WWF Saturday Night’s Main Event (1-4-1986)

From the USF Sun Dome in Tampa, Florida, it’s SATURDAY NIGHT’S MAIN EVENT!

I don’t usually do entire show reviews, of course, but I don’t NOT do them, and this is a request! There will be a couple more, too. Plus SNME runs about 60 minutes and had a breeziness, so I’m looking forward to it.

Just a reminder that if you DO want to request a full show — which is welcome! — it, like, costs more than the normal $3. Because it is long and takes up a lot of my time. And what a great treat you get in the end! Me saying shit about wrestling to read while you take a crap or dump.

(Requests open and tips always appreciated!)

Hollywood Hogan vs Roddy Piper (WCW, 12-29-1996)

WCW Starrcade, Nashville, TN

A request! This was the first pay-per-view I was ever able to order. I was 14, my grandpa had decided to start giving me a little money for Christmas, and then I gravely disappointed him, I think, by turning about 55 percent of that money into a request for a trip down to the local cable office to purchase Starrcade.

It’s easy to look back now and go, “These were two old men! Whoopty doo!” But it really was several months of compelling TV angle that had me fired up, and it felt like the return of Starrcade as a proper marquee event following Hogan arriving in ’94 and ruining the image with his terrible Brutus Beefcake and Mr. T bullshit nobody cared about, and then ’95 which was a cool idea in some ways but did not have a “Starrcade feel.” (Listen, in all reality, Starrcade was kind of a wack show more often than not overall, but it was supposed to be the big’un.)

(Requests open and tips always appreciated!)

Roddy Piper vs Goldust (WWF, 3-31-1996)

WWF WrestleMania XII, Anaheim, CA

A request! This great feud came about because Roddy Piper was serving as interim WWF President after Vader took out Gorilla Monsoon, and Goldust set his fascinated gaze upon Piper, who of course took great offense to Implied Gay and promised to “make a man out of” Goldust.

It’s a HOLLYWOOD BACKLOT BRAWL! See, because Goldust likes movies, and Piper has been in some.

(Requests open and tips always appreciated!)

Roddy Piper vs Bret Hart (WWF, 4-5-1992)

WWF WrestleMania VIII, Indianapolis, IN

A request! When watching Flair vs Savage from this show recently, I realized then that I’d never rewatched this one for Blogging Purposes, so I’m very glad to do it.

Piper’s defending the Intercontinental title, the one and only WWF title he ever held before they did that goofy thing in 2006 with him and Flair beating the Spirit Squad to win tag belts.

Hart had lost the IC belt to The Mountie in January at a house show just before the Royal Rumble, with the story being that he bravely battled a 600 degree fever or whatever. The two were set to meet at the Rumble, but instead it was Mountie defending against a subbed-in Piper, who won the title.

(Requests open and tips always appreciated!)

Paul Orndorff vs Roddy Piper (WWF, 7-13-1985)

WWF at Madison Square Garden, New York, NY

From Coliseum’s “The Best of the WWF Vol. 4.” These two had just teamed on March 31 at the same venue, in the main event of the first WrestleMania, losing to Hulk Hogan and Mr. T. Vince McMahon sets this up from the studio by saying Piper had insulted Orndorff after the match, and Orndorff went on to issue challenges. This, says Vince, “became known as the Match of Honor.”

(Ko-fi)

Roddy Piper vs Scott Hall (WCW, 2-21-1999)

WCW SuperBrawl IX, Oakland, CA

This is for Piper’s U.S. title, which he shouldn’t have held, and a chance for Hall, who also probably shouldn’t have held it by this point in time, to win it. It would be Hall’s first singles title in WCW since he came back in ’96, so nearly three full years. Hall had already wrestled earlier in the night, replacing Luger in the tag match with Nash that cost Rey Mysterio Jr his mask. They tease him not showing up by running through the whole nWo Wolfpac(k) song once and then he finally comes out.

Royal Rumble (WWF, 1-19-1992)

WWF Royal Rumble, Albany, NY

Request via Ko-fi. There’s a chance I’ve watched this match more than any other match in history. When people say, “What wrestling match would you show friends who don’t like wrestling to get them into wrestling,” my answer is, obviously, “I would not show them wrestling. They have lived however long having made the correct choice to not let this ridiculous shit into their veins.” But sometimes people will suggest a long, epic match, one that we dorks largely agree is great, and people will say, “Ugh! Look at me, pay attention to me, I am extremely smart and I would not show them that match. All wrestling matches should be 18 seconds long and not have anything good, because when you think about it, that is good!” But this is a 62-minute match I might show someone if I were forced to try to get them to like wrestling, because in this one hour, you see 30 various personalities and one of the all-time great performances.

Hulk Hogan, Roddy Piper & Billy Jack Haynes vs Adrian Adonis, Paul Orndorff & Hercules (WWF, 3-7-1987)

WWF on NESN, Boston, MA

This was a request. It’s an uncertain time in the world with the coronavirus outbreak, and for many of us, our amount of time being stuck at home has gone through the roof. So while I usually do charge $3 through Ko-fi for requested reviews, I’m happy to do them for free right now if you have any. My only ask is nothing from 1994-95 WWF/WCW/ECW because I’m watching all that stuff on the side to do Twitter threads for fun, and have been for a while.

But that means this 1987 WWF match from Boston, 22 days before WrestleMania III, is totally fair game. The match isn’t on WWE Network, but is on YouTube.

Hollywood Hogan & Bret Hart vs Roddy Piper & Randy Savage (WCW, 6-14-1998)

WCW The Great American Bash, Baltimore, MD

Earlier today on Twitter I talked about the ages of this match, much maligned at the time, compared to the ages of the Crown Jewel main event. In this match you have Hogan (44) & Hart (40) vs Piper (44) & Savage (45), while at Crown Jewel, you had Undertaker (53) & Kane (51) vs HHH (49) & Michaels (53). I wasn’t saying that to make a base conclusion that this match was better or that match was worse, just that 20 years ago, the WWF roasted WCW for matches like this one (as did fans in WCW crowds, though their typically clueless production people didn’t realize it), but now here we are and the same guys who were topping ’98 WWF cards are topping 2018 WWE cards. The point is, I guess, that when you win the war, you can create whatever narrative you want. This was four old farts fumbling around. What you saw in Saudi Arabia was four iconic gladiator legends going to war one more time. In the words of the great thinker Bobby Baccalieri, “To da victor goes da spoils.”

Bret Hart vs Roddy Piper (WCW, 2-8-1999)

WCW Monday Nitro, Buffalo, NY

Earlier in the night, Ric Flair, President of WCW, came out to dismiss Scott Hall as the No. 1 contender to the U.S. title, and called out Bret Hart to the ring for a surprise.