Sage Cortez
Seeing as Clash of the Champions 9 and supposedly Terry Funk’s career as well are over, it’s time to see what the NWA does leading into their biggest event of the year. It does appear that they have diluted it with their round robin idea, but at the same time it ensures a variety of matches with their top guys. Now, how they built to that…remains to be seen. After Tully Blanchard failed his drug test in the WWF, the NWA changed course on bringing him in. Obviously, it would have been a PR nightmare. It was also suggested that Turner may have wanted Tully to go to rehab. Of course, all that didn’t happen. I’ll update at the end of this and list some WON notes. To the action!
– Taped to air November 18th, 1989, on World Championship Wrestling, from Center Stage Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia
BUZZ SAWYER DEBUT
No need for the standard here. A new role was opened up with Terry Funk gone, and who knows why they chose somebody as notoriously unreliable as Buzz Sawyer to fill it. The thing is, he was a hell of a worker and knew how to get a gimmick over like hardly anybody else could. In this match, he beat up this poor bastard for a very long time. The big splash from the top was a great finish, too.
The Steiner Brothers vs. The Fabulous Freebirds for the NWA Tag Team Championships
Pre-Match Thoughts: Hell yeah, it’s about time I got to this. I have been waiting for weeks to get to this match. The Freebirds were the kind of heels who at this point I think people wanted to be rid of. Heat is part of that, but the better teams in the company were too. There were so many better, which is really weird, but that’s the way it was. The Steiners didn’t have Missy Hyatt out there with them for this title match, which is a bit odd. She seems to have disappeared.
Match Review: The match starts with Scott Steiner and Michael Hayes, who lock up to get it going. Hayes hip tosses Scott for a count of 1, and the heat in the building has built up to some chants. Hayes takes Scott over with a sunset flip for 2, then misses an attempted cross body. Scott bodyslams him a few times, and dropkicks him out of the ring for good measure. Garvin tags in there, as does Rick Steiner, and Rick hits him with a STEINERLINE. He puts Garvin in a headlock, and takes him down with a hip toss. Hayes makes a tag in, clocks Rick in the face with a left jab, and back out he goes. Garvin comes in and hits Rick with a clothesline for 2, then brings his partner back in there. He draws Scott in so he can throw Rick over the top, and Garvin beats Rick up outside the ring. This is quite unfair. Garvin throws Rick into the railing, and brings him back in so Hayes can put a sleeper on him. Rick drives Hayes back into the corner to break it, then gives him a belly to belly suplex. Can Rick tag out? Yes, and so does Hayes. Scott gives Garvin a suplex for 2, then a hip toss follows that. Woman heads out to ringside which may make things a bit interesting, then we go to a commercial.
Back from that commercial, Hayes was beating up Scott Steiner, and Jim Ross was pushing the narrative that Woman distracted the Steiners. His commentary is actually hard to listen to knowing what happened. Garvin bodyslams Scott back in the ring, it gets a close count of 2. Hayes puts Scott in a chinlock, as Ross continues his ranting, and he holds it for long enough for that ranting to continue for a very long time. Scott gets out and rams Hayes into the buckle, only to put his head down after a whip and be given a DDT. To avoid being pinned, Scott rolls out of the ring, and Garvin has to throw him back in for a cover that gets 2. Garvin makes a tag in, and he gives Scott a backdrop that looked like Scott took much too quickly. Hayes puts Scott in a chinlock, then chokes him with the top rope. Time for a tag, I think. Scott nails Hayes with a STEINERLINE, rams Hayes’ face into the mat, and gets cut off from tagging. Garvin rushes in there and Scott backdrops him, can he make a tag now? Garvin puts him in a chinlock and hits Rick with a punch to prevent a tag, then the Freebirds switch and Hayes gives Scott a bodyslam. Scott rolls him up for a 2 count, then back to the chinlock Hayes goes again. Garvin tags in and Scott blocks a backdrop, then FINALLY he tags out. Man, about time. Rick comes in with a STEINERLINE to Hayes, and hits him with 8 in the corner. A belly to belly throw follows that, and Rick’s cover gets broken up. Scott rushes in so we have all four in there, and they botch a spot that I can’t figure out at all. Rick follows with a powerslam of Hayes, and Garvin leaps off the top with a knee drop to Hayes on accident. Rick covers, and BAH GAWD THE STEINERS ARE THE NEW TAG TEAM CHAMPIONS! The match was about 18 minutes long.
My Thoughts: The match started off very well, but by the time all the chinlocks happened, it had petered out a lot. The finish was also very botched, and I didn’t like that it was booked for the Freebirds to beat themselves. Not a very convincing way for the Steiners to go over. The match simply had a poor structure despite having good content. At least the titles are on a team that deserved to have them, the Steiners were obviously the right team to put those on. **1/4, though.
– Taped to air November 25th, 1989, on Worldwide, from Corpus Christi, Texas
“Flyin'” Brian Pillman vs. Lex Luger for the NWA United States Championship
Pre-Match Thoughts: Third time I’ve watched these guys have a match, and I have absolutely no problem with that at all. I need to watch it again, something great may happen! Pillman isn’t part of the Starrcade festivities, so while it is possible he could win this match, you’d think he would have won one of the matches that were more prominently placed on TV. However, it’s possible they didn’t want Luger winning one of those. I already know who wins this, it’s just a matter of trying to make sense of the fan’s perspective at that time.
Match Review: Luger hits Pillman with a sucker punch to begin the match, and he tosses him out of the ring. Pillman flies back into the ring, and we have a damn commercial. I don’t think they cut anything from the match, though. Pillman beats up Luger outside the ring with some chops, then when they get back in, he hits him with punches in the corner until hitting Luger with a big clothesline for 2. Long sentence, there. Sorry. Pillman gives Luger a backdrop, and another clothesline that gets 2. He starts going to work on Luger’s left arm by wrapping it around the rope, only for Luger to hit him with a hard elbow to the head. Pillman comes back with a flying back elbow, and Luger’s begging for some relief here. Pillman won’t give him any, so Luger clotheslines him from behind. Luger slams Pillman into the corner, and he’s hung on the ropes so Luger can stomp him. Luger the pushes the referee down and grabs a chair, leading to him being disqualified at 3:36. Luger goes to hit Pillman with that chair, and out from the back comes STING. STING starts beating up Luger, knocking him down with a clothesline. A crazy fan wanted in the ring, and Sting gives Luger the STINGER SPLASH. That’s how you deal with a heel doing something they shouldn’t. Sting isn’t done though, he rams Luger into the railing outside the ring and drops him on it for good measure. Now he’s done.
My Thoughts: This crowd was wild, and the building appeared to be full judging by how people were acting in the aisleway. The match was really good for the time allotted, and was engineered to build more towards Starrcade and Sting being the top babyface who saved guys that weren’t even his friends. I dig that. In any case, Pillman should have been moved onto greater things from here, but he got stalled and it didn’t happen for a very long time. Kinda sad. ** for the match.
– Taped to air November 25th, 1989, on World Championship Wrestling, from Center Stage Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia
The Great Muta (NWA TV Champion, w/Gary Hart and the Dragon Master) vs. Ric Flair for the NWA Championship
Pre-Match Thoughts: This is the kind of match that really shouldn’t be on television, but I guess they wanted to give people a taste of what was to come at Starrcade. Obviously, this could be a hell of a match. At that point they were the best workers on the babyface and heel sides of the card. Again, I don’t understand why they’d give this match away. Kevin Sullivan joins Jim Ross on commentary!
Match Review: I wasn’t expecting this to be a title match, but it was. Flair takes Muta down with a headlock, and turns it into a hammerlock until Muta reaches the ropes. Muta and Flair fight over a wristlock, with Flair getting the better of it and heading to the outside to go after Hart too. That was not so smart. Flair gets back in and trips Muta, but before anything else happens, Muta reaches the ropes and rolls outside the ring. He gets back in and Flair takes him down with a drop toe-hold, leading to the hammerlock again. Muta reverses it, and stands up for some chops in the corner and a kick that knocks Flair down. He tries a leg lock that leads to some pins that only get a 2 count, then turns Flair over for a half crab. He turns that into a Muta lock, which the announcers don’t even name for some reason. Muta then goes to a bow and arrow lock, and Sullivan pushes the narrative that Gary Hart is obsessed with seeing Ric Flair quit. That is very good commentary. Flair kicks free of the hold, but Muta goes right back to work with a partial Texas cloverleaf. It’s well over halfway into the match, and now we’re headed to a commercial break.
Back from that commercial, we have Muta wrenching Flair’s leg up against the apron. These guys fight on the outside now, and both guys get knocked down. They get back in the ring, and trade chops with each other only for Flair to jump on Muta’s back and rake his face. He throws Muta out of the ring, and hits him with an elbow from the apron. Back in they go again, and Flair gives him an inverted atomic drop. He works on Muta with some chops, and Muta is begging for forgiveness. Flair doesn’t really care for that, so he gives Muta another inverted atomic drop. Muta then shoots Flair upside down into the corner, but he runs across the apron and flies off the top with an elbow! Typical Ric Flair. He locks Muta up in the FIGURE-FOUR, but in comes the Dragon Master for a DQ after about 15 minutes. Darn.
Flair decides to go after the Dragon Master, and puts him in the FIGURE-FOUR, but he’s outnumbered and I expect that to pay off soon. Muta sprays RED MIST into Flair’s face, and here comes BUZZ SAWYER. He and Muta give Flair a double suplex, then Sawyer heads up top and flies off with a BIG SPLASH. Muta goes up and gives Flair a moonsault, and seeing as Sting wasn’t there, nobody could help Flair out. Poor Flair.
My Thoughts: This match was very mat based early on, which I did not expect. That’s one way to run this match without giving anything away. I found that very smart. They cycled through a lot of holds, proving this is about true wrestling rather than beefed up roid monsters hitting each other with clotheslines. Granted, I have no problem with the latter, but I prefer wrestling. Good narrative, good finish to keep heat on the Starrcade match as well as future events to come. ***. If you don’t like slow matches with an exchange of holds, you may not want to look this up and watch it.
THE MIDNIGHT EXPRESS
They were supposed to have a squash match, but they came out in street clothes. Why? Stan Lane says that they aren’t going to wrestle two jabronis because they’re above it. If they don’t wrestle, they’ll be counted out though. That’s exactly what happens. Okay then. Lane tells these two they can tell their kids about this victory, then it’s time for the Midnight Express to kick their asses. After they do, Cornette heads over to the microphone and says they need some competition. This didn’t get them on the Starrcade card, so the impact of this was negligble, really.
– Taped to air December 1st, 1989, on the POWER HOUR, from Columbus, Ohio
Doom (w/Woman & Nitron) vs. The Steiner Brothers (NWA Tag Team Champions)
Pre-Match Thoughts: This is a non-title match. I wonder if Nitron will get involved, even though he’s only supposed to be Woman’s bodyguard to make sure nothing happens to her. He was really physically impressive but who knows if he could do anything in the ring. I sure don’t know. The video quality being less than WWE Network, I wonder if I’ll still be able to tell the two members of Doom apart as they’re wearing those stupid masks. Probably. This was a hell of a concept, but Doom shouldn’t have been wearing masks. Otherwise, it’s perfect.
Match Review: Nitron is almost a foot taller than everyone else at ringside. Butch Reed and Rick Steiner will start the match, and Rick clocks his big masked opponent. Reed comes back with a knee lift, and a back elbow follows that. I don’t like being reminded this match will take place at Starrcade too. They’re giving it away! Rick comes back with a STEINERLINE, then these two trade bombs until Simmons rushes in for an attack. Scott heads in, and we have all four guys hitting each other. The Steiners hit Doom with STEINERLINES, and those clear the ring. Ron Simmons and Scott Steiner resume the match, with Scott giving him a ridiculous German suplex for a 2 count. That bump was hellacious. Scott follows with a shoulderbreaker for 2, then he misses a dropkick and takes the bump on his neck. Reed tags in, then Simmons goes to dump Scott into the rail. Reed follows with a swinging neckbreaker back inside the ring for a 2 count, then hits Scott with a clothesline. Simmons tags in, and he gives Scott a spinebuster that gets an audible reaction from the crowd. It only gets a 2 count, though. Doom gives Scott a double slam behind the back of the official, which also gets 2. Close counts here. Scott tries a small package on Reed, it gets 2. Reed bodyslams him and lands an elbow drop from the second rope, it got 2. He follows that with a very sloppy piledriver on Scott, and tags out before getting a receipt for how that went. Scott leaps over Simmons with a sunset flip for 2, and Simmons goes to a chinlock to maintain control. Scott makes a tag, but of course the referee doesn’t spot it. So, Doom gives him a spike piledriver that looked like it killed poor Scotty. He kicked out at 2 though. Reed tags in there, and has a backdrop for Scott. Scott fires off a kick to the head when Reed tries it again, and he bodyslams him for 2 as well. He needs to tag out. Scott suplexes Reed, and THERE’S the tag.
Rick nails Simmons with a STEINERLINE, and he powerslams him as well. Double STEINERLINE for Reed, and Rick gives Simmons a few punches in the corner, leading to a belly to belly. Now all four are in, and Scott gives Reed the FRANKENSTEINER. Rick cradles Simmons up, and Woman gets in the ring. Rick blocks her attempt to hit him with a shoe, and NITRON IS IN THE RING. He and the Steiners stare down, and the referee rings the bell as we have some anarchy. Rick no-sells some chair shot from Simmons, then knocks him down with one to the head. Haha. That was great. Scott hits Reed with a shot, and this is a full blown brawl as the broadcast heads to commercial. I think Scott getting piledriven on a chair was the last thing to happen. Doom was disqualified at 11:19, by the way.
My Thoughts: This was a good match, very similar to their match at the Clash. Better structure in this than in the Freebirds match the Steiners had, though. One thing I have a problem with in their matches, is that at this point they didn’t quite sense when it was time to make tags. Sometimes, they’d get in one or two too many hope spots. I like that Doom worked in far more offense in their tag team matches than when they were singles wrestlers. If they didn’t, the gimmick and team would have been DOA. Instead, they work in head drops and all that good stuff. **3/4 for the match as it didn’t have a great finish.
– Taped to air December 2nd, 1989, on World Championship Wrestling, from Center Stage Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia
The Midnight Express (w/Jim Cornette) vs. The Dynamic Dudes
Pre-Match Thoughts: The Express really wanted this match, and they’re getting it. I hope they win as this is basically their Starrcade. They didn’t make the tournament for whatever reason, and I really don’t understand it. A workhorse team facing the guys in there already would have fit perfectly. Very frustrating. The Starrcade hype has been hitting overdrive on these videos, I’m looking forward to it even though I dislike the concept.
Match Review: The Dudes attack from the apron, and this match is underway. Douglas tries to get Cornette, but Eaton catches him and rams him into the buckle. The Express is wearing black gloves for some reason. Ace hits Lane with a running clothesline and has a bodyslam for Eaton, then they clear the ring with a double dropkick to Eaton. Guess the match will normalize now. Ace and Eaton do so, and Douglas runs in for a distraction that allows Ace to give Eaton a powerslam. Lane runs in and they hit him with a double shoulderblock, then a double high knee follows on Eaton. Weak. Eaton takes a break and gets back in when he’s ready, and tags out immediately so Lane will face Douglas. The black gloves are gone, by the way. Don’t understand what’s up with that gimmick. Lane and Douglas lock up, but Lane tags out quickly and Douglas gives Eaton an arm drag. Eaton comes back with right hands to make Douglas let go, then rams him into the buckle. Lane makes a blind tag in, and Douglas is ready for it with a hip toss. A bodyslam by Douglas gets 2, then he gets out of a head-scissor attempt by Lane. This crowd is so heated for this match. Douglas hits Eaton as he stands on the apron, then Eaton comes back with a surprise by pulling Douglas over the top rope. Douglas botched that fall, too. Eaton hits Douglas with a chair as the referee can’t see it, then Cornette pops Douglas for good measure. Why would anyone boo the Express for doing this? It’s awesome! Douglas gets back in the ring and comes up with a surprise sunset flip for 2, but Lane takes him down and tags out. Eaton slams Douglas, and heads up top for a leg drop that misses. Man, I always love that flying leg drop. Ace makes a hot tag in and has slams for both guys, and a flying back elbow to Lane gets 2. Douglas heads back in to deal with Eaton, and Ace tries a cradle on Lane for no count. Then, he knocks Cornette off the apron, and Lane takes the opportunity to clobber Ace with the RACKET for a DQ after about 8 minutes. Damn. After more punishment, they leave the area.
My Thoughts: This was good, but I don’t know when this feud is going to be resolved. By the look of it, not at Clash 10. So, when? My compiled lists have nothing on there at all. I do have a match listed as Jim Cornette vs. Shane Douglas. I don’t know if that goes down as the title would indicate, but if it does, that’s probably it. I suppose I’m looking forward to that. I think the Midnight Express were above feuding with these guys, but for whatever reason the people running the company always disagreed. It seemed like a major misuse of their talent. **1/4 for the match, it always surprises me how the Dudes could come up with botched spots out of nowhere.
– Taped to air December 9th, 1989, on World Championship Wrestling, from Center Stage Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia
Ric Flair calls out Gary Hart
I almost forgot this. It’s time for Gary Hart to walk that aisle, and Flair promises not to hit him. He has a surprise! Hart says he doesn’t appreciate threats, and doesn’t really care about Flair’s surprise. Hart had his own, and he brought out his three cronies. As everyone knows, those are Muta, Sawyer, and the Dragon Master. Hell of a failed plan though! OLE AND ARN ANDERSON RUN OUT FROM THE BACK, AND CLEAR THOSE THREE SCRUBS OUT OF THE RING. THAT’S RIGHT BROTHER. Hell of a surprise, that’s for sure.
Due to a lack of material, that’s going to be the end of this article. There were some things that happened besides what has already been mentioned. The Skyscrapers were supposed to be in the round-robin at Starrcade, but Sid Vicious broke a rib and punctured his lung at the Clash. So, it was impossible for them to be in that event. As we now know, the Samoan Swat Team replaced them. That sucks as we missed on more matches that would have been better seen through nostalgic eyes. In typical scummy NWA fashion, they didn’t announce it. That’s always what they did and it was always why people didn’t trust that company. The saddest thing to happen, was that Tommy Young suffered a career ending injury after a blown spot in a match between Mike Rotunda and Tommy Rich. Quite sad. Next up, I’ll be watching Starrcade.
Best: Ric Flair vs. The Great Muta. Clearly.
Worst: False advertising for Starrcade. That’s some shit.
