Original Airdate: Saturday, October 29th, 1988
Baltimore Arena
Baltimore, Maryland
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Off The Grid, Volume 39:
As usual, we start with the standard SNME promos to kick off the show. Jake Roberts and wife Cheryl are first and then we go to a zoomed in face of Cheryl on Rick Rude's tights. Slick and Big Boss Man talk officer talk before going onto Hart Foundation talking about reconstuction that goes into Demolition, who is with Jimmy Hart and Mr. Fuji. Hulk Hogan then tells Haku that he's been sitting on his throne long enough and then brings in Miss Elizabeth to help knock him off his throne.
After the intro music, we head to Vince McMahon and Jesse Ventura to run down the card. The first match is Jake Roberts/Rick Rude and they show the clips of the feud. All I hope is that it's better than their match at WrestleMania IV. We then go to Mean Gene Okerlund who is now with Rick Rude and Bobby Heenan. They do a pretty cheesy bit here about a snakecharmer before yelling about a Rude Awakening. Mean Gene is then with Jake and Cheryl.
Rick Rude vs. Jake Roberts
I can't believe they can't just figure out a way to pay for Rick Rude's real music. Jake goes right after Rude and then hits him with a knee lift. Jake goes for an early DDT attempt, but Rude counters and is on offense. Rude loses focus on Jake and shifts to dancing for Cheryl, which allows Jake to make a comeback. Jake holds Rude down and Cheryl gets to slap him in the face. This really is a great upper midcard storyline. When we come back from commercial break, Rude drives Jake's shoulder into the ring post. Jake gets back into the ring and hits him with some fists and a back body drop. For some reason, Ventura is talking like he's announcing golf. Jake signals for the DDT, but Rude counters with a back body drop. Rude then hits a knee drop from the top rope and gets a 2 count. We get kind of a neat segment where Rude ducks a punch and Jake hits a DDT on him. Jake rips off his tights instead of going for the pin with Heenan signaling to the back. Heenan runs in and kicks Jake to cause the DQ and then out comes Andre The Giant. This I guess all sets up their absolutely horrific WrestleMania V match. Andre and Heenan are checking on Rude and then out comes Damien. Andre is afraid and yelling for Heenan to help him. Jake throws him onto Andre and let me tell you, there's not a chance that this would happen now. Andre then passes out from fright as Damien slithers all over him. I wouldn't want to mess with that snake after that whole schtick. I'm not really a huge fan of how this big storyline just kind of went onto set up something else. Was all of the payoff from the Rude feud just done on the house show circuit? Heenan is pounding on Andre's chest and freaking out. The match itsel was fine.
Match Rating: **
It's the Hart Foundation's turn with Mean Gene. They talk about how sick of Jimmy Hart they are and they blame him for losing their titles. Neidhart says that the only way Jimmy can hurt someone is to manage them. The whole Andre thing is still going on. I mean we are 24 minutes into this show and they're still cleaning up from the first match.
We go to Jesse and he's with Demolition, Mr. Fuji and Jimmy Hart. Jimmy has aligned with Demolition and Fuji to prove that the Hart Foundation is nothing without him.
WWF Tag Team Championship Match
Hart Foundation vs. Demlolition
After the Harts have the hot start, we get the signature Bret being thrown into the turnbuckle sternum first. They are working at a pretty frantic pace for 1988, which tells me they aren't getting as much time as they probably should be. Bret ducks a clothesline from Smash and hits him with a leaping one. Bret makes the hot tag to Neidhart and takes care of both opponents with some dropkicks to the midsection. Neidhart hits a running powerslam, but Ax breaks up the pin attempt. Out come the Rougeau Brothers to check in on the action. The referee has lost control and it leads to the Rougeaus helping Demolition use the megaphone and retain their titles. The action was good here, but they definitely could have easily gone another 5 more minutes.
Match Rating: **3/4
We get a clip of the former king, Harley Race, falling on the table on Saturday Night's Main Event against Hulk Hogan. We then go to Bobby Heenan and King Haku, who trick Mean Gene into bowing before Haku.
Hulk Hogan talks about whatever. Honestly, I wasn't really listening.
King Haku vs. Hulk Hogan
Haku attacks Hogan right away and bites his nose. Hogan of course battles back, breaking the rules and leading to an argument over who is breaking the rules more. Hogan tricks Heenan and it leads to him getting injured and he's heading to the back into the commercial break. Hogan prances around with the crown while this is going on. We come back and Hogan basically just destroys him while Ventura tries to convince us that this wouldn't happen if Heenan was there. This one was never in doubt and I don't think anyone bought for a second that Haku was a threat. After the match, Elizabeth celebrates with Hogan and he hoists her on his shoulder.
Match Rating: *1/4
We go to Dino Bravo and Frenchy Martin, who claim that Olympians and Ken Patera are cheaters.
Ken Patera says that he would rather die than dishonor his country while looking like the biggest dork possible.
Dino Bravo vs. Ken Patera
These two are easily two of the worst wrestlers of the late 80s WWF roster. Bravo has to regroup out of the ring after being dominated in the early going. He comes in and throws his slow and unimpressive kicks. Some stuff happens and then Bravo hits the side suplex for the win. This stunk up the joint as you would expect.
Match Rating: 1/4*
Slick and Big Boss Man are here and man, do I love listening to Slick. I don't even care what he's talking about, he's just good.
Big Boss Man vs. Jim Powers
Powers is the only guy to not get an interview, so that tells you all you would need to know about this match. Boss Man destroys him and hits the Boss Man Slam for the quick win.
Match Rating: 1/4*
They show clips of Boss Man attacking Hulk Hogan. We get another Hogan interview and he talks about juries and stuff. I don't know, I wasn't really paying attention.
We go to Jesse Ventura in the locker room with Andre The Giant and Heenan. Ventura tries to get it out of him that Andre is afraid of snakes. Andre does a pretty good job here as far as Andre promos go.
Don't forget about Survivor Series and that's all.
This was just an average episode this time around. Nothing really grasped me like some of the other shows that I have watched from this era. It certainly wasn't bad, but nothing really noteworthy happened.
Overall Rating: 59%
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