WWF House Show 1/13/1989

Written by: Matt Peddycord

WWF: Boston Garden
January 13, 1989
Boston, MA

The current WWF champs were as follows:
WWF World Champion: Randy Savage (3/27/1988)
WWF Intercontinental Champion: Ultimate Warrior (8/29/1988)
WWF World Tag Team Champions: Demolition (3/27/1988)
WWF Women’s Champion: Rockin’ Robin (11/8/1988)

Your hosts are Rod Trongard, Superstar Billy Graham, and Lord Alfred Hayes.

• Lanny Poffo vs. Steve Lombardi

As if I didn’t already hate poetry enough, here’s Lanny Poffo. He throws WWF Frisbees out to the crowd to make up for it though. Lombardi finally has enough of this rigmarole, and attacks Poffo from behind. Poffo takes offense and fires back, which sends Lombardi retreating to the floor. Back in, Poffo works a wristlock for an extended period of time. When the ref gets in between them to break it up, Lombardi nails Lanny with a cheap shot to take control. Standard heel stuff from Lombardi: biting and rope burning. Poffo escapes a chinlock and avoids a corner charge as Lombardi runs shoulder-first into the post. Poffo telegraphs a backdrop, and receives the Whoopie Cushion from Lombardi for the 1-2-3. (6:33) At any other point prior, Lanny would have gone over. However, this is right before Steve Lombardi would get a push and join up with the Heenan family to become the Brooklyn Brawler to fight against that pesky Red Rooster. Of course by the end of the year, Brawler would return to his former jobber status, and Poffo would be in the main event with Hulk Hogan, so it all works out for Lanny in 1989. ½*

• The Bushwhackers vs. The Bolsheviks

Am I a bad American if I happen to like the tune of the Soviet national anthem? It’s awesome, right? Anyways, the Bushwhackers are quite fresh from leaving the NWA, as this is their first appearance in the Boston Garden. They clean house in typical Bushwhackers fashion to start. They are all over the place until Volkoff decides to slow down Luke with a bearhug. Butch comes in and bites legs. Back to working over Luke, we get the standard pounding and kicking. Nikolai chokes Luke with the tag rope, which brings in Butch again. Moving on. Zhukov wants a sunset flip, but Luke won’t go down and pulls on Zhukov’s beard to prevent from falling backward. Tag to Butch, he’s a house of fire, if you WILLLL. Bolsheviks double-team as Volkoff holds Butch in place for a clothesline, but of course Butch moves at the last second. That takes out Volkoff completely. Battering Ram and DOUBLE GUTBUSTER on Zhukov is enough to put him away. (9:30) No surprises here. ½*

• Akeem (w/Slick) vs. The Blue Blazer

Hey, Owen Hart had some beauties with Mike Shaw in Stampede. No reason he can’t do it with Akeem. When running shoulderblocks seem to fail, punches will do. Now that he’s got Akeem’s attention, Blazer quickly rolls past Akeem a few times. He goes to work on the arm for a bit. He uses his speed and agility for that too. Double sledge to the arm connects, but he makes a mistake with a crossbody block. Akeem pounds on Blazer and chokes him in the ropes mocking Dusty Rhodes whenever he can. You know how he do. Akeem misses a corner charge, allowing Blazer to go crazy on his face with right hands. Dropkick is delivered, which stuns Akeem. Here comes Blazer with a Flying Body Press for 1-2-NO! He wants a missile dropkick, but Akeem gets out of the way. With Blazer down and out, AIR AFRICA is enough to finish him off. (8:08) Well, that was very well done considering. **

• Ronnie Garvin vs. Greg Valentine

These are two guys who don’t mind beating the crap out of each other. Valentine is wearing the shin guard to enhance his figure-four leg lock. Shoving match to start. Valentine is the first to take advantage though, as he hammers on the injured shoulder. Garvin fires back with his hands of stone. Valentine takes a beating until he cheap shots Garvin. After he pounds Garvin the corner, Garvin comes fighting out and hits on Valentine until he faceplants. Garvin Stomp! VINTAGE ORTON! Valentine escapes the sleeper, but Garvin avoids the Figure-Four with an inside cradle. Valentine delivers the shin breaker, but once again cannot apply his finisher. Another shin breaker by Valentine, but they end up brawling out to the floor anyways for the double-countout. (13:54) The finish just gives you more incentive to buy the upcoming Royal Rumble PPV to see this settled. **½

• The Rockers vs. The Brain Busters

Now THIS is what I’ve been waiting to see. Bobby Heenan would be conspicuous by his absence if Vince were here. Anderson opens up with a signature spot as he knocks Jannetty off the apron, and then exits the ring at the last second to avoid getting popped by Shawn thinking he’s the smarter man only to get nailed by Jannetty out on the floor. This leads to a big brawl as the Rockers clean house and the heels regroup. Back in, Shawn nearly gets cornered on the wrong side of town before narrowly escaping. The Rockers work on Blanchard’s arm for a while. Once he tags out, Arn needs some help with an overhead wristlock on Jannetty. That backfire as Jannetty flips away and armdrags both men. All four men are in, and the Rockers clear the ring. Back inside, Blanchard wants a handshake. The crowd advises against that. Tully kicks him anyway, but Jannetty blind tags Michaels. Jannetty atomic drops Blanchard, but Shawn whiffs on the dropkick thanks to AA. Tag to Arn, Shawn surprises him with a back flip out of the corner off a whip and delivers the headscissors complete with punches! Another big brawl erupts as the Rockers deliver DOUBLE DROPKICKS to Arn and Tully! ROCK AND ROLL! ROCK AND ROLL! Back in the ring, Tully tries to give a quick Slingshot Suplex only for Jannetty to escape and roll him up for 1-2-NO! Still white hot, Jannetty attempts a headscissors on Blanchard, but he’s in the wrong corner as Arn pulls Jannetty down onto the top rope to stop the move. The crowd loves it! The Busters take turns beating up Jannetty. When he gets fresh with Tully, he dumps him on the floor, and Arn makes the most of that opportunity. Jannetty wants a sunset flip, but Tully falls backward into a tag to Arn to prevent the pin. Awesome. Jannetty fires back on Arn and lunges to reach Shawn, but gets caught in mid-air and takes an inverted atomic drop. Arn cheats with an ab stretch, and then tags in Tully. They go through a headlock-headscissors-backslide routine. Tag to Arn, Double-A Spinebuster to Jannetty. What a beauty, too. Cover, 1-2-NO! AA finally makes a mistake by telegraphing a backdrop. HOT TAG TO MICHAELS! The Busters look to double-team him though with a suplex, but Jannetty helps out and together they deliver STEREO SUPERKICKS~! Over in the corner, Jannetty jumps over Shawn to nail Blanchard with a fist drop. Shawn covers, but Arn pulls him off the pin. As the ref puts Jannetty back in his corner, Arn trips up Shawn during a suplex and holds onto his feet as Tully lands on top for the 1-2-3! (15:17) Just another day at the office for these two teams. The Brain Busters were just the fresh air the WWF needed in the tag division. Arguably one of the best tag team rosters of all time, but they needed a shake-up in 1989, and that’s exactly what Arn and Tully provided. ****

• Hacksaw Jim Duggan vs. Dino Bravo (w/Frenchy Martin) – Flag Match

All this means is that the winner gets their respective flag raised at the end of the match. Bravo tries to pull a Pearl Harbor job on Hacksaw to start, but it doesn’t work. Duggan throws everything at Bravo and sets up for the THREE-POINT STANCE, but Bravo ducks out and decides to leave. Frenchy appears to have talked him out of it though. Back to the ring, Duggan gives chase after Frenchy, which leads him into a clothesline from Bravo. Chinlock time! Duggan’s arm drops once, twice, but not three times. Duggan fires back, but telegraphs a backdrop, and takes a knee to the face. Back to the chinlock. Once he gets to his feet though, Bravo tries a turnbuckle smash. Bad idea jeans. Duggan DUGGANS UP and pounds Bravo in the corner. He runs into a boot though, and receives an inverted atomic drop for 1-2-NO! He even hits the SIDE SUPLEX for two. When that doesn’t put Duggan away, Frenchy goes to whack him with the Quebec flag pole only to nail Bravo by mistake. That’s enough to give the pin to Duggan. (8:38) Alright, let’s hang up that American flag, and move on. *½

• Hercules vs. Virgil (w/Ted DiBiase)

Nobody announces Ted DiBiase’s slave to the ring but Ted DiBiase. Luckily, the slave in question is Hercules and not Virgil. When he BUM RUSHES THE SHOW, they try and double-team him only for that to fail. Hercules quickly handles Virgil and clamps on the FULL NELSON. (3:05) After the bell, DiBiase attacks when Herc won’t release the hold. He uses a wooden chair, but still nothing. DiBiase then has to wrap his chain around the neck of Hercules to get him to release the hold. Herc then ends up getting the chain off his neck and flings DiBiase out of the ring. That sends DiBiase and Virgil retreating as Hercules celebrates with his chain. It’s the only friend he’s got! ½*

• Hulk Hogan vs. The Big Bossman (w/Slick)

Bossman has some extra-extra-extra special handcuffs with him this time. Hogan starts off a HOUSE OF FIRE as he lands a series of punches and a running elbow on Bossman. Slick tries to stop him, but winds up paying a price for his efforts. Hulk pulls out some handcuffs from his tights and cuffs him to the ring steps banister moments after Trongard described Hogan as the athletic symbol of integrity. Back in, its clotheslines, slams, and elbow drops for the Bossman. Every now and then, Hogan takes a break from beating up Bossman to go beat up a defenseless Slick. Bossman finally catches Hogan with a clothesline and a spinebuster. That buys him some time to release Slick. Bossman straddle to Hogan is followed by a Piledriver. Delayed cover gets 1-2-NO! Now Hogan backdrops Bossman out, but Slick distracts him to prevent any kind of follow up. BOSSMAN SLAM leads to a splash for 1-2-NO! Hulk Up, three punches, and the Big Boot lands Bossman on the floor. Hulk follows him out, but gets ran into the ringpost. With Hogan down, Bossman cuffs him with his extra-extra-extra special handcuffs. Back in the ring, Hogan is defenseless unless he moves out of the way of a corner charge, which he does. Hogan STILL breaks free of the extra-extra-extra special handcuffs. Clothesline leads to the LEGDROP, but Hogan doesn’t want to just pin the Big Bossman. Oh no. He brings the night stick into the ring and tosses the ref away to get DQ’ed. (11:32) Since this is far from over, Hulk and Bossman will meet in two months in a steel cage! After the smoke is cleared, Hogan celebrates in the ring like he’s the winner or something. *½

Final Thoughts: The only saving grace of this show was the Rockers/Busters match. Seek out that match if you can, but don’t bother with the rest of the show.