The SmarK Retro Rant for Saturday Night's Main Event #17 - October 1988
- Taped from Baltimore, MD
- Your hosts are Vince McMahon & Jesse Ventura
- Jake Roberts v. Rick Rude.
This was the big blowoff for the B-show main event feud, triggered by Rude hitting on Jake's wife Cheryl. These days the big twist in the storyline would be Cheryl leaving Jake for Rude, but in those days it was merely Rude losing his pants on national TV. Different times, I guess. Funny bit of commentating between Vince and Jesse, as Vince puts down Jesse's outfit and Jesse retorts that Vince wouldn't know anything about Wall Street anyway. Well, not THEN, certainly. (Apparently not now, either.) Cheryl and her 80s cougar hair are at ringside to inspire Jake. Lockup to start and they slug it out, and Jake starts working the arm with a long wristlock. Rude bails to escape the DDT. Back in, Rude counters the short-arm with his own to take over, pounding away in the corner. He stops to hit on Jake's wife, however, alternating between beating on Jake and posing at Cheryl. Jake finally clotheslines him and slugs him down, and allows Cheryl to slap him. Jesse calls for a DQ, but the ref tosses her instead, and we take a break. We return as they brawl outside, and Jake gets posted. Back in, he makes the comeback with a backdrop, but Rude blocks the DDT and drops an elbow. To the top for a fistdrop, and that gets two. Jake does a slick dodge of a backdrop, kick wham DDT, but Heenan runs in for the DQ. (Roberts d. Rude, DQ, 7:37, **1/2) Going pretty good before the lame finish. Andre the Giant comes out to attack, but we learn his secret shame -- fear of snakes. Sadly, they go all the way with the angle, as Andre has a "heart attack" out of fright, thus kicking off the low point of his career up until then.
- WWF tag titles: Demolition v. The Hart Foundation.
The Harts had just turned face, and Demolition was practically there. Still, Jimmy Hart is joining Fuji in the heel corner tonight to further the Harts-Rougeaus feud. Ax and Neidhart slug it out to start, but Anvil gets tripped in the corner and pounded. The Harts return the favor on Smash and Bret dropkicks him into an elbowdrop for two. Smash sends him into the corner, and Ax comes in to choke him out. That goes pretty well for the champs. Smash smashes and goes to the chinlock. Double-team smashing in the corner, but Bret smashes back. OK, enough of that. Hot tag Anvil and he cleans house. Powerslam gets two. It's BONZO GONZO and the Demos collide, but there's a million managers and sneaking a megaphone in is pretty easy in the chaos. (Demolition d. Hart Foundation, Smash megaphone -- pin Neidhart, 5:56, **) This was more about hammering home the Hart v. Harts feud than anything else.
- Hulk Hogan v. King Haku.
Hulk has Liz with him tonight. No wonder Savage was insanely jealous. Haku attacks during the ref's inspection and pounds away in the corner. Hulk quickly slugs him down, however, and unleashes the Knives of Eternity. (That would be a Remo Williams reference.) He drops the elbows and chops him down, but stops to chase the Brain and gets caught with a choke by Haku. The Vulcan Nerve Pinch of Doom follows, and the superkick puts Hulk on the floor. Haku tries to follow with a chop of the apron, but Hulk pulls Heenan in the ring and then steals Haku's crown. What a poor sport. Heenan heads to the back and we take a break. Back with Hogan slugging away, but he runs into a clothesline. Haku stomps him down and suplexes him for two. You know the rest. (Hogan d. Haku, legdrop -- pin, 6:20, *)
- Ken Patera v. Dino Bravo.
Without even seeing the match, I shall use my powers to predict that Patera misses a blind charge and gets pinned after the sideslam. Let's see. Patera slugs away to start and backdrops him, so Bravo bails. Back in, Bravo pounds him in the corner, but Bravo escapes the full nelson. It's no Masterlock. Blind charge misses, and the sideslam finishes. SPOOKY. Or just repetitive booking. (Bravo d. Patera, sideslam -- pin, 3:03, 1/2*)
- Big Bossman v. Jim Powers.
Bossman's SNME debut as a big star, and Powers is a jobber. You do the math. (Bossman d. Powers, Bossman slam -- pin, 2:30, DUD)
The Pulse:
Not much here. (Indeed not.)
Love Remo Williams!
ReplyDeleteScott you said years ago in a rant you were doing for a show that Cheryl and Rude really were getting it on on the side. Was there ever any truth to that because from waht I've read by the likes of Bret, Rude seemed to be a really big family man.
ReplyDeleteSo Haku gets repackaged as king, and immediately jobs clean. #LOLHoganWins!!
ReplyDeleteThis is the first wrestling show I actually remember seeing because my parents went out for dinner or something and I couldn't sleep so my apparently awesome baby sitter let me stay up and watch TV and I saw this. I remember thinking that Jake Roberts seemed like a pussier version of the guy he was wrestling because they both had pants and mustaches. And I was blown by hart vs demos and the pull apart brawl because it all seemed like insanity. I thought anvil was the shit. Buy hey this was when I was first grade so don't trust my choices.
ReplyDeleteScott, you said years ago in a rant for another show that Cheryl and Rude really were getting it on on the side. Was there ever any truth to this? From what I've read from the likes of Bret, Rude was a big family man, the type who "never took his ring off". Just would seem so out of character for the guy. Well I mean based on his real life character.
ReplyDeleteI know the Andre thing was overdone but still fun with Vince and Jesse wowed by how Andre is so terrified of Jake ("I wouldn't have believed it, McMahon!") and helped sell the idea well before they did the heart attack bit.
ReplyDeleteIt was just a rumor I believe. On Jake's DVD he even offhandedly jokes (when speaking about making angles relatable) that, as far as he knew, Rick Rude wasn't really making passes at his wife.
ReplyDeleteMan, I always dreaded seeing a Ken Patera match during this time period.
ReplyDeleteI still remember my very first memory of wrestling and to me it's a damn good one.
ReplyDeleteFlip through channels one night as a young seven year old. Stop on channel 10 which for us was WWOR out of New York which for some reason we got in Iowa.
On said channel was this guy dropping a bell on another guys throat. Was hooked ever since.
Koko B. Ware must've not been available. JIM POWERS is the closing match job victim.
ReplyDeleteI remember years later watching old tapes of WWF from this period where they actually talked down about Patera (a.k.a burying him) in losing efforts against guys like Bad News and Ron Bass. Blew my mind, but to be fair, he looked like someone's average looking dad with an ugly perm.
ReplyDeleteIt's Haku. Bad-ass aside, he was dull as dishwater in the ring. He wasn't awful, but he was very fortunate being in the position he was to be working with Hulk here and at house shows around the same time.
ReplyDeleteThat sums his look up perfectly.
ReplyDeletePatera got buried like no other guy from this period that I can think of. Watching the Classics on Demand reruns of "Prime Time," I remember seeing him lose to Dino Bravo and lose to Big Bossman, and Gorilla Monsoon followed both matches by saying that Patera was a huge disappointment, and that he got his clock cleaned so badly that he should just give it up and retire already. Gorilla was just relentless toward that guy on his way out.
ReplyDeleteThe atmosphere over these Hogan matches at the time really added a lot to the enjoyment for me. Seeing Hogan vs the likes of: Haku, Funk, Race, The Genius, Bad News Brown. It just seemed like such a major reason to watch SNME. Just so random. So fun. It had heart.
ReplyDeletePoor managing and planning from the Brain there. Of all the guys in his stable, he has the ONE guy who's terrified of snakes as his backup against Jake Roberts?!
ReplyDeleteNotice how happy the fans are when Hogan wins? Three months earlier in the same arena, JCP should have tried the same thing by sending the crowd home happy.
ReplyDeletehard to believe Haku got a title shot at this point
ReplyDeleteUgh, Patera was just the worst after jail crushed his spirit. That was definitely a case of Vince throwing someone a bone.
ReplyDeleteKPLR St Louis, Harley fucking up David von Erich with a piledriver on the floor. Thank goodness for illegal reruns of Wrestling at the Chase.
ReplyDeleteOr if a few years earlier Verne had done that.
ReplyDeleteJust being in the same ring as Hogan meant a nice pay day. So I'm sure jobbing didn't bother him one bit.
ReplyDeleteNo excuse for Lex not winning the title at the Bash that year. Ric can regain it at Starrcade and everyone's happy even during such a critical period in history as Crockett was trying to sell to Billionaire Ted. Or was he still just a millionaire back then?
ReplyDeleteWWOR was one of a handful of stations that tried to be nationwide "superstations"... WTBS was obviously the most successful. WWOR is still available nationwide through Dish Network.
ReplyDelete