WWF Primetime 2-11-88

We're only a few days removed from the big Andre title win/angle and Bobby Heenan wants to talk about immediately. The only problem is that Jack Tunney has placed a gag order on everyone to not discuss it until further notice. Bobby asked what about America and freedom of speech.

One Man Gang w/Slick v. Hillbilly Jim w/Little Beaver-Taped August 15, 1987 in Boston

This match, technically, was dreadful but the commentary was glorious. Beaver started by biting Slick's ass, stealing his hat, putting it on, and dancing around the ring. Johnny V on commentary said “if you were the Yankees and Beaver was your player to be named later, you'd end up with the short end of the stick.” Alfred Hayes tried to move on but he cracked up a little at that. They both tried to out power one another but they were even until Gang locked in a long headlock, and I mean LONG. Beaver came in and smacked Gang with his shoe in order to get Jim back in the match. Gang wanted a test of strength but Jim kept putting up the opposite arm.  Finally, they locked up and Gang won out and kept on this LONG test of strength. Before the lock, Johnny V asked if they were changing lightbulbs and he also asked “how'd you like Gang to knock on your door at 3AM asking for directions?” Beaver was lurking around the apron and Johnny called him a peeping beaver. The whole match, Beaver was interfering and the ref didn't care one bit. After Jim broke the test of strength with a boot, Gang started gyrating and gesturing like Akeem. 

At one point, Beaver bit Gang's ass in the corner and Alfred was hysterical at this. 

Gang was back on top and him and Slick took turns choking Jim, even with Beaver distracting the ref at one point. Gang hit an elbow drop but Beaver came in and broke the count. Slick then chased him with Jim following and then Gang. Jim punched Slick and Gang clubbed Jim from behind and tossed him into the ring. The ref called for the bell and counted out Gang after Beaver had hit him with a broom. Afterwards, Gang attacked Jim and Beaver and gave the latter a 747 splash and it was well worth it. I could see this match being re-worked on an episode of RAW or something. The heel kept getting the screws put to him but he ended up losing on a fluke. These guys worked a seemingly similar match on August 14, 1987.

Bobby thinks Beaver has found his niche in life, which is getting squashed like a grape. Bobby still wants to talk about the Indianapolis title match and he doesn't like being told what to do as the WWF told him to keep his mouth shut.

George Steele v. Wellington Wilkins-January 26, 1988, Hershey, PA

This was my first time seeing Wilkins and he has a weird haircut with patterns etched in the side of his head. He also has rainbow stripes going up and down his tights. Steele carried a chair to the ring and tossed it in and chased everyone out. Steele went for a turnbuckle but Wilkins attacked him although that was futile. Steele tossed him outside and tried to do it again but Wilkins didn't make it over and Steele just kicked him and tossed him out again. Then, he ripped a turnbuckle pad apart and rammed Wilkins into it, face-first. Steele hit his hammerlock lift for the win and attacked Wilkins afterwards for good measure. Just a squash match here but Steele is fun and Wilkins was strange.

Bobby noticed Dave Hebner was the ref for the last match and he figured he might as well talk about the Indy match and he called someone. He tried talking about it with the person on the phone but Gorilla yanked the phone away.

Craig DeGeorge had an update on WrestleMania IV and gave the date and location. Back in the studio, Bobby said Gorilla might as well just stuff a sock down his throat so he doesn't talk and Gorilla said he was thinking of that. Bobby said doing so would deprive the humanoids of their only pleasure in life which is seeing him and listening to him talk.

Omar Atlas v. Dusty Wolfe-January 25, 1988, MSG

Omar Atlas

This was joined in progress in a Wolfe armbar and everything was dreadfully boring with no heat. Wolfe was on top and Atlas had a couple hope spots. Alfred said Wolfe has great ability but he's lacking that certain something that makes him a star. Bobby said that he needs to go to the Terry Garvin school of self-defense and Vince asked “who is Terry Garvin.” Bobby said he is an old wrestler who breaks talent in and they talked about this for a minute or two. They did some mat wrestling akin to MMA stuff. Atlas was sent into the corner but he leapt to the middle rope and jumped over the incoming Wolfe and hit a back drop. Then, he hit a dropkick but missed a second even though he ended up rolling up Wolfe for the win. These guys had no rhythm and bad timing at times and the match was boring.

Gorilla was upset that Bobby was knocking Alfred, Vince, Atlas, Wolfe, and Terry Garvin during that last month. I'm thinking Garvin would probably have liked Bobby knocking him though. Bobby still wanted to talk about Indy and Gorilla said the gag order would be lifted next week.

Ultimate Warrior v. Hercules-January 27, 1988, Salisbury, MD

Warrior came out, jumped up top, and proceeded to hump the air like a rabbit. This match was about who was stronger and being that this is the WWF, the face will always win out. Hercules wanted a tug of war with his chain that seemed less thick today. Herc kicked him but Warrior grabbed the chain again and yanked it so hard it snapped in half. 

This enraged Hercules as no one messes with his chain and gets away with it. Warrior could have snapped Herc's mama in half and it wouldn't have been the same as his chain. He should've named his chain, especially seeing as how Ron Bass named his whip. Anyways, Herc exploded with a clothesline and choked Warrior with the chain until the ref called for the bell. Then, he pushed a couple refs out of the way and didn't stop his choking until a couple geeks came out to finally stop him, including Steve Lombardi. The Warrior still had enough power to chase him down as his music played. Doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose of Hercules attacking him?

Gorilla reiterated that the gag order would be lifted next week but Heenan said he might want to talk about something else next week.

Scott Casey v. Jose Estrada-January 25, 1988, MSG

Scott Casey

Estrada is the heel in this one. The match was not as boring as the previous jobber match on the show but it wasn't solid either. They started off grappling for a couple minutes until Estrada resorted to an eye poke and a choke to get the advantage. Estrada came off the top with a big right hand and tried to pin him but Casey pressed out hard. Estrada went up to the middle rope but he thought twice as Casey got to his feet and he came down. Casey started work on the arm and he kept trying to pin Jose out of an arm bar with the other arm hooked. Casey hit a big piledriver but wasted a lot of time covering him and Bobby didn't like that. They had some back-and-forth striking until Casey was thrown outside. He tried to get back in but Estrada hit his gut with a headbutt and Casey took his bump ass first to the floor. 

This both frustrated and fired up Casey and he then hit a sunset flip but Estrada kicked out. Casey missed a running crossbody but Estrada missed a neckbreaker which led to Casey winning with a shoulderbreaker. Again, this was loads better than the Atlas/Wolfe match but it wasn't great or anything.

Bobby said Casey hooked the trunks to win the match and then he informed the lady viewers to get ready for Rick Rude.

“Mean” Gene interviewed Mr. Fuji and Demolition. Fuji said 1988 will be his year and that he gets what he wants. Of course, Dibiase said the same thing a couple episodes ago. His team is training harder than ever, ripping through tires, climbing walls, and pushing trucks. Gene thinks they are looking past the team of Ken Patera and Billy Jack Haynes. Smash said the only people they trust are themselves because they are the best. Fuji wants them to break bones, so they do it. They will win the tag belts because Fuji wants it done. Ax said they're having trouble getting opponents because they all know it's a free trip to the hospital. Strike Force has been avoiding them and they don't have to prove anything to anyone except Fuji. Good stuff except Ax kept calling Gene Howard.

Rick Rude v. Jerry Allen-July 25, 1987, MSG

Allen actually gave Rude his first loss in the WWF in New Jersey on July 9, 1987. This was billed as Rude's debut at MSG and it was your typical enhancement match even though Allen got some offense in. Rude started by saying he wanted all the lizard licking men in the arena to keep quiet while he took his robe off so the women could see his beautiful body. They both exchanged shoves and Rude got upset after Allen's shove and went for a clothesline but missed and spilled outside to the floor. Allen was holding his own in the beginning until he went for a crossbody but Rude caught him and hit a nasty backbreaker. Twice Rude had the match won but he got up from the pin attempt. Then, he hit two snap suplexes and went for a third but Allen reversed it. Later, Allen had his comeback with no heat and he hit a monkey flip. When he went for a second flip Rude countered with an inverted atomic drop and then hoisted him up for a backbreaker submission and the win. Rude wore rainbow striped tights similar to Wellington Wilkins in his match.

Gorilla said Rude impressed people just by taking off his robe. Heenan said that many female reporters wanted interviews with Rude. Then, they looked at the Royal Rumble, specifically Dino Bravo's bench press challenge and the Jumping Bomb Angels winning the women's tag titles. Bravo needed a ton of help to get one rep up at 715 lbs from his spotter, Jesse Ventura. Frenchy Martin told Bobby that you don't have to go all the way up for the rep to count.

Craig DeGeorge had Jesse Ventura, Dino Bravo, and Frenchy Martin out for an interview. He thinks the lift at the Rumble was a tag team lift and Jesse replied that Craig doesn't know a thing about weightlifting and that he did a legal spot and didn't grab the bar. Dino said the same and Frenchy said something in French and that's about it.

Bobby said that all you have to do is lift the bar off your chest, even just an inch, for it to count as a legal rep. Of course, he's never lifted heavy stuff at the gym as he'd rather beat people with his mind. After a commercial, he was on the phone with Donald Trump's secretary requesting 2000 tickets for WrestleMania IV. Gorilla mentioned that he did the same thing last year and he stiffed everyone in the process.

Junkyard Dog v. “The Natural” Butch Reed w/Slick-January 27, 1988 Salisbury, MD

Butch Reed and Ryan Stiles

This match wasn't too good and I haven't become a JYD fan from watching this match, that's for sure. His strikes were horrible and some of his bumps were shoddy. Slick started by poking at JYD with his cane in order for Reed to attack him from behind. They exchanged strikes and Reed got punched outside where JYD rammed his shoulder into a post. From there, JYD tried to work on his shoulder but didn't last long. Heenan ran down “Superstar” Billy Graham because he was feuding with Reed at the time. They both sold out MSG at one point actually. They did a double clothesline spot and later a double punch spot but Reed got back up on the offensive both times. Reed had some offense like a swinging neckbreaker and even a piledriver but he couldn't put JYD away.

 Reed missed a double ax handle off the top and JYD had his comeback with his headbutts and strikes. Slick got up on the apron and JYD went right for him as the ref tried to get between them. Reed had the cane and nailed JYD with it several times while the ref was busy with Slick. This prompted Don Muraco to make the save but the ref saw him attacking Reed and called for the bell. He awarded the match to Reed by DQ. Gorilla said that this pairing could be a main event anywhere in the world. Did he realize Butch Reed was in the match at all?

Bobby wasn't sure how the cane got in the ring and Gorilla said that it must have walked in on it's own. To end the show, Bobby walked off the set as Gorilla was hyping next week's show about the Indy show. Turns out that Bobby took over the director's booth and said “I outsmarted you dummy” and laughed like a villain in a Bond movie. He started to talk about Indy and Gorilla called for the director to cut his mic and they did.

Not the best episode, especially with the matches and the lack of star power. It was great when Bobby took over the booth and he really felt he was in control until Gorilla killed him, as always.

I'll probably update with the next episode the week after next week.  I want to start work on a Demolition set I got a few months back and an old 1977 MSG WWWF show.  I figure I'll do the Demos set a few matches at a time.  As always, be sure to leave me comments and follow me on Twitter @stevesgraps for more pics.

Thanks