WWF 10/22/1984

IC Title Match

Greg Valentine (c) vs. Tito Santana by DQ

This feud genuinely stands as one of the best in-ring rivalries in the company’s entire history, and it’s a shame that both of these guys are criminally underrated when considering the 1980s as a whole, mainly because they carried the infamous WWF newsletter “stank.” This particular match was piping hot, coming right after Valentine had swiped the title from Tito, who then cut a pre-match promo that was so damn fiery it immediately made me wish he’d gotten a longer, more meaningful run in the latter half of the decade.

Tito was absolutely on fire from the jump, beating the absolute shit out of Valentine, much to the delight of the rabid MSG savages. The action spilled outside when Valentine went for a chairshot and missed. Tito instantly got his hands on the weapon, blasting the Hammer right in the head and busting him open. The referee completely let the chaos run until he finally couldn’t peel Santana off Valentine, calling for the bell only when Tito refused to stop pummeling the champion at 5:54.

Valentine retreated like a scalded dog, and the crowd ate ALL of it up. The match was short and functioned primarily as an angle, sure. However, it was still damn good for the time allotted because Tito was absolutely all kinds of fired up, and Valentine was perfectly cast as a tremendous, cowardly heel.

Seriously, watch every match you can find between these two! You could probably call this whole sequence a good dry hump before they finally came through with a string of even bigger payoffs later. It’s also entirely possible I have a problem relating everything to sex. Whatever the case may be.***1/2