–Vince McMahon recaps Shawn Michaels victory in the Royal Rumble and hypes today’s match between Michaels and Adam Bomb.
–McMahon and Jerry Lawler are in the booth and they are still taped from Corpus Christi, Texas.
–Opening Contest: Tatanka (w/Ted DiBiase) (2-0) pins Gary Sabaugh after the End of the Trail at 2:39:
Sabaugh gets in a few moves early, catching Tatanka off guard with a schoolboy, but it is all for naught as Tatanka gets another win to send him into his bout with Lex Luger on The Action Zone with some momentum.
–McMahon recaps Bam Bam Bigelow’s altercation with Lawrence Taylor at The Royal Rumble and Bobby Cupo, Taylor’s agent, telling WWF fans that Taylor has no intention to accept Bigelow’s challenge for a match at WrestleMania XI. In a new segment with McMahon, Bigelow says that he will not cease challenging Taylor unless he accepts his challenge or apologizes for taunting him at the Rumble.
–The Heavenly Bodies (w/Jim Cornette) (1-2) beat Raven Clark & Buck Quartermaine when Jimmy Del Ray pins Clark after a moonsault at 2:13:
The Bodies entrance rips off the old Midnight Express, with Cornette introducing his charges in grandiose terms and the Bodies reciprocating when they get to the ring. With a dearth of heel teams to challenge the Smoking Gunns for the tag titles it seems logical that the Bodies might be in line for a title shot, so this match is trying to reboot them after losing some matches to Bob Holly and the 1-2-3 Kid to start the year. The Bodies run through their fun double team offense until Del Ray finishes Clark with a moonsault that lands well short, but McMahon sells the fact that Del Ray’s legs went into Clark’s mid-section and that was enough to get the winning pin.
–Stephanie Wiand hypes the Madison Square Garden card for March 19.
–Shawn Michaels (1-0) beats Adam Bomb (3-0) after Sweet Chin Music at 4:28:
To make Michaels seem like a credible challenger to Diesel at WrestleMania the company started booking him against taller, bigger opponents leading into the big show. Michaels bumps like crazy for Bomb, taking a kick as he is draped over the corner and flying out of the ring as if he was kicked by Sebastian Janikowski from the thirty yard line. Bomb tries to finish Michaels with a Neutron Bomb from the apron, but misses, crashing head-first into the canvas, and Michaels capitalizes on that to win. Quite the underwhelming match here, but they did their best to protect Bomb in the loss since he got in most of the offense. Rating: *½
–Man Mountain Rock does a solo performance prior to his Superstars debut.
–Man Mountain Rock (1-0) defeats Bill Payne after the Wallapalooza 2:31:
Rock tosses around the smaller Payne like a rag doll, especially on a belly-to-belly suplex, but one move where he applies an abdominal stretch and then smacks Payne’s mid-section looks odd. Rock notches his second win in as many shows as he gets established win the fan base.
–In a segment from the “In High Gear” Tour, Stan Lane interviews Hakushi and Shinja. Shinja cuts a generic foreign heel promo while also hyping that Hakush is better than Diesel and Bret Hart. Lane says that Bret is loved in Japan to which Shinja says that there is only one big star in Japan and it is Hakushi, thereby laying the foundation for a future feud.
–#1 Contender’s Match for the WWF Tag Team Championship: The New Headshrinkers (w/Captain Lou Albano) (1-1) beat Well Dunn (w/Harvey Wippleman) (1-1) after Fatu pins Steven Dunn after a top rope splash at 1:33:
Donald Light, a middle aged man in a Bret Hart shirt, is our guest ring announcer for this number one contenders match. Now in any type of world how are Well Dunn getting a possible title shot? But at least the match follows logical booking as the New Headshrinkers proceed to destroy Well Dunn in what might be the shortest number one contender’s match in history. The Headshrinkers get to face the Smoking Gunns on next week’s show.
–Bob Backlund (3-0) defeats Lee Tobin via submission to the crossface chicken wing at 1:37:
Tobin is not a skilled amateur wrestler so he goes through some painful amateur-like sequences with Backlund at the beginning of the bout. Even the finishing sequence is botched as Tobin clearly sees Backlund sneaking up behind him but keeps his back turned and gets locked in the chicken wing. Backlund refuses to release the hold after the bell for a while as he is trying to get over the chicken wing for the house show submission matches with Adam Bomb.
–Stephanie Wiand hypes the house show circuit some more.
–The British Bulldog (5-1) pins Barry Horowitz after a running powerslam at 2:36:
Right after The Royal Rumble the British Bulldog seemed to be on a collision course with Shawn Michaels but that issue appears to have been forgotten about the last few weeks. The Bulldog runs through power moves as McMahon hypes the New York house show circuit and wins his fourth consecutive bout.
–Lawler says that Lawrence Taylor is “gutless” for refusing to accept Bigelow’s challenge.
–Tune in next week to see the Smoking Gunns defend the WWF tag team titles against the New Headshrinkers! Also, Razor Ramon, Hakushi, and Kama will be in action!
The Last Word: I thought that the Shawn Michaels-Adam Bomb match would make this show worthwhile but that faith proved to be unfounded. The show put over the wrestlers in major matches on the house show circuit but is sorely lacking in the angle department to keep people engaged for the full hour of the broadcast. That may improve with next week’s tag team title defense.
Up Next (on Friday): The Action Zone from February 12, 1995!