Saturday Night's Main Event XXVIII

Legacy Review

Saturday Night's Main Event XXVIII

October 13, 1990 (taped September 18) from the Toledo Sports Arena in Toledo, OH

Commentary: Vince McMahon and Roddy Piper

We've got another themed SNME. This time it's Oktoberfest. For the first time the commentary stand up opening is done via green screen like Superstars and Wrestling Challenge rather than in the arena, and the first match's promo are also the normal weekly TV style rather than with Okerlund or Mooney, showing SNME's dwindling importance in WWE's show hierarchy. Hawk is his usual hilarious self in his promo, running full on with the edict to get as many Oktoberfest/German references in as possible by admitting straight up that they deliberately cost Demolition the tag titles, then saying what are they gonna do, sob in their schnitzel or whimper over their wieners?

WWF Champion The Ultimate Warrior and The Legion of Doom def Demolition in 4:59- Hawk's wearing his old style face paint for one of the very few times in their WWF run. Warrior's got the small logos on the cheeks rather than full paint again too. Tonight's Warrior belt strap color is white. Demolition is at the beginning of their freefall to nothingness after dropping the tag titles at Summerslam. This and Survivor Series are the only major encounters between LOD and the Demos in what was a dream feud. Bad timing. The faces jump and Demolition roll out of the ring. We get a shot of Dustin Rhodes sitting at ringside. As things settle down Smash ambushes Animal from behind and smashes him. Animal counters with a powerslam for 2. Warrior tags in and Ax wants none of it. Warrior runs wild over all the heels. Ax dodges a big splash. Smash throws Warrior to the floor and Crush works him over. Demolition double teams as Warrior goes face in peril. LOD run in and Animal gets hit from behind and knocked to the floor. Hawk breaks up the Decapitation Device attempt on Warrior and gets the hot tag. Hawk knocks Smash around. Clothesline off the top rope. Warrior tags back in and hits the forever clotheslines. Donnybrook! Warrior hits Smash with a flying tackle and the big splash for the pin. Eh. It might have been good with more time, but Demolition also knew the writing on the wall and really weren't putting much effort in anymore. It gets a small bump for an unusual layout with putting world champ Warrior in the FIP spot. *3/4

Mean Gene is at Oktoberfest with a boatload of extras and some WWF wrestlers. I can only imagine the amount of food and beer consumed during this shoot. Meanwhile, Lord Alfred Hayes is over in the brewery complaining that the beer isn't warm enough.

 

"Macho King" Randy Savage (w/Sensational Queen Sherri) def "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes by countout in 9:30- Oh hell this feud isn't over. Rarely has a dream feud been more disappointing. OK, one more time. We can do this. Savage's feud with Warrior has also started building, with Sherri slapping him silly during the Brother Love Show on weekly TV demanding a title shot for Savage. More on that later. Dusty ambushes Savage on the apron with an elbow. He tries a bear hug but Savage immediately eye rakes out. Dusty backslide for 2. Sherri distracts and Savage hits Dusty with a jumping knee in the back. Sherri chokes. Savage kneedrop for 2. Sleeper. Ted DiBiase and Virgil are in the crowd. They pay off everyone in the front row opposite hard camera to leave, except one person: Dustin Rhodes. He tears the money up and tells them to go to hell. DiBiase and Virgil take seats on either side of him. Dusty elbows out of the sleeper. Dustin stands up and DiBiase pulls him back down. Dusty rolls out and takes a swing at DiBiase while the ref holds him back. Commercial. We come back to Savage back in control. Sherri chokes Dusty again with her glove. Savage covers for 2. Double ax handle off the top rope for 2. Dusty dodges a dive and hits a headbutt. Savage tries to slam, but Dusty uses his girth to fall on Savage for 2. Savage tries coming off the top again but Dusty catches him with a punch in the gut. On the outside, Dustin has had enough and punches DiBiase. Dibiase clotheslines him over the rail onto the ringside mat. He and Virgil work Dustin over and hit him in the head with a wooden chair. Dustin's busted open. Dusty goes out to save him. Savage hits him from behind with a double ax handle off the top, gets back in, and Dusty is counted out. The beating on Dustin continues. Dusty covers him up to protect him and takes the beating himself. It was mostly all about the angle to transition feuds, but sadly it was also by far the best Savage/Dusty match. Truly the first and only glimpse of what things might have been under better circumstances with a pairing that could have main evented any arena in the country in the '80s. **

Okerlund is at a cheese factory with the Bushwhackers. The Bushwhackers have giant knives, which I'm sure is a violation of several international arms control treaties. They make a whole bunch of cutting the cheese jokes and stuff their mouths. It's wretchedly awful. Meanwhile, Lord Alfred has had enough German lager that he's getting the taste for it.

Hulk Hogan and Togboat def Rhythm and Blues (w/Jimmy Hart) by DQ in 7:20- Hogan and buddy Tugboat (future Typhoon and Shockmaster) were still feuding with Earthquake and Dino Bravo, but they're doing the cowardly heel duck and sending Jimmy Hart's other team out there instead. Hogan and Honky start. Honky does a quick eye poke and backs Hogan into their corner. Hogan ducks a double team, clotheslines both heels, and hits the first of many of his favorite tag match move: the double noggin knocker. He whips both guys into Tugboat big boots. The faces work Valentine's arm. Eventually Valentine eye rakes Tugboat and chops away on him. Honky runs into a bear hug. Valentine hits Tugboat from behind to get Honky out. The heels beat down the beached Tugboat, and I mean beached. He barely moves. Finally Tugboat dodges a double elbow and tags out. Hogan cleans house. Hart takes a shot and runs to the back. Hogan ground and pound on Valentine. Big boot. He goes for the legdrop but Tugboat grabs him as he hits the ropes to get his attention- Hart is coming back with Quake and Bravo. Officials hold them back and the match continues after a few words from our sponsors. Tugboat hits an avalanche. Hart distracts Tugboat and Honky hits him from behind with his guitar, drawing the DQ. Quake and Bravo run in, knock Tugboat to the floor and start beating on Hogan. Quake powerslam and big splash. He goes for the Quake splash but Tugboat hits him in the back with the guitar. Tugboat chases all the heels away with the guitar. Hogan actually does some postmatch selling, favoring the ribs Quake had injured back in the spring. *1/2

The Genius is presiding over a sausage stuffing contest. I got nothing, all the jokes write themselves and they say them all on air. Lord Alfred is now at least two sheets to the wind.

 

WWF Intercontinental Championship: "The Texas Tornado" Kerry Von Erich (c) def Haku (w/Bobby Heenan) in 3:10- Heenan: "Give me the belt right now and we'll call it even". Heh. Tornado gets an armdrag and slam. He goes for the claw early. Haku blocks it and rolls out. Back in Haku grabs a quick standing chinlock that looks almost like a rear choke. It goes on for a bit while Heenan plays some pocket pool. I'm guessing it's supposed to be a foreign object setup but it goes nowhere. Tornado punches. Haku stops it with an eye rake. Stiff shoulderblocks from Haku. Tornado punches back again, corner whips Haku and locks the claw in. Haku backs into the ropes. Discus punch from Tornado and good night. Not completely awful for the time they got. Haku brought the stiffness at least. *1/4

Sean Mooney is with Hogan and Tugboat. Hogan ditches the Oktoberfest theme from earlier promos and throws in enough nautical references to fill a Navy technical manual, a playthrough of Return of the Obra Dinn and several episodes of ITV's Horatio Hornblower adaptation.

 

Sgt. Slaughter (w/Gen. Adnan) def Koko B Ware in 5:18- Slaughter returned to the WWF after about 5 years in the AWA at Summerslam with his new heel Iraqi sympathizer gimmick. This is his big reintroduction match. Ware plays with him by ducking lockups early, then hits armdrags and a hiptoss. Ware's looking spunky early. Slaughter does a heel 101 bitch about hair pulling, like he has any anyway. Ware hits a jumping shoulderblock with no effect. He slides under Slaughter's legs and hits a dropkick. Slaughter dodges a corner dive. Backdrop and kneedrop for 2. Slaughter backbreaker. Ware counters another backdrop attempt into a swinging neckbreaker. More dropkicks. Slaughter catches another leap and hits a hot shot. He hadn't inherited the camel clutch from the Iron Sheik yet so he uses what was the original idea for his finisher, the Grinding Knuckle To The Temple of Extreme Agony +3. Ware submits. I was expecting a squash, but this had a lot more back and forth. Ware had his working boots on, but in the end it's yet another TV loss for Hall of Famer Koko B Ware. *3/4

Oktoberfest has reached the drunken dancing portion of the festivities. I believe the German word is backpfeifengesicht. Or was it schnapsidee? The Lord Alfred running gag reaches its logical conclusion as he's completely pissed. Back with the main group, Anvil accidentally knocks tag partner Bret Hart into a table and the mandatory Vince loved FOOD FIGHT is on. And it's a doozy. I'd hate to be the cleanup crew. There's more than a little corpsing going on during it. Back to reality, the Ultimate Warrior (I just used reality and Warrior in a sentence, I know) accepts the challenge from Savage via Sherri's slaps. Somewhere along the way whatever the original plan was got Meltzered, as Savage never got a title match and Warrior ended up refusing Savage's challenge again at the Royal Rumble, which caused Savage to interfere and cost him the title to Sgt. Slaughter, and eventually led to the big career ending match at Wrestlemania 7.