The Name on the Marquee: WWF Prime Time Wrestling (8.3.1987)

-Originally aired August 3, 1987.

-Your hosts are Gorilla Monsoon and the neckbrace-free Bobby Heenan. Bobby emphasizes that with a new member of the Heenan Family, Ravishing Rick Rude, he doesn’t have to be afraid of anything or anyone.

RAVISHING RICK RUDE vs JERRY ALLEN
-Rude’s MSG debut. He has no music to cut but manages to make his first demand for silence while he takes his robe off. Rude poses and throws a right hand, but Allen just ducks and Rude falls over the top and hits the floor. Back in, sunset flip by Allen gets two, and he armdrags Rude for two more. Allen goes for a backpress and NOW Rude comes to life, catching him in mid-air and making it a backbreaker.

-Flying clothesline by Rude as we take a break. We return to Rude taking time out for a pose before slamming Allen into position and coming off the top rope with a fistdrop. Nervehold by Rude, but he’s too white for the hold to be effective and Allen is barely able to escape.

-Snap suplexes by Rude, but a dropkick misses and Allen comes back to life. Hiptoss and a dropkick by Allen. Monkeyflip and a hard Irish whip by Allen, but he tries another monkeyflip and Gorilla joyfully gets his fix of saying “went to the well one too many times” as Rude turns the monkeyflip into an inverted atomic drop and puts Allen away with a body vice. Rude looked motivated and wanted to make a good first impression, and he did.

UPDATE
-Fabulous Moolah’s 30-year stranglehold on the women’s title finally ends as she’s defeated by the debuting Sherri Martel in Houston. Heenan is irritated because this is literally the first he’s heard about it, and managers should be automatically notified any time a title changes.

-Ted DiBiase shows up at a hotel without a reservation and gets a pair of honeymooners kicked out so he can have the best suite in the complex all to himself.

-Craig DeGeorge is on the interview platform with Outlaw Ron Bass. I think this is actually the first time we’re seeing that platform. Anyway, Bass calls out all the babyfaces and says Miss Betsy wants to meet them. This guy had NOTHING going on for 90% of his run and his only memorable moment in the WWF was getting his head shaved on the way out the door.

OUTBACK JACK vs JOHNNY K-9
-From Toronto.

-They slug it out to start and Outback slams him down. Johnny knocks the wind out of “The Humpty-Dooer” with a knee to the gut and comes off the ropes with a diving headbutt. He goes to the top rope and ends up crashing. Boomerang finishes a few moments later.

THE SNAKE PIT
-Jake welcomes Randy Savage and Elizabeth. Savage tries to make Elizabeth stand between he and Damien, which is funny. Jake mentions that Jimmy Hart is going around saying that Savage couldn’t regain the Intercontinental Title, because Honky defeated the man who defeated Honky. Savage seems a little taken aback by that and reaffirms his greatness before abruptly taking off.

BRUTUS “The Barber” BEEFCAKE vs JOHNNY V
-From Boston. Johnny V attacks before the bell and chokes Beefcake out. Weirdness by Johnny V, as he tries to run Brutus’ face across the top rope, and Brutus is genuinely resisting. Not wrestler-bravely-fighting-him-off resisting, but, like, “Hell no I’m not doing that spot with you” resisting.

-Beefcake comes to life and comes off the second rope with an axehandle. He rams Johnny into the turnbuckle ten times. Clothesline and an elbow from the second rope by Brutus, and the sleeper finishes. Johnny actually sells the sleeper by snoring while Brutus paints his hair orange.

DINO BRAVO (with Johnny V) vs BRADY BOONE
-Boone’s MSG debut. Bravo pounds him down. Bravo misses a corner charge and Boone celebrates with backflips before dropkicking Bravo, who goes outside for a breather. Bravo’s leg has so much tape on it that it’s kind of amazing he’s walking normally. Back in, Boone dropkicks him again and chops away, but Bravo stops him cold with an inverted atomic drop.

-Bodyslam and a neck vice by Bravo. He works the back over and applies a bearhug. Boone escapes but crashes on an attempted bodypress. He ends up on the floor and Johnny V slams him on the concrete behind the referee’s back. Back in, Boone is still alive enough to give Bravo a sunset flip for two, and Dino is so annoyed that he throws Boone outside again and Johnny rams him into the commentary table. Every couple of years, WWE gets bitten by a bug and moves the commentary table around but for some reason, that’s a position they’ve never revisited: directly against the ring. I honestly like it.

-Bravo keeps up the attack back in the ring, but misses a corner charge. Boone with a series of kicks. Boone misses his own corner charge, though, and Bravo puts him away with the side suplex. Boone kept it watchable.

-Gene Okerlund talks to the Hart Foundation. They’re still kinda mad at big fat Jack Tunney for firing the best referee ever.

TITO SANTANA vs NIKOLAI VOLKOFF
-Joined in progress from MSG. Tito works the arm. Nikolai fights it off and puts the boots to him. Bearhug clamped on. Tito escapes but runs into a flying clothesline (flying by Nikolai standards). Wedgie backbreaker by Nikolai, but Tito’s legs are draped over the ropes. Funny, as it’s on the side where the commentary table is and Gorilla just tells the referee that the feet are on the ropes.

-Nikolai sends Tito into the ropes, which is a no-no with Tito because sure enough, Tito connects with the flying forearm and ends it right there. Nothing special.

-Funny bit as WWF Magazine is talking about Jesse Ventura’s budding movie career and how if he’s a bigger star, maybe they should make him co-host of Prime Time again. So Bobby is just singing Jesse’s praises and going on about how he needs to make more movies, to protect his own spot.

TAG TEAM TITLE: HART FOUNDATION (Champions) vs RICK MARTEL & JUNKYARD DOG
-They’re not even acknowledging that the Can-Am Connection split. Gorilla just introduces this match as if Martel and JYD have been a tag team this whole time.

-Foundation suckers Martel over to their corner right away and pounds him down. Bret misses a corner charge and gets armdragged around, and Martel ends up clearing the ring. Bret heads back in and wants a test of strength, and Bruno makes a GREAT point on commentary: Martel’s an idiot if he goes for this because Bret’s not known as a power wrestler, so if he wants a test of strength, he must be up to something. And indeed, Bret turns it into a cheap shot, like Bruno predicted.

-JYD and Anvil match power and JYD cradles him for two, then headbutts him out to the floor. Back in, Harts get the Dog caught in their corner and double-team him. Anvil tries a football tackle but hits the corner and tags in Martel. Bret extinguishes the house of fire quickly and lays a beating on him, then blocks him from making a tag and throws him out to the floor.

-Bret applies a standing front facelock, and he might as well borrow Jimmy Hart’s megaphone to announce “We’re doing the false hot tag spot.” And indeed the referee gets distracted and refuses to allow JYD to enter. Anvil accidentally dropkicks Bret and now Martel can make the tag for free. Dog cleans house, but the Harts fight back and do a twist on the Hart Attack, with Bret coming off the top turnbuckle instead of running the ropes…and the bell sounds, and the referee has DQed the Harts. Craig DeGeorge and Bruno, on commentary, have absolutely no idea why. The Hart Attack was the first offensive move that the Harts got on JYD in that sequence so it’s not like it was excessive double-teaming or staying in past the five-count. Crowd kind of deflates for the announcement, too. Awful finish to a good match.

6.6

The final score: review Average

The 411

No technical classics this week, but for the most part the matches were either good (like the feature bout), or short & harmless (Brutus squashing and painting Johnny).