The Main Event V

Legacy Review

The Main Event V

February 1, 1991 (taped January 28) from the Macon Coliseum in Macon, GA

Commentary: Vince McMahon and Roddy Piper

 

The show opens with shots of Hulk Hogan from a recent USO tour.

Hulk Hogan and Tugboat def Earthquake and Dino Bravo (w/Jimmy Hart) in 8:56- Putting a bow on this long feud before everyone moves on for Wrestlemania season. Really surprised to see the heels not pull the Suzuki-Gun jump. Hogan and Bravo start. Bravo pushes Hogan into the corner off a lockup and celebrates like he just won a title. Hogan wins round 2 and backdrops Bravo. Hart takes an early shot. Hogan atomic drops Bravo into the face corner and he and Tugboat ricochet him around for a bit. Bravo gets boots up in the corner on Tugboat and inverted atomic drops him, which is legit impressive. Tugboat dodges a Quake elbow drop and tags. Hogan slams Bravo, then slams Quake. Guess that spot's lost all its luster, throwing it in midmatch with no buildup. Double big boot on Quake. Quake eye rakes Tugboat to take control and the heels hit some double teams. Quake elbow drop. Hogan breaks up the pin. Quake walks over Tugboat. Tugboat reverses a corner whip and hits an avalanche. He and Quake look like they're trying to literally dance, not just wrestle dance, before Tugboat hits a clothesline. Bravo hits Tugboat in the back of the head with Hart's megaphone while he's hitting the ropes and he tumbles out to the floor. More bland in peril stuff follows, along with a phantom tag spot. Quake tunes up the band for the big one. Hogan cuts it off with a clothesline and both guys slowly crawl over to tag. Hogan immediately unloads the Hulk Up artillery on Bravo. 3 punches/big boot/SWERVE Hogan rolls him up for 3. Well that was something a bit different. Match still sucked though. Tugboat was an atrocious seller and he and Quake got lost a couple of times. 3/4*

Long recap of the WWF title situation at the Royal Rumble, from Savage and Sherri's rejected challenge to the interference filled match where Slaughter won the title. Slaughter's with Mean Gene and declares the WWF is playing by his new rules now.

 

WWF Championship: "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan def Sgt. Slaughter (c) (w/Gen. Adnan) by DQ in 6:50- Duggan comes out to Stars and Stripes Forever and Hogan is with him as flagbearer. He's forced to return to the back during commercial. Pushy punchykicky back and forth the first part of the match. Slaughter works some sneaky style chokes in. Duggan reverses a corner whip and pounds Slaughter down in the corner FOR AMERICA, then clotheslines Slaughter 360 and out. Slaughter's back took a rough bump on the apron going down but he's good, he was a bumping machine. Duggan tries to slam Slaughter back in. Adnan grabs his foot and Slaughter drops on top of him setting up the Wrestlemania 5 finish, but Adnan lets go and Duggan's able to kick out. It's that kind of laser focus, tactical follow through and forward planning that kept the Iraqi military toe to toe with US and coalition forces. That and Baghdad Bob saying there are no American forces in Baghdad when the tanks are literally rolling in behind him. Anyway, Duggan grabs Adnan and swings at him but completely misses. I mean whiffed, Adnan didn't move. Adnan hooks Duggan up, but Duggan dodges and Slaughter pops Adnan. Well, that's a court martial. Hell, in Saddam's Republican Guard they probably would go straight to the execution. Slaughter pops Duggan with his own 2x4 and covers him with one foot. Duggan kicks out. Slaughter whips out the Back Rakes of Excruciating Torture +3. Red Shoes would have made him clip his fingernails before the match. Slaughter rams Duggan's face into his boot spike. After a couple of buckle shots Duggan hulks up and comes back. On a corner whip Slaughter flies over the top rope all the way to the floor! They fight outside. Adnan distracts Duggan and Slaughter whacks him in the head with a chair for a DQ. Back in Slaughter gently nudges Duggan with the chair until Hogan runs back in. Hogan gets a piece of the chair nudging action too before Slaughter spits on them, decalres victory and leaves. There was a decentish brawl trying to get out but it never really got going. *1/4

 

The Legion of Doom def The Orient Express (w/Mr. Fuji) in 5:11-  The Express were coming in hot off a show stealing match with the Rockers at the Rumble. Animal and Kato start. Animal tosses him halfway across the ring out of a facelock. He no sells a chop and Kato runs for it. A speed run ends with an Animal powerslam. LOD double backdrops Tanaka, who does a nice twist in midair to land on his face. The heels take time outside to recover. Back in, Hawk knocks Tanaka around. Kato grabs Hawk's boot and the heels try a double team. Hawk goes to clothesline them both. Tanaka takes it but Kato ducks. He takes a swing at Hawk but Hawk plucks his fist out of the air mid-punch. Kato gets thrown out. Animal press slams him back in, and as soon as he gets to his feet Hawk clotheslines him out again! Then Animal runs him over on the floor with a clothesline! Kato just can't catch a break. Animal blocks a Tanaka hiptoss. Tanaka tries to flip over but Animal murders him with a clothesline that Tanaka 360 sells. Kato tries to hit Animal from behind again, still nothing doing. Finally Fuji throws some salt in Animal's eyes and that lets the Express get a little offense in. Animal lulls them into a false sense of security by taking a few moves before double clotheslining them and tagging out. Hawk destroys everyone. The Doomsday Device on Kato finishes it. Hugely fun squash. It's easy to see why the LOD were insta mega over the moment they hit the WWF, even for people that hadn't seen them in other companies, and the Express worked their asses off to make them look great. **1/2

Mean Gene is in the ring with President Jack Tunney for our main event promo segment- the announcement of Sgt. Slaughter's challenger at Wrestlemania 7. The Ultimate Warrior, Hacksaw Jim Duggan and Randy Savage are all floated as possibilities but to the shock of absolutely no one, it's Hulk Hogan. The show ends with fairly standard boilerplate promos from Slaughter and Hogan to kick off what would be in my mind a very underrated feud due to people's disdain for the Iraqi sympathizer/Gulf War exploitation angle, which is totally understandable. What really makes it memorable for me is Slaughter added in some hardcore touches that WWF wouldn't really get comfortable with until the Attitude Era.