Sage Cortez
I did make a mistake in my last article, not realizing what I said. This was the next one, not anything else.
It wasn’t immediately after Clash of the Champions that something big went down, but make no mistake, something big did go down. Before that happened, there’s the business of watching matches. Going to start this one off with something that turned out to be quite important. The problem was that they taped their television before this went down and still didn’t have an excellent offering before the Great American Bash.
– Taped to air June 29th, 1991, on Worldwide, from the Civic Center in Montgomery, Alabama
Steve Austin vs. Bobby Eaton for the WCW Television Championship
Pre-Match Thoughts: At the time of taping, Eaton had really only been the champion for about two weeks. Austin didn’t even have his match at the Clash yet. As such, this title match was more than a bit unmerited. Eaton was selling an injured knee here.
Match Review: These two lock up, and Austin shoves Eaton back into the corner. He slams Eaton, but misses a clothesline and gets smacked around. Eaton was in his home state, so the fan backing was strong. Eaton takes Austin down with a backdrop, and a headlock takeover follows that for 2. Eaton hip tosses Austin, takes him back down with the headlock, and Austin has to get out of that with punches. Austin then misses a charge ot the corner, and Eaton knocks him down for a 2 count. Back to the headlock again, and this time Austin gets out and kicks Eaton to the outside. He then throws Eaton from the apron into the guardrail, and clotheslines him. Austin goes for a leapfrog body guillotine and misses, so Eaton backdrops him again. Eaton follows with a hip toss, and there’s a clothesline. Eaton follows that with a neckbreaker, and it’s time to head up top! Eaton goes for the ALABAMA JAM, HITS IT, and Lady Blossom climbs into the ring! She wasn’t even there. Austin gets thrown into the referee somewhere in there, so she’s able to do work. She scratches Eaton’s eyes, Austin rolls Eaton up, and wins the TV TITLE AT 7:56!
My Thoughts: This was a solid match, but nowhere near what I expected in terms of a title change. Made Eaton feel slightly irrelevant, maybe that was the point. Austin shouldn’t have been given a title this quickly, there was no build and fans got no chance to see him work. Booking is confusing sometimes and this is no exception. Perhaps the worst thing is that Eaton wound up in a stable with Austin. Great stable, but he got screwed out of his title by him. **.
– Taped to air June 29th, 1991, from Georgia Mountains Center in Gainesville, Georgia
Ric Flair (WCW Champion) & the Diamond Studd (w/Diamond Dallas Page) vs. Yellow Dog & Bobby Eaton in a BOUNTY MATCH
Pre-Match Thoughts: This YELLOW DOG gimmick is so demeaning towards Pillman. Regardless of that, this is a typical WCW match of random people. That’s why they’re such a great company to look back on. I mean, Brian Pillman and Scott Hall in a match at this point? It’s a crazy thought. This aired just a few days before Flair left, too. Simple explanation for the bounty match is that Windham put a bounty on the head of the Yellow Dog, given to anyone who takes the mask off. Is anyone going to claim it?
Match Review: Flair and Eaton will start, and Eaton knocks Flair down with a big right hand. Flair comes back with chops, Eaton comes back with punches, and Eaton backdrops Flair. After a clothesline, Flair takes a break on the outside. The Dog tags in, and Flair kicks him in the shin. They trade chops, and Paul E. pushes that this is Pillman. Everyone knows it! The Dog gives Flair a backdrop of his own, and a flying shoulderblock as well. The Studd comes in and hits the Dog from behind to stop his momentum, and DDP gets a shot in too. Flair goes for a hip toss, but the Dog reverses to a backslide that gets 2. The Studd tags in, and gets in a shoving match with the Dog. Studd chops and works him over, but Dog comes back with his own stuff and misses a dropkick. Flair tags back in and gets hit with a flying clothesline, so Eaton tags in. He slaps Flair around, sends him upside down into the corner, and to the outside after a punch from the Dog. Eaton hits Flair with a chair, and they brawl on the floor, with Flair throwing Eaton into the rail. Studd distracts the referee while that’s going on, and Eaton gets control while destroying Flair with right hands. The Dog tags in and flips through a back suplex, cradling Flair up for 2. Studd stomps away at the Dog, and chokes him with the rope. Studd CHOKESLAMS Dog for 2, but Dog sunset flips him, only for Studd to make a tag out. Flair shows more ass by getting beaten up by a generic masked man, and has to tag back out. Dog takes Studd down with a flying headbutt, and Flair gets back in, only to get slammed off the top. Dog comes off the top with a cross body that garners a visual fall, but Studd drops an elbow on him. Now Flair tries to rip off the mask, and Studd joins in the action. They pull it halfway off, and Flair throws the referee out of the ring, leading to a disqualification after about 10 minutes. Eaton tries to save his partner, giving Flair a neckbreaker and sending the Studd out of the ring. Job done.
My Thoughts: This was an interesting exercise. It’s obvious to me that Flair just gave away way too much in these matches. He never got portions where he could stand up for himself, and all in all didn’t look like a legitimate champion at this point in time. I think it was a big problem. It’s also strange to me that Scott Hall could be in the business for so long, yet still look so inexperienced. His performance here explains why he didn’t get pushed by WCW. Very sloppy. I do hate the Yellow Dog stuff and nothing’s going to change my mind. **1/2.
– June and July 1991
Desperados promos
These three comedy characters were enough to make Stan Hansen leave WCW and never come back. Watch the videos and you’ll see why!
– July 1st, 1991
Ric Flair FIRED
Most wrestling fans know the story and the why of this situation. It didn’t even need to escalate to this point. The original plan was for Flair to drop the WCW Championship to Lex Luger at the Great American Bash. In my opinion, Luger deserved to win the title. The problem was that Flair was asked to earn much less than Luger. Why they were going to pay him less than Luger is obvious. It was time for Flair to start putting people over. Whether it was wrong to let him go or not, it was definitely time for him to put people over. I think Flair needed to go to the WWF and to some degree WCW needed him to go to the WWF. He was their biggest draw, but as a television program, their TV was super stale. The crowds weren’t hot anymore. That’s just a fact. Obviously, WCW suffered greatly without Flair in the interim, but I think their product was very good in 1992, although business was down.
– Taped to air July 13th, 1991, on World Championship Wrestling, from the Coliseum in Macon, Georgia
Arn Anderson, Larry Zbyzsko, and Steve Austin (WCW TV Champion, w/Lady Blossom) vs. Ron Simmons, Bobby Eaton, and Yellow Dog in a BOUNTY MATCH
Pre-Match Thoughts: Awesome to see the Enforcers team being put into place here. I wonder what happens to the Yellow Dog thing with Barry Windham being taken out of the equation? I honestly have absolutely no idea. Awesomely, there’s a PN News BASH RAP played before this match. What a terrible wrestling company this is. At least Simmons is in something worth wawtching here. About time.
Match Review: Arn knocks Simmons off the apron for some reason, then ducks to the outside to avoid a punch from Eaton. Simmons then presses him back into the ring, and Dog comes in with a slingshot clothesline that gets 2. Dog avoids a charge to the corner, and flies off the top with a missile dropkick. Zbyzsko tags in and goes for the mask, but Dog kicks him in the head and follows that with shoulderblocks. Dog has a sunset flip blocked, so Zbyzsko goes back to the mask, only to get kicked again. Austin tags in for the first time, and gets hit with a double clothesline. Zbyzsko pulls down the top rope so Eaton flies over the top, then he rams Eaton into the rail. Back inside, Austin powerslams Eaton and hits him with a back elbow. Arn tags back in, bodyslams Eaton, and drops a knee on him. After a catapult into the bottom rope, Arn tags in Zbyzsko, who chokes Eaton with it. Eaton then falls out of the ring, only to get pulled back in for a suplex by Zbyzsko that gets 2. Austin tags back in, and rakes Eaton’s eyes. Eaton cradles him up for 2, but Austin comes back with a gutwrench suplex. Zbyzsko heads back in, bodyslams Eaton, and covers for 2. He puts an armbar on Eaton, and tags back out. Arn gets popped with right hands, but drives Eaton back to the corner to stop them. Eaton and Arn then collide, but Eaton’s unable to tag. Zbyzsko comes in with a shoulderbreaker that gets 2, then Arn tags in. Eaton gives him an atomic drop and they collide again, and this time he’s able to tag in Simmons and Dog. Now everyone’s in the ring, and Dog misses a dropkick. Zbyzsko goes to the mask, takes one off, but Dog has another mask on and rolls Zbyzsko up for 3! Only an 8 minute match.
My Thoughts: Another solid match, but I thought it hurt the affair that there was no hot segment after the tag was made. Simmons didn’t participate enough for my liking. All in all, they sold the Bash extremely weakly on this episode of the show, and it’s no surprise the fans outright rejected it the way they did. **1/4.
WCW truly has nobody to blame but themselves for the way everything turned out. They weakly spun the title match into a cage one between Barry Windham and Lex Luger, but even before Flair was fired, they hadn’t built up the Great American Bash at all. I do think that WCW suffered from planning that was a bit too forward thinking. They were ignoring everything ahead of them, looking at building up guys to get over six months down the road. Forward planning is great, but the show was just geared too much for it. The Great American Bash card looks like an absolute disaster. Unfortunately, that’s what’s up next for me. It does have the reputation of being one of the worst PPv’s ever. I’ll find out if that’s for good reason.
Best: Desperados promos. Watch them please.
Worst: Ric Flair getting fired. At least he went to the WWF.
