Ric Blade versus Trent Acid 3PW A Funkin Classic
Started off kind of slow, but it picked up once Acid DDT'd Blade on the ring apron and Blade got cut open hard way. Blade showed in this contest that he can spring around the ring and has some great balance. It's too bad that 3PW were holding shows at the Electric Factory as not a lot of people were their and werent able to see a solid contest between two young workers. Acid picked up the win after finally connecting with a yakuza kick.

***

Rick Rude vs Hulk Hogan - Boston Garden - Jan 9, 1988
To my knowledge, this is their only recorded match. Rude had arrived in the WWE the previous Summer. They met at the first Survivor Series, but I can't recall any real interaction. Rude had just finished up his first program against Paul Orndorff, so he was just buying time until he could start up the mini-Ricky Steamboat and the longer Jake Roberts feuds. Before the match, Bobby Heenan informs the audience that Rude is a national and international arm wrestling champion. Hogan turns down an arm wrestling match at first. Rude shows off his power early on before dropping to the mat on his stomach ready to test his champion skills against Hogan. After looking like he would lose, Hogan wins the arm wrestling contest. Rude cheats and takes control of the match. Arm work and head locks follows. Hogan is lifted up into the back breaker submission (Rude's finisher at the time) and Rude thinks he has it won. Hogan uses the time to to recover and start up the final stretch of the match. Rude is pinned with the body slam and leg drop combo.

Rude seemed to be the perfect opponent for Hogan. He was small enough to be manhandled, but seen as powerful to push Hogan around. He could sell huge without it becoming too much (Hennig or Michaels). More than that, Rude could create stories that could help any paint by numbers wrestler look good (Warrior). Maybe it's just because this was a random match that didn't have any real meaning and they just wanted to get the crowd involved (Which they did), but the match wasn't as good as it could have been. Instead of wasting time with the wear down holds, I would of preferred to see Rude work over the back. By time he locks in the back breaker submission, there wasn't any real drama since there wasn't any damage done to it. That may be why Rude switched to the Rude Awakening though. Besides being boring, the back breaker submission didn't really seem to fit Rude. In fact, Rude would already be practicing the move at house shows for it to debut on TV at the end of the month. I can't say I miss Rude doing the back breaker.

Overall, it was a decent contest, but it's the same old Hogan formula that we've been given night after night. It's a shame they never had a program together. Even though the match was disappointing, it did show me that they had the potential to put on some good matches. Had the program delivered, I feel it would of produced better matches than the Rude/Warrior feud. I'll knock the grade up a 1/4 of a star just for the novelty of seeing these two together.

** 3/4

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Bret Hart and Hakushi w/Barry Horowitz vs Jerry Lawler and Isaac Yankem - Raw - November 6, 1995
I didn't have any idea this match had happened. It makes me wonder what other interesting match-ups had been booked on Raw through the years and have slipped through the cracks. At the first In Your House (May 1995), Lawler had worked with Hakushi to try to take Bret down. In the first match of the night, Hakushi lost to Bret in a possible MOTYC. Hey, it was 1995, MOTYC's didn't come too often. Later that night, Bret faced off against Lawler. Later that night, Hakushi helped Lawler beat Bret. This would lead to a 'Kiss My Foot' match at King of the Ring. Hakushi once again tried to help, but he accidentally hit Lawler allowing Bret to win. Since Hakushi was already getting some face reactions from the crowd due to his great moveset, they used this to turn him face by aligning him with Barry Horowitz at Summerslam. In the mean time, Lawler had to go to a dentist to take care of the horrible smell in his mouth because of Bret forcing Jerry's foot into his own mouth. In comes Dr. Isaac Yankem DDS into the picture. The future Kane would feud with Bret for most of the Summer. So now we come back to full circle with all of the major players of the Bret Hart/Jerry Lawler 1995 edition of their feud.

Horowitz is in full Jew mode looking as geeky as possible. Bret and Yankem starts it off with Yankem trying to use his power, but Bret is able to hold him off well. Tag to Hakushi. Hakushi gets in his hand spring elbow into the corner. He's probably the only wrestler I've seen that does that move and it actually looks like it could hurt. With the ref distracted, Bret chokes Yankem. Interesting to see Hakushi and Bret act like heels. Broncobuster by Hakushi. While others would be more known for the move, I believe Hakushi did it first in the WWE. Bret comes back in and works over the arm for a bit. Bret connects with a running cross body block and Vince mistakenly calls Yankem, Jacobs. Who needs kayfabe anyhow? Yankem finally gets control after he catches Hakushi with a Norther Lariat when Hakushi tries for the handstand elbow again. Slingshot cross body allows Yankem to catch Hakushi and run him into the post and apron. Lawler is finally tagged in and hits a pair of Piledrivers. Well, there goes one half of his move set. He kills some time taunting Bret. Hakushi is on defense for a bit and the match slows down. Yankem locks in a Boston Crab which just looks weird for a guy his size to do that. Bret is tagged back in and things pick up with the five moves of doom. Flair can say what he wants about the moves, but I love it. Sharpshooter is locked in on Yankem, but the ref is busy with Hakushi. Lawler brings in a chair, but Horowitz takes it from him. The ref turns around to see Horowitz with it and DQ's the dream team. Bullshit. 11 Minutes.

This was certainly a mix of styles. Both Bret and Hakushi were two of the better workers of 1995, but they were paired against two very limited wrestlers. Yankem was still at the point where he needed to be carried to get anything decent. He was nothing more than a generic big men before he learned ring presence as Kane. As for Lawler, he has pretty much relied on two moves for the past couple of decades: the Piledriver and various uses of the punch. Besides that, he was notorious for finding ways to kill time. So basically, Bret and Hakushi were left going through the motions of their moves. Hakushi hit his major spots and Bret's 5 moves of doom entertained me. Other than that, there wasn't anything they could do.

This would pretty much be the end of the road for most involved. Bret and Lawler didn't have much of a feud after this point before the official end once Bret turned heel in 1997. Yankem would become a jobber just wasting time until he would be repacked as The New Diesel about a year later. Hakushi would last until Feburary 1996, but really failed to be given anything meaningful in his final few months. Finally, Horowitz' push would come to an end and would go back to being a full time jobber until leaving in early 1997.

** 1/4

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I actually watched this recently. The truth is.. the thing that stood out to me most was Hakushi's look. I thought it was great

Never heard much of him though.

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Hakushi/Shinzaki was pretty good in his prime. He had a tag with Hayabusa in ECW against RVD and Sabu that is a really fun spotfest that is worth checking out from Heatwave '98(?). There is also a match he had in Japan with Undertaker that is terrible.

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Bret Hart vs Steve Austin vs Undertaker vs Vader - WWF In Your House 13: Final Four

Why have I never heard about this match? Fucking brilliant four way. Great combination of guys in there, and an epic out of control brawl throughout with some cool spots and a huge feel to it. I like the way you could get eliminated by being thrown over the top rope like in a Rumble. The injury to Vader really helped the match, as it was just brutal with the blood pouring from his eye. Loved Stone Cold in the match, showing great intensity. The interference after he had been eliminated to further the Bret feud was great, and I liked the finish with Austin's interference actually allowing Bret to clothesline Taker over for the win. The fan reaction to the match, particularly the eliminations, was huge. Great match.
****1/4

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It is great match that gets forgotten due to Wrestlemania and especially the Hart/Austin match at 'Mania.

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The New Foundation vs The Orient Express w/Mr. Fuji - Royal Rumble 1992
Owen Hart was just resigned by the WWE last Fall. Since the WWE didn't have any idea of the charisma that was inside of Owen, they put him with Jim Neidhart to keep Owen busy. Meanwhile, despite having a MOTYC the previous year from their match against the Rockers, the Orient Express are on their last legs in the WWE.

With the Rumble match being for the World Title, commentators Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan, ignore most of the match. However, the first memorable part of the match is when Pat Tanaka is tagged in. Several sections around the ring begins clapping. Tanaka raises his hand to try and quiet them down and almost as if he flipped a light switch, the fans stopped. I loved Tanaka, but I had no idea he was so over in New York. Not to mention, he was a heel! After a while, Tanaka and Kato cuts off the ring and Owen is forced to play the face-in-peril which he just excels at. Tanaka connects with his awesome twisting jumping headbutt. I think it's a headbutt, but in any case, it's a nice looking move. Kato hits a nice hammer lock body slam to Owen. With the referee distracted, Fuji hangs his cane in the corner and Owen is sent shoulder first into it, breaking the cane in half. The Express then hits their signature leapfrog hot shot (Wikipedia calls it a 'Leapfrog body guillotine' while JD Dunn over at 411mania calls it the AWA Special.)

Hart hits a nice belly to belly slight (Slightly over head) to Tanaka. Owen finally gets in the hot tag to Anvil after ducking a double closeline and hitting a double dropkick. Owen sends Anvil in with a slingshot double shoulder block ala Hart Foundation. Kato is sent out of the ring leaving Tanaka alone. Anvil Irish Whips Owen Hart allowing him to dive through the ropes on to Kato. Body slam by Anvil to Tanaka and the Foundation hits the Rocket Launcher on to Tanaka for the victory. As soon as the match is over, Owen grabs his shoulder to sell the earlier cane break showing that he's already miles ahead of other wrestlers his age in terms of story telling.

This is a match that really gets zero praise. Until recently, I hadn't heard anyone giving it any credit at all. 1992 was a huge year for the WWE in terms of having memorable matches. Two of the most highly regarded matches of the decade happened in the first eight months. One of which, happened on the same show as this match. Despite having several very memorable matches that year, the tag team scene was at it's worst. Up to this point, 1992 was the worst year for WWE tag team wrestling since Vince Jr. took over the WWE. So the combination of year of more memorable matches and the fact that there wasn't much to see that year in terms of tag team wrestling, ends up making this match criminally underrated. It's not quite up to par with the best that the Hart Foundation could do, but it's pretty even with the majority of the Hart Foundation's above average bouts.

Owen, without question, was loaded with talent. However, this was the first time we got to see that talent inside of a WWE ring without it being just for a few minutes. He showed potential of being capable of being relied on more, once the WWE allowed him to show off more personality. On the other side, It's disappointing to see what happened to the Orient Express. I didn't expect this match to get much in terms of a crowd reaction (Much like with the talented, yet unover Beverly Brothers), but the crowd was into it. I just can't understand why Vince never did anything worthwhile with the Orient Express. Here you had a team that was in two of the best matches in the first half of the ninety's. They could have drastically helped out more than they were used to help.

The match may not be too impressive for current viewers, but it did offer a lot of things not seen often in the WWE. It's hands down the best tag match from 1992 in the WWE with only Randy Savage and Bret Hart vs Ric Flair and Shawn Michaels. It may not be a huge feat due to the lack of quality that year, but it's still enough to check out this match.
3 3/4 Stars.

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