The Name on the Marquee: The History of the Intercontinental Championship #8

Posted by Adam Nedeff on 09.28.2009

What good is a title belt unless there's somebody around to hold it? Let the tournament begin...

-I understand what’s happening in this installment. I don’t condone it, but I understand it. When we left off, Honky Tonk Man wrapped up his historic reign by losing a brutal squash match. The “problem,” if you consider it a problem, is that the next two champions in the lineage are Ultimate Warrior and Ravishing Rick Rude, two guys who burned their bridges with the company in fairly visible fashion. As a result, we’re skipping about 20 months’ worth of matches and going straight to April 1990…

-It was a tumultuous time in America. Larry & Balki are showing TV viewers that strangers are anything but perfect...Photographer Robert Mapplethorpe captures the imagination of open-minded people everywhere with his frank depiction of bullwhip insertion...and NASA launches the Hubble telescope to help that astronomer guy on PBS gobble up the last 10 minutes of the broadcast day. Meanwhile, in the WWF, Ultimate Warrior had just defeated Hulk Hogan for the World Title at Wrestlemania VI, and President Jack Tunney forced him to surrender the Intercontinental Title. Needing a new star to take the gold, an eight-man tournament was staged over three weeks of weekend television. This week’s installment is the entire tournament.

-We open with Vince McMahon & Jesse Ventura introducing the tournament on “Superstars of Wrestling,” which is a pretty cool touch.

-Your host is Jack Korpela.

FIRST ROUND: TITO SANTANA vs. AKEEM (with Slick)
-Akeem & Slick share a tender moment before the match starts proper. Akeem charges and Tito dodges. Akeem charges again, Tito dodges again. Lock-up and Akeem backs him into a corner and throws a punch. Tito dodges and punches Akeem hard enough to send him to the floor. Slick demands a disqualification, and the referee actually sort of listens to him and gives Tito a stern lecture before Akeem gets back in the ring.

-Akeem goes for a test of strength and Tito turns it into an arm wringer that takes Akeem down to the mat. From there, Tito goes to work on the arm and keeps Akeem grounded. Akeem breaks free with a thumb to the eye and whips him, but misses the attempted avalanche. Tito throws a series of dropkicks to take Akeem off his feet. He goes for the figure four, but Akeem kicks him in the corner. Akeem goes for a clothesline, but Tito dodges and hits the flying forearm so hard that Akeem goes flying out of the ring, and Tito wins by count-out. 1 for 1. Good match with pretty good storytelling, with Tito consistently hitting & running and dodging everything Akeem threw at him, before eventually winning simply because he was the better wrestler.

SUPERFLY JIMMY SNUKA vs. MISTER PERFECT
-For some arbitrary reason, the tournament matches didn’t go in order when they aired. As far as brackets go, there’s a match that goes in between this one and the previous bout. The Genius is missing from Perfect’s corner, although nobody acknowledges that.

-Snuka chops Perfect right out of the ring to start and yanks him back inside by the hair. Slams are exchanged, but Snuka recovers quickly and chops Perfect out of the ring. Back in, Perfect goes down from a hard shoulderblock. Roll-ups are traded and we get a series of two-counts. Snuka uses his toes to gouge Perfect’s eyes, which is pretty spiffy. He goes for a bodypress and Perfect rolls through for a two-count. Snuka rolls him up for another two-count.

-Perfect makes a fatal mistake by attacking Snuka’s head; he runs for his life when he realizes what he’s done and begs for mercy from Snuka. Snuka gives him none, going after him with chops and headbutts. More hard chops by Snuka as Perfect is trapped in the corner. Perfect seizes the opportunity and hooks the legs, pinning Snuka with his feet on the ropes for a little extra help. The referee teases reversing the decision, but Perfect stands as the victor. Snuka kicks his ass in retaliation. 2 for 2. To say the least, you just did not get these matches on the weekend shows in 1990. Great stuff.

ROWDY RODDY PIPER vs. RICK “The Model” MARTEL
-As a seven-year-old in 1990, I could have told you that Piper was going to be the guy to blitz through this tournament, take the title, and hang onto it until it was pried from his cold, dead kilt. “WWF Wrestling Challenge” aired at 1:00 am in my neck of the woods, and I was so stoked that I actually stayed up just for this match.

-Piper gets into an argument with the referee, demanding that he remove Martel’s atomizer of Arrogance from the ring. Martel takes advantage and attacks from behind. He hammers Piper from every angle until Piper fights back. We have a slugfest and both men are neck-and-neck until Piper goes to the eyes to take control. He atomic drops Martel into the turnbuckle for two. Martel slams Piper down and drops the elbow. He chokes Piper out and goes after the eyes. Piper starts to come back until Martel punches him hard enough to send him to the floor. Piper comes back with punches and a backhanded slap. The fight goes out to the floor. Piper rams Martel into the post and heads back inside, but Martel comes right back with a hard punch and some choking. Martel goes for the Arrogance, but the referee takes it from him. Piper starts to come back and dodges a bodypress from the second turnbuckle. He drops Martel throat-first on the top rope. Martel goes after the eyes and heads for the Arrogance. Piper dodges the spray with a series of shoulders to the stomach and it turns into a tug of war for the Arrogance. Martel wins it and Piper grabs a chair to deflect the mist. He smacks Martel with the chair and the referee calls for the bell, declaring it a double disqualification…EVEN THOUGH MARTEL CLEARLY CHEATED FIRST AND PIPER WAS ACTING IN DEFENSE. What a crock of shit! Piper was robbed. Still a fun brawl. No storytelling like the previous two bouts, but still an energetic way to fill five minutes of TV time. 3 for 3. Perfect advances to the finals.

BRUTUS “The Barber” BEEFCAKE vs. DINO BRAVO (with Jimmy Hart)
-Winner faces Tito Santana in the semi-finals. Mister Perfect taunts both of them in a pre-recorded promo.

-Beefcake hiptosses Bravo and slams him down. Elbow misses. Bravo misses an elbow. Beefcake clotheslines him and Dino heads to the floor. Beefcake goes out there to brawl with him. Jimmy attempts a sneak attack but Brutus catches him and goes after him. Bravo is able to sneak up to take control. Back inside, Bravo hits an inverted atomic drop and a gutwrench for two. Axehandle gets two. Bravo Irish whips him and goes upstairs, but Beefcake meets him with a shot to the stomach. High knee and punches by Beefcake, and a backdrop by Beefcake. Sleeper looks to finish, but Jimmy Hart distracts the referee, and here’s Mister Perfect to yank Beefcake out to the floor and beat the crap out of him. Dino goes outside to add his two cents, but that’s a mistake because the referee winds up counting out both men. 3 for 4. This just didn’t hold my attention and the finish was a little silly, with the referee clearly seeing Perfect’s interference and doing nothing about it.

-So Tito doesn’t have an opponent, and Perfect doesn’t have an opponent…I guess we’ll just be skipping straight to the finals.

TITO SANTANA vs. MISTER PERFECT
-Funny bit on commentary, as Vince calls Tito “the clear favorite in the tournament,” and Jesse responds with a very legitimate-sounding “WHAT?!” Jesse is never wrong, which is what makes his commentary so hilarious sometimes.

-Both men jockey for position. Tito applies a side headlock and Perfect goes for the hair to equalize. Tito goes to the ropes and Perfect meets him with a drop toehold. They exchange a dozen hammerlocks in about eight seconds and Tito just elbows him down. Perfect gets in a cheap shot and Tito reverses an Irish whip. A dropkick sends Perfect out to the floor. Tito goes after him and chops away before sending him back in. Tito meets him inside with a slingshot clothesline from the apron. Armbar is locked in and Perfect gets free with a knee. Shoulderblocks by Santana, but Perfect lays down and uses his own body to trip Tito and send him through the ropes. This time, Perfect goes outside and chops away at Santana.

-Back inside, Perfect pounds Tito, but Tito gets fired up and starts to come back. Sunset flip gets two. Hard punch sends Tito back outside. Tito grabs his leg and yanks Perfect over to the post to work the knee. Tito goes back inside and keeps working on the leg every way he possibly can. Henning is just selling every bit of this beautifully.

-Tito starts to go for the figure four, but out comes Bobby Heenan for some reason, and Tito is distracted enough to fall prey to a roll-up for two. Tito comes back quickly and goes for the flying forearm, but Bobby distracts Tito long enough for Perfect to recover and throw punches. Tito keeps up with him until Perfect just says, “Enough screwing around” and rolls up Tito for the three-count and the belt. Specifically, a WWF Tag Team Title belt. Not having the belt handy when you tape the final match in a tournament to determine who’s going to win it: THAT is a botch. 4 for 5. Outstanding match in a tournament that exceeded expectations.

End of the show and here's Game Show Utopia.

The 411: Lord knows your expectations for quality are set in stone if I say "WWF Superstars, 1990." But hell's bells, everybody here was FEELING IT for this tournament, and the result is some shockingly productive use of the usual time constraints of the era. Recommended viewing, especially if you like good wrestling but have no attention span.

Final Score:  8.0   [ Very Good ]