History of The Main Event with KB

[klunderbunker]

The Main Event V
Date: February 1, 1991
Location: Macon Coliseum, Macon, Georgia
Attendance: 7,500
Commentators: Vince McMahon, Roddy Piper

This is The Main Event, which is a spinoff from Saturday Night’s Main Event but rather than considering it a continuation, I’ve always considered it to be its own show. This was aired on Fridays and the first three were live. I only have copies of three and five at the moment so there won’t be much to say. This is the last one so I need the other three. Anyway, this is during the build to Mania 7 and the main event will be announced tonight. Hmm, I wonder who will stand up to face the evil foreign sympathizer. Let’s get to it.

It’s only an hour long counting commercials so don’t expect much.

We open with Hogan doing his own USO tour since the real USO wouldn’t let him go. I guess wrestling isn’t considered real Americana?

The theme song is the same as SNME. This is I think twelve days after the Rumble so there might even be some fallout from it. Vince and Piper run down the card and it sounds weak to put it nicely.

Hulk Hogan/Tugboat vs. Dino Bravo/Earthquake

Hogan gets a very solid pop and is the only one of the four to get a reaction at all. According to Vince, Quake and Bravo weigh about 1,300 pounds between them. Think Vince is a bit shaky here for some reason? That’s not rhetorical actually as he’s normally more composed than this. Hogan cleans house on Bravo to start. Bravo and Tugboat are in now and this isn’t going to be pretty.

Bravo actually gets an atomic drop and a very good one all things considered. Hogan vs. Quake now, which is a somewhat big feud still at this point. The slam hits on the first try which is something different for the bald one. Quake gets a nice jump kick that looked pretty good for a man his size. The boating enthusiast gets beaten down as we wait on Hogan to get the tag.

Megaphone to the head ends any momentum he had and we take a break. Warrior is still the symbol on the graphic despite having lost the title and not even being on the card here. The referee misses the tag after the break and Tugboat takes a double slam. Hogan blocks the flying ass drop and we get the hot tag finally. Oddly enough Hogan hits the boot on Bravo and rolls him up for the pin instead of the standard finish.

Rating: D+. Totally standard house show main event here. This wasn’t supposed to be anything epic at all and it definitely wasn’t. These shows were designed to get the top feuds on TV and on occasions like this one, ending the feuds once and for all since Hogan had nothing else to do with any of these guys after this. Nothing great at all but fine for what it was.

Savage says he should be champion.

We get a clip from the Rumble where Sherri tries to seduce a title match out of the Warrior for Savage and then he cost Warrior the title, setting up the classic at Mania 7 and Warrior’s best match ever.

Slaughter talks about playing by new rules, which was this weird thing he talked about for a long while but nothing really ever came from it.

WWF Title: Jim Duggan vs. Sgt. Slaughter

Pretty clear what we’ve got here but the story makes sense at least. Duggan brings Hogan with him which is about as simple of a pairing as you could ever ask for anywhere. Hogan gets thrown out during a break which is kind of odd. Ah apparently he isn’t a legal manager. Standard punch/kick stuff here as we all know Duggan isn’t going to do anything here.

Three Point Clothesline sends Slaughter to the floor. The General gets involved and then gets punched. Iron Sheik in case you didn’t know that. Duggan can’t do much other than punch here but that sums up a lot of his career in WWF. Board to the jaw of Duggan and Slaughter takes over even more. Duggan goes after the Sheik and Slaughter pops him with a chair for the DQ. Hogan runs out for the save and gets beaten down with the chair too.

Rating: D. Again nothing special at all here as Duggan just did nothing but throw punches and kicks. It was all setting up the DQ and the Hogan beatdown afterwards which is fine I guess but I would have liked a more entertaining match. At least the characters match up very well. This wasn’t very good but I’ve seen far worse.

The LOD say they’ll crush the Orient Express, which is very true. They go with the xenophobic angle here which is as basic as you could ask for. The LOD was called American Originals back in the late 90s which never went anywhere.

Legion of Doom vs. Orient Express

Did the Express ever win a major match? If they did I certainly don’t remember it. Animal and Kato start us off. Kato was Paul Diamond from the AWA that was very good in his time. LOD is MOVING out there for once. This is a very fast paced match and a nice change of pace for the usually dominant faces. Fuji throws salt at Animal and takes him down. Hawk comes in and beats everyone up badly and the squash is on. Doomsday Device ENDS Kato for the win.

Rating: B-. VERY energetic match here the whole five minutes which isn’t something you often hear about the LOD. The Express bumped like crazy pinballs on speed for Animal and Hawk and the result was a rather entertaining match. It’s not very good, but it’s one of those matches where it’s about the insanity and that worked well here.

Gene talks to Jack Tunney about who gets the shot at Mania and runs down a bunch of candidates. The nominees for lack of a better term are the main three and Duggan due to earlier. Of course it’s Hogan.

Slaughter doesn’t seem to care and says he’ll keep the title.

Hogan comes out and talks about the USO tour he went on and calls all the military people little Hulkamaniacs. There’s something hilarious about that. Apparently Slaughter shouldn’t be protected by the troops. He pledges to God that he’ll win the title. He leads the crowd in the Pledge of Allegiance which is weird for some reason.

Overall Rating: D+. This was all about the last 8 minutes with nothing else being notable at all. An interesting thing is as I was watching this I found copies of the other three so expect me to blaze through these soon enough, especially the first one which is the Hogan vs. Andre II match that drew a 15 in the ratings. This show isn’t that good though and clearly didn’t mean much at the end of the day. Not bad, but really just setting up Mania’s main event. Not worth watching.

 

[klunderbunker]

The Main Event III
Date: February 23, 1990
Location: Joe Louis Arena, Detroit, Michigan
Commentators: Vince McMahon, Jesse Ventura

This is another of the five specials, in this case the third one. This is just after the Rumble and just before Mania. At the Rumble there was a confrontation between Hogan and Warrior, setting up the main event of Mania 6. Here we have a total of two matches, the first of which is Hogan vs. Savage for the title. The catch was supposed to be the world heavyweight boxing champion was the referee. Up until 12 days before this, that had been Mike Tyson but in the biggest upset of all time, Buster Douglas beat Tyson and took over the refereeing job. Let’s get to it.

This is live mind you and there were seven other matches prior to this that weren’t taped. Nothing special and your standard late 80s card with the highlight I guess being Piper vs. Rude.

Savage isn’t worried about Douglas.

Tunney says Douglas will be the outside referee. This is pretty stupid.

Hogan says he’ll win.

Theme song.

Savage and Sherri say they’re not worried. Apparently it’s good that Tyson isn’t here because his grandmother is a Hulkamaniac. Savage and his absolutely insane promos are comedy gold at times.

WWF Title: Randy Savage vs. Hulk Hogan

This is pretty much the last big WWF match between these two. Hogan talks about Douglas, who was the biggest deal in sports at the time and how much they have in common. Hogan threatens him and says he’ll win the boxing title if Douglas has any of the Madness in him. This is just great stuff at times.

We do ANOTHER interview before the match starts with James Douglas. He’s referred to as the World Heavyweight Boxing Champion. He never did anything after this, but still the moment was epic. Savage is wearing the shirt here which wouldn’t become a staple of his for years. This match is kind of big here but Savage is little more than an upper midcard guy here. Although there was a legit rumbling at the time that Vince was thinking about putting the title on Savage to have Savage vs. Warrior at Mania.

Ah there goes the shirt. That’s more like it for Savage. Hogan goes after Sherri and she takes a knee from Savage. Hogan takes over and does his usual stuff. Jesse rants about something regarding the referee. Sherri hits Hogan with something so Randy can take over again. This really isn’t much of a match. Douglas throws Sherri out for choking Hulk.

The big elbow hits, Hogan kicks out, you know the rest. Douglas counts the pin and Savage almost kicks out of it for some reason, more or less no selling the move completely. Savage gets punched by Douglas and is out cold, since Douglas is a boxer and Savage is a wrestler which is ALWAYS how it goes in MMA right? The post match stuff took like 5 minutes.

Rating: D+. This was really pretty weak. The Douglas aspect crippled it but there was nothing they can do about that. It wasn’t a good match but it did the job…I think. It’s like ten minutes long and nothing particularly horrible. The Sherri aspect was too emphasized here as she and Douglas were the big deals here which isn’t the best idea in the world. Decent enough match I guess, but nothing compared to their regular stuff.

Warrior talks about chemicals and reactions and mercury or something.

Hogan and Douglas are STILL posing.

The Slam of the Night is Earthquake doing nothing of note.

Bravo, Hart and Earthquake say Bravo will win the IC Title.

Warrior talks about having Earthquake insurance or something.

Intercontinental Title: Ultimate Warrior vs. Dino Bravo

Warrior throws the belt down on the way to the ring and it’s on. Warrior tries to go up top but Quake messes that up. He dives under the ring and pulls Jimmy under with him. Quake shouts WHERE DID HE GO!!! Hart comes out, sans shirt and pants. That’s rather disturbing you know? Bravo gets a bear hug and of course that doesn’t work. Vince says Warrior breathes a different air. What does that even mean?

Warrior gets a bear hug of his own which is immediately broken. Bravo hits his side suplex as this is flying by. Warrior Hulks Up and nothing Bravo does will work. I think you know the rest from here. Warrior easily retains. Quake jumps Warrior afterwards and Hogan stops an Earthquake from the middle rope. Warrior, the dick that he is, gets in Hogan’s face for saving his life.

Rating: D. Pretty bad here but they kept it really short. Hogan vs. Warrior was already announced so it’s not like this was some big secret as to who was going to win. Bravo vs. Warrior was a long running series of squashes like this and this one was just like the rest of them.

We recap Warrior vs. Hogan at the Rumble, which really was an awesome moment.

We recap SNME where they accidently fights. Was a third match too much to ask for instead of 30 minutes of interviews?

Hogan talks to Vince and Vince looks him right in the eye. Imagine if you told someone that Vince would fight Hogan at Mania once. Hogan says Warrior is awesome and Douglas meant nothing tonight.

Warrior says his usual insane stuff. Apparently he wants the match at Mania which is already made. This show REALLY needs to end. Warrior shows us some kind of painting or something in his locker room of Hogan. This was out there even by his standards.

Douglas says he and Hulk are going out drinking milk. I hate this show.

Overall Rating: F+. Yeah this sucked. Out of the 48 minutes of the video, 15 were wrestling and 33 were interviews. This wasn’t any good at all and there was nothing of note to talk about. This was live so I guess it wasn’t horrible but….actually yeah this was horrible. Here was more or less nothing going on here the whole night and with two matches, was there even a point to this show? To be fair Tyson would have made this MUCH more interesting, but that was beyond their control. Just not an interesting or good show at all.

 

[klunderbunker]

The Main Event II
Date: February 3, 1989
Location: Bradley Center, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Commentators: Vince McMahon, Jesse Ventura

First and foremost, this was on my first birthday, meaning the day I was born, a year prior to this, as in the day of my birth, isn’t my birthday. I’ve never understood that. Anyway, this is more or less the big moment for the Mega Powers Exploding as we have the Mega Powers vs. the Twin Towers and one other televised match.

This is live by the way. It’s one of those cards where you have the full card and then two matches or so on TV. Let’s get to it.

We open with a graphic about the tag match complete with a fake newspaper talking about how big and awesome this match is. That’s so corny that it’s awesome. A recap video follows it as basically the Twin Towers are always going after Hogan, Savage and Liz. This is complete with the newspaper thing every time. This is so over the top that it’s great.

I miss the SNME theme song and since this is a spin off it’s the same song. Rock on.

The Twin Towers and Slick cut pure 80s heel promos which are still awesome. I love this era so I’m probably overblowing it but you get the idea. Dang Boss Man is huge. The thing they keep pushing this as is three against two which two can’t win.

Twin Towers vs. Mega Powers

This is an hour long show and the match is over twenty minutes long so if you didn’t get the idea, this is the only reason to watch this show. After the Towers get to the ring, we get a video about Hogan and Savage. This isn’t your typical video however. This is set to a WAY too upbeat song called You’re A Friend Of Mine by Clarence Clemens Jackson Browne. Look it up and picture a highlight package of Hogan and Savage. It looks like the intro to a REALLY bad sitcom. I can’t make this stuff up people.

Hogan and Savage say there is no issue with these three. The underlying theme here is that Hogan allegedly loves Liz but Hogan insists it’s just like a brother and sister. In short, this became about Hogan which Savage didn’t like which has to be at least half legitimate. Everyone talks a lot here and hey now let’s have a match.

Boss Man starts and Savage and Hogan both want to start for their team. Boss Man wants Hogan so Savage can’t get his way again. Hogan looks especially orange tonight. The heels are cleared out by Super Hogan alone and the fans are WAY into it. The little things in this match like Savage wearing Hogan’s colors with the words Mega Powers written on them but Hogan wearing his usual gear is very well done.

Akeem comes in and here’s Savage to meet him. Oh wait never mind Hogan needs to come back in. He even comes off the second rope to work on the arm a bit. Boss Man hits a Piledriver and Hogan does his fish out of water dance on the mat. I’m not sure if it looks more like that or a steak being grilled. One or the other. Jesse points out that Hogan is hogging the ring time and he’s absolutely right at this point.

Slick gets involved so Savage drills him in the face. Spinebuster which is unnamed at this point gets two. Savage finally comes in this has been ALL Mega Powers. Top rope cross body puts Akeem down but Slick gets a shot in to take down the Macho Man and momentum shifts. Savage is still world champion here if I didn’t mention that and you’re not familiar with this era.

And now we get to the meat of this show. Akeem throws Savage to the floor and he wipes Elizabeth out, landing right on top of her (lucky). She’s GONE and Hogan goes to try to help her which ticks Savage off for some reason. “Oh no the woman I love is getting helped after I was incapacitated! FUCK THIS SHIT!” Hogan carries Liz to the back in as dramatic a fashion as possible. He leaves with her as they check her out.

We get the other fun part of this as Hogan’s acting is at its peak here. Keep in mind we stay on Hogan and Liz for like 3 minutes with ZERO talk of what’s going on in the ring. Back from a break we get a bumper of the match and now back to General Wrestling Hospital. Hogan keeps saying thank God and making weird noises. I don’t have the video up as I’m typing here and the sounds are just disturbing. Leaving out the word God it’s God Elizabeth God Elizabeth and random moaning and groaning and breathing sounds.

FINALLY he realizes he’s left his partner for like ten minutes against two monsters so he comes back for the save and the glory. Oh but instead of like, I don’t know, GETTING IN THE RING and beating the hell out of one of the guys and helping Savage, he gets on the apron and grabs the tag rope. Savage continues to do all of the work and beats up Boss Man but won’t tag Hogan.

Savage slaps Hogan nice and hard and leaves him. Serves the bald fucker right too. Macho stands on the floor and then leaves with his belt. For once Hogan has absolutely no one to blame but himself here. More on that later though. Air Africa (Akeem’s splash) hits Hogan, he Hulks Up, Boss Man apparently asks Slick if he knows where he can find a good turkey on rye as he pays NO attention to what’s going on and Hogan gets the pin.

Rating: C. Total angle here with a match as the backdrop but this was a big deal to put it mildly. This would be like Orton turning on Cena when they had been best friends for like a year. The match is just ok but that’s all it needed to be. Hogan’s hammy acting aside, this was perfectly fine for what it was.

Hogan goes to the back where Savage is losing his mind, talking about how the champion is supposed to be #1 to Liz who is laying on the table with apparently NO ONE checking on her at all. We now get the greatest promo of Savage’s career as he just goes off on Hogan, ranting and raving about how Hogan has stolen the spotlight from him since day one and how if Hogan wanted a title shot all Hogan had to do was ask and he would have beaten him 1-2-3.

He talks about how Hogan is jealous and lusting after Liz before DRILLING with the belt and beating the living hell out of Hogan in probably the biggest heel turn in company history at the time. I’d put it ahead of Andre as it was on a bigger stage and Savage’s promo was better.

Beefcake comes in for the save and Savage just ends him with like two shots, showing how worthless he was at the time. Savage leaves Hogan laying. Totally AWESOME segment and one of the best promos that I can ever remember anywhere with Savage letting out a year of frustration and paranoia all on Hogan with everything he said making perfect sense for once. Great segment and well worth checking out.

Hercules vs. Ted DiBiase

In short, DiBiase bought Hercules and referred to him as a slave, causing Hercules to rebel and turn face in the process. Obviously no one cares at this point after their minds have been blown to Mars at this point by what they just saw. The announcers rightfully talk about almost nothing but the Mega Powers which for once I’m fine with.

We cut to an interview with Hogan which isn’t going to happen. Instead we’re told he’s in no condition to talk. No music for DiBiase yet. Hercules jumps him before he can take the fake suit off and beats up Virgil for fun. All Herc so far as DiBiase’s movement in the ring is still impressive over twenty years later. Ted finally sends Herc to the floor.

The crowd is staying in this one which is kind of surprising. Herc keeps having those power kick outs which are always kind of cool. Very basic match here but fairly well done. Then again I like both guys out there so that might have something to do with it. Powerslam by the power dude means it’s time for…Hercules to charge and have no apparent move in mind.

Virgil wraps Herc’s chain around the buckle but DiBiase goes into it for two. Hercules gets his backbreaker (torture rack) but Virgil grabs the leg, allowing Ted to get a quick rollup with the tights to end it. DiBiase gets beaten up a bit post match but it’s nothing special at all.

Rating: C-. Just a match to fill in some time after the huge angle earlier on. It’s not bad or anything but there was nothing that would separate this from a house show match or something like that. It’s ok enough though and more or less blew off this mini feud which is a plus I guess.

Hogan literally grunts and grumbles about Savage. There are no sentences or anything like that but just random words. He sounds like the Incredible Hulk or George Steele before running off and screaming RANDY in a funny moment.

Slam of the Night is about Jake Roberts who has nothing to do with this show at all.

Vince and Jesse talk a bit.

More of Hogan who can now say Macho as well. He randomly beats up Jim Neidhart, grabbing him by the beard and slamming him into a wall. Damn man ticked off Hogan is awesome! He shoves various other people including Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels. He keeps looking as we go off the air. This was kind of awesome actually in a weird way.

Overall Rating: B+. This was all about setting up Mania and the huge heel turn and to say it worked was an understatement. All of a sudden Savage is this mega heel after being unbeatable for the past year and you have Hogan who never lost the title clean to challenge him. Naturally this happened on PPV and drew MILLIONS.

The wrestling here is just ok but this did exactly what it was supposed to and more so it’s definitely a win. I doubt you can find a complete show without looking for a long time but DEFINITELY check out Savage’s promo and the match if you can as it sets it up. Both are available on the Best of Saturday Night’s Main Event DVD which I highly recommend as well. Good show.

 

[klunderbunker]

The Main Event I
Date: February 5, 1988
Location: Market Square Arena, Indianapolis, Indiana
Commentators: Vince McMahon, Jesse Ventura

So this is by far and away the most famous of these shows with one of the most famous endings in company history. This is live and as usual there was a full card before this part started. That being said, the two or three matches we get here are to put it mildly pretty bad.

The main focus here is Hogan vs. Andre the rematch. The main idea here is that Hogan might have gotten pinned at Mania and there might have been a slow count. This is still the highest rated wrestling program in the history of televised wrestling, drawing a 15.2 rating and 33 MILLION viewers on national television on a Friday night. In other words, over 10% of the entire country was watching this. Let that sink in for a bit. It was only an hour long but this was epic. Let’s get to it.

Jesse has some leopard skin crown on or something like that. He’s here from Hollywood or something apparently. He predicts Hogan loses, which is what he’s predicted about a thousand times. He also says Honky and the Harts will win. Jesse’s rant about Hogan is funny stuff as always.

We get a training montage of Hogan set to what would become Jake Roberts’ music. He looks extra roidy here.

Honky says this isn’t about fighting but romance as Liz wants him apparently. Elvis lyrics are added.

Intercontinental Title: Randy Savage vs. Honky Tonk Man

This was supposed to be the big other match at Mania but instead Savage got the world title due to Honky being a jerk. Savage cuts Liz off and says he’ll win. Damn I love late 80s WWF. Massive pop for Savage as it’s clear he’s going to be a huge deal. This is an old stomping ground for Savage’s indy company so he’s a huge fan favorite. Honky dances for Liz while Randy has his attention on Jimmy.

Basically Honky has been the biggest dick in the world to Savage and Liz lately so Randy wants to kill him, literally. Jimmy’s interference gives Honky the early advantage but Savage remembers he’s Randy Savage and it’s 1988 so he takes over for a bit. He misses a charge though and Savage might be in trouble now.

Jimmy chokes Randy while Honky shakes his hips for Liz. Savage makes the superhero comeback but can’t keep anything going for more than a few seconds at a time. The evildoers go after Liz while he’s down but he wakes up and isn’t very happy about this. He gets the double axe to Honky from the top to the outside and Honky is in trouble.

Another hits in the ring and it’s all Savage now. Hart is brought in the hard way as Gorilla would say and Honky accidently drills him so Savage can get….a sleeper hold? Peggy Sue goes after Liz for no apparent reason and Honky still can’t get anything when Savage goes to save her. And Honky just takes the count out loss like a true heel.

Rating: C. Weak match here but the atmosphere and crowd were off the charts. This was a big feud and everyone wanted nothing more than to see Savage take Honky apart. This wasn’t a great match and it’s a shame that we never got a big blowoff match from these two as it would have drawn serious money on PPV as it did on house shows. The atmosphere carried this though.

Honky goes after Savage with the guitar after the match. I don’t see why Savage doesn’t charge as he could get there in time to avoid the shot. Jimmy hits him with the Megaphone and yet he avoids the shot anyway. Kind of odd but he clears the heels away and breaks the guitar.

We get a recap of Hogan vs. Andre which helps a lot as a lot of things I’ve read says that the three count was really confusing as was them saying the controversial count as we didn’t know which they were talking about. We also see Andre attacking Hogan and the contract signing at the first Royal Rumble. Oh and DiBiase owns Andre’s contract now.

DiBiase says money works for everything and that the Hulkamaniacs are nickels and dimes. Andre says he’ll never stop once he gets his hands on Hogan. The idea is simple: Andre gets the title from Hogan and DiBiase buys it from Andre for a ton of money.

WWF Title: Andre the Giant vs. Hulk Hogan

So yeah, this is the biggest match ever on television and still is to this day. Again: it got a FIFTEEN in ratings. To put that in perspective, Jay Leno gets about a three. Hogan says there was no controversy in the count and that he’s beaten Andre once and can again. He also says that he’s invested into his fans. Good promo as you can tell Hogan thrives in this kind of environment. Now if only they had noticed something: Hogan has the OLD design for the title in the interview but as he walks out you see the famous winged eagle title debut. Nice job guys. That interview was probably taped in late 87.

The pop for Hogan is just absurd as he’s almost at the height of his powers here. Ok so 87 was bigger but close enough. Hogan wants to start immediately but Hebner stops him. I’ve seen this match multiple times and this has me fired up very well. Andre stalls forever on the apron as Hogan is all kinds of fired up. Hogan gives the sign for slamming him and Andre’s face says nothing but “Bitch please.”

The crowd is electric as they do a masterful job of letting the tension build. Hogan has finally waited long enough and drills into the heels and cleans house. He hammers away early as you can definitely see a faster pace here than they had last time. Granted that might be due to Hogan needing to do more here as Andre is getting very bad very fast.

ALL Hogan here but Hogan can’t do much here other than strike. DiBiase is counting money so Hogan stomps on his hand for the fun of it. Big wind up punch and Andre WILL NOT GO DOWN. Hogan like an idiot tries to go up and gets the Flair treatment for his luck. Andre tries a diving headbutt and just misses completely. He chokes away and other than that and basic strikes he has nothing.

The idea here is that Andre’s offense is very limited but his size and power plus great selling by Hogan makes him seem like a killer. Andre gets a big boot to Hogan’s chest and falls down too. He chokes with the strap on his singlet and Hogan is in trouble. Hogan breaks a choke and it’s on all over again. A middle rope clothesline finally drops the Giant.

Hogan gets the legdrop but Virgil grabs the referee. Andre gets up and drills some headbutts and hits a suplex kind of move which was his finisher. Hogan clearly gets his shoulder well off the mat at about one and a half and the referee keeps counting anyway, getting to three and declaring Andre as the winner. And let the controversy begin.

Rating: C-. The match itself was just ok but obviously the biggest angle of all time happening here is the real story. The 9 minute match was a backdrop for that as Andre couldn’t do a damn thing but choke for the most part which is fine given his physical condition at the time. Not bad at all, all things considered.

The referee says it was three and Hogan says he got his shoulder up which is absolutely true. Hebner gets the belt and hands it to Andre. This is the end of Hogan’s over four year title reign. Gene is at ringside and talks to Andre who calls it the world tag title for some reason and then surrenders it to DiBiase. The image of DiBiase with the belt around his waist is downright terrifying.

Hogan turns his attention to Hebner and here comes….Dave Hebner. There are TWO Dave Hebners as the fans are STUNNED. Hogan figures out what is going on as the guy that refereed the match was an impostor and we actually have an evil twin storyline. The evil one beats up the good one but Hogan gets his hands on him anyway to throw him to DiBiase and Andre.

We come back to the start of the tag title match but throw it to Hogan and Gene in the back and wonders how much the plastic surgery cost. He rants and raves about getting ripped off which for once is absolutely true. We see a replay of the count and Hogan’s arm is clearly up before two.

We see literally 25 seconds of the tag title match and go off the air before it ends. It was Strike Force defending against the Hart Foundation. Strike Force got a pin to retain.

Overall Rating: A+. A show that draws over ten percent of the entire country can be described as nothing else but a massive success. The ending is iconic and one of the most brilliant ideas of all time. This show worked like a charm and set up the tournament at Mania.

DiBiase would appear at some house shows over the weekend as champion and would defend against Bigelow as well as having some tag matches with Andre against Hogan and Bigelow. Great match and the biggest ratings draw in American wrestling history. Just an insane rating and some incredibly dramatic television makes this an undeniable success.

 

[klunderbunker]

The Main Event IV
Date: November 23, 1990
Location: Allen County Coliseum, Fort Wayne, Indiana
Commentators: Vince McMahon, Roddy Piper

Well this is the fourth (aired) and final (out of five) show in the series. This show is an interesting case as what was taped that night is far different than what aired on TV. This is due to one reason, which I’ll be adding as a bonus. There really isn’t a main event here other than Warrior vs. DiBiase for the title although DiBiase is a midcarder at this point. Other than that this was supposed to be a SNME but due to an issue they changed it to this. Let’s get to it.

So we’ll get right to the issue here. This is the famous Rockers tag title win that wasn’t seen for almost twenty years. It was, for all intents and purposes, a dark match at the end of the day. It was supposed to be part of the taping but that never happened obviously. The issue was Neidhart was leaving so they had to get the titles on someone else.

Enter the Rockers. The problem here is that Neidhart DID re-sign with the company so there was no need to put the titles on the Rockers. The real problem was that they already had done the title switch and the Rockers were defending them on house shows. Vince’s solution: just don’t mention it on TV and give the Harts the belts back. The people that had already seen the new champions were told that due to the ropes breaking (they do in the second fall) that the match didn’t count.

The one issue I’ve never gotten with this and no one else I’ve read talking about this either: the Rockers won the first fall totally clean. Why not just edit that off and put the ending with the Harts handing them the titles right after it? The commentary was put in post match anyway (there was never any recorded so it’s just the match I’ll be reviewing sans talking) so it’s not like there would be any mention of it being 2/3 falls. I don’t get that at all but whatever.

Tag Titles: Hart Foundation vs. The Rockers

No commentary or anything here. The Harts had won the belts at Summerslam in the great tag match. It’s weird to hear them come out with nothing said about them. The belts look especially shiny here. This is apparently before any kind of production stuff was done so the crowd is really quiet and the ring is really loud. It’s amazing how they can adjust things like that.

There’s the bell and we start with Marty vs. Bret. It’s very unique here as there’s no commentary to drown things out and the post production stuff isn’t done so it sounds like it would at a house show: you can hear EVERYTHING the referee says, you can hear them grunt and talk, the crowd is limited in sound and the ring echoes loudly. This is really weird but very cool.

Bret works the arm to start but Marty gets a blind tag and the Rockers speed things way up. Anvil comes in to stop that and we have a standoff. Shawn vs. Anvil now with the power man doing what he does best. I’ve never gotten why it’s called being the Jannetty rather than being the Neidhart. Jannetty was far more successful than Anvil was after the breakup, so why not say I’m the Bret and you’re the Neidhart?

Marty keeps teasing charging at Anvil and thinks better of it. Anvil just plows through him. Why mess with something that works I guess. Marty can actually move out there. The calling spots is far louder here than usual but it’s supposed to be. Big pop for Bret coming in. They finally realized how popular he was and pushed the hell out of him soon after this. Naturally he’s only in for a few seconds here. Typical.

The Rockers send Anvil into Bret and the double teaming begins. They set for the double punch but Bret makes the save. Off to Bret vs. Shawn now which is always worth watching. Bret dominates, hitting a Piledriver for two. Hot tag to Marty and the girls begin to scream. Bret goes for a sunset flip but Marty drops down and gets the pin. For the life of me I don’t get why that wasn’t the finish to give the Rockers the titles but whatever.

We start the second fall with Bret vs. Marty again. Off to Anvil with the Harts in control. Back to Bret as the tags are coming quickly. SICK Irish whip into the corner sends Jannetty down for two. Shawn comes in to save his buddy from a suplex and the Rockers take down Bret with some double teaming. Anvil comes in and there go the ropes.

Now this is a major problem. The thing is, with only two ropes, you can’t hit the ropes because you would trip over the middle one and hit the floor, probably breaking something that shouldn’t be broken. You don’t know what is going to happen with the other ropes, so you’re kind of stuck. Bret, to put it mildly, isn’t happy. His solution? Punch Shawn Michaels. Well at least some things never change.

We hit a front facelock on Shawn as Bret bitches a lot. Shawn finally backdrops out of it and we get a big brawl as there is no top rope on the Rockers’ corner. Long chinlock follows as the fans aren’t pleased at all with this slowdown. Bret gets sent into the buckle and has to dive to hit the middle one so he’ll have something to grab.

Back to Marty now who cleans house and gets a superkick for two. Anvil comes in and we hit the chinlock again with the Harts channeling their inner Ortons. Bret slams Anvil onto Marty which is a new one that gets two. Bret gets knocked to the floor and Anvil is out there as well. Back in, Bret suplexes Shawn and a pretty bad Hart Attack ties us up. This is getting worse and worse by the minute with how off they are due to the ropes.

We FINALLY pause to fix the ring, getting the biggest pop of the match. The video fades to black and we come back with the ring fixed. Back with the Harts beating on Shawn which just seems right for Bret to be doing. Shawn gets tied up in the ropes and Bret charges but only hits rope. Marty gets the third hot tag of the match and cleans a few rooms.

Powerslam to Bret gets two. Marty gets a face plant/bulldog from the middle rope for two. And here comes Anvil and Shawn. Bret hammers on Marty as he still looks pissed off. That is a man that knows how to hold a damn grudge. The Harts beat on Marty and Anvil slams Bret onto him for no cover as Marty gets the knees up. They set for the Hart Attack but Shawn kicks Marty onto Anvil for the pin and the phantom title change.

Rating: C. This is a hard one to grade. I’m more or less leaving out the second fall as you can’t blame them for being thrown off and not doing their usual stuff. It wouldn’t have been safe to have a regular match like that so I’m not going to hold it against them. The match wasn’t particularly good but they did what they could and it came out ok. I still don’t get why they don’t just use the first or third fall and go with that but whatever. Decent little match and a very interesting piece of history.

Post match the Rockers want handshakes and they get them which is a good sign. It’s just weird seeing them with those belts. This is on the Heartbreak and Triumph DVD if you want to see it. It’s worth checking out just for how unique it is.

And now onto the actual show.

We open with DiBiase talking to Gene and see all of the various times he was mean with money. Sadly enough we don’t get him kicking a ball away from a young Rob Van Dam. He says he’s rich and will get the title tonight.

Warrior says money has no power and something about sacrifices. His nipples are hard as fuck.

Theme song.

WWF Title: Ultimate Warrior vs. Ted DiBiase

DiBiase means nothing here so this is just a step up from a jobber to the stars match. Warrior overpowers him to start so Ted gets a top wristlock which gets him nowhere again. Warrior sends him to the floor and poses a bit before ramming their heads together. He runs into a knee though and here comes the Million Dollar Man. Piledriver gets two. Can we just get to Warrior’s big comeback to end this?

Virgil interferes to break up Warrior’s momentum again and the champion is sent to the floor. We take a break and come back with nothing having changed as they wouldn’t air anything during the break which is nice. Warrior hooks a backslide for two. This isn’t interesting at all as everyone knows there’s no chance the title is changing hands here.

A suplex gets two for the challenger. Sunset flip gets two for Warrior. Wow when’s the last time you remember Warrior using a backslide and a sunset flip? To the floor again and nothing of note is happening at all. They ram heads and both guys are down. DiBiase goes to the middle rope but runs into a punch to the ribs and does that sweet front flip of his.

Here comes Warrior as he shakes the ropes. How exactly does that work? Does he use that Shake Weight thing to get all fired up? Lots of clotheslines follow and here come the shoulders. And Virgil runs in for the DQ. Piper FREAKS over this for no apparent reason. Warrior keeps up the beating until Savage finally comes in for the beatdown. This would set up the Rumble run-in that would cost Warrior the title.

Rating: C. I guess this was ok but I never could get into it. The wrestling is decent but at the same time I had no desire to watch it at all. No one bought DiBiase as a legitimate threat here and I can’t say I blame them. Decent from an in ring perspective but I just did not care in the slightest.

Savage says he accepted a royal payment. He still wants a title shot.

Slaughter says he salutes the Iraqi flag, not the American one.

Nikolai Volkoff vs. Sergeant Slaughter

And there’s no match as Slaughter hits him with the riding crop a bunch. Duggan comes out for the save.

Boss Man runs down Perfect and the Heenan Family. This was the big feud and would be kind of blown off at Mania. Perfect isn’t IC Champion here but rather Kerry Von Erich of all people.

Mr. Perfect vs. Big Boss Man

Boss Man hands over the stick and the cuffs to start. He chases Perfect on the floor and dominates with basic stuff. He drags Perfect around the ring by the hair as we’re bordering on a comedy match. Something occurs to me here: this is the night after Survivor Series 90. They couldn’t reference that at all? Nothing here is a followup at all or anything. Were they that worried about giving something away on a show as bad as that was? Most odd.

Perfect gets a good shot in and Boss Man is down. Vince isn’t sure if Boss Man at half power could beat two Bobby Heenans. Is there a point to this argument? The turnbuckle pad comes off and Boss Man doesn’t go into it. Can we get somewhere with this match already? Bobby Heenan comes down as he had been chilling in the back due to fear of intense physical pain at the hands of the Boss Man.

Perfectplex is blocked into a small package for two. They slug it out which of course Boss Man wins. Perfectplex hits for two and Heenan gets on the apron but messes up and sends Perfect to the floor. He slaps Boss Man, Boss Man gives chase and loses to the fastest countout ever.

Rating: D. This was another bad match. I don’t know if it’s that I’m bored because of the show or the show is bad because I’m bored in general, but I can’t get into this at all. This wouldn’t really get going for a few more months so this more or less was a preview for the spring. Total meh match.

Heenan begs Gene to help him with Boss Man. Ok that was pointless.

And now, Blow Away. I have NO idea what the point of this was but it was a comedy act or something. The idea was Buddy Rose was really fat and it’s like an infomercial. He sat in front of a fan, poured laundry soap on himself and allegedly blew away the fat. Naturally this did nothing and the phone number was 1-800-LAR-DASS. This went nowhere and is one of the biggest WTF moments in company history.

Rick Martel vs. Tito Santana

Martel jumps him to start. Martel recently sprayed the Arrogance in Jake’s eyes so he’s blind. This would, again, set up something at Mania. Tito goes for the face which is what ticks Martel off like it does for Cody today. He taps to a hammerlock but that means nothing yet. There is just nothing going on here as we’re totally in filler mode.

Martel works on the back and forgets that his arm is supposed to be all screwed up. He goes up and gets caught. Tito makes the big fired up comeback as we reinforce the whole angry Mexican stereotype deal. Clothesline off the middle rope gets two. Figure Four is reversed into a small package for two. And there’s the Boston Crab for the clean submission.

Rating: D+. Boring match to close out a terrible show. Does this surprise anyone at all? These two feuded for like ever and it never went anywhere for the most part. This went nowhere at all and was there for nothing more than the point of filling in time. At least it’s over.

Jake is still blind. Naturally he’s in his wrestling gear. He says that Martel is the blind one. He has a white contact in one of his eyes.

Warrior says the title is more important to him than it is to Savage. This is supposed to be all emotional or whatever.

Overall Rating: F+. Oh MAN this was bad. The tag title switch would have helped but there was no way this was getting saved. It wasn’t any good at all and somehow they got another show out of this. It went nowhere at all and everyone could tell. This was near torture for 48 minutes and I have no desire to ever see this again.

I know it’s not much but that’s the Main Event. With just five shows it’s not much, but the first two are definitely awesome and accomplished their goals. Nothing worth seeing in the other three, but you get the idea. Yeah that’s it.