WWE Saturday Night's Main Event (May 1987)

WWE Saturday Night's Main Event - May 1987

South Bend, Indiana

CHAMPIONSHIP RUNDOWN: Coming into tonight's show, Hulk Hogan is the WWE World Champion, Ricky Steamboat holds the Intercontinental Championship, and the Hart Foundation are the World Tag Team Champions.

COMMENTATORS: Vince McMahon and Jesse Ventura

Main Event opens with some very brief promos out of some of tonight's key figures - "Macho Man" Randy Savage, Hulk Hogan, the Hart Foundation, and Andre the Giant with Bobby Heenan. They hype tonight's card, which features two title defenses and a lumberjack grudge match between Savage and George "The Animal" Steele.

McMahon and Ventura welcome us to the show before airing a video showing Ken Patera injuring Bobby Heenan's neck in an angle from earlier in the day. This explains why Heenan is wearing a neck brace earlier (in actuality, Heenan had suffered a major neck injury in Japan in 1982 but continued taking bumps for years following until, in the early 90s, he became strictly a "broadcast journalist").

Jake Roberts vs. Kamala is our opening contest. This is pretty much exactly what one would expect out of these two. Kamala's moveset is limited to chops and kick, while Roberts spends the majority of the match selling. As good as Roberts' character work is here, his offense is unimpressive and very little action takes place. Saving this from dud territory is the finish and post-match, a well-executed, storyline-furthering scene that continues Roberts' program with Honky Tonk Man. (1.5/5)

Next up we get a lumberjack match pitting George "The Animal" Steele against "Macho Man" Randy Savage. The catalyst for this match is Steele's involvement in the WrestleMania III finish as the Animal played a role in costing Savage his Intercontinental Championship against Ricky Steamboat. We get a few pre-match promos, but they're not things of legend. Like the previous bout, the action in this one is bottom-level basic, Steele's entire offense consisting of clubbering blows, chokes, and the occasional biting. Savage provides motion to the affair and he even lands an almost-impressive snap suplex at one point, but the match comes off more like a reason to get a dozen bodies ringside for brawling than to actually build and tell a meaningful story. The lumberjack stipulation allows for more fuel to be added to the heated rivalries between Honky and Jake as well as the Hart Foundation and the British Bulldogs, so, this match is not without its merit from a storyline perspective, but as far as hunting this down to watch and enjoy, I'd pass. (2/5)

Backstage, "Mean" Gene Okerlund sits with Bobby Heenan and the "rightful" WWE World Champion, Andre the Giant. Heenan claims that Andre pinned Hogan early in their match at WrestleMania III, but the video evidence clearly shows the Hulkster getting his arm up. The Brain is fired up and articulate in his argument, but that doesn't make this a must-watch segment.

Finally, some actual wrestling holds - The British Bulldogs (with Matilda and Tito Santana) challenging the Hart Foundation for their WWE World Tag Team Championships. If one were to watch this match in isolation, I'm not sure it would be nearly as impressive as when you watch it in contrast with the bouts that came before it. Where those matches were fought at a sluggish, stuck-in-molasses speed with the occasional wrestling move lazily thrown in between stomps and punches, Davey Boy and Bret show off some athleticism, take some big bumps, and dish out suplexes, backbreakers, and other bona fide wrestling moves. Nothing they do would be remarkable compared to today's work, but at the time, they were delivering more action in the first five minutes of their match than the previous two bouts had done combined. This one is fought under 2-out-of-3 falls rules, which leads to an unexpected and rather unsatisfying conclusion, but that's not to say it's a total waste of time. The crowd is electric and the heel tactics of the Hart Foundation are the kind of thing sorely lacking in today's product, where the referee can't be made to "look stupid" even when doing so helps rally the audience behind the babyfaces. Dynamite Kid getting his nose busted adds an extra element of drama to an otherwise solid contest, but I must admit to being just a tad underwhelmed with this match considering that I've seen it rated pretty highly in the past. (3/5)

After an interview with Hulk Hogan, it's time for our Intercontinental Championship Match, Ricky Steamboat defending against Hercules. Steamboat is pretty awesome here, fearlessly taking the fight to the muscular Hercules and even hitting him with an atomic drop on the outside. Hercules gets the upperhand and Steamboat eats the ring post while a "talking head" bubble shows Randy Savage cheering for Steamboat (ostensibly so he can win back the title in a rematch). Hercules is surprisingly good here, looking considerably more spry and spirited than anything I saw from him in his WCW run years later. Steamboat lands a swinging neckbreaker and Ventura chastises him for not going for a cover, allowing Hercules to lock in his full nelson. This leads to Savage making a shocking run-in and saving the Dragon, though the match continues. After hitting him with a scoop slam, Hernandez ends up on defense as Steamboat fights back with a series of big chops and fists in the corner. Hercules strikes back with his own inverted atomic drop, but instead of continuing to go toe-to-toe with the champ, Heenan tosses his client a lengthy chain and he uses it to choke out the Dragon (and get himself DQ'd in the process) as Savage watches from the outside. While I found myself enjoying the first 2/3rds of this match, the finish made absolutely no sense as Hercules wasn't really in enough trouble to make him want to get himself disqualified (and cost him a rare opportunity to capture the IC strap). After the match, Savage hits a beaten Steamboat with an elbow from the top, gloating in the corner as the crowd boos. Not a bad match, but I would've preferred an ending that actually followed some logic. (2/5)

"Mean" Gene gets some thoughts from "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan on the outside before our main event - The Can-Am Connection vs. Nikolai Volkoff and the Iron Sheik (with Slick). Volkoff begins singing the Russian National Anthem in the center of the ring, inspiring Duggan to come in and clean house with his two-by-four, grabbing the mic and leading the crowd in a rowdy USA chant. After a commercial break, the match begins with Martel landing a big dropkick on Sheik and then tagging in Tom Zenk for a little double-team action. Sheik gets control, though, tossing the Minnesotan (I think) into a Volkoff boot in the corner. Sheik lands an impressive vertical suplex for two before Nikolai comes in and hits Zenk with a pretty nifty stomp off the ropes. Sheik is back in and he lands a respectable belly-to-belly suplex before locking in an abdominal stretch on the future Z-Man. The heels are able to get in some cheap shots on the outside moments later, but Duggan won't stand for it, getting into the ring and disqualifying the Sheik for long enough to give the Can-Am Connection the upperhand. Like nearly every other match from tonight's show, there's a wild brawl in the post-match. (1/5)

At just a bit over an hour and created to help pull in casual viewers and drive pay-per-view and ticket sales, Saturday Night's Main Event shows are not going to hold up to the same scrutiny as actual 3-hour pay-per-view events. Still, there are plenty of better ways to spend an hour than watching this show and its average match rating of 1.9-out-of-5 makes that clear. The Bulldogs/Hart Foundation match is the best on the show but is hardly must-see unless you're a Davey Boy Smith completist and don't mind screwy finishes. Hercules/Steamboat is pretty strong, but suffers from an ending that makes little sense. Giving the main event even 1 point seems almost too complimentary. None of the extraneous segments seem important. I'm hoping there are better episodes than this I can enjoy in the future.

FINAL RATING - DUDleyville