- Taped from the Mid-Hudson Civic Center in Poughkeepsie, NY on December 17th, 1984, with Vince McMahon and Bruno Sammartino calling the action, unless otherwise noted. You can see the pain in McMahon's eyes whenever he mutters the word "wrestling." We're promised more of the training of Hillbilly Jim, as well as seeing the Tonga Kid and the Super-Team of John Studd and Ken Patera in action. Again, I'm not doing a week-to-week recap of WWF television, I just happen to have access to a decent amount of stuff from this month.
- We see the same highlights from last week with Cyndi Lauper and Lou Albano from Studio 54, then NEW footage of them introducing the audience to WWF Champion, Hulk Hogan. Hogan jokingly makes fun of Albano's appearance and gives him credit for changing his ways. "I'm standing with the man in the mirror..." No, I don't care if that song wasn't written for a few more years.
- "Mean" Gene Okerlund is standing by for an interview with Mike Rotundo (taking on the Iron Sheik) and Barry Windham (taking on Nikolai Volkoff) hyping the card at the Boston Garden on February 2nd. Rotundo is SO vanilla of a babyface promo, he makes vanilla go "damn, is that what people think of me?" The headlining match is a Texas Tornado Tag between Andre and JYD against Studd and Patera.
- Hulk Hogan is standing by with Hillbilly Jim for more training. Jim is more willing to drink Hogan's protein beverage, and pops a pack of pills... what, you don't know of Hogan's Python Power?! They're in the gym, and Hogan is still frustrated with Jim always wearing his hat, but his technique when it comes to bench pressing and doing squats has improved dramatically. 20-years later, and we got equally charming montages with William Regal and Eugene. Hogan doesn't think he's ready to learn wrestling yet, but he thinks he's ready, showing off his bear-hug on some poor sap. I have no desire in watching "Hillbilly" Jim in action, but being associated with Hogan at this point is almost a guaranteed rocket push unless something catastrophic happens, like breaking your leg and watering down the gimmick, but what are the odds of that happening?
- "Mean" Gene Okerlund is back for more interviews to hype that card coming to the Boston Garden. Andre the Giant comes in let Okerlund know it was his idea to make his match at the Garden a Texas Tornado Tag. He calls out Studd for getting DQ'ed last time, but he'll keep getting in the ring with them because he'll never get tired of beating on them. Also, on the card, Wendi Richter defends the Women's Title against Judy Martin, and Ivan Putski takes on "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff.
- "Rowdy" Roddy Piper is standing by from Piper's Pit with the Tag Team Champions, Dick Murdoch and Adrian Adonis. He was looking for the Briscos, but only found a cheap bottle of wine that they've been drinking from. He says it doesn't make sense how they beat the Champions. Murdoch sticks to the story they wrestled the match with the flu and wrestled against doctor's orders. Adonis now says it was the Taiwan flu, and the fever was 104 degrees. Adonis says there's other teams, like Frankie Williams and "Rivera" in line for title shots, so Jack and Jerry need to get in line.
- The Magnificent Muraco and Mr. Fuji are hanging around Hawaii. Muraco says that Magnificence is a short time away to end the reign of Hulk Hogan.
- "Mean" Gene Okerlund is standing by to promote the card on February 2nd at the Boston Garden. Okerlund interviews Ladies Champion Wendi Richter, who is set to defend the title against Judy Martin. She says if she can whoop Moolah, she can handle Martin, too. Iron Sheik cuts the interview off, and all Okerlund has to say is "isn't she attractive?" Wow, welcome to 1985. Sheik is scheduled to break Mike Rotundo's back and make him humble.
- Vince McMahon talks about the award presentation from MSG... and again they can't show the footage. Maybe next week!
- THE INCREDIBLE Hulk Hogan will be making a Non-Title appearance next week! Brutus Beefcake, Blackjack Mulligan, and The Junkyard Dog will be here next week, too. (Spoilers: We won't actually see it, sorry)
Final Thoughts: Watching week to week, full episodes, isn't something I'd recommend. To be honest, I only watched this episode to see the further adventures of Hulk Hogan training "Hillbilly" Jim. Once again, we've touched base that the angles to look forward to are Valentine/Santana for the IC Title, Andre vs. The Heenan Family, and which babyface team will jockey for position to challenge Adrian Adonis and Dick Murdoch.