February 1, 1991 (taped January 28)
Taped from Macon, Georgia
Television rating: 6.7
Announced attendance: ca 7.500
Welcome everyone to WWF’s The Main Event, the fifth and very last in that chronology as well as WWF’s last show before WrestleMania VII. This show features just three matches – LOD vs. The Orient Express, Hulk Hogan teaming up with Tugboat against the duo of Earthquake & Dino Bravo and, finally, Jim Duggan challenging Sgt. Slaughter for the WWF Championship in Slaughter’s first title defense. Also, the WWF President Jack Tunney announces the challenger for the World Title at WrestleMania.
Here’s the list of champions in the WWF heading into this show:
- WWF Champion: Sgt. Slaughter [champion since Jan. 19 1991 – previous champion: The Ultimate Warrior)
- WWF Intercontinental Champion: Mr. Perfect [champion since Nov. 19 1990 – previous champion: The Texas Tornado)
- WWF World Tag Team Champions: The Hart Foundation (Bret Hart & Jim Neidhart) [champions since Aug. 27 1990 – previous champions: Demolition)
Enjoy the review!
The hosts are Vince McMahon & Roddy Piper
Hulk Hogan & Tugboat vs. Earthquake & Dino Bravo(w/ Jimmy Hart)
Bravo wins a test of strength to start and celebrates like he just won the World Cup. You just wait Dino, you just wait! Hogan obviously wins a second one and brings in Tugboat. Off to Quake as well, who runs wild for a bit until he misses an elbowdrop. And then Hogan comes in and effortlessly powerslams both Quake and Bravo to a huge pop. Quake soon turns things around on Tugboat, however, and this time the elbowdrop connects. Quake connects but Hogan, hero to millions, comes in ilegally and breaks up the count. The heels keep working over Tugboat and we go to break.
Commercial
We come back with Quake and Bravo kicking Tugboat’s ass some more. Quake chokes away on the outside while Bravo cuts the ring in half. Tugboat manages to power his way into the corner and the hot tag to Hogan, but Hart has the referee distracted and he misses the tag. The heels quickly take advantage of that and double slam Tugboat to stay in control. Quake sets up for the HULKAMANIA KILLING EARTHQUAKE SPLASH OF DOOM… but Hogan runs in and attacks Quake. Hogan gets the hot tag and he simply big boots and rolls up Dino Bravo for the win at 8:56.
- Rating: Your typical Hulk Hogan match. Really simple, yet effective and with a lot of heat supporting it and making it way more fun. The finish was really weak too, but this was otherwise okay. **
Meanwhile, Macho King Randy Savage wants the WWF Championship at WrestleMania.
We get a recap of the whole Warrior/Savage/Sherri/Slaughter deal at the Royal Rumble.
Sgt. Slaughter calls Mean Gene puke for calling his tactics questionable, saying the only thing that matters is that he is the WWF Champion. We’re not playing by the rules of all the other WWF Champions of the past and he’s going to demonstrate that tonight.
WWF Championship – Sgt. Slaughter(c)(w/ Gen. Adnan) vs. ‘Hacksaw’ Jim Duggan
Duggan is accompanied to the ring by his BFF Hulk Hogan, but he’s not allowed to stay at ringside since he’s not a licensed manager. Match to start after a break.
Commercial
We get the typical ‘USA’ chants before the action gets underway. Duggan shoves Slaughter to start, who claims some hair pulling. Sarge slugs and chokes away in the corner but Duggan fights back and backdrops him. Duggan then dumps Sarge with a clothesline over the top and to the floor. Good looking bump by Sarge. Duggan goes for a vertical suplex from the apron into the ring, but Adnan trips Duggan and Sarge falls on top for two. Duggan goes after Adnan, who goes down off a miscommunication with Slaughter. Back to work goes Hacksaw, but Slaughter kicks him in the face when he leans down going for a backdrop. Sarge chokes away on the apron and drops an elbow to the throat. He then adds a shot to the throat with Duggan’s 2×4 and gets two with the arrogant cover! Duggan makes his comeback and dumps Slaughter yet again, who… hits him with a chairshot to the face on the floor for the DQ at 6:50. Hmm okay then. And then Hogan comes back and saves the day.
- Rating: Just a number of weeks after winning the belt on a fluke against The Ultimate Warrior at the Royal Rumble, one would think this would be the perfect opportunity to establish Sgt. Slaughter as a credible heel champion and give him some much needed momentum heading into WrestleMania with a stronger win. But that would’ve made Slaughter look like much of a threat to Hogan and sold some tickets to WrestleMania or something, so no. But I can understand the decision, Hacksaw needed to stay strong heading into WrestleMania, where he… was off the card. Yeah, this did no wonders for anyone and the ending sucked. 1/2*
Main Event – Road Warriors (Hawk & Animal) vs. The Orient Express (Kato & Tanaka)(w/ Mr. Fuji)
The Orient Express are coming off that awesome opener with The Rockers at the Royal Rumble, so let’s see where this goes. Kato goes for a lockup with Animal to start, but Animal simply holds him up and throws him halfway across the ring like a sack of Orient trash. Animal catches him with a nice powerslam off a criss cross sequence and then Tanaka takes a GIANT double backdrop by both members of LOD. The Orient Express stall for a while and then it’s off to Hawk and Tanaka. Hawk takes over with a massive shoulderblock, but Kato trips Hawk and allows Tanaka to cheapshot him. They go for a double-team on Hawk, who explodes with a clothesline on Tanaka while Sato gets the hell out of the ring. Animal grabs him, though, and military press slams him all the way back into the ring so Hawk can give him his clothesline as well. And then Animal takes his head off with a clothesline of his own on the outside. Tanaka goes for a hiptoss on Animal, but obviously gets completely overpowered and eats a massive clothesline too. Fuji gets on the apron while it’s BREAKING LOOSE IN GEORGIA and throws some salt in Animal’s eyes, allowing Tanaka to follow up with a superkick. The Express hit their double splash thing on the ropes but then eat a nasty double clothesline by Animal. Hot tag Hawk and he’s a house of fire. Down goes Kato, down goes Tanaka, AWESOME flying shoulderblock on Kato (Ultimate Warrior should’ve taken some notes) and even Fuji gets knocked off the apron. Double clothesline on Kato sets up the Doomsday Device for the win at 5:11.
- Rating: What a fun match this was. It was designed to make the Road Warriors look like absolute beasts and it did just that. The crowd loved everything they did, popped huge for the hot tag to Hawk and then came absolutely unglued for the Doomsday Device. Props to The Orient Express for making the LOD look like a million bucks here, just a few weeks after making The Rockers look awesome as well at the Royal Rumble. They might’ve been just a couple of job guys to the more established teams, but they deserve credit for having two of the WWF’s best matches in 1991 so far. ***
Jack Tunney announces Sgt. Slaughter’s challenger at WrestleMania
Water is wet and Tunney chooses Hulk Hogan.
Sgt. Slaughter says the people will regret their cheers at WrestleMania. Hulk Hogan says he’ll do it FOR ‘MURICA!
END OF THE SHOW
Final thoughts: This existed to set up WrestleMania and, well… it did a pretty crappy job at that, if you ask me. Hogan won his tag match with a schoolboy and Sgt. Slaughter had to get DQ’d in order to save the title against Hacksaw Jim Duggan. Not exactly your typical build to a WrestleMania main-event, and for good reason. Thankfully LOD & Orient Express saved the show in the last match, but apart from that this did a poor job at what it had to do – sell WrestleMania. No wonder it was the shits business-wise. 3/10
For comments and feedback, e-mail me at cunhatomas2001@hotmail.com
POINT SYSTEM
To know more about my point system click here
| Wrestler | Star rating | Result | Main-eventing | Extras | Total |
| Hawk | 3 | 1 | 1 | +0.5 for winning the fall | 5.5 |
| Animal | 3 | 1 | 1 | 5 | |
| Hulk Hogan | 2 | 1 | +0.5 for winning the fall | 3.5 | |
| Tugboat | 2 | 1 | 3 | ||
| Tanaka | 3 | -1 | 3 | ||
| Kato | 3 | -1 | -0.5 for losing the fall | 2.5 | |
| Sgt. Slaughter | 0.5 | -0.5 | +1 for retaining a title | 1 | |
| Jim Duggan | 0.5 | 0.5 | 1 | ||
| Earthquake | 2 | -1 | 1 | ||
| Dino Bravo | 2 | -1 | -0.5 for losing the fall | 0.5 |
Thank you so much for your time. Make sure you don’t miss the upcoming reviews. WrestleMania is coming next from the WWF’s side, but not without taking a look at WCW’s WrestleWar PPV first, with a stacked card including WARGAMES! Stay safe, everyone!
