Raven had like 20% of Jake's mic skill. He had his uses in the ring though.

Raven and Roberts are both at the top of my "guys I can't believe never held the championship" list.

Raven obviously wasted too much time managing Adam Bomb.

Was there a medical issue/disease (other than drugs/alcohol) that made Raven go from a pretty solid shape early in his career to a fat slob in his later runs in WWF?

SURVIVOR SERIES (1988)
Location: Richfield (Ohio) Coliseum

Demolition, Brain Busters, Bolsheviks, Rougeau Brothers & Los Conquistadores vs. Powers of Pain, Rockers, British Bulldogs, Hart Foundation & Young Stallions


(It’s the first match on the video)

* So here we go with another one of these tag team elimination matches. It’s hard to get one of these wrong. The reviews I read for this match were generally better than last year’s. I’ll be the judge of that! Love the huddle of heel managers. Wait, what’s Goldust and his twin doing in this match? ... Blanchard does the ol’ “pinball around the wrong corner while a bunch of guys clobber you” routine that I can’t believe no one did last year. Nice. The Mountie (sorry, Jacques Rougeau) hits a nice dropkick on Jim Powers, then nails Bret Hart (who got a surprisingly big pop when tagged, didn’t know he/the Hart Foundation was that over at this point) with a nice flying elbow. The Excellence of Execution then half-botches a small package but smoothly recovers for the pin. Paul Roma (another guy I always thought was underrated) does a sweet jump up to the top turnbuckle for a twisting crossbody on Nikolai Volkoff. Hey, Nikolai did something I liked, an overhead press into a backbreaker on HBK. When Nikolai’s getting a positive sentence from me, you know the match is fun. Arn Anderson’s spinebuster might make not make my top 10 list of favorite moves, but it’d come close. (Remind me to do that list sometime.) A Conquistadore throws a high chop that HBK is supposed to duck, and HBK lightly sells it in an amusing botch. Marty Jannetty does a sweet spinout of a hip toss. Hey, there’s the Nikolai I know and love, a spinning kick that might have hit Davey Boy’s thigh. Warlord throws around a sandbagging Conquistadore around while I contemplate how many times the phrase “sandbagging Conquistadore” has ever been used. I think I’d rather fight Barbarian than Haku, but it’s close. I’d be dead in a half-second either way. Dynamite hits his trademark running clothesline on Banchard. Later, Blanchard enters, sees Barbarian and tags in Nikolai. Wise man. A Conquistador nearly backdrops Jannetty out of the arena. At this point I can pretty clearly call this match better than last year’s, and it’s only about half done. Davey does an upside-down bump into the corner I didn’t expect. The Conquistador trying to get a tag in the wrong corner was quality comedy. Bret gets eliminated when he hits a rather sloppy German suplex on Blanchard but Blanchard rolls his shoulder up while Bret’s are down. Then Dynamite comes in and Tombstones Tully but gets only two (should have been three, frankly). There’s a nice spot where HBK saves Jannetty from a double-team Brainbusters suplex and the Rockers give Arn and Tully chin music. Davey’s delayed vertical suplex is another of my favorite “old-school” moves. Dynamite hits another sweet clothesline on one of the Demolition members (I always get them confused). This was a hell of an effort from Dynamite, who was near the end of his career due to back issues. (Didn’t I write that for last year’s match, too?) Demolition’s face turn was a pretty nice touch. Oh, I see, a double turn. Alrighty then. Quality fun all the way around. 3.75 stars feels about right.

Finally watched Steamboat/Roberts, it was good but that's about the best I can give it. Actually thought it was too short, would have loved to see it go 10 more minutes. Probably a shade under 3 stars for me.

ROYAL RUMBLE (1989)
Location: The Summit, Houston

PART 1



Best 2 of 3 Falls: Dino Bravo & The Rougeau Brothers vs. Jim Duggan & The Hart Foundation
(Match is first one on Part 1)

* I’m not sure why they made this best 2 of 3 falls, but whatever. A big LOL at Gorilla mentioning that the Rougeaus reside in Memphis. Kinda enjoyed the back-to-back missed elbows by Neidhart and Bravo, with Bravo’s being about as blatently telegraphed as possible. Also enjoyed the cheesy-as-hell triple-barrelling ram with all three heels in the corner. I didn’t think I could use “triple-barrel” in a non-poker way ... Ouch, the Rougeaus’ finisher couldn’t have been much fun to take. I always hated those “flying crotch/butt” moves. Speaking of “ouch”, Bret is the master of the sprinting chest-into-turnbuckle bump. (Interesting note in his book, that started by accident because one night his back was so sore that he couldn’t make himself take the bump regularly, so he took it chest-first and learned he could. Kind of cool.) Wow, Bravo hit a sweet inverted atomic drop, kind of pressing Bret up first. Then a Rougeau double-team gutbuster. Bret was probably at his best taking a butt-kicking. Bret ducks a clothesline and sells it? That was odd. Some nice heel tag work by the Rougeaus, got to love the old-school psychology stuff. Finally Bret hits a monster inverted atomic drop and makes the hot tag to Duggan. Some nice (totally illegal) double-team splashes using slingshots over the ropes leads to a pin and a 1-1 tie. That was a fun last 10 minutes! The third fall was a pretty large dud with Duggan and Bravo wrestling the majority of it. Still, the second fall by itself made this three stars.

King Haku vs. Harley Race
(Match is at 59:00 on Part 1)

* Harley trained Haku and wanted to do the honors here. Haku’s been one of my favorite guys so far in this chronology. Two legit ridiculous tough guys here. Nice start by dumping Haku off his throne. Haku’s chops are sick. Harley doing a somersault turnbuckle bump to the floor at his age is pretty impressive. Whoa, Harley’s first two clotheslines in the match were kinda iffy but the third one was nasty. Harley takes some unique bumps/falls. After a slow first couple minutes I’m really enjoying the stiff, tough, gritty side to this. Sweet Haku chin music ends it. A totally different caliber of three stars from the six-man tag but every bit as good in its own way. Glad I put that on the list.

(In Part 2, I will watch, review and post the Royal Rumble match when I have time.)

Camacho is Haku's son, irl. Little piece of trivia for you all.

ROYAL RUMBLE (1989)

The Rumble Match



* According to the reviews, the first 70 percent or so of the Rumble is pretty good and then it goes downhill fast. Pretty sweet having both members of Demolition be 1-2. Enjoyed watching Andre do Andre things, battle royales are his cup of tea. Loved Valentine's running forearm shots having no effect on Andre as he choked Roberts. Poor Jake took a beating. Who the hell is Ron Bass? HBK and Perfect have a predictably fantastic exchange, with HBK skinning the cat. Aww, geez, Jake, why'd you have to go frighten Andre into eliminating himself? Boooooo! Bass proves his genius by trying to pin Santana. Bravo, moron. HBK gets backdropped to the ceiling, and later comes off the top and clocks two guys. You could see his future stardom here. Santana's flying forearm is better than HBK's ever was. (Blasphemy? Nah.) HUGE pop for Macho! HBK clocks Arn with sweet chin music before he finally gets eliminated. Perfect and Macho had a couple nice exchanges and Arn drills Jannetty with his spinebuster. Hulk's pop wasn't near as big as Macho's. Interesting. Hulk presses Tully overhead and drops him across the top rope, ouch! Hey, just a thought, if you catch someone climbing to the top turnbuckle, why not throw them down OUTSIDE the ring? Argh, terrible. Hey, it's Koko B. Ware! ... See you later, Koko! ... Hogan double clotheslines both Brainbusters out, then ditches Warlord before he's in the ring 10 seconds, then dumps Bad News and Savage in the process, setting up the seeds for Wrestlemania. Early WWE Boss Man was massive and actually pretty fun to watch, I remember as a kid having a Coliseum video with a Hogan/Boss Man cage match on it that I loved. Sweet piledriver on Hogan! The Twin Towers later get rid of Hogan, who then goes "heel" on Boss Man to "eliminate" him twice (apparently the second one counted), and Ventura nailed it on commentary. The match is supposed to go downhill from here. Add Akeem's splash to the list of moves I wouldn't want to experience. Studd hit a nice double-underhook suplex on DiBiase at the end. That said, DiBiase should have won here, it made no sense to have him enter 30th by “nefarious” means and not win, or to have Studd win, period (even if DiBiase’s buyout of Akeem backfired). I disagree with the 3+ star reviews, I think it had some entertaining moments but overall it’s 2.5 stars at most.

WRESTLEMANIA V (1989)
Location: Trump Plaza, Atlantic City

Mr. Perfect vs. Blue Blazer (Owen Hart)



* Gotta love the “Parts Unknown” hometown. The crowd didn’t know what it was going to get in this one, but about the time Owen ... er, Blazer ... landed on his feet to counter a hip toss, the crowd woke up quickly. Wow, Owen (screw it, it’s Owen, **** this Blazer crap) got some serious height on his top-rope dive only to land on Perfect’s knees. I love Owen’s belly-to-belly suplex. This obviously was better than anyone at the time was expecting it to be, but I think I’ve seen it enough that, this time, it underwhelmed me.

IC Title: Ultimate Warrior © vs. Rick Rude

Dailymotion video

* The Summerslam match between these two months later is much better (and of course will be posted in the near future). This one got mixed reviews, anywhere from 2 stars to 3.5 stars, but it’s historic enough and ties into the Summerslam match, so I went ahead and included it. It’s no wonder Warrior matches didn’t last long, if I ran all that way and did all that stuff during an entrance, I’d be blown up for a week. I’m a big sucker for strength moves so something as simple as Warrior propelling Rude skyward into the corner multiple times works for me. Something I don’t love: Warrior’s splash would have landed on Rude’s knees even if Rude hadn’t raised them. Terrible. Rude hits a good piledriver for two. Love Rude doing his hip swivel taunt and coming up lame, that’s gold. Pretty funny how Warrior “Hulked” up with Rude right on his back. Warrior hits a still clothesline, but Rude dodges a splash attempt in the corner. Rude attempts a Rude Awakening but Warrior powers out of it. Love the finish with Heenan holding Warrior’s leg. That was surprisingly enjoyable and actually better than Perfect/Owen IMO. I’d give it three stars.

STILL TO COME: WWE Title: Randy Savage (C) vs. Hulk Hogan

NOTE: The Brain Busters/Strike Force tag team match also got several 3+ star reviews, but I couldn’t find a useable video for it.

Rude's selling in that match was absolutely elite. He did absolutely all a person could do to make that talentless meathead look like a million bucks. But yeah the match four months later is obviously much better.

Owen's drop toehold and standing drop kick are totally vintage Hart.

WRESTLEMANIA V (1989) continued

The Mega-Powers Explode!
WWE Title: Randy Savage (C) vs. Hulk Hogan



* A lot of people consider this Hogan’s best match ever, and obviously Savage gets most of the credit for it. It’s been a while since I’ve watched it, and I’ve always preferred Hogan/Warrior (though not by much). We’ll see if my opinion changes. Ventura is just killing it on commentary. Even though I’m not generally a fan of stall tactics, I appreciate the psychology early on here, especially Savage putting Elizabeth in Hogan’s way. Savage really did try to cement his heel status, although when he back suplexed Hogan, he still got quite a few cheers/claps. Hey, I don’t remember Hogan bleeding! That had to be hardway, right? I want kinda bored for a bit until Hogan picked up Savage and dumped him to the floor, didn’t expect that. I’ll give Elizabeth this, she ‘sold’ her role and vulnerability perfectly. Macho’s double axhandle from the top down to the floor across Hogan’s back was sweet. Hold on a second, the last 90 seconds made me throw up onto my shirt, need a clean one. OK, so here’s my take: The buildup to the match and the execution of the entire storyline makes it four stars. The match by itself simply is not four stars, it might be three. But I understand that the build matters, and obviously everyone had been waiting for this match for a long time. I still think Hogan/Warrior was better.

agreed. i never understood the appeal to Savage/Hogan.

Savage/Hogan had a GOAT build, I think that's a lot of it. Like easily one of the best five builds I've seen, and the match basically rates as "good enough" so it gets good reputation from that combo. In a vacuum Warrior/Hogan is definitely better but I tend to remember Hogan/Savage more fondly.

Champ in 1 of 3.

I loved that Ventura ripped that to shreds.

Yeah my ongoing "champ out first" gripe is as much an homage to Jesse's pre-match call of that match as anything. He taught me in my formative years how much bull**** that was.

The bizarre thing about Hogan/Savage is that Miss Elizabeth largely dropped off the radar after WM V. She appeared at Summerslam and then reunited with Savage after his loss to Warrior at WM VII.

There wasn't much to do with her since Savage had gone heel specifically by treating her like **** and she probably didn't want to manage anyone else as a new regular thing.

Probably more like Randy wouldn't let her, but I agree with the rest.

I'm one of the ones that prefers Savage/Hogan over Hogan/Warrior, and yeah, it's mainly for the story, but I honestly preferred the work as well. Lots of little things Savage puts into his matches that are nice touches. Plus Hogan/Warrior really didn't interest me all that much, I hadn't been a Hogan fan for a while, and I was never really that into Warrior, certainly not as the champ.

SUMMERSLAM (1989)
Location: The Meadowlands, East Rutherford, NJ

Brain Busters vs. Hart Foundation



* It's so, so, so weird to hear Tony Schiavone doing play-by-play for a WWE event. This match got four stars from several places so I'm enthusiastic about this one. Nice pace set early by Bret and Tully, then Bret works over Arn's arm. The little things matter, such as Arn desperately trying to get his arm free from Bret (unsuccessfully) before Anvil smashes down on it. Those little things add realism, and these are four pros. Love the spot where Arn buries a couple knees into Anvil's gut, then spins and looks like he'll make an easy tag (which would have been just fine), but just before it gets made, Anvil pulls Arn down and prevents it. The urgency of the Brian Busters to always make a needed tag really adds to this match. Love Bret's flip out of a double team and then the double arm drag to send Arn and Tully flying. More golden tag stuff as Bret chases Tully around the ring, he gets back in and slyly tags Arn, who waits as Bret keeps going after Tully, then blasts him. Great stuff. So many little things are making this match great. Personally, I would not want to come off the ropes and see Anvil slingshot toward me. That was good stuff, the Harts came out looking like a million bucks (and Arn and Tully were amazing sellers), and the heels got a skin-of-their-teeth win. It's the best tag match so far ... I think 4 stars is legit.

Progress on this chronology may be slow, I've been buried by work and family issues this week. There's two more matches from Summerslam 1989 I plan to watch, review and post as soon as I can.

There is an older shoot interview where Arn talks about his time in the WWF. IIRC, Vince's only financial guarantee to Arn/Tully was that they'd make more in their first year than they did the year before. Arn said the cash was really disappointing, and he missed his family, so the Brain Busters gave their notice. After giving notice, they had several big shows come up that more than made up for the previous low payouts. He expressed a little bit of financial regret with his decision to go back down south.

For all the talk about Vince burying WCW guys, the Brain Busters had a really strong run in WWF. I don't remember them jobbing much, even on their way out the door.

SUMMERSLAM (1989) continued ...

IC Title: Rick Rude (C) vs. Ultimate Warrior



* There’s a promo package reviewing the feud before the match. Warrior promos are ... well ... indescribable. Warrior decides to no-sell everything early, then press slams Rude all the way to the floor. Ventura goes into an absolutely amazing (and totally correct) rant after Warrior hits Rude with the IC belt, ending it with, “You know, you’re even dumber than Monsoon. I thought Gorilla was the stupidest guy alive!” (at Schiavone). Warrior suplexes Rude on the floor. Sweet action, sweet commentary. Rude is taking a beating on the floor, then kicks out after a couple big moves in the ring. Sweet spot where Warrior does a reverse atomic drop, then mimics Rude’s hip swivel while Rude sells the atomic drop. Nice touch. Rude finally gets the upper hand and works over the back. Nice sequence where Rude tries for the Rude Awakening, Warrior powers out of the grip, but Rude ducks the clothesline and slaps on a sleeper hold. After a collision that takes out Joey Morella, Warrior powers up and does his thing, eventually hitting a powerslam, but Marella’s still in la-la land. Warrior does a nice piledriver but Rude gets a foot on the rope. Then Rude lifts his knees to counter the splash (and unlike Wrestlemania, Warrior actually looked for a half-second like he might successfuly land the move, so kudos for that). Wow, Warrior completely botches Rude’s piledriver, letting go of Rude’s legs, and Rude improvised so he didn’t kill Warrior. Looked sweet but that was definitely not supposed to be done that way. Rude hits kind of a weak top-rope fistdrop for two, then a piledriver (the correct way) for two as Roddy Piper comes to ringside. A distracted Rude gets suplexed off the middle rope by Warrior and it’s typical Warrior finishing mode from there. That was better than I expected, in a lot of ways just as good as the Hart Foundation/Brain Busters match. I could argue for four stars.

Note: The six-man tag match pitting Tito Santana and The Rockers against Rick Martel and The Rougeau Brothers got some decent ratings from people as well (3 or 3.5 stars), but I couldn’t find it on youtube and the Dailymotion video I found had been taken down. Alas.

SURVIVOR SERIES (1989)
Location: Rosemont Horizon, Chicago

Full show

* Here’s the deal with this Survivor Series: There’s at least two and maybe three matches here that are borderline worth watching, but nothing that really stands out enough … seems like most of the card averaged out at about 2 to 2.5 stars. So I’m not going to review any specific match, but if you feel like reliving late-80s WWE, this pretty much has a little of everything and everyone for you, for better or worse.