- The HITMAN383 Rant for WWF WrestleMania VII. This was in
the very thick of the WWF’s Gulf War angle as Sgt. Slaughter was the World
Champion and was set to take on American Hero Hulk Hogan. Also, a lot of the
story lines for this came about at the 1991 Royal Rumble, all of which is
available RIGHT NOW at HITMAN383’s Rant
Center. (This
was also written in early 2001)
- BTW, I use this system: ***** - Excellent, **** - Great,
*** - Good, **- Okay, * - Decent, DUD - Awful.
- Live from Los
Angeles, California
at the Sports Arena. This was originally set for the L.A. Coliseum, and in an
add campaign (‘Add’ because they wanted to add people into the building, I guess.
Or, I’m just a dumbass. Whichever) starting at WM VI the WWF tried to
get 100,000 people there. It failed, so they moved it here with a “bomb threat”
as the company line to explain the change.
- The whole deal reminds me of ANOTHER add campaign for a
certain Dome event in about three months. (Yep, early 2001)
- Your hosts are Gorilla Monsoon, and Bobby Heenan. Heenan
leaves a bunch of times to manage various wrestlers, so other people join
Monsoon throughout the night.
- Willie Nelson sings “America the Beautiful” to a strong
reaction.
- Opening Match: The Rockers vs. The Faces of Fear:
The heels are managed by Heenan, so we get Jim Duggan for commentary on this
one. Oh goodie. Shawn starts with Haku, and a criss cross leads to Haku
smashing Michaels into the corner. Another criss cross leads to Shawn hitting a
crossbody for two, and they exchange armbars. Haku wins that contest, and
pounds on the future HBK. The Rockers hit some choice double teams on Haku, but
Barbie runs in and kills both with a double 360 clothesline. The Rockers
quickly comeback, however, and superkick both guys out. When they comeback in
it’s Marty/Barbarian. Barbie chops him, and then whacks him with the WCW
Hardcore title. WTF? (Talk about a dated reference. Though, those
certainly help me pinpoint when these were originally written. For 2027 me:
Daniel Bryan, WWE Network, Daniel Bryan) Okay, that didn’t happen.
Jannetty hits a rana on him, and gets two off it. Haku tags in, and they hit a
double headbutt. Marty tries the rana on him too, but gets stungunned as a
result. Vicious one, too. Barbarian with a press slam, and the heels
double-team Marty Morton. Haku and Marty both try a crossbody at the same time,
and topple on eachother. In the heap, Jannetty gets a two count, but takes two backbreakers
as punishment. Barbarian rips his head off with a clothesline, and hooks on a
bearhug. Barbarian hits a powerslam, and goes to the top for a flying headbutt,
but it misses. Both guys tag, and Shawn is a house of fire! He back elbows Haku
for two, and then crossbodies the Barbarian. Neckbreaker on Haku for two, and
the crowd is going nuts! Sunset flip for one, and a brawl breaks out. The
Rockers double dropkick the Barbarian out, and Shawn hits a flying bodypress
from the top for the win at 10:32. Good choice for an opener, as the crowd got
pretty excited. ** ½.
- Mean Gene is backstage with some of the celebs for
tonight. Alex Trebek, Marla Maples and Regis Philbin are all there. This was
years before “Who Want’s to Be a Millionaire?” BTW. Trebek makes an ass of
Gene, which is always fun to see. I’m also surprised Regis and Alex didn’t
attack eachother, but there’s always WrestleMania XVII.
- Dino Bravo vs. The Texas Tornado: Odd to see today, as both
men have passed on. (Yeah, but they were alive at the time. Odd would be if their corpses
squared off today) Bravo jumps him to start, and clotheslines the
Tornado to the floor. Dino kicks his ass out there, and dumps him back in.
Kerry quickly takes control, and goes for the Claw, but Bravo blocks, and kicks
him in the face. He hits a backbreaker and two elbow drops for two. Criss cross
leads to a Bravo sidewalk slam for two, but he gets caught in the claw and
Discus Punched out at 3:10. Nothing match here. DUD.
- The Warlord vs. Davey Boy Smith: Slick doesn’t even
get funky :( The angle here is that Davey say’s he can break the Warlord’s full
nelson, but Warlord say’s he can’t. Things used to be so simple, back in the
day. Warlord throws him around a little to start, and they exchange
shoulderblocks (without anyone going down) to establish that they’re both big.
Finally, Davey knocks him down, and out of the ring. He tries a crucifix, but
Warlord hits a Samoan drop. He hits a series of elbow drops for two, and hooks
a bearhug on the Bulldog. Warlord with a stun gun for two, and wins a slugfest
with a belly to belly suplex. Chinlock time! Davey makes the comeback, and
dropkicks the Warlord into the corner for some abuse. Crossbody for two, and a
sunset flip for two. Davey gets a foot to the face off a charge, and Warlord
hooks on the Full Nelson. The fingers aren’t locked, however, and this is like
WrestleMania III all over again. Davey breaks out, and hits the Running
Powerslam for the pin at 8:14. Nothing match. ¼*.
- The Nasty Boys and the Hart Foundation trade insults, in
preparation for their tag title bout.
- WWF Tag Team Title Match: The Hart Foundation vs. The
Nasty Boys: Big pop for the Harts. Macaulay Culkin (Home Alone kid) is in
the crowd for this, but Gorilla misses the point of it, and just goes “Well
that youngster enjoying this WrestleMania.” I guess the big guy doesn’t get out
much. Bret starts with Sags, and Jerry hammers away on the Hitman. Bret gets a
Thesz Press, and hammers away, then cleans house on both Nasties. Big, BIG pops
for Hart. The singles push was just around the corner, too. Neidhart goes with
Knobs now, and the Anvil hip tosses the fat ass, then shoulderblocks him to the
floor. Bret gets in, and pounds the hell out of Sags, hitting the ten-punch
count. Russian leg sweep, and the 2nd rope elbow for two, then Knobs runs in
and attacks Hart. Sags takes advantage and clotheslines the Hitman to the
floor, making him the Ricky Morton of this one. Backbreaker for two, and Sags
hooks a Sid style chinlock. Brian gets tagged in, and does the same chinlock.
Then why the hell did you tag in to begin with? To do the SAME rest hold as
your partner? Bums. Sags tags in again, and hits a nice neckbreaker for two.
Back to the chinlock. Bret fights his way out, and connects with a neckbreaker
of his own, but can’t make the tag. Knobs goes to the chinlock again, but Hart drops
him right on his head to stop it. The Nasties miss a tandem move, and Bret
finally tags, but the ref. doesn’t see it. The Nasties accidentally hit
eachother with Jimmy Hart’s mega-phone, and now Bret gets the hot tag to Jim.
Neidhart beats up both guys, and nearly pins Knobs off a clothesline. Powerslam
for two, and a brawl breaks out. In the chaos the Hart’s hit the Hart Attack on
Sags. Jim covers, but the ref. is distracted with Hart, so the Nasties nail Jim
with the mega-phone, and win the titles at 12:08. The crowd is pretty shocked
over that one. The match was crap, but led to the Bret hart singles push (Which
was the antithesis of crap). * ¼
- We get a review of the Rick Martel/Jake Robert’s feud,
where Martel “blinded” Jake for a couple months, and now Jake wants revenge.
For poetic justice, they decided to make it a blindfold match, which means both
guys have to wear masks for the whole match. How do YOU think that worked out?
- Blindfold Match: Jake Roberts vs. Rick Martel: To
my knowledge, they could see through the blindfolds. This is pretty stupid, as
both guys just walk around looking for eachother. Jake would point, and by the
crowd response, he’d look for Rick. They find eachother and do a little
sequence, and then they search some more. Rick finds, and slams Jake, but misses
an elbow. Both guys accidentally attack the ref. thinking it was the other guy.
Cute, but this match is crap. It goes outside, and Rick finds a chair, which he
jabs around with. He accidentally hits the post, which hurts his hand, and Jake
drags him in. Martel with a backbreaker, and he hooks the Boston Crab, but
Roberts breaks out. He finds Martel and DDT’s him for the pin at 8:33. The
match served it’s purpose of getting Roberts revenge, and the crowd was hot the
whole way through, but it was bad wrestling, for sure. - ****. (I
upgraded this to a ‘DUD’ in the BUExperience. Bad, yes, but it was never meant
to be a true ‘match’ – just entertainment) Afterwards, Jake has some
fun with Damien. And not the same kind of “fun” he had at Hero’s of Wrestling
either, thank G-D.
- Marla Maples interviews the Nasty Boys. It doesn’t go
well, to say the least as all of Jimmy Hart’s men dump Champagne everywhere.
- The Undertaker vs. Jimmy Snuka: Monsoon calls Snuka
the “phoneme,” which oddly is what they would go on and call the ‘Taker. Good
face pop for the heel Undertaker, and the crowd STILL doesn’t know what to make
of him. Staredown for the first minute of this, and the ‘Taker attacks. He
pounds him around the ring and connects with his flying clothesline. Big
“ooohs” from the crowd after that one. The Superfly bumps to the floor off a
knee, and UT suplexes him back in. Good one too. He misses an elbow, but sits
right up. Snuka hammers, but it’s all no-sold. He dives at him, but UT moves,
and Snuka flies all the way over the top to the floor, in an impressive bump.
He’s easy pickings for the tombstone after that, and we’re done at 4:19. ¼*,
but this was the beginnings of what would end up being one of the biggest eras
in the WWF of all time. (Interesting that in 2001 I didn’t even make
note of The Streak as it wasn’t really considered a ‘thing’ until a couple of
years later)
- We get a review of the big Ultimate Warrior/Randy Savage
feud, all of which would lead to the big career match here tonight. This is one
my favorite feuds of all time, too.
- Before we get started, Heenan notices that Liz is in the
crowd for this. How could he see her from so far away? I mean she’s like WAY
over at the entrance area. It would have been much more realistic if they had
her at ringside, and Heenan saw her. (Maybe he saw her on his way to and from the
ring as a manager earlier) It’s okay though, what we’re about to see
makes up for that, AND MORE.
- Career Match: Randy Savage vs. The Ultimate Warrior:
This is back when career matches MEANT something, and didn’t go down every
single week. Of course, it wouldn’t last anyway, but still. Both guys get BIG
heat for their entrance, and Warrior proves that he HAS a brain, and DID learn
from WrestleMania VI as he WALKS down instead of running and blowing up. Both
guys pose to start, getting the crowd further into this. They do some false tie
ups, and Warrior shoves Savage to the mat. One shoulderblock later, Savage
bails. He tries a sneak attack, but the Warrior hits a double chokeslam, and an
atomic drop. Hell, this is NON-STOP, and it’s freakin’ WARRIOR! Sherri runs in
now, so Warrior slams Savage into her in a nice spot. Randy gets tied up in the
ropes, and Jim kicks away. He gets loose, and clotheslines the nutcase down. He
tries a crossbody, but Warrior catches him, but instead of slamming him, he just
sets him down and slaps him across the face! Shit. That was cool. Randy bails
after that, obviously not knowing what to do. He smartly throws a chair in to
distract Warrior, and attacks, but it backfires and Jim continues the ass
kicking. He is just dominating the Macho Man at this point, with Savage getting
no offense in! Warrior misses a charge to the corner, however, and goes
toppling to the floor (with the old Sgt. Slaughter bump) (Well, if ever there was a show
where that was appropriate) where Sherri goes to work. Warrior gets
sick of her, and shoves her to the floor, so Savage kicks his ass in return.
Back inside, Savage hits a slam for two. He tries a neckbreaker, but Warrior
turns it into a backslide for two. Randy bails again, and again tries to Pearl Harbor him, but Warrior clotheslines him down. He
misses a splash, and Savage smashes his head to the mat for two. This crowd is
psycho right now! Savage hooks a chinlock, which marks the first time this
thing has slowed down in the first ten minutes. Sherri, for her part, is going
bonkers on the outside like a caged animal. Warrior powers out, and they do a
double clothesline spot. Sherri does everything she can to revive Savage, and
does, allowing him to get a jump start on Warrior. He tries a slam, but Warrior
gets a small package out of it! The ref. is caught up with Sherri, however, and
by the time he notices, Randy kicks out at two. Warrior bitches at Earl about
the count, so Savage knees him from behind, bumping the ref. This allows Savage
to hold Warrior for Sherri to hit, but she misses a double ax, and Jim chases
her around ringside. Randy catches him with a roll up for two, and then rams
him into the corner out of desperation. He hits a stun gun type move, and slams
Warrior for two. Macho goes to the top, and the crowd gets worried as he hits
the Big Elbow. He’s not done yet, however, as he hits another, and another, and
another, and yet ANOTHER! The crowd gets hotter with every one of those FIVE
big elbows, and Savage makes the dramatic cover for … TWO?!? Savage, and the
crowd, are in shock, but Randy keeps hammering. Warrior makes his madman
comeback, and beats the Macho Man six ways from Sunday with a series of
clotheslines. He hits his big powerslam/splash spot, and makes the dramatic
cover for … TWO?!? Again, EVERYONE is shocked now, and Warrior REALLY looses
it, talking to his hands. He questions if it’s his destiny to lose, and starts
walking out as Savage crawls around the ring, half-dead. As Warrior keeps
talking to his hands, Randy attacks, and drapes him over the rail. Sherri holds
him for good measure, and Randy goes for a top rope double ax, but hits the
railing instead! Warrior talks to his hands again, but this time gets a
different response, and goes in for the kill! He hits a Warrior Line, but it
knocks Savage to the floor. Back in, he hits another, but again Savage flies to
the floor! He drags the Macho Man back in for a third, which ALSO sends him to
the outside. Warrior pulls him in after all that, and covers with one foot for
the pin at 20:50. The crowd goes WILD after that, but the pop is somewhat dull
as the fans feel for Savage too. After Warrior walks out, Sherri comes in and
kicks the crap out of Savage because he lost (and therefore she has to leave
too). This gets more sympathy for Savage. Liz, at ringside, can’t see anymore
of it, and runs in, taking Sherri out to a big pop. She goes to comfort Savage,
but he thinks it’s still Sherri so fights her off. Eventually he comes to his
senses, and sees it’s Liz. He doesn’t know what to make of it all, but after
thinking it over (and BIG crowd reactions), the two embrace to a monster
ovation. Savage holds her up afterwards, and everyone in the building is moved
to tears. Now THAT’S how you do a great angle. Liz holds the ropes open for
him, just like old times, but Savage refuses. He moves her, and does the classy
thing, holding the ropes open for HER! Now THAT’S how you do a great angle.
Warrior looks great because he won, and Savage leaves as the TRUE winner.
Absolutely amazing. The match is about **** ¾, but with all the stuff afterwards,
I have to call this a ***** segment. (I downgraded the actual match to ‘only’
****, but this is absolutely one of the best segments of all time)
- Vince McMahon, George Steinbrenner, Paul McGuire discuss
the instant re-play rule. This is one of the crappiest segments I’ve ever seen,
as Vince over-acts like crazy and the whole subject is just a stupid thing to
have on WrestleMania. Where’s WrestleCrap when you need ‘em? BTW, what kind of
suits did Vince used to wear, anyway? That’s just … bad. (Hilarious to watch when the WWE
does Old School RAWs these days, and they dress the announcers in those suits)
- We go to intermission, and when we comeback from it,
Heenan seems really off. I mean, something just seems … wrong. Maybe it was the
whole Savage thing.
- Backstage, Regis tries to interview The Undertaker, but
instead the ‘Taker just measures him for a casket.
- Regis also tries to interview two Japanese wrestlers, but
they don’t speak any English, and think he’s Kathy Lee.
- Trebek tries to interview Jake Roberts, but it’s Hero’s of
Wrestling all over again.
- Back to the, you know, wrestling now.
- Demolition vs. Tenryu and Kitao: Demolition was at
the end of their ropes as a team by this point. The Demo’s jump them from
behind, as I notice A LOT of the front row still isn’t back from intermission.
It’s Donald Trumps party, too. Backstage? A big brawl breaks right out, and the
Demo’s kick more ass. We also get this funny exchange:
Gorilla: Do you know what it takes to be a Sumo Grand
Champion?
Bobby: Sure, ya gotta eat 100 bowls of rice with only one
chopstick!
- I love Bobby Heenan. I’m sorry the play-by-play is a
little weak on this one, but I can’t be bothered with this. (Savage/Warrior
was really a showstopper, and even an intermission wasn’t enough to truly get
back on track after) Tenryu gets the hot tag and kills the Demo’s, but
misses an elbow from the top. Crush hits a backbreaker, and Smash hits a side
suplex. They try the Decapitator, but it doesn’t work out, so Tenryu powerbombs
him for the win at 4:40. Crappy little match, which didn’t serve much purpose.
The Demo’s were just about done, and the Japanese guys never went anywhere in
the WWF. ¼*.
- WWF Intercontinental Title Match: Mr. Perfect vs. The
Big Bossman: This came about as the Heenan Family continually made fun of
the Bossman’s momma, and he ran through all the members leading to Hennig.
Heenan is with Curt, so we get Alfred Hayes to take his place for this one.
Great. They spit at eachother to start, and then have a little slapfest.
Perfect, ever the over seller, does a flip off a slap. Bossman does the Woman’s
Title Match special, hitting hair slam spots. Bossman runs through Perfect, and
tosses him to the floor. Damn, Bossman is full of energy tonight. Curt takes
his famous corner flip bump, and Bossman hits the Nash-rope choke spot. Bossman
whips Perfect with his belt a little, but Hennig steals it away and goes to
work on the Bossman. Trump is back, BTW. Slugfest won by Hennig, and he works
on the back. Dropkick for two, and Curt chops away. He hits a snapmare, and
then his patented jumping neck snap. He tries the Perfect-plex, but Bossman
gets a small package for two. Hennig hits the jumping neck snap again, only
this time in reverse. He tries a move from the top, but hits the foot, and
Bossman kicks his ass for some more overselling. He crotches him on the post,
and continues pounding away. He makes the mistake of chasing Heenan, and
Perfect rams him to the steps. Bobby gets a few cheep kicks in, for old times
sake, but Andre the Giant (a disgruntled former Heenan employee) comes out to
keep things fair. This is his last WM appearance, BTW. He takes the IC title
for safe keeping, and when Curt complains about it, Andre bashes his brains in.
The crowd smells a new champion, but Bossman’s cover only gets two. The Faces
of Fear then run out to attack, causing a DQ at 10:43 to save Curt’s title.
Huh? What kind of ending was that? Bossman should have won the gold here, but
whatever. * ¾. Afterwards, Bossman and Andre celebrate together.
- Gene is in the crowd with Donald Trump. Gene and Donald
promise another WrestleMania from Trump
Plaza. So much for that
plan. Eh, if they don't sell out for WM XVII, they can always say snipers were
going for the Rock and move it to Trumps place, right? Gene also talks with
Chuck Norris, The Fonz (!!), and some bodybuilder guy. They all like
WrestleMania, just incase you thought otherwise. I mean, Gene always goes “are
you having a good time her at WrestleMania?” What’s the guy supposed to answer?
“Naw, the beer sucks, and these rednecks are starting to get on me nerves.” ?
- Earthquake vs. Greg Valentine: Heenan’s back,
thankfully. ‘Quake just squashes the hell out of him here. Greg gets in some
token offense, like some elbow smashes, and, well, nothing. His whole offense
piece is about 90 elbow smashes. A tribute to Dusty? Earthquake goes down off
an axehandle, and Greg tries the Figure Four. Jimmy Hart gets in the way,
however, and one butt splash later, Earthquake is your winner at 3:15. DUD.
- The Legion of Doom vs. Power and Glory: Power and
Glory are Hercules and Paul Roma. Big pop for the LOD, here. The heels jump
from behind, before the bell, but the LOD quickly take them out. The big brawl
keeps going, and Roma takes a powerslam, followed by the Doomsday Device to end
this at :58. DUD, but the crowd loved it.
- It’s obvious this show is running low on time at this
point. Earlier everything was getting between 7-10 minutes (even crap matches),
and now everything’s down to 1-3 minutes. (And thank God too, because the second half
of this show drags terribly and was just dead in the water until the main event
– nothing able to follow Savage/Warrior)
- Review of the DiBiase/Virgil feud, where Virgil finally
breaks away from Ted and clobbers him with the Million Dollar Belt. For more on
this, go find my ‘Rumble ’91 review on this site.
- Ted DiBiase vs. Virgil: This was a big deal at the
time, as Virgil FINALLY broke away from DiBiase (after 3 years of abuse) and
went to Roddy Piper to train him for this big match with DiBiase. Piper comes
out on a crutch (from a fictitious motorcycle accident, I believe) and gets
Virgil pumped up for this one. Big pop for Virgil, and a “Virgil” chant on top
of that. He boxes DiBiase to start, and when Ted tries the same, he gets his
ass handed to him, and bails. Ted comes back in, and tries to box him again,
but he just does not learn, and gets pounded again. We move away from the
boxing crap, and Virgil clotheslines him around. Yeah, much better. Back elbow
for two, and Ted bails out for the third time. Ted gets him down with a
drop-toe-hold, and chops away. He hits a back elbow, and yells taunts out at
Piper while working over his former bodyguard. Ted with a piledriver for two,
and a suplex for two. Gutwrench suplex for two, and it’s obvious Teddy is
trying hard to save this crap-fest of a match. To the outside, and Ted chops
him right in front of Trump. Piper gets in his face, so Ted shoves him over
(crutches and all) to BIG heel heat. Back in, Ted hits a powerslam, and when he
tries to bounce off the ropes, Piper pulls it down with his crutch. Ted falls
to the floor, and beats the helpless Piper again, but while he’s out there, he
gets counted out at 7:38. About ¾* here. Afterwards, DiBiase chokes out Virgil,
but Piper comes in and whacks him with the crutch to save him. Sherri runs out
to stop the assault, and becomes DiBiase’s new manager in the process. So much
for Savage, eh? The faces run the heels out, but Piper won’t let anyone help
him up (whacking anyone who tries to in the balls with his crutch) (That
ball-whacking was awesome stuff), and fights his way to his feet to a
big pop.
- We take a look at some of the heinous acts Sgt. Slaughter
has committed (like burning a Hulk-a-Mania shirt, which makes him a hero to
some). After that, we get a Sgt. Slaughter interview, where he yells and
screams various things at the Hulkster. Not that it’s THAT bad of a promo, it’s
just really goofy.
- The Mountie vs. Tito Santana: This is the
traditional pre-main event squash. It sits with greats like Duggan/Bad News,
Rude/Snuka, Owen/Skinner and many more. (Now we just get Diva matches in its place.
You choose: Skinner, or Eva Marie) Tito hits his flying forearm about
20 seconds in, and Jacques bails out. Tito drags him back in for an atomic
drop, but the Mountie gets his shock stick and zaps Santana (without goofy
sound effects, unfortunately) for the win at 1:21. DUD.
- Hogan cuts a promo on the Sarge, promising victory here at
WrestleMania. Give it to Hulk, he is one of the most intense interviewee’s of
all time.
- Main Event, WWF Title Match: Sgt. Slaughter vs. Hulk
Hogan: This is the big payoff to the Gulf War angle (part I), and then Part
II gets settled at SummerSlam. The guest ring announcer is Alex Trebek, Marla
Maples is the timekeeper, and Regis is on commentary with Gorilla and Bobby.
Big pops for the celebs. Huge heel heat for Slaughter, and a big face pop for
Hogan. Hogan chases the Sarge around the ring to start, and then they stall as
Slaughter gets out of his uniform. Once they tie up they go at eachother like
two pitbulls, as a “USA”
chant goes up. Hogan hooks a standing side headlock, and a criss cross leads to
a Hogan shoulderblock (sold with zeal, as the Sarge does a flip.) It spills
out, and Hogan attacks. Slaughter’s manager distracts Hulk, and allows
Slaughter to bash him with a chair. It’s no-sold, however, and Hogan beats him
back inside. The Sarge begs off, and when Hogan goes in for the kill, he pokes
the eyes. Slaughter goes to work with his usual, elbows and knees, but Hogan
comes back with a clothesline. Hogan with an atomic drop for two, and this is
pretty non-formula for a Hogan match. Outside for back scratches, and inside
Hogan gets two off a clothesline. He rams the Sarge to all the posts, and hits
a backdrop. Slaughter takes his usual corner bump, only he falls to the mat,
instead of to the floor. Hogan slingshots him to the post, and hammers away.
Chops by Hogan. Ten-punch count gets him two, and Hulk goes to the 2nd rope for
a botched axe handle. It was botched because Slaughter’s manager grabbed the
leg, and he wasn’t supposed to do that until the 2nd spot. He drops a series of
elbows, and goes all the way to the top (!!), but gets slammed off thanks to
the manager. See, that’s where he was supposed to interfere, not the axe handle
spot. Slaughter clotheslines him to the floor, and follows out for some abuse
to the post. He cracks a chair on Hogan’s back, and then uses a TV cord to
choke him out for good measure. A “Hogan” chant breaks out to inspire him. It
doesn’t work, however, as the Sarge keeps pounding away. Backbreaker for a very
close two, and Slaughter keeps hammering the back. He gets a Boston Crab on
Hogan, but stupidly does it right next to the ropes. Hogan, dumbly, tries to
power out, but eventually abandons that strategy, and grabs the bottom rope.
Slaughter goes to the top, and drops a big knee to the back (good one too), for
a dramatic two count (for some reason Slaughter’s manager was distracting the
ref. at that point. That’s TWO mistakes in one match, dumb ass.) Slaughter
bails out after that, and grabs another chair, then whacks Hogan over the head
drawing a blade job (on camera, too). It’s a pretty good one, though. He hooks
the camel clutch, and the crowd is going crazy here. Hogan stands up out of it,
but gets rammed into the post anyway! The Sarge then adds insult to injury,
draping the Iraqi flag on the Hulkster’s body, and making the cover. It gets
two, and Hogan starts to hulk up! He tears up the flag (to really big pops),
and hits the big boot/leg drop combo to win the match (and the title) at 20:19.
Pretty long, but good, actually. A lot of people hate this match because of the
Gulf War angle, but I like the angle, SO THERE! Really solid, considering who
was involved, too. *** ¼.
- Bottom Line: Like I said above, a lot of people
hate the title match (and this whole show) because of the Gulf War angle, but I
don’t. Quite frankly, I thought it was a good angle, with tons of heat for all
involved. As a show, this is pretty good too. Warrior/Savage is an excellent
match, with excellent booking all around it, which is one of the best segments
in WWF history, to this day. The title match is pretty good, too. No real
complaints here.
- Recommended show.
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