klunderbunker
Welcome to My (And Not Sly's) House
Best of the WWF Volume 17
Host: Gene Okerlund
Commentators: Billy Graham, Dick Graham, Alfred Hayes, Sean Mooney, Gorilla Monsoon
Its another of these compilation tapes which I was very fond of. This is really just a collection of house show matches which might have been aired on a show like Prime Time Wrestling or something like that. The card looks pretty weak but well see. Its from the late 80s which is my favorite time, so lets get to it.
This is only an hour and a half long so itll be over quick.
Gene is the host and the idea is he cant get into the arena as no one knows him. Each of these shows had a gimmick which are cute at best and idiotic on average.
Dino Bravo vs. Ken Patera
Date: May 27, 1988
Location: Madison Square Garden
Nice little touch here as were told when the matches took place. Patera is completely awful at this point due to age and would be gone by the end of the year. White hot crowd here as often was the case. These commentators leave a LOT to be desired. Patera sends him to the start almost immediately as we hear about the medals Patera won, which actually existed I think.
The referee is either a fat woman or a very ugly man. I dont recognize the other commentator with Graham actually but he sounds like a cross between Okerlund and Ron Trongard who did some stuff in WWF around this time. Frenchy Martin, the manager of Bravo interferes as Bravo controls. This has been painfully generic so far.
Patera makes a comeback with basically jobber offense with the highlight being a sunset flip. Full nelson goes on, Martin jumps up on the apron, side suplex ends it for Bravo. Totally generic match.
Rating: D-. I said it was generic but that doesnt mean it was good. Patera was awful and this went nowhere at all. This could have been on any house show to fill in about ten minutes as there is nothing at all of note about it. Bad start to the tape. Im still not sure if that referee was male or female and for some reason I want to know.
Big Boss Man vs. Sam Houston
Date: July 23, 1988
Location: Philadelphia Spectrum
Its that same dude on commentary again with Graham, this time with Alfred Hayes added. I want to know who he is. Boss Man hadnt been around long at this point and is far fatter than he would be later. Houston is the stepbrother of one Jake Roberts. Boss Man has to take off his badge which ticks his fatness off. Houston gets a front facelock and is HAPPY about it.
Boss Man is huge here. You can see the star in him though, especially since this is his first real chance to shine after being Big Bubba for so long in the NWA. We even get a shot of the commentator that I dont know and I cant place him. The guy I dont know (and whose name I cant find ANYWHERE) thinks Houston is 129 pounds lighter than Boss Man. Ok so after literally stopping the tape and looking around, it turns out his name is Dick Graham and is a New England sportscaster that did commentary on local shows. Never heard of him but ok.
Nice kick to the face to get out of a hold by Houston. Boring match for the most part as its really just Boss Man doing slow stuff, but heres the jobber comeback to signal the end of the match. That was the saving grace of so many fans in this era. Nice running high knee to Boss Man and the more famous one is in trouble. A top rope cross body is caught in a powerslam to end it emphatically though. Hayes wants the official verbage here.
Rating: D. Extended squash here as Houston just got massacred in this. Its a standard old school style match but there was nothing of note at all here. Boss Man would obviously become a bigger deal soon enough, especially once he got Slick as his manager to talk for him, even though he was a good talker in his own right. Match sucked.
We move on to a segment which doesnt have anything to do with anything else but its old so I love it. Harley Race had gotten injured and had to retire and therefore lose the crown, so Heenan for some reason got to pick the new king. His choice: Haku? All of the heels join him in the ring for a long ceremony. Let the sitting on the throne jokes begin from Vince and Jesse.
Its weird hearing Lawlers music for this. Heenan reads a LONG proclamation, talking about Race and how he got hurt. Heenan mentions that Race is in his sick bed and the fans loudly cheer. Thats the sign of a great heel. Hogan allegedly hurt him (Race dove at a table Hogan was on and missed. The edge of the table went into his stomach) and the fans cheer his name.
Race would come back and have a one off match for the crown at the 89 Rumble which was left off the home video for no apparent reason. Heenan puts the crowd on him and shouts long live the king while Vince talks about psychology or something or other. This might be the debut of the jobbers carrying the throne. Somehow all that took almost ten minutes.
Gene still cant get in and no one knows him. He hits on some old woman having a pretzel. He talks about what weve just seen on the tape which is a hell of a pickup line since youre filming whats on the tape at the moment. This just drags.
Bolsheviks vs. British Bulldog
Same show as the previous match. The fans are all over the heels, saying they suck in various combinations. This was a different kind of crowd back in the day. Different commentary here or maybe the sound is just really bad. Changing the commentary wouldnt make sense so Id lean to the audio just being messed up.
The fans of course chant USA, apparently being fans of the referee. Volkoffs tights are freaking huge. Davey and Zhukov in the ring at the moment. Hayes seems to think this is a Rockers match for some reason. Hayes makes a decent point that the Russians speak English so they can understand the Bulldogs communication then speak Russian so the Bulldogs cant understand them. Im not sure what that helps since theyre across the ring but nice try.
Clothesline by Dynamite gets two and the snap suplex hits. Everything goes nuts and Volkoff hits a clothesline to the stomach of Dynamite .and it gets the pin??? That match MIGHT have lasted three minutes which is like an abomination in 80s WWF tagging. There must have been an injury or something as that came from nowhere and makes no sense.
Rating: N/A. Yeah, its that short.
Rougeau Brothers vs. Rockers
Date: July 25, 1988
Location: Madison Square Garden
Mooney and Hayes on commentary. Jacques and Shawn start us off here. Ah Graham is here too. The Rougeaus are slowly being seduced by the dark side here but not quite yet fully. Theyre still getting quite a few cheers here so the heel turn is probably just starting at this point. Jacques with a sweet dropkick to take down Shawn. He stays down for almost a minute from it so hes either shaken up or the storytelling is really weird here.
Jannetty comes in and thats probably all youre going to see from Shawn until the end. Ive always liked the Rougeaus double teaming stuff. Its very solid most of the time. Standard 80s formula tag match here as Jannetty plays Ricky Morton. Marty lifts up Raymonds boot to get out of an abdominal stretch which was a nice move. Didnt get him anywhere but it was a nice idea.
Hot tag to Shawn and the crowd ERUPTS. How did these guys never get a quick title run? It goes nuts and Shawn hits the top rope punch which is a cool move actually and I dont get why no one has ever stolen it. He goes up again after a melee but gets shoved off and crotched, letting Ray get the pin. This was the longest match so far at like 8 minutes. Whats going on here? The Bulldogs come out to tell the referee what happened but it means nothing.
Rating: C-. Pure formula stuff here and nothing of note at all. The problem here is that this was done about 1000x times better over the years and nothing came of it here. The shortness of it hurts it though as it was good but with so little time they couldnt really get anything going, which is a shame. Best match so far by miles though.
Intercontinental Title: Honky Tonk Man vs. Brutus Beefcake
Date: August 8, 1988
Location: Boston Garden
Peggy Sue, Honkys girlfriend, has sunglasses and a megaphone with her and her hair seems to be moving a lot. Hmm I wonder if shenanigans are afoot. Beefcake has some chick named Georgia and she has a green tongue. Old school people will get that one immediately. Why do so many wrestling matches involve men in drag? Georgia is in a dress and has a purse. This is making me chuckle.
In the purse is a small version of Georgia, apparently named Hers (George Steele had a puppet of himself called Mine if you have no idea why thats a joke). Honky wont get in. I like the Boston Garden as it has a very distinct look to it which is a nice touch. The stalling is at about five minutes so far if youre curious. Ah there we are. Mania 4 rematch here which didnt do much the first time around.
Something tells me this is going to go pretty fast. Could anyone sells an atomic drop like Honky? Georgia gets involved and can throw a good right hand apparently. Sleeper goes on, the girls run in and the megaphone gets involved. You can fill in the blanks for yourselves. Beatdown follows and Peggy Sue is Jimmy Hart in a bra. WHO KNEW?
Rating: C-. Eh it was a comedy match so what do you want me to say about it? This was meant to give the fans some fun and it did that. Steele was legit funny out there with the purse but then again Im a sucker for stuff like this. Its completely harmless and theres nothing wrong with that. Its like 15 minutes total and about 10 of that is funny so its fine.
Tag Titles: Strike Force vs. Demolition
This is the rematch from Mania where Demolition began the longest reign in the history of the titles, holding them for over a year. No date or location listed here but this is at a Superstars taping given the banners. Im a big fan of both of these teams, even though Strike Force is considered weak and forgettable by most people. Commentary says this is in Oakland but its not like it really matters.
Gorilla and Hayes do commentary here so at least we have one competent guy talking now. Demolition starts the beatdown early as you would expect, just totally overpowering the far lighter team. They use their double teaming and take over for a bit, working on Smashs arm. So much for that as Smash realizes hes half of Demolition so screw this getting beaten up thing.
Hot tag to Martel and the crowd is pretty clearly liking what theyre seeing here. Boston Crab to Axe but it gets him nowhere. Everything breaks down and a chair to the back of Martel and then the Decapitator on the floor which Martel sells like DEATH. He didnt wrestle again until the Rumble, 8 months from this, so Id bet on that being rather legit. Demolition wins by countout.
Rating: C-. Decent and mainly for the angle but this wasnt all that great. Im probably biased in this though so take it with a grain of salt. The Decapitator at the end was AWESOME so they nailed that to say the least. Strike Force had one more televised match at Mania 5 where Martel turned heel, so this is more or less the end of the team.
Gene cant get into the mens room because hes not famous enough to cut in line.
Andre the Giant vs. Jim Duggan
Same Boston show as the Honky/Brutus match. This is a lumberjack match for no apparent reason other than trying to make it sound cool for the house show crowd. After a long stall, Duggan punches away and actually knocks Andre to the corner. This is by the time when Andre is more or less completely immobile and is just there due to his name and size. Its rather sad actually.
One headbutt though sends Duggan sprawling across the ring and through the ropes. Thats one hell of a headbutt. In a cool spot, Andre just sits on Duggan. Theres something awesome about that. Duggan makes his comeback and manages to get Andre tied up in the ropes. Then he screws up and headbutts Andre, nearly knocking himself out cold.
Turnbuckle goes off and Duggan is in trouble. Andre headbutts the steel and this is pretty clearly about to end. Three point clothesline and its all Duggan. How did the referee not notice the buckle being down? Board to the back of Andre and he goes to the floor. He beats up the jobbers, goes NUTS on Duggan and rams him into the buckle before an elbow drop ends it. Big brawl ensues.
Rating: D. Not as bad as you would think but its pretty weak. Duggan vs. Andre was a mini feud that never really got off the ground. This was watchable at least but the rest of the show is so bad that even a watchable main event seems bad. This didnt go anywhere but it was fine for what it was I suppose, especially given who is in it.
Gene is sad that no one knows who he is and runs down what we saw on the tape and no one knows him still.
Overall Rating: D-. Theres nothing of note here. For one thing, not a single face won. What a depressing tape. This went nowhere at all and never got off the ground. Its just a bunch of weak matches thrown together and thrown on a shelf for like 10 bucks. This is the Best of the WWF and that is a stretch to say the least. Somehow there were three more volumes in this series. Bad tape to put it mildly.
Host: Gene Okerlund
Commentators: Billy Graham, Dick Graham, Alfred Hayes, Sean Mooney, Gorilla Monsoon
Its another of these compilation tapes which I was very fond of. This is really just a collection of house show matches which might have been aired on a show like Prime Time Wrestling or something like that. The card looks pretty weak but well see. Its from the late 80s which is my favorite time, so lets get to it.
This is only an hour and a half long so itll be over quick.
Gene is the host and the idea is he cant get into the arena as no one knows him. Each of these shows had a gimmick which are cute at best and idiotic on average.
Dino Bravo vs. Ken Patera
Date: May 27, 1988
Location: Madison Square Garden
Nice little touch here as were told when the matches took place. Patera is completely awful at this point due to age and would be gone by the end of the year. White hot crowd here as often was the case. These commentators leave a LOT to be desired. Patera sends him to the start almost immediately as we hear about the medals Patera won, which actually existed I think.
The referee is either a fat woman or a very ugly man. I dont recognize the other commentator with Graham actually but he sounds like a cross between Okerlund and Ron Trongard who did some stuff in WWF around this time. Frenchy Martin, the manager of Bravo interferes as Bravo controls. This has been painfully generic so far.
Patera makes a comeback with basically jobber offense with the highlight being a sunset flip. Full nelson goes on, Martin jumps up on the apron, side suplex ends it for Bravo. Totally generic match.
Rating: D-. I said it was generic but that doesnt mean it was good. Patera was awful and this went nowhere at all. This could have been on any house show to fill in about ten minutes as there is nothing at all of note about it. Bad start to the tape. Im still not sure if that referee was male or female and for some reason I want to know.
Big Boss Man vs. Sam Houston
Date: July 23, 1988
Location: Philadelphia Spectrum
Its that same dude on commentary again with Graham, this time with Alfred Hayes added. I want to know who he is. Boss Man hadnt been around long at this point and is far fatter than he would be later. Houston is the stepbrother of one Jake Roberts. Boss Man has to take off his badge which ticks his fatness off. Houston gets a front facelock and is HAPPY about it.
Boss Man is huge here. You can see the star in him though, especially since this is his first real chance to shine after being Big Bubba for so long in the NWA. We even get a shot of the commentator that I dont know and I cant place him. The guy I dont know (and whose name I cant find ANYWHERE) thinks Houston is 129 pounds lighter than Boss Man. Ok so after literally stopping the tape and looking around, it turns out his name is Dick Graham and is a New England sportscaster that did commentary on local shows. Never heard of him but ok.
Nice kick to the face to get out of a hold by Houston. Boring match for the most part as its really just Boss Man doing slow stuff, but heres the jobber comeback to signal the end of the match. That was the saving grace of so many fans in this era. Nice running high knee to Boss Man and the more famous one is in trouble. A top rope cross body is caught in a powerslam to end it emphatically though. Hayes wants the official verbage here.
Rating: D. Extended squash here as Houston just got massacred in this. Its a standard old school style match but there was nothing of note at all here. Boss Man would obviously become a bigger deal soon enough, especially once he got Slick as his manager to talk for him, even though he was a good talker in his own right. Match sucked.
We move on to a segment which doesnt have anything to do with anything else but its old so I love it. Harley Race had gotten injured and had to retire and therefore lose the crown, so Heenan for some reason got to pick the new king. His choice: Haku? All of the heels join him in the ring for a long ceremony. Let the sitting on the throne jokes begin from Vince and Jesse.
Its weird hearing Lawlers music for this. Heenan reads a LONG proclamation, talking about Race and how he got hurt. Heenan mentions that Race is in his sick bed and the fans loudly cheer. Thats the sign of a great heel. Hogan allegedly hurt him (Race dove at a table Hogan was on and missed. The edge of the table went into his stomach) and the fans cheer his name.
Race would come back and have a one off match for the crown at the 89 Rumble which was left off the home video for no apparent reason. Heenan puts the crowd on him and shouts long live the king while Vince talks about psychology or something or other. This might be the debut of the jobbers carrying the throne. Somehow all that took almost ten minutes.
Gene still cant get in and no one knows him. He hits on some old woman having a pretzel. He talks about what weve just seen on the tape which is a hell of a pickup line since youre filming whats on the tape at the moment. This just drags.
Bolsheviks vs. British Bulldog
Same show as the previous match. The fans are all over the heels, saying they suck in various combinations. This was a different kind of crowd back in the day. Different commentary here or maybe the sound is just really bad. Changing the commentary wouldnt make sense so Id lean to the audio just being messed up.
The fans of course chant USA, apparently being fans of the referee. Volkoffs tights are freaking huge. Davey and Zhukov in the ring at the moment. Hayes seems to think this is a Rockers match for some reason. Hayes makes a decent point that the Russians speak English so they can understand the Bulldogs communication then speak Russian so the Bulldogs cant understand them. Im not sure what that helps since theyre across the ring but nice try.
Clothesline by Dynamite gets two and the snap suplex hits. Everything goes nuts and Volkoff hits a clothesline to the stomach of Dynamite .and it gets the pin??? That match MIGHT have lasted three minutes which is like an abomination in 80s WWF tagging. There must have been an injury or something as that came from nowhere and makes no sense.
Rating: N/A. Yeah, its that short.
Rougeau Brothers vs. Rockers
Date: July 25, 1988
Location: Madison Square Garden
Mooney and Hayes on commentary. Jacques and Shawn start us off here. Ah Graham is here too. The Rougeaus are slowly being seduced by the dark side here but not quite yet fully. Theyre still getting quite a few cheers here so the heel turn is probably just starting at this point. Jacques with a sweet dropkick to take down Shawn. He stays down for almost a minute from it so hes either shaken up or the storytelling is really weird here.
Jannetty comes in and thats probably all youre going to see from Shawn until the end. Ive always liked the Rougeaus double teaming stuff. Its very solid most of the time. Standard 80s formula tag match here as Jannetty plays Ricky Morton. Marty lifts up Raymonds boot to get out of an abdominal stretch which was a nice move. Didnt get him anywhere but it was a nice idea.
Hot tag to Shawn and the crowd ERUPTS. How did these guys never get a quick title run? It goes nuts and Shawn hits the top rope punch which is a cool move actually and I dont get why no one has ever stolen it. He goes up again after a melee but gets shoved off and crotched, letting Ray get the pin. This was the longest match so far at like 8 minutes. Whats going on here? The Bulldogs come out to tell the referee what happened but it means nothing.
Rating: C-. Pure formula stuff here and nothing of note at all. The problem here is that this was done about 1000x times better over the years and nothing came of it here. The shortness of it hurts it though as it was good but with so little time they couldnt really get anything going, which is a shame. Best match so far by miles though.
Intercontinental Title: Honky Tonk Man vs. Brutus Beefcake
Date: August 8, 1988
Location: Boston Garden
Peggy Sue, Honkys girlfriend, has sunglasses and a megaphone with her and her hair seems to be moving a lot. Hmm I wonder if shenanigans are afoot. Beefcake has some chick named Georgia and she has a green tongue. Old school people will get that one immediately. Why do so many wrestling matches involve men in drag? Georgia is in a dress and has a purse. This is making me chuckle.
In the purse is a small version of Georgia, apparently named Hers (George Steele had a puppet of himself called Mine if you have no idea why thats a joke). Honky wont get in. I like the Boston Garden as it has a very distinct look to it which is a nice touch. The stalling is at about five minutes so far if youre curious. Ah there we are. Mania 4 rematch here which didnt do much the first time around.
Something tells me this is going to go pretty fast. Could anyone sells an atomic drop like Honky? Georgia gets involved and can throw a good right hand apparently. Sleeper goes on, the girls run in and the megaphone gets involved. You can fill in the blanks for yourselves. Beatdown follows and Peggy Sue is Jimmy Hart in a bra. WHO KNEW?
Rating: C-. Eh it was a comedy match so what do you want me to say about it? This was meant to give the fans some fun and it did that. Steele was legit funny out there with the purse but then again Im a sucker for stuff like this. Its completely harmless and theres nothing wrong with that. Its like 15 minutes total and about 10 of that is funny so its fine.
Tag Titles: Strike Force vs. Demolition
This is the rematch from Mania where Demolition began the longest reign in the history of the titles, holding them for over a year. No date or location listed here but this is at a Superstars taping given the banners. Im a big fan of both of these teams, even though Strike Force is considered weak and forgettable by most people. Commentary says this is in Oakland but its not like it really matters.
Gorilla and Hayes do commentary here so at least we have one competent guy talking now. Demolition starts the beatdown early as you would expect, just totally overpowering the far lighter team. They use their double teaming and take over for a bit, working on Smashs arm. So much for that as Smash realizes hes half of Demolition so screw this getting beaten up thing.
Hot tag to Martel and the crowd is pretty clearly liking what theyre seeing here. Boston Crab to Axe but it gets him nowhere. Everything breaks down and a chair to the back of Martel and then the Decapitator on the floor which Martel sells like DEATH. He didnt wrestle again until the Rumble, 8 months from this, so Id bet on that being rather legit. Demolition wins by countout.
Rating: C-. Decent and mainly for the angle but this wasnt all that great. Im probably biased in this though so take it with a grain of salt. The Decapitator at the end was AWESOME so they nailed that to say the least. Strike Force had one more televised match at Mania 5 where Martel turned heel, so this is more or less the end of the team.
Gene cant get into the mens room because hes not famous enough to cut in line.
Andre the Giant vs. Jim Duggan
Same Boston show as the Honky/Brutus match. This is a lumberjack match for no apparent reason other than trying to make it sound cool for the house show crowd. After a long stall, Duggan punches away and actually knocks Andre to the corner. This is by the time when Andre is more or less completely immobile and is just there due to his name and size. Its rather sad actually.
One headbutt though sends Duggan sprawling across the ring and through the ropes. Thats one hell of a headbutt. In a cool spot, Andre just sits on Duggan. Theres something awesome about that. Duggan makes his comeback and manages to get Andre tied up in the ropes. Then he screws up and headbutts Andre, nearly knocking himself out cold.
Turnbuckle goes off and Duggan is in trouble. Andre headbutts the steel and this is pretty clearly about to end. Three point clothesline and its all Duggan. How did the referee not notice the buckle being down? Board to the back of Andre and he goes to the floor. He beats up the jobbers, goes NUTS on Duggan and rams him into the buckle before an elbow drop ends it. Big brawl ensues.
Rating: D. Not as bad as you would think but its pretty weak. Duggan vs. Andre was a mini feud that never really got off the ground. This was watchable at least but the rest of the show is so bad that even a watchable main event seems bad. This didnt go anywhere but it was fine for what it was I suppose, especially given who is in it.
Gene is sad that no one knows who he is and runs down what we saw on the tape and no one knows him still.
Overall Rating: D-. Theres nothing of note here. For one thing, not a single face won. What a depressing tape. This went nowhere at all and never got off the ground. Its just a bunch of weak matches thrown together and thrown on a shelf for like 10 bucks. This is the Best of the WWF and that is a stretch to say the least. Somehow there were three more volumes in this series. Bad tape to put it mildly.