What the World Was Watching: WWF Superstars 08.10.96

Vince McMahon, Mr. Perfect, and Jim Ross are in the booth, once again broadcasting from Yakina, Washington.

Opening Handicap Contest: Vader (w/Jim Cornette) (12-1) beats Alex Porteau & Lou Andrews when he pins both of them after two Vader Bombs at 3:40:

Jose Lothario does color commentary, talking about how WWF Champion Shawn Michaels will cut Vader down like a tree at SummerSlam. Any semblance of Porteau’s push ends as Vader focuses most of his offense on him. Vader stacks his opponents in the corner and devastates them with two Vader Bombs.

Dok Hendrix’s Slam Jam continues the Vader hype, reminding fans that Vader beat Shawn Michaels with the Vader Bomb at the recent In Your House. Michaels and Lothario admit that Vader has momentum going into the pay-per-view but he is going to have to kill Michaels to take the WWF Championship. Michaels urges his Kliq army to mobilize. Lothario stumbles through his part, telling Cornette that he is going to neutralize him.

A vignette sees Barry Windham in camouflage come up to a cameraman trying to find his way through the woods, telling him that he would have been dinner. This introduces Windham’s new gimmick as the Stalker as the WWF gives him a gimmick but makes a nod to his real name. It is the same thing that the WWF is doing with Ron Simmons as Faarooq Asad. Windham was not a fan of the gimmick, preferring to wrestle under his actual name and liking his 1989 Widowmaker gimmick more.

Faarooq Asad (w/Sunny) defeats Adrian Lester after an inverted powerslam at 1:44:

As noted above Faarooq was Ron Simmons, an All-American football talent at Florida State who played four seasons of professional football before Hiro Matsuda met him and then trained him as a professional wrestler. Simmons began his in-ring career in 1986 and quickly moved to Jim Crockett Promotions. He slowly rose up the card until he turned heel and formed a tag team with Butch Reed called Doom. The duo would go on to win the NWA/WCW Tag Team Championship from the Steiner Brothers and hold the titles for nine months. After dropping the belts to the Fabulous Freebirds, Simmons turned babyface and feuded with Reed. He won that program and was positioned as a challenger for WCW World Champion Lex Luger’s title but he came up short. Close to a year later in August 1992, with Bill Watts in control of the promotion’s creative direction, Simmons beat Vader at a house show in Baltimore, Maryland to become WCW’s first Black World champion. However, his booking as champion did not catch on and Vader took the belt back by the end of the year. Instead of remaining in the main event scene, Simmons slipped down the card, failing to win the Television Championship from Paul Orndorff and turning heel again. By fall 1994, he left WCW and headed to ECW. But he failed to defeat ECW World Champion Shane Douglas in a quest to win that title and lost a feud to 911. After a tour with New Japan, Simmons left wrestling, returning to Atlanta to manage a Coca-Cola warehouse until the WWF came calling.

Faarooq’s theme is like something fans may have heard at WrestleMania IX when Julius Caesar and Cleopatra were introduced. Even though she dresses up as a cowgirl with the Smoking Gunns, Sunny does not wear an attire that would match Faarooq’s gladiator gear. The gladiator gear is silly enough for Simmons but what makes it ridiculous is having him wear a padded silver helmet as he wrestles matches. In the split screen, Intercontinental Champion Ahmed Johnson calls Faarooq “a brother from the hood” and that Faarooq made a mistake by not killing him when he came to the WWF. This is a good debut for the Faarooq as he quickly devastates Lester with a powerslam, Samoan drop, and uses an inverted powerslam for a finisher.

Sid (2-0) defeats Marty Jannetty (w/Leif Cassidy) (1-5) after the powerbomb at 4:59:

Jannetty needs a Cassidy distraction to chop block Sid and take control. Cassidy pays for his intervention by taking a chokeslam on the arena floor. The British Bulldog and Jim Cornette walk to the ring to get a closer look after that. Jannetty’s limb work is poor and Sid spams clotheslines to set up the powerbomb. After Sid wins, the Bulldog and Cornette walk back to the locker room rather than engage their SummerSlam opponent. Rating: *

The Slam Jam features promos from the Undertaker and Mankind for their SummerSlam match. The Undertaker says Mankind has forced the issue between them and hopes he rests in hell. Mankind, in a boiler room, echoes the Undertaker’s words of how if his life ends in the boiler room then he will not be going alone. This was a rare promo exchange in the feud that the Undertaker won.

A video shows the Goon yelling at a coach and throwing him to the ice because the coach could not manage someone of his talent. The Goon also trips another hockey player.

The Goon (1-1) beats Doug Allen via count out at 3:02:

The Goon does an insert promo about how he plans to be the scoring king in the WWF because fighting is legal. The Goon does an interesting body slam variation of picking Allen up but throwing his opponent chest-first to the canvas. Allen leapfrogs the Goon a few times, landing a dropkick and a forearm. But he wipes out on a dive off the top rope and the Goon cross-checks him to the floor and into the ring apron to win via count out. How the Goon plans to win a title with that type of finish is uncertain.

A video package hypes Mark Henry’s signing with the WWF. Henry will be the third Black wrestler on the roster, the most for the WWF in quite some time.

Kevin Kelly does an in-ring interview with Goldust and Marlena. Goldust quotes Mommy Dearest and Marlena talks about how Goldust has become enamored with Sable. Goldust tells fans that they will soon find out at SummerSlam that Marc Mero will be caged. The promo was bizarre as Goldust and Marlena talked about someone being “mommy” but not clarifying who it was. Also, the original angle where Marlena was interested in Sable has been shifted to Goldust, reportedly because Mero was unhappy with a lesbian angle involving his wife.

The end of the Bodydonnas-New Rockers tag team match on Monday Night RAW is the Stridex Slam of the Week.

The Bushwhackers (5-1) defeat Mike Starr & Timothy Flowers when Butch pins Starr after the Battering Ram at 2:47:

The Bushwhackers tell Brian Pillman in the split screen that they are going to prevent him from attacking them again. Pillman does color commentary, arguing that footage weeks ago was doctored to make it seem like he attacked the Bushwhackers when no such thing took place. He later says that he might be able to bring Bret Hart out of retirement because Bret would want to wrestle a world class athlete like him. The tired crowd is not much interested in the Bushwhackers routine. Butch is briefly double teamed in the enhancement corner but Starr misses an elbow drop, Flowers is unable to get the team back in control, and Starr is finished off with the Battering Ram.

Bob Backlund stops by the commentary table, telling fans that he has a surprise for the plebians. That surprise is an athlete Backlund is going to bring to the WWF to win the WWF Championship and re-impose morality on a decadent society. When McMahon asks when this superstar will show up, Backlund responds that his athlete will debut when he is ready.

Tune in next week to see Savio Vega & Freddie Joe Floyd battle Justin Bradshaw & Zebekiah! Also, Marc Mero faces Steve Austin! And the Undertaker will appear!

The Last Word: This was just another plodding Superstars show, not having any interesting content after the Sid-Marty Jannetty match. Next week’s lineup looks better. There might be some interest in who Bob Backlund plans to bring to the WWF but since the WWF’s gimmick mill is cooking up some awful ideas any hopes of something game changing have to be tempered.

The WWF’s house shows worked their way through the Northeast to build to a card at Madison Square Garden on August 9. Here were the results of some of these events, courtesy of thehistoryofwwe.com:

Warwick, Rhode Island – Warwick Musical Theatre – August 7, 1996 (1,651): Bob Holly pinned Justin Bradshaw with a roll up…Owen Hart defeated Hunter Hearst Helmsley. Owen wrestled as a babyface in the match…The British Bulldog defeated Marc Mero…The Godwinns beat WWF Tag Team Champions the Smoking Gunns via disqualification…Steve Austin pinned Aldo Montoya (w/Jake Roberts) after a stun gun. After the match, Austin attacks Roberts before Roberts could put Revelation on him…Savio Vega defeated Goldust in a strap match…Sid (substituting for Intercontinental Champion Ahmed Johnson) pinned Vader after a chokeslam…The Undertaker defeated Mankind after the Tombstone in a no holds barred match.

New York City, New York – Madison Square Garden – August 9, 1996 (14,000; 11,314 paid): Justin Bradshaw pinned Aldo Montoya after the lariat at 5:01…The Godwinns defeated the New Rockers at 10:42…Marc Mero defeated Hunter Hearst Helmsley with a reverse victory roll at 9:02…Mankind beat Jake Roberts via submission to the Mandible Claw in 37 seconds after attacking Roberts on the floor before the bell rang…Vader wrestled Sid to a double count out at 10:16…Yokozuna (substituting for Intercontinental Champion Ahmed Johnson) pinned Owen Hart after the Banzai Drop at 6:37…WWF Champion Shawn Michaels pinned Goldust after Sweet Chin Music at 17:05. After the match, Mankind attacked Michaels until the Undertaker made the save…WWF Tag Team Champions the Smoking Gunns beat the Bodydonnas after the Sidewinder at 7:23…Savio Vega pinned the British Bulldog with a roll up at 7:32…The Undertaker defeated Steve Austin via disqualification when Mankind interfered after the Undertaker delivered the Tombstone to Austin at 9:23. After the match, there was a big brawl that also involved Michaels and Goldust.

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania – Stabler Arena – August 10, 1996 (3,038): Justin Bradshaw defeated Aldo Montoya…Marc Mero beat Hunter Hearst Helmsley…Yokozuna (substituting for Intercontinental Champion Ahmed Johnson) defeated Owen Hart…The Godwinns beat WWF Tag Team Champions the Smoking Gunns and the New Rockers in a non-title match…The British Bulldog defeated Jake Roberts…Sid wrestled Vader to a double count out…Steve Austin pinned Savio Vega…The Undertaker defeated Mankind…WWF Champion Shawn Michaels defeated Goldust.

Scranton, Pennsylvania – Catholic Youth Center – August 11, 1996 (3,138): Hunter Hearst Helmsley defeated Justin Bradshaw…The Godwinns beat WWF Tag Team Champions the Smoking Gunns and the New Rockers in a non-title match…Marc Mero defeated Owen Hart…Savio Vega beat the British Bulldog…Steve Austin pinned Jake Roberts…The Undertaker defeated Mankind…Sid (substituting for Intercontinental Champion Ahmed Johnson) defeated Goldust…WWF Champion Shawn Michaels defeated Vader.

Backstage News*: There was supposed to be a “Ticking Time Bomb” segment that aired on the August 5 RAW between WWF Champion Shawn Michaels and Brian Pillman but the WWF was not happy with it and it was scrapped.

-The WWF expects Mark Henry to lose some weight before his in-ring debut. Henry is currently 410 pounds and the WWF wants him at 350. Henry may debut sometime in September. The back injury Henry suffered at the Olympics will slow some of his training so that target might be ambitious.

-The reason Savio Vega defeated the British Bulldog in Madison Square Garden is because there is still a strong Puerto Rican contingent of fans who attend.

-Michaels got upset at the sound team at Madison Square Garden as his theme music was cut off during his introduction. Michaels reportedly started swearing and acting unprofessional in the ring.

-Even though the WWF is set to lose syndication on FOX stations in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles it is not going to stop doing Superstars tapings because that footage will be needed for The Action Zone on USA Network.

-In injury news, Ahmed Johnson had emergency surgery on August 6 and will be out for at least the next three months. The WWF plans to hold a tournament for Ahmed’s vacated title after SummerSlam. Skip suffered a cracked vertebrae in a match against the Smoking Gunns at Madison Square Garden when taking the Sidewinder.

-In talent relations news, Vince McMahon flew to Calgary to meet with Bret Hart to talk about what his program would be when he presumably returns to the WWF.

*Backstage news is provided courtesy of Dave Meltzer’s Wrestling Observer for August 19.

Up Next: Monday Night RAW for August 12!

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