Customer Reviews

WWF: Wrestlevision - The Wrestling Classic [VHS]

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Thanks once again to WWE's "Classics On Demand", I relived not just an old PPV..but the WWE's first ever PPV (WrestleMania was closed circuit only) in the 1985 Wrestling Classic. The setup for this PPV would be used again in later years for such events as King Of The Ring, WrestleMania IV, Survivor Series '98 amongst others as this was a one night single-elimination tournament. It should be noted as well that I saw the PPV replay, not the VHS version so I don't know what's been edited & what hasn't.

Copr. Kirchner vs. Adrian Adonis - Nothing noteworthy here past the impressive reversal of an attempted suplex into a DDT by Adoins.

Dynamite Kid vs. Nikolai Volkoff - All I have to say here is that this is probably the best version of the National Anthem that Nikolai ever sung.

Ivan Putski vs. Randy Savage - Putski outpowered Savage throughout this entire match resulting in Randy Savage pulling out a quick heel tactic to score the upset.

Ricky Steamboat vs. Davey Boy Smith - This was a personal dream match from me during this period. Davey relied on his power with various slams while Steamboat relied on his quickness & unique offense while also taking a page out of Smith's playbook at times like delievering a standing vertical suplex of his own. Unfortunally the match ended right when it was starting to get good due to a mistiming on Davey's part that caused him to be unable to continue.

Junkyard Dog vs. Iron Sheik - This was pretty short & what you would expect from both men.

Moondog Spot vs. Terry Funk - The only way to summerise this is that it's classic comedic Terry Funk once again being the butt of the joke.
(Legends Of Wrestling: Roddy Piper & Terry Funk)

Tito Santana vs. Magnificent Muraco - This was a back & forth match between these two with Muraco heavily working over Santana's sternum area & leg throughout the match with Santana pulling off the upset win after taking advantage of an error on behalf of the referee.

Paul Orndorff vs. Bob Orton - This was the most personal match of the opening round without a doubt. Jesse Ventura described the opening moment of his match perfectly when stating that "Orndorff is ruthless" as he was very intense here in targeting & hurting Orton's "injured" arm. Orton was able to recover & slow things down for a little bit but Orndorff didn't stop to the point where Orton had to use the cast to stop Mr. Wonderful...and DQ himself in the process.

Dynamite Kid vs. Adrian Adonis - This was just an average encounter with Adonis focusing on Kid's knee.

Ricky Steamboat vs. Randy Savage - Around a year & a half before they would put on the match at WrestleMania III that would be recieved as one of the greatest matches in wrestling history...Savage & Steamboat would lock up here and in retrospect, this match really seemed like a "teaser" for that future match as they were just non-stop motion without a slow or dull moment but this resembled Savage's earlier match against Putski where he was dominated throughout the entire match only to pull out a last minute tactic to score another upset win...the same tactic that would bring him championship gold later in his career.

Junkyard Dog vs. Moondog Spot - This was a match that got started & ended so quick that the referee didn't make it to the ring in time so JYD can to count his own pinfall.

Tito Santana vs. Paul Orndorff - This was one of the best matches of the tournament with both men working over the body parts that were less than 100% from the previous matches like Santana going after Orndorff's head with various head sissors while Orndorff targeted Tito's leg to the point where he couldn't put much pressure on it. Both men showed mutual respect towards each other here but when both men turned it up & lost their tempers, it cost both of them. As a side note, if your a fan of Jesse Ventura's commentary then you'll just laugh at the constant "'Chico' Santana/Tijuana" jokes.

WWF Champion Hulk Hogan vs. Roddy Piper - This was another match that was pretty short & no different than any other Hogan/Piper match where Piper heavily relied on his mix of heavily street fighting/brawling along with some wrestling while Hogan brough himself to Piper's level relying on fist fighting & using his strength before things got out of control with interference by Bob Orton & Paul Orndorff.
(Hulk Still Rules)

Dynamite Kid vs. Randy Savage - This was another dream match of mine. Savage tried to ground Kid but he was too quick with his sitouts & reversals for Savage to get any momentum early on. They went back & forth against each other here with Savage getting more offense here than he did in any other match throughout the night resulting in my favorite match of the night. Look out for the closing match sequence where Dynamite gave an impressive dropkick to Savage...who was on the top rope & how Savage was able to score a victory after being the victim of a top-rope suplex.

Junkyard Dog vs. Randy Savage - This was the finals of the tournament as Savage brought out more of a competitve match than you normally would see from JYD at this time in what turned out to be a good encounter concidering how Savage wrestled one more match than Dog did this night while wrestling another match right before this one.
("Legends Of Wrestling" & "Greatest Wrestling Stars Of The 80's)

This event heavily reminded me of the next time WWE would do this type of tournament at WrestleMania IV with the "quanitity over quality" mentality in that they tried to shove so much on here that it hurt the show more than help as he had too many "filler" matches/squash segments on here while the ones that had the potential to be something special (Steamboat/Smith) were cut short. There were some standout performances (Santana/Muraco, Steamboat/Savage, Dynamite/Savage, Santana/Orndorff) while the rest of the matches were watchable & none were boring. I'd give this a 3.5 rating but be nice & round it up to four so for a reasonable price, I would recommend checking this one out.

This a great video from 1986 from the WWF. This video is action packed and should be a collector's item for anyone who loves wrestling from the 1980's. At first, I was dissapointed with this video because the matches were so short, but after a couple viewings, I realized how great this event was. This video shows the sixteen man elimination tournament held on November 7, 1985.
First Round matches:

Adrian Adonis vs. Cpl. Kirschner
The Dynamite Kid vs. Nikolai Volkoff
Randy Savage vs. Ivan Putski
Davey Boy Smith vs. Ricky Steamboat
The Junkyard Dog vs. The Iron Shiek
Terry Funk vs. Moondog Spot
Tito Santana vs. Don Muraco
"Cowboy" Bob Orton vs. "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorf

Second round matches:

Kid vs. Adonis
Savage vs. Steamboat
Spot vs. JYD
Santana vs. Orndorf

Third round matches:

Savage vs. Kid

Finals:

Savage vs. JYD

Plus, a world title match between Hulk Hogan and "Rowdy" Roddy Piper. It doesn't go that long, but I love seeing these two guys in the ring together. All in all, this is a great video even though the matches are short. The Orton-Orndorf and Santan-Murco matches are worth the price alone in my opinion.