Saturday Night’s Main Event #21 – 5/27/89
Des Moines, IA
Veterans Auditorium
(taped on April 25, 1989)
I think it’s safe to say this might be the most memory edition of SNME for both Matt and I. Either this or the special July edition coming up next. All of these 89 SNMEs are still so fresh in my memory, and I feel like I was just 8-years-old last week watching these happen.
This edition focuses on the aftermath of Wrestlemania V. For the first time in over a year Hulk Hogan is back on top of the mountain, but Macho Man is still hot on his heels. His feud with the Big Bossman is about to end, but a new superbeast is set to make his debut. Lots of exciting things going down in the WWF in the spring of 1989!
1) King Jim Duggan defeated WWF IC Champion Rick Rude (w/ Bobby Heenan) via count-out at around 7:15
Great battle featuring a real contrast of styles. Duggan was the newly crowned King after successfully dethroning Haku on Superstars right before this. This is also Rude’s first major IC title defence since screwing over the Warrior at Mania. I loved seeing the Heenan Family finally with some gold. Heenan was the best manager in the company and his guys were always in title matches, but never successful. Now he finally has something to back his dubious claims. This was a real fun match, and Duggan was dominant through a lot of it. The countout ending was fine, and Jesse was hilarious in pointing out what an idiot Duggan was since he seemingly forgot that he couldn’t win the IC title on a countout. Even though Duggan won, Rude was still the champ, keeping both guys hot coming out of this.
This SNME saw the debut of the Macho Man’s new manager Sensational Sherri. Damn, before the crazy hair and makeup, Sherri was looking mighty hot. This was an excellent addition to Macho Man’s character as Sherri was the polar opposite of Elizabeth – loud and obnoxious and willing to get involved in the matches. Great evolution of the Macho Man’s character, and Sherri really brought that something extra to the table. Macho was incensed that he wasn’t immediately named the number one contender to Hogan’s title, stating that he deserved a rematch. Instead he would have to go through Jim the Anvil Neidhart on his way back up the mountain. What was really cool is that even though the Anvil was just a tag team guy, they put him over as a real tough test. I love how back then every wrestler was taken seriously and presented as a potential threat.
2) Macho Man Randy Savage (w/ Sensational Sherri) pinned Jim Neidhart with the flying elbowsmash at 5:54 after hitting a double axe handle from the top to the floor
Another great match! It was a battle of power vs speed in a really unique showdown. Anvil put Savage to the test and outmuscled him early. The story of the match though was Sherri, who was willing to interfere on Savage’s behalf and get physically involved with Neidhart, something Elizabeth would have never done. Great little match, and even though it was a forgone conclusion, Savage’s victory felt important.
Fun fact, it was the Dr. Of Style Slick who made the initial call to bring in a certain superbeast to this SNME. Up next is the end of one of Hogan’s best feuds. It makes perfect sense that the Hulkster would battle the Bossman inside of a steel cage to wrap things up. Slick said he had a little surprise in store for Hogan, and we all know who that turned out to be!
3) WWF World Champion Hulk Hogan defeated the Big Bossman (w/ Slick) in a steel cage match at 10:01 by stealing Bossman’s handcuffs from an interfering Slick and handcuffing Bossman to the top rope, with the champion then escaping over the top just seconds before Slick was able to uncuff Bossman so he could escape out the door; prior to the bout, Slick introduced Zeus who then came ringside and awaited Hogan’s entrance; moments later, as Hogan approached the cage, he was beaten down by Zeus before Zeus then left ringside
Who could ever forget the monster known as ZEEEEEEEEUUUUUUUUUUUUSSSSSSSSSSSSS! I’ll never forget seeing Zeus for the first time as a kid, staring in disbelief at the screen and being terrified as Zeus beat Hogan down with ease! How could Hulk Hogan ever beat this guy?? Too bad Zeus was a total cartoon character in reality, and him coming in from a movie to feud with Hogan was about as stupid as you could get for a wrestling angle. That would be like the Joker showing up in Hollywood to start a feud with Michael Keaton! None of that crossed my mind as a kid though, I just saw Zeus as an amazing monster and immediately bought into his invincibility. Now the match itself between Hogan and Bossman was excellent, a real hate-filled, tooth and nail battle inside a steel cage. Bossman was one of Hogan’s best opponents of all time. I loved how he agile he was for a big man, and his power moves looked downright deadly. The move of the match was Hogan superplexing Bossman off the top of the cage to the mat. The fans went berserk as did I all these years later. Holy shit that was insane! Even crazier is that Hogan busts the Bossman open, on network TV no less, but just barely escapes the cage with his title. Wow what a tremendous match this is, and the end to an all around excellent feud. Next year these guys would be good guy buddies, which is crazy to think about considering how intense this match was.
4) Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard (w/ Bobby Heenan) defeated WWF Tag Team Champions Demolition via disqualification at around 9:15
Wow, these SNMEs just keep getting better and better! For the last seven months or so, the Brainbusters have been on fire and now finally they get their shots at the champs. Demolition were nearing their peak at this point and were ridiculously over as fan favorites. Ax and Smash simply dominated Arn and Tully throughout most of this match, and looked to have the Brainbusters number, yet were just not able to put them away. Heenan was trying every trick in the book to gain an advantage for this team, helping them cheat to gain control. Finally Ax got frustrated and shoved the ref causing the cheap DQ. Too bad for the Brainbusters, but this leads to an epic rematch in two months.
5) Superfly Jimmy Snuka pinned Boris Zhukov (w/ Slick) at 1:11 with a backbreaker and the top rope splash
A simple squash for the returning murderer. I believe this was Superfly’s first televised match back. He easily dispatches of Boris in just over a minute as this show was rapidly running out of time. You know, I always like Boris as a jobber to the stars, and though his matches were entertaining. I’m in the minority, but I would have liked to have seen this one go a few minutes longer.
Man, another tremendous and memorable edition of SNME! I have a whole lot of 1989 events to get through, including a few weird ones. I know how much you love this year, and I seem to have forgotten just how damn great it was!
the RepoDan Wrestling Institution 