Sage Cortez
Despite already having reviewed The Main Event, we’re going to cut back a little to things that happened on the cards previous to it. All of those happenings were with lower card wrestlers, so it shouldn’t lead to any confusion. One thing I am very much looking forward to is seeing DiBiase with the wWF Championship. He’s going to carry it like it’s his. I have an absolute pile of videos to share here, too. To the matches!
– January 25th, 1988, from Madison Square Garden, in New York City, New York
Earlier on this card, there was a match between Don Muraco and the One Man Gang. Muraco is trying to get revenge against Gang for his beating up of Superstar Billy Graham. Gang wins the match due to the help of Butch Reed, and once it’s over, it’s time for these guys to deal with Graham again. The reason I’m sharing is that it makes me sad to see Graham reduced to the position of helping other guys get heat. We’re going to skip the Hogan match as I have another one when DiBiase has the belt.
King Harley Race (w/Bobby Heenan) vs. “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan
Pre-Match Thoughts: I wanted to see just how cheesy this match would turn out to be. The inaugural Royal Rumble winner deserves to have a match placed in this article! Duggan is extremely over, to nobody’s surprise.
Match Review: Race retreats to a corner to avoid the lunatic, then attacks Duggan when he isn’t paying attention. Duggan gives Race a clothesline, putting a stop to that mess. He then whips Race into the corner, and Race takes a big bump over the top and down to the floor. Race gets back in and gets whipped again, this time through the turnbuckles and into the ring post. Duggan drags him back in the hard way, and applies a front face-lock. Race shoulderblocks Duggan, and uh…headbutts him in the groin as well. Duggan comes back with some punches in the corner, and another one to knock him down for a 2 count. Race blocks a backdrop with a kick, and follows that with a belly to belly suplex for 2. First time either guy has jumped off their feet. Race gives Duggan a piledriver, but can only get 2 again. Duggan comes back with an elbow, and misses a knee drop. Alfred Hayes is annoying me by calling Duggan “Doogan”. Duggan is all charged up, but Race hits him with a headbutt to knock him down to the floor. Race follows, and knocks down Duggan with another headbutt. He goes for a diving headbutt, but misses, and now Duggan has the upper hand. Into the ring we go, until Race backdrops Duggan over the top. Race follows, rams Duggan into the apron, and Race climbs back into the ring. After Race knocks Duggan off the apron, Duggan crawls under the ring. Race expects him to come out one side, Duggan comes out the other, and clocks Race. Duggan gives Race a clothesline, and knocks him down to the floor with a hard shoulder. Race climbs back in and dumps Duggan to the apron, as this match has entered the realms of ridiculousness. Race heads up to the top rope, and comes down with a cross body that Duggan reverses. The referee counts, and it’s 3 at 10:50. Race dumps Duggan to the floor, then Duggan grabs his 2×4 and chases Race to the back.
My Thoughts: This started out okay, but around the halfway point when the action picked up, it rapidly descended downward into a poor contest. I did not like this match at all, but I expected that. No big deal! 3/4*.
– January 26th, 1988, from Hersheypark Arena in Hershey, Pennsylvania
King Harley Race & Hercules (w/Bobby Heenan) vs. The British Bulldogs
Pre-Match Thoughts: Heenan vs. Bulldogs is a WrestleMania feud, so watching this seemed mandatory from my perspective. Bad makeshift team though.
Match Review: Starting things off are Dynamite and Race. Dynamite hits Race with a stiff clothesline, then whips Race over the top rope. Davey comes in to throw Hercules out of the ring as well, and things reset. Race and Davey Boy will continue the match inside the ring, which is where Davey gives Race a clothesline for a 1 count. Hercules tags in and slams Davey, then puts him in a bear hug. Davey breaks out and returns the favor with a bodyslam, then puts Hercules in a chinlock. That only lasts for a short bit, as Dynamite tags in. He gives Hercules a snap suplex, and goes to the chinlock as well. Race attacks DK from behind, tags in legally a short bit later, and Dynamite gives him a suplex. Dynamite gives him a falling headbutt, which Race doesn’t sell at all. They exchange headbutts, and Dynamite clotheslines Race over the top rope. Pretty good so far. Race comes back in and headbutts Davey down low, and does his shoulderblock and low headbutt spot. DIRTY. Hercules comes in and gives Davey an inverted atomic drop, then a backdrop as well. Race tags in, and here comes Heenan to ringside with a dog collar. Haha. Now, as per usual on Prime Time Wrestling, we go to a commercial after some debate between Heenan and Monsoon.
After the commercial, we rejoin the match with Race having Davey in a chinlock. Hercules tags in and puts on the chinlock too, until giving Davey a clothesline for 2. Race comes in with an elbow drop, and Dynamite breaks up his cover attempt. Race lands a diving headbutt, and here comes Hercules again. He and Davey trade shots, and Davey puts a sleeper on…only for Hercules to duck down and cause Davey to ram his own head into the turnbuckle. Davey tries a cradle, and that gets 2. Hercules comes back with an elbow drop, then tries another and misses, allowing Davey to finally make the tag out. Dynamite comes in and whacks both of his opponents, ramming them into each other as well. He follows that with a piledriver to Hercules, and Davey decides it’s time to chase Heenan. Dynamite does so as well, and of course, the Bulldogs get counted out after 9:05.
My Thoughts: This was actually much better than I expected. They kept things moving very nicely, and brought things perfectly along to the angle at the end. I think there was good mileage in Hercules being in a tag team at this point, but that didn’t happen until much, much later. Too bad. **1/2 for a match that I didn’t expect to be solid at all.
– Taped to air January 30th, 1988, on Superstars, from Von Braun Civic Center, in Huntsville, Alabama
BAD NEWS BROWN vs. Brady Boone
BAD NEWS BROWN MAKING HIS DEBUT! YES! Brady Boone was somebody I’ve considered to be a good hand every time I’ve watched him. Brown’s insert promo is funny as hell. To me, anyway. I’m a fan. The Ghetto Blaster was a nice finish, but we don’t see that here. Too bad!
– February 6th, 1988, from Boston Garden in Boston, Massachusetts
Andre the Giant & Ted DiBiase (WWF Champion, w/Virgil) vs. Hulk Hogan and Bam Bam Bigelow (w/Oliver Humperdink)
Pre-Match Thoughts: This is the day after The Main Event, and DiBiase has not yet been stripped of the title by Jack Tunney. So for now, DiBiase is the WWF Champion. And he has the belt! These two heels have an immense amount of heat that magnifies when it is announced that DiBiase is the champion.
Match Review: Hogan and Bigelow hit the ring, and pair off with Andre and DiBiase respectively. The four guys brawl, and Hogan dumps Andre over the top rope. Bigelow continues to beat up DiBiase, and gives him an atomic drop to cap things off. After a clothesline, Hogan tags in, as the former and current champion collide! Hogan pummels DiBiase, and hits him with a hard clothesline. In comes Andre, and Hogan hits him with a clothesline to knock him down. Andre breaks up Hogan’s fight with DiBiase, and gets knocked down yet again. Can’t believe Andre is getting worked on like this. He comes back by choking Hogan with the bottom rope, which allows DiBiase to gain control. He rams Hogan into Andre’s head, and Andre tags in legally. He hits Hogan with a huge headbutt, and puts the strap-assisted choke on him. DiBiase clotheslines Hogan from behind, after tagging in. After another clothesline, DiBiase lands a few fist drops for 2. He goes to the chinlock, and sits there for a while. Eventually Hogan gets out, and DiBiase and Hogan hit each other with a clothesline simultaneously. Bigelow finally tags in, and takes DiBiase out with a clothesline. He picks him up, and press slams him! He tries a diving headbutt, but Virgil trips him. Now DiBiase lands a few elbow drops, before going up top. Bigelow slams him down, and tags back out. Hogan is now back to having superhuman strength, and nails DiBiase with his best stuff. Big boot for DiBiase, punch for Andre, LEG DROP for DiBiase..and that’s the end at 7:59. HOGAN HAS PINNED THE CHAMPION.
My Thoughts: This was very heated and quite alright. Wouldn’t say it was great, but Bigelow might as well have not even been there. I don’t think this was the best use of him, but somebody has to be Hogan’s partner. That’s not a great position for another wrestler, as it can feel like they are a non-factor. Wasn’t as good as the last match, but it was essentially DiBiase vs. Hogan. The rest was noise. **.
– Taped to air February 7th, 1988, on Wrestling Challenge, from the Wicomico Youth & Civic Center in Salisbury, Maryland
Hercules (w/Bobby Heenan) vs. The Ultimate Warrior
The WWF chose some strange taping locations. Salisbury is quite far from anywhere else. It was about a 3 hour drive for the boys from the Pennsylvania taping location to this place. Sucks for them, but that’s not unusual. When you consider that they went from Hamilton to Salisbury over the course of four days…that’s much worse. They certainly flew from Hamilton to New York City, but that’s racking up miles awfully quickly. Brutal road schedule. Interesting promo by Hercules and Heenan before the bout. Abandoning usual structure as this is more angle than match.
I grabbed this match off Warrior’s Coliseum Video. These two guys are like monsters. Vince McMahon’s dream feud and shit. Hercules wants to have a tug-of-war over his steel chain. Sounds like a plan! He and Warrior pull, and Warrior pulls so hard he snaps the chain. LOOK AT THIS MONSTER. Hercules is pissed, so he grabs what’s left of his side of the chain and clotheslines Warrior with it for a DQ at 1:56. Hercules tries choking Warrior out with the chain (no pun intended), but eventually some jobbers come out from the back to break these guys up. Warrior chases Hercules to the back, and wraps the chain around his neck! WHAT A GREAT FEUD THIS IS GOING TO BE. Let’s get some reactions!
THE WARRIOR UPLOADER IS THE BEST!
Shortly after that…
Jack Tunney announces a tournament for WrestleMania IV! The WWF Championship has been stripped from Ted DiBiase! Andre was the one who pinned Hogan, not DiBiase. Andre surrendered the title. Therefore, the belt is held up! The tournament pairings are noticeably different. DiBiase and Duggan were on the same side as Gang and Bigelow. Muraco and Bravo were paired with Rude and Roberts. The rest of the bracket’s structure was the same.
– Taped to air February 20th, 1988, on Superstars, from Hersheypark Arena in Hershey, Pennsylvania
King Harley Race (w/Bobby Heenan) vs. The Ultimate Warrior
I swear this is the last Race match. There’s also a match from this period with Warrior/Muraco who were facing Reed/Bundy. It’s Bundy’s last WWF appearance for a while, but there is NO WAY I’m watching that. This should be fine though.
Race attacks Warrior from the start, and piledrives him. Surprisingly, Warrior sells it, and is given an elbow drop. Warrior chops Race over the top rope, and hits him with an elbow after jumping off the apron. Race gets thrown back into the ring, where Warrior lands more stiff chops. No wonder these guys complained about his offense. He nails Race with a clothesline, and here comes Hercules from the back! He nails Warrior with the chain, and wraps it around his neck again! Finally Warrior throws Hercules off of him, and grabs the chain. He swings it around the ring like a lunatic, as Hercules retreats to the back. 1:40 was the time of the match. I thought this was amusing. It’s Warrior acting like a lunatic, that’s always worth watching.
– March 5th, 1988, from Boston Garden, in Boston, Massachusetts
Honky Tonk Man (WWF IC Champion) & the Hart Foundation (w/Jimmy Hart) vs. Strike Force (WWF Tag team Champions) & Randy Savage (w/Elizabeth) in a STEEL CAGE MATCH
Pre-Match Thoughts: This should be a lot of fun. I believe it is escape rules, which don’t make a lot of sense to me when it’s a tag match. When you escape, you’re leaving your partner alone in there! These guys could tear the house down if that’s what they were shooting for.
Match Review: The babyfaces get attacked upon entry, and this thing is underway. Going to be difficult to keep track of it, but Martel was being choked with his own shirt by Bret Hart. Martel comes back and returns the favor, as HTM tries to climb over the top. Santana pulls HTM back in, and Savage throws his long running foe into the turnbuckle. HTM returns the favor, and after Bret gives Martel a backbreaker, he tries to climb out over the top. Martel stops him, and now Neidhart goes for the door. Santana follows, and makes his exit at 2:38. The Hart Foundation was cool with this, because the match was now 3 vs. 2. However, that doesn’t last long at all, as Anvil decides to leave as well at 2:47. I don’t know if this was the plan, but Neidhart had to leave the ring, nobody was around him. To do otherwise would have exposed the business.
Bret continues to work on Martel, and HTM on Savage. I’m cool with this. Martel then launches Hart into the cage, and tries to leave the cage. Bret clutches to his boot, and then follows Martel up to the top. He pulls Martel back in, and down to the canvas. HTM and Bret try to ram Martel and Savage, but instead they’re rammed together. Savage and Martel both go for an exit, but Martel is the only one who can leave, at 4:57. Bret and HTM try some double teams, and it seems like a matter of time before one of them leaves as well. Bret turns around in lieu of leaving, for one last shot on Savage. After a double elbow, he walks out the door, at 6:34.
HTM and Savage are the two guys left in the ring. Honky gets blocked from walking out, and rammed into the fence. Savage is now ready to beat this clown down, but gets his eyes raked. HTM climbs up to go over the top, but Savage follows. He pulls him back in by his hair, and crotches him on the top rope. That was a good spot. Savage hops the fence, and that’s it for this match at 8:20!
My Thoughts: I hate this format because there are so many logical faults with it. Why would the Foundation not stay in the cage to beat up the guys they’re feuding with? This isn’t a fault of the wrestlers, but with the rules that require the match to consist of a lack of psychology and common sense. I thought the wrestlers did what they could to entertain with the kind of match that this was, but it was basically a night off for all of them. That’s good for their bodies, but if I had paid to see that, I would feel ripped off. *.
– March 12th, 1988, from the Spectrum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Ted DiBiase (w/Virgil) vs. Hulk Hogan in a LUMBERJACK MATCH
Pre-Match Thoughts: The lumberjacks are the Bolsheviks, Koko B. Ware, SD Jones, Dino Bravo, Greg Valentine, Johnny V, Virgil, Brutus Beefcake, and the Killer Bees. This was one of the first wrestling matches that I ever watched! I believe the Hulkamania 4 tape was the second or third that I had rented from the video store, way back when. Considering that, it has been about 20 years since I’ve seen this match. True story. Other than this match, the card appears to have been absolute trash, by the way.
Match Review: Hogan attacks DiBiase, and pinballs him around from turnbuckle to turnbuckle. That’s what people want to see. DiBiase bails out of the ring, but he gets thrown right back in. DiBiase takes a hard bump off a clothesline, then Hogan drops some elbows. DiBiase gets punched out of the ring again, and back in he goes. Hogan clotheslines DiBiase in the corner, and atomic drops him out of the ring. DiBiase’s on the heel side, and they give him lots of time to get back in the ring. The babyfaces soon walk over there and argue, so Hogan pulls him back in by himself. The people are loving this match. Hogan chokes DiBiase with his wrist tape, and clotheslines him with it too. Hogan gives DiBiase a BIG BOOT, and the lumberjacks start fighting amongst each other again. Hogan goes down to the floor, Virgil rakes his eyes, and now for some reason the Killer Bees are beating up Hogan. WHAT THE FUCK? They’re wearing their masks, so nobody can tell if it’s really them or not. I remember this, and it’s a big reason why I’m not a Killer Bees fan. I thought it was them for all these years. The crowd is as shocked as I am, and Hogan is now back in the ring getting stomped on. DiBiase gives him a clothesline too, and a few elbow drops after that for a 2 count. Hogan gets up and wags his finger, then lands another big boot on DiBiase. He goes for the leg drop, but the Killer Bees TRIP HIM. DiBiase now heads up top, and Hogan slams him all the way down. Then Hogan lands the leg drop, and gets a 3 count at 6:05.
After the count, the Killer Bees rush in and attack Hogan. Hogan comes back on them, and knocks around the bigger one. Now he goes for the hood, and he has another mask on! Haha.
My Thoughts: I don’t believe there was any payoff as to who these guys were, but I’m 99% sure that it actually was the Killer Bees. They had a match earlier on the card where they established the mask gimmick and everything. Average match, but that was an interesting wrinkle to make things entertaining. Really short, and no better than *3/4. Some half efforts in these matches.
– March 20th, 1988, from Prairie Capital Convention Center, in Springfield, Illinois
Rick Rude (w/Bobby Heenan) vs. Koko B. Ware
Pre-Match Thoughts: I guess this has something to do with why Koko got involved in the WrestleMania IV 6 man tag. Last match of the bunch! Koko entering to “Piledriver” is awesome, and will never cease to be.
Match Review: The two men lock up, and Rude takes Koko down with a hip toss. He then slammed Koko, only to get nailed with some headbutts after posing. Monsoon states that Rude is wearing eye makeup, and I don’t know if that’s true or not. I have a match to watch! Koko hits Rude with some good shots, and a dropkick to cap them off. Rude tries a monkey flip, but Koko blocks it and hits him in the jaw. He then misses a charge to the corner, and Rude takes over. Heenan walks by Koko and slaps him, then Rude follows that with a clothesline for 2. Rude puts a chinlock on Koko, which I do believe is his favorite move. Why not use it? We go to a commercial a while after he puts it on.
Back from that commercial, Koko is still caught in a chinlock. A minute of solid chinlocking, here. Rude gets up and dumps Koko to the floor, which is where Heenan taunts and teases him. Koko tries a sunset flip on his way back in, but that only gets 1. Rude beats Koko up after kicking out, and gives him a bodyslam. After a count of 2, he goes back to…THE CHINLOCK. Another minute ticks by, and Koko’s ready to get out of it. Rude slams him again, and heads up top. He lands a fist drop from up there, then poses again. Haha. Heenan now slinks around the ring towards Koko’s parrot, like he’s going to steal it. ANIMAL THIEF GIMMICK. YES! The Bulldogs spot it, and now here they are. They chase Heenan to the back, Rude chases the Bulldogs to the back, and Rude gets counted out at 10:55.
My Thoughts: That was a funny finish. The match was nothing special, but it’s cool for them to use that finish. Makes the people happy, and takes nothing away from Rude. I can’t stand watching Rude’s matches when he relies so heavily on the chinlock. It’s a lot better when he improves later in his career. *1/2 for the match, and it’s sad because this started off quite fast.
Now let’s wrap this up with some news. Hulk Hogan was obviously taking off for a while after WrestleMania to shoot No Holds Barred. At first it was thought that meant DiBiase would win the WWF Championship. As we know, he did not. In addition to that, Bruno Sammartino left the company in his position as commentator and sometimes wrestler. As we also know, he wasn’t happy with where the business was headed. His concerns were valid to me. I didn’t mention this previously, but Billy Jack Haynes is long gone as well. The Iron Sheik was hired and subsequently fired shortly after. WWF Magazine printed that Randy Savage was the WWF Champion. Trump Plaza sold out. Lastly, Owen Hart worked at a pre-WM taping! Next up is another episode of Saturday Night’s Main Event which I am eagerly anticipating.
Best: Ultimate Warrior promos. They have me pumped to see a match that I hate!
Worst: The upcoming tournament has caused a complete lack of hate feuds. That is one major strike against the concept.
