WWE Prime Time Wrestling 11/12/1987 Match Ratings and Commentary
(Credit: WWE)
Here’s a nostalgic look back to the peak of WWE Prime Time Wrestling. Curious how we rank matches? We’ve got a rubric for that.
WWE Prime Time Wrestling - 11/12/1987
Honky Tonk Man def. Hillbilly Jim to retain the WWE Intercontinental Title: ★
Outback Jack def. Jose Estrada: ★
Bam Bam Bigelow def. Nikoli Volkoff: ★
Butch Reed def. Omar Atlas: ★
“The Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase def. Junkyard Dog: ★
Bob Orton def. Scott Casey: ★
Strike Force def. The Hart Foundation to Win the WWE World Tag Team Championships: ★★★
(Credit: WWE)
Show Highlight—
Strike Force def. The Hart Foundation. What an enjoyable match! The nostalgist in me recalled this as a 4 star match, when in reality it’s a 3 with generosity, but what a moment! Championships rarely changed hands on the syndicated shows so the crowd was molten hot for the finish. Watching it back, you wonder if there was a set-up for a breakup angle as Bret was curiously out of position for too long with Jimmy Hart on the outside and Neidhart submitted curiously fast from Martel’s Boston crab.
And speaking of nostalgia, there’s a lot of music featured in this show from the craptastic wrestling album, Piledriver, and one of my guilty pleasures is, “Girls in Cars.” It’s so goddamn wonderfully lame. Those cheesy keyboards, delightsome major keys, wrestlers in white matching headbands—what’s not to love?!
What Worked—
Gorilla and Bobby. The best duo in professional wrestling. As much as I love watching a fast-paced, 4 star match on Dynamite, I’ll take Gorilla and Bobby riffing off each other on Prime Time any day of the week. Gorilla as the straight man to Bobby, whom always wanted to get him to break is a treat to watch that never grows tiresome. On this episode, Bobby got Gorilla to lose it in back-to-back segments. Heenan did an old bit of his when “hosting” of looking into the wrong camera that got Gorilla to laugh. Then, Bobby used his go-to prop of the desk phone to call the producer, “Bruce” to get his gofer, “Joel” to get Heenan Family videos to play on the show. Thanks to Something To Wrestle With, the references allow you to pat yourself on the back.
“Jive Soul Bro.” The greatest, GREATEST entrance theme in the history of professional wrestling. How this hasn’t been recycled for someone’s entrance bogles the mind. How it hasn’t been sampled in a rap song also shocks me. I don’t what pedal they stomped on during that guitar solo but good God it was fucking celestial.
Another cut from the Piledriver VHS music video collection, we get the full video featuring Slick here. Not exactly Thriller, it’s just Slick walking the streets and lip-synching. One of the things I had high hopes for with the WWE Network, back when they actually devoted a smidgen attention to adding old content, was behind the scenes footage shooting Piledriver. I would genuinely play thousands upon thousands of dollars to get my hands on footage of the b-roll and deleted scenes shot for this.
What Didn’t Work—
Bruce Prichard on commentary. In the fall of 1987 in WWE you got a lot of Piledriver and a lot of Bruce Prichard from Houston. Even Bruce would admit that he sucked at being the traditional lead announcer. His whole schtick was being a tranquilized Vince.
Bockwinkle’s role. It’s crazy Nick Bockwinkel didn’t do more on TV than just announcing for the D squad. He was brought in to agent and produce but you’d think he could have done something with the Heenan Family, what with his charisma with Bobby.
The Terry Garvin School of Self-Defense. It all goes over the viewer’s head, clearly, but hearing Heenan allude to Garvin “scouting talent” is um…yikes…
Show Cringe—
Outback Jack. Jesus, he sucked ass. For those unfamiliar, Outback Jack was a character created to capitalize off the whole Hogan fad sweeping the 80s. And that’s Paul Hogan. He looked like Bill Watts with Scoliosis. The entire match he’s preoccupied with pulling his pants up to not show his buttcrack. Awful.
The Very Best (Credit: WWE)
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