WWF Prime Time Wrestling (September 15, 1986)

Original Airdate: September 15, 1986

Your Hosts are Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan from the studio

WWF Intercontinental Title Match: Randy Savage v Pedro Morales: From New York City on August 25 1986. Pedro dominates early, and gets a slam for two, then another one, so Macho bails, and chucks a chair at his head. Well, it’s a step up from a shoe. Morales pops him with a right hand anyway, so Savage pulls out a weapon, and rakes the eyes with it to blind the challenger. Randy uses a high knee to knock Pedro to the outside, and Macho follows to bash him into the guardrail out there. Macho with an elbowsmash on the floor, and he dives with a flying axehandle to really punctuate his point. Randy suplexes him back in for two, but another flying axe gets blocked with a gut-punch, and the champion falls out of the ring. Miss Elizabeth helps him back in, where Pedro greets him with some punches. Morales with a backdrop for two, and a sunset flip gets him another two. Macho tries a bodyslam, but Morales counters with a small package for two. Randy manages an elbowsmash to buy time, but Morales counters a snapmare into a backslide for two. Morales knocks him to the outside with a left hand, and the challenger follows to dish out some payback with the rail. Savage responds by grabbing a chair, but Morales dodges him, and Savage ends up eating a countout at 7:21. This was solid work. * ¼ 

Nick Kiniski v Les Thornton: From New York City on August 25 1986. We’re joined in progress as they do a test-of-strength, with Les stealing a takedown with the hair. A gutwrench suplex gets two, and a crucifix cradle is worth another two. Kiniski sweeps the leg and gets a leglock on, but Les escapes, and they slug it out. Les tries a front-facelock, but Nick counters to a hammerlock, and he grinds it on. Les counters back to the front-facelock after some battling, but Kiniski manages to counter back. Really basic stuff, but they’re doing a nice job with it. Les escapes and makes a proper comeback now, but Kiniski counters a slam into a bridging German suplex at 5:50 shown of 9:49. A lot was cut out here to give it a proper rating, but it was okay for what it was. 

Don Muraco v Haku: From the Big Event, August 28 1986 in Toronto Ontario Canada. Big criss cross goes his way with a couple of hiptosses, and he bodyslams Don - Muraco bailing to the floor. Back in, Don tries to fool him with a handshake, but Haku dropkicks him to the floor again in response. Well, that's just not very sportsmanlike. Back in, Haku works a wristlock, but walks into a cheap shot from Mr. Fuji, and Muraco takes over with a kneelift. He dumps Haku to the floor for Fuji to abuse with the cane, as I start envisioning Fuji pulling one of his signature pranks on Haku, and Haku's likely lethal reaction. Can you imagine if those two ever joined forces? Holy shit! Muraco with a bodyslam on the way back in, and he locks on a nervehold. Meanwhile, at ringside, Mr. Fuji takes notes, hoping to pass them on to a future client one day. Hope that works out for him. Haku escapes and starts throwing dropkicks, but misses a charge in the corner, and Muraco wraps his leg around the post. Don with a falling headbutt to the groin, and he locks on a figure four, but Haku gets the ropes. Don keeps after the leg, but a trip to the top rope gets him slammed back down, and Haku starts throwing chops. Flying bodypress looks to finish, but the time limit expires as the referee counts the fall at 11:25 shown of 20:00. No idea why they'd book a long, crowd dulling time limit draw like this here (especially such a slow one), but maybe they wanted people to have time to hit the merchandise stands? There was some clipping here (mostly around restholds), but even with the bulk of the resting trimmed, this was painfully boring. DUD

Ted Arcidi v Tony Garea: From the Big Event, August 28 1986 in Toronto Ontario Canada, and Garea is subbing for Tony Atlas.Arcidi displays his power by controlling through a trio of lockups, but Garea manages a headlock. Arcidi escapes, and they size each other up with some running shoulderblock stalemates. Back to the headlock by Tony, as the crowd suddenly turns their heads away from the action en masse. Must have been a fight. That or, well, this match sucks. It is weird to watch literally the entire crowd on the camera side with their backs to the action, though. Like, whatever's going on out there must have been crazy, and I kinda wish the camera guys would have focused on that instead. Pricks. Anyway, Arcidi with a bearhug at 2:41. Not that the crowd notices, though. DUD

Dick Slater v Iron Mike Sharpe: From the Big Event, August 28 1986 in Toronto Ontario Canada. Slater is sporting a Confederate Flag jacket here, which again, I'd love to see the reaction to today. Test-of-strength results in both guys taking cheap shots, and Dick gets the best of that one - Sharpe bailing. Back in, Sharpe begs off, but Slater hammers him in the corner, and hits something vaguely resembling a swinging neckbreaker. Russian legsweep follows, and a flying elbowsmash sets up a somersault cradle for the pin at 2:34 shown of 6:24. If that's what they left in, I shudder to think what they cut out! Another stinker, in a series of them here. DUD

On Piper’s Pit, Adrian Adonis came out to challenge him to a ‘battle of the bands’ style contest between their interview shows. Which Roddy Piper, of course, responded to with class and dignity

Ken Resnick catches up with Slick, and wonders where he got all of that expensive jewelry

On Tuesday Night Titans, Paul Orndorff promises to win the WWF Title. Well, good luck with that. Not many could get away with pairing a Rolex Day-Date with short shorts and flip flops, so points for that. Good thing he’s only tan and not black, though, or he might face an inquiry from Resnick

The Dream Team v The Fabulous Rougeau Brothers: From the Big Event, August 28 1986 in Toronto Ontario Canada. Dream Team attack during the weapons check, but the Brothers manage to take control, and clean house. Dust settles on Jacques Rougeau hitting Greg Valentine with a slingshot sunset flip for two, and a snapmare sets up a kneedrop. Tag to Raymond Rougeau with a mulekick and a kneelift for two, then back to Jacques with a jumping backelbow for two. Jacques grabs an abdominal stretch, but Valentine manages to hiptoss out, and tag to Brutus Beefcake with a bodyslam for two. Another shitty referee here, constantly out of position and slow counting. But then, he looks like Mr. Treeger from Friends, so we'll let it slide. Raymond manages to snapmare Brutus over for a seated senton splash for two, but gets pounded in the corner, and Valentine delivers a flying elbowsmash for two. Greg with a bodyslam for two, but Raymond manages a bodypress out of a criss cross for two. Tag to Jacques for a tandem dropkick into a somersault cradle for two. These guys are just BRINGING IT here! Cheap shot in the heel corner turns the tide, however, and Greg delivers an atomic drop as the Dream Team begin cutting the ring in half on Jacques. Raymond comes in for a four-way brawl, and the Brothers manage to reverse a battering ram, followed by an assisted swanton bomb on Beefcake for two. The Dream Team scramble to take it to the floor, allowing Valentine to ram Raymond back-first into the apron a couple of times to take the pep out of his step. Well, that'll do it. Inside, Beefcake press-backbreakers Raymond for two, and a kneedrop is worth two. Valentine tries a bearhug, but Raymond slugs free, so Greg fistdrops him for two. Back to the bearhug, and Beefcake adds a 2nd rope axehandle for two. Earringer works, but Valentine misses a pair of elbowdrops, and Jacques gets the tag! He's a maison of fire with bodyslams and dropkicks, but gets doubled up on in the wrong corner, and pounded. He manages to dodge a tandem clothesline with a double-dropkick, but misses a 2nd rope fistdrop on the Hammer! Valentine tries capitalizing with the Figure Four, but Raymond saves. That triggers another four-way brawl, and Greg tries for the Figure Four again, but this time Raymond catches him with a sunset flip to save Jacques, and gets the pin with it at 14:51 - despite not being the legal man. I never really cared for this one through multiple previous viewings (as a kid, or in the earlier review), but it's actually a helluva tag match, with good pacing and fun offense. ***

BUExperience: Showing matches from the Big Event was probably big, must see TV in 1986, but it’s 2023, and I’ve already seen the Big Event a bunch of times, so this just felt like a clip show to me.