WWF at Boston Garden (July 11, 1987)

 

Original Airdate: July 11, 1987

From Boston, Massachusetts; Your Hosts are Gorilla Monsoon and Lord Alfred Hayes

Opening Match: Jim Powers v Shadow #2: Powers with a sunset cradle at 11:05. These guys are trying, but I just can’t get into these endless Shadow matches. You’re jobbers! Be jobbers! ½*

Dino Bravo v Scott Casey: The way Bravo has the maple leaf positioned on his trunks makes it look like he has a bloody asshole. Not a good look. Bravo with a sidewalk slam at 5:40. DUD

Bob Orton v Jerry Allen: Gosh, how many main events are we going to get here? Orton with a vertical superplex at 6:26. DUD

Tito Santana v Don Muraco: Muraco is insanely jacked here. He looks like the imaginary guy Martin Lawrence was describing in Bad Boys II, who is so big that he can’t even wipe his own ass. But, hey, at least we’re finally getting some star power tonight. Posturing to start, until Tito tags him with a jumping forearm, but Don lands in the ropes to save him from getting pinned off of it. Don bails to clear the cobwebs, and he manages to get control once back inside. Don with a kneebreaker into a spinning toehold, then into a toehold. Figure four, but that’s a bridge too far, and Santana blocks. Tito goes on the comeback trail, and a sunset flip out of the corner gets him the pin at 8:20. This was lowkey. Afterwards, Bob Orton is out, and gets into a shouting match with Muraco about the loss. Mind your business, Bob. What, were they pooling the purse money, or something? ½*

WWF Intercontinental Title Match: Honky Tonk Man v Bruno Sammartino: Honky tries sneak attacking, but Bruno sees it coming, and kicks the shit out of the champion, until Honky is forced to take leave. Honky stalls, and once back in, Sammartino takes him on a trip through a series of bodyslams, until the champ bails again. Back in, Sammartino gets a wristlock on, casually cranking it to torture the guy. Sammartino with an atomic drop to send Honky bumping over the top, and Bruno takes him to the mat in a hammerlock once Honky climbs back in again. Honky manages to escape, and he pounds on Bruno for a while, until missing a charge in the corner, and ending up in a tree of woe. That allows Bruno to go on a fiery comeback, and even Jimmy Hart gets an ass kicking along the way! Honky ends up down on the outside, and Bruno picks up the countout victory at 11:22. Man, this was pretty great. Bruno could still perfectly deliver in this role, and Honky was more than willing to go out there and bump around to make him look like a boss. And all that worked… to a point. Where this one fell apart was that it went on for too long, and got boring. ¾*

One Man Gang v Jose Luis Rivera: Johnny Valiant compares Gang to Robert Redford, which feels like a hate crime against Robert Redford. Gang with a gourdbuster at 4:12. DUD

Paul Roma v Shadow #1: Listening to Gorilla drool over Roma every time is getting creepy. We’re not quite at Vince-McMahon-with-1996-Shawn-Michaels level yet, but we’re in the neighborhood. Shadow misses a charge, and Roma dives with a flying sunset flip at 9:47. ¼*

Brutus Beefcake v Johnny Valiant: Valiant sneak attacks, and chokes Beefcake down in the corner, all while talking serious trash. Beefcake fights him off, and goes to work with a variety of turnbuckle smashes. Beefcake with a sleeper to put it away at 3:27, and poor Johnny has to take another haircut. Well, it couldn’t get any worse at that point. DUD

Main Event: The Islanders v Rick Martel and Junkyard Dog: Dog is subbing for Tom Zenk here, who bailed on the promotion two days before this, thus ending the fun run that was the Can-Am Connection (and opening the door for the inferior-but-almost-as-good Strike Force pairing). The heels kickstart things, but the babyfaces manage to fight them off, and clean house. We settle on JYD tuning Haku up, and Martel hits him with a bodypress for two, but Rick gets tripped up by Tama as he runs the ropes, and the Islanders grab control. They go to work on Martel, until Haku misses a 2nd rope splash, and Dog gets the hot tag - Roseanne Barr the door! Martel dropkicks Tama into a front-powerslam from JYD at 11:22. ½*

BUExperience: I wouldn’t waste my time with this one. Or, well, I guess I already did. But now you know that you don’t need to.

DUD