WWF Tuesday in Texas
December 3, 1991
San Antonio, TX
Freeman Coliseum

The current WWF Champs were as follows:
World Champion: The Undertaker (11/28/1991)
Intercontinental Champion: Bret Hart (8/26/1991)
World Tag Team Champions: The Legion of Doom (8/26/1991)

Your hosts are Gorilla Monsoon & Bobby Heenan!

• WWF Intercontinental Champion Bret Hart vs. Skinner
  

Skinner was being billed as undefeated here, which is why he gets this title shot. Looks like he lost on Prime Time Wrestling a month before to Bret Hart, but who’s counting. Texas ladies looooove Bret apparently. Monsoon and Heenan get into a discussion about tobacco while Bret grabs an armbar. Skinner shoves Bret away and takes a pair of atomic drops that puts Skinner on the floor. Back in, Bret goes back to the armbar. Bret stomps him in the gut, but Skinner eyerakes Bret and sends him shoulder-first into the post. Skinner hooks on an ab stretch near the ropes and plays THAT game with the ref Danny Davis. Bret misses the elbow drop out of the corner and gets nailed with a gator claw. Skinner whips Bret in for the chest-first corner bump and then hits the REVERSE DDT. It’s OVER! Cover, 1-2-NO! Skinner comes off the turnbuckle, but eats a boot on the way down. Here comes Bret! Russian legsweep gets two. Suplex gets two. Backbreaker/flying vertical elbow drop gets two. Bret starts to argue with Davis, and gets rolled up for 1-2-NO! Skinner flies out to the floor off the kick-out. Bret follows him and gets his head slammed on the apron. Skinner tries for the countout win, but Bret climbs back on the apron. He tries to suplex Bret in, but he slips out. Bret wants a roll up, but Skinner grabs the top rope to block. Skinner heads back up top, but Bret’s there to slam him down for the SHARPSHOOTER. (13:46) Good match. Anything less than good didn’t involve Bret Hart during this time period. The guy was on fire. Too bad Skinner was such a lame gimmick that could only go so far, because Steve Keirn was a great wrestler. In fact, terribly underrated as a singles star. ***¼

Sean Mooney is standing by with Jake Roberts: He says the last time he saw Elizabeth, all he could see was fear in her eyes and that gave him SUCH a rush.

Meanwhile, Mean Gene is with Randy Savage who looks like Dr. Teeth from the Muppets tonight, and Elizabeth: Savage comments that the only rush he’s going to get is giving Jake the elbow drop. DIG IT!

• Randy Savage vs. Jake Roberts
  

Because Jake let his cobra gnaw on Savage’s arm, there will be no reptiles allowed at ringside. Jake enters first and gets attacked on the way to the ring by Savage. This would be Savage’s first TV match since WrestleMania when he lost in the retirement match to the Ultimate Warrior. Savage destroys Jake to start with elbows and a double ax-handle puts Jake on the floor. He starts to leave for the dressing room, but Savage is not going to let that happen. Back in, Jake begs off and then goes low and tosses Savage out to get sent into the ringpost. Back in again, Jake goes to work on the arm that got injected with inhuman amount of VENOM! Savage ducks one Short-Arm Clothesline, but not the second one. Jake taunts the crowd instead of going immediately for the DDT, and gets backed into the corner. RIBS! That must’ve really hurt those ribs, as Savage comes off the top rope for the MACHO ELBOW! That’ll do it. (6:25) This was way too short like with most Savage/Roberts matches I’ve seen over the years. But that’s not all this time around. Savage grabs the ring bell, but the ref gets it away from him as Jake hits the DDT. Jake’s still selling the ribs and once both men are back up, Jake gives him another DDT. That puts him down long enough for Jake to reach underneath the ring for his COBRA SACK! That brings Elizabeth down and into the ring. Jake harasses her and then tells her to look into his eyes while he gives Savage a THIRD DDT. Jake then grabs Liz by the hair and SMACKS her. Only on PPV! WWF (kayfabe) President Jack Tunney comes down to take Jake Roberts to the dressing room and suspend him for having the snake at ringside, but there WAS no snake in the bag. What intensity, and only a guy like Jake Roberts in my opinion could pull that off and make it work. ***½ for the whole thing.

In the back, Mean Gene meets with Jake Roberts: He continues to get under the skin of Savage even now by saying that the greatest feeling he ever had, was picking Elizabeth up off the mat by her hair and slapping her across the face. “It felt so good, I should have had to pay for that!” Jake claims he wants to touch Liz one more time and then, maybe then, she’ll be someone that even Jake would want to have. Oh wow.

• Davey Boy Smith vs. The Warlord (w/Harvey Wippleman)
  

Most people seem to hate it when these two meet, but I enjoy their matches for some reason. Clothesline from Davey Boy puts Warlord out on the floor to set up a pescado, but Warlord catches him in mid-air and drives him spine-first into the ringpost. Davey Boy blocks a turnbuckle smash on the way back in the ring and returns the favor TEN times to set up a Missile Dropkick! Warlord gets tied up in the ropes and DBS charges, but misses big time. Warlord works the Bear Hug for a while. DBS tries a sunset flip to come back, but Warlord falls on top and poses only to get rolled up for 1-2-NO! Warlord grabs the FULL NELSON to hopefully put Davey Boy away, but he never locks the fingers because of Davey’s Whoopi Goldberg-like hair, says Heenan. DBS comes back with a flying clothesline and delivers the Hourglass Suplex to set up the RUNNING POWERSLAM, but Warlord blocks. DBS gets the Crucifix instead for 1-2-3. (12:45) Another solid match. Even during the bearhug and the full nelson, Monsoon and Heenan’s arguing kept it entertaining. **½

Meanwhile, Randy Savage is with Sean Mooney: Now that Savage is conscious again, he knows what Roberts did to Elizabeth and he’s NOT happy. Snake DEGRADED her, and he only blames himself. He’s going to get Jake, and there will be NO stopping him. One of the best promos ever in WWF history, in my opinion.

• Ted DiBiase & Repo Man (w/Sensational Sherri) vs. Virgil & Tito Santana
  

Repo Man helped DiBiase regain the Million Dollar belt at the Survivor Series Showdown that aired a few days before the Survivor Series PPV, so now Virgil wants revenge on both guys with some help from the old standby babyface Tito Santana. I’m sorry, the EL MATADOR~! Tito starts off with Repo. They do the spot where they exchange hiptosses across the ring until Repo gets tossed over the top rope to the floor. Repo tries to sneak attack, but that fails so he tags DiBiase. The crowd wants Virgil in, so he gets a tag as well. DiBiase unloads in the corner, but Virgil gets a sunset flip for two and then clotheslines DiBiase out. Back in, Virgil runs into an elbow. Repo tags and smashes Virgil on the mat. Tito gets drawn in for some double-team choking in the heel corner. DiBiase tags in for a Gutwrench Suplex for two, but then he ducks low off a whip and takes a swinging neckbreaker. Hot tag to Santana, he hits the FLYING JALAPENO on Repo. He nails DiBiase and goes for another flying forearm, but DiBiase trips him up and slams his face into the steps. Back in, Tito plays face-in-peril for a while, which includes the false tag spot. Double-KO ensues, and Tito makes the HOT TAG TO VIRGIL! That leads to a big brawl. Sherri hops up on the apron and hits DiBiase in the face with her shoe instead of Virgil. Virgil grabs at her, but Repo knees him from behind. DiBiase covers him for 1-2-3. (11:28) Solid formula tag match, but DiBiase gets KO’ed with a shoe and still gets the three-count on a guy who just took a knee to the back? Didn’t like the actual finish, but the rest was fun. I love me a good tag match. ***

• WWF World Champion The Undertaker (w/Paul Bearer) vs. Hulk Hogan
  

Because of Flair’s interference at the Survivor Series during the title change, Hogan gets a quick rematch a week later. WWF (kayfabe) President Jack Tunney is at ringside to make sure everything is fair and square. Bearer and Taker attack at the bell, but Hogan quickly gets rid of Bearer and pounds away on Taker. Hogan goes for a slam, but it’s too early for that. They go to the floor and brawl all around Tunney. Back in, Taker chokes Hogan a bunch, but he comes back and rams Taker into the corner. Hogan runs into a boot in the corner (irony!) and then receives the rope walk. More choking follows, until Hogan slides out to the floor and yanks Taker out for more brawling. Hogan eats the ringpost and Taker goes back to choking. Taker clotheslines himself on the top rope and now Hogan has to improvise. Taker hits the Jumping Lariat after all and goes for the rope walk again, but Hogan pulls him down. Uh oh, here comes Ric Flair! WOO! Hogan clotheslines Taker out and then goes over and nails Flair with a steel chair from behind, causing him to fall on top of Jack Tunney who was trying to get rid of Flair. Back in, Taker eye-gouges Hogan as Flair gets up on the apron with a chair in-hand. Taker tries to smash Hogan’s face into it, but Hogan sends Taker’s face into the chair instead. Taker throat thrusts Hogan to slow him down for a urn shot from Bearer, but that misses and Taker gets nailed here as well. Such a bad night for the heels! Hulk grabs the urn, nails Bearer, and tosses ashes in Taker’s face. School boy, 1-2-3. (13:09) Tonight, Hogan celebrates being the four-time WWF champion. But tomorrow, Jack Tunney strips Hogan of the belt because of all the happenings that went down while he was KO’ed by Flair’s fall, setting up the Royal Rumble match with the winner receiving the vacant WWF title. A completely over-the-top overbooked finish, but way more fun than their dreadful Survivor Series match. *

Final Thoughts: Two PPV’s in two weeks was just not a good idea considering how big of a recession America was in at the time, so probably buying wrestling shows wasn’t at the top of many people’s lists when it came to spending their money. ‘This Tuesday in Texas’ was considered a financial disappointment and the whole five PPV’s a year plan was put on hold until 1993 with the addition of the King of the Ring. As a PPV by itself though, it’s a fun show. I seem to like everything about this show that most people hated or just didn’t enjoy, like the Warlord-DBS match for instance. As for the Savage-Roberts stuff, it’s amazing drama and intensity that you just don’t see in the WWE anymore, and a true testament to just how good of a heel Jake Roberts really could be. He was definitely past his prime here as far as the in-ring performance, but he’s such a master of psychology that you don’t seem to notice that he’s not what he once was. Call me crazy, but I’m going with thumbs up for “This Tuesday in Texas”.