WWF Wrestling Challenge September 20th, 1987

September 20, 1987

From the Cow Palace in San Francisco, CA

Your hosts are Bobby Heenan and Gorilla Monsoon

In action this week will be Randy Savage, Killer Khan, Don Muraco, and four members of the Heenan Family.

The Shadows vs. Killer Bees

Brunzell starts by kicking Shadow #1 repeatedly in the leg. The Bees now take turns working the legs of Shadow #2 until Blair gets shoved trying a spinning toe hold. Shadow #1 tags and puts Blair in a backbreaker but Brunzell breaks that up. Blair makes the tag as Brunzell runs wild. He clears the ring of #2 after he accidentally hit his partner. Blair tags and puts away #1 with the Bee Sting (4:10).

Thoughts: Really not much to this other than keeping the Bees strong for their title matches against the Hart Foundation on the house show circuit.

Craig DeGeorge shows footage of all the managers Bam Bam Bigelow spurned as they all threaten him for getting turned down. We are then shown Bigelow and Humperdink, who warns the managers issuing threats that when you play with fire, you are going to get burned. Humperdink really didn’t serve a point. I’m guessing that since Bigelow, originally supposed to be a heel, got so over before his TV debut that they had to give him a manager to pay off the angle and came up with a face manager in Humperdink.

Killer Khan w/ Mr. Fuji vs. Darrell Nickel

Nickel looks like a guy they grabbed from the gym before the show and decided to put him in the ring for the first time. Match starts with Khan grounding Nickel, grinding his forearm into his face. The crowd chants Hulk as Khan sprays mist into the face of Nickel. Khan then hits a side slam before getting the win with a top rope knee drop (1:55).

Thoughts: Same as just about every other Khan squash match.

Gene Okerlund is with the Rougeau Brothers. They put over the competition in the Tag Team division. As boring as you would expect.

Strike Force put over their new song, “Girls with Cars,” that is on the “Piledriver” album.

Tiger Chung Lee vs. Don Muraco

Monsoon tells us to watch out for Lee’s “martial arts” skills. They battle over a key lock until Muraco counters it into a hammerlock. Lee chops Muraco against the ropes as we get an insert promo from Bob Orton, warning Muraco about what will happen if they cross paths again. Muraco fights back and hits a powerslam the signals for the tombstone, getting a good reaction from the crowd, and hits the move for the win (2:49).

Thoughts: Muraco was getting a brief face push after the split with Orton. They liked him here.

Okerlund is with Superstar Billy Graham. He asks him about getting attacked by Butch Reed after their posedown. Graham tells us that he will continue to climb the mountain and will prevail.

King Harley Race & Hercules & “Ravishing” Rick Rude & King Kong Bundy w/ Bobby Heenan vs. Brady Boone & Dusty Wolfe & Rudy Ryder & S.D. Jones

Johnny V. has replaced Heenan on commentary. Before the match, Rude wants the men to shut up so the women can enjoy seeing him take off his robe. Hercules starts by hitting Wolfe with a backbreaker. Race tags and hits a suplex then Ryder tags into the match. If you wanted a wrestler to have a gimmick of a drifter on crystal meth, Ryder is your guy. We get an insert promo from Andre the Giant as he is very proud of the Heenan Family. Ryder gets the shit kicked out of him until Bundy puts him away with an elbow off of the middle rope (3:50).

Thoughts: This was designed to put over the entire Heenan family stable, primarily focusing on the fact that Andre has returned.

DeGeorge is on the interview platform with Ken Patera, who is screaming incoherently at the Heenan Family as they walk up the ramp. He then blames them all for his arm injury and promises to take them all down one-by-one. They finally leave as Patera says he has been a winner is whole life while slurring his words then names his cast the “weasel whacker” and will use it to “crack the watermelon” heads of the Heenan Family. Patera seemed crazier than usual here.

Jimmy Hart and the Honky Tonk Man are shown in prerecorded comments. Honky laughs at Savage being upset over his comments that he is the greatest Intercontinental Champion of all time. Elizabeth is shown as she disagrees with that then we get a replay of last week on “Superstars” where Savage threatened Jimmy Hart in the locker room while looking for Honky. I thought the build for this feud was tremendous.

Omar Atlas vs. “Macho Man” Randy Savage w/ Elizabeth

This match actually took place at the “Superstars of Wrestling” tapings the day prior. It still features Heenan and Monsoon on commentary. Savage works the arm as Heenan agrees that Honky is the greatest IC Champion of all-time. Savage hits a suplex then chokes out Atlas on the top rope. Atlas fights back but misses a charge in the corner. Savage tosses him to the floor and follows with a double axe handle before rolling Atlas back in and finishing him off with the flying elbow drop (2:53).

Thoughts: The fans loved Savage. He was getting the loudest crowd reactions of all the TV face wrestlers at this point.

We get comments from Ted Jensen, who is apparently a Grammy award-winning engineer. He looks less than enthused while putting over the “Piledriver” album.

“The Natural” Butch Reed w/ Slick vs. Jerry Allen

Allen grabs a side headlock but Reed easily powers out then beats on Allen. In a hilarious moment, Heenan attempts to describe the term “Jive Soul Bro” as Reed beats down Allen. We then get an insert promo from Slick, who puts over his song. Reed gets two with a swinging neckbreaker as he pulls Allen up to inflict more punishment. He drops Allen throat-first on the top rope and follows with a fist drop. Allen fights back after Reed ducked his head on a backdrop attempt but fails on an Irish whip attempt. Reed comes back with a high knee before getting the win with a flying clothesline from the middle rope (3:46).

Thoughts: Reed never got over in the WWF, despite his push. He didn’t look good in the ring either.

Okerlund is with the New Dream Team and Johnny V., who is pissed over Okerlund commenting about his doorag. Valentine then says he will enjoy watching Bravo destroy the Rougeau Brothers as Bravo talks about winning the Tag Team Titles. This team sucked.

Next week in action will be the One Man Gang, Junkyard Dog, Paul Orndorff, and the Islanders (who did not wrestle on the next show).

Final Thoughts: The Savage/Honky feud is by far and away the most interesting post WrestleMania III angle. They needed something after several months of failed pushes and feuds. Besides the Andre appearance, not much else to see here though as it was all status quo.

Here is my schedule for the rest of the week:

Monday: PTBN Podcast #172 with Kevin Kelly discussing 1997 WWF, Part One

Tuesday: WWF Madison Square Garden 9/21/87

Thursday: KC Timeline Series: 1984 WWE as told by Roddy Piper

Friday: WWF Superstars of Wresting 9/26/87

Saturday: Highspots Presents Brickhouse TV: Season 1, Episodes 3 & 4

Sunday: WWF Wrestling Challenge 9/27/87