Welcome to KB’s Old School (and New School) Reviews. I’ve been reviewing wrestling shows for over ten years now and have reviewed over 5,000 shows. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I’ll be posting a new review here on Wrestlingrumors.net, starting today. It could be anything from modern WWE to old school to indies to anything in between. Note that I rate using letters instead of stars and I don’t rate matches under three minutes as really, how good or bad can something that short be?
WWF House ShowDate: August 13, 1988Location: Los Angeles Sports Arena, Los Angeles, CaliforniaCommentators: Gorilla Monsoon, Superstar Billy Graham
It’s another show that was recently added to the Network and it’s from my favorite era so let’s take a look. Randy Savage is the World Champion here and defending against Andre the Giant while Hulk Hogan is taking a bit of a break. We’re also coming up on Summerslam so you can expect to hear quite a bit about the show. Let’s get to it.
The announcers talk about the World Title match a bit with Graham thinking Miss Elizabeth made a mistake by signing Savage to the contract. Since when can she do that?
Sam Houston vs. Black Jack
From what I can find, Jack is a local wrestler whose career started back in 1963. No wonder he’s under a mask. Graham thinks Houston needs to put on some weight, which likely means doing some steroids. To be fair he said the same thing about Elizabeth so the guy isn’t all there sometimes. Sam dances around the ring as is his custom but Jack bails to the apron. It works so well that they do it again as the announcers keep talking about Houston needing to gain weight.
Some hiptosses have Jack down and of course he’s complaining about a mask pull. A headlock slows Jack down again as the fans aren’t exactly thrilled with this. The solution? Talk about Jack’s beard. Back up and Sam slugs away but we’ll hit another headlock instead. A bad looking slam puts Sam down but he avoids an elbow. Even the announcers point out how many times Houston is using a headlock. Not that it matters as Jack sends him in but walks into the bulldog to give Sam the pin at 5:48.
Rating: D-. Terribly boring match here with most of it spent on a headlock. That’s a very poor choice for an opener too as the fans didn’t care and the whole thing felt like an exhibition in how to do a headlock. You can always tell when the announcers are bored and it’s not good when that’s the case less than ten minutes in.
Blue Angel vs. Barry Horowitz
Horowitz isn’t as big of a loser as he would become just yet. Angel is of course Owen Hart underneath a mask. Graham’s guess on why everyone is wearing masks: they owe back child support. Yeah Graham was kind of the Booker T. of his commentary of his day. Angel does his traditional spin out of a wristlock before bouncing all over the place for a wristdrag. It’s off to the hammerlock for a bit before Angel gets shouldered down, right into a nip up.
The armbar keeps Barry in trouble and Angel works on a series of arm locks. Barry finally gets up and chills in the corner for a bit, drawing a count for some reason. Billy says he can go to the ring for a twenty count if he needs. Since when is this Ring of Honor? A hammerlock slam sets