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By: Brian Hoops, Nostalgia Specialist

This week’s trip to wrestling nostalgia takes us back to October 5, 1985 for the 2nd edition of Saturday Night’s Main Event. The event was held in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The SNME series was hugely populasr on NBC in 1985, drawing over 11.0 share ratings, easily eclipsing the ratings for Saturday Night Live in the same timeslot. SNME would become a staple for the WWF to reach a national viewing audience for the next three year period, before wrestling would peak in the late 1980’s in terms of national publicity.

Jesse Ventura and Vince McMahon did the announcing with Gene Okerlund doing the interviews.

Okerlund interviewed Hulk Hogan on his way to the ring for his match.

1. Hulk Hogan defeated Nikolai Volkoff in a flag match in 5:17. Volkoff attacked Hogan from behind and before the bell to gain the early advantage, but Hogan ripped off his t-shirt and quickly made his comeback with a clothesline and some punches. They traded kicks and punches until Hogan hit the leg drop on Volkoff then pinned him. Not sure why this was a flag match as the flags never came into play until after the match, when Hogan grabbed the Russian flag and shined his boots with it, then paraded around the ring with the U.S. flag. ¼ *

Okerlund interviewed Hulk Hogan on his way back from the ring after his match. Apparently his match was a title match, although that was never announced.

2. Uncle Elmer squashed Jerry Valiant in only 9 seconds. Valiant tried to attack Elmer at the bell, only Elmer squashed him in a new record time announced at 6 seconds. DUD

Okerlund interviewed Uncle Elmer and Hill Billy Jim and then Arnold Swartzenagger was shown in the crowd.

The next segment was The Body Shop with Jesse Ventura in the ring. Ventura brought out as his guest, Bobby “the Brain” Heenan. Heenan talked about firing Paul Orndorff and putting a $50,000 bounty on his head and Roddy Piper vowed to collect the bounty money.

Okerlund interviewed Paul Orndorff on his way to the ring and then Roddy Piper.

3. Paul Orndroff and Roddy Piper wrestled to a double count out in 4:45. Piper and Orndorff traded blows at the opening bell and it was on. This was a great brawling style match and neither man even tried for a pinfall. It was too short, but the action was great for the short time they were in. * ½

Next, was the wedding of Uncle Elmer and Joyce. The wedding was a waste of time, until they kissed and Ventura said, “they look like two carp going for the same piece of corn in the Mississippi River.” Hilarious. Roddy Piper tried to stop the wedding, but unfortunately, they continued the segment and then went back to the reception area, including barnyard animals and bales of hay.

Okerlund interviewed Bobby Heenan, King Kong Bundy and Big John Studd.

4. Andre the Giant and Tony Atlas defeated Big John Studd and King Kong Bundy by dq in only 4:27. Andre started out against Bundy and choked him into the corner. Andre tagged in Atlas and Bundy managed to tag in Studd, who worked on Atlas after Atlas missed a drop kick. Studd threw Atlas into the ring post and then Bundy and Studd double teamed Andre until Hulk Hogan made the save. A real bad match. DUD

Gene Okerlund went to the Detroit zoo, looking for George the Animal Steele in a really dumb segment.

5. Brutus Beefcake and Greg Valentine defeated Lanny Poffo and Tony Garea in 3:32. Beefcake and Valentine were the World Tag Team Champions. Ex-champs, Barry Windham and Mike Rotundo were shown sitting at ringside. The champs built heat on Poffo from the opening bell, until Poffo was able to leap and make the tag to Garea. Garea was taking on both men until Valentine hit Garea with a forearm and then used the figure four leglock for the submission victory. *

Final segment was the wedding reception. It was so hokey. One of those segments that wrestling fans would turn off and non-fans would think wrestling was stupid.

Summary: This was a really bad show. The wrestling was so short, it was almost non-existent on this show. Piper and Orndorff at least tried hard, but the double count out in less than 5 minutes was nearly useless as a match. The segments that the show was built around, made a bad Raw of today’s era watchable. If you were Verne Gagne or Jim Crockett in this era, it would have been easy to believe you would be able to defeat the WWF, because of all the bad TV, the gimmicks and the lack of wrestling.

I hope you enjoyed reading this week’s look at Saturday Night’s Main Event #2. Email me with any questions or comments you may have at bhoops@iw.net. Be sure to listen to the PWTorch.com Nostalgia audio show each week, available only in the members section of the PWTorch.com website.

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