I have my first day off in like ****ing thirty years tomorrow. I'm watching this whole thread.

Is it just me, or are there a lot more WWF/E videos available on YouTube than a few/several months ago? It seems like you used to be able to find almost everything on YouTube, then a TON of videos were taken down, and now most of them are back.

A lot of what I'm posting from Youtube was uploaded within the last month or two. I know there's a serious risk of videos in this thread getting taken down, but at the very least, if they do, the details of the match and the event it took place at are in the thread so people can go dig them up themselves.

My theory is that the recent flurry of activity on YouTube is an indicator of the likelihood that the WWE Network never happens. My completely uneducated opinion is that a ton of the WWF/E videos were removed when the network looked like it was actually going to happen.

ROYAL RUMBLE (1990)
Location: Orlando Arena

Submission Match: Greg Valentine vs. Ronnie Garvin



(Go to 38:25 for the match.)

* This got four stars from several people and has been called one of the most underrated WWE PPV matches ever. I'd never heard of it, so I'm looking forward to this one. This is an old-school slugfest! OK, I get the idea that wrestlers aren't used to submission matches and are used to going for pins, but after the first one, it gets old. Five minutes in, and aside from the back-and-forth slugfests (which are fantastic), I'm disappointed. I do like the idea of the shin guard nullifying the figure four leglock, even if it makes zero sense. God, the pinfall attempts just killed this match. In case you don't know, I'll leave the finishing move out of this review as a surprise. This was decidedly NOT four stars, maybe not even three, but when they did trade blows, it was intense. Unfortunately, they traded dumb pin attempts just as often. Bleh, not what I had hoped for.

The Royal Rumble (Winner: Hulk Hogan)


(Go to 17:00 for the start.)

* This was Hogan's first Rumble victory, and several people ranked it the best Rumble to this point (it got an average of 3.5 stars). Hogan reportedly shot down the idea of Perfect winning here (screw you, Hulk!). I don't have the time now, or in the near future, to watch an entire Rumble match so I'm just going to post it.

From rewatching a couple old Rumbles recently, I think they should get Fink to do the intros for that again as a once a year thing.

Hogan wins lol

The whole Summerslam 1989 event is here:



The Rockers/Tito Santana vs The Fabulous Rougeau Brothers/Rick Martel match starts at 43:00. It's definitely a 3.5-4 star match.

Thanks for the video, littlekeed.

I'm to the point where the imbedded videos are starting to bog things down, so I may just post links from this point forward.

You know, in a week when I have time again.

in before the inevitable 50ppp/100ppp debate.

For what it's worth, it started annoying me at post 30, but I'm stubborn and kept imbedding. I'm strongly on the 100-page side of the debate.

/derail

put them in spoilers, ftw

Very nice six-man tag. Watching some of these matches, especially the 1990 Royal Rumble match, it makes you realize how over people were solely on the basis of heel/face dynamics.

WRESTLEMANIA VI (1990)
Location: Skydome, Toronto

WWE Title: Hulk Hogan (C) vs. Ultimate Warrior



* This match has always been a favorite of mine since I was 11 and watched it for the first time (about a year after it happened). I loved the fan favorite vs. fan favorite and torch-passing aspects of it, even if the torch passing didn't work out in the end (and likely convinced Hogan never to do it again). Yes, it's very choreographed, and obviously so, but it worked. Who knew Hogan knew how to do a small package? Terrible camera work (actually, director's fault) as Hogan hits the backbreaker. Sweet double clothesline about 12 minutes in, I always loved that move in a close, tense match, probably isn't done enough now. I have to laugh at the Warrior's first move after "hulking" up ... what do you call that, a "chest to the forehead"? The drama really starts building once Hebner is "KO'd" ... even if I don't like the sequence that leads to Hogan's "three count" that wasn't, I like that both guys wound up with a three-count that wasn't seen. Warrior does a nice backflip over the ropes to the outside following a Hogan elbow. The finish writes itself, although I do remember being in total shock when Hogan missed the legdrop the first time I saw the match. Both guys deserve a ton of credit for this match (probably Hogan moreso, he really did have an amazing instinctual feel for big moments/matches like this, as proven against Andre and later against Rock). Still definitely feel it was four stars for the drama/showmanship even if it might have been a two at best for the actual wrestling. And I still like it more than Hogan/Savage.

disappointed the spoiler wasn't warrior sucking hogan off

If Hogan/Savage was held in a big stadium (which it really should've been) then I think it would be remembered much more fondly. The AC crowd just wasn't good enough for that kind of match.

For all the hype that the Hogan/Warrior matchup got/gets....The reported buyrate for WM V is significantly higher than WM VI. I was shocked when I read that, but I'm not how sure accurate reports of old PPV buys are.

SUMMERSLAM (1990)
Location: Philadelphia Spectrum

WWE Tag Titles, best-of-3 falls: Demolition (C) vs. Hart Foundation
DailyMotion video

* Sorry for the poor video quality here. This tag match averaged out at about 3.5 stars. Hey, the champs entered first! Someone cool down LKJ, he’s steaming! Apparently Neidhart likes his tricep rare. Thank you, thank you, I’ll be here until 2034 finishing this chronology. I’m a minute into the second fall and have nothing to say other than I’m really missing Gorilla and Ventura on commentary here. Anvil hits a nice powerslam, which is about the first thing in the match that really got my interest. A couple other double-team moves, including the Hart Attack finisher, leads to a 1-1 tie (and the ref DQ part was stupid and unnecessary, just let the fall happen). The Harts hit another sweet double-team move with Anvil reverse powerslamming Bret onto Smash (I think). … And this is where Dailymotion went all berserk on me and I never got to see the finish, which involved the third Demolotion member getting involved, Legion of Doom coming to ringside, and eventually the Hart Foundation winning the titles for the second time, yada yada. I wasn’t overly impressed with this one, which doesn’t say much for this Summerslam, seeing as this match was the only one of significant interest.

SURVIVOR SERIES (1990)
Location: Hartford Civic Center



Dusty Rhodes, Koko B. Ware & Hart Foundation vs. Ted DiBiase, Honky Tonk Man, Greg Valentine and Mystery Partner (Undertaker)
(Match is at 54:00 in video)

* I included this in the series for two reasons: First, the debut of Undertaker is historic enough to merit inclusion. Second, the Bret/DiBiase stuff at the end was solid. The rest of the match is far from great, but hey, Undertaker's debut really is that awesome. And this actually is the best match on what was a terrible card! 1990 was not WWE’s best year.

I wouldn't read too much into that. The buyrates (etc.) of WWF were just going down generally at the time, as was Hogan's popularity.

Taker was mighty raw back when.

ROYAL RUMBLE (1991)
Location: Miami Arena



Rockers vs. Orient Express

* This is the opening match of the card. I have high hopes for this one, it got great reviews (4 to 4.5 stars across the board). HBK gets absolutely launched by a double-team backdrop right off the bat. A minute later, the Rockers do sweet tandem suicide dives to the outside. That masked dude, he doesn’t look too Japanese to me. HBK gets hit by a pretty sweet looking flying forearm. Later HBK does a sweet moonsault, and a double dropkick cleans house. Not satisfied, the Rockers both do crossbody blocks from the top to the floor. Awesome stuff. HBK does a delayed vertical suplex, a rare move for him. Then HBK gets clobbered with a double-team stun gun across the top rope. Fuji gets involved with a cane whack. HBK absorbs another nasty double-team move while draped across the ropes. HBK does a lightning-fast Flair Flip on the turnbuckle to the apron, then gets kicked back into the ring, nice sequence. HBK really shined here (I know, it’s shocking, really). A really innovative spot when HBK ducks the belt clothesline, then dives onto the belt, causing the Express members to collide. It’s unrealistic, and I usually hate that, but in this case, it was entertaining. Jannetty gets the hot tag and goes pet **** goofy, but the Express sell two totally whiffed dropkicks like they got hit by Neidhart ... get it? After some relatively standard stuff, HBK goes to the top and gets hit off, taking a tough bump to the floor. Jannetty gets slingshot into a chop and looks like he wrenches his knee in the process. A real innovative finish with Jannetty slingshoting into a sunset flip for the pin. That was definitely quality, I wouldn’t give it 4.5 stars but four is probably OK. Lived up to its reputation.

Big Boss Man vs. Barbarian
Go to 36:00 in the video

* This is a (very) fringe match selection but the heck with it, I like both of these guys. Boss Man was an amazing striker, his uppercuts were great. Boss Man does the Cactus clothesline! Don’t remember him using that. Barbarian (I spelled it Barbarina ... wouldn’t want to make that mistake in front of him!) hits a nice vertical suplex, makes lifting Boss Man look easy. Barbarina lands a stiff standing clothesline, ouch. Boss Man bites his way out of a bear hug, then gets caught but hits an enziguiri. Boss Man almost gets caught in a rollup, if I didn’t know the winner beforehand I probably would have thought that was it. Barbarian hits a nasty clothesline from the top but Boss Man gets a foot on the rope. Boss Man hits his sidewalk slam but doesn’t cover right away and Barbarian gets a fingertip on the rope. Barbarian mostly botches a piledriver. Match ends when Boss Man counters Barbarian’s crossbody from the top. The last couple moves were pretty sloppy but all in all that was entertaining. I’m not sure it’s three stars or just under, but I don’t hate myself for putting this on my list to watch.

As for the Rumble, Hogan won and it wasn’t considered great, so I’m not including it.

Some of these are great!

WRESTLEMANIA VII (1991)
Location: Los Angeles Sports Arena

The Rockers vs. Haku/Barbarian



* Sorry again for the poor video quality here. Given that The Rockers opened the Royal Rumble so well two months previously, it made sense for them to open Wrestlemania, albeit against a tougher team to draw a good match out of. Classic David/Goliath matchup here. A nice sequence leads to an HBK flying shoulderblock. The teams do a trademark Hart Foundation sequence as the Rockers hit a nice double hip toss on Haku, drop a double elbow, then kip up and run into a HUGE double clothesline from Barbarian (Anvil often hits that for the Hart Foundation). HBK dropkicks the back of Barbarian as Jannetty uses the move to finish a hurricanrana in a nice spot. Haku’s chop on Jannetty made me wince. Jannetty gets caught on Haku’s shoulders and Barbarian comes in for a double-team hotshot. This match has been better than I expected so far (it averaged three stars). Jannetty takes a pounding for a bit. Haku and Jannetty try to pull off a double crossbody but Jannetty winds up landing on top of Haku, which was unplanned. Jannetty oversells a whip into the corner, then gets killed by a double backbreaker. More confusion as Jannetty takes a Barbarian clothesline. Jannetty comes off the second turnbuckle and gets powerslammed, but no cover. Barbarian goes up top, this can’t work out ... and it doesn’t. HBK gets the hot tag and hits a flying elbow on Haku. He aborts a 10-punch in the corner to perform a twisting crossbody on Barbarian. The end comes when Jannetty comes off the top with a dropkick on Haku, who gets up and staggers into a top-rope crossbody from HBK for the three. Sweet little match, I think it’s a solid 3.5 stars personally, some hard hitting, some nice aerial stuff, good tag-team moves, good tempo, lots to like.

This is the first of four matches from WM7 that made the cut (three of them just barely, including this one, although I think this match was better than advertised). I don't recall WM7 being that great but maybe I underrated it. I'll get to the others ASAP.

I think WM VII is ruined by the stink of a Slaughter/Hogan main event.

This 'Mania typically flies under the radar on "worst of" lists, but I wonder how much of that has to do solely with Savage/Warrior.

Funny enough, Hogan/Slaughter is one of the "fringe" matches ... I couldn't believe it, either. I'm going to watch it in the next couple days and make a decision on it.

Hart Foundation/Nasty Boys and (of course) Warrior/Savage are the other two.