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This is the second of about 8 Wrestling Challenges I have in my collection. I usually put match times for all matches, but since mostly these are 2-3 minute squash matches, I won’t include match times, as you found out from the last review. I don’t think I’ll recap as much either, just highlights of the match.
Tonight we have the famous Yokozuna/Jim Duggan match as well as the unveiling of the Narcissist.
-High Energy vs. Dale Wolfe/Ken Johnson-
High Energy would be Koko B. Ware and the Rocket Owen Hart dressed in the brightest, loosest pants you’ll see wrestlers wear and they were supposed to be high-flyers. We see this because Owen hits a LEAPfrog and then a dropkick, but he jumped really high for the dropkick! It’s funny to think that almost a year later, Owen would wrestling the best opening match in WWF history. Koko tags in and goes crazy. I am just pissed because Frankie isn’t with him. Owen tags back in after Koko doesn’t do anything. They hit their finisher a little while later and it’s over. Their finisher was that Owen held up the opponent and Koko hits a dropkick from the top as Owen rolls the fellow over for the pin. Effective, though they only ever pinned jobbers. Bobby just wonders how they wrestle in those pants. I’ve seen worse squashes. ¼*
Alfred Hayes shills the WWF Fan club and talks about The Giant Gonzales. If you don’t remember him, then good. I quickly press fast forward to avoid this bad memories. Whippleman and Gonzales cut a promo on the Underaker
-Damien Demento vs. Unnamed Jobber-
Gorilla just said the jobbers name, but I missed it. Demento, has you might be able to guess, is well, demented. He would wrestle in the ring and while he wrestled would speak to the voices in his head. Demento hits a neckbreaker then hits him with his LOADED knee pad for the pin. Didn’t last more than 2 minutes. DUD. I guess it’s sort of pointless to rate this matches since they’ll never be more than ½* MAX but hey, I do this for YOU.
-We get Sean Mooney again hyping upcoming houseshows and we get quick promos from Razor Ramon, Bret Hart and Kamala/Slick
-Razor is on the cover of the next WWF Magazine
-Hacksaw Jim Duggan vs. Yokozuna-
This is the match from Superstars where Hacksaw challenged Yokozuna. If you watched the WWF back in these times, you might remember them playing this A LOT on Raw and Superstars following the match. Fuji and Duggan start waving their respective flags and the crowd is absolutely pumped for this match. Yoko has incredible heat in this match. They set up in opposite corners and Duggan hits the three point stance. They charge and Duggan gets barrelled over. They stall and, two minutes later, we try again. Same result, except this time it looks like Yoko’s favoring his shoulder. More stalling. More charging and this time Yoko is knocked off balance! He doesn’t fall though. They charge each other one more time and Duggan ducks a clothesline and comes back with a clothesline of his own and Yoko is reeling….HE FALLS DOWN. Duggan and the crowd celebrate like he just won the title or something and Duggan starts waving the flag. Yoko grabs the salt however and marks in the front row try to tell Hacksaw that Yoko is behind him. Hacksaw gets the salt to the face and Yoko follows up with a belly to belly suplex, then a legdrop. The crowd is NOT liking this. They drag him to the corner and Yoko proceeds to hit 3 Bonzai drops on Hacksaw. Hacksaw of course is bleeding internally and we know this because blood is coming from his mouth. To add insult to injury, they drape the American Flag over Duggan and proceed to hit ANOTHER Bonzai Drop. That’s it, Hacksaw is officially dead. The fans are in stunned disbelief and Yoko gets booed out of the building. There was no match, but for some reason, I have remembered this match since it aired. I don’t know if people would consider it a famous moment in WWF history, but it was pretty shocking to see as a youngster when it first happened.
-Tommy Knight vs. Virgil-
For some reason, I don’t feel like recapping this match. I remember once in WWF Magazine how Virgil allegedly complained that he wasn’t on the cover or in the magazine enough, so one month, they had a special front cover in the back with Virgil. I just thought I’d mention that. Virgil hits a clothesline from the second rope and hits a Russian leg-sweep for the win. That’s a really shitty finisher by the way. DUD.
-Royal Rumble flashback to Heenan unveiling Lex and I posted my comments on this last episode, so we FFWD.
-Jim Brunzell/Gary Jackson vs. The Headshrinkers-
You may or may not remember Jim Brunzell as one half of the Killer Bees or as a tag team partner with Greg Gagne in the AWA. He was clearly on the way out as he was relegated to jobber duties here. The Headshrinkers didn’t wear boots and they ate raw fish. They were also Samoan. They were comprised by Sika and Fatu and Fatu you know now as Rikishi. Nothing of note going on in this match. Usual Samoan offense is used (chops, kicks, headbutts, because they have HARD HEADS!). and they hit a forward Russian leg-sweep which leads to a flying head drop from the top for three. ½*
-We get a Mr. Perfect interview who says he’ll make the Narcissist look like some scrawny guy in his tightie-whitey’s who he clothesline.
-Razor Ramon vs. Fat Jobber with a Mullet-
I’ll refer to the jobber as Kenny for reasons known only to me. Kenny takes a vicious Cuban beating until Razor applies the Abdominal Stretch. Kenny hits Razor and Razor responds with ANGER, and a his spinning punch. He takes Kenny down and slaps the back of his head in obvious signs of disrespect and heeldom. Razor hirs a backbody drop from the top rope on Kenny. Kenny’s dead so the Razor’s Edge leads to an easy three, BUT KENNY KICKS OUT! KENNY KICKS OUT!!! SHOOT SHOOT!!!! Actually that doesn’t happen. Sorry. ½*
More hyping for the Hartford Civic Center House show for Feb 21st. More promos, this time from Doink and Mr. Perfect. For reference, that particular card (based on Sean Mooney) was going to be:
Bret Hart(c) vs. Razor Ramon for the WWF Title
Mr. Perfect vs. Doink
Typhoon vs. Bam Bam Bigelow and
Kamala vs. Kimchee
-Also, a big annoucement from the Wrestling Challenge desk, Brutus Beefcake is coming back!! Well, we all know how THAT turned out. I just watched that Raw the other week in fact.
-Highlights for next week include Typhoon vs. Razor Ramon as well as appearences from Undertaker, Doink and MORE! Typhoon and Razor promos end the show.
Well, it was a better wrestling show than last weeks offering. Nothing to see though except the Yoko/Duggan segment which was on Raw many times following and is probably easier to get. Take a pass on this one.
Overall Wrestling Challenge Rating:
Match Rating: = 1.75/5 = .35
Interview/Backstage Segments Rating: = 0
Overall Enjoyment: 2.5
FINAL Wrestling Challenge RATING: = 2.5+.35/2 = 2.85/2 = 1.425
5.0 = Perfect: Highest Recommendation Ever
4.1-4.9 = Near Perfect: Highly Recommended
3.1-4.0 = Perfectly Acceptable Show: Recommended
2.5-3.0 = Some flaws but overall it’s good: Mildly Recommended
2.0-2.4 = More flaws than above: Middling, thumbs in the middle
1.1-1.9 = Bad show, few redeeming qualities: Recommendation to Avoid
0.1-1.0 = Horrible, don’t watch. Strong Recommendation to Avoid
0.0 = WORST, EPISODE, EVER
Final Rating: 1.425
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