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[1986-03-08-WWF-Boston, MA] Bret Hart vs Ricky Steamboat


Superstar Sleeze

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Bret Hart vs Ricky Steamboat - Boston 3/86



I disagreed with my previous review of this match most notably that Bret was the better wrestler in this match. I think it is pretty even. Steamboat's selling and his fire on this is very good. Bret is the one constructing the framework for the match and does an admirable job. The match is missing the glue and those little details. Having recently watched Steamboat vs Orton, you can see how fun a Steamboat arm-based babyface shine can be. I would argue Bret takes the bigger, more spectacular bumps off the armdrags than Orton, but Orton fills the time just so well. Orton adds wrinkles of trying to get out of the hold and when he is thwarted thats where the entertainment comes from. Bret transitions with a swinging neckbreaker, a little bit too much of a babyface transition. I thought the best sequence of the match was one of his favorite 80s sequences: goes for a backbreaker, opponent reverses into a bodyslam, but the wrinkle here is Bret gets the knees up on the splash. Excellent, excellent sequence as you get the hope spot, Steamboat desperately trying to capitalize, but in his overzealousness he over reaches and the Hitman is able to one-up him. Bret does Bret follows up with his bodyslam on the parquet floor and successfully gets the backbreaker. Bret misses second-rope elbow and here comes the Steamer.Steamboat had plenty of fire and Bret was bumping big off the chop. I am surprised Bret got a visual pinfall off a ref bump. Based on Bret's booking pattern, I think Vince always liked Bret and wanted to push him as a singles guy. This is definitely evident as soon as late 87, but this could have been the first evidence of that. Bret has shown he already has all the tools to be a major singles star in between the ropes. The finish is Steamboat rolling through a Bret cross body for the win. A very good match, solid stuff, but nothing that inspires just perfectly acceptable wrestling. ***1/2



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  • 2 years later...

A big thanks to SPS for giving this match to me in the Secret Santo thread last week.

 

I thought for mostly being a tag team specialist at that time, Bret and Ricky Steamboat gelled pretty well in this one. You can see that Bret has already developed a mentality for singles wrestling, how to build everything properly and with Ricky Steamboat's selling, Bret has looked very good in this match. Of course, Jimmy Hart being Jimmy Hart outside constantly being in the ears of Gorilla Monsoon early in the match is a little plus that I enjoyed a lot. I don't know if Vince eventually decided to use Bret as a singles star later based on this match alone (probably not) but Bret certainly gave Vince ammo into considering eventually breaking off the Hart Foundation. I always had a soft spot for tag team specialists working singles matches in that era and this is one is no exception. Also giving it *** 1/2 stars.

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  • paul sosnowski changed the title to [1986-03-08-WWF Boston on NESN] Bret Hart vs Ricky Steamboat
  • GSR changed the title to [1986-03-08-WWF-Boston, MA] Bret Hart vs Ricky Steamboat

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