WWF Prime Time Wrestling (6.26.1989) Review

-Originally aired June 26, 1989.

-Your host is Gorilla Monsoon to start. Bobby Heenan shows up late and says he walked out of the studio early last week because he’s just plain tired of putting up with Gorilla’s bullshit.

MR. PERFECT vs. SCOTT COLTON
-I’m amazed by the persistence they showed with Mr. Perfect because this gimmick has just been flat-lining for the past year and they haven’t given him a real program yet, but by god, they stuck with this.

-Perfect takes Colton to the mat and stretches him as a few fans let loose with the “boring” chant right away. Perfect slaps Colton around while Tony and Lord Alfred gush about his prospects as a contender to Hulk Hogan, and again, there is nothing to suggest this guy is going to be main eventing with Hogan six months from now. Perfect-plex makes short work of Colton.

UPDATE
-The Honky Tonk Man laid out Superfly Jimmy Snuka with guitar shots, then told police that Snuka banged his head on a rock on the side of the road to teach him how it feels. We get words from Honky, but Mean Gene predicts that Snuka is coming for revenge.

BRUTUS “The Barber” BEEFCAKE vs. TOM SCOTT
-The Genius steps in with a poem comparing Elizabeth and Sensational Sherri. Scott goes after the throat and chokes Beefcake, but Beefcake clothesline him right down. Sleeper hold finishes. Nobody is getting paid by the hour this week.

FABULOUS ROUGEAU BROTHERS (with Jimmy Hart) vs. TIM HORNER & CHRIS ZARNA
-From Wrestling Challenge. The commentary team has expanded to Gorilla, Bobby, and Tony Schiavone, setting up Heenan’s exit from that show in a few weeks.

-Rougeaus offer a handshake then clear the jobbers from the ring. Horner comes back in and clears the ring with dropkicks. We get a head-in-box promo from the Rougeaus, who are still trying to get “the Rougeau package will explode in your face” over as a catch phrase. It sounds like a Conrad Thompson t-shirt more than an actual threat to the Rockers.

-Raymond applies a Boston crab on Zarna, with Jacques slipping his hand in to add leverage. Horner complains and Danny Davis goes over to have words with him while Jacques sneaks in and drops a knee right on Zarna’s head to knock him out in the hold, and Raymond just rolls him over and pins him. Another weird example of something that would have been totally fine if the referee had seen it, but we’re supposed to think of it as a tainted win.

HILLBILLY JIM vs. FULLER STEVENS
-From Superstars. Hillbilly’s emergency main event push continues, as Stevens tries for a slam and Jim just slams him down. Vince says that Hillbilly Jim is going to start bringing something to the ring for his matches in the next few weeks; a good luck charm of some sort from his grandfather. Holy crap, I did not realize how late in Hillbilly’s career that came, I just totally associate him with that and he’s, what, a year away from hanging it up? Big boot by Jim gets three.

SPECIAL INTERVIEW
-Mean Gene welcomes Zeus to the interview platform, and there’s a bizarre edit here as Zeus appears to just teleport into the picture. Zeus declares that Hoke Hogan is big-time yellow. Zeus threatens to destroy Hoke Hogan with such intensity that he leaves a wad of mucus and slobber on the mike, which is even funnier when Gene just keeps talking like nothing happened.

-But what’s this? Randy Savage and Sherri show up to get a better look at Zeus and they both agree that Zeus has a trace of madness in his eyes. Savage points out that they both hate Hulk Hogan, so they should make a pact. Zeus smiles at the notion, and your Summerslam build is underway.

“The Widow Maker” BARRY WINDHAM vs. FRANKIE DEFALCO
-Barry was last seen in the NWA complaining in promos about a broken hand after his US Title loss, and that ended up being a bit of a story backstage, with Windham insisting that he needed time off because the hand injury was legit, Jim Herd demanded to see a doctor’s report, and Windham said “Nuh-uh, doctor-patient confidentiality.” Jim Herd didn’t budge, and here’s Barry Windham in the WWF. It’s actually a little sad watching it now because Windham sort of mentally checked out at this point and never really got back to where he was as a worker so his debut here is kind of a point of demarcation in his career. It’s also mind-blowing that in under a year, Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard, AND Barry Windham all ended up in the WWF. They were so, so close.

-Windham armdrags DeFalco as we get pre-taped words from Windham calling out Hulk Hogan. Vince amazingly buries Windham right out of the chute, saying he’s aiming awfully high, and Jesse seems totally shocked by that and makes a case for Windham as a legit contender.

-Suplex and a chop, and Jesse is just ON Vince for saying Windham shouldn’t be a main event star. Superplex finishes for Windham.

EVENT CENTER
-They actually replay the promo from last week where Bobby is visibly reading Andre the Giant’s cue card. Well, it’s still funny. We also get words from the Blue Blazer, which is weird because he pretty much got crated up and shipped out already.

-Aww, damn, we had to edit out the “No Holds Barred” music video, apparently.

KING DUGGAN vs. JIM MEGAN
-Duggan uses his cape as a weapon early on to annoy Megan. Megan tries to get some offense in, but Duggan just clotheslines him down and backdrops him. Duggan goes scientific with a chinlock but gets bored with that quickly and slams him. Three-point stance finishes. Knowing the long-term booking plan, the King Duggan shirts in the crowd just amuse me, they basically took the crown off of him the moment that the last one sold.

-Dusty Rhodes ride on the back of a garbage truck singing “It’s a Beautiful Day in This Neighborhood,” which makes this the very best of these vignettes so far. This is actually kind of gross, as Dusty is handling garbage with his bare hands, and the two actual garbagemen in the skit are wearing gloves.

TONY SCHIAVONE’S COLISEUM CORNER
-Tony promotes The Best of the WWF Volume 19 by showing us Demolition vs. Powers of Pain from the unaired portion of “The Main Event.” They must really want us to buy the tape because we only get about three minutes of footage, mostly the Powers’ heat segment.

-Hulk cuts a promo, saying he’s making a list of everybody who hasn’t seen No Holds Barred yet and if your name is still on the list by Christmas, he’ll bodyslam you. You do not have enough paper in the world, Hulk.

ROCKERS vs. BARRY HOROWITZ & TOM STONE
-Shawn Michaels starts with Barry Horowitz. Backbreaker by Shawn gets two right away. We already have a donnybrook in the ring. Great spot as the jobbers whip the Rockers into each other, and Shawn backdrops Marty onto Barry Horowitz. Chinlock by Marty as we get ANOTHER promo by the Rougeaus, performing “Singing in the Rain” to taunt the Rockers.

-Backdrop by Michaels, elbow by Janetty, and double fistdrops from the top rope finish it.

BROTHER LOVE
-Brother Love welcomes his favorite guest, The Million Dollar Man. Brother Love wonders what happened to Jake the Snake because we haven’t heard from him lately and Ted DiBiase joyfully announces that Jake is in the hospital after major surgery to remove a disc from his neck, and the early prognosis is that Jake will never wrestle again. Brother Love’s big cheesy smile while hearing about a career-ending injury is really funny and creepy.

-SUMMERSLAM! FEEL THE HEAT!

RAVISHING RICK RUDE (Intercontinental Champion, with Bobby Heenan) vs. SONNY ROGERS
-Clothesline and a forearm by Rude, and the Rude Awakening finishes instantly. They bring a woman into the ring for the other Rude Awakening, but Warrior charges into the ring and attacks Rude, probably after seeing Rude had a mustache and just assuming he was some kind of foreigner.

EVENT CENTER
-Hercules calls out Boris Zhukov, which is 1989ese for “My career is stalled.” Bad News Brown cuts the PROMO OF THE YEAR about a big fat fried-chicken eating woman grabbing him by the neck and dragging him into a theater to make him watch No Holds Barred…and it turns out Bad News found it to be a heck of a good movie.

TITO SANTANA vs DUSTY WOLFE
-Ronnie Garvin is referee for this one.

-Tito works the arm while Rick Martel warns his ex-partner that he and Slick have big, big plans.

-Elbows and punches by Tito, and the flying forearm finishes.

THE BARBARIAN (with Mr. Fuji) vs. LANCE ALLEN
-Barbarian chokes Allen out while we get pre-taped words from Mr. Fuji. Something about bones.

-Big boot by Barbarian, and a clothesline off the top finishes.

-Bobby “The Company Man” Heenan is trying to broker a deal with Carnegie Hall for a private screening of No Holds Barred because every time he tries to see it, the ticket-taker tells him the screening is sold out.

JIM “The Anvil” NEIDHART vs. GREG “The Hammer” VALENTINE
-There’s probably some parallel universe where these guys ended up as a tag team but tonight they’re opponents in MSG.

-Boots and elbows by the Hammer. He throws chops. Neidhart goes after the Heartbreaker, and Valentine goes to the floor and stalls again. He suckers Neidhart into chasing and catches him with a knee on the apron. Valentine chokes him out and comes off the top with a blow to the head. Chinlock by Valentine and he goes after Neidhart’s head some more, which would have led to quality snark from Jesse Ventura by this point but instead Tony and Lord Alfred are all “these two men are top contenders.” I mean come on.

-Valentine works the leg and goes for the figure four, but Neidhart rakes the eyes to stop him. Valentine tries again but Neidhart boots him into the corner. Standing dropkick and a series of tackles by Neidhart for two. Clothesline by Anvil, but he’s totally fixated on the Heartbreaker. Valentine gets fed up and takes it off himself, knocking Anvil out cold with it for the three-count. Nothing special here.

5.5

The final score: review Not So Good

The 411

A very squashy show, but honestly, Bad News' promo alone makes it a thumbs up.