Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan call today’s action, still taped from Syracuse, New York.
demolition
What the World Was Watching: Saturday Night’s Main Event XXVI
Vince McMahon and Jesse Ventura handle commentary and they are taped from Austin, Texas. To put over the Texas setting of the show, McMahon and Ventura open the show on horseback in the aisle. The card was hyped as “The Tussle in Texas” and took place on April 23. According to thehistoryofwwe.com, the show drew a crowd of 8,500 fans.
What the World Was Watching: WWF Superstars – April 21, 1990
Vince McMahon and Jesse Ventura are doing commentary and they are taped from Glen Falls, New York.
What the World Was Watching: The Wrestling Summit (Special Column)
As noted in prior columns, this show was a joint effort by the WWF, New Japan Pro Wrestling, and All Japan Pro Wrestling. The WWF was looking to expand its global presence while New Japan and All Japan felt threatened by Akira Maeda’s shoot-like Universal Wrestling Federation, which drew a 50,000 person crowd to the Tokyo Dome for a big show in November 1989. To counter them, New Japan and All Japan worked together on a supershow at the Tokyo Dome on February 10. Then, they built on that effort by partnering with the WWF for another big card in Tokyo on April 13 that was named The Wrestling Summit. According tothehistoryofwwe.com, the show drew a crowd of 53,742.
What the World Was Watching: WWF Wrestling Challenge – April 15, 1990
Vince McMahon and Bobby Heenan do commentary for this show, kicking off a new round of television tapings from Syracuse, New York. According to thehistoryofwwe.com, these tapings took place on April 3.
What the World Was Watching: WWF Superstars – April 14, 1990
Vince McMahon and Jesse Ventura are in the booth, and they are taped from Glen Falls, New York. According to thehistoryofwwe.com, these tapings took place on April 4.
What the World Was Watching: WrestleMania VI
Vince McMahon and Jesse Ventura are in the booth and they are live from Toronto, Ontario, Canada in what will be Ventura’s last appearance calling a WWF pay-per-view. According to thehistoryofwwe.com, the show drew a sellout crowd of 67,678, a new attendance record for the venue. It drew a buyrate of 3.8 (an estimated 550,000 purchases). This was a decline from the 5.9 buyrate of WrestleMania V, but this can be attributed to more homes getting pay-per-view access by 1990, thereby messing with the buyrate average.
Robert Goulet sings the Canadian National Anthem. According to Bruce Prichard, Goulet was picked for this spot because he badly botched signing “The Star Spangled Banner” several years earlier and this was a chance for him to redeem himself in front of a live crowd. The WWF put the lyrics on the Skydome’s video screen to ease Goulet’s nerves. And if you watch his body language during the performance, he goes from a bad of nerves to a guy having the time of his life halfway through. His wife, who watched backstage, cried her eyes out after he nailed the song.
What the World Was Watching: WWF Superstars – March 31, 1990
Vince McMahon and Jesse Ventura are in the booth, and they remain taped from Sacramento, California. On the eve of WrestleMania VI, Ventura is dressed in Ultimate Warrior face paint and t-shirt and a Hulk Hogan hat. When McMahon asks for a prediction, Ventura says the bout is a tossup.
What the World Was Watching: WWF Wrestling Challenge – March 25, 1990
Tony Schiavone and Gorilla Monsoon call today’s action from a new round of television tapings in San Francisco, California. According to thehistoryofwwe.com, the show drew a sold-out crowd of 14,500, with 500 fans attending for free.
What the World Was Watching: WWF Superstars – March 24, 1990
Vince McMahon and Jesse Ventura handle commentary duties, starting a new round of tapings in Sacramento, California. According to thehistoryofwwe.com, these tapings took place on March 6 and attracted a crowd of 13,500, with 2,000 of those fans attending for free. This week Ventura has his face painted like the Ultimate Warrior – a horrifying sight – and is wearing tassels because he is once again changing his prediction for the WrestleMania VI main event.
What the World Was Watching: WWF Prime Time Wrestling – March 12, 1990
Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan run the studio portion of the telecast. Heenan is wearing a dark green jacket, so Monsoon asks him if that will be his attire for WrestleMania VI. Heenan responds that he might be preparing for the Masters golf tournament.
What the World Was Watching: WWF Prime Time Wrestling – March 5, 1990
Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan are in the studio for this evening’s broadcast.
What the World Was Watching: WWF Wrestling Challenge – March 4, 1990
Tony Schiavone and Gorilla Monsoon are in the booth and they start a new round of television tapings in Tucson, Arizona. According to thehistoryofwwe.com, these tapings took place on February 14.
What the World Was Watching: WWF Superstars – March 3, 1990
Vince McMahon and Jesse Ventura are in the booth, and they kick off a new round of tapings in Phoenix, Arizona. These tapings took place on February 13. Ventura is clad in Hulk Hogan merchandise because he predicts Hogan will win the WrestleMania VI main event.
What the World Was Watching: WWF Prime Time Wrestling – February 26, 1990
Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan host tonight’s show.
A replay of Roddy Piper’s squash on Wrestling Challenge airs.
Gene Okerlund’s Update segment replays WWF President Jack Tunney’s announcement that the main event of WrestleMania VI will be title-for-title. Also replayed are the promos from Hulk Hogan and the Ultimate Warrior on Superstars.
What the World Was Watching: WWF Wrestling Challenge – February 18, 1990
Tony Schiavone and Gorilla Monsoon are doing commentary and they are taped from Fort Myers, Florida.
WWF WrestleFest ’88 (Savage vs. DiBiase & Hogan vs. Andre)
![Arcade Longplay [244] WWF Wrestlefest - YouTube](https://i0.wp.com/i.ytimg.com/vi/-2ak_BjxKZo/hqdefault.jpg?w=825&ssl=1)
No, not THIS WrestleFest. But damn, that game was awesome.
WWF WRESTLEFEST ’88:
(July 31, 1988, Milwaukee Coliseum)
* So while looking for more Dream Matches, I found this interesting card. It’s been covered on the Blog in the distant past, but it seems fun. This was one of those times Vince “My philosophy is help yourself; don’t hurt the other guy” McMahon deliberately booked a super-show specifically to hurt the other guy, as Great American Bash tour was kicking off in Milwaukee the next night, so Vince is like “HEY HAVE A STADIUM SHOW WITH ALL MY BIGGEST STARS!” putting the hot World Title program and Hogan/Andre in a goddamn Steel Cage in the Main Event slots. The obvious reason being to make the WWF look awesome and the NWA look like shit, and to make fans spend money and hype on this show instead of that one. And I guess it worked.
This show is kind of scattered around the ‘net, as they didn’t quite air the whole thing at once- the openers were taped for regular TV shows and the Title Match is on DailyMotion, so this is scattered between YouTube and DM. But it’s an interesting time for the company, as things are hot as hell 3+ years after the Hogan Era began and the Mega Powers era is in full swing. Your hosts are Lord Alfred Hayes, Sean Mooney & Superstar Billy Graham, which is an, um, odd assortment of B & C-Team announcers.
What the World Was Watching: WWF Superstars – February 10, 1990
Vince McMahon and Jesse Ventura call today’s action and kick off a new round of television tapings at the Miami Arena in Miami, Florida. According to thehistoryofwwe.com, the taping took place on January 22 and drew a crowd of 15,063, 10,500 of which paid to attend.
What the World Was Watching: WWF Prime Time Wrestling – February 5, 1990
Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan host tonight’s show.
The Bushwhackers squash from the January 29 Wrestling Challenge episode airs. Heenan wonders whether fans need shots after the Bushwhackers lick them. He likens the spectacle to “a petting zoo on the road.”
What the World Was Watching: WWF Superstars – February 3, 1990
Vince McMahon and Jesse Ventura are doing commentary and they are concluding the tapings in Birmingham, Alabama.
The Dusty Rhodes squash match from Prime Time Wrestling airs.
