Found Footage Friday: VALENTINE VS. MURACO~! ARMSTRONGS VS. STUD STABLE TEXAS DEATH MATCH~! COWBOY LANG IN SUN CITY~!

Greg Valentine vs. Don Muraco WWF 7/24/88

MD: This was in the Toronto Network dump from last year, and it's a bit of a miracle match. There wasn't a lot else new on the show so we're just getting to it now though. This was a grudge match between face Muraco and Valentine after Valentine took out Billy Graham's leg. It was Muraco's last WWF feud. He was jacked to the gills here (which was probably necessary considering how drenched he was before he even did anything). Valentine had the brace already. The crowd had Bulldogs/Warrior vs. Demolition/Fuji and Savage vs. Dibiase to come, but so far had sat through Terry Taylor vs. Scott Casey, Powers of Pain vs. Bolsheviks (a uniquely terrible pairing) and Haku vs. SD Jones, and they were absolutely up for a match with some heat and guys they considered to be stars. They were buzzing the whole way through.

Muraco gave them something to buzz about, too, believe it or not. He charged forth before the bell and spent the first many minutes of the match absolutely dismantling Valentine's arm. The best parts here were when he smashed it into the announcer's table (giving us a great look at the little TVs Monsoon and Mooney were using to follow along with the action) and when, after doing a stepover dislocation, Valentine decided to take a flop bump for absolutely no reason, one of three or four in the match. Muraco messed up on a corner charge and Valentine hit a series of desperation elbow drops and went straight to the leg. While he made sure to use his good arm primarily, you'd still like to see some lingering grimacing as he was transitioning. It wasn't a dealbreaker though. Valentine eventually flipped the brace and went for the figure four but Muraco blocked it three different ways. He was doing a better job favoring the leg in his hope spots: falling on a slam, having to really pull the tights to only half get a pile driver. This all lead to a big hulking up (the Jerry Blackwell stoic style) which the crowd absolutely went up for, but they timed a ref bump in the set up for the tombstone and one brace shot later, it was all over. Some of Muraco's stuff looked a bit airy but he brought a huge intensity in the beginning and the end and Valentine covered the rest. Great last gasp for a guy who hadn't had much of a deep breath for years. 

ER: This was a late July summer show and you know NYC was hot as hell because this was one of the wettest shows you've seen. Every boy on this show was as wet as you've ever seen them, and Muraco and Valentine were downright soaked with meaty summer sweat. Click on any minute of this file and you will see some gassed dudes burning through electrolytes. You haven't seen wetness like this before. This is just two big wet boys hammering on each others' limbs right after the crowd had watched SD Jones take a back bump after getting kicked in the back of the head. This is totally different, as Don Muraco breaks out some of the coolest arm work of his career while Valentine does a bunch of fun stunned selling, like he was going into shock from having his arm demolished. Muraco bounced the arm off the turnbuckle, rammed his arm and shoulder into the ringpost, and hit a great shoulder breaker. Those were somewhat expected, but I was not expecting his cool legdrop onto the arm or even his stuff over to butt bump the arm. Now, sadly, he worked over Valentine's left arm, which meant that Valentine could still fire back with his right arm, and he really dished some shots. The arm work didn't come into play in the finish in any way, but it was a cool way for him to control until Valentine was working over his leg with the shin guard. It was a great way to take Muraco down the stretch as he was good at fighting Valentine off and also burly enough to walk through some wicked Valentine chops and other offense to build to a big comeback. Muraco's piledrivers were disgusting, adding insult to injury by giving Valentine a wedgie on one, then clutching him for an awesome Gotch lift tombstone that was one of the gnarliest finishers of the era. Can't hold up to a shin guard to the head though. 

Pepe Gonzalez/Little Mr. T vs. Cowboy Lang/Bad Jim Brown South Africa 1980s?

MD: A whole bunch of South Africa stuff got dumped around a year ago and we played it safe and just watched the Matt Borne match, but hey, they give these guys twenty minutes in a 2/3 falls match and someone has to watch it, right? Cowboy Lang was one year off from working in five different decades. We've seen him in a bunch of territories over the years.  It meant that he knew every trick in the book by this point and considering they had a bunch of time to kill, they used a bunch of them. Gonzalez worked at least one or two WWF shows. I'm not digging in to see if he worked as Pepe Gomez as well, but if he did, he worked even more than that. He could kind of go too. Some good rope running spots with him, especially with Brown basing. He took a beating well too. Little T was there for the big payoffs to the comedy spots, but they were good. His introduction to the match was in a great full nelson bit where Lang kept breaking free just as Pepe was going to position him in the corner for a shot from T and then finally gloating and turning to get it put on again. But T gets him instead and this builds to a bunch of heel communication bits with punches. What made this work better than a lot of similar matches I've seen was the amount of time it had. That meant that they could get some real heat on Pepe, sneaking shots in, controlling the ring, working a missed tag by the ref, all the good stuff. It made the comedy comeuppance resonate just a bit more when it came. It's amazing what a few extra minutes, well used, can do for a match.

ER: I don't have much to add other than to bring up the possibility that Cowboy Lang might have actually made it to that 5th decade of wrestling. His last listed matches online were from 1999, but I know I saw him live more than once on APW shows, and I was not in attendance for any of the shows listed on cagematch. I was definitely in attendance for matches against Bobby Dean and Lil Nasty Boy, which would have happened in either 1999 or 2000. I remember Lang being a real hit with the crowd as he was the only cowboy wrestler on the card, on shows that happened in or adjacent to farming areas. A little person in his mid 50s working line dancing spots in an opening match is going to get a big reaction in a town with multiple cowboy bars. I say the guy made it to 5 different decades. 

The Bullet/Brad Armstrong/Scott Armstrong vs. Robert Fuller/Jimmy Golden/Elix Skipper Wrestle Birmingham 8/12/05     Part 2

MD: We don't often get to highlight the stuff our old friend over at Armstrong Alley posts, due to the show vs match set up of FFF, but this was a good one to pull out and take a look at. The sound comes in a minute or so into the clip, so don't worry about that. This was a Texas Death match but didn't have Texas Tornado rules. That meant the ten count gimmick was integrated into more of standard tag format. During the shine, you had Elix Skipper taking a lot of stuff, eating early pins, and then stooging/selling big as he got back to his feet. Some of the pins weren't entirely believable but when there's no actual consequence in getting pinned, maybe there was just no reason for him to kick out and jump up at one? Once you got past Brad's early Russian Leg Sweep it worked a little better. They drew in Fuller with some taunting too, very Br'er Fox trickster folk hero stuff (more on that later) and Fuller is the most offendable guy in wrestling history so it worked. 

When they took over on Brad, they worked in the ten counts as bits of hope that would then be cut off. Brad can work from underneath as well as anyone and the heels kept it moving and compelling. The finish was the sort of BS one might expect, with the Bullet getting the sleeper on fuller, interference causing a distraction, Golden KOing Bob with the knucks and then the ref calling the first man to his feet the winner. Again, they went back to the rustic trickster aesthetic: as the ref was admonishing Golden for trying to help Fuller back to his feet, Brad and Scott pulled Bob up. Classic Americana, out cheating the cheater. Everyone looked pretty spry in this except for Bullet Bob who was more than a half step slow, but even he was still pretty credible just for who he was and the mask to make him look a bit younger. The gimmick made things interesting, though even with the history and animosity it was weird to see a Texas Death Match that wasn't an outright hate-filled brawl.

ER: There are a few important takeaways from this. The first is that Robert Fuller and Jimmy Golden - in their mid 50s - still looked good enough to be tagging regularly on much bigger shows than this. Fuller hardly worked over the previous decade, and Golden hadn't been a featured TV performer since 1997, but they had better energy, better timing, and better bullshit facial expressions than most of the tag teams WWE was trotting out in 2005. You watch the Stud Stable here and tell me you'd rather see a Road Warriors team with Animal/Heidenreich, or the Heart Throbs, or Charlie Haas/Rico. The Stud Stable may have been in their mid 50s but goddamn was tag wrestling looking bad on the main stage in 2005. 

Second takeaway is that Brad Armstrong looked incredibly good for a guy who had worked about as many matches as Robert Fuller ever since WCW's closure. Not only was Armstrong the most jacked I've ever seen him, but he was worked fast and hard and taking big bumps any time he was in the ring. I'm not really a high vote Brad guy. I think he's one of the 5 best Armstrongs* but I don't think I could put him higher than 5. But if he worked most of his career the way he worked this match, he just might have been my favorite Armstrong. Look at how hard he gets run into the turnbuckles! Look at how great his spit sells are whenever he gets punched! Why is 2005 Brad Armstrong so good and so gassed?? 

Third takeaway is that Elix Skipper, youngest man in the match, looked like total shit and had all of the worst offense. What was his spin kick ever supposed to be? Bullet was an old man still in incredible physical shape, but couldn't really move even half speed any longer, but it really wasn't that noticeable when Elix Skipper's offense was also thrown at half speed and wouldn't have even looked good at full speed. Fourth takeaway is that it was insane how much effort Wrestle Birmingham put into wraparound comedy sketches in their programming. I'm not sure if any of them were actually funny but damn did those guys go out there with actual planned material when they really did not need to do any of that. 

*Expanding on putting Scott over Brad, a request: Depending on the night, I think it would be possible for any Armstrong to be 1st and any Armstrong to be 5th. On this night Brad was first, Bullet was last, Brian was second**. Scott vs. Brad is admittedly a tough comparison, as we have so much more Brad footage available. Brad worked longer matches in WCW and got all of the New Japan tours, Scott mostly worked Smoky Mountain and pulled job duty in WCW. So the Brad vs. Scott WCW comparison is mostly made on Brad working offense vs. Scott taking offense, and I prefer how Scott takes offense more than I prefer Brad doing offense. Brad has strong execution but I don't think he really uses it in imaginative ways. Scott is great at taking bumps as a heel or babyface, knowing which bumps to use depending on his role within the match (e.g., you won't see him take backdrop bumps as a babyface but the man will get some height as a heel). I also think Scott's personality blossoms as a heel, whereas Brad supposedly had this great personality that never managed to show up meaningfully on film. Perhaps the biggest reason I prefer Scott over Brad at this point in my life, is that I've simply seen more Brad and know what to expect. Scott still has the capability to surprise me, and that's more exciting to me now than Brad working an armdrag sequence. This match though? Brad looked like the all time greatest Armstrong. You find me Brad performances like this and I'll start reviewing the best of the jacked to the gills Brad footage. 

**check out the Road Dogg vs. Raven match that took place after the Stud Stable/Armstrongs match, which made me want to seek out a bunch of 2005 Raven. Raven looked like shit any time he wasn't wrestling, but between the bells this man could still work! I have limited memory of 2005 Raven in TNA but I guess now I need more 2005 Raven. 

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New Footage Friday: WWF on MSG 4/25/83

Mr. Fuji vs. SD Jones

ER: This match was quite fun and mainly notable for its EXCELLENT finish. I thought SD Jones was going to pull this one out (not an impossibility) as he hit two massive headbutts on Fuji. Fuji sold them in this fun knee-buckling way and Jones worked a real nice headbutt, grabbing Fuji's melon with both hands and rearing way back before safely whipping his head forward. The headbutts played as a nice payback for Fuji's great falling headbutts to SD's "midsection" earlier in the match. But just as I thought SD was going to get a newly seen win from 40 years prior, he comes off the ropes and Fuji powers him over with a super fast belly to belly suplex that made Fuji look like Yoshiaki Yatsu. 

Iron Mike Sharpe vs. Johnny Rodz

ER: I like this kind of brainlessly active 10 minute Garden undercard match, where Sharpe will complain about his announced weight (here he was announced at 282 but screams about how he's 292 "and all muscle") and then bumps around for Rodz' dropkicks and sunset flips. Rodz gets tangled in the ropes in a cool way to sell a strike, and I love how Rodz' fast tough guy shtick plays against Sharpe's dumb meathead shtick. There's a great moment at the end where Sharpe gets tied in the ropes like Andre and has to make a bunch of stupid faces while Rodz fires up MSG for an attack that never comes. Rodz is dancing around and doing a hammock routine over the corner ropes, and the whole time Sharpe has to stand there screaming while his arms are tied in ropes. When Rodz finally attacks he runs right into a boot, then Sharpe hits one of his trademark ugly straight arm lariats for the win. 

Ray Stevens vs. Tony Garea

ER: Stevens has a pretty disappointing list of matches in his lone consistent WWF run, really only staying for 6 months and matching up a lot against Strongbows and Garea. But this might be the most I've seen a wrestler do with the typical Garea undercard match. It's the same Garea match you've seen if you've ever bothered to see more than one Tony Garea match, but Stevens is so good that he knows how to sell and bump for Garea's side headlocks and dropkicks and headlock takeovers and surprisingly stiff shoulderblocks, basically working like Bill Dundee against a stiff. Stevens' movement and the way he throws punches and kicks really reminds me of Dundee too, and despite being 47 here was hardly washed. His bumps are interesting, not just flat back bumps, but throwing himself back into the ropes and really making it look like he's getting knocked around by Garea and his bad body shots. I really loved Stevens keeping Garea on the floor with pointed kicks and punches, with Garea bumping multiple times off the apron. It could have been really good if Garea had bladed, but Stevens really built it up nicely for a potential Garea comeback, and Garea's fast sunset flip (with Stevens really whipping himself over on it) looked like a finish. Strong nearfall. The actual finish was Garea hitting a crossbody but Stevens rolling through for a quick pin, leaving this great visual of Garea angrily storming around inside the ring while Stevens gets his hand raised from his back, just like in the Fuji/SD Jones match before it. Stevens looked really great here, great enough where I think there should be an actual list worthy 1983 WWF Stevens match. His 80s AWA career is written off due to a leg injury and age, but 1983 Stevens looked like a guy that would be one of my 2021 favorites. 

The Wild Samoans (Afa/Samula) vs. Chief Jay Strongbow/Jules Strongbow

ER: This is the TV debut of Samu (here as Samoan #3) and it's a real fun showcase for him and his speed. Both Strongbows work this with a fun energy, and with Samula doing big flat back bumps with every tomahawk chop, making the Chief look like a real fun lesser Wahoo. Samula took bumps like a man testing out a hotel mattress, leaping up and backwards like every chop was taking the legs out from him. He works the entire first fall without tagging in Afa, and his energy keeps bringing out a great active side of the elder Strongbow. Is Chief Jay Actually Good? This match seems to point to that, and I wouldn't have guessed there were really fun Jay Strongbow matches from 1983. The Indians win the first fall after eventually hitting a big double chop and Samula, and then do the same early in the second. Samula had already been taking big backsplash bumps and here he got to show off his high dropkick. Jay really leans in to take the double headbutt for the finish of the second fall, and I loved his staggered blinded selling of it when the third eventually began; it felt similar to how Lawler would woozily fight back while knocked out standing. It all builds to an amazing spot where Strongbow and Samula hit heads, but it sends Jay on an incredible backwards bump over the top to the floor. Chief Jay basically leapt backwards over the ropes and went tumbling down in a great bump. Both teams handle the hot tag in cool ways, with Jay falling flat backwards after a collision and landing close enough for Jules to fall in, and when Jules tags in and hits Samula with a hard overhand chop he flies backwards halfway across the ring and tags Afa and his flight. Afa's fast rope running cross up was a neat burst of speed for the sudden finish (which was handled a bit clunkily as Jay was breaking up the pin after the one count and the ref just ignored it). So, what's some recommended Chief Jay Strongbow? 

Rocky Johnson vs. Don Muraco

MD: Rocky Johnson is a guy that absolutely got it. We don't have a ton of him from the 70s, but when he pops into a territory like Houston or Portland, he has a larger than life energy that doesn't really get talked up enough. It's probably because most people know him from this run, and then more from 84 on than 83 back, but he's probably a wrestler that deserves more of a look. The first few minutes of this were picture perfect in that regard. Muraco came down in Steelers gear with Albano. Johnson wanted the mic to call Muraco "Brother" which apparently was part of the program here as that offended Muraco. Albano ate a headbutt, both of them got double noggin' knockered from the inside out. Johnson started with the slaps that led to punches and Muraco took a powder. Then they moved on to strength spots where Johnson just stopped Muraco's whips like they were nothing. All great stuff. All got a reaction. Muraco was stooging all over the place. The finish worked too. After some solid beatings by Muraco, Johnson came back and ultimately hit this amazing standing dropkick onto Muraco who was perched on the top to get the countout win. The big problem was a bizarre structural approach probably having to do with Muraco as a vulnerable champ. After that shine, they had Johnson lean on Muraco with a long chinlock instead of the other way around. If that was part of Muraco's control, with them moving in and out of it with hope spots, it wouldn't have wowed anyone, but it would have still worked given Johnson's level of being over and Muraco's heat with the crowd. Instead, everything just ground to a halt for a few minutes. Pretty bizarre. That's 80s New York for you. The rest of this was good though.


Bob Backlund vs. Ivan Koloff

MD: If you're someone who like Bob Backlund matches, this will probably be something of a lost gem for you. They were very well matched. Koloff was slimmer than his 70s WWWF run and we know that he was still very good at what he did from his run in Crockett over the next few years. Instead of leaning into forboding strength, he played up his canny, and they built slowly and gradually and with great payoff to Backlund's strength spots, specifically a lift up out of a full nelson reversal and the gotch lift out of the short arm scissors. Say what you will about Monsoon on commentary, but him dismissing so much that happened in the ring did make it matter all the more when he really put something over, as he did with these. He and Patterson were both calling them the most impressive feats imaginable. Backlund was very good at knowing when to be beat down or to sell the aftereffects of something and when to just shrug it all off and go up for the crowd. He got out of Koloff's big bearhug by pressing Koloff's head down low enough so he could launch a knee. I've never seen that before and I might not believe it from anyone else. That was the thing with Backlund. He was so deep into his own character that it had to be hard for the crowd to do anything but believe along with him. He followed up his escape with this amazing crumbling pile driver. They made too much of the slow counting ref in the back third, but it was a pretty solid finishing stretch with an exciting calf branding near fall and Koloff going to the well once too often to see a suplex reversed for the clean as a whistle finish. Between how well these two were matched and that the crowd was into it, even chanting USA at times, they could have definitely gotten more than one match out of this one.

Jimmy Snuka vs. Superstar Graham

MD: I wasn't going to watch this but it was 3 minutes long and I figure someone's interested. Snuka remained on the rise and Graham fed for him and took all of his stuff and got beaten clean in the middle of the ring in 3 minutes. He looked withered and terrible, of course, but this was an effective use of a former champion to further get over the molten babyface and build his credibility. Just a very giving performance by Graham while still being a pretty embarrassing one given how he looked and moved and the shoddy kung fu stuff that was mainly just waving his hands around.

Swede Hanson vs. Pedro Morales

ER: This was a cool little 4 minute match with a couple neat surprises. I really liked Swede Hanson's lock-up and headlock game, even if it doesn't always go anywhere. He's a really big guy and his size during lock ups and headlock sequences always makes me sit up a bit, like I'm not expecting a huge old guy to effectively scramble to maintain a front chancery. Morales breaks an early smothering headlock by working his way to a knee breaker, which is where that sudden scramble from Hanson comes from. Morales takes a huge backwards bump through the ropes to the floor off a strike from Swede, and looks like he hits the back of his head on the timekeeper's table while basically doing Harley Race's bump. Morales comes back eventually with some solid body shots but then catches knees on a charge, eating a great Hanson running kneedrop for a close nearfall (in what I thought was the finish). Hanson had hit a couple other nice kneedrops earlier, those old school worked knees that were worked and throw with the full shin. Morales wins with a small package, but if this got a couple more minutes it would have been a great Velocity match. 

Eddie Gilbert vs. Jose Estrada

ER: This was right before Gilbert's serious car accident and it's fascinating the kind of reactions Gilbert was getting as a young babyface in WWF. Gilbert looks and works like young babyface Portland Roddy Piper, throwing energetic corner punches and surprising Estrada with a Thesz press for a near win, and is getting the kind of crowd reaction that Owen never got in the early 90s in a similar role. Gilbert and Estrada have a fun chemistry, and I especially liked how Estrada kept cutting off Gilbert with a punch to the head or stomach. Sometimes Gilbert would charge in and jet get stopped by a punch to the guy, other times Estrada would actually pause a hold he was doing just to punch Gilbert, or punch Gilbert in the face right when Gilbert was working his way out of a hold (Gilbert starting to break a headscissors? Cut your losses and just punch him!). Estrada doesn't wrestle without scruples, but it sure makes him look smart to not cling to a failing hold. This is a show with a lot of really well done finishes, and this was no different: It's a quick bit of rope running where Gilbert tries to catch Estrada with an O'Connor Roll, but Estrada holds on and bumps Gilbert, then runs at Gilbert for his own sunset flip, which Gilbert rolls out of and falls into a double leg pin. 

Andre the Giant vs. Big John Studd

ER: This is actually a neat footnote of a match to appear, as Studd had to be Andre's most frequent opponent over his long career. Studd and Andre feuded for parts of a decade in WWF alone, and this was the first time this attraction had played New York. Studd/Andre would have been a big attraction here, and I love how Studd riled them up by throwing down a $10,000 challenge. This motherfucker was challenging 10K over bodyslams *this* early into their WWF feud? Studd just started at 10K and only went up to 15K by the end of the decade. More guys on the Indies should challenge people for the money in their pocket. But this is a big match, starts and builds like a big match, but has a cruel dismissive count out finish that gets actual garbage thrown in the ring in MSG. 

The story is minimalist but very satisfying. Andre gave Studd a few laughing one handed shoves when he got in the ring, and kept shooting Studd these great Kubrick stare death looks like "No, please, keep talking, let's see what happens." Studd throws punches aimed at Andre's left arm, and Andre is good enough to work a Sell the Arm match as the largest man in his sport in 1983. He throws clubbing punches at the side of Studd's head and neck, and throws heavy chops that physically move Studd when they connect (and they always connect). But Andre throws all of those strikes with his right arm, and is great at selling pain when Studd is working a Fujiwara and dropping weight onto the arm. Andre is great at keeping active in holds and reacting to micro movements and changes in Studd's leverage. I loved how Andre trying reaching back to grab Studd in a headlock with his free arm, with Studd tucking his chin so Andre couldn't hook it, but still having to get his face smothered by Andre's big arm. Studd really got knocked around by Andre's comeback, really getting moved by his strikes and taking a couple bumps falling through the ropes to the apron. But Studd's strikes also got louder the longer the match went, with one axe handle blow to Andre's back sounding like a gunshot. Andre rams Studd into the corner, using ass and shoulder, and all of Studd's strikes to fight for a breath look hard.  

There are two great bodyslam teases, with Studd really getting his hand buried to get Andre off a leg, and an even better one as the very finish to the match: Andre grabs Studd on the apron to bring him back in over the top with a bodyslam, and Studd blocks it by just hooking his feet around the top rope! Studd is holding on for dear life with his toes glued together, and when Andre can't pull him free he just drops Studd, then plops down leg and ass first on his chest. Studd roles out of the ring and Nopes his way right down the entrance way without looking back on time. Fans are furious, and it turns out this was the only Andre/Studd match that would ever be run at MSG. They deserved a bit better than that finish, but I really dug the match as a big early moment of a long feud. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE ANDRE

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE 305 LIVE

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WWF 305 Live: 1987 Survivor Series Main Event

Andre the Giant/One Man Gang/King Kong Bundy/Butch Reed/Rick Rude vs. Bam Bam Bigelow/Hulk Hogan/Don Muraco/Ken Patera/Paul Orndorff WWF Survivor Series 11/26/87 - EPIC

ER: Great main event to the inaugural Survivor Series, a match that really felt like a big show main event for 25 minutes. Also, they were smart enough to have the final five survivors be the five largest men in the match. They knew exactly what they were selling. This was filled with superstars, down to the least important man. Ken Patera looks like a real force here, maybe the strongest he looked in WWF post-jail. He was like a great dancing babyface, hitting a three kick combo with a finishing punch, quick takedowns, still getting big reactions. Don Muraco looked massive and brought huge energy, standing out like an Incredible Hulk in the ring with some hulking dudes. Orndorff got the biggest non-Hogan reaction of the match, a real testament to how huge his star was in 86/87. He and Rude had some memorable stuff during their early match stretches, with Rude being the real workhorse stooging heel for a solid 10 minutes. Rude got spun around by punches from every single member of Hogan's team, gets run over with lariats, obviously gets backdropped and atomic dropped, but also gets a sly school boy on Orndorff for a surprise momentum swing. 

The final 10 minutes were total big man bliss, a final five that stacks up with the highest average weight per participant in company history. All the big men had great moments, but I was most impressed by Bundy. He was great at running distraction to get Hogan counted out and out of the way, and kept dropping these cool kneedrops and crushing elbowdrops, and missing them even harder! But it was really special how they built to Bam Bam Bigelow alone in the ring against three monsters. You could argue that it was the the biggest moment of his career and he felt like an all timer in the moment. The fans responded to him huge as he was dispatching Bundy and Gang in tough battles (including a great slingshot splash to eliminate Gang), and Bam Bam is really good at selling big man offense (like heavy kneelifts) as a big man should sell them (while also doing a full flip off a big Gang lariat). 

Gang takes a couple of big spills (including a wild fall off the apron) and the Bigelow/Andre final showdown is awesome. Bigelow has a bunch of cool somersaults to try to outpace Andre, and I like how Andre put him down decisively with a butterfly suplex after Bigelow had gone through two men who were already improbably larger than he was. Andre was mostly presence in this match, but it was incredible presence. He loomed on the apron the entire match, stood large in the center of the ring to confront Hogan, and had an awesome standing exchange of punches and chops in a tough Hogan lock-up as the centerpiece of the match. This was an exciting long main event that felt like a huge deal, the main event of a very good show with nothing but long matches. This main event really cemented this match as a super successful concept in the right hands. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE WWF 305 LIVE

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE ANDRE

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RIP Butch Reed

Butch Reed vs. Junkyard Dog Mid-South 7/29/83

SR: Really epic, insanely heated match and a total battle of superstars, like a blue collar working mans version of Rock/Hogan if that was an actually great match. If you ask me, US wrestling never got better than two guys just trading great punch combos with the heel bumping all over the place. Junkyard Dog opens this match coming forward like an offensive truck, hitting a bunch of great punches (yup). Loved how he made a basic hip toss exciting by immediately following up with a punch in the face. Butch Reed is just perfect in that section, trying to fire back but being overwhelmed, really great escalating bumping from him. Reeds comeback looks really violent as he basically just punches JYD in the throat and then follows up with knees and boots to the throat. Instead of a standard heat segment/comeback they do this great battle of attrition segment with Reed going for a choke and JYD coming back punching him in the face from mount and gouging his eye. Normally chokes are pretty trite in wrestling matches but these two make it look like two men really trying to strangle each other to death. 5 minutes in and this feels like an epic battle. I didn’t even have a problem with the chinlock, as it didn’t go long, and JYD had seemingly punched himself out setting up another Butch Reed comeback. Down the stretch we get JYD headbutting Reeds bandage off, bloodying him, more great punch exchanges and another barfight attempted strangulation which lead to both guys trading punches from their knees. The finish was great as the referee gets bumped, initially it didn’t seem to affect the match as they just continue beating on each other, but then another ref bump happens. King Kong Bundy comes in but JYD takes him out (because JYD was god that night), only to get caught with a beautiful Reed dropkick to the back of the head. Reed then lands a clothesline off the tope (were top rope moves illegal at this time?) for the 3 count. Really a way cooler finish than some serious of crazy death moves and a great way to cap off a great great match.

PAS: This was an all time legendary feud, which the late lamented NWA Classics services allowed us to finally see matches of. Both of these guys were just huge, Reed's chest looked like a dinner table and JYD was a slab of granite. JYD had some of the heaviest hands in wrestling history every shot he landed has such heft to it, and he bounced Reed around the ring early. Reed had great looking shots too, and there were some incredible looking exchanges, which with the rabid crowd, felt like Ron Lyle vs. George Foreman. I love how powerful all of the Dog's kickouts were, he presses Reed off like a powerlifter throwing off a bench press. JYD blooding up Reed was great, as was the interference finish. The couple of glimpses we have of both guys, this feels like one of the great pairings in wrestling history.

Butch Reed/One Man Gang vs. Don Muraco/Bam Bam Bigelow WWF 3/12/88

PAS: Six man tag team match with a lot of big WWF characters. This was the odd period where Oliver Humperdink was a babyface manager (can't believe anyone saw that freak and thought he would be sympathetic or relatable), and he was seconding Bam Bam along with Superstar Billy Graham while the Doctor of Style Slick was managing the heel team. The opening punch out section was pretty fun stuff, although the match bogged down a bit during the Muraco in peril section, with two long chinlocks in a 12 minute match (Muraco was about as lazy as it gets). Bigelow takes a pretty big bump to the floor and Reed takes a big bump into the ropes for the banana peel finish. Loud colorful stuff.

Butch Reed/Barbarian vs. Dustin Rhodes/Barry Windham WCW 9/2/92 

PAS: This was during the Ron Simmons title run when Cactus Jack was compiling a gang to take Simmons on. Rhodes and Windham were an all time great tag team, and Reed and Barbarian were a fun pair of heel powerhouses as opposition. Dustin starts his face in peril role by taking an absolutely insane Psicosis shoulder post bump, he must fly 10 feet on the floor. Reed and Barbarian clubber him around a bit, before Windham makes the hot tag, which includes Barbarian taking a superplex and Butch getting Flair pressed off of the top rope. Some legal man confusion however, leads to Barbarian hit the kick of fear on Windham and getting the relatively clean pin. 1992 WCW was an all-timer year and this brief Reed return was fun stuff. 

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On Brand Segunda Caida: Stan Hansen in ECW

How awesome would it have been to see Stan Hansen wrestling in a small building with only 500 or so other lunatics cheering him on? Stan Hansen was not a guy you could just go out and see on the indies working old man faded glory matches. He was a guy who started making a name for himself immediately and then just stayed in major feds right up until his early 50s retirement. The only opportunity anyone had to see Hansen work a small indie was a few dates in 1993, when he worked a handful of ECW shows. Seeing Stan Hansen at the ECW Arena would be like getting a straight injection of pure uncut joy, so I figured I would take a quick look at Hansen's quick look at the east coast independent wrestling scene.


Stan Hansen vs. Jimmy Snuka ECW 8/7/93 (Hardcore TV #19)

ER: This was only about 4 minutes, but really great. How cool must it have been to see *this* era Stan Hansen at Viking Hall? I would have been losing my mind. He's a big loud bully and I could have watched him shove Snuka around the ring for another 10 minutes. Snuka was 50 at this point but still unexpectedly a bump freak, as right out of the gate Hansen hits a hard shoulderblock, and then without any running momentum just hits a standing shoulderblock that sends Snuka backwards over the top to the floor, a cool way to integrate the Harley bump. Snuka obviously realizes who he's working - not that he had a choice - and throws punches at Hansen as hard as he's getting them. He is someone with enough guts and career clout that he can walk right through a nasty chair shot and keep fighting, and not get punished for not selling it. The chair shot was great, Hansen hitting him with an already unfolded chair and wrapping it perfectly around his head. Hansen drops perfect elbows and even wrecks Snuka with the western lariat! I wasn't really expecting that. Some of these older guys were getting good paychecks once Eddie Gilbert got the purse strings, I didn't actually expect Snuka to work so hard. Eddie runs in to break up the surefire finish, and then Hansen ragdolls "Freddie" Gilbert (which was Jerry Lawler's son Kevin playing Eddie's kid brother), and there's not much in wrestling I love more than Stan Hansen disposing of a dweeb.

Stan Hansen/Tito Santana vs. Don Muraco/Shane Douglas ECW 8/8/93 (Hardcore TV #21)

ER: Short but fun tag that may have actually been much longer than we actually saw. The match - as several of these Hardcore TV matches are - is interrupted with an "emergency announcement", which is a nice excuse to show Abdullah the Butcher highlights leading up to his tag match opposite Hansen. But they weirdly opt to just clip the match right in the middle, and I have no idea how much we missed. What we got, was good. Muraco is a fun stooge for Hansen (and it's amusing to see such a big guy beg off, but I get it), and I was really looking forward to Hansen just mauling Douglas, but we don't really get that at all. It's possible we got it during the break, but alas. What we do get is a fine FIP Tito performance, with Hansen doing a great job coming up with a couple ways to miss a potential hot tag. Hansen somehow always finds a way to surprise me, and he breaks out a really cool tragic timing spot: He comes in to rescue Tito, but Tito manages to surprisingly break free on his own, except now Hansen is getting admonished by the ref for getting in the ring just as Tito is actually getting to his corner. Hansen rushes back to the apron and swipes for the tag just as Muraco grabs Tito and tosses him back across the ring. Muraco throws an awesome headlock punch in this, but Tito's fired up comeback punches are really great. Sadly the whole damn locker room interferes at the exact moment of Hansen's hot tag, starting with that damned Eddie Gilbert. This match clearly had the bones of a really good match, and what we got was good, but it really feels like we missed out on a large chunk of the middle.

Stan Hansen vs. Don E. Allen/Herve Renesto ECW 8/8/93 (Hardcore TV #22)

ER: Tough draw for Twisted Steel & Sex Appeal. Hansen is an all time great squash match or handicap match worker, as he works fast enough to bounce back between two different guys, and he hits hard enough that whichever guy isn't eating a beating is still convincingly selling his prior beating. This is all a tornado of hard kicks, nasty stomps to the head, big beals, lethal back elbows, none of them by Twisted Steel OR Sex Appeal. Renesto threw a dropkick at one point, but it didn't slow down Hansen one bit and only made Renesto more of a target. The whole arena was flipping out for this massacre, and I love how Hansen throws his back elbow as a charging move, running at his opponent like he's hitting the lariat but instead decapitating him with a back elbow. Neither feels like a good option to take. Allen eats a nasty elbow shot while standing on the apron, and Hansen graciously brings him into the ring with a damn quick snap suplex. Allen came into the ring so fast it looked like he was thrown from a car. Allen almost wimps out of the lariat, flinching hard as Hansen grabs him by the ponytail and starts swinging the arm, but it landed. From the ring, Hansen grabs for Renesto on the floor after the match, but Renesto dodges, which just enrages Hansen who rushes to the floor and strangles Renesto with his bullrope, tying him to the ringpost by his neck.

Stan Hansen/Terry Funk vs. Abdullah the Butcher/Kevin Sullivan Ultra Clash 9/18/93

ER: Now this ruled. This was part of one of ECW's first supercards, and this is some legitimately big talent in one match. The whole thing is worked as a chaotic brawl, no tags and no attempt at order. Funk obviously thrives in this kind of environment and drags everybody else with him. Hansen mostly pairs off with Abby, and I like them as a pair because Abby doesn't budge on strikes, and Hansen doesn't hold back on strikes, so the whole time he's just throwing knuckle punches and clubbing arms and the hardest stomps possible to the back of Abby's head and Abby just takes the stiffest shots and occasionally stabs at him. Sullivan climbs up the scaffold to escape Funk(there was a Doug Gilbert/JT Smith scaffold match right before this match) and Funk naturally follows, and Sullivan starts punching him right in the head the second Funk climbs up close enough to get his head punched. Terry is the king, so of course he finds a few ways to fall down each level of the scaffolding, holding on and hanging, limbs dangling, dropping down bit by bit as he's getting attacked, before eventually dropping into the ring and onto his head. Funk wraps a chair around Abby's head and holds it there while burying his boot in Abby's back, while Hansen punches away at Abby, there's a fork stabbing that misses it's mark and becomes friendly fire, Funk panics and takes down the ref and starts beating the shit out of him, Abby slams Funk's face into the mat a bunch, the ROPES BREAK because they can't handle big as hell Hansen and Sullivan running hard into them, Eddie and Doug Gilbert run out for the DQ, and this was literally just 8 minutes of cool old dudes punching each other really hard in the head. That's never not going to be a win, people.

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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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