Sage Cortez
This live prime time special is a huge deal for the WWF. They not only wanted to do a huge rating, but they wanted to put on something that catapults them forward towards WrestleMania V. For the fans in attendance at the Bradley Center, they were given a full card with the WWF’s “A” roster. Nobody held off, their most important guys doing something, and a lot of it getting taped. Full blown sell out crowd as well. It was a perfect mixture for a hot crowd and good show. The two matches here are the Mega Powers facing the Twin Towers, and Ted DiBiase against Hercules. It may not deliver in terms of match quality, but the WWF’s objective was to entertain people and give them a reason to order WrestleMania.
– February 3rd, 1989, from the Bradley Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
This had a really exceptional introduction, it was very professional. It was good enough that I watched it a few times. The production was as good as wrestling gets. I laughed hard at them showing Hogan throwing one of the Hebners far over somebody’s head once again, which happened at the last live prime time special. It’s funny how McMahon is against tag team wrestling these days when he used to run shows with tag team main events fairly often. Speaking of McMahon, he and Jesse Ventura are the hosts once again.
The Twin Towers (w/Slick) vs. THE MEGA POWERS (w/Elizabeth)
Pre-Match Thoughts: Everyone knows Randy Savage was the champion, right? I didn’t need to type that out, right? Slick cuts a promo before the match on his team’s behalf. They have been going with this feud for months without actually running a 2 vs. 2 tag team match. I wonder how much money the Twin Towers made running on top like this as the opponents. Probably not a ton, but they added a hell of a lot to this program and it couldn’t have been done with a different team. Looks to me like Slick and Akeem’s dancing had garnered some fans. They weren’t cheered, but lots of people in the crowd were doing it. After their entrance, a hilarious Mega Powers hype video was aired. This stuff was over like rover. Hogan put over everything about the Mega Powers to his best, no more selfish time. The pop for their entrance was enormous.
Match Review: Savage and Hogan can’t seem to decide who will start the match. Elizabeth told them that Savage will start the match, as will Boss Man. Boss Man doesn’t want to face Savage, he wants Hogan. So, that’s what we get instead. Hogan hits Akeem, Boss Man, and Slick with right hands, then atomic drops Boss Man over the top to a huge ovation. Boss Man collects himself and climbs back in, only to have his face rammed into the buckle repeatedly. Boss Man ducks out instead of getting hit again, and Savage attacks him from behind to another big ovation. This match has great heat. Akeem tags in for the first time, and gets thrown into the Mega Powers corner so he can pinball back and forth between them while getting punched. Hogan knocks him into the corner with a clothesline, and tags his partner in for a double axehandle from the top. Savage lands a back elbow, and throws him into Hogan’s boot. Hogan heads in again, with his own double axehandle from the second rope. Boss Man is able to make a tag in, and he drills Hogan with a clothesline. After a PILEDRIVER, Boss Man and Akeem exchange some tags while dishing out punches. Hogan backdrops Boss Man over the top rope, and gets pulled out there for a fight. Hogan throws Boss Man into the post, and they get back in. Boss Man gives Hogan a spinebuster, it gets a 2 count. More tags ensue, with just punches as a result, until Boss Man accidentally punches Akeem. Savage tags in, gives Akeem a cross body from the top, and Akeem finally gets knocked down for a 2 count. Slick pops Savage with Boss Man’s nightstick, and the Towers hit him with a double back elbow. Akeem throws Savage over the top, and the second time they do a spot I can’t believe, with Savage tumbling through the ropes onto Elizabeth at full speed. He squashed her like a bug.
Hogan immediately rushes to the aid of Savage and Elizabeth, and Elizabeth is pretty much unconscious. Savage is pointing at Hogan like he’s doing something wrong, and Akeem hauls the champion back into the ring. Boss Man and Akeem give him a double slam, but miss a double elbow drop that was so loud it seemed like they broke the ring. Hogan picks Elizabeth up, and carries her to the back. Savage is watching this and doesn’t seem to like it very much. The acting job Hogan is putting on is hilarious. He and some medics take her to the first aid center, as he cries while asking for somebody to help them. This is great TV. He screams for a doctor, and starts holding her hand. This is absurd, and Hogan starts blaming it on Savage, saying “Randy didn’t mean it.” Whatever that means.
Back from the commercial, we have Savage searching from a tag and no partner to give it to him. Elizabeth is okay now, and Hogan explains what happened. Man, I’m just destroyed with laughter here. Hogan finally runs back out to ringside, and gets a huge cheer for having done so. Boss Man and Akeem have been working over Savage through the commercial, this being live TV and all. Boss Man and Akeem give him a double backbreaker, and they go for a double team splash only for Akeem to fall backwards through the ropes onto his head, and Boss Man to miss his. That Akeem fall was a straight out accident. Savage climbs up top and gives Boss Man a double axehandle, then throws Boss Man to the outside. Savage could tag, but he doesn’t give a shit. He throws Akeem over the top, and decides to SLAP HOGAN’S FACE. The crowd was in shock over that. I guess that’s the tag, and Savage is out of here. He received a chorus of boos for doing so, but given the series of events over the last few months, I don’t necessarily think it was wrong of him. He lingers in the aisleway, as the Towers miss a double avalanche type of thing. Hogan encourages Savage to get back up on the apron, and Savage takes his belt, then tells Hogan to stick it. This time he’s really out of here. Akeem hits Hogan with an avalanche, squashes him with a BIG SPLASH, and of course Hogan kicks out at 2. Akeem is so blown up now, and slowly walks into a big boot. Maybe he has a concussion from that fall. Hogan DROPS THE LEG, and gets the victory for himself at 22:00.
Boss Man has handcuffs, and it turns out that Boss Man and Slick get handcuffed to each other. After a noggin-knocker, the former WWF Champion gets a move on and makes his way to the back.
My Thoughts: The first half of this was a potentially great tag team match, that was worked with great heat and a quick pace. The angle with Savage being thrown into Elizabeth was legitimately shocking. She had never taken a bump in the WWF, and as far as I know anywhere for that matter. Hogan’s acting was good in terms of establishing himself as the babyface when this all goes down, but at the same time it wasn’t, as it was so corny I couldn’t take it seriously. A lot of the stuff he said was edited out, as he was making all sorts of idiotic remarks and asking for a time countdown. Elizabeth’s thing of waking up and telling Hogan he can leave her side was idiotic, too. The second half of the match was not even a match, really. It was about getting over the fact that Savage was breaking up from Hogan and taking the heel role in that program. I think the extent to which that worked speaks for itself. **1/2 for the match, and a Brinks truck full of stars for the angle. Savage was the standout performer in all this and with a lesser character this falls apart in a hurry. He did a fantastic job.
Of course, this drama is going to carry out over the rest of the show. Hogan is extremely pissed, screaming for the Macho Man, who appears to be with Elizabeth. He’s telling Elizabeth that the World Champion has to be #1, and that Hogan is jealous of him. He also said that Hogan was out of line, and starts screaming at Elizabeth. Now Hogan reaches him, and they get into a full blown argument. Savage tries to tell him that Macho Madness is taking over, and Hogan tells him he’s wrong. Savage then tells Hogan that he has jealous eyes, and he’s talking so fast while in character that I can do nothing but believe he actually means everything he’s saying. Savage has finally realized he’s in the back seat, and he says that Hogan never asked him for a title shot because he can’t beat him. Hogan’s jealous of Macho being the champ, from his perspective. Then he drops the bomb that Hogan has lust in his eyes for Elizabeth. He says the lust for Elizabeth takes this to the next level from his perspective, then grabs hold of his title belt and CLOCKS HOGAN WITH IT. To cap things off, after leaving Hogan laying on the floor, he tells Elizabeth that he’ll splatter her all over the floor too if she doesn’t get out of the way. That’s how they make sure he doesn’t get cheered. After that he picks Elizabeth up and THROWS HER ACROSS THE ROOM. For some reason, Brutus Beefcake runs in to stop Savage from plastering Hogan with his title belt, and a bunch of officials join the party as well to save Hogan. Savage throws Pat Patterson into the wall, and he starts tipping over stuff in the first aid area. Just…wow, that’s a five star angle if I’ve ever seen one. I’ve seen a lot of angles too. In the original, Beefcake enters the scene too early and nearly ruins the whole thing.
Before the next match starts, Hogan has refused an interview due to his current mental state. Okay, then.
Ted DiBiase (w/Virgil) vs. Hercules
Pre-Match Thoughts: Who even gives a shit about this match? They took all the steam out of it by what just happened, I can’t imagine the crowd even cares. This match is about a SLAVE CEMENTING HIS FREEDOM and nobody cares. I have seen the MEGA POWERS EXPLODE angle before, and I’m taken out of this match as well due to how it went. I’m pretty psyched out in all honesty and am having a hard time concentrating. I intended to write this article straight through without pausing to get the LIVE EXPERIENCE, but it was too hard. I’m going to try doing that with some other shows in the future and go backfill other parts of the article if I run out of time to put down actual thoughts in between matches. My assorted reviews during the Monday Night War will be an example of me watching shows straight through and picking and choosing what to review based on the matchups given to me. No pause experience would be really strange, but it’s not like the WWF ran a lot of live, one hour specials. People have to take a restroom break, you know?
Match Review: Hercules attacks DiBiase to start the match, and gives him an atomic drop. A clothesline sends DiBiase over the top, and he slams Virgil into the ring from the top rope. He then throws Virgil into DiBiase, and sends Virgil over the top rope with a clothesline. DiBiase gets slingshotted back into the ring, and given a press slam as well. Hercules gives DiBiase another atomic drop, and this one sends him over the top rope. He gives Virgil and DiBiase a noggin-knocker, and we’re told that Hogan will be interviewed after this match. DiBiase pulls Hercules over the top rope and down to the floor with him, and Ventura loved it. Dibiase sends Hercules back into the ring after that big bump, then gives him a clothesline. DiBiase drops the fist a few times, and it gets a count of 2. DiBiase heads up to the second rope, and comes down with an elbow for 2 again. Hercules gives DiBiase a suplex, but DiBiase blocks a charge. He gives Hercules a backbreaker, it gets 2. Hercules rams DiBiase into the buckle multiple times, and gives DiBiase a powerslam too. Hercules gets rammed into the turnbuckle, and Virgil decides to grab Herc’s chain. He wraps it around the turnbuckle, and DiBiase sets Hercules up to be rammed into it. Of course, DiBiase gets rammed into it, and he kicked out at 2. I’m surprised that a weapon shot didn’t end the match in this era. He gives DiBiase another, and picks him up for a TORTURE RACK. The referee is finally no longer distracted by Virgil, so he goes over to the turnbuckle to get rid of that chain. That allows Virgil to grab Hercules tights and cause the hold to be broken, and DiBiase rolls Hercules up. He grabs the tights, and gets a 3 count at 7:12!
After the match, Hercules gives DiBiase a bodyslam. He grabs his chain, and swings it around his head. I suppose that suffices for getting something back after losing, but to me it really doesn’t.
My Thoughts: This was a decent match, but it didn’t have heat for obvious reasons. It’s Hercules, after all. They also ran a super hot angle, after all. I liked it well enough, and it effectively ended the feud between these two guys. Dibiase carried the thing well and it didn’t have any slow points. It also wasn’t long enough that Hercules would blow up. **1/4.
Finally, Hogan is ready to talk. Brutus Beefcake is established as his best friend by virtue of his presence. Hogan finally speaks, ranting unintelligble things into the camera while selling his injuries from the match and belt shot. Now he walks around screaming for Savage, and we cut to a commercial. Great stuff again.
Ventura calls Hogan a disgrace over what’s happened here, and they pan back to Hogan again. He throws stuff around in the hallway, and comes across Jim Neidhart. Hogan is such an asshole, he grabs him and throws him. Then he does the same to Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart, but doesn’t put his hands on Marty Jannetty. This is funny as hell, but I don’t think it made those four guys look like great babyfaces to be treated like that by the top guy. Sadly, the show closes before he finds Savage.
That was something else, a great way to spend 48 minutes. They didn’t entirely deliver on the wrestling aspect, but the entertainment factor was so high. The bar was set for future WrestleMania main event programs with this one. Hogan/Andre was a great feud that made the WWF a shitload of money, but this was really serious stuff. It felt more personal than Hogan/Andre did, and there was a sense of hate that went beyond just wrestling. Savage also played his part to a degree which couldn’t be matched. In some respects this is Savage’s show, his big deal, and the other two are benefiting from the massive push that he’s giving to the program. That’s probably not how fans felt, but that’s how it feels to me in the sense of looking at the careers of Hogan, Elizabeth, and Savage. It’s also not possible to overstate the boost this gave to the WWF. They rode the momentum from this thing for months and drew massive amounts of money. The best part is that they did so while running two tours and keeping Hogan and Savage separated the whole time. Next up for me, is Clash of the Champions 5. Super crappy card with Chi-Town Rumble taking place a few days afterward, but I don’t skip shows.
Wrestling Time: 29:12. This is a bit of a misnomer as a lot of the tag team match wasn’t shown, but I don’t think it’s important. What wrestling they did show, had meaning and value. What wasn’t wrestling was certainly not filler.
Best: The Mega Powers explode. Easy choice, Randy Savage was the best performer.
Worst: I suppose I would say that Ventura laughing about Elizabeth getting crushed by Randy Savage counts.
Card Rating: 8/10. 48 minutes packed with good stuff, and a business changing angle. Truly a needle mover. You’re lucky to find a 3 hour Raw with half that these days. Maybe Vince McMahon needs to mine through his creation to see how he used to put together quality programming.
