While my slightly OCD nature should probably be bothered by me leaving a bunch of unfinished writeup threads laying around, the simple fact remains that sometimes I feel like working on a writeup but not necessarily the specific stuff that I'm pigeonholed into on the threads that I've started. And as I've said, that Monday Night Wars thread is just too big of an undertaking to ever expect to complete it, so I'd like a wider range of options.

Solution? Another thread, obviously. This one will be a bit different in that my goal will be to simply set out to live-blog my viewing of a show within a single sitting, and I'll post things match-by-match, segment-by-segment, whatever. Hopefully people are around and will find it interesting.

As I say with all of the other threads, the other writeup threads won't die. Obviously my work on the MNW thread has languished a bit, but I'll slowly keep adding to that over time. This one will just pop up here and there also.

As you can tell by the title, the gimmick of this will be to go back in time and recap a show from the same date in history.

As today is January 27th this leaves the following options that I can see...

1/27/92 WWF Saturday Night's Main Event
1/27/94 WCW Clash of Champions
1/27/97 WWF Raw
1/27/97 WCW Nitro
1/27/03 WWE Raw
1/27/08 WWE Royal Rumble
1/27/13 WWE Royal Rumble
1/27/14 WWE Raw

(The strikethroughs are because I've already done those shows in the MNW thread.)

Well right away what I see, without doing any research, is:
*'92 SNME: Don't know what's on this show, but it's at a good time in WWF history. Without looking, I'm guessing this must be the one where Hogan and Sid teamed in the main event.
*'94 Clash: I've probably never seen this, and IIRC it's at a pretty terrible time in WCW history.
*1/27/03 Raw: I had probably stopped watching at this point. This would be Ruthless Aggression, right? Could be good.
*2008 Rumble: I think I was still in my dark period here. My guess is that I haven't watched this.
*2013 Rumble: I've probably watched this. This is probably the one with CM Punk vs. The Rock? If so, I don't find this option particularly attractive.
*1/27/14 Raw: I may have watched this? It probably sucked. I don't want to do this one.

Anyway, YOLO, I'm going to let random.org pick the show, then dial it up on the WWE Network and begin viewing.

Hmm. As I look more closely, this event was taped on 1/27/92 but aired on 2/8/92. Does that count?



I'll allow it. I mean, this is probably a more proper date for it than February 8th.

(Obviously if I had drawn the 2014 Raw I would have ruled this as grounds for a rerand if I had somehow noticed it after the rand.)

Love reading your write-ups. Looking forward to the series!

WWF SATURDAY NIGHT'S MAIN EVENT #30

The Era
The sitting President is George H.W. Bush.



The reigning Super Bowl Champions are the Washington Redskins, led by Washington State University alum Mark Rypien, having defeated the Buffalo Bills the day before this taping.



The #1 song on Billboard was "All 4 Love" by Color Me Badd. That song sucks.



The #1 movie in America was The Hand That Rocks the Cradle. Never seen it.



The Wrestling Background for This Show

Ric Flair had just won the 1992 Royal Rumble, winning the vacant WWF Title in the process. The final three in the Rumble were Ric Flair, Sid, and Hulk Hogan. Sid dumped Hogan out from behind, Hogan infamously played the sore loser, grabbed onto Sid's hand, and enabled Flair to dump Sid out from behind to ship it.



This caused tension between babyfaces Hogan and Sid, but the two purportedly patched things up and agreed to wrestle on this show. The original announcement for a WrestleMania VIII main event was Ric Flair vs. Hulk Hogan, which did not sit well with Sid. I believe that announcement was made before this show aired.



Personal Memory of This Show

Very little memory, though I'm assuming I watched it the one time when it aired; we'll see how much comes back to mind. Spoiler alert: Sid and Hogan have a falling-out here. I barely remember it, partially because Sid's heel turn was one of the most transparent I can remember happening, and as a result of its very predictable nature I really didn't care. It didn't help that I was generally not very interested in Hogan.

Let's do this.

The opening sequence features Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Sid, Randy Savage, Jake Roberts, Roddy Piper, Paul Bearer, The Undertaker, and…Tugboat. Seems legit. Was The Shockmaster not available?

Vince McMahon and Bobby Heenan are on the call tonight. I'm pumped that I got a Heenan show.

Vince tells us that our main event is Hulk Hogan and Sid vs. The Undertaker and Ric Flair. We will also see Randy Savage vs. Jake Roberts. Ah yeah, this is the blowoff after This Tuesday in Texas.

I browsed the wiki for this SNME. There's a total of 23 minutes of wrestling on the card. Damn.

CotC card didn't look that bad. Had Flair/Sting vs Vader/Rude and Regal/Dustin

Not until September 93. I only remember this because I ordered Fail Brawl 1993 awful.

Enter The Mountie for our opening match. Vince notes that he just held the Intercontinental Title for the shortest reign in company history, but hopes to get it back tonight.

Roddy Piper is out second, apparently to defend his title here, and he kisses a random fan on the lips on the way to the ring. That was, uhh, bold. Heenan says, "Ohh, Roddy Piper giving a kiss to the queen of the Weight Watchers."

Intercontinental Title: Rowdy Roddy Piper (c) vs. The Mountie

As Piper hits the ring and hands the belt to referee Joey Marella, Jimmy Hart rips it away from Marella and hands it to the Mountie, who scales the ropes and raises it high. Vince McMahon takes this strangely seriously on commentary, bordering on flipping out and screaming that the Mountie hasn't earned that title yet. Settle down dude, have you never seen a heel before?

Pipers starts taking a run at Jimmy Hart, allowing The Mountie to attack from behind and dump him out of the ring. Mountie and Jimmy Hart celebrate as if Piper can't just scramble back into the ring and attack, which is exactly what he does. Piper dumps Mountie out, chases and attacks before rolling him back in, but Hart grabs Piper's ankle on the way back in and creates an opening for Mountie to retake the advantage.

As Mountie beats on Piper in the corner, we get a PIP promo from Bret Hart, who has apparently already been announced to be getting a title shot at the winner at WrestleMania VIII. Back from the PIP, Mountie records a two-count. Scoop slam by Mountie, but a follow-up splash attempt falls on Piper's knees. Pipers with a series of punches, attempts a bulldog, but Mountie shoves Piper out and we get a ref bump. Marella is down. Mountie hits a piledriver on Piper, which you would expect to create a visual pin spot, but he never covers.

Instead, Jimmy Hart jumps up on the apron to give Mountie a cup of water. (???) Vince echoes my thoughts and yells, "That doesn't make any sense!" Heenan knowingly says, "Oh yes it does," and suddenly you see the game plan, as Jimmy gives Mountie his shock stick. Mountie goes in and tries to electrocute Roddy to death, causing that comically loud electrical sound as he drives the stick in, but as he turns around we get the lame no-sell from Piper, popping straight up to his feet.



Piper knocks Mountie down with a punch, gets the stick for himself, dumps a charging Jimmy out of the ring, and shocks the **** out of Mountie himself. Joey Marella wakes up, Piper makes the pin, and he remains the IC Champion, setting up a great match with Bret Hart at WrestleMania.



Result: Rowdy Roddy Piper via pinfall

After the match, Piper forces me to forgive the no-sell a bit, as he sheds his shirt and shows that he's wearing two layers, the underneath one saying "shock-proof," apparently accounting for that possibility in the match.



I mean, that's stupid, but it at least told a story that made sense in the wrestling world.

Match Rating: 1/4*
Meltzer Rating: *1/4

We get a replay of the final three in the Royal Rumble, as I described in the earlier post. This features the revamped Gorilla Monsoon commentary. On the live feed, he described it as totally fair play for Sid Justice to dump Hogan out of the ring, and on this one he treats it like a total heel move. Moreover, Heenan sides with him and declares, "I LIKE Sid Justice!" The most hilariously shameless part of this is that Sid dumping Hogan out gets a huge pop from the crowd on the hard camera side, and the audible crowd reaction on this video replay is just heavy booing.

We then see the footage from the above-pictured WrestleMania VIII press conference. Jack Tunney announces that the challenger to Ric Flair at Mania will be Hulk Hogan. Again, Sid Justice is not pleased. WTF is with Hogan wearing those parachute pants to this?



Sean Mooney grabs a word with Justice. Justice screams at surrounding reporters to shut up, and gripes that he would be the world champion right now if Hogan hadn't pulled him out of the ring. He screams at Jack Tunney for making "the most bogus move he's ever done." He asks, "Is it because I'm not a big movie star?" He says that Hogan couldn't beat Ric Flair on his best day, but he could.

A week later, Sid offered a pre-taped apology where he just lays it on thick, smiling through his teeth and telling Hulk Hogan he sincerely apologizes. It doesn't seem like this was even meant to fool anyone. It makes Hogan look like something of a sucker for even agreeing to team with him for this night's main event.

We're jumping right into our main event, I guess. Ric Flair is halfway to the ring, flanked by Mr. Perfect, and...Undertaker just got a jobber entrance? He and Paul Bearer are already standing there waiting for Flair. Why the **** would you ever give Undertaker a jobber entrance?

Sean Mooney is backstage with Sid Justice and Hulk Hogan, who are acting all chummy. Hogan reaches his hand out for a handshake, and Sid happily takes it, likely safely realizing that he was standing on flat ground and couldn't be suckered in and pulled out over any top rope. Mooney addresses Sid and seems like he's setting up to ask him for a comment, then suddenly jerks the mic away and asks Hogan a question instead. Sid shows visible annoyance with this snub and walks off.



Hogan is oblivious, and just handles the promo, saying Sid's on his way to the ring and that he'll follow him shortly. He also says he'll have a surprise, his "friend to the end," coming to the ring with him. Hogan is next shown emerging down the aisle with Brutus Beefcake tagging along.

Ah, I just realized why this match didn't go on last. We'll get there.

Spoiler alert!

Took me a few seconds to remember what you're referring to. I assume it has to do with Take.

Sid Justice & Hulk Hogan (w/ Brutus Beefcake) vs. Ric Flair (w/ Mr. Perfect) & The Undertaker (w/ Paul Bearer)

Sid and Hogan debate who will start the match. Sid cajoles Hogan into stepping out to the apron so that he can start. Heenan talks up dissension, and Vince pretends that everything is just fine.

Sid vs. Flair to start. Flair rakes the eyes. Sid reverses a corner whip and hits a backdrop coming out. Hip-toss sends Flair sprawling, and he slides out of the ring for an early breather. As he re-enters, Sid plays to the crowd and tags Hogan. Hogan kicks Flair in the gut, whips him into the corner, another backdrop/hip-toss sequence like what Sid did. Undertaker comes in, and Hogan does the same to him. Sid looks on, visibly unimpressed. Hogan tags Sid, Sid comes in to take on Undertaker. Sid blocks a Taker bodyslam attempt and slams him instead.

As Hogan offers a raised boot in the corner, Sid slams Taker's face into it. He tags Hogan in, and Hogan takes on both heels, clearing them out and posing to the crowd. Taker re-enters, Hogan grabs him into a hold and then tags Sid. They work together on a double-team, but once Hogan leaves, Taker stops short on a backdrop and hits an uppercut. Tag to Flair, double clothesline by the heels, and Hogan breaks up a pin attempt. Double atomic drop by Flair and Taker. Again Hogan to the rescue on the pin.

As the double-teaming continues and referee Earl Hebner just lazily observes, Hogan stays in this time to help Sid fight them off. They hit a double big boot on Flair and then a double clothesline that knocks Undertaker out of the ring. Hogan celebrates to the crowd, and Sid looks on with clear annoyance that Hogan is taking credit. The show cuts to break.



Back from break, Undertaker hits an uppercut on Sid, then smashes his face into the turnbuckle and tags Flair. Flair enters with chops and punches, then runs distraction on Earl Hebner as Taker strangles Sid in the corner. We're in a full heat segment here, with Flair and Taker getting their shots in. Sid is able to launch a comeback when he grabs the heads of both men and knocks them into each other. Hot tag to Hogan, who punches both men as well as Paul Bearer for good measure. Perfect grabs Hogan's ankle from the floor, allowing Flair to come take a cheap shot from the blind side at Hogan's knee, injuring it. Flair kicks Hogan's leg out of his leg, then jumps on it and slaps on the figure-four. Rather than entering to help out, Sid slowly turns his back on Hogan and adjusts his kneepad.

Hogan reverses the hold, causing the break, and as Hogan desperately tries for a tag, Sid won't reach out to him. Undertaker cuts Hogan off from behind, Irish whip, flying clothesline, tag back in to Flair. Hogan catches Flair climbing the ropes and tosses him off. He's got a new opening now, heads over to try to tag, and again Sid won't reach out. He smirks as the fans boo him. He cups his ear to the booing and yells out, "Music to my ears!"



Flair chops Hogan in the corner, and Hogan no-sells and begins hulking up. Taker in for the assist to Flair, but Hogan manages to clothesline both. Hogan crawls over one more time, pleading for a tag. Sid again won't take the tag, and after mockingly reaching halfway for a split-second before dropping down to the floor and beginning to walk off.



Brutus Beefcake tries to confront Sid, who threatens to punch him. This is post-accident reconstructed Beefcake, so Heenan trots out that line about how, "It's gonna be like a hockey game, it will be a face-off!" Beefcake backs down, Sid walks off to a chorus of boos, and Hogan has been left in a functional handicap match. Hebner tries to get one of Flair or Taker to leave the ring, but Flair flings Hebner to the mat, causing a disqualification.



Result: Hulk Hogan & Sid Justice via DQ

Beefcake jumps into the ring to try to come to Hogan's aid. He at least works as bait for Flair and Taker, allowing Hogan an opening to attack and clear both out of the ring. Hogan and Beefcake hold the ring to a big pop. Beefcake explains to an upset Hogan what Sid just did in abandoning him. Hogan scolds Beefcake for putting himself at risk like that.



That's the scene as we head to the back for an update.

My Rating: **
Meltzer Rating: **1/4

Sean Mooney is with Sid Justice.

Mooney: "There must be some explanation. You turned your back on your friend, Hulk Hogan!"
Sid: "SHUT UP!"



Sid's "SHUT UP!" is always great. Sid says that Hogan is not his friend. He says he still can't believe that Jack Tunney spit out those words, that Hogan would be the #1 contender at WrestleMania. "I said it once. I'll say it again. You couldn't beat Ric Flair on your best day. AND YOU COULDN'T BEAT ME ON MY WORST! Because I am the man...that rules...the world."

Back in the arena, Hogan and Beefcake are shown charging toward the back, apparently to confront Sid, as the show cuts to break.



After break, they must not have found Sid, as they're standing by to talk to Mean Gene Okerlund instead. Hogan cuts an angry promo on Sid, then thanks Beefcake for the backup. He calls Beefcake is his friend to the end, says that they have always been there for each other. He says he's going to dedicate his upcoming title match against Ric Flair to Beefcake. That's quite a promise from someone who already knows that he's being re-booked out of that match.

We go back to the ring, having skipped entrances for the next match, and apparently our next match is Hacksaw Jim Duggan & Sgt. Slaughter vs. The Beverly Brothers. That'll put butts in seats.

Hacksaw Jim Duggan & Sgt. Slaughter vs. The Beverly Brothers (w/ The Genius)

Duggan in there against Blake Beverly to start. Duggan hits a clothesline. He runs off the ropes, takes a cheap shot from Beau Beverly, and the Beverlys take the advantage. Beau tags in, attempts a backdrop, but Duggan stops short and kicks him in the face. Tag to Slaughter. He hits a backdrop on Beau, slaps on an abdominal stretch, but Blake runs in and breaks it up. Duggan clears out Blake, and we descend into four-way chaos. Slaughter clocks Blake with the Genius's scroll within the peripheral view of referee Danny Davis, who simply pretends not to see (or hear the loud impact). Duggan hits his patented clothesline, makes the pin, and Slaughter covers for the three-count.



Result: Hacksaw Jim Duggan & Sgt. Slaughter via pinfall

Heenan correctly complains, "Two against one!" Vince retorts, "Just like we saw earlier with Flair and The Undertaker against Hogan." WTF kind of a response is that? How does that justify Duggan and Slaughter double-teaming Blake Beverly?

My Rating: 0 stars
Meltzer Rating: *

Next we're sent to a recap of the infamous scene where Jake Roberts brought out his cobra and made it bite Randy Savage's arm on Superstars. We fast-forward to This Tuesday in Texas, when Jake did the unthinkable and slapped Miss Elizabeth.

We get a pre-taped interview with Jake.

"Sweet Elizabeth. You know how much fun we've had before. Sweetheart, trust me, if you show up tonight, we're gonna have some more fun...you see, because some things are worth doing twice."



After commercial, Jake is shown heading to the ring, and Vince throws it to the back to Mean Gene, waiting with Randy Savage. Savage cuts an intense promo.

"And if you men out there were forced to watch your wife, or your woman, or your main squeeze, yeah...BEGGING to another man, and then getting SLAPPED by another man...that might make you a little bit upset. That might make you a little bit over the edge. That might make you a little bit insane. But not me, snake man. Not me...'cause I know what I'm going to do to you TONIGHT! ... You know what? Maybe I am insane. And maybe it's time for you, Jake Roberts, to find out how insane I am! RIGHT NOW, yeah!"



He exits stage left and heads to the ring.

Jake "The Snake" Roberts vs. "Macho Man" Randy Savage

Savage slaps a few hands en route to the ring before breaking into a sprint. Honestly he probably should have skipped all pre-match hand-slapping since he's supposed to be totally unhinged and single-minded right now. As he hits the ring, Jake bails out. Savage jumps out over the top to the floor to come after him, then promptly rams him into the post. Jake kicks him in the gut to temporarily stun him, but Savage gives chase, posting Jake again, dragging him to the ground and raking his eyes.

Savage sends Jake inside and throws a chair in after him. Referee Earl Hebner discards the chair before Savage gets in. Savage puts a boot to Jake's neck, choking away with it. He drops an elbow along Jake's neck, and we see blood coming form the bridge of Jake's nose. Vince immediately calls it a broken nose, which it might be. If so, Savage didn't take any mercy on it, as he immediately goes back after it. Jake does appear to be in pain, but he may be selling. He dumps Savage out of the ring, but he promptly tries to use recovery time and Savage just comes right back in after him. Jake again manages enough of a fight to throw Savage out over the top, and this time he's strong enough to go out after him.



Jake rams Savage hard into the ringpost. It does look to be a broken nose for Jake. He posts Savage again. Vince throws it to commercial.

Back from commercial, Savage is slowly rolling into the ring, Roberts seemingly in control. Savage reverses a corner whip, then hits a back elbow. To the top rope goes Macho, but he jumps off into a punch to the gut by Jake. Jake quickly capitalizes with a great-looking DDT, which causes Earl Hebner to give a startled reaction.



Rather than going straight for a cover, Jake plays to the crowd and then taunts Savage to get up. As Savage slowly gets up, Jake hits a short clothesline and signals that he's going to go for another DDT. When Savage finally gets up again, he blocks the DDT and backdrops Roberts out over the top rope. Savage hits a top-rope axhandle to the floor that sends Jake into the guardrail throat-first. Savage dumps him back into the ring, climbs to the top, flying elbow, 1-2-3.



Result: Randy Savage via pinfall

Savage heads to the top rope for another flying elbow. A gaggle of officials run in and stand in the way. He just jumps through them and connects with another elbow anyway. Then he heads outside and gets the ring bell, apparently going to give him the Steamboat treatment. The officials hold him off enough that Jake finds an opening to escape up the aisle, still holding his throat from the earlier blow against the guardrail.

My Rating: ***
Meltzer Rating: **3/4

Enter Miss Elizabeth, who runs to the ring to celebrate with her man.



Suddenly we get a view from gorilla, where Jake Roberts is peering through the curtain. He looks back at the camera and declares, "It's not over yet." There's more to this footage, but it was not shown until Superstars the following week. At this point, this show simply goes off the air.

(The rest of the story is that Jake had a steel chair and was lying in wait, and said he was going to hit whoever came through the curtain first. As Savage and Liz approached, Jake rared back with the chair, and suddenly The Undertaker grabbed the chair to prevent the ambush. This allowed Liz to run away and allowed Savage to fight Jake off. This was Undertaker's big face turn that would be solidified by a win over Jake at WrestleMania.)

Thoughts on the show

It was fine, as trips down memory lane go. I didn't care about the Hogan/Sid stuff, but it still was a historical time capsule, and the blowoff here between Savage and Jake was solid even if it felt like this feud deserved more than a short SNME match as a blowoff. I could have done worse for a first draw in this thread.