WWF Saturday Night’s Main Event #26

WWF Saturday Night’s Main Event #26 – 4/28/90
Austin, TX
Frank Erwin Center
(taped on April 23, 1990)

The next few SNMEs are huge memories. Some of the later 89 ones don’t stand out as much, but these ones from 90 are crystal clear in my memory. Being a little older, it wasn’t as hard to stay up to watch SNME, but I would still tape them and watch them over and over again until my dad needed to reuse the tape.

The end result of Wrestlemania VI left a bad taste in the mouth of this little Hulkamaniac. I was really upset that Hogan lost the title to the Warrior, who I perceived as more of a heel. I still kept up with Superstars, but strangely, my interest in the WWF started to dip around the early summer. I never outright stopped watching or following, and I likely only missed a handful of shows, but it felt like my interest in wrestling was on the decline for a period of time.

Despite those growing negative feelings, I loved this SNME. For the first time in a few years we’re back to having themes on SNME. Vince McMahon and Jesse Ventura are on horses in the aisle way to open the show, wearing cowboy hats because we’re in Austin for the “tussle in Texas”. Loved this so much as a kid, and it was still hilarious to me now. We get Texas themed graphics throughout the show and awesome little touches, like old Western style ties on Mean Gene and Sean Mooney.

1) Hulk Hogan pinned Mr. Perfect (w/ the Genius) at 8:03 with a boot to the face and the legdrop after kicking out of the Perfect Plex; after the match, the Genius attempted to attack Hogan from behind, with Hogan bodyslamming him to the floor

And so ends the Hogan-Perfect feud that began after the Survivor Series. Ends with a total whimper and a clean pinfall win for the Hulkster. Perfect’s flirtation with the main event comes to an end and he’s now in the IC division for the rest of his active career in the WWF. Sad, just sad. There was so much potential for Perfect and it was squandered by this feud. This is still a really good battle, but Hogan beats him with his now tiresome formula. It’s also the end of the Mr. Perfect-Genius alliance, and Perfect soon hooks up with Bobby the Brain Heenan, the guy who really should have been managing him in the first place.

Throughout the show we get vignettes with the Model Rick Martel, debuting his new cologne, Arrogance. What a great addition to the character and the catalyst for a major feud later in the year.

2) Earthquake (w/ Jimmy Hart) pinned Hillbilly Jim at 1:58 after a splash in the corner – as Jim grabbed at Hart who attempted to steal his lucky horseshoe – followed by an elbow drop and the sit-down splash; after the contest, Earthquake hit the sit-down splash twice more and then three elbow drops; moments later, medics came ringside and took Jim backstage on a stretcher

First of all, what the fuck was Hillbilly Jim doing back in mid 1990? He feels like a relic from a bygone era! For some reason he shows up again for a couple months. Before the match we get an awesome promo from Earthquake and Jimmy Hart, and a total WTF promo from Hillbilly Jim. It’s a weird rambling promo, and Mean Gene just cuts him off after a while of his babbling bullshit. Earthquake was primed for destruction and easily mows through Hillbilly Jim. Kinda cool to see him wrestling a bigger guy, but Hillbilly was not much of a challenge. Quake would soon nearly put an end to Hulkamania, and I just can’t help but wonder why he wasn’t used against the Warrior instead. More thoughts on that later. Just like his fellow jobber to the stars, Rugged Ronnie Garvin, Hillbilly does a stretcher job after getting crushed by a couple vertical splashes.

3) Bret Hart & Jim Neidhart fought Shawn Michaels & Marty Jannetty to a double disqualification at around 9:30 when WWF Tag Team Champions Demolition, who came ringside mid-way through the contest, interfered and all six men began brawling until they were pulled apart by officials

This is the match I remember best from this show! It sure seemed like the Harts were the ones going heel. They laid out a challenge to whomever left Mania with the tag titles and it happened to be fellow faces Demolition. Jesse Ventura interviews the Harts before this match and they come across very heelish. Looking back on it, a heel Hart run would have been way better and more awesome. I still think it sucks that they turned Demolition. I guess they had to because of the impending debut of LOD. This match, as you might guess, was awesome! Non-stop action from bell to bell. It’s unfortunate the Rockers never quite got into the upper tier of the tag division because they were on fire from 89 – 91. Both of these teams battled hard back and forth and as things were picking up, Demolition came down to ringside, presumably to scout their challengers. Neither the Harts nor the Rockers took too kindly to their presence, and soon things escalated into an all out brawl. Man, imagine if the tag title match at Summerslam was a triple threat? Or even a fatal four way with Power and Glory. Would have been incredible!

4) WWF World Champion the Ultimate Warrior pinned Haku (w/ Bobby Heenan) with the flying shoulderblock and splash at 4:49

Before the next match we get a recap of the Warrior’s huge title win at Wrestlemania and a promo with the new champ. Tonight he’s defending his title for the first time against recent tag champ Haku. This match is a perfect example as to why the Warrior’s title run was going to be a failure. Haku got in almost zero offense. The Warrior was seemingly invincible and nothing Haku did could slow him down. Who the hell was left to look credible against the Warrior? At this point, it was only Earthquake, but instead they used him against the Hulkster. Would a Warrior-Quake Summerslam main event have been any better? Hard to say, but at least Quake was a properly built monster heel.

5) Big Bossman defeated Akeem (w/ Slick) via disqualification at 3:18 when Ted Dibiase & Virgil attacked Bossman after Bossman dropped Akeem with the sidewalk slam

A rematch of the Twin Towers exploding, but it was mainly a backdrop for the growing Big Bossman-Ted Dibiase feud that began before Wrestlemania. Now this is another HUGE head scratcher. Why the hell was the Bossman-Dibiase feud dropped without explanation? No reason it couldn’t have been at Summerslam. Instead they strangely shifted Dibiase into a really fucking stupid feud with Dusty Rhodes for absolutely no reason, and the Bossman serves as a guest ref for Jake-Bad News and replaces Tugboat as Hogan’s corner man. Seriously, what the fuck! This feud was tremendous and should have been carried throughout the year. And this is pretty much it for Akeem. He hangs around the lower mid-card and was scheduled to be on Slaughter’s Survivor Series team, but left the WWF shortly before and was replaced by Boris Zhukov.

We get an interesting promo from the Bobby the Brain Heenan, explaining that the match with Warrior-Haku was his chance to scout the Warrior, because Ravishing Rick Rude is in heavy training and is going to soon be getting his shot at the belt. Interesting!

So many memories! But now that I watch it, so many questions about booking. Mr. Perfect ends up being the face of the IC division and has so many classic matches, but too bad he wasn’t saved to battle the Warrior at Summerslam. The (nonsensical) booking of Summerslam really comes together on the next episode of SNME.