WWF House Show – August 27, 1988: Why Does He Always Do This?
WWF House Show
Date: August 27, 1988
Location: Philadelphia Spectrum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Attendance: 4,418
Commentators: Dick Graham, Lord Alfred Hayes, Superstar Billy Graham
We’re two days before the first Summerslam here, which like the original Wrestlemania was basically the biggest house show of the year. I’m not sure what to expect with this one as the video is only an hour long, so there is no chance it’s the full show. Hopefully we get at least the meat of the card though so let’s get to it.
Commentary welcomes us to the show and they’re looking forward to the big tag match.
From what I can find, the opening match is missing, as Ron Bass beat Lanny Poffo.
Hart Foundation vs. Fabulous Rougeau Brothers
The idea here is Jimmy Hart (not here) has basically turned on the Harts for the Rougeaus, but he still owns the Harts’ contracts. The Harts aren’t about to shake hands so we stand around a bit until Neidhart and Raymond start things off. Neidhart isn’t having a headlock and shoulders Raymond down without much trouble. After some coaching from Jacques, Raymond slips out of a slam and hits a quick dropkick, only for Neidhart to hit one of his own.
That’s enough for a breather on the floor and it’s off to Hart vs. Jacques. We hit the pause again as Jacques offers a slow motion handshake, only to flip over Hart and do some nipups. Hart isn’t overly impressed but he suckers Raymond into the wrong corner and lets Neidhart hammer away. Neidhart grabs a chinlock with a knee in the back before Hart puts on a chinlock of his own.
acques is smart enough to draw Neidhart in though and a cheap shot lets the villains (er….the bigger villains) take over on Hart. The reverse chinlock has Hart in more trouble, which Graham refers to as being “in the den of thieves”. The Rougeaus start switching on the tags and Neidhart gets drawn in again, allowing an assisted gutbuster to drop Hart again. Hart is able to get over for the tag…but Jacques has the referee. Well of course they do.
An abdominal stretch has Hart in more trouble and of course Raymond is right there for some cheating. They finally get caught and Hart gets over for the tag to Neidhart, who gets to clean house (Graham describes him as “turned on”). An elbow to the face gets a VERY delayed (and slow) two on Raymond and a middle rope elbow gets the same. Everything breaks down and Jacques gets in a cheap shot on Hart, which is enough for the pin at 17:46.
Rating: B. These teams worked very well together so it’s no surprise that the match wound up being a success. They knew each other and how to work against each other, with the Harts slipping right into the good guy mode without missing a beat. The idea of the Harts being a step off without Jimmy around made sense and it would take a long, long time for the payoff when they got the Tag Team Titles back, but dang it was worth the wait. Good match here.
It looks like we’re missing the Blue Blazer beating Barry Horowitz.
WWF Title: Randy Savage vs. Ted DiBiase
Savage is defending in the rare bright blue trunks and has Elizabeth with him, while DiBiase has Virgil. On the other hand DiBiase doesn’t have his wrist tape for a weird visual. Savage goes nuts (shocking I know) to start and hammers away, knocking DiBiase to the floor before the bell. Not to be unfair, Savage knocks him out to the floor after the bell as well and stays on him outside.
Back in and DiBiase gets a boot up in the corner and sends Savage back outside before choking away inside. An elbow on the floor keeps Savage in trouble and DiBiase yells at Elizabeth, just in case you forgot he was the villain. Savage manages to knock him away for a bit and goes up top but gets knocked right back out of the air. DiBiase misses his falling middle rope elbow (as he tended to do) and Savage gets in his clothesline.
The neck snap over the top rocks DiBiase and Savage knocks him to the floor for the ax handle. Another ax handle inside connects but he goes after Virgil (even Hayes thinks this is a bad idea) instead of covering. DiBiase knees Virgil by mistake but is fine enough to get in a right hand.
The Million Dollar Dream goes on and gets two arm drops, with Savage falling into the ropes for the break. With the referee distracted, Virgil gets in a cheap shot to give DiBiase another near fall, meaning it’s time for Virgil to take off the turnbuckle pad. DiBiase is sent into it instead though and they both go down. Savage covers but Virgil runs in for the DQ at 12:46.
Rating: B. Gah they were rolling there until the end, which wasn’t the most interesting. These two were showing great chemistry as they always did and they were this close to tearing the house down again. It makes sense as Summerslam was coming up and they didn’t want DiBiase looking weak, but dang they came up just short before the finish.
Post match the big beatdown is on until the referee manages to break it up.
Also missing: King Haku vs. Tito Santana going to a time limit draw (that could have been interesting) and the Powers Of Pain beating the Bolsheviks (not so much).
Jake Roberts vs. Rick Rude
They stare at each other to start until Roberts slugs away and grabs a rather aggressive headlock. That’s broken up and Rude leapfrogs him, only to get hit in the face and headlocked again. Roberts grinds away on that for a bit but it’s still way too early for the DDT. Rude bails to the floor and then stays on the apron as the snake bag is WAY too active.
Back in and Roberts tries to get him over to the bag, meaning it’s time to head outside again. Rude gets back in and gets headlocked, with a belly to back suplex not being enough to get him out. Back up and Rude manages to escape and drops an ax handle before working on the arm. This goes on for a good while, which tended to be the case for these two. Roberts FINALLY gets up and sends Rude outside, only for him to come back in and go after the arm again.
At least Rude is mocking the crowd as this holds goes on, because otherwise there would be a grand total of nothing here. Rude seems to crotch himself on the arm but gets a knee up in the corner to cut Roberts off anyway. Indeed we go right back to the armbar but this time Roberts fights out and hits a knee lift.
Rude’s tights are pulled down (as usual) and the short arm clothesline gives us a double breather. The DDT is loaded up but the referee gets bumped, leaving Rude to hit the Rude Awakening to no count. The referee finally wakes up and counts two before they go outside, where Rude throws the bag at Roberts. That’s enough for Rude to beat the count back in at 18:40.
Rating: D. Well, it was kind of better than their Wrestlemania match but not by much. Roberts has a really bad tendency to spend his matches in holds, with almost nothing else going on for long stretches. That’s what we had here, as they stalled to start, spent most of the match in the armbar, and then went to the ending. That’s not interesting, no matter how many faces Rude was making at the crowd.
Post match Roberts goes after Rude again and covers him with Damien to end the show. Well that’s slightly better.
Overall Rating: B-. Calling this a house show is a bit of a stretch as more than half of the matches are missing, but I can only get so upset with it when we were missing things Ron Bass and Barry Horowitz. The Roberts vs. Rude match was pretty useless, but the other two matches worked well. It has pretty much nothing to do with Summerslam which I don’t think was actually mentioned, but I can always go for a late 80s house show.
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