Bright blue ring, red-white-and-blue ropes, yellow floor, a mic’d up crowd, and an LED-lit Panasonic ad. The year is 1985 and we are at the Boston Garden.
Love how lit the Boston version of MSG is. And the cops! So many cops!
This is a STACKED show. Absolutely mammoth mid-80s pairings. Very cool.
Gorilla and Jesse on commentary. Frank Chrzanowski (!) is the ring announcer.
1. Pedro Morales vs. Cowboy Bob Orton
Lots of time spent laying on the outside. Lots of time spent laying on the mat and selling. Not a whole lot happened, even for the 80s. But this was still pretty good, with two classic 80s characters doing their shtick. Bob gets chased around, bails outside, and TRIPS! He bumps around and soon throws Pedro through a barricade, which leads to a legit ten cops swarming the area. Bob does a one-handed bodyslam – impressive – and flexes. He at one point tries to bring the big barricade into the ring. Pedro fires up, they get a nice near fall off a corner sunset flip from Pedro, Pedro ducks a cast swing, and he gets an inside cradle on for 3. Oh! And Danny Davis was the ref. **
Gorilla reveals that hitting a referee will cost Cowboy Bob $5,000 during Bob’s post-match attack of Pedro.
2. Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat vs. Macho Man Randy Savage w/ Elizabeth
This is such pleasurably good basic professional wrestling. Savage does the Liz in front of him/sneak attack thing and they milk the fuck out of armdrags and armbars from Ricky. Ricky, though mobbed by fans on his entrance, is getting audible boos. There’s a wild spot where they criss-cross and Savage just casually slips out of the ring to sell his arm, then he talks shit to the crowd and asks a fan for something, then Ricky slides out of the ring and attacks him, and finally they go back on the ring where Ricky hits an armdrag and puts on an armbar. Most of the match is stuff like this – two great rasslers doing their house show spots, a couple years before they went for epic territory at Mania. Ricky takes a massive slingshot back into the ring towards the end, and Savage drops a huge elbow that he misses. He eventually does the ol’ foreign object pull on the apron > backdrop into the ring > foreign object to the face for the win. ***1/2
3. Bruno Sammartino vs. Rowdy Roddy Piper
BRUNO!!!! vs. PIPER! What a match. Bruno’s the same guy, just with a quickly-growing bald spot. This match would’ve gotten over like bonkers in the 70s as the main event – here it completely works too, nothing fancy but this is one of the top pure white meat babyface guys ever taking on one of the most vile piece of shit scrawny heels ever. They go right at it as the crowd goes wild, and Piper immediately bumbles to the outside and under the apron where he BLADES. Then he sells his ass off. Bruno is all fired up and shoves the ref away, and the distraction leads to a low blow that the ref blatantly sees. Roddy goes to work as the crowd BOOOOO’s. Roddy tries to go to the locker room a couple times but Bruno drags him back in, and then Roddy starts begging off. Bruno looks to the crowd and they ROOOOOOAR. Then Cowboy runs in and they beat up Bruno to thunderous boos. The fuck else do you want from your wrestling ***3/4
4. WWF Intercontinental Title: Tito Santana [c] vs. Jesse “The Body” Ventura
Another sweet match-up here, one of Jesse’s last in-ring performances and it’s vs. Tito, who was always Ventura’s #1 target on commentary besides Hogan. Plus Tito is just the best. Love the visual of Jesse leaving commentary to go challenge for the Intercontinental Title. Such fine basic stuff here, Jesse’s pretty immobile which prevents it from getting super over but it’s still neat to watch. Don’t think I’ve seen him take more than 10 bumps, to be honest. Jesse runs away, sells an armbar, dishes a basic-ass beatdown. Tito gets a comeback and Jesse swings wildly and stumbles all over. They run a pretty crap finish where Tito tries to beat a countout with a slingshot splash but it’s too late, so Jesse wins. Crowd is mixed, just like with Ricky/Randy — Jesse grabbing the IC Title gets a big pop from some folks, while Tito being handed the strap back gets high-pitched cheers and raucous boos. **3/4
5. WWF World Tag Team Title: The Dream Team (Greg “The Hammer” Valentine & Brutus Beefcake) [c] vs. The Killer Bees (B. Brian Blair & Jumpin’ Jim Brunzell)
A Dream Team tag match, and that’s really not a bad thing. I was always unimpressed by these two as my only real reference was WrestleMania 2, which is a good match but left me more impressed as a youngster with The British Bulldogs than them. And then they just kind of disappeared, as Brutus went on to cut hair and piss everybody off as Hulk Hogan’s buddy. But watching all the 1985 on the WWE Network has left me thinking they were pretty good. Brutus was the young guy with swagger, Valentine was Valentine without a couple 5-minute armbars.
They bumble around for the Bees (lol), whisper sweet nothings into each other’s ear. Gorilla mentions that Johnny V might be out scouting other teams as the WWF has a lot right now – the Tag Titles were HOT! Greg does a shaky leg sell off a backdrop. One of the Bees takes a beating. Brunzell fires off the famous dropkick, and they pull off a pretty neat finish where Valentine and Blair run-in, Blair gets taken back to his corner by the ref, Brunzell puts Beefcake in a sleeper, but Valentine uses the distraction to drop an elbow from the top, which leads to Beefcake getting the 3. **3/4
Jesse: Again here in Beantown, nothin’ but the greatest from the World Wrestling Federation.
Gorilla: Superstars personified here in the World Wrestling Federation. Gorilla Monsoon, for Jesse “The Body” Ventura, saying so long, ’till next time!
Excellent top-to-bottom show, with a fun atmosphere, great match-ups, and quality wrestling all around. If you see the whole card, they cut the exact right amount of riffraff too. 10/10
