WWF All American Wrestling – March 26th, 1989

One more JUST All American review, ahead of WrestleMania V, before I try to add a few more bells and whistles from next week with some back in the day inclusions.

The WWF… what the world is watching!

Hosted by Mean Gene Okerlund.

The Rockers vs. Iron Mike Sharpe & Mitch Casey

Sharpe gets an early advantage over Shawn, so he tags Marty in and they take both Mike and Casey out, both bumping with different levels of impact. Casey actually gets some shots in despite being the lowest man on the totem pole. For those that get it constantly wrong, Iron Mike Sharpe is an example of a jobber to the stars. If you’re a name guy, like Tito Santana later in his career, doing jobs then you’re not a jobber to the stars. Shawn comes in and Casey continues to hold the advantage, but gets slammed off the top and then gets nailed with double flying punches off the top and Shawn gets the pin. Bit of a variation on their flying fistdrops. Casey was far more impressive than he had any right to be.

Special Report with Lord Alfred Hayes, with the final push for WrestleMania V, running down the card. The Ultimate Warrior’s perm in his picture looks ridiculous.

Dino Bravo vs. Tim Sawyer

One of the final appearances with Dino for Frenchy Martin, who got Garvin stomped out of the promotion at WrestleMania. The early days of Dino with Jimmy Hart, not having fully established the cape and baby blue gear, is always strange to see. As Bobby suggests that Ronnie Garvin’s monogrammed towels are swiped from the Royal Garden Hotel in Arkansas Dino quickly finishes with the side suplex.

Promo with Randy Savage, sans shades. Very strained delivery as Randy is almost as orange as his bandana and shirt. Not one that I like quite as much because if he was as paranoid he’d be talking a thousand words a minute. He does coin the phrase “Pukeamaniacs” here, though.

Jake Roberts vs. Boris Zhukov

Boris was also on jobber to the stars duty for 1989 as Nikolai Volkoff seemingly took the year off. Alfred: “He is a little ponderous with his moves and seems slow, but he has an effective turn of speed.” Talk about damning with faint praise. Test of strength sees Jake go down to his knees, but he comes up and they exchange kicks to break. A lot of nothing happening, as Boris takes a walk after escaping an arm wringer, then comes back into a hammerlock. Reversal, so Jake runs him out with leverage and then throws him back in. Boris catches him on the return with a stomp and whips Jake back and forth. Jake claps out of a bearhug and punches away before running into a knee. Slam attempt, but as always Jake slips around it and gets the DDT for the win. Nothing to get excited about, but they just kept it basic and safe and it was fairly inoffensive.

The Brother Love Show with Hulk Hogan. Love didn’t have the best history with the Hulkster, so it will be interesting to see if/how he gets roughed up here. He rebuts having lust for Elizabeth – “That’s not true, man!”. It gets weird as he claims to love Elizabeth like a sister and Macho like a brother, but that’s no more. Hogan pretty much goes on a rant and Love doesn’t do much to antagonise him. Somehow this turns into a tangent about how Macho wouldn’t go to Washington and steal a flag, so much like it wouldn’t be a country without a flag it’s not going to be Hulk without a belt for much longer. Love just runs off when the music hits.

WrestleMania V Report with Mean Gene. Another brief rundown of the card but with promos from Demolition, the Powers of Pain and Mr Fuji, Run-DMC, a telegram from Roddy Piper read by Gene, Morton Downey Jr., and Brother Love.

Brutus Beefcake vs. Rick Rude

Introduced by Vince on Superstars as from Saturday Night’s Main Event in some recycled recycling. Clipped to the end as Andre the Giant comes out and Rude takes an inverted atomic drop in his typical manner. Brutus runs into a boot and gets dumped for Andre to sit on a few times. This draws out Jake Roberts, who gets attacked by old enemy Rude. The Heenan Family members double up on Jake before Brutus comes back in, this time with an atomic drop on Rude and a clothesline out. Andre’s not interested in taking anything from him and headbutts him down, so Big John Studd comes down for a confrontation with his old enemy Andre. The snake is slid in, at which point Andre goes for a run, as much as he could run at this point. DQ win for Brutus.

The Bushwhackers vs. The Conquistadors

All quality jobbers this week! The Conquistadors can’t get it together at the star, but one leapfrogs Luke and turns around to the battering ram, taking an interesting flat bump and just as quickly is pinned after a double gutbuster. No messing about there!

Event Center with Sean Mooney, featuring words from Jake Roberts, who suggests Andre is suffering from jealousy and fear of him, Andre the Giant and Bobby Heenan, and Big John Studd, who tells Jake to keep the snake in the bag and Andre to keep the weasel on the floor. That was quite smart for him!

Adverts for the wacky and wicked Prime Time Wrestling on USA, plus extra words from Jimmy Hart – it’s heart-stopping action!

Promotional consideration paid for by the following:

– WWF WrestleMania handheld electronic video game and for the NES.

Gene and his WrestleMania cap finish up for the week. “Gene, you messed up your hair!” “Which one?!” A show from Atlantic City next week ready for WrestleMania.

The red, the white and the blue: Worst bit was a very lacking Randy Savage promo. Best bit was probably the Roberts/Zhukov match. Weirdest bit was seeing seeing DMC lift his t-shirt up to show off his flat stomach in mockery of Rick Rude!

Back next week with a bit of this and a bit of that, you’ll see what when it’s posted!