wrestling / Video Reviews
The Name on the Marquee: WWF Prime Time Wrestling (9.15.1986)
Loading...-Originally aired September 15, 1986.
-Your hosts are Gorilla Monsoon & Bobby Heenan.
INTERCONTINENTAL TITLE: RANDY “Macho Man” SAVAGE (Champion, with Elizabeth) vs. PEDRO MORALES
-Morales gets antsy and tries to attack before the bell, so Savage takes that as a good excuse to stall. They lock up and Morales tries to make it a quick night, hitting a series of moves and going for a pin after every one. Savage gets frustrated and dives out to the floor, where he lobs a chair into the ring and picks a fight with a photographer. Tonight’s distracting detail: Referee has what appears to be a page of notes sticking out of his back pocket.
-Knee by Savage sends Pedro out to the floor. Drunk fan taps on the barricade and says “Right here, Savage,” so Savage rams Pedro into that exact spot. That’s great. What’s really funny is the security guard who steps over to that area to keep an eye on the fan afterward.
-Savage attacks from the apron and suplexes him back inside. That gets a two-count, which astonishes Lord Alfred, who says he’s never seen anyone kick out of a suplex before. Savage comes off the top for an axehandle but Morales meets him with a hard shot to the gut, and Savage is so winded he collapses and falls out of the ring. Pedro brings him back in and slams him for two.
-Action goes back out to the floor. Pedro rams Savage into the barricade. Savage gets desperate, grabs a folding chair, and throws it at Morales. It misses, which for some reason causes Savage to writhe in pain so badly that he can’t get back into the ring in time, and Morales takes the win by count-out. Lord Alfred tries to get across the idea that the chair bounced off the concrete floor and took out Savage’s leg, but this theory is immediately defeated by thinking.
NICK KINISKI vs. LES THORNTON
-Joined in progress from MSG. We start on the mat and we STAY there, with thislocks and thatbars. Crowd chants “boring” but one lone disgruntled fan does them better by shouting it into a megaphone. Crowd is booing this out of the building, and we literally watch this match for five minutes before either man rises to his feet.
-Thornton gets aggressive with a clothesline. Thornton marches around in celebratory fashion while the referee counts Kiniski’s shoulders to the mat with nobody covering him. Gorilla sounds like he’s about to throw down his headset, march into the ring, and slap the shit out of that referee.
-Thornton goes for a slam, but Kiniski counters it with a German suplex for three.
-Gorilla gives Kiniski props for his amateur wrestling skills. Heenan says that amateur wrestling is his second-favortie thing to watch. Everything else is tied for first.
-Gorilla and Bobby look at an astonishing overhead shot of the CNE Stadium for The Big Event. 70,000 fans showed up, “all to see Paul Orndorff and myself.”
KING TONGA/HAKU vs. MAGNIFICENT MURACO (with Mr. Fuji)
-From CNE Stadium. He’s introduced as King Tonga, but Gorilla notes on commentary that he’s asking everybody to start calling him Haku, so that’s just what I’ll do.
-One hell of a long stall session got cut here, as we jump from Muraco pacing in the corner talking to Mr. Fuji to Muraco pacing in the corner talking to Mr. Fuji. Haku chops Muraco and dropkicks him over the top rope. Johnny V, apparently being fed lines by Michael Cole, notes that Haku has feet like a crocodile. Arm wringer by Haku goes on for quite a while, and it’s quite a complicated hold, as Muraco kneels and lays on the mat, perfectly still, as he tries to think of how to get out of it. Haku goes off the ropes and gets tripped up by Fuji, and Muraco takes advantage. He sends Haku out to the floor and Fuji cracks him across the back with the cane. That works so well that he tries a shot to the ribs. Muraco powerslams him back into the ring, then goes to a nerve hold because he hates me.
-Haku takes a nap while in the hold, planning to wake up refreshed and ready to break the hold. The referee does the arm-raising thing when he appears to pass out, and the arm drops FIVE times before Haku starts to show signs of life. He elbows and chops his way out of the hold and dropkicks Muraco into the corner, then Irish whips him and misses the follow-through charge. Muraco rams Haku’s lateral ligaments into the ring post. Thank god it wasn’t the lateral collateral ligaments or else they’d have to stop the match. Muraco works the wrong leg with a modified atomic drop. Stepover toehold is blocked by Haku. Muraco keeps working the leg, and I have never heard a crowd of 65,000 this quiet.
-Figure four by Muraco, but Haku makes it to the ropes. Muraco chops Haku down and keeps working the leg. He goes to the apron and poses & bows for the fans to make sure that everybody knows what’s about to happen, and indeed he heads to the top rope and gets Flair-slammed. Haku chops Muraco and goes to the top rope. He makes contact with a flying bodypress, but before the referee can make the three-count, the bell sounds for the time limit draw. I must strenuously disagree with Gorilla Monsoon here and insist that this match was by no stretch of the imagination a happening.
TED ARCIDI vs. TONY GAREA
-From CNE Stadium. Arcidi was the “World’s Strongest Man,” 1985-86 model, who came in as a heel, turned face immediately, and is working heel again here. He shoves Garea a few times. Shoulderblocks go nowhere, and good god, I thought the crowd was quiet for the last match. Collar-elbow lock-up goes nowhere as the crowd is now giving their undivided attention to something happening on the other side of the stadium. Garea tries a shoulderblock and a dropkick, but he runs into a bearhug and submits. Arcidi was shown the door shortly after; he turned face as he walked out the door, then turned heel again as he hailed the cab.
DICK “The Rebel” SLATER vs. IRON MIKE SHARPE
-From CNE Stadium. Iron Mike Sharpe’s “Yaaaaaaaayyyy!” for himself when Howard Finkel says his name is all it takes to bring me out of my bad mood. Iron Mike gets hammerlocked and immediately retreats. Test of strength is won by Slater and he stomps Sharpe’s fingers on the mat. Wide shot of the crowd is blocked by one of the Hulk Hogan #1 foam fingers, and in a nice touch, the cameraman “follows” the finger back to a shot of the ring. Hope he got a bonus for thinking of doing that.
Sloppy neckbreaker by Slater. He misses an elbow, but comes back with a Russian legsweep. Elbow from the top rope gets the win. Well…Iron Mike still makes me happy.
ROUGEAU BROTHERS vs. DREAM TEAM
-From CNE Stadium.
-Dream Team attacks before the bell, but the Rougeaus come back and clear the ring. Valentine gets double-teamed back in the ring for a two-count. Jacques chops away and drops a knee. Raymond enters with a series of kicks for a two-count. Jacques elbows Valentine for a two-count. Abdominal stretch by Jacques and Beefcake comes in to try his luck. Raymond keeps the advantage going until Beefcake comes back with kicks. Raymond gets double-teamed and Valentine re-enters to keep dishing out the punishment.
-Flying bodypress by Raymond gets a two-count. Jacques comes in and a double dropkick takes down the Hammer for a two-count. Double-team effort keeps the Dream Team alive, but Jacques kicks away a possible figure four. Beefcake comes in and shows what he brought to the table for the Dream Team by yelling “Come on, get up!” and strutting until Jacques fights back. Rougeaus Irish whip the Dream Team into each other. Dream Team comes back and Hammer attacks Raymond on the floor.
-Raymond takes FOREVER to get back in and takes a backbreaker from Beefcake for two. Valentine tags in but still can’t finish Raymond off. Beefcake tags back in for two. Bearhug by Valentine to pay off working the back for the entire match. Beefcake comes in with an axehandle for two. Double-Dream-Teaming in the corner keeps Raymond down. Valentine misses a series of elbows and Jacques finally tags in and cleans house with dropkicks and bodyslams. Fisticuffs are exchanged until Dream Team fights back with more double-teaming.
-Dropkick wipes out both Dream Teamsters. Valentine gets the advantage back but can’t get the figure four locked in. He tries again and this time he gets it. Raymond rushes in and that brings in Beefcake. They brawl and in the confusion, Raymond rolls up Valentine and pins him. This absolutely blew their Wrestlemania III re-match out of the water and it’s a bit of a hidden gem in this card.
