WWF Saturday Night’s Main Event #26 (4.28.90) review 

 

April 26, 1990 (Taped on April 23, 1990) 

 

We’re in Austin, Texas at the Frank Erwin Center. The “Drum” was opened in 1977 and I’m sad to report it has recently been demolished. It has been replaced by the more aesthetically pleasing Moody Center, also on UT’s campus. Frank Erwin was a bit of a dickhead, so maybe it’s for the best that the Drum has been consigned to history. And speaking of dickheads; hosts are Vince McMahon and Jesse Ventura. We’re coming off a hot month for the Fed with Wrestlemania VI and the underhyped Wrestling Summit show at the Tokyo Dome. Over 100,000 fans at those two events alone. Business is still good…for now.  

 

We get some promos to start, and “Professor” Hogan promises to teach the Genius and Mr Perfect a few lessons. He’ll be sending the Genius to “dunce’s corner”. I wonder how many trips young Terry Bollea made to dunce’s corner? No, Terry, 2+2 is not “17, or something, jack” it’s four. Dunce’s corner for you again my boy. “And put that bass guitar away, Lars Ulrich said he wasn’t interested”. Hogan also promises to send Mr Perfect to the principal’s office. I have nothing. Sorry. I do wonder what professor Hogan is a professor of. Certainly not STEROIDS am I right Arsenio Hall, brother, brother? *Nervously rips off shirt* 

 

Vince and Ventura come out on horses. Somebody is stepping in doodoo tonight brrrrrother.  

 

Mr Perfect vs. Hulk Hogan 

This was a feud at the tail end of 1989 into early 1990 and we have a blow-off here. It drew quite badly at house shows, which is why Perfect lost to Beefcake at Wrestlemania VI (apparently). Oddly enough this show was taped the same day as WWF Superstars #190, where Mr Perfect won the IC title. So, whatever happens here he’s got gold.  

If there’s one thing this recap run has shown me it’s that Hogan was clearly the biggest star of the 1980s, by a wide margin. However, when 1990 rolled around doubts started. Cracks are starting to show in his façade. Losing to Warrior. Scepticism about his drawing power was starting to creep in.  

 

Across the ring, my doubts about Hennig are getting stronger. His cartoon selling is better suited to wrestling Hogan than Beefcake, at least. Horses for courses. Hogan has come back from Japan in a spiffy mood and he’s doing the chops, and the Axe Bomber pops up. They keep going at a good old pace and they’ve clearly built up some chemistry over the loop.  

 

Perfectplex gets two and you know what happens next. That puts to bed the Hogan-Perfect-Genius run from early 1990. Good little match this one. *** 

 

Video Control gives us a clip of Rick Martel selling the Arrogance fragrance. Martel somehow made this junk work. We then go to Jess Ventura interviewing Earthquake. He’s already started feuding with Hulk Hogan and he’s about to put him on the shelf until Summerslam so Hogan can go and film Suburban Commando. Sadly, there’s no Surburban Commando PPV* this year. 

 

*If people want me to review Suburban Commando, I will try and track down a copy and do just that.  

 

Earthquake vs. Hillbilly Jim 

I’m shocked Jim is still working here. Apart from jobber shows, this is probably his last TV appearance until the gimmick battle royal at Wrestlemania in 2001. Bar managing the Godwinns, of course. This is a (literal) squash to keep Quake strong. Hillbilly Jim gets stretchered back to Mudlick, Kentucky afterwards. Bye! 

 

More Rick Martel. More Arrogance. “Man in a classic can”.  

It contains pieces of real panther. That’s how you know it’s good.  

 

Hart Foundation vs. Rockers 

Bret calls the Rockers a “couple of teeny boppers”. Them’s fighting words. Rumour has it they considered doing a Rockers split around here, with Marty turning heel, after the duo got into a fight WITH EACH OTHER. This is, predictably, very good. Bret works well with both Rockers. Shawn’s work with the powerhouse Anvil foreshadows a career of him working with big dudes and bouncing off them.  

Demolition arrive to watch, scouting the Harts, who have challenged them. The heat on Shawn is well done, the hot tag to Marty is good and the crowd are invested in everything. Having two babyface teams keeps the match whipping along at a good crack. The pacing is like lightning compared to everything I’ve seen recently. There’s no finish after Demolition piss Marty Jannetty off so he slugs Smash in the back of the head. ***½  

 

A really good TV tag that flew through 10 minutes of fast-paced action. The teams had great chemistry, and you want to see them go again based on this with the non-finish. Which, of course, didn’t happen because it’s the WWF. Instead, they were kept apart until the phantom tag switch later in the year and didn’t work together again after that. Obviously.  

 

We get more promos with Earthquake threatening Hogan. The retort is Hogan calling himself a “Texas Tornado”. I wonder if that gave Vince the idea to call Kerry von Erich that? Or, more likely, Vince made Hogan drop “Texas Tornado”, “Natural Disasters” and “Typhoon” into this promo. People like to recognise things. Hey, it’s that word Hogan used, how about it! We then get clips from Mania and another promo from Haku. Well, Bobby Heenan. Finally, Ultimate Warrior gets to talk. I saw a Bruce Pritchard interview yesterday and he talked about Warrior not getting over because he wasn’t relatable. He just rambled nonsense and behaved like a spaceman from pluto. Warrior tells us he “foreswells” his body with the “ultimate power”. However did people think the WWF had a drug problem?  

 

WWF Championship 

Ultimate Warrior (c) vs. Haku  

It doesn’t matter what camera angle they use, you can see empty seats and they weren’t there earlier. It’s fair to say that Warrior wasn’t everybody’s cup of tea. I thought he fucking sucked, for example, but I’m not alone. Warrior already doesn’t feel special here. They even run a reverse of his repeat clotheslines spot with Haku doing it and doing it better. Just have him blow someone away here. It ain’t rocket science. Not that I care, of course, because I think Warrior stinks. Splash finishes for Warrior and we can move on. Mixed reaction from the crowd during the match and not the greatest of starts to his WWF title run. Everything that Hogan did for him at Mania is for naught if you can’t stand on your own two feet.  

 

Akeem vs. Big Bossman 

After Bossman and Slick re-teamed for a loss in Tokyo, we’re back to where we were. This is the blow off for Bossman and Akeem. The Twin Towers, RIP. Akeem would spend the rest of the year on house shows with Jake Roberts before being released. Akeem went back to WCW for a bit, as One Man Gang, but I think the next time we’ll see him for this will be World War III 1995, as he’s in that match.  

 

“This match could get as dirty as the Texas democratic primary” says Ventura. Gee, I wonder what his political affiliation is. I’ve tried to find out what he’s talking about here and only came up with a few interesting 1988 Democrat campaign bits. Like Joe Biden dropping out (yes, he ran then too) because he stole a speech from Neil Kinnock and Gary Hart dropping out because he got caught having an affair. Remember when politicians had enough integrity that if they did something wrong they stopped running?  

 

Anyway, the match is garbage. Akeem sucks balls. Bossman has it won, but Ted DiBiase and Virgil run in for the DQ. An odd ending to the show but generally the last match is in the dead spot where everyone has stopped watching.  

 

We finish with more promos. Bobby Heenan tells us Rick Rude is coming for Warrior’s title because he won the IC belt off him. Which is why they had Rude beat Snuka clean as a whistle at Mania. Warrior’s response is just total hogwash. The man’s brain is rattling around inside that hollow skull of his. It’s a shame Warrior wasn’t working during the chair shot era, because imagine the promos if this man got CTE?  

 

The 411: 

Two really good matches on the show here. Hogan vs Perfect and the Rockers vs Harts tag. The direction of the show is a concern though. With Hogan off to make a movie, Randy Savage directionless and Warrior with the belt…it doesn’t feel like we’re going any place good. It’s a pity Dusty Rhodes didn’t go back to WCW. He was actually interviewed to take up the booking position after Ric Flair stepped down but was told he would have to retire from in-ring and didn’t want to. If he went back, we don’t get the terrible Ole Anderson Black Scorpion angle and the Savage-Dusty program ends. Therefore Savage vs. Warrior? It might have saved Warrior’s title run though so let’s just move on.