Welcome everyone to my review of the 12th edition of WWF’s SNME. I’ve been taking a look back at the history of the WWF on the Network recently, so I decided I’ll start posting reviews here on the blog. The weekly show I watch is Prime Time Wrestling, which is super fun, but for now I’ll just review PPVs and the occasional Saturday Night’s Main Event. Enjoy the review!
Before starting, here is the list of champions at the time:
- WWF Champion: Hulk Hogan
- Intercontinental Champion: Honky Tonk Man
- Tag Team Champions: The Hart Foundation (Bret Hart & Jim Neidhart)
- Women’s Champion: Sensational Sherri
The hosts are Vince McMahon & Bobby Heenan
We get a small video package to start the show, with everyone involved in featured matches cutting a short promo.
Backstage, Mean Gene is with IC Champion Honky Tonk Man alongside Jimmy Hart. Honky, set to defend the belt against Randy Savage, says he wants to enter first despite being the champion. He’s the greatest champ ever, and he’s a real entertainer, not just some cheap imitation. He promises to hit Shake Rattle & Roll on Savage, and he’ll also steal Elizabeth from him.
Meanwhile, Randy Savage cuts a Randy Savage promo! Basically, he’s about to enter the danger zone yeaaaaaah.
Match #1: Honky Tonk Man(c)(w/ Jimmy Hart) vs. Randy Savage(w/ Miss Elizabeth) – WWF Intercontinental Championship
Hard lockup gets things started. The ref has to step in and separate them, which allows Honky to cheapshot Macho Man with a closed first that the ref misses. Honky pounds away, but Savage quickly cuts him off and necksnaps him on the ropes. Honky begs for mercy, and Macho Man chokes away. Whip into the corner and he drops a knee into the neck/throat. Honky begs some more, so Savage beats him up some more. Randy with a hard whip into the corner followed by an elbow. Meanwhile, Jimmy Hart goes afer Liz on the outside and Savage goes after him, which allows Honky to take over with a double axehandle from behind. Hot opener with some great heat so far.
Honky tosses him back in, and the crowd’s already clapping along and cheering on Savage to make his big comeback. Honky shoots him into the ropes, Savage with an elbow for a big pop. The way Honky took that bump really helped. Savage returns the closed fist from earlier with one of his own, but misses a second knee. Honky pounds away, and stops to taunt Liz. He hits a closed fist to the face of the middle rope, and leaves the ring to trap Liz between himself and Jimmy.
Savage comes in to save, however, and oh boy is he pissed. He goes up quickly and comes back down with the double axehandle off the top to the outside. He sends Honky back inside for more punishment, and Jimmy puts the champ’s foot on the ropes on a roll-up to save. Savage ignores him and hits a backdrop suplex, but this time Jimmy breaks up the pin by literally pulling Macho Man by the hair. Something tells me that’s not a very good idea. Savage keeps his cool and goes up, but AGAIN Jimmy gets involved and grabs Savage’s leg, forcing him to shove him away. Macho Man with another flying axehandle for the pin, and now Jimmy literally jumps inside the ring to break it up. That is finally enough to piss off Savage, who knocks out Jimmy with a right hand. Honky tries to take advantage with a sunset flip that doesn’t work, so he bails and takes Jimmy to the back alongside The Hart Foundation as we take our first break.
We return with Honky and The Foundation coming back to ringside. Back in, Savage takes back control until he misses a charge in the corner, and Honky quickly goes back to taunting Liz. Savage with a takedown for one, but Honky stays on top. A flying fist misses, however, and Savage comes back with a baaaaaaaaaaack bodydrop as Honky goes back to begging for mercy. Savage responds by choking him in the corner, and hits an elbow for two. Suplex gets two. Honky goes to the eyes to cut him, dumps Savage and distracts the ref so Bret and Neidhart can lay some shots on the floor. They throw him back inside, and an elbowdrop gets two. He goes for the Shake Rattle & Roll, but Savage backdrops him out. Macho Elbow and that’s probably it, but Bret Hart jumps in for the DQ.
A 3-1 beatdown by the heels follows, with Honky grabbing his guitar while the tag champs hold Savage. Honky goes for a shot… and Elizabeth gets in the way. Honky tells her to leave, which she doesn’t, so Honky shoves her down and she runs for her life. Honky turns Savage’s lights out with a shot to the head, but Liz comes back. And she brings Hulk Hogan with her. The heels beat up Hogan as well, until Savage gets back up to clean house with him. The future Mega Powers shake hands for the first time to end the segment. **3/4 Hot opener that the crowd was very much into.
Meanwhile, Mr. Fuji says Hogan is tired while Sika eats chicken. Oh brother, Hulkamania TRULY is in trouble tonight. Hogan says he’s gonna enter the jungle and he’s hungrier than Sika.
Match #2: Hulk Hogan(c) vs. Sika(w/ Mr. Fuji & Kim Chee) – WWF Championship
Kinda weird seeing Hogan work the second match of the card. On commentary, Vince wonders Hogan might lose after being attacked by Honky and the Harts earlier. Yeah, and I wonder Christmas might be in September this year… Sika pounds away by the ropes to start, and Fuji chokes Hogan with the cane from the outside while the ref forces Sika to break. Sika with more kicks and punches, Fuji with a shot with the cane. Sika misses a headbutt and Hogan gets all fired up, but Sika wisely takes a breather.
Back in, Sika charges right into a big boot like an idiot. I mean, Hogan was literally standing there waiting for him. Hogan drops an elbow, and stops to beat up Kim Chee who gets on the apron. That allows Sika to knock him over the top rope to the floor, though. Sika tries to take over on the outside, but Hogan quickly sends him into the post. He steals Fuji’s cane and wants to use it, but a number of refs take it from him as we take a break.
We return with Sika getting back inside and missing another charge like a complete geek while Hogan is LOOKING AT HIM AND WAITING, this time eating a turnbuckle. Hogan brings the moveset with a splash(!) that hits knees, and Sika chokes away. He rakes the eyes to distract the ref, which allows Fuji to choke him some more with the cane. Meanwhile, on commentary…
“Hulk Hogan has never met anyone like this”
Vince McMahon
I get it that you wanna create at least some drama, but please.
Sika grabs the chest for a hold, or a pec massage – depending on how you wanna look at it. And they actually tease the “drop the arm three times” pass out finish, which is just something else! Hogan somehow survives the power of THE DEVASTATING PEC MASSAGE OF DOOM, but Sika cuts him off and takes him down. He drops three headbutts on Hogan, goes for the cover, Hulk Up, slam, big leg, yadda yadda yadda.
Super basic Hogan match against nothing more than your heel of the month. 1/2*
Backstage, Paul Orndorff and Oliver Humperdink cut a promo. Basically, Bobby Heenan is a terrible person. Meanwhile, King Kong Bundy is confident.
Match #3: King Kong Bundy vs. Paul Orndorff
Bundy gets distracted with a cameraman as soon as the bell rings, and Orndorff jumps him to start. Well, duh. Irish whip into a dropkick, but Bundy holds on to the ropes and Paul totally misses it. Bundy pounds away, Orndorff gets two with a sunset flip, but Bundy stays in control. Bundy misses an elbowdrop, and Paul fights back. A flying elbow to the head takes the big man down, Orndorff with a fistdrop for two. Bobby Heenan gets a little hot and leaves his announcing position.Orndorff takes over as this time the dropkick connects for a nearfall. And oh shit, out comes Andre the Giant.
After a break, we return with a lockup that results in a slugfest while Andre stays at ringside. Bundy sends Orndorff into the corner, snapmare takedown followed by a kneedrop gets two. Orndorff fires back to make his big comeback, and manages to take the big man down once again. The crowd’s going nuts for Paul as he drops two elbows, but Bundy moves out of the way on the third one. Bundy hits the chinlock but misses a charge in the corner, as Paul takes over again. However, Andre grabs Paul by the pants from the outside, which sets him up for the Avalanche.
Well, so much for Onrdorff running through the whole family. And so much for his big babyface turn. *1/2 Watchable, but nothing more than that.
Meanwhile, The Hart Foundation are pissed that Jimmy Hart was taken out earlier. They mock the babyfaces for a while, at which point Mean Gene drops the mic and walks away. Sad how the interviewer back in the day had more personality than 98% of today’s wrestlers.
Main-event: The Hart Foundation (Bret Hart & Jim Neidhart)(c) vs. The Young Stallions (Paul Roma & Jim Powers) – WWF Tag Team Championship
Anvil and Roma start. Anvil shoves him off the lockup a number of times to show off his strength. Roma works the arm, and brings in Powers for a double-team move to Neidhart’s arm. He goes ater the arm as well, but Anvil slams him off and tags in Bret. He runs right into a backdrop, though. Sunset flip gets one, and now they go after Bret’s arm as well. He manages to shoot Powers into the ropes, but a quick crossbody for a very close two almost surprises him. Off the ropes again, but this time Bret cuts him off with a HARD knee to the gut. Backbreaker and in comes the Anvil again. Anvil pounds away and distracts the ref, which allows Bret to come in for a cheapshot as Powers plays face-in-peril. Tag team wrestling never gets old.
The heels cut the ring in half, and in comes The Hitman with a knee to the back while Powers runs the ropes after a blind tag. Middle rope elbow to the back as the psychology kicks in. Bret with a headbutt and some choking. Back to Anvil for a double-team. Neidhart with a stungun and he bites Powers. Bret comes in, Powers leapfrogs but stops to sell the back in what was about to be a great touch… but then he tags in Roma anyway for the hot tag. Neidhart comes in and IT’S BREAKING LOOSE IN TULSA, as the babyfaces whip the champs into each other. Double dropkick sends Anvil flying, but Anvil still comes in to save after a powerslam. Meanwhile, the ref gets distracted with Powers, and that allows Neidhart to come in for the Hart Attack.
I don’t know if they were short on time or something, but that “hot tag” was super weird and kinda ruined the whole match. The heat spot was great, like most of the Hart’s matches as heels, and it totally deserved a better ending or at least some kind of hope spot for the babyfaces. They literally did three or four moves before walking into the finish. Still solid. **1/2
Mega Powers promo and a video package promoting the “Piledriver” album end the show.
Overall, an enjoyable yet quite skippable show, apart from the first meeting between the future Mega Powers. My overall rating for the show is 4 out of 10.
See you all next time for the review of the first ever Survivor Series. Feel free to use the comment section down below. And thank you for reading!