Saturday Night's Main Event XX

Legacy Review

Saturday Night's Main Event XX

Before getting going, I usually don't talk about myself or say anything to take focus off the reviews, but it turns out this is the 100th post that I've put onto the Legacy Blog (reviews and Deep Thoughts combined) and I want to take a moment and thank everyone who's taken the time to read and hopefully enjoy the writing here, and particularly my friends that encouraged me to start and have supported this little hobby from the beginning. This has been a labor of love. I don't do this for money, there's no ads and I don't make a penny off any of this. I do it all for fun, and I hope you've enjoyed it as much as I have. Here's to the next 100! And with that out of the way, back to regular programming...

March 11, 1989 (taped February 16) from the Hersheypark Arena in Hershey, PA

Commentary: Vince McMahon and Jesse Ventura

We're a few weeks out from Wrestlemania 5 and most of the matches have been set. Ventura steals Vince's usual intros in a funny bit. There's some audio issues with this show, likely from the original recording. Not awful, but noticeable.

Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake def "Ravishing" Rick Rude (w/Bobby Heenan) by DQ in 5:45- It's kind of funny hearing Ventura bemoan the possibility of Rude getting his hair cut when Rude would cut it short for the rest of his career barely a year after this. Rude has the Ultimate Warrior, who he's challenging for the IC title at WM, on the back of his tights. Fast Beefcake start. Rude does his classic hurt ass selling after landing on it after a backdrop. Beefcake ducks a wild punch and hooks the sleeper in. Rude runs him into the top turnbuckle, then inverted atomic drops out of mounted punches. Rude suplex and arrogant cover for 2. Beefcake tries to elbow out of a chinlock but Rude hair pulls him back in. Andre the Giant comes to ringside. Beefcake jawbreakers out of the chinlock and hits an inverted atomic drop with the usual A+ Rude sell. Rude gets a knee up in the corner and throws Beefcake out. Andre sits on him and chokes him. Jake Roberts comes to ringside. Andre sees him and bails. Rude and Roberts renew acquaintances from their long '88 feud and start fighting on the floor as the ref calls for the bell. The heels double team Roberts. Beefcake fights Rude off but gets pounded down by Andre. Now Big John Studd (who won the Royal Rumble but they don't even bother mentioning that) comes to the ring. This is like one of those endless revolving door promos on Raw where someone new comes out every 30 seconds to keep getting entrance pops. Andre and Studd stare down until Roberts throws Damien in and Andre skedaddles. The match was decent before the giant schmozz. **

Ventura and Bad News Brown accuse Elizabeth of trading "favors" with Jack Tunney in exchange for special treatment. That's, uh, not PG. Hogan is so furious he tells Mean Gene to shut up and cuts his whole promo on Savage, completely ignoring Brown.

 

Hulk Hogan (w/Elizabeth) def Bad News Brown in 9:44- Hogan makes a big show of opening the ropes for Elizabeth, once again proving Savage right. Brown attacks while the ref is checking Hogan. Hogan dodges elbow drops and does a mini hulk up. A punch sends Brown to the floor. Hogan flips him back in. He runs Brown over with a shoulderblock and clothesline. Big boot. Brown no sells a buckle shot. Hogan gets a boot up in the corner and atomic drops Brown to the floor again. Guardrail shot for Brown. After an eye rake Hogan gets posted. He ducks a punch and Brown punches the post, but quickly shrugs it off and grabs a chair. Hogan blocks it and Brown gets hit in the head with, again, no effect. Brown checks under the ring on all four sides, doesn't find what he's looking for, tells Hogan to wait right there and goes to the back. Hogan stops the count. Brown comes back with a giant metal snow shovel. Hogan wrestles it away and it's never used again. That was kind of pointless. Back in, Brown comes out of a corner bump with a clothesline. A Brown bodyslam and legdrop get 2. Hogan rolls outside. Brown scares Elizabeth off from helping. Hogan hits Brown from behind. Brown counters and Hogan gets posted. Brown hits a Russian leg sweep, but Hogan's got a boot under the ropes. Brown asks for the mic. He mocks Hogan and says "ghetto blaster time, fool". He goes for it but Hogan ducks. Hulk Up. Hogan flips the script by hitting a jumping high knee, then the legdrop to finish it. That turned out to be a pretty decent brawl, with Hogan letting Brown work his style match. **1/2

Savage is pacing outside Elizabeth's locker room, almost knocking then stopping himself. Ted DiBiase debuts the brand new Million Dollar Belt. Blue Blazer (Owen Hart) channels his inner Kota Ibushi and Io Shirai, saying he's going to fly off the rafters.

 

"The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase (w/Virgil) def The Blue Blazer in 3:57- DiBiase waits for Blazer to do his usual entrance backflip and nails him with a clothesline as soon as he lands. After a bit of beating down Blazer counters a backdrop attempt into a small package for 2. Blazer blocks a hiptoss and backslides for 2. DiBiase takes control back with a clothesline and double ax handle off the second rope. Usual well calculated DiBiase mix of hitting moves and taunting the crowd. DiBiase goes for a backdrop but Blazer flips out of it onto his feet! A dropkick sends DiBiase outside. TOPE SUICIDA! MAMMA MIA! Blazer ducks a punch and atomic drops DiBiase into the post. Crossbody off the top for 2. European uppercuts from Blazer followed by another cover for 2. On a rope run DiBiase catches a jumping Blazer in midair, flips it over into a powerslam, and gets a clean pin. Fantastic finish to a tremendous stiff sprint. ***

Mean Gene is on the promo stage with Elizabeth, who is supposed to give her decision on who's corner she will be in at WM. Elizabeth waffles, calling it the hardest decision of her life. I don't know if there's ever been anyone in wrestling history better at getting genuine sympathy than Elizabeth. Okerlund asks if she'll be in Hogan's corner. Elizabeth says no. Savage storms out to gloat. After a lot of interruptions Savage finally lets Okerlund ask Elizabeth point blank if she'll be in Savage's corner. After a moment's thought, Elizabeth gives an emphatic NO. Savage is furious. Hogan comes out and Elizabeth stands between them. The whole feud encapsulated in one image. Hogan says he can wait until WM to kick Savage's head off and take the title back.

 

The Brain Busters (w/Bobby Heenan) and The Rockers go to a double countout in 9:19- The legendary feud is on. The Busters pull the Suzuki-Gun ambush. Arn and Shawn fight on the floor. Janetty flips out of an attempted slingshot suplex by Tully, but Tully reverses the reversal and rolls Janetty up. The ref is trying to get Arn to his corner, and while Tully's holding Janetty down Shawn comes off the top rope with a crossbody to break the pin up in style! The Rockers spin around and take the heels out. Arn pounds Shawn down a bit trying to come back in the ring. He goes to the top rope but Shawn slams him off. Boston crab on Arn. Tully tries coming off the top to break it up but Shawn catches him with a punch in the gut. Donnybrook! Stereo slide under and stereo superkicks from the Rockers! Shawn suplexes Tully back in and hits a flying headscissors. A great extended Arn/Shawn speed sequence ends with Shawn in the heel corner. Heenan pulls the top rope down and Shawn tumbles to the floor. Heenan kicks him while he's down. The ref catches him and throws him out. Back from commercial with a Tully/Janetty slugfest. Janetty gets Tully up in an atomic drop, but before he comes down Tully tags Arn. Arn sneaks behind and catches Janetty with a clothesline. The Busters hit double teams and Janetty is Rocker in peril. Desperation Janetty sunset flip for 2. Tully throws him outside. Janetty sunset flips Arn coming back in. Tully breaks the pin up. Janetty and Tully do a little obvious maneuvering to get into position for a bridge up/backslide spot. Janetty dives for a tag but Tully *just* holds him back. World's Greatest Spinebuster! Arn stalls on the cover and Shawn breaks it up. Arn goes for a Vader Bomb but Janetty gets his knees up. Hot tag! Shawn cleans house. He hooks Arn up for a suplex. Arn blocks it, and Tully comes down with a sunset flip off the top rope on Shawn! Shawn fights it, so Arn murders him with a clothesline! Janetty breaks it up. Donnybrook the Second: Donnybrooking on the Floor! The ref counts everybody out. Wish it had a definitive finish, but these guys were absofrigginglute magic together. It's criminal they didn't get a PPV match. ***3/4

 

Recap of the Heenan/Rooster breakup, including a clip from a recent Prime Time Wrestling where Heenan suckered Rooster in with a fake apology and Brawler beat him up. Gorilla Monsoon even took a shot in the melee.

 

The Red Rooster def The Brooklyn Brawler (w/Bobby Heenan) in 1:05- Quick Brawler pounding. Heenan's mic'd up again. Rooster puts the brakes on a corner whip and takes control. He counters a Brawler backdrop attempt into a Paul Smackage to win. Rooster wants Heenan after. Heenan keeps him busy while Brawler recovers and hits him from behind. Rooster fights him off and Heenan bails. 1/2*

We get some more Savage ranting in the back to close out a tremendous show. If you're cherry picking the best SNMEs to watch, make sure this is one of them.