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WWF Prime Time Wrestling (2.13.1989) Review: Hogan’s Promo On Savage Over Elizabeth

February 24, 2019 | Posted by Adam Nedeff
Randy Savage Elizabeth WWF WWE Network Image Credit: WWE
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WWF Prime Time Wrestling (2.13.1989) Review: Hogan’s Promo On Savage Over Elizabeth  

-Originally aired February 13, 1989.

-Your hosts are Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan, back in the studio. Bobby just starts firing at Elizabeth with both barrels, calling her worthless, saying that the “first lady of wrestling” nickname was a crock, and its her own fault that her tag team fell apart.

BRET “Hit Man” HART vs. DARYL PETERSON

-From Tucson. Snapmare by Maxx Payne, which he turns into a front facelock. Bret ducks a forearm and throws punches at Man Mountain Rock, and a dropkick sends Lucifer Pain out to the floor.

-Bret works the arm and rolls up Peterson for two. Peterson comes to life, choking out Bret and heading to the second rope, but a splash misses. Clothesline by Bret, and the second-rope elbow finishes. Gosh, no wonder he made that a move of doom.

-Gorilla announces that next week’s three-hour special will be titled “Face to Face,” with special guest star Vince McMahon.

-We go to edited highlights of The Main Event. Hulk’s got JEALOUS EYES, man!

UPDATE
-Elizabeth is better, reports Mean Gene. We go to the Mean One in the locker room in Milwaukee. Hulk rattles off little quirks about Randy’s behavior that have been bothering him for the past few months. He decided to just let it slide. He also says he knows that ELizabeth’s injury was an accident, and that Savage was wrong in thinking Hulk ever wanted anything he had. He deserved a woman like Elizabeth, and he deserved to be WWF Champion. But now that we’ve seen Savage’s true colors…Hulk wants his belt back. Fantastic promo by Hogan, not his usual stuff. He wove this little story and quite believably came around to feeling like he wanted to fight his friend.

-Bobby Heenan says that if the Mega-Powers ever signed him as a manager, he would have laid down the law on day one: Elizabeth stays in the dressing room.

KOKO B. WARE vs. BAD NEWS BROWN

-From Tucson. Bad News attacks from behind, but targets the head, pissing off Koko. Koko retaliates by targeting the head, which hurts Bad News. Well, now I’m just confused.

-Bodypress by Koko gets two. Bad News counters a backdrop and starts hammering on Koko. Bad News headbutts Koko and collapses to the mat in a cute spot, and Koko starts coming to life, ramming Bad News’ face into the mat repeatedly for two. Bad News retaliates and sends Koko into the corner, then boots him out to the floor. Back in, Bad News misses a corner charge and gets rolled up for two. Punches and forearms by Koko, but he charges at Bad News, and Bad News gets out of the way and Koko pretty much stunguns himself. Bad News capitalizes immediately with the ghetto blaster to finish. That was a pretty decent battle for a while.

ROCKERS vs. JOSE ESTRADA & BARRY HOROWITZ

-Over to Phoenix for this one. A double-team spot goes hideously wrong and Jose tumbles ass-over-tea-kettle through the ropes, and even the commentators can’t say anything other than acknowledging that, yeah, they screwed that move up. They do the spot again, and honestly, the correct version doesn’t look much different from the screwed-up version. Horowitz tags in and let’s just start fresh, shall we?

-Rockers work Horowitz’s arm until he tags out, and Estrada gets his arm worked over now. Shawn gets caught in the jobber corner and they choke him out for a bit. Backdrop by Estrada, and the heels have control for a little bit, bkeeping the ring cut in half until Shawn gets free from a bulldog and hot-tags behind Horowitz’s back. Horowitz gets his neck snapped over the top rope as a result, and Shawn press slams Marty on top for a three-count. Good match as the Rockers found that sweet spot–the squash didn’t go TOO long; it just went long enough for the jobbers to look good, and then the Rockers looked like bigger stars for pulling out the win and outsmarting them.

-Bobby Heenan explains the perfect strategy for defeating the Rockers: jumping them when the bell rings.

EVENT CENTER

-Hercules has signed open contracts, and Outlaw Ron Bass wants to face the bad boys in the WWF! Basically the gist of both promos was “Creative has nothing for me.”
HILLBILLY JIM vs. RAVISHING RICK RUDE
-From MSG. Rude tries to attack during the entrance, but Hillbilly just backdrops him. Rude begs for a handshake and Hillbilly whips him back and forth and locks on a bearhug. Apparently these two have an actual issue, which Alfred recaps in the early minutes of the match. Hillbilly Jim called commentary during the last show and when Rude pulled a woman into the ring for a Rude Awakening, he was such a douchebag to her that Hillbilly Jim went into the ring and stole the woman away.

-Rude breaks the hold and takes over, targeting Hillbilly’s throat, which seems like bad strategy because moonshine probably turned that part of Hillbilly completely bulletproof. Rude stays on the throat, lifting Hillbilly off the mat with a choke and giving him a right hand to the neckal region.

-Axehandle off the top by Rude gets two, due to his most cavalier cover. Rude gets caught in an inverted atomic drop and a big boot. Impressive show of power, as Jim lifts him by the armpits and just drops him straight on his ass. Jim tries to finish with a splash, but Rude raises a boot to daze him and springs right up to hit the Rude Awakening the moment he has the opening, and Rude gets the pin, clean as a sheet. That…was actually one hell of a good Hillbilly Jim match.

-We go to the Million Dollar Man OH HELL YEAH, I KNOW WHERE THIS IS GOING! Ted DiBiase is in his limousine, heading to Betteridge Jewelers in Greenwich, CT, the most expensive and therefore best jewelry shop in the entire world. DiBiase walks in and the employees line up to take care of him. DiBiase asks the owner of the shop, Mr. Betteridge himself, to make a Million Dollar Championship Belt for him. DiBiase is willing to shell out one million dollars, and he wants the belt loaded with gold and diamonds.

Gorilla and even Bobby can’t figure out exactly what DiBiase would do with a title belt that he has bought for himself. My guess is take it to conventions and bars and have guys autograph it for him.

BUSHWHACKERS vs. BOLSHEVIKS

-From Superstars of Wrestling. Bolsheviks attack before the bell, but Bushwhackers ram them into each other and hit the battering ram right away on Zhukov. Nikolai hurries over and stops it from being a short night. Referee gets some order in there and Volkoff takes control with a clothesline on Luke. Boris knocks Butch to the floor to stop Luke from tagging out. And a spinning kick by Nikolai gets two. Boris tags in, and Luke just gives him a Moe eye-poke and tags out. Butch gets caught in the ring with both Bolsheviks, but he ducks an attempted double-team and Nikolai gets knocked out to the floor. Double stomachbreaker on Zhukov gets the win for the Bushwhackers. A good, quick, competitive weekend TV bout. I liked it.

HANDICAP MATCH: BIG JOHN STUDD vs. BLACK KNIGHT & CHIP ATKINSON

-From Superstars of Wrestling. Jobbers try to overpower Studd, but Studd shoves both of them down. Jesse abruptly leaves the broadcast area because he’s been told Randy Savage wants to talk to him.

-Meanwhile, Studd rams the jobbers in the corner. He plants the Knight on the top rope and snapmares him off. Double underhook suplex by Studd takes care of the Knight, and he applies a bearhug on Atkinson, conspicuously making sure that Atkinson’s arms are against his sides to limit the types of escape he could make. And it finishes!

-So Jesse is backstage with Randy Savage. Hogan finally grew some guts and asked for a title shot. Savage’s answer: “I’ll think about it.”

KING HAKU vs. LOUIE SPICOLLI

-From Tucson. Takedown and kicks by Haku as the commentators speculate that Spicolli isn’t his real name. Sean Mooney reveals a pop culture blind spot by saying that Spicolli sounds like he “named himself after some kind of Italian dessert.” Double underhook suplex by the king, who follows with some incredible height on a dropkick. Spicolli starts to throw punches, but Haku blocks an attempted bridge and just takes Spicolli’s head off with a superkick to finish. DAMN.

BROTHER LOVE
-Brother Love welcomes the Brooklyn Brawler, who’s sporting a dingy t-shirt but still regular tights and kneepads. He warns that the Red Rooster survived the first attack, but the next time they cross paths, Rooster is plucked.


BRUTUS “The Barber” BEEFCAKE vs. “Mister Perfect” CURT HENNIG

-Weird entrance for Brutus, who heads to the ring with a guy in a suit showing him a piece of paper. Beefcake looks at the paper, nods approvingly, and heads out for his match. My guess: The paper said “Do you like tater tots?” So he was nodding because he likes tater tots. Beefcake gets screams from the fans as he takes his jacket off and we get a great shot from the cameraman frantically looking for ONE woman somewhere in the MSG crowd reacting to Brutus and he can only find row after row of bored-looking men.

-Side headlock by Beefcake, followed by a shoulderblock. Hennig tries a drop toehold, but Beefcake turns it into a hammerlock and Hennig makes it to the ropes. Hennig throws a hard chop but gets slammed down. So Hennig changes his strategy and tries a test of strength. Nice sequence as Beefcake tries to turn it into a new hold and Hennig anticipates and just unloads on him with knees.

-Rear chinlock by Hennig. Beefcake fights back to his feet and snake-eyes Hennig to break it, but Hennig cuts off the comeback by targeting the back. Forearms to the skull have no effect on Brutus, so apparently Beefcake is Samoan or something, and he punches Hennig out to the floor. Back in, Beefcake signals for the sleeper, but Outlaw Ron Bass shows up to steal Beefcake’s stuff, so Beefcake goes out to do something about it and gets himself counted out. The feud’s dead, why keep it running on fumes like this? Beefcake was in the zone at this point, and Curt Hennig is Curt Hennig, so it was a good match.

9.0
The final score: review Amazing
The 411
Even the squashes were fun. Angles and stories all over the place. Good feature matches. I can't ask for a better episode. Again, I score these shows based on what they're intended to be. And as for what an episode of Prime Time should be, this was damn near perfect.
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Adam Nedeff