Those of you who are familiar with my most recent “State of SNME column” (if you’re not, go check it out. It should still be on the main page.) know full well how disappointed I am in the last two episodes of SNME that aired this year. The short answer, is that the original SNME worked because it was different from the other WWF shows that aired at the time, and came during a period when PPVs happened 4 times a year at most. SNME provided a different type of show. It was a special occasion, and something to look forward to. These days, there are so many WWE shows on per week (not to mention at least one PPV per month), that there’s no real reason to add another show to the lineup. When you add in that the new SNME is prettymuch the exact same show as RAW and Smackdown, you wind up with a show that gives the fans absolutely nothing new. Yes, yes, SNME combines the RAW, Smackdown and ECW rosters, but the format is still the same, and the matches are just as repetitive as what you see on Monday and Friday nights. The end result is two SNMEs that did so poorly in the ratings, that it’s very possible that the show may be cancelled. Hell, the most recent SNME only ran against re-runs and still pulled in the lowest rating of the night.

It’s with that sentiment that I felt the need to dust off some more classic SNMEs and continue my old-school SNME reviews. I’m altering the format though, as I had been doing a literal play-by-play approach to writing the matches. The columns may wind up being a bit shorter, but I’m pretty sure that I can still get the point of the shows across. With that in mind, let’s get started.

THE BUILDUP FROM WRESTLEMANIA 5 TO SUMMERSLAM 89
The previous SNME was the first show after Wrestlemania 5, and begins laying the ground work to many of the big angles that will culminate at Summerslam 89. Randy Savage, having lost the WWF Title to Hulk Hogan at WM5, started on his road to a rematch with Hulk Hogan by defeating Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart. Hulk Hogan ended his feud with the Big Bossman in a great steel cage match, that climaxed with Hogan superplexing the Bossman off of the top of the cage. Sure, by today’s standards, that may not be a huge thing. But in 1989, it was. Especially when it was two 300lb wrestlers involved. In addition, we not only saw the start of the alliance of Randy Savage and Sensational Sherri, but also the introduction of Tiny “Zeus” Lister into the WWF as an actual wrestler (in order to capitalize on the “No Holds Barred” movie starring Hogan and Lister). We also saw Demolition kick off a great feud with the Brain Busters, Rick Rude defend the IC Title against “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan and Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka return to the WWF, squashing Boris Zukoff in the process.

With the second Summerslam PPV only one month away, tonight’s episode of SNME is the final buildup to the event, with each match involving wrestlers who will be competing at Summerslam, and significant developments in their storylines.

Hulk Hogan v. Honkytonk Man
We lead off with the WWF Champion versus the former IC Champion. Before we get to that match though, we get to see a video montage called “Honkytonk Man’s Greatest Hits” where we see a series of clips of HTM blasting various wrestlers over the head with his guitar. Among the victims are: Jake Roberts, Jimmy Snuka, Ultimate Warrior and Brutus Beefcake. I guess they needed to do this, as there was no real storyline buildup to HTM v. Hogan, and Honky hasn’t been very prominent in recent months. The video served to remind everyone why they still shouldn’t like the Honkytonk Man.

Even if I were doing 100% play-by-play coverage, I wouldn’t bother with this match. It was Hulk Hogan by-the-numbers here. Hogan gets in the ring and starts out on the offensive. Some cheating by HTM and Jimmy Hart puts Hogan on the dis-advantage for most of the match. Hogan teases a comeback or two, but HTM takes control again. Feeling confident, HTM goes for his finisher, and after the “Shake, Rattle & Roll” neckbreaker, Hogan Hulks up and recovers. 3 punches, a boot and a legdrop, and it’s lights out for the Honkytonk Man. After the match. Ron Garvin, who will be refereeing the next match, comes in to congratulate Hulk Hogan on his victory.

As I mentioned above, it was strictly Hogan by-the-numbers. It was at this point, that I was finally noticing this, and began to become bored with the constant repetitiveness of Hogan’s matches.

“Waitaminite, Ron Garvin? What’s he doing here as a referee? I thought he was a wrestler.

I’m glad you asked. The former NWA World Champion actually entered the WWF back in December of 1988. He was mainly wrestling on the undercard for the most part until scoring a clean pinfall over Greg Valentine on WWF TV. An incensed Valentine immediately challenged Garvin to a “career match” where the loser would have to retire. As you could probably guess, Garvin lost the match (thanks to a handful of tights by Valentine) and had to ‘retire’. Unfortunately for Valentine, while Garvin retired as a WWF wrestler, he picked up new employment as a WWF referee. Garvin quickly made his mark by blatantly favoring the babyfaces, often disqualifying the heels for offenses that the other referees were missing (Examples, included things like DQing Dino Bravo in a squash match for refusing to break a hold after the 5-count.) and often winding up brawling with heels who didn’t agree with his officiating. These repeated offenses resulted in a warning by WWF “President” Jack Tunney.

Greg “The Hammer” Valentine v. Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka
Ron Garvin is the guest referee for this one, and Valentine wastes no time admonishing Garvin to call the match down the middle. Valentine starts off on Snuka early and despite a couple of comebacks, manages to maintain control during most of the match. Valentine isn’t getting away with anything though, as every time Valentine attempts to break the rules, Garvin is right there to warn him. It all came to a head with Snuka out of the ring trying to get back in. Every time Snuka would get on the ring apron to get back inside, Valentine would attack him, sending the Superfly back to the floor. Each time, Garvin would warn Valentine to get back and allow Snuka to get back in the ring. After the 4th or 5th such incident, Garvin loses his cool and shoves Valentine, threatening to disqualify him. Valentine yells at Garvin some more, and “The man with the hands of stone” slugs him! A stunned Valentine slowly spins around to find Snuka on the top rope. The Superfly catches the Hammer with a flying cross body block and Garvin is only too happy to count the pinfall. An enraged Valentine charges at Garvin and is backdropped out of the ring for good measure. Valentine storms off, while Snuka and Garvin celebrate in the ring.

Decent match, but it was the ending that sold it for me. Good stuff. Valentine was so upset that he would demand that Garvin be re-instated as a wrestler so that they could meet in the ring again. Garvin would of course gladly accept.

Randy “Macho King” Savage v. Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake
Since losing the WWF Title to Hulk Hogan at Wrestlemania 5, Savage has been pulling double duty. Not only has he been trying like crazy to regain the title from Hogan, but in a recent Brother Love segment, The Macho Man and his manager Sensational Sherri brutally attacked Brutus Beefcake and gave “The Barber” a taste of his own medicine and cut his hair.

The match starts with Savage as usual going into overdrive, attacking Beefcake at lightning speed. The Barber gets control though and has the advantage for the first part of the match, countering the heel attacks by the Mach Man. Even Sensational Sherri’s interference from the outside doesn’t seem to be helping much, as Beefcake is doing a great job of keeping Savage at the disadvantage. Sherri finally gets it right though, and manages to help her man get control of the match. From there, it’s all Savage as he proceeds to go to work on Beefcake both inside and outside the ring. Sherri isn’t too far behind, as she’s attacking Brutus almost as much as Savage is. Sherri distracts the ref as Brutus goes for a small package, enabling Savage to kick out. Brutus then gets Savage in a backslide, but only gets a 2 count. Savage still maintains control here though, as Brutus is unable to overcome the combined attacks of both Savage and Sherri. Savage goes for a double ax handle from the top rope, but Beefcake counters and mounts a great comeback. A subsequent interference attempt by Sherri backfires, causing her to be knocked out at ringside. Meanwhile Beefcake backdrops Savage over the top rope. A revived Sherri tries to help Savage, but The Macho Man sends her to the back.

Beefcake is still putting the pressure on Savage and always seems just a second away from putting Savage away. Sherri meanwhile makes her return to the ring with none other than “The Human Wrecking Machine” Zeus! Zeus and Sherri are at ringside as Beefcake and Savage are battling it out in the ring. That is, until Beefcake finally manages to slap the sleeper hold on the Macho Man. At that point, Zeus climbs in the ring and attacks Beefcake, locking him in a bearhug. Hulk Hogan runs in and attacks Zeus from behind, but Zeus no-sells the attack and then locks the bearhug onto Hogan. Savage attacks Hogan as well, and along with Zeus, brutalize the babyfaces until Hogan & Beefcake attempt a comeback. Zeus has Beefcake in another bearhug and Hogan nails Zeus on the back with a chair. Again, Zeus doesn’t feel a thing, and seems ready to face Hogan down. Beecake returns to the ring with a chair of his own, but Zeus isn’t backing down. Eventually Savage and Sherri manage to get Zeus out of the ring with Brutus & Hogan celebrating a DQ victory over Savage.

GREAT MATCH! Whether it was Brutus rising to the occasion, or Savage doing a great carry job, the end result was a match that was definitely greater then the sum of it’s parts. It was very fast paced like most of Savage’s matches with lots of near falls. I definitely wasn’t expecting to enjoy it as much as I did. In my last SNME review, I covered the history that brought Tiny “Zeus” Lister off of the movie screen and onto WWF TV to try to destroy Hulkamania. Zeus and Savage are now allies under the management of Sensational Sherri and will be facing Hogan and Beefcake at Summerslam 89.

Demolition v. The Brain Busters – 2/3 falls
The WWF Tag Champions, Demolition have been in a hot feud with Tully Blanchard & Arn Anderson for the past several months, with most of their matches ending in disqualification. Tonight’s match will be a 2/3 falls match.

First, what more can be said of these two teams? Demolition started off as not much more than a Road Warrior rip-off team, but quickly developed their own identity and escaped from the shadow of Hawk & Animal. The result, was probably the most popular WWF tag team in recent memory. In the Brain Busters, you have probably the best tag team in the world at this point. Tully & Arn were so good, that NBC producer Nick Ebersol was such a big fan of the Brain Busters, that he specifically made sure that every episode of SNME would feature a match that involved Tully & Arn for as long as they were in the company. If that doesn’t tell you how good they were, then how about the fact that Vince McMahon had so much respect for Tully & Arn that he refused to give them a gimmick or even entrance music, as he didn’t want to do anything to take attention away from their skills as simply the best wrestling tag team in the company, if not the world.

1ST FALL:
Great stuff, much like their previous SNME match. The advantage goes back and forth several times with Demolition focusing on their superior power attacks, and an “I don’t care” attitude toward the rules, while the Brain Busters play to their own strengths of technical wrestling, better tag team cohesiveness and an even bigger disdain for the rules. Eventually though, it was Demolition who won out, as Smash dropped Anderson throat first onto the top rope in a great “Hot Shot” or “Stun Gun” maneuver for the pinfall.

2nd FALL
Demolition maintains the advantage here and works the Brainbusters over with quick tags and lots of power and weardown moves. With the help of Bobby “The Brain” Heenan, Tully & Arn manage to get control again, but not for too long, as Demolition eventually gets the advantage back and with a burst of energy, drive both Arn Anderson & Bobby Heenan from the ring and drop the Demolition Decapitation on Tully. No pinfall though, as Demolition had repeatedly ignored referee Joey Marella’s orders to stop double teaming their opponents and were disqualified, thus tying the match at 1 fall apiece. Meanwhile, fellow Heenan family member Andre the Giant comes down to ringside.

3rd FALL
Much like the second fall, Demolition is clearly controlling the match, although both teams are showing signs of wear. Demolition manages to get their second (third?) wind before the Brainbusters though, and really work their opponents over. Tully & Arn manage to get their act together and go for a double team maneuver on Smash, while the referee is concentrating on getting Ax back to his corner. It backfires, as Ax manages to save his partner, but the ref goes back to pushing Ax out of the ring. Unfortunately, he misses Smash covering a virtually unconscious Arn for the sure pin. Andre the Giant uses the opportunity and tosses a chair to Tully who blasts Smash over the head with it and rolls Arn on top of Smash for the pinfall, giving the Brain Busters the win and the WWF Tag Team Titles!

Another great match here, as Tully & Arn become the first tag team to win World Titles in both the NWA and the WWF. Heenan is elated, as he’s now managing both the Tag Team Champions in the Brain Busters, as well as the Intercontinental Champion in Rick Rude.

In the end, this was a good show, especially considering the fact that the WWF had a major PPV coming up in a month’s time. This was back in the day when there were only 4 WWF PPVs per year, so shows like SNME were very instrumental in generating interest in the PPVs. The Hogan match seemed to serve no other purpose than to put Hogan on TV, as there was no reason for him to be fighting the Honkytonk Man. The other matches on the show all had some significance to the upcoming Summerslam and were all worth watching. Hell, each match on the show was better than the one before it. SNME was definitely hitting its stride as far as putting on great bi-monthly (ish) shows. Everything they did tonight worked. Even the worst match on the show (Hogan/Honkytonk Man) wasn’t really bad, as it was simply overshadowed by everything else.

My score: 9

Be sure to drop me an email at gnagus@comcast.net or post in the feedback forums over on the Oratory message board with your comments. Let me know what you thought.