WWF All American Wrestling – January 22nd, 1989

This week’s episode review is in the wake of the 1989 Royal Rumble. I’m probably going to see the summer through with a few more around the remaining big four of the year (Summerslam already in the bag a while ago) and then possibly change things up a bit. Let me know in the comments section if there’s anything you want to see reviewed that’s a bit of a departure from the norm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyBQsL0ZHCk

The WWF – what the WORLD is watching

Hosted by Mean Gene, bragging that he picked the winner for the Royal Rumble, John Studd. Yeah, right!

The Brain Busters vs. George Terrell and Scott Casey

Terrell is actually Gene Anderson’s son Brad, who later went into infamy for beating up a wrestler who played rough with his son. Bill Alfonso makes a rare appearance at this time as the referee. The Busters trap Terrell in their corner and rough him up. Arn snapmares his nephew/cousin and stomps the forehead. Quick distraction of Casey lets them do their trademark spike piledriver behind the ref’s back for the win. Never understood why they always did that as a cheating move when it wasn’t barred in the WWF and they used it in front of the ref to finish off Tito at WrestleMania.

Update: The final moments of Hulk Hogan against Akeem on Saturday Night’s Main Event are shown, with the Twin Towers splashing the Hulkster multiple times while the referee is down. Randy Savage isn’t exactly in a rush to go out and has total faith in him, brother. Hulk makes the comeback after half a dozen splashes, but it’s finally a DQ when Big Boss Man hits him in the back with the nightstick. The beating continues and Macho doesn’t put his running shoes on until Elizabeth is in danger. I always found this very weird given how obvious it was in putting the heat on Randy. Some very obvious overdubbed “Elizabeth?” calls from Randy too. Afterwards, Savage reestablishes that Hulk’s a tough guy and can look after himself, but he had to do something when Elizabeth was cuffed. Hulk, ever the martyr, has to jump on the bandwagon and say that he was really affected by her being threatened too. What a pair of heroes(!).

Ultimate Warrior vs. Conquistador #1

Jesse questions how Howard Finkel knows the difference between the Conquistadors. Vince: “He told him.” Warrior wrestles a bit with the belt on before it falls off. The plain blue trunks look like a pair of your dad’s Y-fronts and aren’t exactly flattering. Gorilla press slam and splash finish in short order.

Event Center: The Bolsheviks get a rare bit of promo time. Don’t know if this was a recycled one, because Slick is still with them (he didn’t even show up at the Survivor Series with them) and I believe Nikolai had already taken the year off. Sean Mooney: “The Bolsheviks with little to say… well, nothing to say, Slick did it for them!” Slightly more verbose is Koko B Ware, with Frankie more expressive than Boris in the last bit.

Jim Powers vs. Danny Davis

Feature match(!). Joined in progress, with Lord Alfred Hayes sounding incredibly bored. Who can blame him? Powers controls the arm on the mat. Davis dodges a charge and gets two. Mooney: “He did hook the leg, but… not very well.” Davis meets a boot on his own charge and gets clotheslined for two. Back body drop where Davis manages to almost fall in front of Powers. O’Connor roll by Powers, very sloppy, which Davis reverses in even more sloppy fashion for the win. I think we have our bad match of the week covered!

A Moment with Gene Okerlund, who’s on the phone with Mike Ditka ahead of the Superbowl. Ditka picked John Studd as the Rumble winner too(!). We get a quick throwback, in reference to Ditka’s dicky ticker, to George Steele’s misadventures with psychologist/gynaecologist Doctor Rodney Papufnick (“He works things from both ends!”). Off the phone, Gene asks around who’s going to win later in the afternoon. Bruce Prichard: “Dallas!” Gene: “You Texans!”

The Million Dollar Man Ted Dibiase vs. Joe Cruz

Ted is in the turquoise suit this time, which I like but looks very unusual. I believe Cruz was one of the last Americans to tour England in the eighties before it pretty much closed down after the TV show was cancelled. Ted in an insert promo promises he will be wearing gold before the year ends. Million Dollar Dream finishes very quickly.

The Brother Love Show: Weird one here, as it’s Sean Mooney and Jesse Ventura on commentary, which must be from one of the international tapings. The guests are Jimmy Hart, Greg Valentine and the Honky Tonk Man, all kinda between things as singles as they’re teamed together a year before becoming Rhythm and Blues in order to take out the Hart Foundation after the Rougeaus couldn’t. They even manage to put an angle together, with the Hammer using the shinguard on the Anvil and Honky using the guitar on Bret Hart in a previous match. Nothing much said here, though.

Akeem vs. Macho Man Randy Savage

From Superstars. Vince jokes that Akeem is from deepest, darkest Africa via the South side of Chicago. South Carolina, actually. Macho has a really sweet blue and orange robe, but the neon green trunks and pads with yellow boots, the old lemon and lime look, is an eye burner. Randy tries a slam early, to no luck, so just pounds away instead, but the punches in the corner spot gets countered into the slowest reverse atomic drop I’ve ever seen. Elbow misses as Big Boss Man comes out, grinding the match to a halt as we go to a break. Back, Earl Hebner has done nothing, but Randy catches Akeem sneaking up behind him. Irish whip reversed, allowing Akeem to get an avalanche clothesline and a dropping clothesline for two. Akeem misses the 747 off the second rope, in a little bit of a replay of their SNME match the year before (and probably most of the matches they’d had for a decade). Running necksnap and double axehandle off the top set up the big elbow, but Boss Man breaks up the pin with a nightstick shot. The Hulkster runs out (“To the rescue!”, says Vince) and slams both Twin Towers. Hulk breaks into posedown mode while Savage shoots him a dirty look from behind, while holding the nightstick in his hand in a subtle bit.

Event Center: Sean Mooney describes Hercules as weighing 250 pounds, when he’s easily fifty pounds more than that. Herc, with his hair all over the place, tries to summarise his face turn and set up a few future opponents between sniffs and jangles of his chains. The Fabulous Rougeaus and Jimmy Hart are next, with the boys wearing U.S.A. Adopted Sons t-shirts to piss everyone off.

Gene signs off.

The red, the white and the blue: Obvious worst bit was the Powers/Davis match. Best bit was probably the Savage/Akeem match, with the continuing drive towards the Mega Powers exploding. Strangest bit? Let’s go with the future R&B on the Brother Love Show, just with the odd cut and paste effect of it.