Saturday Night's Main Event: October 5th, 1985

October 5th, 1985

Your hosts are Jesse Ventura and Vince McMahon

Tonight, Hulk Hogan defends his World Heavyweight Title against Nikolai Volkoff in a Flag Match. Also, Uncle Elmer takes on Jerry Valiant then later on in the show, he will get married. Plus, Roddy Piper vs. Paul Orndorff, The Dream Team against Lanny Poffo & Tony Garea, and Big John Studd & King Kong Bundy vs. Andre the Giant & Tony Atlas



The announcers start by talking about the show, causing Jesse to go off on a rant about Uncle Elmer's wedding having no place in wrestling.


Flag Match
World Heavyweight Championship
Nikolai Volkoff w/ Freddie Blassie vs. Hulk Hogan

This match came about due to Hogan not wanting Volkoff's Russian flag or National Anthem played before his match. The match starts with Volkoff attacking Hogan from behind. He slams his head off of the turnbuckle then chokes Hogan out with his own shirt. Hogan fights back and punches away. He clotheslines Volkoff in the corner as the crowd explodes. He hits another clothesline then drops an elbow. Hogan punches him down then boots him through the ropes and onto the timekeepers table. Hogan follows out but Volkoff is able to shove him into the post. Back in the ring, Volkoff stomps away before hitting a double axe handle from the second rope. Volkoff hits his backbreaker but jaws at the crowd before covering and can only get two. Volkoff whips Hogan into the corner and tries a piledriver but Hogan counters that with a backdrop as both men are down. Volkoff stomps on Hogan then hits a slam, getting two. Hogan starts to hulk up and starts hammering away. He dodges a charge in the corner then hits his leg drop for the win (5:17) **1/4. After the match, Hogan takes the Russian flag and uses it to shine his boots, causing Jesse to go off on a rant as to how Hogan is a disgrace. Hogan then tosses the flag and spits on it before grabbing the American flag and waving it around in the ring, to the delight of the crowd.

Thoughts: Good match. It was all action and no dull spots. Volkoff looked quicker than usual and Hogan sold quite a bit for him too. The evil foreigner gimmick still worked well in 1985 and it showed as the fans hated Volkoff.


After his match, Hogan gets interviewed by Gene Okerlund. He is excted about the wedding of Uncle Elmer.


Jerry Valiant vs. Uncle Elmer w/ Hillbilly Jim & Cousin Junior

Valiant charges and gets slammed then Elmer pins him for the win (0:12). After the match, Howard Finkel announces the match at six seconds, breaking the nine second record for the fastest pinfall by King King Bundy over S.D Jones at WrestleMania. They even show the clip of Bundy squashing S.D afterwards.

Thoughts: They are giving Elmer quite the push tonight, even giving him the record of the fastest pinfall. He was such a bad wrestler that the length seemed fine and it was a bullshit record anyway and more of a way to hype his wedding later in the show.


The Body Shop with guest Bobby Heenan. For those who do not know, the "Body Shop" was a segment hosted by Jesse Ventura. Quite frankly, I thought that it was just as good as Piper's Pit overall. It just lacked the bigger segments. Heenan tells us that the bounty for Paul Orndorff is up to $50,000 and tells Orndorff if he had any brains, he would come out and retire. Just hype for the Orndorff vs. Piper match.


Paul Orndorff vs. Roddy Piper

The match starts with both guys trading haymakers. Orndorff runs into a clothesline then Piper slams his head off of the mat. Orndorff takes him down and starts biting his forehead. They brawl some more until Piper hits a DDT. He puts the boots to Orndorff then they both go outside where Piper hits him with a chair. Orndorff fights back and rolls Piper back in the ring. He hits a double axe handle then a suplex as the crowd goes insane. Piper hits a kneelift after an eye rake then both men collide. Orndorff manages to get his knees up on a splash attempt by Roddy. They both go over the top rope after Orndorff hits a crossbody then they brawl all the way up the aisle and into the locker room, with the camera showing us the action. the match is ruled a double count-out (4:40) **1/2. Piper is able to sneak into a dressing room and lock the door as the segment ends with Orndorff still upset.

Thoughts: Good brawl. These guys still had a hot feud but it was starting to wain a bit at this point. Piper was one of the best ever at working a crowd into a frenzy.


And now, the wedding of Uncle Elmer. Mean Gene is playing the organ for this. Jesse is a riot in trashing this wedding. Even better is Vince yelling at Jesse for laughing over Elmer forgetting the words. Piper comes out and interrupts the ceremony, saying there is no room for weddings in wrestling and says it all stinks as Hogan comes out and points at Piper, who leaves.  As they kiss, Jesse gets in a great line about them looking like "two carp in the Mississippi fighting over the same piece of corn." Funny enough, largely due to Jesse.


Big John Studd & King Kong Bundy w/ Bobby Heenan vs. Tony Atlas & Andre the Giant

Andre chokes out Bundy with the straps off his ring attire. He chops Bundy in the corner then tags atlas after a double team. Bundy misses an elbow drop and gets headbutted. Studd tags as Atlas falls down delivering an Irish whip. Atlas comes back with headbutts and tries to slam Studd but fails. After missing a dropkick, Atlas gets beat down by Studd, who goes after Andre on the apron as Bundy splsahes Atlas. Andre tags as he faces of with Studd, with the crowd going crazy. He chops Studd but Bundy attacks Andre from behind. After slamming Atlas against the ropes, Studd joins Bundy in attacking Andre. The ref rings the bell for the DQ as the heels continue the assault (4:26) 1/2*. Andre fights back but it is not enough. Hogan runs out as the crowd is going out of their minds and he helps Andre clear the ring of the heels, with Jesse stating that Hogan had no business out there. After the match, Okerlund interviews Hogan, Andre, and Atlas as Hogan, who promises us that big news will be revealed soon.

Thoughts: Not bad and it moves Hogan onto a feud, after months of defending the belt against the upper midcard. The match itself was fine for what it was.


Gene Okerlund is at the Detroit zoo with George Steele. The joke here is that Steele is in his natural habitat and as Okerlund points out animals, Steele compares them to wrestlers then he takes off and runs into the bushes. Harmless comedy segment.

Tag Team Championship Match
"Leaping" Lanny Poffo & Tony Garea vs. The Dream Team w/ Johnny Valiant

Valentine takes down Poffo and works a headlock as the camera shows the former champions, Barry Windham & Mike Rotundo in the front row. Valentine slams Poffo but he fights back. He dropkicks Beefcake then gets a nearfall off of a moonsault. Valentine attacks Poffo and that allows Beefcake to gain control of the match. The heels neutralize Poffo until he finally makes the hot tag to Tony Garea. He hits some dropkicks as the crowd doesnt give a fuck. Crossbody gets two but he runs into an elbow smash. Valentine tags then drops the elbow before making Garea submit to the figure four (3:30) *.

Thoughts: The challengers were probably the single worst team to get a shot at the belts. No idea how they came to the conclusion that those two should wrestle on national television. Match was average.


At the wedding reception, Hogan and Orndorff are sitting at the same table as Vince and Jesse, who keeps ranting on and on how weddings have no place in wrestling. Mean Gene interviews Albano, who is teaching Cousin Junior how to eat.He then goes over to Poffo, who recites a poem for the newlyweds. Hillbilly Jim then propose a toast as Tiny Tim comes out with his ukelele and gives it to Elmer. The band plays as Elmer sings "Walk Through This World With Me," and actually doesnt do that bad of a job. After he finishes, Jesse reads a poem that closes with him bashing the wedding. As Hogan and Orndorff get up and approach him, Jesse backpedals but gets tripped by Jim and falls into the cake, causing everyone to laugh. Entertaining enough but nowhere nearly as funny as the reception for Butcher Vachon's wedding.


Hogan lets us know that next month on Saturday Night's Main Event, Hogan & Andre will team up against King Kong Bundy & Big John Studd.


Final Thoughts: Not as eventful as the first SNME but it had its moments. Hogan's match was solid and Piper/Orndorff was fun. Jesse single-handedly made the Uncle Elmer wedding entertaining. In fact, in his shoot interview with RF Video, Jesse stated that Bill Murray called him after watching the show and congratulated on his performance, especially about the joke he made when they kissed. They also set up the main event for next month's show.