Found Footage Friday: 1989 Copps Coliseum WWF Show

1/16/89 WWF Copps Coliseum Toronto

MD: This is another Richard Land find and you should be checking out his stuff at (@maskedwrestlers) since he provides about 1/3 of the new footage coming out today.

Red Rooster vs. Danny Davis

MD: This made me feel like I have to check out a lot more Danny Davis, honestly. He got on the mic at the start and said Heenan was paying him for this but he would have done it for free. Then he shoved Taylor and ran around the ring from him, got chased in, did some rope running, stopped, taunted, and walked right into a punch before taking a powder, all before his ring jacket was off. Great stuff to begin. Then came the real stalling as he just pressed himself in the corner and covered his head. When Taylor finally did get him he begged off until he could turn an arm wringer into a clothesline and then he looked pretty solid in control. There was just a spring to his step. He had some nice stuff (a weirdly balanced shot off the second ropes, a throat cross chop when Taylor started to come back) and then begged off again towards the finish where Taylor got him with the Scorpion Deathlock. I enjoyed this one.

ER: Imagine what a crushing day it was when Terry Taylor was told he had to get the top of his hair dyed bright red. I can't imagine, but it's a conversation about your career as a top pro being over and done with. Look at him here, with his blond locks and no red, a man existing as a man and not as a rooster. But I am much more of a Heel Terry Taylor man. Let me see that evil Mark Harmon unleashed, like you find out the guy running your goof around summer school is actually a real hard ass who will probably assault more than one of the students. No, this match is owned by Heel Danny Davis, and I agree with Matt that more Danny research must be conducted. Fans hate this man on sight, even before he gets on the mic to say, "Bobby The Brain Heenan paid me a lot of money to come to this god forsaken place! But brother, he didn't pay me a dime because it's gonna be myyy pleasure." Then he one-handed shoves Taylor.  

Davis has great movement and plays to the crowd expertly, the kind of guy who you'd want to keep as a heel house show undercarder. How he punches Taylor over the referee, that stiff quick short arm clothesline to break an arm wringer, those great running short kicks to a downed Taylor's jaw, his very good short right hands aimed straight at the chin - including a fist shake out after one, thus cementing Davis's status as a Great Puncher - all of it is stuff that Danny Davis performs far better than we've ever given him credit. If you were doubting his Great Puncher status, he also throws nice corner 10 count punches and dropped a hammering fistdrop from the middle buckle, and if that's not the trifecta then man I don't even know what we're doing here. The thing is, even better than his corner 10 counts? His shoulder shrugs in the corner. You remember how Batista always had real awful shoulder shrugs, coming in way too light and making it obvious just how much he was holding back? Soothe yourself by Danny Davis going hard into Taylor's stomach and ask yourself why we don't demand better. Demand Danny Davis. 

Curt Hennig vs. Rick Martel

MD: This was a draw that did air but was clipped in half or so. I can't speak to that version. I will say that the good stuff here was very good. The feeling out process where Hennig won the first few exchanges only for Martel to turn it around and toss him around with all the babyface fire anyone might want was just as good as you'd expect. Martel's one of the only guys I've ever seen that was so into the flow of what he was doing that he'd do flat back dropdowns to set up an armdrag. After that rope running they went into extended controlling of the arm by Martel and they kept it interesting enough, with lots of escape attempts by Perfect, before building to an elaborate bit where it looked like Perfect might get him three times before finally dropping him with a belly to back.

Perfect's control started out engaging (especially as he was still selling the arm) but they went into a long front face lock. Obviously, these are two guys that could work that, and Martel was going to work from underneath well, but it was also clearly eating up a bunch of time in a twenty minute draw. The payoff was good though as again Perfect was going to rush right in to all of Martel's fire. Once he cleared the ring of him that was the time limit so it didn't really even build to the sort of nearfalls you often get with a draw. It more felt like they were just calling it a day (even if Martel tried to invite Hennig back in).

ER: This did not need to be a time limit draw, and it didn't need the moments you knew they were working towards a time limit draw, but I also thought Hennig was fantastic throughout all of it. Look at black trunks Perfect in '89. It's easy to talk about Hennig the bumper but it's really all about Hennig the ball of energy. It's going into every exchange with real aggression, real purpose. You see how hard both men are leaning into a collar and elbow and you see how Hennig throws everything - armdrag, hop toss, fireman's carry - with real purpose. His punches look like he's really trying to mess up Martel's pretty face. This era Hennig was going to come in hard and then feed even harder, making his opponents' bodyslams and hiptosses look more violent than his own. Before things settle down into arm work and front face locks, he takes a great bump off a light dropkick, flying out through the ropes and off and over the ringside table, then faceplanting all around the ring while Canadians lose their minds. 

I love how hard he pushes all the rope running that leads to him eating shit. He pushes Martel fast, like he's trying to get him to mess up a sequence, but it always ends with him on the mat kicking his legs in a hold. He does two different missed charges into the turnbuckles that lead to long series of him eating bigger bowls of shit. The arm work is long but Perfect makes it look so convincing that I heard two different people - women! - yelling for Martel to break his arm. He's good at timing how long to keep the crowd engaged while kicking in a hold, and knows when to start breaking out match ending fireworks. Curt Hennig is perhaps our finest wrestler ever at bumping like a heel who has his shoelaces tied together. A lot of the Minnesota guys were great at that. Was it common practice to work 2 a day drills while pantsed or something? Hennig gets kicked around hard before fleeing at the sound of the bell, and every fall is that of a man escaping a ransomed kidnapping. We act like it's a foregone conclusion that this was "just another match clearly worked as a time limit draw" but this was the first time limit draw that Hennig worked during the Perfect era. This wasn't just a thing he and Martel were doing around the horn, this was a Copps exclusive where some tag specialist took Perfection to the limit. 

Rockers vs. Brainbusters

MD: This had Billy Red Lyons interview the Busters (no Heenan) before the start. Nothing notable but nice to see. The match itself started great with Michaels looking like a huge star outclassing Arn (Arn feeding for it perfectly) and then escaping to slap the hands of the fans like he had escaped with the crown jewels. Then, he, being Michaels, doubled down on it and no sold all of Tully's stuff (Tully still bumped huge for him), and it wasn't until Jannetty came in that they even started the false transitions. Just another case where this would have been better if Michaels took that first win, gave Tully a tiny bit, and then overcame. Ah well. Jannetty looked great as he overcame (including fighting out of the corner and hitting a backflip to reverse a double top wristlock.).

Really a never ending heel in peril (though one full of entertaining individual bits) until Michaels ducked a Tully clothesline on the outside only to run into an Arn one. Thankfully the Busters were great at making the most of their time on top. Michaels knew how to be a star already and was constantly trying to fight back. I think a babyface should be doing that but maybe he didn't quite have the proper escalation in it. Arn crotched himself on Michaels' knees to set up the hot tag and things got chaotic but the Busters fairly quickly snuck one out. The great stuff was absolutely great but in part due to Michaels' tendencies and Arn and Tully being happy to just go along with them, this didn't come together like it could have.

ER: This really did feel like a 15 minute match where Tully bumped and stooged and made narrow misses for 13 of those minutes, and I did not mind that layout one bit. I was wildly entertained watching the Rockers punch through Tully for a long tag, as Tully is wildly entertaining at getting run over by punches. He cannot just walk a straight line to a destination and it's perfect. When he's punched, it's a turning drop to the knee before getting punched in another direction; when he misses, it's a quick turn back to his target to take his medicine. He finds several safe and less safe ways to fall to the floor and continue his constant motion and I loved them all. I loved the theatrical slow mo Sgt. Slaughter bump to the floor and the ways he would fall off the apron into a back bump. He treats every punch from each Rocker as something worth bumping for, and it makes his eventual tag out moment even greater when he turned a near tag out into an inverted atomic drop. The Brainbusters really didn't have a lot of offense here - that Arn clothesline on the floor that the camera missed, Tully's atomic drop to set up his tag, and Arn's spinebuster after ducking a clothesline - but the Rockers didn't really have any offense either. Even when Michaels goes up top after they hit tandem superkicks, he only comes flying off with a punch. And I'll take it. The finish is fantastic, even if uncommon. Marty goes for his first flying headscissors but it's too close to the ropes, and Tully pulls his head down from the apron and slam dunks his head over the top rope.     

Iron Mike Sharpe vs. Paul Roma

MD: I'm honestly a little astounding how good this was. (Eric will not be, but he is a Mike Sharpe truther). It was 80% shtick and 20% Roma hitting dropkicks, but the shtick was really good and Sharpe was incredibly entertaining. He's one of the most vocal wrestlers ever and there were times where I could shut my eyes and still know exactly what was going on just from hearing him stammer. Mainly when he was begging off but not always. And he did a lot of begging off. A lot of stalling. They got tons of mileage out of a handshake bit at the beginning, out of him threatening to leave, out of Roma catching his foot on a kick attempt. Just one bit after the next after the next with Sharpe throwing himself into it completely and Roma being a perfectly fine straight man. It's the sort of match the sheets would have grumbled about in 89 but that plays a lot better in 2025 when there's nothing like it in the world anymore. You can see the value so clearly now. Honestly just a great show for stooging up til this point, and from guys that don't get the credit for it like Davis and Sharpe.

ER: We get an honest to god Iron Mike Sharpe ring entrance and the fact that he is in his hometown of Hamilton, Ontario and announced as such does not give him a single second of goodwill from his town. These are his people, and the people of Ontario fucking hate the mirror that he is holding up for them. The women scream for Roma as he removes his jacket, but when the match is over I will challenge those same women to tell me anything Paul Roma did during the match. They won't be able to, because this is Iron Mike Sharpe's town, and Iron Mike Sharpe's match. To use an already dated out of existence joke format: Mike Sharpe is the Tully Blanchard of Barry Darsows. He has the size and sound and lack of offense of Darsow, but watching him directly after a Tully match you really see what a large adult son Tully Blanchard he is. He is not as hateable on sight as Tully (few men ever have been) but how much of an instant turn off does one have to be within pro wrestling to be booed on sight in his own hometown? 

I love how quickly Sharpe takes armdrags and how it's the only bump he really takes differently than his standard arm waving back bump that he uses for everything else. His swinging arm into Roma's stomach looked excellent and the man gets tied up in the ropes more efficiently than any wrestler other than Andre. But where Andre was always a temporarily inconvenienced giant, Sharpe has a way of making it feel like he just might be stuck in those tangled ropes for the rest of the evening. The finish is outstanding and probably something that no wrestler other than Sharpe would even want to do: Sharpe loads up his cast and swings it at Roma, but Roma catches it and throws Sharpe's loaded arm back into his head. It's so stupid and so hapless that it can only be a Mike Sharpe finish. We didn't know how good we had it, and as Matt points out, it's because nobody comes close to being a Mike Sharpe any more. We didn't recognize how essential different workers were to a roster. 

Greg Valentine vs. Ron Garvin

MD: Another awesome match in their feud. What can you even say about this really? They lay into each other in the corner. Garvin's great at firing back out of it just when you think Valentine has him. Valentine's great at stumbling about and getting a sneaky advantage right until he doesn't. There were some really brilliant specific moments which shows you they weren't just hitting each other blindly. At one point, Valentine's about to do the flop and Garvin catches him so he can hit him one more time first. Valentine takes over with a shinbreaker but when he goes to the second, Garvin nails him before he collapses so they both go down. Finish had Garvin wanting to use the shinguard as a weapon and getting distracted by the ref so he got rolled up but post match he hit a punch version of the Garvin Stomp to a prone Valentine and nailed him with the shinguard anyway. The world would have been better off if we had whole promotions based around this style instead of whatever else we got in the 90s and after.

ER: It would be a good idea if we just kept getting new Garvin/Valentine matches every couple weeks. Every single one we have has been a real gift, and while there are a lot of similarities among them there are always new ideas and ways that certain sequences can be extended. This was, I think, the shortest one we have, and I think going less than 10 actually made their strikes play harder. The first two minutes is just them shoving each other in the chest with both hands and I would have been happy if we never even got to the punches. I could have watched them shove each other and burn out their arms for eight minutes, just to see who would be the first to fall. 

But I do like the strikes. 

Valentine always takes more punches than he gives in the Garvin battles, but I think this one takes the cake. He just gets battered. There is often a corner punch out stretch of their match, and Valentine's selling made this stand out from the rest. Garvin kept punching and chopping him and Valentine kept getting knocked to his ass, hitting the bottom buckle and getting pulled back to his feet only to be punched and chopped some more. When he finally can no longer stand and begins pitching forward into a Flop, Garvin actually holds him up with both hands on his chest. Garvin looks like a support beam propping up a leaning building in the Philippines, and it's all so he can just punch him in the head one more time.  

When Valentine does flop, there is no rest to be had. Garvin starts raking his back and Valentine sells multiple back rakes so well that it made me think of how Tenryu might've sold a back rake if that had been something that any wrestler in WAR ever did (they did not). But it's all back rakes that Valentine sells incredibly, punches to the nose (that Valentine sells incredibly), a fantastic headbutt, and one of those sleepers that starts like a violent clothesline. Garvin is a monster and I don't think there was anyone else on the roster who would have put up with this. Garvin has his own great run of selling when Hammer turns a side headlock into a knee breaker, then does it again. Garvin is limping around on one leg, and after he takes the second knee breaker he landed one big punch that knocked Hammer to his back while it spiraled him into the mat. 

I think calling Garvin's punches after the bell a punch version of the Garvin Stomp kind of undersells how nasty those punches were. Garvin just got into mount and threw disgusting punches while Valentine was on his back. He threw eight of them, and Valentine couldn't really move to absorb them, so Garvin just stood over him raining down shots that built into even more disgusting hammerfists, both fists held together like an ape attacking his handler. Hammer can barely move and has to take a rapid succession of wicked punches and man....is this the best of the Garvin/Valentine matches? I think this one packs in the most action, and it felt like they went even more violent with the shorter runtime. 

Randy Savage vs. Bad News Brown 

MD: This has been out there before but I'm not sure I've ever seen it. It's a street fight. Bad News is out with a Mets shirt. Savage is out with a white shirt with a Gold's Gym tank top over it and grey Zubaz type pants and pink elbow pads so it's a look. Liz looks like Liz. That feels like a missed opportunity. It's basically ten years before its time. You give it a couple more minutes and some more goofiness around the finish and it could have been a 1998 Austin No DQ main event. Brown started with a chair but then missed a punch on the post outside. Savage used the timekeeper's table and kept on him. Then he took the weight belt off and used that. Brown came back with a chair. They set up a table and but the ref got crunched in between it and Brown. That's when we got the Ghetto Blaster and the visual pin, then a hilarious second one as Brown got the ref up and slammed Savage but the ref did a face first bump as he passed out again. When he came to Savage rolled up Bad News for a quick pin and that was that. Post match they went at it with Brown getting an early advantage and Savage fighting back as the locker room cleared. Pretty bizarre to watch overall, but it worked well for what they were doing especially if they went back to it.

ER: This was on the very first DVDVR 80s set, the one that was assembled and arranged differently than all the other eventual sets because this was the very first time we were doing this and nobody had any idea how large this project would grow with subsequent sets. "Controversial" is not the correct word for it but I remember some people wondering why this match was included at the time. There were a lot of imperfections and missing matches on that first set, and I still can't believe that was 20 years ago now. 2005? Impossible. It was not well received by the people who participated in that first ballot. It finished in the bottom 10 out of 100 matches, and it almost surely wouldn't have been included were the set put together with the same method that all subsequent sets were assembled. From the very next set (Other Japan Men's) we were watching every single match from the territory/fed and picking among the very best. There were plenty of matches that should have been included in a WWF 80s set, and we sadly never got to re-do that one. I can't find my initial ballot either, so I have no idea how high/low I ranked it 20 years ago, when I was a 24 year old man, but now I think it's pretty safe to call this pick ahead of its time.  like a pretty ahead of its time fiat pick (that I believe was made by David Bixenspan, credit due).

Maybe it belongs just for the gear. Nobody shows up for a fight like this and they're idiots for that. I loved Bad News in his 50-50 poly-cotton Mets tee and Savage just went over the top with gear. The Golds tank top and Zubaz would have been enough but the tight undershirt and pink elbow pads that looked like knee pads he was wearing on his elbows make it insane. It's possible Big thought it belonged on the set because it was a unique match for 1989 WWF. Savage was the World Heavyweight Champ and it's not like he and Bad News were working Harlem Street Fights around the horn. This was the first (and only one that exists on tape) and they worked just eight total over the next couple months. It's short, it's a tough fight, Savage takes some tough spills - including getting thrown hard over the railing to the concrete, a girl in her neon green sweatshirt helping push him back over the guardrail so he can go after Bad News. Bad News punching the ringpost felt like a novel spot in 1989, and him setting up a table in the corner and running a ref straight through it feels even more novel. That ref got crunched man. The bullshit finish is incredible, with Bad News getting a real long visual pin over the champ, then reviving the referee just for the man to collapse again just as Bad News re-secured the pin. Maybe people disliked it 20 years ago because it was too short? It's less than 8 minutes long, which feels more like a snack than a World Heavyweight Title match, but I'm glad I watched it again now that I'm sliding down the other side of the mountain. 

Jim Duggan/Hercules vs. Ted Dibiase/Virgil

MD: This was already out there as well so I'll keep it quick. Herc and Duggan team up very well. Two versions of the same sort of visual idea with big shots and driving motion. Duggan constantly moving forward especially on his hope spot punches is something I didn't appreciate enough for a lot of my life. Honestly, Dibiase is fine here, feeding and stooging, but he doesn't give himself over to it in the same way a lot of the people earlier in the card. Everything is technically sound but it almost feels more like him putting himself in the right place at the right time in a more modern way as opposed to that sense of total abandon that we got from Davis or Sharpe or (in different ways) the Brainbusters (or in a different way) or Valentine (in a different way). Virgil is interesting here as he never really does much, mainly just plays interference and holds someone for Dibiase. It's actually a clever use for him. This was ok, and fit well on the card. I just don't think Dibiase stood up well to his predecessor heels.

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Found Footage Friday: WWF IN MLG~! IRON MIKE~! HARTS~! ROUGEAUS~! CHARLAND~! WARRIORS~! BAD NEWS~! SAVAGE~!

WWF House Show Maple Leaf Gardens 10/9/88 

1. Richard Charland vs. Scott Casey 

ER: Something about WWF Network on Peacock doing a big upload of several unseen Maple Leaf Gardens shows, and giving people a long-awaited glimpse at gassed up Scott Casey and Richard Charland, a man I once wrote about after seeing Rob Naylor call him the most nondescript wrestler ever. Charland is not the most nondescript wrestler ever, of course. That honor belongs to Ted Dibiase Jr., of course. Casey is GASSED and Charland  has almost the same torso, looking bigger. Not as defined, but bigger. I didn't plan on writing this much about Richard and Scott's bodies. Casey simultaneously works this as both a strong man and a fast undersized opponent. He knocks Charland onto his ass with a shoulderblock, but then works fast armdrags, but then gets out-knuckle locked. Charland draws actual heat by complaining about how much his hand hurt after Casey reversed that knuckle lock. Charland actually walked over to the ropes and showed off a small bruise on his hand, and I think I might really like Richard Charland as a worker. 

The Sean Mooney/Gorilla Monsoon commentary team is realll comfortable listening here. Gorilla is telling amazing stories about working in Canada and starts talking about a wrestling bear. There's a Yukon Eric story with a great punchline, and I fell out of my chair when Mooney asked him how he did against the bear and Gorilla matter of factly replied "Nobody beats the bear, Sean." Charland is great at working a side headlock and not letting for when Casey tries to push him off, occasionally unlocking it to quickly felt at the ref and crowd. When he does get knocked off he makes to leave the building, then walks back to the ring and gets brought in the hard with, landing right on his face. Segunda Caida is about to be adding Richard Charland to our "We're the Dumb Guys Who Like" display case. Tell me we have his singles matches against Haruka Eigen and Joe Malenko. Charland even takes a big bump over the top to the floor, then stalls around before coming in to slam Casey's knee and face into the mat a bunch. Scott Casey doesn't have great punches to comeback (his headlock punches looked good) and the bulldog finish is ugly, but it's the kind of ugly where it looked like a guy dragged a man down by the neck in a suddenly touch football game. Shocked by how much I liked this. 

2. Iron Mike Sharpe vs. B. Brian Blair

ER: Canada's Self-Proclaimed Greatest Athlete almost politely chastises the "small pockets" of fans who booed him, before going out to find a sign proclaiming him Canada's #1 Greatest Athlete and cutting off the ring announcer to show everyone the sign. Sharpe is incredible, running from turnbuckle to turnbuckle to show off the sign like Stone Cold cracking beers, even doing a dead sprint toward the turnbuckle the ring announcer and ref were standing in front of, sending them scattering. By the end of the whole routine the crowd is laughing and cheering for Sharpe, building to a real Iron Mike chant. It's 5 actual minutes of crowd work before Sharpe's opponent is even through the curtain. When his actual routine is finished, it takes forever for Blair to come out, long enough that the crowd gets restless. Sharpe wins them back immediately by doing jumping jacks and push-ups to stay fresh, then yells on the mic about what lousy treatment they were giving him. 

Sharpe taking over after two minutes with one big headlock punch, then another, and he hilariously uses the ref John Bonello as a human shield when Blair gets too fired up. Just two years later, Bonello would attempt to pay $5,000 to an undercover cop to use his wife as a human shield, but the crowd didn't know that Sharpe was actually in the right in 1988. Sharpe is good in control and great at stumbling around like a big goof for every in-road Blair makes. He gets caught in the ropes like Andre (though it doesn't really lead to anything) and staggers around after getting back racked, then comes up blinded and swinging at ref Bonello after getting his eyes raked across the top rope. Blair's finishing run is okay enough, but he's more interesting when he doesn't work like Brad Armstrong. Also, considering how BIG Sharpe sells every move ever done to him, it's almost startling how subtly he sells an atomic drop. If you were shown how he sells an armdrag, and then told the next move is him getting dropped ass first on someone's knee, you'd expect him to shoot up in the air like Yosemite Sam falling into the fire pit. Still, essential viewing for Iron Mike Heads (read: anyone with taste). 

3. Blue Blazer vs. Steve Lombardi 

MD: Watching this felt like watching an episode of AEW Dark with Excalibur and Taz. Obviously, it's kind of the other way around, but still. Monsoon went on about how he found a mask backstage once and hated wearing it, suggested that Mooney get in the ring with him to better call the action, positively expressed how much Lombardi learned from Terry Garvin and Pat Patterson, and compared Blue Blazer to Killer Kowalski because of their constant motion. The match itself was ok. My most recent Blue Blazer comparison point was his tryout match which was just a lot of noise. This was worked pretty much as you'd expect but they worked in some fun spots, like Blazer getting caught backwards in the ropes on the way back in to get clubbered. It was more or less exactly what you'd think, but unlike the tryout match, had some build and payoff and Blazer worked the crowd well both in his shine and from underneath.

ER: This was the weakest match of the show so far. Lombardi works like a more boring version of Charland and Sharpe, Owen works like B. Brian Blair without any kind of personality or fire. Lombardi really looked like a swarthy foreign heel during this era. He looks like Tiger Jeet Singh. Meanwhile, Gorilla is calling out Jesse Ventura for stealing every mannerism and article of clothing directly from Superstar Billy Graham. Mooney tries to laugh it off and Gorilla says, seriously, "I was there, Sean." This is a literal GREAT commentary duo. Owen has some individual things that look nice, but he's so dry about connecting anything, just has no flow at all. His leaping kneedrop looks good but he never strings anything together, and he goes to chinlocks more often than any babyface ever should (hint: no babyface should do a chinlock). The best thing Owen does in the match is a great version of the Bret chest first turnbuckle bump. He hit the buckles really hard, and I love how Gorilla explained that Lombardi whipped him into the corner so hard that Blazer didn't realize how close to the buckle he was, having no time to go in back first. He also takes a nice bump halfway across the ring when Lombardi holds onto the top rope to block a monkey flip. Blazer's belly to belly to set up the finish looked great, but then he won the match with an ugly ass Superfly Splash. It never makes me feel good to be a low voter on Owen. 

4. Bad News Brown vs. Koko B. Ware

MD: I've been spending a lot of time with 1986 Brown wrestling the UWF guys and Inoki in NJPW, primarily as Steve Williams' second fiddle and the guy directing traffic, so this was a little jarring. It's one of the better WWF Brown matches I've seen, very back and forth but with transitions that were believable and made sense. Both Brown and Ware are guys who really knew how to milk something, how to create a big visual, how to get the most out of the anticipation. Early on, that would be Brown letting Ware get one up on him but with only one move at a time, and they built to where Koko was able to string 2-3 together. That's not much different than having a superheavyweight who needs 3-4 shots to get knocked down instead of one, just more complex and created a similar effect. As the match went on, Koko would really play to the crowd before hitting a shot to the breadbasket or tossing Brown off the top, and Brown would take a big pause after bumping himself ridiculously after an errant headbutt. For a guy with such a tough guy rep who might be difficult to work, Brown wasn't afraid to look like a fool. He knew exactly how far to go and exactly what he needed to do to get his heat back. I found that true of his NJPW stuff as well, that he understood his role and his place, knew when to put his foot on the gas and when to let off.

5. Randy Savage vs. Dino Bravo

MD: If this was the only 1980s blonde-haired WWF Dino Bravo match you saw, you'd come off thinking that he was probably a pretty good hand for the run and it might be interesting to see him against Tito or Duggan or whomever else. He was in Canada, in the main event, up against Savage, going for the title. That meant that he put a little extra oomph into everything he did and threw his head back a bit more on each shot. He fed with some extra effort and seemed more engaged while in the holds. He hit both the pile driver and the side slam and didn't spend forever in a chinlock or bear hug. This was part of a two match series where Bravo won here with a count out and Savage would win later in the month. Savage kissed the belt as he handed it off before the match, but the finish was all about Savage going after Frenchy Martin (who had interfered once or twice) and Bravo coming out and shoving Liz. Savage tended to her, going so far as to carry her to the back, and Bravo, gloating, took the count out win. Post-match he held up the title belt while Savage focused on Liz, a nice bit of character considering Savage kissed the belt and basically ignored Liz at the start of the match. It was only a mid-level Savage title defense and the crowd didn't seem particularly up for Bravo until the end when he was holding up the belt (a terrifying image, really), but it was a top-tier WWF Bravo performance, for whatever that's worth.

6. Hart Foundation vs. Fabulous Rougeaus

MD: The Rougeaus had a corny but kind of hilarious promo with Jimmy Hart earlier in the night about deflecting to America. Then, before this one could start, Brother Love was introduced as the special referee and had a long monologue. The idea was that it'd go on so long that the tension and pressure and heat would build so that when Neidhart grabbed the mic and went nuts, the fans would erupt, but I don't think it entirely worked. The match was the dirty ref special. Slow counts. Fast counts. Most importantly, he completely ignored the double teaming, so it was almost all heat on Neidhart and the Rougeaus were great in making the most of it. The hot tag was tremendous with Jacques cutting of a Neidhart comeback and it looking like the heat would continue, him gloating in front of Bret, and then Neidhart sort of spasming the rest of the way there in a sudden motion and Jacques stooging to high heaven with his reaction. Beautiful stuff. They eventually tossed Love and a second ref came in to count the three after the Hart Attack. A pretty unique match for the WWF at the time, and it stood out more because of it. The Rougeaus were meant for this sort of thing.

ER: I thought Brother Love's time killing was more engaging than the Rougeaus, and somehow more confident, and this might be the earliest I've seen WWF do a full heel ref slow count match. I'm sure there's a famous one I'm forgetting, but heel refs weren't something they were doing until the Attitude era a decade later. I love how every single match to this point had at least one Canadian in it, but Bret and Owen were the only two Canadian babyfaces out of all of them. Well, Iron Mike Sharpe was a heel that got a ton of laughs, and the laughs are what's going to be remembered on the drive home so I guess he should count. I'm with Matt that this is the exact kind of match the Rougeaus excel at, their perfect role. Jacques and Bret are a great match, that's no secret. This has little things you don't see a lot, like the way Bret dropped the Hitman elbow onto the back of Jacques' neck on a dropdown, to Anvil playing the face in peril to Bret's hot tag. Brother Love cheats so much for the Rougeaus that Gorilla says that Helen Keller would be doing a better job. And, sure, to be fair, Helen Keller was a bad referee based on all available footage, but it felt like an unnecessary cheapshot to bring up her early territory work. There's a reason she got out of wrestling and into public speaking and activism, we don't need to throw dirt on her grave. Bret's hot tag inverted atomic drops really crushed some balls, and when Hart Foundation threw Brother Love out of the ring, Love looked like he was really resisting being thrown. It didn't really help him, he flew really fast through the middle rope to the floor holding the middle rope. Great bump. 

7. Haku vs. Hillbilly Jim

MD: This was taped for international Wrestling Challenge but it has one of the absolute best Monsoon-isms I've ever heard. "Hillbilly’s biggest problem in this match is making mistakes... That’s Hillbilly’s big fault. That’s been his big fault in his career: Making mistakes.” I wish there were more places in my daily life I could use that. The match itself was okay. Between this and the Hogan match that we saw previous, it's striking just how credible Haku's offense was. He had graduated from being King Tonga and out of a tag team and was put over with the win over Race as he was on the way out for surgery but between how tough he really was and how dangerous he presented himself in the ring, it's a shame they couldn't have found a way to push him even higher. He could have held down a role like that if presented in that manner.

ER: This wasn't great, but man was Gorilla tearing into Hillbilly Jim hilarious. I agree Gorilla, the ones who make mistakes are the ones who don't succeed. He even talks about how Hillbilly Jim isn't smart and never goes into a match with an actual strategy or plan. Sure, Haku may be the one in the match with a crown, but to Gorilla, Hillbilly Jim was a royal fuck up. Jim overpowered Haku on a long knucklelock, Haku threw a dropkick right under Jim's chin. Haku outpunched him but I did like Hillbilly's comeback right hands after Haku was ripping at his face. Haku is really good at being run head first into turnbuckles, Jim missed a high elbowdrop, Gorilla commentary far and away the highlight (and has been entertaining in literally every match). 

  

8. Honky Tonk Man vs. Ultimate Warrior

MD: A rematch for the IC title. It went a few minutes before Honky Tonk Man used the guitar and got DQ'd. Warrior caught it as he kept swinging it at him and smashed it. I think they had some longer matches with more heat and a build up to HTM getting his comeuppance but this wasn't one of those. Warrior was over and the fans were pretty happy anyway though.

ER: I liked this a lot more than Matt and thought it was a great use of, and great showing for, Warrior. It was a 4 minute sprint with no down time, and everything that was supposed to look violent did. I thought Warrior's right hands looked good (better than Honky Tonk Man's all match), and press slamming Honky back through the ropes into the ring came off a lot better than that spot usually looks. Warrior went hard into the buckles on a missed avalanche to give Honky a stretch of control, and I liked Honky working over Warrior's ribs with a megaphone shot and boots. Warrior's big comeback had a couple of great spots, including one of his best flying shoulderblocks, torpedoing right into Honky. The DQ finish was gnarly. Honky Tonk's guitars looked heavy and he blasted Warrior right in the stomach with a full shot. Warrior's chest was fully open, leaning in the ropes, and that shot had to HURT. I get why Honky Tonk got the hell out of the ring right after. 

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WWF 24/7 THOUGHTS - MEADOWLANDS 9/11/88

This was a shockingly good show with only Hogan v. Brown out right sucking, and a lot of stuff being actively good.

Jumping Jim Brunzell v. Mr. Perfect Curt Henning

PAS: This is really early in Henning's run, so he is working a competitive opening match with Jim Brunzell. Were these guys in the AWA in the same time? I ask because they work really well together, with Brunzell doing some nice simple leg work, and Henning getting in all of his crazy oversell bumps. This was early in Henning’s run so Brunzell takes 70% of the match, and Henning wins with a flash powerslam. Henning had really great punches, which is something I don't remember at all, he has a hook and an uppercut as well as a straight right and they all look great. He was just off a run working Lawler in the AWA and for at least a little while he had picked something up.

Don "The Rock" Muraco v. Greg "The Hammer" Valentine

PAS: This takes a while to get going, but it ends up being pretty fun. Muraco is avenging the crippling of Superstar Billy Graham (which means he really should be working Zahorian) who is doing color at ringside. It starts pretty slow for a blood feud, and Muraco doesn't really do a ton here. Valentine is awesome though, everything he does looks really nasty and tight, almost like Finlay without the bumps. Forearm shivers, elbows to the throat, clubs to the back of the neck. He just beats you down, there was a little too much mishigos with the shin guard, and after the WWF 80's set I never wanted to see another 20 minute draw, but I am getting really excited for Greg Valentine month in September.

Junkyard Dog v. Hercules

PAS: This wasn't as awful as it looks on paper. It was basically worked as a slugfest, with two big guys pounding on each other. Problem was that neither guy hit particular hard, especially after watching Valentine pound on someone. If they had laid it in a little more this actually would have been good.

Hulk Hogan v. Bad News Brown

PAS: During the 80's set I watched a ton of Hogan, some of it was good (Backlund, Bossman) some mediocre (Volkoff, MSG Savage) and some of it stunk (Wrestlemania Savage, Muraco). This was pretty stinky, neither guy could really bump at all and all of their offense looked like shit. Plus Hogan was carrying around that ridiculous helmet, which led to the cheap finish. Outside of his Timothy Flowers cage match I have been pretty disappointed with all the Bad News I have seen in the last couple of years. I need to get his hard head feud with Fujiwara or something, as my youthful illusions are being crushed.

Barry Horowitz v. Blue Blazer

PAS: These guys had a really fun match on the 80’s set, this wasn’t as good as that, but still was really fun. Horowitz looked really great here as he has a ton of fun offense, I especially liked his superkick. Watching this match, you get the sense Horowitz would have been a really great New Japan junior gaijin in the early 90’s as this was a really NJ Juniors style match. Blazers superfly splash finish looked kind of crappy, but otherwise this was solid.

Ted DiBiase v. Hacksaw Jim Duggan

PAS: Man alive was this a blast. I thought this could go both ways, these guys have worked each other a ton, but both kind of dogged it in the WWF. This could have easily been a main event a big Mid-South Superdome show. This was worked like a sprint Watts main event. Lots of great punch exchanges by both guys and they were both bumping around the ring. Great timing on everything. Really just paced at a million miles an hour. I can’t wait to see their matches up on the Watts 80’s set.

Hart Foundation v. Rougeau Brothers

PAS: I liked this a lot too, I actually think the Harts work better as faces then heels. Bret is a pretty decent face in peril and Neidhart is a really fun hot tag. The opening had the Harts just destroy the Rougeau’s, it was a fun one sided beating with Raymond starting a stillborn “Let’s go Jaques” chant. You had the Rougeau’s take over, and they have a bunch of fun heel stuff. Bret breaks out his great piledriver which he never wins with.

Jake Roberts v. Rick Rude

PAS: This is during the Cheryl Roberts feud and she is at ringside. She really doesn’t have the meth teeth one might imagine a Jake Roberts wife would have. This was good, Roberts isn’t as good as a face as he is as a heel, but Rude is amazing. He smashes away on Jake’s shoulder, including two great top rope fistdrops on the shoulder. He also does his awesome eat of a backdrop on his tailbone. Out of all the dead folks on this show, I have no idea how Roberts is still breathing, I bet no one would have bet on that horse.

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