The Name on the Marquee: WWF Superstars of Wrestling Challenge (05.21.88)

SUPERSTARS OF WRESTLING – MAY 21, 1988

-So a heads-up, this episode is incomplete. Two matches and the non-wrestling stuff are missing. That nearly led me to skip the week entirely, but the thing is, there’s actually some important stuff to cover in this episode, so, figuring that something is better than nothing, here ya be…

-We’re in Duluth.

-Your hosts are Vince McMahon & Jesse Ventura.

RANDY “Macho Man” SAVAGE (WWF Champion, with Elizabeth) vs. VIRGIL (with Ted DiBiase)
-Crowd is just crazy about Savage. Savage goes after DiBiase first. DiBiase puts his dukes up and Savage goes after him. That allows Virgil to sneak up for a cheap shot, but Savage knocks him right out of the ring. DiBiase distracts Savage from there and Virgil attacks from behind and this time, he’s able to take control.

-Virgil whips Savage from corner to corner, then distracts the referee so DiBiase can take a few free punches. Virgil slams Savage and heads up top for a splash, but Savage moves and Virgil crashes. Savage gives him a knee to the back, then goes up top for a double axehandle. Savage slams him into position for the elbow, but DiBiase comes up to the apron and he now has Savage’s full attention.

-Savage goes to the floor and chases DiBiase. DiBiase grabs Elizabeth and uses her as a human shield until Virgil can sneak up and attack Savage again. Back in the ring, Virgil connects with an elbow off the ropes for two. Clothesline gets two. Virgil tosses Savage to the floor.

-Elsewhere on the floor, DiBiase waves a fistful of dollars at Elizabeth, but Savage sneaks up with the top rope axehandle and a clothesline. Savage is all kinds of fired up and brings Virgil back in the ring, finishing him off with the flying elbow. Post-match, Savage gets double-teamed and has a $100 bill crammed in his mouth. DiBiase tries to continue the attack from there, but accidentally clotheslines his own bodyguard. Things turn into a pull-apart brawl, and usually it’s the jobbers who do the pulling apart in this kind of angle, but these guys just hate each other so much that it’s the stars who have to bolt to the ring to end the onslaught.

GREG “The Hammer” VALENTINE (with Jimmy Hart) vs. JIM EVANS
-Greg takes off his robe at the start of the match and…wait a sec, what’s that thing on his boot?…Greg’s sporting a huge shin guard on his left leg, and Vince & Jesse can’t understand why, unless it’s some kind of injury protection.

-Evans hammers away at Evans while the fans chant something that sounds like “We want blood!” Double underhook suplex and an elbow by the Hammer, and he goes for the figure four, and the speed with which Evans submits tips us all off about WHY Greg is wearing the shin guard.

BRET “Hit Man” HART vs. STEVE LOMBARDI
-After the intros, Jimmy Hart returns to ringside to give some guidance to Bret, but Bret tells him to go away and won’t do anything until Jimmy leaves.

-Lombardi sneaks up and attacks to take control. We get words from Jim Neidhart, who warns Bad News Brown that his partner isn’t the kind of guy who lets people push him around.

-Back to the ring, Bret finishes with an impressive piledriver for the three-count.

“The Rock” DON MURACO (with Superstar Billy Graham) vs. BILLY ANDERSON
-Irish whip and a hiptoss by Muraco, while Jesse wonders why Graham, a man who leg presses 500 pounds, needs a cane. He suspects that the injury is faked. We get words from Graham, who says that The Rock is carved from marble.

-Powerslam by Muraco, and the piledriver gets the win, as it tends to do.

DEMOLITION (Tag Team Champions, with Mr. Fuji) vs. BUCK ZUMHOFF & WARREN BIANCHI
-This is around the time I started watching, and one of the things that fascinates me now is how many of these guys that I considered to be nobodies because that’s how they were treated were actually big names right before Vince took over the world.

-Ax starts with Mr. Rock & Roll and slams him down. Zumhoff gets hung up in the wrong corner and double-teamed. HILARIOUS warning from Jesse as the carnage continues: “Kids, please don’t imitate any of the moves you see here at home. These men are trained professionals. Don’t try this yourself. McMahon, you can go ahead and try it, though.”

-Decapitator gets the win. Zumhoff didn’t even get some token offense for the Minnesota crowd.

-Onward…

WRESTLING CHALLENGE – MAY 22, 1988

-We’re in Rochester, MN.

-Your hosts are Gorilla Monsoon & Bobby Heenan.

JAKE “The Snake” ROBERTS vs. STEVE LOMBARDI
-Bobby wants to know if “that harlot” is at ringside, and talks about how Jake’s wife passed a note with her phone number as she slapped Rude a few weeks ago.

-Jake beats the holy hell out of Lombardi and even Bobby has to admit that he seems like a different man lately. We get words from fans who think Rude is too full of himself.

-Back to action, where the DDT wraps things up, and then Damien wraps Lombardi up.

SPECIAL REPORT WITH SEAN MOONEY
-We take a look at Bam Bam Bigelow & One Man Gang, two men who possess surprising agility considering that they have a combined weight of “nearly 700 pounds.” (Higher, Jim!) We take a look at the finish of their match at Wrestlemania IV.

BAD NEWS BROWN vs. CHRIS ZARNA
-Bad News pounds him down while Gorilla reminds the kids at home that this stuff is extremely dangerous and you shouldn’t try this at home. Bobby Heenan also warns the fans not to let their wives get involved if they decide to try this for a living.

-Bad News keeps pounding away for quite a while, with clotheslines and kicks. Ghetto blaster eventually finishes.

YOUNG STALLIONS vs. RICK GANTNER & TOM STONE
-Powers starts with Gantner. Shoulderblock leads Gantner right out of there. In comes Stone and he gets hiptossed. Gantner tries again and gets caught in an arm wringer. Powers drop toeholds him and Roma legdrops him. Atomic drop by Roma, and Powers connects with a flying bodypress.

-Stallions trade off working the arm while the Bolsheviks & Slick drop in and say that comparing the Stallions to the Bolsheviks is like comparing “horseback to Cadillac.”

-Gorilla accidentally calls Jim Powers “Rick Martel” while Powers suplexes Stone. Backdrop by Powers, and then he holds up Stone so Paul Roma can KO him with a missile dropkick, and that gets the win.

-Sam Houston reminds you that there’s nothing better after a day of riding a horse in the hot Texas sun than a Superstars (mute) (mute) ice cream bar.

HERCULES (with Bobby Heenan) vs. BILL BOWMAN
-Bodyslam and an elbow by Herc. He stops to do some celebratory posing before dropping some knees on Bowman. Jerk slam by Hercules. Backbreaker gets the submission.

EVENT CENTER
-Gene Okerlund talks about the Jim Duggan/Andre the Giant feud. Bobby Heenan warns that a sleeping giant has been awakened, and Andre warns him, “When I’m mad, I’m mad, and now I’m mad.” Got that? Jim Duggan has no fear, tough guy.

JUNKYARD DOG vs. TERRY GIBBS
-Turnbuckle shot and a backdrop by the Dog. Falling headbutt by JYD. Dog reverses an Irish whip and follows with a Russian legsweep. Headbutt and a snapmare by the Dog. He tries another headbutt, but Gibbs gets out of the way, then puts the boots to him. Gibbs hurts his hands on a shot to the head, and JYD capitalizes by immediately going to the Thump.

SPECIAL INTERVIEW WITH CRAIG DEGEORGE
-Bobby Heenan & Andre the Giant talk about their feud with Jim Duggan. Yes, Duggan knocked Andre down, but the problem is, he got back up. Andre promises to make him suffer. Craig gets a little biased and tries to let out a “HOOOOO!” but Andre clamps his hand across Craig’s entire face.

TUG OF WAR: KEN PATERA vs. DINO BRAVO (with Frenchy Martin)
-Object is to yank your opponent from one side of the tape in the middle of the ring to the other. After the federally mandated amount of needless stalling, they begin tugging in war-like fashion. Patera wins, but since winning means pulling Dino close to him, Dino just launches himself at Patera and beats the hell out of him, then chokes him out with the rope.

FABULOUS ROUGEAU BROTHERS vs. DAVE WAGNER & RICK RENSLOW
-Dropkick by Jacques and in comes Raymond to work the arm. We get pre-taped words from the Rougeaus, who think America is great…no, wait, America is FABULOUS.

-Rougeaus just relentlessly double-team Renslow, and they’re more aggressive then ever. Wagner finally tags in and immediately falls victim to Le Bombe…Oh, hell no, they actually do the Doomsday Device. How about that. And it gets the win.

EVENT CENTER
-Gene Okerlund throws it to Ted DiBiase, who wonders how Randy Savage can sleep at night, knowing that Hulk Hogan is the only reason he has his title belt. We get a rebuttal from Randy Savage, who says the candle will burn all the way into the ground like Ted DiBiase’s money.

The end. See you next time, until then here’s Game Show Utopia.

The 411: Actually a pretty eventful week, which made it a treat to watch. Savage & DiBiase had to be pulled apart, Jimmy Hart got fired, Greg Valentine has a shin guard, Sam Houston enjoys ice cream...Check it out.
Final Score:  7.0   [ Good ]