WWF Saturday Night's Main Event XXIX (April 1991)

Original Airdate: April 27, 1991

This was the last episode of Saturday Night’s Main Event on NBC, as the WWF’s declining ratings through 1990 weren’t showing any improvement, and NBC decided not to bring them back, after six years on the air. The WWF would make a deal with FOX to air the show twice in 1992, before shelving it for almost fifteen years.

From Omaha, Nebraska; Your Hosts are Vince McMahon and Randy Savage.


Opening Match: Sgt. Slaughter v The Ultimate Warrior: Slaughter stupidly tries to start the match on the top rope, and gets slammed off. Well, it was an original approach, at least. Warrior beats him from post to post, but gets outsmarted (no!), and dumped. Slaughter's cabinet (General Adnan, Colonel Mustafa) get their shots in, and back inside, Sarge works the back. Backbreaker (see, I told you!), and a bearhug. The hold drags on forever, and allows Paul Bearer to wheel a casket to ringside - as Warrior had begun a feud with The Undertaker. The distraction allows Slaughter to keep hammering, but Warrior BLOWS UP!! Series of Clotheslines! Diving Shoulderblock! Press slam! - but before he can hit it, The Undertaker sits up out of the casket, and everyone jumps the Warrior for a disqualification at 8:00. Hulk Hogan makes the save, cleaning house – all except for The Undertaker, who no-sells everything, and goes back to trying to kill Warrior. Really dull match, though well booked, as they obviously couldn't job either guy - cleanly or not – and developing the feud with the Undertaker was the best way to get around it. The match may have been bad, but the angles were exciting - particularly seeing The Undertaker completely no-sell for Hogan and Warrior. The crowds still didn't know what to make of the guy, but watching this, you could just tell he was going to be huge. DUD

WWF Tag Team Title Match: The Nasty Boys v The Bushwhackers: Oh my God, they actually booked this. It's like some sort of cruel joke mated with a horrible nightmare. And marinated in all four guys' sweat. Brian Knobs and Luke start, and predictably slug it out. It quickly breaks down into a four-way brawl - with the 'Whackers cleaning house - and the dust settles on Jerry Sags and Butch. Sags outsmarts him (well, The Bushwhackers are perhaps the only two guys dumber than the Nasties - it works) but gets double teamed, and another four-way breaks out. The 'Whackers clean house again, but Luke runs into a cheap shot – allowing The Nasties to cut the ring in half. Sags blind charge allows a tag to Butch, and he's an outhouse of arson. Unfortunately for him, Knobs supermarket sweeps him, and gets the pin with a little leverage from Sags at 6:48 As bad as expected, though not offensive. The crowd was actually wildly into the Bushwhackers, though thankfully Vince McMahon never pushed them as serious contenders. DUD

20-Man Battle Royal: Why not? We've got: Hulk Hogan, The Barbarian, The Big Boss Man, Mr. Perfect, Davey Boy Smith, Jim Duggan, Earthquake, Haku, The Orient Express, Power and Glory, The Rockers, Jake Roberts, Jimmy Snuka, The Texas Tornado, Tugboat, Greg Valentine, and The Warlord. Hogan's already WWF Champion, and Perfect is Intercontinental champ, and this isn't for either title (or shots) - but again, why not? Let's have a battle royal! Everyone waits for Hogan to do something before starting, and he goes right for Earthquake to kick things off. I guess that makes sense: Hulk's like royalty - no one touches their food before he does. Perfect actually decides to hang out on the ring steps for a while - wisely avoiding punishment early on - but eventually gets pulled in. Warlord dumps Davey Boy to continue their dull feud, and Earthquake gets rid of Jake Roberts to build theirs. Jake responds by whipping out his python, though really, that's quite rude. Hogan gets into a shove fest with friend Tugboat - who dumps The Hulkster - setting up his upcoming heel turn, and gimmick change - becoming Earthquake's new tag partner: Typhoon. Down to Shawn Michaels, Mr. Perfect, Greg Valentine, and Barbarian - with Shawn going right for Perfect. He nearly dumps him, but ends up getting Flair Flipped out. Meanwhile, Valentine is hammering Barbarian, but Perfect makes the save - forming an alliance. Unfortunately, a miscommunication puts Barbarian out, and that leaves him and Valentine to chop each other. Perfect teases elimination, but reverses Valentine in mid-air, getting the win at 12:30. This put Perfect over nicely, but as noted, he was already Intercontinental Champion - so it's not like it made much difference. Dull battle royal otherwise, though well booked to advance a couple of key feuds. ¼*

Bret Hart v Ted DiBiase: They fight over the initial tie-up - with a DiBiase cheap shot giving him control - but Bret starts unloading clotheslines to takeover. Clothesline puts DiBiase on the floor, and Hart follows out with a slingshot bodypress. Back in, Bret grounds him with a mat-based side-headlock, but DiBiase keeps rolling into two counts, so Bret lets off. Rollup gets him two, but DiBiase catches him with a stungun off of a criss cross. Well executed piledriver gets two, so Bret tries the rollup again, but DiBiase has it scouted this time, and dumps him. He rams him into the steps for good measure, and back inside chokes the Hitman - along with some help from manager Sherri. Bret takes the chest-first corner bump, and DiBiase locks him in the Million Dollar Dream - but Bret railroads him into the corner to break. DiBiase rallies with a 2^nd rope axehandle, but Bret nails him on the way down, and unleashes fists of fury. Inverted atomic drop gets two, and a Russian legsweep for two. Backbreaker sets up the 2^nd rope elbow for two, so Sherri gets involved again. Bret stupidly chases her on the outside - allowing DiBiase to jump him from behind - which draws out Roddy Piper. He handles Sherri with a broom (not the way you'd think - I mean he beats her with it), which distracts DiBiase enough to give chase. Bret makes another stupid mistake by going after him, and both guys get counted out at 9:56. It was nice seeing Bret work out his finishing sequence, but the psychology didn't work, as Bret prided his character on being a ring general - he never would have made such stupid mistakes. And certainly not twice. You might be able to gloss over it by saying that since Bret had just become a singles star he was disoriented - but no. It's just bad booking. Still, match was a lot of fun up until that - and probably would have been a classic with the addition of five minutes, and the subtraction of Sherri in general. * ½

Tito Santana v The Mountie: Mountie is Jacques Rougeau in a Canadian cop gimmick - whose main point of interest was that he'd tase people. Jacques dominates the initial lockup, but gets caught with an atomic drop, and dropkicked to the floor. Santana follows to... follow-up... and rams him into the apron. Inside, Santana jabs away, but gets dropped on his head off of a monkey flip attempt. Mountie stomps him, but a splash hits the knees, and Santana tries a comeback with the diving forearm - but Mountie manager Jimmy Hart gets involved. That allows Mountie to shock Tito with the Shockstick, and get the pin (by electrocution!) at 4:29. Just a squash. ¼*

Everyone offers some closing thoughts with Mean Gene Okerlund. They discuss Jean Jacques Régis de Cambacérès, Charles-François Lebrun, and, you know, other shit.

BUExperience: A good match with Hart/DiBiase, and a some fun angle development (particularly the bits with The Undertaker) make this fun – but definitely lacking the ‘can’t miss a minute’ atmosphere the show had a few years earlier.