WWF Saturday Night's Main Event XXVIII (October 1990)

Original Airdate: October 13, 1990

From Toledo, Ohio; Your Hosts are Vince McMahon and Roddy Piper  – as Jesse Ventura had left the WWF after a dispute about money (what else?), and wouldn’t return until his star had risen higher than the promotion itself: when he became Governor of Minnesota in the late 90s.


Opening Six-Man Tag Team Match: The Ultimate Warrior and The Legion of Doom v Demolition: The faces clean house before the bell, and Animal and Smash start all proper-like. Animal with a powerslam for two, and he goes for the arm, but Smash rakes the eyes and tags Ax. Warrior tags to unload on him – drawing the rest of the team in - but it's slams for everyone. Warrior tries to polish off Ax with a splash, but misses, and the Demos try to cut the ring in half. The flaw is that they're counting on Warrior to understand simple division, though, and he quickly gets the tag off to Hawk. He's a house of arson on Smash, and a flying clothesline looks to finish, but we have a six-way brawl, and Warrior CRACKS UP!! Diving shoulderblock, and splash finish at 4:59. Surprisingly short, though not particularly surprising considering the participants, and the fact that this was for television. Well paced match, otherwise – if unspectacular. ¼*

Dusty Rhodes v Randy Savage: Dusty's son (and future WWF and WCW star) Dustin Rhodes is in the front row watching. In other front row news, Savage is in full badass heel mode - ripping an Ultimate Warrior poster from a kid and shredding it right in his face. Dusty avenges the kid by using his gut, but Savage shrugs off a bearhug with an eye rake. Dusty manages a backslide for two, so Macho manager Sherri distracts him, and Savage hits a high knee to takeover. Kneedrop gets two, and hooks a chinlock to make room for an angle, as Ted DiBiase and Virgil show up, paying off the entire front row one-by-one with hundred dollar bills to clear out, so Ted can have a private front row view of current nemesis Rhodes' match. Psh, if he was really a baller, he would have bought off the first three rows. Nothing sucks more than having yourself a row, and then having some jerk from Toledo screaming in your ear about… Toledo shit… the whole time. They get everyone to clear out, but when they reach Dustin - he refuses, and throws the money back in Virgil's face. DiBiase and Virgil sit on either side of him for intimidation, as Dusty starts to make the comeback. He levels Savage with an elbowsmash, but gets distracted checking on Dustin, and Savage jumps him. Flying axehandle gets two, but a second try gets him nailed. Before Dusty can properly capitalize, however, DiBiase and Virgil beat the shit out of Dustin on the floor (drawing a super-rare television bladejob), causing Dusty to head out - and Savage gets the countout at 9:30. More angle than match - though the angle was a excellent, and well executed. The unfortunate repercussion is that Savage (one of the best wrestlers on the roster) looked like a chump - and he knew it, as he bitched Vince McMahon out around this period for his shitty booking and lack of satisfactory opponents. ½*

Hulk Hogan and Tugboat v Rhythm and Blues: Hogan and The Honky Tonk Man start, and Honky steers him into the R&B home corner for some double teaming. Hogan dodges a double-clothesline, however, and he and Tug pinball Greg Valentine in their corner. Tugboat bearhug, but R&B double team again with a cheap shot, and  cut the ring in half (punch, kick, chinlock, kick) before a missed elbowdrop allows a tag to Hogan. He's a house of arson, and a pair of big boots kill Valentine. Legdrop to finish, but Tugboat stops him, as Earthquake and Dino Bravo (their nemeses) are in the aisle. They shake their fists at each other, and Tug gets back to business with an avalanche, so Honky clobbers him with the guitar - and that's a disqualification at 7:20. Standard formula tag match - no one was going out of their way here. It didn't make sense that Tugboat would stop Hogan from hitting the legdrop to point out 'Quake and Bravo (why not just let him get the pin, and then deal with them?) - but would end up being a nice bit of foreshadowing for Tug's eventual heel turn, and allegiance with Earthquake a few months later. ¼*

WWF Intercontinental Title Match: The Texas Tornado v Haku: Tornado controls with a bodyslam, and quickly goes for the clawhold - but Haku bails to the floor. Back in, Tornado gets caught in a chinlock, but slaps on the claw, and a Discus Punch finishes at 3:10. Just a squash, but a really bad one - almost all restholds bell-to-bell. - ½*

Koko B. Ware v Sgt. Slaughter: Slaughter had turned full heel with his controversial Iraqi-sympathizer act by this point. Koko tries to armdrag him around, and a dropkick knocks the Sarge down. Stinger Splash misses, however, and Slaughter backdrops him for two. Backbreaker gets two, and another backdrop - but Koko counters with a swinging neckbreaker. Dropkick again, but Slaughter stunguns him off of a criss cross, and finishes with a noogie at 5:18. Yep, an actual schoolyard noogie was picked as the finisher for the next WWF Champion. Hell, even that stungun looked more credible. Thankfully, he would adopt the camel clutch as a finisher not long after, since, I dunno, I guess the whole ‘wrestler acts like a third grader’ thing wasn't cutting it. The crowd was somewhat apathetic to Slaughter's bit, though he would go on to draw terrific heel heat with it (along with a WWF Title win) later. ¼*

Everyone offers some closing thoughts with Sean Mooney. They discuss Ferdinand von Zeppelin, Charles Kingsford Smith, and, you know, other shit.

BUExperience: Other than the interesting Rhodes/DiBiase angle, a very dull, forgettable episode. Pass.