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Best Two Out Of Three Falls Six Man Tag Team Match: Dino Bravo & The Fabulous Rougeaus (Jacques Rougeau & Raymond Rougeau) (w/Frenchy Martin & Jimmy Hart) vs. Jim Duggan & The Hart Foundation (Bret Hart & Jim Neidhart)
Gorilla notes that this has intercontinental rules, therefore 2/3 falls which was interesting to say the least. I loved this match as a kid. I would always watch it on the DVD (or video, I can’t remember) and admired the work aspect. And it still holds up as a fun match. The match starts with the powerhouses, Dino and Neidhart. They exchange shoulder tackles but Neidhart gets the better with a lariat. Duggan is the arse kicker of his team. He’s an idiot in WWF but he’s still got a massive elbow that I wouldn’t like to be on the receiving end of. But the high spot of the first fall is a triple team battering ram where the heels are stuck in the corner getting squashed by Neidhart. But the match turns in the heel’s favour following a tumble to the floor by Bret, who gets hurt and pinned some time after. The second fall is the heels working on Bret, who’s selling is wonderful. He takes some wonderful bumps and makes any simple offence look damaging. I particularly loved his selling after taking a gut buster. The Rougeaus are wonderful little shits. So smarmy and heateable. And in a good way too. Great midcard heels. Bravo is decent in his role. Not terrible as he’s known to be but of course, he has limited offence in the more meaningful moments of the bout. The match hits a second peak as Neidhart makes a tag but the ref has to escort him back out after failing to see the tag, making Bret eventually making a tag more meaningful. And The Summit erupts, as Jesse says. And Duggan batters the heels and eventually gets the pin, although after a dodgy moment where Bret and Neidhart attempt to pin when they aren’t legal so the ref doesn’t count. Kayfabe is strong in Joey Marella. The third fall attempted the same process but with Duggan as the FIP, which isn’t nearly as effective but there isn’t as big an attempt to build to a hot tag this time. Instead Bret comes in and whips Bravo’s arse. The finish comes when Duggan cheats (no question about it), hitting Bravo with the 2x4, allowing Bret to get the pin and the bout. I love that sometimes. It’s all execution. Regardless of babyface dynamics, if the faces win, you want them to win. ***1/2
People get their number for the rumble with the highlight being Ted Dibiase being unhappy with his number, which will be revealed to be a great one but not good enough for the Million Dollar Man.
WWF World Women's Title Match: Rockin' Robin (c) vs. Judy Martin
Sensational Sherri challenges the winner to the match. The commentary is actually pretty interesting as they make references about the Jumping Bomb Angels, Sam Huston’s music, etc. Now I like Judy Martin but this is pitiful as a match. Uncoordinated and clunky. Rockin’ Robin was struggling there. Judy Martin didn’t look much better honestly. I love that the commentators bury the match. And I don’t blame them. Look, this isn’t good. The crowd is dead. The moves are executed poorly throughout. The finish is kind of nice when Rockin’ Robin faked out Judy and hit a cross body before getting the three. 1/2*
Super Pose Down (Rude vs Warrior)
This was hilarious. The commentary was on point, even Gorilla pointed out that it was unfair that Warrior was winning, Heenan was amazing with his sucking up and comments and Mean Gene’s prodding was the icing on the cake. Eventually, Rick Rude attacked Warrior with the bar. Warrior comes to and attacks everyone, including Nick Bockwinkel.
Harley Race vs. King Haku
The people in Texas didn’t care much for this. And I’m starting to see why they didn’t include this match in the Coliseum Home video version of the Rumble. It’s much more competent than the women’s match but it’s so boring. The ultimate sin of any entertainment form. Haku wins. *
Royal Rumble Match
This was looking to be a tremendous Rumble match until Hogan left. And once that peak was gone, it was truly GONE. It was poorly paced in that regard. I loved everything up to that point. The start with Ax and Smash was strong, especially when Andre came in and the story revolved around him. Then once he was eliminated, the match didn’t have too much focus but settled on a collection of guys striving to win before more story came back into it with Savage and Hogan coming out. Of course, Hogan is a scummy friend and dumps Savage out with his careless actions and gets his comeuppance when the Twin Towers come out one after the other and dump him out. Hogan responds by cheating, a second time by a face on this show. And from there, the match crawls with a whimper. Dibiase could’ve won and he didn’t. That’s all I’ll say. ***1/2
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