Saturday Night's Main Event XXVI

Legacy Review

Saturday Night's Main Event XXVI

April 28, 1990 (taped April 23) from the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, TX

Commentary: Vince McMahon and Jesse Ventura

It's a few weeks after Wrestlemania 6 and the torch has been passed (in theory) to The Ultimate Warrior. Warrior vacated the Intercontinental title after winning the WWF title because being a double champion wasn't a thing back then like it is nowadays.

The show opens with Vince and Ventura on horseback. Vince's horse is....less than cooperative. It was promptly fired after the show and signed with WCW the next week, repackaged by Jim Herd and Ole Anderson as Glue Factory. 

Hulk Hogan def Mr. Perfect (w/The Genius) in 8:03- Putting a bow on this feud before both guys move on. Perfect does a huge corner bump after Hogan tosses him out of the lockup, then jumps over the top rope to the floor to bail. Perfect hits a hiptoss and wants some acknowledgement. Hogan acknowledges with a hiptoss of his own, followed by slams. Perfect gets some punches and chops in the corner. Hogan reverses a whip and goes for the big boot, but Perfect grabs the rope to stop and slides out. Hogan follows and Perfect gets posted. Pillar to post Hogan beating with the usual big clotheslines and elbows. He throws a few chops in too. A back elbow sends Perfect 360 over and out again. Genius tries to sneak behind Hogan. Hogan catches him, but Genius drops the scroll and Perfect nails Hogan with it. Perfect teases a top rope dive to the floor but Hebner stops him. Back in Perfect hits the neck snap and some elbows. Hogan dodges the last elbow and does a mini hulk up. Perfect counters a backdrop. Perfectplex. Hulk Up. 3 punches, big boot, legdrop, LOLHoganwinz. Afterward Genius tries to attack Hogan and Perfect leaves him to die, setting up his managerial change to Bobby Heenan. Have to say, I think there's some wrongbook happening here. A win would have helped set Perfect up nicely for the IC title tournament that he would go on to win, and more importantly a Hogan loss would have continued his downward spiral after the WM loss, which would have given even more weight to his coming injury angle with Earthquake and give him an even bigger mountain to climb upon his return. *1/2

 

Earthquake (w/Jimmy Hart) def Hillbilly Jim in 1:58- Jim dodges a Quake ambush attempt before the bell and punches and chops Quake across the ring. Buckle shots. Jim takes time to do a cartwheel for no reason and that gives Quake time to recover and squash him in the corner. Jim counters an avalanche attempt. Hart gets on the apron and steal's Jim's horseshoe. Quake gets him from behind on the distraction. Big elbow drop, followed by the Earthquake splash and the end. Quake hits his aftershocks and Jim does the stretcher job. Squash. 1/4*

 

The Hart Foundation and The Rockers go to a double DQ in 9:30- Both teams are faces and both are chasing the new tag champs Demolition, who are also currently faces, so someone's got to give at some point. The Harts lean a little more heelish during their promo and work the match as nominal heels, which makes sense given their history. This is implied as a de facto #1 contender's match. Bret and Janetty start. Janetty turns on the agility early and often, sliding under Bret and slipping away from him. He tries a roll up but Bret grabs the rope. Great chess match stuff. Shawn comes off with a crossbody off the top but Bret counters it for 2. The Rockers hit some double teams until Anvil has enough and runs in to kill them both with clotheslines. He runs Janetty over with a shoulderblock. Janetty goes to the agility again and gets a drop toe hold on Anvil. Shawn tries to slam Anvil. Not happening. Anvil laughs and reverses it. Shawn slips out and hits a dropkick. Bret catches Shawn leapfrogging and hits an inverted atomic drop and does the gut stomp. After tagging out Bret digs into the old heel bag of tricks and gets his knee in Shawn's back on a rope run. Jimmy Hart must be so proud. Shawn does his classic mile high bump off an Anvil backdrop and goes Rocker in peril. The Harts do the double team slingshot shoulderblock. Shawn gets a sunset flip on Bret for 2. Demolition makes their way down to ringside to scout the competition. Bret sees them and wants them gone. While he's distracted Shawn dropkicks him in the back and Bret falls to the floor! After getting up he gets in a shoving match with Demolition as we have a short commercial clip. Back in with Bret and Shawn doing Bret and Shawn things. Their chemistry was down day 1. Bret hitting stiff European uppercuts in the corner and Shawn spit selling them is something we'll see for the next 7 years. Shawn dodges a Bret elbow off the top rope and tags. Janetty cleans house. Powerslam on Anvil! SUPERKICK! That gets a 2 count. Janetty gets a rollover corner sunset flip for 2. Bret hits a neckbreaker and tags. He primes Anvil for the slingshot splash, but Janetty dodges and tags! Anvil catches Shawn but Shawn uses the momentum to drop Anvil into a cover for 2. The kickout sent Shawn to the floor. Demolition gets too close for Janetty's liking and he goes out to help, and before you know it it's ON LIKE DONKEY KONG! All 3 teams brawl in the ring as the ref throws the match out. The screwy finish makes sense from a long term story standpoint but it still takes away from what was otherwise the outstanding crisp, clean match you'd expect from two of the best teams ever. ***3/4

 

WWF Championship: The Ultimate Warrior (c) def Haku (w/Bobby Heenan) in 4:49- Tonight's Warrior belt strap color is white. Haku hits Warrior with chops during his entrance. Warrior fights back and hits a backdrop with the belt still on. A clothesline was supposed to send Haku 360 and out but he missed and ended up flipping around in the ring. Warrior works the arm a bit, spinning Haku around the ring by the arm. Haku gets a knee up the corner and hits clotheslines. Dropkick for 2. Backbreaker for 2. Back suplex for 2. Haku hits a splash and Warrior Warriors up without the ropes because a normal like Haku isn't worthy of the full rope Warrior up. Clotheslines, flying tackle, big splash, and it's over. Not the most promising start to a title reign, match quality wise. 1/2*

Clip of Ted DiBiase attacking the Big Boss Man before his match at WM.

 

The Big Boss Man def Akeem (w/Slick) by DQ in 3:18- This is a Wrestlemania rematch as the old tag partners try to settle the score one last time. Another quick start. It's all Boss Man early. Akeem gets a corner clothesline. Stinkface! Well, slightly more high impact. Ass splash? Slick holds Boss Man down in the corner so Akeem can hit him. Akeem big splash for 2. He hooks up a piledriver but Boss Man backdrops him down to the floor! Then Boss Man flips him back in. He hits Akeem with buckle shots, and Akeem keeps ramming himself into the corner long after Boss Man stopped. Boss Man Slam. Boss Man stalls for time until DiBiase runs in for the cheap DQ. Akeem and Slick skedaddle as their feud is officially over and DiBiase's is officially on. The heels handcuff Boss Man to the top rope. Virgil gets the nightstick. Boss Man gets his key out, unlocks himself and chases the heels off. Very spunky little sprint before the DQ. *

In between every match on the show there's been a short bit for Rick Martel's Arrogance spray. This last one features a car, a woman, and a lot of suggestive double entendres. Is this cologne or liquid Viagra?

The show closes with Bobby Heenan saying he spotted some weaknesses in Warrior's game, and when Rick Rude is back from "the most intense training any wrestler has ever been through" they're going to exploit them so Rude can beat Warrior for a title for the second time. Warrior responds in the usual insane Warrior way. "THE DISEASE IS OUT OF CONTROL!" Yeah, so's this promo.