WWF Saturday Night’s Main Event 29
April 27, 1991
Omaha, NE
Civic Auditorium
(Taped on 4/15/1991)

The current WWF Champs were as follows:
World Champion: Hulk Hogan (3/24/1991)
Intercontinental Champion: Mr. Perfect (11/19/1990)
World Tag Team Champions: The Nasty Boys (3/24/1991)

This is the final SNME episode to air on NBC for fifteen years due to declining ratings. The remaining two episodes (2/92 and 11/92) would be picked up by Fox, which seemed to get a lot of NBC’s table scrapings in the early ’90s.

Your hosts are Vince McMahon & Randy Savage, because he’s retired from all that ‘rasslin!

Sgt. Slaughter interview: Savage does the interview with Slaughter and lets us know right off the bat that he still hates the Warrior. Slaughter says he’s been in talks with Paul Bearer after the Undertaker beat Warrior up and put him in a coffin. During the interview, they show the clip of Hogan being blasted him in the face with a fireball on his way back to his locker room after his WrestleMania win. FIRE HOT!

Ultimate Warrior interview: Mean Gene reminds Warrior of what went down between him and the Undertaker. What does that have to do with Sgt. Slaughter? Something about destiny and the ultimate battle.

• Sgt. Slaughter (w/Gen. Adnan & Col. Mustafa) vs. Ultimate Warrior
  

Col. Mustafa is the Iron Sheik dressed up as an Iraqi colonel. For some reason, in clear view of the Warrior, Slaughter slowly climbs to the top rope only to be slammed to the mat. They go to the floor for a moment, but then Warrior brings Slaughter back in the ring. Slaughter begs off and then goes to the eyes. He dumps Warrior for some Mustafa action and then follows him out to toss him into the ringpost. Back in, Slaughter works over the back to set up the bearhug. Warrior slams out of it, but sells a back injury. They go back to the bearhug as Paul Bearer wheels out a special-made Warrior coffin to ringside. Warrior breaks free of the bearhug, but gets distracted by the coffin and gets clotheslined to the floor. Slaughter stomps away and brings Warrior back in, but then he starts to WARRIOR UP! Clotheslines abound as Bearer opens up the casket. What’s inside?! It’s the Undertaker! Surprise, surprise! Warrior looks to finish off Slaughter, but he’s caught in the gaze of the Undertaker. Mustafa and Adnan attack for the DQ. (7:16) All four men start to beat the crap out of Warrior. Hogan runs down for the save, but Taker NO-SELLS a belt shot. Hogan says “screw that” and chases Slaughter and company back to the locker room while Warrior WARRIORS UP and shoulderblocks Taker over the top rope only to have him land on his feet. Ha, Warrior seems legitimately pissed that Taker won’t sell for him. ½*

Nasty Boys interview: They’re nasty. Knobs says he’s going to rip the Bushwhackers’ arms off and shove them up their nose. They’re nasty.

Bushwhackers interview: Even Piper can hardly deal with these two and their craziness. They start grabbing up Piper’s kilt and he tries his hardest not to laugh.

• WWF World Tag Team Champions The Nasty Boys (w/Jimmy Hart) vs. The Bushwhackers
  

Back and forth comedy match to start. The ‘Whackers clear the ring of the Nasties and the crowd goes ballistic. They give it another go and the same thing happens. Knobs kicks Luke from the apron as he comes off the ropes and tags in for some elbows. Sags comes back in for the same stuff, but then he misses a corner charge to set up the HOT TAG TO BUTCH! He goes clothesline-crazy on the Nasties and covers Knobs, but Sags makes the save. Luke comes in to cause some double-teaming from the Nasties, but he breaks up the pin at two. Knobs picks up Butch for a slam, but Luke rams into Butch for him to fall on top for 1-2-NO! Sags saves at the last second. While the ref is busy getting Luke out of the ring, Knobs tries a Ric Flair pin with a little help from Sags and gets the three-count. (6:46) Started off lame, but it picked up at the end. *

Undertaker/Paul Bearer interview: Undertaker is coming for you, Ultimate Warrior!

• 20-Man Battle Royal
  

Boy, we haven’t had one of these on SNME in a long time. The entrants are Barbarian, Big Bossman, Jim Duggan, Earthquake, Haku, Hercules, Hulk Hogan, Kato, Tanaka, Jake Roberts, Shawn Michaels, Marty Jannetty, Mr. Perfect, Paul Roma, Davey Boy Smith, Jimmy Snuka, Tugboat, Greg Valentine, Warlord and Kerry Von Erich. Earthquake’s already squashed Damien and made Jake real sad, so that’s one of the big meetings going down here. Everybody goes CRAZY on each other to start. Hogan and Jake double-team Earthquake a little bit here and there. Marty skins-the-cat and headscissors Roma to the floor just to show off. Before he can get back in, Roma beats him down onto the floor. Hogan pulls off some wrist tape and chokes on Earthquake with it. That’s just what a good babyface would do, right? Perfect nearly gets thrown out by Hogan and Davey Boy in dramatic fashion, but Earthquake saves him. Crowd wants a DDT on Earthquake, but Jake can’t deliver and gets backed into a corner. Shawn nearly gets tossed out by like SIX guys, but he still manages to fight them off. Much like Perfect at the ’90 Rumble, he continues on with more great near-eliminations. Warlord sends Davey Boy out to the floor. Moments later, Haku eliminates Tanaka and Snuka. While Roberts is trying to throw out Hercules, Earthquake runs by and sledges Roberts out to the floor. Earthquake fights off Hulk and Valentine, but then turns around and sees Lucifer (Jake’s new snake), which gets him all freaked out. Hogan and Tugboat get into it a bit to signal an eventual heel turn. Warlord comes by to put a stop to that, so Hogan quickly tosses him out to the floor. Kerry Von Erich jumps on Barbarian’s back for a sleeper and gets dumped for it. Duggan HOOOS once too often and gets thrown out to the floor by Earthquake. Hogan grabs Earthquake though and tosses him out to the floor without much of a problem. Hogan lifts up Kato to throw him out, but then Tugboat comes by and scoops out Hogan along with him, but then Shawn Michaels runs by and knocks Tugboat out too. What? Bossman whips Hercules into the ropes and he falls out to the floor. We’re down to six now. Bossman looks to clothesline Barbarian out, but Perfect dropkicks him from the back into a backdrop from Barbarian to put him away. Heel miscommunication between Perfect and Haku gets Haku dropkicked by Shawn out to the floor.

Final Four: Perfect, Shawn, Barbarian, and Valentine. Shawn goes right after Perfect while Valentine chops away on Barbarian. Perfect nearly gets thrown out, but falls on the apron and slides back in the ring. Like an idiot though, Shawn tries a Flair corner flip and gets nailed off the apron by Perfect. I mean, duh Shawn. Valentine looks to be sacrificing Barbarian over in the corner. Valentine does okay against them both, but only for a moment as the numbers game takes over. I think we all know where this is going though if you’ve ever seen a battle royal. More heel miscommunication gets Barbarian kicked out to the floor. Valentine wins a chopfest and atomic drops Perfect all over the ring. Valentine attempts to toss out Perfect, but Perfect slides under the bottom rope again. So Valentine tries to power him over, but Perfect pulls Valentine out with him and doesn’t let both of his feet touch the floor to win the whole thing. (12:55) What a hot finish that was. It reminded me of the Angle/Guerrero finish to the Smackdown Royal Rumble from ’04 that rocked the hizzouse. Sure, it was a mid-card battle royal with Hogan stuck in there, but it was good fun. ***

Ted DiBiase/Sherri interview: Ted DiBiase says he’s better than Bret Hart, because he has more money.

• Ted DiBiase (w/Sensational Sherri) vs. Bret Hart

I am excited. Roddy Piper has joined Vince and Randy on commentary for this one. DiBiase starts off punching away, but Bret comes back with a hiptoss and clotheslines as he gets tossed out to the floor. Bret follows him out with a pescado and continues with punches! Back in, Bret grabs a headlock. DiBiase shoves him off into the ropes, but Sherri trips him up. She gets pulled up on the apron, but Bret avoids a running knee from DiBiase and lets Sherri take the blow. Bret rolls him up for 1-2-NO! DiBiase catches Bret coming off the ropes and drops him for a hotshot to take over. Piledriver gets 1-2-NO! Bret slips out of a slam though and goes for a rollup off the ropes, but DiBiase ducks and lets Bret fly out to the floor. DiBiase slams Bret’s face into the steps to make it easy for Sherri before tossing Bret back in the ring. The heels choke the crap out of Bret for a while. DiBiase whips Bret into the corner for his chest-first bump to set up the MILLION DOLLAR DREAM, but Bret backs DiBiase into the corner for the break. DiBiase comes off the top and gets nailed on the way down. Bret wins a slugfest and hits the Russian legsweep for 1-2-NO! Backbreaker/flying vertical elbow drop follows for 1-2-NO! Sherri trips up Bret again, so he goes out after her. DiBiase nails Bret and brings him back in as Piper leaves the announcers table and heads to ringside. He starts to chase Sherri away and then pulls out a broom from underneath the ring. Piper beats her with it and chases her back to the dressing room. DiBiase goes out to the floor too and Bret follows him out for the big double-countout. (9:56) Great match with a rather silly finish. Not must-see, but still great. ***¼

• The Mountie (w/Jimmy Hart) vs. Tito Santana
  

Ahh, a rematch from Wrestlemania. Just the one the world wanted to see too. Mountie talks junk to start and pays for it with atomic drops and dropkicks. Tito beats up on Mountie down on the floor and brings him back in for a monkey-flip, but Mountie puts on the brakes. He delivers some faceplants and then goes for a splash, but Santana gets the knees up. FLYING JALAPENO! Cover, 1-2-NO! Jimmy Hart hops up on the apron to break the count. Tito nails him with the FLYING JALAPENO, but doesn’t notice Mountie has the cattle prod. Tito takes it in the throat while the ref is with Jimmy for the 1-2-3. (4:29) That darn cattle prod gets Tito every time. *

Another Sgt. Slaughter interview: He spits off the “you won the battle, but I’ll win the war” line for the second time tonight referring to the Hulkster. Such originality.

Hulk Hogan interview: He’s going to wipe out Sgt. Slaughter, brother.

Final Thoughts: Interesting if nothing else to see Undertaker’s first run with the main eventers. Bret and Ted had their working boots on, which made for a good little contest. The battle royal was decent and the finish wasn’t too bad. I’ll go with thumbs up for this one.