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“On the Marc” Best of the WWF, vol. 15 Review

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This was released in 1987.

This is the fifteenth installment in the Coliseum Home Video series, which was the old VHS collection of the WWF. They put a series of eclectic matches from the time period.

“Mean” Gene Okerlund introduces the tape.

Tito Santana (w/Rick Martel) vs. Haku (w/Tama & Bobby Heenan): This is a dark match from a Milwaukee, Wisconsin WWF Superstars taping; Bruce Pritchard, Mike McGuirk and Johnny V are the broadcasters. Tito attacks before the bell and hammers on Haku in the corner; he drops a standing elbow off the second rope and Haku takes a powder. Strike Force had not won the tag titles yet and was in their initial feud with the Islanders, who attacked Tito while he was doing color commentary, and inadvertently created Strike Force. They lock up and Haku tries to catch him against the ropes but Tito comes back firing; Haku manages to shoulderblock Santana but he comes back with a drop-toehold and rapid-fire rams his face into the mat. Tito covers for a nearfall; he applies a standing armbar to Haku and uses an arm drag to maintain. Haku fights free but gets floored with a shoulderblock; they fight over a backslide, which Tito wins but gets a nearfall. Johnny V irrationally complains about the babyfaces. Haku sneaks in a head-butt and a slam but misses the follow-up running knee drop. Tito tries for the figure-four leglock but Haku grabs the ropes and punches Santana in the throat. Haku with a vertical suplex and gutwrench suplex, for two; a nice running shoulder breaker by Haku nets another nearfall. Haku settles into a trapezius hold. Tito gets boots up in the corner to block a charge; Santana rams his face into the mat again and follows up with a backdrop. Tito hits the flying forearm but Tama climbs to the top rope but Martel cuts him off. Tito slams Tama off the top rope and the bell rings. Post-match, Strike Force attacks and clears the ring of Islanders; the result is a double DQ, which pisses Johnny V off because he felt that Tito should have been DQed despite Tama attacking first even going so far as to pretend he only sees Martel’s interference. 4/10 Average match that just kicks off the Strike Force/Islanders feud; Tito and Martel would win tag gold shortly after this feud ends essentially taking Tom Zenk’s place in the former Can-Am Connection; speaking of that tag title win…

WWF Tag Team Championship Hart Foundation (w/Jimmy Hart) vs. Strike Force: From WWF Superstars, which is a rare place for a title switch, with Vince McMahon, Jesse Ventura and Bruno Sammartino on commentary; as mentioned before and in previous reviews this was originally Tom Zenk’s spot that Tito took because of contract negotiations and (alleged) general dislike for Martel. Jesse is SHOCKED the Harts would defend titles on television. Rick Martel starts off with Bret Hart; Martel leapfrogs and then clobbers the Hitman with a pair dropkicks. He arm drags Bret into an armbar. Santana tags in and Strike Force hits double elbows and Tito applies an armbar. Bret escapes so Santana tries an O’Connor roll but Hart holds the ropes and Tito crashes. Neidhart tags but misses a sledge so Santana applies another armbar. They begin to exchange blows and Santana holds his own with the Anvil; Bret uses the Tully Blanchard from-the-apron knee move to take over. Neidhart takes over choking on the ropes; Hart tags back in and the Foundation work over Tito their corner. Bret hits his backbreaker for two. Santana fires back but Bret tags and Neidhart gets a sledge to the back. The Anvil draws the referee over so Bret can administer punishment; Martel, of course, charges in allowing some illegal choking. The Harts continue to quick tag on Santana and toss him to the floor where Bret drops off the apron with a double axe handle. Martel comes over so referee Joey Marella has to put him back into his corner; Bret tosses Tito into the metal ring barricade. Back in the ring, Martel interrupts the pinfall attempt, angering Ventura; silly, Bruno tries to REASON with Jesse, complaining that Hart and Neidhart have been double teaming throughout the match. Santana nearly makes the tag but Bret runs over and knocks Martel off the apron; Neidhart slams Tito’s face into the canvas a few times. The Harts hit a double team decapitation move, they’re not Demolition, and so it only nets two. Bret bodyslams Santana but misses an elbow drop; he recovers first and cuts off the tag. The Harts exchange again and the Anvil pounds on him in the corner. Bret chokes while Neidhart toys with the referee, Martel charges in again, so Marella pushes him back again allowing more double teaming. Anvil does some biting and applies a front facelock. Bret reenters and but Tito reverses a whip and Hart careens into the top turnbuckle, chest first. Martel finally gets the tag and he slugs away on Neidhart and floors him with a dropkick. He knocks Bret off the apron and hits a second rope springboard crossbody but the Hitman recovers and breaks up the pinfall. Tito wipes Bret out and Marella pushes him back but nothing bad comes out of it; Santana joins Martel for an illegal double bodyslam. Rick applies the Boston Crab and the Anvil submits instantly and Strike Force wins the tag titles to a MASSIVE ovation; I mean that pop is ridiculous. 7/10 Fun historic match that I remember watching on Saturday morning on Channel 5. It was a great moment since the Harts, at that time, had been cheating their way to countless victories; it finally bit them on the ass here. This also may have been the quickest babyface victory post-hot tag; I mean it was over about a minute after Martel tagged in there.

Bam Bam Bigelow (w/Oliver Humperdinck) vs. King Kong Bundy: I loved Bam Bam’s old music. This is from a WWF Superstars taping with Vince McMahon, Bruno Sammartino and Jesse Ventura on commentary. Here we have the battle for the Jersey shore; Bundy looks significantly slimmer here and does not have Bobby Heenan with him, plus he was at the tail end of his first WWF stint. Bam Bam has no beard here which is weird looking; Bundy tries a shoulderblock but Bigelow stands pat. Bam Bam tries the same thing and fails also; they try again and Bigelow ducks a clothesline and floors Bundy. He recovers and reverses a whip but misses an elbow in the corner; Bigelow drops an elbow for two. Bigelow applies an armbar until Bundy fires him off and levels him with a clothesline. There’s Heenan… a little late getting to ringside. Bundy clotheslines Bam Bam to the floor. Jesse calls Humperdinck a troll, pissing McMahon off; Bundy prevents Bigelow from reentering a few times. He finally gets back in and Bigelow clobbers him with another clothesline, he misses the big splash, and Bigelow capitalizes with his own splash for (a really fast) three. Post-match, Jesse complains about a quick count, of which he has a point. 3.5/10 A basic fat guy match with Bigelow going over, which made sense since he was on a nuclear hot streak when he first debuted but seemed to fizzle somewhere in the beginning of 1988.

WWF Women’s Tag Team Championship Glamour Girls (w/Jimmy Hart) vs. Jumping Bomb Angels: This is from the 1988 Royal Rumble, available on the Royal Rumble: The Complete Anthology, Vol. 1 DVD, for purchase by clicking here; here is my review on that match… The Glamour Girls are Leilani Kai and Judy Martin; The Bomb Angels are Noriyoi Tateno and Itsuki Yamazaki. The Angels hit double dropkicks but Leilani Kai gets Tateno alone and she misses a dropkick. Kai whips her into Martin and slams her and goes for a cover but Tateno bridges out and rolls her up for two. Yamazaki hits a powerbomb suplex and tags Tateno back in; Martin misses an elbow. The Bomb Angels begin to quick tag. Yamazaki locks in an Octopus stretch. All hell breaks loose and the Bomb Angels hit stereo figure-four leglocks. Yamazaki split-leg drops onto Kai twice and locks in an Indian deathlock. Yamazaki and Tateno switch in and out and work Kai’s leg. For some reason they allow the tag to Judy Martin who catches Yamazaki on the top rope and slams her on the back of her head. Leilani Kai cuts off a comeback with a knee from the apron and Judy Martin nails an Alley-oop for the three count and the Glamour Girls win the first fall. Judy Martin flings Yamazaki around by her hair and a flying forearm. She keeps trying to pin her but Yamazaki keeps bridging out. Tateno gets a tag and hits a clothesline and one off the second rope. The Angels hit a double suplex. They try a double whip but the Glamour Girls reverse but the Bomb Angels are one step ahead and drop down and the Glamour Girls collide. Yamazaki collides with Martin and goes down; Judy tries the Alley-oop again but Yamazaki counters into a sunset flip for three and the Jumping Bomb Angels win the second fall. Both Bomb Angels attack Judy Martin immediately and double clothesline her twice. Kai brings in Martin to beat on Yamazaki but she brings her down with a step-up enziguri. Martin blocks a fisherman’s suplex by Tateno with a knee her to abdomen. Judy Martin slingshots Tateno into her corner face-first and tags in Leilani Kai who hits a hair-assisted neck snap. Butterfly suplex by Leilani and gets two. Martin tags in but she kicks Tateno into the corner and she tags Yamazaki; Martin no-sells the hot tag and flings Yamazaki back into her corner. A classic referee distraction, plus choke in the corner maneuver, by the Glamour Girls. Yamazaki blocks a sledge and hits a sit down atomic drop twice. Martin comes back in and gets a slam/top-rope knee strike by the Bomb Angels for two. Tateno hits a butterfly cradle suplex that referee Joey Marella is a little slow on getting to the count for, gets two; don’t think I have ever seen that type of pinning suplex before. Tateno plants Martin in the corner with a slam but she misses the senton bomb. Yamazaki tags back in and hits a second rope clothesline. The Bomb Angels each go up to the top rope and hit double missile dropkicks for three and the Jumping Bomb Angels win the third fall and win the WWF Women’s tag titles. 7.5/10 What a match; the Bomb Angels are kind of like the female Rockers; still awesome to watch and the women’s wrestling would take a dive and disappear until 1999 when it became about tits and ass.

Wild Samoans vs. Mr. Fuji & Tiger Chung Lee: This is an older match from the Philadelphia Spectrum so Dick Graham and Gene Okerlund are broadcasting; oh, this could be a commentary train wreck. Fuji attacks at the bell but Afa blocks and hits a clothesline; a head-butt follows. Mr. Fuji appears to have a foreign object; he and Tiger exchange it so when referee Dick Worley checks him again, he finds nothing. They exchange again and then the referee checks Chung Lee and also finds nothing. We clip forward to the Samoans tagging and in comes Afa again; he tries for Fuji’s foreign object but that enables Fuji a bodyslam. Fuji heads to the top but misses a top-rope legdrop; Afa nails an inverted atomic drop. Tiger receives a tag and slams Afa; Chung Lee tries to go to the top but Afa catches him and Flairs off. Afa drops a falling head-butt and tags Sika who gets a nearfall. Chung Lee crawls to the corner for a tag but Fuji short-arms him; Sika hits a backdrop and Fuji walks off from another tag. Sika tags in Afa as Mr. Fuji walks out on his partner; the Samoans hit a double head-butt followed by double falling head-butts on Tiger and get the three count. Post-match, Mr. Fuji returns to the ring and attacks Chung Lee and chokes him with the microphone cord. Chung Lee returns with his kendo stick and swings at Fuji but misses; Fuji escapes. 2.5/10 This was a televised match from the WWF syndicated shows, pre-WWF Superstars. The match was cut up so it really did not get going at all; the clipping made it look like a squash and then a betrayal angle.

WWF Women’s Championship Fabulous Moolah vs. Sherri Martel: The broadcasters are the odd combo of Gorilla Monsoon and Jimmy Hart from the Sam Houston Coliseum. This is Moolah’s final women’s championship reign and after Sherri lost the title to Rockin’ Robin the belt disappeared. Sherri is really early in her WWF tenure and is not referred to as the Sensational Sherri yet. Sherri tosses Moolah around the ring by the hair (which is a classic Moolah tactic). Moolah then uses the hair and tosses her down; she then snapmares Martel over via hair. Sherri drives Moolah down to the canvas and tries a hammerlock but Moolah reverses it. Sherri mares her over and applies a reverse chinlock; Moolah makes the ropes and then punches Martel right in the face. Moolah chokes and punches in the corner and they take turns choking each other in the corner. Martel runs her into the corner turnbuckle and gets a nearfall. Moolah comes back and backdrops free; she applies an armbar. Gorilla and Jimmy Hart’s commentary make this match far more entertaining than it is; discussing Jimmy’s failure to manage Bam Bam Bigelow, the Honky Tonk Man’s popularity and Monsoon trying to insinuate that Bobby Heenan is talking bad behind Jimmy’s back. Moolah gets her choke on the ropes moves and stomps on Martel; she uses head-butts, and then continues stomping. She hotshots Sherri off the top rope; Martel comes back with some slingshots into the center of the ring. Sherri uses Moolah’s rope slingshot move against her; Moolah breaks the momentum and tosses Martel to the floor. She tries to bodyslam Martel back into the ring but Sherri rolls through and cradles her for three and wins the title. Post-match, Moolah attacks referee Joey Marella so Sherri nails her with the belt. 3/10 Historic for it was Moolah’s final time as champion; Sherri would drop Martel from her name and adopt Sensational Sherri and turn heel, eventually hooking up with Randy Savage and becoming a successful heat getting manager/valet character in the early nineties.

WWWF Junior Heavyweight Championship Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Ted Adams: This is from February 1978 from MSG with Lord Alfred Hayes on dubbed over commentary. The Junior Heavyweight title was a weird WWWF title that was mainly defended in Japan. They lock up and stalemate; Adams applies an armbar until Fujinami tosses him off. Adams sneaks in a step-over head scissors takedown; Fujinami comes back with a side headlock, Adams turns it into a standing armbar so Fujinami leaps over his back with a head scissors takedown. Adams frees himself into a headlock and they both standoff. They go through a Greco-Roman knuckle-lock roll into a Fujinami bridge; he grabs his arms and flips him into a European-style cradle, for two. Adams applies a reverse bridge but Fujinami reverses into a seated inverted surfboard; he turns it into a hammerlock that Adams immediately escapes. Adams applies a side headlock; they run the ropes and Fujinami hits a one-footed dropkick but misses the second one. Adams slams him but MISSES a top-rope splash; Adams recovers first though and tries to kick Fujinami but he catches him with a Dragon Screw and works the leg and applies a leg crank; Adams escapes again. Fujinami applies an inverted hammerlock but Adams fights free and punches in the corner he connects with a dropkick and gets a one count; Adams begins to unload with jumping elbows to the head and reapplies an armbar and maintains it for a while and then slips into an inside cradle for two. Adams hits a high crossbody and gets a nearfall so he goes back to the armbar; he switches into a front facelock and Fujinami escapes and surprise dropkicks him. Adams backs Fujinami in and hits a punch to the gut; he sledges and hits elbows to the top of the head and a standing dropkick. Fujinami begins to comeback and hits a knife edge chop for two. Adams counters a butterfly suplex into a fireman’s carry and plops him onto the top turnbuckle and allows Fujinami the free escape. Adams drives him down in a top wristlock and twists into a front body lock; Fujinami reverses into an armbar and then Adams switches into a leglock. Fujinami kicks Adams off; he tosses Tatsumi into the corner and monkey flips him. Fujinami surprises him with a dropkick and backdrops Adams; Fujinami hits his Airplane spin and they both sell the dizziness. Fujinami recovers first and hits a bridging German suplex for the pinfall. 4.5/10 This is a perfect example of why wrestlers need characters or some storyline for the fans to hold on to. These two put on a very sound technical masterpiece but it was to near silence throughout because the fans did not know whom to root for or against. As far as in-ring goes this match was pretty good as far as entertainment it was boring as hell.

Billy Jack Haynes & George “The Animal” Steele (w/Ken Patera) vs. Demolition (w/Mr. Fuji): Here is another dark match, from WWF a Wrestling Challenge taping, with an unusual commentary pairing, Craig DeGeorge and Don Muraco. There is some storyline here; Demolition attacked Haynes, Ken Patera and Brady Boone, a jobber who later became known as Battle Kat, but here he was Billy Jack’s cousin. Patera hurt his forearm so Steele was used to replace him for the impending house show matches. Steele chases the referee away. Demolition are still in their really early days in the WWF and has on odd colored facepaint. Haynes starts off with Ax who clubbers until Billy Jack hits a running shoulderblock for two; he follows up with a nice standing dropkick. Steele receives a tag and he and Smash compare their colored tongues. Fuji easily distracts the simpleton Steele allowing Smash to axe handle him from behind; DeGeorge is having trouble deciphering which Demo is in the ring. Smash applies an armbar; he tries a clothesline but Steele catches him with a bite. Haynes tags back in but immediately gets overwhelmed by Smash; a corner hammer toss to the corner hurts Billy Jack’s back. Ax distracts the referee allowing Smash to choke Haynes with Fuji’s cane. Patera distracts referee Dave Hebner while he is arguing with Mr. Fuji, which allows more in-ring double teaming. Smash applies a neck crank; he fights back and counters an attempted monkey flip by dropping an elbow; Steele bites Smash. Haynes applies an armbar; Steele tags and punches away on Smash. Steele slams Smash but gets distracted by Fuji again allowing Smash to back jump him and tag in Ax. Ax applies another neck crank and chokes him on the ropes; Fuji keeps adding cane shots when Hebner gets distracted. Smash applies a front facelock and we get a false tag spot because of a Fuji distraction; Billy Jack runs in but the referee distraction works against Demolition, as they were actually pinning Steele while Haynes had the referee tied up, which is rare. Ax settles into another neck crank; Demolition double teams on Steele in their corner. Ax tries to pin Steele but he counters; Ax sledges Steele right back into his own corner and Billy Jack gets a tag. He dismantles Smash and knocks Ax off the apron; he hits a running clothesline but Ax recovers and breaks the pinfall up. Steele runs in to take Ax out and the match breaks down; Fuji gets knocked off the apron, but drops his cane into the ring. Haynes slaps on the full nelson to Smash. Steele is with the referee while Ax clobbers Haynes with the cane and Smash rolls atop him for three. 4.5/10 Not a bad tag match as Demolition were on an unbelievable roll, beating everyone in their path, eventually leading to the tag titles. Steele and Haynes were a mismatched team that was supposed to be Haynes and Patera but injuries and controversial departures derailed it.

OVERALL 4/10 The bad outweighs the good on this tape; the WWF tag title match is the only reason to watch. The women’s tag match at the Rumble is available elsewhere and the rest are decent but boring matches.


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