WWF This Tuesday In Texas 1991 Review (The Gravest Rematch)

December 3, 1991 Live from San Antonio, TX Announced attendance: 8.000 (capacity: ca 11.700) PPV buyrate: 140.000 (-160.000 compared to Survivor Series’ 300.000)

Welcome everyone to my review of the one-off experimental WWF pay-per-view known as ‘This Tuesday in Texas’, featuring Hulk Hogan’s WWF title rematch from Survivor Series against the new champion The Undertaker, Jake Roberts taking on Randy Savage in his return to the ring and more.

Here is the list of champions heading into this PPV:

• WWF Champion: The Undertaker [6th day of his reign] – previous champion: Hulk Hogan

• WWF Intercontinental Champion: Bret Hart [99th day of his reign] – previous champion: Mr. Perfect

• WWF World Tag Team Champions: The Road Warriors (Hawk & Animal) [99th day of their reign] – previous champions: The Nasty Boys

Enjoy the review!

The hosts are Gorilla Monsoon & Bobby Heenan

We open with a recap of the angle that closed Survivor Series – the newly-crowned WWF Champion The Undertaker saying that Hulkamania died at Survivor Series, and the burial would take place at this show.

WWF Intercontinental Championship – Bret Hart(c) vs. Skinner

Skinner gets a jobber entrance, which should give you a pretty good idea of how, hm, skinny his chances were at walking out with the title. Why not throw The Mountie in this spot, who was actually in a heated midcard feud with Bret at the time? Bret surprises Skinner with an early armdrag to start. He gets another one and switches right into an armbar. Skinner escapes and tries to play the wrestling game with Bret, which goes about as well as you’d expect. Bret lets him complete a leapfrog before catching him with a couple of atomic drops and a clothesline, as Skinner bails. Skinner comes back in but Bret goes right back to work where he left off, grabbing him by the arm while unloading on it at the same time. Skinner tries to block another armbar with an armdrag, but Bret holds on to Skinner’s arm and rolls through into the armbar, with a number of vicious knees to boot but Skinner eventually makes the ropes. They wrestle over a wristlock until Bret pops him with a back elbow right to the face, and a headbutt with EXTRA MUSTARD takes Skinner down. Great sound on that bump. Abdominal stomp follows, but Skinner rakes the eyes and rams Bret shoulder first into the post.

Skinner adds a few shots on the floor before working a rope-assisted abdominal stretch back inside. Skinner hits a shoulderbreaker in a nice bit of psychology. He misses a blind charge in the corner, but Bret misses a flying elbowdrop too. Skinner distracts the ref and hits him with the ALLIGATOR CLAW OF ANIMALISTIC DEATH before choking away on the ropes. Skinner whips him into the corner (Bret Hart bump included) follows, as then for some reason Skinner goes after the leg, which even Gorilla and Heenan seem confused by. Neckbreaker gets two. Skinner goes up but the Vertical Jump That Always Misses only finds Bret’s boot, and it’s comeback time. Back elbow sets up the pink moves of doom, starting with the russian legsweep for two. Suplex gets two. Backbreaker into the middle rope elbow gets two more. Skinner manages an O’Connor roll for two, but Bret literally sends him flying to the outside on the kickout! Bret follows him but Skinner gets the upper hand out there. He goes up once more but Bret slams him off and the Sharpshooter finishes him at 13:46.

• Rating: Fine little opener with a very hot crowd, though one that had potential to be much more. The match didn’t need to go thirteen minutes at all, and it really exposed Skinner as a mediocre worker. The first few minutes were actually very good until Skinner got in control, with Bret selling the shoulder after the whip into the post and the shoulderbreaker, only for Skinner to randomly start going after the legs and other body parts, by which point the whole thing got quite confusing. Even the commentators mocked him, which was pretty funny. Had it been shorter it would’ve been much better, but Bret tried his best and it was still a pretty decent IC title match. **1/2

Backstage, Jake Roberts cuts a fantastic heel promo, saying that the fear in Elizabeth’s eyes while her defenseless husband got bitten by the snake gave him goosebumps! Randy Savage promises to destroy him before finishing him off with the Macho Elbow.

Randy Savage(w/ Miss Elizabeth) vs. Jake Roberts

Now here’s the match I was looking forward to the most. Savage jumps Roberts before the bell and we’re underway. Savage destroys him with his entrance gear still on, and Roberts has had enough already. He tries to walk away but Savage brings him back inside the ring, where Roberts takes over with a cheapshot. To the floor where Roberts sends Savage’s arm (the one attacked by the snake) into the post, and he rams it into it a few more times. Savage tries to fight back with just one good arm back inside, but Roberts turns things around rather easily with an atomic drop. Roberts drops some knees on the arm and takes off the tape, as Savage keeps trying to show some life but can’t go anywhere. Roberts misses a clothesline but Savage eats boot on a blind charge, and Jake hits the short clothesline. Time for the DDT, but Savage spears him into the buckle to escape. He goes up with the Macho Elbow and… that’s all(?) at 6:25. The crowd goes absolutely bananas for Savage’s win, but he’s not done and he wants to add more punishment with a chair. The refs take it away from him, which allows Roberts to give him the DDT. He hits a second one before pulling the snake from under the ring, which was supposed to be banned. Elizabeth comes out to save Savage as you can literally feel the panic in the arena, and Roberts plants Savage with another DDT right in front of Liz. He slaps Elizabeth in the face and gets MASSIVE heat for that while more referees and Jack Tunney come out to prevent yet another attack with the snake.

• Rating: I’m not sure if I know how to rate this. As a match it went really short and Savage’s finisher for the win came very early on and out of literally nowhere, but the action continued in the post-match angle. The story of Roberts working over Savage’s injured arm was very good, though, and this whole thing had some insane heat. The whole thing was a lot of fun to watch though, regardless of the match’s length. ***1/4

Jake Roberts says DDT’ing Savage felt really good, but the best feeling he ever had was when he grabbed his wife by her hair and slapped her in the face – “it felt so good that I should’ve paid for that”! He begs Savage to bring Elizabeth back to ringside in the future. Jake Roberts’ promos were absolutely sick.

The British Bulldog vs. The Warlord(w/ Harvey Wippleman)

This match again? Believe it or not, these two wrestled each other on each and every single WWF PPV in 1991. Check out this list: 1) Royal Rumble (opponents as part of the Rumble match); 2) WrestleMania (singles match); 3) SummerSlam (opponents as part of a six-man tag match); 4) Survivor Series (opponents as part of a traditional elimination match); 5) this. Holy moly! Warlord bullies him around for a while to start, until Bulldog takes him down by the leg and drops a low headbutt. A clothesline dumps Warlord and Bulldog dives at him, but Warlord catches him in mid-air and sends him right into the post. Warlord tries to ram Bulldog’s head into the buckle but ends up eating it himself, and Bulldog hits a missile dropkick. Warlord gets caught in the ropes off a clothesline and Davey Boy goes for a blind charge, but Harvey turns him loose and Bulldog takes himself out on the ropes. Backdrop by Warlord as he works a bearhug. Davey Boy fights out of that with a headbutt but ends up walking into a powerslam. This crowd is really into everything.

Warlord blocks a piledriver but Bulldog sunset flips him for two, only for Warlord to hit a clothesline and lock in the full nelson. That hold alone literally goes on for three minutes and one second (yes, I did count it) before Warlord… just releases the hold. Are you fucking kidding me? Three minutes for him to just let go of it? Bulldog starts making the comeback with a flying clothesline and the vertical suplex for two. He goes for the running powerslam, but Warlord grabs the ropes and lands on top for two. Warlord goes for a clothesline, only for Davey Boy to crucifix pin him for the win at 12:45.

• Rating: Davey Boy was really good and always managed to carry Warlord to solid heavyweight matches. This was no exception, but it’s not as impressive when you start seeing it on each and every single PPV. Bulldog just beat Warlord clean again, much like at WrestleMania. You’ve got the point across already. Can he actually move ahead once and for all now? **

Ted DiBiase & Repo Man(w/ Sensational Sherri) vs. ‘El Matador’ Tito Santana & Virgil

Santana starts with Repo Man. A battle over a wristlock is won by Tito, and he hits an armdrag into an armbar. They fight over a hiptoss next, and Repo Man gets sent flying to the floor. He tries to sneak in and attack Tito from behind, but he blocks it and clotheslines Repo Man as he goes to tag in DiBiase. The fans go absolutely nuts for a potential Virgil tag, and Santana obliges. Even a tag to Virgil gets a big pop! DiBiase slugs away on his former bodyguard, but a sunset flip nearly surprises him. A couple of atomic drops send DiBiase flying to the floor, but Virgil eats elbow on a blind charge and it’s back to Repo Man. Powerslam by Repo Man as DiBiase adds some choking with the tag rope in the corner. Gutwrench suplex by Ted gets two. Virgil shows some life with a neckbreaker and he makes the hot tag to Tito, who runs wild on Repo Man with a number of dropkicks. He hits the flying jalapeno but stops to beat up an interfering DiBiase, who trips Tito when he goes for another flying jalapeno. DiBiase sends him into the steps a few times, putting the heels back in control. Tito and Repo both go for a clothesline at the same time and it’s a double KO spot, and there’s the hot tag to Virgil. He runs wild with clotheslines for both heels, and a russian legsweep on Ted gets two before Repo breaks up the pin. Meanwhile, DiBiase holds Virgil so Sherri can hit him with her SHOE OF DOOM, but it ends up hitting Ted instead. Virgil stops to go after Sherri, though, allowing Repo Man to come from behind with a knee to the back and DiBiase steals the win at 11:28.

• Rating: Perfectly acceptable tag team match here. Once again, the crowd was hot for everything these guys did, which definitely made the match more fun to watch. **1/2

Hulk Hogan says he promises to bury Undertaker (hah!) and win back the WWF Title.

Main Event – WWF Championship – The Undertaker(c)(w/ Paul Bearer) vs. Hulk Hogan

Seeing Undertaker come out with the title so early in his WWF tenure is quite interesting to say the least. It wasn’t until 1997 that he had a proper run with it. Jack Tunney is sitting at ringside to avoid shenanigans. UT jumps Hogan before the bell but Hogan turns things around and slugs away in the corner. Atomic drop but UT sits right back up, and a clothesline is no-sold. Hogan, ever the hero, rakes the eyes but can’t get him up for a slam. He gets it on a second try but UT gets right back up with the zombie situp yet again. Hogan dumps UT with a clothesline over the top, but UT lands on his feet. They botch something on the apron and UT goes back down to the floor, taking Hogan with him and bringing the fight outside. UT chokes Hogan down right in front of Tunney, and Hogan crawls back inside for… more choking. Not again please. They go to the corner where UT stays in control with, wait for it, more choking. Hogan powers out of that but eats knee on a blind charge as UT hits Old School. And back to the choking. Hogan slugs away on the outside but gets sent into the post. Back in, UT works the CLAW OF DEATH and gets a number of two counts. I love how this is almost the same match as Survivor Series. Hogan fights back but something goes wrong and UT literally trips while running the ropes to hit his flying clothesline. Yikes.

He hits it on a second try, however, and gets two. Hogan tells Undertaker ‘go home, brother’ after the kickout, as this match just can’t get any funnier. What a mess! Hogan blocks a second Old School and here comes Ric Flair. Hogan dumps UT to the floor with the nicest clothesline I’ve ever seen, before stopping to hit Flair with a chair to the back. Back in, a couple of blows to Undertaker are no-sold before Flair climbs up on the apron with the chair in hand. However, Hogan irish whips UT into the chair before taking out Flair with a clothesline off the apron. Big boot but UT is up with the zombie zitup, and Paul Bearer hits UT by mistake with the urn. Hogan removes some ashes out of the urn before using them to blind UT and roll him up to steal the title back at 13:09. Hogan’s fourth title reign would be cut short on the next week episode of Superstars, with Tunney vacating it due to all the shenanigans that took place here and putting it on the line in the Royal Rumble match. The rest is history, and we’ll get there very soon!

• Rating: This match was a big mess in more ways than one. First of all, it existed purely to set up the next year’s Royal Rumble title match for the vacant title. Second of all, it was pretty much a repetition of their Survivor Series match from less than a week earlier up until the finish. This was another match spent mostly in Undertaker’s endless chokes, with a couple of bad botches to boot. The crowd was very much alive for all of it but this was not very good. *

END OF THE SHOW

Final thoughts: Talk about a show that existed just for the sake of existing. The PPV buyrate was a huge disappointment and WWF wouldn’t do a PPV on a Tuesday again until the days of Taboo Tuesday (2004, already under the WWE name) which also didn’t do good numbers. As far as the show goes, it’s definitely not bad and it kind of is an easy watch at just 1h30, but I’m not sure I would recommend it either. Nothing was really bad outside of the main event, but on the other hand nothing goes too far beyond the average level. Apart from Savage and Roberts’ angle, of course, which stole the show by far. 5/10

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Thank you so much for your time. We’ve already finished the year for the WWF side of things, so now make sure you don’t miss my upcoming review of WCW StarrCade as we close the book on the year of 1991. Until next time!