Sage Cortez
The WWF had put on one of their absolute greatest sell-jobs for this show. They got a lot of people to buy a show where Hulk Hogan and a mid-carder face Randy Savage and a guy who had never wrestled a match in his life to that point. There are some other matches on the show that look appealing as well. Rick Rude and the Ultimate Warrior’s match is one that I’ve enjoyed every time I’ve watched it. The Hart Foundation face the Brain Busters, and we also have some nice looking six man tags. After watching the SummerSlam report linked below, it’s time to watch some wrestling!
– August 28th, 1989, from the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, New Jersey
Our hosts for this one are Tony Schiavone and Jesse Ventura. That’s a hell of a team right there. Schiavone has to make sure Jesse doesn’t completely dominate the broadcast. The introduction video package is a little strange, there’s no doubt about that. I don’t need to see people engaging in summer time activities.
The Brain Busters (WWF Tag Team Champions, w/Bobby Heenan) vs. The Hart Foundation
Pre-Match Thoughts: I don’t understand why this is a non-title match given that the Busters won the titles a MONTH before this show. This does seem like the right way to kick the event off, though. It’s also strange that the champions don’t have an entrance theme. Doesn’t seem right to me, and it should have been remedied. Ventura says that the Busters weren’t the champions when the match was signed. That’s a semi-decent explanation, but doesn’t hold up for me.
Match Review: Bret and Tully will begin this thing, with Bret taking the former Horseman down with a few arm drags. Bret follows with some elbows, and Arn tags in before that continues. Arn uses a drop toe-hold on Bret, who reverses into a hammerlock. Excellent wrestling. Bret utilizes the HAMMERLOCK SLAM, and tags in his partner. The Anvil grabs hold of a wristlock, and prevents Arn from making a tag before bringing in Bret again. Bret leg drops the arm, and heads back out again. Arn makes the tag out, but Tully had his feet off the canvas, so it won’t be allowed. Eventually, Arn breaks out of an armbar that Bret had on him, and there’s the tag. The Anvil tags in too, and he rams Tully’s face into the mat. Arn tries to tag Tully’s boot so he can head in the ring, but that’s not allowed either. Neidhart no-sells some chops from Tully, and sends Tully hard into the corner in reply. Bret tags in again, nails Tully with an elbow, and it’s back to the hammerlock. Tully reverses to a wristlock, and then Bret powers out of it in a spot that makes him look like an amazing wrestler. Then, Arn rushes into the ring for a double team, and Bret flips out of it to arm drag them both. That got a big pop out of this crowd. Bret chases Tully out of the ring for a second, and Tully makes a blind tag so Arn can attack Bret from behind. That’s great. Arn slams Bret and heads up to the second rope, but eats knees on his reverse splash attempt. Neidhart rushes in to hit Tully with some forearms, and the Foundation clears the ring. Bret drags Blanchard back into the ring, and trips him in order to hit him down low with a stomp. Neidhart tags in, and catches Tully’s springboard cross body attempt to drive him back into the corner. Neidhart hits Tully with some forearms, and once again Arn runs into the ring. He pulls Tully out of the way of a huge charge attempt by Neidhart, and finally the Busters have the control they wanted. Arn legally tags in, sends Neidhart into the knee of his partner, and there’s a tag. Tully comes in with an elbow to the back from the top rope, and puts a chinlock on the Anvil. Neidhart powers out of it, but Tully makes the tag out before anything else happens. Arn lands a big forearm to the gut for 2, and tags out once again. After a series of punches and tags, we have Neidhart in there with Arn, and they collide with each other. Bret sneakily hits Arn with a knee to the back, and there’s the tag we were looking for.
Bret hits Tully with a back elbow, slams Arn, then does the same to Tully. After clotheslines to each guy, Bret dropkicks Arn. He slams Tully once again, and heads up to the second rope for his elbow smash. Bret then suplexes Tully, and that gets 2 as Arn breaks up the cover. Bret then pairs off with Arn and Neidhart with Tully, and Bret winds up giving Tully a big clothesline. Neidhart and Anderson tumble out to the floor, and Bret hits Tully with an inverted atomic drop. Arn gets sent into the post by Neidhart, and Bret sends Neidhart back into the ring for a slingshot shoulderblock. Great spot. Neidhart slams Tully, and for some reason Bret heads up to the second rope. Neidhart powerslams his partner onto Tully, but the referee has been sufficiently distracted. Arn leaps off the top with a double axehandle to Bret’s head, and turns Bret over for the cover at 16:23. Arn wasn’t the legal man!
My Thoughts: This was pretty good stuff, I’m not sure it should have opened the show given the outcome, but I enjoyed the match a great deal. The babyface spots got pretty large pops, much greater than those I expect from a WWF show around this time period. I thought this could have been even better but for whatever reason it just wasn’t. The Busters didn’t work in as many failed double team spots as they usually did, I’m sure that’s part of it. ***1/4, definitely worth watching given that they didn’t wrestle each other again. Can’t figure out why that was, either.
The Honky Tonk Man (w/Jimmy Hart) vs. Dusty Rhodes
Pre-Match Thoughts: This was one of the most advertised matches, which isn’t particularly surprising. Dusty in a supporting role could still draw, we knew that. He just refused to do it when booking the competition. His promo before this match was terrible, I thought. He’s taking this gimmick a little too far, and it’s beyond the point of parody. He does have a great entrance theme though, can’t deny that.
Match Review: This match starts with Dusty strutting around the ring, like we really needed a long sequence of that. He backdrops HTM, then teases an elbow only for HTM to hit the deck. Back inside the ring, HTM gets caught in a wristlock and given an atomic drop. Dusty hits HTM with punches in the corner, and goes to work on the leg with a non-spinning toe-hold. The lack of effort such a move shows is amazing. He stands there doing nothing. HTM breaks out of it, clocks Dusty a few times, and Dusty comes back with punches of his own. Hart tries to trip Dusty, so Dusty heads out to the floor and goes after the poor manager. Hart leaves the megaphone behind, so HTM hits Dusty in the gut with it for 2. Hart uses a distraction to choke Rhodes, I don’t quite see the point of it but that’s what just happened. HTM then wraps Dusty up in a chinlock, only for Dusty to very slowly power out and get hit with a knee. Back to the chinlock they go, and this time Dusty powers out for a bodyslam. He misses an elbow drop, and HTM goes back to the chinlock again. They’re trying to put me to sleep. Dusty gets out of it for a third time, and Dusty’s finally done with being chinlocked. Good for him! He hits HTM a few times, and knocks him down with the double punch. Dusty misses a charge to the corner, and of course Honky throws him into the referee. HTM wants his guitar, Hart gets it, and is ready to play a tune. Harts hits HTM with it on accident, Dusty drops the elbow, and picks up the victory at 9:36.
In the aisle, Sean Mooney interviews Honky, who starts rattling off a bunch of Elvis Presley lines due to his concussion. That’s keeping it a little too real. I then realize that Dusty still has Boss Man’s gear, nice touch there for that not to be forgotten just because this was a PPV.
My Thoughts: I’m shocked the crowd popped that loud for the finish after such a dreadful match. This was so boring, I can’t even describe how this match made me feel. Ordinarily I would have hit the fast forward button and went straight to the finish. Not able to do that now! -*, it really was that bad. I can’t imagine anything else on this show hitting that level.
In the back, we have Mean Gene with Demolition and King Duggan, in anticipation of their six man tag. They’re facing the Twin Towers and Andre the Giant. That’s a pretty large six man tag! This was such a circus type promo that I’d say it hyped the match up pretty well.
Mr. Perfect vs. The Red Rooster
Pre-Match Thoughts: Hey, it’s a match between two guys who don’t have managers! That’s a rarity. He still has a perfect record, and given his opponent, I doubt anything’s going to change on that front. It’s strange to see a guy with a perfect record meandering around the middle of the card the way Perfect did. Seems like it was time for the push to be ramped up quite a while ago.
Match Review: Perfect gets in Rooster’s face, and nothing comes of it at all. Strange. Perfect takes him down with an arm drag a while after that, then follows with a perfect hip toss. After a fireman’s carry by Perfect, Rooster finally fires off a slap to counter Perfect’s taunting of him. There’s a rope running spot after that, and Rooster picks up Perfect for a slam, only for his knee to clearly blow out and Perfect fall on top for 2. That’s not a good sign for the rest of this match. Perfect knocks Rooster back down with a chop, and he nails him with a standing dropkick that sends him out to the floor. Rooster crawls back into the ring, limps to the corner, and gouges Perfect’s eyes. Rooster throws Perfect to the outside in weak fashion, and Perfect gets the better of the outside fighting. Perfect then heads back in, picks Rooster up for the PERFECT-PLEX, and gets the victory at 3:21.
My Thoughts: I don’t even know how to rate that, but it started off well. Judging by the time of the next match, it looks like some of this got passed on to that. I guess given the action I saw, it was *. I feel bad for Terry Taylor having screwed up his knee, seems like nothing went right for him in the WWF.
In the back, we have Rick Rude with Mean Gene. Too bad they edited out the “FUCK IT” version of this. Of course, I linked it here. Rude’s promo was just fine, but I bet nobody at home watching the PPV was paying attention after that incident.
The Fabulous Rougeau Brothers & Rick Martel (w/Jimmy Hart & Slick) vs. The Rockers & Tito Santana
Pre-Match Thoughts: This could be an excellent match. Frankly, I don’t remember much about it and can’t say whether or not it was without watching it again. These guys can really go, so you’d think it would be. Martel has just started his Model gimmick, which is the best damn thing in the world. Slick manages him too. Don’t see the need for that, but having two managers in this match should be a help, no?
Match Review: Raymond kissed Jimmy Hart for good luck, that’s one way to get heat. Looks like Jacques and Santana will start the match. They lock up, and the Rockers rush in to give Jacques a double hip toss. That’s cheating! The babyfaces hit the heels with dropkicks, and that clears the ring. The guys who start the match again are Marty and Jacques, and Marty hits him with a shot as he jumps off the second rope. He gets distracted and nailed from behind, then Raymond tags in for a savate kick. Jacques chokes Marty with the tag rope, and Martel tags in. He dances around the ring, rams Marty into the buckle, and dodges a charge. He does a cartwheel to celebrate, and gets hit in the face by Marty. Santana tags in to get hands on his former partner, but Martel gets out of there first and in comes Raymond once again. Santana clotheslines him for 2 after evading some clothesline attempts of Raymond, then Jacques grabs Santana’s leg as he runs the ropes. Raymond knees him from behind for two, and Jacques tags in for a double chop. Martel tags in to drop Santana throat-first on the top rope, and Martel starts laying in stomps after that. Jacques tags in now, and hits Santana with a dropkick. Martel comes back in again, rams his shoulder into Santana, but Santana comes back with a sunset flip for 2. He gives Santana a backbreaker, and tags out so Raymond can put a Boston crab on him. Jacques walks into the ring and knee drops Santana, and Raymond covers for 2. Now Jacques tags in legally for an abdominal stretch, and Santana gives him a hip toss. Martel tags in, cuts Santana off from making a tag, and tries to cradle him up. When it fails, Santana hits him with right hands, and has his hair grabbed by Raymond. Very unfair. Jacques tags in, and Santana tries a cross body for 2. He then draws the Rockers into the ring, and Raymond kicks him in the face. Santana tries to sunset flip him, and that also gets 2. Can this guy finally make a tag? Raymond puts him in a chinlock, and Jacques tags in for a flying back elbow that gets 2. Raymond switches back in, gets kneed in the face, and finally Santana makes a tag.
Shawn is in there, whips Martel into the corner, and backdrops him. After a dropkick, Shawn follows with a suplex. Now he heads up top, and down he comes with a flying fist drop. Marty tags in, and Shawn slams him onto Martel. Then, Jacques accidentally nails Martel with an elbow drop while breaking up the cover. All six guys are in the ring now, and all three heels get thrown into each other. Santana knocks Martel to the outside with the FLYING FOREARM, and Marty goes for a cover on Jacques that goes absolutely nowhere as Hart places Jacques’ foot on the ropes. Marty then grabs a hold of the Mouth, and Jacques dropkicks him from behind. He cradles Marty, who reverses it into one of his own, and gets clobbered with brass knuckles by Martel or something like that. Never seen a guy get finished by a weak punch. Anyway, Martel covers at 14:58, and gets the victory!
My Thoughts: This match is a bit overrated, I think. Perhaps it just isn’t my kind of match. The heat segment was quite long and took a while to get going in the way that I like. There were a lot of early tags, and none of the guys strung together a bunch of moves. The finish was very good, with all six guys doing a lot of stuff that worked well. The bit with Jimmy Hart cheating and placing Jacques’ foot on the bottom rope almost got lost in the whole thing, which speaks to how well the match finished. ***. The parts of the match where the Rougeau Brothers theme played before the finish were edited out as well.
The Ultimate Warrior vs. Rick Rude (w/Bobby Heenan) for the WWF Intercontinental Championship
Pre-Match Thoughts: I love the entire feud recap they played before this match. This thing has been going for 8 months, it’s time for a complete resolution. We’re going to get it here, there’s no doubt about it. Before the show in a segment I did not review, Warrior pinned Haku, then was attacked after the match by Rude and piledriven. They also showed Rude trying to give a woman a RUDE AWAKENING, only for Warrior to run out to the ring and smash Rude’s face into the canvas. The pop for that was HUGE! I know this match is good, bordering on great. I’m looking forward to watching it again. With Andre having attacked Rude on the Superstars episode before this match, it’s assumed that he’ll show up during this match. Warrior’s promo before the ring entrances was EPIC. This match was being pushed as the co-main event and the fans reacted big time to the announcement that it was about to take place, so this wasn’t a one match show after all!
Match Review: Warrior hits the ring with quickness as per usual, and I don’t remember how they work around him being blown up. Rude evades Warrior for a little while, then tries to land some punches on the move. Warrior comes back with a clothesline to send Rude out to the apron, then Rude tries to sunset flip back in. Warrior sits on him, and picks him up for a huge press slam out to the floor. Great spot, there. Warrior rams him into the timekeeper’s table, then picks up the belt to hit him with. Ventura goes nuts about the lack of a disqualification, he’s totally right but I don’t care. Warrior suplexes Rude on the floor, drops a fist on him, and sends him back in. Rude gets thrown back over the top, and Warrior heads out there once again. He slams Rude, and back in they go again. He’s completely sucking wind, but the match is moving perfectly. Warrior decides to head up top, that doesn’t happen often. Down he comes with a double axehandle for 2. Warrior then throws Rude hard into the buckle a few times, and picks him up for a bodyslam that gets 2. Warrior suplexes Rude for a second time, it gets yet another 2 count. He uses an inverted atomic drop on the champion, and swivels his hips to taunt him. Then Warrior drops Rude on his ass, and heads up top again. Rude hits Warrior and crotches him, then goes to work on his back. Rude utilizes a suplex, it gets 2 for him. He then puts Warrior in a chinlock, and covers for 2 after some forearms. The match has slowed down a little, but Rude tries to hit the RUDE AWAKENING. Warrior powers out, and Rude has to resort to a sleeper instead. He takes Warrior down with it, but of course Warrior powers up and drops Rude with a jawbreaker. After that, the two wrestlers collide with the official, and the shenanigans come into play. Heenan tells Rude that the official is down and out, so obviously Rude should start cheating. That’s what I would do. He doesn’t, and instead Warrior backdrops him. After a bunch of clotheslines, Warrior picks Rude up for a powerslam and nobody can count the cover. He tries to wake the referee up, and gives Rude a piledriver after doing so. Would not take a piledriver from that guy. The referee finally heads over to count the cover, and Rude puts his foot on the rope. Amazing. Warrior goes for a running powerslam, plants Rude with it, and tries a big splash after that. Rude lifts his knees up to block the splash, and picks Warrior up for his own piledriver, during which he basically just drops Warrior on his head. Safe bump as Warrior slid down Rude’s legs. Somehow, that move only got a 2 count. Rude decides to head up top, and down he comes with a flying fist drop. The crowd is distracted by something, and it’s RODDY PIPER! He heads out to the ring to watch the match, as Rude gives Warrior another piledriver for 2. Rude finally sees Piper, and turns around to start taunting him. Seems like a mistake. Piper moons him, and Warrior sneaks up from behind for a GERMAN SUPLEX. He hits Rude with his big running shoulderblock, and there’s the press slam! After the big splash, Warrior covers at 16:02, and he’s once again the Intercontinental CHAMPION.
My Thoughts: This was just great in every way. Warrior worked through being blown up, can’t hate on that. They also wrestled the perfect kind of match with power moves and selling, then to cap it off they had a great finish. Piper’s involvement did seem a little bit like Warrior being unable to win the title without him, but really, everyone knows that just wasn’t true. Frankly, I think this was better than any of Hogan’s PPV main events to that point. Even with Savage being a better worker than Rude. I thought this match made Warrior look fantastic given all that he kicked out of, and he was the obvious choice for the next star given that Hogan was starting to be worn out. It didn’t really work out like that, but I thought Warrior was more than capable of putting in great performances with good workers. He sure did here. **** and no, I’m not joking.
It’s intermission now. Mr. Perfect remained perfect tonight, but he still has things to say. He called the Red Rooster a stepping stone. In hindsight, it’s obvious to see that he was about to be pushed.
Roddy Piper was interviewed next, and his promo was typically strange. He said it was time for Rude to get what was coming to him, and I’m really looking forward to the matches that come as a result. He takes credit for Rude losing the match, which I don’t really like, but wasn’t surprising.
Next was Ron Garvin in a tuxedo, and Bobby Heenan crashes the interview, cutting him off. He went crazy about Roddy Piper being at ringside, and then Rick Rude comes in, saying he had the Warrior beat. The video evidence shows that Rude lied about Piper attacking him from behind, I consider that heeling 101. The heels HAVE TO LIE.
Then, in a move that may have made people at home a little angry, they took an actual 5 minute intermission on the broadcast. I just do not understand. Once it was over, they aired a promo for No Holds Barred, and recapped the feud between Zeus and Hulk Hogan. If I hadn’t just watched this a few days ago (in terms of how quickly I churned out the articles rather than how quickly they were posted), I would be very entertained. I think this stuff is great though.
The Twin Towers & Andre the Giant (w/Slick & Bobby Heenan) vs. Demolition & King Duggan
Pre-Match Thoughts: These are some big dudes. The way I see it, is that the booking was obvious. The Towers could not win this match, and Andre didn’t need to be built up after beating up Warrior on the weekend. Towers were on the way down, Duggan was on the way up due to being named King and it seemed obvious that Demolition would try to get their belts back. So, the babyfaces should win. It’s only an important match because of how big everyone was, if you throw other guys into the equation, no doubt they’d be jobbing. Heenan was too angry to accompany Andre to the ring, but eventually he found his way out there. Duggan looked like a fit in the team wearing that paint.
Match Review: Hacksaw and Akeem get in each other’s faces, and Akeem gets driven back into the corner. He bumps big off a right hand, and in comes Ax. Ax slaps Akeem a lot, and he tags Smash in for a lot of double team shots. Hacksaw comes back in there, throws Akeem into the buckle, and back out again. Akeem rakes Ax’s eyes, but Ax stops a charge to the corner and goes back to work. Boss Man tags in for the first time, and trades punches with Smash for what seems like forever. After a few rakes to the eyes, Smash tags in Hacksaw. I’ve seen one bump in this match and we’re over halfway done with it. Ax gets caught in the heel corner and knocked down, that’s our second bump. Andre tags in, and sits on Ax a few times. Andre looks so aged, it’s really sad. He puts Ax in a choke, then stands on him. Akeem tags in, and he sets Ax up for a charge to the corner that misses. Smash tags in, throws the Towers together, and gives Boss Man a bodyslam. He slams Akeem as well, and in comes Andre. Andre knocks Smash down with a heavy chop, and Boss Man regains control with an elbow drop for 1. Ax and Boss Man tumble to the outside, and the other four guys are in the ring. Akeem slams Smash, and heads up to the second rope for a big splash that connect. Hacksaw hits Akeem with the 2×4, and Smash gets the pinfall win for his team at 7:26.
My Thoughts: Can’t fault the finish there, they killed time until executing it and it turned out very well. Also, the right finish was booked and this wasn’t too boring. They didn’t stand there doing bear hugs or anything like that, so it was an acceptable match. *1/2.
Before his match, the Million Dollar Man has things to say about Jimmy Snuka! I am sort of looking forward to that seeing as DiBiase had put on some really good performances before this show. The people like Snuka too. His promo was the typical “Snuka is a savage and I’m rich” type of deal. Great laugh to finish it off, at least.
Greg Valentine (w/Jimmy Hart) vs. Hercules
Pre-Match Thoughts: Ron Garvin is the ring announcer for this match, which is by far the least important of the bunch on this show. Seeing as they’re trying to get the Garvin angle over, the finish should be geared towards that end. Hercules has been completely buried, I should note. He’s one of the only guys in the company with no issue going at all. Garvin’s introduction of Valentine and Hart was really good, I have to give some credit for that. If you don’t think that was funny, I don’t know, man. If I was Valentine, I may have cracked up. That being said, I don’t think Valentine was that type of guy.
Match Review: The Hammer is a bit occupied with Garvin, and of course Garvin teases hitting him only for Hercules to do the honors. Hercules hits Valentine with a back elbow for 2, as Ventura continues his streak of amazing commentary. Herc slams Valentine for 2, and man, the commentary again. These guys would be carrying the show if it wasn’t any good, fortunately it is good. Herc rolls Valentine up for 2, and once again Valentine wants to fight with Garvin, so Hercules attacks from behind and rams him into the timekeeper’s table. Valentine hits Hercules with a knee on their way back in, then drops the elbow a few times. He adjusts the HEARTBREAKER, but Herc kicks free to prevent the figure-four. The Hammer heads up top, and gets hit on the way down. He hits Hercules with a forearm, but Hercules replies with a suplex. Valentine then trips Hercules, places his feet on the ropes, and gets the pinfall at 3:06.
After the match, Garvin announces Hercules as the winner. Exactly what we need. Valentine then rushes back into the ring and nails Garvin with a big forearm. Hercules and Valentine then start fighting with each other, and Garvin makes his BIG COMEBACK. He hits Valentine with the HANDS OF STONE, and that sends the Hammer to the outside, finishing this thing.
My Thoughts: I thought the Garvin aspect of this match was funny, to be honest. That was all that mattered in this match, as nothing much happened at all. * for the whole thing, I suppose. Surprised these guys were both around in 1989, and Garvin was basically on their level, which was sad.
This promo with Sensational Sherri, Randy Savage, and Zeus standing over a witches cauldron is one of my favorites. This was so damn corny, as weird as it gets. I don’t know how or if it was scripted, but if it was, doesn’t make sense to me at all. Savage tried to make his best of it, and Zeus resembled a guy who was getting high off fumes. Once again, Elizabeth was brought up as a possibility. I thought it was considered a sure thing that she’d be there.
Ted DiBiase (w/Virgil) vs. Jimmy Snuka
Pre-Match Thoughts: DiBiase’s graphic before the match simply said “MILLION DOLLAR MAN.” AS IT SHOULD BE. He grabbed the microphone and claimed to end the wrestling career of one Jake Roberts. Low blow. The crowd just did not give a shit about Snuka, even though the NYC area was his big territory. Schiavone sounded like a major shill proclaiming that fans were on their feet for the Superfly. I really hate when announcers do that as it erodes their credibility massively each time they do. We see this on Monday Night Raw every week, and those announcers have no credibility as a result. There are other reasons they don’t have credibility too, but that’s one that sticks out to me. A blatant manipulation of the facts. Also, Schiavone reacting like that to Snuka reeks of Vince in the headset telling him to do so.
Match Review: DiBiase misses a charge to the corner, and that begins the match. Snuka knocks him to the outside with a headbutt, and Virgil provides a distraction, only for DiBiase to rush back in and knocks down Virgil with a knee. Snuka sends DiBiase to the outside with an atomic drop, and when DiBiase gets in, he grabs hold of a headlock. Superfly and DiBiase botch a leapfrog spot, and the match peters out for a while afterward. DiBiase chops Snuka in the corner, then gets backdropped coming out of the other corner. DiBiase drops Snuka with a hotshot, and suplexes him as well for a 2 count. DiBiase then gives Snuka a backbreaker, it gets 2 as well. He slams Snuka, and goes up to the second rope for a failed elbow drop. He tries to beg for forgiveness, and Snuka slams him. Snuka heads up to the second rope, and lands a diving headbutt! He then heads up to the top, and Virgil distracts him. Snuka chases Virgil around the ring, starts beating him up, and DiBiase attacks Snuka with a double axehandle from behind. He throws him into the post, and climbs back into the ring for the count-out victory at 6:26.
The match is over, but Snuka flies into the ring and hits both DiBiase and Virgil with a double clothesline. He sends DiBiase to the outside, then goes to work on Virgil, giving him a backbreaker and hitting him with the SUPERFLY SPLASH.
My Thoughts: This was a fine match, but there was the botch and people just did not care. That’s too bad as they worked hard and put on something decent. Snuka’s age was obvious though, as he was athletically diminished. DiBiase bumped around very well, too. *3/4.
Randy Savage & Zeus (w/Sensational Sherri) vs. Hulk Hogan (WWF Champion) & Brutus Beefcake (w/Elizabeth)
Pre-Match Thoughts: This isn’t quite the Mega Powers facing the Mega Bucks, but I think it’ll do. The crowd was ready for the main event to happen, so the show was perfectly structured in terms of which matches they put in their respective spots. Before the match starts, we have the Barber and Hogan in the back cutting a promo. I linked it up above. The stuff about Harley Davidsons was terrible, but Hogan’s story was great. When he started talking about Elizabeth, it was really creepy. Before the match, we have a POEM FROM THE GENIUS! YES! He didn’t get any heat for anything he said. I laughed hard at Schiavone inflating Beefcake’s pop too. They waited until the very last moment for Elizabeth to come out, having teased the idea she wouldn’t show up.
Match Review: The heels try to attack to start the match, and Hogan’s punches do absolutely nothing to Zeus, as the Barber and Savage go to the outside. Zeus blocks a bodyslam and goes to work with a choke, then he catches Beefcake as he leaps off the ropes. After putting him down, Hogan runs into the brick wall and gets choked again. Zeus picks him up for a bear hug, and Savage comes in with a double axehandle from the top. They toss Hogan back into the corner, and Savage bodyslams him. Savage and Hogan are the legal men, and he attacks Hogan with another double axehandle from the top. After a running knee, Savage takes Hogan down with a clothesline for 2. Savage puts Hogan in a chinlock for a moment, and Hogan fights out for some shoulderblocks. Zeus hits him with a knee to the back as he runs the ropes, and tags in! Zeus puts Hogan in another bear hug, and they sit in it for a long time before something else happens. Savage tags in to make it happen, and he does his top rope assisted clothesline. He spits at Beefcake, then gives Hogan a back suplex for 2. Savage misses a leapfrog body guillotine and elbow drop, so finally Hogan makes the tag out. Beefcake comes in with a running clothesline, and sets Savage up for a high knee that gets 2. Beefcake goes for the SLEEPER, and Savage drives Beefcake’s head into the buckle to break it. Zeus tags in, gets raked in the eyes, and Beefcake tries to put his sleeper on Zeus. Savage draws Hogan into the ring for a distraction, and then wallops Beefcake with Sherri’s purse. Haha, it’s a LOADED PURSE. Hogan had to break the cover, and has to do that a few times. He then chases Savage around the ring, and Savage grabs Elizabeth, only for Hogan to hit him. He then breaks the cover again, as Beefcake is clearly knocked out from the purse shot. Zeus tags in, and chokes Beefcake using the top rope. Funny spot. He chokes Beefcake again, and the referee had to force him to break the hold. The limited moveset here is hilarious, I can’t stop laughing at it. His facial expressions are great too. He picks Beefcake up and drops him on the top rope, then tags in Savage once again. Savage and Beefcake clothesline each other, and Beefcake makes the tag out. We may be nearing the end. Hogan hits Savage with a back elbow in the corner, then punches Zeus to draw him into the ring. He sends Savage to the outside with a big boot, then tries to suplex him back in only for Sherri to trip him and Savage get a 2 count. Savage hits Hogan with another clothesline, tags Zeus, and goes up to hit Hogan with the FLYING ELBOW!
Sadly, Hogan no-sells it immediately, and it’s time for his comeback. Finisher killed dead. Hogan sends Savage to the outside with an atomic drop, and seeing as Zeus tagged in earlier, he’s the legal guy. Hogan hits him with many punches and a clothesline, which knows Zeus down to one knee. Hogan then starts hitting Zeus, and Elizabeth trips Sherri to pull her into the ring from the apron. Savage has the loaded purse, and Beefcake pushes him off the top rope so Hogan can get it. He clocks Zeus with the purse, and slams him as Elizabeth chases Sherri over to her corner. Hogan gives Zeus the leg drop, and Elizabeth trips Sherri to keep her from hitting Hogan with the purse, leading to Hogan and Beefcake winning the match via pinfall at 15:04! The crowd popped to an enormous degree for the 3 count. Sherri is then caught in the ring after the count, and Hogan threatens to hit her. Schiavone encourages it, but that’s ABUSE. Hogan atomic drops Sherri, Elizabeth hits Sherri with the purse, and Beefcake takes the big hedge clippers to cut off a LOT of Sherri’s hair. That’s evil, man. The usual posing routine ends the show!
My Thoughts: That wasn’t a great match, but it was extremely entertaining and had the perfect finish. It did kill off the Hogan/Savage feud on TV, but there was still mileage in doing matches with it around the country as there wasn’t quite anyone else to challenge Hogan. The Zeus thing did continue for a bit, with DiBiase paying for Zeus to do his work or something silly like that. They knew better than to do that as a house show program, though. As a match, Zeus had very little to offer and could only choke and bear hug his way through the thing. Not exactly great, but his facial expressions were really funny. Savage and specifically Sherri worked super hard and put in a complete effort trying to keep the match going. The crowd was really into the match as they had built it up so well on TV, and it added a lot to the equation. The participation of Zeus did drag the match down tremendously, so I’ll only give it **1/4. Still a good rating with anything featuring a non-wrestler.
This was a pretty good outing for the WWF, and the commentary provided a tremendous boost to the show. I thought Schiavone and Ventura were excellent. There are some obvious issues with things that happened on the show. I think Hogan threatening to hit a woman and Schiavone encouraging it set an extremely bad example for kids and was not cool. Other than that, I don’t have many complaints. The filler matches were, well, filler, and one of them actually turned out to be pretty good. The Warrior/Rude match was excellent, and the opening tag was a lot of fun. Main event delivered what people wanted to see, and the booking throughout the show was good. It was also drew a lot of money, if anyone wanted to know about that sort of thing. Good show. While some guys did miss out, those being Dino Bravo (worked dark match with Koko B. Ware), Barry Windham, Bad News Brown, the Bushwhackers, and Jake Roberts (for a good reason), the show really lost nothing by them not being part of the PPV. I’m interested to see what the WWF does next as I haven’t seen anything between this point and the Royal Rumble before. Next up for me, will be a review of Clash of the Champions 8. I assume that show will follow the course of the preceding TV shows and be a very good outing.
Wrestling Time: 1:32:22. While the wrestling didn’t fill the show completely, I can’t think of any non-wrestling segments that weren’t good. It was all promos, video packages, entrances, and things like The Genius reading a poem or DiBiase dropping bombs on Snuka.
Best: Ultimate Warrior vs. Rick Rude. This was an outstanding match.
Worst: Dusty Rhodes vs. Honky Tonk Man. It was a sick joke.
Card Rating: 7/10. That’s good!
