The Name on the Marquee: The History of the Intercontinental Championship 10

Posted by Adam Nedeff on 10.29.2009

Perfect.

-Last time, Mr. Perfect became a two-time Intercontinental Champion with the aid of Ted DiBiase. The Texas Tornado is probably going to want revenge.

-Your host is Jack Korpela.

MR. PERFECT (Champion, with Bobby Heenan) vs. TEXAS TORNADO
-Told you so. This is a rematch from WWF Superstars in February 1990. Tornado knocks Heenan out of the ring, knocks Perfect out of the ring, and steals the belt. Perfect tries to get his belt back but walks into a discus punch. Irish whip and another discus punch to the stomach. Great “taste of your own medicine” bit as Tornado holds Perfect’s head, walks him over to the camera, and talks shit to him so we can all hear it.

-Tornado misses a charge and Perfect removes a turnbuckle pad while Heenan distracts the referee. Tornado blocks the attempted ram into it and it’s Perfect who goes into the exposed steel. Heenan runs back to the locker room to get help…but walks right into the Big Bossman, who handcuffs him, drags him back to the ring, and holds onto him. Perfect runs outside and dropkicks the Bossman into the steel steps. Tornado goes after him and it’s a brawl on the floor. Tornado whips Perfect into the guard rail and heads back inside for the count-out win. 1 for 1. Shortish but goodish.

MR. PERFECT (Champion) vs. SHAWN MICHAELS
-From “Superstars and Stripes Forever,” the Wrestlemania VII hard-sell show. Shawn is testing the waters here for a singles run, although they decided to go heel when they got around to doing that with him.

-Perfect elbows him down to start. They trade a few reversals before Michaels suddenly connects with an uppercut. Perfect wants to turn it into a fistfight, and Shawn tells the referee to back off and agrees to a bareknuckle brawl. Michaels wins that and Perfect tries to go outside for a breather. Michaels meets him outside with a tope and punches the hell out of Perfect. He charges, but Perfect catches him and drops him on the guard rail. Marty Janetty heads to the ring to help his partner. We’ll see if he can give any help when we return!

-We’re back and Perfect punches Michaels and dropkicks him down for two. Chops are traded and Michaels gets Irish whipped and clotheslined out of the ring and onto the apron. Perfect gets vicious, ramming Michaels’ head into the mat over and over. More punching and then Perfect just knees Michaels out of the ring. Snapmare and a neck snap by Perfect, but that only gets two. He goes for a backdrop and gets booted down. Perfect clamps on the sleeper, but Shawn breaks it with a jawjack. Perfect forces himself to recover quickly and kneelifts him. Perfect goes after Janetty and gets punched down, and that pisses off Heenan enough that he leaves the post-production green screen and magically appears in the arena to complain about it to the referee.

-Perfect takes a free shot at Janetty before going back to work on Michaels. Michaels suddenly mounts a comeback by crotching Perfect on the ring post. Pair of atomic drops and a clothesline get two. Superkick before it was super gets two. Neckbreaker by Michaels and he heads up top. Heenan tries to interfere, but Michaels catches him and nearly gets his hands on him, but Perfect sneaks up from behind and attacks. He cinches in the Perfectplex, and here comes the Big Bossman, who won’t let him win that way. He attacks Perfect with the nightstick, allowing Perfect to win by DQ, and Perfect runs for his life to avoid the 3-on-1 attack from Bossman and the Rockers. 2 for 2. Overbooked, but still a great match that demonstrated that whatever went wrong at Summerslam ’93, it wasn’t a lack of chemistry. These two worked great together here.

MR. PERFECT (Champion, with Bobby Heenan) vs. BIG BOSSMAN
-From Wrestlemania VII in Los Angeles. Perfect throws his towel at Bossman to taunt him, but Bossman tops that marvelously by wiping his ass with the towel and throwing it back at Perfect. AND he spits in Perfect’s face for good measure. Perfect slaps Bossman across the face and Bossman just smiles and slaps him onto the ringside floor. Back insiode, he grabs Perfect by the hair and spins him around the ring. A couple of punches; Perfect reverses an Irish whip, but Bossman shows insane agility and speed for a guy his size in the way that he counters it (a description won’t do it justice, you need to see what he did) and he punches Perfect out of the ring.

-Bossman reverses another Irish whip and hits the Bossman legdrop over the middle rope. Bossman removes his belt and whips Perfect with it a few times. Perfect gets his hands on it and punches him down with the buckle. Fisticuffs are exchanged and Perfect applies an impressive variation on a headlock. He moves onto an abdominal stretch, and miracle of miracles, Gorilla praises him for the execution of the move. Bossman won’t give up, so Perfect just lets go and dropkicks him down for two. Perfect snapmares him and snaps the neck. He tries a Perfectplex, but Bossman reverses to a cradle for two. Perfect snaps his neck again for two. Alfred Hayes praises Perfect for his impressive armory. Oh, definitely.

-Perfect comes off the top rope and hits a Big Boss Boot. Bossman rams him into the turnbuckle and beels him into the corner. He crotches Perfect on the ring post. Hard uppercut by the Bossman sends Perfect to the floor. Bossman foolishly goes after Heenan and winds up going headfirst into the steps. Heenan stomps and stomps at him to take advantage of the moment until surprise, surprise, it’s a pissed-off looking Andre the Giant.

-Back in the ring, Perfect removes the turnbuckle pad as Andre pilfers the title belt. Perfect tries to get it back, and Andre very casually just KOs him with it, and now both men are down and out inside the ring. Andre stalks Heenan outside the ring as Bossman starts to show signs of life and makes it to Perfect for a two-count. Haku & Barbarian suddenly arrive and double-team Bossman for the DQ. Andre and the Bossman clean house on everybody as Vladimir applauds appreciatively. Wow, I thought that guy just did New England & New York shows. 3 for 3. Match was good, but the booking was inexplicable. Bossman had been chasing Heenan’s men for seven months, and it culminates with an indecisive finish and a brawl? Whatever.

-We gloss quickly over Bobby Heenan announcing his retirement from managing and the arrival of Coach to take his place.

MISTER PERFECT (Champion, with Coach) vs. BRET “Hit Man” HART
-From Summerslam ’91 in New York, and yeah, see, there’s Vladimir.

-A singles push for Bret had failed back in 1988 (mainly because Vince jobbed him to Bad News Brown immediately for his first feud), but early in 1991, Bret basically said “I want a singles push and I’m serious this time” and Vince listened. In the opposite corner is Curt Hennig, whose back is so screwed up that even being able to walk to the ring was a miracle here, and he took a year off after this match to recover. In Perfect’s corner is Bobby Heenan’s “replacement,” Coach, and thanks to the UWF reruns on ESPN Classics, it’s easier to explain that Coach is John Tolos. Uh, that part’s not really historic, though.

-Lock-up and a side headlock by Bret to start. Shoulderblock and a beel throw by the hair sends Perfect right out of the ring. Back in, Bret teases a quick win with a crucifix for two and we go back to the side headlock. Perfect’s attempts to fight out are repeatedly countered. Crowd reaction for this is neat. They’re silent, but not “this-sucks” silent, it’s a “What will happen next?” silent. You can hear a pin drop during lock-ups and so forth, but then they go nuts for whatever Perfect & Hart actually end up doing. I’m listening to this with headphones, and I may have misheard something here, but there’s a brief moment where you hear a single fan yell “Booooooorrrriiiinnng”, followed by what sounds like three or four other people yelling “Shut up!” Damn right.

-Bodypress by Bret gets two. Sunset flip gets two. Back to the side headlock. Kicks and slams are exchanged until Bret sends Perfect to the floor.. He heads back to the locker room, but Bret yanks him back into the ring. Perfect hides in the corner and the referee forces Bret to walk away before he’ll let the match continue. Lock-up backs Perfect into a corner, and Perfect punches out. He kicks Bret onto the ringside floor and follows him out. He chops Bret back onto the mat, and Perfect uses Bret’s back as a stair to re-enter the ring. Subtle. Bret tries to re-enter the ring and gets slapped out. He tries to re-enter again and gets shoved into the guard rail (and a photographer), Back in the ring, Bret counters an Irish whip and a charge with a roll-up for two. Perfect gets to his feet immediately and stomps Bret to keep the advantage. More chops and an Irish whip into the opposite corner (complete with Bret’s trademark sell) get a two-count for Perfect. Neck snap and a roll-up get two. Bret reverses a clothesline and goes for a backdrop, but Perfect meets him with a kick that sends him back onto the floor. Perfect goes after him and it’s a brawl that starts on the floor and culminates with a fistfight on the top rope, which Perfect wins. Perfect gets pissed and threatens Earl Hebner, and we get this on commentary:

HEENAN: Don’t do it, Perfect! Don’t touch that referee!
GORILLA: If he does, it’s a disqualification and he’ll keep the title.
HEENAN: Nail him! Drop him like a bad habit!

Perfect gets a handful of hair and launches Bret across the ring. “Let’s go Bret!” chant erupts as Perfect gets a sleeper. Close-up reveals that he doesn’t have it applied very well, and Bret fights out. Hit Man goes for another crucifix, but Perfect is ready for him and counters it with a fall-away slam. Another Irish whip gets two. Perfect goes for the Perfectplex and gets two, and now he’s REALLY pissed. Bret gets a few punches to the stomach. Inverted atomic drop followed by a regular atomic drop and another swing by the hair sends Perfect taint-first into the post. Suplex City gets a two count. Small package gets two. Russian legsweep (“Neckbreaker”) gets two. Backbreaker and an elbow from the second gets two and now he gets upset with Hebner, giving Perfect an opening to get a roll-up for two. Back to the floor, Perfect gets a faceful of post. Back in the ring, Bret kicks Perfect’s leg out of his leg and goes for the Sharpshooter. Coach hops on the apron and takes a punch to the face in the name of preventing the move. Perfect recaptures the advantage and drops the leg on Bret’s midsection, but Bret hangs onto the leg and rolls over to get the Sharpshooter out of nowhere to capture the title. A very obvious 4 for 4 for the first big moment of the night, and the WWF’s first baby step into a new period for the company.


-End of the show, and here's to make this even more perfect.

The 411: Screwy booking throughout makes it hard for a perfect score here, but it's not like it'll ruin your night that there are run-ins all over the place. Up until you stop and deal with that, you'll have a lot of fun with this set.

Final Score:  9.5   [  Amazing ]