The Name on the Marquee: History of the Intercontinental Title 12

Posted by Adam Nedeff on 12.05.2009

Three matches that you'd expect to be good, and one that just totally blindsides you.

-Okay, so this is an interesting episode in the series. We’re breaking sequence because so much kick-ass stuff was apparently found in the vaults after episode 11 that they’re going to go out of sequence to show it to you.

-Your host is Jack Korpela.

RANDY “Macho Man” SAVAGE (Champion, with Elizabeth) vs. RICKY “The Dragon” STEAMBOAT
-And just that quickly, I am more than okay with them violating their sequence. This is early 1987, before Wrestlemania and after Steamboat’s return from his throat injury, so the heat’s huge for this one.

-Kneelift by Savage, but Steamboat comes right back with an armdrag and a shoulderblock. Savage. Everything happens faster than I can type until Savage gets armdragged again and decides to head back to the locker room. Steamboat stops him in mid-walk on the Maple Leaf Gardens runway and throws him over the top rope back into the ring. Savage goes right back outside and makes Steamboat chase him. Steamboat takes the bait and Savage attacks on the way back into the ring. He tosses Steamboat to the floor and rams him shoulder-first into the barricade (with the commentators acting surprised that he didn’t go for the neck on that move). Savage catches Steamboat with a knee to the back for good measure and heads back inside…

-No, wait, he’s having too much fun, so he slams Steamboat on the floor and THEN heads back inside. He eventually gets tired of waiting, so he pulls Steamboat up to the apron and gives him a hard elbow to the neck. He brings Steamboat back inside and connects with a double axehandle from the top. Elbow off the ropes gets two. Steamboat goes to the ropes, but Savage London bridges him and goes to the neck. Handful of tights gets two. Steamboat blocks and reverses a turnbuckle shot, but a Savage clothesline takes him right back down again. Savage tries the Bossman leg drop, but Steamboat moves. He tries to slam Savage, but Savage shifts his weight for a two-count. Steamboat applies a chinlock and Savage either bladed for no reason or he’s bleeding hardway.

-Savage sends Steamboat out of the ring and into the barricade. He drapes Steamboat’s neck over the barricade and tries to repeat history, but Steamboat catches him coming off the top with a gut shot. Series of armdrags and a chokehold by the angry Steamboat. Referee has to forceably remove Steamboat from Savage’s neck, and Steamboat goes to the apron to snap Savage’s neck over the top rope.

-Steamboat drops Savage throat-first on the top rope and faceplants him. Savage goes outside for a rest and Steamboat goes after him. They dual for a shot into the barricade, and Steamboat wins that battle. Back inside, a chop from the top by Steamboat, and he slingshots Savage into the turnbuckles. Steamboat unloads on him with chops into the forehead wound. Savage yanks Steamboat by the tights out to the runway. Steamboat slingshots himself back in with a sunset flip for two. He gets another series of roll-ups and cradles for a series of two-counts. But Savage makes one pinfall attempt of his own, and with two hands’ worth of tights, he retains the belt. 1 for 1. It’s Steamboat vs. Savage, why do I even have to go to the trouble of typing a point score?

ULTIMATE WARRIOR (Champion) vs. ANDRE THE ULTIMATE GIANT (with Bobby Heenan)
-We fast-forward to MSG in the fall of 1989. This was during a period where Andre changed his name to taunt the Warrior. He also did a series of promos where he painted his face to taunt the Warrior, but he’s not going to that trouble unfortunately. Warrior’s entrance is HILARIOUS, as Vince McMahon is standing near the MSG curtain, and Warrior almost runs him over and kills him on the way out.

-Shoulderblocks go nowhere, and Andre starts choking. Headbutt by Andre, and Warrior backs into the ropes. Andre comes after him, so Warrior pulls him forward and starts choking him. He climbs on Andre’s back and leans on him for added effect. They tug and pull at each other in the corner, and Andre yanks the top turnbuckle off in the process. They choke each other simultaneously and Andre kicks him in the stomach to get the advantage. He bites and chokes until Warrior begins throwing punches hard & fast. He clotheslines Andre and charges at him, but Andre catches him and chokes him again.

-Andre applies a standing headlock on the Warrior. Warrior breaks out of it with force and clamps on a bearhug. Andre sells the hell out of it until Warrior just bodyslams him out of nowhere, shocking the crowd. Warrior goes for the splash to finish, but Andre raises the boot and now both men are out of it. They brawl while staying on the mat, and Andre knocks Warrior out of the ring. Warrior pulls him out to join him, but Andre brings him back in. Warrior tries going off the second rope, but Andre raises a boot. They both make their way to their feet, and Warrior hits clothesline after clothesline after clothesline until Andre finally falls out of the ring with some force.

-Andre makes it back to the apron and Warrior charges, to Andre yanks the referee in his way to absorb the blow. Danny Davis, who had been an active wrestler for two years prior to this, is knocked completely unconscious from a single clothesline. Andre headsbutts Warrior into oblivion and goes for the pin. Davis wakes up and calls for the bell. Andre celebrates with the belt, but no, it’s a disqualification, and Warrior retains. He clotheslines Andre out of the ring and takes the belt back. 2 for 2. Holy shit, a good match between these two!

MISTER PERFECT (Champion) vs. ROWDY RODDY PIPER
-Fun fact: Piper’s debut match was a 10-second loss to Perfect’s father. That’d be a great little talking point to bring up, but of course they don’t.

-Piper gets an early advantage with punches and an elbow. Chops are traded until Piper sends him over the top rope and onto the broadcast table. Piper brings him back in by the hair and swings him around. Perfect tries a low-blow, but Piper catches his arm in mid-swing and throws him out of the ring. Piper hammers him and rams him into the barricade. Chair to the face from Piper and Perfect tries to call it a night. Piper shreds Perfect’s singlet and brings him back to the ring. He punches Perfect and gouges the eyes, and Lord Alfred is just horrified by Piper’s approach to this match. Right hands by Piper get a two-count. Double clothesline takes both men out.

-Piper does the Undertaker sit-up, but Perfect forces himself to the corner and removes a turnbuckle pad in the meantime and rams Piper into the steel. Perfect is too beaten to make it to Piper in time for the pin and only gets a two-count. Perfect punts Piper’s pecs a few times, and a standing dropkick knocks Piper out of the ring. They brawl on the floor and Piper eats the barricade. Chair shot sends Piper tumbling into the steps; Perfect tries to follow with a top rope assault, but the referee stops him and grants Piper a respite.

-Back in the ring, Perfect clamps on a sleeper and Piper fights it (but not in the usual “raise your arm the third time” way, he really FIGHTS it) and breaks free with a Stone Cold Stunner, before anybody knew what it was. Perfect does a bizarre sell of it too, basically having a seizure while standing on two feet. Perfect goes for the Perfect-plex, but Piper shifts his weight, and that triggers some dueling two-counts. Hard clothesline swings things back Perfect’s way. NOW YOU’RE GONNA SEE…a two-count, and Piper quickly rolls him up for a two-count of his own. Piper charges and Perfect ducks, sending Piper over the top and onto the floor. Perfect rams him into the barricade and sends him back inside. He heads up top, but Piper shakes the top rope and Perfect crotches himself on the exposed steel from earlier, and crashes to the floor. He can’t recover in time, and Piper takes the win by count-out. Finish was blown, because Hebner called for the bell FAR too soon, but it’s still worth a point. 3 for 3. I was actually expecting a problem with style clashes here, but Piper was game and they had an exceptional brawl. It’s too bad that Piper’s lower body went to hell on him at around this point, because a full-blown feud with these two would have been great.

BRET “Hit Man” HART (Champion) vs. THE MOUNTIE
-Hey, this is from my 9th birthday! We’re at MSG, and the main event on this night was Hogan vs. Flair, if you’re curious. Mountie has a really strange-looking haircut, and hey, it’s Vladimir! Boy, there’s just all sorts of stuff to keep track of for this match.

-And hey, it’s the Big Boss Man, attacking the Mountie from behind before the bell and stealing the cattle prod. Bret takes full advantage with an inverted atomic drop and a clothesline. Ten times to the turnbuckle and an elbow to the chest by Bret, followed by a bodyslam. He runs the Mountie’s eyes over the top rope and tries for a backbreaker, but Mountie stops him with a thumb to the eye. He hammers Bret and bites him as Vince McMahon catches his Lordship off-guard on commentary by asking “Alfred, are you awake?” after total silence for the entire match.

-Bret makes a comeback and puts the boots to Mountie. Irish whip, but Bret misses a charge and goes shoulder-first into the post. Elbow off the ropes by the Mountie gets a two-count. Irish whip and Bret does his signature crash to sell it. Chinlock and some sinister hair-pulling by the Mountie. Tree of woe by the Mountie, and he stomps Bret and yanks the hair some more. Classic Vince McMahon commentary sees him calling a chokehold first, and then a blatant chokehold, as if there’s a difference. Bret goes out to the floor and Mountie gives him a chair to the gut for good measure. Back inside, piledriver gets…well, it gets “I am the Mountie!” Mountie chicken-wings Bret and rams his head into the turnbuckle (a move he always did that I totally forgot about until just now; it looks good).

-He tries an Irish whip. Bret reverses, Mountie goes to the second rope and goes for a bodypress, Bret ducks, Mountie hits the mat, both men are out. Mountie struggles to his feet and Bret kips up and lights into him with punches and a Russian legsweep. Backbreaker by Bret and he heads to the second rope and connects with an elbow…for three. Woah, really? Huh. 4 for 4. Anticlimactic as was humanly possible, but I guess they wanted to show that Bret was THE guy.

And that's the show. And this is Game Show Utopia.

The 411: REALLY good hour of action this time around; it's really satisfying to see that the folks in charge KNOW their audience, and they're clearly working very, very hard to scour the tapes and make sure we're getting some quality stuff in this series.

Final Score:  10.0   [ Virtually Perfect ]