Saturday Night's Main Event XXIX

Legacy Review

Saturday Night's Main Event XXIX

April 27, 1991 (taped April 15) from the Omaha Civic Auditorium in Omaha, NE

Commentary: Vince McMahon and Randy Savage (still playing a heel for now)

Even though this was broadcast as an SNME the arena banners and mic covers are all The Main Event. During the promos for the opening match we get footage of Slaughter throwing flashpaper a fireball in Hogan's face backstage after WM 7, and from recent weekly TV of Warrior getting locked into a Warrior themed coffin by Paul Bearer and the Undertaker and almost suffocating to death before being rescued by WWF officials. The whole inside of the coffin is torn up from Warrior trying to claw his way out before passing out. Another for the list of things you'll never see in wrestling today.

The Ultimate Warrior def Sgt. Slaughter (w/Col. Mustafa and Gen. Adnan) by DQ in 8:00- This is Warrior's revenge match after losing the WWF title to Slaughter at the Rumble (with a huge assist from Savage). Slaughter climbs the top rope before the bell and Warrior slams him off. A punch sends Slaughter 360 and out. Back in Slaughter begs off and gets an eye poke. He throws Warrior out and Sheiky Baby gets a shot in. Slaughter starts working Warrior's back. Bear hug. Warrior Mongolian chops out. He slams Slaughter but his back gives out right after. Back to the bear hug. Paul Bearer comes down to ringside with the same Warrior themed casket that Warrior almost died in. Warrior sees it and freezes. Slaughter clotheslines him from behind. Warrior gets to the ropes and starts Warrioring up. Forever clotheslines. Flying tackle. Bearer lifts the lid and Undertaker's in the coffin! There's a great shot of Taker snapping his head to the side to look at Warrior. Warrior freezes again and Slaughter hits him from behind again. Everyone runs in and starts beating on Warrior for the DQ finish, not that it really matters with everything else going on. Hulk Hogan runs in and fights off Slaughter's crew. He gives Taker a whack with the title belt and Taker no sells it. Hogan chases off the Axis while Warrior dodges Taker elbow drops and Warriors up again. Taker no sells clothesline. Warrior builds up a ton of steam with a lots of rope runs and hits flying tackle that sends Taker 360 over, but he lands on his feet. End scene. Not much of a match, but the angle work was really good. *

Bearer and Taker are with Mean Gene and promise to bring a final end to the Ultimate Warrior. This feud is historically significant not just for being Taker's first major feud, but also because it was WWF's last true major house show feud, in that it was built specifically for the house show loop and had no resolution on TV. With more TV, especially PPVs, that style was going the way of the spinning toe hold. The first show I ever went to in person in the summer of '91 was main evented by Warrior vs Undertaker.

 

WWF Tag Team Championship: The Nasty Boys (c) (w/Jimmy Hart) def The Bushwhackers in 6:48- This is the kind of match you read on the rundown and you just want to pack it all in, quit your review writing hobby and maybe gouge your own eyes out so you don't ever have to watch it. OK, lets see how this goes. Luke and Knobbs start. After some back and forth it's a quick donnybrook with the heels getting whipped into each other and double clotheslined out. The Bushwhackers march all over the ring while the Nastys regroup. Sags gets Butch to play to the crowd and hits him from behind. After a whip reversal and ripcord knee to the gut Luke gets a diving clothesline. Knobbs breaks the pin up. Everyone in again! After taking a couple of battering rams the heels are on the floor again. Once things settle back in Knobbs kicks Luke in the back of the head from the apron on a rope run. Luke goes Kiwi in peril. After a bit of beating he dodges a corner dive and both sides tag. Butch clotheslines for everyone. The Nastys hit a double team clothesline. Luke breaks the pin up. Knobbs lifts Butch, but Luke pushes Butch down on top of him. Sags just breaks the pin up. The crowd ate that one up. An innocent time, when you thought the Bushwhackers might actually win the tag titles. Knobbs does a double leg takedown on Butch, stacks him up, and Sags gives a leverage assist for the pin. Well. Where the hell did that come from? It didn't suck. That was a decent brawl with nearly nonstop action and hardly any resting. The Nastys were really working hard, possibly to justify their winning the tag titles, and the Bushwhackers were on as well as anytime in their WWF run. **

We get footage of Earthquake squashing and killing Damien. I mean, I'm not condoning pet murder, but as strategery goes it's not terrible. It certainly takes the snake out of the equation. That is, until Jake Roberts comes in toting another bag with Damien's big brother Lucifer inside. I haven't read for sure one way or the other, but I'm willing to bet it's the exact same snake. Hogan's got a bandage on the side of his face from the fireball attack.

 

20 Man Battle Royale- Your participants are: WWF Champion Hulk Hogan, Intercontinental Champion Mr. Perfect, The British Bulldog, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Earthquake, Tugboat, Greg Valentine, Jake Roberts, The Big Boss Man, Haku, The Barbarian, Jimmy Snuka, The Warlord, The Texas Tornado, The Rockers, The Orient Express, and Power and Glory.

Hogan charges right for Quake when he hits the ring and it's on. Perfect tries to hide by wrapping himself around the ring post. Hogan holds Quake for Roberts. Janetty goes over the top, skins the cat and headscissors Roma over. Roma drags Janetty down with him and they're both gone. Hogan, that guardian of fair play, chokes Quake with his wrist tape. Perfect and Hogan renew their late '90 rivalry. Perfect fights off an elimination attempt. Now Perfect and Tornado get back together. Shawn gets hoisted up on Herc's shoulders but manages to get out. Valentine and Hogan ricochet Perfect around. Perfect goes over the top but lands on the apron. Warlord eliminates Bulldog, a bit of revenge for his WM 7 loss. Tanaka is eliminated as Boss Man dangles over the corner upside down by one knee. Snuka's eliminated. Perfect keeps rolling under the bottom rope to the apron to rest. Smart. Hercules and Quake eliminate Roberts. Roberts grabs the bag and gets Lucifer out. Quake bails and the whole match stops. Commercial. Back with brawling resumed. Hogan tries to lift Quake but Tugboat hits him from behind! Best buds Hogan and Tugboat fight! Every man for himself. But even more, knowing now what happens after this, I think it's safe to say that Jimmy Hart has already gotten his hooks into the future Typhoon, he's just working undercover and hasn't exposed himself yet. Hogan eliminates Warlord. Tornado puts a sleeper on Barbarian. Barbarian uses it to dump him over and out. Quake eliminates Duggan. Hogan elimiantes Quake! Hogan's starting to get some momentum. He lifts Kato up to eliminate him, but Tugboat comes from behind again and dumps Kato AND HOGAN! Shawn sneaks up and eliminates Tugboat. Hercules gets tossed while Hogan and Tugboat stare each other down on the floor. I'm telling you, Tugboat's counting Hart's money in his head. Meanwhile the match takes on a completely different tone without Hogan or any of the superheavyweights. Perfect dropkicks old rival Boss Man in the back and Barbarian eliminates him. Haku accidentally chops Perfect and Shawn dropkicks Haku out. The final four are Shawn, Valentine, Perfect and Barbarian. Shawn unloads rapid fire punches on Perfect and throws him over, but Perfect grabs the rope to land on the apron. Perfect reverses a corner whip. Shawn flip! He lands on the apron. After a couple of dodges by both guys Perfect back elbows Shawn and he drops to the floor. Great sequence from those two. Valentine tries to eliminate Barbarian but the two Heenan Family members gang up on him. Valentine dodges a double team, Perfect dropkicks Barbarian and Valentine eliminates him! It's down to two. Fight in the corner. Chop exchange. Now the ring's clear Perfect gets a 360 sell in. An atomic drop slingshots Perfect into the corner. Valentine throws Perfect over but he lands on the apron again. They push against the ropes. Both guys go over! Valentine hits the floor, but Perfect lands on the apron again! Perfect wins! Hell of a finish, and a sensational choice for the winner. Like most battle royales it started slow, but once the ring started clearing the last 5-6 minutes were really damn good. Perfect put on a great performance, carrying a lot of the match on his way to victory. There was a ton of story and angle work in here too on several different fronts. ***1/4

 

Bret "Hitman" Hart and "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase (w/Sensational Sherri) double countout in 9:56- Roddy Piper, who's been side feuding with DiBiase as Virgil's mentor, joins commentary for this match. This is the unofficial official start of Bret's long delayed singles push. DiBiase chops after a rope break. Bret reverses a corner whip and pummels DiBiase with clotheslines, the last one sending him 360 and out. Bret with a plancha! He follows with a ground and pound on the floor, and looks Sherri off. Back in, Sherri tries to grab Bret's foot. Bret drags her up and dodges DiBiase so he knees Sherri off the apron. Bret quickly rolls him up for 2. They go on a speed run. DiBiase catches Bret on a leapfrog and gives him a hot shot. DiBiase piledriver for 2. Bret slips out of a slam and tries a roll up, but DiBiase shits the momentum to send Bret to the floor. Stair shot for Bret. Sherri sneaks around and gets her shot in, then chokes Bret with her jacket. Bret bump! DiBiase hooks in the Million Dollar Dream. Bret quickly backs him into the corner. DiBiase comes off the second rope and Bret gives him a punch in the gut. Five Moves of Doom with close near falls. Sherri grabs Bret's foot again. Bret jumps out and stalks her. DiBiase hits him from behind with a double ax handle off the apron. Piper has seen enough. He leaves the virtual commentary booth in Stamford and transports to the arena. He gets in Sherri's face, looks under the ring and grabs a broom, then points to Sherri and asks if it's hers. That's ridiculous. That looks like a Cleensweep Five or some crap like that, and you know DiBiase isn't going to let Sherri ride anything less than at least a Nimbus 2000. Piper rides the broom like a Quidditch cosplayer and chases Sherri to the back. DiBiase chases Piper, then Bret chases DiBiase. Bret and DiBiase fight on the aisle as they're both counted out. No shock to anyone, these guys had great chemistry, but all the Sherri shenanigans and the crappy non-finish held it back. ***

 

The Mountie (w/Jimmy Hart) def Tito Santana in 4:29- This is a rematch from Wrestlemaina 7. They were at the end of the card and had their match cut short for time, so they're getting a little more of a proper go at it here. A little more. On a rope break Mountie shouts "I AM THE MOUNTIE!" and Santana shows zero respect for him as a law enforcement officer by punching him. An atomic drop and dropkicks send Mountie to the floor and he hugs Hart to recover in the old Rougeau Brothers style. Santana tries a double noggin knocker but Mountie elbows him in the gut. Back in Mountie blocks a monkey flip and Santana is pounded into the turnbuckle. Santana gets his knees up on a splash. Flying frijole! Hart gets in and takes a flying frijole of his own! But the cattle prod rolled over to the Mountie. He stabs it in Santana's throat and shocks him, confirmed by the electricity sound effect that in no way was added in post, and Mountie gets the pin. *1/4

The show closes with dueling Slaughter and Hogan promos. And that brings us to an end of the original 6 year run of Saturday Night's Main Event on NBC. After sitting idle for the rest of '91 the show would be picked up by Fox for two short hour long episodes in '92, which is where we'll be heading next.