WWF Saturday Night's Main Event XXII (July 1989)

Original Airdate: July 29, 1989

From Worchester, Massachusetts; Your Hosts are Vince McMahon and Jesse Ventura.


Opening WWF Title Match: Hulk Hogan v The Honky Tonk Man: Honky tries to jump the Hulkster with the guitar during the entrances, but gets beaten all the way up the aisle for his trouble. Manager Jimmy Hart tries to intervene, but ends up taking a guitar shot himself - and Hogan continues to hammer away - not yet even tearing off his t-shirt. Which somehow makes it cooler - like Action Figure Hogan in action. Atomic drop, and they spill to the outside, where Hart whacks Hulk with the guitar from behind. Honky stupidly goes for the countout victory (you'd really think he'd be the one guy to know better), and inside drives his knees into Hogan's back. Reverse chinlock, but Hogan powers up and rams the challenger into the corner. Honky makes one last crack with the Shake, Rattle 'n' Roll (a swinging neckbreaker), but Hogan starts HULKING UP!!, and shit. Fists of Fury! Big boot! Guitar shot! Legdrop! 6:14! Honky was a total non-threat at this point (despite the WWF's best video package effort to try and convince us otherwise), but they still put on a fun, well paced match. ½*

Greg Valentine v Jimmy Snuka: Ron Garvin is the special referee - as he was involved in an angle where he would referee matches, and get into fights with the heels - most famously against Valentine on a few occasions. You'd think the fact that Garvin had already gotten into a fight with Valentine before this would disqualify him from consideration as referee – but no. Anyway, Valentine jumps Snuka at the bell, and a series of elbowdrops gets a fair two count from Garvin. He dumps Snuka - also getting a fair count from Garvin - but when Snuka tries to get back into the ring, Valentine keeps blocking him. Garvin lets it go a couple of times, but eventually decides to reason with The Hammer by decking him, and Snuka sneaks in with a flying bodypress for the pin at 3:14. Garvin would be banned from refereeing shortly after, and continue to feud with Valentine. This was just an angle. DUD

Randy Savage v Brutus Beefcake: Beefcake clears the ring with his hedgeclippers, dumping Savage over the top - and since he's a real tough guy, he sets his sights on valet Sensational Sherri. Savage saves her from any Beefcake'ing, but gets thrown around back in the ring. Sherri tries a distraction to derail the effort, but Beefcake sees it coming, and catches Savage with a high knee for two. Another puts him on the outside, so Savage tries to hide behind Sherri to avoid any further punishment. That spot was always great with the dainty, innocent Elizabeth - but never had the same effect with Sherri, since fans hated her. The distaction does work well enough, though, and Savage drops a flying axehandle to the floor. Sherri gets in a couple of shots for good measure, and inside, a backelbow gets two. Neckbreaker, but Beefcake counter with a backslide for two, so Savage simply chokes him. Another flying axehandle, but Beefcake nails him on the way down, so Sherri gets involved again. Miscomunication sees her take a high knee – though it doesn't carry the same weight as when Savage crashed into Elizabeth on the Main Event a few months before, shocking the auidence. Beefcake backdrops Macho to the floor, so Savage tells Sherri to go for reinforcements. She returns with Zeus, as Savage takes a sunset flip for two. Sleeper, but Zeus runs in to break it up, and get Savage disqualified at 11:30. They beat him down - drawing out Hulk Hogan to make the save - but Zeus no-sells everything, and crushes him with a bearhug to build the SummerSlam main event. Savage looked good from a workrate perspective, but weak from a booking perspective - with all of his stuff either missing, getting countered, or outright failing – though that was psychologically sound, as it gave Zeus a reason to show up. Well paced, well worked match – despite the flawed nature of regulating Savage to working JTTS-style. ** ½

WWF Tag Team Title 2/3 Falls Match: Demolition v The Brain Busters: Ax and Tully Blanchard start - with Tully immediatly throwing a cheap shot and bailing to the floor. He doesn't count on running into Smash, however, and gets press slammed back into the ring. The Demos pinball him a bit in their home corner, but a four-way brawl quickly breaks out, with the champs cleaning house. The Busters go to the floor to regroup with manager Bobby Heenan, and back in we get Smash and Arn Anderson. Arn throws a cheap shot of his own, but gets choked out, and taken to the Demolition corner for some double team abuse. He shoots at Smash's knee to stop the effort, and gets the tag off to Blanchard, but he gets bearhugged. Eyerake allows him to tag back to Andrson, and a spinebuster finds its mark. Clothesline doesn't, however, and Smash stunguns him for the first fall at 4:30. The Demos continue to unload on Arn - nicely cutting the ring in half, as the match drastically slows down for some restholds. Anderson manages to break out of a headvice - allowing Blanchard a slingshot on Ax - and the Busters do their own job of cutting the ring in half. Another four-way breaks out, with the Demos dominating, and the Demolition Decapitaotr finishes at 9:30. Oh, but not quite, as the referee decides that the pinfall didn't count, as The Demos clobbered manager Bobby Heenan during the chaos, and disqualifes them. That doesn't stop them from continuing to demolish Tully, and yet another four-away brawl breaks out. The Demos have it under control, but Tully gets hold of a chair, and Anderson wins the titles at 12:33 - in the first title change on the shows history. Great back-and-forth tag match, if a bit repatitive with all the typical four-way brawl segments – though even those were well worked, as the Demos obliterated the Busters at every turn, only to walk into barrage after barrage of cheap shots, before finally losing the titles over one. ** ¾

Everyone offers some closing thoughts with Mean Gene Okerlund. They discuss Realpolitik, Détente, and, you know, other shit.

BUExperience: With SummerSlam right around the corner, this was fairly angle heavy (more so than usual, even) – but better off for it, as the angles surrounded good in-ring performances. The tag title switch makes this historically significant enough to warrant checking out, and the rest is all good fun from the last few months of the Golden Age.