Wrestle War '89

Legacy Review

Wrestle War '89

May 7, 1989 from the Nashville Municipal Auditorium in Nashville, TN

Commentary: Jim Ross and Bob Caudle

Flair/Steamboat III! And also another new PPV as WCW continues to expand the calendar.

The Great Muta (w/Gary Hart) def Doug Gilbert in 3:03- This was originally scheduled to be Muta vs JYD but was changed due to "circumstances beyond our control" per JR. A much shortened Muta prematch mediation ends with swift kicks for Gilbert. Gilbert goes outside and Muta posts him. Back in Gilbert gets an ugly crossbody and Muta takes a quick powder. Handspring elbow! Gilbert gets a little more token offense in. Muta kills it with the fingers in mouth green mist assisted eye rake. He goes for the Mutohsault but sees Gilbert rolling and lands on his feet. For '89 that's the equivalent of Ricochet's flip out of the ring and landing on his feet on the floor in NXT. Bloody Jedi. (Just to get this down for the record, Ricochet is a Jedi and Will Ospreay is a Marvel superhero. I see so many people get that backwards.) Eddie Gilbert comes out to morally support his brother. Plancha! Muta rolls Gilbert in, hits the Mutohsault for real, and gets the 3. An ugly squash. Muta looked as great as usual, but Gilbert was not a good bumper foil for him. *1/2

"Hacksaw" Butch Reed def Ranger Ross in 6:59- This isn't Ross (NWA's version of Sgt. Slaughter, only a much worse wrestler) vs the evil heel forrrner so no one cares. Even after the camo pants come off! He needs to take notes from Angel Garza or Taichi on how to do that *during* the match for the big pop. Basic start. Ross advantage until Reed charges out of the corner with a clothesline. Teddy Long, who'd recently been fired as a referee for turning heel, comes to ringside with a notepad, setting up his future as a manager. An old boss of mine once told me that if you have a pen and a clipboard with a notepad you'll always look busy. Lessons for life, kids. Ross punches the same way Hogan does: cover the other guy's face with your hand then punch your hand. Reed locks in a chinlock and plays the rope game with the ref. After what feels like 2 hours Ross tries to get out and Reed tights pulls him back in because God forbid something actually happen in this match. Finally the ref catches the rope leverage. Off the ropes Ross counters with an ugly looking throw that took him a solid 5 seconds to reposition himself for. Reed hits the missile football tackle off the top rope and wins. Basic, heatless and boring. 1/2*

Bullrope Match: Dick Murdoch def Bob Orton Jr (w/Gary Hart) in 4:54- This is the continuation of a feud started from one of the matches cut off the WWE Network copy of Clash 6. Murdoch is in jeans, Orton in regular wrestling gear. The bullrope is attached to both guys' wrists like a strap match, but there's a cowbell attached to the middle of the rope that can be used as a weapon. Tug of war to start. Orton dodges. Murdoch wraps the rope around his knuckles to punch with. Orton drags them both outside just so he can try to run and take a bump on the floor when Murdoch yanks him back. Murdoch uses the rope as a whip. Orton's the first one to use the bell. Murdoch takes his boot off and uses it as a weapon. That finally wakes the crowd up. Orton goes to the top rope but gets jerked off. Off the top rope. With the bullrope. Just for clarification. Dirty minded people. Murdoch steer ties Orton's legs with the rope and pins him. Afterward the heels beat him up and Orton literally hangs Murdoch with the bullrope. This type of match is completely pointless when there's a no blood rule and the cowbell shots don't bust anyone open (see Starrcade '85). 1/4*

The Dynamic Dudes def The Samoan SWAT Team (w/Paul E Dangerously) in 11:02- This is the Dudes' PPV debut (future ECW legend Shane Douglas and future former Interim General Manager of Raw and Smackdown and Executive Vice President of Talent Relations "People Power" John "Johnny Ace" Laurinaitis). The Dudes have skateboards because they're cool and rad dudes. People not of my generation probably don't understand how huge skateboarding was in teen culture in the '80s. But the Dudes just feel like what a corporate boardroom thought teens would think was cool in the late '80s. Paul E intros the Samoans in much the same way he intros Brock today. He even tells Gary Capetta "That's how you do it!" when he gives him the mic back. Ace and Fatu start. Samu runs in and Ace slams both of them. Douglas outsmarts Samu and gives him a dropkick. After a sneaky heel tag Ace eats a superkick. Paul E distracts the ref and the SST wishbone Ace and he goes face in peril. Rest holds. Ace hits a backdrop but the dropkick follow up is dodged. That's one bit of wrestling logic I've never understood. How does missing a dropkick hurt? You don't fall any differently. A Fatu powerslam gets 2. There's a funny bit where Paul E counts with Tommy Young, hits 3, then tries to argue it was 3. Ace can't get a tag even when he's in the right corner. Paul E grabs the mic and gives some color commentary. Right after that Ace finally gets the hot tag. Douglas' momentum is killed by a clothesline. Fatu hits a big splash off the top but Ace makes the save. Fatu picks Douglas up, but Ace hits Douglas' back with a dropkick off the top rope, Douglas lands on Fatu, and gets the 3. Pretty big pop for the upset win, I will admit. It was formulaic (Ace was face in peril for 80% of the match) but OK. **

NWA United States Heavyweight Championship: Michael PS Hayes (w/Hiro Matsuda) def "The Total Package" Lex Luger (c) in 16:06- Hayes turned on Luger during a tag match and joined the Yamazaki Corporation to set this up. Hayes promised during his promo that there would be no outside interference from any of his former Freebird partners. Badstreet USA is still awesome entrance music. Super strutting by Hayes down the ramp. Usual stalling at the start from Hayes. After some basic maneuvering Hayes gets a shock crossbody for 2. Hayes slips out of a slam and (barely) gets a side Russian leg sweep. Teddy Long is out taking notes again playa. Luger starts getting frustrated and slaps Hayes on a corner breakup. Big backdrop from Luger. Hayes goes out to catch his breath. Back in he takes over with buckle shots and a clothesline. He goes for the DDT but Luger powers out. More Hayes stalling. Luger starts working the arm with some really good selling from Hayes. Hayes tries another crossbody but Luger catches him and gives him a backbreaker. Luger no sells a clothesline. Hayes dodges a dive and Luger flies (and I mean FLIES) over the top rope and all the way to the floor. Hayes goes out and posts him. If it was only a year earlier Luger would be bleeding, but Billionaire Ted said no blood so there's no blood. Luger tries to come back but Hayes clocks him with a quick left jab for a 2 count. Another Luger comeback is stopped with an eye poke and Hayes throws him out. Matsuda-san gives Luger a barricade shot. Hayes goes for a bulldog but Luger powers out. Clotheslines. Luger hits one, two, THREE press slams. He calls for the Torture Rack. He gets Hayes up, but Hayes slips out, and hits the DDT! Both guys are down. As they get back up ref Nick Patrick takes a shot and goes down. Luger is down on the mat, Hayes is literally being held up by the ropes. Terry Gordy runs in, pushes Hayes onto the prone Luger, and as Patrick recovers he counts the 3! This is, quite frankly, one of the biggest upsets in the history of the US title, if not all of WCW. The crowd is shocked. The Freebirds get out of town with the belt. Hayes would only hold the title a couple of weeks before dropping it back to Luger at a TV taping to kick off Luger's record 523 day reign and going back into the tag division. It started out pedestrian but got going pretty good down the stretch, and told a solid story. ***

NWA World Television Championship: Sting (c) def The Iron Sheik (w/Rip Morgan) in 2:12- Sheik ambushes Sting from behind with the flagpole and chokes him with a towel. Sting says screw this and starts no selling. Basic lockup leads to a Sheik gutwrench suplex. Sting says screw this again. Corner whip. Stinger Splash! Scorpion Death Lock to break his legs and make him humble! Sheik submits and it's over. Nothing like squashing the opposition's former champion to put your new megastar over. 3/4*

NWA World Heavyweight Championship: "Nature Boy" Ric Flair def Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat (c) in 31:37- The trilogy concludes. Why in the blue hell this match is not main eventing is beyond me. Moronic card structure. I guess it's either because of how huge tag wrestling was in the deep south, or because of the postmatch angle. Neither is a good excuse. Steamboat was forced into one last match with Flair against his wishes after the controversial finish to the Clash 6 match, but it was also agreed that this would be Flair's last shot at the title while Steamboat was champion. In case the match goes to time limit or there's another controversial finish there's three judges at ringside to make a final call, a common NWA/WCW gimmick. Fortunately there's no celebrities this time, just former world champions: Lou Thesz, Pat O'Conner and Terry Funk. I said in the previous trilogy matches Flair had all the women on his entrance, but this one is really ALL the women. The whole isle is lined with them on both sides. As usual Steamboat comes out with his family, this time with Richie dressed as a cowboy and riding a pony. This is already a lot of text so let's do a break before getting into the match for readability sake.

The inital lockup leads to a quick Steamboat armdrag. Flair struts it off. They're still cautious even after wrestling each other so much the last few months. Slap exchange in the corner. WOOOOOO! Like previous matches, there's a pause to stare lasers at each other. Damn they make that work. Flair wants a clean corner break then gets a cheap gut shot in followed by a chop. And the chopping is off on both sides! The chests are welting up already. Steamboat with a backdrop and Flair falls outside. He takes his time getting back in. Long test of strength like wristlock standoff. Steamboat wins and starts working the arm, a major theme for most of this match as he's setting up for the double chicken wing that made Flair submit in the last match. That was an awesome move that Steamboat should have kept after these matches. Someone should even bring it back today. I'm so glad Marty Scurll has made the crossface chicken wing a thing again, another great submission hold. Now if we can only get Daniel Bryan to bring cattle mutilation back before he retires for good. Flair tries to slip out with a drop toe hold, but Steamboat reverses right back in. Flair chops. Steamboat slides under Flair's legs off the ropes, does a double leg takedown, and back to the arm. Flair uses hair to get into the corner then hits another cheap shot on the break. Steamboat chops him across the ring. Flair Flop! Speaking of cattle mutilation, Steamboat flips while in a hammerlock in a very cattle mutilation like move. Flair gets him up into a fireman's carry and places him on the top rope. Steamboat gets away and dropkicks Flair outside. He teases diving off the top to the floor but Tommy Young stops him. Spoilsport. Flair with some mind games slowly getting back in. DEEP armdrag and more arm work. Flair gets a hip toss and gets a bit of a pop for it. Back to the arm. Flair lays in more chops. Steamboat answers. Flair with an eye rake and he throws Steamboat outside, but Steamboat hits the brakes on the apron and jumps right back in. Mounted punches on Flair. Flair Flip, but Flair gets stuck in the tree of woe! Flair uses rope run momentum to send Steamboat over the top and out. Big chop on the floor and Steamboat flips over the guardrail and into the laps of the front row. After some recovery Steamboat chops back. Flair tries to run and slides back in the ring. Steamboat goes up and hits the overhand chop off the top rope. Not the turnbuckle, he launched straight from the rope with one foot. Flair Flop 2! Flair Flip! Steamboat catches him coming across the apron with a chop. Flair dodges a crossbody attempt and Steamboat flies over the top and out again. Flair flips him back in and starts working his usuals. Rolling knee. Back suplex for 2. Double underhook suplex for 2. Steamboat doges a chop, comes off the ropes and goes for a dive but Flair catches him and hot shots him! He covers but Steamboat's arm is under the ropes. Flair rolls outside and drags Steamboat with him. Suplex on the floor! Huge move for the time. Flair tries to suplex him back in, but Steamboat flips out and gets a roll up for a long 2 that the crowd bit on. Flair with a crossbody but they're both near the ropes and both guys tumble over and out! Flair rolls Steamboat back in and goes up top but gets the Flair throw off. Flair begs off. More mounted punches. Big backdrop. Flair begs off again and gets the sneaky kick in. He tries a back suplex but Steamboat flips out and rolls him up for 2. Eye poke. Flair tries another suplex but Steamboat blocks and places Flair on the top turnbuckle. Superplex! Instead of covering Steamboat goes for the double chicken wing but Flair gets in the ropes before it's fully locked in. Steamboat overhand chop from the top rope. He goes up again for the high crossbody finisher but Flair falls into the ropes and Steamboat falls off and all the way to the floor! He clutches his knee. There's blood in the water now. Flair goes right for it. Figure 4! Steamboat fights and fights and fights and finally manages to get to the bottom rope. Flair keeps targeting the knee. Steamboat tries to chop back. Enzuguri! Steamboat picks Flair up for a slam. Flair rolls through it (probably aided by the hurt knee) and gets a semi-small package that gets the pin and the title! Complete perfection. This is my personal favorite of the trilogy, but you can't go wrong with any of them. There were many, many great matches after, but for my money this was the greatest match in all of professional wrestling until Kenny Omega and Kazuchika Okada stepped into the ring together and reset the bar for a whole new generation with their unbelievable 2017-18 series of matches. ******

But we're not done. Steamboat hands Flair the belt and they shake hands in a sign of respect, signaling a change for Flair. JR gets in the ring for an interview and Flair goes full babyface and puts Steamboat over. Terry Funk interrupts. First he congratulates Flair, but then he says he wants a title shot. Flair laughs him off, saying he's honored but "you've been acting in Hollywood and rubbing shoulders with Sylvester Stallone, we have a top 10 system here and you haven't wrestled in 5 years". Funk accuses Flair of saying he's not good enough. Flair stands his ground. Funk says he was "only kidding", offers a handshake, and sucker punches Flair. Funk goes full Terry Funk batshit crazy and beats the hell out of Flair on the outside. He caps it off by piledriving Flair on the judges' table. This isn't some super thin gimmicked wrestling table, this is a thick SOB. Flair looks like he's dead. And we have a textbook double turn. Flair instantly transitions from one red hot feud to another. You can't do it any better.

NWA World Tag Team Championship: The Road Warriors (w/Paul Ellering) def The Varsity Club A Squad (c) (w/Kevin Sullivan) by DQ in 6:06- Not only is the world title not main eventing, but not even the world tag titles! Craziness. The Club beat the Roadies for the titles in another of the Clash 6 matches cut from the Network copy, aided by a fast count from newly minted heel Teddy Long. Nikita Koloff comes out of sabbatical to be the special guest referee. The Roadies attack as soon as they hit the ring while pyro is still going off. All four guys brawl. Eventually things settle down with Animal and Williams. Koloff physically stops Williams from punching on a corner break. Sullivan jumps up to argue and Koloff throws him out! Jeez, at least let him throw the challenge flag or something. After another contested corner break Williams and Koloff jaw at each other. Rotunda tries to come off the top. Animal catches and powerslams him. Loud "ref you suck" chant directed at Koloff. Decent back and forth between Hawk and Williams leads to Williams rolling out. Hawk follows and hits a diving clothesline off the apron! He charges for another one but Williams dodges and Hawk clotheslines the post. Williams works the arm on the barricade. Hawk manages to get a tag while the heels are tagging. Animal fights off both guys. Donnybrook! Rotunda flies over the top and out. Double (front/back) clothesline on Williams. Doomsday Device! But before a count the VC B Squad run out, pull Koloff out of the ring and start pummeling him. Huge scrum. Schmozz, if you will. When things settle down the match is awarded to the Road Warriors by DQ. If you gave these teams 15-20 minutes with a clean finish and no BS you probably would have gotten a really good match. A good one tried to break out here, but there was too much overbooking holding it back. More on that and the title situation after the "main event". **1/4

NWA United States Tag Team Championship: The First Family (w/Missy Hyatt) def The Varsity Club B Squad in 6:41- Another rematch from Clash 6. The Club attack before the bell. There's brawling all over as Spivey posts Steiner's shoulder, injuring it. Gilbert and Sullivan settle in inside the ring. The heels work Gilbert over until he literally just stops selling and goes outside to check on Steiner. While Gilbert is dodging Spivey Sullivan attacks Steiner again. Steiner hasn't even gotten his jacket off yet. Sullivan drags Gilbert to the face corner and mocks him for having no one to tag. While Gilbert's being worked over Steiner slowly crawls his way up the apron. Eventually Gilbert sneaks through Sullivan's legs and tags, but Tommy Young was distracted and didn't see it. Steiner says screw it and Steinerlines Spivey with his good arm anyway. Gilbert falls on top and gets the pin. Afterward the heels continue the onslaught until Gilbert saves Hyatt's virtue....well, saves her from getting hit by Sullivan. Way too late for the other one. Bleh. *

After the match JR tells us that due to the attack on a referee the Varsity Club have been stripped of the world tag titles. A major reset and reshuffle was coming to the tag division. New teams like the reformed Fabulous Freebirds, the Steiner Brothers and Doom would take over the top spots while the Varsity Club would slowly dissolve and the Road Warriors would become more a special attraction than title contenders (probably leading to their jump to WWF in late '90). The US tag titles would also be quietly shelved after this show until getting dusted off and put back in service in early 1990.

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- This is a tricky one to grade. On one hand you've got the greatest wrestling match ever to date and for many years to come, a solid US title match and Muta and Sting squashes. On the other hand, there's a lot of dead weight in the undercard and a really bad card layout. Still a recommended show, though.
OVERALL SHOW GRADE: A-/B+