WWF at Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy (October 13, 1989)

 

Original Airdate: October 13, 1989

From Paris, France

Honky Tonk Man v Bret Hart: The commentary is in French, but I was able to pick up that they reference the Rolling Stones song ‘Honky Tonk Women,’ and put over Honky as the male version of that. Uh, yeah, I’m not even going to touch that one. Honky stalls to start, so clearly he’s not Start Me Up. Bret dominates once they engage, working the arm. A bodypress gets him two, and a slingshot sunset flip is worth another two. Bret holds a headlock, so Honky whips him into the ropes, where Jimmy Hart is able to trip the Hitman up. Bret follows to the outside, but that allows Honky to recover, and nail the Hitman with an axehandle out there. Honky sends him into the post for good measure, but Bret beats the count, so Honky tags him with a backelbow. A trio of elbowdrops connect, and Honky puts the boots to him from there. He goes for the swinging neckbreaker, but Bret counters with a backdrop, and makes a comeback. Hart with a 2nd rope pointed elbowdrop for two, and he grabs a sleeper, so Jimmy tries to dive in, but Bret throws him off the top before he can, right into Honky. And the referee disqualifies Honky over it at 9:48. Bret took the first shot there, Jimmy was just hanging out on the top rope. He could have been trying to reach a $100 bill that was hanging down from the rafters, for all that referee knew. ¾*

Jim Duggan v Dino Bravo: Duggan dominates early, so we get lots of stalling from Bravo between each move. Eventually, Dino manages to clobber him, and he goes to work. A series of elbowdrops miss, allowing Jim to throw punches. Jim with a ten-punch count, but the referee gets bumped as they come out of the corner, and everyone is left down. Bravo is up first, and signals Jimmy Hart in, but Hart misses a shot with the megaphone, nailing Dino. That allows Duggan a three-point stance at 8:16. DUD

The Rockers v The Fabulous Rougeau Brothers: Gosh, busy night for Jimmy Hart. The Rockers run in and clean house to kick things off, and the dust settles on Shawn Michaels and Raymond Rougeau, though it looks like there might have been some clipping there, and we may actually be joining this in progress. The Brothers works Michaels over, but Jacques Rougeau gets nailed while trying a backdrop, and Marty Jannetty tags in to corner splash him. 2nd rope punch gets two, so Jacques tags out, but Marty beats Raymond during a criss cross, and passes to Shawn to splash him. The Rockers take turns working the leg, complete with the bit where they switch in and out without tags, but the crowd gladly covers it up for them. That goes on for quite a while, until the Brothers manages a cheap shot, and man, the lighting is brutally bad here. The Brothers cut the ring in half on Shawn, until Jacques accidentally collides with Raymond during a double team, and Marty gets the hot tag - Roseanne Barr the door! Why are there gold stars all over the canvas here? The Brothers manage a double team to allow Jacques a piledriver, but Shawn breaks up the cover, and piledrives Jacques! That allows Marty to cover for the pin at 15:03. This dragged a lot, but it wasn’t poorly worked, and the crowd stayed engaged. *

Main Event: WWF Title Match: Hulk Hogan v Randy Savage: Interestingly, this show has the spinning WWF logo lights on the mat during the entrances - something I wasn’t aware even existed before 1994. Stalling galore from the Macho Man to start. Savage tries a headlock, but Hulk quickly powers out, and a shoulderblock puts the challenger back on the outside for more stalling. So much stalling, in fact, that he even stops to cut a full promo. Sensational Sherri manages to come in and attack the Hulkster during all of this, and they double up on him (in full view of the official), but Hogan fights them off with ease, and cleans house. That’s not enough for him, however, and he chases them to the outside so he can bash their heads together… and then goes as far as quite brutally smashing Sherri’s face into the apron. That was surprisingly rough. Savage responds by trying to throw powder in the champ’s face to derail the woman beater express, but Hulk blocks that, and goes right back to threatening Sherri - this time with his fists. This guy is a menace! Luckily, Savage is able to save before Hulk can make good on his threats, and a flying axehandle gets him two. Randy works a chinlock, but Hulk powers out, and makes a comeback. Sherri trips him up to cut it off, however, allowing Macho to snap the Hulkster’s throat across the top rope. Savage grabs Sherri’s loaded purse and dives off the top with it to brain the champ, but it only gets two, and triggers the HULK UP!! Fists of fury! Big boot! Slap with Miss Elizabeth! Clothesline! Legdrop! 11:57. The level of abuse Hogan was casually lobbing at Sherri was extremely uncomfortable to watch here. ½*

BUExperience: This version omits the Tim Horner/Brooklyn Brawler opener and Boris Zhukov/Paul Roma. No big loss there anywhere.

The rest? Yeah, not worth your time. 

DUD