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The Name on the Marquee: WWF Prime Time Wrestling (1.30.1989)

February 20, 2019 | Posted by Adam Nedeff
Tito Santana WWE Image Credit: WWE
6.9
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The Name on the Marquee: WWF Prime Time Wrestling (1.30.1989)  

-Originally aired January 30, 1989.

-And it’s a Prime Time on-location adventure this week! Gorilla Monsoon arrives on an old west movie set, looking for his good friend, Dusty, the director. The camera quietly pans over to reveal Bobby Heenan, wearing a fantastic Heenanized cowboy outfit, hanging out by himself. Gorilla, who hasn’t noticed yet, is happy to be doing a show without him this week.

SAM HOUSTON vs. DANGEROUS DANNY DAVIS
-What tickets were these guys selling that merited keeping this feud going for 13 damn months?

-Houston throws a punch and Danny stalls. Houston punches again and Danny stalls. Houston applies a side headlock. Danny sends him into the ropes and Houston connects with a bodypress, so Danny stalls. Might be worth noting that in three months, one of these guys will be out of a job and the other will be demoted to referee. Just throwing that out there.

-Houston applies a side headlock. Davis takes over, unleashing his unmatchable arsenal of stomping as well as stomping but on the other side of the body. Forearm from the second rope gets two, because 13 months wasn’t dragging this feud out long enough.

-Danny throws Houston out to the floor and blocks him from coming back in. Houston gets all fired up and runs a lap around the ring before charging back in and mounting a comeback, but Davis clotheslines him down and applies a Boston crab. Houston breaks free and bulldogs him to finish. Next!

-Gorilla meets the director, an old college buddy of his from Ithaca. I cannot find any evidence anywhere online that film director Dusty Sages even existed.

BROOKLYN BRAWLER (with Bobby Heenan) vs. RENO RIGGINS

-From “Superstars,” it’s Lombardi’s first match with the new name, but he’s still just wearing regular tights instead of his better-known look. Bobby Heenan goes on a funny tangent in one of his books about how Steve Lombardi just didn’t GET the gimmick when it was given to him, and Bobby told him to put on some jeans and a t-shirt and roll around in the dirt before going into the ring. So Lombardi does it, and the next night, Heenan looks at him as they’re about to go to the ring, and Lombardi is wearing a t-shirt and jeans…and they’re clean. And Heenan was completely dismayed that he was washing his shirt.

-Brawler slaps Reno with his hat as we hear from the first victim of Lombardi Hat Slapping. We get words from Red Rooster, promising revenge on the Brawler.

-Slam by Brawler. He slaps around Riggins and chokes him over the ropes as the commentators marvel over this “new side” of Steve Lombardi. The superplex finishes easily.

-Back to the movie set, where some, uh, banditos, I guess, set off some dynamite, and Bobby Heenan staggers out, looking like Daffy Duck after being handed a cigar. Gorilla is dismayed that Bobby has ruined what was supposed to be a relaxing, fun day on a movie set for him.

BROTHER LOVE

-Brother Love welcomes the Mega-Powers and Elizabeth. Oh, hey, yeah, there’s something kind of big coming up four days after this episode, isn’t there? Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage cut a long, long, LONG promo by the standards of this era, promising that Powers vs. Towers will be “the greatest tag team match of all time.” Rockers and Brain Busters might as well pack it in right now if they can’t top this one.

-The Mega-Powers recap the entire feud with Boss Man and Akeem, but Brother Love jumps in to play shit-stirrer and ask them if they REALLY get along. Hogan clarifies that he loves Elizabeth like a sister, and he loves Randy Savage like a brother, which means that Hulk Hogan’s brother and sister have sex with each other. This raises troubling questions about Horace. Randy Savage says that everyone knows the Twin Towers are big tall buildings and aww shit I don’t like where this promo is headed…Yep, he just said the Twin Towers are gonna come crumbling down.

-Brother Love’s theme music loops for the second time as he compares Elizabeth to Jezebel and suspects she hurts the group more than she helps it. The Mega-Powers agree that Elizabeth is an inspiration, not a distraction. And with that…we’ll see you on Friday night.

-We get our official first commercial for Wrestlemania V, returning to Trump Library and Morgue in Atlantic City for the benefit of fans who want to watch their wrestling in peace without a lot of enthusiasm to distract them.

BLUE BLAZER vs. AKEEM (with Slick)

-Akeem no-sells dropkicks. Blazer surprises him with right hands and Akeem goes to Slick for some sage advice, like “Hit him back.” Except Slick probably says it more charismatically.

-They trade arm wringers and Blazer hits the ropes, but Akeem catches him in a backbreaker. Akeem unloads on the Blazer with full fat guy arsenal, including clubbing blows and corner-ramming. Boston actually starts an “Akeem” chant.

-Avalanche misses and the Blazer comes back with punches and kicks. Blazer heads to the top and connects with a bodypress for two. Blazer tries again but Akeem dodges a missile dropkick and capitalizes immediately with a splash for three. This was pretty much just a squash and Blazer actually looked kind of unmotivated with unusually generic offense.

EVENT CENTER

-Wait a minute, we’ve heard this Outlaw Ron Bass promo before! Ripoff! And Hercules vows to forever remain a free man!

-Bobby Heenan keeps disrupting takes and trying to add his own ideas for the movie until Dusty storms out there and demands that he get outta there.

RUGGED RONNIE GARVIN vs. JOHN ZIEGLER

-I suppose it’s likely that John Ziegler is his real name, but Dave Meltzer seemed pretty sure at the time that somebody in the WWF thought it would be funny to have a jobber who was named after the inventor of Dianabol.

-Garvin pretzelizes Ziegler the way he used to do with TBS jobbers, and I’ve missed this Ron Garvin. Garvin ties up Ziegler’s arms and chops him as the commentators focus their attention on the big-ass tag team match coming up on Friday. Piledriver finishes with no trouble.

-Bobby talks to an Asian extra and says a shitload of stuff that would lead to a Twitter campaign today.

TIM HORNER vs. JOSE ESTRADA
-From MSG. Flying headscissors by Horner sends Estrada retreating. Another flying headscissors because Horner sticks with what he knows. They do the nifty counter they did in Philly where Estrada tries to escape it with a headstand but Horner just drills him by turning that into a mini-piledriver.

-Horner stays with the headscissors a wee bit longer than MSG would prefer and Rivera wins the crowd back by turning it into a fight. Fist off the top rope by Estrada, but he wastes precious time by celebrating. Backdrop by Estrada gets two. Chinlock gets an INSTANT “boring” chant from MSG.

-They slug it out some more and Horner connects with an elbow off the ropes for two. They fight for a roll-up, and Horner wins that battle by turning it into a bridge for three. This was fine.

EVENT CENTER

-Koko B. Ware is flying high. Ted DiBiase handpicks his own fans; he has only a few that he’s personally approved of because they’re in his class of people.

-The director is in a better mood. He says Bobby Heenan offered some cash to let him be in the movie, and he calls the stunt coordinator over to discuss a big idea.

JIM “The Anvil” NEIDHART vs. JERRY PRICE

-From “Superstars.” Amazing backdrop by the Anvil sees Price land straight on his ass and bounce a foot straight up into the air. Powerslam finishes. Thumbs up just for that one bump.

SPECIAL REPORT

-We take a look at the Super Posedown at the Royal Rumble. Warrior promises to make Rude “endure the creation of unpleasantries.”

EVENT CENTER

-Ronnie Garvin has wrestled all over the world and the WWF has the BEST competition, so he doesn’t have time to play ping-pong anymore. Hacksaw Jim Duggan has some words about America…he appears to be in favor of it.

-Stunt coordinator gives Bobby a gun and a holster for the scene he’s about to shoot. Coordinator tucks some comically oversized bullets into the holster before filming starts.

TITO SANTANA vs. OUTLAW RON BASS
-Bass is forced to remove the hat before starting the match and gets good and angry about that, hammering Tito down aggressively. Tito comes off the ropes with a double-forearm, which is like doing his finisher twice, but it only gets two.

-Bass jerks the hair and takes control from there, ramming Tito into the turnbuckles and driving a forearm into him. Bass faceplants him, which is fundamentally the same as his finisher except he didn’t put Tito’s head in his crotch first, but apparently his crotch is the secret ingredient to victory because the faceplant only gets two.

-Tito cradles Bass out of nowhere for two. He tries a backdrop but Bass counters it with a big boot. Beefcake heads to the ring to play with Bass’ hat in the corner, and Bass is so flustered by this tomfoolery. So much so that Tito rolls him up for three. Pretty indifferent to this one, and shoving a settled feud down our throats for a predictable finish didn’t sit right with me.

-Lame payoff after all that build-up, as the gag is that Heenan is shot first in the gunfight, and never makes use of the gigantic bullets.

6.9
The final score: review Average
The 411
You can't hate an episode where Gorilla and Bobby go on adventures.
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