1988: The Mop Up 

 

You know the drill. I missed some stuff in 1988. Here it is. Let’s fucking gooo. 

 

MATCH #1 and #2: 

AJPW. Yokohama, Japan. March 9, 1988.  

 

Tiger Mask II vs. Jumbo Tsuruta  

This is part of a series of matches pitting Misawa against heavyweights as he attempts to prove he can step up from the junior ranks. Dubbed here; Fierce Tiger Seven Game Trial Series Seventh because Japan. I love Jumbo having to shove his way to the ring through throngs of people. Misawa never clicked in the TM gear for me. Some of his work here is clunky and awkward. The match is sluggish with lots of headlocks and then, out of nowhere, Misawa runs the ropes and hits a diving headbutt to a standing Tsuruta. Properly angled his head in there too. 

 

Back to the headlocks.  

 

Eventually Jumbo gets fed up and just plants the poor bastard with a backdrop driver. Headlock that, you furry fucker. It wakes Misawa up though and he starts reeling off wacky dives. I’m suddenly having a great time. The crowd are all hyped up because they think Misawa is going to win. Which would be a key theme in his development; almost beating Jumbo. Tsuruta gets pissed off and starts wailing on Tiger Mask with big moves and he keeps kicking out. The crowd are biting on everything. Misawa tries some cheeky roll ups in between surviving big moves but gets planted with another backdrop driver and Jumbo wins. You cut out the headlock heavy opening 7 minutes and this gets some serious snowflakes. Misawa’s ideas of how to make a big match feel important are all at play here. ***¾ 

 

Genichiro Tenryu vs. Stan Hansen 

This is the main event from the same show. Tenryu is the NWA United National Champion. Hansen holds the PWF title. This is a unification bout, which is step one towards the Triple Crown being a thing. We have to wait for 1989 for that. Hansen is the ideal worker for some people. He’s a big, realistic worker who doesn’t flop about and just wails on people because his eyesight is so poor he has to actually hit people or it doesn’t look right. He just fucking barrels into Tenryu from the bell and takes no shit.  

 

Hansen in Japan just hits different because, unlike in America, he doesn’t have to work with anyone who’s worried about his hard-hitting manner. The Japanese just accept realism, through violence, is part of the game. About five minutes in, Hansen wants a rest, and we go to some chinlocks. The match never really recovers from it. By the time Tenryu mounts his comeback, the heat has gone. Tenryu has to do something extreme to win people over again and decides to take a bump over the top rope, face first into the floor. 

 

Yeah, that’ll do it. My main issue with the match is that I don’t like Tenryu as a babyface. He’s such a perfect prick that I don’t like seeing him fight from underneath and the crowd’s reactions here versus him being an asshole against Tsuruta, suggest I’m not alone in that. Tenryu ends up catching Hansen with an inside cradle out of nowhere to unify the belts. This was very underwhelming. **½  

 

Post Match is where we get our chuckles as Hansen decides to beat the shit out of Tenryu with the bull rope and busts the little bastard open before scattering the ringside seconds. The sight of a dozen young boys legging it, in fear for their lives, is what makes Hansen so special. It’s a shame Tenryu sleepwalked through this entire match, one bump aside.  

 

MATCH #3 

AJPW. Tokyo, Japan. March 27, 1988.  

 

Genichiro Tenryu vs. Stan Hansen 

Yeah, here we go again. This is for the titles Tenryu won in the above match. Hansen has this look about him, where he’s milliseconds away from punching someone, permanently. That’s his vibe. Tenryu has a plaster on his eyebrow and Stan’s opening gambit is to punch Tenryu in the eye twice. This is from the cowbell attack in the last match and the whole business feels more heated because of it.  

 

Tenryu is soon bleeding heavily but as with the first match, Stan opts to slow the pace and grind away with rest holds. It’s so frustrating to start a match so hot and just stick it into the cooler. The good news, this time around, is that the Tokyo crowd bite on it more and appreciate Tenryu’s heart. He gets raucous reaction for kicking at Hansen’s ribs for a while. Is he working the midsection because it’s such a big target? I’m not scared Stan will read that, he can barely see.  

 

While Tenryu aims at Hansen’s ribs, Hansen continues to abuse the busted open eyebrow. The cut is actually between eyebrow and eye, which suggests it was hardway because there’s no way any sensible human being would blade there. He’s split open like a ripe melon. Tenryu starts to show some genuine fire with some hard shots. I can only assume Hansen spent the entire match potatoing the hell out of him.  

 

Stan hits a lariat so hard that Tenryu’s soul leaves his body. It’s swimming back down there just in time for the 2.999 kick out. Hansen basically has the match won but decides to pound on Tenryu’s busted open face some more. I want him to bleed his own blood. The referee, if we’re polite, loses control of the situation…if he ever had any kind of control of Stan Hansen in the first place. It’s a DQ as Stan continues to stomp on Tenryu in the corner.  

 

Now this is more like it. Loads of fire from Tenryu. Loads of ass kicking from Hansen. ****. Great stuff. 1988 hasn’t been a great year for wrestling, so this is in my top ten easily. Maybe top five.  

 

MATCH #4 

AJPW. Osaka, Japan. April 15, 1988. 

 

Genichiro Tenryu vs. Bruiser Brody 

Brody comes in with the NWA International title, which means this could have been the first instance of the Triple Crown. If someone won this, they would be Triple Crown champion. It’s strange seeing Brody just three months before he was killed in Puerto Rico. This will probably be the last time I ever watch him wrestle.  

 

This match continues the story of Tenryu having to figure out bigger American opponents in his role as AJPW’s top guy. In the tags he always had Jumbo to tag out to if he got in real trouble. Now he has to figure out a way to win on his own. Against Hansen, he caught the big man with an inside cradle but got battered in the process. Here he looks keen to avoid taking a beating and tries to control the match with wear-down holds. It doesn’t make for great viewing.  

 

Brody has had enough after 7 minutes-ish and starts going after Tenryu with chops and a vicious big boot. Sadly, he also opts to kill time with a chinlock. Which is what happens when you book a 30:00 match. Just book it to go 20:00 so they can go balls out and finish with a DCO. When Brody is throwing Tenryu around the match is jolly good fun, albeit lacking in the usual Brody chaos. It’s all a little too sanitised.  

 

Tenryu brings some interesting psychology by chopping Brody’s knees. Brody has such a big size advantage that Tenryu desperately needs to take that away, along with Brody’s mobility. Tenryu is prepared to take it to desperate ends and uses the ring bell. Surely that’s a DQ? I guess they don’t want a DQ because it’s a unification match. Watching Tenryu grind away at leg holds for 10 minutes isn’t doing it for me though. He gets creative at times but there’s too much lying around in holds.  

 

Brody tries to sell but finds it impossible because Tenryu is so scattershot in his approach at the end. My advice to any wrestler is to not work a limb at all, unless its your finish. All the limb work here goes nowhere and we just start unloading big bombs. It reminds me of the boring NJPW main events of recent years. Brody specifically using his knee as a weapon in the latter stages is the dumbest shit in a bad match. Just admit the entire thing was a gigantic waste of everyone’s time, cheers.  

 

The final insult is them spilling to the floor where Tenryu drops Brody during a powerbomb attempt and they both get swiftly counted out. This match has a staggering, mind-boggling, 8.42 rating on Cagematch. Astonishing.  

 

MATCH #5 

AJPW. Sapporo, Japan. June 4, 1988. 

 

Genichiro Tenryu & Ashura Hara vs. Jumbo Tsuruta & Yoshiaki Yatsu 

These guys clash again, only this time for the PWF tag belts. Revolution are defending. These belts ceased to exist about a week after this as they got unified with the NWA International tag belts. The Jumbo-Tsuruta rivalry is intensifying here. As is demonstrated by Jumbo fucking murdering Tenryu with jumping knees, as if he wants to bust him open hardway.  

 

They repeat the slap spot from earlier but this time Tenryu does it to break up a Tsuruta Octopus hold and he fucking clocks Jumbo with it. Hara is booked strong here as he outsmarts Jumbo and beats up Yatsu but Tenryu lets him down. Yatsu ends up pinning Hara with a German suplex with Tenryu not even trying to charge into the ring for the save. *** 

 

MATCH #6 

WWF. MSG, New York. June 25, 1988 

 

Randy Savage vs. Ted DiBiase 

This isn’t on the award-winning WWE Network, but it is on Daily Motion because Russians love piracy and god bless them. If WWE are complaining about this being up there’s a simple solution; put the fucking match on your website. It’s a cage match and is considered to be the peak of the Savage-DiBiase feud.  

 

I know I hate fist drops, because they’re stupid, but Ted DiBiase has the best fist drop ever. Another thing I don’t like is cage matches where you win by climbing out. You shouldn’t win anything by running away from your enemy. The good news is that they work hard and move quickly. It’s a solid brawl. Ted does something weird and climbs down with Savage lying in the ring with comms telling us he’s “rubber legged” and can’t climb. He was halfway up!  

 

Virgil constantly interferes from the outside and a fan jumps onto the cage to try and stop Virgil! Virgil climbs in, gets his head clocked against Ted. They both fall into the ring and Savage climbs out to retain. The kid who helped him is there celebrating. New Yorkers, eh! ***½. Way better than the poor Wrestlemania match but not quite as good as the rematch they had at SNME #15, which I had at ***¾. Still, both guys were on top of their game here.  

 

MATCH #7 

AJPW. Nagano, Japan. July 27, 1988. 

 

Genichiro Tenryu vs. Stan Hansen 

This is for Tenryu’s double crown of the PWF and NWA International belts. Hansen, clearly mad about the way previous matches have gone, jumps Tenryu during his entrance and bloodies the poor bastard. Clearly, they felt the blood added a lot to the previous match and wanted to replicate that. The great thing about that last match was how organic the bloodshed felt. This is less so. This is just a bladejob before the match.  

 

Hansen isn’t subtle. He just bludgeons people. Tenryu just gets his ass kicked here. Again. Hansen’s variation on the fist drop is to drop and punch. He punches the wound, over and over again. Before too long we’ve got ourselves a crimson mask. AWA would stop this for blood loss. NWA would have stopped it for blood loss before it started. Tenryu does a great job of stumbling around, bleeding, looking beaten. He’s fully invested in telling that story. Meanwhile, Hansen just has to continue to brutalise him.  

 

Stan almost punches himself out, which is an interesting story. He gets tired from beating Tenryu up and Tenryu takes the opening. It doesn’t last and Hansen beats the piss out of Tenryu a bit more. If anything, this is even more an extreme beating for Tenryu than the previous ones. Tenryu, covered in blood, can’t convince in his comebacks. Mainly because his enzuigiri looks shit. Especially compared to the beating he’s received from Stan.  

 

Tenryu goes up top, still bleeding profusely, and Stan clobbers him with a lariat across the face. Tenryu leaves a trail of blood behind him in an attempt to get back in but doesn’t make it and they award the belts to Hansen. ****. Incredible moment at the end with Tenryu being carried out of the building, still bleeding heavily, and Hansen screaming “BRODY” (who died 10 days beforehand) while holding the belt in the air. Ahhh, fuck it, that’s worth an extra bit on the rating; ****¼.  

 

MATCH #8 

NJPW. Yokohama, Japan. August 8, 1988 

 

Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Antonio Inoki 

This is for Fujinami’s IWGP title. Trying to find NJPW content for the late 80s is really hard because NJPW have had it copyright struck off YouTube but haven’t bothered uploading anything to their own service. New Japan World is somehow even more frustrating to use than the WWE’s Network. The search function actually works on there but there’s nothing on the actual service.  

 

Anyway, the match. It goes 60:00. All of which is on the mat. Hey, I love the style but for an hour it’s painfully overdone. It’s one ‘submission’ attempt after another for an hour. The crowd, in defence of the match, are into it because it’s Inoki versus his top student, who happens to be the champ. It does have moments where it isn’t a boring grapplefest too. Just not enough of them.  

 

I wish I could share the crowd’s enthusiasm for something so tedious. They must assume it is about to be over at any given moment, so fair play to them for creating that feeling. Fujinami, by the way, is one of the smoothest technicians in the world at this point and Inoki, a very underrated wrestler, is still in peak condition. They could have had a match that slapped. Just because you can wrestle for 60 minutes doesn’t mean you should.  

 

It doesn’t help my mood that Inoki, who has his legs worked over all match, never once even approaches selling anything. 60 minutes is long enough without any layering of the storytelling. I’ll give them credit, the match feels exhausting and while it’s slowly paced it’s better than Bret-Shawn at Wrestlemania 12. The match has one massive issue, above all else, and that’s nothing changes from the start to the end. Nobody learns anything. They’re just still trying to same holds an hour later. 

 

Just when you think it’ll kick out of that holding pattern there’s another sleeper or another Figure Four. You could argue both guys are hoping ‘this time’ the other guy is worn down enough for it to work. It’s certainly an achievement and I respect the work but it’s not fun enough for a strong recommendation. An hour of mat work is a hard sell on anyone. Call it ***¾. An experience.  

 

MATCH #9 

AJPW. Yokohama, Japan. October 28, 1988.  

 

Genichiro Tenryu vs. Jumbo Tsuruta  

No one has a belt here, so they’re just scrapping to see who the top dog is. This is their third singles match, following two from 1987, and there’s yet to be a decisive winner with two DQ finishes. Tenryu sometimes has wonky psychology. Here he takes a shinbreaker, in an attempt to escape a headlock, and just ignores it continuing with the hold. So, Tsuruta, looking somewhat hot about it, plants him with the backdrop driver instead.  

 

Tenryu’s no-selling is something that bugged me because it felt very random. What it does do, however, is fire up Jumbo who clearly hates it and he lands his shit so much harder after a no-sell. It’s almost as if Tenryu is saying “hit me properly, you pussy”. Which is ironic considering how tame Tenryu’s strikes look. As I type that Tenryu absolutely tattoos Jumbo with a chop to the face. This match is all about two guys fighting over one spot. There can only be one ‘ace’ and you could make an argument for it being either guy at this juncture. They’ve both excelled. They’ve both looked great against top gaijin talent.  

 

Jumbo is the template for every good Japanese wrestler that followed him. Able to bump, sell and kick ass in equal measure. Comfortable regardless of the situation and opponent. Capable of short bursts of offence or sitting in for the long haul. I look at Jumbo Tsuruta and I can see where Kazuchika Okada came from. Or Kenta Kobashi or Konosuke Takeshita.  

 

The match does fall off a little around 15 minutes in. The fatigue is setting in but Jumbo still has these little moments where he pushes the pace again. Tenryu, meanwhile, has dropped into his standard performance against a dominant gaijin wrestler. When he mounts his comeback, we get some MEAT SLAPPING. There is a shot of Tenryu up close and he’s got a black eye. They really have worn each other out here.  

 

They layer in some delightful psychology. Tsuruta with a knee injury, which prevents him from following some things up and allows Tenryu back into it. It never overwhelms the match, it just sits there in the background. There’s also move theft, way before that was ‘cool’. Jumbo lifting the enzuigiri and the powerbomb, which is one of the ugliest you’ll ever see but in glorious fashion. Like, Jumbo doesn’t know how to do it properly but also, he doesn’t give a fuck.  

 

The referee loses control as both guys start wailing on each other. This is so great. Referee should just let it go but he’s seen enough and disqualifies Tenryu for ignoring him. While I love the match, it’s not one of the top tier bouts between the two, nor one of the best of the year. Let’s call it ****. It could have used a better finish, or at least more build to get to that finish. Also, if that is the finish, they could skip some warm up for something else. All that teased leg work basically goes nowhere. It is all well done though, so it’s still not a major issue.  

 

MATCH #10 

UWF. Nagoya, Japan. November 10, 1988.  

 

Akira Maeda vs. Nobuhiko Takada 

This is their second match after the first, in June, fell flat. I went ***½ but it was an attempt at a ‘bridging match’ between NJPW and UWF. It didn’t really work. This however, is the debut of the UWF ‘points’ system. Each wrestler can be knocked down four times. On knockdown five, the fight is over. You use the ropes three times, you lose a knockdown. The knockdowns rule helped to create incredible tension in UWF and helped to utilise the shooto technique of both guys. They were creating something new and exciting here. While I liked early UWF shows, the levelling up process into the new rules is something else.  

 

There’s a better shoot feel to the match now. With prodding leg kicks and tentative mat work with both guys seemingly more aware that a mistake could lead to defeat. Even the more boring mat work feels like a precursor to MMA and has deviated from traditional pro-wrestling in the best of ways. This is Maeda’s response to Inoki vs. Fujinami.  

 

The excitement about rope breaks, and potential submissions, is palpable. This is what ROH were going for with the Pure title but there’s only one audience that’s prepared to treat pro-wrestling like a sport and that’s Japan (maybe Europe for AMBITION but at a push). I love Maeda switching gears and catching Takada with an inside knee for KD #1. It feels almost out of nowhere. I also love Maeda doing a suplex and instead of pinning immediately, he switches positions to make sure the pin is more of a shoot than the usual ‘drape yourself over the shoulders’ pro-wrestling pin. 

 

Maeda looks fully in control, catches Takada with a head kick and goes up 2-0 on downs with Takada having using two rope breaks. Down he goes again. 3-0. Out of nowhere Takada catches Maeda looking to finish him with a kick across the chops. 3-1. Now every single thing feels important as they jostle for big strikes, switching to takedowns and submission attempts. The crowd are all fired up.  

 

Takada rolls into the ropes to avoid getting his leg broken and it’s 4-1. Now Maeda just needs one big shot to win. Takada promptly kicks him down for 4-2. Even with that fall, Maeda still only needs one lucky shot to end it. Takada keeps kicking away and floors Maeda again. 4-3. Maeda is reeling and Takada changes tack to try and submit him. Maeda ends up blowing through his rope breaks. 4-4. Next big shot wins it and both guys start throwing haymakers trying to end it. Takada connects with three in a row and Maeda stumbles and falls. The crowd ROARS in appreciation. Takada wins the big one and the crowd are right by the ring!! Holy shit. This is the sport of pro-wrestling right here. A revolution before my very eyes. No wonder Inoki went nuts trying to replicate it. ****½.  

 

MATCH #11 

AJPW. Tokyo, Japan. December 16, 1988. 

 

Genichiro Tenryu & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Stan Hansen & Terry Gordy 

This is the final of the Real World Tag League 1988 and also for the vacant tag belts. I always think of Kawada, around this time period, as Tenryu’s boy but he’s been wrestling for 6 years already. They’ve dressed Gordy up like Hansen and they’re about the same size. How intimidating is it to have to face Hansen and another fucking huge guy with the same mentality?  

 

Kawada starts, to big “oooohhh” reactions and “Kawada” chants. He tries to throw kicks and be all plucky and just gets murdered. Tenryu comes in and it becomes apparent that any time he tries to go to town on Gordy, he’s getting it right back. There’s no weak link on the gaijin team. Kawada has to prove the same is true of him and Revolution, so he goes after Hansen with kicks. There’s a feeling, in the crowd especially, that the Revolution pairing can do this.  

 

It’s a hard hitting contest. Gordy is arguably the star. If you see him work, especially in AJPW, before he died and got revived, he was a killer. So fast, so strong, so brutal. Kawada gets a hot tag here and before Tenryu is even in the ring Hansen lariats him across the jaw. Bring back this level of gaijin badassery. Kawada decides he’s going after Hansen on the outside and Stan does not take kindly to this and tries to remove his leg.  

 

All those ‘Kawada has a bad knee’ matches go back to this. Hansen, in this match and all AJPW matches, swings wildly at anything that moves. Gordy mirrors that viciousness. If he spent his whole career tagging with Hansen, he’d be considered one of the greatest to ever wrestle. He is an immaculate beast here. Tenryu ends up having to go it alone, because the gaijin cripple Kawada. Hansen lariats Tenryu’s face off and the poor, crippled, Tosh can’t climb into the ring to save.  

 

An absolutely badass match. Great selling. Powerhouse gaijin performances. Great underdog work from Tenryu. Just an all-around banger. ****½ 

 

MATCH #12 

UWF. Osaka, Japan. December 22, 1988.  

 

Bob Backlund vs. Nobuhiko Takada  

Backlund hasn’t wrestled since a short stint with the AWA in 1985. He just dropped out of the scene and it’s quite the coup for UWF to just pick him up out of nowhere. He’s ideal for the companies’ purposes. He’s in incredible shape, is a great technician and can go hold for hold with a top shootstyle guy like Takada.  

 

The UWF did a great job of establishing the rules of the promotion in the Maeda-Takada match but here they switch tactics again, with a more scientific mat-based clash. Backlund’s conditioning is elite here. Why didn’t he go to the NWA and face Flair around this time? If he’d gone there in 1988, he could have plugged a giant hole in the company. Maybe he didn’t fancy it. Or the NWA were more interested in pushing Luger and Sting.  

 

Backlund dominates the mat work here and Takada has to switch to kicks, which is the story of the match. Backlund wants a scientific match (IE, mat work) and Takada is game…until he’s losing, then he uses the rules to his advantage. Backlund’s response is to elbow Takada in the face. Bob’s selling gets a bit ragged, and he forgets the rules a few times and takes bumps when he’s not supposed to. It makes the match quite hard to follow.  

 

We also get a big lull in the middle where Bob is working various leg holds. They don’t go anywhere and Backlund, again, forgets the rules. Is he forgetting the rules, or doing his wacky Backlund stuff? Who knows? Anyway, Takada accidentally bloodies Bob’s nose and BUSINESS PICKS UP. Backlund is suddenly vicious and merciless. He wants to strap on that Chickenwing and does various slams and throws to set it up. He does insist on going back to leglocks at random occasions but he’s more intense.  

 

We get a bit weird at the end as Takada wins with a keylock and Bob is all “I didn’t quit” even though you could hear him saying “yes” when asked if he was giving up. Is it lost in translation, or did Bob forget the rules again? However you slice it, this a fantastically badass match but would have been better with both guys on the same page. Especially regarding the rules, which don’t come across as well as they did in the Maeda-Takada match. It’s still Bob Backlund kicking ass in UWF though so, ****.  

 

1988 AWARDS 

 

Wrestler of the Year 

1. Akira Maeda (4). This is the first year I have had no idea who to give this to. Flair, usually clear of everybody, had a less than excellent 12 months. Maeda on the other hand, broke away from New Japan, formed his own promotion and revolutionised what wrestling could be presented as in 1988. His UWF was a beacon of excellence in a year that is otherwise largely forgettable.  

 

2. Stan Hansen. Hansen’s 1988 is a marvellous year for a pro-wrestler. He bludgeoned, beat, cajoled and abused the native wrestlers of All Japan and looked like a million fucking bucks doing it. Probably the best year of his career. I debated putting him top, because he turned Tenryu into a goddamn star.  

 

3. Ric Flair (1). The first time Flair hasn’t ranked #1 on these things. Flair had a good year, making Sting and Luger into top stars for the NWA. Outside of those two marquee matches, he struggled to make his usual impact. Was it a lack of top challengers outside of those guys or general malaise and distrust of Dusty Rhodes? Whatever it was, it was gone in 1989 and Flair was back to his best. Maybe better than ever.  

 

4. Nobuhiko Takada (3). Takada had to play second fiddle to Maeda for most of 1988 but got to free himself a little towards the end. First in beating Maeda in the first real ‘UWF rules’ match and then besting Bob Backlund. Before that he’d been a little ‘in the background’ compared to 1987.  

 

5. Jumbo Tsuruta (5). Another good year for Jumbo and he was arguably better here than 12 months prior. He certainly closed the gap between the top tier boys and the AJPW elite. He was definitely more of a leader in the ring and more of a star outside of it by this point.  

 

6. Genichiro Tenryu (10). Tenryu came on leaps and bounds in 1988. He mastered working from underneath and taking a vicious beating from Hansen but also went toe to toe with Tsuruta and learned from the brutality of the gaijin and delivered that same abuse to his countrymen. The most I’ve ever liked Tenryu.  

 

7. Barry Windham (8). Windham came into his own as a heel member of the Horsemen in 1988. He took up that Tully Blanchard mantle of the guy who acted as gatekeeper for the top half of the card in the NWA. His best all-around year in the business, I think.  

 

8. Tatsumi Fujinami. I didn’t watch as much NJPW as I was hoping for. It’s simply not out there with NJ World having stuff removed from YouTube and then not uploading the same content onto its own service. He was a cracking technician though. His hour match with Antonio Inoki was a delight for fans of mat work.  

 

9. Randy Savage (2). Considering he won the belt in 1988, Savage’s output in the ring deteriorated a great deal in 1988. It wasn’t helped by it being a poor year overall for the company in the ring.  

 

10. Sting. Sting came powering into the scene in 1988. His highflying, powerhouse wrestling was all smashmouth and designed for the 90s. His style of work would become the backbone of what the wrestler of the 90s was supposed to be. Enigmatic, flashy, entertaining and versatile.  

 

Best Tag Team 

1. Brain Busters (5). Arn & Tully were the best team in the NWA in 1988 and then they left and were also the best tag team in the WWF. Considering the incredible number of all-time great tag teams in both promotions at the time, this is quite the accomplishment but they really were that good. Better than the Harts, Bulldogs, Rockers, Midnights, RNR, Fantastics. The fucking lot.  

 

2. Midnight Express (1). MXP were phenomenal in 1988 and did so as both heels and babyfaces, which gives them the edge into second place. They were great at both.  

 

3. Fantastics. The last great year for the Fantastics. Their style of hand-slapping babyface pretty boys, who hugged girls at ringside was fading in the late 80s. They had one final great NWA run with a load of great matches, including against the Sheepherders. An all-timer team for babyface crowd support. Often overlooked in favour of the RNR.  

 

4. Rockers. Coming up from the AWA, the Rockers immediately stood out as an incredible babyface tag team. Often overlooked is how great Marty Jannetty was. Back in the day, he was arguably a better worker than Shawn. In that Survivor Series match he was outstanding.  

 

5. Badd Company 

After everyone else had left the AWA, it was left to Badd Company to kick any remaining asses. They took over the Rockers’ mantle as top team in the promotion and were genuinely excellent. A rare bright spot in 1988 AWA.  

 

Best Promotion 

1. UWF. I’ve thought about this and while I enjoyed another promotion more in 1988, this was the UWF’s year. What they did and achieved in a short space of time was to change the concept of pro-wrestling. They turned it into a sport, with its own rules and its own fanbase of rabid fans. All eager to see what Maeda and Takada would do next. It burned brightly for a short time. What an experience it was.  

 

2. AJPW (3). I thought AJPW banged in 1988. They had two great top guys in Tsuruta and Tenryu and they went ahead and threw them against each other. Something the WWF would learn from in the following two years. The reactions for the wars between Tsuruta and Tenryu would form the basis of every feud in the company for the next decade.  

 

3. NJPW (2). As I’ve mentioned already there’s not much 1988 NJPW to actually watch out there. Luckily, I did see some of it beforehand and what I did see from 1988 was very good. This is, notably, the first time I’ve put AJPW above NJPW.  

 

4. NWA (5). An improvement over the less than excellent 1987, 1988 saw NWA land big when they had to. They delivered with Clash of the Champions, going head to head with an inferior Wrestlemania show. Then they delivered with their own big show in Starrcade ‘88. Their two best shows of the year. The rest of the year was, at best, middling.  

 

Match of the Year 

1 .Nobuhiko Takada vs. Akira Maeda (Nov 10, 1988 – UWF). I’ve already talked, at length, about this match today but fuck me, what a ballsy move it was. To introduce a new scoring system to wrestling, have it make sense, and then land an unbelievable match like this to demonstrate the concept…was breath-taking and so fresh and innovative. The roar of the crowd at the conclusion tells you whether it was a success.  

 

2. Stan Hansen & Terry Gordy vs. Genichiro Tenryu & Toshiaki Kawada (Dec 16, 1988 – AJPW). Two big violent American dudes kicking the shit out of two plucky natives in front of a molten crowd, who loved all of them. Beautiful.  

 

3. Stan Hansen vs. Genichiro Tenryu (Jul 27, 1988 – AJPW). Hansen bloodies Tenryu before the match even starts and then beats the fuck out of him for quarter of an hour, lariats him in the face so he falls out to the floor and then holds the belt high screaming “BRODY” just days after Brody’s death. A magical 15:00 of pro-wrestling. Even better than the match they had earlier in the year where the bloodshed was more organic.  

 

4. Midnight Express vs. Fantastics (Mar 27, 1988 – NWA Clash of the Champions). My notes call this a “whipass 10 minutes whirlwind tag”. All action. Tommy Rogers takes a shit-kicking. Wonderful.  

 

5. Jerry Lawler vs. Kerry von Erich (Dec 13, 1988 – AWA Superclash III). A really great match with Lawler bumping his ass off. Huge bloodshed from Kerry. The goriest bladejob I’ve seen so far on this flashback odyssey. It has a bad finish, with the blood loss, but otherwise it is SWANK~!  

 

^ This is the first time I’ve done a top five end of year match gimmick and Flair wasn’t in it at all.  

 

Best Major Show 

1. NWA Clash of the Champions. It was a toss up between this and Starrcade and people still talk about how Flair made Sting on this show. So, this will edge it. The undercard is arguably better too with Midnights-Fantastics and Windham & Luger vs. Arn & Tully both kicking all kinds of ass.  

 

2. NWA Starrcade ‘88. True Gritt (sp) was headlined by Ric Flair having a great match with Lex Luger. Also we had Barry Windham vs. Bam Bam Bigelow in a shockingly good clash between old school NWA geezer Barry and flashy WWF neon drenched cartoon character Bigelow.  

 

3. UWF Starting Over. It only had three matches and only one of them was particularly good but a shootstyle promotion made themselves with this event. They solidified their status later in the year with better matches but it was a hell of a way to wave hello.  

 

Worst Wrestler 

 

1 .Mighty Wilbur. You know a guy sucks at wrestling when the only frame of reference I have for him is “that guy who sucks at wrestling”. Wilbur won’t make the list next year because he left the business. Good! 

2. Ultimate Warrior. In some of the years that followed, Warrior was carried to decent or even good matches. In 1988, he was exposed as a guy who had bad timing, got over excited and blew spots. He was the drizzling shits. The only person who thought this push was a good idea was Vince McMahon. Another reason, if you don’t have enough already, to hate him.  

 

3. Jim Duggan (10). Duggan just about crept into my top ten last year but his WWF run makes him more and more obnoxious and intolerable. It was already apparent here and would only get worse. Unlike Warrior, he was not ‘carriable’ and would just go around having his same dumb, shitty match every time out.  

 

4. Virgil. Have you ever seen Virgil wrestle?  

 

5. Giant Baba. Baba is a legend but by the late 80s he’d lost all semblance of balance and his once hulking size was a hindrance. He looked like a walking skeleton. Thanks to his position within AJPW, he would continue to be involved for many years, although he should have retired for in-ring competition around 1985.  

 

6. Boris Zhukov. So bad that commentary tended to point out how useless he was.  

 

7. Dino Bravo (8). His final run in the WWF was so bad. Just a big, chunky, steroid freak.  

 

8. Ken Patera. Just awful by this point and left the WWF in 1988, never to return.  

 

9. Andre the Giant (7). I’ll cut Andre some slack because, on occasion, in 1988 he hid his inability to move around the ring. But he also worked a heart attack when faced with Jake’s snake so he still makes the list.  

 

Worst Promotion  

 

1 .WWF. Yeah, they went from being the best promotion in the world in 1987 to whatever the fuck they were in 1988. The misguided attempts at feuds, pathetic Wrestlemania and losing main star Hulk Hogan for a big chunk of the year didn’t help. This felt like the high water mark for 1980s WWF. It never really got back to that level until Attitude and generally their product is varying degrees of awful for the next decade. Even in 1992, when Flair was on top, the product was inferior to other promotions.  

 

2. AWA. This is it for the AWA. They’ve spent the last four years on my shit-list and even that great Jerry Lawler vs Kerry von Erich program can’t save them. The wrestler churn didn’t help but Verne didn’t help himself when he burned the bridges with the other companies that helped him put on Superclash III. I think I have one AWA review in the works for 1989, and that’s probably one too many.  

 

Worst Major Show

 

1.Wrestlemania IV. The concept of a one-night title tournament didn’t work at all. The show is the least memorable Wrestlemania of the entire era. It’s made worse by the whole promotion being so hot going into 1988 and just laying an absolute egg in one of their biggest shows of all time and running it in a shithole casino to boot.

 

2. Summerslam ’88. Bookended by two ok-ish tag team matches the middle of the show is a huge steaming pile of shit. Summerslam ’88 somehow skirts around the lists of bad PPVs but it absolutely belongs on there and is probably a worse show than Wrestlemania IV but it’s not a Wrestlemania so its less heavily criticised.

 

3. NWA Clash of the Champions 4. Oh, the dream that was Clash of the Champions. It took Dusty and company one show to ruin the concept. Clash #1 was a beauty. Clash #2 was largely unimportant. By the time Clash #3, “Season’s Beatings”, rolled around the concept was in the mud. They gave Italian Stallion 15 minutes and had Paul Jones vs. Ivan Koloff on it.

 

That’s it for 1988. Join me in 1989 as we get Flair-Steamboat, Flair-Funk, the Steiner Brothers, New Japan in the Tokyo Dome, Jushin Liger, Vader, Russian wrestlers in NJPW, WCW invents the Thunderdome, No Holds Barred: The Match/The Movie, the return of Roddy Piper, All Japan’s Triple Crown and FMW joins the party! Join me!