WWE All Star Search #23 - Wrestlemania 2
Hello Turnbucklers! We're back for the big one and seems like it's taken an age to get to this point. After the success of Wrestlemania 1, the WWE has kept growing in strength over the past year. This show was again shown on CCTV and the show itself is split across 3 different venues. It was a baffling decision as to why but let's see if it pays off. So Randy Savage meets George Steele for the IC belt to continue their feud. I'm not looking forward to the boxing match despite the amount of hype there's been for it. Same can be said of the battle royal. We have the tag title match and the WWE title match to look forward to and we have both Kirchner and Elmer on this card...so it has to be one of the better Wrestlemania's...right?
The Card:
Paul Orndorff vs Don Muraco
Randy Savage (IC Champ) vs George Steele [IC Title Match]
George Wells vs Jake Roberts
Roddy Piper vs Mr T [Boxing Match]
The Fabulous Moolah (Womens Champ) vs Velvet McIntyre [Womens Title Match]
Nikolai Volkoff vs Corporal Kirchner [Flag Match]
WWE/NFL 20 Man Battle Royal
The British Bulldogs vs The Dream Team (Tag Team Champs) [Tag Team Title Match]
Hercules vs Ricky Steamboat
Adrian Adonis vs Uncle Elmer
The Funk Brothers vs Junkyard Dog/Tito Santana
Hulk Hogan (WWE Champ) vs King Kong Bundy [WWE Title Match][Cage Match]
The Show:
Wrestlemania 2...it's here!!
We get a nice jazzy intro to start before cutting to Vince McMahon in the ring doing his now familiar 'welcome to Wrestlemania' schtick. He welcomes some woman called Susan St James and the crowd seem impressed. He introduces Ray Charles to do America the Beautiful which is all good, bar a dodgy mic in the beginning. Still, what a coup for wrestling, Ray Charles, what a legend!
Into the back with Mean Gene who runs down the card before cutting to Roddy Piper who's psyched up for his boxing match. He says he grew his hair long so you can tell the difference between him and Mr T. Well, I guess it helps a little. He runs down T and Joe Frazier but I'm still not excited for the boxing match.
Our commentators are Vince McMahon and Susan St James.
Paul Orndorff vs Don Muraco
Talk about two lads in purgatory. Paul Orndorff should at least be doing something relevant and Don Muraco should be...well, fine. These two have had no interaction so far so I guess it's just a payday in the end. Orndorff is still mega over and I shall continue to point that out until he's not. Lock up to start and Muraco nails a scoop slam but hold on, so does Orndorff straight after before both have a stand off and Orndorff gets in a taunt. They lock up again and Muraco takes control in the corner briefly before he suffers a back body drop and ends up locked in an armbar. Orndorff keeps Muraco locked in for a while and even manages to stand on his face allowing us to see Muraco is sweating quite heavily already. Muraco finally escapes using a samoan drop and wails away with punches. They fight in the corner but both men end up stumbling over the top rope to the floor. They continue out on the floor and both men suffer the worlds fastest countout. Orndorff throws furniture in the ring but nothing comes of it as the crowd chant 'bullshit'. Was starting off pleasantly at least and even just three to five more minutes could've helped a lot. The finish was crap and neither man ought to have turned up tonight. Match Rating: 1/4*
Into the back with Mr T, Joe Frazier and Haiti Kid. He rants about Piper and I understand literally fuck of all.
Randy Savage (IC Champ) vs George Steele [IC Title Match]
Decent pop for Steele who gets the jobber entrance but crowd are strangely subdued for Macho and Liz, not even heat, just a slight buzz. We get a brief pre-taped message from Savage who says he's the best in the world of course, oh yeah! Savage bails from a flailing Steele to start and thus we get the obligatory stalling from Savage to slightly rile the crowd. He bails again before taunting Steele with a chair on the outside, gets in the ring and bails again, and again before Steele eventually catches him and bites his leg but no DQ. Back in the ring Macho tries to pearl harbour Steele but gets caught and choked. Steele gets distracted by Liz before Macho manages to trap him in the ropes. He releases him and hits a cross body from the top rope for 2. After regrouping with Liz, Macho returns to the ring but gets thrown back out by Steele but crawls under the ring allowing him to pearl harbour Steele. It's all for nothing and Steele goes back to biting. Macho rakes the eyes before going outside and grabbing some flowers. He tries to batter Steele with them but Steele bites again and uses the flowers on Savage. Wouldn't that be a DQ? Steele gets distracted with the turnbuckle and uses the fluff to blind Savage, because they can do that apparently. Back outside the ring and Steele gets distracted by Liz allowing Macho to attack with a top rope ax handle. Back in the ring, Macho hits a scoop slam, goes up top, hits the flying elbow and that gets 2! Steele sends Macho into the turnbuckle but the ref gets in the way allowing Macho to roll him up for the rope assisted 3 count. Steele consoles himself by eating more turnbuckle afterwards. As a match, it was fucking dreadful. However, it was slightly entertaining and I didn't think Steele would kick out of the elbow. Hopefully now Savage can move back to more substantial in ring quality in terms of opponent. Match Rating: 1/2*
Into the back with Mean Gene who's with Big John Studd and Bill Fralic. They both talk about the battle royal and almost come to blows. Studd tears apart a football while yelling and all is good.
We cut back to Vince and Susan who kill some time by anticipating the next match to be 'outstanding'. So let's see what it is...
George Wells vs Jake Roberts
It's a rematch from the Maple Gardens show! Jake comes out to silence and he's got the sack with him of course. They start off straight away and Wells gets a back body drop. Jake gets a punch in and throws Wells to the outside but Wells fights back. The brawl continues in the ring before Wells hits a shoulderblock and a headbutt to send Roberts falling to the mat. Jake whipped into the corner and a nice headscissors from Wells wakes the crowd. Wells still in control and he hits a knee lift which Jake sells like he has an iron knee. Nice powerslam from Wells gets a 2 count but Jake takes control with a eye poke. He slides out the ring and Wells gives chase but Jake cheap shots him as he's coming back in the ring. One DDT later and Jake gets the win. Jake grabs the sack and finally we get to see Damien draped over someone. Wells looked amazing in this and Jake's DDT now seems deadly if it's all that's needed for a win. However, Jake put up very little offense apart from the finish and he's the lad who's going to get pushed so it's strange. Match Rating: *
Back to Vince and Susan for some more time killing who show us some footage about how Piper and Mr T started their feud and it's from the previous SNME.
Into the back with Jesse Ventura who's with Hulk Hogan. Hogan says he's going to defend his belt for the Hulksters and America...cheers Hulk!
Roddy Piper vs Mr T [Boxing Match]
Howard Finkel introduces all the celebrity judges, the most famous of course being, Herb? This has been brewing technically for over a year and it sucks that this is how they decide to finish it. It makes some sense in a way because I guess it might be all Mr T can do. I'm really not going to review it, because much like SNME, it's a fake boxing match. So we get through a couple of rounds of punches and stand off before we get to the finish. In round four, Piper is frustrated at not getting the better of Mr T so throws his stool at him. The ref tries to get involved but ends up getting pushed to the mat before Mr T gets a scoop slam and that gets the DQ win for T. It depends what your into really because some people might find this entertaining. I was really bored and the finish just wasn't worth any of it. I really hope that's the last time we see WWE attempt anything other than wrestling for a long, long time. Match Rating: DUD
Into the back with Vince and Susan who kill some more time before sending us over to Chicago.
Gorilla Monsoon and Mean Gene welcome us and run down the card before introducing Cathy Lee Crosby...who again...who?
The Fabulous Moolah (Womens Champ) vs Velvet McIntyre [Womens Title Match]
No idea why Velvet McIntyre is getting a title shot but she is a terrifying woman with terrifying hair. Moolah hasn't been seen for a while now either but the crowd give her some solid heat. Match lasts less than a minute when Velvet misses a top rope cross body and Moolah gets the win with a botched 3 count as a result. That was pissing dreadful and as a blog first... Match Rating: -*
Nikolai Volkoff vs Corporal Kirchner [Flag Match]
This isn't a flag match as you probably know it. All that happens in this version is the winner gets the privilege of waving their respective flag after the match. Big heat for Volkoff and a big pop for Kirchner when he comes out. This is another match featuring awful back and forth wrestling outside the ring before the finish comes within 2 minutes. Blassie tries throwing his cane to Volkoff but Kirchner knicks it, uses it behind the refs back (kinda) and gets the win. Kirchner waves his flag and the crowd gets to enjoy their country again. Match Rating: DUD
WWE/NFL 20 Man Battle Royal
Here's a chance for everyone to get a payday but except for loyal jobbers, they cross promoted with the NFL players. I'd love it if I cared about any American Football player...but I don't because I'm not from the USA. Only the last four participants are getting points at the end of the blog post by the way, that's my battle royal rule. Before I skip to the last few people here's who's in it...The Killer Bee's, Hart Foundation, Pedro Morales, Dan Spivey, Hillbilly Jim, The Iron Sheik, King Tonga, Tony Atlas, Big John Studd, Bruno Sammartino, Andre the Giant, Ted Arcidi, Jim Covert, Bill Fralic, Harvey Martin, Ernie Holmes, Russ Francis and Fridge Perry. Anyway, Fridgeand Studd get into it after Studd eliminates Bruno. Fridge looks like he's going to eliminate Studd until Studd nails him with an elbow to then send Fridge over the top. Fridge wants to shake hands from the outside and Studd goes with it but more fool him because Fridge pulls him out. That leaves Andre, the Foundation and Russ Francis. The Harts trap Andre in the ropes because it's still an Andre match. That means they can eliminate Francis together before going to work on Andre. Andre fights back with a noggin knocker before a kick sends Neidhart out (comically) before he throws Bret out onto Neidhart for the win! I'm glad for whatever it's worth that the Hart Foundation were in the last few and got at least some offense in on Andre. I'm also glad that the NFL guys were used realistically and didn't put up too much of a fight. Andre winning I guess was the most likely route although personally I think he shouldn't have been in it after not really being seen for months. Match Rating: *3/4
The British Bulldogs vs The Dream Team (Tag Team Champs) [Tag Team Title Match]
This is actually the match I've been looking forward to the most on this card. The Bulldogs have been so damn good over the past few months and the champs have been solid too. It seems like they've had the belts forever so expectations are high in this one for a long awaited title change. Both teams have their respective managers with them and the Bulldogs even have Ozzy Osbourne with them. He looks excited if not a little awkward bouncing around the ring. Mean Gene says Ozzy is from Manchester which is bullshit so no idea why he said it. Davey and Hammer start us off with Davey getting the better of it. They trade blows until Hammer starts stalling but he misses an elbow and ends up in an armbar. Hammer hits a hip toss but misses another elbow allowing Dynamite to tag in. He rams Hammer's head in the corner so Hammer plummets. Dynamite with a huge shoulderblock and follows with a nice snap suplex. Davey comes in and hits a nice vertical suplex for 2. Hammer begs for mercy and regroups on the outside while Johnny V and Lou Albano have words. Back in the ring and Davey and Hammer lock up. Hammer gets a cheap shot on Davey and Beefcake makes his first appearance and starts working over Davey's arm. Davey reverses into a nice press slam and tags in Dynamite. They botch a shoulderblock and a small package gets 1. Double team by the Bulldogs before Davey comes in and hits a nice northern lights suplex for 2. Hammer gets the sneaky tag and blind sies Davey with a knee to the neck before hitting a nice suplex of his own. He locks on a headlock but Davey escapes to tag in Dynamite. He works over Hammer in the corner before tagging Davey back in...and out again with some double teaming in the middle. Beefcake comes in randomly to help Hammer but Hammer gets caught in a sunset flip for a close 2. Dynamite with a nice backbreaker but Beefcake breaks it up at 2. Hammer fights back with some hard punches before he hits a cool, reverse tombstone piledriver for another close 2. Hammer tries to cover more times before he falls crotch first on Dynamites leg. Hammer goes up top but Dynamite catches him to send him flying to the mat. Beefcake tries to come in but Davey stops him. Davey tries to slam Dynamite on Hammer but he escapes. In the distraction, Hammer gets a few shits in but Davey comes back with a big powerslam for 2. Another suplex gets 2 for Davey before Hammer sends him shoulder first into the ringpost. Hammer starts working over the shoulder and tags in Beefcake for the double team on Davey. Beefcake hits a cool move making Davey land on his shoulder and even the commentators are baffled by it. Hammer back in and he hits a nice shoulderbreaker but he picks him up at 2. Dynamite climbs the turnbuckle in the corner while Davey counters Hammer's momentum, sending him head first into Dynamite's hard, British head and that gets the 3 count for the Bulldogs and NEW tag team champions! The crowd goes crazy while everyone but the Bulldogs celebrate with the belts! Captain Lou and Ozzy celebrate on the mic after. 'The British Bulldogs foreveeeeeh!' Davey says that because they won the titles, they're staying in America! America's gain was Wigan's loss. Dynamite took a huge fall from the top rope during the finishing sequence and he really looks out of it after the match. Seriously, that bump was scary looking and the camera didn't even catch all of it. This is one of the best moments I've come across on the blog so far and I think the best match. The action was fast, flowing and there were a lot of good power moves on show. Not only that but a lot of technical stuff with some psychology like working over Davey's shoulder. Hammer was awesome in this match and he pretty much did all the work for that team. Beefcake did very little in this which is very strange. The tag team division just gets even better. Match Rating: ***3/4
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We cut to Vince and a very hoarse voiced Susan to do what they do best...kill some time.
Off to LA for the final section of the card and our commentators are Jesse Ventura, Lord Al and a very frightening looking woman, Elvira. She looks like she died the week before.
Hercules vs Ricky Steamboat
Both men get jobber entrances which bugs me because Steamboat has been so good recently and well over. Hercules I'm pretty sure we've not seen in a while. Hercules pearl harbours him straight away but Steamboat counters with speed and hits a clothesline, two arm drags and locks on an armbar. Hercules escapes, goes for a backbreaker but Steamboat counters, hits a kick to the face and goes back to the armbar. Some decent athleticism in that by Herc by the way...I even saw a leapfrog! Herc escapes and wails away with punches but Steamboat counters again and hits a nice clothesline. He hits a suplex and this crowd seems more lively than the other two. Herc nails a hard clothesline of his own that makes the crowd gasp before he goes to work on Steamboat. Steamboat tries to fight back but gets squashed while going for a slam which gets 2 for Herc. Herc slowly works over Steamboat some more and hits a back elbow and then a few elbow drops before posing, before pinning...for 2. Steamboat fights back with some hard chops but misses a third and eats a clothesline for 2. Press slam by Herc followed by another before he goes up top. His splash attempt finds knees before Steamboat goes up top, hits a flying cross body and that gets 3! Short and sweet, if not a little slow paced in some points. I'm surprised they gave a clean defeat to Herc so soon but I'm not too bothered. Match Rating: *1/4
Adrian Adonis vs Uncle Elmer
Before anything even happens we have a faggot chant, which surely must be strange being that it's in LA. I thought it was a fairly advanced city. Uncle Elmer comes out to some ridiculous farm music but the crowd seem to love him. I don't so if the faggot loses, I riot. Elmer prances around like what one assumes would be a faggot in 1986 and hilarity ensues...presumably. Adonis struggles to get any offense in and really sells hard for all Elmer's crap offense. There's as much stalling Adonis can do without going too overboard before Elmer eventually misses a legdrop allowing Adonis to hit an elbow drop from the top rope and that gets the 3. I'm sorry they made you do that Adrian but you did the best you could. Match Rating: DUD
Into the back with Lord Al who's with Hulk Hogan. Hogan pretty much says what he did earlier in the show and that his ribs will be fine and he's going to walk out champion. Somehow, I think I believe him this time. In the background you can hear some annoying sirens meaning...
The Funk Brothers vs Junkyard Dog/Tito Santana
...Jimmy Hart and the Funk Brothers have been given the jobber entrance. JYD and Terry have been feuding for a long time at this point, bringing in Dory a few weeks ago. Tito is just part of a merry go round of partners for JYD in this feud and is effectively in purgatory with Paul Orndorff. At least it's not a rematch with the Executioner, Tito. Dory and JYD start us off with Terry getting involved and hilarity ensues. JYD nails scoop slams on both Funks sending the heels outside to regroup. Terry ends up getting send outside a few more times before Tito and Dory go at it in the ring. Tito manages to hit the flying jalapeno forearm but it only manages a close 2 count. A criss cross spot ensues which allows Terry to hit a cheap shot on Tito and the Funks to take control of the match. Jimmy Hart gets some shots in before Terry hits a suplex for 2. He tries another but Tito counters into one of his own. They both KO each other but only Terry can tag out allowing Dory to hit an underhook suplex for 2. Terry back in for a clothesline and leg drop but the only get 2. He tries again but Tito moves, hot tag to JYD and he cleans house including the noggin knocker. He gets choked by Terry while Jimmy Hart distracts the ref. JYD escapes and sends Terry out to the floor and slams him on a table. Everyone ends up back in the ring where Tito locks a figure four on Dory. Ref breaks it up due to legality and in the chaos, Terry nails a distracted JYD with the megaphone to get the cheap win. I wonder if that dodgy finish means this feud continues. Action was fun and Tito was a good partner this time around. Terry did everything he could to make this match fun and Dory still looks like a badass. Match Rating: **
Hulk Hogan (WWE Champ) vs King Kong Bundy [WWE Title Match][Cage Match]
So we're finally here. After weeks of questioning whether Hogan's ribs were good enough, he can't back out now. More celebrities are involved with stuff and some guy who's timekeeper really doesn't get a good reaction from the crowd. He looks like some dorky kid too. Big heat for Bundy and Heenan which is good after all this build and of course, the pop for Hogan is MASSIVE. This is our first steel cage match of the blog and its the classic thick blue bars cage. They start off quickly with Hogan coming out on top, nailing a big boot. He slams Bundy into the cage, hits an elbow but can't hit a second cage attempt. Bundy starts to target the ribs and takes control. He goes for the door quickly but Hogan stops him. Bundy reacts by slamming Hogan into the cage this time before going for the door again. Its unsuccessful again but this time he chokes Hogan with his wrist tape. He tries to tie Hogan to the ropes with the tape but shockingly Hogan breaks free and stops Bundy walking out again. He slams Bundy into the cage and Bundy blades quite obviously and starts gushing blood not long after. The dreaded back rake and more slams into the cage from Hogan before he tries to slam Bundy but fails due to the weight. Bundy tries to escape again but Hogan stops him so Bundy gets a cheap shot. He hits the big avalanche on Hogan but fuck, Hogan completely no sells it and slams Bundy! Holy shit! He hits a leg drop, tries to escape over the top but Bundy stops him briefly although not for long as Hogan shoves him down before escaping to the floor to get the win and keep his title. Hogan beats on Heenan after the match to the delight of the crowd before posing to send us home. I liked this match to be honest, mainly because of the story it told. The amount of times Bundy tried to escape underlined the balance between monster and just a bloke who wants to win so much. I would've liked to have seen Bundy show off his power some more but that's me being picky. Hogan I wish sold the ribs but no, he took the avalanche and then managed the slam. It's frustrating but it was the 80's. So long Mr Bundy, it was nice seeing you at your peak. Match Rating: **
Onto the scores!
Wrestler Scores:
- Paul Orndorff +3 (61)
- Don Muraco +3 (46)
- George Steele +2 (25)
- Randy Savage +4 (69)
- George Wells +4 (7)
- Jake Roberts +3 (12)
- Roddy Piper +2 (76)
- Mr T +2 (20)
- Fabulous Moolah +1 (5)
- Velvet McIntyre +1 (3)
- Nikolai Volkoff +2 (40)
- Corporal Kirchner +2 (34)
- Russ Francis +1 (1)
- Bret Hart +4 (47)
- Jim Neidhart +4 (42)
- Andre the Giant +4 (32)
- Davey Boy Smith +7 (52)
- Dynamite Kid +7 (56)
- Greg Valentine +8 (71)
- Brutus Beefcake +5 (44)
- Hercules +3 (13)
- Ricky Steamboat +3 (77)
- Adrian Adonis +4 (51)
- Uncle Elmer +1 (14)
- Terry Funk +5 (52)
- Dory Funk +5 (21)
- Tito Santana +4 (79)
- Junkyard Dog +4 (66)
- King Kong Bundy +4 (47)
- Hulk Hogan +6 (98)
So Greg Valentine was the surprise of the show with a solidly, great performance in the title match. Same can be said of the Bulldogs who were also amazing. Not so many other high scorers on this one as there just wasn't that much quality on the show. Hogan gets a decent haul because you just can't ignore how important to the show the steel cage match was. Let's face it, it certainly isn't for in ring quality. In what was another surpirse, George Wells picks up more points for his performance in his match than Jake did. This was because Jake did very little except hitting his finisher where as Wells showed off a decent move set. I was tempted to give nothing to the women but they did show up at least so a point each is somewhat fair I guess. None the less, this means we see some changes to the current All Star Top 10 so before we end this edition...here's the Top 10
- Hulk Hogan - 98 Points
- Tito Santana - 79 Points
- Ricky Steamboat - 77 Points
- Roddy Piper - 76 Points
- Greg Valentine - 71 Points
- Randy Savage - 69 Points
- Junkyard Dog - 66 Points
- Paul Orndorff - 61 Points
- Dynamite Kid - 56 Points
- Davey Boy Smith - 52 Points
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