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Prime Time Wrestling (10.30.1989) Review

August 17, 2020 | Posted by Adam Nedeff
WWF Prime Time Wrestling 10-30-1989
6.9
The 411 Rating
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Prime Time Wrestling (10.30.1989) Review  

-Get settled in, this episode is the absolute peak of the three-host era for this show.

-Originally aired October 30, 1989.

-Your hosts in Studio A are Gorilla Monsoon, wearing an amazing Brother Love costume, and Bobby Heenan dressed as The Genius and speaking in rhyme to stay in character. We get only the audio from Studio B, with Roddy Piper saying he needs more pillows for stuffing his costume and he’s not ready yet.

-So Gorilla goes on a rant “in character” as Brother Love, telling Bobby that he and the Million Dollar Man are idiots for stuffing money in his pockets and he’ll just keep bleeding them dry before moving onto the next sucker. Bobby is shocked by Gorilla’s contempt for Brother Love.

RED ROOSTER vs. GREG “The Hammer” VALENTINE (with Jimmy Hart)

-From Wheeling, West Virginia. Lord Alfred says that Rooster is coming into this match following a string of remarkable victories against…oh, you know…top competitors, and savvy ring veterans. You know.

-Rooster dodges an elbow right away and armdrags Valentine. Rooster goes for a backdrop but Valentine counters it with the elbow that he wanted. Backbreaker by Valentine gets two. Rooster fires back, which treats us to a Valentine splat, but Valentine sends him to the floor.

-Back in, Valentine misses a corner charge and Rooster goes for the kill with the chicken wing, but he’s too close to the ropes and Valentine kicks the leg out of the leg and signals for the figure four. You can tell something’s going to happen because he makes a GREAT BIG DISPLAY of signaling for the move, and guess what, here’s Rugged Ronnie Garvin with a surprise attack for no reason, ripping the Heartbreaker off Valentine’s shin, getting Rooster DQed. And then Rooster thanks Garvin after the bell! Garvin screwed you like a nine-fingered whore, Rooster, what are you thinking him for?

-Bobby recaps the match in rhyme while the director helpfully plays Brother Love’s theme music to give Gorilla’s costume some authenticity.

UPDATE

-We recap the Hogan/Zeus confrontation from Saturday Night’s Main Event. And that’s it. Not even a token promo.

-You know what, it ends up being worth it because Gorilla sums up what happened in the previous segment with an attempt at a full-fledged Brother Love impression, and hearing Gorilla Monsoon doing a southern accent makes this whole quarantine worth it.

-We go to Studio B where Piper reveals that his Halloween costume is just Bobby’s red tuxedo and a blonde wig, and the gag is that he’s doing an incredibly feminine interpretation of Bobby.

TITO SANTANA vs. BOB EMERY

-Tito hiptosses Emery and works the arm. Dropkick and armdrags by Tito. Tito stays on the arm, apparently having gotten a memo that they needed a match where the commentators can talk at length about Survivor Series. So a lot of nothing happens before Tito backdrops Emery and then connects with the flying forearm to finish.

ANDRE THE GIANT & HAKU (with Bobby Heenan) vs. MIKE WILLIAMS & CHUCK CASEY

-First appearance of the team, although they aren’t officially named yet. Haku starts, as he always will, chopping and elbowing Chuck Casey as the Brain Busters stroll to ringside to watch the match. Series of backbreakers by Haku.

-Williams tags in and Haku sends him into the ropes, waiting until the last possible split second to throw a dropkick and Williams’ neck just snaps back from the impact. And then Haku FINALLY tags in Andre, and the crowd reacts with an unmistakable “Aw, shit” reaction, and Andre just headbutts the hell out of Williams and finishes with a big elbow.

-Time out. I just want to point out that the entire concept of the Colossal Connection was absolutely brilliant. Here you have Andre, whose body is falling apart, and Haku, who, without crown, just seems to be kind of there. And they came up with the idea to put them in a tag team where they’d work the same match every time. Haku would just wrestle both opponents by himself, not needing to make the tag, and then basically, the mere act of tagging Andre in was the team’s finisher; he’d come in and do what he was still physically able to do for about 30 seconds, but whatever he could do was portrayed as totally lethal, and it would always get the winning pin. So they take a guy who just physically can’t go anymore, and they came up with something that made him and another guy look like the two most dangerous men on the planet. Phenomenal.

-The Hulkamaniacs predict that the stock market will bottom out and that the enormous wall that DiBiase has built with his partners will be too easily knocked out. Also, how does Bill Eadie have a voice box left after cutting promos as Ax for all those years?

-Gorilla Monsoon is still doing the voice, complaining to Bobby because the Million Dollar Man bank on the desk doesn’t have any coins in it, and he just repeats “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!” over and over. Bobby is so disgusted that he walks off the set and says he’s calling Brother Love personally and telling him to come to the studio.

DUSTY RHODES vs. JOE CRUZ

-Cruz tries a sneak attack, but Dusty lights into him with elbows and chops. And the biggest elbow of all is that which gets the three count.

-Gorilla and Roddy talk shit about Bobby Heenan while he apparently makes the longest phone call ever to Brother Love.

EVENT CENTER

-The Dream Team cuts a promo; weird presentation, as Brutus Beefcake is made to look like the team captain. They’re still calling Rooster “Poultry in Motion,” god love ’em.

RICK “The Model” MARTEL (with Slick) vs. MARK YOUNG

-Martel is formally rechristened here, now wearing a sweater over his shoulders for his entrance. He’s still pretty much the same character though, coming to the ring to Slick’s music and acting like a generic jerk instead of the better-defined snob persona that would come later.

-Young misses a dropkick, but rallies with dropkicks that send Martel out to the floor. Celebratory spinarooni by Young as we actually get a mid-match commercial break for this.

-We return to Martel hammering away at Young. Chinlock applied as the commentators are in full hype mode for Survivor Series. Young gets his third wind but misses a corner charge, and the Boston crab finishes.

BROTHER LOVE

-Brother Love welcomes Roddy’s Rowdies. The whole team acts over-the-top weird through the whole segment, with the Bushwhackers gradually eating Piper’s shirt, and “Mister Snuka”going back and forth, shooting menacing looks at both Piper AND Brother Love. And then he starts barking like a dog. And Brother Love is so completely freaked out by the entire group that he just gets the hell out of there.

-And finally, finally, finally a half-hour after Heenan left to make his phone call (and he still isn’t back) Brother Love storms in to take Gorilla to task for his offensive costume. But he slips up and goes into Studio B, where Piper has swiveled his chair around so his back is to Brother Love, and Brother Love, seeing the blonde wig and the sequined jacket, is dumb enough to think he actually is Bobby Heenan, and he talks all kinds of shit about Piper until he figures out his mistake. Piper grabs one of the pumpkins decorating the set and knocks Brother Love unconscious with it.

BOLSHEVIKS (with Slick) vs. TRENT KNIGHT & RENO RIGGINS

-So Volkoff returns after being let go earlier in the year, and they act like he’s been there the whole time and they’re just picking up where they left off with this team.

-Knight whips Zhukov but runs into a big boot. Riggins tags in and dropkicks Zhukov for a one-count. And then Volkoff tags in and just immediately finishes Riggins off with a backbreaker. Well that was a weird match to relaunch the team.

-Bobby Heenan finally returns from what must have been the most epic dump of his life and finds out that Brother Love is unconscious in Studio B. Gorilla tells Heenan that Brother Love fell down. By the way, one detail that I like about this is that everybody in the WWF apparently lives in, like, “WWF City” and anybody could just come to the Prime Time Wrestling studio within a 15 minute drive.

MISTER PERFECT PLAYS PING PONG

-Perfect competes against some dude in a ping pong match, taunting Hulk Hogan all the way through while he wins 11-0. The better-known Mr. Perfect theme makes its first appearance too! Perfect spits his gum out and swats it away with his paddle to punctuate the whole segment.

-Being dressed as Bobby Heenan for even an hour or so is more than Piper can take, so he leaves the set to change out of the costume and we really should call an ambulance for Brother Love at this point because he’s still out.

JAKE “The Snake” ROBERTS vs. TONY BURTON

-Burton hiptosses Jake but stupidly takes a break to celebrate it and misses the follow-through elbow. Stomachbreaker by Jake. Short clothesline, DDT, Damien, you know the drill.

-Brother Love FINALLY regains consciousness and says the last thing he remembers is being hit with a brick. He bursts into tears, throws a tantrum, and runs off the set. And Bobby Heenan is absolutely furious because the whole three-host combo was agreed upon with the promise that there would never be any altercations on the show again, and here Brother Love shows up, gets mysteriously sent into the wrong studio, and is knocked unconscious, and with a BRICK!

HERCULES vs. DINO BRAVO (with Jimmy Hart)
-Months old! This is MSG in April 1989, so here’s a copy-paste review:

-First time we’re seeing Jimmy in Dino’s corner. My guess is Jimmy just started walking to the ring out of habit, and Dino, without attention to details, figured the guy with long dark hair, facial hair, and eyewear was probably Frenchy Martin. Dino still has his old look though, and it’s kind of strange realizing how firm that image of Dino and Jimmy is in my head and how weird it looks to see Dino wearing black and red with Jimmy.

-Dino is immediately overpowered in the lock-up but shoves Hercules away and declares victory. They collide on shoulderblocks and neither man will budge. Test of strength as both men go through their strongman checklist. Dueling bearhugs should be coming shortly.

-Test of strength is broken by Dino throwing kicks, and Tony thinks nothing of pointing out that tests of strength usually end up going that way. Herc ducks a punch and applies a full nelson, but Dino makes the ropes and goes to the floor to rethink things. They trade poses before Dino tries a side headlock. Herc fights out and slams him. He tries the full nelson again, but Dino makes the ropes and goes to the floor to kill more time.

-Aaaaand Dino walks back to the locker room. And then he doesn’t. Back in, Dino pokes Herc in the eye and follows with an inverted atomic drop. Rear chinlock by Dino, and an elbow gets two. So Dino mixes things up with a regular chinlock. Herc elbows out but gets clotheslined down, and now Dino goes to a Boston crab.

-Herc makes the ropes and makes a comeback with right hands, but Dino stops him with…A BEARHUG! And Herc gets comfy, taking a full two minutes before realizing “Hey, my arms are free” and punching out. Herc avoids a corner charge next and throws punches. Series of clotheslines by Herc as he signals for the torture rack. Dino doesn’t submit immediately, so Herc just drops him for no reason and goes for the pin right next to the ropes, and Dino gets a foot out.

-They fight on the apron, with Hercules attempting a sunset flip, but Dino shifts his weight and holds onto the ropes to get a tainted win. Tainted not just by chicanery, but by how terrible the match actually was. You do not book two guys built like this to go over 15 minutes!

Gorilla runs down the Survivor Series Showdown:
-Tito Santana vs. Big Boss Man!
-Hercules vs. Macho King!
-Ultimate Warrior vs. Tully Blanchard! (Gorilla touts the match by saying “So long, Tully! Curtains for him!” And uh, yeah)
-Butch vs. Mr. Perfect!
-Smash vs. Ted DiBiase!

6.9
The final score: review Average
The 411
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