Sunday, January 2, 2011

WWF @ Boston Garden - 3/18/89

1) The Conquistadores vs. The Young Stallions – 4
The ring announcer immediately screws up and announces the Stallions as Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty. What an idiot. Conquistador #1 does a weird sell of a double arm bar like he’s rowing a boat across the sea from Cuba. Why is it that I can tell the two Conquistadores apart and no one else can, especially due to the fact that Conquistadore #2 is so paunchy. Stallions spent much of the first half using armbars for offense. Good nearfall off a Roma top rope splash from the Stallions is broken up and changed the tide. Powers kicks in the corner off a hot tag sucked. Good top rope dropkick from Roma finishes it and he celebrates like he won the World Series.

2) Judy Martin vs. Rockin Robin – 3
Two minutes in and this is already better than the divas matches every week on Raw. Martin’s offense is very simplistic, relying on kicks and splashes for the most part. The most high impact thing I saw from her was a suplex. Robin showed quickness and spunk but I can’t forgive the fact that her punches were telegraphed and quite bad. Martin was announced at 150 pounds. Yeah, maybe 150 pounds per hoof. I would like to see more of Robin’s matches so I can form a good opinion of her work.

3) Mr. Perfect vs. Ronnie Garvin – 5
Good hard worked match by both guys. Great close up shot early on of Perfect with Garvin in a headlock, with great facials by both. The spot where both of them were trading punches at the beginning seemed very choreographed. Garvin’s fatigue selling on the apron after both guys collided was really good. Hennig still seemed kind of bland here as Perfect with the generic trunks and what-not as this was really early on in the character. Middle of the match didn’t do much for me. Finish was Perfect rolling through a Garvin top-rope cross body press for a pin. Decent bout but I was expecting it to go to the next level which it never really did.

4) Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard vs. The Rockers – 5
Tully was doing a little Flair type strut during the first exchange with Michaels. Rockers controlled early on until Jannetty took a sick throat first drop across the top rope courtesy of Arn. Jannetty’s selling was great during the face-in-peril segment of the match, especially on a slingshot into the buckle. Jannetty took a crazy bump missing a splash in the corner and doing a faceplant straight to the floor. Arn and Tully were on top of their game with crafty tags and hard, stiff offense. Arn’s selling was brilliant as usual. This had your basic tag formula working really good. The finish knocks the match down a point as it had some legal man issues and instead of a pin off a big splash from Michaels, Arn pulled the ref out of the ring for a DQ. These two teams have had good matches but this is one that can be skipped.

5) Brooklyn Brawler vs. Red Rooster – 2
Brawler relied mostly on headlocks, stomps, and simple offense as the commentators make fun of the red spikes in Rooster’s hair. Brawler was doing vocal selling as well, something that really isn’t seen from a lot of wrestlers. Not much substance to this one as Brawler controlled the majority of the match and kept the pace slow. Rooster looked ridiculous trying to cock his head while doing his comeback. Backslide from the Rooster finishes off the Brawler in a match that went about six minutes too long.

6) Bad News Brown vs. Hercules – 3
I enjoyed this because it wasn’t what I expected. I was expecting a slow, prodding match but it turned into a brawl almost from the start. Brown hit Herc with a chair and the ring bell in the mid-section and I was quite shocked by that. Offense or defense wasn’t much from either guy and the double count out finish didn’t do much for me either. Points for the brawling and that’s about it.

7) The Fabulous Rougeau Brothers & Dino Bravo vs. The Bushwhackers & Hacksaw Jim Duggan – 2
Never been a Bushwhackers fan. Quite honestly, I cringe when I see them come out for matches. Jacques took a really hard shoulder shot into the ringpost that he continually sold while on the apron. Props for that, bro! Frenchy Martin gets on the mic and calls Duggan and the Bushwhackers the three dumbest wrestlers he’s ever seen. Best exchanges of the match were between Duggan and Bravo. All the competitors just seemed to be bumbling around aimlessly with no rhyme or reason to anything. This was pointless.

8) Steel Cage Match: The Big Boss Man vs. Hulk Hogan – 5
Boss Man was bouncing and bumping around for Hogan like crazy. He also bled like crazy. Weird visual where Boss Man was being thrown into the cage and the ribbon boards in the background displayed “Ouch” in really big letters. Kind of a typical Hogan match with him posing and playing to the crowd. Slick interfered after knocking out the ref. He took a wild face first throw into the cage after the match. Fun match but nothing to really recommend. Check out the cage match these two had from the May 89 Saturday Night’s Main Event, it’s much better.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I loved reading this rundown as some of your details brought back memories for me. I blog about 1980s WWF wrestling, with a focus on Boston Garden shows (http://bostongardenbalcony.wordpress.com). If I remember correctly, Bossman's blood was the first time blading had occurred at a WWF show in Boston in quite some time (I think we were in the midst of one of Vince's "ban the blood" phases). I'd love to see you review the September 1989 Boston show, which had the Rougeaus vs. Rockers in a great marathon match.