Saturday Night's Main Event XV

Legacy Review

Saturday Night's Main Event XV

March 12, 1988 (taped March 7) from the Nashville Municipal Auditorium in Nashville, TN

Commentary: Vince McMahon and Jesse Ventura

 

We're on the road to Wrestlemania 4 as the show opens with a recap of the WWF title change(s) on The Main Event, but surprisingly no details on the title tournament already set up for WM.

Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake def Greg "The Hammer" Valentine (w/Jimmy Hart) in 9:02- The Dream Team explodes! Valentine with fairly stiff forearms. Beefcake counters with a running high knee. A big boot gives us the first Valentine flop of the match. Beefcake dodges a punch and hits two atomic drops with A+ Valentine sells. Beefcake with a rollover cover for 2. Mounted punches and another Valentine flop out of the corner. Valentine gets a cheap shot in the corner to take control. Elbow off the top rope. Valentine hooks the figure four in while near the ropes, and blatantly uses them for leverage to try to damage Beefcake's knee as much as possible before the 5 count. As Beefcake slides out we get a good shot of an oddly placed table at ringside. I'm sure that won't be used later in the show in any way whatsoever. While Beefcake's recovering on the floor the Honky Tonk Man, who Beefcake is scheduled to challenge for the IC title at WM, comes to ringside and grabs a mic to run Beefcake down. The refs get rid of him. Back in to the Hammer dropping hammers. He goes for the figure four again but Beefcake pulls his tights down to get out. Another try, and Beefcake pushes Valentine into the corner. Slugfest. Beefcake locks the sleeper in. Valentine gets to the ropes and both guys fall to the floor. Hart gets involved and Beefcake chases. Valentine ambushes, back suplexes Beefcake back in the ring and bridges, and the ref counts 3. But, Beefcake got a shoulder up and is declared the winner. Hair cutting hijinks follow. Your usual solid Greg Valentine match. **

 

Hulk Hogan def "King" Harley Race (w/Bobby Heenan) in 6:37- Bit of a dream match here, with WWF's current top guy taking on the NWA's biggest star of the '70s. Hogan goes right for Heenan, who took credit for orchestrating the events of The Main Event before selling Andre's contract to DiBiase. Hogan slides in the ring, which is always the cue for his opponent to jump him. Hogan no sells it. Race headbutts. More Hogan no sells as his music is still playing. Hogan punches Race down, tears his shirt off and finally the music stops and the bell rings. Race floppy sells Hogan clotheslines before going 360 and out, landing knees first on the table. Hogan follows and posts Race's shoulder before going after Heenan again. Race with the ambush. He goes for a piledriver on the floor but Hogan backdrops out. Atomic drop on the floor and Race gets posted again. Race is slammed on the floor. Finally they get back in with Hogan continuing the beatdown. He chokes Race with his wrist tape! Heenan grabs Hogan's foot and Race gets him from behind again. Belly to belly suplex. Piledriver! Race throws Hogan out, adjusts the table, and sets Hogan on it. He goes for a falling headbutt off the apron, but Hogan dodges! Race falls right through the table face first, breaking it! This is no modern thin designed to break easy table, this is a thick, reinforced one. Gimmicked I'm sure, but still broken in half. That is one HELL of a spot for 1988. And Race gets back up before Hogan! He pushes the table away in disgust and goes right back on the attack. He hits a diving headbutt off the top rope! Cover. Hulk Up. Corner clothesline, legdrop, done. Damn, where did that come from? Between Race turning back the clock a bit, Hogan showing a more vicious and aggressive side (almost Hollywood-like minus the coward heel) after losing the title, and all the work on the floor which was a bit out of the WWF style at the time, this was a damn fine piece of business. Unfortunately the table spot would cause a long term injury for Race that would be the catalyst for his eventual retirement. ***1/4

 

"The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase (w/Virgil and Andre the Giant) def "Macho Man" Randy Savage (w/Elizabeth) by countout in 11:39- Unbeknownst to anyone at the time but knownst to us now, this is a preview of the upcoming WM main event. Andre is revealed as DiBiase's surprise in the corner. Virgil gets in Elizabeth's bubble and Savage jumps outside to get him out, allowing DiBiase to jump him from behind. All DiBiase to start with his usual well calculated mix of hitting moves and taunting the crowd. He hits an elbow off the second rope. Andre pokes Savage as he's laying near the apron. Savage reverses a whip and hits a back elbow. A high knee in the back sends DiBiase outside. Double ax handle off the top. DiBiase slides out. Savage opens the ropes to invite him back in. When he does DiBiase gets control back and hits fistdrops. Savage with a boot up on a corner charge. DiBiase dodges the kneedrop and hooks in a stepover toe hold. Savage pushes out, sending DiBiase flying over the top and out again! Slugfest on the floor. Andre steps forward. Virgil hits Savage from behind and gets booted by Hebner. DiBiase with a double ax handle off the second rope. He works a chinlock for a bit until Savage comes back. Ref bump! Savage throws DiBiase out. Double ax handle off the top to the floor! Andre grabs Savage from behind and headbutts him. Elizabeth runs to the back as Andre continues to work Savage over. DiBiase revives Hebner and Savage is counted out. The heels continue to beat him down until Hogan runs in with a chair and runs them off. Rock solid back and forth match. I said it in my WM 4 review, but I'll say again- it's a real shame they had to work the whole tournament to get there instead of having a normal main event PPV match. It would have rocked. **3/4

The Islanders (w/Bobby Heenan) def The Killer Bees in 4:00ish (shown)- Heenan's in his "I hate all animals" phase and is wearing a beekeeper's mask. In the arena this was a 2 out of 3 falls match, but because of time constraints we get a truncated version with an edit from the first to third fall in here at some point. The Bees jump as soon as the Islanders hit the ring. Brunzell hits a legdrop for a 2 count. Blair with a roll up for 2. Tama dodges a Brunzell dropkick. Suplex for 2. Haku dropkick for 2. Tama and Brunzell slugfest. Brunzell hits an inverted atomic drop but in the heel corner. Double clothesline. Tags on both sides. Blair rolls Tama up and the ref starts counting, then suddenly decides he needs to get Brunzell out instead. Haku kills Blair with a clothesline, and Tama covers to win. Call it *1/4 for what was shown.

 

One Man Gang (w/Slick) def Ken Patera in 3:47- OMG jumps Patera as he's taking his pants off (has he never heard of tear offs?) and chokes him with them. Patera comes back with punches and locks in a bear hug! OMG sells the hell out of it and eye rakes out. Patera dodges a punch and tries a full nelson! OMG gets to the ropes. He squashes Patera in the corner. Patera counters with shoulders in the corner and a running knee. Coming off the ropes OMG kind of pushes Patera down with a clothesline and falls on top of him for the pin. Bit of an ugly finish, but the match was shockingly spunky considering who was in there. Patera trying to take the large monster down with power wrestling holds was amusing. *