Skip to main content

WWF Wrestling Challenge July 5th, 1987

July 5, 1987

From the Louisville Gardens in Louisville, KY

Your hosts are Bobby Heenan and Gorilla Monsoon

In action tonight will be Jake Roberts, Honky Tonk Man, Demolition, Brutus Beefcake, and Killer Khan.




Tony Leone vs. Jake "The Snake" Roberts

Leone lands a few punches in the corner but Roberts comes back with a clothesline. Heenan then tells us that he has signed "Bam Bam Bigelow," who he tells us weighs 396 lbs. Back to the match as Roberts hits a slam then shortly after that hits the DDT for the win (1:27). After the match, Roberts puts the snake on Leone, to the delight of the fans.

Thoughts: The fans loved Roberts but the announcers talking about Bam Bam was the theme of the show as Monsoon would goad Heenan about the other managers claiming to have signed Bam Bam as well.



"Leaping" Lanny Poffo recites a promo about the WWF Ice Cream Bars



Jim Powers vs. Honky Tonk Man w/ Jimmy Hart

Both guys trade off working the arm as Jimmy Hart is shown in an insert promo announcing that he has signed "Bam Bam." Back to the match as Honky is in control then puts Powers away with the Shake, Rattle, and Roll (1:38). After the match, Honky thanks the fans then dances.

Thoughts: Honky did a good job getting heel heat here but the story of the show is still just exactly who is Bam Bam, as Hart told us that he is 6'6 and can do everything.



Gene Okerlund is with the Killer Bees, who tell us that they have been having fun this holiday weekend as Blair gives him some "orange blossom special." Brunzell looks ungodly hungover here as he talks about masked confusion. These guys gave us a lot of really corny promos.



Frankie DeFalco vs. Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake 

Beefcake is carrying a mirror to the ring. He starts the match by beating on DeFalco as the announcers talk about the haircut Johnny V. received. Beefcake then catches DeFalco with a sleeper and gets the win (1:46). After the match, Beefcake puts on his coats and cuts DeFalco's hair before spraying it red.

Thoughts: Beefcake was another wrestler that found success with a post-match gimmick. During a time when the company needed help in the midcard, the success of Beefcake was welcome.



S.D. Jones & Paul Roma vs. Demolition w/ Mr. Fuji

The faces briefly work over the arm of Smash to start. Smash comes back with a slam on Roma as Fuji is shown in an insert promo announcing that he has signed Bam Bam Bigelow. Back to the match as Roma comes back with a dropkick on Ax but gets caught with a stungun then put away with the Decapitation (2:21).

Thoughts: Most of the focus was on the Bam Bam situation. Demolition needs a feud.



We are shown the replay of the Heenan Family beating down Ken Patera after his match from the 6/27 edition of Superstars of Wrestling.



Killer Khan w/ Mr. Fuji vs. Mike Richards

Khan destroys Richards as Heenan thinks Khan can beat Hulk Hogan for the title. Khan hits a thrust kick then sprays mist into Richards eyes. Khan then hits a piledriver before putting Richards away with a flying knee drop (3:24).

Thoughts: They certainly tried to put over Khan as a credible threat to Hogan. As far as the match, it went on for too long. Khan should have put this clown away in half the time.



Next week in action will be the Junkyard Dog, Hart Foundation, One Man Gang, and Hillbilly Jim & Billy Jack Haynes & Tito Santana. Plus, the featured match will have the Killer Bees take on Don Muraco & Bob Orton.



Final Thoughts: They did a great job in making you want to see just who Bam Bam was but other than that, there was no real feud advancement to speak of besides a clip of Patera getting beat down. Not the most exciting show and really nothing you would have needed to see back in the day.



Here is my schedule for the next several days:

Tuesday: WWF Superstars of Wrestling 7/11/87
Thursday: RF Video Shoot Interview with New Jack (2004)
Friday: WWF Wrestling Challenge 7/12/87
Sunday: WWF Superstars of Wrestling 7/18/87

Comments

  1. Hillbilly Jim and Billy Jack Haynes would have made a heck of a tag team.

    ReplyDelete
  2. "The only two un-screw-up-able gimmick matches remain the Royal Rumble (unless you're Vince Russo) and WarGames [...]"

    and since then we have come to find out that the former isn't true.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This is the wrestling that I grew up on.


    Back when it was real!

    ReplyDelete
  4. "Yep Mode" Abeyance Brown ©May 31, 2015 at 2:30 PM

    No, I think he was in a random tag team with Kofi Kingston and they were facing Kane and Knox. The feuds were forming at that time.

    ReplyDelete
  5. "Yep Mode" Abeyance Brown ©May 31, 2015 at 2:31 PM

    It was so great they made a DVD on it.

    ReplyDelete
  6. bothered me especially because I think "Carlito Colón" would have sounded pretty amazing.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Yep, he just went down with injury soon after joining. By the time he returned he was Macho Pimp.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Yeah, Hogan was poison at that point.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Even though it is CLEARLY a jeep. But WWE won the war so if they say it's a tank. It's a tank.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I was always a wwf guy. So for months I heard about how awesome the NWO was. So my first exposure to them was seeing stevie ray, buff bagwell, and I think Steiner. And I remember thinking "this is what everyone is talking about?" Yeah I missed the party to that. Cool story bro.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Im with scott. I like the Elimination Chamber but if I see more than 2 in a row, it starts to nausiate me. Im still pissed shield/wyatts was t in it. It turned out it wasn't needed but still...it was RIGHT there!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Wow, I forgot all about that too. Now that I think about it, he was in the wolfpac in wcw revenge.

    ReplyDelete
  13. True, Smackdown did breath some life into him but after losing to H when did he win his next world title?

    ReplyDelete
  14. I'm with you. The wolfpac was the shit at the time and all of my friends were super into it. The wwe spin on things is "The nWo was great until they split and then it crumbled under the dx tank" but that's false. I always loved Konnan because he had that rolling clothesline in Revenge.

    ReplyDelete
  15. What made Scott think writing these as one giant paragraph was a good idea?

    ReplyDelete
  16. Harlan Leverage IIIMay 31, 2015 at 3:36 PM

    Beelzebub's Swingset!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Team Billy

    ReplyDelete
  18. He was pretty much the cause of the Wolfpac. He started having a falling out with Hogan, the nWo started taking sides.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Train, say your prayers and suck it!

    ReplyDelete
  20. The idea for the nWo and everything up until Bash at the Beach was done without Hogan being involved and without knowing for sure that he was going to to be. The Invasion angle was hot, and if Sting turns, that's a big deal. It's not as big a deal without Hogan but the Invasion by two WWF guys alone was hot.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Pete Gas was held down I tells ya!

    ReplyDelete
  22. Wcw stars were joining the old nwo regardless, so that logic doesn't follow.

    Wolfpac was going to be what the nwo wanted to be, just not as forceful as nwo Hollywood was. Sounds like reasonable logic IMO.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Train, say your prayers, eat your vitamins, and if you're not down with that then I got two words for ya...

    ReplyDelete
  24. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

    ReplyDelete
  25. What's so complicated about it?

    ReplyDelete
  26. there was your problem. If Steiner was in the ring, you came to the party a full two years after the NWO started. Heck even Austin was kinda getting tired after two years straight (in 99)

    ReplyDelete
  27. 2007. No Mercy. And even then, he was given the belt at the top of the show and lost it to Hunter that night. (He also got it back that night, but yeah.)

    ReplyDelete
  28. This. Sting just doesn't have the heart to pull off a heel turn like Hogan and he proved that years later.

    ReplyDelete
  29. This. It made sense that there would be a break up of some point after Starcade.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Was this ever leading towards Hogan vs Savage? I'd like to think in a perfect world it would mean Savage finally getting a win.

    ReplyDelete
  31. In a 1990's Ringo documentary - there is a mention of Hulk Hogan on a boarded window.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Adam "Colorado" CurryMay 31, 2015 at 6:40 PM

    Yeah, but I don't see how that's relevant to this discussion.

    ReplyDelete
  33. No Gimmicks Needed was always Chris Candido! Well, until he went to WCW.

    ReplyDelete
  34. Whoa dude. That might be one of the most obscure obversations I've ever seen mentioned here. And we're dealing with people who stay awake at night thinking about Yokozunas heel turn.

    ReplyDelete
  35. Syllables...there ya go. Now it makes sense.

    ReplyDelete
  36. It would've lasted a few months without Hogan. Hogan turned a cool angle into an industry-changing phenomenon.

    ReplyDelete
  37. "JR notes that with flesh on steel, steel wins. I’d like to see Yu-Gi-Oh cards to back that assertion up."


    Is that the geekiest thing SK has ever said on here?

    ReplyDelete
  38. There was no way Hogan was just going to be put over those guys. I think we would've gotten Hogan/Austin though and it would've possibly did WCW in even sooner...

    ReplyDelete
  39. In 2002, Hogan got pushed over HHH. Don't underestimate him.

    ReplyDelete
  40. I'd like to add Phil Latio and Big Dick Hertz.

    ReplyDelete
  41. Those DX names all kinda made sense in a way though. I still think about what an odd name "Triple H" is, and my gran has asked what it means, but it just sort of developed organically to become accepted. Same as how X-Pac means nothing, but it developed from Lightning Kid to 123 Kid to Syxx to Syxx-Pac to X-Pac and how Road Dogg came out of being the Roadie.

    ReplyDelete
  42. His brother, perhaps? Stang was pushed by Luther 'Horshu' Reigns in WCW (I believe, may be thinking of someone else) and Bill Ding was a Disco Inferno suggestion.

    ReplyDelete
  43. Hall and Nash alone are not changing the history of wrestling. Sting turning heel isn't either. If Hogan does not turn heel then he beats whomever by Starcade and the angle is over.

    ReplyDelete
  44. He had charisma, but was a shitty worker. All of his promos were the same, too. I still loved him as a teen, though.

    ReplyDelete
  45. Not fooling me, JP.

    ReplyDelete
  46. I think if you took that same theme and had him sing... well, anything else, it could be decent-to-good.

    ReplyDelete
  47. Wasn't that Lucy's maiden name in I Love Lucy (and possibly real life)? Gosh, my Mother loved/loves that show...

    ReplyDelete
  48. Damnit, I somehow missed this, sorry for repeating you.

    ReplyDelete
  49. He's a living legend.

    ReplyDelete
  50. So is Larry Zbyszko, and he sucked shit, too.

    ReplyDelete
  51. Whoever clipped it for the DVD release did a great job. The crowd did seem kinda dead and now this news puts that in perspective.

    ReplyDelete
  52. Fat, Ugly Inner-City SweathogMay 31, 2015 at 10:28 PM

    Bahahha

    ReplyDelete
  53. Fat, Ugly Inner-City SweathogMay 31, 2015 at 10:32 PM

    Nash & Hall breaking away from Hogan was a great opportunity to use the nWo to push some new stars. Instead you will get the same old vets and like it

    ReplyDelete
  54. ❋✦✧❋✦✧ $83 per h0ur @mi7//<-Make A huge profit just doing Simple Google Tasks....... Last saturday I got a great Alfa Romeo after I been earning $9498 this past four weeks and a little over 10k lass month . with-out a doubt this is the nicest-work Ive ever had . I actually started 4 months ago and pretty much immediately began to make more than $89.. per-h0ur . find out here now ->

    < you
    Can Find Out HERE >

    ➨➨➨https://CybereOrganizationCrowd.com/lifetime/work...

    <✯☆✯☆☆✯✯☆✯☆☆✯✯☆✯☆☆✯✯☆✯☆☆✯✯☆✯☆☆✯>

    ReplyDelete
  55. ❋✦✧❋✦✧ $83 per h0ur @mi7//<-Make A huge profit just doing Simple Google Tasks....... Last saturday I got a great Alfa Romeo after I been earning $9498 this past four weeks and a little over 10k lass month . with-out a doubt this is the nicest-work Ive ever had . I actually started 4 months ago and pretty much immediately began to make more than $89.. per-h0ur . find out here now ->

    < you
    Can Find Out HERE >,,,

    ➨➨➨https://CybereOrganizationCrowd.com/lifetime/work...

    <✯☆✯☆☆✯✯☆✯☆☆✯✯☆✯☆☆✯✯☆✯☆☆✯✯☆✯☆☆✯>

    ReplyDelete
  56. Not the worst move, HHH was already stale as shit in a face role. And without Hogan run, we miss out on such gems as Hogan getting dragged behind Taker's bike and also stalling out Taker's bike on live TV....

    ReplyDelete
  57. He wore a tie and had a moustache.

    ReplyDelete
  58. He was an OK at best worker, with the stamina of the Ultimate Warrior. Show me a Konnan match that went over 10 minutes and I'll show you a shit Konnan match.


    And his finisher (Tequila Sunrise, an arm-trap half crab) NEVER looked painful. Rocky's sharpshooter looked like a killer finish compared to that thing.

    ReplyDelete
  59. And the Worst Chokeslam in Recorded History.

    ReplyDelete
  60. ACH is his real life initials (Alvin something Hardy)

    Kayfabe, it stands for Attitude, Charisma, and Heart

    ReplyDelete
  61. Aww man, I was waiting for the "damnit"

    ReplyDelete
  62. I don't think that it mattered if they were heel or face. The nWo always selled merchandise and they were always over.

    ReplyDelete
  63. Buffalo HopscotchJune 1, 2015 at 5:59 AM

    Didn't Hulk once try to claim he was going back to the WWF and they'd have him as the new leader of DX when his contract was coming up in 97/98?

    ReplyDelete
  64. Buffalo HopscotchJune 1, 2015 at 6:05 AM

    It made sense in its way. Hall was a bumbling, drunk/druggy fuckup who was prone to irrational thoughts. He was going through a divorce and was mad at Nash for not being there for him, his wife cleaned him out in the divorce and Eric Bischoff and Hollywood Hogan paid him a lot of money to turn on Nash and rejoin nWo Hollywood.

    The problem was that most of that wasn't a storyline and he actually really was a drunk/druggy who'd been cleaned out in a divorce, so the entire thing was in pretty poor taste. Like having him show up to Nitro wasted and claiming someone had wrecked his car.

    ReplyDelete
  65. Buffalo HopscotchJune 1, 2015 at 6:06 AM

    The plan was always the opposite though with Hogan going over Goldberg at Starrcade. The only reason he ever agreed to lose to Goldberg in the first place was because he was supposed to be the one to end the streak.

    ReplyDelete
  66. "Killer Khan w/ Mr. Fuji vs. Mike Richards" - so Richards tales on two Asians? He IS racist!

    ReplyDelete
  67. I know, but building to Goldberg defeating Hogan on PPV made the most sense

    ReplyDelete
  68. IIRC, the red and black merchandise went away and was replaced with the hybrid red, black and white version of the NWO shirt, while the B-team stayed in the traditional NWO shirt.

    http://derryx.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/nwocraz.jpg

    ReplyDelete
  69. It did in the Wolfpac's case. They were a babyface group and people liked them for that reason. The cool factor of the nWo as heels was lone gone by that point, especially with Hogan in the fold.

    ReplyDelete
  70. It's uncalled for you to interrupt my ass, you cheap muthafucka!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment