WWF Saturday Night’s Main Event #17 (10.29.88) review 

 

October 29, 1988 (Taped: October 25, 1988) 

 

We’re in Baltimore, Maryland. Hosts are Vince McMahon and Jesse Ventura. SNME fell off a cliff earlier in the year and they announced this show would mark a new ‘season’ of the show. SNME, for me anyway, has represented the best the WWF had to offer at various stages of its 1980s development. By this point, Vince is just treating it like an advert for people to buy tickets to the house shows. This show has a better line up than the last last one though. Jake-Rude, Demos-Harts and Hogan-Haku gives it a proper SNME feel.  

Ventura looks like he’s starring in a 1960s cop show. He calls Dan Quayle names as Vince tries to squirm away from his personal politics. Quayle was the VP for George Bush, who’s about to win election to the highest office in the land. He’s famous for not being able to spell potato and making truly awful speeches.  

 

Rick Rude vs. Jake Roberts 

This story is straightforward. Rude hit on Cheryl Roberts, Jake’s wife, and started wearing tights with Cheryl’s face on. Jake, the big babyface hero, gets to face punch him for it.  

Rude makes a few dick jokes backstage, which pop Bobby Heenan. “I could beat Jake and Damien in the three-legged race” is elite stuff for sneaking it past the censors.  

Cheryl implies Rude actually has a small wang. Ventura blames Cheryl for the whole situation, comparing her to Robin Givens, who had just divorced Mike Tyson at the time. Considering the domestic abuse Givens suffered, I don’t think that’s appropriate. It was public knowledge too. Ventura’s commentary has flown a little close to the sun several times during this run. 

 

Normally these guys have poor chemistry but it’s much better here. They go 50-50 and don’t piss about with too much heat. Jake needs this to be his big revenge party, so he goes to town on Rude. They get Cheryl involved too and the match has tremendous heat (unless that’s all piped in). Rude ducks his head, eats a DDT and Jake strips his tights off, so Heenan jumps in for the DQ, followed by Andre to set up the Jake-Andre feud. This was a fun blow-off to the Jake-Rude series and the best match they ever had. **½ 

The Andre feud would eventually lead to a WrestleMania V blow off in April but here the gears are set in motion for Jake to get the rub of working with Andre. They clearly had big plans for him. It’s a real shame Jake jobbed to his personal demons in the early 90s and never reached the heights he could have. Andre’s faked heart attack here is a bizarre angle though, and was very silly. Especially as Vince McMahon doesn’t seem to give a fuck about one of his biggest stars dying in the ring. Says it all really. 

 

WWF World Tag Team Championship 

Demolition (c) vs. Hart Foundation 

The Harts awful backstage promo is evidence #1 as to why Bret didn’t get a singles push around this time. Demolition are the principle reason why the WWF’s tag division went completely to shit in 1988. There’s a reason the NWA didn’t stick the belts on the Road Warriors. Bret gets worked over for most of the match, but Anvil gets a GREAT hot tag where he beats the crap out of both champs. The Rougeau’s run in and toss the megaphone of death to Smash, who whacks Anvil with it to retain. This was fine, albeit formulaic, until a chaotic and enjoyable finish. Albeit one regurgitated from Summerslam.   

 

King Haku vs. Hulk Hogan 

Hogan came back from Hollywood at Summerslam but over the summer Haku won King of the Ring to replace Harley Race as the WWF’s ‘King’. Race missed most of 1988 with a hernia.  

Hogan’s manager tonight is Miss Elizabeth, on loan from Randy Savage, who must be fuming about this whole angle. Savage wrestled Andre on this taping, which wasn’t televised. So, he’s the champion but he’s not on TV and his valet/wife is now managing Hulk Hogan. Was he paranoid or were they really out to get him? Haku isn’t a good opponent for Hogan at all. They don’t mesh well and Haku’s idea of bumping around for Hogan isn’t close to Harley Race or Terry Funk. It’s weird that Haku, a legitimate tough guy who everyone was scared of, never looked convincing in the ring.  

 

As with most Heenan managed talents, Bobby ends up taking more (and better) bumps than his actual charge. The Liz Factor is non-existent. She just stands there looking classy. Hogan sleepwalks through his comeback and drops the leg for the duke. Not Hogan’s finest hour. His appeal as a star was on the wane by late 1988 but he got heated up again thanks to a great feud with Randy Savage.  

 

Dino Bravo vs. Ken Patera 

Overly muscular incompetence is the name of the day. Patera actually nails his opening shine but that’s all he has. As soon as he starts selling the match goes to shit. Dino Bravo is all over the place here. His selling is a mess. He randomly starts limping at one point. I have no idea why. Sideslam finishes. Bravo continues to be terrible. Patera is finished.  

 

Big Boss Man vs. Jim Powers 

As Gene Okerlund asks Slick where he finds his wrestlers I’m mentally replying, “Jim Crockett Promotions”.  

Boss Man declares Jim Powers as being “guilty” and Okerlund asks him of what. The reply; “breathing”. The WWF has given up on the Young Stallions and Powers is now a career jobber. Powers runs right into the Boss Man Slam after a couple of minutes.  

 

Video Control gives us clips of Boss Man beating up Hogan and Hulk responds via promo. It makes very little sense to not do this angle on this show. Just have Boss Man rough Hogan up a bit. Elsewhere Ventura goes to interview Andre the Giant, who says he’s not scared of snakes but please don’t even put him in a room with one again or even say the word, thanks.  

 

The 411: 

The Jake-Rude blow off match is a good laugh, although it’s then followed by a bizarre Andre heart attack angle. The rest of the show is a showcase of how ‘on autopilot’ everyone is in this promotion at the moment. It was this bad earlier in the year, but it continues. At least the hot Hogan-Savage feud is just over the horizon.