WWF All American Wrestling – August 27th, 1989

This week’s All American is from the day before Summerslam ’89, so should be in full final push for the show. Also, a strangely shorter episode this week, so will be curious as to if anything has been cut out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ic2usKxkCx4

Hosted by Mean Gene and Hillbilly Jim, who get cut straight off by the recorder, so it’s obviously down to a bit of at-the-time editing or removal of some tracking errors.

The Rockers vs. Chris Duffy and Alan Kinsey

From Wrestling Challenge. Kinsey is the creator of the scale, and Duffy has his neon green leg kneepads set as leg warmers, so that’s got to be about a five. He fucks up a leapfrog/headscissors thing and goes down for an armdrag like a bag of spuds. Shawn gives him a Cactus Jack clothesline and skins the cat back in. Kinsey tags in, with far plainer, traditional gear with a black star on the back, so is closer to a one, moustache included. He walks into an elbow from Marty and gets suplexed, with Gorilla calling for the match to be stopped because he looked groggier than “The Truth” Williams. Double suplex sets up the double fistdrop off the top for the Rockers to win.

Update, recalling Roddy Piper getting into a big argument with Bobby Heenan and Rick Rude on Prime Time. “You say one more thing and I’m gonna drowned (sic) you!” Gorilla and some producers pull Roddy back from Rude, who throws water in his face. This of course set up Roddy costing Rude the IC title at Summerslam.

Mr. Perfect vs. Mark Regan

From Superstars. Rare neon green kneepads to go with the singlet this time. Regan, a Dick Beyer trainee, gets an early advantage, but Perfect takes his feet out from under him and chops him down. Snapmare to set up the neck snap, but Regan forgets to sit up so instead it’s just some stomps. Regan actually gets a comeback with a slam and dropkick, but Perfect gives him the Axe, which he bounces off, and now you’re gonna see a Perfectplex. Really cool, competitive squash match.

Event Center, with the Honky Tonk Man targeting Summerslam opponent Dusty Rhodes: “Feel the heat? I’ve got heat everywhere I go!” Never have truer words been said. Hercules and Greg Valentine swap insults too, with the Hammer dropping his $3,000 robe to help make his point.

The Hart Foundation vs. Dino Bravo and the Honky Tonk Man

Joined in progress, possibly taken from Prime Time as Alfred and Tony are on commentary. Hart’s men work over Jim Neidhart, with Dino getting a slam for two. Missing the start of the match, I wonder whether Dino had to come out to Cool, Cocky, Bad or did Honky come out to the Marseillaise? Honky misses a dramatic fistdrop, allowing Bret to tag in and punch away on the gut. Elbowdrop and dropkick for Bravo when he comes in. O’Connor roll for two, then a slam and elbow off the second before Dino cuts it off. Double Irish whip malfunctions with Bret and Honky bashing heads. Bravo goes to use Jimmy Hart’s megaphone, but Neidhart gets it before him and hits both to give the heels a win by disqualification. And it’s Cool, Cocky, Bad that plays, for any other sad soul beyond myself that was wondering. What was shown was fine if nothing out of the ordinary.

Event Center, with the Macho Man, Sensational Sherri and Zeus hoping Elizabeth does dare show up as Sherri’s going to rearrange her face if she does.

Brother Love Show, with Hulk Hogan and Brutus Beefcake. Love plays up Elizabeth being too scared to be at ringside. That’s the berserk button for the Hulkster, who grabs Brother Brucie by the lapels and screams in his face as Jesse calls him a bully. Just to wind the other side up, Love reminds Brutus of having his hair cut on a previous episode of the show and getting mauled by Zeus on Saturday Night’s Main Event then corrupts Hulk’s catchphrase to wind him up, so he gets floored and gets a haircut to put him in his place. It got somewhere eventually, but it took some time!

Just to determine the source of where this is recorded from, we get British Sky Broadcasting Network voiceover man telling us that we can watch Summerslam on Sunday night at 8pm on Sky One, with a tagged on region-specific bit from Macho, Sherri and Zeus in front of the old blue WWF logo background, which has paper peeling from it now from age.

Summerslam ’89 Report, with promos from Dusty Rhodes, Andre the Giant and the Twin Towers, Demolition and King Duggan, and the Ultimate Warrior.

The Widow Maker vs. Gary Wolf

BW does look cool in the full leather outfit and with the slicked back ponytail. Wolf is of course on the future Pitbulls, clean shaven and with shorter, slicked back hair, on the juice but not near as much as he would be. Windham sneak attacks by whipping Wolf with his chaps and gets a powerslam after mauling him. Big lariat, which sadly Wolf whiffs on bumping for. Another powerslam and quickly it’s superplex time after an inverted atomic drop and dropkick. Windham looked as impressive as ever as he did at the time, but the lack of a manager or feud did him in. Could they have done worse than putting Jimmy Hart with him to recreate a little bit of the 1985 Terry Funk magic?

Event Center, with the Brain Busters showing off their tag titles, not up for grabs at Summerslam, then the Ultimate Warrior in different paint and haircut to the promo a little earlier.

Gene and Jim close it, as I’m surprised the uploader kept them on at all, as it quickly cuts off.

The red, the white, and the blue: Worst bit was the chopped up nature of the show. best bit was Curt Hennig getting the most out of a game opponent, and the weirdest bit was the general lack of last minute push for the big show, not that it hurt in the long run.