wrestling / Video Reviews
The Name on the Marquee: WWF Prime Time Wrestling (6.6.1988)
Loading...-Originally aired June 6, 1988.
-Your hosts are Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan.
FABULOUS ROUGEAU BROTHERS vs. YOUNG STALLIONS
-From MSG. Rougeau heel turn progress report: they have the tiny flags now. They offer a polite handshake to keep the illusion going.
-Jim Powers starts with Raymond, and they have a really nice exchange of countered that gets a round of applause from MSG, the “This is awesome” of its era. Powers rolls up Raymond and Raymond kicks out so hard that Powers falls out to the floor, where Jacques dusts him off, asks if he’s okay, and then Raymond holds the rope open to invite him back in.
-Everyone tags and Jacques gives Paul a condescending pat on the head. “Tony Roma” wrings the arm and monkeyflips him in return. They have a great crowd in MSG tonight, as they pop big for that flip. Raymond takes out Roma’s leg and the Rougeaus take over with double-teaming, with Jacques helpfully counting along with the referee to prove he’s not exceeding the five-count.
-Rougeaus continue dismantling the leg. Roma fights through it and takes out Jacques’ leg, and the Stallions get back at him by working the leg with similar offense. Raymond tags in and gets stuck in the Stallions’ corner and they destroy his leg too. Boston crab is applied but the Stallions do something heelish, with Powers distracting the referee as Raymond makes it to the ropes, to buy a few extra seconds for Roma to keep the hold clamped on.
-Jacques comes in and takes over, applying his own Boston crab. Roma makes the ropes and manages to flip himself over to make it a pinning combo for two. Raymond tags in and gives Roma a forearm to the back and tries to finish with a splash, but Roma raises the knees and tags out. Powers is the proverbial house of fire. All four men end up in the ring and Powers learns the harshest lesson of tag team wrestling, “Never apply a cradle during a pier-sixer,” because the referee gets distracted, Raymond rolls the guys over so Jacques is on top, and the Rougeaus get the win. Rougeaus have the balls to offer a handshake after the match, and the Stallions’ dismayed faces are pretty funny. 3 for 3. Great match, with the Stallions seeing through the Rougeaus and matching them tactic for tactic.
UPDATE
-We get words from British fans, who tell us that they love the British Bulldogs, but they prefer Matilda. It’s hard to fathom that “Update” can have a slow news day, but here we are. In other news, there’s apparent dissention in the Hart Foundation. During a recent match of “Sperstars,” Bret Hart told Jimmy Hart to leave ringside. We hear from Bret, who says that if you’re as good as the Hit Man or the Anvil, you don’t really need a manager. Anvil adds that the megaphone is bugging him.
SPECIAL INTERVIEW
-Craig DeGeorge welcomes Jimmy Hart and Greg Valentine. Valentine has a severe leg injury, which is why he wears a shin guard. Jimmy insists that Valentine had a broken bone painted onto the shin guard to signify his own injury.
-Gorilla introduces the new Bananaphone on the Prime Time set, and Bobby is disgusted by it.
JERRY ALLEN vs IRON MIKE SHARPE
-From MSG. Sharpe attempts a dropkick, but Allen dodges and Iron Mike goes to the floor. Criss-cross leads to a sunset flip by Allen for two. Allen armdrags Sharpe around and he goes to the floor and lands in an unoccupied chair for a rest. Allen follows with an atomic drop that will “make Iron Mike eat his supper with a mantlepiece” according to Rodger Kent, but Sharpe takes control and chokes Allen out.
-Clubbering forearms by Sharpe. Allen fights back with a dropkick, but a second rope bodypress crashes, and a final forearm blow finishes. 5 for 6. This was “eh.” Funny moment on commentary as Rodger Kent notices all the photographers at ringside and starts to name the ones he recognizes and which magazines they work for, and he is very clearly being told to stop and never finishes his thought.
-Bobby Heenan is in the ring to gloat about getting a win at Wrestlemania IV and following it with a victory at MSG. Yeah, he prides himself on managing and commentary, but if he holds two straight wins over Koko B. Ware, he thinks he should keep pursuing his wrestling career, so he just went backstage and signed an open contract for next month’s MSG show, and he’ll take any opponent that the WWF wants to give him.
-Bobby is trying to install the bananaphone and it isn’t going well.
BRUTUS “The Barber” BEEFCAKE vs. TOM STONE
-From Superstars. Brutus has entrance music now! Brutus slugs away at Stone and elbows him down. Series of slams and stomps by the Barber, who’s full of fire this week. Backdrop by Brutus. He struts and Stone tries to take advantage with a sneak attack, but he ends up just getting slammed off the top rope. We get pre-recorded words from Brutus warning Honky that he didn’t finish the job.
-Sleeper’s hooked on and Stone goes to sleep. Brutus cuts some hair post-match.
-Bobby can’t hear because of Gorilla’s earlier prank.
SD JONES vs THE CONQUISTADOR
-From MSG. Brilliant strategy, as we don’t know if it’s #1 or #2, and therefore Jones cannot prepare adequate strategy.
-SD tosses Conquy all over the place. SD tries to work the arm, but Conquy fights back with a forearm and Rodger calls it like he wants to compete for Gorilla’s status for “weird anatomy reference expert.” Conquy targets SD’s head, and so SD unleashes the power of stereotyping to fight back with an atomic drop.
-Conquy applies a chinlock, but SD just pops up and carries him across the ring in a nice visual. Conquy keeps throwing punches and Rodger is still whipping out insane body part knowledge on commentary. I really wish they had paired up Gorilla and Rodger for one show just to see how long they could co-exist before a violent argument erupted over whether or not the solarplexis or the lateral collateral ligament was the area of the body really having a number done on it during a particular hold.
-SD begins obsessively trying to rip off the mask and comes close as it’s pretty much hanging off the Conquistador, and a view of the back of his head reveals that this one is definitely Jose Luis Rivera. Bodypress by SD off the ropes, but Conquy rolls over and pins him. By opening match standards, this was good.
BOLSHEVIKS (with Slick) vs. JERRY PHILBIN & RICKY ATAKI
-From Superstars Slick gives us some pre-recorded bragging about how the Russians are the greatest tag team of all time…because they’re managed by Slick.
-Ataki tags in and for whatever reason, Vince refuses to believe that his name is pronounced Ataki and calls him Ayaki for the entire match. Bolsheviks double-team him and pin him without much trouble.
ULTIMATE WARRIOR vs. STEVE LOMBARDI
-From Superstars. Lombardi gets rammed into the turnbuckle and slammed to the mat. Press slam and the splash finish.
SPECIAL INTERVIEW
-Craig DeGeorge welcomes the Fabulous Rougeau Brothers, who get the names of some national landmarks wrong while insisting that America is a FABULOUS country.
SPECIAL REPORT
-Sean Mooney profiles Sensational Sherri, who doesn’t need any of these stinking people to succeed.
“The Rock” DON MURACO vs. GREG “The Hammer” VALENTINE
-From Toronto. Interesting that they’re booking this and showing it on TV and they havent’ done the angle that launched their feud yet. Lock-ups go nowhere, but Valentine gets toppled by a shoulderblock and stalls for a bit. Valentine fights back with chops so intense, you’d swear Valentine had already gone 15 minutes. Elbow gets two. Muraco tries to fight back but Valentine cuts him off with an awkward inverted atomic drop. We slow things down…moreso…with a chinlock. Valentine switches to forearms.
-In the studio, Gorilla butchers a well-known saying in the best possible way, saying that these two guys are going at it “hammer and thong.”
-Back from the break, Valentine comes off the top with a forearm as the commentators won’t shut up about Valentine’s hair for some reason. It’s actually pretty clear that this match is boring the shit out of Gorilla and Bobby as they start amusing themselves with a chat about the Toronto Blue Jays. Valentine applies an abdominal stretch and Gorilla’s so bored he doesn’t even give us his opinion of it. Muraco comes back to life and nearly finishes with a shoulderbreaker (with Gorilla rightly pondering why he wouldn’t just do a piledriver if he has Greg in that position) but Valentine takes the fight to the floor and rams him into the barricade. Back in, Valentine starts targeting the leg.
-Muraco fights back and goes for the cover. Valentine kicks out so hard that Muraco crashes down on the referee. Valentine tries to pounce Muraco with an elbow, but Muraco rolls out of the way and Valentine accidentally drops the elbow on the referee, getting himself DQed. Valentine got kinda screwed there.
