Vince McMahon and Bobby Heenan provide commentary for the thirtieth edition of Saturday Night’s Main Event and the first episode of the program to not air on NBC. The show was filmed in Lubbock, Texas on January 27 and, according to oswreview.com, it drew an 8.2 rating (an estimated 14.3 million viewers), higher than any Saturday Night’s Main Event program since the twenty-fifth edition, which aired on January 27, 1990.
Opening Contest for the Intercontinental Championship: Roddy Piper (Champion) (3-0) beats the Mountie (w/Jimmy Hart) (3-1) after using the Mountie’s shock stick at 3:41:
The Mountie and Hart try to attack Piper before the bell but that just leads to them getting clotheslined and having their heads knocked against each other. McMahon announces that the winner of this match will defend the title against Bret Hart at WrestleMania VIII. In the split screen, Bret screams about wanting his belt back and he does not care who he gets to face. Bret doing that promo without sunglasses shows that he is becoming more comfortable on the microphone since breaking into singles competition last year. The referee gets bumped when the Mountie shoves out of a bulldog effort. The Mountie dumps a cup of water on Piper and shocks him but Piper does not sell it, tosses Hart over the top rope, and shocks the Canadian law enforcement officer, covering his foe to successfully defend the title. After the bell, Piper removes the t-shirt he has been wearing throughout the bout to show that he is wearing a shock proof vest. The crowd loved this, a bout with lots of smoke and mirrors like The Royal Rumble. Rating: *
McMahon recaps the end of the Royal Rumble, with the crowd noise being changed to fans cheering Hogan as he helped pull Sid Justice out of the match. The narration also goes through the WrestleMania VIII press conference and Sid’s anger of not being chosen to face Ric Flair for the WWF Championship, as well as his apology on Superstars.
Sean Mooney interviews Hogan and Sid. Mooney will not let Sid talk in the promo, so he walks off. Hogan promises to have a “little surprise” accompany him to the ring.
Hulk Hogan & Sid Justice (w/Brutus Beefcake) beat Ric Flair & the Undertaker (w/Mr. Perfect & Paul Bearer) via disqualification when Flair tosses the referee across the ring at 11:05 shown:
Hogan’s surprise is Beefcake accompanying him to the ring, but the duo’s entrance act looks dated because Beefcake has not been near a ring as himself since 1990. Hogan and Sid have good teamwork in the beginning, flooring the heels with slams, clotheslines, and big boots. However, Sid does not care for Hogan’s posing after the heels flee the ring and his disdain for that causes him to be double teamed for a while. Hogan tags in and Perfect’s interference lets him quickly work Hogan’s leg, applying a figure-four. Sid is indifferent to that on the apron, though, and smiles as Hogan takes punishment. When Hogan gets a window of opportunity to tag Sid after slamming Flair off the top rope, Sid shows no effort to tag in, and Hogan gets beat on some more. Hogan gets another chance minutes later after taking out the heels with clotheslines but Sid decides to hop off the apron and walk to the locker room. Beefcake tries to stop him but backs down when Sid threatens to hit him because, according to McMahon, a single blow would shatter his face. Things seem dire for Hogan but he is bailed out when Flair tosses the referee across the ring during a two-on-one beatdown. Having Hogan lose here in some fashion, even with Beefcake running in to stop the heels, would have had a greater effect because it makes the heels look ineffective when they cannot stop Hogan with a man advantage. That aside, that match had a good flow and kept the crowd engaged the whole time. Rating: **½
After the bell, Beefcake hops into the ring and buys Hogan some time to take out the heels by himself.
Mooney talks with Sid, who says he does not need friends and that Hogan could not beat Flair on his best day or beat Sid on Sid’s worst day.
Okerlund interviews Hogan and Beefcake. Hogan thanks Beefcake, his “true friend to the end” for being there for him. Beefcake talks about how Hogan was giving him a massive blood transfusion when he suffered his facial injury, so he knew that Hogan would always be there for him. Hogan says that he hopes Sid is jealous after WrestleMania when he sees Hogan hoisting the WWF Championship Belt and he dedicates the upcoming main event to Beefcake.
Hacksaw Jim Duggan & Sergeant Slaughter (4-0) defeat the Beverly Brothers (w/the Genius) (5-0) when Slaughter pins Blake after a Duggan three-point stance clothesline at 2:34:
As noted previously, the Beverlys were supposed to face the Legion of Doom here but that got scrapped because Hawk was injured. The match is rushed because of television constraints, with Duggan barely selling after getting hit in the back of the head with the Genius’ scroll. When all hell breaks loose, Slaughter knocks out Blake with the scroll and whips him into Duggan’s three-point stance clothesline to hand the Beverlys their first loss.
McMahon narrates a video package that summarizes the Randy Savage-Jake Roberts feud. Roberts then does a taped promo about how he has more fun in store for Elizabeth if she shows up.
Okerlund talks with Savage, who says that maybe he is insane and it is time for Roberts to find out how insane he is.
Randy Savage (1-0) beats Jake Roberts (4-0) after the flying elbow drop at 5:24:
Although McMahon said she would be here, Elizabeth does not accompany Savage to the ring. Savage blitzes Roberts early, drawing blood on the bridge of Roberts’ nose. Roberts goes to the eyes to get some breathing room and hits the DDT after a commercial break. However, he does not cover and for some reason referee Earl Hebner starts counting Savage down like this is a last man standing match. A second DDT attempt sees Savage backdrop Roberts over the top rope, flying double axe handle Roberts’ throat over the guardrail, and roll his adversary into the ring for the flying elbow drop. This was a fun brawl, albeit short. Roberts losing definitively to Savage twice, as well as getting tossed at the Royal Rumble was a signal that he may not be around much longer as well. Rating: ***
After the bell, WWF officials pour into the ring to prevent Savage from doing a second flying elbow drop to Roberts but that fails when Savage comes off the top rope anyway. Savage then grabs the ring bell but officials get Roberts out of the ring before Savage can use it. Elizabeth then rushes down to celebrate with her husband and Roberts is shown looking through the curtain, telling the camera that things are not over and it is just the beginning.
The Last Word: In retrospect, the WWF should have cancelled the tag team match and ran this a three-match card so that Randy Savage and Jake Roberts had more time. The Beverly Brothers were not a hot commodity but killing off their undefeated streak in a sub-three-minute match was not wise, especially because there was a dearth of decent tag teams at this time. Vince McMahon’s constant yelling on commentary gets old quickly on this episode as well. One can sense the desperation in his voice that this project with FOX needed to work to revive the WWF’s financial fortunes but he went about it the wrong way because nothing he said sounded genuine. The highlight of the show was Sid’s heel turn, which went well because of Sid’s excellent facial expressions throughout the tag team main event. Overall, this show was fun but it failed in its objective to get people reinterested in the WWF product.
Up Next: Wrestling Challenge for February 9!