wrestling / Video Reviews
WWF Houston Wrestling (4.25.1987) Review
Image Credit: WWE
Loading...-Originally aired May 25, 1987.
-Your host is Paul Boesch. Don’t forget on May 13 or May 15, which ever one is the Friday night, Houston welcomes the WWF with a big 11-match card featuring 26 wrestlers.
KILLER BEES vs. KING KONG BUNDY & “Mr. Wonderful” PAUL ORNDORFF
-From the Maple Leaf Gardens and the incredibly petty Frank Tunney Memorial Tag Team Tournament. And hey! They’ve actually taken a note from my bitching last week. This week, the WWF has actually sent them raw footage instead of the finished product, so there’s no commentary and we’ll hear the real bumps and crowd reactions. Funnily, they leave in the camera cutting to Gorilla Monsoon at ringside at the start of this, so Peter and Paul have to explain that they had OTHER commentary for this match.
-Killer Bees anticipate so much cheating that they put on the masks before the bell even rings, and the crowd pops huge for it.
-Orndorff tries an early attack, but misses a corner charge, and the Bees trade off in rapid succession to work his bad arm. The one who’s definitely Brunzell misses a high dropkick, and King Kong Bundy tags in to take control. Elbows and choking while Paul Boesch announces the Fabulous Moolah vs. Velvet McIntyre for May 15, which he promises “will be in itself the essence of a lot of different action that the fans expect.” Paul Boesch talks like a high school kid writing a 500-word report about a book that he didn’t read.
-Orndorff Irish whips Bundy into Brunzell for the avalanche, and the crowd goes nuts because they kind of know where this is going. Bundy & Orndorff prematurely celebrate, so Brian Blair makes the switch behind their backs, and Blair sunset flips Orndorff for a three-count. Really just a squash match with a twist ending.
“The Natural” BUTCH REED (with Slick) vs. SIVI AFI
-Off to Wrestling Challenge for this one. Afi ducks a punch and Reed retreats to the corner before anything can happen. Afi armdrags him and Reed complains to the referee. Slick vows revenge against Tito Santana for ruining his threads at WrestleMania.
-Back to the ring, Reed chokes Reed over the top rope and faceplants him with a handful of hair. Reed tosses Afi to the floor. Back in the ring, Reed Irish whips Afi and misses the charge. Afi mounts a comeback but gets wiped out by an elbow. Press slam by Reed finishes.
-Tito wants a match with Butch Reed and JUST Butch Reed, but he warns Slick not to get involved in this one.
-Slick gives a rebuttal, saying that Koko B. Ware got the worst beating of his cabbage patch cotton-picking life at WrestleMania III, and Tito’s going to get the same.
CAN-AM CONNECTION vs. DEMOLITION (with Johnny V)
-Demolition now has the basic guitar riff for their entrance as they keep evolving toward the team as we knew them.
-Smash smashes away but gets wiped out by a double dropkick. Smash tries to shake it off and goes for a corner charge, but he crashes and Rick Martel wrings the arm. Smash “does the touching which brings in Ax,” or tags him, to the layman.
-Can-Ams go nuts on Ax’s arm. Ax whips Martel into the corner and he stumbles out to the floor. Martel gets a second wind, a third wind, and a fourth wind, but Demolition cuts off the comeback every time. Ax goes for a diving headbutt and misses, so Martel finally makes the hot tag. We get the pier sixer, and it spills to the floor, with Ax beating the count to get a cheap victory, and the crowd isn’t happy about that one. Not a classic, but an interesting glimpse at a feud that we probably would have seen at some point down the road if Tom hadn’t peaced out.
BLACKJACK MULLIGAN vs TIGER CHUNG LEE
-Weird commentary team for this one: Bobby Heenan and Johnny V.
-Chunger attacks from “behind” (with Mulligan clearly trying to cue him to do so) but Mulligan fires back with a clothesline and suspiciously gloved fists. Mulligan tosses him to the floor. Blackjack clubbers and sends Lee out to the floor again. Lee goes back in, another uppercut sends him to the floor again. Back in Lee connects with an enziguiri and some little brother-style rapid fire slapping to the back, but Mulligan hits him in the jaw with a big elbow and pins him easily. Squash and nothing more.
-Blackjack Mulligan cuts a promo, and we’re pretty conspicuously getting house show hype only from the same people we heard from last week, even though Paul is hyping the 26-star card.
HILLBILLY JIM vs. BRIAN COSTELLO
-Jim slams Costello, then offers a big friendly handshake. Costello takes him up on it, but rears back for a kick, only for Jim to grab the boot because he knew that Costello was going to do that if he was offered a handshake, and Jim just spins him around and kicks him in the ass. That was a fun spot, as the commentators were recapping Jim’s origin story and that spot was a nice display of what he’s learned since becoming a wrestler. Bearhug by Jim finishes with ease.
HACKSAW JIM DUGGAN vs. IRON SHEIK (with Slick)
-This is the same match we got last week!
-From Superstars of Wrestling, with the regular commentary left intact. Duggan charges the ring and slams Sheik down. Sheik goes out to the floor to recover. Back in, Duggan just hammers him, and an elbow gets two. Sheik gets desperate and goes to the eyes, then sends Duggan to the floor. Slick takes a shot at Duggan with his cane, and then Nikolai Volkoff comes to ringside to show Slick how it’s done, breaking the cane over Duggan’s head and busting him open. Referee calls for the bell, which in this case is a real bell being sounded intentionally, but Sheik & Volkoff continue dishing out a beating with the cane until the Killer Bees and Sivi Afi come to the rescue.
NIKOLAI VOLKOFF (with Slick and Iron Sheik) vs. RICK HUNTER
-Hunter, inspired by Duggan, attacks Volkoff when he starts singing the anthem, but there’s one of him and Volkoff has Sheik with him, so they just beat the hell out of him before the bell ever sounds. The match never officially starts and with Hunter out cold, Volkoff gets the mic and starts the anthem. Duggan, all bandaged up from the previous match, charges the ring and chases them off, vowing that Volkoff will never sing the entire anthem again.
-A new interviewee! Hacksaw Jim Duggan is excited about coming back to Houston to face the big Russian and stop him from singing the Russian anthem. This is so interesting, because Duggan is a lot closer to his barroom brawler personality from Mid-South than his goofy WWF persona, and the crowd was INTO him in the two preceding matches. It’s interesting to wonder what might have become of this guy in the WWF if he didn’t screw up his initial push.
-Nikolai Volkoff complains that Jim Duggan doesn’t take baths or comb his hair properly. Hippie.
INTERCONTINENTAL TITLE: RANDY “Macho Man” SAVAGE (Champion, with Elizabeth) vs. RICKY “The Dragon” STEAMBOAT (with George “The Animal” Steele)
-For the second week in a row! From Wrestlemania III. If you’ve listened to Bruce Prichard’s stories, you’re not surprised but yes, less than a month after Wrestlemania III, Paul Boesch is airing this on free TV in Houston. Not clips. Not a recap. The whole thing.
-Lock-ups and Savage tries a full nelson, but Steamboat flips himself over to break it. Savage ducks out to move Elizabeth to another corner to get her further away from Steele. Back in, Steamboat armdrags Savage twice and lifts him in the air for a choke. Savage goes to the floor to recover. Steamboat chases him and catches him on the way back in with an elbow. Savage chokes Steamboat on the top rope and goes for an early win, but only gets two. Savage tries to grind Steamboat’s eyes, but then misses a charge. Steamboat applies a wristlock and flips Savage clear over his head with it, which just looks awesome.
-So from there, Steamboat works the arm, but Savage breaks free with a handful of hair and elbows Steamboat down. He sends Steamboat over the top and out to the floor. Savage kicks him down on his attempted re-entry, and now Savage goes after the throat with an elbow on the apron. He puts the boots to Steamboat until he hits the floor again. He snapmares Steamboat back in and goes for the pin, but only gets two. Kneedrop gets two. Steamboat reverses a turnbuckle shot and throws punches, and chops Savage hard enough that he gets tangled in the ropes. Savage breaks free with a boot but gets caught with a bodypress for two. Armdrag by Steamboat gets two. Shoulderblock by Steamboat gets two. Savage desperately shoves him into the ropes and raises a knee to the back. He sends Steamboat over the top rope. Steamboat skins the cat but Savage is ready and sends him right back out. Savage follows him out and boots Steamboat over a table, over a guard rail, and onto the concrete. Steamboat’s out, but Steele lifts him up and carries him back into the ring. Savage simply tosses Steamboat back out and comes off the top rope with the axehandle. Savage tosses him back in the ring and comes off the top with another double axehandle for two. Savage snaps the neck over the top rope for two. Atomic drop gets another two. Suplex gets another two as Savage is just desperate to get this over with and leave with his belt.
-Steamboat starts to fight back with a chop, but Savage goes to the eyes and gets a gutwrench suplex for two. He tries for an atomic drop, but Steamboat lands on his feet behind Savage. Savage kicks him in the chest and charges at him, but Steamboat backdrops him over the top rope. Steamboat rams Savage into the mat and tosses him back in the ring. Chop from the top gets two when Savage gets a foot on the rope. Another chop gets two. Series of chops between the eyes by Steamboat and Savage goes tumbling to the floor. Savage makes Steamboat chase him again, but this time, Steamboat is ready with a shot to the stomach and a sunset flip back inside for two. Roll-up gets two. Steamboat rolls him again for another two. Inside cradle gets two. Bodyslam and a slingshot over the turnbuckle and onto the post gets two. Another roll-up gets two. Savage reverses it for two. Steamboat throws punches, but Savage yanks the tights and launches him into the post. They battle for an Irish whip and the referee gets wiped out in the process. Savage manages to take out Steamboat and connects with the flying elbow, but the referee’s out cold. Savage can’t revive him, so he makes lemons out of lemonade and grabs the bell from the timekeeper. He heads for the top, but Steele snatches the bell from him. Savage kicks him in the back and takes the bell back. He goes to the top rope and Steele shoves him off as the referee revives. Realizing that using the bell is no longer an option, Savage gives up and goes for a bodyslam. He gets it, but Steamboat hangs on and uses the momentum to roll him over and get the three-count.
-Ricky Steamboat cuts a very modest promo, saying that he felt he got lucky at Wrestlemania III and it could have gone either way. Savage angrily declares that it was a FLUKE, and he’s going to get a victory in Houston and get his belt back.
