klunderbunker
Welcome to My (And Not Sly's) House
Superstars. Now I know some of you likely watch this today, but it should be known that this is far from the original. Back in the 80s, national television was a very new concept for wrestling and prime time was just flat out not a possibility. WWF had a show called Superstars of Wrestling, which depending on where you lived aired sometime on the weekends, usually Saturday/Sunday mornings.
This was the equivalent of Raw back in the day. EVERYTHING worth anything happened on this show, until Raw was introduced in January of 93. I’ve been lucky enough to get my hands on twelve episodes in order from 1987, beginning in the opening of the year and ending on the day before a show you might have heard of called Wrestlemania III. Let’s get to it, as I’ve never seen these before so this is ALL new territory for me.
Superstars of Wrestling
Date: January 10, 1987
Commentators: Jesse Ventura, Vince McMahon, Bruno Sammartino
So we’re obviously on the Road to Wrestlemania. As far as I know, nothing is set for it yet as it’s about two and a half months away at this point. If my math is right, we might even get the origins of Savage vs. Steamboat soon enough. I’m drooling over this so let’s get to it.
Vince runs down the card and it’s sweet 80s goodness. Ok so the card sounds awful but this is epic sounding to someone like me. Yes I’m a total mark for this stuff.
Junkyard Dog/Billy Jack Haynes/George Steele vs. Mike Wuska/Tim Patterson/Frenchy Martin
Remember what I said about this being awesome? Maybe I was wrong. Haynes and Martin start us off. You might know Martin as Dino Bravo’s manager in about a year or so. Fink cuts off the announcers with a voiceover announcing a house show in Maine. My guess would be that’s where this TV station broadcasting it was.
That was a common thing back in the day as there were multiple house show tours back in the day much like today. Hogan vs. Savage would headline the A circuit while Steamboat vs. Roberts would be on the B circuit. Not bad either way. After about 100 slams Dog pins Wuska. This might have gone a minute.
Rating: N/A. The announcement of the house show went longer than the rest of the match. Steele and Dog were over as hell though so it makes sense.
We get an UPDATE with Gene. He talks about Paul Orndorff, who is fresh off an ungodly run with Hogan where he, the lower name of the match, was making twenty thousand dollars a week in the mid 80s. How scary is that? Heenan, his manager says that Paul is awesome. Paul says that he really is wonderful.
Honky Tonk Man is allegedly near Graceland and says he needs a bigger property. He wants to call it Honky Land. Oh my.
Iron Sheik/Nikolai Volkoff vs. British Bulldogs
The Dogs are the champions here so we HAVE to be close to the Harts taking the titles from them. I hope some idiot chants USA in this match. Vince says he wouldn’t mind going out with Matilda. That would be the dog that is the champion’s mascot. Slick cheats immediately to give the advantage to the heels. Danny Davis, the heel referee, is in there.
Keep him in mind in the coming weeks as he’ll play a big role soon. Smith’s power was straight up scary at times. For those of you that haven’t seen Dynamite, think Benoit with a British accent. Slick cheats again and Matilda chases him off. And that gives the heels the win on a DQ? Oh that’s right: Davis is cheating for the heels. Forgot about that even though I just said it.
Rating: N/A. Again not enough here to give it a fair grade. This was ALL storyline and Volkoff and Sheik could have been any two guys. I won’t spoil why, but Davis is going to be getting a lot of air time very soon. It was a nice angle if nothing else.
Piper’s Pit
RANDY SAVAGE IS THE GUEST!!! Savage and Piper in 1987 trading insults. I don’t know what to say. HOW did this feud never happen? I don’t get that one AT ALL. Savage pulls out a Ricky Steamboat figure. Savage has apparently already messed up Steamboat’s throat.
I think Piper is still borderline heel here. He’s feuding with Adonis already, which was an awesome feud that gets no credit which is sad. Steamboat is back next week apparently and Savage LOSES IT as Piper leaves. Sweet little segment.
Alex Knight vs. Hercules
Knight was a jobber in the AWA I think. Not sure though. Hercules was a freaking monster at this point and was on a collision course with Haynes. Yeah I don’t care either. Fink gives another announcement about the Maine house show listed earlier. Hercules has a bit of an afro going on there too. A torture rack ends it with ease.
Rating: N/A. I’m not sure if this was a minute long. It was a different time back then where this was very common.
Jesse is with Bobby Heenan and asks him why he wanted Andre unsuspended. Oh freaking YES! Heenan goes on about Hercules and Jesse is confused. Apparently it’s Heenan ducking the subject.
Some guy that I have no idea as to who he is talks about a Boston house show. Savage vs. Sammartino for the IC Title in a lumberjack match. Savage yells A LOT in his greatness.
We go down to Texas and hear about the Blackjacks. Blackjack Mulligan is coming back apparently. Yeah this was stupid.
Jake Roberts vs. Billy Anderson
Anderson gets a pop so I’m guessing hometown guy. Roberts is a heel here still but not for much longer at all. Davis is refereeing here again and is still evil. In a reference I can’t believe I’ve never gotten before, Jake talks about comparing Hogan’s arms, the Pythons, to his python. They didn’t run that feud as they tried it at a taping and Roberts got cheered. There we go. DDT ends it in like a minute of course.
Rating: N/A. This was of course just to get Jake over and it worked just fine. He was so far ahead of his time its unheard of.
Same guy talks about the same house show. Steamboat, with a raspy voice, says he’s glad to be back to action there.
We get a musical tribute to the bad boys of the WWF. Uh sure.
Jack Kruger/Kevin Collins vs. Fabulous Rougeau Brothers
The brothers are faces here. JUMPING BACK ELBOW! The Rougeaus wish us a happy new year. Nothing wrong with that I guess. Their standard finisher ends it. This was the shortest match yet.
Rating: N/A. It would pass because I like the Rougeaus to a certain extent.
We get a promo for Outback (Championship Wrestling!!!) Jack. The less you know here the better. In short, they hyped this guy all the way to hell and back, spending all kinds of money on his promos. There’s a reason you’ve never heard of him: he sucked. Like A LOT.
Butch Reed vs. Reggie Parks
Please…be quick. Jesse says next week he’ll talk to Andre. Good thing I have that one too. We’re at maybe two minutes now and it’s the longest match of the night by far. This whole thing is about Heenan and Andre here. Reed wins and isn’t acknowledged for 10 seconds afterwards. The idea is that Andre was suspended at Heenan’s insistence and now he’s back and Heenan is insane over it.
Rating: N/A. Longer but still nothing to speak of. Reed would somehow almost become a Horseman.
The Can-Am Connection arrives and girls attack them. Jesse is stunned.
Boston announcement #3. The guest this time is Bruno. The idea was that these were taped all in one long run. They would tape about 30-40 promos in a row, so this is about number 20 or so that Bruno has had to make. You would say one for every city they were going to hit and just plug in the right clip for the right market.
A lot of guys hated doing this, with one guy that I can’t remember at the moment literally losing his job because he walked out of them once. It might have been Ole Anderson. He says if he wins the IC Title Saturday he’ll vacate it and we’ll get a tournament.
We get a list of the matches next week and there’s not much special but Steamboat will be back! That ends the show.
Rating: B-. Now before X jumps down my damn throat over this, keep a few things in mind. First of all, this was 45 minutes long not counting commercials. This wasn’t supposed to be some big and epic show and it wasn’t. This was planting seeds for Mania and it did that very well indeed. We continued the Andre/Heenan issue as well as the Savage/Steamboat thing.
This wasn’t supposed to be an epic episode or anything but it did the job well. Also, Savage was on Piper’s Pit. I think that speaks for itself. I mean seriously, LOOK at how much was packed into this. Six matches, Honky, Can Am, Savage, Steamboat and Sammartino all got to talk and we advanced the two top stories. That's DAMN impressive.
This was the equivalent of Raw back in the day. EVERYTHING worth anything happened on this show, until Raw was introduced in January of 93. I’ve been lucky enough to get my hands on twelve episodes in order from 1987, beginning in the opening of the year and ending on the day before a show you might have heard of called Wrestlemania III. Let’s get to it, as I’ve never seen these before so this is ALL new territory for me.
Superstars of Wrestling
Date: January 10, 1987
Commentators: Jesse Ventura, Vince McMahon, Bruno Sammartino
So we’re obviously on the Road to Wrestlemania. As far as I know, nothing is set for it yet as it’s about two and a half months away at this point. If my math is right, we might even get the origins of Savage vs. Steamboat soon enough. I’m drooling over this so let’s get to it.
Vince runs down the card and it’s sweet 80s goodness. Ok so the card sounds awful but this is epic sounding to someone like me. Yes I’m a total mark for this stuff.
Junkyard Dog/Billy Jack Haynes/George Steele vs. Mike Wuska/Tim Patterson/Frenchy Martin
Remember what I said about this being awesome? Maybe I was wrong. Haynes and Martin start us off. You might know Martin as Dino Bravo’s manager in about a year or so. Fink cuts off the announcers with a voiceover announcing a house show in Maine. My guess would be that’s where this TV station broadcasting it was.
That was a common thing back in the day as there were multiple house show tours back in the day much like today. Hogan vs. Savage would headline the A circuit while Steamboat vs. Roberts would be on the B circuit. Not bad either way. After about 100 slams Dog pins Wuska. This might have gone a minute.
Rating: N/A. The announcement of the house show went longer than the rest of the match. Steele and Dog were over as hell though so it makes sense.
We get an UPDATE with Gene. He talks about Paul Orndorff, who is fresh off an ungodly run with Hogan where he, the lower name of the match, was making twenty thousand dollars a week in the mid 80s. How scary is that? Heenan, his manager says that Paul is awesome. Paul says that he really is wonderful.
Honky Tonk Man is allegedly near Graceland and says he needs a bigger property. He wants to call it Honky Land. Oh my.
Iron Sheik/Nikolai Volkoff vs. British Bulldogs
The Dogs are the champions here so we HAVE to be close to the Harts taking the titles from them. I hope some idiot chants USA in this match. Vince says he wouldn’t mind going out with Matilda. That would be the dog that is the champion’s mascot. Slick cheats immediately to give the advantage to the heels. Danny Davis, the heel referee, is in there.
Keep him in mind in the coming weeks as he’ll play a big role soon. Smith’s power was straight up scary at times. For those of you that haven’t seen Dynamite, think Benoit with a British accent. Slick cheats again and Matilda chases him off. And that gives the heels the win on a DQ? Oh that’s right: Davis is cheating for the heels. Forgot about that even though I just said it.
Rating: N/A. Again not enough here to give it a fair grade. This was ALL storyline and Volkoff and Sheik could have been any two guys. I won’t spoil why, but Davis is going to be getting a lot of air time very soon. It was a nice angle if nothing else.
Piper’s Pit
RANDY SAVAGE IS THE GUEST!!! Savage and Piper in 1987 trading insults. I don’t know what to say. HOW did this feud never happen? I don’t get that one AT ALL. Savage pulls out a Ricky Steamboat figure. Savage has apparently already messed up Steamboat’s throat.
I think Piper is still borderline heel here. He’s feuding with Adonis already, which was an awesome feud that gets no credit which is sad. Steamboat is back next week apparently and Savage LOSES IT as Piper leaves. Sweet little segment.
Alex Knight vs. Hercules
Knight was a jobber in the AWA I think. Not sure though. Hercules was a freaking monster at this point and was on a collision course with Haynes. Yeah I don’t care either. Fink gives another announcement about the Maine house show listed earlier. Hercules has a bit of an afro going on there too. A torture rack ends it with ease.
Rating: N/A. I’m not sure if this was a minute long. It was a different time back then where this was very common.
Jesse is with Bobby Heenan and asks him why he wanted Andre unsuspended. Oh freaking YES! Heenan goes on about Hercules and Jesse is confused. Apparently it’s Heenan ducking the subject.
Some guy that I have no idea as to who he is talks about a Boston house show. Savage vs. Sammartino for the IC Title in a lumberjack match. Savage yells A LOT in his greatness.
We go down to Texas and hear about the Blackjacks. Blackjack Mulligan is coming back apparently. Yeah this was stupid.
Jake Roberts vs. Billy Anderson
Anderson gets a pop so I’m guessing hometown guy. Roberts is a heel here still but not for much longer at all. Davis is refereeing here again and is still evil. In a reference I can’t believe I’ve never gotten before, Jake talks about comparing Hogan’s arms, the Pythons, to his python. They didn’t run that feud as they tried it at a taping and Roberts got cheered. There we go. DDT ends it in like a minute of course.
Rating: N/A. This was of course just to get Jake over and it worked just fine. He was so far ahead of his time its unheard of.
Same guy talks about the same house show. Steamboat, with a raspy voice, says he’s glad to be back to action there.
We get a musical tribute to the bad boys of the WWF. Uh sure.
Jack Kruger/Kevin Collins vs. Fabulous Rougeau Brothers
The brothers are faces here. JUMPING BACK ELBOW! The Rougeaus wish us a happy new year. Nothing wrong with that I guess. Their standard finisher ends it. This was the shortest match yet.
Rating: N/A. It would pass because I like the Rougeaus to a certain extent.
We get a promo for Outback (Championship Wrestling!!!) Jack. The less you know here the better. In short, they hyped this guy all the way to hell and back, spending all kinds of money on his promos. There’s a reason you’ve never heard of him: he sucked. Like A LOT.
Butch Reed vs. Reggie Parks
Please…be quick. Jesse says next week he’ll talk to Andre. Good thing I have that one too. We’re at maybe two minutes now and it’s the longest match of the night by far. This whole thing is about Heenan and Andre here. Reed wins and isn’t acknowledged for 10 seconds afterwards. The idea is that Andre was suspended at Heenan’s insistence and now he’s back and Heenan is insane over it.
Rating: N/A. Longer but still nothing to speak of. Reed would somehow almost become a Horseman.
The Can-Am Connection arrives and girls attack them. Jesse is stunned.
Boston announcement #3. The guest this time is Bruno. The idea was that these were taped all in one long run. They would tape about 30-40 promos in a row, so this is about number 20 or so that Bruno has had to make. You would say one for every city they were going to hit and just plug in the right clip for the right market.
A lot of guys hated doing this, with one guy that I can’t remember at the moment literally losing his job because he walked out of them once. It might have been Ole Anderson. He says if he wins the IC Title Saturday he’ll vacate it and we’ll get a tournament.
We get a list of the matches next week and there’s not much special but Steamboat will be back! That ends the show.
Rating: B-. Now before X jumps down my damn throat over this, keep a few things in mind. First of all, this was 45 minutes long not counting commercials. This wasn’t supposed to be some big and epic show and it wasn’t. This was planting seeds for Mania and it did that very well indeed. We continued the Andre/Heenan issue as well as the Savage/Steamboat thing.
This wasn’t supposed to be an epic episode or anything but it did the job well. Also, Savage was on Piper’s Pit. I think that speaks for itself. I mean seriously, LOOK at how much was packed into this. Six matches, Honky, Can Am, Savage, Steamboat and Sammartino all got to talk and we advanced the two top stories. That's DAMN impressive.