Saturday Night’s Main Event #18
Date: November 26, 1988
Location; ARCO Arena, Sacramento, California
Attendance: 15,900
Commentators: Vince McMahon, Jesse Ventura

The Vault strikes again with a look back at a classic Saturday Night’s Main Event before the big revival this weekend. We’re just past Survivor Series and that means Randy Savage is still the WWF Champion with a title defense against Andre The Giant. Odds are Hulk Hogan will be doing something as well so let’s get to it.

The Ultimate Warrior says this is a time of thanks…but not when Mr. Fuji’s Super Ninja is coming after his Intercontinental Title!

Bobby Heenan is ready for Andre The Giant to get the WWF Title back.

Randy Savage, with Elizabeth, knows that Andre is the greatest threat to his title but it’s going to be David vs. Goliath again.

Ted DiBiase, with the shirt on but no jacket for a weird look, is all about buying and selling. He bought Hercules and now he’s going to collect.

Hulk Hogan doesn’t like Brother Love setting him up for a beating from the Big Boss Man. Tonight, he’ll talk to Brother Love but it might not go well.

Dig that opening sequence.

Jesse insists that he get top billing over Vince because they’re close to Hollywood.

Mr. Fuji promises that the Super Ninja has been trained in the seven arts on seven continues. Naturally we get a Pearl Harbor reference as well, which kind of negates the whole surprise aspect.

Ultimate Warrior has seen battles beyond Gene Okerlund’s imagination and is ready to win again.

Intercontinental Title: Ultimate Warrior vs. Super Ninja

The Ninja (as played by Rip Oliver) is challenging and has Mr. Fuji in his corner. Ninja slugs away to start and is shoved down in a hurry, setting up a leapfrog into a big boot. With those two new moves added to Warrior’s arsenal, he throws Ninja back inside, elbows him in the face, and hits the gorilla press into the Warrior Splash to retain at 2:10. That was a fun squash with the Ninja being all hyped up and then being absolutely nothing.

We recap Bobby Heenan selling Hercules to Ted DiBiase, who called Hercules a “slave”. Believe it or not, this didn’t go well.

Jesse Ventura talks to Ted DiBiase (with Virgil) and says this is pretty cut and dry: DiBiase should own Hercules! DiBiase agrees because Hercules is his slave to do with as he sees fit. Jesse: “Why don’t you step into the ring with Hercules and show that slave once and for all who the master is?” DiBiase: “That’s for people like Virgil to do!”

Hercules is ready to beat Virgil because he’s a free man. He wears these chains freely!

Hercules vs. Virgil

Virgil and DiBiase jump Hercules before the bell but he clears the ring and chases DiBiase around a bit. Back in and an elbow drops Virgil before DiBiase’s distraction completely fails. Virgil’s right hands don’t do anything either and Hercules drops him again. A running powerslam finishes Virgil off at 3:24.

Rating: C. Total destruction here and that’s what it should have been. Hercules gets to show what he can do while being just a step away from DiBiase himself. To say the subject matter of this story was a bit rough is an understatement, but at least Hercules is looking good in the early stages.

Post match Hercules throws Virgil onto DiBiase before spinning his chain around.

We look back at Jake Roberts scaring Andre the Giant with Damian and possibly giving Andre a heart attack.

Andre and Bobby Heenan are ready to get the WWF Title back because Randy Savage is going to run into a giant wall.

Randy Savage, with Elizabeth, has to beat Andre to prove he is a great champion, just like Hulk Hogan.

WWF Title: Andre The Giant vs. Randy Savage

Savage, with Elizabeth, is defending. Andre wins a strike off to start and crushes him in the corner without much trouble. A knee to the back finally slows Andre down but a Heenan distraction lets Andre choke with the strap, as is his custom. For some reason Savage tries a slam, which is cut off as quickly as expected. Andre chokes, this time with his hand, which might be worse, but Savage gets in a jawbreaker.

Savage sends him into the buckle and hits a middle rope ax handle to knock Andre down (which Jesse declares as Savage “wrestling smart”). Cue Jake Roberts to put Damian underneath the ring and we get a quick chat with Roberts. We take a break and (after Hulk Hogan promises to see Brother Love) come back with Andre knocking him down, only for Savage to go after him again. Andre gets smart by sitting on him as Heenan finds Damian…but gets cut off by Roberts. Heenan runs inside and that’s a DQ at 8:51.

Rating: C. Savage fighting through everything he could but ultimately being outmatched makes sense and they had a nice enough match. At the end of the day, almost no one can hang in there with Andre one on one so this went as well as it could. Having Roberts come in there was a fine way to get out of the match and it was a perfectly acceptable showdown, especially as it didn’t go on that long.

Post match Savage whips Heenan into Andre to tie him in the ropes. Damian is pulled out but Andre escapes and lumbers off.

Jim Duggan says the American flag should be the only flag raised in this country, including Dino Bravo and Boris Zhukov’s flags.

Jim Duggan vs. Boris Zhukov

The winner gets their flag raised. Duggan slugs away to start and hits an atomic drop out to the floor. Back in and Zhukov manages a few shots but Duggan drops him with a clotheslines. The three point clothesline finishes Zhukov in a hurry at 2:25. That’s all the match needed to be and an 80s crow will always go for the patriotic stuff.

The American flag is presented in a stretch that almost takes longer than the match.

We look at the Big Boss Man attacking Hulk Hogan on the Brother Love Show.

It’s time for another Brother Love Show with a REAL AMERICAN guest in the form of…Boss Man’s manager Slick. We cut to Hulk Hogan in the back and he really isn’t pleased. Love praises Slick and here is Hogan to interrupt. Love asks Hogan about the beating Boss Man gave him and pulls the microphone away before he can answer. He does it again, but lets Slick talk about how bad Hogan was beaten up.

Hogan takes the mic and threatens violence from one of the Hulkamaniacs. As for Love, Hogan is ready to be the judge who passes execution on him (Hogan LOVED that line and used it probably four times on Saturday Night’s Main Event alone). Hogan has finally had enough of the back talk and sends slick flying before handcuffing Love to the ropes and giving him a running clothesline to the floor (geez that could have wrenched Love’s shoulder). Posing ensues.

The Fabulous Rougeau Brothers are officially living in America, with Jimmy Hart being rather proud that they have moved to Memphis, Tennessee.

Fabulous Rougeau Brothers vs. Young Stallions

Jacques shoulders Powers down to start and hits a quick dropkick. Powers reverses a whip into the corner though and hammers away, only for Raymond to come in and take over. A neckbreaker gives Jacques two as commentary talks about anything else. Powers fights up and brings in Roma to clean house, with a powerslam planting Jacques. A missile dropkick gets two on Jacques but the referee has to get rid of Powers. That means a rake to the eyes sets up Le Bombe de Rougeau to finish Roma at 3:05.

Rating: C-. This was the standard “we have no time so here’s a match to fill in the bit of the show we have left”. That doesn’t make for the most thrilling match, even though these teams could have a good match if they were given the chance. If nothing else, the Rougeaus’ finisher was always cool so this could have been worse.

Andre the Giant swears vengeance on Jake Roberts. And he is NOT afraid.

Jake Roberts says a snake can feel the fear and he and Damian will not stop until they have consumed a giant.

Hulk Hogan does his judge, jury and executioner thing again, promising to take out Slick and the Big Boss Man.

Vince and Jesse wrap it up.

Credits roll.

Overall Rating: C. It’s not a great show but it was a nice flashback to the older days. Savage vs. Andre is a match you don’t get to see very often, which might be a good thing given how the match was only so good. It was nice to see the focus on someone other than Hogan for once, though the results were only so successful. This probably isn’t worth another look as there are better editions of the show, but I’ve seen worse.

 

 

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Power Pro Wrestling
Date: February 7, 1987
Location: Cowtown Coliseum, Fort Worth, Texas
Commentators: Jim Ross, Michael Hayes

Someone wanted me to look at some Universal Wrestling Federation shows so here we go. This is the evolved form of Mid-South, though things are not exactly looking great by this point. I’m not sure how well this is going to go, but it is a promotion I haven’t looked at very much before. Let’s get to it.

Bill Watts (boss) is in his office to announce a one night tournament for the vacant Tag Team Titles. We hear four of the eight teams but don’t see any brackets. Not that it matters as the tournament is taking place at an event later tonight.

JR and Hayes run down the card and Hayes is excited about winning the Tag Team Titles.

Mike Reed vs. Angel of Death

Angel (very bald and with Sunshine in his corner) was a candidate for the Black Scorpion in WCW a few years later. A slam puts Reed down and a splash gives Angel two. Reed gets tossed around and there’s a running clothesline to drop him again. A suplex sets up a Samoan drop to finish Reed at 2:02. Rather effective squash.

Chavo Guerrero and Missing Link are ready to win the Tag Team Titles.

We look at the end of last week’s Badstreet Match (street fight) with the Freebirds beating up Steve Williams and Ted DiBiase. Devastation Inc. came in to help the Freebirds until a bunch of wrestlers came out to chase them off.

Hayes rants about how the Freebirds always keep things even.

Eli and Wild Bill Irwin are ready for Ted DiBiase and Steve Williams in the tournament. A young Bruce Prichard is the interviewer here.

Buddy Roberts thinks someone beat the Missing Link over the head with an ugly stick. Sunshine tells Dark Journey to stay out of the way tonight.

Ted DiBiase is ready to take out One Man Gang to become UWF Champion, just like he beat him before. It is so bizarre to hear DiBiase as a face.

Super Ninja vs. Bobby Walker

Both of them are debuting, that isn’t Hard Work Bobby Walker of (very minor) WCW fame and Bruce Prichard takes Hayes’ place on commentary. Ninja headlocks him down and then kicks him in the face, followed by a toss to the floor. Back in and Ninja stomps away with a gutwrench suplex taking Walker down again. A superkick finishes Walker at 4:24.

Rating: D+. Pretty dull squash here as Ninja wasn’t doing anything more than the bare basics. Walker was as lame of a jobber as you could get, so I can’t say I’m overly surprised. Ninja wrestled in the AWA as Mr. Go. I remember seeing him challenge the Midnight Rockers for the Tag Team Titles with a partner named…..the Super Ninja. That’s 80s wrestling for you.

Ninja drops Walker again post match, which has JR talking about his “sadistic Oriental side.”

Ted DiBiase and Steve Williams are ready to win the Tag Team Titles because they’ve been champions before.

Jeff Gaylord vs. Ted DiBiase

Gaylord is a good sized guy who was one of the Knights at Survivor Series 1993. This is face vs. face so they go technical to start with a fight over a top wristlock. DiBiase’s armbar sends Gaylord to the rope so he grabs a headlock takeover instead. Back up and another headlock takeover has Gaylord down as we hear about how he has no chance here. It works so well that DiBiase does it for a third time, which works yet again.

They get up for a third time and seem to mistime something, as DiBiase swings a wild elbow to knock him down. Gaylord pops back up and DiBiase misses a similar elbow and gets slammed for two this time. A backslide doesn’t work for DiBiase so he grabs a small package for the pin at 5:07 instead.

Rating: C-. I can see why the WWF went after DiBiase so hard as he looked great, could talk and had the technical skills. The problem is that he doesn’t seem to have much of a character, so throwing in one of the best ideas ever helped quite a bit. Gaylord was big for a technical guy and did fine, but there is a limit to how far you can go against someone as smooth as DiBiase.

Respect is shown post match.

Missing Link vs. Buddy Jack Roberts

Roberts has the rest of the Freebird Family, meaning Michael Hayes, Angel of Death, Terry Gordy and Sunshine. Link just has Dark Journey so this isn’t quite the balanced fight. And never mind as the Family jump him before the bell and the big beatdown is on. Ted DiBiase, Chavo Guerrero (Link’s partner in the tournament) and Steve Williams make the save. Link was busted open in the process.

Post break, we get a shortened version of the “fifteen minutes of action” during the break, with Guerrero/DiBiase/Williams saying they are sick and tired of the Freebirds. The challenge is on but matchmaker Grizzly Smith comes out to say no. DiBiase and company aren’t leaving though so Smith goes to the back to figure something out. We’re clipped to the Freebird Family slowly coming out and Sunshine trying to place peacekeeper. Granted that involves calling Chavo a chihuahua so it might not be so effective. DiBiase promises to keep the numbers even and that’s about it.

Eli vs. Chavo Guerrero

Eli has Wild Bill Irwin with him and was a territory guy in the 80s with a little time in Japan. Chavo hammers away so fast to start that I almost miss DiBiase there too. Granted DiBiase and Irwin getting into the ring to brawl at the same time makes it a little more obvious. Chavo and Eli fight to the floor as DiBiase grabs the whip to clear the ring. Another referee comes out and disqualifies Eli, though the bell never actually rang.

The Freebird Family talks about having the best odds to win the Tag Team Titles, mainly because they have two teams included. Hayes: “If it comes down to us, which it probably will, you take one belt and we’ll take one.”

Dark Journey says Chavo Guerrero and Missing Link are ready for Sting and Rick Steiner. Chavo starts in English and switches to Spanish while promising to win the belts.

JR and Bruce Prichard give their tournament picks (one of the Freebird teams/DiBiase and Williams). The matches begin on TV next week.

We get a music video of general highlights to wrap up the show.

Overall Rating: C. I can see why the show is so well received, though at the same time you can see that things have fallen a very long way by this point. The energy wasn’t there, even though a lot of the talent was. The company would be sold to Jim Crockett in about two months so it isn’t like there was much left to see from these guys. This wasn’t bad, but the company has done better stuff before. In case you were wondering: Terry Taylor and Chris Adams, who weren’t even on the show, won the titles.

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Saturday Night’s Main Event 18
Date: November 26, 1988
Location; ARCO Arena, Sacramento, California
Commentators: Vince McMahon, Jesse Ventura

We’re in the middle of Savage’s title reign here and tonight he defends against Andre. That’s a match that you don’t get that often but it sounds interesting if nothing else. This was a time where we were just getting ready for Hogan vs. Savage to set up Mania 5 which was kind of disappointing. Also on this show is the Super Ninja, who contrary to popular belief was NOT the Great Muta. You can tell that by the size difference if nothing else. Let’s get to it as I try to get done with SNME today.

Warrior says he’s going to go to war with Super Ninja and Mr. Fuji.

Heenan and Andre say they’re going to win the world title back.

Savage isn’t worried about Andre.

DiBiase doesn’t believe in Thanksgiving but only buying and selling like he did with Hercules.

Hogan talks about Thanksgiving and being on Brother Love’s Show.

The theme song wants you to know that it’s awesome.

Jesse wants top billing since we’re in Hollywood which is his town.

Fuji says he’ll win and makes a Pearl Harbor reference. Ninja is apparently a master of the seven arts. Would that include watercolors?

Warrior says he’s seen an unseen enemy. I love these promos as they were definitely entertaining.

Intercontinental Title: Super Ninja vs. Ultimate Warrior

Ninja looks like Spawn. The comic book character, not the annoying poster. Ninja goes after him and nothing at all works. Warrior gets a leapfrog and I’m not sure if I believe it or not. Vince talks about horse manure ice cream. Go ahead and try to convince me that he wasn’t on drugs. Total squash here that last two minutes or so and the splash ends it. Ninja was never seen again.

Rating: N/A. Not sure what the point of this was as Warrior could have beaten someone better than this just as easily without having to bring in some random guy that was never heard from again. Whatever though.

We recap Heenan selling Hercules’ contract to DiBiase which turned Herc face as DiBiase kept calling him a slave.

DiBiase says Hercules isn’t being American because he’s turning down the business deal that was made. Virgil gets Hercules tonight.

Hercules says he’s a free man.

Virgil vs. Hercules

Anyone else think this is a squash in the making? Back from a break and the heels are jumping Hercules. This works about as well as Rogaine worked for Virgil and the fans are on fire for this actually. I love knee lifts for some reason. I always have. We’re about a minute and a half in and Virgil hasn’t had a single shot yet. Apparently this is for Hercules’ freedom. A powerslam ends it. TOTAL domination here.

Rating: N/A. This somehow never led to Hercules vs. DiBiase. I’m not sure why they never had a proper blowoff but it could be due to the lack of talent from Hercules. This was just kind of odd as Virgil got totally squashed and it wasn’t even close. Just odd.

Twenty minutes so far and nothing but squashes.

We see Andre having a heart attack due to Jake and the snake last time.

Heenan and Andre insist that Andre is champion.

Savage says if Hogan can do it, he can do it. We have a huge world title match and it becomes about Hogan somehow. Why am I not surprised at all?

WWF World Title: Randy Savage vs. Andre the Giant

Savage runs at him like a crazy man and of course it doesn’t work at all. Andre was a shell of his former shell and couldn’t really do anything other than bare bones stuff by this point but dang he was trying. This is all Andre to start as Savage tries stupid things that never work in the slightest.

A short comeback gets him nowhere other than ticking Andre off. FINALLY he wakes up and goes to the air which actually works and he beats Andre down. Here’s Jake to distract Andre and Heenan. Savage makes Jake leave which is a weird moment for some reason. Jake’s height always is tricky. The match loses anything resembling focus as Heenan looks for the snake.

After a few minutes he finally finds it and Jake comes down again….resulting in a double DQ? Andre is in the ropes and Bobby gets beaten up. The snake is busted out but Heenan gets his out of there just in time. Savage seems cool with the whole costing of the match by Jake. Ah maybe he isn’t. The 80s were always confusing.

Rating: D. The opening stuff was good but as soon as Jake came out this became a circus and not the kind with the cool freaky clowns or bearded lady that resembled my aunt John. This was just a mess and never went anywhere at all. Savage vs. Andre could have been a bit match but it gets like 8 minutes where the focus was on Jake than anything else.

Duggan isn’t worried about Bravo in his flag match vs. Zhukov.

Boris Zhukov vs. Jim Duggan

This is a flag match where the winner gets to wave the flag. Other than that it’s a regular match though. They slug it out and Duggan wins of course, as Jesse points out that punching him in the head isn’t going to get him anywhere. Boris beats on Duggan but that does nothing at all. Short comeback and then the three point clothesline ends it.

Rating: N/A. Another two minute squash. Is this a theme or something tonight? Yet again this went nowhere at all and had absolutely no point. Vince crying at the presenting of the flag is kind of funny though.

We recap Boss Man beating up Hogan on Brother Love’s show which was the filler feud until Mania happened and Hogan got his real feud. It was a pretty good beating though.

Brother Love Show

The guest is Hogan. Love always scared me to death back in the day. He was just freaking scary. Instead of Hogan he brings out Slick. Hogan is TICKED and overacts beyond belief. We get to hear Jive Soul Bro as a consolation prize, making this show substantially better. Ah here’s Hulk. Nothing Love says means anything here as we’re just waiting on Boss Man to come in.

Love asks Hogan questions but keeps cutting him off before he can answer over and over again. He lets Slick answer because something tells me he’s not a nice person. Slick is as tall as Hogan. Never would have guessed that. The look on Hogan’s face is great actually as he’s not used to BLATANT DISRESPECT like this. Finally Hogan just grabs the mic and yells a lot.

Hogan talks about how fake Love is. This is going absolutely nowhere and I’m bored out of my mine. Hulk talks about being a judge and sentencing Love for something or other. He finally beats up Slick and Love. No Boss Man or anything which makes this a HUGE waste of time. Love gets handcuffed somewhere in there. Moving on.

The Rougeaus say they’re American citizens now. They live in Memphis now and say they’re American Boys. Dang I could go for that theme song of theirs.

YoungStallionsvs. FabulousRougeauBrothers

Considering we have 9 minutes left in the show, something tells me this is going to go this fast. The Stallions never were anything other than jobbers and I can’t imagine this is going to be anything else. How in the world did Roma become a Horseman? I will never understand that and I don’t think anyone else will. Powers ducks a cross body to finally break the dominance and makes the tag. Everything goes insane and the Rougeaus hit their finisher to end this. It went nowhere at all and it wasn’t supposed to.

Rating: N/A. An up and coming heel team beat a jobbing team. What did you expect this to be?

Andre says he’ll get the title and he’ll get Jake. Andre grabs Jesse twice and is a very scary looking man.

Jake says he’s smart or something. I don’t care a bit at this point.

Hogan says being the executioner turned him on. GOOD NIGHT EVERYBODY!

Overall Rating: F+. This was AWFUL. I know I don’t have many of these left but this was something I just wanted to end the entire time. There isn’t a good match to be found nor is there anything that meant anything. This was almost like a house show card but not a good one at all. Just flat out terrible and I was just counting down the time until it ended.

 

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