Brutus Beefcake vs. The Honky Tonk Man

[0.0] "Awful match, worse finish. Confused moves and logic. I have no idea how this was allowed to happen in a ring."

[0.0] "WTF was that? We all needed a break from this boring tournament and THIS is what we got? Honkey Tonk's character is good, but his shtick can only really go so far and he needs the right opponent to make it work, and the right opponent sure as hell ain't Beefcake! It's a laughably bad match and amongst the worst IC Title matches I've ever seen! It's really farcical once Beefcake knocks out Tonk with the sleeper and Jimmy Hart clobbers the referee. Beefcake gives Jimmy a haircut and while thats happening I have to admit I did laugh when Peggy Sue throws a pitcher of water to wake Honkey Tonk up."

[1.0] "Barely a wrestling match and a lame segment of a finish. House of Torture referee violence in 1988? Watching Beefcake cut snippets of Hart's hair is not as entertaining as Vince thinks it is. 3/4*"

[5.0] "The card density doesn't help make this match any less boring, but it has that little bit of fun that saves the day. In-ring quality: 0.25/4. Stakes: 1.75/2. Justification: 0.75/1. Placement on the card: 0.75/1. Suspense: 1/1. Bonus/penalty: none. Total: 5.5/10. Match watched on Netflix (FR)."

[2.0] "This one is overly cartoonish, which I just wasn't into. The match just seems to drag on forever. The more of Honky Tonk I watch, the more I wonder why he's held in such high regard as a legend. Beyond the great entrance theme, he was bloody terrible. Beefcake wasn't exactly any better. It was kind of fun in very small parts, but these two just stink. Paired together, and you get a match that stinks, too. It's also a real letdown of a finish."

[1.0] "Even I think the brawl outside the ring with Peggy Sue and Jimmy Hart was more entertaining than the match itself, the match didn't have something interesting to see, It was thrash, I'll just give it something for the brawl outside the ring, 1/10 [1/4*]"

[4.0] "i think this match is overhated for sure, is it that good? no but in the same vain it just...isnt that bad? the finish is dissapointing but the actual match itself isnt too bad for a wrestlemania 4 matchup"

[0.0] "Honky Tonk Man was for a long time considered one of the greatest and most legendary IC champion of all time, when you see the kinds of matches he put on while carrying the belt you wonder why he was held in such regard by the "it was better back in my days" kind of fans. I'm sorry unc this is LAME. (ps: Beefcake is no better)"

[3.0] "I thought this was perfectly fine, at least until the ref bump. Way too long of a break in action and then the match just ended."

[2.0] "Yeah this is another bad match. Nothing great in terms of the in-ring action and a really terrible finish that made no sense at all. Not worth watching, no real conclusion and Brutus celebrating after not winning the title due to DQ just looks stupid."

[2.0] "A bad, boring, confusing match. Brutus beats up Honky, chokes him out, and then loses beacuse Hart hits the ref. No good spots, no common sense. 2/10."

[1.0] "Michael Cole's 2010 kayfabe view on NXT screams for a prequel. Boring, sluggish waste of everyone's time."

[2.0] "Another match that just screams "waste of time". Sluggish contest, bad finish. Not outer wordly horrible, but still really bad."

[1.0] "Absolute garbage match, two terrible workers I a match so bad it was hard to sit through, I hated every second of this match and of course, like every other match, it has a DQ finish. Terrible match."

[2.0] "Utterly dreadful match from two utterly dreadful workers. At the time, Beefcake's barber gimmick was very over (inexplicably) and Honky's biggest trait was getting heat. Unfortunately the crowd had no fucking clue what was going on so this just died a death and Honky managed to get out of doing yet another job, just to top it off."

[2.0] "Jesse Ventura shouts out to his kids on commentary and says that Prince is watching at his house. I wouldnt leave Prince alone with my woman, thats for sure. Morris Day found that out the hard way. The Booty Man scored with the High Knee - get it? - as he started hot. Honky got the advantage and ground this thing to a halt before Beefcake grabbed the rope on a Shake, Rattle, & Roll attempt. Beefer got the Sleeper Hold on before Jimmy Hart just drilled the referee with the megaphone. We get shenanigans that end in Beefcake cutting Jimmys hair. Why is this taking so long? Peggy Sue dumped water on Honky and got him out of there before Beefcake got the shears to him. They finally announce the DQ as Beefcake has a Lex Luger-esque celebration. Fuck me, this show has ground to a halt. *"

[5.0] "It wasn't that bad. The work was mediocre, as expected from this pairing... or really any Beefcake match, but at least there wasn't a bunch of rest hold dead time. I don't even like either of the wrestlers involved in this one in the least, but this was booked with enough attention to fun manager/comedy spots to work on some level for me. We got to see Jimmy Hart get a haircut, and we didn't suffer through Beefcake earning any gold. That's good enough for a middling rating in my book."

[4.0] "Not the best or worst match on the card, but it is just kind of there for the most part. Beefcake was over with e crowd and no one liked Honky Tonk Man, so it seemed like a perfect match on paper. but it was far from perfect. Not a highlight of the show. More like a piss break."

[1.0] "The best part of this is Honky's introduction and the whole dance routine prior to Beefcake's entrance. Brutus Beefcake's look is a thing. Worth nothing: the word "dreadful" was used at least five times to describe this match before I left my own review. It's barely north of dreadful but it's still a bunch of crap. I admit I pop for the water pitcher bit."

[2.0] "Two wrestlers with a lot of personality but some awful in ring work give a very slow match, it would just pass without notice on anohter card, but this was one of the non tournament matches, so it has a decent amount of spotlight"

[3.0] "Match wasn't bad. Neither of these guys were known for their work rates so no surprise this match was slower pace and more strikes and basic moves. The finish was also not well executed but they gave the crowd Hart getting his hair cut as a consolation prize."

[2.0] "This match was worse than you might think it would be. Both Brutus and Honky are below average workers, but neither of them are dreadful or anything. But this match certainly was dreadful. Almost nothing happens during it. Six and a half minutes and at least half of that is Beefcake taunting or Honky powdering on the outside. I think less than 10 moves are hit in this entire match if you don't count punches, kicks, and knee strikes. Simply an unacceptable match."

[2.0] "Beefcake was dreadful here. He's leaned heavily into the barber gimmick and it's not good for his in-ring style. He gurns a lot and does 'big' selling, which I don't care for. Honky is not the man to carry him here and the result is booking heavy. The nonsense at the end with Jimmy Hart sacrificing his hair is pretty bad. I feel bad for Jimmy, for having to carry the match."

[5.0] "27/3/88 Wrestlemania IV WWF. This was a good enough match with Beefcake's limitations. Honky as usual is excellent and carries this match, his selling and in ring work is top notch. Great psychology from all but the finish was poor though, becomming a night of poor finishes. 5*"

[3.0] "Nothing of a match, there's literally nothing except for Honky's overselling of the Atomic Drop and the aftermath. The crowd was really hot for Beefcake cutting Jimmy's hair, but the match itself was really nothing. I mean I wasn't expecting nothing great out of face Brutus and Honky but come on, have some standards."

[2.0] "Putting two wild gimmicks and subpar workers together like this was a bold move that didn't pay off; these two suck together."

[2.0] "The Brutus barber gimmick is fun, but the wrestling itself is beyond subpar. Terrible match on the whole, saved by the fun silly ending."

[2.0] "It wasn't good, but I honestly expected worse. Both men act like morons and are pretty off putting in general, but it wasn't quite bad enough to be insufferable. I nearly gave it a passing grade (albeit barely), but it dragged on a bit too much and the finish was lame. I didn't find it to be painful, but still bad enough to receive an inadequate rating."

[0.0] "Who though that having this many dirty finishes on the same show was a good idea. Absolutely nothing to watch in terms of wrestling here, and this wasn't entertaining enough to work on character work alone either."

[2.0] "I spent much of this thinking that Peggy Sue is a great dancer and really good on the outside, why isn't she used more and well known? I then discover it is Sherri in a wig so of course she is great. Match was crap, they both look like idiots. The end."

[0.0] "Yeah, no. Not even Honky Tonk Man's tremendous heat-drawing ability could save this garbage. Beefcake looked like he was more concerned about cutting Jimmy Hart's hair than winning a championship. They did a couple of lame comedy spots to hide the wrestling limitations of both men, and it downright stunk. Beefcake won by DQ after Jimmy knocked down the referee, which was another dreadful finish in a string of them tonight. He then celebrated in the ring like a total doofus. A complete and utter disaster in the worst way possible. [DUD]"

[2.0] "Rated it twice, and twice site denied my access. Don't gonna write a paragraph again, it was a poor match. (*)"

[4.0] "Brutus had Honky dead to right with the sleeper and Jimmy Hart wipes out the referee to save the title for Honkey, again. This would kick off a string of pretty crappy comedy matches over the Summer before they decided to put the belt on Warrior. Jimmy gets a hair cut post match and Peggy Sue was actually Sensational Sherri in a bad wig."

[1.0] "Not a fan whatsoever. I love The Honky Tonk Man's IC title reign and I always had fun watching his matches, but I hate how Beefcake was more determined in cutting the heels' hair than actually ... I don't know... WINNING THE GODDAMNED TITLE! Beefcake pretty much lost a shot at the belt yet still celebrated after the match. Awful awful stuff. [1/4]"

[3.0] "Honky is no Misawa in the ring, but he knows how to give the crowd all they need to get them to react. Sadly, Beefcake isn't much of an opponent and this has yet another cheap finish as Jimmy Hart knocks out the referee as Beefcake has his sleeper hold locked in. Beefcake makes himself look stupid by celebrating like he's won the title even though the bell hasn't rung. There's nothing worse than making your babyfaces look dumb. Beefcake doesn't win the championship, but he gets the disqualification win as well as giving Jimmy Hart an unwanted haircut. It's at this point when the show is really starting to lose me."

[4.0] "Definitely not a 1 rating, wasn't all that bad of a match but it was great either. The post match stuff was probably more exciting then the entire match but what can you expect with these two"

[0.0] "Entirely awful Wrestlemania match with no redeeming value that I could discern. Honky Tonk Man never seemed to want to do any actual wrestling, and Beefcake is as insufferable as always."

[2.0] "Well, try to picture what a Honky Tonk vs Beefcake match would be. Were you envisioning a sluggish brawl, awkward wrestling, goofy comedy, and lots of Jimmy Hart shouting on the outside, leading to a character-driven non-finish? Congratulations, you understand 80s WWF. This match is dreadful."

[1.0] "Boring fuss with a disappointing dq result. But at least it fit in perfectly with the atmosphere of the whole show, which itself was very weak"

[2.0] "Ugh, this is a horrible pairing. These two were both very limited in the ring, both needed a good opponent to have a solid match and it wasn't going to happen with each other. It's not a complete failure as these two had charisma at least, plus the post-match angle was fun but other than that it's one to avoid."

[1.0] "This was a very boring match. I think the most impressive move was a back body drop. These two got by more on their charisma than they did on their in-ring skills they were both very close friends of Hulk Hogan. That helps. It's all about the game and how you play it. The political game, I mean. (*)"