Skip to main content

Worst in the World: Nikita Koloff vs Bobby Eaton-Bunkhouse Stampede

I'll be the first to admit I know next to nothing about any NWA wrestling. All I know is that The Four Horsemen were always there, and Ronnie Garvin should be in the WWE Hall of Fame (there's an OSW Review reference for you). So, it should come to no surprise that I'm unfamiliar with both Nikita Koloff and Bobby Eaton. I know Eaton was part of the Midnight Express, but that's it. However, I was concerned when I saw this match come up. This show, Bunkhouse Stampede, features a Road Warrior Hawk singles match that is rated better than this. When you have a worse match than Hawk, that's not good.
In all honesty, I have no idea why people think this match is so horrible. Granted, it's not very good, but it's considered one of the worst matches ever. Dave Meltzer gave this match minus two stars. That's a little harsh. I'm not saying it's a three star match, or two, hell, even one, but it's not bad enough to be in the negatives.
The match is a lot of punching and headlocks, with occasional brawling to the outside. There really isn't much to talk about. Koloff looks like an absolute killer and looks perfect for wrestling, and Eaton's manager, Jim Cornette, is awesome as usual. But there are some definite flaws in the match. For one thing, Koloff's selling is just wacky. Watch him fall out of the ring when he takes a regular punch from Eaton. Watch him shake his head around frantically when he gets punched outside the ring. It's not the way Dolph Ziggler or The Rock would over sell a move, it's kinda like the way JTG sold the Cobra. Along with this, as good as he is, Cornette really distracts from the match. There are parts of the match where the crowd will start chanting "Cornette Sucks!, which just shows how uninterested the crowd is. Up until this point, the match is at about a star.
The second half of this match drops it down to a dud. I'm not kidding when I say this, but almost the entire second half of this match is a hammerlock by Eaton on Koloff. It goes on forever. I swear, Koloff stays in this hammerlock until the last minute of the match, and then the match ends in a time limit draw. All that for nothing. Stan Lane runs down to beat up Koloff, and that's it.
If the endless hammerlock hadn't happened, I probably wouldn't have even put this match on the list. It's not poorly wrestled or too boring. It's not very exciting either, but it's watchable. That hammerlock changed that. It completely kills any kind of heat the match had and makes for an unwatchable few minutes. If you're curious, I'd still check it out and make an opinion for yourself, but the last half of this match is just brutal

The Verdict

It's bad, but it's far better than anything I've watched so far.

Rankings (Best to Worst)

  1. Nikita Koloff vs Bobby Eaton-Bunkhouse Stampede
  2. The Oddities vs Kaientai-SummerSlam 1998
  3. Hulk Hogan vs Sid Justice-WrestleMania VIII
Up next on the list is...
 This might be the one that breaks me.

Comments

More from The Wrestling Section

Worst in the World: The Gimmick Battle Royal-WrestleMania X-Seven

(Special thanks to Frost for suggesting this match. If you'd like to see a match covered on the Worst in the World, leave a comment down below.) WrestleMania X-Seven. Heavily considered the not just the best WrestleMania, but the greatest wrestling show of all time, WrestleMania X-Seven took place during the hottest period in the WWF's history, and features just about every one of the hottest acts in wrestling at the time. An undercard featuring the likes of Chris Jericho, Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, William Regal, Kane, and the Big Show. One of the biggest female stars in the history of wrestling in Chyna. A killer TLC match between the Dudley Boyz, the Hardy Boyz, and Edge & Christian. A wild brawl between The Undertaker and Triple H. A massive main event between Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock. Hell, even the father vs son Street Fight between Vince & Shane McMahon. It's a star-studded affair. However, there's one match that sticks out like

Worst in the World: The Last Rites Match-TNA Destination X 2007

(Special thanks to an anonymous user for suggesting this match. If you'd like to see a match covered on the Worst in the World, leave a comment down below.) An often discussed aspect of professional wrestling is the backstage politicking of Hulk Hogan. Throughout his career as a major attraction in wrestling, Hogan's philosophy has always been to protect Hulk Hogan...OK, sometimes he'd help Ed Leslie, but most of the time it was to protect Hulk Hogan. Because of that philosophy and Hogan's influence as a top guy, there have been multiple instances where a company's booking and other wrestlers have suffered as a result. Would having Mr. Perfect win the 1990 Royal Rumble made sense and could have elevated a rising star and potentially created a new main event player? Yes, but that would require Hogan to not win, and that doesn't work for Hogan, so he wins the Rumble even though he doesn't need elevating. Would booking Randy Orton to beat Hogan at SummerSlam 20

Worst in the World: D-Generation X vs Brothers of Destruction-Crown Jewel

This match didn't need to happen. After Triple H and the Undertaker had one of the most brutally bad matches of 2018 at Super Show-Down not even a month earlier, nobody wanted to see them try to wrestle again. Also, nobody wanted to see Shawn Michaels come out of retirement after his fantastic sendoff in 2010, especially for a match like this. But here we are, Triple H & Shawn Michaels facing The Undertaker & Kane in 2018. The combined ages of these four at the time is 206. That's a number you'd expect to see from a match at Heroes of Wrestling. And anyone can come up with their own reason as to why this match is happening, but that would just be ignoring the actual reason. For those of you who don't know, Crown Jewel was held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. That might not seem like important information, but you can't really discuss this match without mentioning it. Despite the numerous reasons that running shows in Saudi Arabia is morally wrong (their abuse

Worst in the World: What is the Worst Wrestling Match of All Time?

  Note: This series is based off a YouTube series " The Search for the Worst " by I Hate Everything, where he reviews every movie on IMDB's Bottom 100. It's a great, funny series and I'd recommend checking it out. Have you ever just thought to yourself "What is the worst match of all time?"? I don't mean something like a boring John Cena-Randy Orton match, I mean a match where the wrestlers have zero chemistry, little wrestling ability, or literally no idea what they are actually doing. I've thought about this for a while, and I've decided to finally figure it out. So I'm going to watch any match that is: a) A winner of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Award for the Worst Worked Match of the Year. or:  b) Listed on the 100 worst rated wrestling matches of all time on the Internet Wrestling Database .   (Note: Some matches appear on awards that aren't on the list.) There are 115 (EDIT: Now 99)  matches on here. I pu

Worst in the World: Trash at the Beach

Click the link here to vote in the poll and help decide the next edition of the Worst in the World. Just over a month ago, I briefly covered the massive success the WWF was having in 1999. Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock are at the top of the card. Triple H is on the rise to the main event. Mankind is playing the ultimate likable & respected babyface. Names like the Undertaker, Kane, and the Big Show are all major players. The undercard is stacked with big names like D-Generation X, D'Lo Brown, and Ken Shamrock, rising stars like The Hardy Boyz and Edge & Christian, and new signings like Kurt Angle, Chris Jericho, and the Dudley Boyz. The WWF was so red hot in 1999 that even an all-time bad WrestleMania in WrestleMania XV couldn't slow them down. But there was one other factor that made 1999 such a good year for the WWF; the fact that their main competitor, WCW, was beginning to crack. At the same time the WWF was reaching the highest heights they'd ever reache