WWF @ MSG 12/31/91

1. Hercules vs. Greg “The Hammer” Valentine – 2
2. Virgil vs. Repo Man – 4
3. Jim Powers vs. Skinner – 2
4. The Nasty Boys vs. The Bushwhackers – 1
5. Bret Hart vs. Ted DiBiase – 4
6. Handicap Flag Match: Col. Mustafa & Gen. Adnan vs. Sgt. Slaughter – 1
7. The British Bulldog vs. The Berzerker – 3
8. Brooklyn Brawler vs. Chris Walker – 2
9. Ric Flair vs. Hulk Hogan – 4

I was in the mood to watch an old WWF house show so I dug into the stack and pulled this bad boy out. This show was taped on 12/29/91 as a New Year’s Eve special on the MSG Network. Opener featured Hercules moving in slow motion and spending the first few minutes of the match trying to get a test of strength. Hammer’s offense was pretty good and he moved a lot better than he did than when I saw him at a run down skating rink last March. Forgot how awful Hercules was. He held a bearhug like he was trying to carry a sack of flour. Double clothesline spot sucked as did the double pin finish. Virgil had some pretty nice offense, including a splash off the buckle and some good, basic wrestling. Wild bump from Virgil over the top rope. Noticed Repo tugging and adjusting his mask a lot. Liked the pace they set early on, somewhat brisk but not as slow and prodding as the previous bout. Few good nearfalls bumped this up a point for me. Skinner controlled for the majority of the bout, just throwing Powers around. Really goofy spot where Skinner jumped off the second rope and sold a Powers boot to the face even though he didn’t hit it at all. Not a lot of offense from Powers but what was there was pretty bad. The tag match featured lots of heavy schtick early on as is the case from most Bushwhacker matches. Knobbs roughing up Butch with a hard whip to the buckle and a hard elbow on the match was the only highlight here. Obvious to me these four where just here to collect a check. Bret held a side headlock for what seemed like forever. Some pretty good bumping early on from DiBiase. Loved Bret taking the sternum first bump into the pads and a big throat first drop on the top rope that looked all kinds of sick. Draw finish sucked away a point for me although I the pace they set in the later stages of the match was very solid. A decent way to close out the first half of the show.

Kicking off the second half was a handicap flag match that was quite awful. Slaughter did his best to make Sheik and Adnan’s weak-ass offense look good but it was a futile effort. Even Sarge’s offense looked bad. These guys looked like three drunks stumbling out of the local pub after a night of heavy drinking. I liked Berzerker throwing some hard shots on Bulldog, who didn’t feel in the mood to sell a damn thing. Bulldog was tied up in the ropes at one point and Berzerker delivered one of the worst big boots I’ve ever seen. It connected with all the authority of Bob Ross painting his “happy little trees”. Bulldog’s comeback was short and the tease of the running powerslam was nice. Who in the blue hell is this Chris Walker guy? Guy looks jacked and sort of like a Kerry Von Erich clone. He also seems green and dangerous but was pretty agile. Top-rop crossbody was nice. Brawler was there to pretty much walk this guy through the match. Main event was the Ric Flair show all the way through. Hogan did nothing but throw punches and play to the crowd. Flair bumped his ass off including taking a back drop suplex on the floor. Hogan did manage to apply the figure four at one point. End featured the referee getting poked in the eye and interference from Perfect which all led up to a great nearfall. Hogan managed to sneak off with a count-out win shortly after.