The Wrestling Thread

[DomDom]

WWE Wrestlemania IV

So, what's the worst thing you can do to open a show in my eyes...

Battle Royal

...yup. Next. N/A

"Hacksaw" Jim Duggan vs. "The Million Dollar Man" Ted Dibiase - WWE World Heavyweight Championship Tournament

Duggan's hot dogging is his undoing for much of this, as he spends more time giving thumbs up than doing wrestling moves. Duggan's weird selling and bumping is something that I've always liked. It doesn't do much to hide that he's not a great wrestler, but he can still be fun to watch. Everything he does looks rough. He's like Necro Butcher. Except better as he seems to have an understanding of what he's doing. Dibiase wins a match with a Fist Drop. Pleasing. Anyways, inoffensive opener but ultimately a whole lot of nothing. *1/2

"Magnificent" Don Muraco vs. Dino Bravo - WWE World Heavyweight Championship Tournament

It's like watching two Chris Masters. Muraco is actually quite good though. I'll give Bravo some credit here actually. He didn't look too bad in there. His selling was a bit iffy, and he made a couple of spots seem a bit too obvious, but he did a lot of things spot on. Would have appreciated it a bit more had he sold the leg a bit more. One thing I don't like about WWE at this time is the heel posing after hitting a finisher so as the other guy could kickout. It still happens now but it was more regular at this point. Sidewalk Slam was a shit finisher even then. Anyways, this is a fun wee match and probably one of the best of Bravo's career. **1/2

Greg "The Hammer" Valentine vs. Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat - WWE World Heavyweight Championship Tournament

Valentine for the most part leans away from the idiocy for this one. They try and stick to a straight wrestling match for the most part. Valentine's falling Clothesline to the guy lying on the deck is a thing of beauty, it has to be said. Steamboat's chops are even better. This match is decent. The fans gradually buy into what they're doing. It's like a Dean Malenko match. The fans don't particularly care to begin with, but they get there eventually. It feels like a proper war between the two and because of that I appreciate it. Good match. ***

"The Natural" Butch Reed vs. "Macho Man" Randy Savage - WWE World Heavyweight Championship Tournament

The canned booing for Butch Reed is a total embarrassment. This isn't TNA guys, there's abolutely no need for that. Butch Reed picks this match to be particularly loud and annoying with his shouting. It's off-putting. I suppose anything putting me off of the shiteheap of a match should be seen as a good thing though. I don't know what was in Reed's water. Probably some vodka. He was much worse than he has previous for being though. Savage puts us out of our misery by eliminating him. Horrible. DUD

One Man Gang vs. Bam Bam Bigelow - WWE World Heavyweight Championship Tournament

Bigelow as a babyface with particularly dodgy ring music strikes me as a bit odd. This match is very very messy. Bigelow does something I hate, when he does a move then just does a cartwheel. For no reason. Just does a cartwheel. Even worse when he tries for a Splash afterwards and forgets to jump. Add a shit ending to the match and you have our second horror show match in a row. DUD

"Ravishing" Rick Rude vs. Jake "The Snake" Roberts - WWE World Heavyweight Championship Tournament

I've always spoken quite highly of Jake Roberts in some areas, but at the same time, he was never a great wrestler. Rick Rude was, but not good enough to drag Roberts to a good match. This match goes to a 15 minute time limit draw. I don't really have much else to say about this. It's a boring as sin match. *

The Ultimate Warrior vs. Hercules

Warrior wasn't quite going over clean at this point, but there was clearly something there and the fans connected instantly. It wasn't a very good match because Hercules vs. Warrior just isn't going to be good, but Warrior's energy turned it into something worth watching. *

Andre the Giant vs. Hulk Hogan - WWE World Heavyweight Championship Tournament

A very different match from the year previous as you might expect. Andre has clearly been rattled by the previous year and spent the next 12 months being a b*****d. He looks much better here than he did the year before as well, but the match doesn't have the drama so has to find other ways to make people care. The outside involvement is fun at times and helps get over some of them roadblocks. Rather than focusing on the slam, it focuses on Andre going down as a key point. They kind of get lost midway though the match and it falls apart a bit, but both guys manage to turn things around by just pounding on each other for a bit. This match gets shat on. The ending is rightly shat on from all corners, but it's actually quite fun while it lasts. Glad I gave it a chance here. **1/2

"Magnificent" Muraco vs. "The Million Dollar Man" Ted Dibiase - WWE World Heavyweight Championship Tournament

A lot of the match revolves around the fact that Dibiase is on his own out there, and Muraco has someone at ringside, meaning Dibiase does all he can to avoid getting involved in the battle. Dibiase had to use his smarts to get back into the match, but from that point the story of the match just sorta breaks down, and you'd be forgiven for forgetting that Virgil not being at ringside was seen as a big deal and it even ended with a clean win for him. Which I guess made him look like a great threat, but they should have made Dibiase's disadvantage more of a problem. **

Greg "The Hammer" Valentine vs. "Macho Man" Randy Savage - WWE World Heavyweight Championship Tournament

The winner of this one has to face a fresh One Man Gang. The crowd aren't as into this one as they had been over the course of the show, which is the first time you get the feeling that they've packed way too much stuff into the show. It's a Valentine dominated match basically right from the word go and it's just not very interesting stuff. When Savage does eventually get back into things, the pace increases and the match gets a LOT more interesting and they finally make Savage look like the plucky underdog they were looking for most of the match. This isn't very good stuff. *

Honky Tonk Man © vs. Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake - WWE Intercontinental Championship

If you like stalling there's plenty of it in this match, as always from a Honky Tonk Man match, and as usual when it comes to the actual wrestling, you can see why. It's fine when he's doing all of the comedy failures and missing his offense, but when it comes to him needing to control the match it's just so dull. He's like a low rate Ric Flair. Brutus is all fire and fury and good to watch, but there's only so much he can do in this one. Not very enjoyable stuff at all here. DUD

The British Bulldogs and Koko B. Ware vs. The Islanders and Bobby Heenan

MENG!!! Apparently BOTH Islanders were as hard as nails. Meng is reportedly the toughest b*****d to put a foot in a wrestling ring. Koko is much more enjoyable here than usual. Short bursts of the man clearly work. You'd think the idea of Heenan getting a beating would be much more amusing, but the crowd is still a bit out of it at this point. Which is a shame because this is at least a fun fast paced tag team outing from everyone involved. **1/2

One Man Gang vs. "Macho Man" Randy Savage - WWE World Heavyweight Championship Tournament

Savage gets a sort of lucky escape from the match and Dibiase doesn't get the big advantage that he thought he'd have thanks to a short outing in this one. Not really much of a match to rate here. N/A

Strike Force © vs. Demolition - WWE World Tag Team Championships

Good to see some Demolition. They're a tag team that I don't really watch enough of these days. A team that do so many of the small things right. Good examples here when they just opt to club the f**k out of Strike Force at almost every oppertunity. Axe is particularly intense. The fans seem to be livening up again as well which helps matters considerably. The only problem with Demolition's clubbing tactics is that if the match goes on too long, it CAN get a bit tiresome. This is still fun tag team wrestling though. **3/4

"The Million Dollar Man" Ted Dibiase vs. "Macho Man" Randy Savage - WWE World Heavyweight Championship

And here is your main event of the evening. God knows how many times these guys must have wrestled around this time. Even in front of the cameras, they went at it quite a lot. Hogan overshadows things from the crowd's perspective which is a shame. It does work though and the drama of the match intensifies with the inclusion of the outside factors. The action in the ring is quite good actually. Dibiase is as aggressive as he's been in the tournament and Savage has THAT to compete with as well as the big man on the floor. Savage eventually finds his way back into the match thanks to a mix of 1) good fortune, a factor for him through the tournament and 2) the involvement of pretty much everyone. It's a good wee match. ***

You think Wrestlemanias these days are too long? Try getting through this fucker in one sitting.

[KD1711]

Anyone selling 2 meet and greet tickets for Foleys gig on Thursday?

[Paulo Sergio]

[DomDom]

WWE Wrestlemania V

The main event for this alone is a much better prospect than anything on the last Wrestlemania as the Mega Powers collide.

"King" Haku vs. Hercules

Hercules is a babyface at this point and has cool as f**k new music to go with it, which is probably the only good thing about him at this point. That said, two hard as nails folk just beating on each other COULD be good, if that's how the match goes. Everything Haku does looks like it's done with bad intentions, which makes me happy enough. The Backbreakers he does mid-match are brutal. If Hercules' execution was any good, he might actually be a very good wrestler. That's the only fault for him, but it's a massive fault when you're close to botching everything so badly. Another note on the match. This is one of them ones which feels longer than it is, but at the same time is never boring. That's a rarity. With better execution from Hercules, I'd go higher. As it is, I think this a fun opener. **3/4

Akeem and The Big Bossman vs. The Rockers

At least they made One Man Gang a bit more interesting to make up for the fact that he's not a very good wrestler. They go with the power vs. speed idea to start, and you can imagine how that works out for the heels and plus The Rockers use their tag team skills as well to trick their way into the match at times. There's only so long you can do that though when against that much power, and things turn south for them eventually and it's nothing but home runs from that point from the Twin Towers. At one point, Akeem MURDERS HBK with a Clothesline. Utterly brutal. Action packed match there and great fun. ***1/2

"The Million Dollar Man" Ted Dibiase vs. Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake

As always with Beefcake matches, he's all fire and fury. So Dibiase's stalling and cheating works a bit better as Beefcake can't handle it. See? Simple story telling with consistant characters. Feels like a lost art these days. Thanks to them sticking rigidly to this, this match turns out quite good. Beefcake is more plucky than anything else, pulling desperation moves all of the way through the match, but Dibiase continues to use his smarts to keep himself ahead of the game. They lose the crowd after a particularly heated opening couple of matches, so you can't really blame THEM for that. It's a decent match. **1/2

The Fabulous Rougeaus vs. The Bushwackers

Oh fucking great. The Bushwackers. The fans like them I guess, but if you ever ask me what regular tag team is the worst of all time, I will always say The Bushwackers. The Rougeaus seem to be trying to compensate for how shite their opponents are in this one, as they just completely maul their opponents when they are in there. Jesse Ventura says that what The Bushwackers do isn't wrestling. A bit harsh, but he's not that far off. So the match gets point from that perspective, but on the whole, this is just not good. *

Mr. Perfect vs. The Blue Blazer

Jesse Ventura talks this match up in a big way. Give these two guys 15 minutes and it probably would have been a terrific match. Of course, it was Mania undercard stuff, so they had to work with what they had. Real disappointment at one point in the match where they go through a sequence ending in a Dropkick, head for the floor, and then go back into the ring and do the exact same sequence. That is surely a cardinal sin for a match. So obviously loses points on that. It's a bit short, but for the most part, they fill the time well and the audience get right back into things as a result. **3/4

The Powers of Pain and Mr. Fuji vs. Demolition

The big turn with these two teams was major stuff at the time. Demolitions "smash mouth" style doesn't work as well when they're babyfaces. Everything about them just screams "heel". So much of this match is just awkward. Thankfully the Powers of Pain are much more suited to their roles. The only time the fans were really behind Demolition was when they were looking to get their hands on Fuji. The rest of the time they didn't really give a shit and you couldn't blame them for that. We'll file this under "inoffensive but boring shite" then. *

Dino Bravo vs. "Rugged" Ronnie Garvin

A match this short really shouldn't be this shit. It starts promisingly enough with Bravo's aggression being the key, but then after a short while, the whole thing just starts to fall apart between them and they don't manage to turn it around. DUD

The Brainbusters vs. Strike Force

The Brainbusters didn't really hang around in WWE for long, but when they were there, WWE put them against pretty much every half decent team they had and it led to some absolute crackers. The pace of this match is terrific and the whole thing flows brilliantly. All four men get to show off some cracking counters and some quick fire spots. The last section of the match works towards the split between Martel and Santana which means they go with the slow methodical route with the beating on Santana. It doesn't help the actual match at the time, but given how the match goes, it's the perfect way to do things, and the hope spots from Santana work brilliantly as well. Very good stuff. ***3/4

Andre the Giant vs. Jake "The Snake" Roberts

Another one of them matches where the story of the match is basically built around the two characters. Roberts is the smaller but smarter man. Andre the Giant is the big guy who's just looking to outpower Roberts out of the match completely and for the most part, this is a pretty good gameplan for him. Big John Studd as the referee doesn't get involved too much for much of the time either, which is pretty much all you can ask for from a special referee. Obviously neither man is a great wrestler, so giving them a simple gameplan only goes so far. The crowd are WAAAAYYYY into this though and both guys keep the crowd in it pretty well to their credit. **

Honky Tonk Man and Greg "The Hammer" Valentine vs. The Hart Foundation

I figured that this would be a bit of a filler match before the big title matches come around, but what they ended up giving us was a cracking double formula tag team match. Honky Tonk Man's style must work a lot better in a tag team environment when he has someone else to take some of the slack. Hammer in particular was VERY impressive in the match, but to be fair, both of the heel team really did excel in this one, and the Hart Foundation were as good as they have always been here. Very surprising match here. ***1/2

The Ultimate Warrior © vs. "Ravishing" Rick Rude - WWE Intercontinental Championship

This match was essentially part of the build up to their magnificent match at Summerslam 1989. The build up to this one itself was quite good as well though. It's been a long time since I've seen this match. Really smart opening to the match with Rude trying the knee to the gut, but Warrior had his belt on so took the control of the match. You don't see that nearly enough these days. Rude lands one of the most inch perfect Missile Dropkicks you will ever see in this match. They spend too much time with Warrior locking in the bearhug in this match. Reminds me of the Show/Kane match which seen about 10 minutes of Chinlockery. The whole match is a bit long actually, but there's great moments of drama in there. **1/4

Bad News Brown vs. "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan

You can see why these guys were put into the piss break section of the show. They seemed to have zero idea what they were doing. Duggan's weird selling is something I've always liked but even that couldn't keep me entertained. All they did was walk about and hit each other with weak strikes with no rhyme or reason. Can't be arsed with this stuff. DUD

Bobby "The Brain" Heenan vs. The Red Rooster

Not sure this is what I needed after the shitefest that was on, but at least it's short. It ends after like one move, so obviously I can't rate it. N/A

"Macho Man" Randy Savage © vs. Hulk Hogan - WWE World Heavyweight Championship

One of them main events which is worth sitting through a certain amount of shite for. Not an all time classic by any means, but it's brilliantly put together. The early stages of Savage using almost every trick he knows is brilliant, starting with basic stalling, and then just basically trying to wind Hogan up, and then cheating. What makes things better is Hogan deciding that he should go down and dirty with him in order to counter, doing some face raking, eye poking and trunk pulling of his own. It develops into a belting two sided match as it builds. The worry is that it is all just thrown away for the big Hogan ending and unfortunately, that's what happens and it seems patched on but before that, it's a terrific main event and yet another example of Hogan not being as bad as people say. ****

After sitting through number four, this is a much easier show to sit through. The main event is a belter of a match. There's enough good stuff here to counter the shite, and most of the shite isn't too bad anyways.

[#Gary]

Mania may have been my last match. The 3 year goal was to come in & elevate the @WWE. Then proudly "do the honors". #RockTalk

[DomDom]

Don't believe that for a second. He was all set for Extreme Rules before injuries ruled him out.

[Ludo*1]

Michael Bay telling the papers that Rock needs to 'grow up' and leave wrestling behind.

[EdgarusQPFC]

Michael Bay telling the papers that Rock needs to 'grow up' and leave wrestling behind.

Grow up? What by leaving the company that made him? The career that defines him and his family, pays him loads and of which he is pretty much the only Hall of Famer still preforming? Aye he definitely needs to grow up. .

[Denji]

Dwayne Johnson's a w**k. I said it the moment he came back to WWE, and anything he's done since has just reinforced that opinion. He's been undeniably rubbish since he came back.

[Denji]

Those c***s at wrestlezone.com are the worst journalists I've ever encountered. Fucking morons the lot of them.

[Denji]

Just read this on wrestlezone - "The Rock never came back to WWE. Dwayne Johnson came to WWE.", I actually totally agree.

And yes, I'm blootered, hence 3 posts in a row.

Rock n roll.

[forehead7]

Grow up? What by leaving the company that made him? The career that defines him and his family, pays him loads and of which he is pretty much the only Hall of Famer still preforming? Aye he definitely needs to grow up. .

To be fair, Michael Bay is a fucking arsehole.

EXPLOSIONS.

[DomDom]

Michael Bay. Mature.

[EdgarusQPFC]

Well of course The Rock needs to grow up and go make quality mature films such as the tooth fairy 2.

[DomDom]

Well of course The Rock needs to grow up and go make quality mature films such as the tooth fairy 2.

The first one was better than most of Bay's output as well!

[Denji]

Dwayne Johnson's a w**k. I said it the moment he came back to WWE, and anything he's done since has just reinforced that opinion. He's been undeniably rubbish since he came back.

Those c***s at wrestlezone.com are the worst journalists I've ever encountered. Fucking morons the lot of them.

Just read this on wrestlezone - "The Rock never came back to WWE. Dwayne Johnson came to WWE.", I actually totally agree.

And yes, I'm blootered, hence 3 posts in a row.

Rock n roll.

Oh.

[DomDom]

Well, he was shite. He's still The Rock though. Which makes him infinitely more deserving of being champion than 99% of the WWE roster.

[#Gary]

Oh.

[Dindeleux]

WWE Wrestlemania V

Great write up as usual Domdom.

This is my favourite period of wrestling - WM5 all the way through to WM10. In that tag match you mentioned, did Boss Man try some move off the top rope only to fall off? It was either at that mania or the following Summerslam, I've got it on tagged classics somewhere. Whatever event it happened at - Monsoon was all excited "The big man is on the top rope......................oh............oh, well at least he tried".

Hacksaw had a bogey hanging out of his nose after the Bad News match, thats all I can remember.

The Rougeau's seemed to fight the Bushwackers at every PPV that year.

ETA - You can buy a great Akeem teeshirt from barbershopwindow.com

Edited April 28, 2013 by Dindeleux

[DomDom]

In that tag match you mentioned, did Boss Man try some move off the top rope only to fall off?

A top rope splash. He didn't really fall off, but he sort of had a slow mo landing. Looked ridiculous.