Stampede - 01/01/1988
Non Title: Chris Benoit vs. Gama Singh
JIP 10 minutes in with 5 minutes remaining. Nothing I am willing to rate but this is a cool clip of a young Benoit and Gama Singh. Stampede sounds really fun in this time period but it’s a matter of finding the footage. But I found this and liked what little I saw. Singh cheats, using the knuckle dusters but gets caught and DQ’d as a result. Boy is Benoit french. NR
AJPW New Year Giant Series 1988 - Day 1 - 02/01/1988
AWA World Heavyweight Title Match: Curt Hennig (c) vs. Tiger Mask
A largely underwhelming match. I think Hennig taking Tiger Mask II to the ground and letting him up summed up the superfluous, empty match that would follow. TM2 would attack the arm with no real follow up. Hennig did a bare bones Bockwinkel impression in an environment that was unfamiliar with him and it led to a cold performance within a cold match. Boring with a finish that is more annoying and cheap. **
Jumbo Tsuruta & Yoshiaki Yatsu vs. Revolution (Ashura Hara & Genichiro Tenryu)
A strong tag team match that was worthy of being the main event. This was a patient match that took its time to build, starting out largely technical with a lot of holds and basic tag team wrestling before the drama picked up and tempers began to flare. Naturally the Tenryu/Tsuruta sequences are pretty fun, and bring the biggest reactions of the match, Yatsu and Hara were solid additions to the match as always. The finish was a count-out which isn’t ideal but didn’t feel nearly as cheap as the Hennig/TM2 bout did. ***1/2
WWF Saturday Night's Main Event #14 - 02/01/1988
WWF World Tag Team Title Best Two Out Of Three Falls Match: Strike Force (Rick Martel & Tito Santana) (c) vs. The Bolsheviks (Boris Zhukov & Nikolai Volkoff) (w/Slick)
Slick cut a pretty funny promo about his pal “Gorby” (Mikhail Gorbachev) and how The Bolsheviks are peace loving citizens. Little things like this add depth to the one note Soviet gimmicks. The match is simple and serves to put over Strike Force. The first fall is the classic tag format - shine into heat section and hot tag - condensed into mere minutes with Strike Force getting the win via Martel’s Boston Crab. The second fall allows the Bolsheviks to dominate a little more with Martel getting an extended FIP section. Martel’s selling is good and the Bolshevikes are basic but effective heels. Tito’s hot tag is pretty fire as well but it’s cut off early, which leads to the finish where Volkoff attempts to use the cane on Santana but misses and hits Zhukov instead. Decent match. A fun match to put the new champs over. **3/4
WWF World Heavyweight Title Match: Hulk Hogan (c) vs. King Kong Bundy (w/Andre The Giant)
Following the previous SNME, Heenan had helped Bundy gain a victory over Hogan via count-out. Hogan lost his temper with him and caused a neck injury, therefore Andre The Giant will be in Bunday’s corner for this match. Andre only just made his in-ring return at Survivor Series and they set up an imminent rematch with Hogan. This will undoubtedly lead to that once more. Hogan really kicks Bundy’s ass in the beginning. Bundy’s giant status has been seriously compromised (mind you that he is smaller than Hogan), so he’s an average heel. He stalls and bails to the floor. He begs off while locked in an arm-wringer. Bundy works his way into the match per the Hogan formula, grabbing the hair and using what advantages he can gain. Bundy unloads all of his biggest moves but Hogan continues to survive until he makes the comeback. Bundy is sent away, so the big angle could begin. Andre attacks Hogan from behind and hurts Hogan badly. The Bulldogs come to Hogan’s aide, then Duggan and Jake Roberts and JYD. Nothing works until the 2x4 shot distracts Andre enough for Hogan to be carried away. BIG ANGLE. Solid match. ***
NWA World Championship Wrestling - 02/01/1988
Arn Anderson vs. Ron Garvin
This is pretty terrific. It started out with classic Anderson armwork and slowly progressed into a great dramatic affair. Garvin is coming off a failed title reign but he looks great here and got the crowd behind him with ease. It’s a lively crowd that was raucous for everything and the wrestlers brought all their quality in spades. Not only was there great technical wrestling, there was good brawling throughout as both kept slugging away at each other. It’s a well worth watching TV match. Rugged and tough with excellent wrestling. But the angle afterwards really put it over the top with Tully and JJ coming in to assault Garvin. Then came down Lex Luger, who put JJ in the RACK!! Madness. What an angle. ****
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