Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan are in the studio for another edition of Prime Time Wrestling. Monsoon announces that Sergeant Slaughter is the new WWF champion.
Opening Contest: Power & Glory (w/Slick) (1-0) defeat Saba Simba & Paul Diamond when Paul Roma pins Diamond after the Powerplex at 5:13:
This bout took place at the recent Superstars taping in Huntsville, Alabama. After only four months in the company, Simba’s rapid fall down the card is confirmed when he is placed in a weird team with Diamond, who should be too busy doing his Kato character to participate in this match. The crowd does not care for this one, which is just a boring, elongated squash for Power & Glory. Poor Simba does not even get a pop for the hot tag. And Diamond takes a painful low blow from Roma’s knee during the Powerplex.
Gene Okerlund’s Update segment provides taped promos from Ted DiBiase and the Texas Tornado. DiBiase says that the Tornado needs to stop blaming his shortcomings on him. The Tornado rebuts that he is going “to track DiBiase down face-to-face.”
Jake Roberts’ squash from last week’s Prime Time Wrestling is shown. Afterward, Monsoon hypes a product where fans can color a Jake Roberts doll and if they do not like it, they can put it in the washing machine and do it again.
The Undertaker’s squash from Wrestling Challenge airs. Following the squash, Monsoon says fans can count on the Undertaker winning a championship soon.
Heenan says that fans can put away their Ultimate Warrior wrestling buddies because they will one day be a collector’s item because he will never wear the WWF Championship Belt again.
The Bushwhackers squash from Wrestling Challenge is shown.
Promo time with Sean Mooney! Koko B. Ware sings about how he feels good because everything is going his way in the WWF. The Nasty Boys and Jimmy Hart call out all of the babyfaces, including Hulk Hogan, and say that they look forward to beating them up.
Most of the Saba Simba-Greg Valentine match from a few weeks ago is shown, along with Valentine’s teased babyface turn.
Greg Valentine (0-1) beats Buddy Rose via submission to the figure-four leglock at 3:35:
Rose was a veteran of many prominent North American promotions prior to coming to the WWF in 1990, wrestling for the AWA, NWA, and Pacific Northwest. He was a trainee of Verne Gagne and, under a mask as the Executioner, wrestled Tito Santana in the first match in WrestleMania history. Without the mask, Rose was most noted for teaming with Doug Somers and winning the AWA Tag Team Championship in the late 1980s. Like Black Bart, the WWF used Rose as an enhancement talent, although Rose did notch a win over fellow jobber Mario Mancini on a Christmas Eve edition of Prime Time Wrestling the previous year.
This is the end of the line for Rose in the WWF as it marks his last televised appearance. Sean Mooney and Lord Alfred Hayes put over Valentine’s babyface turn but do not mention the events of The Royal Rumble. So, for fans that missed the show they think Valentine decided to ditch Jimmy Hart after the recent Madison Square Garden show. Hart comes to ringside several times and tries to get Valentine to change his mind, but Valentine runs him off each time. That makes the squash longer than it should be. It is hard to see how Valentine is going to get this babyface turn over. His moves are dated and he lacks the promo skills of more charismatic talents on that side of the roster.
Tugboat (2-0) defeats Dino Bravo (w/Jimmy Hart) with a splash at 8:36:
Bravo was a Montreal-based talent that became a big name in the country in the Lutte Internationale (International Wrestling) promotion. The promotion was closed due to the WWF’s 1980s expansion, but Bravo found home in the new company. He took on the gimmick of “The World’s Strongest Man” after completing a record-setting bench press of 715 pounds with the help of commentator Jesse Ventura. In 1990 he got a push on television with squash matches and beating other midcard talents like Ronnie Garvin, Tito Santana, and Hercules. In storylines, he was an ally of Earthquake in the big man’s feud with Hulk Hogan, which led to a feud with Tugboat.
This is an old bout from Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto on September 16 at a time when the feud between these two was prominently featured. It is a slow, boring mess of a match where stalling breaks up bits of Tugboat’s offense. Bravo thinks he is on the road to victory when he slams Tugboat and stomps on his chest, but Tugboat does not sell it, clotheslines Bravo in the back of the head and wins with a splash. Bravo’s 1991 is not starting well. Rating: ¼*
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The Orient Express’ squash from Wrestling Challenge is shown.
The British Bulldog (2-0) pins Joe Turner after the running powerslam at 2:21:
Turner started his in-ring career in 1957 and was a noted tag team wrestler in Southern promotions. One of his noted teams was with Bill Bowman. The duo donned masks and wrestled as the Interns along the Gulf Coast, winning tag team titles for Gulf Coast Championship Wrestling (GCCW) four times. He also held the Alabama-based Tri-State Wrestling Tag Team Championship with Dennis Condrey in the mid-1970s. By the 1980s his appearances were as an enhancement talent for GCW and Mid-Atlantic before doing a few for the WWF in 1991 and 1992.
In the split screen, the Warlord and Slick promise that there is no escape from the full nelson. The Bulldog wins easily but he makes a cool move like the vertical suplex mute when he allows Turner to kick out of it.
More promos with Mooney! The Undertaker and Brother Love talk about what the Bible thinks about death. Tugboat says that the hungry eyes of the Undertaker remind him of a great white shark. He promises to harpoon the Undertaker and give him a good fight.
The Legion of Doom defeat Doug Vines & Cleo Reed when Hawk pins Reed after the Doomsday Device at 2:19:
Upon arrival in the WWF in the summer of 1990, the Legion of Doom were one of the most decorated tag teams in the world. After forming in Georgia, they won the AWA Tag Team Championship in 1984, won the first-ever Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup, and won the NWA Tag Tag Team Championship in 1988. Disagreements with WCW Executive Vice President Jim Herd sent them to the WWF but their much anticipated program with Demolition was a flop, in part because of medical issues to Ax and poor booking where Demolition rarely looked like a threat. At the end of the year the Legion were programmed into a feud with the Orient Express and Mr. Fuji after Ax quit, with WWF President Jack Tunney mandating that the Express and Fuji satisfy all of the old Demolition’s booking obligations. That was quite the downgrade from the Demolition program and fans did not buy into it because the Express were never booked as a threat to anyone.
Vines started wrestling in 1980, competing for Angelo Poffo’s International Championship Wrestling (ICW) and winning the tag team titles there with Jeff Sword as part of a squad called the Devil’s Duo. He did some enhancement talent work for Jim Crockett Promotions in 1984 and 1985 and was doing similar work for the WWF before going to the USWA.
Reed worked for much of his career in Memphis, Arkansas, and Mid-South as a opening act, adopting the nickname “Rough N’ Ready.” That name was also used by he and his brother, Larry, when they worked other Southern independent promotions.
The Legion turn the tables on Reed and make it rough for him, with Hawk delivering a hard slam and Animal laying in some stiff blows in the corner. After ninety seconds of that, Reed is finished with the Doomsday Device to give the Legion their first televised win of the year.
At the end of the show, Monsoon discovers that the tape inside of the Supertape Volume 3 is missing. Heenan disavows any knowledge of where it is and Monsoon is irate when he discovers it hidden underneath the WWF toy ring that sits on the announcing table.
The Last Word: This was not a good show but it did offer a clue into where the WWF’s booking was going in 1991. Saba Simba is being killed off, Dino Bravo is getting pushed quickly down the card, and Tugboat is also due for a downgrade since it is unlikely that he will fare well in a feud against the Undertaker.
Up Next: WWF Superstars for January 26!