Reviewed by October 5, 2011
One thing you have to remember about wrestling in 1991, in addition to losing its greatest fan, the wrestling itself kinda sucked. WWE 24/7 is highlighting this by showing an MSG card from January 1991.
The write-up for Part 1 says we’ll see the Warlord vs. the British Bulldog, Koko B. Ware vs. Tito Santana (really??) and the Undertaker’s MSG debut vs. Jimmy Snuka.
As an aside, with this being October, we’re getting a lot of Undertaker-centric stuff. I’ve never been a huge ‘Taker fan so there may be less stuff of interest to me this month.
All right, we’re starting things off right with the announcement that Bobby “the Brain” Heenan will be joining Sean Mooney on commentary. In the opening moments we’re already seeing that Heenan may actually carry Mooney to a good night on the mic.
Paul Roma vs. Shane Douglas will start us off. Yep, the future Franchise vs. the future Horseman. For all the knocks against Roma, he managed to combine the same moves that raised some eyebrows as a face,but showed that he had easily made the transition to heel. As for the future ECW Champion, Douglas was a real vanilla face that probably never would have gotten over in the long run. (By the early 90s, the days of the long-haired pretty boy faces were beginning to wane. Hence why they needed to break up the Rockers.)
Heenan was, as expected, good to listen to on commentary, as he tried to explain, at Mooney’s urging, why Roma’s manager, Slick, wasn’t out at the ring. Played for laughs, Heenan did however give a plausible explanation.
There seemed to be a lot of miscommunication about the ending, as Roma got the win, but Douglas continued to battle, leading to another pinfall for Roma. Not sure if Douglas missed the “Go Home” signal or what.
The Warlord vs. the British Bulldog is up next. (Actually, considering ‘Taker/Snuka is also on this card, is this the rehearsal for Wrestlemania???) The Warlord should have gone farther, with his Goldberg physique, and…unique get-up (complete with staff, Phantom of the Opera face mask and shoulder pads).
Actually, during the heydays of the two men in the late 1990s, a lot of people thought Goldberg and Stone Cold Steve Austin had similar looks (Goldberg being a lot bigger, obviously). If Austin and Goldberg had been merged, they would have come out looking like the Warlord.
Warlord and Bulldog starts with an arm-wrestling contest. Anyone who has ever seen an arm wrestling contest in pro wrestling, you know how this is going to go. It takes 10 minutes for the arm-wrestling to start. Warlord gets the early advantage, but when the Bulldog comes back, the Warlord upsets the table and goes on the attack. The Warlord puts the full nelson on the Bulldog and leaves with the “moral” victory.
Next up is the rare face-vs-face match when Tito Santana takes on Koko B. Ware. Heenan is awesome on commentary during this match as well, talking about Frankie. (“He’d look great in a bag of Shake-n-Bake!”)
Santana and Ware start off trying to be nice guys. However, the tempers flare, and it’s Koko who begins working heel, going so far as to toss Tito outside. Working heel works for Koko, (he was a heel in Memphis, was he not?) who has the advantage for quite a while. He’s even impressing Heenan.
However, after missing a fistdrop, Koko begins struggling against Tito. Flying Jalapeno by Tito gets the victory. Hmm… I wonder if the Fed was thinking about turning Koko heel. Tito and Koko even jaw at each other after the match.
Before we get to our next match, we’ll get some hype for Wrestlemania VII. You know, when they thought they’d sell out the LA Memorial Coliseum and had to concoct “security issues” when the Slaughter/Hogan bout didn’t get over with the fans.
The Undertaker (with Brother Love) takes on Jimmy Snuka. Heenan stops with the jokes and is just in awe of the Undertaker. Mooney couldn’t have gotten C.M. Punk over but Heenan’s reaction to ‘Taker hints at just how big a star he would go on to be.
Snuka gets some token offence, but Taker finishes it off with a Tombstone. We see the beginning elements of the Undertaker, although the character would certainly evolve over the years.
That’s the end of Part 1. Part 2 begins with what was a Dream match for several years, Demolition vs. the Legion of Doom.
Of course, Demolition is now made up of Smash and Crush, and this particular video doesn’t have their iconic theme. (I’ve noticed there have been incidences when 24/7 doesn’t have the original themes. Wouldn’t WWE own the rights to their own in-house themes?)
Man, is this a short one. I paused the show after the three count (LOD defeats Demolition) and only five minutes had elapsed (and a couple of minutes had to be introductions).
Demos got the early advantage but Hawk and Animal came back. Smash was going for a piledriver when Hawk came off the top rope with a clothesline. Still…five minutes???
Mooney somehow manages to instantly get from the commentary booth to the Events Centre where he talks about a card at the Nassau Coliseum, complete with comments from the Nasty Boys, the Rockers, the Texas Tornado and Mr. Perfect (with Bobby Heenan, who also must have rushed out of the commentary position).
Back in the arena, Heenan is wondering where Mooney is. When Mooney returns, he has a Bobby “the Brain” Heenan Cabbage Patch Doll. (Now there’s a marketing opportunity the WWE missed out on!) However, Heenan’s presence at ringside lasts only until the Big Boss Man shows up for his bout against Hercules. (So wait, Hercules, who Heenan tried to sell to Ted Dibiase, is the lesser of two evils to Heenan?)
I have to admit, I know Rude was headed to WCW, but could they not have let Heenan continue his Big Boss Man’s Mom jokes? They were hilarious!
The usual back-and-forth match between Hercules and the Boss Man. However, just as the Boss Man looked to finish off Hercules, Paul Roma came to ringside and hit the Bossman with a top rope dropkick.
After the match, Power and Glory beat down the Boss Man with Hercules’ chain, even bringing Bobby Heenan back so he could get a few shots in. However, the Legion of Doom hit the ring. Heenan bails and the LOD beat down Herc and Roma. Once the Boss Man gets back to his feet, he takes off after Heenan.
So with no Heenan, where does that leave us? With Brother Frickin’ Love on commentary. Sigh! So Sean Mooney and Brother Love leads us through the classic Dino Bravo vs. Greg Valentine. The New Dream Team explodes!
Wasn’t expecting much from this match and would have picked Dino Bravo to pick up the win, but it was Valentine who won. Nice to shake things up a little bit from time to time.
Hey, Wrestlemania VII is coming. This was cool in that it featured Heenan and Monsoon on commentary. (Although I think the main event also featured Regis Philbin on commentary.)
The Nasty Boys will take on the Bushwackers next. And people say the modern day tag team scene sucks! Really? Air Boom vs. Miz and R-Truth is WORSE than the Bushwackers vs. the Nasty Boys???
I have to be honest, I was working on some stuff and kinda missed the whole tag match. Mooney doesn’t exactly help matters as he sums up the results by saying “Brian Knobbs and Jerry Sags victorious over the Nasty Boys”. The Bushwackers were left in the ring, trying to figure out what happened, so I’m guessing the Nasties got the victory.
As they assemble the cage for the main event, Lord Alfred Hayes is standing by with the Big Boss Man. Boss Man talks about an upcoming Ball and Chain match against Bobby Heenan. Then it’s promo time for the Macho Man.
The steel cage match between Savage and the Ultimate Warrior starts even before either man gets in the ring, as Warrior attacks Savage outside the ring, and just continues from there. Interesting moment as Savage is over the top of the cage and down to the apron on the other side. Warrior reaches through and grabs him by the hair, and forces Savage to come back up to the top of the cage.
However, Sherry rushes in and attacks the Warrior, to the point he drops Savage, who falls to the arena floor and wins the match. Afterwards, Warrior grabs Sherry’s skirt as she tries to escape. He strips Sherry of her skirt and then just kinda looks at it like “What the heck is this?”
Savage tries to attack Warrior leaping off the top of the cage but Warrior blocks the blow and starts pounding away on the Macho Man.
The Nasty Boys rush in the ring, but Warrior tosses them aside. Give Brother Love props for getting the rage of the Warrior over, as it takes the Nastys (really? Why would they show up?) and several referees and officials to quell the Warrior’s anger.
The Warrior even gets Sensational Sherry (who managed to get redressed) in a press slam. This is what passed for “sending the fans home happy” in 1991? I was a little shocked that the Warrior lost the match to Savage, Warrior being the face and all. Still, Savage wasn’t exactly a mid-carder or really heading that way.
No offence to the booking staff of the WWE/F in 1991, but save the main event, which got the crowd really into it, there isn’t much to write home about here. The LOD-Demos match was criminally short. Sure, either team was exactly known for their hour-long marathons, but really, they couldn’t go longer than 5 minutes (including intros)??? The immediately forgotten heel turn of Koko B. Ware isn’t exactly enough to make you want to spend the money on this card either.
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