Live Feed Mania – WWF The Main Event II 03/03/89

WWF @ Milwaukee, WI – Bradley Center – February 3, 1989 (20,000)

I told Richard Land about my project on here and he advised me I’d forgotten about the earliest Satellite Feed doing the rounds. And who am I to ignore the one man tape machine? Or is that Shawn Stasiak?

We start with Frenchy Martin telling the audience that the French flag will be held up tonight because Jim Duggan has no chance against Dino Bravo. Finkel tells him his time is up and the crowd cheers. Oh wow a rare unaired Frenchy promo, this is very much a good use of my time. That match wouldn’t make tape but I’m sure you’ll all live.

Jesse and Vince make their entrances as we move quickly away to start the TV introductions. Hogan & Macho are friends now and it’s just as well seeing as Boss Man attacked Hogan on The Brother Love Show. Weeks later, Akeem splashed Hogan while Boss Man handcuffed Miss Elizabeth, causing a calm and rational Savage to save his tag partner. Hey, Hogan took quite a beating in the build up to this and the video package was wonderfully done with the effects on the graphics so colour me hyped.

Vince and Ventura big up the main event some more, with Jesse dismissing Miss Elizabeth’s presence at ringside. Foreshadowing is a narrative device in which suggestions or warnings about events to come are dropped or planted.

We hear a producer’s voice letting us know we’re coming back in ten seconds so they do a quick mic check, which ends with Vince yelling “I can’t read this, the light is the shits!”

Mean Gene interviews The Twin Towers and asks them if they’re going to stop their “terroristic attacks.” I can hear you making the jokes in your head so I’ll move on. Slick talks about the law of the jungle while Akeem shuffles awkwardly. Thankfully Big Boss Man lets us know that The Mega Powers have the right to remain silent and a right to an attorney…who Boss Man will also hurt. Tremendous. I wasn’t watching at the time so I have to ask if these guys were taken seriously because only Boss Man has any aura.

Then we get yet more hype for The Mega Powers with a music video set to a soppy song about friendship as Savage is pulled into the ring to save Hogan a bunch of times while Elizabeth looks on. Jesse: “Once again McMahon, I’m disgusted! It’s heavily edited! If you were around during Nixon, he’d still be in the White House!!”

Mean Gene interviews The Mega Powers, with Hogan talking about the love between him and Elizabeth before quickly pointing out it’s the love between a brother and sister as he notices Savage’s head-twitch. Savage vows to tear down The Twin Towers and we’ll move on again.

The Mega Powers (Hulk Hogan & WWF World Champion Randy Savage w/ Miss Elizabeth) vs. The Twin Towers (The Big Boss Man & Akeem w/ Slick)

The Mega Powers head out to Hogan’s theme? Savage is the World Champ! Buncha bullshit. Savage is so pumped up he demands to start so Elizabeth has to convince Hogan it’s OK. Jesse is furious that non-wrestler Elizabeth is giving these guys advice. Boss Man demands Hogan so Savage lets Hogan start anyway. Boss Man (maybe at his biggest) tries to punch Hogan but gets started on immediately with Hogan bouncing him over the top rope with an Atomic Drop as the crowd explodes.

Boss Man gets back in at nine with Jesse explaining that isn’t that big a deal, it’s like a standing eight count in boxing. He’s so great at explaining the simple things. Boss Man gets battered into the turnbuckle pads before heading outside again with Savage sneaking in a shot while the crowd go nuts. Akeem tags in so Hogan mocks his dancing but ends up dancing better than him because some things can’t be parodied. Akeem can’t be knocked down by Hogan so Savage tags in with an Axe Handle. Which also doesn’t send him down, so Hogan lands an Axe Handle of his own. Akeem still won’t fall but an eye rake turns things around for The Towers, with Hogan taking a pretty sweet piledriver from Boss Man. Akeem’s Wild Cherry forearm shots somehow can’t stop Hogan, who comes back immediately to pound away on Boss Man. Slick grabs Hogan’s foot on the way in the ring which allows Boss Man to spinebuster Hogan. Hogan really jumped into that move too, so the crowd sound noticeably worried when Boss Man covers him.

Akeem holds Hogan while Boss Man wears away but that’s enough offence on Hogan so he escapes and lets Savage tag in to land a crossbody on Akeem. Boss Man breaks it up so while the ref is getting him out, Slick twats Savage with his stick. Jesse: “I keep telling you, it’s like poker: Three will beat two!” Akeem throws him over the top rope with Savage taking a man-sized bump. Akeem obviously enjoyed that as he decides to do it again with Savage sailing through the ropes and absolutely wiping out Miss Elizabeth in the process. She took a bump and a half there.

Savage recovers in time to see Hogan checking up on Elizabeth and immediately assumes the worst. Before he can beat up Hogan, Akeem drags Savage back inside so Hogan decides to do take Elizabeth backstage with tears in his eyes. Savage keeps attacking his opponents but then gets distracted by Hogan’s acting what’s occurring so they resume the beating. Then we move completely away from the action to Elizabeth being checked up as Hogan REALLY hams it up and keeps begging God to make sure she’s not dead.

We got to break with Vince asking a production guy where they’ll be once they resume. Vince makes it clear he wants to hear Elizabeth tell Hogan to go back to Metallica to ringside to help Randy.

When we come back, we’re ringside for Savage continuing to take a licking. Then we head back to Hogan and his acting, sounding more like he’s at the vinegar strokes than concerned. And this is where Hogan yells in carnie “how’s tizime? Need a countdown or something” which I think aired in certain parts of the USA. Elizabeth kinda mumbles at Hogan to go help Savage which I think hurt things because it sounded more like Hogan filling in the blanks himself like he’s talking to Skippy The Bush Kangaroo. “Go help Randy and steal his heat? Well OK, whatever you say!”

Hogan heads back as Akeem is getting really cocky with his dancing abilities as Savage is worked over repeatedly while Hogan begs for the tag. Boss Man and Akeem both attempt splashes with the weight causing Akeem to unexpectedly fall out of the ring in another legendary blunder. Savage makes his one comeback so he can confront a confused Hogan before tagging out via a slap to the face. Savage leaves Hogan before getting affected by the yells of small children and deciding to head back…to get his World Title. Ha! Savage then heads back for real while delivering evil stares to all the fans asking for handshakes.

Akeem splashes Hogan without falling outside which is enough for a Hulk Up as the crowd go wild again. Akeem takes the big boot and legdrop for the pin at 22:00 with Boss Man kinda waiting around when he could have stopped it. Instead, Boss Man attempts to handcuff Hogan to the ropes but Hogan makes sure Boss Man gets cuffed to Slick instead aka Hogan’s worst fear.

Backstage, Savage (with title around his arm) yells at Elizabeth about how this is all Hogan’s fault. Hogan shows up to calm things down as Savage explodes verbally all over him. “You guys got me in the backseat, I’m not Number Three, I’m Number One!!” Savage pie faces Hogan and claims Hulk never asked for a title shot because he knows he can’t beat Randy. “You’ve got lust in your eyes for Miss Elizabeth! You turn my guts in two!!” Hogan moans like a wuss to Elizabeth so Savage smashes him with the belt because that was absolutely the wrong thing to do in that situation, Hulk. Savage attempts to beat Hogan some more but Elizabeth gets in the way. In another amazing snafu, Beefcake runs in prematurely so he walks out of shot and then saves his meal ticket after Elizabeth is out the way. He gets smashed by Savage so security intervenes as even brave Beefcake starts yelling for security cos nothing can stop The Macho Man. Randy knocks over a stretcher before leaving as the camera zooms in on Hogan saying “he’s wrong, he’s wrong…”

This was a ton of fun and camp goodness, everything a growing boy needs. The action is obviously secondary but the crazy crowd reactions as well as setting up the start of off-the-walls Macho Man downturn, it’s essential viewing. I’ve seen people say The Twin Towers should have won here but in fairness, you need your Wrestlemania main event looking as strong as possible. Especially when this was the last stop before the biggest show of the year. Great eighties cheese, up there with Road House and Flash Gordon.

During the break, Gene and Vince test their mics. Yup.

The Mighty Hercules vs. Ted DiBiase (w/ Virgil)

Yeah good luck following that lads. Oh wait you can’t as we cut to Mean Gene checking on Hogan’s state. We’ll let you know later so stay tuned, don’t go away!

DiBiase has no music? Huh. Hercules attacks Ted before he can even get his money-green entrance gear off. Hercules also takes an atomic drop to the outside which started off the previous match, just saying mate. Virgil is thrown around like a pinball to the crowd’s glee. Herc press slams Ted as Jesse says “I guess Hercules didn’t want to be a slave, huh?” before presumably thinking about adding “if we had a union that never would have happened!” Ted flies outside the ring as that seems to be the best way in 1989 for a good guy to batter a bad guy. Ted blocks a ten beats of the Bodhrán Barbiton by dunking the bright pink Herc outside. Ted lands some falling punches on the uncooked turkey known as Hercules. Ted oversells for the lug but makes sure to use actual wrestling moves to keep the advantage. Herc starts feeling stronger than a gladiator after Ted bonks him into the turnbuckle and…isn’t this exactly the same structure as the last match? Why have such a similar bout on a two-match show? Virgil wraps the chain on the turnbuckle but Ted ends up bonking onto it, with Ted kicking out. What was the point of that then? Ted takes it again before getting stuck in the Torture Rack before Virgil distracts so Ted can grab the tights and pin at 7:12. This is how Herc snuck past Cerberus, he showed it this match and it fell asleep.

Hercules slams Ted before Virgil saves him and again I ask: why have this match with Herc doing his best imitation Hulk act after we saw the real thing ten minutes ago? You don’t book AC/DC to support Airbourne.

Anyway who cares about that: we go backstage to a crying, rambling Hogan who decides he’s going to find “Randy Randy Raaaaandy”.

Vince talks to the production guys some more but it’s nothing worth typing about.

When we’re back, Jesse says Randy shouldn’t be scared of Hogan cos he’s the champ and he ain’t. Plus Hogan is selfish, leaving his tag partner alone like that! “It’s wrestling, McMahon!” Hogan continues to rampage backstage looking for Savage but only finding Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels who both have to look like wusses for the big star. Ah that explains a lot. Hogan goes through some doors and we hear the producers tell him “excellent, excellent we’re off the air.”

Also Occurring But Not Recorded

Andre the Giant (w/ Bobby Heenan) pinned Jake Roberts after choking him; after the bout, Roberts scared Andre from the ring with Damien

Jacques & Raymond Rougeau (w/ Jimmy Hart) defeated Bret Hart & Jim Neidhart when the special referee, Brother Love, counted the pinfall on Bret via a Raymond roll up into a bridge even though Hart had his shoulder up; after the bout, Bret Hart & Jim Neidhart hit the Hart Attack on Brother Love (Best of the WWF Vol. 20, Scott Keith’s review here)

Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard defeated Shawn Michaels & Marty Jannetty when Blanchard pinned Jannetty after Anderson tripped him from the outside

Jim Duggan pinned Dino Bravo (w/ Frenchy Martin) in a flag match after Martin accidentally hit Bravo with a flag pole when Duggan moved out of the way

WWF Superstars (French version): Brutus Beefcake fought Mr. Perfect to a double disqualification; after the bout, Beefcake cut off some of Perfect’s hair

Prime Time Wrestling – Face-to-Face Special – 2/20/89: WWF Tag Team Champions Demolition defeated the Powers of Pain (w/ Mr. Fuji) via disqualification at 8:16 (Best of the WWF Vol. 19, Scott Keith’s review here)

Prime Time Wrestling – 6/19/89: WWF IC Champion the Ultimate Warrior pinned Greg Valentine (w/ Jimmy Hart) at 3:43 with a clothesline after press slamming Hart into Valentine and then hitting the challenger with his own shin guard (Scott Keith’s review here)

Overall: In terms of importance and fun, The Main Event of Main Event II delivered in spades. Ventura and McMahon definitely helped hammer home the contrasting opinions on Savage’s actions, with Jesse doing a wonderful job of prodding the bear at every opportunity so you never felt like your intelligence was being insulted. As for satellite feed nonsense it’s in a world of it’s own with Hogan’s “tizime” as well as Beefcake’s premature interference and McMahon’s cursing.

some of the highlights from the satellite feed of The Main Event II from 1989

[image or embed]

— forever botchamania (@maffewgregg.bsky.social) 2 April 2025 at 22:50

I’ve been Maffew