WWF The Main Event III (2.23.90) review 

 

February 23, 1990 

 

We’re in Detroit, Michigan at Joe Louis Arena, or “The Joe” as it was known. Built back in 1979 it was the home of the Detroit Red Wings until their final game there in 2017. It was replaced by an arena named after Little Caesar’s pizza. Not quite Joe Louis, is it? Stadium naming rights are a disgrace. The last event to take place at the Joe was a WWE show and it was torn down in 2019. The WWF was still hot going into Main Event III and the show did a 12.8 on NBC.  

 

The hosts are Vince McMahon and Jesse Ventura. Originally, this show was billed as Hogan vs. Savage with “Iron” Mike Tyson as the referee. Only…Tyson lost his title to James “Buster” Douglas and the WWF rescinded the offer and switched over to the new heavyweight champ. Pick up those endorsements while you can, Buster! Tyson himself would get the referee gig at Wrestlemania 14. The other featured match here is Warrior vs Dino Bravo, so I expect nothing from that.  

There are only two matches, how is this nearly an HOUR long?  

If you’ve never seen his face before, this is what Buster Douglas looks like. Anyway, the main players do some chattin’, apart from Douglas, who is mute. I don’t think I’ve ever heard his voice.  

 

Interestingly, this was shot LIVE, rather than recorded like all previous SNME’s and Main Event shows. Which means Jesse Ventura can talk smack about Mike Tyson and nobody can stop him. Although Tyson’s likely reason for not being at this show was his defeat his sister also died this month unexpectedly.  

 

Randy Savage tells us Mike Tyson’s great-grandmother was a “card carrying Hulkamaniac”. This causes me all kinds of problems. Tyson didn’t know his dad, so we’re going maternal side, and she was possibly a prostitute. Tyson was born in 1966. If we assume his mother was young when she had him, say 20, that makes her mother (Tyson’s granny) probably around 70 years old. The great grandmother being 90-ish. But that’s not the issue. No. Tyson’s family came from Viriginia and North Carolina and that is FLAIR COUNTRY. There’s no way that old lady is a Hulkamaniac. She’s watching NWA and whacking the Midnight Express with her handbag.  

 

Elsewhere, Hogan is interviewed who refers to Buster Douglas as “this dude”, who he claims he’s never met. Hogan claims Douglas was “chosen” as he was to “lead the masses to higher grounds”. Is he still working the flood metaphor from WrestleMania IV? Hogan goes on to claim he’ll end the night as WWF champion AND undisputed boxing world champion if Douglas doesn’t call it straight. Now, come on, brrrrrother. There’s no way you’re getting that sanctioned. You’re not ranked in the top ten. You don’t have a licence. YOU CAN’T BOX. I think that’s just not true and unlikely to happen.  

 

Finally, Mean Gene gets a word with James Douglas who is reading stuff from memory. “They advertised the world champion and that’s me, not Mike Tyson”.  

Then he pulls this look off right into the camera. Beautiful. The GOAT. He strongly reminds me of Carlton from the Fresh Prince of Bel Air.  

 

WWF Championship 

Hulk Hogan (c) vs. Randy Savage  

It wouldn’t have been the craziest idea to have Savage win the belt here to transition it to Warrior at Mania. It would have been a better match, as is evidenced by Woyah’s best ever match (against Savage) but it would rob us of the first ever ballsy babyface-babyface main event. Something that was built on in years to come.  

 

Unfortunately for Randy that means he’s destined for defeat here and some midcard nonsense with blubberbutt Dusty Rhodes at Mania. Buster’s refereeing duties are initially telling people to get in the ring and stay in the ring. Fighting on the floor? That’s not a gentleman’s game. After they’ve established Douglas is going to be a buzzkill, we switch into the Hulkster running through the motions.  

 

By which I mean, beating up a woman and threatening the referee. Sherri gets a receipt and Buster kicks her out. “Pardon me, madam, I believe you are in breach of the regulations of this contest and will have to escort you to the locker room area to ensure the validity of the result of this battle. The ramifications will be severe if you do not heed to my authority, vis a vis the potential disqualification of Mr Savage”. This is paraphrased. He actually said, “get out, get out”. We hit the Hogan formula with Savage getting a huge chunk of the match, but Douglas keeps getting in the way. Big Reviving Elbow doesn’t get it done and you know the rest.  

 

This was fine. Another in a long series of Hogan-Savage matches. They were feeding off the crowd but there was an element of autopilot. They have to incorporate Douglas by having the ref bumped near the finish and Buster jumps in the count the three. “Good job” says Hogan as Buster raises his hand. **½ 

Post Match: Savage tells Douglas he cannot count proper like he can. Hogan baits them into fighting, the dirty bastard. Hogan pushes Savage into Buster, who completely misses his punch. They redo the spot, and the two champions celebrate together. Considering Douglas had no idea what he was doing out there, this worked out ok. Savage should have bumped the first punch though.  

 

Vince decides to tell us both Hogan and Douglas are “undefeated”, which is a double lie. He, sort of, corrects himself to “undisputed”. We are told to “stay tooned” for the “Mountain Dew slam of the night”. There’s only been one match!  

 

 

Warrior then cuts a promo (no interviewer) about the “cosmic powers of Mars”. And other things. The interesting part of it is that Mars does affect how we behave. In particular regarding motivation, or lack thereof. I can only assume Mars has a strong pull on the Warrior’s motivation in 1990, thus catapulting him to the top of his profession. I also assume Mars, during October, was being a complete bitch as I couldn’t be arsed at all that month. Warrior mostly rambles about planets, just describing them.  

 

Somehow Dino Bravo manages a worse promo. At least they’ve got Jimmy Hart in his corner now, which means someone can talk for him. Unlike Frenchy Martin.  

 

Back to Warrior for a riposte, this time with Mean Gene who asks him about “Earthquake insurance”. Warrior responds by saying the “blood that flows through these veins is not the blood of the normals”. Alright, settle down Hitler youth. He seems to think he’s unique in communicating with “the brainwaves in my mind”. Does he think no one else can have a little chat with themselves in their own mind? That’s essentially what I’m doing here, only typing those thoughts out. Or does he have a few other personalities up in there. Probably locked in cages. I don’t want to seem like I’m mocking him for having a mental illness, but I also think he might not be the full sandwich. Instead of two slices of bread, he’s got one slice of cardboard and one of tarmac. The filling is lime cordial, human flesh and Coronation Chicken.  

 

WWF Intercontinental Championship 

Ultimate Warrior (c) vs. Dino Bravo  

My advice here would be “keep it short” and for a moment it looks like Warrior will win straight away, as they do a cool sequence that ends in a powerslam. Sadly, Quake distracts and we have to watch Bravo wrestle for nearly five minutes.  

There is a bizarre aside where Warrior hides under the ring and steals Jimmy Hart’s trousers. No, really. Warrior can’t steal Earthquake’s trousers because he isn’t wearing any. Which is a pity. They should have made him dress nice. The difference between WWF heels (t-shirts, ring gear etc) and NWA heels (SUITS, tailored) is palpable.  

 

Warrior wins, the heels double team him and Hogan, the big fucking egomaniac, makes the save.  

Warrior is all “I had that”. Hogan shoves a referee over and the two biggest personalities in the company go head-to-head, ahead of their showdown at Wrestlemania VI. The crowd chants “Hogan” so if the Hulkster wanted this to be a straw poll, he got the win. The truth is, they’re both jerks.  

 

Vince then spends a good ten minutes shilling Wrestlemania VI and the Ultimate Showdown of Hogan vs. Warrior. We get another interview with Hogan where he talks about Hulkamania being a lightning strike and maybe there’s another one hitting Warrior, maybe. “When I beat him, I want him to be at his best” yells Hogan, who seems to be leaning heel here but then all his stuff has sounded quasi-heel to me for years so who knows? Warrior rambles some more, this time claiming the colours of his fan art are red and yellow, thus proving the Hulkamaniacs are coming over to him. What’s most disturbing about this promo is how quiet most of it is and when Warrior talks quietly, he sounds like Donald Trump and once you’ve heard it, you can’t unhear it.  

 

Final words are for James Douglas who claims he’s going out drinking with Hulk Hogan. Hogan’s order at the bar; “butter milk”. He’s such a dork. Anyway, that’s the show.  

 

The 411: 

Unless you want to see lashings of James “Buster” Douglas and promos previewing Hogan vs Warrior at Mania, there’s not much to see here. The whole hour is fine tuned to shilling that “all eggs in one basket” main event for Wrestlemania VI. That’s their only selling point. The bloated Mania card has very little else in terms of selling points. These are the other ‘marquee’ matches: DiBiase vs Roberts, Dusty & Sapphire vs. Savage & Sherri, Bad News vs. Piper, Andre & Haku vs. Demolition and Beefcake vs. Perfect. There’s not a single ‘good’ match there. People getting ready for Mania must have been dreading the card. Hogan vs Warrior ended up being way better than expected but it was the only reason to tune in. 14 matches! We’ll get to it in due course.   

 

NEXT: NWA WrestleWar. For the WWF, it’ll be WrestleMania VI. Not that you could tell from this show.