee and Hogan's head (which, sure, probably best to not crush the money machine's eyeball with a kneedrop). But with Moondog bumping around for Hogan and then getting a couple big moves, this got good. Moondog is a nice heavy bumper, made Hogan's offense feel powerful. Hogan was aggressive and went after Moondog on the floor, and Moondog hit a nice backbreaker and an awesome powerslam. I dug his punches as Hogan made his comeback, and Hogan saved his best punches for his big comeback, which I liked. His finishing offense was much more interesting than boot/legdrop, as instead he hits a strong axe bomber before flying in with an excellent elbowdrop, then scraped his boot across Moondog's face! The legdrop was a good one, and Rex sold it strong, moving his body up so it really looked like he was getting neck damage from it.
Yokozuna vs. Crush WWF Raw 7/12/93 - EPIC
ER: This kicked a ton of ass. I've been watching a lot of 1993 WWF this past year, because I had fond nostalgia memories and have also been seeking the best WWF Lex Luger match. I journeyed out into 1993, seeking Luger, and I've come away loving babyface Crush. I have really been enjoying Kona Crush, and in hindsight I think Crush could have been a bigger star in 1993 than Luger if they only gave him a real shot. The fans really, REALLY wanted to get behind Crush, and there was no reason to keep the Doink feud going as long as it did. I'd really love to see an alternate timeline of Crush getting the push to Summerslam. This match was great, simple psychology, taped July 5th with a Manhattan Center crowd more than ready to will a big American boy to a title victory. Yokozuna bumped more in this match than any WWF match of his so far, with Crush getting an early jump on him and finishing off a run with a big boot, sending Yokozuna crashing out through the ropes to the floor like King Hippo.
The fans are so behind Crush here, and it's really great, really entertaining to see a truly loved babyface go up against a truly hated heel. After getting knocked to the floor, Yoko comes back in with a total restart, standing his ground as champ, but Crush keeps taking the fight to him and hits a nice avalanche. I loved how Yokozuna didn't just try to use his size, but kept knocking Crush down with gross cross chops right to the throat. Whenever Yokozuna wanted a breather he went for the throat, also dropping Crush throat first over the top rope. Yokozuna throws great punches, too, and Crush is good at taking big bumps to the apron and floor to put over Yoko's striking power. They both make good use of missed offense, and the fans get a real thrill when Crush dodges what would have surely been a match ending avalanche. Crush's comeback is so GOOD, absolutely smashing Yokozuna with a clothesline to knock him down again, then flattening him with a shoulderblock dive off the top. He goes up again and takes a mean flipping bump to the apron and the floor after Fuji knocks him off, and from there it's just Yokozuna crushing American fans' dreams. He bodyslams Crush on the floor, hits a huge belly to belly back in the ring, drops the leg, then hits two banzai drops. After the bell he hits two more, Joey Maggs is running out to try to save Crush, it's total madness. All through the rest of Raw they talk about how long Crush might be on the shelf after Yokozuna made an example of him. This was a really fantastic segment to lead off an episode of Raw, total big man gem.
Labels: 305 Live, Crush, Hulk Hogan, Moondog Rex, WWF Raw, Yokozuna
7 Comments:
What's the verdict on that #1 Lex Luger WWF match?
I think he did some stuff with Tatanka that I liked but I wouldn't be surprised if something better was hidden away somewhere.
Luger has a KOTR qualifier with Backlund on an episode of Challenge in May of 93 I like quite a bit.
Luger vs Yoko at SummerSlam was pretty great.
Crush/Yoko ... sad. Very, very sad.
My vote for best heel Luger WWF match is against Bret for Coliseum Video. It's on the Bret Hitman Hart: His Greatest Matches on the Network's home video section.
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There was also a great Luger match against Diesel on Raw, I believe, although it could have been Coliseum Video.
I have a bunch of Luger match reviews waiting in drafts, excited to eventually start positing them so we can officially determine his best WWF match. What the project is mainly going to show is just how cruelly short his heel run was, as heel Luger was far more interesting to me.
The Bret match on Bret's Coliseum video is an early contender, though there's a fancam from that same week that I think might be their better match. There's another match that I think might be my #1, but its contenders are the Bret matches.
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