WWF Royal Rumble 1988

So, the WWE Network finally hit the UK, and so I decided it would make sense to make my next review something from the huge databases of shows available to me. I then decided that, hey, tonight is Royal Rumble night....why not review the first ever edition? This was broadcast on TV, rather than PPV, and there are a few interminable filler sections like "Dino Bravo lifting weights for 20 minutes" which drag, but this blog is solely about the matches, and thankfully there were a few good ones on offer here.

Rick Rude vs Ricky Steamboat

I like the way the match starts with Steamboat skinning the cat to avoid getting thrown over the top rope, and instead throws Rude out, acting as a preview for the forthcoming Rumble. They work a test-of-strength spot, and I love Ventura’s commentary, pointing out Rude has the strength advantage, but Steamboat escaped due to his speed and ability. Steamboat controls by working the arm of Rude, which affects Rude’s ability to use it to pose later in the match. Brilliant. Rude isn’t quite the finished package at this point, with a few blows looking a bit milky. Rude manages to slam Steamboat on the floor outside the ring, and inside holds a camel clutch to continue his focus on the back. Slightly blown moment as they do the “three arm drop” spot, only for Steamboat not to keep his arm up on three, needing a fourth raise from the ref. Steamboat gets a few close nearfalls off a succession of roll-ups, but a crossbody is prevented as Rude pulls the ref in front of the flying Steamboat. Rude hitches an over-the-shoulder backbreaker and thinks he’s won as the ref calls for the bell, but it’s actually a DQ win for Steamboat. Decent enough opener.

The Glamour Girls vs the Jumping Bomb Angels

This is 2/3 falls for the WWF Women’s tag titles. Vince helpfully doesn’t know the names of either Bomb Angel until after the first ad break, so refers to them as Red Angel and Pink Angel throughout. The Glamour Girls (Leilani Kai and Judy Martin) are bigger and stronger than the Angels, but the Angels are able to control the early going due to their speed advantage, at one point downing both Glamour Girls with stereo figure-fours. They continue to work over Kai, leading to an amusing tug of war spot, as Martin tries to pull her partner back to their corner. Martin is pretty deadly when she does get in the ring, and she throws Yamazaki over her shoulders from a powerbomb position for the first fall.

Second fall sees Kai continuing the domination of Yamazaki, but misses a splash to allow the hot tag to Tateno. Martin tries the same move that won them the first fall, but Tateno is fresher and reverses to a sunset flip for the equalising fall.
The final fall sees the Girls dishing out some pretty nasty looking blows to consolidate their power advantage. Kai hits a pretty swanky looking butterfly suplex, but this gets outdone when Tateno tags herself into the match, as she hits a bridging butterfly suplex on Martin for two. The Bomb Angels are smart, and don’t let Martin get anywhere near a tag, before finishing her off with a stereo missile dropkick for the victory. This was really fun, with some of the Angels offence way ahead of it’s time for this audience. The Glamour Girls looks great here too, really tough in offence and I think their contribution to this match often gets unfairly overlooked.

Royal Rumble

So, here is the first Rumble, albeit one with only 20 men, and for historical purposes, the first two entrants (already in the ring) are Bret Hart as entrant #1 and Tito Santana for entrant #2. A couple more first sees Santana being the first man to be double-teamed as Butch Reed helps the Hitman wear him down, and Reed goes on to be the first man eliminated when Jake Roberts sends him over the top . It’s fun to see how even guys like Sam Houston and Jim Brunzell get big reactions from the crowd as they enter. I love the disgust in Vince’s voice as Danny Davis enters the match. Ventura does his best throughout the match to put over Bret Hart’s endurance, which Vince barely acknowledges. There’s an odd moment as Nikolai Volkoff jumps the gun, running down the ring right on the heels of Don Muraco, and has to be held in place by the referees until another two minutes go by. It soon becomes notable how they’ve stacked the running order for the Rumble – the early entrants are all guys with high stamina, like Bret, Santana, Houston and the Killer Bees. As we continue, the second half sees bigger guys like Volkoff, Dino Bravo, One Man Gang and the Junkyard Dog come in. Bret, in fact, last until the 18^th entrant (the Ultimate Warrior) is walking to the ring. It’s odd to see the Warrior at this stage, where he’s just another guy rather than THE guy. Despite the crowd chanting for the DDT all night long, Roberts gets thrown out without getting to hit it, though Duggan uses the 3 point stance to send Davis out. The final four sees Bravo, Gang, Muraco and Duggan in the ring. The heels gang up on Muraco, with Bravo holding the Rock in place for Gang to clothesline out. This leaves them 2-on-1 on Duggan. They try the same trick (having established it works, possibly the only time in Rumble history that a heel HASN’T hit his partner with that move), but predictably Gang accidently sends Bravo out instead. Gang charges Duggan, who drops down with the top rope to send Gang out and pick up the win. Not as finely polished as future Rumbles, but still pretty fun.

The Islanders vs the Young Stallions

A curious choice of main event. The Stallions and the Islanders were two of the final three teams in the big Survivor Series tag the past November (along with the Killer Bees), so there is some history three. This is 2/3 falls. The Stallions out-wrestle the Islanders early on, and by avoiding a double-cross from a Tama fake handshake, outsmart them too. A weird botched-looking hiptoss by Haku gives the Islanders control on Jim Powers. The heat section on Powers is pretty brief, before Roma tags in. This is pretty much a storm in a teacup, as Haku pulls the top rope down, sending Roma to the floor, injuring his leg for a countout first fall to the Islanders.

The second fall comes after a break and an interview with Andre, as Vince tells us that trainers have been looking at the leg of Roma. Roma has to start the next fall, being the loser of the previous fall, and Tama goes right for the obvious weakspot. Roma is in such trouble, he willingly causes more pain to his leg just so he can get to make the tag to Powers, by lifting his knees on a Haku splash. Powers has a brief offensive flurry, but it can’t last forever and soon the Islanders are in control. The booking is interesting, as they need to promote the Islanders (who are feuding with the British Bulldogs at this point), but clearly was to protect the Survivor Series-winning Stallions too. Hence the leg injury to make the Stallions look plucky and courageous in the face of great odds. Powers gets a few hope spots too, with a nearfall from a small package being close. Powers eventually gets to make the lukewarm tag to Roma after a weird botched dropkick from Haku (that actually kinda connected), but Roma manages only a few blows before Haku sweeps his leg out. A top rope splash onto the leg sets up a single-leg crab on Roma that gives him no choice but to submit. Pretty decent bout.

 

WWF Mega Matches

Back in the early 2000's, before YouTube and discovering the indies, it was always a massive treat to discover wrestling on sale for cheap, no matter what it was, and those rare days where some wrestling would turn up in Cash Generator were an absolute joy. I still fondly remember finding 3 ECW PPV's on tape at £3 each, and snapping them up even though I wasn't a huge ECW fan. This tape I bought and watched it in full once, before it went into the small hamper I have of wrestling tapes and sat there until this week. Let's give it another watch

Tito Santana vs Earthquake
Tito goes into this match with the dirt-worst game plan possible, which is to totally underestimate the power of Quake. He tries go-behinds that see him rammed into the corner, tries shoulderblocks that he clearly is never going to win and gets caught by the big man when he tries a crossbody. He does try to work a body part but, despite having used a figure-four as a past finisher and knowing that working a leg would make it hard for Quake to support his weight, he instead decides to work the arm. This, of course, leave the other arm free, so Quake clubs him down and starts to go to work on Tito. Quake seems to be in "methodical house show" mode here, so his attack is pretty unexciting. I did like Tito managing to escape a bearhug by climbing the turnbuckle, whilst still in Quake's arms, to get better elevation. Flying forearm only gets two, so you know Quake is getting pushed here. A missed Tito dropkick sets up the usual finishing sequence for Earthquake, but Tugboat comes in before the seated splash to attack and give Quake the win by DQ. Dino Bravo and Rhythm & Blues enter the ring (to save the heel from an unprompted 2-on-1 assault mind you; Quake hadn't broken a single rule all match) before Hacksaw Duggan makes the save for Tito and Tugger with the 2x4. Lord Alfred Hayes describes this as a moral win for Tito. What the fucking fuck? Match was pretty dull.

Bobby Heenan vs Big Boss Man
You know this isn't going to be much of a match, but you also know this should be fun. Heenan is gold on the mic to start, begging Boss Man's forgiveness for all his mother jokes, saying he'd sent roses to Boss Man's mother and saying she was on the phone in the back to ask Boss Man not to fight the Brain. This is clearly gearing up to an ambush in the back (not picked up on by the announcers), and Boss Man thinks about leaving the ring, before quickly decimating the Brain in 30 seconds, pinning him with a foot. Mr Perfect tries to save his manager (so you know there was a backstage assault plan), but fails and Bobby gets a ball-and-chain dropped on his chest. Fun deal.

Hacksaw Jim Duggan vs Sgt. Slaughter
Not much to this one. Slaughter takes a few nice bumps off Duggan's big goofy punches, before a flag to the back from General Adnam gives him the advantage. Slaughter looks to be maintaining focus on the back by hitting a backbreaker, but Duggan soon recovers and makes an abrupt comeback. Three point stance is interrupted by Adnam grabbing his leg, and Hacksaw chases him away to lose by DQ. Pointless.

Bret Hart vs the Barbarian
I like both guys, so this should be decent. Bret oddly goes against his usual logical instincts and decides to try and hiptoss the Barbarian, which fails, and this allows Barbarian to dominate with some power moves. Bret uses his speed advantage to avoid a 2nd rope elbow, and the Hart Attack clothesline is counted as a three in a botch by the slow, doddery old ref. He's terrible all match. Barbarian hits a lovely powerslam for the comeback, but when he drops down to counter a sunset flip, Bret in turn reverses that into a winning pinfall. Another match that's way too short on this tape.

Rhythm & Blues vs the Bushwhackers
By way of contrast, I'd prefer this match to be kept short. I've no idea why poor old Rhythm & Blues were forever paired with Luke and Butch. Valentine nails a lovely clothesline on Luke to take over, and the match is bearable when Valentine and Honky are in control. Butch comes in to break up a fair pinfall, then gets annoyed when Honky comes in to send him out to the floor. This seemingly makes it fair for Butch to level HTM with a guitar for the DQ. I fucking hate the Bushwhackers.

Hulk Hogan vs Dino Bravo
Earthquake is in Bravo's corner, so the Big Bossman is announced for Hogan's corner. This leads to a hilarious over-reaction by one girl in the crowd, who repeatedly shrieks with excitement. Scary. The match isn't much to speak about, though Hogan does his best to make it interesting. I did love him levelling Bravo with a single chop. Some Earthquake interference gives Bravo the advantage, and he keeps interfering throughout the match, with Bossman's only attempts to stop him being to slowly wander over, by which point the damage is done. Even Sean Mooney points out how useless the Bossman is here. Bravo's offence is really dull, all chokes and punches, and the only thing stopping a bearhug being tedious is how well Hogan sells it. Hogan has the smarts to nearly break it, before letting Bravo sinch it in again, to keep the crowd into the match. Bravo hits his finishing side suplex, but Hogan kicks out on two, Hulks up and swiftly hits the big boot and legdrop to win. Poor match.

Haku vs the British Bulldog
This must be early in the Bulldog's comeback, as he's only billed as "Davey Boy Smith" here. We come in joined in progress with Bulldog holding a sleeper. We've got two big lads who can move here, highlighted by a nice crossbody and a crucifix by Smith. He also takes a huge bump from a back bodydrop. Haku is pretty methodical here, and holds Smith in two consecutive restholds for a little bit too long. Bulldog gets little comebacks, but Haku is pretty good at cutting them off. Bulldog at one point breaks a sleeper, but ends up being hurled upside down to the corner. There is a midring collision, where Davey Boy somehow recovers quicker, despite being beaten up for the past 5-7 minutes. Davey locks in a sharpshooter, but Bobby Heenan pushes to rope to Haku to force a break. Bulldog sends Haku flying with a back bodydrop of his own, and the running powerslam gets three. Nice to get a decent length match here.

Randy Savage vs Hacksaw Jim Duggan
There are a lot of smoke and mirrors in this match, but I don't really think they needed the help. Both guys put in a really good effort in the match. I loved Duggan's big punches early on, which Savage sells big time. Sensational Sherri attacks Duggan to give Savage an opening, and I love Duggan's selling here. Not only is he not afraid to sell for a lady, he also does a great job of making Savage look good. There is a great bit where Duggan slowly gets to his feet, getting fired up, only to turn into a top rope ax handle by Savage, and this leads up to Savage trying again a few minutes later, only for Duggan to be ready with a clothesline to the gut. Savage takes two big bumps, one from the ring to the floor then one from the floor over the guardrail. Hacksaw levels him with a chair, which doesn't draw a DQ somehow. The big knee only gets two after Sherri distracts the ref, but Duggan is smart enough not to take his eye off Savage as he yells at her, and avoids a sneak attack. Savage misses the top rope elbow, but the three point stance from Duggan sends the Macho King to the outside. The ref gets bumped, giving Duggan a visual fall, before Savage levels him with a weapon. A slow count from the ref means this only gets two as the drama gets cranked up, before Savage pins him with his feet on the rope to win. Really good match, with great effort from both men.

Randy Savage vs the Ultimate Warrior
This is a cage match, though they battle outside the cage at first, following a misguided attempt at a sneak attack by Savage. Warrior wipes the floor with him. I would be remiss in not mentioning how fucking unbearable Brother Love is on commentary. The opening stages are so slow, as Savage hurls Warrior into the cage with a handful of trunks, then both guys get VERY slowly to their feet. A double clothesline spot puts both down, and they act like they've worked an iron man match when we're only 5 mins in. Savage wears Warrior down with chokes and eye rakes, before the top rope elbow only gets two. Warrior fires back with the usual, but the splash hits knees. Suddenly, the match is nearly over as Savage climbs almost all the way out, only for Warrior to grab him by the hair. Sherri comes in to interfere and bang, Savage falls to the floor a victor. Terrible match, with no real drama or pacing. After, Warrior beats up Savage and looks to be about to beat Sherri before a sudden cut.

AJPW Wrestling Summit 1990

So, I am still ongoing in my quest to get into Puro. However, sometimes it's nice to have a helping hand, and this show is a prime example of that. This show is a cross-promotion with the WWF, so I get the added benefit of my childhood heroes accompanying me on the ride

Jumbo Tsuruta & King Haku vs Rick Martel & Mr Perfect
it's kinda fun to see Haku working as a face here. Perfect begins the match by bumping for the two big men, before Haku becomes face in peril following a missed flipping senton. Haku isn't the only one here who busts out some flashier moves: after dropping repeated elbows on Haku to keep him down, Martel lets him get up and hits a rana on him. Martel then hits a springboard splash for two. Martel goes to the well again by trying for a second rana, but Haku drops him face first on the turnbuckle. The heels keep Haku in danger with some submission holds, but Haku gets knees up on a Martel splash, and gets the hot tag from Tsuruta. The pop Tsuruta gets is immense. Haku and Tsuruta work the heels over, culminating in Tsuruta hitting a picture perfect belly-to-back suplex on Martel for the win. Well executed formula tag match, with the added bonus of seeing guys like Martel and Haku bust out moves you don't normally see from them

Genichiro Tenryu vs Randy Savage
Fun stuff to start as Savage tries all kinds of mindgames to put off Tenryu, who stands there with a totally unconcerned look on his face. Savage takes the opening flurry of chops like a man, crumpling into the corner, but quickly taking advantage as Sherri distracts Tenryu. Tenryu regains control by back bodydropping Savage WAY over the top rope to the floor, then meeting him with a flying shoulderblock from the apron. Another Sherri distraction allows Savage to dominate again, but inside Tenryu hits Savage with an enzuigiri (complete with awesome wobbly legged Savage selljob). Sherri really earns her money by again giving Savage the advantage and this time he makes the most of it, which allows him to hit the big elbow, which only gets two. Savage escapes a powerbomb attempt, but hurts his knee on a crossbody. This allows Tenryu to hit another enzuigiri (with another fantastic sell by Savage) and the powerbomb for the win. As enjoyable as you'd expect from these two, Savage really made Tenryu look immense here, taking his stuff like a man, and the crowd were really into both guys.

Ultimate Warrior vs Ted Dibiase
This is for the WWF title. It opens pretty much as you'd expect it would, Warrior countering everything Dibiase tries with raw power, until Dibiase avoids a flying shoulderblock, sending Warrior face first to the mat. Dibiase gets a little bit of offence in, including spiking Warrior on a piledriver, but Warrior suddenly hits a few clotheslines and a big splash for the win. Far too short and essentially just a showcase of two guys showing their best spots.

Demolition vs Giant Baba & Andre The Giant
Man, the Demos will have their work cut out making this one look good. And in fairness, Smash tries his best to make Baba's attack look threatening. Baba has this really odd way of selling that's curiously hypnotizing, as it doesn't even slightly resemble regular selling. Not saying it's good, just oddly watchable. Andre, despite being possibly more immobile than Baba, at least looks more imposing due to sheer girth. The Demos really try here, using quick tags when they have the advantage to keep control of the monsters, but their selling is what really hold the match together. Of course, it all breaks down into a brawl, allowing Andre to drop an elbow on Smash for the win.

Hulk Hogan vs Stan Hansen
It's really odd to see these two guys in the ring together, it feels like they should exist in entirely different universes. Even odder is watching the two big guys exchanging wristlocks and Hogan taking Hansen to the mat. Of course, this doesn't last and before long they're brawling outside, where Hogan busts Hansen open on the ringpost. Hogan then works over the cut viciously, wailing away at Hansen and even kicking him in the head until he falls out of the ring. Not what you'd expect from 90's red-and-yellow Hogan. Hogan slams Hansen through a table outside and puts him back in the ring to stamp his head again. When Hansen finally gets some offence in, in the form of a flying shoulderblock, the pop is huge. Hansen's payback on Hogan is pretty hellacious, hitting the Hulkster in the head with a chair (which he then throws at Earl Hebner!) and hitting a flying axehandle (of sorts) from the railings. Now with Hogan bleeding, Hansen goes after his cut, but a lariat attempt is countered by Hogan. Hansen avoids the legdrop, but Hogan nails him with a lariat for 3. Super, super enjoyable, Hogan looked like a monster out there.