WWF Saturday Night's Main Event 7/28/1990
The last SNME is here: https://prowresblog.blogspot.com/2024/02/wwf-saturday-nights-main-event-26.html
Lord Alfred Hayes is in safari gear, in a hunting lodge and introduces us to the WWF's Wild Kingdom. Vince then interrupts and we cut to the arena. He says all he sees are animals.
Jesse Ventura and Vince McMahon talk. Jesse said if you are looking for animals, we got them here. Vince says it's big game hunting in Warrior vs Rude tonight. Jesse calls Rude "The Great White Hunter" and says him and Heenan will hunt a title tonight. Jesse calls Demolition animals and said they will fight against the natives, The Rockers. Jesse said he doubts Tito Santana can take Mr. Perfect.
Rick Rude and Bobby Heenan do a promo. Heenan says an animal needs food to survive and it's survival of the fittest. He says Warrior will be another link in the food chain of this hungry beast. Rude said he devoured Warrior before. He said he is a guppy in the ocean of life and the waters he swims in have the deadliest predator of all - Rick Rude.
The Ultimate Warrior does a promo. He says the bigger animals eat the smaller ones. He said he fears no boundaries or predators and says he will prove he is the ultimate predator.
WWF Title - The Ultimate Warrior (c) vs Rick Rude
The Warrior does his usual routine and gets hit from behind while posing. Rude clubs on him then Warrior bangs Rude's head off the buckles. Warrior shoves Rude into the buckles then hits boots to the gut. Rude is thrown hard into the buckles then takes an atomic drop. Rude sells big for it and is lariated over the top.
Rude bangs Heenan's and Rude's heads together. Warrior lariats him in the ring and hits a top rope shot to the head. Warrior misses a splash and both go out. Rude grabs the title belt and hits Warrior with it while Heenan has the ref distracted.
Rude bangs Warrior's head off the apron and is caught coming off the top. Warrior manhattan drops Rude then Rude lariats him after getting his knees up. Warrior slams Rude then Rude sleepers Warrior. Rude jumps on Warrior's back with it. The ref for some reason lifts up Warrior's leg instead of his arm to check if he's still up and Warrior gets his leg up on the 3rd check.
Warrior jawbreakers Rude then Rude hits punches. Rude stomps Warriors hand then Rude hits a rude awakening neckbreaker for 2. Warriors starts to hulk up and lariats Rude over several times. Warrior shakes the ropes. Warrior hits a flying shoulder and splash. Heenan grabs Warrior's hair during the pin attempt. Heenan walks away, Warrior grabs him then Rude comes out. Warrior gorilla presses Rude and Heenan hits Warrior in the back. Warrior gets Heenan in the ring and bangs his head off the buckles. Heenan is thrown over the top and the ref seems to award Warrior the win via DQ.
This was a weird situation here with Warrior and Rude set for a Summerslam cage match yet having a match here. We were either getting a dirty finish here or Rude was winning. They opted for the former. I didn't understand the ref doing the check to see if Warrior was out with Warrior's legs. I don't know if I've ever seen that before.
Rude bumped around well and Warrior did a good comeback here. I don't know that they did a good job of selling me on Rude beating Warrior though since Warrior took all of Rude's best stuff along with a title belt shot and still got the better of him.
Mean Gene Okerlund and Lord Alfred Hayes are in the hunting lodge. Al says survival of the fittest is the rule of tongue in the wild. Al calls Gene "Jim" and said not all animals have tongues. Al talks about lions, tigers and bears and Gene says "oh my". Gene asks if they are going up the river as he always wanted to meet Pete Rose.
We get a Hulk Hogan tribute video which we saw a few weeks ago on Superstars.
Vince interviews Hulk. Hulk says he's here to thank the fans and tells them he loves them. Hulk said he will answer every single letter he got even if it takes hi ma year. Hulk said he's going to show Quake how big of a mistake he made. Hulk said Hulkamania had its highs and lows but he never got pearl harbor'd like he did with Quake. He said Quake's crew thought he was out of wrestling for good. He said he's back because of the fans, the training, the prayers and the vitamins.
Hulk says he has someone watching his back in Tugboat. Quake, Dino Bravo and Jimmy Hart come down and surround the ring. Hulk grabs his weightlifting belt then Tugboat comes out. The faces go after the heels and the heels back off.
It was fine for what it was and made sense.
We see Gene and Alfred in the forest. Al says Gene is of no use to him and calls him Jim. Koko B. Ware then pops in. He said he's looking for a mate for Frankie and runs off. Gene trips over a log then goes face to face with a snake. Jake then grabs the snake and said he'd be a nice playmate for Damien. He says it's one more reason for Bad News Brown not to be able to sleep at night. The Bushwhackers then do their walk past them on the train tracks.
I'm honestly impressed that they had enough animals gimmicks to pull this one off.
WWF Tag Titles - Demolition (c) vs The Rockers
It's weird how The Hart Foundation got skipped for the title shot here over The Rockers. Smash and Crush are repping the Demos here.
Smash hits a knee to the gut then double axe handle shots on Marty. Marty armdrags him and legsweeps him. Marty then dropkicks Smash out. The Rockers then hit flying stereo headscissors and dropkicks, sending Demolition out.
Smash hits shots on Marty. Marty makes a blind tag. They blow a spot and Marty dropkicks Smash into a Shawn body hurricanrana. Crush then nails Shawn from behind and tags in after. Crush hits punches on Shawn. Crush takes a double hiptoss into a double fist drop.
Marty is choked while on the top rope then Marty 2nd rope sunset flips Crush. Crush has his arm worked on by both Rockers. Marty slides out under Smash's legs and gets lariated by Ax on the floor. We go to break and return.
Smash works on Marty then Marty is thrown out. Crush throws Marty in from the outside. Smash holds Marty so Crush can top rope double axe handle him. Crush hits a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker then backbreakers Marty. Crush hits a nodowa otoshi off of a running Marty. Smash bearhugs Marty then blocks his sunset flip.
Crush throws Marty into the buckles chest first then Marty headbusters Crush. Both men tag out. Shawn hits shots on Smash and does a nice flying shoulder. Shawn hits a great dropkick on Crush then throws Smash into Crush. The Demos take double dropkicks then Smash takes a double superkick. Smack takes a double top rope fist drop for 2. Ax gets in the ring and lariats Shawn over hard. Ax then pins Shawn and The Demos are given the win. Shawn is rightfully mad at the ref after.
The Hart Foundation come down and tell referee Joey Marella what happened. The Legion of Doom then come down and chime in as well. Joey stays with the decision.
Demolition didn't exactly look alike to pull off "masked confusion" correctly here and I didn't love that finish. They had some botches early and it was not their best possible match. Shawn's comeback was good though and they put over the benefits of Demolition having 3 people here. As I said, I wasn't quite sure how The Rockers got this shot over The Hart's either. Two sketchy finishes in a row isn't the best way to start a show.
Gene and Al are in the forest again. Gene is getting bitten by mosquitos and starts acting like various animals after getting bitten. Al shoves some kind of leaf in his nose and cures him.
This was stupid and the WWF at its worst.
Mr. Perfect and Bobby Heenan do an interview. Heenan said Tito Santana is a former IC champ and will stay that way. Perfect said there's only one perfect animal in the world and it's him. Perfect said he's what champs are made of. He said he's at his best and doesn't see anyone stopping this force at this time.
WWF Intercontinental Title - Mr. Perfect (c) vs Tito Santana
Perfect hits shots on Tito then takes a hiptoss, armdrag and dropkick. Perfect goes out and is stumbling. Tito chases him then hits shots outside, dropping him. Perfect lariats him then kneelifts him.
Perfect hits more shots and a standing dropkick which Tito does a nice sell for. Perfect slams Tito. Heenan distracts the ref and Perfect cranks on Tito's head. Tito boots Perfect out of the corner then Perfect does a nice sell for a good lariat. Tito wind-up punches Perfect then Perfect falls into the ref. The ref is down and Tito kicks Perfect in the leg. Tito figure fours Perfect but the ref is down in pain. Heenan gets on the apron and Tito tries to help the ref. Tito flying forearms Perfect. The ref finally makes the count and Perfect barely gets out.
Tito stomps Perfect then 2nd rope lariats him. Tito gets another 2 count and calls for another ref to come out. We go to break and return. Tito flying crossbodies Perfect then Perfect hits punches on Tito. Perfect pulls Tito's neck forward and they trade shots. Perfect hits a rare superkick then twists Tito's neck with his thighs.
Tito punch combos Perfect and sends him to the outside. Perfect does a great bump over the top then is chopped on the floor. Tito throws Perfect by the hair, making him crotch himself on the post. Tito atomic drops and manhattan drops Perfect. Tito lariats Perfect for 2. Tito cradles Perfect then Perfect reverses it and wins it.
This was our third match in a row with shenanigans here. Perfect bumped around like a pinball as usual, doing a couple of perfect bumps along the way. Tito had nice offense and the two naturally worked real well together. It did drag a little towards the end and it was unusual to see the ref bump spot done in the middle of the match when it would have worked better near the end of it.
Jesse Ventura interviews Earthqauke, Dino Bravo and Jimmy Hart. Hart tells Hulk he was carried out once and will be carried out again at Summerslam. Quake says the only way Hulk exits the arena is on a stretcher and ambulance. Dino says there will be no interference from Tugboat. Jesse says no animal can survive an earthquake.
Al and Gene are in the jungle again and we see Jimmy Snuka running around making noises. They say they are in Africa. The find a cauldron and Gene says it looks like human bean soup. They then run into Akeem and Slick. Slick asks if they are lost. Slick tells them the Yangtze River is that way but Al doesn't believe them. They reach a river and Al pulls Gene in. Al throws bark at him to save him from piranha's. Al says "Jim" has embarrassed him again and Gene says "it's not Jim, it's Gene".
"Texas Tornado" Kerry Von Erich vs "Playboy" Buddy Rose
Rose got a CGI graphic for his name here. If what I'm reading is right, this is Kerry's televised debut. Vince says Kerry is from one of the greatest wrestling families. Kerry drops down and basically trips. Rose slaps him and goes out.
Kerry hiptosses him then slams him twice. Rose is thrown upside down into the buckles then Kerry single leg dropkicks him. Rose gets tied up in the ropes and Kerry hits punches while he's tied up. Rose then falls out onto the floor. Rose snapmares him and knee drops him.
Rose goes up top and is thrown off. Kerry discus punches him and gets the win.
It wasn't Kerry's best work. You could definitely tell he had the fake leg on here as he had trouble with it early. Rose took big bumps as usual.
Jesse Ventura interviews Rick Rude and Bobby Heenan. Rude says a caged animal is a scared animal as it is out of its element. Heenan says Warrior rules the wild kingdom but Rude rules inside of the cage. Rude said it won't be a scene from Wild Kingdom, it'll be Summerslam 1990. Rude says he will come off the cage onto his head and will be singed with the heat of his burning desire.
Sean Mooney interviews The Ultimate Warrior. Warrior talks about the cage match and being confined in the cage. Warrior says he will walk in as the champ and leave the ultimate animal.
Jesse Ventura and Vince McMahon close the show. Jesse says two species might go extinct at Summerslam - Hulk and The Warrior.
We go back to the lodge. Gene is with a chimp and Al says he might be a relative from his family tree. The chimp jumps off the chair onto the floor and Al bids us goodnight until our next safari.
Vince invites us to join them in the fall for our next season of SNME.
Overall thoughts: 3 of the 4 matches had shenanigans that brought them down. I didn't think Rude/Warrior helped out Rude much. The finish of Demolition vs The Rockers with Ax switching in was lame and it was just not their best work. Perfect/Tito went a little long but the two worked well together as expected. Kerry Von Erich didn't have a great debut here but Buddy Rose bumped big for him. The segments with Mean Gene and Alfred Hayes were too over the top and not believable in any way but they were creative in getting the wrestlers involved. I didn't like this one that much and thought it would have been a lot better if they just let the wrestlers wrestle.
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