WWF All American Wrestling – November 12th, 1989

I think this is going to be the penultimate exclusively All American review before a bit of a relaunch in September for all of you weekend warriors and Saturday morning disciples, so watch out for some new additions because YOU demanded it!

Hosted by Mean Gene Okerlund and Hillbilly Jim.

Rick Martel vs. Reno Riggins

This is a prototype version of the Model, because he has the sweater around the neck and it’s being talked up on commentary, but he’s still with Slick and coming out to Jive Soul Bro. Riggins holds his own in the first minute or two. Martel chokeslams Reno out of a hip toss attempt and drops elbows. Riggins tries to fight back so Martel puts him in the tree of woe. Riggins again gets some shots in but misses a charge, leading to the backbreaker and the Boston crab for the win.

Update, with a recap of Demolition regaining the tag team titles in fairly easy fashion from the Brain Busters, who in real life had given their notice, so it was a rush to get them off them. And that’s that! No promos from the winners or the losers or the next challengers (Andre and Haku).

Bad News Brown vs. Mike Williams

Never seen Williams before, but he looks about 19 and with his tall, slim build and gear reminds me of Alex Wright. Gorilla talks about how nobody has picked Bad News for their team at Survivor Series because he’s a loner, which of course would come back to bite him because he ended up as a substitute for Akeem, then walked out when Big Boss Man accidentally hit him. Stiff clothesline sets up a sweet Ghetto Blaster for the win.

Event Center, with a focus on Survivor Series. Rick Rude speaks for Rude’s Brood about dreaming of the order of elimination leaving Roddy Piper as the final man for him. Roddy rebuts that he picked his guys because they’re all nuts. Not going to disagree.

Jake Roberts vs. Tony Burton

Burton is actually a bit taller than the very tall Snake. He gets an early advantage but misses an elbow and gets kneelifted in response. Jake takes the arm but actually gets struck so hard in a counter that he BOUNCES to the outside, actually landing on his back with a sick thud and the squeal of a fan. That means he’s coming back in fired up and pulls out his rare gutbuster. In an inset promo he dares Ted Dibiase to put his hands around the snake and watch him grow. Oh, Jake! Armbar on the mat, with a threat of the bag being dragged in. Stomps on the hand as the fans chant for the DDT. Short clothesline is the setup for that, and he drives it. Really good squash with Jake willing to give it a go, even though his body was starting to betray him (and we all know what that led to).

Promo from the Million Dollar Team. The Powers of Pain wheeze and grunt while Zeus randomly yells, so thank goodness the Million Dollar Man is there to string it together. He actually counts Warlord and Barbarian in the proceeding, some of which you can understand, but Zeus…

Adverts time!

• This is a giveaway that it’s recorded off Sky One, because we get a commercial for TV Guide, with features on Bobby from Home and Away (that’s a woman for anyone who doesn’t know), a bearded Jeff Banks and Selina Scott in connection to the Clothes Show, plus a new show with Jan Francis and Dennis Waterman, who writes the theme tune, sings the theme tune. And Michael J. Fox, who by this time was a massive Hollywood star with another Back to the Future in the can, but instead let’s focus on his time in Family Ties seeing as we can only really afford that for Sky Television. Interestingly, beyond it being priced at 40p and including listings for ITV, BBC AND Satellite, it’s dated as December 2-5, 1989 (why only weekdays?), showing the time delay the WWF was on at the time.
• The British Standards Institute – because it’s important to advertise safety standards on TV!
• Falcon Crest – has Angela met her match? Again, it’s an OLD episode being advertised, given the older tape quality, and Lorenzo Lamas still has a helmet of hair, as opposed to the flowing locks he had in Renegade!

Bret Hart vs. Mr Perfect

Joined in progress with Perfect going upstairs and Bret bringing him down. Classic kicks to the back of the leg for Hennig to go flipping. Reverse and standard atomic drop. Hair whip, with Perfect working on his slide into the post crotch-first. Suplex for two. Small package for the same. Backbreaker again for two. Bret argues it with Earl Hebner and gets rolled up, but pushes Perfect off to the outside. He joins him out there and gets the worse end of it. Perfect tries suplexing him back in, which Bret counters with a roll up. Perfect counters that with his own roll up with a handful of tights for the win. I think that’s the only time I’ve ever seen him pin Bret. Only the closing minutes of this one, but it hinted at being their typically excellent match, although they’d do even better in the nineties. The Genius gives a detailed announcement of how Perfect won to add the smarmy cherry on top.

Mean Gene interviews the Hulkamaniacs on the podium, comprised of Demolition in their full chaps gear, Jake Roberts, and WWF champion Hulk Hogan, with no shirt on. Hulk, as usual, adapts Dibiase’s name into “the Multi-Million Dollar Man”. Demolition celebrate having the tag team titles back, even though Smash has lost his voice. Jake, whose hair looks really dishevelled, talks about going to bed dreaming of getting his hands on Dibiase, hence his sexual innuendo earlier. Hulk wraps it up by reminding us of wanting to get rid of Zeus. Not the only one.

Adverts!

• Well, not really, because someone has cut them out, but we get a glimpse of an advert for 21 Jump Street, so here’s the awesome theme tune, intro and outro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekfLBZ7VuZ8

Survivor Series Report takes us back to last week on Superstars after Jim Duggan has won his match, with the 4x4s doing drills. The music for the Brother Love Show kicks in, and his guests are the King’s Court. Barry Windham is still there before being replaced by Earthquake. This leads to a challenge from the Macho King to bring it on, but then they run off when Duggan and friends chase them off with boards. Promos in reflection. Queen Sherri does the majority of the talking for the heels, with Randy claiming they ran off because they wanted to save the faces a beating right there and then. The faces respond, with Bret Hart surprisingly being the only one not in coordination with the rest on the 2×4 shotgun impressions. He’s also wearing his rare all black 1989 gear too. Gene then runs down the rest of the card.

Roddy Piper vs. Craig Brown

Roddy dodges a charge from Brown and headbutts him down. As Rude gets an inset comment in, Piper finishes with a back suplex, his kilt not even removed from the ring.

Event Center, with duelling promos from the Heenan Family and the Ultimate Warriors. So, you’ve got the combined party favours consumption of the Ultimate Warrior, Jim Neidhart, Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty, with Warrior pacing back and forth with his belt on backwards and doing a crossword and sniffing the paper and playing with everyone, yet it’s Tully Blanchard who was sacked for a coke problem?

Gene and Jim sign off with a promise next week of feats of strength from Dino Bravo and the Ultimate Warrior, while British Sky voiceover man tells us we can watch the Survivor Series on December 12th. My understanding is that they eventually just skipped a few weeks at some point in 1989/1990 to get back up to date.

The red, the white and the blue: Any time you get to see Bret Hart and Mr Perfect it defaults to being the best thing on the show, although that Jake squash was really good. Weirdest was the closing promo from the shaking and quivering Hellwig and Neidhart. Worst was the thought of any time that wrestling fell behind a few weeks of airing, which reoccurred in 1996 when Sky went into a bit of a panic and wanted to edit everything as the WWF started getting edgy. Thankfully it reverted to normal when Raw went to two hours in 1997.