wrestling / Video Reviews

The Name on the Marquee: WWF Prime Time Wrestling (8.10.1987)

March 7, 2018 | Posted by Adam Nedeff
WWF Prime Time Wrestling Bobby Heenan, WWE Network
8.4
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The Name on the Marquee: WWF Prime Time Wrestling (8.10.1987)  

-Originally aired August 10, 1987.

-Your hosts are Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan.

RANDY “Macho Man” SAVAGE (with Elizabeth) vs BRADY BOONE
-Oooooh, I remember this match from when I was reviewing Wrestling Challenge. Savage is pretty much a babyface, as the crowd gives him a mega-pop and Heenan calls him “a piece of meat” on commentary.

-Savage backs him into a corner and they fight for an Irish whip. Savage misses a corner charge and Boone dropkicks him to the floor. Back in, Boone tries a leapfrog, but Savage catches him midair…but Boone turns it into a Frankensteiner! Savage goes to the floor, looking completely baffled.

-Back in, Brady tries for the Frankensteiner again, but this time Savage anticipates and makes it a powerbomb. Savage snaps Boone’s neck over the top rope. He tosses Boone outside and Boone lands with an amazing THUD. Savage brings him back in and keeps beating on him, but Boone surprises him with a series of kicks. Boone goes airborne, Savage ducks, Boone lands on his feet, Savage clotheslines him and sends him to the floor.

-Axehandle off the top rope onto Boone on the floor. Savage brings him back in, slams him, and connects with the flying elbow for three. Whew…four of the best minutes of wrestling EVER on a B-level squash show.

HILLBILLY JIM vs “The Natural” BUTCH REED
-From MSG. They take their time with the lock-ups. Side headlock applied by Reed. Jim sends him into the ropes and they collide on a series of shoulderblocks with neither man budging. Reed dares Jim to try a shoulderblock of his own, but Jim surprises him by connecting with a right hand instead of a shoulderblock. Boot to the breadbasket, and Reed is so frustrated that he goes to the floor.

-Reed is frustrated and demands a test of strength, and Jim completely overpowers him on that. Reed fights back and gets Jim on the mat, but Jim boots him off and stomps his fingers for good measure. Reed goes to the floor again, then comes up with a new game plan, telling the referee to inspect Jim’s fingers and then sucker-punching him during the inspection.

-Reed elbows Jim down and chokes him out. Reed slams him and drops an elbow for two. Reed keeps hammering but runs into a boot. They take turns missing elbow drops on each other and Reed connects with a high knee. Reed comes off the second rope with a knee to the chest and rolls Jim up, with a handful of bib overalls for good measure, and takes the win. This was actually perfectly OK; neither guy rested and they told a story, with Reed going through idea after idea until he finally found one that worked.

-Gene Okerlund talks to Jake Roberts, who assures us he hasn’t forgotten about Honky.

-Another Million Dollar Man vignette. DiBiase has just finished squashing an unknown jobber at a house show and removes his boot, offering a fan $100 for getting on his hands and knees and kissing his feet. PLOT TWIST: The fan goes on to become Rob Van Dam.

-Superstar Billy Graham has returned to the WWF after hip surgery. Nowhere to go but up now!

-We go to Craig DeGeorge in the arena with Rick Martel, who’s still reeling from the loss of his partner, whose name nobody will say. His partner may be a quitter, but Martel isn’t, and he promises the Islanders that he’s going to keep coming for them.

LADIES’ TAG TEAM TITLE: GLAMOUR GIRLS (Champions) vs JUMPING BOMB ANGELS
-Weird commentary team of the week: Craig DeGeorge and Leaping Lanny Poffo.

-Judy Martin just kind of picks Tateno to start and attacks her. Tateno fights her off with a dropkick. Yamazaki comes in and it’s a double dropkick. Lelani Kai enters and they try to double team her, but Kai “reverses inertia,” according to Lanny, and clotheslines them down. This match is moving too fast to recap.

-Yamazaki applies a front facelock on Kai, but Kai uses it to back her into the Glamour corner and they take advantage. Judy Martin misses an elbow and Yamazaki applies a wristlock, goes to the top, and comes off to flip Martin over. That looks so badass that Kai refuses to enter when Martin tries to tag, and they have an argument about it before Martin tricks her and just slaps her on the hip to tag her into the match. Girls lock on simultaneous figure fours.

-Referee has to figure out who’s legal and unties one figure four and lets the other one stay clamped on. Kai rolls over while still trapped in the hold, and Yamazaki does something smart, letting go of the hold as she gets close because she’s going to make it anyway, why put yourself at a disadvantage by staying caught and letting the fresh woman drop an elbow on you or something?

-Angels manage to block the tag and drag Kai over to work her leg over the ropes. Yamazaki applies an octopus (and somehow I feel like none of the regular commentators would have known what to call it, so it’s kind of lucky that Lanny’s there).

-Back from the break, Tateno applies a bodyscissors. Kai grabs her by the hair and just throws her down to break it. Judy Martin tags in and elbows Tateno down. Kai comes back in and chokes her with “wrists the size of any truck driver.” I wanna hear Lanny do commentary with Michael Cole now. Martin throws kicks at Tateno and they battle for a pin.

-Attempted double-team by the Glamour Girls backfires and Yamazaki cleans house, bodypressing both of them and then whipping them into each other. She slams Kai into position and Tateno comes off the top with a knee. Referee gets distracted when all four women are in the ring, and as he’s clearing Tateno out, Judy Martin powerbombs Yamazaki and Kai falls on top to get the victory and keep the belts. There were, like, ninety other things that happened during the match too, but they went too quickly for me.

BILLY JACK HAYNES vs HERCULES
-Joined in progress from MSG. Heenan kind of teases where this is going, saying he had given specific instructions not to air this match and instead to air the Rick Rude/Jerry Allen match from last week.

-Hercules stalls a bit and tries to duck out to the floor for a breather, but Billy just yanks him into the ring and suplexes him. Haynes comes off the second rope and crashes. Herc stomps away at him and a forearm sends him out to the floor. Herc rams him into the barricade and Billy Jack’s out of it…I mean, yes, in general, but particularly out of it during this part of this specific match too.

-Back in the ring, Hercules rips at Billy Jack’s face and chokes him out. Billy Jack starts making a tiny comeback with chops and forearms, but Hercules stops him and suplexes him. Lazy cover gets two. Chinlock by Herc as we take a break.

-Back, both men are tired and trading blows. Behind the curtain, it’s also likely they were trading blow. But anyway, Herc decides to go for the full nelson. He gets it applied (and gives Billy Jack a wedgie before locking it on, for good measure). Billy Jack fights it, so before he can do anything, Hercules just releases it and hammers him. Haynes dodges a clothesline and connects with one of his own. Haynes is getting frustrated and unties his wrist tape, using it to choke out Hercules and then flip him.

-Both men keep slugging away at each other and since we can all tell where this is going, I would move for the timekeeper to call for the bell now because both guys are DONE. They lean against the ropes and trade chops and punches. Handful of tights by Hercules sends Billy Jack out to the floor and they trade more punches and chops. Back in, they keep slugging it out until the bell finally sounds for the time limit draw. Again, I think I could have lived with a 15-minute draw on this one. But these two had pretty good chemistry and Wrestlemania III feels like it was an off-night for both of them because they had some decent matches against each other other than that one.

TAG TEAM TITLES: HART FOUNDATION (Champions, with Jimmy Hart) vs BRITISH BULLDOGS
-Joined in progress from MSG. Aw, come on, we’re getting a cut-down version of THIS match?

-Bret’s on the floor with Dynamite as we begin this story. Dynamite gets rammed into the barricade and sent back into the ring. Anvil gnaws on Dynamite’s forehead and stomps away. Decapitator by the Foundation gets two. Bret and Anvil trade off on Dynamite, but Anvil hurts himself on Dynamite’s skull when he attempts a headbutt. Bret rushes in to block the hot tag. Front facelock applied by Bret, so just guess what spot they do next.

-Both Harts attempt charges in the corner. Bret crashes, Dynamite backdrops Anvil out to the floor, and Davey Boy gets in and kicks some pink and black ass. Running powerslam nearly finishes, but Hitman gets a foot on the ropes. Press slam, and Davey Boy loses his balance, but it works out because Bret ends up crotching himself on the top rope. Davey Boy tries to suplex him back in the middle of the ring, but the Anvil hooks his leg, so Davey stumbles backward and Bret lands on top for three to retain. Jimmy Hart gets his ass kicked afterward to send the fans home happy.

8.4
The final score: review Very Good
The 411
There's something magic in the water when a two-hour 80s WWF show doesn't have a single dud. I can't bring myself to give it a ten because, again, Haynes/Hercules dragged a bit longer than it should have, but damn, as episodes of Prime Time go, this was up there.
legend