[1990-10-13-WWF-Saturday Night's Main Event] Randy Savage vs Dusty Rhodes

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

This was always a memorable angle for me. My favorite thing about this match is that it was in the WON at the time that DiBiase buying everyone's ticket on the front row was a shoot. They try to buy Dustin's seat and he tears up the Benjamin. DiBiase and Virgil then sit up on either side of him. The match is laid out well. Dustin ends up getting attacked by DiBiase and Virgil while Dusty has his back turned. Dustin bleeds? On NBC? DiBiase is heeling like crazy here, and it gets over in a big way. Good stuff. That chairshot looked good on camera while still being safe too.

[PeteF3]

Good Lord, the feud that's had more resurrections than the Friday the 13th, Halloween, and Nightmare on Elm Street franchises combined returns to haunt us again. Still, even though I consumed way more WWF product than was healthy as a young Hulkamaniac, I've never, ever seen this angle before. So it has something for me to look forward to.

 

This is a triumph of Pat Patterson or whoever laid this out. Again, not a great match, but Savage and Dusty know or were instructed exactly what to do to get full attention on the angle with DiBiase when necessary (probably helps that Savage, he of the laying out of matches beforehand, was involved). The tension and conflict between Dustin and DiBiase is built up to just enough so it looks natural (heh heh) when Dustin finally clocks Ted and the beatdown gets on. Then even more tension in the ring as Dusty has his back turned beating on the Macho King while Dustin gets destroyed on the floor. Dustin eats a wooden chair to the head and gets busted open (!!!). Dusty finally sees this and goes out to run off DiBiase, but at the expense of taking an axhandle from Savage and getting counted out. At that point all he can do is cover Dustin to prevent any further damage, but DiBiase has made his point.

 

WWF Angle of the Year. This had an AMAZING "organized chaos" feel to it that simply was not seen on SNME in particular or even the WWF product as a whole, but those WWF production values still gave the angle every bit of impact that it needed. You had a bunch of fans getting out of their seats to see what was happening with Dustin and DiBiase and then you really, REALLY are exhorting for Dusty to see what's happening. And of course, blood (!!!). The blood is never acknowledged at all but there's a nice close-up of Dustin's head at the end. Part of me wonders if he wasn't busted hardway by the chairshot, but it doesn't matter. And of course nobody can put over anguish like Dusty Rhodes. All the goofy shit about Sapphire getting "bought" is firmly shunted to the background now.

 

You know it's a good angle when a fabulous Sherri performance is reduced to footnote status.

[soup23]

Great angle and one I didn't recall for some reason. Savage ripped up the Warrior poster in a great bit of setting up their feud too. Dustin took a good beating here and Rhodes was very sympathetic.

[Kevin Ridge]

DiBiase pays off the front row fans but Dustin refuses to give up his seat. So was that whole front row plants or did they let those fans go back into their seats after? Thought the match was alright but it was the outside stuff that was great. DiBiaise just beats the crap out of Dustin. We get blood on WWF TV. Dusty covers up Dustin to protect from from a further beating. Dusty was great at the end embracing Dustin.

[BackToBionic]

The fans were real, the 100s were courtesy of Blackjack Lanza.

[garretta]

Of course the angle was tremendous, though I'd still rank what I've seen so far of Jake/Martel ahead of it, because Jake's performance has been on another level that not even the Dream can touch. But it's a shame that Dusty's going to be made to look bad on the way out. He's lost two high profile matches in a row to Savage regardless of the circumstances, and he's going to be dominated in the upcoming DiBiase feud, even jobbing to Virgil cleanly in under a minute at one point. "Time honored tradition" my ass; the man deserved to go out a winner in his last major run as an active wrestler, or at least not as such a definitive loser.

 

But that's not the story here; the story is Teddy's beating of Dustin. Quite frankly, I'm surprised it happened here instead of on Superstars, where the blood could at least have been spoken of. This would have been a stellar angle no matter where it took place, though. Everything about it was executed to perfection. First, they went to the trouble of actually buying off the fans in the front row with money, then having Teddy and Virgil flank Dustin instead of being ejected by the refs and having to return later. The slow build and Dusty having to make the difficult choice of which sworn enemy to leave himself wide open for are what made this a classic. Eventually, he makes the only choice he possibly can, but he's too late; not only has he lost the match, but Dustin's been busted wide open.

 

What happens after that is just as epic. Instead of running off the heels, Dusty simply covers Dustin and takes a few last kicks from Teddy and Virgil on their way out. Even though it no doubt made Dusty seem a bit wimpy to some, it gets across the message that this feud isn't just about wrestling; Teddy's out to destroy Dusty's family. First he bought Dusty's woman, now he's hurt Dustin, and the Dream can't take it anymore. The scene goes out on Dusty in tears, cradling Dustin's head. This has to be Dusty's most powerful performance since Ole, Arn, and Flair broke his leg in the cage at the Omni. It's a shame that Vince couldn't just let the scene end there without segueing to one of those stupid Oktoberfest skits he crammed down our throats all night.

 

That aside, Vince was great here, and so was Piper. You almost wish that Rod would have let up on Dusty for being distracted by what was happening outside, but he was always a loner and never had to (or wanted to) worry about anyone but himself, so it's easy to see why he couldn't understand what Dusty was going through. He was great in the aftermath, though, promising that Dusty would get revenge on DiBiase for himself and for Dustin. As for Vince, he's been better at selling angles than calling matches for years, and that trend continues here. Truthfully, he'd be much better as a color man with Gino calling the action, but his friend Dick Ebersol, who was his partner on SNME, no doubt insisted that he do the play-by-play, not that Vince needed to have his arm twisted.

 

Savage and Sherri do their thing as well, and I liked Randy ripping up the Warrior poster and Sherri leaning into the ring to encourage him at one point in the bout. I'm a bit surprised he didn't get at least a few licks in during the beatdown on Dusty, but the WWF only rarely permitted people not directly involved in a feud to participate in attacks and such, and the Savage/Dusty issue had really been over since SummerSlam.

 

Awkward announcing moment: Piper goes off on a mini-tirade about female reporters in sports locker rooms, using the case of Boston Globe reporter Lisa Olson (Rod misidentifies her as Susan Olsen of Brady Bunch fame) as an example. Vince no-sells uncomfortably for a moment, then with an effort steers the conversation back to the match at hand. I have to wonder if one of the reasons that Savage was eventually added to the booth is because Vince didn't trust Rod to stay on script. In another example from this match, Piper openly contradicts Vince's storyline by flat-out stating that Warrior's afraid of Sherri. Were things like these simply a case of Piper wanting to be his own man, or did he want to turn heel, at least in the booth?

[PeteF3]

Per the '91 Observers, there *was* a proposal for a heel Piper to headline WM7 against either Hogan or the Warrior, before they decided to go with Sarge.

 

That said, I think a lot of this is Piper just being a free spirit.

[garretta]

I agree, Pete, although it would have been neat to see Piper have Sarge's exact run (minus the Iraqi sympathizer garbage). It turned out for the best, though, as he needed to have his hip fixed and wouldn't have been able to wrestle at Mania anyway. If he'd tried to tough it out, his match wouldn't have been much to write home about, and Warrior in particular might have injured him worse, if only by accident.

[drew wardlaw]

This is a really good angle. I knew Dustin flirted with WWF at this time but didn't know any specifics. Pretty crazy he bleeds here. The match is really heated and works well. I really like Dusty being more serious here, and crying over Dustin at the end.

[dawho5]

Dusty was tremendous here as the sympathetic father trying to protect his son. Most of this WWF footage is new to me and Ted is really impressive as a heel.