Sage Cortez
Coming off a successful Clash 6, we have some TV from April and early May of 1989. Sadly, this would appear to be mostly mid-card matches. There are some angles too, I suppose. Nothing major, but the stuff must be watched. I’m hoping for some good tag matches at the very least, that’s where the NWA delivers. Before getting started with this, there were some major news notes. One is that Barry Windham was fired. That doesn’t really make sense to me, but that’s what happened.
– Taped to air April 15th, 1989, on World Championship Wrestling, from Center Stage Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia
Jack Victory (w/Paul E. Dangerously) vs. Randy Rose
Pre-Match Thoughts: Okay, so Rose didn’t really leave town after his loss at Chi-Town Rumble. Instead, his “lawyer” found a clause in the contract that allowed him to stay. After that, Victory and Dangerously beat him up.
Match Review: Victory is wearing a garbage man suit now, and he was given a backdrop at the beginning of the match. Victory has a bodyguard gimmick, so his outfit doesn’t make sense. Rose gives him a clothesline, as it is now announced that Teddy Long will never officiate a title match again. Makes sense after what he did at Clash 6. Victory comes back with his own clothesline, and Rose gives him one from the second rope. This is a true explosion of the Mega Powers. Rose gives Victory a pump splash for 2, Victory comes back with a rake of the eyes. Victory gives Rose a snap suplex for 2, and knocks Rose to the outside right after that. Victory slams him on the floor, and goes for a piledriver only to be given a backdrop. Rose and Victory climb back inside, where Rose gives Victory another clothesline. So many clotheslines. Victory hits Rose in the throat, gets the cell phone from the outside, and misses his big swing. Rose gives Victory an atomic drop, and when Rose goes for the phone, Long tries to take it away from him. Victory gets a second phone from his manager, clocks Rose with it in full view of the referee, and gets the 3 count after a pin at 4:54.
My Thoughts: That was hilarious, Long is better at this than Danny Davis ever was. I love the evil referee gimmick they’ve given to Long, he’s doing a great job with it. I’ve gotten a lot of enjoyment out of it. *1/2. I kept watching the video, and some crazy female fan started hugging Rick Steiner. This was another amazing gimmick, more on that later. The commercial for WrestleWar is insane too. They’re talking about Ric Flair being a Japanese corporate mercenary. Why would anyone do this?
– Taped to air April 22nd, 1989, on World Championship Wrestling, from Center Stage Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia
The Samoan Swat Team (w/Paul E. Dangerously) vs. Rick Steiner & Eddie Gilbert (w/Missy Hyatt) for the NWA United States Tag Team Championships
Pre-Match Thoughts: This is a nice TV match. Before it comes on, JR talks about Missy Hyatt slapping Kevin Sullivan on the previous week’s episode. On that episode, Sullivan was slapped so hard that his eardrum busted and he couldn’t fly for a few days. Steiner is so over in this studio, it’s absurd.
Match Review: The SST attacks immediately, and both miss charges to the corner. Steiner and Gilbert give Fatu a double punch, and it’s Gilbert who gives Fatu a double back elbow. Steiner comes in, puts a headlock on Fatu, and clotheslines him. The crowd is going crazy. The Steiner fan is there again! Steiner bites Fatu on the back side, and Samu tags in after that. The SST aren’t having that nonsense. Samu kicks Steiner in the jaw, and Steiner doesn’t respond to the turnbuckle shot the way Samu would like. Rick Steiner is awesome. Gilbert tags in and gets poked in the eye by Fatu, who tags in shortly afterward and gives Gilbert a shot to the face. Fatu powerslams Gilbert for 2, and puts a nerve hold on him after he kicks out. Fatu hits Gilbert with his own flying back elbow, it gets 2. Gilbert gets tripped by Paul E., and Fatu and Samu both miss headbutts. Missy runs over to slap Paul E., causing him to get back on his telephone. Now what? The SST goes to work on Steiner, and here comes Kevin Sullivan! He grabs Missy by the hair, as Steiner nails the SST with a clothesline. He spots what’s going on with Missy and runs out there, only for Spivey to destroy him with a clothesline. Eddie rushes to the outside to beat up Sullivan as Steiner and Spivey are tied up, leading to the First Family being counted out at 4:43.
My Thoughts: That was fun while it lasted, with some excellent overbooking. The crowd was really fired up for the interference, which was the right way to build towards a PPV. Obviously these teams will be facing each other at WrestleWar, and that’s for the best! **.
– Taped to air April 29th, 1989, on World Championship Wrestling, from Center Stage Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia
Ron Simmons vs. The Junkyard Dog
Pre-Match Thoughts: Simmons was gone for a while, but now he’s back. In my opinion, he should pick up a win here. JYD was about to go through his last no-show. I love Simmons, too. It appears that Teddy Long is the official, so I expect something great to come of this. JYD doesn’t like that Long is the official here…
Match Review: Simmons shoves JYD during his complaining, then Long starts talking to JYD about using closed fists. Simmons immediately hits him with some closed fists, and JYD hurts Simmons with some headbutts for the slowest of 1 counts. This gimmick is amazing. Simmons gives JYD a bodyslam for a 1 count, AND NOW THEY’RE GETTING IT ON. JUST LIKE TWO MEN SHOULD DO. JYD pushes Long out of the way as both wrestlers tumble to the canvas, then JYD starts choking Simmons. They get up and Simmons pushes JYD to the canvas, falls on top and Teddy Long provides a fast count for a Simmons victory at 2:44. Haha!
After the match, it appears that Jim Herd has something to say. How convenient that he’s there. Herd talks about what just happened, and fires Long!
My Thoughts: I’m sad to see the gimmick end, Teddy did a great job getting it over. Unfortunately, it’s not a gimmick that you can run for a long time. It has a short life. 1/4* for the finish, not much else happened.
THE IRON SHEIK SWINGS CLUBS
THAT’S RIGHT BUBBA. Sheik is facing Sting at WrestleWar ’89, challenging him for his TV Championship. Sting comes out during Sheik’s skits, as Sheik wants him to swing the Persian clubs as well. I love how he called poor JR, JIM RICE. Sheik is the best. He demonstrates the clubs, and it’s supposed to be Sting’s turn. He says he needs to see it one more time before committing. After Sheik does it again, Sting wants him to do it for a third time. Once it’s done, Sting says he can do better at wrestling than swinging clubs. This didn’t really work for me at all. Sheik was made to look tough and Sting was made to look dumb.
The Varsity Club (Mike Rotunda & Steve Williams, NWA Tag Team Champs) vs. Rick Steiner & Eddie Gilbert (NWA US Tag Team Champs, w/Missy Hyatt)
Pre-Match Thoughts: This is another non-title match, which appears to be code for the champions losing it in previous matches. Given that both teams are champions, you have to think they’ll bullshit their way out of either team winning here. Steiner’s fan is there again! She gave him a pinwheel! Before the match, JR hypes the debut of the DYNAMIC DUDES. HAHA!
Match Review: Steiner and Rotunda start the match off, and Steiner gets thrown hard into the buckle. He dodges a charge, clotheslines Rotunda, and starts barking. Dr. Death tags in, wrecks Steiner with a clothesline, but misses an elbow drop. Gilbert heads in and gets taken down with a fireman’s carry, but he comes back with some arm drags. Gilbert went for a flying head-scissors, but Rotunda punches him off Doc’s shoulders. Gilbert gets thrown to the outside, but gets back in quickly and given a football tackle. Rotunda tags in and Gilbert hits him with an elbow, then Gilbert dodges a charge to the corner. Gilbert makes a tag out, as does Rotunda, and this should be a little bit fun. Kevin Sullivan rushes down to ringside with a pair of scissors, and has every intention of cutting Gilbert’s hair for some reason. This guy is crazy. Missy jumps on Sullivan’s back and Sullivan tosses her onto the floor, she hit the deck like a rag doll. Sullivan tries to cut Missy’s hair, but here comes the ROAD WARRIORS. The Road Warriors won’t stand for this nonsense, they come down and deal with Sullivan quickly. Next it’s Dr. Death’s turn, and he gets pounded on…then it’s Rotunda’s turn. Haha. Looks like Sullivan did get a piece of Gilbert’s hair. This match ended at 3:19 with no decision read.
My Thoughts: This was a really fun angle to close out that week’s episode. Sometimes a little anarchy is all you need. The fans also add a lot to this studio show as there are far more than there used to be at the other studio. * for the match, which was nothing to write home about, but there were a lot of things surrounding this that went over very well. It also leads to next week’s show, which had, well…you’ll see.
– Taped to air May 6th, 1989, on World Championship Wrestling, from Center Stage Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia
Steve Williams (NWA Tag Team Champion, w/Mike Rotunda & Kevin Sullivan) vs. Animal (w/Hawk & Paul Ellering) in a DESIGNATED HITTER MATCH
The concept here is that both guys will trade punches with each other until one guy goes down. This is a stupid concept, and I don’t believe I’ve seen it since, but at least it’s funny. Apparently Animal must take the first punch. Dr. Death sets up for a punch, and clotheslines Animal instead. Animal comes back with one of his own, and in comes the Varsity Club. They triple team Animal for a moment, but Hawk and Ellering come out of the back to save him. That didn’t make any sense to me, to set up a new gimmick match type only for it to not even take place. Funny stuff.
Rip Morgan (w/the Iron Sheik) vs. Sting for the NWA Television Championship
Pre-Match Thoughts: Morgan is usually the manager, but here he’s the wrestler. The PPV was the day after this, so this show is supposed to sell it. Between this and the last “match,” they’re trying hard. It’s good to see guys like Sting and Luger wrestling on TV.
Match Review: Jim Ross questions Sting putting up his title here, and I don’t blame him for that. Sting puts Morgan in a headlock, and dropkicks him once Morgan gets dizzy. He takes Morgan down with the headlock, and Morgan tries a back suplex only for Sting to keep applying the hold. Morgan tries the back suplex again, but Sting backflips through the attempt and gives Morgan a clothesline. JR hypes a concert at the PPV which I don’t care about, and Sting takes Morgan down with a tackle. The PPV has been heavily advertised on the basis of this concert, by the way. Morgan bodyslams Sting and heads up to the second rope, then misses a leg drop. Sting takes Morgan to the corner for a bite, then sends him to the other side for the STINGER SPLASH. Sheik gets on the apron, which allows Morgan to knee Sting from behind. Morgan goes for a roll up, but it gets completely botched and Sting falls on top for the pin at 5:08.
After the match, Sheik and Morgan take Sheik out. Sting gets put in the CAMEL CLUTCH, and he’s made HUMBLE, BUBBA. Rick Steiner comes out for the save, which doesn’t make a hell of a lot of sense, but there we are.
My Thoughts: This match sucked. DUD. After it was over, the DYNAMIC DUDES made their debut, but I can’t watch more sub-standard wrestling. It’s driving me nuts. I did watch their hype video and it was absolutely terrible, so take that for what it’s worth. Fortunately the show becomes something more over the next few months as better matches are put on it.
What we have here is an interesting television show without great wrestling to match. It’s very intent on angles and stories, not so much on wrestling. I’m sure the thought process is that with big shows every month, they don’t need to put on great wrestling TV. I tend to disagree. They did hype the PPV very well, but it didn’t draw as much as they wanted. The Japanese mercenary angle with Flair was terrible, I couldn’t believe it when I saw the commercials. There were also too many PPV’s in too short a period of time. The future of the Midnight Express wasn’t clear at the time of this being finished, but they hadn’t been on TV for quite a while. That’s sad. There’s a big lack of tag teams and the Dynamic Dudes aren’t enough to help that. They have two tag team title belts, and both tag team title matches at the PPV will have guys from the same faction in them. Not great, but things will get better. The Midnight Express will be coming back, and so are a lot more guys. Next up, it’s WrestleWar ’89! Flair vs. Steamboat once again.
Best: The weekly format. It was presented in a manner that leads to it being fun television.
Worst: Lack of star power. Some additions were definitely needed.
