As per usual, Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan are in the studio hosting this evening’s show. Heenan says that the Colossal Connection will be interested in seeing Hulk Hogan and the Ultimate Warrior team up tonight. Monsoon says that Tugboat, who will appear on this show, is a “strange individual” who looks like he came from the Popeye cartoons, a great endorsement of the gimmick.
Opening Contest: Tugboat (1-0) pins Craig Brown after a splash at 1:18:
Brown started doing television jobs for Georgia Championship Wrestling in 1984 and did occasional job matches for the WWF from 1988 to 1990, with this being his final appearance. According to cagematch.net, he has a win to his credit over Kenta Kobashi as part of All Japan Pro Wrestling’s October Giant Series in 1988.
One match into his WWF run and Tugboat has lost his last name. In the split screen, Tugboat screams like a boat’s whistle and says that he is a big boat that is going to create havoc on all the little boats in the WWF. Brown manages an eye rake but is quickly avalanched against the buckles and splashed out of his misery.
Monsoon floats the idea of Heenan managing Tugboat to greatness before shooting it down because Tugboat is too nice of a guy to ever align himself with the promotion’s top heel manager.
Monsoon and Heenan discuss WrestleMania VI in Toronto. Heenan makes a funny joke about how it will be tough to estimate how many fans are in Skydome because some of them will get lost in the exchange rate.
The Powers of Pain (w/Mr. Fuji) (1-1) beat Chris Walker & Butch Stanley when the Barbarian pins Walker after a spinebuster-flying clothesline combination at 2:06:
Stanley was a jobber with no major significance, but Walker was the opposite, sporting a muscular build uncommon in the jobber ranks. The WWF later took note of this and turned him into “Conan” Chris Walker the next year, but this marks his first appearance on WWF television.
During the match the Rockers do a split screen promo to remind fans that they do not fear the Pain. The Pain take turns hitting their opponents with their power offense and Walker gets the worst of it, getting hit with a big boot from the Barbarian, leveled by a double flying shoulderblock, and finished with the Pain’s spinebuster-flying clothesline combination.
After Monsoon advises fans to get a sandwich before the next match, Heenan returns after the commercial break with a sandwich. When Monsoon gets upset, Heenan says he is glad Monsoon did not tell viewers to jump off a bridge because he would not be around anymore.
The Ronnie Garvin-Dino Bravo match from Saturday Night’s Main Event airs, along with the Canadian Earthquake laying Garvin out after the bout. Heenan laughs about what happened to Garvin in the studio.
The Jake Roberts-Pete Sanchez match from the latest episode of Superstars is shown. This includes DiBiase and Virgil trying to get the Million Dollar Championship Belt back and failing miserably.
Heenan almost cracks Monsoon up talking about how convenience store owners had better be on the look out for Roberts and his wife because they are thieves now and its in their blood.
Sean Mooney kicks it over to some Event Center promos. Bad News Brown tells fans that his big family used to beat him up, so he had a hard time eating. His mother told him to fight for whatever he wants, advice he has taken to heart to this very day. Jim Neidhart says that he thinks pink is going to be the color of the 1990s.
The Rick Martel-Mark Reagan match from Wrestling Challenge two weeks ago is shown. After the bout, Heenan says that Martel has been offered a lot of money to model in France but is not taking it so he can wrestle in the WWF.
The Rockers (2-0) defeat George South & Mike Davis by pinning each opponent at the same time after flying fist drops at 3:07:
Davis failed to defeat the Rockers with Lee Peak on the January 13 episode of Superstars, so he gets a new partner in South and tries again. During the match the Rockers talk about the Powers of Pain again in the split screen, pledging to take apart Mr. Fuji because that will make the Pain fall apart. After Shawn Michaels takes apart South, the Rockers flatten the jobbers with simultaneous suicide dives. They do an awkward move where Jannetty suplexes South from the floor into Michaels’ arms in the ring and they lay him across the top rope so that Jannetty can fly off the top rope and hit the ropes, allowing Michaels to slingshot South chest-first into the canvas. A double superplex on Davis, simultaneous powerslams, and simultaneous fist drops
Heenan says that the Canadian Earthquake has put a lot of people out of professional wrestling.
The Canadian Earthquake (w/Jimmy Hart) (3-0) pins Mike Justice after the Earthquake Splash at 1:40:
Hart puts over Earthquake in the split screen as a “national disaster,” while Earthquake hypes himself as undefeated and he calls out the Ultimate Warrior. There is already a subtle shift away from the “Canadian” part of the name, with Monsoon and Heenan just calling him Earthquake in the lead-in. Earthquake quickly works through Justice to stay unbeaten as the jobber is totally out of his element.
Following the match, Earthquake squashes Justice with the Earthquake Splash for the second time and Justice does the complimentary stretcher job. In a racist aside, Heenan points to a gorilla stuffed animal near Monsoon and calls it “A Sapphire doll.”
The Brother Love Show segment from The Royal Rumble airs.
Monsoon discounts Ted DiBiase’s Superstars challenge to Jake Roberts, saying that DiBiase probably has no intention on meeting Roberts in the ring.
Dusty Rhodes (w/Sapphire) (1-0-1) pins Tony Burton after the Polka Dot Drop at 2:01:
Rhodes methodically works over Burton, doing move-after-move and showing little personality. An elbow to the face sets up the Polka Dot Drop.
After the match Rhodes and Sapphire dance in the ring. In the studio Monsoon tells Heenan that Sapphire has class, something that Heenan lacks.
More Event Center promos follow, and they are terrible. The Brooklyn Brawler challenges all comers, saying that he does not back down from anyone. Then the Red Rooster gives an aimless promo talking about the WWF being number one and how he is thankful for his supporters, who he calls “Rooster Boosters.”
Monsoon asks Heenan for his views about Rhythm & Blues and whether they could beat the Colossal Connection. Heenan dismisses that despite Rhythm & Blues respective singles accomplishments before going off on Sapphire again and how she would likely “strip down a car” if given the opportunity.
Rhythm & Blues (3-0) defeat Terry Bronson & Dave Wagner when Greg Valentine makes Wagner submit to the figure-four leg lock at 3:36:
Rhythm & Blues need to improve their look as their tights reflect their singles careers, and they use very few double team moves. Bronson takes a long beating until Wagner gets a mercy tag and is quickly put into the figure-four by Valentine.
Monsoon theorizes that the Honky Tonk Man’s music could put Haku in another dimension and allow Rhythm & Blues to win the tag team titles down the road. After showing Jake Roberts promo on Superstars that accepted Ted DiBiase’s challenge, Heenan takes the chance to call Roberts’ wife a bimbo. Monsoon says that the Roberts-DiBiase match will be featured on net week’s show.
The Brooklyn Brawler (0-2) beats Jose Luis Rivera after slamming his opponent’s face into the canvas from the second rope at 5:21 shown:
Rivera worked under a mask with Jose Estrada as the Conquistadors and the duo’s claim to fame was making it to the end of Survivor Series ’88 before they were defeated by the Powers of Pain. Aside from that he was used to job in a boxing match to Bob Orton in the lead up to WrestleMania II.
The Madison Square Garden crowd is not interested in this match since it features two job guys. But there might actually be a story to this if Rivera was under the mask on Wrestling Challenge as Conquistador #1 when he and the Brawler lost to the Hart Foundation! The match is joined in progress and is bad, with no semblance of flow to the action. After five minutes the Brawler gets on the second rope and drives Rivera’s face into the canvas to win. And the match means nothing because Monsoon and Heenan do not bother discussing it afterward. Rating: ¼*
A replay of the Saturday Night Main Event tag team match between Hulk Hogan & the Ultimate Warrior and Mr. Perfect & the Genius airs, with the pre-match promos and post-match activities.
Heenan puts over the competitiveness of Hogan and the Warrior as a team but says if they want a crack at the tag team titles, they had better pony up a lot of cash. After the commercial break, Heenan offers to give Monsoon a ham sandwich and a Royal Rumble hat for $5 to play off the gag from a few weeks back.
Tune in next week to see Jake Roberts face Ted DiBiase!
The Last Word: The Rockers squash was the highlight of the broadcast, as well as Bobby Heenan’s comedic banter throughout. Other than that there was no new ground laid as Prime Time seems to be taking a backseat to the weekend shows.
Up Next: WWF Superstars for February 3!