The Name on the Marquee: WWF Prime Time Wrestling (8.17.1987)

-Originally aired August 17, 1987.

-Your hosts are Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan. Gorilla stirs up trouble, asking if Rick Rude is a better wrestler than Paul Orndorff and wondering why Orndorff doesn’t seem to be a priority for him anymore.

NON-TITLE: HART FOUNDATION (Tag Team Champions, with Jimmy Hart & Danny Davis) vs. PAUL ROMA & JIM POWERS
-Mr. T will be the ringside enforcer for this match, which makes me think they probably could have just printed a description of the finish for this match in the program in that night.

-Harts double-team Jim Powers as we get pre-taped words from Danny Davis, saying he’s at ringside to act as an enforcer himself, keeping an eye on the inept referees. Bret hammers away at Powers, and Anvil adds a big slam. Hart comes in and Powers reverses an Irish whip and finally gets the fresh man in there.

-Roma cleans house and the Harts accidentally ram into each other. Roma goes for a monkeyflip on Bret, but Bret drops him down to the mat, puts his feet on the ropes, and gets a three-count. And now, as everyone except the comatose could have anticipated, Mr. T tattles on the Harts and reverses the decision to give Roma & Powers a DQ victory over the champions.

KILLER KHAN vs LEAPING LANNY POFFO
-Joined in progress from Philadelphia. Khan must be the very last guy that the WWF used as if it was still a territory; they brought him in to work a program with Hulk, he went around the horn, ate the legdrop, and then disappeared immediately.

-Khan stomps and kicks at Poffo and lets out a shriek every time he makes contact. Crowd is supposed to fear him but Philadelphia is feeling extra smarky and just screams with him every time. Nerve hold by Khan. Crowd gets restless about that and goes back to mocking his screams again. Man, Philadelphia is not buying this act at all!

-Khan misses a corner charge and Lanny capitalizes with a slam. Moonsault gets two. Khan meets Lanny in the corner with a chop to stop the comeback, and a kneedrop from the top gets three.

SPECIAL REPORT WITH CRAIG DEGEORGE
-We finally touch on “The Battle for Bam-Bam” segments on Prime Time! Jesse Ventura talks to Jimmy Hart and Jimmy, almost in tears, announces that he’s eliminated from contention, but he still has two championships in his stable! We also get words from Classy Freddy Blassie, who says he doesn’t want to be considered because Bam-Bam has so much potential that managing him would be too much to keep track of.

-We go to Superstars of Wrestling for an incident where Don Muraco and Bob Orton get into a fistfight after a match.

UPDATE WITH CRAIG DEGEORGE
-A completely different segment, where Craig sits in a studio instead of a control room. Jack Tunney announces that One Man Gang is being fined $10,000 for giving a referee a gourdbuster. He’s also on probation for 30 days. One Man Gang and Slick just laugh off the fine.

OUTLAW RON BASS vs SONNY ROGERS
-Bass demands an introduction for Miss Betsy, too. Crazy commentary team: Craig DeGeorge, Lanny Poffo, and Don Muraco. Don Muraco’s voice does not lend itself to commentary AT ALL.

-Bass hiptosses Rogers and stunguns him. Rogers fights back with right hands and a dropkick, but Bass shakes it all off and gives him a hard forearm. Pedigree gets the win.

-Gene Okerlund meets “The Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase and Virgil. Ted DiBiase hears that people are upset about the way he spends his money, and DiBiase invites all the complainers to talk to Virgil. DiBiase says he has all the money he needs, he came to the WWF for power, and power comes with the WWF Title. He’ll never need anything again after winning the gold. DiBiase hands Gene $100 to get himself a better looking tie and takes off.

KOKO B. WARE vs NIKOLAI VOLKOFF
-Back to Philly. Right hands by Koko. Spinkick by Volkoff is kind of ignored by Koko, so Volkoff turns it up by lifting him in the air and choking him. He misses a corner charge and Koko wrings the arm to take advantage of it. Volkoff fights out and throws Koko to the concrete, and celebrates with a cartwheel. Dick Graham: “Look at him, he’s saying ‘Look at me, I am agile!’” Honestly, it’s pretty damn funny to actually imagine Nikolai yelling that as he turns a cartwheel.

-Back in the studio, Bobby is on the phone with somebody and ignoring the match, which is about what it’s earned at this point. We return from commercial with Koko slingshotting himself back in and rolling Volkoff up for two. Volkoff fights back with punches and twists Koko’s neck, then chokes him. Koko sunset flips Volkoff for two. There’s just NO flow to this match at all.

-Volkoff takes a few shots at Koko, then stops everything to scowl at the fans for chanting “USA.” Atomic drop by Koko gets two as this match continues not to make sense. Corner charge by Volkoff misses and he hurts his knee. Koko and Nikolai collide and both men are out of it. Koko recovers first and throws a series of right hands, but runs into a big Russian boot and he’s out. Double underhook by Volkoff and a backbreaker for two. Volkoff walks around celebrating for no reason while Koko springs up, goes to the top, and connects with a missile dropkick for three. Sluggish and disjointed.

-We go to the interview platform, where Craig DeGeorge welcomes a new manager, Oliver Humperdink to the WWF. Humperdink complains that he’s tried to build a career as a manager in the WWF, but idiots like Johnny V and Slick give managers a bad name, so people don’t want anything to do with Oliver. The one that he REALLY can’t stand is Bobby Heenan, a guy who cheats his men and completely ruins their careers. Bobby Heenan storms out to have a confrontation with Humperdink and trades insults until Humperdink ends the talking with a hard shove off the platform.

GEORGE “The Animal” STEELE vs COWBOY BOB ORTON
-The commentary is all over the place, as it’s just Lanny and Muraco calling it now. In the previous match, Muraco was talking about how he and Orton have split up and they don’t get along, and here he calls Orton his favorite person and pledges his support to the guy.

-Steele gets distracted admiring a delicious turnbuckle and Orton attacks from behind. He slams Steele into place and lands on him with a Vader Bomb for two. Steele bites his arm and drags him outside for a brawl on the floor. Orton rams him into a table and dashes back into the ring, and Steele throws chairs at him and bites him. Steele actually uses the chair, knocking Orton to the floor, and gets himself DQed.

-Back in the studio, even Gorilla is pointing out the continuity issues with the commentary.

RAVISHING RICK RUDE vs SCOTT CASEY
-We go to Philadelphia for the next stop of Rude’s coming-out party. Casey shoves Rude on his ass and shoulderblocks him. Casey works the arm and whips Rude, but Rude meets him with a boot to the face and takes time out to pose. He slams Casey into place and drops a fist from the top rope, but Rude stops the referee at two and opts for beating Casey up a little more.

-Lengthy chinlock by Rude. Casey starts to come back and connects with a shoulderblock. Casey comes off the second rope with a single axehandle for two. Rude blocks a backdrop, and a slingshot suplex finishes, as Rude continues his apparent search for a finisher.

JUNKYARD DOG vs ONE MAN GANG (with Slick)
-Commentary team for this one: Jake Roberts and Don Muraco. Report at the time was that Jesse was renegotiating his deal and the weird commentary teams were basically auditions for a potential replacement.

-Rapid-fire punches by JYD, and a hard Irish whip nearly sends Gang out of the ring. Headbutt and a right hand, and the Gang is slumped in the ropes. Dog headbutts the shoulder and applies a hammerlock as the crowd whips out an NWA chant, “Break it!” Dog drops Gang so that he hands on his own arm and goes back to the hammerlock until Gang gets to his feet and sandwiches JYD in the corner…but he still can’t shake off JYD and Dog works the arm some more.

-Gang comes to life with right hands. They slug it out a bit and Slick attempts to interfere. Dog gets his hand on Slick’s cane and Dog & Gang have a tug of war with it as the referee calls for the DQ. Everything about this match smacked of “Dog refused to do a job” because Gang was getting a huge push and seeing him struggle like that against a guy whose stock was falling at breakneck speed was just weird.

3.3

The final score: review Bad

The 411

It's a dull, dull show, Billy.