WWF Superstars of Wrestling (January 31, 1987)

 

Original Airdate: January 31, 1987 (taped January 5)

From East Rutherford, New Jersey; Your Hosts are Vince McMahon, Bruno Sammartino, and Jesse Ventura

Iron Sheik and Nikolai Volkoff v Pedro Morales and Tito Santana: The babyfaces attack during the anthem, and clean house. The dust settles on Volkoff and Morales, and Pedro dominates. Volkoff forces him into the heel corner, but a double team backfires, and Tito catches a tag. Tito grabs a headlock, but Volkoff forces a criss cross, so Tito throws a dropkick. Back to the headlock, so Volkoff forces another criss cross, and Sheik takes a cheap shot from the apron this time. That allows the former champions to go to work on Santana, but Tito manages to reverse a vertical suplex from Sheik, and tag - Roseanne Barr the door! Slick gets involved, and hits Santana with his cane for the DQ at 3:14. Tito beats Slick up over it, and Butch Reed is out to try and defend his manager, though nothing really comes of it. ¼*

Gene Okerlund is in the studio with Update, and apparently Ricky Steamboat is a teacher for special needs children now. Well, that seems safer than coming back to test the Macho Man again

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Backstage, Butch Reed is fuming about what Tito did to Slick, and swears revenge 

Harley Race v Greg Vance: Junkyard Dog split screens in, still not happy about Race trying to make him kneel and bow. Race with a cradle suplex at 0:44. DUD

Gene catches up with Steamboat and Roddy Piper, and they want a ‘piece of Macho Man’s butt’

Honky Tonk Man and Jimmy Hart aren’t interested in Elvis’ gold records, because Honky will soon have dozens more than Elvis ever did

The Fabulous Rougeau Brothers v Tiger Chung Lee and Al Navarro: Vince calls the Rougeau’s the ‘best brother team in wrestling,’ and then immediately can’t remember their names. Yep, right on brand. Meanwhile, Dino Bravo shows up to watch this one from ringside, and talk trash at the Brothers. In French, so you know it’s serious. The Brothers with a combo at 3:58. DUD

Gene catches up with Jake Roberts, who isn’t afraid of Kamala. In fact, he’s going to scare him

Paul Roma was humiliated by Steve Lombardi recently, and is swearing revenge. A lot of that going around this week

Adrian Adonis v Jack Kruger: Adonis puts this away with the sleeper at 1:13. DUD

Roddy Piper hosts Piper’s Pit, and once again he’s got some trophies on set. He brings Jesse Ventura out, and Jesse wants to talk about why Hulk got a bigger trophy than Andre the Giant, when Andre’s been undefeated for fifteen years, and Hulk hasn’t even been around that long. So they get into a shouting match, and Jesse challenges him to settle it in the ring, which Roddy is quite happy to do. But instead, Jesse suggests they get Hulk and Andre together right here next week, and see what happens then. Great segment

Outback Jack vignette. He’s coming. We promise. We threaten? 

Greg Valentine v Haku: Greg tries to win a slugfest at the bell. It ends badly. Haku bodyslams him to set up an elbowdrop, and another slugfest goes Haku’s way. Backelbow, but Greg ducks it, and delivers a pointed elbowdrop. Greg adds a bodyslam, and he goes for the figure four, but Haku blocks. That allows Haku a turnbuckle smash, and he dumps Greg to the outside. Greg gets back to the apron, so Haku tries a suplex in, but Brutus Beefcake trips him up. That allows Greg to topple him, but it only gets two. Greg keeps coming with an elbowdrop, and he adds a headbutt drop to the groin. Greg looks for an elbowdrop, so Tama trips him up, but referee Danny Davis sees it, and calls the DQ at 2:51. ¼*

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Jake Roberts v Jerry Allen: Jake takes him out with the DDT at 0:44. DUD

Gene catches up with the Killer Bees, who are ready for the Hart Foundation

Backstage, Piper comes into WWF Champion Hulk Hogan’s dressing room, inviting him to the Pit next week

BUExperience: Great stuff this week. Just so much going on, and lots of build to one of the biggest and best shows of the era (and all time). And now I’ll have that stupid Outback Jack vignette music stuck in my head for the rest of the day…