The Name on the Marquee: WWF Prime Time Wrestling (11.15.1988)

-Originally aired November 15, 1988.

-Your hosts are Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan, and Gorilla goes off on a tangent on the trouble Heenan managed to cause just doing commentary in Paris last week. “There are still marks on your face and they held your passport. Why did they hold your passport?”

KOKO B. WARE vs. BIG BOSS MAN (with Slick)
-From MSG. Boss Man takes a swing at Koko, but Koko ducks and tags him on the jaw. and then they circle the ring and test the fans’ clapping skills before stuff actually happens, and these guys don’t seem to be on the same page for a bit before Boss Man finally starts giving him shots to the back and Koko goes flying. Koko gets thrown to the floor and Boss Man tries a headbutt, but hurts himself. Koko slingshots himself back in and tries to capitalize on the dazed Boss Man, but Boss Man’s too big for that, and he chokes the Birdman over the middle rope and follows with the Boss Man legdrop.

-Boss Man lifts and chokes Koko, then ragdolls him in a bearhug until Koko claps his hands and gets free. But then Boss Man just slams him and cuts off the comeback. Splash off the ropes by the Boss Man misses and he throws a series of rights, but he hits the ropes and tries for a charge, and Boss Man just gives him the Boss Man slam to finish it right there. These guys worked really well together. Koko made him look like a million bucks every time, and Boss Man would always give Koko some spots to shine on the way there.

UPDATE
-Andre the Giant is afraid of snakes. We flash back to SNME last week, when Andre the Giant interfered during the Jake Roberts/Ravishing Rick Rude match, but when he got a look at Damien, Andre reacted the same way I react whenever I learn the next show I’m reviewing has a Jake Roberts/Ravishing Rick Rude match. Bobby Heenan and Andre attempt to cut a promo afterward, but Andre is incoherent. Moreso.

-Bobby Heenan follows up on the Halloween show and still wants to know who the hell the guy was that was co-hosting with him for the entire show.

EVENT CENTER
-Brutus Beefcake & The Ultimate Warrior, known collectively in my head as Cut & Run, are ready for the Survivor Series.

BLUE BLAZER vs. JOSE ESTRADA
-Estrada lights into Blazer with chops, but Blazer turns an attempted corner charge into a ‘rana and applies a wristlock. Blazer throws in a Frankensteiner for good measure. Estrada comes to life and goes aerial with axehandles for two. Nerve hold by Estrada, and then he sends Blazer out to the floor and we get some weird editing on the commentary while the match itself is intact. Blazer slingshots back in but Estrada kicks out of the sunset flip and he goes back to the top rope axehandles. Nerve hold, but Blazer comes back with a dropkick that sends Estrada to the floor, and he launches himself out to meet him there. Back in, Blazer is just all over Estrada with an all-out assault, and the top rope splash puts him away. It was fine when Owen was in control, but mostly, he wasn’t in control.

SURVIVOR SERIES UPDATE
-Hulk Hogan still has the Big Boss Man’s handcuffs and I can’t help thinking they’re probably starting to smell. Hulk asks Randy Savage to push him toward all five opponents during their match, and I feel like Savage doesn’t need to be asked twice. Savage declares that he met with Hercules personally and he’s sure that he’s “one of us.” Savage warns the Big Boss Man & Akeem not to lay a hand on Elizabeth, or else it’ll lead to main events that will make everybody truckloads of cash.

SAM HOUSTON vs. “Mr. Perfect” CURT HENNIG
-From Salisbury, Maryland, and the entire upper deck in this arena is EMPTY. Sean Mooney and Lord Alfred Hayes run down the Mr. Perfect vignettes we’ve seen so far, and they mention we’ve seen him be perfect at chess, bowling, and dance…We haven’t seen Curt Hennig dance. Did they shoot a dance vignette and not air it? I need to see 1988 Curt Hennig dance. Are they saving this for Hidden Gems? Is it on YouTube under a hard to decipher name of random numbers and letters? Does he look whiter than Akeem when he dances?

-Hennig works over Houston to no interest whatsoever from this capacity crowd. Series of lefts and rights by Hennig; Houston comes back swinging. Clothesline gets two. Henning simply gives him a shot to the gut and gives him the perfect plex to finish. Man, that went nowhere.

SCOTT CASEY vs. RICHARD CHARLAND
-Joined in progress from Maple Leaf Gardens, as Gorilla reminisces about wrestling Terrible Ted the Bear in this very building. I’m surprised the story doesn’t end with Gorilla criticizing the bear’s abdominal stretch technique.

-Charland elbows Casey down and locks on a side headlock. Charland is this burly guy who bears a passing resemblance to Big Bully Busick, and there was this stretch of time where he got booked any time they went to Canada, but they just stopped after a while. Casey gets fired up and Charland goes to the floor to stall, giving us a shocking view of Tonto’s Maple Leaf Gardens, which doesn’t have the entrance ramp set up in the aisle tonight! Maybe it got loaded onto the same truck as Chris Adams’ ring. (Any Redditors in the house?)

-Charland hammers Casey and throws him to the floor. Casey springs right back in and heaves Charland over the top rope, then follows him out and atomic drops him. Back in, Charland offers a handshake. Gorilla predicts that Casey will pull his hand down to the mat and step on his fingers, and that’s exactly what Casey does, which cracks up Sean Mooney. Charland starts working the leg, and then they trade sleepers. A match taking place this close to Lake Ontario shouldn’t have this much trouble finding a flow. Oh, and then Casey bulldogs him and gets three.

YOUNG STALLIONS vs. IRON MIKE SHARPE & STEVE LOMBARDI
-Back to Salisbury, Maryland. Lombardi gets leapfrogged and hiptossed. Sharpe tags in and Powers works his good arm instead of the braced arm, a mistake that some observers believe prevented Powers from going further in the business. Case in point, Sharpe uses the forearm to hammer away at Powers. Lombardi applies a chinlock on Powers. Powers gets free and tags, and Roma cleans house with dropkicks. Powerslam by Powers gets three. And the hits keep going in the opposite direction.

THE BROTHER LOVE SHOW
-Brother Love welcomes Jake “The Snake” Roberts. Oh god, you’re not going to challenge Rick to another match, are you? Come on, be a guy…Jake explains that snakes don’t need to eat every day, and for the moment, Jake has elected to let Damien go hungry until Survivor Series, at which point, he’ll eat a GIANT meal. Jake introduces all of his Survivor Series teammates, including B. Brian Blair, who would actually get fired before Survivor Series for refusing to do a job to Arn & Tully.

CONQUISTADORS vs. BOB EMORY & JOHN LATU
-From Toledo. Latu hiptosses #1 and dropkicks him out to the floor. They switcheroo right away as we get random words from George “The Animal” Steele, touting his doll Mine. Was George even still wrestling at this point? Slingshot into a top rope clothesline by the Conquistadors gets the three-count in two minutes, so there you have it, the most dominant performance of the Conquistadors’ career.

EVENT CENTER
-Sean Mooney runs down the Survivor Series card. Jobbers! Jobbers everywhere!

KEN PATERA vs. DINO BRAVO (with Frenchy Martin)
-From SNME. Shoulderblocks go nowhere, so Patera just throws fists and goes for a backdrop. Bodyslam by Patera and Bravo goes to the floor to recuperate. Back in, Bravo goes to work with choking. Patera gets a comeback, but misses a charge winds up in a side suplex for three. What the fuck was with Ken Patera losing every match in exactly the same way? Was it supposed to be some bit of psychology where Patera had an obvious Achilles heel, or did he just not give a shit at this point?

-Gorilla just heaps it on Ken Patera in the studio, calling his performance a huge disappointment and saying that Dino really cleaned his clock.

4.5

The final score: review Poor

The 411

The Conquistadors on the winning end of a squash is a fun historic oddity, but really, what does it say when I'm declaring that the highlight of the week?