WWF Superstars (February 24, 1996)

 

Original Airdate: February 24, 1996 (taped February 20)

From Huntington, West Virginia; Your Hosts are Vince McMahon, Jim Ross, and Mr. Perfect

WWF Tag Team Title Tournament Quarterfinal Match: Davey Boy Smith and Owen Hart v Hakushi and Barry Horowitz: Bulldog and Barry start, and Davey powers him around. Cross corner whip, but Barry reverses, and armdrags him. Barry with right hands, but a whip into the ropes backfires when Bulldog throws a shoulderblock. Tag to Owen for stereo clotheslines, and they wishbone Barry. Hart with a backbreaker, and he hammers on the lower back, as Diana Hart-Smith split screens in to make a plea to President Roddy Piper to stop booking her husband against ‘dinosaurs’ like Yokozuna. I can only imagine the letters she must have sent to Bischoff when he jumped to WCW. The heels work Barry over, but Owen misses a charge in the corner, and Hakushi gets the hot tag. He runs wild, but walks into a cheap shot, and Smith puts it away with a running powerslam at 3:06. I find it odd that, despite being around for years and years, and despite having multiple runs in both major North American promotions, Bulldog’s finisher never got a custom name. *

Backstage, Jim Cornette introduces his ‘Oriental assassin’ Shinobi, who he’s sending after Shawn Michaels. Shinobi is Al Snow under a mask. Snow had played this character on the independents prior, but this is one of only two appearances in the WWF using the gimmick, both of which were taped this same week.

Duke Droese v Scott D'Amore: Droese looks much better with short hair, but simultaneously looks more white trashy, so it’s kind of a trade off. He also looks really thin here, and needs to have his gear fixed. Meanwhile, Hunter Hearst Helmsley split screens in to cut a promo on Duke, since apparently that feud must continue. Duke with a tilt-a-whirl slam at 2:52. DUD

Dok Hendrix is in the studio for the WrestleMania XII Slam Jam. Bret Hart/Shawn Michaels is announced, though the Iron Man stipulation isn’t in the cards yet

The Bodydonnas v AC Connor and Major Yates: They’ve stopped calling them the ‘new’ Bodydonnas, thankfully. That never made any sense, Rad Radford was never an official ‘Donna. Anyway, they needed to save all their ‘new’s’ for the dumb rehash teams still to come throughout 1996. Meanwhile, Bob Backlund is in the crowd campaigning during the match. Zip with a flying pointed elbowdrop at 2:33. The finish looked really bad there, Zip barely made contact. DUD

Ultimate Warrior hype video. Just classic clips, set to his theme music, as they hype a potential return. I remember thinking this was pretty cool at the time, but also feeling like Warrior would feel a little out of place in this era. If only I knew

Hunter Hearst Helmsley v Derek Stone: Duke Droese tries coming out to go after Helmsley before the bell, but gets cut off by officials in the aisle. Were they targeting HHH/Duke for WrestleMania at this point, before pivoting to the Warrior match? The Pedigree finishes at 1:51. Afterwards, Duke returns, chasing Helmsley off. DUD

Mankind vignette. Mick Foley was all in with this from the word ‘go’

Shawn Michaels v Shinobi: Shinobi gets the old Orient Express music, since of course he does. Vince is extremely over the top in his commentary here. Shinobi attacks before the bell, but Shawn fights him off, and throws a dropkick to put Shinobi on the outside. Back in for a criss cross, so Owen Hart pulls down the top rope, and Shawn takes a spill over the top. Shinobi is on him with a somersault plancha, and Hart puts the boots to him on the floor, before rolling him back in. Shinobi with a bodyslam to set up a somersault elbowdrop for two, as Vince starts talking about the ‘boyhood dream.’ Uh oh. Shinobi uses a snapmare to set up a seated dropkick, and he goes to a clutch from there. Michaels fights free, so Shinobi uses a clothesline to cut off a comeback, and another bodyslam sets up a flying moonsault, but Shawn rolls out of the way. Shawn mounts a comeback from there, but Shinobi dumps him to the outside after taking a flying elbowdrop. Owen grabs Michaels, and Shinobi tries another plancha, but ends up landing on Hart instead. Inside, Michaels sets up for the superkick, but Hart comes in. That ends up backfiring again, and Michaels delivers the superkick at 7:15. Shawn was hugely over here, and it was a solid match, well booked to make Michaels look good. ** ½ 

Dok is back with another WrestleMania XII Slam Jam, announcing Yokozuna/Vader. ‘Card subject to change,’ and all that

Billionaire Ted’s Wrasslin’ War Room features Ted on Larry Fling Live, flagship show of the Billionaire News Network (BNN), dodging accusations of being a ‘corporate predator.’ Whatever that is. This one was pretty funny, but again veered into too much mean spirited shit

BUExperience: Good episode this week, as we gear up for WrestleMania.