Saturday Night's Main Event (03/01/87)

Saturday Night's Main Event

03/01/87 (Taped 14/12/86)
Hartford, Connecticut

Hulk Hogan defeated Paul Orndorff in a good steel cage match with great heat to retain the WWF Heavyweight Title. Hogan and Orndorff left the cage at the same time with Joey Marella declaring Hogan the winner and heel referee insisting Orndorff had won. Hogan won the bout after a restart to end the feud... The rest of the show was pretty poor. Intercontinental Champion Randy Savage pinned George Steele after hitting him with the ring bell. Ricky Steamboat made his return early in the bout to distract Savage. The match was dire but there was good heat... Junkyard Dog beat Harley Race by disqualification in a match that was more about angle advancement. JYD head butted referee Danny Davis after the match... Adrian Adonis defeated Roddy Piper by count out in a short, nothing match after spraying him in his eyes with perfume... Blackjack Mulligan pinned Jimmy Jack Funk in a dreadful match.

Results

Hulk Hogan (c) def Paul Orndorff in a steel cage match to retain the WWF Heavyweight Title ***
Randy Savage (c) pinned George Steele to retain the Intercontinental Title 1/2
The Junkyard Dog def Harley Race by disqualification 1/4
Adrian Adonis def Roddy Piper by count out 1/2
Blackjack Mulligan pinned Jimmy Jack Funk DUD

Saturday Night's Main Event (04/10/86)

Saturday Night's Main Event
04/10/86 (Taped 13/09/86)
Richfield, Ohio


Jesse Ventura returned on commentary... Roddy Piper was told by a doctor he couldn't wrestle due to an injury suffered recently at the hands of Adrian Adonis and Don Muraco. Piper went nuts... Hulk Hogan beat Paul Orndorff by disqualification to retain the WWF Heavyweight Title. Orndorff had famously turned on Hogan back in July. This was a decent enough brawl with great heat. Adonis ran in to prevent Hogan hitting a piledriver on Orndorff for the DQ finish. Piper hobbled down and nailed Adonis with a crutch. Orndorff bailed before Hogan and Piper had a brief stare down... Ricky Steamboat defeated Jake Roberts in a "Snake Pit" match (no disqualification basically). Roberts had Damien the python in his corner while Steamboat had his Komodo dragon in his corner. They had a good little match with intensity and a nice pace. Steamboat won with a crucifix pin which even Vince McMahon pointed out was a fast count. The pets had an embarrassing 'showdown' after the match which the dragon 'won'... Pedro Morales was about to take on the Iron Sheik in place of Piper but Piper hobbled down and insisted on wrestling. The injured Piper then beat Sheik with a small package in less than a minute. Bad night for the Sheik... The British Bulldogs defeated The Dream Team in a best two out of three falls match (2:1) to retain the World Tag Team Title. Greg Valentine beat Davey Boy Smith clean with the figure four. Dynamite Kid then pinned Valentine with a diving headbutt off of Smith's shoulders. Smith then scored the winning fall with a fisherman's suplex on Brutus Beefcake. It was a good match but not quite to the level of their Wrestlemania scrap... Finally Kamala beat Lanny Poffo in a naff two minute squash.

Results
Hulk Hogan (c) def Paul Orndorff by disqualification to retain the WWF Heavyweight Title (10:21) **1/2
Ricky Steamboat pinned Jake Roberts (6:22) **3/4
Roddy Piper pinned Iron Sheik (0:45) SQ
British Bulldogs (c) def The Dream Team in a Best 2/3 Falls Match [2:1] to retain the World Tag Team Title (14:33) ***1/4
Kamala pinned Lanny Poffo (1:44) 1/4

Saturday Night's Main Event (03/05/86)

Saturday Night's Main Event
03/05/86 (Taped 01/05/86)
Providence, Rhode Island

Bobby Heenan substituted for Jesse Ventura in the announce booth for this show... Hulk Hogan and Junkyard Dog beat Terry and Hoss Funk in a wild tag team brawl that was lots of fun. Hogan pinned Terry after the leg drop. The crowd were hot for this... King Kong Bundy scored an easy win over Uncle Elmer in a predictably awful match... Adrian Adonis, who was wearing a dress, defeated Paul Orndorff by disqualification when Orndorff shoved the referee down in anger. The match wasn't much of anything... Gene Okerlund interviewed Hulk Hogan in the empty arena (taped before the show) reflecting on his Wrestlemania match with Bundy... Jake Roberts versus Ricky Steamboat did not take place as Roberts attacked Steamboat before the bell giving him a DDT on the concrete floor which looked devastating... World Tag Team Champions the British Bulldogs defeated Nikolai Volkoff and Iron Sheik in a best two out of three falls match. Davey Boy Smith submitted to the Camel Clutch in about 90 seconds but came back to pretty much win the match on his own as Dynamite Kid was injured according to Vince McMahon. A good match though which the crowd were really in to.

Results
Hulk Hogan & The Junkyard Dog def Terry Funk & Hoss Funk by pinfall (10:19) ***
King Kong Bundy pinned Uncle Elmer (2:33) DUD
Adrian Adonis def Paul Orndorff by disqualification (9:32) *1/4
British Bulldogs (c) def Nikolai Volkoff & Iron Sheik in a Best 2/3 Falls Match [2:1] to retain the World Tag Team Title (9:08) **3/4

WWF The Big Event

WWF The Big Event

Venue: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Date: 28/08/86

Attendance: 64,100

Commentators: Gorilla Monsoon, Johnny Valiant & Ernie Ladd

The Big Event was a pay-per-view exclusively for Canada and took place in font of a then record crowd of 64,100 at the outdoor CNE Stadium in Toronto. The draw for the giant audience was the showdown between WWF Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan and "Mr Wonderful" Paul Orndorff at the height of their famous feud. The event was later released on Coliseum Video in North America.

 

The massive crowd at the CNE Toronto



Review

The Killer Bees defeated Hoss (Dory Jr) & Jimmy Jack Funk in a decent opener. As they often did, The Bees donned masks towards the end of the bout to enable them to switch places undetected by the referee and win the match. I always felt a move like this should be employed by heels as the faces shouldn't be relying on cheating to win... Don Muraco and King Tonga (Haku) fought to a boring time limit draw. The match just never got going... Ted Arcidi easily beat Tony Garea in a squash... The Junk Yard Dog beat Adrian Adonis in an awful contest. Inexplicably JYD was declared the winner by count out even though Adonis re-entered the ring before him! I can only presume the announcement was a mistake and it should have been a disqualification, but even then that wouldn't make much sense as JYD should have been disqualified for shoving down the referee... Dick Slater downed Iron Mike Sharpe in an average bout... The six man tag team match featuring Big John Studd, King Kong Bundy and Bobby Heenan versus Big Machine (Blackjack Mulligan), Super Machine (Bill Eadie) and Lou Albano was barely tolerable. The faces were disqualified when Giant Machine (Andre the Giant) interfered. The story was that Andre had been suspended for failing to show up for an event (in reality he had been allowed time off due to health problems) and during the suspension Giant Machine made his debut. While obvious to everyone it was Andre, Heenan had to prove it actually was the Giant under the mask in order for him to be banned for life. Yes it was a daft storyline... Ricky Steamboat pinned Jake "The Snake" Roberts in their "Snake Pit" grudge match, basically a no disqualification match. It was a good battle in which Steamboat bladed after a slingshot into the ring post... Billy Jack Haynes beat Hercules with a back slide in an okay match-up. Their feud led to another meeting at Wrestlemania 3... The Rougeau Brothers upset The Dream Team in a good old school tag team bout. They would also meet again at Wrestlemania... The Harley Race/Pedro Morales bout didn't amount to much. Race pinned Morales with his feet on the ropes... The huge crowd who had been quiet for most of the night finally woke up for the main event. Paul Orndorff had recently turned on Hulk Hogan who he had befriended after the original Wrestlemania. It was the culmination of a brilliant gradual heel turn which led to a very profitable feud between the two. The match was a good quality brawl only let down by the ending which saw Orndorff disqualified after Bobby Heenan interfered. The Hogan/Orndorff feud would rage on into early 1987.

 

Jake Roberts stalks Ricky Steamboat in the "Snake Pit" match

 

Overall

Three good matches out of eleven is not a good ratio. It was a disappointing card for sure and while the huge crowd made for great visuals, they did not contribute much to the show in terms of sound. A good crowd has the ability to make a average card seem much better than it actually is. The complete version of this show is not easy to come by (Note: Actually it's probably on the WWE Network now) but don't worry you aren't missing much. The Coliseum Video version is cut down to less than two hours and it's probably for the best. If want to see the best of this show you can find the Hogan/Orndorff bout on the Hulk Still Rules DVD and the Steamboat/Roberts match on Jake The Snake Roberts: Pick Your Poison DVD.

 

Paul Orndorff is in control of Hulk Hogan in the main event

Results

1 The Killer Bees def Hoss Funk & Jimmy Jack Funk by pinfall (6:53) **1/4

2 Don Muraco fought King Tonga to a time limit draw (20:00) *

3 Ted Arcidi def Tony Garea by submission (2:41) 1/2

4 The Junk Yard Dog def Adrian Adonis by count out (4:15) DUD

5 Dick Slater pinned Iron Mike Sharpe (6:24) *1/2

6 Big John Studd, King Kong Bundy & Bobby Heenan def Big Machine, Super Machine & Lou Albano by disqualification (7:49) 3/4

7 Ricky Steamboat pinned Jake Roberts in a "Snake Pit Match" (10:17) ***

8 Billy Jack Haynes pinned Hercules (6:08) **

9 The Rougeau Brothers def The Dream Team by pinfall (14:51) ***

10 Harley Race pinned Pedro Morales (3:23) *

11 Hulk Hogan (c) def Paul Orndorff by disqualification to retain the WWF Heavyweight Title (11:05) ***

Rating

18/55 = 32.73%