February 8, 1992
Taped from Lubbock, TX
Announced attendance: N/A
TV rating (FOX): 8.2 (+0.5 compared to the prior SNME’s 7.7)
Hey everyone. Welcome to my review of the 30th edition of WWF Saturday Night’s Main Event, featuring the grudge match in the heated feud between Jake Roberts and Randy Savage. In the fallout from the Royal Rumble match, Hulk Hogan and Sid Justice put their differences aside to team up against the new WWF Champion Ric Flair and The Undertaker. New Intercontinental Champion ‘Rowdy’ Roddy Piper defends in a rematch against The Mountie and much more.
Here is the list of champions in the WWF heading into this show:
- WWF Champion: Ric Flair [20th day of his reign] – previous champion: Hulk Hogan, before it was vacated
- WWF Intercontinental Champion: Roddy Piper [20th day of his reign] – previous champion: The Mountie
- WWF World Tag Team Champions: Money Inc. (Ted DiBiase & Irwin R. Schyster)* [1st day of their reign] – previous champions: The Road Warriors
*At the date of the tapings for this show (Jan. 27th), the title change hadn’t taken place yet and the Road Warriors were still the champions
Enjoy the review!
The hosts are Vince McMahon & Bobby Heenan
WWF Intercontinental Championship – Roddy Piper(c) vs. The Mountie(w/ Jimmy Hart)
This is Mountie’s rematch and the winner gets the former champion Bret Hart in his rematch at WrestleMania. Jimmy Hart steals the belt before the bell and allows the Mountie to jump Piper from behind to start, but Piper comes back with a double clothesline that gets two on Mountie. To the floor for a double noggin knocker, but Jimmy holds Piper’s foot and Mountie pounds away on him. Mountie places Piper in the tree of woe and adds some more shots, while Bret Hart cuts a short picture-in-picture promo hyping the title match at WrestleMania. Piper gets slammed but raises his knees to block a splash, and he makes the comeback. Mountie shoves him off into the ref for a ref bump, though, and Mountie hits a piledriver. The Mountie dumps some water on Piper and proceeds to shock him with the stick, but Piper no-sells and shocks him in return for the win to keep the title at 3:30. Piper takes off his shirt and reveals he had a shock proof vest underneath.
- Rating: A short yet the typical very fun and energetic Roddy Piper match, with the crowd going crazy for everything Piper did, and a nice clever ending to boot. *1/2
We recap the Hogan/Sid story and take a look back at the ending to the Royal Rumble, complete with edited crowd reaction to cover the big pop that Hogan’s elimination actually got! Then Jack Tunney booked Hulk Hogan as Ric Flair’s challenger for WrestleMania in the press conference, and Sid didn’t accept it because he was the last man standing in the Rumble. Sid has since cooled off and apologized to Hogan.
Sean Mooney interviews Hulk Hogan & Sid Justice backstage. Sean completely ignores Sid while Hogan talks about his WWF Title match with Flair at WrestleMania (yeah, about that…) and Sid just walks out of the room. As for tonight, Hogan has a surprise, his friend to the end, Brutus Beefcake. Oh joy, says I…
Ric Flair & The Undertaker(w/ Mr. Perfect & Paul Bearer) vs. Hulk Hogan & Sid Justice(w/ Brutus Beefcake)
Hogan wants to start the match with Flair, but Sid convinces him to stay in the corner. Flair rakes the eyes but Sid backdrops him out of the corner and hiptosses him, and Flair bails. Hogan asks for the tag and Sid obliges, with Hogan cleaning house and actually showing some teamwork with Sid. UT comes in but he can’t slam Sid, but Sid can it’s back to Hogan for a slam of his own. And one for Flair too as this crowd’s pretty LOUD. Taker turns things around with a cheapshot on Sid, and a double clothesline by the heels gives Flair two, with Hogan breaking up the pin. This distracts the ref even more and allows the heels to punish Sid even further with a double atomic drop that gives UT two. Hogan comes in for a double big boot to Flair and a double clothesline that dumps UT, and we take a break with Hogan posing and a not impressed Sid standing behind him.
Commercial break
We come back with Sid getting caught in the heel corner and double-teamed, but Sid eventually fights back with a double noggin knocker and makes the hot tag to Hogan. He runs wild on everyone, including Paul Bearer, but Mr. Perfect distracts him and Flair attacks the leg from behind. Flair’s got the figure four while Sid’s adjusting his knee pads with his back turned to the match, and UT comes back in with his flying clothesline. Flair goes up but Hogan slams him off and he goes for the hot tag, but Sid doesn’t seem too interested in it. Flair’s chops are no-sold by Hogan and he takes out both heels with a double clothesline before looking for the hot tag again, but this time Sid flat out walks away. The beating on Hogan continues and Flair shoves the referee away to cause the DQ at 11:42, and Brutus himself helps Hogan clean house afterwards.
- Rating: This was an okay tag match that existed exclusively to set up Sid’s heel turn. This was more of an angle than a match, but the action leading up to it was pretty fine. **
Sean Mooney is waiting for Sid Justice in the dressing room hoping for an explanation. Sid says he has no friends and admits he’s still pissed that Tunney picked Hogan as the number one contender. Hogan could never beat Flair on his best day and he couldn’t beat Sid on Sid’s worst because he rules the world. It was an amazing creepy promo that got Sid over as a disturbed monster.
Commercial break
Mean Gene interviews Hulk Hogan & Brutus Beefcake. Hogan recaps the angle we just saw two minutes ago and recaps the love story between him and his bff to the end. Beefcake shares some stories of him and Hogan in the hospital bed (hmmmm, yeah…) and Hogan promises to beat Flair for the WWF Title at WrestleMania and he’ll dedicate his win to his FRIEND TO THE END. Good lord, this was eye-rolling levels of bad. And cringe.
Sgt. Slaughter & Jim Duggan vs. The Beverly Brothers (Beau & Blake)(w/ The Genius)
This was supposed to be the Road Warriors facing the Beverlys, but they dropped the titles after a disagreement and very briefly left the company, and were thus replaced on this show. Duggan runs wild to start until he gets hit with the Genius’ scroll, and the Beverlys take over. Slaughter makes the hot tag and he works an abdominal stretch on Blake, which is broken up by Beau. Slaughter hits a backbreaker but Beau again breaks up the pin, and now Duggan joins the party as IT’S BREAKING LOOSE IN TULSA. Slaughter uses the scroll on Blake, setting up Duggan’s three point stance clothesline to give Slaughter the pin at 2:39.
- Rating: Just filler. 1/4*
We see a recap of the Roberts/Savage feud. Savage was bitten by the snake in November and got reinstated for a match at This Tuesday in Texas, which was won by Svaage but Roberts attacked both him and Miss Elizabeth afterwards.
Jake Roberts hopes to see Miss Elizabeth out there again tonight because some things are worth doing twice.
Randy Savage wants all the women watching to imagine being forced to watch their husband laid out unconscious. Does that make you a little bit upset? Does that make you a little bit over the edge? A little bit insane? And for all the men out there, imagine watching your wife begging to another man and then getting slapped by another man. Does that make you upset? Over the edge? Insane? But not him, because he knows what he’ll do to Roberts. You know what, maybe he is insane. And Jake Roberts is about to find out just how much. This ruled!
Randy Savage vs. Jake Roberts
Savage goes right after Roberts on the outside before the bell while Jake tries to run away. Savage is just all over him. He grabs a chair that the ref takes away from him, so Savage chokes away on the ropes instead. Roberts already has a broken nose. Savage hits the high knee to the back and goes after the nose in the corner, but Roberts rakes the eyes and dumps him. Savage comes back in quickly, but Roberts dumps him right back out and introduces his head into the post a couple of times. We take a break.
Commercial break
We come back with Roberts in control back inside. Savage catches him with a back elbow and he goes up, but Jake punches him in mid air and hits the DDT. He doesn’t want the pin, though, and instead sits in the corner waiting to see if Savage gets back up. He does, and Roberts immediately takes him down with the short clothesline. He tries a second DDT, but Savage backdrops him to the outside and meets him with the flying double axe that sends Roberts into the railing. Back in, the Macho Elbow ends Roberts at 5:25. Savage wants another Macho Elbow after the bell, but the officials get in front of him. Savage is like ‘eh fuck it’ and does it anyway, with everyone moving out of the way! Savage tries to beat him up with the bell but the officials get in his way and allow Roberts to run away, so Savage takes his frustrations out on some of them instead. Miss Elizabeth runs in to celebrate with Macho Man, and we go off the air with Roberts waiting for them with a chair in hand in the gorilla position.
- Rating: This was very good. Rushed, but very very good. Starting with both guys’ awesome pre-match promos, to Savage wasting no time in going after Roberts and even breaking his nose, not even caring a little bit about the rules (as he shouldn’t), to then Roberts getting the upper hand and trying to humiliate Savage, which ultimately caused his own defeat. I really enjoyed this for the short time it lasted. ***1/4
END OF THE SHOW
The conclusion of this cliffhanger aired shortly afterwards on television, but since I don’t review those yet (just wait until RAW’s debut!), I’ll tell it here for those wondering. Roberts indeed tried to attack Savage and Liz when they came back through the curtain, but he was stopped by none other than… The Undertaker himself! This marked Undertaker’s very first face turn and started a feud between the two that culminated at WrestleMania, in Roberts’ final match in his first WWF run.
Final thoughts: It’s a really short show, barely breaking the 45 minute mark on the WWE Network/Peacock, so it’s relatively enjoyable for the short time it lasts. The final minutes with the conclusion of the Savage/Roberts feud are very good, and a Roddy Piper match is always fun and an easy watch. The whole Hogan/Sid angle was decent enough (excluding Hogan and Beefcake’s promo, that was freaking terrible), but knowing where that is going at WrestleMania leaves a very sour taste in my mouth. Yeah, a pretty good show that, for better or worse, advanced some stories and even saw the conclusion of another. 6/10
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POINT SYSTEM
You can find out more about my point system here
| Wrestler | Star ratings | Result | Main eventing | Extras | Total |
| Randy Savage | 3.25 | 1 | 1 | – | 5.25 |
| Roddy Piper | 1.5 | 1 | – | +1 for retaining a title | 3.5 |
| Jake Roberts | 3.25 | -1 | 1 | – | 3.25 |
| Hulk Hogan Sid Justice | 2 | 0.5 | – | – | 2.5 |
| Sgt. Slaughter | 0.25 | 1 | – | +0.5 for winning the fall | 1.75 |
| Ric Flair Undertaker | 2 | -0.5 | – | – | 1.5 |
| Jim Duggan | 0.25 | 1 | – | – | 1.25 |
| The Mountie | 1.5 | -1 | – | – | 0.5 |
| Beau Beverly | 0.25 | -1 | – | – | -0.75 |
| Blake Beverly | 0.25 | -1 | – | -0.5 for losing the fall | -1.25 |
Thank you so much for your visit and your time. Make sure you don’t miss the upcoming reviews of WCW SuperBrawl II and WWF WrestleMania VIII. Stay safe and I hope to see you soon!