Tuesday, December 3rd, 1991
Freeman Coliseum
San Antonio, Texas
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Off The Grid, Volume 29:
They kick off the show with the interview from after Survivor Series with Undertaker and Paul Bearer. We then go to Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan live in the arena.
Intercontinental Championship Match
Skinner vs. Bret Hart
Skinner doesn't even get a televised entrance. I didn't realize that he was already 40 years old here. After a leapfrog, Skinner gets hit with an atomic drop and then one of the inverted variety. After quite a bit of stalling, Skinner is able to throw Bret's shoulder into the ring post and dumps him to the floor. Skinner slaps on the abdominal stretch and of course Gorilla is all over him for not applying it properly. Skinner grabs his tobacco spit can, but the referee grabs it from him. He uses that distraction to grab his alligator claw and hit Bret with it behind his back. Skinner hits the neckbreaker, but Bret is able to kick out. Bret makes a comeback and hits a vertical suplex for a 2 count. Bret argues with the ref after another 2 count and Skinner rolls him up for a near victory. Bret kicks out and Skinner goes flying through the ropes. Skinner is able to attack Bret on the outside and goes for a suplex back into the ring. Bret avoids it, but gets hit with an elbow and then heads up to the ropes. Bret slams him from the top rope and locks in the Sharpshooter for the victory. This is one of the weaker Bret Hart pay-per-view matches, but overall still pretty good.
Match Rating: **1/2
We get Jake Roberts with Sean Mooney and Randy Savage with Mean Gene. They cut pretty standard interviews. Savage hears Jake's music and heads out.
Jake Roberts vs. Randy Savage
Savage attacks Roberts from behind as he is heading to the ring. No one does the quick psychotic start quite like Savage. Jake shifts the momentum in his favor and hits an inverted atomic drop. Savage ducks a short arm clothesline and then hits Jake with an elbow. Jake goes for another short arm clothesline and this time hits it. Jake goes for a DDT, but Savage rams him into the corner and then climbs up top. Savage hits the elbow drop off the top rope and that's all? This was the hottest feud going on at this time and they gave them 6 minutes to resolve it. After the match, Savage grabs a chair, but is stopped by an official. He kicks him to the floor and then grabs a ring bell. The referee grabs it away and it allows Jake to hit him with a DDT. Jake hits him with a second DDT and shows a little more fire than his character typically does. Jake goes under the ring and grabs the snake that was barred from ringside. Out comes Elizabeth and she is begging Jake to stop. Jake decides to hit him with a third DDT and then grabs the snake bag again. He opens up the bag and puts on the glove. Elizabeth continues to plead for him to stop. He decides to take off the glove and grabs Elizabeth and then hits her with a right handed slap. Jack Tunney decides that now seems like an appropriate time to come out and Jake heads to the back. Savage finally gets helped to the back. This was all pretty wild, but the match was too short.
Match Rating: **
Jake is back for an interview and he talks about how good it felt to slap Miss Elizabeth. Gene is disgusted.
Warlord vs. British Bulldog
These two had an underrated battle at WrestleMania VII, but this time Warlord is managed by Harvey Wippleman. That pretty much already knocks him down the card. I'm not really sure why they thought this was a worthy pay-per-view match again. Bulldog is able to clothesline over the top rope. He attempts a dive over the top, but Warlord kind of catches him and rams his back into the ring post. Warlord has to be one of the stiffest athletes to every be in WWF/E. He's essentially about as flexible as an action figure. Warlord gets tied up in the ropes, but when Bulldog goes on the attack, Wippleman releases him and Bulldog bounces off the ropes to the mat. In a way, Warlord kind of reminds me of a less athletic Braun Strowman. He hits a back drop and slaps on my favorite hold, the bear hug. Gorilla thinks he has it on low, so it won't do any serious damage. Bulldog gets out, but gets hit with a belly-to-belly suplex. Bulldog goes for a piledriver, but it turns into a Warlord pin into a Bulldog counter pin. I think they did that spot at WrestleMania. Warlord puts on the full nelson, but Gorilla quickly points out that he doesn't have the fingers locked and is grabbing the hair. Bulldog is down to one knee and referee checks the arm. Not to sound like Gorilla, but this is really unconvincing by Warlord. Warlord eventually just throws Bulldog down, but gets hit by a boot to the face. Bulldog hits a clothesline off the second rope and then hits a delayed vertical suplex. Bulldog goes for a crucifix and picks up the victory, just like at WrestleMania. This match wasn't bad outside of the full nelson spot, which just looked bad and took up too much time. They could have come up with a better finish.
Match Rating: *3/4
Sean Mooney is now with a fuming Randy Savage. He blames himself for what happened and ends up on the ground and is dripping blood and pulling hair out. Mooney looks legitimately scared for his life.
Ted DiBiase & Repo Man vs. Virgil & El Matador
Was Repo Man not at Survivor Series just so he didn't get jobbed out by Sgt. Slaughter's team? Santana was still really sharp in 1991. He and Repo do a spot where they keep blocking hip tosses until Tito finally gets one and hip tosses him over the top rope. Repo tries to sneak behind while he's talking to the referee, but it doesn't work and now DiBiase is in. He wants Virgil and he gets his wish. This is pretty much the culmination of the year long feud here. DiBiase shows off some aggression on Virgil, but almost loses to a sunset flip. Virgil then hits an atomic drop that sends DiBiase over the top. He gets back in just to get clotheslined over the top. DiBiase gets Virgil to the mat and tags in Repo. That leads to Gorilla questioning why Repo is sneaking around when Virgil ion the mat. For reference here, Tito is 38, Virgil is 40 (!), DiBiase is 37 and Repo is 32 (!!). Tito gets a hot tag and the crowd is loving it. The heels quickly turn the tide again, but Tito and Repo hit a double clothesline. All four men end up in the ring and Sherri tries to hit Virgil with a shoe, but he ducks and she hits DiBiase. Repo comes from behind and hits a knee to the back of Virgil and that's enough for the victory. The crowd was into this one and it probably was the best match of the night.
Match Rating: ***
Mean Gene confirms with us that they are in Texas and it is this Tuesday. Thank you for that. Now it's time for Hulk Hogan to speak. He just keeps talking about the teeny Hulkamaniacs, who is about all he has left at this point for a fanbase.
WWF Championship Match
Undertaker vs. Hulk Hogan
Undertaker attacks Hogan as he gets in the ring and Paul Bearer tries to help. Hogan fights them off and hits a clothesline in the corner. Gorilla is furious that Jack Tunney isn't down there when the bell rings. I mean honestly, Tunney has proven to be unfit for the position here based on his actions tonight. Hogan tries to hit him with the best that he's got, but Taker just keeps coming back. Hogan clotheslines him over the top, but he lands on his feet. They've already crammed more action into these first few moments than they did in the entire match at Survivor Series. They battle on the outside and Taker chokes him illegally right in front of the president. Hulk attempts a comeback, but runs into a knee to the face. Undertaker walks the rope and hits Old School. Back on the outside, Hogan is thrown into the ring post. We finally get to the rest hold portion of the match. Hogan finally breaks out and then Taker accidentally falls when running the ropes. Taker comes back and hits the leaping clothesline, as I'm assuming he was supposed to when he fell. Taker goes for Old School again, but this time Hogan throws him off. The crowd is going pretty nuts here. Out comes Ric Flair and Tunney immediately goes after him. Hogan gives Taker another love tap of a clothesline over the top rope. Hogan goes outside and grabs a chair to hit Flair in the back with. Flair also knocks Tunney down. Flair is back up, but Tunney is still down. Hogan and Taker seem to have a miscommunication. Flair eventually goes up on the apron with a chair. Hogan throws Taker into it, but Taker is back up. Paul Bearer tries to hit Hogan with the urn, but he hits Taker instead. Hogan dumps out the urn and throws the ashes in the face. Hogan rolls him up and we have a new champion. Minus the couple of botched spots, this match was significantly better than the Survivor Series bout. They packed a lot more action, but the finish was weak. The pay-per-view overall was a failed experiment, but I'll give these two credit for stepping up their game here.
Match Rating: **
This show was about as unnecessary as any show up to this point and was basically the first In Your House without knowing it. However, I will give credit where credit is due. Hogan and Taker, two of my least favorite big names, stepped it up and delivered a better than expected main event. The tag team match was solid for what it was as well. The Jake/Savage aftermath was crazy, but the match left a lot to be desired. This is hard one to rate, since it probably should have never existed, but it's hard to recommend as show.
Overall Rating: 44%
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