Original Airdate: Saturday, July 28th, 1990
Omaha Civic Auditorium
Omaha, Nebraska
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Off The Grid, Volume 24:
It's a Wild Kingdom episode of SNME tonight. Vince McMahon and Jesse Ventura rundown tonight's card, ending with the SNME return of Hulk Hogan.
Bobby Heenan and Rick Rude call Ultimate Warrior a guppy in the ocean of life. Ultimate Warrior says he will prove that he's the ultimate animal.
WWF Championship Match
Rick Rude vs. Ultimate Warrior
Heenan distracts and Rude attacks Warrior from behind before the bell rings. Warrior quickly comes back and gives Rude an atomic drop that is naturally followed by a famous Rude sell. Warrior clotheslines him over the top rope and gives him and Heenan a double noggin knocker. Warrior goes up to the top rope and hits Rude with a double ax handle. Rude is able to miss the splash and Warrior acts as if he was stabbed. Heenan gets involved again and Rude uses the WWF title on Warrior outside the ring. Rude now goes up top and Warrior hits him in the midsection. Rude is able to comeback with a clothesline. Rude is able to lock in a sleeper in the middle of the ring. Warrior falls down the mat and the referee lifts his leg rather than his arm, which I don't think I've ever seen before. Warrior bounces back with the third leg drop, but Rude hits him with a flurry of right hands. Warrior kicks out of a pin attempt and starts hitting clotheslines. He hits a shoulder tackle and a splash, but Heenan grabs Wariorr when he goes for the pin. He goes after Heenan and has his hands around his neck. Rude saves him and Warrior goes for a press slam. Heenan runs from behind and hits him with a knee to the back. Warrior goes after Heenan again and this time gets him. Warrior ends up winning by countout, which is not how I would have booked the ending. The match was pretty good, as these two usually delivered.
Match Rating: **1/2
We go to Lord Alfred Hayes and Mean Gene Okerlund in their safari gear and make a lame Pete Rose joke.
We get a Hulk Hogan video that shows him getting squashed by Earthquake with the slow, synth version of "Real American". Vince McMahon brings out Hulk and he is so thankful for all of the letters that were sent, mostly because they are now on a mailing list. They talk about Dino Bravo being in Earthquake's corner, but he's going to have Tugboat in his corner. Except he won't. Out come Earthquake, Bravo and Jimmy Hart. Tugboat comes out and makes the save. Nothing really happened, but the crowd was into it.
Hayes and Gene are out in the wild and in comes Koko B. Ware and Frankie. Gene then trips on a tree root and has a snake in his face. There's Jake Roberts, who talks quickly about Bad News Brown. Out come the Bushwhackers walking the train tracks.
WWF Tag Team Championship Match
Demolition vs. Rockers
This will be hard to watch with Vince constantly talking about the third Demolition member. The Rockers use their quickness to fight off a hot start from Demolition. The Rockers were just so good in 1990 and 91. Jannetty hits an awkward sunset flip off the second rope for a 2 count. Crush signals something to Ax and apparently he is Nostradamus, as he somehow figures that Jannetty will land outside the ring at the right spot and then Ax clubs him with a clothesline. I never noticed before and maybe it was just in this instance, but Crush's straps are different than his teammates. Demolition continues to dominate until Jannetty tags in Michaels and they clean house. They hit a double superkick and then the double fist off the top rope until Crush pulls them off Smash. Michaels has Smash rolled up, but Ax comes in and clubs him and covers him for the pin and victory. Where is Jack Tunney for all of this? Out come the Hart Foundation to argue it. Now the Legion of Doom are out to protest it. The match was pretty good, but they didn't get enough time to have a really memorable match.
Match Rating: ***
Back to the safari, where Gene gets bit by a mosquito and starts imitating animals.
Sean Mooney is with Mr. Perfect and Bobby Heenan. Unfortunately, nothing memorable here.
Intercontinental Championship Match
Mr. Perfect vs. Tito Santana
Vince hates people who thinks they are perfect. Yeah, okay. This one starts off hot and Tito is all fire here. I love both of these guys, particularly in 1990. Perfect battles back and hits a big clothesline. He hits one of his classic knee lifts, which I'm not sure why no one has ripped off. I'm sure someone has. The crowd goes nuts for a Tito clothesline. Tito hits him with a right hand, but Perfect falls back on the referee's knee, injuring him. Tito locks in the Figure Four in the center of the ring, but the referee is still hurting. Tito breaks the hold to check on the ref, but sees Perfect getting up. He runs and hits the flying forearm, but it takes the ref too long to get over and Perfect is able to kick out before 3. Tito hits a second rope clothesline, but again the ref is slow and Perfect is able to escape. Tito calls for another official and we have one going into the commercial break. Tito hits a crossbody, but Perfect again kicks out. Tito knocks him over the top rope to the floor and then throws him across the ring, with Perfect hitting the ring post below the belt. Tito hits an atomic drop and gets a 2 count. Perfect goes for a Perfect Plex, but Tito counters into a small package. Perfect is able to roll Tito back over and steal the victory. This was really good stuff. I'm not sure how Vince saw this match and how the crowd reacted to Tito and decided to have him job to Warlord at SummerSlam.
Match Rating: ***3/4
Jesse Ventura goes back with Earthquake, Dino and Jimmy. Somehow, Jimmy doesn't speak at all.
Back to Mean Gene and Lord Alfred. They spot Jimmy Snuka and then run into Slick and Akeem. Mean Gene falls into the water. I'm not sure why any of this was necessary.
Buddy Rose vs. Texas Tornado
This is Tornado's WWF debut. Tornado throws the large Rose all over the ring and then gets him tied in the ropes. Rose takes a pretty big bump by falling backwards out of that spot. Tornado hits the spinning punch with no claw and gets the victory. This wasn't much of anything other than to hype up their new star.
Match Rating: 1/2*
Jesse Ventura is back with Rude and Heenan. They talk about the cage match at SummerSlam where they lost all of their heat with the way they were booked tonight.
Sean Mooney is with Ultimate Warrior and he rambles on forever before calling himself the ultimate animal.
We get one more scene with Alfred, Gene and a chimp. Vince and Jesse close it out to tell us about the next season of SNME in the fall.
The animal stuff did nothing for the show, but the rest of this was really good. The Tito/Perfect match is definitely worth tracking down and the rest never outstays its welcome. Thumbs up for this one.
Overall Rating: 80%
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