Monday, October 4, 2021

Off The Grid, Volume 15: Saturday Night's Main Event VII Review

Original Airdate: Saturday, October 4th, 1986
Richfield Coliseum
Richfield, Ohio

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Off The Grid, Volume 15:

We get the opening promos that SNME is famous for. Jesse Ventura, Jake Roberts, the Dream Team, Kamala, Paul Orndorff and Hulk Hogan kick things off. 

Mean Gene is with Roddy Piper, who is injured as a result of Don Muraco's attack. Piper says that if he wants to wrestle, he's going to wrestle. Piper is is pretty intense here. 

Hulk Hogan is so confused by Paul Orndorff's actions and lets him know that his time is now. 

Gene is now with Bobby Heenan and Paul Orndorff, who thinks he will be the next champion. 

WWF Championship Match
Paul Orndorff vs. Hulk Hogan

Orndorff comes out to Hogan's entrance theme here. Heenan distracts Hogan and Orndorff gives him a pretty weak looking clothesline to the outside. Hogan continues to dominate, but another Heenan distraction pays off and Orndorff hits him in the throat. Orndorff stays on the attack, hitting a vertical suplex for a 2 count. Hogan comes back and hits a high knee. The sound on the crowd noise is really poor here, which is a shame. Heenan grabs the leg of Hogan, but Hogan ducks a charging Orndorff and he goes to the outside. The police come out and take Heenan away from the ring. Heenan is shown banging on the door of the room he was thrown in before and after the commercial break. Orndorff sets Hogan up for the piledriver, but Hogan counters with a back body drop. It's time for the Hulk up. Hogan then goes for the piledriver and out comes Adrian Adonis dressed as a woman to attack Hogan. Out comes Piper on a crutch to help make the save. Hogan almost attacks Piper, but holds back and Piper limps to the back. I'm not a Hogan fan and this particular storyline doesn't really do much for me. The match was pretty vanilla too. 

Match Rating: *3/4

Jake Roberts cuts a promo in the shower and this is a little bit peppier than a normal Jake heel promo. 

Snake Pit Match
Jake Roberts vs. Ricky Steamboat

They show Steamboat with a mini alligator. Steamboat is super over here, which he should be. Steamboat goes off the top rope and Jake gets his knees up to slow down his momentum. Roberts works on Steamboat, but it doesn't last long. Steamboat explodes and hits a crucifix for the pinfall. That's it? After the match, Jake attacks Steamboat and drives him into the ring post. Jake pulls out Damian, but Steamboat pulls out his "dragon", which again is an alligator. He uses him to attack Jake and then that creature is just walking around in the ring, which seems like a great idea. The match was pretty good for while it lasted, but the after match was stupid. 

Match Rating: **

Back to Mean Gene with Hogan and he cuts a pretty poor promo here. 

Iron Sheik vs. Roddy Piper

They show Jesse Ventura before the show interviewing Sheik and Slick. They have Pedro Morales in the ring, but out comes Roddy Piper. Piper sends Morales back and attacks Sheik. Sheik gets in a cheap shot and goes after the knee. Sheik goes for a suplex, but Piper rolls him up and gets the victory. Nothing match here.

Match Rating: 1/4*

We go back to Johnny V and the Dream Team and they're still not happy about what happened at WrestleMania 2.

Piper is with Gene again here and he's still crazy. 

The British Bulldogs say to get ready for the beating of their lives. 

Two Out Of Three Falls Match For The WWF Tag Team Championships
Dream Team vs. British Bulldogs

I'm only about two minutes in, but it already feels like they're working at a quicker pace than normal. The Dream Team works on Dynamite Kid and Valentine is able to lock in the Figure Four. Dynamite taps and Jesse Ventura continues to complain about the rules of this match. After that fall, they go to Gene who announces that Adonis may have a separated shoulder and they show Piper hitting him with the crutch. The challengers go right back to work on Dynamite until Davey Boy gets the hot tag and hits the vertical suplex on Valentine. Davey Boy gets Beefcake on his back and then Dynamite tags in and jumps off the back of Beefcake and onto Valentine for the tying pinfall. We get some good back and forth action until things break down with all four men in the ring. Davey Boy hits a suplex and gets the victory to retain their titles. This was your usual good Bulldogs match. 

Match Rating: ***1/4

Lanny Poffo vs. Kamala 

They show a quick promo of Kamala, Wizard and Kim Chee. Poffo shows off his athletic ability and Kamala shows off by jumping. Poffo tries to get something going, but Kamala shuts it down with a thrust to the throat. Kamala hits a body slam and a splash for the victory. After the match, Kamala goes up to the top rope, but they get him to come down. 

Match Rating: 1/4*

Vince and Jesse recap the night before we go to yet another commercial break. They come back just to say goodnight before we get the credit roll. 

For whatever reason, I just don't particularly love the 80s era like most people my age do. Part of that is probably due to the fact that I have always disliked Hogan. The characters in this era just don't do it for me like they would in the early 90s. With that being said, it feels like they gave us a lot here for free TV, but most of it didn't connect. The tag team match is the only one that was good and the rest was pretty blah. 

Overall Rating: 57%

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