Saturday Night's Main Event XXV

Legacy Review

Saturday Night's Main Event XXV

January 27, 1990 (taped January 3) from the UTC Arena in Chattanooga, TN

Commentary: Vince McMahon and Jesse Ventura

We're in another pretape hole, as this show was taped before the Royal Rumble but not aired until the week after.

 

We get footage from the match that Savage won the King crown from Duggan with help of the Sherri's Loaded Purse of Solidity +2.

"Macho King" Randy Savage (w/Sensational Queen Sherri) def "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan in 9:14- Savage takes his time disrobing on his entrance to frustrate Duggan. Duggan fixes the situation by going and and tipping the throne over with Savage on it! After a few buckle shots Duggan no sells Savage's comeback attempt until Savage hits him with a clothesline. Duggan responds with his own clothesline for 2. After a huge Duggan atomic drop Sherri gets on the apron and Savage hits him from behind. Double ax handle to the floor. Double ax handle in the ring for 2. The top rope snap clothesline gets 2. Duggan dodges a charge and Savage ends up in the ropes. A Duggan backdrop puts Savage on the floor. Sherri argues with the ref and antagonizes Duggan to let Savage recover. Duggan does that splash/kneedrop combo looking thingy and Sherri distracts the ref again to save the pin. After Savage is knocked to the floor again Sherri hits Duggan in the back. Duggan chases, backs her in the corner and threatens to hit her. Savage gets him from behind with a high knee, then tries coming off the top rope again but they hit each other and both guys are down. Sherri slips Savage the purse of doom. Savage wallops Duggan with it. Duggan kicks out! Really good callback to the previous match. Duggan with a desperation small package for 2. He atomic drops Savage into the corner and hits more clotheslines. The 3 point stance clothesline sends Savage to the floor. Duggan suplexes him back in, but Sherri grabs his foot and they do the Wrestlemania 5 finish with Savage's feet also on the rope for good measure. Duggan was really regressing as a worker by this point, and with Sherri so heavily involved in all his matches in this period there's only so much Savage could do. **1/4

Replay of the Hogan/Warrior mini-match portion of the Royal Rumble. Ventura doesn't think they can work together and the egos are going to explode.

 

WWF Champion Hulk Hogan and WWF Intercontinental Champion The Ultimate Warrior def Mr. Perfect and The Genius in 8:02- Hogan and Perfect start. Ventura compares this to the Super Bowl, with Hogan/Warrior as the heavily favored 49ers and Perfect/Genius as the Broncos. Um, Jesse, I remember watching that game live. I bet that's a line he sorely regretted after the game took place the next day (55-10 49ers, still the biggest Super Bowl blowout to this day). Hogan unshockingly outpowers Perfect and has a bodyslam party for the heels. Warrior tags in and chases them outside, double noggin knockers, chases them back in and knocks them both out again. Perfect gets some shots in on Hogan in the corner. Hogan reverses a whip, back elbows Perfect and Perfect does a 360 over the top and out. As Genius writes some notes on his scroll Perfect goes into a series of classic Perfect flippy sells for everything Hogan does to him. If this was the NBA he'd be kicked out and fined for ridiculous flopping. A big boot sends Perfect out again. Genius slips him the scroll and Perfect whacks Hogan with it (without taking the time to read whatever was written on there, shows how much confidence Perfect had in Genius in a manager). Hogan wraps up a small package for 2. Chops, clothesline and the neck snap from Perfect. He takes the risk of tagging Genius in, but Genius gets a few kicks in and tags out again so that went OK. Genius struts around like a, well, fairy to annoy Warrior. There's SO many lines I could go for here but I'm not gonna do it. Perfectplex! But Perfect stops the count! Bold strategery Cotton. He tags Genius back in so he can finish it with the moonsault. Hogan gets his knees up, then puts his boot up when Perfect tries coming off the top. Hot tag. Warrior destroys everyone. Gorilla press on Genius. He hits the ropes for the splash but Hogan tags his back. Warrior stays in stride and takes Perfect out, while Hogan hits the legdrop to win. Pretty fun match. The action was nonstop with Perfect putting on a selling clinic and even keeping his finisher protected for his coming IC title reign. ***

While Hogan and Warrior celebrate Perfect attacks from behind and the melee is on again. In the confusion of it all Warrior clotheslines Hogan! Warrior instantly stops to check on him while Ventura crows he saw it coming and no way was it an accident. When Hogan gets up he shoves Warrior! They go nose to nose again, sadly to a much more lukewarm crowd reaction than they got at the Rumble. But regardless, the WM 6 main event is on.

Footage of Roberts stealing the Million Dollar Belt on weekly TV. Roberts teases the belt being in the bag with Damien but no one has the guts to check and see.

 

Jake "The Snake" Roberts def Greg "The Hammer" Valentine (w/Jimmy Hart) by DQ in 5:16- During his entrance Roberts shows that Damien is in fact the Guardian of the Belt, and leaves in in the bag with him. Valentine hits a couple of armdrags off the lockup and celebrates with Hart. Roberts armdrags out of an armbar and does the usual early DDT tease. Hart distracts and Valentine lays in with forearms and chops. He drops a hammer elbow and does an arrogant cover Roberts quickly kicks out of. Slugfest. Valentine goes into the corner and slooooowly Valentine flo.....nope, Roberts clotheslines him before he can do it. Short clothesline. Valentine backdrops out of a DDT attempt. Roberts dodges an elbow. Valentine dodges a kneelift. Good chess match stuff from two cerebral wrestlers. Valentine goes for the figure four. Roberts pushes out, Valentine and Hart (on the apron) collide, and Roberts hits the DDT! Before he can cover DiBiase and Virgil run in for the DQ. Virgil tries to psych himself up to stick his hand in Damien's bag to get the belt but Roberts chases them off before he can do it. Solid match from guys that rarely gave you anything less. **1/4

 

"The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes (w/Sapphire) and "Ravishing" Rick Rude (w/Bobby Heenan) go to a double countout in 9:04- There's a sort of feud here as Rude has been saying he could take Sapphire away from Dusty anytime he wanted to. Dusty and Sapphire share a prematch kiss and Rude ambushes. Dusty reverses a corner whip with another A+ Rude sell. Rude tries to slam Dusty but his back can't take the weight. Bionic elbows. Rude begs off and dodges an elbow drop. He hooks in a modified sleeper. Heenan goes across and gets in Sapphire's face. Dusty backdrops Rude, then sees Heenan and goes out to stop him. Rude hits him from behind. The ref throws both managers out. While they leave there's a fight on the floor and Dusty gets posted. Rude goes into time killing mode again with an armbar. Sapphire shows back up in the crowd, brandishing a front row ticket. Did she just buy that? Who sells tickets after the show starts? I hope she got a steep discount. Like, at least a 50% discount, like those guys at NCT Software like to give. Rude sticks with the arm work while Ventura plugs Mike Tyson's upcoming guest referee spot on the next Main Event. More on that later. Midring collision. Rude tries coming off the top but Dusty gives him a shot in the gut. Dusty goes for the figure four. Rude eye rakes out. Rude hits a snap mare and goes back to some more shots on the arm. See, this is what separates 1990 Rude versus the Rude of 1988 that kept Jake Roberts in a chinlock for 8 minutes to kill time for a time limit draw. Dusty boogies up and hits another bionic elbow. Rude counters a backdrop and goes out after Sapphire taunts him. Slugfest on the floor. There's no bell but we assume it was a double countout. Dusty's music still plays so he and Sapphire can horrify us with their dancing. As I've said before, counseling is available. That was as much as you were going to get out of broken down WWF Dusty. Rude's getting really damn good. **

 

Dino Bravo (w/Jimmy Hart and Earthquake) def "Rugged" Ronnie Garvin in 3:19- Bravo pounds away. Garvin ducks a clothesline and hits chops. Bravo throws Garvin outside so Quake can take a shot at him. Bravo elbowdrop for 2. Gutwrench suplex for 2. Garvin slips out of a slam and tries a roll up but Bravo grabs the rope. After more elbow dodging Garvin hits big chops and a backdrop. He flips Hart in and throws him down onto Quake. Quake catches him. Garvin Stomp, but Garvin interrupts it to stomp on Quake's hand. Garvin goes for a crossbody off the top, but Bravo reverses it for the pin. Afterward the heels double team and Quake squashes Garvin with two Earthquake splashes. Garvin does the stretcher job. 3/4*

The show closes with Savage and Hogan giving dueling promos for their upcoming Main Event title match, both focusing on Mike Tyson being the special guest ref. Ventura says that "maybe Tyson will meet his match". Well, turns out that Tyson did, but before he made it to the Main Event.....