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Views from the Hawke’s Nest: The Best of Saturday Night’s Main Event – Disc 3

October 29, 2015 | Posted by TJ Hawke
WWE Saturday Night's Main Event WWF SNME Image Credit: WWE
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Views from the Hawke’s Nest: The Best of Saturday Night’s Main Event – Disc 3  

Gene Okerlund is still the host.

 

November 25, 1989
Mr. Perfect took a hammer to Hogan’s WWF belt while Lanny Poffo did his thing. What a combo these two were. This was all very well done.

Hulk Hogan later cut a promo about that. I actually thought this was one of the better promos I’ve seen from him. He conveyed how wounded he was by the actions of Perfect.

 

January 27, 1990
Mr. Perfect and Lanny Poffo cut a promo on Hogan. I LOVE this combo. We then heard from the Hulk Hogan/Ultimate Warrior team.

Hulk Hogan & Ultimate Warrior vs. Mr. Perfect & The Genius
Perfect and Genius were bumping around like mad men for the babyfaces. I’m a big fan of Perfect selling all of Hogan’s offense like The Rock used to sell stunners. Great stuff. Perfect had to hit Hogan with Genius’ metal scroll to cut him off. Hogan got worked over for a bit. Perfect didn’t let himself win after the Perfect-plex. He gave Genius a chance to do a moonsault, but Hogan got his knees up. Hot tag from Warrior. Warrior did the damage, and Hogan then did a blind tag to steal the pin.

Warrior accidentally gave Hogan a lariat after the match.

Perfect and Genius bumping around for this entire match was just a delight and absolutely made this enjoyable. The build for Warrior vs. Hogan didn’t interest me as much. It’s a shame Perfect/Genius weren’t around to feud with The Mega Powers at the time. That could have been real special.

Match Rating: ***1/4

 

April 28, 1990
Hulk Hogan vs. Mr. Perfect (w/ The Genius)

Hogan was mostly in control until Perfect hit him with the metal scroll. Perfect then worked him over. Hogan kicked out of the Perfect-plex. Hogan eventually Hulked Up and finished Perfect with the Legdrop of Doom.

This was unexciting Hogan formula. No one at this time was really a threat to Hogan, but it was particularly impossible to suspend your disbelief in this one.

Match Rating: **1/2

 

The Hart Foundation (Bret Hart & Jim Neidhart) vs. The Rockers (Shawn Michaels & Marty Jannetty)

Lots of hot action to start the match. Michaels got cut off after Bret attacked him from the apron. Michaels was getting worked over, as Demolition came out to distract everyone. Hart got distracted, and Michaels dropkicked him to the floor. There was a commercial. When we came back, Bret was working over Shawn some more. He escaped the beatdown, and Marty made a comeback. Neidhart and Michaels tagged in, and they went at it. Michaels spilled to the floor, and Marty started going at it with Demolition. The match broke down into a brawl with all six men. Disqualification. Fantastic.

The match itself was very impressive until the finish as expected. I could probably watch these two teams have lots of matches together. The finish was much more frustrating in the context of the Bret DVD.

Match Rating: **3/4

 

July 28, 1990
Mr. Perfect(c) (w/ Bobby Heenan) vs. Tito Santana [WWF Intercontinental Championship]

Perfect cut him off fairly quickly. Santana started to fight back, but he accidentally caused a ref bump. Santana had Perfect finished with the figure four, but the ref wasn’t there. Santana then hit a leaping forearm:……1….2….NO! The referee was proving incapable of doing his job properly, a new referee was sent down as a result. Perfect managed to get control again, and he went back to working over Santana. Sanatana started to fire back, and Perfect was bumping all over the place for him. After surviving another onslaught of offense, Perfect reversed a Santana small package into one of his own: 1…2…3!

This is easily the best Perfect match that I’ve seen from his WWF days. He made Santana look like a dominant force, as he manhandled Perfect for the majority of the match. Perfect was just crafty enough to escape with the title, which made him seem like a worthy champion. Great, great match.

Match Rating: ****

 

April 27, 1991
Earthquake vs. Greg Valentine vs. Haku vs. Hercules vs. Hulk Hogan vs. Jake Roberts vs. Jim Duggan vs. Jimmy Snuka vs. Kato vs. Marty Jannetty vs. Mr. Perfect (w/Bobby Heenan) vs. Paul Roma vs. Shawn Michaels vs. Tanaka vs. The Barbarian vs. The Big Boss Man vs. The British Bulldog vs. The Texas Tornado vs. The Warlord vs. Tugboat

This was obviously a battle royal. It was a boring one. Tugboat eliminating Hogan was the highlight. One of these years, it will be the Year of Tugboat. It came down to Shawn, Valentine, Perfect, and Barbarian. Perfect eliminated Shawn. Perfect and Barbarian tried to work together, but it backfired when Perfect accidentally dropkicked Barbarian. Valentine then eliminated him, and we had our final two. Valentine seemed to be on the verge of winning, but Perfect managed to reverse it.

This was a battle royal. It was not exciting or interesting.

Match Rating: *1/2

 

Bret Hart vs. Ted DiBiase (w/Sensational Sherri)

Bret hit a pescado early on. It took a while, but DiBiase finally cut Bret off with a Hot Shot. DiBiase was in control for a decent amount of time, but he couldn’t apply the Million Dollar Dream. Bret made a lengthy comeback, but he couldn’t put DiBiase away. A Sherri distraction allowed DiBiase to cut Bret off again. Roddy Piper came to the ringside area to deal with Sherri. He chased her around and attacked her with a broom. Bret and DiBiase ended up on the floor but got counted out.

The match was laid out well and had good heat and intensity.

Match Rating: **3/4

 

Okerlund said that the following match was the only time Flair and Taker appeared on SNME. For some reason, Okerlund said this was ironic. Amusing, perhaps. Not ironic.

 

February 8, 1992
Hulk Hogan & Sid Justice (w/ Brutus Beefcake) vs. The Undertaker & Ric Flair (w/ Paul Bearer & Mr. Perfect)

Hogan/Flair was still the on-screen presumptive Wrestlemania main event at this time. It was all Hogan and Justice early on. Justice was eventually cut off by some illegal doubleteam work by Flair and Taker. Hogan made the save very quickly though. Justice looked displeased with Hogan after that. There was a commercial break.

When we came back, Taker attacked a distracted Sid from behind. Flair and Taker then worked over Sid. Sid eventually bashed their heads together and then tagged out to Hogan. A Mr. Perfect distraction allowed Flair to go after one of Hogan’s legs. He then applied the figure four. Sid Justice did not make an effort to tag in. Hogan was worked over by Flair and Taker. Hogan came back, but he needed a tag. Hogan made his way to the corner, but Sid walked out on the match. Brutus Beefcake tried to stop him, but Sid kept going. Flair and Taker kept beating up Hogan. I think they got disqualified.

Brutus went to attack them, but he was immediately cornered. That woke Hogan up, and he made a big comeback.

There were some fun moments in this one, but this match existed for the Sid/Hogan angle more than anything else.

Match Rating: **1/2

Watch this match here.

 

We saw highlights of Roddy Piper beating The Mountie for the IC belt.

 

November 14, 1992
The British Bulldog(c) vs. Shawn Michaels [WWF Intercontinental Championship]

It took a bit, but Shawn did of course cut off Bulldog. Shawn in control for a while until Bulldog escaped an abdominal stretch. Bulldog then made a comeback. Shawn slowed his momentum by sending Bulldog into an exposed turnbuckle. Shawn then reversed a superplex into a crossbody: 1…2…3!

This was okay. I was very distracted by what seemed like obviously canned noise. You could literally dozens of people sitting with their arms crossed while the crowd supposedly reacted like this Hogan/Andre. I might take another look at this one down the line.

Match Rating: **1/2

 

Okerlund then talks about how SNME returned in 2006 “due to popular demand!”

 

March 18, 2006
Shawn Michaels vs. Shane McMahon (w/ Vince McMahon) [Street Fight]

This seems like it has a solid chance of being good.

Shawn attacked Shane during his entrance. Shane actually got control on the floor by sending Shawn into a ringpost. Vince had not interfered until he placed Shawn on a table for Shane. Shawn fought off Vince and then superplexed Shawn off a ladder in the ring through two tables on the floor. That was somehow not the finish. After a commercial break, Shawn was in control in the ring. Shawn went to the top of a ladder again, but Vince hit him with kendo stick. Shane then had control of the match. Shane threw everything at Shawn, but Shawn would not stay down. Vince held Shawn done for the Coast-to-Coast with a trash can, but Shawn got out of the way so that Shane ended up doing to Vince. Shawn then made his comeback on Vince. Shawn hit the superkick, but Vince pulled the referee out. Shane gave Shawn a low blow before he could hurt Vince. Shane applied the sharpshooter, and Vince then ordered the bell rung. Blahhhhhhhhh

This was merely an angle to further develop a feud that should not have taken place (even if the Wrestlemania blowoff was a guilty pleasure of mine). The effort from Shawn and Shane was obviously there, but this failed to entertain me.

Match Rating: **1/4

 

July 15, 2006
Degeneration-X (Shawn Michaels & Triple H) vs. The Spirit Squad [Elimination Match]
Shawn quickly eliminated Mitch with a superkick. He had to be locked up. Johnny then got eliminated by a HHH spinebuster. Kenny tried to run out on the match. Shawn chased after him, and Vince McMahon promptly hit him with a chair. Shawn then got worked over by the Squad in the ring. That did not last long, and HHH made a hot tag. Nicky got eliminated with a pedigree. Mikey got eliminated with a superkick. They took their time with Kenny. DX was begging for the crowd to care. They were politely responsive. Superkick/Pedigree finished Kenny.

Vince threw a tantrum after the match and tried to free the squad from their penalty box. Shawn superkicked him into the cage though, and D-X stood tall.

The D-X vs. McMahon feud was one of my least-favorite feud in modern WWE history.

Match Rating: 1/2*

 

July 15, 2006
Edge(c) (w/ Lita) vs. John Cena [WWE Heavyweight Championship]

Edge botched a superplex early on. They were lucky to not get injured on that one. Edge maintained control though and worked Cena over. Cena made a comeback. Cena hit the FU, but Lita pulled the ref out. Cena applied the STF, and Lita slapped the ref to save the match this time. Edge was tapping out while the ref disqualified Edge.

Cena thought he had won the title. Edge caught Cena with a spear. Cena recovered and attacked Edge. Cena put Edge through the Raw announce table with a FU.

This was barely a match at all. They put little to no effort into the match, and you could tell it was just a setup for the angle afterwards.

Match Rating: *1/2

 

Okerlund ends the DVD by talking about what a phenomenon SNME was. Then why was it cancelled????

 

Special Features

We saw footage of Lord Alfred Hayes and Gene Okerlund going on a safari. Koko BeWare popped in with his bird. Hayes calling Gene the wrong name was great stuff. I am a huge Lord Alfred Hayes fan so this was definitely worth watching.

There was a video of Shawn Michaels discussing his IC title win. I believe it was a deleted scene from his Heartbreak & Triumph DVD.

Matt Hardy discussed boxing Evander Holyfield. Matt kept it kayfabe.

8.5
The final score: review Very Good
The 411
This set was great because of the great variety throughout and consistent quality. There were a lot of hidden gems from the SNME shows that I had never seen before, and they were a ton of fun to watch in a row.
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