STW - Saturday Night's Main Event 07.28.90 [Show Notes] (Patreon)

Saturday Night's Main Event #27

July 28th, 1990

It was recorded on July 16th, at the Omaha Civic Auditorium and aired on July 28th  It drew a 7.2 rating

Talk about what went into a taping of SNME and how it differed from a taping of say, Superstars

Company news heading into SNME

Meltzer reported - Latest on Road Warriors is they’ll start 7/16 in Omaha. They will keep the face paint, but will come in with full heads of hair (which is

why they won’t do their first TV until mid-July). Of course, they’ll be called The Legion of Doom and there will be no Paul Ellering. They’ll work as heels building toward a program with Demolition. While you might think it would draw bettor (Warriors vs. Demolition) with Warriors as the faces, you know McMahon isn’t about to make his babyface creation imitation have to turn heel to feud with the guys he wanted in the first place for the gimmick.

In late June, Ric Flair met with President George Bush. Did you guys ever try to arrange a meeting with the President for Hulk Hogan, or was that ever talked about?

Speaking of Ric, around this time he dropped the NWA World Title to Sting, at the Great American Bash, Meltzer would speculate that Ric might want to try to get out of his contract and come to the WWF and possibly headline WrestleMania 7 against Hulk Hogan, because at this time, it was scheduled to be at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, it'd later be changed. Was there talks about that possibly happening?

Meltzer even reported - The top WWF brass was talking until just a few days ago like the signing of Flair was a done deal. The Toronto Sun, which has the

strong working relationship with Jack Tunney’s office, even reported on Saturday that Flair would be losing the title and had already signed with the WWF and again on Monday that Flair had signed and would feud with DiBiase. Comments are now that if he doesn’t come now, he might as well never come (never in wrestling terminology meaning two or three weeks),

On July 4th, Brutus Beefcake was involved in a life threatening parasailing accident. We talked all about this in great detail in our Brutus show that we did 2 years ago, which is in our archives.

Meltzer reported - The career of Brutus Beefcake is in jeopardy following a July 4th boating accident near his home in the Tampa area. Beefcake suffered numerous head injuries which required 10 hours of surgery the next day. The accident occurred when Beefcake and some friends were para-sailing for the day. Para-sailing is similar to water skiing in that you are pulled by a boat, but instead of gliding on the water, you have a parachute type of device and the boat pulls you and you are in the air. To start, the person being pulled starts on the ground and someone on the shore holds onto the rope as the boat takes off and the person goes into the air. 

Beefcake was holding the rope and apparently a gust of wind blew sand into his eyes and at the same time the boat took off, the girl who was going into the air flew up with tremendous force and caught him in the jaw. The blow was so severe it broke the jaw, shattered his nose, broke two cheekbones and two bones near the eye. The person who took him to the hospital had to stick his hands in Beefcake’s mouth and hold the roof of his mouth from collapsing which would have suffocated him because of all the nose and mouth damage. 

The 33-year-old Beefcake underwent reconstruction surgery in which they removed bone from his hip to reconstruct his face. He also had a tracheotomy so help him breathe. Twelve plates were placed in his head during the surgery. As of Monday, Beefcake was still in the hospital. 

Doctors are estimating that it will be between one year and 18 months before Beefcake can return to wrestling, although there is a possibility this will be a career-ender.

Brutus said – (he was at a beach party) Brian Blair came to the party with a friend and a girl that Brutus had never seen before.

Brian was trying to talk Brutus into going parasailing with this woman, but Brutus kept declining to do it. Mike, the host of the party came over and agreed to take her parasailing.

Brutus went over to help Mike set up the equipment to do it. Brutus said Mike started the motor and the rope began to straighten, but the woman didn't move. Brutus said that she just stood there like an idiot & let the pevlar pull her.

The boat face-planted her directly into the sand. Basically, what you are supposed to do is run like 10 or 15 steps and then you go right up like Superman. She didn’t know shit, so she dropped like one in the bowl. We all laughed. Mike spun back around so she could get another go at it. I yelled a few directions to her from off to the side in the water, and she seemed to understand. Once she brushed the dirt off of her face, she gave Mike the thumbs up. Mike nodded and took off.

I turned to make sure she was free in the clear and that I wasn't in her runway. In that split instant Mike turned. This time, instead of driving straight out, he made a quick turn left to follow the edge of the shore. Before I realized there was a change in course, the cord pulled taut.

Right as I turned to see where she was, there she was. I never saw it coming. FUMPPP!!! She got about six feet off the ground, but panicked. She flailed her legs, then crouched a bit, almost like a cannonball diving formation. Both of her knees nailed me square in the face. The impact was like a fucking battering ram. Her knees ripped me right out of the water. Nancy said I did a full gainer; an entire backflip with my heels straight above my head, before landing back on my feet. I dropped to my knees.

Time stopped. There were flashes of light, but I couldn’t see anything. My body broke out into a cold sweat. Optic nerve damage. Palate broken. Sinus cavity crushed. 

Entire facial structure shattered. The people around the beach had no idea. There were no lacerations, at all. There was no huge crack, or bleeding. My skin held it all in, but most of the bones in my face were just pulverized into hundreds of pieces. I tried to scream for help, but nothing would come out. I can’t open my mouth! My teeth are stuck together! I can’t see!

I started to choke. I can’t breathe! Help!!! Oh my God, what am I going to do? It’s over. It’s really over. I am a dead man. My face felt like it was melting. It felt like there was a sweat sock in the back of my throat. Something was choking me out so I couldn’t inhale. I had no idea at the time that it was actually the complete collapsing of the upper inside of my mouth.

I reached for my nose. It was hanging off the side of my face. Then, I poked my cheeks with the fingertips of my other hand. My face! IT IS GONE! The skin was still there, but it felt like rubbery mush with no structure.

The area that separates the oral cavity from the nasal cavity was broken, forcing bone shards and tissue down my windpipe. My jaw was smashed shut. I had to take my thumb and pry it passed my lips. I forced it in between my teeth and jammed it upwards so I could push up the roof of my mouth to allow enough space for me to breathe.

When did you hear about the accident?

Rick Rude's sister rode with him in the ambulance to the hospital.

Like I mentioned, we go into a lot more detail on the Brutus Beefcake show.

Around this time, Sgt. Slaughter returned to the WWF. Meltzer wrote - Sgt. Slaughter is going to get a big push as Bruce Prichard did several vignettes to air over the next two months every week on the different shows with him. I believe Slaughter will wind up as a heel, but he may start as a face and then turn (which would make the most sense).

Sarge would come in as a heel and become an Iraqi sympathizer. Talk about that idea, this was during the Desert Storm war. How did Sarge feel about doing it?

Meltzer reported- WWF wrestlers Haku (Uliuli Fifita) and Brady Boone (real name Dean Peters) were arrested after a bar room brawl late Wednesday

night near St. Louis, MO. The two, along with Curt Hennig, were at Pop’s Saloon, an after-hours place in Sauset, IL that many wrestlers Frequent after the clubs close in St. Louis. According to police reports, Jerry Bishop, a 5-6, 150 pound man, asked a woman who was talking to the three wrestlers to dance and when he was out on the dance floor, Haku picked him up by the neck, and threw him against the wall. 

As he was choking him, four bouncers went after Haku and couldn’t subdue him and he had one of them up against the wall as well. Finally it took six police officers to subdue Haku, one of whom was a 6-6, 280 pound former boxer, who ended up having to be examined in the hospital because Haku bit a chunk out of his back. Haku was arrested for battery, resisting arrest and criminal destruction of property. Boone was arrested on a battery charge, and he was hospitalized after the brawl needing 21 stitches in the head after being hit with a bar stool. The wrestlers were spending the night in St. Louis after a show earlier that night in Decatur, IL.

The legend of Haku and the stories about him have become things of legend over the years. What's your memories of this incident and what's your favorite Haku story? Did you ever witness him in action before?

In addition to Sgt. Slaughter coming in, we also saw Kerry Von Erich come in. Not long before this, he agreed to go to the NWA but no showed his first scheduled event and was fired.  Meltzer wrote -

As late as Friday, Von Erich had told Jerry Jarrett that he wasn’t going to the WWF, and his brothers Kevin and Chris had insisted all along to the rest of the Dallas-based crew that Von Erich wasn’t leaving. 

However, on Saturday, Kerry, who died his hair dark black and then put silver streaks in it,gave his notice to Jarrett and left early Monday morning for Omaha. Von Erich will most likely oppose Mr. Perfect for the IC title as part of the WWF’s Summer Slam PPV show on 8/27 in Philadelphia.

Vince would call him Kerry Von Erich a few times on commentary during his matches, but soon after his debut, he was named The Texas Tornado. Why couldn't he of just been Kerry Von Erich?

He would replace Brutus Beefcake at SummerSlam and beat Mr. Perfect for the IC Title.

It's been said many times over the years by many people that when Vince did the national takeover in 1984, he had 3 guys on his wish list that he wanted to build the company around. Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair or Kerry Von Erich. He of course ended up getting Hogan, but it's been said he really wanted Kerry, even on WWF TV at the time, they would talk about the Von Erichs and even wrote about them in the WWF magazine which was unheard of for the WWF to do that for guys who were in different promotions.

Did you ever hear anything about Vince wanting to get Kerry back in 1984?

Kerry hurt his foot in a motorcycle accident in 1986 and ended up having to get his foot amputated. The Von Erich family went to great lengths to keep that a secret, it's been said that when Kerry was around friends swimming, he'd even swim with his wrestling boots on. Were you guys aware of that injury when he came to the WWF?

Kerry, Road Warriors and Slaughter came in, but Jesse Ventura left not too long after this. What's your memories of Jesse leaving the WWF?

Are you surprised with the political success he'd go on to have?

That takes us to the Saturday Night's Main Event taping, on July 16th, in Omaha.

It drew 10,303 for $103,000

First, in dark matches - 

Shane Douglas beat Brooklyn Brawler

Hercules & Paul Roma debuting as Power & Glory, managed by Slick.

Talk about the decision to turn them both heel and put them as a team and who picked out the name Power and Glory? And why was Slick decided to be the manager?

Bad News Brown beat Jim Powers. This match ended up airing on the August 18th edition of Superstars

The Boy Scouts of America gave Nikolai Volkoff a medal and Nikolai cried and did the pledge of allegiance

SNME - 

Warrior beat Rude via count out in 13 minutes to retain the World title, they were also working the house shows at this time. It would be announced later in the show that they would be wrestling at SummerSlam in a cage for the World title

Why was this the first match on the show?

Mr. Perfect pinned Santana in 12 minutes to retain the Intercontinental title. Perfect also beat Tito in the finals of a tournament to win the vacant title. It was vacant because Warrior relinquished it, after beat Hogan for the World title at WrestleMania 6

On the April 15th edition Wrestling Challenge, President Jack Tunney announced that the Ultimate Warrior had relinquished the IC Title and that a tournament would be held to crown a new champion, and the tournament began on the April 28th Superstars where Santana defeated Akeem by countout. On the May 5th Superstars, Perfect defeated Jimmy Snuka to advance.

The next week Dino Bravo and Brutus Beefcake wrestled to a double countout and both were eliminated. On the May 13th Wrestling Challenge, Roddy Piper and Rick Martel wrestled to a double dq and were both eliminated, meaning Santana and Perfect would both get a bye to the finals, and wrestle each other for the title.

On the May 19th Superstars Perfect defeated Santana to win the title. 

Vince interviewed Hulk Hogan who got a huge reaction. Hulk was filming Suburban Commando around this time. This was Hulk's first return back after Earthquake injured him on your show, and during this promo, Hulk challenged Earthquake to a match at SummerSlam

They had previously worked about a year earlier, when Rude beat Warrior at WrestleMania 5 for the IC title, then Warrior won it back from Rude at SummerSlam. What was their relationship like at this time?

Demolition beat The Rockers to retain the World Tag Team Titles

Kerry Von Erich beat Buddy Rose in Kerry's debut match

They did the angle where Tugboat was injured so set up Bossman’s involvement in the angle

In dark matches Bossman pinned DiBiase and Dusty Rhodes & Sapphire beat Randy Savage & Sherri.

What's your favorite SNME episode?