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March 14, 2005
Louis Izzo
Wrestling Challenge from August 26th, 1990:
- The final episode of Wrestling Challenge before the 3rd annual Summerslam PPV that would take place the next night, live, on Pay-Per-View. Your hosts, unusually, Vince McMahon (?!) Bobby "The Brain" Heenan, not my all time favorite commentary team for the Challenge. This week we have a special edition of Brother Love with Hulk Hogan, also in action is Mr. Perfect, the Hart Foundation, Ted Dibiase, and a special Summerslam Report.
- The Hart Foundation vs. Barry O & Chris Duffy:
The next night on Summerslam, the Foundation are scheduled to face 2 of the members of Demolition for the Tag Team Titles in a 2 out of 3 Falls Match. Barry O is of course, the famous Orton family member who refused advances from Pat Patterson in exchange for a push. At least he had some balls that didn't have man saliva on them. Bret and Barry start the match with a lockup. Criss cross, and Hart with a hip toss takeover. Scoop salm by Hart and he nails Barry with a headbutt. Irish whip to the corner is reversed, and Barry O does a Flair bump out of the ring as Neidhart takes down Duffy with a shoulder tackle. Split-Screen promo by the Demolition trio as Hart hammers away on Duffy. Neidhart tags in and hip tosses Duffy from out of the corner. Scoop slam by the Anvil, and Hart tags in with an elbow drop. Hart with a side back breaker, and he connects with a leg drop before tagging back in the Anvil. Neidhart continues pounding away on Duffy, and gets knocked down by the Hitman for his troubles. Finkel voice over pimps a WWF Show featuring Ron Garvin, the Earthquake, and Jim Neidhart... wow. Anyway, Duffy continues getting beat like a bitch and accidentally gets elbow dropped by Barry O, who is still pissed off at because of the 90 second loss to the Bees and Orndorff on an old WWF TV show in 1986. Hart with the Hart Attack, and it's all she worte at 3:22. 3/4* Entertaining enough for a squash match, but thats what it was... and the shows were never meant to be about the Squash Matches.
- WWF Special Report with Lord Alfred Hayes. Last week on Superstars of Wrestling, Tugboat was wrestling Bob Bradley, but Dino Bravo and the Earthquake come in and lay a beating on the Tugster, taking him out with the vertical splash, which would make Tugboat unavailable to be in Hogan's corner for Summerslam. Promos from the team of Earthquake and Dino Bravo follow.
- "Million Dollar Man" Ted Dibiase (w/ Virgil) vs. Mario Mancini:
Kind of an unusual situation... Ted Dibiase, a high midcarder borderline Main Eventer, has no match scheduled for Summerslam. I wonder if he had anything planned for him, or it was just a fuck up.. (winks).Lockup to start, and Dibiase escapes a headlock with an overhead wristlock into an armbar. Wristlock from Dibiase, which is reversed several times, until he takes over Mancini with a fireman's carry. Irish whip, and Dibiase with a shoulder block followed by an elbow to the back of the head. Scoop slam by Dibiase, but he misses several elbow drops. Mancini gets whipped to the corner, and he badly misses a cross body press. Dibiase with a boot to the face, and then connects with a vertical suplex. Irish whip, and Dibiase with a powerslam, then sets up Mancini... and applies the Million Dollar Dream for the victory at 2:37. DUD Eh... not too entertaining, considering I'm a Dibiase mark. After the match... he stuffs a $100 bill down the throat of Mancini, which I always claim was the losers payoff, but I'm not that smart.
- WWF Summerslam 1990 Report: This Monday (OK, on August 27th, 1990) on Summerslam, in a double main event, Hulk Hogan takes on Earthquake (w/ Dino Bravo in his corner) and the Ultimate Warrior defends the World Title against Rick Rude in a Steel Cage Match. Promos follow from both men, and both are from behind the bars of a steel cage. Mr. Perfect defends the Intercontinental Title against the Texas Tornado, in a 2 out of 3 Falls Match, Demolition (Ax, Smash, and/or Crush) defend the Tag Team Titles against the Hart Foundation. Last week on the Summerslam Fever (Primetime Wrestling Special) Smash beat Jim Neidhart, and then later the Demolition Trio destroy him (and a horrible promo from the team follows). Jake Roberts (w/ Damien) battles Bad News Brown (w/ 200 lbs. of Sewer Rats) with the Big Boss Man as Special Referee. Dusty Rhodes squares off against Randy Savage (followed by a MKRS promo). Sapphire faces off against Sensational Sherri, Jim Duggan and Nikolai Volkoff team up against the Orient Express. Because Rick Martel is doing a modeling gig in "Paris", The Warlord replaces him against Tito Santana. The Rockers go up against Power & Glory, and on a special Brother Love, the guest is Sgt. Slaughter.
- Mr. Perfect (w/ Bobby Heenan) vs. Scott Colantonio:
Perfect is, of course, the then-reigning Intercontinental Champion, and Bobby Heenan is the "Perfect Manager", which still puts a smile on my face. Lockup to start, and Perfect shoves Colantonio into the corner. Go behind waistlock by the Jobber, but Perfect reverses into a takedown, and wants some competition. Split screen promo from the Texas Tornado (Kerry Von Erich), as Perfect hammers away on Colantonio. Perfect shoves the Jobbers face into the camera, and has Heenan wipe him down of sweat. Another voice over from Finkel pimps a show featuring the Genius, Jimmy Snuka, the Orient Express, and Mr. Perfect. Speaking of Mr. Perfect, he works over the knee of Colantonio, and wins the match soon after with the Perfect-Plex at 1:51. DUD Wow that was a short squash... I guess I keep forgetting squashes meant going through your entire arsenal of moves in a span of 90 seconds. Afterwards, Perfect lays out Colantonio with a shot to the face with his Intercontinental Title Belt.
- Sapphire interview... and she sucks pretty much. However, someones been sending her very expensive gifts, including a new furr coat. I guess Ted Dibiase needed a slave... OK, that was REALLY bad sounding, and I gave away a Summerslam spoiler. AAAAAAH (jumps out of the window).
- Brother Love Show time with the Immortal Hulk Hogan. He throws threats at everyone hes opposing at Summerslam (Earthquake, his cornerman Dino Bravo, and the little runt Jimmy Hart), before announcing that the Big Boss Man will take the place of Tugboat in his corner. Oh well, not that anyone cares.
- Sgt. Slaughter Vignette... he cuts a promo on America, saying it's gone soft, it sucks, blah blah blah. Did anyone seriously think THIS garbage dump of an idea would get over with the fans? Considering he turned face again in 13 months, we could assume it didn't, and WWF just cut their loses following Summerslam 1991. Did I forget to mention he also has one of the biggest fucking chins I have ever seen in my entire life?
- The Orient Express (w/ Mr. Fuji) vs. Shane Douglas & Mark Thomas:
Interesting... Shane Douglas wasn't really a Jobber (maybe a JTTS the least), but he's teaming with a Mega-Jobber against the biggest Jobber Tag Team. It's the JTTS Hall of Fame, Class of 1990. Also, is it me, or did WWF recycle the Japanese theme music A LOT for... Japanese Wrestlers? This is still the original Express, consisting of Sato and Tanaka, not Kato and Tanaka. I just now noticed that Kato is the same as Sato when you replace "S" with "K". Sato with a headlock and shoulder block to Douglas. Criss cross sequence, and Douglas with a dropkick. Douglas with an arm drag, followed by a whip to the corner, but he runs into an elbow. Douglas with another arm drag takeover, but runs into a knee. Sato avoids a dropkick from Thomas, and tags in Tanaka as we get a promo from Volkoff and Duggan. Tanaka works over Thomas, and drops him with a spinning forearm to the face. Sato tags in as McMahon "Ho's". Spinning heel kick by Sato to Thomas, and he finishes him with the Ligerbomb at 1:43. 1/2* Quite fast, especially since it was a tag team match. This had promise if they were to have kept it going with more Douglas, but it's not my call, and it was nearly 15 years ago.
Final Thoughts: Definitely not one of the most entertaining shows from this time frame, but it wasn't completely worthless... OK, it could've been. Only four squash matches, and sadly the Event Center promos have been taken out, which makes me really mad. However, the Summerslam Report made me happy.