wrestling / Video Reviews
The Name on the Marquee: WWF Prime Time Wrestling (12.19.1988)
Loading...-Originally aired December 19, 1988.
Your hosts are Gorilla and the Brain.
FABULOUS ROUGEAU BROTHERS vs. KOKO B. WARE & SCOTT CASEY
-I’m guessing that Casey is filling in for Blue Blazer, who’s nursing blue balls after a blown spot at Survivor Series. Jacques showboats for a bit and invites Koko to do likewise. Koko ends up clearing the ring with dropkicks instead. Rougeaus respond with a beatdown and cut the ring in half. Koko gets caught in an abdominal stretch and Raymond adds a savate kick. Hot tag to Scott Casey, because there’s a first time for everything. Casey cleans house, but gets caught in Le Bombe De Rougeau behind the referee’s back for three. It’s that weird booking where the heels did something perfectly legal behind the referee’s back, so their heelish win was actually clean as a sheet. Not much to say about the rest of the match.
UPDATE
-The Royal Rumble is coming. Confirmed: Big John Studd will be one of the 30 participants. Also, Rick Martel has been medically cleared to return to the ring for the event.
HONKY TONK MAN & GREG “The Hammer” VALENTINE (with Jimmy Hart) vs. PAUL BROWN & REX FARMER
-From Superstars of Wrestling. Unusually rowdy crowd this week, as the heels in both matches so far have been pelted with trash on the way to the ring.
-Valentine chops Brown and suplexes him without going down. Honky keeps up the beating and in comes Farmer. Vince & Jesse are having a funny conversation throughout this match as Jesse is just fellating the heels completely for how much chemistry they have and how dominant they are, and Vince has to keep pointing out how crappy their opponents are. Valentine gets the win with the figure four.
-Gorilla and Bobby place a bet on the Super Posedown at the Royal Rumble.
SPECIAL INTERVIEW
-Mean Gene Okerlund commends Jake Roberts for making Andre the Giant humble. Well, that’s a mental image I get to savor for the rest of my life, thanks, Gene. Andre is scared of snakes, but no snake is scared of him, and he’s ready for a fight any time Andre wants it.
TIM HORNER vs. JOHNNY K-9
-Joined in progress from Hamilton, Ontario. Horner is freshly arrived from refusing to do a job on an episode of “Learning the Ropes” and leaving the NWA as a result,
-Horner gets a series of two-counts on K-9. K-9 dodges a dropkick and stomps away at Horner. Diving headbutt misses, and Horne powerslams him for a three-count. Rumors that Horner used the winner’s purse to buy a fax machine are unfounded.
-Gene Okerlund is in what appears to be an employee break room somewhere in America, and the Bushwhackers come marching in, and Gene offers them a “soder” from the vending machine. Luke removes his dentures and uses the edge of it to break the can open.
JIM POWERS vs. JOSE ESTRADA
-From Boston. Worth noting that the ring attendant has now been with the company for 30 years; that’s Mike Chioda taking the jackets to the back. Congratulations on lasting a full 120 Busicks with the company, Mike!
-Side headlock by Powers, but Estrada breaks with a handful of hair. Powers gets good and fired up with a dropkick that sends Estrada to the floor. Powers slingshots him back in and works the arm and stretches him out on the mat. Estrada makes the ropes and takes a cheap shot as the referee pulls them apart.
-Back in the studio, Bobby is making a phone call when he realizes they’re back on the air and Gorilla’s missing. Bobby frantically grabs a headset and tries to communicate with the director, then tells us to go back to the match in progress that we were watching, featuring the Bolsheviks.
-Estrada is stomping away at Powers. Powers fights back but misses a corner charge for two. Chinlock by Estrada, but Powers breaks free again and makes another comeback, but this time Estrada makes the time out signal so this one must be for real. Legdrop by Powers only gets two because, while he has the steroids, the excessive hair screws up his landing motion. Last ditch effort by Estrada with an Irish whip into the corner, but Powers turns the corner charge into a roll-up for three. Basic but really not a dull match at all.
-Back in the studio, Gorilla’s back, and there’s no payoff or gag stemming from why he disappeared. Gorilla simply didn’t want to sit through a Jim Powers match apparently.
EVENT CENTER
-Boss Man, gives Slick an early Christmas present: the nightstick he used on Hulk Hogan. Boss Man shows off his NEW nightstick, which he’s saving for Randy Savage. Koko B. Ware thanks us for our support. I guess the B stands for Bartles.
-Gorilla tells us not to wait for the last minute to order the Royal Rumble on PPV because a lot of people who have waited until the last minute for other PPV shows were left out in the cold. Bobby adds that it’s a bad idea for groups of people to order the shows together; you should order the event individually so that you’re not distracted. So, the Survivor Series buyrate kinda sucked, I’m guessing?
BROTHER LOVE
-Andre the Giant and Bobby Heenan try to talk about Jake “The Snake” Roberts, but Andre freaks out at the word “snake” and Bobby has to modify his speech to just say “Jake Roberts.” Bobby slips up and says “snake” three more times as Andre continues to freak out. Brother Love tells the fans that Andre will rid the WWF of Jake…the SNAKE…and Andre snaps and strangles Brother Love until he comes to his senses.
IRON MIKE SHARPE vs. BARRY HOROWITZ
-From Boston, it’s another crazy house show match where Iron Mike is working babyface. They lock up and go to the ropes. Sharpe breaks clean and Horowitz complains about hair-pulling. Horowitz with a full nelson, but Iron Mike breaks free, and it’s funny to see Sharpe doing 100% the same act, but as a face. He breaks the hold, poses, and yells “Yayyyyyyy!” and Boston is totally behind him.
-Horowitz suckers Sharpe into trying a test of strength and attacks, but Sharpe comes right back fighting, beating Horowitz from corner to corner. He works Horowitz over with a side headlock, and Horowitz is so frustrated that he walks to the locker room and calls it a night. He thinks better of it, comes back in, and takes control, tying Iron Mike up in an abdominal stretch. Not an octopus hold, but I’m proud of Rod Trongard for trying. Sharpe comes back and throws Horowitz to the floor. Back in, Horowitz cuts off the comeback and applies a chinlock, but Irion Mike wriggles out and then ducks a dropkick. Sharpe loads up the forearm but Horowitz ducks and tries to roll him up, but Sharpe ducks down and Horowitz gags himself on the top rope, and Sharpe hits a big elbow to finish. Underwhelming, but again, the sheer novelty of watching Iron Mike as a face in the WWF was fascinating.
FLAG MATCH: HACKSAW JIM DUGGAN vs BORIS ZHUKOV
-From SNME. Fisticuffs lead to a Duggan atomic drop that launches Zhukov out of the ring. Back in, Zhukov gets a boot and walks into a series of punches. He goes for a dropkick(!) and nearly Wattses all over Duggan before the big patriot moves out of the way. This looked just indescribably bad.
-Duggan whips Zhukov into the ropes and Zhukov gingerly comes off the rope and politely hands his body over to Duggan for a big slam. Three-point stance finishes. An unfortunate example of one guy totally giving up on a match, as Zhukov seemed to be game for the first minute or so, and then when he realized Duggan just wanted a squash, he said “Fuck it” and mailed it in.
