What the World Was Watching: WWF Superstars – 03.02.96

Vince McMahon, Mr. Perfect, and Jim Ross are in the booth, taped from Huntington, West Virginia.

Opening Contest: Owen Hart (w/Jim Cornette) (3-1) defeats Barry Horowitz (0-2) via submission to the Sharpshooter at 2:43:

Horowitz must be seeking a measure of revenge after losing to Owen and the British Bulldog in the WWF Tag Team Championship Tournament last week. After a small amateur wrestling sequence, Owen pounds away but Horowitz gets a late rally with a jawbreaker and dropkick. A missed dropkick leaves him open for the Sharpshooter, causing him to submit.

On Dok Hendrix’s Slam Jam, Yokozuna screams “Banzai!” at Jim Cornette.

Henry Godwinn delivers a piglet to the announce team and Ross complains that it pees on him. The Godwinns bring other animals with them to the ring and one of dogs defecates in the corner.

WWF Tag Team Championship Tournament First Round Match: The Godwinns (w/Hillbilly Jim) (3-0) defeat the New Rockers when Phineas pins Cassidy after rolling through a flying body press at 4:23:

The winner of this match meets Owen Hart and the British Bulldog in the next round. As revealed on Monday Night RAW, the New Rockers are Marty Jannetty and Leif Cassidy. The latter is Al Snow. The new duo does not get much of an introduction in terms of vignettes or by the ring announcer, and they do not wear matching gear. While they do nothing heelish, the crowd boos the new act and that is when they are feeling generous. Jannetty does some token arm work on Phineas and there is never a hot tag as Henry just stomps into the ring. After an ugly four-way brawl, Cassidy dives off the top rope but Phineas rolls through to advance the Godwinns. It was certainly a choice to book a new team to lose their first match but the New Rockers team looks dead on arrival, an unfortunate pattern of Snow’s gimmicks since late last year. Rating: ½*

Intercontinental Champion Goldust and Marlena watch a kung fu movie backstage to learn some new moves. Seeing Goldust try to mimic what he sees on the screen is funny.

Call 1-900-737-SLAM to vote in the Slammys for 99 cents per minute. Nominees for best finishing move are the Banzai Drop, the Jackknife, the Sharpshooter, the Tombstone, and the Pearl River Plunge. For “Master of Mat Mechanics” the nominees are Shawn Michaels, the British Bulldog, Bret Hart, Owen Hart, and the 1-2-3 Kid.

The Ringmaster (w/Ted DiBiase) (4-0) beats Tony Williams via submission to the Million Dollar Dream at 2:55:

Williams was a mainstay of the USWA, wrestling there since 1990. He started appearing in WWF squashes the previous year, working five enhancement match losses to Aldo Montoya, Owen Hart & Yokozuna, Hunter Hearst Helmsley, the British Bulldog, and Dean Douglas in what ended up being Douglas’ last televised WWF match.

In the split screen the Ringmaster talks about breaking bones and how that pleases him. Bob Backlund campaigns in the audience as the Ringmaster ties Williams up in a multiple submission maneuvers en route to another win via the Million Dollar Dream. Throughout the match McMahon and Ross put over the Ringmaster as a submission specialist. Also, remember that this guy is stone cold.

Non-Title Match: Goldust (Intercontinental Champion w/Marlena) (3-2) pins Hakushi (2-2) after the Curtain Call at 5:10 shown:

Poor Hakushi gets no entrance. If nothing else, this is an interesting contrast of gimmicks. When Hakushi goes on offense the match has a good pace but when Goldust takes over it is the opposite. Hakushi lands his corner slingshot splash early but Goldust kicks out. The champion also kicks out of Hakushi’s flying shoulderblock off the top rope. Goldust does debut a few new moves, using his rear end to hit Hakushi in the face off the ropes and then sliding down to give Hakushi an uppercut when Hakushi puts his head down too early on an Irish whip. He maneuvers around Hakushi off the ropes and hits the Curtain Call to defeat another low midcard act. Even though Hakushi was wrapping up his stay, he was still putting in a lot of effort for matches like this. Rating: **

On the Slam Jam, the Undertaker and Paul Bearer tell Diesel that chills are running through him because he knows he has to pay for what he has done at WrestleMania.

Jake Roberts is shown putting Revelation in a bag backstage.

Call 1-900-737-4WWF to find out who has the advantage in the iron man match at WrestleMania XII!

Jake Roberts (2-0) pins Sherdell Taylor after the DDT at 2:34:

Roberts does an insert promo about how he is wanting to prove that people deserve a second chance and that Jesus has saved him. Roberts seems to only have three go-to moves since his comeback with the boxing punches, short-arm clothesline, and DDT. Taylor gets in a surprising amount of blows before he is finished off. After the match, Roberts dumps Revelation on Taylor.

Tune in next week to see Fatu face Justin Bradshaw! Also, Yokozuna wrestles a handicap match against three opponents!

The Last Word: No angles make for a dull Superstars episode. The New Rockers tandem was an awful idea, positioned as heels because they were uncool geeks. The silver lining of the show is that Goldust is getting wins over lesser babyface talent to make him a fixture in the upper part of the card.

The WWF visited the Northeast for its house show loop, going to Maine and Massachusetts. Here is a sampling of what it was running there, courtesy of thehistoryofwwe.com:

Worcester, Massachusetts – Centrum – March 2, 1996 (5,811): The Godwinns defeated the Bodydonnas when Henry pinned Skip after a Phineas Slop Drop at 8:34…Steve Austin beat Marty Jannetty via submission to the Million Dollar Dream at 11:00…The 1-2-3 Kid pinned Bob Holly with a spinning heel kick and putting his feet on the ropes at 6:10…Ahmed Johnson pinned Tatanka (substituting for Jeff Jarrett) at 8:13…Owen Hart pinned Aldo Montoya (substituting for Yokozuna) after an enzuigiri at 4:17…Savio Vega (substituting for Razor Ramon) beat Intercontinental Champion Goldust via count out at 9:54…Duke Droese pinned Hunter Hearst Helmsley after blocking a sunset flip at 8:19…WWF Champion Bret Hart defeated the Undertaker via count out when Goldust interfered and piledrived the Undertaker on the arena floor at 9:25. Afterward, Goldust attacked Bret until the Undertaker made the save and handed the WWF title belt to Bret…Shawn Michaels pinned the British Bulldog after Sweet Chin Music at 7:22.

Springfield, Massachusetts – Springfield Civic Center – March 3, 1996 (5,882): The Godwinns beat the Bodydonnas…Duke Droese pinned Hunter Hearst Helmsley…Steve Austin pinned Marty Jannetty…WWF Champion Bret Hart beat the British Bulldog…Ahmed Johnson defeated Tatanka…The 1-2-3 Kid pinned Bob Holly…Intercontinental Champion Goldust defeated Savio Vega…Shawn Michaels pinned Owen Hart…WWF Champion Bret Hart pinned Shawn Michaels in a lumberjack match after Owen Hart and the British Bulldog interfered.

Backstage News*: The house show business in Augusta, Maine on March 1, which preceded the other house shows in Massachusetts drew an all-time record crowd of 4,093 fans. The Memphis show that was main evented by a Bret Hart vs. Jerry Lawler cage match on February 17 broke the all-time gate record for the city. Due to injuries, planned house show main events on the weekend were changed from Bret & the Undertaker vs. Diesel & Shawn Michaels to Bret defending the WWF Championship against the Undertaker and Michaels wrestling the British Bulldog. In Springfield, the WWF put Bret vs. Michaels on the card to pacify fans who might be upset with card changes. The WWF has a new refund policy where they will announce any no-shows to fans and they have until the third match to get a refund. Starting on March 5, billboards outside the arena will note who will not be attending.

-Yokozuna missed house shows this week due to a family emergency. The Undertaker missed the event in Springfield because of the same reason.

-More than 11,000 tickets have been sold for WrestleMania. There have been a lot of ticket giveaways so there are only about 2,000 tickets left.

-GLAAD claims that they are going to keep pressuring the WWF to turn the Goldust character into something less offensive to the gay community. However, the WWF told The Stamford Advocate that the WWF has no plans to change it.

-Shane McMahon ran an information booth in Worcester, giving out discs and cards that have the dates of the rest of the pay-per-view events for 1996.

-In talent relations news, Men on a Mission have been given a conditional release that allows them to work anywhere except WCW. Sid, who is still under contract, told live viewers of the USWA’s weekly television show on March 2 that he was retiring from wrestling because of neck and shoulder injuries.

*Backstage news is provided courtesy of Dave Meltzer’s Wrestling Observer for March 4 and 11.

Up Next: Monday Night RAW for March 4!

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