- Scott Keith

Tape #1: The Best of the WWF #20

- Your hosts are Sean Mooney and Brother Love.

- Opening match: Terry Taylor v. Brooklyn Brawler. Okay, I think this is stretching the whole "best of" concept just a bit. As always, I refuse to call him by the name given by the WWF. This is actually a
decent, if unspectacular, match. Steve Lombardi is very carryable. Taylor controls 90% of the offense until they end up outside the ring and Taylor goes into the post a couple of times. Lombardi is mainly
kick and punch on offense. Then onto the chinlocks. Ugh, no wonder Lombardi is a jobber 4 life. Taylor with a belly to back but only gets two. Small package for two. Backslide for two. More offense from Lombardi until Taylor catches him with a sunset flip on a charge to the corner for the pin. The fact that Taylor can carry Lombardi to anything over * speaks very well of his talents. 1 for 1, but barely.

- Brutus Beefcake v. Bad News Brown. Brown attacks him and chokes him out with his own jacket. Then he works on the throat some more and argues with the ref the whole time. Beefcake comes back with some punches, but Brown ends the offense quickly. Brown continues destroying Beefcake, but misses a charge to the corner and Beefcake comes back briefly. Brown back on offense until Beefcake hits the sleeper. Bad News breaks easily and clotheslines him into unconsciousness, then calls
for the mike and badmouths Beefcake. He grabs the scissors from outside and fights with the referee about it, allowing Beefcake to roll him up for the pin. Weak ending. 1 for 2.

- King Haku v. Hacksaw Duggan. For whatever reason, Haku decided to start "defending" the crown in mid-89. This was his first defense. Oops. Standard kick and punch mid-card Superstars match, and it's STILL better than any of those crappy Duggan v. Meng matches we got this year
in WCW. Haku misses a splash and Duggan nails the three-point stance in short order to claim the "King of the WWF" pseudo-title. As a bonus, we
also get the coronation from the week following. Duggan would hold that esteemed title for, oh, a good month before being squashed by Randy
Savage. Savage would go on to hold the crown until his (first) retirement in 1991. Ah, Duggan looked like he was having so much fun I'll be soft and make it 2 for 3.

- 16 man battle royale. Akeem is knocked out fast. The ongoing marriages pair off with each other (Bret-HTM, Tito-Martel, Taylor-Lombardi, etc). Curt Hennig is in it so he'll probably win. No one gets knocked out for a while. Bossman dumps Ax as I type that. Smash dumps HTM and Bossman dumps Jim Powers. More of the usual battle royale stuff going on. Richard Charland (a local jobber) and Owen Hart are dumped next. Steve Lombardi is gone and most of the dead weight is pretty much gone. I'd bet Hillbilly Jim or Terry Taylor should be next.
Yep, Valentine backdrops him over the top rope while standing on the apron and then falls off, which eliminates both. Smash pulls out Bossman and then gets pulled out himself, leaving Martel, Santana,
Hennig, Bret Hart, and Hillbilly Jim. Oops, Jim is gone. So the heels and faces team up, and holy shit I'd kill to see THAT tag match. We go Hart v. Hennig and Santana v. Martel. Double whip and Hart/Hennig
collide. Santana tries to push out Martel but Hennig dumps him from behind, leaving Hart 2 on 1 against the heels. The heels slap him around for a bit while Tito hangs around ringside and yells encouragement. He of course pulls down the ropes when Martel comes off and knocks him out. Hart quickly dumps Hennig to win the thing. Good ending. 3 for 4.  More...