Written by: Tom Hopkins
Let’s get rid of the Warrior opening already. Did they change it when Hogan became champ after Wrestlemania? I hope so. We have Vince McMahon and Roddy Piper calling the shots this week, and they are all about the tag team battle royale. Roddy has a bunch of 50’s music references for us, too.
-Tito Santana vs. Ted Oates-
This was before Tito was El Matador. Oates takes Santana down but Santana kicks out of an arm-bar and they do an ECW stand-off. Santana hiptosses and bodyslams Oates before dropkicking him down and into the corner. Tito tells us in a pre-recorded promo that he’s ready for his seventh Wrestlemania. Oates is sent to the corner but he slides down to block it and pops up with a clothesline. Oates elbows Santana down and snapmares him for one. Tito responds with a backdrop and the flying forearm finishes this at 1:57. Oates got a lot of offense in for a jobber. *.
We head to a segment from Wrestling Challenge with Okerlund interviewing Piper and Virgil. Virgil just earned his “freedom” from DiBiase and Piper was all for it.
-The Mountie vs. Sonny Blaze-
Mountie dropkicks Blaze to start and slams his head into the turnbuckle a few times. Mountie and Jimmy Hart talk to us in a pre-recorded comment as Mountie puts the claw on Blaze. He follows with a Boss Man slam and double vulcan nerve pinch finishes this at 1:21. His finisher was real crap. Mountie shocks the poor jobber after handcuffing him.
Sean Mooney at the event center talks up the Wrestlemania matches coming up in about 6 weeks. We hear comments from British Bulldog and Rick Martel about their Wrestlemania Matches against Warlord and Roberts, respectively.
-Tag Team Royal Rumble-
They don’t actually show in-ring introductions of any of the tag teams. This is Royal Rumble rules where you are eliminated if you are sent over the top and both feet touch the ground. If one member is eliminated, the whole team is gone. The stakes here is that the winner take on the Hart Foundation at Wrestlemania for the tag titles. It looks like we have the Legion of Doom, The Bushwhackers, Power & Glory, The Nasty Boys, The Rockers and The Orient Express. The ring is full of people so we’re looking at a lot of punching here. Demolition tries to press slam the Rockers out but fail, so the Rockers double super kick them and then eliminate Smash at 1:54. Crush finds out he’s been eliminated but doesn’t leave. Luke of the Bushwhackers is eliminated by the Orient Express at 2:24. Shawn Michaels accidentally eliminates his own partner when a dropkick goes wrong at 3:06. Was this the beginning of their rift? Roma and Tanaka gang up on Animal. The LoD pair off with the Orients while the Nasty’s deal with Power & Glory. The Orients get eliminated courtesy of the LoD at 4:54, leaving only three teams remaining. Roma and Animal brawl on the outside, but they left through the middle rope so they aren’t gone. The Nasty’s doublt team Animal while Power & Glory deal with Hawk. Roma heads upstairs and is press slammed onto Animal, but he catches Roma and tosses him out at 5:55. This leaves the LoD and the Nasty’s and Animal wastes no time in clotheslining the two down. Animal heads upstairs for the Doomsday Device but Roma knocks him off and he falls off to the outside to hand the Nasty Boys the tag title shots at Wrestlemania at 6:32. This wasn’t a terrible Rumble, especially when it was down to only a few teams. **.
We go back to Sean Mooney at the Event Center and more promo’s, including both participants of the Perfect/Boss Man IC title match.
-Texas Tornado vs. Darryl Woodsworth-
Darryl shoves Tornado to start but bails when he realizes that Tornado is bigger than him. So Tornado holds the ropes open so his yellow-belly can get in the ring. Speaking of yellow, that’s the color of Tornado’s tights today! It’s a really ugly color scheme. Texas Tornado punches Woodsworth, with a final discus punch ending this at 1:32. Tornado didn’t do anything other than punch. ¼*.
It’s time of the Brother Love Show! It’s two weeks in a row for him. Love has the Undertaker with him. Brother Love is still the manager of Undertaker at this point but says he is a little too busy to be his manager anymore. So Brother Love introduces the Undertaker’s NEW manager: Paul Bearer. Yes, this is Paul’s first appearance in the WWE. Paul doesn’t have the the look he would soon have, with the white make-up and black eye-shadow. He didn’t have the distinct voice yet, either. They make predictions that Warrior will be resting in peace at Wrestlemania.
Okerlund gives us the Wrestlemania Report. He runs down the entire card and we get comments from Sgt. Slaughter & Adnan & Hulk Hogan. We also see Valentine taking a guitar shot from Jimmy Hart at MSG and this causing a rift in the Hart stable and a match is born at Wrestlemania between Valentine and Earthquake. There’s also a retirement match between the Macho King and Ultimate Warrior and we hear from both competitors. We then go to Gene who is shilling wrestling merchandise at Toys R’ Us. They show the official WWE ring and some of the action figures, which I have.
-Rick Martel vs. Tommy Landell-
We don’t see the jobbers name because Jake Roberts is talking over the introductions. Jake will hurt Martel at Wrestlemania. Luckily the announcers tells us this tool is. Martel hiptosses and bodyslams the poor guy, then a gut-wrench suplex sets up the backbreaker and the Boston Crab to end this at 1:08. DUD. Some masked man attacks Martel in the ring after the match. It wasn’t Jake Roberts, so who was it?
We see a vignette of The Dragon, who we know is Ricky Steamboat in a ridiculous gimmick. Mooney is at the event center with more news on Wrestlemania. We hear from Earthquake and Valentine. Valentine mentions that this is his seventh Wrestlemania and seven is his lucky number. Tito Santana said the same exact thing about twenty minutes eariler.
We close with a look at next week’s show with action from Sgt. Slaughter, Macho King on the Brother Love show and Virgil (with Piper) vs. Haku (with DiBiase).
-The Bottom Line- This was a very historical episode of Superstars. We see a Tag Team Battle Royale that set up Wrestlemania and was a decent mess of a match. This also features the first appearance of Paul Bearer. It was quite a full episode and from a historical perspective warrants a viewing.