WWF Wrestling’s Country Boys

Due to my DVD player deciding not to cooperate anymore, I had a bit of a delay. I finally got the DVDs to play in my Wii, so we should be good to go. Today’s show is one I’ve been dreading, Wrestling’s Country Boys, a tribute to Hillbilly Jim and his wrestling family. I don’t expect anything good to come from this cluster of a tape. The tape cover is lime green with a shot of Elmer and Jim on the cover and promises some “Down Home Matches”, with that said let’s get this over with so we can get to the good tapes again.

Best of the WWF Volume 3

It’s time for another classic WWF Home Video, as we continue through the 80s with the Best of the WWF Volume 3. This tape should cover matches from late 1984 into 1985. The box for this volume features the Junk Yard Dog, Rowdy Roddy Piper and Jimmy Snuka, and advertises a Battle Royal, Fijian Strap Match, the return of Bruno Sammartino and the best of TNT. Nothing more entertaining then a battle royal and this one includes Andre the Giant, Hulk Hogan, Big John Studd and others, should be awesome. Following the classic WWF Home Video opener we’re greeted by Vince McMahon, and sadly he’s not wearing a pink suit just a plain tuxedo. Vince goes over tonight’s matches and we have a tag match coming up with the Hart Foundation facing the British Bulldogs, that should be awesome. The battle royal is for thirty thousand dollars, doesn’t seem like much these days. Vince sending it to the ring for our opening match.

WWF Biggest, Smallest, Strangest, Strongest

It’s time to continue our trip through the eighties with the next WWF Coliseum Home Video release, Biggest, Smallest, Strangest, Strongest. This looks like another compilation tape, much like the first WWF Video, Bloopers, Bleeps and Bodyslams. The box for this one is bright purple and features George Steele, Ivan Putski, Jesse Ventura, a Moondog, Andre the Giant and Big John Studd. If this is only clips, I won’t bother recapping the matches, just a quick rundown of what’s featured. Let’s see what we get.

WWF Andre the Giant

I’m really burning through these tapes, which shows how good they are. I can’t stop enjoying these classic shows, they’re just so fun. Although I think the match quality on this tape is going to be bad. It’s Andre th Giant, never known for mat classic, but should be still be a fun tape. This is the second tape dedicated to just one person, the previous being Hulk-a-Mania, and they picked a legend for this one. Andre the Giant was one of the most famous wrestlers of the era, and a true superstar. The box shows Andre squashing someone in the corner and advertises the famous haircut match, a match with Ken Patera and a three on one handicap, plus a boxing match with Gorilla Monsoon. Should be interesting, so let’s get the tape rolling.

WWF Hulk-a-Mania

The second tape in the Coliseum Home Video library features the World Heavyweight Champion, Hulk Hogan. The first tape was clips from TNT, mostly skits, however the second tape features some of Hulk Hogan’s best title defenses from his first year as champion. Hulk Hogan captured the World Title in January 1984 from the Iron Sheik, and thus began Hulk-a-Mania and the change in wrestling forever. The WWF quickly capitalized on this with their national expansion and Hulk Hogan leading the charge. This would lead to the Rock-n-Wrestling Connection followed by Wrestlemania, and then the birth of Wrestling Pay Per Views. However we’re getting ahead of ourselves, as right now it’s only 1984 and Hulk-a-Mania was just starting it’s surge.

Saturday Night’s Main Event #21 – May 27, 1989

 

Tonight’s SNME comes to us about six weeks after Wrestlemania V, where the Mega Powers exploded. The fallout from the biggest PPV of they year happens tonight from Des Moines, Iowa. First let’s recap Wrestlemania V, which took place in Atlantic City, New Jersey for the second year in a row. Hulk Hogan overcame former tag team partner Randy Savage to regain the WWF World title for the second time, at the team that was a big deal. Only Bruno Sammartino had won the title twice, since Backlund’s loss & second reign was never recognized by WWF at this point. Also at Wrestlemania we crowned a new IC champion, as Rick Rude scored a controversial pin over the Ultimate Warrior, thanks to Bobby Heenan holding Warrior’s ankle. After the match Warrior destroyed Heenan, who still had a match with Red Rooster coming up. Rooster crushed Bobby in 32 seconds, but was attacked by Brooklyn Brawler in a feud that basically went nowhere. Strike Force broke up at Wrestlemania, when Tito Santana accidentally nailed Rick Martel with the flying forearm during the match. This prompted Martel to walk away and leave Santana alone with Tully Blanchard and Arn Anderson, and Santana got beaten. We also had the Wrestlemania debuts of Mr. Perfect, Powers of Pain, Owen Hart as the Blue Blazer, Shawn Michaels, and Bad New Brown. The tag team Champions, Demolition, were able to retain their gold beating former manager Mr. Fuji and his new protégés The Powers of Pain in a handicap match, as the Demolition celebrated one full year as champions. Finally we had a huge return at Wrestlemania, as Rowdy Roddy Piper returned after a two year absence. The Hot Rod hosted his classic Piper’s Pit with guests Brother Love and talk show host Morton Downey Junior. Piper did what he does best by humiliating both guests as he stripped Brother Love and sprayed Morton with a fire extinguisher. That brings us to tonight, as we have my favorite Hulk Hogan match as he faces Big Boss Man in the steel cage, so let’s get to it.

Saturday Night’s Main Event #20 – March 11, 1989

 

   While I wait for my copy of last night’s Elimination Chamber PPV, let’s continue our journey through the Saturday Night’s Main Events. Tonight’s episode comes to us from Hershey, PA and is about three weeks before Wrestlemania V, the Mega Powers explode. Last month on the Main Event, Randy Savage attacked partner and friend Hulk Hogan and accused him of having eyes for Elizabeth. Hulk was knocked silly with the World title and left laying by the Macho Man, and stormed the backstage area looking for him. At Wrestlemania the Mega Powers will face off for the World Title and Miss Elizabeth! But before we get to Wrestlemania we have to go through SNME 20!

Saturday Night’s Main Event #19 – January 7, 1989

 

Saturday Night’s Main Event #19 – January 7, 1989

   Another SNME and another year, as we enter the final year of the eighties. We slowly begin to head toward Wrestlemania V, which emanated once again from Trump Plaza in Atlantic City, New Jersey. But first we have tonight’s episode of SNME, as Randy Savage is still the World Heavyweight Champion, as is Ultimate Warrior and Demolition the IC and Tag champs respectively. At the last SNME, IC Champion Ultimate Warrior destroyed Mr. Fuji’s latest find, Super Ninja to retain his title, Randy Savage went to a double DQ with Andre the Giant, Hercules destroyed Virgil, Jim Duggan crushed Boris Zhukov and Rougeaus dismantled the Young Stallions one on of the worst SNMEs of the series. All the matches were very one sided and boring, let’s hope tonight’s episode is better as we head to Tampa, Florida.

WWF Saturday Night’s Main Event #18 – November 26, 1988

WWF Saturday Night’s Main Event #18 – November 26, 1988

Here we go with another classic episode of Saturday Night’s Main Event. Tonight’s episode comes only 48 hours after the second annual Survivor Series. Coming out of the Survivor Series we had the double turn of Demolition and the Powers of Pain, as Mr. Fuji turned on his team, Demolition and joined with the formerly face team of the Powers of Pain. Demolition had held the titles since Wrestlemania IV and Fuji believed they were getting weak so he left to go to the Powers of Pain, who would basically do nothing and be split up by next year, while the Demolition would hold the titles for almost another year. Also tension was teased between Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage after a victory over the team of Akeem and Big Boss Man, when Hulk hugged Elizabeth. Also going in the WWF at this time was the face turn of Hercules, who was sold to Ted DiBiase as a slave by Bobby Heenan. Herc did not like this and decided he would take out his anger on Heenan and DiBiase. With that, let’s head to the Arco arena in Sacramento, California and see what the WWF has in store tonight.

WWF Saturday Night’s Main Event #17 – October 29, 1988

WWF Saturday Night’s Main Event #17 – October 29, 1988

It’s been a little while since the last SNME, both here and on TV. Tonight episode is six months after the last one, and a few things have changed. The WWF debuted a new PPV idea, Summerslam, on August 29, 1988 and had the Megapowers, Hulk Hogan & Randy Savage defeat the Megabucks, Andre the Giant & Ted DiBiase in the main event. Brutus Beefcake was scheduled to face IC Champion, The Honky Tonk Man and would probably have won the belt. However this was not to be as Outlaw Ron Bass took offense to Brutus cutting his hat and whip, and ripped apart Brutus’ head with his spurs. This was at the time very graphic for TV, and I still remember the big red X across the screen during it. This caused Brutus to be pulled from the card, and Honky made the vintage mistake of issuing the open challenge. Out came The Ultimate Warrior who quickly decimated the longest reigning IC champion and won the title in about thirty seconds. The other extremely hot feud at the time involved Ravishing Rick Rude and Jake Roberts, as Rick Rude had taken to kissing woman at ringside after his matches. After one match he approached a young lady who rebuffed Rude and said she was married to a wrestler, that wrestler being Jake Roberts. Rude got rough with her and Jake came to the rescue. This feud also consisted of Rick Rude wearing Cheryl Roberts, Jake’s wife, face on his tights, and Jake promising to rip them off. One week, Rude pulled down the tights he had on to reveal tights underneath with Cheryl’s face. Jake made good on his promise by running down to the ring, and stripping Rude of his tights. Viewers at home were treated to a censor box over Rude’s crotch, to make us think he was nude in the ring. Other major events during the summer of 1988 included the debuts of Big Boss Man and the Powers of Pain, along with the face turn of the Hart Foundation who fired long time manager Jimmy Hart. Dino Bravo got a new manager in Frenchy Martin, as Johnny V decided it was time to retire. So, with the stage set, let’s go to SNME episode 17, from Baltimore, Maryland.