The True Story Of WWE's Strangest House Show

Ordinarily, the WWE house show experience is one of mindless fun - a touring troupe of wrestlers mostly goes through the motions with the opponent they've been working with week in and week out, still managing to entertain thousands of fans, before jetting off to the next town and wrestling largely the same match once again. 

For wrestlers, it's just one blurred match of many, and for fans of all ages, it's a fairly special chance to see the stars up close, even if they tend to be little more than a cookie-cutter affair. 

That isn’t the case for all WWE house shows, however, and one time during the golden age of the then-WWF, unforeseen circumstances led to one of the more surreal live events in promotional history.

The Background

In October of 1989, the World Wrestling Federation were closing out a prosperous decade as the undisputed top promotion in North America. The promotion was so immense they had enough wrestlers to sometimes run three different house show tours at the same time. 

The ‘A’ show would headline in a major North American city with a Hulk Hogan title defence or heated grudge match. The ‘B’ show would be held in a smaller city with a reasonably good card, while the ‘C’ show would be in a smaller town with a reduced collection of headliners. Sometimes wrestlers would even wrestle twice in one day with a matinee and then a night-time event in a city several hours away. 

In October 1989, the World Wrestling Federation ran over 60 events. Despite the sheer number of shows, there often weren’t any logistical issues but Friday, October 27 wasn’t one of those days. 

WWF ran three events that day as one group headed to Auburn Hills, Michigan, while another worked in Syracuse, New York, and the third crew were holding an event in St. Cloud, Minnesota. Following the events, much of the Syracuse roster were scheduled to travel to Glen Falls, New York for a 1 pm matinee that Saturday, while six of the Syracuse wrestlers, including Randy Savage, Jim Duggan, The Bushwhackers and The Powers of Pain, were planned for another 1 pm Saturday live event in Springfield, Massachusetts. 

Talents working the Auburn Hills event were split between Springfield and Glen Falls. The likes of Bret Hart, The Ultimate Warrior and Mr. Perfect were planned for Springfield, while others like Roddy Piper, Rick Rude and Demolition were set for Glen Falls. Most of the wrestlers from the two matinee events were then scheduled to travel to Madison Square Garden for that night’s card. 

The strangest-ever WWE house show ended up occurring at the Springfield Civic Center in Springfield, Massachusetts. WWE regularly held shows at the venue in the 1980s, with many of the events bringing in between 5,000 and 7,000 fans. 

The belief is seven matches were planned for the Springfield matinee show with a main event of Randy Savage vs. Jim Duggan. The pair had been feuding since SummerSlam, with Savage defeating Duggan to gain possession of the King of the Ring crown and become the Macho King in the process. Other matches planned for the show included Bret Hart vs. Dino Bravo, Mr. Perfect vs. Jimmy Snuka, The Bushwhackers vs. The Powers of Pain, Hercules vs. Akeem, and Nikolai Volkoff vs. Tim Horner. All of those matches except for Horner vs. Volkoff were planned to take place again that night at Madison Square Garden.  

WWF Intercontinental Champion The Ultimate Warrior’s match is less clear. He defeated Andre the Giant the night before and would defeat him again that night in MSG, but it was unlikely in 1989 that Andre would be working two matches on the same day. 

Travel Issues Strike

The talent working Friday’s event in Syracuse arrived in Springfield easily enough, but everyone else who was wrestling in Auburn Hills on the Friday night was scheduled to flight out of Detroit on Saturday morning. For an unknown reason, the flight wasn’t scheduled to land until 1:50 pm ET, after the show was scheduled to begin at 1 pm. This would ultimately mean only six WWE names were in Springfield for the house show. 

WWE had a different response to their usual tactic of just pushing through as the company moved the start time of the Civic Center show back an hour to give the wrestlers enough time to reach the venue.

WWE's Strangest House Show Takes Place

While Savage vs. Duggan was the intended main event, they opened the show instead since they were actually in the building. To give the wrestlers travelling from Detroit enough time to arrive for the remainder of the card, Duggan and Savage went on to work a 23-minute match which included a ref bump that lasted a full five minutes.

Savage ultimately won the extended opener after hitting Duggan with Sensational Sherri's purse, and after that 23-minute outing, it was on to the next match.

The second match of the afternoon in The Bushwhackers vs. The Powers of Pain didn’t set the expectations to be a classic, but it would be fun for the fans in attendance as the Aussies did their marching shtick.

Unfortunately for the fans in Springfield, the tag match also went over 20 minutes and ended in a DQ win for The Bushwhackers as opposed to a conclusive finish. To further delay proceedings, WWE then held a 20-minute intermission after just two matches.

When the show returned, the fans in attendance witnessed Nikolai Volkoff square off with Jose Luis Rivera to a 20-minute draw, as Volkoff was able to reach the show due to taking an overnight flight.

Fortunately, after an hour of in-ring action they weren’t expecting, the fans got to see the matches they were expecting as Mr. Perfect defeated Jimmy Snuka in 17 minutes. 

By this point, there had been an hour-plus delay, a 23-minute match where the heel won, a 20-minute tag team match that ended in a DQ, a 20-minute intermission, a 20-minute draw in a match that shouldn’t have received any crowd reaction, and a 17-minute match with stalling. 

If that wasn’t weird enough, the next match of the night may have tipped the house show over the edge. Bret Hart was in the fifth match of the show but instead of facing Dino Bravo, Hart took on Tim Horner. Hart’s original opponent in Bravo was instead moved to work opposite The Ultimate Warrior. 

Hart vs. Horner being booked was weird enough but the match itself was weird. In what was certainly the shortest match to this point, the bout ended in a no-contest after Horner collapsed in apparent pain after four minutes, following an ugly collision on a mistimed leapfrog.

According to Horner in a later interview, he was trying to get fired from the company at that point in order to go back to the NWA. By his account, when Vince tried holding him to the terms of his contract, Horner stopped playing ball and, in essence, stopped doing jobs in an attempt to get fired.

The night before in Auburn Hills, Horner was allegedly supposed to lose to Nikolai Volkoff, only to instead win via inside cradle. Horner alleges that the errant leapfrog spot with Bret (and subsequent non-finish) was concocted before the match as another way for him to be insubordinate. Combined with refusing to take a drug test that day and refusing to lose to the Brooklyn Brawler that night at the Garden, Horner found his way out of the company.

From there, the rest of the disheveled card occurred normally. Hercules pinned Akeem, and Warrior defeated Bravo via count-out in matches of expected length. This brought an end to arguably the weirdest house show ever run by McMahon's organisation.

The Aftermath

Of course, the day wasn't done for this crew, as once the talents finished their matches, they were whisked away 140 miles south to New York for that night's half of the "double shot." Instead of having to drive, it's likely the wrestlers travelled from Springfield to the Big Apple via a rotating series of King Air flights that the WWF commissioned for their own use whenever wrestlers were booked for day-night doubleheaders.

Four of the Springfield matches took place again for the benefit of the New York crowd, albeit with shorter durations than what occurred earlier. Hercules toppled Akeem, The Bushwhackers once more squeaked by The Powers of Pain via DQ, Perfect outlasted Snuka, and Savage defeated Duggan following the expected chicanery.

Meanwhile, Hart and Bravo rekindled their road rivalry, going to a 20-minute draw together. The obstinate, outbound Horner never made it to the match with Brawler, being replaced by Rivera, who actually worked twice, wrestling earlier in the night in his Conquistador outfit in a loss to Al Perez.

Warrior clashed with Andre, defeating the "8th Wonder of the World" in a matter of seconds, in deference to Andre's declining state. It ended up being Andre's only pinfall loss ever at the Garden.

The weekend rolled on with much of the same crew flying all the way up to Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens on Sunday for another regionally televised card. Even that couldn't take place without a major problem.

While Horner sustained a worked injury wrestling against him earlier on Saturday, Bret Hart suffered a very real injury when Bravo sent him flying from the apron. The Hitman crashed down chest-first onto the steel guardrail, cracking five ribs, fracturing his sternum, and bruising his heart. Somehow, he was back at work in time for Survivor Series just over three and a half weeks later.

After a fraught and fragmented live event, the firing of an underneath wrestler, and an injury being dealt to one of the company workhorses, Tully Blanchard (who had given notice to the company some time earlier) was fired that Wednesday following a drug test failure. Subsequently, his intended jump back to the NWA was scuppered when the organisation withdrew their offer.

All of this occurred in a five-day stretch. This was the same month in which Koko B. Ware and company executive Jim Troy were fired following a physical altercation on a European tour, the same tour in which The Rockers were nearly fired for destroying hotel chandeliers in a fit of alcohol-fuelled anger.

The Legacy of WWE's Strangest House Show

Little of this is related to the sheer calamity of that live event in Springfield, but it's a fascinating look at the chaotic world of the WWF during one of its most wildly-popular eras.

The WWF did return to Springfield that December for another Saturday matinee card. This one took place without a hitch and featured the likes of Dusty Rhodes vs. The Big Boss Man, Greg Valentine vs. Ronnie Garvin, and WWF Champion Hulk Hogan vs. Mr. Perfect. An estimated 5800 fans flocked to the mid-size venue, so there were apparently very few hard feelings from the October fiasco.

Mostly, that October 1989 house show is lost to history, a forgettable hiccup in the grand run of the sports entertainment giant. But the story of what happened is a curious one, a look at the wearying travel of the stars of pro wrestling's top organisation, and what they do in the face of an unenviable situation. It may be forgotten lore, but it's interesting lore nonetheless.