WWF The Main Event V (Version II)

Original Airdate: February 1, 1991

From Macon, Georgia; Your Hosts are Vince McMahon and Roddy Piper

Hulk Hogan and Tugboat v Earthquake and Dino Bravo: Hulk's pop here is massive, it's no wonder they moved the belt back onto him. And this is in Georgia too, not New York. He starts with Dino, and Bravo tries to overpower him to start, but Tugboat advises him not to put up with that shit, and Hulk knocks Bravo around. Hey, who is he to disagree with a Tugboat? Tugboat works a wristlock, but gets taken down, and Earthquake tags - only to miss an elbowdrop. Back to Hogan for some fists of fury, and he busts out the bodyslam on the first try! Cross corner clothesline and a ten-punch count rock the Earthquake, and HOLY SHIT is this crowd on fire for Hogan! It's kind of shocking, actually, given how poorly he connected with WCW fans. Tugboat comes in for a tandem-big boot, but quickly gets into trouble, and gets worked over in the heel corner. They cut the ring in half on Tugboat, but he manages to reverse a cross corner whip, and hit an avalanche on Earthquake. That's quite ironic. Bravo uses Jimmy Hart's megaphone to prevent the tag, however, and they continue to cut the ring in half. Earthquake Splash looks to finish, but Hogan comes in illegally with a clothesline to save, and (hilariously) encourages Tugboat to 'swim' for the tag. Ha! Big boot finishes Bravo at 8:56. Shit match, but man, the heat was unreal. ¼* (Original rating: ½*)

We take a look back at the Royal Rumble, where Randy Savage screwed Ultimate Warrior out of the WWF Title

Backstage, Sgt. Slaughter stretches that poor title belt to its limits. Even Stu Hart never stretched anything that badly

WWF Title Match: Sgt. Slaughter v Jim Duggan: Duggan has Hulk Hogan in his corner, but the referee ejects him before the bell, since he doesn’t hold a manager's license. Feeling out process to start, with top heel Slaughter getting bounced around, and accusing Duggan of hair pulling. Hair? Really? Also, no wonder WrestleMania VII ticket sales bombed. Duggan continues to beat him from pillar to post, and even General Adnan gets taken out after interference backfires. Slaughter finally manages to turn the tide when Duggan telegraphs a backdrop, and he works his challenger over in dull fashion. That continues until Duggan gets bored, and cross corner whips him so Sarge can take his patented over the top bump in the corner. Jim follows to abuse him on the outside, so Adnan gets involved again, and Slaughter uses a chair - getting disqualified at 6:50. Seriously? A DQ? The guy they're hoping to sell 100,000 tickets on can't even go over Jim Duggan? He keeps beating Duggan with the chair after the bell, until Hogan makes the save, but ultimately gets beaten down as well. ¼* (Original rating: ¼*)

The Legion of Doom v The Orient Express: Animal starts with Kato, and controls with power. Kato starts running to sucker Animal into a chase, but fails to properly beat him down with the high ground advantage, and gets powerslammed. That brings Tanaka in, but Hawk cuts him off, and the LOD clean house! Dust settles on Hawk and Tanaka, and Tanaka gets to show off his selling, as Hawk slams him around. Kato tries a cheap shot, but it doesn't get any traction, and he ends up getting press-slammed by Animal, then clotheslined over the top by Hawk. The Express try another double-team on Animal, but that fails as well, so Mr. Fuji finally brings in the big guns - throwing salt into his eyes! That's enough to allow the Express to briefly cut the ring in half (and I mean BRIEFLY) before Animal shrugs them off, and tags. Doomsday Device polishes off Kato at 5:11. This wasn't even competitive - just an extended squash. * (Original rating: ¼*)

Gene Okerlund brings Jack Tunney out for an in-ring interview to announce who will face Sgt. Slaughter for the WWF Title at WrestleMania VII. Surprise, it's Hulk Hogan! I know, I didn't see that one coming either. This was so different than the long, drawn out segments you'd get today - the whole thing was a total of, like, three minutes. And just as effective as twenty!

Backstage, Sgt. Slaughter reacts to the news, and Hulk comes out to join Gene to do the same. They go full on with the hardest of hard sells, with Hogan talking about the troops, and even going so far as to lead the entire arena through the Pledge of Allegiance. Can't say they didn't try everything possible to make that angle work. You know, other than letting Slaughter beat guys the level of Jim Duggan, of course

BUExperience: Interestingly, this episode never aired as scheduled on the NBC affiliate in Los Angeles, as a breaking news story took precedence. It was never rescheduled either, which was kind of a kick in the balls when they were using this show to promote their upcoming pay per view in a 100,000 seat stadium in the LA area. Ratings for this were in the toilet anyway, where they landed right beside the reviews, and not surprisingly, this was the very last Main Event primetime special