WWF at Boston Garden (February 7, 1987)

Original Airdate: February 7, 1987

From Boston, Massachusetts; Your Hosts are Gorilla Monsoon and Ken Resnick

Hercules v Billy Jack Haynes: Hercules tries a sneak attack, but gets nailed, and Billy unloads with right hands, as Bobby Heenan stops by the commentary desk to talk about his relationship with Andre the Giant, and hype WrestleMania III. The angle with Andre turning heel and challenging Hulk Hogan to defend the WWF Title at WrestleMania actually aired earlier this same day on Superstars. Billy keeps unloading in the corner, and a clothesline finds the mark, but a corner version gets reversed. Hercules hammers him for a while, and he works a bootchoke, as Gorilla gives a good kayfabe reason for why Andre was never granted a world title shot: he goes from territory to territory, and thus doesn’t build an adequate record in any one place. Flimsy, but not bad, actually. Hercules with a short-clothesline for two, and a hanging vertical suplex gets two. Bodyslam sets up an elbowdrop, but Billy dodges. Hercules tries again, but Haynes rolls once more, and it’s comeback time in Boston! Press-slam looks to lead to the full-nelson, so Heenan hops onto the apron to distract him. Haynes takes the bait, allowing Paul Orndorff to come in with a cheap shot while the referee is distracted, and Hercules gets the pin at 10:18. This was really, really dull, with lots of punch/kick/nothing, and tons of space between big moves. ½*

The Hart Foundation v The Fabulous Rougeau Brothers: The Foundation's WWF Tag Team title is not up for grabs, as they’d just won the belts on TV earlier that same day (though the match was taped in late January). That sounds like quite the episode of Superstars. Bret Hart and Raymond Rougeau start, and they do some posturing, as Gorilla notes that the Brothers are destined to wear the tag gold around their waists eventually. Well, he was half right. They trade wristlocks, with Ray controlling, and it’s over to Jacques Rougeau for a dropkick to set up a splash for two. Hart bails to regroup, as Resnick considers it an embarrassment that the WWF tag belts are being held by guys wearing pink. Tag to Jim on the way back in, and Jacques tries to bodyslam him, but that gets reversed. Anvil tries a whip into the ropes, but Jacques reverses, and manages a sloppy powerslam. That didn’t look great, but it worked in the sense that Jacques shouldn’t be casually powerslamming a guy like Neidhart anyway. Tag to Ray, so Bret distracts him, and Anvil clobbers him. That turns the tide, and the Foundation go to work on Raymond, as the announcers hype up WrestleMania as the greatest event of all time. That might be one of the few times in history that doing that in advance of a show didn’t backfire after adding the benefit of hindsight. Ray gets some nice hope spots in, but the double teams keep cutting him off, until he manages to dropkick Bret over the top, and get a hot tag to Jacques - Roseanne Barr the door! Jacques hits Hart with a 2nd rope fistdrop for two, and a sleeper looks to put it away, but Jim saves. The Foundation try whipping them into one another, but it gets reversed, and Ray pins Bret following a combo at 10:52. Nothing special, but this was solid tag wrestling, unsurprisingly. * ¼ 

Ricky Steamboat v Sika: Sika attacks before the bell, but Steamboat gets fired up, and starts unloading with chops. Sika goes to the eyes to put a stop to that, however, and he dumps the Dragon to the outside. Ricky beats the count, so Sika cracks him with a knife-edge chop, and he works a choke in the corner to capitalize on the injured larynx. Steamboat ducks a shot, and manages to get upstairs for a flying chop. He makes a comeback, and a schoolboy gets him three at 4:03. Not much to this one, but, and I know this will be shocking: Steamboat is really, really good as selling. ¼*

Dino Bravo v SD Jones: Jones stupidly goes after Johnny V, allowing Bravo to attack from behind, and he goes to work. Cross corner whip gets reversed, allowing Jones a series a bodyslams, until Dino bails. Inside, Jones with an atomic drop, as Johnny stops by the commentary desk to rant (mostly just putting himself over). Jones works a wristlock, but Dino gets into the ropes, and Jones hits a boot while trying a corner charge. That allows Bravo to take control, and he dumps Jones to the outside for Johnny to bodyslam on the floor. “Right on the concrete,” notes Resnick - despite it being a very clear brown wood floor. Bravo vertical suplexes him back in for two, and a series of kneedrops is worth two. Gutwrench slam gets two, and the Boston crab looks to finish, but Jones powers out. Dino stays on him with a bodyslam, but a legdrop misses, and Jones makes a comeback - only to miss a corner charge, and get dropped with a sidewalk slam at 7:30. This was pleasantly energetic. ¾*

Main Event: WWF Intercontinental Title Lumberjack Match: Randy Savage v Bruno Sammartino: Macho attacks before the bell, and heads right upstairs for a flying axehandle, but Sammartino blocks. Bruno runs wild for a bit, so Macho tries bailing, but gets tossed back in by the lumberjacks. Sammartino keeps running wild, so Savage tries running again, but the lumberjacks are on him. Sammartino unloads with rights, putting Randy on the floor again, so we can establish the gimmick again. Bruno with a series of turnbuckle smashes, so Savage pulls a weapon out, and jams it in Bruno’s eye. That allows him to turn the tide, and Macho goes to work. He dumps the challenger to the outside for the heel lumberjacks to abuse, and Randy hits him with a flying axehandle for two. Elbowdrop gets the champion another two, and a shoulderblock sends him out again, but Bruno fights off the heels this time, coming back in on his own. He sends Savage into the turnbuckles a few times, then tosses Macho over the top - right at the feet of Ricky Steamboat! The Dragon gets some revenge before rolling Randy in, and Sammartino is ready with a bearhug! Savage looks to be done, but lumberjack King Kong Bundy runs in for the DQ at 4:15. Tons of energy and heat here, even if the actual work was nothing. Sammartino had great energy for a dude in his fifties, too. ¾*

BUExperience: This version omits Tama/French Martin, Koko B. Ware/Red Demon, Haku/Terry Gibbs, and King Kong Bundy/Pete Doherty. All of those matches ended up on the same episode of Prime Time that same month (which exists on the Network), so I have no idea why this is an edited version.

I won't give such a clipped version a rating, but I will say that you shouldn't bother with it. And nothing about those missing matches on paper makes me think the full version would result in a different conclusion.