Royal Rumble -1990 Orlando(Dark – Bad News/Haku d. Poffo/Roma)
You can find the end of the 80s here.
Tony and Jesse.
1. Hogan/Dusty d. Powers of Pain (w/ Warrior and Hercules)
-Some people will like Hogan/Big Dust. They go over strong - clean house on White Flight.
2. Tito Santana d. Ron Garvin
-Arriba!
3. Greg Valentine d. Terry Taylor
-At some point, you should begin to question your desire to purchase Royal Rumble ’90. Valentine gets the win, this wraps up Terry Taylor.
4. The Mountie Jacques Rougeau d. Ray Rougeau
-The brothers explode!
5. The Male Model Rick Martel (w/Entoruage) d. Randy Savage (DQ)
Recall, Martel has been unbeaten since the heel turn – and we give his heat to Savage, who just lost the big strap at Survivor Series. No Elizabeth, when Bobby busted her open that served to write her out of the storyline. Allows Randy not to turn heel – but to get nastier, which we need now that his skills are starting to erode.
Savage just overwhelms Martel, he's violent, out of control, he chairshots the entire Entourage, and that's a lot of chairshots in 1990 - Savage shows no interest in the match - he doesn't lock up, he doesn't notice as he's DQ'd for chairshotting Martel. He rips the steel steps from ringside, places them in the ring, puts Poffo, who was unable to escape, on the steps, and drops the big elbow. Savage doesn't acknoweldge the crowd at all.
6. Tags: Jake Roberts / Roddy Piper d. Rockers
Switch. Piper wins his second belt. This is a blood feud, recall the shower scene from Saturday Night’s Main Event. Jake and Roddy can work this match, they have enough left in the tank to make this one double fun against the pure babyfaces. It appears to be a rerun of the Brainbusters, save that while the Busters were the technically sound vets, Jake and Piper are the half crazy vets.
Marty is your face in peril, in the ring most of the match, he finally makes the hot tag to Sbawn….who steps away from the tag….completely taking Marty, and the crowd, by surprise – Shawn walks away from the ring, shaking his head as if "nah, I don't think I want anything to do with those guys" and Marty takes his beatin’. A DDT finishes him off and the belts switch.
On the road to VI, they do the Rocker breakup angle, Shawn apologizes, Marty takes him back, rinse, repeat. Somewhere, we’ll find a plate glass window for Shawn to shove Marty through on Superstars to end it for good.
7. IC: Bret Hart d. Ted Dibiase (w/Virgil)
2 time IC Champ. Ted’s a transition champ, Vince straps up who is now the top babyface in the company. Hit Man lost this title a year before to Hennig, and now both of them are champions.
Bret's now Bret, full on Hit Man, the conscience of the WWF, carrying the legacy of the Hart Family, the legacy of Stampede Wrestling.
8. WWF Title: Curt Hennig (w/Bobby) d. Rick Rude
Hennig keeps. It’s the rematch from their series in ’89, when Rude beat Hennig both times. Here, the crowd finally gets to cheer for Rick Rude – and he loses. And loses clean. A terrific match, but we establish the truth of the matter – Hennig’s better.
Perfect is at the top of the heap – and is attacked by Savage, Savage is brutal, beating Hennig down with a chair until he’s pulled off by officials. They get the face pop as the show ends.
A month later, NWA has Wrestlewar. Sid wins, Shane Douglas gets a win, but then is attacked by – Terry Taylor. Taylor beats Douglas down, the other Horsemen (Flair, AA, Pillman) enter, presumably to save Douglas – but instead join the beating. They all hold up the fingers – Terry Taylor joins the Four Horsemen.
Cactus Jack gets a win, Pillman gets a win, The Steiners take the tag belts in a four star match against the Warriors. AA takes the US title from Sting, and Flair keeps the World belt by beating Luger (now a face, recall he got booted from the Horsemen when AA came back.)
Wrestlewar – 1990 Greensboro
NWA Title: Ric Flair d. Lex Luger
US Title: Arn Anderson d. Sting
Tags: Steiners d. Road Warriors
Brian Pillman d. Tom Zenk
Cactus Jack d. Kevin Sullivan
Shane Douglas d. Johnny Ace
Sid d. Dan Spivey
Rock n Roll Express d. Midnight Express
Later that month, The Main Event (Friday night, I think this would have been the one with Buster Douglas) Bret opens the show in the ring with Gene. Talks about WM VI coming from Toronto – and he will show his home country why he’s the best there is, best there was, best there ever will be….and then...Michaels.
Michaels hits the ring, with his crazy sunglasses and baby fat and feathered hair. Bret says he should be with Marty instead of interrupting his TV time. Shawn he and Marty (as the breakup isn't quite over) are gonna be just fine, and asks Bret where his tag team partner is these days. Bret tells Shawn this new attitude of his is starting to wear thin, that he's always liked him, that he's looked out for he and Marty when they had trouble with the Busters, that he knows what it's like to be a kid trying to make it in the WWF - but now, he's coming off like kind of an ass.
Shawn superkicks him cold. Then berates himself as he leaves, the announce sells him as hotheaded, as he hasn't fully blown heel yet.
On a subsequent show, Shawn tries to apologize, Bret refuses, Shawn gets pissed and says he thinks Bret's the one with the attitude, always walking around the locker room like a tough guy - Bret puts a finger in Shawn's face - "Out of respect to your partner, who is still a good guy, I'm gonna turn and let this go - if you don't back away from this - then I'll teach you a lesson."
Shawn backs down, doing the chickenshit heel.
After Shawn finally turns on Marty, he'll sneak attack Bret during a Hit Man defense (say against Bad News, that's who we'll have Bret feud against in the interim) and we have our match for VI.
They show a promo for a man making his debut at WM – Kerry Von Erich, the Texas Tornado. They don’t sell him the way they sold Owen and Hennig – ‘cause they could wrestle and he..not so much – but he has a famous name and they're stuck with him. He'll debut at Mania.
Martel mocks Tito in the back, saying he’s beaten him every single time – that everyone beats him every single time and why doesn’t he just move back to Mexico with his 37 brothers and sisters. So, they'll do that at Mania
Sometime in March, Marty Jannetty hits the ring for a promo – saying that he has a return contract in his hand to face the tag champions at WM…and he intends to enforce it. So, whomever wins the main event tag title match later tonight (Piper/Jake defending against Hogan/Dusty) will meet him and his new partner at WM VI. Piper and Jake hit the ring – laughing at Marty, saying that the only friend he had in the WWF turned on him – and they’d be glad to kick his ass again. Marty attacks – gets in 1 on 2 shots, but they beat him down.
Piper/Jake beat Hogan/Dusty, Piper getting the fall on Hogan. Dusty and Hogan have words in the ring, leading to shoving, leading to blows between the two as they fight to the back, Dusty tells Hogan that they've had a nice run, but there's something called a Legend's Match that he's heard about - and at VI - inside a steel cage - the American Dream is gonna run wild on you, brother.
...going back to the ring, Marty limps out, showing guts but not great judgment, as he goes right after Piper/Jake – they beat him down again, until he is saved by his new partner…Ravishing Rick Rude…Rude and Marty fight them both off (recall, obviously the Rude/Jake feud from three years previous).
No, Rude/Marty doesn't make much sense. It's a random superstar pairing. Marty needs someone and Rude, well, Rude just wants another belt, and to beat up Jake Roberts again.
The main on The Main Event is Savage/DiBiase – the winner named the number one contender and getting the shot at WM. But there’s no real match – Hennig emerges, and he and DiBiase beat Savage down. DQ for Randy – he gets the shot. Ted mouths to Bobby “you owe me, Heenan” as he exits. There's a stip that Savage can't touch Hennig before VI - and we're off.
It's WM VI, Savage looks for revenge against Hennig, Bret defends in Canada against young Shawn, Piper and Jake defend against the ad hoc team of Marty and Rude, Kerry Von Erich debuts, it's Martel and Tito one more time, Dusty battles Hogan in the Legends match - it's Wrestlemania VI - call your thingedy thing!
