The Name on the Marquee: WWF Prime Time Wrestling (11.12.1987)

-Originally aired November 12, 1987.

-Your hosts are Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan.

INTERCONTINENTAL TITLE: HONKY TONK MAN (Champion, with Jimmy Hart) vs HILLBILLY JIM
-We’re in Houston, with Bruce Prichard, Mike McGuirk, and the Duke of Dorchester on commentary, and you’ll be surprised at how fast you get sick of this trio if you end up watching this episode.

-Honky suckers Hillbilly into chasing him around the ring and attacks him on the way back in. Honky applies an armbar. Hillbilly has a massive dark spot on the ass of his overalls that makes me want to ask questions that can never be answered. Hillbilly fights back with an atomic drop and a series of headbutts for two.

-Bearhug by Hillbilly, but Honky survives. A big boot puts him down for two. Attempted elbow by Hillbilly misses. Honky works the back over with aggressive downward ball thrusting and a rear chinlock. Fistdrop misses and Hillbilly fights back with lefts and rights. Corner charge misses and Honky rolls him up for a three-count. This was fine.

OUTBACK JACK vs JOSE ESTRADA
-From MSG. Estrada stalls and then attacks with rapid fire punches. Jack punches back and gets some nice air on a hiptoss. Side headlock applied as Gorilla warns Bobby Heenan that some of his men might have to put their “John Henry” on a contract to face Outback Jack. Heenan’s men might have to drive steel rivets into a contract?

-Shoulderblock and a slam by Outback. MSG is merciless tonight, as they start a “boring” chant the very nanosecond that a side headlock is applied. Estrada elbows down Outback Jack and comes off the top rope with an axehandle. Estrada ends Outback out to the floor and blocks him from re-entering a few times. Back in, Outback reverses a suplex and Estrada is bleeding hardway from something or other.

-Estrada fights back with shoulderblocks, but runs into a powerslam for three. Not a classic, not a match of the year, but I feel secure in calling this Outback Jack’s best match ever.

SPECIAL REPORT
-Craig DeGeorge announces that Billy Jack Haynes and Ken Patera are joining forces to form an exciting new tag team. Demolition beats the crap out of jobber Brady Boone after a squash match and Brady’s “cousin” Billy Jack comes to the rescue. Demolition attacks Billy Jack too, which brings out Ken Patera and he gets a cane to the weasel whacker for it. Okay, so you have a super-talented jobber, Brady Boone, who has a similar look to Billy Jack Haynes, and you give them a made-up family connection, and you use it to create a tag team combining Billy Jack and a different guy?

BAM-BAM BIGELOW (with Oliver Humperdink) vs NIKOLAI VOLKOFF
-From Houston. Bigelow gets a hold of Volkoff’s leg and gets him down on the mat right away. Volkoff tries to slug it out with him and Bigelow just punches him out to the floor. Worth noting that Duke’s commentary style has completely changed from the way he called the last Houston match, as if he got a stern lecture.

-Shoulderblock by Bigelow, followed by a diving headbutt. Volkoff tries punching him again but misses a corner charge, and the slingshot splash gives Bam-Bam the win. Another total squash of Volkoff.

-Gene Okerlund has words with Jimmy Hart and the Honky Tonk Man…and Danny Davis. Honky appoints Danny “honorary co-captain” so Honky can focus all of his attention on training for Randy Savage.

-The world television premiere of “Jive Soul Bro” by Slick! The awe-inspring Coliseum intro where Slick is eating an entire bucket of fried chicken isn’t here, just the video. Famously catchy tune, and Slick and everybody else in the video seem to be having a total blast, so it’s honestly pretty fun to look at.

“The Natural” BUTCH REED (with Slick) vs OMAR ATLAS
-From Wrestling Challenge. Reed stomps the proverbial mudhole, but puts his head down for a backdrop and Omar goes to work with punches and kicks. Press slam by Reed, and the flying clothesline ends it. Another squash and nothing more.

-Bobby Heenan holds up the new Junkyard Dog stretchable action figure. He says the figure looks like Grady from “Sanford and Son” and the crew is losing it off-camera.

JUNKYARD DOG vs “The Million Dollar Man” TED DIBIASE (with Virgil)
-From Green Bay, Wisconsin, with Nick Bockwinkel now joining Bruce and Mike. A hot main event once upon a time. Maybe the site of his opponent will get JYD motivated.

-JYD just hammers DiBiase and backdrops him while Virgil stays in the ring. Virgil waves money in JYD’s face until DiBiase attacks from behind, and now Virgil gets out of the ring. JYD knocks his boss out there too a few seconds later.

-DiBiase stalls for a bit and tries ramming JYD into the turnbuckles, but JYD gets fired up and DiBiase stalls some more. JYD starts working the arm wringing it and headbutting it while Bockwinkel aptly notes that JYD’s head is large than his foot. JYD clotheslines him down and does the crawling headbutts to send DiBiase out to the floor.

-DiBiase stalls some more before heading back in. Dog works the arm some more but misses a diving headbutt. DiBiase starts targeting the head with stomps and fistdrops. DiBiase celebrates prematurely, then goes to the second turnbuckle and goes for a splash, but JYD holds up a fist and knocks him silly. Another round of crawling headbutts, including one to Virgil, and he steals a handful of money from the bodyguard and hands it out to fans in the front row. Gotta say, there was a stretch of about three years where having a front row ticket was actually a good investment.

-Brawl on the floor. DiBiase tries slamming JYD back into the ring, but JYD is too heavy and collapses on top of DiBiase, but DiBiase is able to roll through and pins him with a handful of tights. This was as good as it was going to be, although DiBiase’s stalling was a bit much.

-Craig DeGeorge welcomes Randy Savage and his Survivor Series team. Randy and Ricky Steamboat officially make peace to put an underwhelming button on that feud. This is an area where I think they went wrong with Survivor Series for years. They could have built a lot more interest if they had done a bunch of angles showing the captains putting their teams together. Like, imagine Savage wants Steamboat as a partner because he knows Steamboat wants a piece of Honky, but he knows Steamboat still kind of hates him, so Savage cuts the promo of promos owning up to what a sinister bastard he was and he does the big handshake with Steamboat. And then Honky goes to Hercules because he knows Hercules is pissed at Savage AND Steamboat for his screwy loss on SNME a few months back. Yeah, they had a successful event anyway so I should STFU, but I think Survivor Series would have been so much more interesting if we got to see WHY these guys agreed to be teammates.

COWBOY BOB ORTON vs SCOTT CASEY
-Joined in progress from Toronto. Casey with a reverse chinlock. Kneelift sends Orton into the corner. Shoulderbreaker is too close to the ropes and Orton escapes at two. Orton with an AWFUL slingshot suplex to take control. Casey comes back with a piledriver but takes too long to go for the pin and only gets two. Sleeper applied by Casey, but Orton breaks it in the corner. Casey punches him down and goes to the top rope, but Orton meets him up there and superplexes him off for three. More lethargic than it sounds.

TAG TEAM TITLE: HART FOUNDATION (Champions, with Jimmy Hart) vs. STRIKE FORCE
-And after burying him anonymously, giving the new team their own music video and a rocket ship push, the WWF is about to formally complete their lengthy, elaborate “fuck you” to Tom Zenk.

-Harts get the early advantage, but Martel starts throwing a series of dropkicks at Bret and ties him up in an armbar. Tito tags in and elbows him down, and then clamps on his own armbar. Anvil tags in and a slugfest erupts. Bret offers a cheapshot from the apron to turn the tide. Harts switch off without tags to strangle Tito and knock him out of the ring. Martel gets frustrated and chases Jimmy around the ring, but that just gives Anvil an opening to try to finish the match. Martel breaks the pin at two, and the Harts get their vengeance by continuing to hammer Tito. Decapitator gets two because they don’t do it as good as Demolition.

-Elbow by Bret misses, but Tito can’t make the tag and just continues absorbing more punishment. He reverses an Irish whip, and since it’s Bret, that pretty much kills him and Martel is finally able to tag in. He takes care of both Harts with no trouble and hits a bodypress from the corner for two. Donnybrook erupts, but Tito helps knock Bret out of the ring, and Martel capitalizes by locking in the Boston crab on Jim Neidhart…and the Anvil submits, shocking and elating the crowd as the belts change hands.

6.6

The final score: review Average

The 411

Nothing special but another perfectly acceptable use of two hours this week. The Survivor Series build has just completely dried up and there's nothing left to do but talk, which brings me back to my point about how I wish they did more angles about guys building their teams so something interesting might come of these segments.