WWF Superstars of Wrestling (December 27, 1986)

 

Original Airdate: December 27, 1986 (taped December 9)

From Phoenix, Arizona; Your Hosts are Vince McMahon, Bruno Sammartino, and Jesse Ventura

Randy Savage v Nick Kiniski: The WWF Intercontinental title is not on the line for this. Danny Davis split screens in for this, noting that the booing of the fans doesn’t bother him, his focus is on officiating. “As it should be,” notes Jesse. Macho gives Nick a lot here, before finishing him off with a flying elbowdrop at 3:12. ¼*

Gene Okerlund is in the studio for Update, with a another look at Ricky Steamboat’s recovery process

B. Brian Blair runs a charity wrestling school. There are so many jokes to make here that it swings all the way back around, and isn’t even funny anymore

Six-Man Tag Team Match: Pedro Morales, Tito Santana, and Hillbilly Jim v Greg Valentine, Brutus Beefcake, and Dino Bravo: Jim and Greg start, and Jim fights Greg off in the corner, before passing to Pedro. Morales knocks Greg around, then tags Tito in to work Hammer’s leg. Greg bails to put a stop to that, and he passes to Beefcake on the way back in. Tito gets him in a headlock, and tags to Jim for a stereo backelbow. Tag to Pedro for a bodyslam, and a backdrop follows. Back to Tito, but he ends up missing a jumping forearm on Greg, and Hammer tries for the figure four. Tito manages to block, and we get tags to Pedro and Dino. Morales dominates, so Johnny Valiant trips him up, and Dino gets a pin - complete with a fast count from Danny Davis -  at 3:10. This was bang, bang, bang. But not a lot of boom, boom, boom. ¼*

Ken Resnick catches up with WWF Tag Team Champions The British Bulldogs, who are fighting champions. Also, they have a doggie

Blackjack Mulligan vignette

Lord Alfred Hayes gives us a look at Andre the Giant’s run against the Heenan Family, and his recent, secretive reinstatement hearing

Resnick catches up with Savage, and he’s very humble this week. Ahem

Ventura recently caught up with the Can-Am Connection, jealous of their appeal to women

Adrian Adonis v David Gold: Adonis doesn’t waste any time, blitzing Gold, and polishing him off with the sleeper at 0:31. DUD

Roddy Piper hosts Piper’s Pit, with guests Hercules and Bobby Heenan. Apparently, Hercules is Heenan’s latest attempt to bring down Hulkamania. Yeah… good luck with… that…

The American Express v Moondog Spot and Tim Patterson: We get Don Muraco and Bob Orton split screening in here, to talk about their cream. The Express finish Patterson with the old airplane spin at 1:43. DUD

Recently, Jesse caught up with President Jack Tunney, who wants to ban Kamala’s dive off the top rope, but he can’t, because then he’d have to ban everyone else from doing top rope moves too. And that’s a bridge too far. Just ask Bill Watts

Outback Jack vignette

Harley Race v Sivi Afi: Afi tries a 2nd rope bodypress, but misses, and Race drops a pair of elbows, then hits him with a cradle muscle buster at 0:35. DUD

Resnick catches up with Lanny Poffo, Dick Slater, and Blackjack Mulligan to talk about the Bunkhouse Battle Royal

BUExperience: A pretty slow, taxing episode this week. One thing I found odd was how little (as in, none at all) mention they made of the new year/season. Usually, they lean pretty heavily on that sort of thing. Or, at least they would in later years.