wrestling / Video Reviews
The Name on the Marquee: WWF Prime Time Wrestling (1.2.1989)
Loading...-Originally aired January 2, 1989.
-Your hosts are Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan. The gag this week is that Gorilla is teasing Heenan for going on the air with an obvious hangover, and it seems like they’re covering for something legit because Bobby is slurring his words and his voice has an odd thickness to it.
JIM POWERS vs. DANGEROUS DANNY DAVIS
-From Daytona Beach. Danny wants a handshake but Powers isn’t having it. Dropkick sends Danny to the floor to do what he does best and stall for a little bit. Powers slingshots him back in and works the arm. Lord Alfred blindsides me by retconning a new backstory for Danny Davis, talking about how, as an amateur, he represented the USA in a number of international competitions before becoming a referee.
-Powers works the arm some more, giving me ample time to try to wrap my head around Danny “The Olympian” Davis. Powers misses a corner charge and Danny capitalizes with a Greco-Roman stomp to the face. Powers comes back with a clothesline and a backdrop for two. They battle for a roll-up, and Danny uses a handful of tights to get three out of nowhere. Nothing here.
-We take a look back at highlights of the Ultimate Warrior in 1988. Weirdness, as Gorilla and Bobby discuss how they called commentary on the Summerslam title change, and then they show the match and Bobby definitely ain’t there.
-Next in the year in review, we look back at the completely embarassing face turn of Hercules. “Hey Hercules, I need you to come with me to the interview platform while I accept a briefcase full of money from the Million Dollar Man and announce that I sold him a slave.” “Cool! I find nothing suspicious about that, Bobby!”
-Next, he TRUE highlight of 1988. An evil twin referee costs Hulk Hogan the match against Andre the Giant, who then announces that he’s surrendering the “Tag Team Championship” to Ted DiBiase. This leads Jack Tunney to declare a state of Therefore, which leads to Randy Savage winning the gold at Wrestlemania.
UPDATE
-Bad News Brown confronts Jack Tunney on The Brother Love Show, accusing Elizabeth of first-degree Ho-Ness. We jump ahead to last week, when Bad News finishes a squash match and demands a bout right here, in this very ring tonight, against Randy Savage. Randy doesn’t show up until Bad News says Elizabeth is probably in the locker room canoodling with Jack Tunney. Savage flies to the ring in a rage and they brawl all over the place, with the locker room emptying out to separate them.
-We look at a montage of the WWF’s “new faces of 1988”: Mister Perfect, The Bushwhackers, the Red Rooster, the Blue Blazer, the Big Boss Man, and Akeem. Okay, including Akeem among the new wrestlers is kind of funny, I’ll give them credit.
-Next, the Big Boss Man lays out Hulk Hogan on The Brother Love Show.
-Gorilla predicts that the Royal Rumble will include “things that people don’t want to see.” That’s about how we felt about the Super Posedown and Big John Studd winning.
ROCKERS vs. IRON MIKE SHARPE & JOSE ESTRADA
-Arn and Tully drop in to promise there’s going to be trouble for the Rockers at the Rumble. Rockers clear Iron Mike from the ring with dropkicks as George Steinbrenner and Phil Rizzuto are sitting at ringside enjoying the proceedings. No acknowledgment at all from the commentators. Instead Gorilla and Bobby touch on how stupid it is for Elizabeth to let Randy Savage sign for the Royal Rumble when he holds the WWF title and stands to gain NOTHING from winning it. Good, solid point from Heenan.
-Jobbers crash into each other, sending Iron Mike back out to the floor, and a nice suplex/bodypress combo puts away Estrada.
EVENT CENTER
-Rick Martel says he signed for the Royal Rumble because it’s so dangerous that he can prove it to himself and his doctors: he can still wrestle. Kind of funny that Demolition has turned face, which means Martel can’t say WHY he was out of wrestling all this time. The Quubec contingent comments on the six-man tag match at the Rumble. Dave Meltzer mentions in the Observer around this time that this was originally announced as a flag match, but that’s NEVER come up in anything I’ve watched so far.
-Continuing the Year in Review theme, Bobby Heenan cheerfully hums Brother Love’s theme music as we look back at the debut Brother Love segment.
-We look back at Demolition’s rise and split from Mr. Fuji, and the coronation of King Haku.
-Onto the Year of the Mega-Powers.
ROYAL RUMBLE REPORT
-Andre the Giant and Jake “The Snake” Roberts will both be in the Rumble, so let’s take a moment to watch Andre’s kayfabe coronary. We flash back to Dino Bravo’s world record attempt from the 1988 Royal Rumble, because the worst 20 minutes of last year’s free show is exactly what makes me want to pay for it now.
-Weird level of effort: when Gorilla does the phone number plug for satellite dish owners to order the Rumble, instead of pixelating the phone number, they went to the trouble of just creating a new fake graphic to splash across the screen with no phone number. How do we know it’s not the original graphic? Because of the 16:9 aspect ratio.
BRET “Hit Man” HART vs. BAD NEWS BROWN
-From Boston Garden all the way back in May, with Sean Mooney dubbing new commentary into the match even though Gorilla is clearly seen at ringside. This entire show is just an ever-expanding web of deceit.
-They trade hiptosses and Bad News takes control with a slam. Bad News fights back with rights in the corner. Bret gets aggressive right back with eye gouging and choking, then sends him to the floor. Back in, Bad News is having a bad night as Bret works over his legs and drives an elbow right into the skull. Bret rams him into the turnbuckle, having made the classic rookie mistake of thinking Bad News is a white guy, and Bad News no-sells it and boots him down. A legdrop by Bad News gets two.
-Back from commercial, another legdrop, another two. Bad News tries choking him out while Sean Mooney mentions the Super Posedown and asks Lord Alfred, “Who do you think has the best body?” And Alfred condescendingly answers, “Well, you know my views on that.”
-Bret reverses a corner charge but misses with the elbow off the second rope. But Bad News goes aerial and turnabout’s fair play, as Bad News crashes. Bret takes advantage, lighting into him with punches, and a snap suplex gets two. Piledriver by Bret, but the bell sounds as he has Bad News in the air, and the time limit has expired. Crowd wasn’t feeling it, but the match was fine.
-Bobby predicts that 1989 will be the best year of his career, and that actually turned out to be true.
