Through the Years: Saturday Night’s Main Event #9

 

We’re going to skip ahead a little bit to Saturday Night’s Main Event #9! It can be a bit difficult to decide when it’s time to do this, but videos of things that take place in December 1986 will be posted in the article after this one. So, nothing will be missed. In any case, this is an ENORMOUS show for the WWF. It’s in Hartford, which is their backyard. It’s blowing off one of the only main event angles that they’ve ever had a chance to blow off on NBC. Also on this card, is going to be a Randy Savage vs. George Steele match. That may also be the end of that on and off program. Let’s get to it!

 

– Taped to air January 3rd, 1987 from Hartford Civic Center, in Hartford, Connecticut

 

We start things off with a crazed Paul Orndorff! Hogan cutting a promo inside of the steel cage! Jimmy Hart and Adrian Adonis talking trash about Roddy Piper! George Steele being a moron! Harley Race! Junkyard Dog! Vince McMahon and Jesse Ventura then lead us into…

 

Paul Orndorff (w/Bobby Heenan) vs. Hulk Hogan in a STEEL CAGE MATCH for the WWF Championship

Pre-Match Thoughts: This is the big one, and goes right into the feature slot. Before the match starts, Heenan and Orndorff are cutting a promo. During this interview, it’s obvious to see that there’s something wrong with Orndorff’s right arm. And as we know, he had nerve damage, and his arm was shrinking. Couldn’t pass up the money and take time off though! Orndorff’s entrance to ‘Real American’ usually fools the crowd until they see him walking down the aisle. I like that. DANNY DAVIS is going to be one of the two officials at ringside for this match. Hogan has a bunch of things to say, and here we go!

Match Review: BLUE BAR CAGE! Hogan climbs into the ring by going over the top of the cage, I was a little surprised by that. Orndorff attacks Hogan, and whips him with the title belt. Haha! Orndorff goes for the door, but Hogan clutches onto his ankle, preventing the escape. That happens twice, then Orndorff starts dropping elbows on the champion. He tries to go out of the top, but Hogan catches up to him and pulls Orndorff back in by his hair. Orndorff gets rammed into the cage, and Hogan begins to choke him with his headband. Haha, again. Hogan tries climbing out over the top, and Orndorff catches up to him. Predictable. Orndorff misses an elbow drop, and Hogan is pissed off now. He beats up Orndorff, and lands a big shot to the jaw. Hogan tries going for the door, but Danny Davis has locked it! HAHA. This match isn’t supposed to be funny, but it is! Orndorff gets control again, but both men then ram each other into the cage. Weird spot there. They get up, and both guys climb the cage on opposite sides. With some magical editing tricks, they both hit the floor…AT THE SAME TIME! Joey Marella says that Hogan won, but Danny Davis says that Orndorff won. Hogan’s reaction to that is hilarious. Davis pushes Marella to the ground, and Hogan’s mad about that shit. Orndorff sneaks around to the other side of the cage, and gives Hogan a hard knee to the back. That takes out Danny Davis as well. Then Orndorff rams Hogan into the cage, and we’re told that the match ended in a tie. Seeing as that happened, the match must restart.

We come back from the commercial with Orndorff giving Hogan the business and walking him back into the cage. Orndorff goes up to the top rope, and elbows the champion. Danny Davis is being carried to the back, and as that’s going on, Orndorff drops a knee on Hogan. A fist drop follows, as does a clothesline. But, it’s time to HULK UP. He chops Orndorff, and throws him into the cage repeatedly, after which Orndorff does a deliberately weak blade job. I doubt NBC wanted to see more blood than that. Hogan gives him a backbreaker, DROPS THE LEG, and climbs up. Heenan runs into the cage to try to save his charge, by grabbing Hogan’s leg. Orndorff stumbles to his feet, Hogan kicks Heenan away, and chases Orndorff to stop him from climbing over the cage. Hogan atomic drops Orndorff, and tosses Heenan into the cage. Hogan climbs over the top, Orndorff goes for the door, but Hogan wins after hitting the floor first at 10:42.

Hogan comes back in the ring with Heenan cornered, and of course, he atomic drops Heenan outside of the cage door to the floor.

My Thoughts: I didn’t like this match very much. I felt like these two guys had better matches without the gimmick, and that the segment after the “tie” was pretty boring. I think Heenan’s involvement wasn’t necessary, but I liked the involvement of Danny Davis. That was necessary, because it helped get him out of the role of a referee. Despite the match not being so great, it did a huge rating on NBC, and the WWF continued to be launched into the stratsophere. So a *3/4 quality match didn’t change anything.

 

George Steele vs. Randy Savage (W/Elizabeth) for the WWF Intercontinental Championship

Pre-Match Thoughts: First off, a video is shown of everything that has happened between these two men. Then, Savage is interviewed by Gene Mean. During that interview, our champion is quite rude to Elizabeth. Steele apparently has a surprise. He gives an action figure of himself to Elizabeth, but that’s not it.

Match Review: Steele attacks Savage from behind, and lifts him up in the air with a choke. He rams Savage’s head into the buckle, and follows with a bodyslam. LOOK AT THIS GEORGE STEELE WORKRATE. He gives Savage another bodyslam, and calls out his surprise. We still can’t see what it is, but Savage takes the opportunity to attack Steele from behind and choke him. Savage gives Steele a bodyslam, and heads up top for the elbow. Then…RICKY STEAMBOAT’S MUSIC COMES ON. SICK. Steamboat runs down to the ring to distract Savage, and the crowd is going crazy. Steele takes the opportunity to throws Savage off the top, and tosses Savage over the top rope, causing him to take a crazy bump off the stairs. That had to hurt. Steele then grabs Elizabeth, picks her up, AND CARRIES HER TO THE BACK. AWESOME. That being said, why isn’t he being counted out? Steamboat is standing in the way of Savage, so he can’t chase Steele to the back. Haha.

Back from commercial, the referees try to make Steamboat leave ringside, during which Steele makes his return to the ring. He rams Savage into the turnbuckle to huge applause, and starts eating a different one. Go figure! Steele slams Savage, but gets rammed into an exposed turnbuckle. Maybe Steele shouldn’t have eaten all that padding. Savage chokes the challenger, but Steele comes back with some punches and BITING. Savage goes for a clothesline, and Steele bites him again! Savage then tosses Steele over the top rope, but Steele has a foreign object. He hits Savage with it, knocking him out of the ring. WHAT A CHEAT. Steele then pushes the referee down to the canvas, at which point Savage sneak attacks Steele with a bell shot to the head. 1-2-3, and Savage keeps his title after around 8:30. Brilliant!

Savage then intends to destroy Steele with the bell, but Steamboat comes out to stop it. And then, Savage runs to the back without his title. You do what you gotta do!

My Thoughts: I may be in the minority as far as this match goes, but I was much more entertained by it than the opener. Steamboat’s entry was well timed, Steele was trying hard, and Savage was taking the biggest bumps that he possibly could. I’d give this **, and it’s pretty hard to find a Steele match that’s anywhere near this good. Overbooked or not.

 

Junkyard Dog vs. KING Harley Race (w/Bobby Heenan)

Pre-Match Thoughts: I can’t lie and say I’m looking forward to this one. The racial overtones of this feud are obvious, aren’t they? The worst part of the feud is that for the most part, these two guys have been terrible of late. Harley can’t possibly carry JYD to a good match. Before the contest, Harley Race is interviewed backstage. He makes Gene bow to him. Yes! JYD has a response to that, and we’re underway.

Match Review: Danny Davis is the official! More schenanigans ahead, I’m sure. Harley cold cocks JYD to start the match, and elbow drops him for 2. Harley follows with a high knee, and drops a knee too for 2. JYD throws Harley shoulder-first into the ring post, and follows with a headbutt. It doesn’t matter though, Harley gives him a belly to belly suplex. Harley tries a falling headbutt, and hurts his own head. I hate this stereotype. JYD gives him some headbutts, and shoots him into the turnbuckle, causing him to go over the top and to the floor. JYD then grabs Harley’s robe and crown, PUTTING IT ON HIMSELF. Nicely done. Heenan gets mad, runs into the ring, and tries attacking JYD. Bad idea. JYD grabs the manager, and clocks him in the jaw. Harley Race sneaks up to the top rope as this is going on, and elbows JYD in the head. He drops a few elbows, and finally the bell rings. I bet they couldn’t find the bell after Savage’s bit, where he threw the bell down to the floor. Haha. JYD wins via disqualification at 6:00.

Heenan and Race do a number on JYD now, pretty much destroying him with knee drops. Heenan then crowns his charge, and they keep beating him up. They try to make JYD bow down to Harley Race (that is a bad visual), and JYD clears the ring. As he’s doing so, Danny Davis grabs hold of him. So JYD gives him a headbutt!

My Thoughts: This was nothing resembling good. The crowd liked it, but the two wrestlers have become overweight, and moved like slugs. I wasn’t into it at all. The angle at the end aged very poorly, as well. 1/4*. Little weird for an evil wrestler to be disqualified by an evil referee, wasn’t it?

 

Orndorff and Heenan have a skit after the match. Heenan tells Orndorff that he IS the champion. Hm. I know where this was supposed to be leading, as a just in case Andre was unable to wrestle at WrestleMania III. As we know, he was able to, and the gate was enormous. And Orndorff played no part in the card at all.

 

Roddy Piper vs. Adrian Adonis (w/Jimmy Hart)

Pre-Match Thoughts: I’m fairly certain that this is their first match. The angle leading to it has been excellent. Adonis is interviewed in the back, and he’s gotten fatter. Piper is interviewed as well, and he doesn’t have much to say. Serious Piper!

Match Review: Piper throws his kilt in Adrian’s face, hip-tosses him a few times, and follows with a knee lift. Adonis is now tied up in the ropes, at which point Piper kicks him in the face. Then he throws Adonis into the turnbuckles, which the big man takes by going upside down. Vince tells us that Elizabeth has been released from George Steele’s custody. Well, good. Adonis comes back with some punching and scratching, but Piper puts an end to that quickly. Adonis locks a SLEEPER in on Piper, but then both men tumble to the outside. They brawl, Jimmy Hart gets involved, and gets clobbed. Then Adonis hits Piper with his perfume sprayer, and squirts it into Piper’s eyes. Adonis dives back in the ring, Piper can’t see anyhing, and so he gets counted out after 3:35. Piper blindly hip-tosses Danny Davis, and I think that’s the end of this whole thing.

My Thoughts: Not a whole lot to say about this match either. This has been a pretty bad show, to be honest, *. Obviously Adonis had to get a win over Piper at some point, and I suppose this was as far as the WWF wanted to go in that regard. I don’t blame them for that decision. I don’t believe they knew that Piper would be retiring, though.

 

Hogan is interviewed by Gene Mean now, which is no surprise. This interview slot is quite customary for him, I believe.

 

Blackjack Mulligan vs. Jimmy Jack Funk

Pre-Match Thoughts: Okay, if this isn’t the least notable match in Saturday Night’s Main Event history, I’d be quite surprised by that. I’ll be the judge of that once I’m done with the iniitial run of them. Mulligan has epic music, by the way.

Match Review: We join the match after commercial, and the match is officiated by the FEMALE REF. Jimmy Jack makes Mulligan take the spurs off his boots, during which he attacks Mulligan. Mulligan comes back by throwing Funk into the turnbuckle, and clotheslining him over the top rope. Mulligan follows him, and backdrops him on the outside. Mulligan has an insert promo during the match, during which he gives Funk a gorilla press slam. The promo is really annoying, by the way. Mulligan gives Funk another hard clothesline, then a flying back elbow. That was impressive, and it’s over via pinfall at 2:31.

After the match, Mulligan tries to put a noose around Funk’s neck, and fails. What the fuck…

My Thoughts: This match was fairly entertaining at least. Sure, it was a squash, but I’ll take what I can get as far as that goes. Mulligan got in a lot of offense, some of it looked very impressive. I don’t rate squash matches, so…I guess I’ll just call it okay.

 

Jesse and Vince lead us out, and our next Saturday Night’s Main Event is in March!

 

It turns out that the Savage vs. Steele match was NOT the last of this bunch. Well, damn. I was really hoping. Anyway, I completely understand why this show popped a huge rating. They went in with three programs that the fans were interested in, and put together a show around them. The end result wasn’t so great, but the show after this was then the highest rated episode of Saturday Night’s Main Event. The matches being good or not did not matter at all, really. I’ve noticed more and more over the years that match quality doesn’t always draw in viewers, and this card was a great example of that. It’s mostly about characters. The WWF was very character driven, and as such it was the most successful wrestling promotion that there has ever been. That doesn’t mean I’m talking myself into saying the card was good, though. It most certainly was not. The Hogan/Orndorff match was a mess, and it doesn’t speak well for the WWF that George Steele was in the best match on it. I may have seemed unenthusiastic about this, but that’s hardly my fault.

 

Best: George Steele vs. Randy Savage. FOR REAL.

Worst: JYD vs. Harley Race. I really don’t want to watch these guys wrestle each other.

Card Rating: 3.5/10. Finishing this was a task. It sucked.