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Saturday Night’s Main Event Countdown: #39

The SmarK Retro Rant for The Main Event #2 - February 1989

- Live and in prime time from Milwaukee, WI.

- Your hosts are Vince McMahon & Jesse Ventura.

(Our cable was out at the time and I was freaking out, so we had to watch this one at my grandma’s house, but the main angle was so upsetting to her that she had to leave the room because it was all so unfair to Hulk Hogan.  That’s how you know it was effective.) 

- The Megapowers v. The Twin Towers.

Here's a huge unintentionally prescient comment from the pre-match promo: Mean Gene, describing the various antics of Akeem and Bossman against Hogan and Savage, calls it a "terrorist attack" by the Twin Towers. Ouch. Well, at least Hulk didn't use a metaphor about the power of Hulkamania flying a plane into Bossman to bring him down. So anyway, the Towers had been alternating attacks on the MegaPowers in the weeks leading up to this, and the result was Randy Savage getting increasingly internalized and paranoid about Hogan's intentions towards his woman and his title. The reason why this worked is that it fit perfectly with everyone's character -- Savage was a well-known paranoid sociopath to begin with, and Hogan is an asshole. Needless to say, this whole angle was money in the bank and really freshened up the smiling babyface character Savage was shoe-horned into at that point. (That’s a pretty major understatement.)  So we start with Hogan and Bossman, and Hogan cleans house right away. The heels regroup outside and Bossman tries it again, but gets nowhere again. He bails, and Savage adds a humiliating shot from behind to rub it in. Akeem's turn, and Hogan has it under control, so Savage comes in with an axehandle and slugs away in the corner. Hogan does the same sequence, but gets caught by the heels and clotheslined. Bossman adds a piledriver and Akeem pounds the back. Hogan dumps Bossman, however, and they brawl on the floor, but Bossman gets a spinebuster back in the ring for two. Akeem pounds away, but heel miscommunication allows Savage to come in. Savage gets a high cross on Akeem for two, but a cheapshot from Slick puts the heels back on offense. Akeem tosses Savage, and then does it again when Liz is in the way, and you can basically see the heel turn right before your eyes. Thus begins the gravitas of the situation, as Savage tries to win the match alone while Hogan tends to the fallen Elizabeth and abandons his partner. Again, this is why I was cheering for Randy at Wrestlemania V.

The Towers commence beating the shit out of the Macho Man while Hogan carries her to the back like he was King Kong or something, but it's a hell of a visual, I'll give 'em that. Still, way to support your team, jackass. We follow Hulk all the way back to the first aid station (where James Andrews was likely standing by telling her to tape it up and work through it) and get some Daytime Emmy award-winning acting from Hulk and take a break. The commercials are cut out of this one, but I'm guessing whatever Burger King commercial followed had better acting. Back with Savage getting pounded to within an inch of his life, but never mind that, because Hogan is still ACTING. (I also forgot to mention the infamous “tizzime” request from Hulk that ended up on live TV.) And Liz awakes from her dramatic coma, perhaps from the smell of cancerous skin caused by years of over-tanning on Hogan, and thus Hulk decides the time is right to generously return to the match, nearly 5:00 (plus commercials) after leaving Savage twisting in the wind with a pair of 400-pound guys. Jerk. So finally we get back to the ring, as the Towers get a double-team backbreaker on Savage, but he evades them and hits Bossman with an axehandle. Hogan gets up on the apron, but Savage is clearly snubbing him and trying to win the damn match by himself. Hogan keeps whining, being the gloryhound that he is, so Savage gives him a well-deserved bitchslap and walks out. This would seem to be a perfect way to have Hogan do a job, but if you think that, then you haven't been watching Hogan for very long. (Hogan & Savage d. Bossman & Akeem, Hogan legdrop -- pin Akeem, 19:39, **) Match quality is hard to judge because a lot of match was in the background of the Hogan drama class, but it was just there to make people want to buy Wrestlemania, and damned it if didn't do that.

- Backstage, Savage cuts the heel promo of his life, accusing Hogan of lusting after his woman and lusting after his title, going nuts with an all-time great paranoid rant against him unmatched by anything short of the rap album he made a few years back. (This was such a great heel promo, probably one of the best of all time, which basically sold hundreds of thousands of PPV buys and actually made him a heel against Bad News Brown at all the house show runs.)  Hogan protests, so Savage hits him in the face with the belt and then tosses Liz around like a ragdoll in an awesome moment. God, Super Heel Randy Savage escaping Wrestlemania with a DQ loss and then rampaging over the WWF until the broken and injured Hogan returned to win at Summerslam could have financed the company for 15 years after. It's a total shame that they turned Savage into such a joke by pairing him with Sherri, because this was his defining moment.

- Ted Dibiase v. Hercules.

With the Megapower Explosion eating up the first 45 minutes of the one hour show, this was pretty much an afterthought. Basically Hercules is pissed because Bobby Heenan sold him into slavery, something which I think we can all relate to. Herc attacks and dumps Dibiase, then goes after Virgil. He slingshots Dibiase back in and gorilla slams him, but Dibiase yanks him out of the ring. Dibiase takes over with a pair of fistdrops for two. Middle rope elbow gets two. Herc comes back with a suplex, but runs into a boot, and Dibiase gets two. Herc rams him into the turnbuckle a bunch of times and powerslams him, but misses a charge. Virgil wraps the chain around the turnbuckle, but Dibiase takes it instead. Hercules gets two off that. Into the chain again to set up the torture rack, but Virgil trips him up and Dibiase gets the lame rollup. (Dibiase d. Hercules, rollup -- pin, 7:07, *1/2) Weak finish to protect "third Megapower" Hercules (no, seriously), but it's fucking Hercules, who cares?  (If anything shouldn’t Beefcake have been the Third Megapower?) 

The Pulse:

Less of a wrestling show than an hour-long angle and commercial for Wrestlemania V, it certainly accomplished the goal it set out to achieve, and somehow made me hate Hogan all the more. Sadly, the blowoff match gave me no happiness.

Comments

  1. Is this the show where Akeem falls out of the ring? I cannot stop laughing at that

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  2. "If anything shouldn’t Beefcake have been the Third Megapower?"


    Ew.

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  3. One of the biggest Botchamania spots of all time, with Hogan asking if the camera's running when he's supposed to be traumatized by Savage's actions.

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  4. "Here's a huge unintentionally prescient comment from the pre-match promo: Mean Gene, describing the various antics of Akeem and Bossman against Hogan and Savage, calls it a "terrorist attack" by the Twin Towers."


    So, was Osama a Hulkamaniac then?

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  5. You know, I've been a fan since about then and never heard of this moment.

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  6. I was questioning last week what a waste it was that this other match slotted on this show was the Herculues/DiBiase blow-off. I mean, really? Herc wasn't really going anyway and Warrior was on his way up, Warrior/Valentine for the IC belt makes more sense to me.


    Or something to send the crowd home kinda happy after THE MEGA-POWERS DONE EXPLODED.

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  7. I was watching live and don't remember it.


    But I was 10 at the time and battling a pretty bad flu at the time.

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  8. Yeah, that was ugly ugly ugly.

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  9. Just rewatched the segment, marking out for Macho Man's promo, and then Brutus gets in the way. I let out an audible "FUCK you Brutus" when he stepped in.

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  10. Liz was kind of a bitch here. She gets knocked out, Hogan helps her, and she's been consious for a while before she sends Hogan back out there. Then the next month, she accompanies Hogan for his match with Bad News (and hadn't been coming out with Savage since), then (SPOILER ALERT) won't commit to be in Savage's corner, instead picking a neutral one. Seriousy? She's been with Savage for four years and Hogan for six months and picks Hogan? BULLSHIT. She should have stuck with Savage. Then, once Hogan wins the belt back, SHE BACKS HOGAN. So clearly she was just waiting to see how things shook out to run with the champion.


    Did I type this rant last week?

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  11. hoes, man. What can ya do?

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  12. Savage is actually a Shakespearean "tragic hero" in this whole saga.

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  13. I felt like watching the Mega-Powers/Twin Towers match when I was kid that match was 1/2 hour long. Surprised it was actually 20 minutes.

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  14. Akeem was funny at the time but the Twin Towers would've seemed a little more legit if they were Bossman and One Man Gang.

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  15. ... and I just watched it on Daily Motion. The whole carny speak is so absurd to me.

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  16. You didn't mention the other botch...Brutus Beefcake (in bright yellow sweater) running in early. And in hindsight, it's hilarious that Hogan beats up Bret and Shawn in his backstage rampage.

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  17. Yeah...the team would be more intimidating. Someone suggested they could do a backstory where OMG was put in jail for, well, gang activities, and the corrupt cop Bossman got him out.

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  18. Sometimes yo ho ain't yo ho, no mo

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  19. That wasn't really Scott's grandma. IT WAS A STUNT GRANNY!!

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  20. Ventura basicly said the same thing.

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  21. This show is my first clear wrestling memory, followed by Wrestlemania V.

    I loved Hogan, but never turned on Savage, I just wanted them to be a team again.

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  22. He trained, said his prayers to Allah, and ate his vitamins since he was young.

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  23. Hulkamania, Macho Madness, and Beefcake Bisexuality!

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  24. "This would seem to be a perfect way to have Hogan do a job, but if you
    think that, then you haven't been watching Hogan for very long."

    Exact same scenario when Sid turned on Hogan, and he was left alone with Flair and Taker. It just ended up in a DQ after a beatdown. Would Hogan have really looked bad had he lost either match?

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  25. As Vince's knowledge of gangs was probably limited to Westside Story, that has the potential to be hilarious. And get its own wrestling album.

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  26. Yep, zero idea why they made that change.

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  27. No idea why they didn't just do Hercules/Dibiase at WM 5. Instead, they blow it off here as an afterthought, then Hercules randomly faces King Haku, and Dibiase randomly faces Beefcake at WM.

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  28. Hogan must not have liked "The Main Event" concept.

    1st one, he loses his title to Andre
    2nd one, his partner turns on him.
    At least he won a tag match with Tugboat a while later.

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  29. Same thing at Wrestlemania 6, you could have switched Santana and Koko and gotten a Martel/Santana blowoff and Barbarian squashing Koko.

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  30. "God, Super Heel Randy Savage escaping Wrestlemania with a DQ loss and then rampaging over the WWF until the broken and injured Hogan returned to win at Summerslam could have financed the company for 15 years after."

    Unfortunately this sort of thinking put Crockett out of business. Even though it would have been cool, heels don't go over at Wrestlemania...with the exception of that two-year stretch.

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  31. Whenever you need to put John Cena's insane Superman comebacks in perspective, just watch Hogan single-handedly take out the Twin Towers in this match.

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  32. Because Akeem was a racist character and we all know how much Vince loves those. See Los Matadores, Kamala, Cryme Tyme, yadda, yadda, yadda....

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  33. Just watched this the other day and it was indeed incredible. The Savage/Hogan angle actually made me feel legit uncomfortable, truth be told, and I don't see how Liz being thrown around like a rag doll is an "awesome moment". That was some very uncomfortable violence against a women... Either Savage did a great job or it made me feel uneasy to how their personal life actually was. So yeah...effective, intense,historic angle, but leaves a bad taste in my mouth, I don't like seeing violence against women.

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  34. He beat Savage in the 3rd one. That's something.

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  35. The raging, insecure, abusive jealous boyfriend is the "tragic hero"? Y'all have some fucked up views on things...admittedly, yes, kayfabe wise, Hogan was a glory hog and seemed to care more bout Elizabeth but in real life we would be vilifying the actions of someone like Savage, or at least I hope so.

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  36. The beauty of the network.


    And that was some horrible acting by Hogan there, trapsing through the hallways like he's Frankenstein or something.

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  37. Well MacBeth was the prototypical tragic hero and he killed people and stuff.

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  38. Lots of people on here have deep seeded hatred issues towards women.

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  39. Tito and Martel did (IMO) their blowoff a week later in Glens Falls, NY in a match that made it to Prime time a few weeks later.

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  40. *struck by lightning*

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  41. I wonder who suggested that Savage get thrown on top of Elizabeth.


    And I wonder if there were any legit injuries there cause that bump looked crazy to me.

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  42. The NWA Twin Towers exploded in 1988.

    The WWF Twin Towers exploded in 1991.

    Tragedies always happen in threes.

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  43. It's that stupid Eve, casting us out of Paradise like that.

    Never forget! Never forgive!

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  44. Akeem's unintentional bump was even crazier. Shame we couldn't see it.

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  45. This was what put the hooks in me as a youngg mark. Great time to be a fan

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  46. They should recycle this angle again.

    DB: Those eyes right thee, THOSE EYES! Lust or Brie, ya understand what I'm sayin'?

    JC: No, that's Nikki.

    DB: #squints# Yeah, they are much bigger. You sure you're not ready to move on to Paige?

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  47. I wasn't around at the time but did the Savage heel turn come as a shock to fans? And if so, how old was everyone when they saw it? I

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  48. JC: I can't move on to Paige. CM Punk is banging her.

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  49. AJ: Those eyes right there, THOSE EYES! Lust or Punk, ya understand what I'm sayin'?

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  50. CM: I'LL TAKE 'EM BOTH!!

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  51. I thought it was a rib on Dusty Rhodes?

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  52. Why does everything devolve into conversation about CM Punk?

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  53. The signs were there since Survivor Series(!) that Savage wasn't happy, and they nearly came to blows when Hogan eliminated him and Bad News Brown at the same time at Royal Rumble. I don't think anyone thought they'd actually do it, but the signs were there.

    To me, that's the mark of a great angle - you can kinda see it coming, but when it hits, it still blows you away.

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  54. Randy showed a screenshot of Hogan putting his hand on Elizabeth's ass at Summerslam. I wonder if that was intentional foreshadowing?

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  55. I have this show on videotape and it's awesome for its time. From the Dixie-esque "Everything's Fine!" video package that Vince ran to Jackson Browne's "You're a Friend of Mine" (and Jesse rightly called him out on it) to the hot crowd and the audible gasp when Liz got taken out, to Hogan's bad acting, to Beefer's botch.....it's all there.

    Note on Beefer - yeah, looking back he might have been the best choice to be in the main event, but at the time he was HOT, and his ring work improved tremendously. He was having pretty good matches against everyone in the fed, and his gimmick the fans ate up every night (especially when he feuded with Honky Tonk - EVERYONE wanted to see Honky get his head shaved). And no doubt his feud with Savage showed he could hang with the big boys.

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  56. Hogan acting like Elizabeth was dead was so laughable. He's crying and wailing and repeatedly asking the doctor "Is she breathing?!"

    Like, fuck dude, some guy landed on her, she didn't get fucking shot.

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  57. Savage did just throw her around in segment. I mean, not too many women appreciate that.

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  58. When they aired both guys talking about how they got to that point, you could look at Savage as either the paranoid egomaniac or someone who had reason to fear that his friend was coming to overshadow him. And really, both sides had merit, even with Hogan's ass-grab (he explained it as "trying to make sure she was balanced").

    Savage also brought up the beating he took at Survivor Series while Hogan was cuffed to the ropes - blamed Hogan for not doing more to help him.

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  59. Meanwhile, his best friend is getting the crap kicked out of him by 2 350+lb dudes.

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  60. Part of the point of Savage's face turn after losing to Warrior is that he's learned from his mistakes as a raging, insecure, abusive jealous boyfriend. It's why he holds the ropes open for Liz. I know that isn't much, but this isn't exactly high drama here.

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  61. One more thing - there was a SNME before this event, where Liz went out with Hogan against Akeem. Savage took Mean Gene into a secluded area (make your own jokes) so that when Liz went looking for him (like a callback to how the Megapower angle started), she couldn't find him for a while; meanwhile, Hogan is getting the crap beaten out of him and Savage is just cheering him on.

    But when Liz was about to get attacked, Savage came out, steel chair in hand. That made some fans go "Hmm...."

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  62. Elizabeth: best wrestling prop of all time?

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  63. Before he even came back Savage was doing quite all right against them. No wonder Bossman dumped Akeem's sorry ass.

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  64. ARRRRGH THE BARBARIANJuly 29, 2014 at 9:11 PM

    Hogan not losing ended up making Hogan losing worth something. I think in the context of what they were doing then, it's perfectly fine.


    Of course, they gave up on the guy he put over pretty quickly, but I digress.

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  65. ARRRRGH THE BARBARIANJuly 29, 2014 at 9:14 PM

    Well, it was a fat guy. And this was before Bubba Ray and 3 Minute Warning beat women stupid all the time.

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  66. From the moment the Megapowers were formed we all knew it was a matter of time before Savage would turn on Hogan. Even though the destination was pretty much telegraphed from the beginning, it was about how the turn would happen. When the Megapowers finally exploded it was glorious. It was a logical well booked angle that had a payoff. It was a compelling angle. These days the WWE goes out of its way to surprise the fans, even going as far as change the endings to avoid the logical outcome. But just because something is predictable doesn't mean it is not compelling. In fact, the very predictability of the angle made it interesting because we all knew Savage was paranoid and overprotective when it came to Elizabeth and we all knew that Hogan have a messiah complex that made him always want to play the hero. When you put two such personalities together you knew it was a matter of time before they would clash. That's exactly what happened in the Megapowers angle. You had two well-defined characters in a well-defined situation that led to one of the all time classic wrestling angles. The crowd was invested in it and gasped when the inevitable Savage heel turn happened. Something would had been lost if Vince aimed to shock instead letting the story play out to its inevitable conclusion.

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  67. I don't think you know why Crockett went out of business.


    WM V did the highest buyrate for any wrestling show ever until Sting/Hogan. I am pretty sure running that main event again would not put Crockett or anyone else out of business.

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  68. "I don't like seeing violence against women."


    So I take it you haven't watched wrestling since 1986?

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  69. Don't be a dick dude. At least try to be funny if you're going to be an asshole.

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  70. It is scary to go back & see WWF crowds from 1988-1990 absolutely lose their shit for Brutus Beefcake. To this day, I don't get it.

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  71. Me too. I think it's even funnier than we never see the result, just Akeem falling ass-first off the apron and off-camera.

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  72. It was certainly anticipated to a degree. the Feb 88 issue of PWI (the ultimate 'mark mag') had a front page story "Will the Megawoman destroy the Megapowers?" They referenced the Summerslam stuff, Hogan calling Liz 'our manager', the tiff at SurSer etc etc

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  73. I had the Apter mag where it talked about Hogan coming back against Bossman (after Bossman cuffed and beat him) and if Savage could stop him from winning the title back. Even then the seeds for Savage's heel turn were planted.

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  74. It was Savage, not Akeem, that landed on Elizabeth.


    But it was a hell of a bump.

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  75. As an 11-year old (10 year old?), I did not see it coming.

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  76. You think it's bad here? Go to the Tuesday night thread where a bunch of people think Ray Rice was justified.

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  77. LOL Hogan acts like she's dying. How did he ever get a movie role? Even ones like Suburban Commando and Mr. Nanny?

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  78. That was 9 year old me lol. He was cool

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  79. Lex Luger and Barry Windham

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  80. Pretty sure she meant that Crockett kept chasing the golden ring of the heel beating the babyface to prolong the heat until finally fans gave up on the promotion.

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  81. Savage was my favourite guy at the time, and this was actually one of the first matches I ever saw (I decided I liked Macho before seeing any matches, because he looked cool). I remember whining to my dad about Macho getting beaten up, and my dad retorting that "It's TWO GUYS", and believing that Savage was totally justified in turning on Hogan. I was one of the few kids I knew who never really switched allegiances with guys I liked- if they were a face when I first saw them, I always stuck with them.

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  82. Then you'd have hated that continental angle with Pritchard, Mystic, and dirty white boy

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  83. Huh? Sting/Hogan was the biggest WCW buyrate ever but it didn't touch WrestleMania V.

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  84. Russo would have booked the Savage turn, then had Beefcake & Elizabeth turn on Hogan and join Savage. Then they'd do a "shades of grey" Double-Turn. And there'd be something on a pole somewhere.

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  85. They seemed to give up on Hercules pretty quickly, and wanted to give Brutus a push. Since DiBiase still had a bit of cred from being a Hogan & Savage opponent, he was ideal as a way to push Hogan's best pal.

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  86. There must have been some different house shows than we had in Boston, because the first show after TME here was a Title vs. Title match (which they started promoting before the heel turn) with Savage vs. Warrior. (IIRC, Savage won via countout).

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  87. There was an ticket ad for Wrestlemania V in the NY Post before this match with the subtitle "The Megapowers Explode!". So, no, it was not a shock.

    As to me, I was 25 and already very much jaded when it came to wrestling.

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  88. Probably Liz...er...nevermind...

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  89. Where was Hogan when she od'd with Lex Luger?

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  90. That Grandma-leaving-the-room story is so cute!

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  91. They did Savage vs. Bad News Brown at the Met Center in Bloomington, MN right after this. It was a street fight and both men basically wrestled as heels, with only Brown occasionally pausing to soak up the babyface cheers he was getting. Big move of the match was a table being set up in the corner and Savage getting reverse whipped into it. Massive pop. Savage won with the top rope elbowdrop.

    The main event was Hogan vs. Big Bossman in a cage, in a match identical the the SNME one--including the suplex off the top. None of the other matches stand out in my memory. I think Hercules beat Bret Hart in a singles match. Jesse "The Body" Ventura was at the show, which they pointed out to the crowd. I also remember AWA women's champ Medusa was at the show with her BF Minnesota Viking Al Noga. After the show my friends & I walked past a long, white limo with tinted windows. One of my friends bent down to try to see in the window and it rolled down--Ventura was inside, with a "just keep moving along" look on his face.

    Memories...

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  92. Wow, that is actually a pretty big botch for such a huge angle. You can hear him ask for the countdown, probably a good thing Vince was sort of talking over him at the time.

    And Hogan whispering 'oooh, thank god' while hovered over Elizabeth is really creepy, I'm surprised nobody has made a gif of that.

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  93. No I have, but I don't condone it nor enjoy reliving it or thinking it's "awesome". Like I said, the Savage character came full circle after WMVII, but here, I don't see how anyone could back him the way he treated Elizabeth....not saying Hogan was any better, both were unlikeable douchebags.

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  94. AverageJoeEverymanJuly 30, 2014 at 8:05 AM

    the fun ones do

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  95. Prop with best legs of all time?

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  96. Hold that 10 for Johnny B. BadJuly 30, 2014 at 8:14 AM

    Me too. Beefcake ruled it.

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  97. Keibler has her beat in the legs department...though WCW Elizabeth is hot as Hell...

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  98. Never happened.

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  99. AverageJoeEverymanJuly 30, 2014 at 8:24 AM

    I don't think he was right at all (and I didnt comment in that thread so Im not commenting on what was said there), but I don't like the idea of a chick being able to whack the shit out of you (which I have had happen before and with knives) and you can't so much as push her down. Now if you instigate that is totally different, dat's jus ignant.

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