wrestling / Video Reviews
The Name on the Marquee: Madison Square Garden Presents the WWF (2.22.1988)
Loading...-It’s February 22, 1988 in MSG.
-Your hosts are Gorilla Monsoon & Lord Alfred Hayes.
-Making their MSG debut tonight: the blue mats around the ring.
ROUGEAU BROTHERS vs KING HARLEY RACE & IRON MIKE SHARPE (with Bobby Heenan)
-Well, here’s a pretty apparent “card subject to change” situation. Rougeaus start hot with dropkicks for everyone. Harley gets caught in a wristlock and the Rougeaus trade off on him. Harley breaks away with a headbutt and makes the tag, and now the Rougeaus go to work on the leg. Race finally gets something going with a piledriver on Jacques. Iron Mike feels a surge of confidence and tags back in, cracking Jacques across the chest with a forearm brace-assisted chop. Iron Mike chokes out Jacques over the top rope. Sharpe and race cut the ring in half and trade off on Jacques, but Iron Mike misses an elbow and we have our hot tag.
-Raymond clamps a sleeper on Iron Mike and that draws Harley inside. We have all four men in the ring and the referee’s lost control of this one. Race and Sharpe get rammed into each other and Race tumbles out to the floor, and Le Bobmbe De Rougeau on Sharpe gets the win. Perfectly acceptable opener. 1 for 1.
GEORGE “The Animal” STEELE vs SIKA
-Sika attacks on the apron to block George from entering the ring. Steele finally charges inside and bites Sika, and a shot to the throat sends Sika out to the floor. George goes out there to brawl with him and Sika rams his head into the bell, with Steele just sells like it’s a mild nuisance. George lobs a bunch of folding chairs into the ring. Sika grabs one as George re-enters the ring. Sika swings, George ducks, and the chair hits a rope and bounces back, causing Sika to knock himself out, and George pins him. 1 for 2. This felt more like a TV match to set up the house show run.
KEN PATERA vs AX (with Mr. Fuji)
-Holy crap, Patera is still wearing that massive cast on his arm. Gorilla announces the tag team title match for Wrestlemania IV and says that breaking up his team and putting them in singles matches a month before the match of their careers is a weird mistake.
-Patera just unloads on Ax with the cast and he darts out to the floor. Back in, Patera gets to work on the arm. They brawl on the floor and Patera just keeps going to work on Ax with the cast. Ax and Fuji both get tired of this shit and Ax gets to work ripping and tearing off pieces of the cast while Fuji takes some free shots with the cane. Patera gets fired up and rams Ax into the turnbuckle over and over. Full nelson is clamped on, and that brings Smash out. Patera goes to the apron to deal with Smash and Ax sneaks up with a knee to the back for three. 3-on-1 attack follows, but Junkyard Dog heads to the ring swinging his chain and daring Demolition to come get some. 2 for 3. This was fine, too.
JUNKYARD DOG (with Ken Patera) vs SMASH (with Ax & Mr. Fuji)
-Everybody’s already there, so the referee just decides they may as well start the next match immediately. Obviously, this was supposed to be Billy Jack Haynes, but Haynes left the company and his career never came close to that level of stardom again. JYD stomps Mr. Fuji’s hat. If JYD really believed in his gimmick, he’d pee on the hat too, to assert his dominance.
-JYD and Ax trade punches. A headbutt sends Smash to the floor and the rulebook goes right out the window, as JYD distracts the referee and Patera just gives Smash a kick to the stomach. Smash grabs a chair, and the referee sees that and warns Smash. This is the fun version of faces acting like heels. Demolition started it, so Patera and the Dog are gonna stoop to their level now.
-Back in the ring, Dog misses a corner charge and Smash slams him for a two-count. JYD fights back but they collide on a double clothesline. JYD revives first, but Ax trips him from ringside. Ken Patera retaliates by tripping Smash from the outside. That triggers a brawl between the seconds on the floor, and when the referee runs over to deal with it, JYD grabs his chain and knocks Smash right the hell out with it and gets the pin. 3 for 4. Short and sweet. Karma makes for a pretty fun match. Smash totally had that coming to him.
-Craig DeGeorge talks to Frenchy Martin and Dino Bravo. The DDT is devastating, but not devastating enough to put away the strongest man in wrestling.
-Jake “The Snake” Roberts offers his rebuttal. “Nuh-uh” is the gist of it.
-Next, Craig talks to Oliver Humperdink…we’re like 40 minutes into the show, this isn’t intermission, is it?
-And here’s Hacksaw Jim Duggan. He’s ready for Outlaw Ron Bass. Hoo.
-And now here’s Slick. Don Muraco and Ultimate Warrior are stupid enough to get hit by parked cars, his men aren’t worried.
JAKE “The Snake” ROBERTS vs DINO BRAVO (with Frenchy Martin)
-Commentators debate the merits of the bench press record. Dino is eager to lock up so Jake locks up with him, then just releases so Dino falls on his face. Dino relatiates with a hiptoss and rejoices like he’s already won. Jake goes nuts on the arm with a hammerlock and a series of knees. Jake goes for the DDT right away and Dino escapes and gets the hell out of the ring. That’s pretty funny, Dino cuts a whole promo about how he’s strong enough that the DDT won’t affect him and he instantly lets his guard down and reveals he’s scared to death of the hold.
-Dino stalls for a bit and accuses Jake of hair pulling. Jake sends Dino into the ropes and winds up for a forearm, but Jake hooks the ropes to stop himself and gives Dino the finger, which pops the crowd so much, some guy should have a gimmick where he just gives his opponents the finger all the time. He’d probably be a main eventer. Jake punches Dino and he falls backward into the corner where Damien is, so Dino bolts out to the floor so Frenchy can protect him. Back in, Dino goes to the second rope, but Jake hooks his neck on the way down and sets him up for the DDT, and again, Dino escapes.
-Frenchy suckers Jake into chasing him, but Jake knows what he’s doing and catches Dino with right hands before turning around to give chase again. Dino catches Jake with something off-camera, and a piledriver by Dino gets two with a foot on the ropes. Chinlock by Dino, and he stays on Jake with elbows and headscissors. Sweet move from Dino as he rolls over while holding onto the headscissors, then jerks his knees back and forth so Jake’s head goes into the mat over and over again. Dino goes back to the chinlock and they stay with that for a while. Jake eventually finishes reading the newspaper and breaks it by snapping Dino’s neck over his shoulder…hey, giving middle fingers to his opponent, dropping down on his ass to snap their necks over his shoulder…I think Jake’s onto something…
-Jake goes for the DDT, but he’s right against the ropes, so Frenchy grabs his ankle and Dino boots him down. Jake comes right back with a flurry of punches. Sunset flip gets two for Jake. Bell suddenly sounds, and we have a 20-minute time limit draw. Okay, the chinlock went a bit long, so it has that going against it, but damn this was a fun match, with Jake getting into Dino’s head and picking his game plan apart piece by piece. 4 for 5. Jake ties Dino in the ropes after the bell and gets Damien out of the bag. Frenchy tries sneaking up on Jake, but again, Jake sees it coming and drapes the snake on him instead.
BAM-BAM BIGELOW (with Oliver Humperdink) vs “The Million Dollar Man” TED DIBIASE (with Virgil)
-So everyone’s heard the story of how Honky’s politicking led to the finish being changed at The Main Event, which led to Savage getting a run with the WWF Title at Wrestlemania IV to placate him. Here’s the stop in between. Ted DiBiase was supposed to win the tournament and hold the WWF Title through the spring and summer, but this was the advertised main event for this month’s MSG show, and they drew only 8,000 fans, down from 22,000 last month. The fundamental problem at this point was that the Million Dollar Man spent months paying people to wrestle squash matches, sending Virgil into his matches for him, taking the night off at Survivor Series because he didn’t feel like wrestling, and trying to buy the WWF Title instead of trying to earn it, and buying another wrestler’s contract, so he’s now Andre the Giant’s manager. So basically, the character was over, but not in a way that made people want to pay to see him wrestle, because the WWF had unintentionally led the fans to believe he wasn’t good at it. This apparently led to some very cold feet for Vince, and the tournament was re-booked as a result. Bam-Bam uses “Stand Back” as entrance music, and it actually works pretty well for him.
-Ted cuts a long promo declaring the death of Hulkamania, so Bigelow noggin-knocks he and Virgil to start the match. Atomic drop sends DiBiase tumbling out to the floor. Bam-Bam is all over DiBiase with right hands and headbutts. Elbow sends DiBiase back out to the floor. DiBiase comes back in and starts firing back with punches and elbows. Bam-Bam reverses an Irish whip and shoulderblocks DiBiase. Atomic drop and a big boot to the face, and DiBiase continues to have the worst night ever. DiBiase gets desperate, and choking and chopping start to turn the tide.
-DiBiase comes off the top with an axehandle. Big right hand causes Bigelow to topple over the top. Back in, DiBiase knees Bigelow in the “lobanzo” and we hit the chinlock. I’ll say this, for a crowd that’s only 40% capacity, it’s still 100% of the noise. They go to the corner and Bam-Bam blocks and reverses the turnbuckle shots. Shoulderblocks by Bam-Bam. Slingshot splash looks to finish, but Virgil hooks his leg on the apron. Bam-Bam gives chase and DiBiase gets between them, ramming Bam-Bam into the post and knocking him right out. DiBiase takes the win by count-out. 5 for 6. Another keeper tonight.
-DiBiase celebrates. He just beat one of the heaviest men in the Wrestlemania IV tournament and a guy who’s larger than his own round one opponent, so he says he’s just proved he’s going to make it at least that far.
HACKSAW JIM DUGGAN vs OUTLAW RON BASS
-Bass attacks from behind but misses an elbow right away. Duggan goes for the three-point stance right then and there, but Bass goes out to the floor to avoid it. He returns with his whip, but the referee talks him out of it. Back in, Duggan clotheslines him right back out. Bass gets frustrated and lobs a chair into the ring, but Duggan just catches it and Bass is completely exasperated now. Back in, slugfest erupts, but Duggan just elbows him back out to the floor. Duggan goes outside this time and rams Bass into the post. Back in, a right hand by Duggan gets two.
-On the floor again, but this time, Duggan gets rammed into the barricade and he’s so dazed that he has drool on his ear at one point. Piledriver by Bass gets two. Duggan comes back to life with rights and lefts, but Bass stops him with a thumb to the throat. Bass chkes him over the middle rope. Abdominal stretch but you bet your sweet ass Gorilla notices the leg isn’t hooked properly and Duggan hiptosses free rather quickly. Duggan cradles him for two and Bass stops him with another thumb to the throat. Bass tries a chinlock but MSG inspires Duggan with the power of the ho, and Duggan elbows free. Duggan hammers Bass repeatedly. Referee gets shoved out of the way while the guys brawl in Bass’ corner, and that gives him an opening to club Duggan with the handle of the whip. It only gets two.
-Bass strangles him with the whip, feeling ballsy, and the referee heads to the floor to grab his 2×4. Bass tights his grip on the whip, causing Duggan to drop the whip, and we have a nice dramatic build to Duggan reaching and crawling until he finally grabs it. Duggan just unleashes shot after shot on Bass with the 2×4 until Bass get the hell out of the ring. Duggan chases him back to the locker room, and despite the fact that it should already be a double DQ, the referee counts both men out and that’s your decision. 6 for 7. Great hoss vs. hoss brawl, as these guys went 15 minutes and damn near never stopped.
NESTLE CRUNCH OF THE NIGHT
-George Steele’s wacky shenanigans with a headset are your crunch of the night.
ULTIMATE WARRIOR & “The Rock” DON MURACO vs “The Natural” BUTCH REED & KING KONG BUNDY (with Slick)
-So Bundy left at the beginning of the year, but One Man Gang went and injured himself and needed two weeks off, and for some reason, they decided that Gang’s replacement just had to be another big fat guy, so Bundy is back for one night only. Bundy has so thoroughly checked out that he didn’t even bother shaving his head for the one-shot.
-Faces charge the ring and clean house quickly. Reed gets caught in the wrong corner and gets pinballed around. Bundy tags in as Slick complains about how unfair the match is and how ugly Gorilla Monsoon is. Bundy and Reed accidentally collide on an attempted double team and Reed goes flying into the barricade. Warrior tags in to battle Bundy, and this is the only time that these two ever met. Warrior works the arm. Bundy fights back with chops, but Warrior reverses an Irish whip and now Muraco comes off the top with an axehandle on the shoulder. Bundy has had enough and tags Reed in. Muraco rams him into the turnbuckle 10 times and drops a knee on him for one.
-Muraco runs into a knee and Reed takes over with rapid fire right hands. Chinlock by Reed. Muraco stops a backdrop with a boot to the chest, but Bundy cuts off the tag and strangles Muraco. Referee bungles the false tag spot and all four men battle in the ring. Muraco bodypresses Bundy while Warrior schoolboys him for the three-count. 6 for 8.
