Match of the Day - Greg "The Hammer" Valentine goes hardcore

Greg Valentine vs. Kendo Nagasaki - No Rope Barbed Wire Deathmatch - BJW (1995)

It may seem surprising at first that Greg "The Hammer" Valentine would be found here fighting in a Japanese deathmatch in one of the most violent Japanese deathmatch promotions, Big Japan. But if you really think about earlier Greg Valentine (before the jet black hair, Rhythm & Blues days), Valentine was just out to hurt people. John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats made a great point about Greg Valentine during an intro to his live song, "Song for Greg Valentine" where Darnielle describes Valentine as a wrestler more out to break his opponents' legs and cripple them than to win matches. Which is pretty awesome, by the way.

That being said though, this is not the Greg Valentine that fought Roddy Piper in a brutal dog collar match or tried to end "Rugged" Ronnie Garvin's career, this is a miserable shell of a man who happens to be fighting in a Japanese deathmatch. Thus, this match really suffers because of it. Granted this match is still violent and features all the goodies that you would expect in a deathmatch like barbed wire, brawling through the crowd, and that red wet stuff, it's very slow and with little to no drive. No one breaks their legs, no one gets crippled, no nothing.

Match of the Day - Greg Valentine breaks Wahoo McDaniel's leg and makes a sweet t-shirt off of it!

Greg Valentine vs. Wahoo McDaniel - Heavyweight Championship Match NWA Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling (1977)

Happy National Pro Wrestling Day, everybody!

In this heated battle between Greg "The Hammer" Valentine and Wahoo McDaniel in the Mid-Atlantic territory, not only was the heavyweight title up for grabs, but two thousand silver dollars! Apparently silver dollars were all the rage in the 70's and meant for a good ol' slobber-knocker because that's what this match is!

Though not the most brutal or intense matches, it did feature a lot of heat for its time as the match that Greg Valentine "broke" Wahoo McDaniel's leg. As the story goes, Wahoo's legs were too big for the Finger Four Leglock, Valentine's finisher just like his friend The Nature Boy, and so Valentine instead torqued on Wahoo's leg enough for Wahoo to surrender. Instantly, on national TV, it was determined that the leg was broken. Whether or not the leg was really broken is not what matters here but rather that Valentine was now champion and would forever have the reputation of a man who could break any opponent's leg.

Greg Valentine also must have had enough silver dollars to spare himself a sweet custom T-shirt after this bout with Wahoo that read, "I Broke Wahoo's Leg" on the front and "No More Wahoo" on the back (at least that's what I've heard; I've never actually seen the back of the shirt).

"And Still Have a Bunch of Silver Dollars I Don't Know What to Do With!"

A similar situation like this one where a wrestler makes a T-shirt stating his pride of injuring his opponent would be Owen Hart and his parody of Steve Austin's Austin 3:16 shirt (which was a mockery of its own) and on it it said, "Owen 3:16" and on the back, "I Just Broke Your Neck". The thing about Owen Hart's shirt though was that he legitimately broke Austin's neck (which shortened his career) and didn't intend to.Valentine on the over hand, was out for broken Wahoo bones!

More recently, CM Punk has also made light of the "I Broke Wahoo's Leg" after breaking Big Show's hand back in 2010 which led to him donning a "I Broke Big Show's Hand" tee in the same fashion as Greg Valentine's.

Match of the Day - Valentine/Piper dog collar classic

Greg Valentine vs. Roddy Piper - Starrcade (1983)

This classic from the first-ever Starrcade back in 1983 (that's before Wrestlemania, oh my), is probably one of the most brutal and dare I say, most hardcore matches of the 80s. Yes there was lots of bloody cage matches around this time (along with Ric Flair blading since he was old enough to handle razors), but this match, this feud if you will, backed up by the fact that this was a dog collar match - not just a strap match where the two combatants are held together by the wrist with a leather strap or rope, but a steel chain - made this match one intense confrontation.

This was no gimmick match.

This back and forth style battle ends with Roddy Piper covering Valentine up with the help of the chain, but Piper does not get the chance to celebrate his victory in this non-titled match (Valentine was the US heavyweight champ at the time) as Valentine would assault Piper from behind and beat a mud-hole in the rowdy-one with the chain until the ref gingerly tells him to stop and Valentine leaves the ring.

Good stuff.