Written By: Matt Peddycord
WWF Saturday Night’s Main Event #24
November 25, 1989
Topeka, KS
Expocenter
(taped on 10/31/1989)
The current WWF Champs were as follows:
World Champion: Hulk Hogan (4/2/1989)
Intercontinental Champion: Ultimate Warrior (8/28/1989)
World Tag Team Champions: Demolition (10/2/1989)
Women’s Champion: Rockin’ Robin (10/7/1988)
Tonight, Warrior plans to CHOP ANDRE DOWN TO SIIIIIIIIZE! Not according to Andre though, he says ULTIMATE WARRIOR CHAMPION NO MORE. Man, lots of yelling tonight. Also, Dusty Rhodes stole Bossman’s nightstick and now Bossman will have to make him serve hard time by shining that nightstick up real nice, turning it sideways, and shoving it straight up his CANDYA-oh wait, nobody says things like that for another ten years. Plus, The Genius thinks he’s smart just because he can rhyme. Please. Someone should introduce him to the Ying Yang Twins. Not even Einstein, Plato, or Socrates knew what to do when Hulkamania was run wild on them! Whoa, that makes no sense unless Hulk Hogan truly is immortal! If so, way to go WWF on the continuity! It’s time for Saturday Night’s Main Event!
Your hosts are Vince McMahon & Jesse “The Body” Ventura. It’s my final SNME, and I couldn’t think up a witty nickname for Jesse’s wardrobe this time around.
WWF Intercontinental Champion Ultimate Warrior vs. Andre the Giant (w/Bobby Heenan)
The nearly two year-long Warrior/Heenan Family feud wraps up with Andre the Giant. Lots of choking to start. Warrior fights out of a standing surfboard and clotheslines Andre to the floor as we go to break. We return as both men trade bearhugs. Warrior makes his comeback and traps Andre in the ropes, but charges into a boot. Heenan grabs the IC belt while the ref’s back is turned and tries to beat the Warrior with the belt. He misses and Warrior punches him back before press slamming him onto Andre for the DQ. (7:46) This was good if you like prolonged choking and restholds. Honestly though, its truly sad to see Andre wrestling in this condition. From here, Warrior joins forces with Hulkamania leading to Wrestlemania 6. ½*
WWF World Champion Hulk Hogan vs. The Genius
Hulkamania has taken on all the monsters – now he battles an effeminate weirdo who has jobbed to everyone under the sun over the last four years in the WWF. Poffo baffles Hogan with handstands and kip-ups to start. Reminds me of the Bryan Danielson/Chris Hero match from a few ROH PPVs back where Hero prances around the ring and does flips, which all leads to Danielson having enough of it and going crazy on him. Well, this is a similar circumstance – only it’s done Hogan-style with punches, clotheslines and turnbuckle smashes. After Hulk goes nuts on the Genius, Mr. Perfect walks down to ringside and sticks his ABC gum on Hogan’s title belt, claiming Hogan is not a perfect champion. Hogan takes offense to that and goes out after him, allowing Genius to come from behind and dropkick Hulk into the ringpost. Back in, Poffo hits the MOONSAULT for 1-2-NO! ITS HULK UP TIME! Hogan hits the Big Boot, but Genius gets back up and rakes Hogan’s eyes and back. Now Hogan returns the favor and throws Genius to the floor! Hogan heads out and backs Perfect away from the Genius. Hogan throws Genius back in the ring and with the ref’s attention turned to Poffo, Perfect BLASTS Hogan with the title belt and causes Hulk to get counted out. POFFO WINS! (8:34) Hogan has only lost one other time on SNME and that was to King Kong Bundy the SNME after the first Survivor Series – also by countout. This was actually a lot of fun. Plus, it makes Perfect a main event player regardless of the fact that he hasn’t beaten anybody really important as of yet in his WWF run. Meaning, you don’t know what he could do against Hogan. After the match, Perfect and Genius run off with the WWF title belt. **
Dusty Rhodes vs. Big Bossman (w/Slick)
Dusty hammers away on Bossman to start, but Slick distracts up on the apron and Bossman takes over. “Some old lady” later known as Sapphire exchanges some angry words with Slick at ringside. Rhodes eats the post and Bossman starts to work on the arm with a wristlock. After a while with that, Bossman misses a corner charge and takes the Flip Flop and Fly! Dusty takes forever hyping a DUSTY ELBOW DROP and misses. Bossman Straddle follows and Slick gets the nightstick, which enrages Sapphire and causes Slick to turn his attention to her. Bossman asks for the nightstick and forgets about Dusty, who rolls him up from behind for 1-2-3. (4:47) Bossman is PISSED! Dusty doesn’t care. He takes Sapphire into the ring to bust a move. And thus, the first ever interracial relationship in wrestling is born. ¾*
Mr. Perfect (w/The Genius) vs. The Red Rooster
This was a match cut short at SummerSlam due to an injury, so hopefully the televised rematch will be some better. Perfect slaps the chicken feed out of Taylor’s mouth to start. Taylor comes back with a knee-lift and goes for the ROOSTER WING, but Perfect’s in the ropes. Perfect hits a back suplex and follows up with the Running Flip over Neck Snap. Perfect ducks low off a whip and Taylor surprises Perfect with a sunset flip for 1-2-NO! Perfect tries to twist Taylor’s neck off. They get into a slugfest and Perfect charges into a boot in the corner. Taylor hits a bulldog and a backdrop for two. Before Taylor can follow up with anything else, Perfect blocks a hiptoss with a clothesline and puts Taylor away with the PERFECTPLEX. (4:16) The Perfect winning streak continues. *
The Rockers vs. The Brainbusters (w/Bobby Heenan) – 2/3 Falls
Without a doubt, the best match of the night. Heenan’s already pretty pissed with the Brainbusters before the match even started because of their recent loss of the tag team titles back to Demolition. Jannetty and Blanchard start the match. Jannetty spins out of a hiptoss and slams Tully down. He continues with armdrags into an armbar. Blanchard pulls the hair to escape, but Jannetty kips-up every time. Jannetty holds on to a front headlock as Tully inches towards Arn. Jannetty lets go and nails AA off the apron, allowing Tully to knee him from behind. Jannetty rolls away from a pair of elbows and comes back in from the apron with a sunset flip. Arn grabs hold of Tully’s hands to keep him from falling backwards, but Shawn runs in and breaks it up. Tully falls back into the pin for 1-2-3! (1:50 Rockers – 1 Brainbusters – 0) Heenan berates the ‘Busters and walks out on them only to stand back and watch from behind the curtain. The second fall begins and with the ‘Busters so preoccupied with Heenan, they get rolled up by the Rockers for 1-2-NO! STEREO SUPERKICKS! That’ll put the Brainbusters on the floor to regroup. Now it’s Arn and Shawn’s turn to go. Shawn flips out of the corner and it’s breakin’ loose in Topeka! Michaels headscissors Tully over while Marty pounds away on Anderson. Double-dropkick to Arn! Double-dropkick to Tully! Back in, Arn takes a double-hiptoss! Arn goes low on Marty and tags in Tully. Jannetty flips out of a back suplex and tags in Shawn for a knee-lift. Cover, 1-2-NO! Shawn goes for a headscissors in Arn’s corner and gets caught with a hotshot by Arn. That’ll cool him down. Tully covers for three. (5:08 Brainbusters – 1 Rockers – 1) We take a commercial break before the third fall. We come back and Jesse is meeting Bobby behind the curtain for a word. Heenan announces that the Brainbusters have been fired from the Heenan Family. Back to the ring, AA hits the Spinebuster on Shawn! He takes forever to cover, signaling that he isn’t supposed to win. Arn gets into a knucklelock battle on the mat and tries to come down on Shawn, which always results in a body scissors. Arn counters and catapults Shawn into a right hand from Blanchard. Tully tags and draws Marty in only to throw Shawn over the top rope. Uhh, that’s legal in the WWF, Tully. Shawn blocks a turnbuckle smash from the apron and flies back in with a crossbody for 1-2-NO! Arn tags and cuts Shawn off from Marty. AA releases a front headlock on Shawn to nail Marty, but Marty ducks and answers back with a right hand that knocks Anderson into Shawn. HOT TAG TO MARTY! He goes slam crazy on the ‘Busters, but Tully nails him from behind. Tully and Shawn go to the floor where Shawn gets posted. The ‘Busters call for the Spike Piledriver on Marty, but Shawn manages to punch Tully off the top and deliver a flying bodypress out of nowhere on Arn for 1-2-3! (8:51 Rockers – 2 Brainbusters – 1) Another fantastic SNME match from these two teams. This was actually Arn and Tully’s last televised match together as a tag team ever in wrestling. Arn would return home to the NWA in a matter of weeks while Tully flunked a drug test and found Jesus. Looks like it all worked fine in the end. ***¼
Before we go, Mr. Perfect and Genius are in the back shattering and breaking the WWF title belt with a hammer! Perfect suggests that the WWF title belt can only be perfect when its around *his* waist. Until he gets a title shot, he’s going to keep breaking up Hogan’s belts. I love it!
Mean Gene gets a hold of what remains of the WWF title belt and hands it to Hulk Hogan. Hulk says he could not love a human baby more than the WWF title. Seeing the title in this shape causes his soul to die. EMO HOGAN~!
Final Thoughts: Aside from a few less than spectacular matches and Sapphire, you have the seeds planted for the Hogan/Perfect feud and the last Brainbusters match on TV. I’ll go with thumbs in the middle, as its pretty historic to any Arn and Tully fan like myself.