We are into 1989 this week and we say goodbye to watching 2019 wrestling for a while!

#12
Demolition (c) vs The Brain Busters
“WWF World Tag Team Championship”
WWF Saturday Night’s Main Event
April 25, 1989, aired on May 27, 1989

I have always enjoyed this type of match, but for some reason, I never really rated it. However, I do think it’s a match people should watch so why wouldn’t I recommend it? This is all story, Demolition dominates for the first half, till Busters regroup. They come back and cheat like crazy to put Smash as a face in peril. After so much cheating, Ax had enough and throws the referee away to get at The Busters and is thus is disqualified. Demolition destroys them and a rematch is booked. Perfect pro-wrestling.

Rating: 7/10

#11
KAIRI, Natsupoi, & Saori Anou (c) vs Giulia, Mai Sakurai, & Thekla
“Artist of Stardom Championship”
Stardom Flashing Champions
May 27, 2023

This was a fun and exciting Trios match, but the real joy was seeing KAIRI interact with wrestlers I never thought I’d see her interact with. That said, the action was intense and stiff and the Anou-Giulia chemistry is excellent and I want to see more of that in the future!

Rating: 7/10

#10
Orange Cassidy (c) vs Kris Statlander
“IWTV Independent Wrestling Championship”
IWTV The Midwest Mixtape
May 26, 2019

After starting off with some tremendous fun this settled into a really good changing-over-the-guard title match designed to make Statlander look amazing.

Rating: 7/10

#9
Rick Rude vs Tito Santana
WWF
February 11, 1989

I forgot that watching WWF house shows from the 1980s is a big mystery grab bag, you don’t know if you will get a great match or two folks killing time till they get to a bad finish. This one was really good with Rude controlling and Tito doing awesome hope spots then a great comeback. The crowd was heated and this was a blast.

Rating: 7.25/10

#8
Brutus Beefcake vs Randy Savage
WWF Saturday Night’s Main Event
July 18, 1989, aired July 29, 1989

This is the best singles match of Beefcake’s career and I have NEVER seen a worker/manager combination that works harder than Savage & Sherri. Savage bumped around like a freak and brought the offense, while Sherri cheated like crazy. Beefcake kind of stood there and threw some lame offense, but had a great connection with the crowd. Going into the commercial break, Savage took a giant backdrop to the floor that was nuts, and in a cool callback he talked to Sherri and got her to go to the back to get someone like he used to get Elizabeth to go to the back to get Hogan Sherri brings out Zeus who interferes costing Beefcake the win and there is a fun angle to set up SummerSlam from there.

Rating: 7.25/10

#7
Akira Hokuto & Chaparita ASARI vs Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda
AJW Japan Grand Prix
August 14, 1995

This was a super fun house show match with brawling all over the arena. Hokuto ups everyone else’s game with her presence.

Rating: 7.25/10

#6
Randy Savage (c) vs Bad News Brown
“WWF World Championship Harlem Street Fight”
WWF
January 16, 1989

A sub-ten-minute brawl that includes chairs and tables that is a blast. Bad News has it won after the referee goes through the table, but he obviously can’t count. A second referee runs in as Savage does a quick roll-up for the win. The match really cements itself as awesome with a wild post-match brawl that clears out the locker room. Frustratingly it looks like this feud was not really continued, as the other matches seem untaped and repeats of this. I’ll look around though.

Rating: 7.75/10

#5
Akira Hokuto vs Bull Nakano
AJW
April 23, 1989

These two had a lot of tremendous matches in the future, but I wasn’t sure what to expect here. It turns out it was a fast and intense match with Bull being a monster and Hokuto being relentless going for the win.

Rating: 7.75/10

#4
Tam Nakano (c) vs Mina Shirakawa (c)
“World & Wonder of Stardom Double Title Match”
Stardom Flashing Champions
May 27, 2023

The Cosmic Angels collide in a match to unify the main belts in Stardom. Sadly a little disappointing, as the initial brawling on the ramp stuff was just okay before Mina really went for the win that ruled. She went for everything but could not keep Tam down and it felt like we were going for a time-limit draw. Then Tam hulked up and won both belts.

Rating: 8/10

#3
Chigusa Nagayo & Chiyako Nagashima vs Miwa Sato & Shark Tsuchiya
FMW Super Dynamism
August 25, 1995

Nagayo goes after Shark as a follow-up to the Bad Nurse match in GAEA and she brings along one of her trainees with her onto enemy territory. The atmosphere was amazing, and it was a violent great brawl with great use of weapons. Nagayo protecting her rookie, all the while being her badass self made this match.

Rating: 8.25/10

#2
Jushin Liger (c) vs Naoki Sano
“IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship”
NJPW Summer Fight Series
July 13, 1989

This is a great intense sprint filled with amazing spots, like a vertical suplex from the ring to the floor and numerous dives. The opening NJPW Junior matwork is cut short to just go nuts trying to throw everything at each other to win. The finish is a lame double KO, but otherwise, this was really cool to see.

Rating: 8.25/10

#1 “Match of the Week”
The Brain Busters vs The Hart Foundation
WWF SummerSlam
August 28, 1989

I decided to turn on SummerSlam for my first watching of 1989 because it’s been so long and this is the opener and one of the best openers in WWF history. I love this match, it has an amazing crowd and has a real WWF vs NWA dream match feel. Everyone brings their A+ game and it’s about as exciting as a WWF match in 1989 can get!

Rating: 8.5/10

Upcoming!

The 1989 watch continues and the Top 25 Wrestlers of 2019 list is in its final stages.

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