Hulk Hogan has no friends in the battle royal tonight. His objective is getting Andre the Giant, and he's after Andre's BIIIIIG NASTY body. Elizabeth is dressed like a Pharoah for some reason. Randy "Macho Man" Savage and George "The Animal" Steele are fighting with her as the prize. I'm not sure the legality of that one. Jake "The Snake" Roberts says Damian hasn't eaten in a month. The Hart Foundation, Andre and possibly others spoke too, but I was busy typing, sorry.
From Detroit, strangely, since Wrestlemania III was about to be at the Pontiac Silverdome.
Vince McMahon asks Jesse Ventura is Damian knows he's wearing his sister. That is a sweet jacket, actually.
"Mean" Gene Okerlund talks to Hogan in front of columns. Do we have a Greek theme tonight? This isn't the real Caesar's Palace, is it? He'll get Andre for what he did.
We are firmly into my enthusiastic fandom as a kid here. As I previously mentioned, the Hogan vs. Andre feud was my world at this time.
Last time out, Ricky Steamboat dramatically returned during the Macho Man-Animal match. George ran off with Liz, and Dragon menacingly did karate at Savage.
Savage is going to pin that hairy bozo, and hurt him real bad. Gene tells Savage Liz will enter last.
Battle for Liz (and the WWF Intercontiental championship), Randy Savage vs. George Steele- Gene is still talking to LIz, and George comes up and says "Manager. George's? Manager." I feel like I've seen this two wrestle a million times in the last few months, since I've seen them on Mania 2 and also some house shows from the Network. What a waste of Savage's I-C title reign this feud was. LIz has a lifeguard's chair, and Savage hit Steele with an axehandle as he fawned over her. Then, as Savage tries to walk her back, Steamboat literally drops out of the sky in front of them. Savage went in and Steele jumped him. Steele rammed him to the inside buckles. Steele rams Savage to the buckles again, then rip it open. Savage hits a flying knee in the corner, and slams Steele. He hits an axehandle, then does a boot choke. When Savage tries a clothesline, Steele bites his arm like Jake's cobra. He then lifts him by his throat, and rips another buckle open. Geroge goes out by Liz, but Savage rams him into the barrier. He also hits him with the lifeguard chair, and Savage rolls in to win. *1/2. That was an even cleaner finish than I expected. Steele throws Savage over the top, and puts the I-C belt on his shoulder, and unrolls a Liz poster.
Hogan does an inset promo, and mutters his opponents' names. Every other one is Andre.
Battle royal: Paul Orndorff gets an entrance. Next is Billy Jerk Haynes, then Hercules. Gene is with Heenan and Andre. Bobby wants to see Andre throw Hogan over the top to the floor. "Hogan; I want you." Demoliton is entering as we return, then the Honky Tonk Man. Next we see the Killer Bees. Andre then makes his entrance. I would have to think this was his only in-ring appearance between the heel turn and WMIII. Kind of funny to see Andre and Ax standing in the corner together, with their past and future with each other. Hulky comes in last, natch. Hogan shows him the belt, and Andre waves bring it on. Andre and Hogan moved towards each other, but Orndorff ran and attacked Hulk. Butch Reed, Hercules and Honky Tonk then join in, but Hogan eliminates Honky. Andre tosses Sika. Ron "Jack" Bass fights with Blackjack Mulligan, who then joins Hillbilly Jim against Andre. Andre throws future partner Haku out. He headbutts Lanny Poffo (which busts him open), and tosses him. Reed and Smash try to dump Hulk and Bass takes a cheap shot. Poffo gets stretchered out. Hulk dumps the Jack Ass, and Demolition works on Hillbilly. Andre tosses Mulligan, his other Machine partner. Hogan dumps Nikolai Volkoff. Andre tosses B. Brian Blair, and boot chokes Koko B. Ware. Andre rams Billbilly and Haynes' heads together. Hulk gets whipped into Andre and they slug away. First Koko and then the heels separate them. Hogan tosses Orndorff, but Andre grabs him by his hair, and throws him over the top. Andre and Hogan continue gesturing at each other, and Brunzell jumps on him and gets eliminiated. Then all of the faces jump on Andre, and with the heels assisting he gets eliminated. Herc throws out Tama. Smash throws out Hillbilly. Smash, Reed, Ware, Haynes and Herc are left. Koko dropkicks Reed out. Maybe that's why they met at Mania III. Herc throws out Ware. He and Smash double clothesline Haynes. BJH knocks out Smash in convulted fashion. Heenandistracts Haynes, and Herc dumps him to win. ** I do rate battle royals, and this one was effective. It mostly existed to hype Andre-Hogan, though WMIII was never actually mentioned. Some of the rest of the eliminations seemed very random like this wasn't going to be canon, though.
Gene is with Andre. "It took one giant to get Hogan out of the ring," he said. Heenan arrives and says Hogan hid from Andre before that.
Gene then talks to Roberts. He and Damian have timed Damian's cycle for when he's really hungry, and they're going to satisfy their hunger.
King Kong Bundy vs. Jake Roberts- Jake grabs an armbar but gets clobbered by Bundy. Bundy misses a blow and stops when he sees Damian. Jake grabs the top rope to stop a clothesline. Bundy works the arm but Jake kicks to get it released. Test of strength, as I'm getting drowsy. This will soon look like my notes from lectures in collegggggggggggggg. Bundy hammers away in the corner, and grabs a headlock. Jake kneelifts out and Heenan runs away with Damian. Bundy takes over and chokes with his shin. A clothesline drops Jake, and he hits a shoulderblock, and another. Then Bundy misses a charge and hits the buckles. Jake punches away and a clothesline drops the big man. Jake grabs the bag, and shoves the ref away. Bundy slams him but misses an elbow. Jake DDTs the big man. Heenan pulls Bundy out before Jake puts Damian on him. Jake then chases the ref out with the snake.
We see footage of the Hart Foundation winning the tag team titles from the British Bulldogs. That one surprised me as a kid. Jimmy Hart tells Gene Danny Davis will be an observer at ringside.
WWF tag team championship, Hart Foundation (c) vs. Tito Santana/Danny Spivey- Spivey gets two off of a crossbody to begin. Neidhart clotheslines him on a second attempt, but Spivey whips him into Hart. Spivey whips Bret into a shot from Tito, and the faces hit a back elbow. Santana grabs a headlock on Hart, and slams him. Spivey comes in with a shoulderblock, and Anvil breaks up the pin. The Harts doubleteam Spivey in the corner, and Anvil drops his throat on the top. Bret punches and headbuts Spivey, and gives him a backreaker. Bret slinngshots Anvil in for two. Neidhart rams Spivey's head into the top buckle. The doubleteam more in the corner, and Santana distracts the ref while the Harts work over his partner. Bret drops an elbow from the middle rope for two. Bret grabs a front facelook. Spivey tags Santana, but the ref was with Anvil. Hart hits Anvil with a flying knee by mistake, and Santana finally gets tagged. He fires away on Hart, and Bret takes his beloved sternum-first bump to the buckles. Tito hits Anvil with the flying forearm, and punches Davis off of the apron. Tito hits Bret with the the forearm, then signals for the figure four. He locks it in, but Davis sneaks around with Hart's megaphone, and whacks Tito with it while the ref is occupied with the Anvil and Spivey. Bret gets the pin, **. I can't get used to Davis in trunks instead of tights.
Gene talks to Steamboat. Steamboat tells him he's 100 percent. His throat is apparently the weak point of his body, much like with the Death Star.
Ricky Steamboat vs. The Iron Sheik- Macho Man is on the apron after a break, and then hops through the crowd. Savage goes up to the risers the announcers are on. Sheik whips the Dragon, who skins the cat back in and suplexes the Sheik. The Dragon chops him down, and Sheik starts bowing to him. Steamboat shoulderblocks him down, then gets a hiptoss on Sheiky-Baby. He gets a front-facelook, and they roll outside. Sheik rams his head into the steps as Macho says he'd go off the top rope in that situation. Sheik suplexes Ricky back in, for two. Macho would've hooked the leg there. Sheik locks on an abdominal stretch, but Steamboat hiptosses out. Dragon slams him and heads up for a chop, which gets the win. *3/4. Macho throws his headset down, but the ref holds Dragon back.
Gene is with a despondent Hulk Hogan. "You don't become champion of the world by stabbing people in the back." The next time they lock up, Hulk's gonna steal all the power he can. He basically says to be the man, you have to beat the man.
Gene talks to Piper about his "retirement" (though Mania III isn't mentioned). And of course the tribute video doesn't include "My Way" (the Frank Sinatra version, not the Limp Bizkit one from Mania X-7).
This is an historic show, but it's very odd how they never mention Wrestlemania III. I'm sure there's a reason, probably solely an NBC ruling. Still, the events from this show were in all the video package for the main matches on that show, and we got the first in-ring confrontation of Hogan and Andre of the modern era. And, sniff, we saw Roddy Piper for the last time ever on SNME.
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