WWF at Boston Garden (February 11, 1989)

 

Original Airdate: February 11, 1989

From Boston, Massachusetts; Your Hosts are Rod Trongard and Lord Alfred Hayes

Opening Match: Jim Powers v Iron Mike Sharpe: The idiot referee rings the bell before Powers gets his entrance gear off, and Sharpe attacks. Well, the bell rang, he wasn’t wrong. Powers fights him off, and Sharpe ends up on the outside, fuming. Back in, Sharpe gets a standing side-headlock on, but Jim escapes, and Sharpe ends up on the outside again. Mike asks for a test-of-strength on the way back in, and immediately takes a cheap shot to get control of it. Powers escapes, and cross corner whips him, with Sharpe hitting the buckle with his shoulder. Jim stays on the part with a few legdrops, and he holds an armbar. Sharpe gets into the ropes, so Power uses an atomic drop, and Sharpe ends up tied in the ropes. Jim charges, but hits a boot, and Mike ropechokes him. Sharpe goes to work, but Powers manages a bodypress for two during a criss cross, and Jim goes on the comeback trail. Backdrop, but Sharpe blocks, and goes back to work. Piledriver, but Jim backdrops him to block, and makes a comeback (for real this time). A dropkick looks to finish, but Sharpe is in the ropes at two. They criss cross from there, and Sharpe looks for something, but gets powerslammed before he can find it at 11:07. A perfectly solid, watchable opener. * ½ 

Koko B Ware v Boris Zhukov: Stalling from Zhukov to start, and he hiptosses a frustrated Koko. A bodyslam follows, but he gloats, and Koko schoolboys for two, so Zhukov bails to stall again. Koko hammers him down and delivers a fistdrop for two, but Zhukov fights him off in the corner, and stomps Ware down. He adds some ropechoking ahead of a bearhug, but a headbutt drop misses, and Koko makes a comeback. A missile dropkick finishes for him at 9:01. Total junk for a match this long. ¼*

Bad News Brown v Pete Doherty: Pete is subbing for Rick Martel here. Pete tries charging in, but that shit doesn’t fly with Bad News, and Pete gets a grade-A beatdown. Brown with a bodyslam, but a splash misses, and Pete manages a legdrop. He starts openly biting Brown, and that shit actually works! Go Pete! That goes on for a while, with an extreme amount of leeway from the official, before Brown gets suck of it, and blasts him with the enzuigiri at 4:57. DUD

The Fabulous Rougeau Brothers v The Bushwhackers: Ugh, why? The heels try attacking to kick start the match, but the Bushwhackers clean house. The Brothers manage to pound Butch down, and Raymond Rougeau gets an abdominal stretch on, so Luke comes in and starts biting everyone. I really hate the Bushwhackers. I feel I need to repeat that often. The heels get control of Luke to trigger the actual heat segment, and they go to work. They hit Luke with the somersault senton combo, but Butch saves at two. Luke manages to get away from Raymond long enough for the hot tag - Roseanne Barr the door! The Bushwhackers get over excited, however, and end up shoving the referee down (for no reason) for the DQ at 14:38. The Rougeau’s are good workers, but come on. DUD

Big John Studd v Akeem: The ‘Akeem’ gimmick was so openly racist that I have no idea how it was acceptable in a mainstream promotion as late as 1989. They do some measuring to start, just lots of posturing. Akeem gets control and delivers an elbowdrop, but a bodyslam attempt fails, so Akeem just clubs him with forearm after forearm. In dull fashion. Akeem with a bootrake, but another bodyslam attempt fails, so he throws a clothesline instead. Akeem adds a legdrop, and he tries the slam again, but John topples him for two. Studd makes a comeback from there, so Akeem hits him with an avalanche, and John ends up on the outside. Studd pulls Akeem out as well, and they slug it out for the ultra lame double countout at 7:56. That finish was really poorly done, with them just kind of going to the outside for no logical reason. -¼*

Ron Bass v Paul Roma: Bass attacks as Roma plays to the crowd, and lands a backelbow right away. Ron unloads in the corner, and a cross corner whip rattles Roma. Another one, but Roma blocks with a 2nd rope bodypress, and he throws a pair of dropkicks, ahead of a headscissors takedown that puts Bass on the outside. Back in, Bass tries a backdrop, but Roma leapfrogs him, and gives Ron a noogie. Hey, laugh if you want, but that became a main event finisher a few years later, so maybe Paul was just ahead of his time. Roma with a wristlock, but Bass whips him into the ropes, and throws a knee. Ron adds a bodyslam, but an elbowdrop misses, and Roma gets an armbar on. Bass manages to dump him to escape, and he follows to bash Paul into the post. Inside, Bass delivers a clothesline for two, but Roma fires back with a backelbow, and he adds a dropkick. Paul with a 2nd rope fistdrop for two, and yet another dropkick finds the mark. Roma with an elbowdrop for two, and another pair of them get two. 2nd rope bodypress, but Ron ducks it this time, and delivers a facebuster for the pin at 8:48. Well, at least Roma’s repetition built to the finish. *

Tito Santana v Rick Rude: Tito outsmarts him on a test-of-strength to start, and Rude hides out in the corner after getting stomped down. Rude manages to apply a standing side-headlock as they engage again, until Tito escapes, and cross corner whips him a few times. Rude, of course, is magnificent at selling that sort of thing. Santana stays on the back with a reverse chinlock, but Rude gets the knees up when Tito is trying to drive down on the back, and Rick delivers an inverted atomic drop. Rude works a chinlock, until Tito manages to slug free in the corner, but a charge hits Rude’s knee. Rick dives with a flying axehandle, but a backdrop is countered with a facebuster. Santana looks to add a splash, but Rude lifts his knees to block, then throws a knee after whipping Tito into the ropes. That gets Rick a two count, but Santana reverses a vertical suplex. Rude tries staying on him with a bodyslam, but his back is still messed up, and he can’t execute it. Santana capitalizes with an inverted atomic drop, and he unloads turnbuckle smashes, as he goes on the comeback trail. Figure four looks to finish (in a weird choice, considering how hard Rude is selling the back), but it doesn’t matter anyway, as Rick has the ropes. Rude bails, but Tito rolls him right back in, and follows with a slingshot sunset flip - only for Rude to counter with a leveraged cradle at 16:42. A surprisingly slow and dull contest, but it was competent enough. *

Main Event: WWF Title v WWF Intercontinental Title Match: Randy Savage v Ultimate Warrior: Macho attacks as Warrior climbs into the ring, but Warrior quickly fights him off, and sends him to the outside with a jumping shoulderblock. I loved how he punched Randy so hard that Macho’s sunglasses literally exploded off of his face! Warrior presses him back inside, and Randy begs off, then bails before Warrior can grab him. Randy suckers him into a chase and clobbers Warrior on the way back in. He dives with a flying bodypress, and it seems Warrior was supposed to catch him, but he topples, and it’s an awkward looking botch. Warrior puts Savage in a tree of woe, and a corner whip works, but the charge in doesn’t. That allows Savage a high knee to put Warrior on the outside, and Macho dives for a flying axehandle on the floor, before snapping Warrior’s throat across the top on the way back in. That gets Macho two, and a kneedrop gets two. Savage goes to a chinlock, until Warrior fights free, so Macho clotheslines him for two. A flying axehandle gets two, but Warrior fights back with a vertical suplex for two, as Rick Rude shows up. Warrior stays on Savage with an atomic drop for two, but he argues the count, and Macho schoolboys for two. Warrior fights back with a facebuster to set up a splash, but Macho lifts his knees to block, and covers for two. Savage keeps unloading, but Warrior starts no-selling, and makes a comeback. He gets distracted by Rude, however, and goes chasing after him. Warrior corners Rick, but that allows Savage to recover, and he dives on Warrior with a flying axehandle out there. Randy rolls back in, and Warrior is counted out at 10:37. These two were such a reliable pairing. I’m surprised it took them another two years to get around to running this in a major setting. ** ½ 

BUExperience: The main event was really fun, but it’s not nearly enough to save/carry this terrible show. I mean, Jim Powers versus Iron Mike Sharpe was the second best match on the card. Enough said. 

DUD