After checking out the Greatest Champions tape, I was curious to dig into the 1990 Intercontinental title tournament. Some cool dude stitched all the tournament matches together, making it a nice easy 35 minute watch.
At the time, I completely missed this tournament. This was from that initial lull in my fandom post Wrestlemania VI, as mentioned before. Thinking about it over the past few days, I don’t remember watching much Superstars between about April and September. That felt like a lifetime as a kid, but in reality was only a few months. I remember certain things, like the July SNME and the debut of the Texas Tornado, so I probably started watching on and off as school ended for the summer.
One of the main things I missed was the tournament and crowning of a new IC champion. I heard about Perfect winning from kids at school and later I remember seeing pics of it in WWF Mag, but I’ve never actually seen all the tournament matches until this week.
– Quarter-Finals
WWF Superstars – 4/28/90, Glens Falls, NY – Civic Center:
Tito Santana defeated Akeem via count-out at 4:05 after Santana’s flying forearm sent Akeem out of the ring
I really like how the tournament featured a solid group of midcarders from that time. There wasn’t any explanation as to how the guys were chosen and definitely a lot of big names were not included, but then you’d have to bump it up to a 16 man tournament. I really liked seeing this odd pairing and as always, Tito had the crowd on fire as he really took it to Akeem and looked like a million bucks. It’s amazing how Tito was always booked as a loser, yet the crowd was always behind him. As with all these tournament matches, there’s not much too them. Santana knocks Akeem out of the ring with the flying forearm and the ref administers the fastest 10 count I’ve ever seen, awarding Tito the win. Akeem’s career sure tanked after the breakup of the Twin Towers and his loss at Mania, it was all downhill from here. As a side note, I loved Jesse Ventura’s commentary throughout this match, as he continuously corrected McMahon that it was Chico and kept making reference to Tito knowing how to fight dirty, Tijuana style, a town Ventura claimed to be the “prince” of when he was stationed with the Seals.
WWF Superstars – 5/5/90, Glens Falls, NY – Civic Center:
Mr. Perfect pinned Jimmy Snuka with his feet on the ropes at 3:44; after the bout, Snuka cleared Perfect from the ring
Man Snuka sure sucks. The crowd still loves him, but his matches are pretty much outright crap by 90. He was good for a pop and as a jobber to the stars I suppose. More great Ventura commentary, and I loved how he always called him “Snooka” despite McMahon always pronouncing it correctly. Perfect looks both vicious and chickenshit in this, which fits his character, erm, perfectly. I thought it kind of sucked that Perfect won this match by cheating, but it better establishes him as a cowardly dick heel.
WWF Superstars – 5/12/90, Austin, TX – Frank Erwin Center:
Dino Bravo (w/ Jimmy Hart) fought Brutus Beefcake to a double count-out at 5:17 when both men began brawling on the floor and Mr. Perfect interfered, pulled Beefcake off the ring apron, and attacked him
What a weird combo – Bravo and Beefcake. I don’t recall seeing any other matches between them. This match was basically a mess, as one would expect, but the crowd was hot for Beefcake and loved seeing him come back with a couple high knees. His nemesis Mr. Perfect shows up at ringside and starts brawling with him. For some stupid reason Bravo joins in and the ref decides to count them both out, even though Beefcake clearly breaks the count. Eh well, whatever. This keeps the Beefcake-Perfect issue hot heading to SummerSlam, a match that sadly never happens. I wonder what the long term plans were for Beefcake before the accident?
Wrestling Challenge – 5/13/90, San Antonio, TX – Freeman Coliseum:
Roddy Piper fought Rick Martel to a double disqualification
Haha, the second Piper-Martel match I’ve watched in the last couple weeks. This is less gonzo that the 91 match, but still all over the fucking place. Piper-Model could have been a great feud, as they have a natural chemistry and clashing personalities. The big gimmick here was the Arrogance spray, which Martel kept sneakily trying to use. They end up brawling on the floor, with Piper using a chair to shield his face from the spray and then starts swinging at Martel. The ref calls for the double DQ making it the third bullshit finish in four matches, leaving only Perfect and Santana as the finalists.
– Semi-Finals
– No matches took place.
– Finals
WWF Superstars – 5/19/90, Austin, TX – Frank Erwin Center:
Mr. Perfect pinned Tito Santana with an inside cradle at 7:30 after Santana became distracted by Bobby Heenan at ringside; after the match Perfect announced that Heenan was his new manager
These matches are definitely fun to finally watch! It’s great seeing this all in order. Too bad there wasn’t another PPV in between Mania and SummerSlam, as a Perfect-Tito final would have tore down the house. They have a tremendous rematch on SNME, a shame that it wasn’t on a classic PPV. This is a great TV match, easily the best of the whole tourney. I just love how over Tito was. The fans really believed in him and were going nuts all the way through. They went back and forth, with Perfect just hanging on at points. Bobby Heenan shows up at ringside late in the match and distracts Tito, allowing Perfect to small package and pin him. Perfect and Heenan were such a natural pairing. They really should have just added him to the Heenan Family back in 89. What happened to his alliance with the Genius anyway? It was just never mentioned again after Mania VI it seemed. The visual of Perfect and Heenan celebrating is just great. So cool to finally see this after nearly 30 years.
the RepoDan Wrestling Institution 