klunderbunker
Welcome to My (And Not Sly's) House
Supertape 2
Host: Sean Mooney
Commentators: Sean Mooney, Lord Alfred Hayes, Gorilla Monsoon, Hillbilly Jim, Tony Schiavone
Its another tape in this series, appearing to be from late 1989 to early 1990. There isnt much else to say on this one so lets get to it.
We open with Sean Mooney sitting at the control center with a bunch of old school WWF action figures and the ring. I loved that thing and wore it out. He runs down the lineup and it looks really quite awful. Were getting profiles on the Rockers and Slick. Odd pairing but fine I guess. Bret vs. Martel which should be good. Ah and Piper vs. Rude which should be awesome indeed. That would be early 90 or late 89. Oh and bloopers. Oh joy.
Jim Duggan vs. Randy Savage
This is for the Kings Crown held by Savage who beat Duggan for it I believe. Hacksaw gets tired of waiting on Savage to get off the throne (where are Gorilla and Jesse with some good jokes when you need them?) so he turns it over. More or less a brawl to start with Savage taking over with a clothesline. Duggan pounds away and hits a big clothesline with the huge blue trunks of doom.
Duggan gets distracted by Sherri so Savage can drill him and take over again. Hayes is surprised that the referee is counting Duggan on the floor. Uh, why? I love that low rise double axehandle that Savage hits off the top. Duggan hits something to get some separation. No clue what it was since we were on Sherri for about 20 seconds straight.
Savage is sent over the top to the floor as Duggan takes over again. Sherri yells at the referee and shoves him multiple times which somehow doesnt equal her being ejected. Knee drop gets no count for Duggan as Sherri interferes AGAIN. Duggan: IT WAS THE BROAD! I love random shouts like that. Savage collapses after every punch that Duggan lands which is cool looking selling.
Sherri gets in the ring so Duggan chases after her and the purse falls onto the mat. Thats notoriously loaded. Double axe off the top connects but at the same time Duggan gets a punch to the stomach so both guys are down. Savage gets the purse and blasts Duggan in the head with it while Sherri has the referee again. At least buy him dinner given all of the time youve taken up from him.
The purse shot only gets two surprisingly enough. Duggan gets a rollup for two and here he comes again. Well to be fair it was to his head so its not like that shot should mean anything really. Three Point Clothesline hits but Savage goes to the floor. We get the Mania 5 Rude/Warrior ending as Duggan goes for a suplex to bring him back in but Sherri trips up Duggan and holds the foot for the pin. Post match Duggan DRILLS Savage with the board.
Rating: C. Not a bad match really but the crowd carried this one for the most part. These two had a fairly long feud so they certainly knew how to get the crowd going. That and theyre natural heat/cheer magnets so its not like its very hard. Not much of a match but it was fast paced enough to make things interesting and a good opener to the tape.
Its time for a profile on the Rockers. Shawn and Marty introduce us to this thing and say theyve fought everyone. No mention of them actually winning or anything like that but I guess youre supposed to get that on your own. I wonder if Shawn is looking at Marty and thinking how good Martys head would look going through glass.
The Rockers vs. Powers of Pain
At Madison Square Garden at some point during the Colossal Connections title reign, putting this at some point from December 13, 1989 and Wrestlemania 6. Shawn and Barbarian start us off. Jim on commentary never was someone I was into but that accent was always catchy I guess. At least Gorilla is there to help us out. Power vs. speed here of course.
Bearhug to Shawn for a bit followed by Barbarian destroying him with a clothesline. The Rockers do the slam/dropkick to the back of the partner for the cover spot for two. They hammer away on Barbarian but cant get anything going due to his power game. Double superkick cant get him down but a double clothesline cane. The Rockers clear the ring to a nice response.
Warlord comes in and crushes the back of Shawn with big pounding shots. SLICK spot as Warlord has Shawn up for a powerbomb and Marty gets a dropkick to his back so Shawn can snap off a rana for two. Nice move. Off to Marty who takes the powerbomb instead. No save from Shawn as you can see the seeds being planted for the heel turn a mere year and a half later.
BIG backdrop has Marty in trouble. Into the ropes again with Warlord LAUNCHING Marty into the air so high that my eyes got very big in shock. That was DAMN impressive. And you can tell I mean that because Im capitalizing words. Barbarian in now and the beating continues. The Rockers were so awesome at selling it was unreal. On the floor after a big boot, Marty takes a cane to the back from Fuji.
Somersault off a clothesline by Marty as the selling is awesome again. Marty hits Warlord a few times and it gets absolutely no reaction at all. Back to the bearhug as Marty is in big trouble. Finally Marty gets a shot off the middle rope to .do nothing at all since a few seconds later he jumps into a powerslam that looked SICK.
Second rope elbow misses as always and theres the hot tag to Shawn after some stumbling around to find the right corner. Marty must have gotten the Columbian stuff tonight. The crowd gets way into this very quickly. Everything goes insane with a bunch of near falls off double team moves from the Rockers. Marty is whipped into Barbarian to take them both down. Fuji trips up Shawn and an elbow ends this. Wow nice way to have your profiled guys look weak.
Rating: B. Classic big man vs. little man tag match here and it worked rather well. The Rockers could crank it up with the best of them and they certainly did that here. The Powers were a good big man team that did exactly what they were supposed to do in making smaller teams like the Rockers look like big threats. Also if you ever want to see some great selling, take a look at this match with the Rockers looking incredible in that area.
Big brawl post match with the Powers massacring the Rockers because thats what evil monsters do I guess. After a modified Hart Attack from the Powers Shawn clears house with a chair.
The Rockers vs. Dino Bravo/Greg Valentine
Bravo and Valentine used to be the New Dream Team if youre unfamiliar and Im stunned that theyre still around at this point. Theyve been new for about two years at this point so I wonder if theyre old yet. This is at a Superstars taping in some unspecified city. Bravo vs. Jannetty to start us off here. The announcers try to imply that Valentine is a power guy which is a bit odd but kind of true at the same time.
A lot of dropkicks clear out the ring and the heels hug. That must have been a Jimmy Hart thing for some reason. Off to Valentine and Shawn now as it appears to be Shawn that is selling like a madman this time. The Rockers work over Valentines right arm which is very different to see. Theyre wrestling like heels here but with face personalities if that makes sense.
Heel double teaming (by the actual heels that is) takes over and Marty is playing Marty. Bravo spits on Shawn for some more double teaming to take place. Off to Valentine and the back work continues. In a nice spot Marty nips up and runs into Valentines shoulder block to send him right back down again.
Totally classic heat segment with Marty tagging Shawn but the referee doesnt see it. I love that spot. Bravo misses an elbow and its time for the tag off to Shawn. Where have I seen this before? Marty gets a sweet springboard off the bottom rope to launch himself past Bravo to make the tag. Ive never seen that before.
Shawn cleans some house until we get a double dropkick to Bravo followed by the double flying punch. Why mess with something as simple as a punch to the head I suppose? Why has no one else ever used a move like that? Another near fall for both teams sets up an OConnor Roll by Jannetty. Shawn comes in to stop Valentine but the referee stops Shawn, allowing Valentine to blast Jannetty and put Bravo on top for the upset win. Wow indeed.
Rating: C-. This got a lot of time at about 12 minutes. Its not horrible or anything but its got nothing on the previous match which was almost exactly the same formula with a slightly different ending. Not a terrible match really but the ending is really weird as why in the world would you have these two go over the Rockers? Bravo and Valentine sound like tag team jobbers, not a team getting a relatively clean pin.
In the words of Saliva, Hold tight cause the show is not over! Heres referee Ronnie Garvin (I wish the show had been over) to tell Hebner what happened and despite not doing anything that the referee saw, the Rockers win by .well apparently by decision. Keep in mind that neither Rocker pinned either other guy. Oh well I guess.
Its time for a Fan Favorite match where someone writes in to request a match, most of which suck. This time its Hercules vs. Akeem because the girl that wrote says she doesnt like how Akeem dances and Hercules is her favorite wrestler. Hercules says Akeem needs to have his dancing shoes on and Akeem doesnt say anything because hes insulted. Better than nothing kind of.
Akeem vs. Hercules
Tony Schiavone never sounded right commentating on WWF programming at all. Ten punches in the corner as Hercules likes to beat on big fat men. Akeem gets caught in the ropes a bit but hits the floor like a good fatass. Slick gives him a hug which must be a heel manager in the 80s thing in general.
Apparently Slicks peace and love doesnt last long as he wants to get in the ring and fight, even taking his jacket off. Akeem says let him do the fighting here. Back in and its time for some boxing. Hercules likes to punch to put it mildly. A slam doesnt work so maybe he should have stuck with the punching. Slick chokes with some tape or something and Hayes thinks they planned that in advance. NO! THATS NOT TRUE! Had to channel some Empire Strikes Back there to break my boredom.
Hercules fights back with some clotheslines but Slick pulls the rope down and there goes Hercules for the CHEAP DQ! Im not considering it a win yet as theres every chance that another wrestler turned referee could come out for the reversal to give Hercules the win because he has a lighter shade of blue on. Post match Hercules slams Akeem to show off a bit.
Rating: D+. Just a quick little comedy match that went nowhere. Not bad I guess but there wasnt much here at all. Also can we get a clean finish on this tape or is that something thats too much to wish for? So far weve had two managers hooking feet, one hooking a rope and a reversed decision. I guess were saving that for a big star or something? Whatever indeed.
Alfred Hayes goes over the names of some moves. This is one of those things that Ive always liked. The first subject is the Orient Express. This is kind of cool but do we need someone to explain to us what a forearm is? It eats up about four minutes. This sets up the following match perfectly.
Orient Express vs. Demolition
Both teams do quick promos which are nothing special at all really. Were in MSG again. Demolition used to be managed by Fuji so theres some heat there. This is 2 weeks from Mania apparently. Stalling to start until we get down to Smash vs. Tanaka. Its nearly a comedy bit to start as Tanaka keeps getting caught by punches and shots from Demolition after thinking he had escaped.
Kaito comes in and the stalling begins again. Theres the double teaming to take over and the Express takes over for all of 6 seconds. Back to Demolition with Smash using power to control here. Its weird to see the faces dominating this long into a match. Double backdrop sends Tanaka flying. More double teaming takes over again, this time for a full 15 seconds. No the best way to start us off here for the Express.
Since it worked so well the first two times they double team again but this time with a cane shot to the back of Smash which actually works. In other words Fuji managed to do what his men couldnt do in two tries. Its weird to see these teams against each other for some reason. I dont think Ive ever seen them fight before. Hayes goes into a lecture about history and wars between the Japanese and the British for no apparent reason.
The crowd isnt incredibly into this to put it mildly, mainly due to the Express having about a grand total of zero chance in this. Demolition realizes theyre one of the most successful teams of all time and starts hammering away. Off to Axe who hammers away on Tanaka until everything breaks down. They set for the Decapitator but Fuji interferes. Salt goes into Axes eyes and the fastest ten count ever ends this. Wow that was a terrible ending.
Rating: D+. Wow this was pretty bad. Was there ANY reason to give the win to the Orient Express here? The crowd seemed to hate it to put it mildly, so what was the point? Boring match too with Demolition never being in any danger it seemed. I dont really get this one at all.
I forgot to mention: every time Sean does a transition bit and says Supertape a voiceover says SUPERTAPE. No point to it or anything but its in there.
Bret Hart vs. Rick Martel
This should be awesome. Martel is a model by this point. A kid in a Mario shirt gets Brets glasses. Lucky twerp. Martel is incredibly muscular here, far more than I ever remember him being otherwise. Technical/can you top this stuff to start us off as you would expect. Small package (theres a steroids joke in there somewhere) gets two for Bret. After Martel hits the floor for a bit were back at it.
Bret works on the arm to waste a bit of time. Gorilla thinks neither guy has any trouble getting a date for Saturday night. Given the stories Bret told in his book Id agree with Monsoon there. This armbar goes for a good while. For no adequately explained reason Hillbilly wants to know what place in Europe is like Kentucky. This goes on for a bit and we hear about Grannys Possum Pie. The Rocks Pie song is stuck in my head now. Thanks guys.
Martel takes over and rams Bret into the apron and does some jumping jacks. Gorilla says weve been at this over ten minutes. More like five but whos counting? Martel works on the back and ribs. Abdominal stretch goes on so Gorilla gets a chance to complain about it. I need to go back and watch some of his matches to see if he ever used it.
Bret fights back with an atomic drop. Im not sure if this has been good or not. Its kind of an odd match in that sense. Bret gets the Five Moves of Doom going (Gorilla says the leg sweet is a neckbreaker oddly enough. Who am I supposed to believe now???) for a bunch of two counts. They hit the floor and then go right back in. Bret spreads Martels legs but theres no Sharpshooter at this point so its just a stomp. They fight on the floor and its a time limit at 12 minutes? Apparently so, which is kind of stupid when you could have gone with a double countout but whatever.
Rating: C+. The time thing is really weird here and Bret not having a finishing move hurt him a lot. The Sharpshooter was nearly two years away at this point so that certainly wasnt an option yet. Fun match but it never got to the point that it should with these two. Also the ending was kind of weird. More good than bad though, as there wasnt much bad at all.
Profile on Slick, which is a promo talking about how awesome he is plus clips of him dancing and managing. Runs maybe 90 seconds.
Roddy Piper vs. Rick Rude
In a cage here and Sean says its one of the best in history. Why do I not believe him? Pipers music is really different here and its kind of weird. You can win with a pin here which is a brand new thing here. Rude rams into the cage and Piper controls early on. Belt to the back of Rude as this is one sided to start. Rude tries to escape and its the Rude Ass Shot for no apparent reason.
Piper gets rammed and might have hurt his hand. Hes busted up too as Rude takes over for the first time here. A bunch of pounding gets two. Rude changes his mind and goes for the door where Heenan tries to help him. We get the second shot of Rudes ass in a single match. His ass is hanging out of his tights now.
Rude Awakening hits but Rude is down and bleeding too much to cover. Maybe Piper isnt bleeding and it was Rudes blood on him earlier. Piper gets up and stops Rude from getting out again. Why Rick didnt cover him is beyond me but Im no professional. They ram heads and the referee counts for no apparent reason since you cant win by countout.
Both guys go up at the same time and its a race. They slug it out on top of the cage with Rudes ass hanging out almost entirely. They ram heads into the cage and both fall/jump, hitting the floor at the same time. There MUST be a winner though so Rude drills Piper on the floor with a chair. Rude goes all the way to the top of the cage and drops a huge fist onto the head of Piper for a very long two.
Big old jumping Piledriver has Rude in complete control. Piper is more or less dead. Rude goes up again but Piper shakes the cage to crotch Rick on the cage. Piper gets him tied in a Tree of Woe atop the cage but Heenan slams the door on his face. Rude climbs down and that only gets a two as the crowd is into this. Heenan slips an illegal (wouldnt it be legal in this?) object to Rude. He of course drops it and Piper drills Rude in the head so he can walk out to end it. They play the wrong music too.
Rating: B+. Fun match here although it started off kind of slowly. Once they got past that though it was all gravy baby as a friend of mine would say. These two knew how to make an old school style seem fresh and it worked quite well here. Good stuff and definitely the best match on the tape so far.
Blooper Reel eats up a lot of time and theyre not funny in the slightest. My guess is some of these arent exactly legit either. This goes on for like five minutes. Some of the Heenan/Gorilla stuff is good at the very end.
Hulk Hogan/Brutus Beefcake vs. The Genius/Mr. Perfect
Ok so at least were at the final of the tape. Naturally Hogan is world champion here but the Warrior was coming. MSG again here, likely the same show as its been all tape. The heels jump them as they come in. Heenan and Gorilla are on commentary here so we should get some funny lines.
Beefcake had cut Genius hair recently so his head is a comedy point. Hogan vs. Perfect to start us off. Heel shenanigans give Perfect the advantage but the powers of Hulkamania switches that around a bit. Off to Beefcake who beats up both guys with ease. Headknocker to Perfect and a right hand get two. The champion comes back in and the beating continues.
Lot of quick tags from Hogan and Beefcake. High knee gets two for Beefcake. Its weird to see Perfect get beaten down this much. Perfect may be bleeding from the nose. Finally Perfect gets a shot from the scroll to the head of Hogan and Hulk is in trouble. Genius comes in and prances around a lot. The moonsault gets knees though and Hogan gets the tag.
Brutus hammers away on Perfect and gets the Sleeper. Hogan runs interference but when Hebener is trying to get him out of the ring Genius gets a shot with the scroll and runs away. Ah there he is again. Old school tag team tactics where the referee misses the hot tag are still awesome.
Genius and Perfect hammer away on Brutus with Genius getting in Hogans face. Perfectplex gets two since Hogan makes the save. Genius tries to make the stop but heres Hogan. I think you know the drill as its Hogan in the 80s in MSG in the main event. What do you think is going to happen here? Genius is the victim if youre curious. More hair is cut post match.
Rating: C-. Not much here but it would have been fine as the main event of a house show. Hogan vs. Perfect was a big and long running feud on the house show circuit at this time and would continue once Hogan lost the title. Nothing too bad here but its nothing that was unpredictable at all. Decent enough though.
Overall Rating: D+. Ive seen far worse, but this wasnt much at all. Theres some ok stuff here but it looks more like they took a bunch of random videos and threw it together into a video here. Its not bad but dang this took awhile to get through. This wasnt the kindest era to the company and it comes out very clearly here. Decent tape, but nothing Id ever want to watch again. Cage match was good though.
Host: Sean Mooney
Commentators: Sean Mooney, Lord Alfred Hayes, Gorilla Monsoon, Hillbilly Jim, Tony Schiavone
Its another tape in this series, appearing to be from late 1989 to early 1990. There isnt much else to say on this one so lets get to it.
We open with Sean Mooney sitting at the control center with a bunch of old school WWF action figures and the ring. I loved that thing and wore it out. He runs down the lineup and it looks really quite awful. Were getting profiles on the Rockers and Slick. Odd pairing but fine I guess. Bret vs. Martel which should be good. Ah and Piper vs. Rude which should be awesome indeed. That would be early 90 or late 89. Oh and bloopers. Oh joy.
Jim Duggan vs. Randy Savage
This is for the Kings Crown held by Savage who beat Duggan for it I believe. Hacksaw gets tired of waiting on Savage to get off the throne (where are Gorilla and Jesse with some good jokes when you need them?) so he turns it over. More or less a brawl to start with Savage taking over with a clothesline. Duggan pounds away and hits a big clothesline with the huge blue trunks of doom.
Duggan gets distracted by Sherri so Savage can drill him and take over again. Hayes is surprised that the referee is counting Duggan on the floor. Uh, why? I love that low rise double axehandle that Savage hits off the top. Duggan hits something to get some separation. No clue what it was since we were on Sherri for about 20 seconds straight.
Savage is sent over the top to the floor as Duggan takes over again. Sherri yells at the referee and shoves him multiple times which somehow doesnt equal her being ejected. Knee drop gets no count for Duggan as Sherri interferes AGAIN. Duggan: IT WAS THE BROAD! I love random shouts like that. Savage collapses after every punch that Duggan lands which is cool looking selling.
Sherri gets in the ring so Duggan chases after her and the purse falls onto the mat. Thats notoriously loaded. Double axe off the top connects but at the same time Duggan gets a punch to the stomach so both guys are down. Savage gets the purse and blasts Duggan in the head with it while Sherri has the referee again. At least buy him dinner given all of the time youve taken up from him.
The purse shot only gets two surprisingly enough. Duggan gets a rollup for two and here he comes again. Well to be fair it was to his head so its not like that shot should mean anything really. Three Point Clothesline hits but Savage goes to the floor. We get the Mania 5 Rude/Warrior ending as Duggan goes for a suplex to bring him back in but Sherri trips up Duggan and holds the foot for the pin. Post match Duggan DRILLS Savage with the board.
Rating: C. Not a bad match really but the crowd carried this one for the most part. These two had a fairly long feud so they certainly knew how to get the crowd going. That and theyre natural heat/cheer magnets so its not like its very hard. Not much of a match but it was fast paced enough to make things interesting and a good opener to the tape.
Its time for a profile on the Rockers. Shawn and Marty introduce us to this thing and say theyve fought everyone. No mention of them actually winning or anything like that but I guess youre supposed to get that on your own. I wonder if Shawn is looking at Marty and thinking how good Martys head would look going through glass.
The Rockers vs. Powers of Pain
At Madison Square Garden at some point during the Colossal Connections title reign, putting this at some point from December 13, 1989 and Wrestlemania 6. Shawn and Barbarian start us off. Jim on commentary never was someone I was into but that accent was always catchy I guess. At least Gorilla is there to help us out. Power vs. speed here of course.
Bearhug to Shawn for a bit followed by Barbarian destroying him with a clothesline. The Rockers do the slam/dropkick to the back of the partner for the cover spot for two. They hammer away on Barbarian but cant get anything going due to his power game. Double superkick cant get him down but a double clothesline cane. The Rockers clear the ring to a nice response.
Warlord comes in and crushes the back of Shawn with big pounding shots. SLICK spot as Warlord has Shawn up for a powerbomb and Marty gets a dropkick to his back so Shawn can snap off a rana for two. Nice move. Off to Marty who takes the powerbomb instead. No save from Shawn as you can see the seeds being planted for the heel turn a mere year and a half later.
BIG backdrop has Marty in trouble. Into the ropes again with Warlord LAUNCHING Marty into the air so high that my eyes got very big in shock. That was DAMN impressive. And you can tell I mean that because Im capitalizing words. Barbarian in now and the beating continues. The Rockers were so awesome at selling it was unreal. On the floor after a big boot, Marty takes a cane to the back from Fuji.
Somersault off a clothesline by Marty as the selling is awesome again. Marty hits Warlord a few times and it gets absolutely no reaction at all. Back to the bearhug as Marty is in big trouble. Finally Marty gets a shot off the middle rope to .do nothing at all since a few seconds later he jumps into a powerslam that looked SICK.
Second rope elbow misses as always and theres the hot tag to Shawn after some stumbling around to find the right corner. Marty must have gotten the Columbian stuff tonight. The crowd gets way into this very quickly. Everything goes insane with a bunch of near falls off double team moves from the Rockers. Marty is whipped into Barbarian to take them both down. Fuji trips up Shawn and an elbow ends this. Wow nice way to have your profiled guys look weak.
Rating: B. Classic big man vs. little man tag match here and it worked rather well. The Rockers could crank it up with the best of them and they certainly did that here. The Powers were a good big man team that did exactly what they were supposed to do in making smaller teams like the Rockers look like big threats. Also if you ever want to see some great selling, take a look at this match with the Rockers looking incredible in that area.
Big brawl post match with the Powers massacring the Rockers because thats what evil monsters do I guess. After a modified Hart Attack from the Powers Shawn clears house with a chair.
The Rockers vs. Dino Bravo/Greg Valentine
Bravo and Valentine used to be the New Dream Team if youre unfamiliar and Im stunned that theyre still around at this point. Theyve been new for about two years at this point so I wonder if theyre old yet. This is at a Superstars taping in some unspecified city. Bravo vs. Jannetty to start us off here. The announcers try to imply that Valentine is a power guy which is a bit odd but kind of true at the same time.
A lot of dropkicks clear out the ring and the heels hug. That must have been a Jimmy Hart thing for some reason. Off to Valentine and Shawn now as it appears to be Shawn that is selling like a madman this time. The Rockers work over Valentines right arm which is very different to see. Theyre wrestling like heels here but with face personalities if that makes sense.
Heel double teaming (by the actual heels that is) takes over and Marty is playing Marty. Bravo spits on Shawn for some more double teaming to take place. Off to Valentine and the back work continues. In a nice spot Marty nips up and runs into Valentines shoulder block to send him right back down again.
Totally classic heat segment with Marty tagging Shawn but the referee doesnt see it. I love that spot. Bravo misses an elbow and its time for the tag off to Shawn. Where have I seen this before? Marty gets a sweet springboard off the bottom rope to launch himself past Bravo to make the tag. Ive never seen that before.
Shawn cleans some house until we get a double dropkick to Bravo followed by the double flying punch. Why mess with something as simple as a punch to the head I suppose? Why has no one else ever used a move like that? Another near fall for both teams sets up an OConnor Roll by Jannetty. Shawn comes in to stop Valentine but the referee stops Shawn, allowing Valentine to blast Jannetty and put Bravo on top for the upset win. Wow indeed.
Rating: C-. This got a lot of time at about 12 minutes. Its not horrible or anything but its got nothing on the previous match which was almost exactly the same formula with a slightly different ending. Not a terrible match really but the ending is really weird as why in the world would you have these two go over the Rockers? Bravo and Valentine sound like tag team jobbers, not a team getting a relatively clean pin.
In the words of Saliva, Hold tight cause the show is not over! Heres referee Ronnie Garvin (I wish the show had been over) to tell Hebner what happened and despite not doing anything that the referee saw, the Rockers win by .well apparently by decision. Keep in mind that neither Rocker pinned either other guy. Oh well I guess.
Its time for a Fan Favorite match where someone writes in to request a match, most of which suck. This time its Hercules vs. Akeem because the girl that wrote says she doesnt like how Akeem dances and Hercules is her favorite wrestler. Hercules says Akeem needs to have his dancing shoes on and Akeem doesnt say anything because hes insulted. Better than nothing kind of.
Akeem vs. Hercules
Tony Schiavone never sounded right commentating on WWF programming at all. Ten punches in the corner as Hercules likes to beat on big fat men. Akeem gets caught in the ropes a bit but hits the floor like a good fatass. Slick gives him a hug which must be a heel manager in the 80s thing in general.
Apparently Slicks peace and love doesnt last long as he wants to get in the ring and fight, even taking his jacket off. Akeem says let him do the fighting here. Back in and its time for some boxing. Hercules likes to punch to put it mildly. A slam doesnt work so maybe he should have stuck with the punching. Slick chokes with some tape or something and Hayes thinks they planned that in advance. NO! THATS NOT TRUE! Had to channel some Empire Strikes Back there to break my boredom.
Hercules fights back with some clotheslines but Slick pulls the rope down and there goes Hercules for the CHEAP DQ! Im not considering it a win yet as theres every chance that another wrestler turned referee could come out for the reversal to give Hercules the win because he has a lighter shade of blue on. Post match Hercules slams Akeem to show off a bit.
Rating: D+. Just a quick little comedy match that went nowhere. Not bad I guess but there wasnt much here at all. Also can we get a clean finish on this tape or is that something thats too much to wish for? So far weve had two managers hooking feet, one hooking a rope and a reversed decision. I guess were saving that for a big star or something? Whatever indeed.
Alfred Hayes goes over the names of some moves. This is one of those things that Ive always liked. The first subject is the Orient Express. This is kind of cool but do we need someone to explain to us what a forearm is? It eats up about four minutes. This sets up the following match perfectly.
Orient Express vs. Demolition
Both teams do quick promos which are nothing special at all really. Were in MSG again. Demolition used to be managed by Fuji so theres some heat there. This is 2 weeks from Mania apparently. Stalling to start until we get down to Smash vs. Tanaka. Its nearly a comedy bit to start as Tanaka keeps getting caught by punches and shots from Demolition after thinking he had escaped.
Kaito comes in and the stalling begins again. Theres the double teaming to take over and the Express takes over for all of 6 seconds. Back to Demolition with Smash using power to control here. Its weird to see the faces dominating this long into a match. Double backdrop sends Tanaka flying. More double teaming takes over again, this time for a full 15 seconds. No the best way to start us off here for the Express.
Since it worked so well the first two times they double team again but this time with a cane shot to the back of Smash which actually works. In other words Fuji managed to do what his men couldnt do in two tries. Its weird to see these teams against each other for some reason. I dont think Ive ever seen them fight before. Hayes goes into a lecture about history and wars between the Japanese and the British for no apparent reason.
The crowd isnt incredibly into this to put it mildly, mainly due to the Express having about a grand total of zero chance in this. Demolition realizes theyre one of the most successful teams of all time and starts hammering away. Off to Axe who hammers away on Tanaka until everything breaks down. They set for the Decapitator but Fuji interferes. Salt goes into Axes eyes and the fastest ten count ever ends this. Wow that was a terrible ending.
Rating: D+. Wow this was pretty bad. Was there ANY reason to give the win to the Orient Express here? The crowd seemed to hate it to put it mildly, so what was the point? Boring match too with Demolition never being in any danger it seemed. I dont really get this one at all.
I forgot to mention: every time Sean does a transition bit and says Supertape a voiceover says SUPERTAPE. No point to it or anything but its in there.
Bret Hart vs. Rick Martel
This should be awesome. Martel is a model by this point. A kid in a Mario shirt gets Brets glasses. Lucky twerp. Martel is incredibly muscular here, far more than I ever remember him being otherwise. Technical/can you top this stuff to start us off as you would expect. Small package (theres a steroids joke in there somewhere) gets two for Bret. After Martel hits the floor for a bit were back at it.
Bret works on the arm to waste a bit of time. Gorilla thinks neither guy has any trouble getting a date for Saturday night. Given the stories Bret told in his book Id agree with Monsoon there. This armbar goes for a good while. For no adequately explained reason Hillbilly wants to know what place in Europe is like Kentucky. This goes on for a bit and we hear about Grannys Possum Pie. The Rocks Pie song is stuck in my head now. Thanks guys.
Martel takes over and rams Bret into the apron and does some jumping jacks. Gorilla says weve been at this over ten minutes. More like five but whos counting? Martel works on the back and ribs. Abdominal stretch goes on so Gorilla gets a chance to complain about it. I need to go back and watch some of his matches to see if he ever used it.
Bret fights back with an atomic drop. Im not sure if this has been good or not. Its kind of an odd match in that sense. Bret gets the Five Moves of Doom going (Gorilla says the leg sweet is a neckbreaker oddly enough. Who am I supposed to believe now???) for a bunch of two counts. They hit the floor and then go right back in. Bret spreads Martels legs but theres no Sharpshooter at this point so its just a stomp. They fight on the floor and its a time limit at 12 minutes? Apparently so, which is kind of stupid when you could have gone with a double countout but whatever.
Rating: C+. The time thing is really weird here and Bret not having a finishing move hurt him a lot. The Sharpshooter was nearly two years away at this point so that certainly wasnt an option yet. Fun match but it never got to the point that it should with these two. Also the ending was kind of weird. More good than bad though, as there wasnt much bad at all.
Profile on Slick, which is a promo talking about how awesome he is plus clips of him dancing and managing. Runs maybe 90 seconds.
Roddy Piper vs. Rick Rude
In a cage here and Sean says its one of the best in history. Why do I not believe him? Pipers music is really different here and its kind of weird. You can win with a pin here which is a brand new thing here. Rude rams into the cage and Piper controls early on. Belt to the back of Rude as this is one sided to start. Rude tries to escape and its the Rude Ass Shot for no apparent reason.
Piper gets rammed and might have hurt his hand. Hes busted up too as Rude takes over for the first time here. A bunch of pounding gets two. Rude changes his mind and goes for the door where Heenan tries to help him. We get the second shot of Rudes ass in a single match. His ass is hanging out of his tights now.
Rude Awakening hits but Rude is down and bleeding too much to cover. Maybe Piper isnt bleeding and it was Rudes blood on him earlier. Piper gets up and stops Rude from getting out again. Why Rick didnt cover him is beyond me but Im no professional. They ram heads and the referee counts for no apparent reason since you cant win by countout.
Both guys go up at the same time and its a race. They slug it out on top of the cage with Rudes ass hanging out almost entirely. They ram heads into the cage and both fall/jump, hitting the floor at the same time. There MUST be a winner though so Rude drills Piper on the floor with a chair. Rude goes all the way to the top of the cage and drops a huge fist onto the head of Piper for a very long two.
Big old jumping Piledriver has Rude in complete control. Piper is more or less dead. Rude goes up again but Piper shakes the cage to crotch Rick on the cage. Piper gets him tied in a Tree of Woe atop the cage but Heenan slams the door on his face. Rude climbs down and that only gets a two as the crowd is into this. Heenan slips an illegal (wouldnt it be legal in this?) object to Rude. He of course drops it and Piper drills Rude in the head so he can walk out to end it. They play the wrong music too.
Rating: B+. Fun match here although it started off kind of slowly. Once they got past that though it was all gravy baby as a friend of mine would say. These two knew how to make an old school style seem fresh and it worked quite well here. Good stuff and definitely the best match on the tape so far.
Blooper Reel eats up a lot of time and theyre not funny in the slightest. My guess is some of these arent exactly legit either. This goes on for like five minutes. Some of the Heenan/Gorilla stuff is good at the very end.
Hulk Hogan/Brutus Beefcake vs. The Genius/Mr. Perfect
Ok so at least were at the final of the tape. Naturally Hogan is world champion here but the Warrior was coming. MSG again here, likely the same show as its been all tape. The heels jump them as they come in. Heenan and Gorilla are on commentary here so we should get some funny lines.
Beefcake had cut Genius hair recently so his head is a comedy point. Hogan vs. Perfect to start us off. Heel shenanigans give Perfect the advantage but the powers of Hulkamania switches that around a bit. Off to Beefcake who beats up both guys with ease. Headknocker to Perfect and a right hand get two. The champion comes back in and the beating continues.
Lot of quick tags from Hogan and Beefcake. High knee gets two for Beefcake. Its weird to see Perfect get beaten down this much. Perfect may be bleeding from the nose. Finally Perfect gets a shot from the scroll to the head of Hogan and Hulk is in trouble. Genius comes in and prances around a lot. The moonsault gets knees though and Hogan gets the tag.
Brutus hammers away on Perfect and gets the Sleeper. Hogan runs interference but when Hebener is trying to get him out of the ring Genius gets a shot with the scroll and runs away. Ah there he is again. Old school tag team tactics where the referee misses the hot tag are still awesome.
Genius and Perfect hammer away on Brutus with Genius getting in Hogans face. Perfectplex gets two since Hogan makes the save. Genius tries to make the stop but heres Hogan. I think you know the drill as its Hogan in the 80s in MSG in the main event. What do you think is going to happen here? Genius is the victim if youre curious. More hair is cut post match.
Rating: C-. Not much here but it would have been fine as the main event of a house show. Hogan vs. Perfect was a big and long running feud on the house show circuit at this time and would continue once Hogan lost the title. Nothing too bad here but its nothing that was unpredictable at all. Decent enough though.
Overall Rating: D+. Ive seen far worse, but this wasnt much at all. Theres some ok stuff here but it looks more like they took a bunch of random videos and threw it together into a video here. Its not bad but dang this took awhile to get through. This wasnt the kindest era to the company and it comes out very clearly here. Decent tape, but nothing Id ever want to watch again. Cage match was good though.