Vince McMahon decided to counter the first-ever pay-per-view by Jim Crockett Promotions with the first-ever Royal Rumble on free TV. And as we’ll see from the Bunkhouse Stampede 1988 review, Vince could have put Hacksaw Jim Duggan and Boris Zhukov in a 60-minute Iron Man Match and still won the battle on this night.
Bunkhouse Stampede was a devastating blow to JCP that would begin a significant turning point for the company.
Let’s hesitantly jump into Blake’s Bunkhouse Stampede 1988 review.
- Date: January 24, 1988
- Location: Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York
ANNOUNCE BOOTH: Bob Caudle and Jim Ross promote tonight’s show, while Tony Schiavone is your ring announcer.
Bobby Eaton (w/Jim Cornette) vs. (c) Nikita Koloff – NWA TV Title
Koloff and Terry Taylor had the match of the night at Starrcade 1987. This looks like another intriguing matchup. Well never mind. This has been going on for 10 minutes, and it has been nothing but rest holds. Finally it goes to the outside and picks up some energy. The crowd tries to stay into it by shouting “Cornette sucks” over and over.
This match goes 20 minutes and ends in a time-limit draw. Fire everyone in charge of putting this show together. This was absolutely awful and one of the most boring 20-minute matches in wrestling history. And these were two good workers. It sets quite the tone for the show, and makes you feel like this thing could be special. It was…..for all the wrong reasons.
Midnight Express beat down Koloff after the match. Might as well beat up the fans as well after that one.
• Rating: 1/2*
Larry Zybszko (w/Baby Doll) vs. (c) Barry Windham – Western States Heritage Title
What the hell is the Western States Heritage title? This is a bad sign already for Bunkhouse Stampede 1988. And if we remember the debacle of a match that Windham put on with Steve Williams at Starrcade, I don’t have much hope for this contest. Jim Ross tells Windham to poke Baby Doll in the chest after she does it to him. That wouldn’t fly in the PG era.
The bulk of the match is Zbyszko stalling after every single offensive move from Windham. And then we get everyone’s favorite for nearly 10 minutes: MORE REST HOLDS. After more garbage, we get a ref bump and then Zybszko uses Baby Doll’s heel to knock out Windham and win the title at 19:16.
We’re now 2 for 2 on boring matches that go 20 minutes.
• Rating: *1/2
Road Warrior Hawk (w/Paul Ellering) vs. (c) Ric Flair (w/JJ Dillon) – NWA World Heavyweight Title
The network joins this match in progress. Of course it does since Flair is the only thing that is consistently good in this company right now. And the other problem with this match is that you know Hawk has zero chance of winning. Good back and forth early on and that continues for quite a while, with neither man gaining a huge advantage until Flair starts working on Hawk’s knee.
That continues for a bit until Hawk turns the tide. And in case the one in the previous match wasn’t enough, we get ANOTHER REF BUMP. Also since Flair is breathing, he’s bleeding. Hawk goes right at the cut and ref is still nowhere to be found. A nice superplex off the top from Hawk and we’ve still got no ref. Since that’s the case, JJ Dillon figures he might as well hit Hawk with a chair. NO SELL. Flair then whacks Hawk right on the dome and gets the wi……NO. Hawk kicks out. The people are going bonkers now.
Flair then hits Hawk over the back with the chair and we get the DQ finish at 21:39. Surprisingly good match, but in typical JCP fashion, a finish that left a lot to be desired.
• Rating: ***1/4
MORE STALLING: As if the match stalling wasn’t enough, we get the cage being put up and then get an entire roster rundown of LITERALLY EVERY SINGLE PERSON IN THE COMPANY THAT HAS HELPED PUT THIS SHOW TOGETHER. This is incredible.
Dusty Rhodes vs. Tully Blanchard vs. Ivan Koloff vs. The Warlord vs. Arn Anderson vs. Lex Luger vs. The Barbarian vs. Road Warrior Animal – Bunkhouse Stampede Finals
Where to even begin with this? The rules are simple: You lose by escaping the cage. Yes, you lose, not win, by escaping the cage. So you get eliminated by being thrown through the door or over the top of the cage. Animal tries to throw Tully over the top of the cage and man is that weird to type. The rules of this match are atrocious. People start climbing the cage and WHY WOULD YOU EVEN DO THIS? Dusty and Koloff are voluntarily climbing up just to fight at the top, where there is a much better chance of being eliminated. That makes total sense.
Everyone is bleeding for some reason (well not everyone but I have no idea what’s going so we’ll just say everyone) and this match is out of hand. The bad part is that I like a lot of these dudes in the ring, but all could have been used much better.
Anyways, Dusty takes off his belt and starts whipping everyone in sight. This match has been going on for a while and no one has been eliminated. I wonder why. Luger somehow has Arn’s boot and starts hitting people with it. Meanwhile, Dusty gets tied to the ropes with his own belt. Pure madness.
Update: Someone finally gets eliminated after 20 minutes of this debacle. It’s Koloff, which should have been obvious. Everyone is just standing around wondering what to do next. So Animal decides to eliminate Warlord but also eliminates himself in the process. Arn and Tully attempt to send Luger through the door but he fights them off. These three eventually all get eliminated after they all through the door.
So we’re left with Dusty and Barbarian. Bet you can’t guess how this will go. Barbarian controls the match for a while and then Dustymania runs wild. And once again, we get the brilliant spot of both men voluntarily climbing the cage. That of course leads to Barbarian essentially throwing himself over the top after Dusty hits the elbow to win his third straight Stampede title at 26:21.
The concept is just so poor that it makes this match incredibly difficult to watch. There’s no flow, and it’s the complete opposite of what it should be.
• Rating: DUD
Blake’s Bunkhouse Stampede 1988 Awards
- Best Match: Road Warrior Hawk vs. Ric Flair
- Bunkhouse Stampede 1988 MVP: Ric Flair
- Overall Bunkhouse Stampede 1988 Rating: 2.5/10
- Thoughts: This was where everything had to change for JCP. And for good reason after this terrible show. The Bunkhouse Stampede match was such a train wreck, and you also had two wildly boring matches in Koloff/Eaton and Zbyszko/Windham. To make matters worse, the show was held in a WWF hotbed, and JCP printed the wrong start time on the event tickets. It was an utter disaster on all levels and once again hammered home the fact that no one was touching Vince McMahon.
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