Great American Bash '90

Legacy Review

Great American Bash '90

July 7, 1990 from the Baltimore Arena in Baltimore, MD

Commentary: Jim Ross and Bob Caudle

Welcome to what is by far the biggest and most important show put on so far under the WCW banner, featuring the injury-delayed coronation of Sting as the Next Big Thing.

Tonight is the PPV debut of the famous early '90s WCW raised platform entrance ramp. As many awful ideas as Jim Herd had, I've always kinda liked that.

Flyin' Brian def "Nature Boy" Buddy Landel in 9:29- If Terry Taylor is Ric Flair Lite as a wrestler, Landell is Flair Lite in appearance with a fraction of the talent. Pillman's music doesn't start until he's halfway down the ramp. Landell tries to intimidate Pillman but he has none of it. Chop exchange in the corner. Pillman with a springboard reverse crossbody off the second rope for 2. A couple of dropkicks send Landell out. Landell: "You want some more of me, boy?" and he poses badly for the camera. Heel 101 hair pulls and taunt & hide spots from Landell. Pillman tries another springboard crossbody but Landell catches him in midair and gives him a backbreaker. Most of the second half of the match is Landell in control, Pillman gets some hope juice in, Landell shuts it down. Pillman gets a jumping crossbody but Landell reverses it for 2. Pillman goes up and hits the crossbody off the top rope for the win. Way too much Landell to be good, but at least Pillman got enough in to keep it almost interesting. It's a slightly better version of Pillman's match with Bill Irwin at GAB '89. *1/2

"Captain" Mike Rotunda def The Iron Sheik in 6:46- Sheiky Baby with the usual ISIS-Gun ambush with the flagpole before the bell. He works his early '80s heel offense until Rotunda comes back with a sunset flip. Straight up chop exchange. Rotunda gets a face full of boot spike. Sheik gutwrench suplex for 2. Sheik goes through a bit of a suplex showcase, albeit a very slow one, for more near falls. Rotunda blocks a move and gets a backslide to win. If I hadn't been staring at a clock the whole time I'd have thought that was 20 minutes long. 1/2*

Doug Furnas def "Dirty" Dutch Mantel in 11:18- Furnas was another in the line of powerlifters/strongmen turned wrestlers, but unlike guys like Ted Arcidi or Bill Kazmaier he actually had some athletic ability instead of just being a giant muscle. Mantel walks Furnas through some basic sequences, bumping big off shoulderblocks. Loooooooooong delay press slam from Furnas. He goes for mounted punches on Mantell then backflips off the top rope onto his feet just because. Mantell dodges a splash attempt of the top rope to take over and works some basic holds. JR starts talking about football more than usual, a sure sign he's checked out. Furnas with a couple of big strong boi kickouts that Mantell flies across half the ring on. Mantell uses one arm to hold a sort of armbar, and has a handful of tights in the other. Not sure what the leverage advantage is there. Furnas comes back with a powerslam. A belly to belly suplex gets the 3. Way too long for what they were doing. Furnas wouldn't do anything of note in WCW, but would go on to form a tag team with Philip Lafon that would become huge in All Japan and ECW. *

Harley Race def "Wildfire" Tommy Rich in 6:32- This is Race's return to WCW to kick off his farewell tour, starting off with this rematch of the infamous 1981 NWA world title changes in the Georgia territories. Race is still wearing the King gear made for his WWF run. JR jokingly asks if he's a fan of the Sacramento Kings. Fast start. Rich hits some shoulderblocks, Race stops it with a clothesline. Race's shoulder is posted. Rich works him over a bit before Race counters with the classic Harley Race high knee. Or as well as he can do it by now anyway. Rich does a crazy oversell of a piledriver. The Rock is watching that and thinks that was too over the top. Race suplexes him on the entrance ramp. Back in Race obviously positions himself and Rich sends him over the top and out. Rich suplexes him back in. Race counters with a belly to belly and a swinging neckbreaker. Rich scoops him up for a slam, but they're by the ropes and both go tumbling over and out. Getting back in, Rich hits a crossbody off the top rope, but Race reverses it to win. Race was clearly trying, but it's a textbook example of a wrestler hanging on too long. He'd continue to wrestle on the house show circuit and weekly TV through the fall until a shoulder injury finally forced him to hang it up for good and move on to managing. 3/4*

NWA United States Tag Team Championship: The Midnight Express (c) (w/Jim Cornette) def The Southern Boys in 18:14- The Southern Boys came into WCW as a house on fire after cutting their teeth in what was left of the Florida and Tennessee territories. They were certainly talented, but are generally not remembered today because there was little to differentiate them from other southern, smaller guy tag teams that had already become stars the previous decade. An ill advised Jim Herd brilliance heel turn in '91 (after changing their name to The Young Pistols) didn't help any. The Midnights, meanwhile, were practically molten lava at this point, dropping 4+ star matches with regularity for nearly two years running, so this should be great. Suzuki-Gun attack by the Express. All four guys brawl on the outside. The Boys recover and get a double backdrop and double tackle on Eaton. Boos from the crowd. Baltimore is not the Southern Boys' home territory. Reset with Eaton and Armstrong. Eaton goes up top early and eats a Flair throw. Armstrong seems to lose his place for a second before hitting Eaton with a clothesline off the top. Sneaky tag by the faces. Double arm wringer on Eaton. Smothers sets up for a powerslam. Eaton counters out of it but eats a superkick. After a second superkick Eaton finally tags out. Lane and Smothers go full Karate Kid for a bit. Lane gets the first shot to a big pop from the crowd but Smothers gets the upper hand. The Express go out to regroup again. Lane tries some mat wrestling but Smothers is one step ahead the whole time on that too. Lane finally eye pokes and tags, but Eaton runs into an armdrag. Smothers flips over the top rope from the apron to the ring then kicks Eaton while he's on the floor. The Express try to work the ref to double team. Smothers dodges them, and both heels walk right into an Armstrong crossbody off the top rope! Quick covers. Double cover! After a double noggin knocker the Express are outside recovering again. Cornette is furious. Smothers tries a roll up but Eaton gets a blind tag to Lane, who throws Smothers over the top and gives him a couple of barricade shots. The crowd is 50/50, leaning toward the Express. The Express start working their patented double teams. Smothers looks to tune up another superkick so Eaton stops it with a clothesline. Alabama Jam! Desperation sunset flip from Smothers for 2. Eaton hits a neckbreaker to another noticeable pop. Smother flips Eaton out of the ring but Lane is ready to cut him off with a clothesline. The Express try a double backdrop, but Smother sunset flips *both* of them, rolls and gets the hot tag! Donnybrook! The Boys hit their finisher (kind of a Hart Attack/Doomsday Device combo, but with a dropkick off the top rope), but the ref chooses trying to restore order over counting. Eaton pushes Armstrong off the top rope. Rocket launcher! But again the ref is slow to count and Armstrong kicks out! The Boys outright cheat and swap without tagging. Smothers rolls Eaton into a small package but Lane breaks it up. The crowd is going nuts. As Smothers runs the ropes Lane kicks him in the back of the head, and Eaton rolls him into a Paul Smackage for the 3! Yup, that was great. The Express could do no wrong in this period, and the Boys held their end up well. ****1/2

Gordon Solie is with the Fabulous Freebirds, who are wearing a disturbing amount of makeup and glitter tonight. It's like they're a test run for Johnny B Badd.

Big Van Vader def "The Z Man" Tom Zenk in 2:16- Smart card placement here after the tag match tore the house down. This is Vader's big WCW debut. He was already a megastar in Japan. In fact (not mentioned on TV), he was at this time the reigning, defending, undisputed IWGP Heavyweight Champion, in the middle of a year long reign with the belt, his second of three runs as champion. Vader appearing here is the continuation of the loose NJPW/WCW alliance that started with The Great Muta's excursion, and would soon blossom into a full blown partnership. Vader's got his cool steam shooting headgear. After dropping the US tag belts and splitting from his team with Pillman, Zenk's already fallen to JTTS status. Vader starts pounding away as soon as he hits the ring. Avalanche! Short arm clothesline. Even with the crowd on the comedown after the last match Vader's getting awesome reactions. As good as you could ask for on a big debut. Zenk ends up on the ramp and Vader lifts him up by the head over the top rope back into the ring. Zenk gets one token dropkick that Vader no sells. Press slam. Suplex. Big splash. Good night. Glorious Vader squash. Vader looked fantastic, and he didn't even whip out his best stuff! * in reality, ***** in my heart.

Solie's with the Horsemen minus Flair. Barry Windham says they're going to take the giant (El Gigante) out tonight then let Sid loose on everyone else. Ole says that Jim Herd thinks he has everything figured out, but he's got a few surprises. Is he talking about the match or the next booking committee meeting? "Jim, I've got a great idea for what to do with Sting after he wins the title. It's called The Black Scorpion....."

The Steiner Brothers def The Fabulous Freebirds in 13:45- The Steiners beat the Freebirds for the world tag titles in the fall of '89 so there's a lot of bad blood here. Another pre-match heel jump. The Freebirds work Scott over still in their glittery overalls. Scott blocks a DDT. Rick gets back in. Steinerlines! The heels retreat but Scott gives them a double clothesline on the floor! Reset with Rick and Garvin and lots of react to the crowd stalling. No 50/50 here. Baltimore hates the Freebirds. Judging by some of the chants the makeup was a pretty big heat getter. Oh, and they're actually wrestling in the glittery overalls. Big backdrop on Garvin, followed by a Steinerline for 2. Garvin's had enough and tags out. Hayes stalls more and tries to hide in the corner but Rick bites his ass. Scott dropkicks both heels out. The Freebirds have a long walk and think. More stalling from Hayes but this time he lures Scott into an ambush. He tries a backdrop, but Scott grabs him and turns it into a double underhook suplex. Hayes wants a time out. Rick catches him in midair on a leapfrog and powerslams him. Garvin tries to ambush Rick from behind off the top rope, but Rick catches him in midair and throws him away! While Rick's running the ropes Garvin gets him in the back with a knee, followed up by the patented Hayes straight left hand that sends Rick outside, and the Freebirds finally get some momentum. Double suplex on the floor. Hayes gets a bulldog for 2. Rick elbows out of a chinlock and tries to slam Garvin, but he reverses it into a cover for 2. Garvin tries coming off the top rope but Rick gets him in the gut on the way down, then comes off the second rope with a kinda bulldogish slam. Tags on both sides. Scott powerslams Hayes, then press slams him into Garvin. Stereo Steinerlines. Frankensteiner! But the ref's distracted. Garvin sneaks in and nails Scott with a DDT. He covers but the ref remembers he's not the legal man! FTR nods in appreciation at the rules being followed. Rick comes in behind the ref and gives Hayes a belly to belly suplex and Scott covers for the win. It started out really slow with all the Freebird stalling, but once they got going it got pretty good. ***

The Dudes With Attitudes def The Four Horsemen by DQ in 12:10- It's Arn Anderson, Barry Windham and Sid Vicious representing the Horsemen. Arn is in the middle of a near year long run as TV champ. He wasn't defending on PPVs because of the focus on the tag division but it was still featured on weekly TV. The Dudes with Attitudes was a loose faction put together by Sting to counter the Horsemen. Representing them in this match are Paul Orndorff, the Junkyard Dog, and in his first PPV match, El Gigante, who's by far the focus of the whole match. He's really tall. Can't wrestle, zero charisma, but by God he's tall. JR's forced to talk about Gigante's native Argentina playing in the World Cup final the next day because Turner is broadcasting it. Arn and Orndorff start. No, Sid wants in. Orndorff tries a sunset flip. Sid pulls him up by the neck. Orndorff dodges a legdrop and takes out all the heels until Sid blocks a hiptoss. Orndorff tries to turn it into a backslide. With JYD's help he does for a 2 count. Orndorff fights out of the heel corner and they have a 3v3 standoff until Gigante says BOO! and the Horsemen scatter. Arn tries to rally the troops but Orndorff pulls him back in. Arn ends up in the face corner and runs away from the tall man. JR is laying it on extra super JR's BBQ sauce thick trying to make Gigante a big f'n deal. Windham eats some JYD headbutts and also runs away from the face corner. Orndorff beats up all the heels by himself again. He loads Arn up for a piledriver but Windham hits him from behind off the top rope. Sid hits a powerslam while Arn and Windham do some classic Horsemen teamwork. Orndorff hits Windham with a back elbow and gets over to tag.....JYD. Why, it's almost as if they don't want Gigante to actually be in the match. Arn does a funny Flair Flop variation off a double noggin knocker. The Horsemen get back control and throw JYD over the top rope. While they're celebrating Gigante sneaks up behind them and gently pushes each of the out of the ring. The ref calls for the DQ for the over the top rope throw. There was good effort from the usual max effort guys (mostly Arn and Windham) but the layout and booking were bass ackwards. They tried to walk the tightrope of getting Gigante over as an unbeatable monster, but without exposing the fact that he was complete and utter shit. Half measures usually lead to half results. Plus, on two separate occasions Orndorff took out the whole heel team by himself, so why did they need the monster anyway? **

NWA United States Heavyweight Championship: "The Total Package" Lex Luger (c) def "Mean" Mark Callous (w/Paul E Dangerously) in 12:10- Great to see Paul E managing again after spending most of the year solely on commentary. Crazy to see Taker as an original Paul Heyman Guy here after the multiple feuds they've had in WWE. It's also crazy to see him in trunks. Arm wringer exchange at the start, followed by a serviceable mat wrestling sequence. Luger gets an armdrag and Callous does heel 101 bitching about a phantom hair pull. Paul E: "He's a football player, he's not supposed to wrestle that good!". Even in his throwaway lines you can find layers of meaning. Callous with a couple of, as JR would describe them many years later, carcinogenic right hands. They turn it up a notch and Luger hits a crossbody for 2. Paul E is on the phone with Murray for advice. Luger works an armbar. Callous tries to roll out but Luger hangs on. They have what looks like a couple of botches on a rope run/punch or clothesline sequence but Callous recovers with a big boot to Luger. Luger does his favorite missing a dive and flying over the top rope spot. Paul E distracts the ref while Callous rams Luger's head into almost every available ringside object. Luger comes back with a sunset flip for 2. Slugfest. Callous counters a backdrop and hits a suplex. Luger pops right back up and no sells the hell out of it. OK then. Clotheslines. Luger gets Callous up in the torture rack but Callous' boot makes contact with the ref's head. Paul E runs in and whacks Luger with the phone. Callous covers, the ref crawls over and Luger JUST gets a shoulder up in time. Callous sets up for the heart punch. Luger counters it with a boot in the face, hits one clothesline, and that's good enough to win. Borderline serviceable, and it could have been better. Callous' inexperience showed in a few spots, and while Luger wasn't dogging it, he didn't look particularly interested in going the extra mile to help get the youngster over either. Partially on the strength of this match Vince was convinced to steal Callous away in the fall, give him the Undertaker gimmick, and the rest is wrestling history. **1/4

NWA World Tag Team Championship: Doom (c) (w/Teddy Long) def The Rock N Roll Express in 15:40- Pure clash of styles here. Gibson and Simmons start. Simmons compares physiques and offers Gibson the chance to walk away. The lockups are, unsurprisingly, all Simmons. Gibson cranks on the jets, jukes, dodges a corner charge and rolls Simmons up for 2. Then Gibson shows some power by slamming Reed and planting an elbow between his eyes. Reed responds by running Morton over with shoulderblocks. The RNR get some double teams in but the AXS guys must be on the cameras again because they miss half of it. Reed kills Gibson with a clothesline. Simmons with a slam and huge legdrop. He's looking really crisp tonight. Doom taunts Morton in to throw Gibson over the top and out. He comes back in with a sunset flip for 2. Reed hits a swinging neckbreaker. Gibson counters a backdrop attempt with a kneelift and rolls over to get the tag. Morton tries a sleeper but Simmons comes in and breaks it up. Morton rolls up Reed. Simmons comes in and flat out murders Morton with a clothesline in the back of his head and we're in classic Ricky Morton takes a beating mode. Reed gets an elbow off the second rope for 2. The heels work Gibson and the ref to give Morton some shots on the outside, including one from Long. Reed goes for a big splash. Morton gets his knees up and crawls over for the tag. Not much from the crowd on this one. They've been flipping between hot and cold all night long, no in the middle. Gibson does a nice slide under Simmons' legs and tries to roll him up but Reed breaks it up. Donnybrook. Gibson hits an enzuguri on Reed and the momentum sends him crashing into Long, who was on the apron. Gibson drags Long in and starts to beat on him, allowing Reed to get up top, hit a flying shouldertackle, and get the pin. It was fine, but felt like something was missing. **3/4

No DQ Match for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship: Sting (w/The Dudes With Attitudes) def "Nature Boy" Ric Flair (c) (w/Ole Anderson) in 16:06- The Dudes are acting like lumberjacks, but to keep the Horsemen out instead of the wrestlers in. Ole Anderson spends the match handcuffed to El Gigante to make absolutely sure he doesn't interfere. Epic pyro waterfall entrance for Sting. He's fully decked out in red, white and blue. All through the prelims Sting is raring to go. He wins the early lockups. WOOOOOO!/Sting yell exchange. The crowd is alive again, big time. Sting no sells the early chops and hits a press slam. Flair tries to roll out but the Steiners stop him. After a dropkick Flair rolls onto the ramp to clear his head. Another chop no sell and Flair backs off. Sting hiptosses him on the ramp and clotheslines him over the top and back in. Flair begs off and gets an eye poke to slow Sting down. Snap mare/knee drop combo. Delayed suplex. Sting pops right back up. Clotheslines and a crossbody for 2. Flair teases a test of strength but uses Sting looking up to go down and kicks his surgically repaired knee. Sting comes back with a clothesline out of the corner but Flair dodges the follow up elbow drop. He goes for the figure four but Sting powers out. Another WOOOOO/yell exchange with Flair looking almost crazed. He takes his time diving back in and you can see the wheels turning. More big chops and he throws Sting onto the ramp. More kicks to the knee. Sting's limping and Flair smells blood. He goes for another kneedrop, but Sting dodges and hooks in his own figure four! Flair quickly gets to the rope. He pulls Sting outside and runs him into the guardrail. Another no sell. Flair goes into full begging mode. He goes up top but Sting throws him off. Blocked hiptoss/backslide spot for 2. While Sting's questioning the count Flair kicks his leg out of his leg again. Another figure four attempt, and again Sting pushes out before it's fully on. Flair lays in some wear down chops. Sting's chest is a red and blue mess. Flair makes the mistake of slapping Sting's face. He starts hulking up and asks for more! Press slam 2. Long 2 count off a clothesline. Flair Flip! Sting clotheslines him as he's coming across the apron! Suplex back in for 2. Stinger Splash! Flair Flop! Sting gets the Scorpion Death Lock on! The Horsemen try to run in but the Dudes stop them. Flair's fighting and crawling and makes it to the ropes. He was in the Scorpion longer than probably anyone to this point without submitting. Flair hits a shoulder to the gut off the apron, then slides into a cover with his feet on the ropes for leverage. But Scott Steiner pushes his feet off before 3 and Sting kicks out! Sting tries a running high knee in the corner, but Flair dodges and Sting knees the top turnbuckle. Flair goes for the figure four again, clearly thinking it's over, but Sting grabs him, rolls up a Paul Smackage, and gets the 3 and the title! Massive pop and celebration. This was the biggest world title change in the NWA/WCW since Flair's win over Harley Race at the first Starrcade in '83. The match was a bit short for a Flair main event, and as great as Sting already was he was still developing and learning, and still shaking off post-injury ring rust, and it showed a little in the main event spotlight. Really very good and a wonderful moment, but not peak Flair/Sting. ***3/4

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- The deepest tag division in wrestling history was still carrying the bulk of the show, but that would start to change in the second half of the year as the division slowly started to thin out from both injuries and departures. All the worst aspects of Jim Herd's management would start to really take hold the next few months. Every wrestling fan needs to watch this world title change at least once.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: B

Summerslam '92

Legacy Review

Summerslam '92

August 29, 1992 (pretaped, aired August 31 on PPV) from Wembley Stadium in London

Commentary: Vince McMahon and Bobby Heenan

This is the first WWF PPV to take place outside of North America. This was the WWF's first big boom period in Europe, especially the UK, and they wanted to take advantage of it. Also, and most importantly, this is the WWF's first tentative steps into a brand new era, as this is their first PPV ever to have Hulk Hogan not only not on the card, but not involved in any capacity whatsoever.

Brought to you by ICOPRO!

The Legion of Doom (w/Paul Ellering) def Money Inc (w/Jimmy Hart) in 15:10- Good news: Vince thought the LOD's act needed freshening up so he brought Paul Ellering in. Bad news: This is (close to) mid-'90s Vince, so Paul Ellering was to be a ventriloquist act with a dummy named Rocco. Yeah. They "found" Rocco, supposedly the LOD's old childhood toy, in some rubble in Chicago as seen in TV vignettes. The dummy was originally introduced in a promo segment on weekly TV, but it bombed with the live crowd so bad it never aired. Gee, I wonder why? LOD come out on motorcycles like they used to do all the time in the NWA/WCW. DiBiase is in his sweet all white gear tonight. DiBase and Hawk start. Hawk shows zero interest in selling, or trying, right away. DiBiase ducks out, gets attacked from behind by Animal, then gets clotheslined back out by Hawk. Animal stomps on IRS's tie and press slams him. IRS sleeper on Hawk. They do the 3 arm drops and Hawk comes back. IRS ducks a Hawk clothesline off the top and Hawk slides all the way through the ring and out to the floor. DiBiase works him over while the ref's distracted and Hawk goes face in peril. Money Inc plays the swapping without tags game. It looks like there's supposed to be a double clothesline but Hawk effs it up and he and IRS have an ugly collision in the middle of the ring. DiBiase saves the tag and they do the "ref didn't see the face tag" spot. Hawk and IRS take a second shot at the double clothesline spot and get it right this time. Hot tag. Animal cleans house. The LOD set DiBiase up for the Doomsday Device but IRS dropkicks Animal to drop DiBiase. Animal powerslam DiBiase instead and that's good for the win. It could have been decent if LOD gave a damn. Hawk left the company right after this show (supposedly by getting himself lost in London and blowing off the plane ride home). Animal would play nice and work out the rest of their contract, then they'd both head back to New Japan. *1/2

Mean Gene is with The Man. See, Flair was upset that Warrior was chosen as #1 contender instead of him so he and Mr. Perfect decided to get a little revenge. Perfect made himself "available for hire" to both Savage and Warrior, creating a sort of prisoner's dilemma between the two on who would want to hire Perfect, or be afraid the other guy would hire Perfect and hire him first. Okerlund pushes but Flair refuses to give the game away. 10 years later or anytime after, this easily would have been a triple threat match.

Meanwhile, BBCITVSkyThames (did Thames even have a news show?) investigative reporter Lord Alfred Hayes brings us the exclusive that Savage's dressing room door is locked and has been for some time. Is Perfect in there? Only GTV knows.

Nailz def Virgil in 3:55- Nailz is an ex-con that alleges he was beaten by the Big Boss Man in prison. And that his lawyer screwed him. Let's look at this from a kayfabe perspective: ex-con, clearly zero remorse, wishing death on one of our other wrestlers, sure, come and work for our wrestling company! Nailz put Boss Man on the shelf in his debut a couple of months prior and stole his nightstick, which he still carries around with him. As soon as the bell rings Nailz starts in with his scintillating offense. Let's just say that he makes this era's Undertaker moveset look varied and diverse. Virgil tries to keep things lively. He hits a clothesline and dropkick Nailz no sells. A sunset flip and roll up attempt go nowhere. Nailz throws Virgil over the top and out then slowly crawls under the bottom rope to chase him. It's just like he's escaping from prison, see? Nailz puts Virgil in a rear naked choke and the ref calls it. Virgil looked right at home as the spunky babyface jobber. Nailz beats him down with the nightstick after the bell. 1/4*

Shawn Michaels (w/Sensational Sherri) and "The Model" Rick Martel go to a double countout in 8:06- This is heel vs heel. The story here is Martel was hitting on Sherri and Sherri was interested, and Shawn and Martel had been interfering in each other's matches over her, including Shawn costing Martel an IC title match. Sherri's gotten both guys to agree to a "no hitting in the face" stip because they're both so pretty. She's got a jumbo sized mirror for Shawn's entrance tonight. She's also missing a rather crucial part of her pants. It's PPV, kids. Martel pulls hair to keep Shawn in a headlock then arrogantly cartwheels out of a speed sequence. Shawn slides under the legs and hits a dropkick. Does that count as face hitting? Martel tries a springboard crossbody off the second rope but Shawn dodges. Shawn pulls hair and they both threaten punching. Martel uses Shawn's rope run momentum to send him over the top and out. Sherri tries to help Shawn but Martel entices her away and gives her a hug. Shawn and Martel trade roll ups with tights pulls and now literally everyone in this match has had their ass exposed except the ref. Keep your pants on, Marella. Shawn hits a superkick, but to the chest, for 2. After some more near falls with cheating both guys lose their cool. Midring arguing, shoving, and, finally, face slapping. Sherri tries to stop it but faints on the apron. Shawn tries to revive her but he and Martel end up brawling on the floor and both get counted out. While they're fighting Sherri opens her eyes, sees her plan falling to pieces, and "faints" again. Both guys fight over carrying Sherri to the back, with Sherri taking more bumps than the guys did during the match. It ends with Martel dumping a bucket of water on Sherri and running off. Solid match and amusing sideshow. Sherri would break off from Shawn soon after this and leave the company before the end of the year. **1/2

WWF Tag Team Championship: The Natural Disasters (c) def The Beverly Brothers (w/The Genius) in 10:30- The Beverlys Suzuki-Gun but the Disasters quickly fight it off and squash them multiple times. Blake dodges a Typhoon legdrop and Typhoon goes disaster in peril. Wait, stop everything, Heenan has gotten a very important message....Shawn Michaels has left Wembley Stadium! The do the exact same spot as the previous tag match: Typhoon is in a front facelock and pushes his way to the corner and tags, but the ref is distracted and doesn't see it. Typhoon gets a double clothesline out of a corner double team but can't tag. He catches Blake on a crossbody attempt, but Beau dropkicks Blake onto him for a long 2 count. The heels taunt Quake to distract the ref and Blake nails Typhoon with the Genius' scroll. Quake says screw it and kills Blake with an elbow while he's covering. Tags on both sides. Quake hits a belly to belly suplex! The Beverlys try to double team but Quake quickly ends that. Double team avalanche, powerslam, Quake splash, good night. About as good as it possibly could have been. The Disasters didn't work as faces, at least without some major restructuring to the match style, which wasn't happening. *

Lord Alfred is now outside the Warrior's dressing room, where he says he believes Perfect is. He tries to enter without knocking but gets the door slammed in his face.

Crush def Repo Man in 5:41- Demolition explodes! Well, the inferior Smash and Crush version at least. Give Barry Darsow credit, he took whatever crap gimmick he was given and always ran with it 100%. His Repo Man mannerisms make the character mildly amusing shit instead of boring shit. Repo jumps Crush as he gets in and Crush no sells it. Press slam. Repo goes out to recover but Crush runs him over with a clothesline. Repo with an eye poke to get some space. He hits a belly to back suplex, but Crush no sells it and gets a belly to belly suplex of his own. Crush tries a knee off the top but Repo dodges. Crush catches Repo coming off the top rope and turns it into a powerslam. He locks on the John Harrison Skull Squeeze, and we're done. The second extended squash on the show. Crush was actually in line for a fairly sizable push but, as often happens, Vince lost interest and he fizzled out and mostly floated around midcard hell the rest of his career. 1/2*

WWF Championship: The Ultimate Warrior def "Macho Man" Randy Savage (c) by countout in 28:00- We had heel vs heel earlier, now it's face vs face. Can't fault them for trying some different booking. Warrior is in his flesh colored singlet period. Savage looks like he crashed through a flower shop on the way to the arena. I have to say, this is a MINUS FIVE STARS match in terms of ring gear. Notably, no Mr. Perfect on either entrance. Savage offers the Code of Honor handshake. Warrior reluctantly takes it but doesn't let go and pulls Savage back in. We're on! Savage with a quick clean break on a lockup to play mind games. Warrior responds with shoving him out of another. Savage hits clotheslines and covers but Warrior instantly kicks out. Savage tries coming off the top early but Warrior hits him in the gut. Great intensity early. Warrior with atomic drops of both varieties and a clothesline for 2. Savage dodges an elbow, does some ground and pound, then hits a kneedrop for 2. Warrior jaw jacks out of a sleeper. Classic Warrior pillar to post beating for Savage. Savage uses the tights to pull Warrior into the turnbuckle face first, then clotheslines him over and out. The crowd's turning on Savage a little. He hits the double ax handle off the top but Warrior no sells it. Another one, and this time Warrior goes down for a 2 count. Savage tries for a third, but Warrior catches him and hits a backbreaker. There's been a ton of near falls in the first part of the match. More Warrior pillar to post. He puts a bear hug on, then drops Savage out of it and covers for 2. Side suplex for 2. Savage gets a desperation small package for 2. Savage's back is hurting and Warrior targets it. Lots more near falls. Hebner's busy tonight. Savage dodges a charge and Warrior ends up on the floor. Double ax handle off the top to the floor. Warrior gets posted. Here come Flair and Perfect. As they work their way to the ring (a long walk as it's a large stadium show) Warrior comes back. He goes for the big splash but Savage gets his knees up. Double clothesline! Both guys crawl over to try covers. Perfect trips Savage! Warrior sold out, the swine! Part of the crowd catches on and starts to boo Warrior. A reversal sequence ends with Hebner getting squashed in the corner. Warrior hits an ax handle off the top and covers, but Hebner is still recovering and Savage kicks out. Savage gets Warrior with a high knee in the back, but that takes Hebner out too and he falls to the floor. Savage with a piledriver. He goes out to try to revive Hebner. At the same time, Perfect revives Warrior.....and holds him so Flair can hit him with knucks! Savage sold out, that rat bastard! Savage elbow! But again, Hebner has to crawl over and it gives Warrior time to kick out. Flair gets a chair. Warrior's been hit with a finisher so he starts to Warrior Up. Running clotheslines. Flying tackle. Press slam. But as Warrior hits the ropes for the big splash Flair whacks him in the back with the chair! Savage gets up and tries to piece together what happened. He and Perfect take swings at each other. Savage slowly goes up top for the elbow but is clearly working things out. He turns and dives for Flair instead! But Flair was ready for him and nails him in the knee with the chair in midair! Savage is counted out. As soon as the bell rings Flair and Perfect lay into Savage and try to destroy his knee. Warrior chases them off, then helps Savage out of the ring. This isn't anywhere near the level of their WM 7 classic, but it's still really good, and Flair and Perfect's involvement worked really well. This was Warrior's last brush with anything near greatness for the rest of his career. ***1/2

Mean Gene is with Flair and Perfect and he's *pissed off* with them. It was all a RUSE! Perfect admits that tempting Savage or Warrior into a partnership was Plan A, but neither went for it so now it's Plan B. Related to that, the original plan for all this was that Warrior would take up Perfect on his offer, win the title and turn heel. But Warrior refused to do the turn, so everything had to be reworked. It really is Plan B. Keep reading after the show wrapup for more on the WWF title picture.

Vince announces an official attendance of just over 80,000, which was the second largest ever for a WWF show at the time, behind only Wrestlemania 3.

The Undertaker (w/Paul Bearer) def Kamala (w/Harvey Wippleman and Kim Chee) by DQ in 3:27- This is the first in a long line of "Taker vs some variation of giant slug" feuds that would last for years, many of them with Dr. Wippleman managing. Taker never got a chance for a decent match as a face until Mankind came along. Taker makes his famous entrance on the back of a hearse. Kamala tries to ambush but Taker catches him. Taker hits the rope walk drop. He goes for it again, but Wippleman comes up and lightly shakes the ropes and Taker "falls off". That looked awful. No believably. Kamala clotheslines Taker over. Taker, as he always did in those days, lands on his feet, conveniently right in between the managers and he grabs both of them in chokes. Kamala beats him around the floor and Taker half sells. Back in he ducks a clothesline, goozles, and hits a chokeslam long before anyone knew what a chokeslam was. He manages to get Kamala up for the tombstone, but Kim Chee runs in and hits him with his pith helmet for the cheap DQ. Kamala does a post match beat down and hits big splashes on Taker from every level: ground, second rope, and top rope. Taker does the zombie sit up and there's a great shot of a shocked Kamala. He runs off in terror. Poor Taker. The pain is only just beginning for him. DUD

WWF Intercontinental Championship: "The British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith def Bret "Hitman" Hart (c) in 25:40- This is the start of another theme that WWF would return to many times the next several years: intra-family feuds in the Hart family. Bulldog is Bret's legit brother in law. It's also our second face vs face match of the night. Bret is playing the nominal heel as they're in the Bulldog's home country and all. Big match circling and light shoving to start. Bulldog instantly pushes Bret out of a lockup and Bret nods as if to say "OK, you're stronger, got it". A shoulderblock sends Bret absolutely flying outside. They do a nice mat sequence where they do the traditional headlock/headscissors counter, then Bret grabs the headlock again, but this time he gets just enough forward where Bulldog can't get the headscissors again. It's the little things that make greatness. Bret slips out of a press slam attempts and gets a quick roll up and small package. Bret back elbows out of a hammerlock to escalate things. Bulldog does a nice flip out of an arm wringer. He catches Bret in midair as he's leapfrogging, drops him down, and slingshots him halfway across the ring face first into the top turnbuckle. Bulldog with a crucifix for 2. Bret tries to slam out of an armbar but Bulldog rolls through it and hangs on. Bret pushes Bulldog into a rope run sequence, ending with a Bret knee to his gut. The crowd starts booing him. Bret hits a bulldog on the Bulldog! He goes up to the top rope but Bulldog gives him the Flair throw. Bulldog goes up top and shouts out his old tag partner Dynamite Kid with an attempted headbutt off the top rope, but Bret dodges. Bulldog slips out of a slam and tries to roll Bret up, but Bret runs with him and uses the momentum to send him outside. Bret soaks in the boos. Bret dives over the top for a plancha, but twists in midair, grabs Bulldog by the neck and turns it into a modified slingblade decades before the slingblade was invented! HUGE European uppercuts from Bret. Big backdrop for 2. Bulldog uses another uppercut to twist into a backlside for 2. Bret uses Bulldog's locks to slam him. That draws huge boos. Bulldog takes a desperation swing, but Bret ducks it and locks in a sleeper. Bulldog gets to the ropes but as soon as they're back in the middle Bret locks it back on. 3 arm drops, comeback, and Bulldog backs Bret into the corner. Slugfest! Bulldog goes for a press slam, but Bret ran into it and he can't hold it with the momentum and drops Bret right into the ropes. That looked like a botch to me, and an ugly one. He recovers to hit Bret with a few clotheslines for 2. The press slam is successful this time. Big delayed suplex for 2. Bret bump! Bulldog signals for the powerslam. And hits it! Bret kicks out! Bret's dead in the ropes, and Bulldog pushes him over. He tries to suplex Bret back in but Bret slips out and turns it into a German suplex with a bridge for 2! Bulldog plants Bret on the top rope. Superplex! Bret kicks out again! Double clothesline. While both guys are down Bret wraps Bulldog's legs around into Sharpshooter position, and manages to turn him over to lock it in! Bulldog gets to the ropes. Bret hits a sunset flip, but Bulldog stacks him up and cuts off any possible avenue of escape, and gets the pin! What a match. Now I know I'm likely in the minority here, but I prefer Bret's match with Perfect at Summerslam '91 (and the WM 8 match with Piper) to this one, but that's not to say this isn't tremendous also. After the match Bret teases leaving in a huff to more boos, but eventually hugs it out with Bulldog and sister/Bulldog's wife Diana. The Hart family is fine again....for now. Until Owen Hart comes into the picture. Bret dropped the title, but he proved to Vince he was more than ready for the main event, which would pay huge dividends for him in very short order (see below). Sadly for Bulldog he would only be a transitional champion, dropping the belt to the rapidly rising Shawn Michaels in a couple of months on the final episode of the original run of Saturday Night's Main Event. ****1/2

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- Quite the roller coaster, this one. Some really good stuff. Some utter crap. On the whole the good outweighs the bad. The Brit crowd and large stadium definitely gave this a WM-like big show feel.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: B

Bonus matches- In between Summerslam and Survivor Series the WWF title changed hands two times. No better time to review those matches than right now.

(9/1/92 from Hershey, PA, aired on Prime Time Wrestling 9/14/92) WWF Championship: Ric Flair (w/Mr. Perfect) def "Macho Man" Randy Savage (c)- Savage limps to the ring, selling the Summerslam attack. Perfect starts right in with the distractions and Flair goes right to the knee. It's a clear 2 on 1 situation the whole match. Flair is playing around a little but also cautious as Savage keeps to the corners and tries to find any way possible to survive. Flair gets some punches and chops in but Savage fights out. They get to the middle of the ring and Flair does an amateur sequence takedown. Savage pushes off with his good leg. Savage swings at Perfect again and Flair dives in for the knee. Savage manages to counter into a press slam but his knee barely holds out. Savage gets a diving clothesline out of the corner for 2. Flair locks in a rare half crab. Savage gets to the ropes. Savages uses the ropes for a desperation small package for 2. Flair throws Savage out. He rolls Savage back in but Savage attacks while Flair's getting back in. Backdrop. Flair gets clotheslined over and out. Savage gives Flair a guardrail shot and a suplex on the floor. He grabs a chair but Hebner talks him down. Backdrop on the floor! Back in Savage tries the top rope and hits the double ax handle, but his knee gave out on the landing. WWF newcomer Razor Ramon saunters out to ringside. He and Savage had words earlier in the show. Perfect distracts Savage again and Flair hits him with a dropkick from behind, sending him outside. Ramon sneaks behind him and kicks his leg out of his leg. Flair hooks the figure four in. Savage fights it for a good five minutes, trying to unwrap Flair's legs, trying to crawl to the ropes, even dragging Hebner down in frustration, but eventually he passes out. Super ultra mega Hebner slow count, but he gets to 3 and it's over. Flair wins his second WWF championship! The crowd is stunned but you can see some of them cheering. This was rock solid storytelling, so tightly plotted you could sing it. Heenan added a ton to the match cheering Flair from the booth again too. Not as good as the '92 Rumble, but still a huge plus. This was Savage's last brush with the main event scene in WWF. He'd go into a program to put Ramon over, then Vince would move him into commentary mostly full time, with the occasional match or feud, until his jump to WCW. But Flair's second title reign would only be transitional....***1/4

(10/12/92 from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan) WWF Championship: Bret "Hitman" Hart def Ric Flair (c) (w/Mr. Perfect)- This match never aired on TV, but was taped for and originally released on Coliseum Video on the unfortunately named video Smack 'Em Whack 'Em. You'd be forgiven if you thought you'd have to go into the curtained section of the video store to get it with that title. Rough lockup that Hebner has to break up, and Flair gives us a WOOOOOOO! Flair tries to work a headlock into a pin. Bret wraps it around into a hammerlock and Flair sells like his arm's being ripped off. He's feeling it tonight. Flair hits the first chop and Bret starts hitting the buckles at 100 MPH. Bret blocks a suplex and hits his own for 2. Gut stomp. Flair powders. Back in they fight for wristlock leverage. Bret hooks in an armbar and stands up on the bottom rope in the corner for extra leverage until Hebner breaks it up. Flair gets a drop toe hold, but Bret smooth as silk flips around and gets back on the hammerlock. That's f'n wrestling kids, the kind you wouldn't see in WWF/E regularly for another 10 years when Kurt Angle burst on the scene and changed the game. Legdrop on the arm. Flair begs off and gets a sneaky kick in. Chops. Bret's thrown out. He sunset flips back in, but Flair backs up across the entire ring to keep leverage and punches out. Bret goes out and tries the sunset flip again, this time pulling down Flair's trunks and giving us the kind of eyefull we'd expect from a video from behind the curtain in the video store for 2. Backdrop, clothesline, Flair rolls out, Flair Flop on the floor! When he rolls back in Bret gives him a headbutt and Flair Flop 2! Sneaky style eye poke from Flair to get a breather. Bret bump! Twice! Flair kicks the knee and drops a kneebreaker. Have your math problems ready to be reviewed kids, it's time to go to school. Flair yells at Hebner like he's Tommy Young. Bret dodges the kneedrop and tries for a figure four but Flair pushes out. Bret with a kneebreaker! He drops elbows on Flair's knee. Bret with the figure four! There's a few near falls and Flair juuuuuuuust reaches out to get the rope. Bret tries another elbow drop but Flair dodges. Bret blocks a hiptoss and rolls into a backslide for 2. Flair pops up with a quick kick. Bret sleeper! Flair back suplexes out. Flair gets a small package and double underhook suplex for 2. He argues with Hebner again and Bret sneaks up and rolls him up for 2. Flair ducks a punch, hits another kneebreaker, and it's figure four time! More near falls as Bret fights it. He manages to roll over into the ropes. Bret needs the ropes to stand up and Flair stays on the knee. Flair goes for the figure four again but Bret rolls it into a small package for 2! Nothing from the crowd on that? They've been near dead the whole match, really disappointing. Especially in Canada, and with Bret in there. Bret starts to come back but Flair stops it with a boot up on a corner charge. Flair goes up top but gets the usual throw off. Bret hits the Five Moves of Doom with good near falls. The get to the corner and Flair chops again. Bret pulls his straps down and asks for more! Badass, especially for the era. Slugfest. Bret hoists Flair up on the top turnbuckle. Superplex! Sharpshooter! Perfect tries to distract Hebner but Flair submits! Bret Hart wins his first WWF Championship! Finally the crowd wakes up. That was awesome. Just what you'd expect from two of the absolute greatest. Put that on PPV in front of a decent crowd, give it 5 more minutes and add more drama down the stretch and we'd be talking about an all time classic. Flair wrestled a 100% NWA style match. I think he decided to act like he was wrestling Steamboat again and just went for it. He was super motivated to put Bret over, and Bret was just Bret Hart like always. ****

Capital Combat '90

Legacy Review

Capital Combat '90

May 19, 1990 from the DC Armory in Washington, DC

Commentary: Jim Ross and Bob Caudle

The one with Robocop.

The Road Warriors and Norman the Lunatic (w/Paul Ellering) def Cactus Jack, Kevin Sullivan and Bam Bam Bigelow (w/Oliver Humperdink) in 9:38- The sad thing is Norman is only the second worst person to team with the Road Warriors (ahead of only the infamous Rocco the Dummy). The Roadies ride in on motorcycles like usual. Norman comes in on a scooter. Zero reaction for Norman in DC. They probably think he's a congressman. Sometimes the gags are too easy. Bigelow's on another quick US stopover in between NJPW tours. Animal and Jack start. This is promising. I still can't get over how thin Foley is. A surprising speed sequence ends with an Animal powerslam. Hawk and Bigelow have a slugfest. Hawk fights out of the heel corner and kills Sullivan with a clothesline. Norman squashes Jack. Animal Cactus Clotheslines Bigelow! And Bigelow lands on his feet! And he's super pissed off, tossing the stairs around. Hawk dodges a Jack dive and Jack takes a .3 Foley bump over and out. Hawk hits him with a diving clothesline off the apron. Then he whips Jack into the barricade, and Jack flips over and almost lands right in security's lap! Then as he's recovering Hawk throws the stairs on top of him! Sullivan gets Norman to go face in peril. Bigelow suplexes Norman! Sullivan bodyslams Norman! Jack hits him with a Savage-like neck snap over the top rope. I'll give it to Norman, he's bumping good. Norman and Jack collide, hot tag to Animal. DONNYBROOK! Hawk clotheslines Sullivan off the top rope to win. Under 10 minutes for a tag match in this era can be classified as a sprint, and this is a damn fun one. This is the Road Warriors' last major WCW appearance before jumping to WWF. **3/4

"Mean" Mark Callous (w/Teddy Long) def Johnny Ace in 10:41- Callous has got some presence early in his career, no doubt about it. "No one will pay to see you wrestle" was definitely one of Ole Andersons' worst thoughts in this period. Maybe the worst. How history, not to mention the Monday Night Wars era, might have changed with no Undertaker. Big guy shoulderblock standoff. Ace whips out a tope suicida. Good back and forth. Ace with a springboard reverse crossbody off the top rope for 2. Callous kicks him outside. Big delayed suplex. Long's getting shots in. Ace chases him. Callous hits the jumping clothesline that would become part of Taker's regular moveset. More big man power offense from Callous. Ace sneaks a small package for 2. Callous stays one step ahead most of the match, with some distinct Taker-like moves on offense. Ace gets a backdrop counter and dropkick to get control back. The part of the crowd that's reacting at all is booing him. Ace misses a clothesline off the top rope. Callous hits a heart punch, his finisher, but decides to go one better. He goes to the top rope, then walks across Taker-like and drops an elbow for the pin. Watchable. This was Ace's last WCW match before heading to All Japan full time, where he'd put together a damn fine career. He'd come back to the US at the turn of the century to take a backstage position in the dying years of WCW, then WWE (PEOPLE POWER!). **1/4

Gordon Solie is outside the locker room being shared by Sting and Robocop (really?), bathed in dramatic mood fog.

The Samoan SWAT Team def "Captain" Mike Rotunda and Tommy Rich in 17:54- Rotunda's ditched the varsity captaincy to cosplay as Skipper from Gilligan's Island. Why are Rotunda and Rich teaming? .....Reasons? The Samoans make a big show of trying to get through their prematch ritual without the crowd or Rich bothering them to kill time. Once they do get going Savage bitches about hair pulls for a solid 4 or 5 minutes. Rich gets a crossbody for 2. Fatu offers Rotunda the Insincere Handshake of Island Trickery +1. A dropkick sends Fatu out. Ref Randy Anderson makes the Samoans tag in and out after they swap without several times. Fatu misses a headbutt off the top rope. The faces swap without tags to annoy the heels. Fatu accidentally hits Savage, but instead of discussing it with fists like they normally do they hug it out instead. Savage plants Rotunda with a side suplex to take control. Long facelock and they do the "ref didn't see the face tag" spot. Slugfest on the outside. Rotunda eats a superkick. Savage tries to snap mare Rotunda over the top and back in but it doesn't go right so Rotunda says "screw it", steps back in, and does the snap mare spot anyway. An even longer facelock. Anderson keeps dropping Rotunda's arm until he finally holds it up again. Rotunda hits a back elbow and it looks like the hot tag, but Hermione Confunded him or something and he can't look to his left to tag Rich. He fights out and they do *another* ref didn't see the tag spot. Caudle blurts out "enough!" and I can't blame him. A clothesline and finally Rotunda tags. Rich locks in a sleeper. Fatu comes off the top rope into the back of his neck, and the SST win. Way to long. That was 18 minutes that felt like 40. The Samoans could go but it seemed like you could only get them motivated to do it once every six months or so. *1/2

Hair vs. Hair Match: Paul Ellering def Teddy Long in 1:57- Missy Hyatt is randomly screeching doing the ring announcing. Long comes out with boxing gloves and headgear. The ref lets it go because it's a joke match anyway. Long jumps Ellering while he's getting his jacket off. An eye rake with boxing gloves? Ellering sells it. Long adjusts his glove to make it obvious there's something extra in there and pops Ellering. Ellering pulls the loaded glove off and nails Long with it for the 3. A barber comes in and cuts a little of what's left of Long's hair off. It's hardly noticeable but Long freaks out and tries to hide anyway. DUD

NWA United States Tag Team Championship: The Midnight Express (w/Jim Cornette) def Flyin' Brian and "The Z Man" Tom Zenk (c) in 20:20- Cornette will once again be spending this match in a cage. Just on the floor though, not suspended in the air. While Cornette's arguing the Express attack to try to distract the ref and keep Cornette out. The faces drags Cornette in and lock the door. Start proper with Eaton and Pillman, a 4+ star singles match waiting to happen. Speed sequence. Pillman with a dropkick. The Express both get slammed, and both get monkey flipped. Pillman dives off the apron into the ring and hits both with a double clothesline! Lane gets a karate kick on Zenk. Zenk responds with deep armdrags. Lane tries to get advice from Cornette. The heels try an eye poke/sneaky tag combo to double team but Eaton runs right into a Pillman armdrag. Pillman and Eaton are so quick in there together. Zenk atomic drops the Express into each other. Eaton does some heel 101 hair pulling on the mat to try to get some control. Pillman springs up top and gets a sunset flip (that he overshot and they had to adjust on the fly, or technically after the fly) for 2. Double backdrop on Eaton. The Express try to double team, but Zenk ducks and Lane backdrops Eaton over the top rope! Eaton and Pillman once again have a nice mat wrestling sequence. Eaton ducks a charge and Pillman flies over the top and out. Neckbreaker on the floor and Pillman is officially FIP. An Eaton knee sends Pillman flying off the apron and into the guardrail (that was a big spot for 1990). Lane gets a .5 Buckshot Lariat. The Express work their super smooth double teams. Eaton elbow off the top for a long 2 count. Eaton whips Lane straight into Pillman! Pillman's bleeding just a little and fights off multiple pin attempts. Alabama Jam. Pillman kicks out! Pillman counters a tiltawhirl into a tiltawhirl of his own! (with a little trouble getting Eaton up) Hot tag! Zenk hooks his sleeper on Lane but Eaton hits him from behind. Rocket Launcher. Zenk kicks out! Zenk hits a springboard reverse crossbody off the second rope but Lane pulls him off the cover. DONNYBROOK! Lane kicks Zenk right in the back of the head and Eaton rolls him up into a Paul Smackage for a clean pin for the heels and the titles! Tremendous stuff. ****1/4

Robocop emerges from his locker room. Well, I guess he does. The camera keeps dramatically cutting out so we just see glimpses of him. Sting comes out to the ring and Gary Capetta goes full Michael Buffer buttering him up. Might as well post a giant sign "LUGER HAS NO CHANCE TONIGHT, STING'S WINNING IT AT GREAT AMERICAN BASH". As the cameras are focused on Robocop's entrance the Horsemen jump Sting and stuff him in Cornette's cage. Robocop slooooooowly makes his way down the aisle and rips the cage door off to get Sting out (and manages to avoid pulling a Mark Henry while doing it). The Horsemen skedaddle. As they leave one of Robocop's leg coverings is clearly coming off. That was....pointless. Guess it got Sting on the show. Nothing like promoting the main character of an R rated gorefest on your family friendly wrestling program.

The Junkyard Dog makes his return to WCW after about a year off. Amazingly, he was in line for a short main event push.

Corporal Punishment Match: The Rock N Roll Express def The Fabulous Freebirds in 18:33- Capetta: "Corporate...Corporal Punishment Match". Freudian slip if I ever heard one. The RNR come out with a jukebox. So what is a Corporal Punishment Match? Well, I don't think anyone knows for sure. Commentary seems to think it's going to be a traditional strap match with both teams attached to each other, but the ref takes the leather straps and puts them in each corner. They have zero bearing on the outcome. Hayes and Gibson start. Hayes does the moonwalk and stalls with the crowd for a while. Once they get going Hayes eats a slap in the corner and needs a moment. Morton mocks the Freebrid strut. The RNR outsmart Garvin with double teams. Garvin gets his side's strap but Morton takes it away. The RNR whip the Freebirds out of the ring. The ref takes the straps away and puts them back in the corners. OK then. While Garvin's getting worked on Hayes loses his cool and the RNR take advantage to double team and swap without tags. Stereo figure fours! Hayes gets the strap and gets a shot in. A strap standoff ends with the Freebirds losing again. JR: "Feathers are literally flying!". LITERALLY.  Morton rolls up Garvin, but Garvin's kick out sends him flying to the ropes and Hayes clocks him with a straight left. Garvin knocks Gibson off the apron and the Freebirds double team. Morton tries to fight back but gets worn down into officially playing Ricky Morton. Hayes bulldog for 2. There's a bit of a DDT chant but it's countered with a louder rock & roll chant. Hayes whips and chokes Morton with the strap. Garvin goes up top. Morton throws him off but collapses in the corner and can't tag. Hayes tries for another bulldog. Morton counters and this time gets the tag. Gibson with a sleeper. Garvin breaks it up. Hayes hits a DDT on Gibson but plays to the crowd instead of covering. He goes for another one, but Morton gets him with a sunset flip off the top rope and gets the win. Average stuff from two all time great teams. Yet another WCW gimmick match with no thought put into how to do it. **1/2

NWA World Tag Team Championship: Doom (w/Teddy Long) def The Steiner Brothers (c) in 19:14- Scott and Simmons start. JR jumps right into the FSU football stories, including almost the entire play by play of the 1981 Orange Bowl (OU 18, FSU 17). They run into each other at full football speed. Nice. Scott wins the exchange and hits a powerslam. Simmons take a Bret bump, and Scott comes up behind him and wraps him up into a release German suplex! Steinerlines for everyone and Doom regroup. Reed hits some .6 Suzuki forearms on Rick and no sells a stiff Steinerline. Another Steinerline sends Reed out and he takes a slam on the floor. They are laying into each other like crazy. Rick hits a nasty looking half tombstone (reverse tombstone?) piledriver on Simmons. Reed grabs Rick's tights to pull him outside. Reed hits a nice jumping knee on Scott. 10 minutes in and the match has barely stopped moving. Reed gets a double ax handle off the top to keep Scott from tagging. Scott reverses a suplex but Simmons nails him with another high knee and sends him tumbling outside. Back in, Freakzilla deadlifts Reed but can't get a tag. Reed hits a bulldog and a piledriver. Scott starts countering and eventually hits a Frankensteiner! Tags! Rick Steinerlines! Powerslam. Double suplex on Reed. Simmons makes the save. Doom hits a half Hart Attack half Doomsday Device double move on Scott but Rick saves. Scott gets posted. Rick goes for a belly to belly off the top rope but Simmons hits him from behind, pulls Reed down onto him, and Doom gets the win and the titles! Stunned silence from the crowd. This was a pretty shocking upset at the time, but booking wise it makes a lot of sense. Doom had been on a roll since losing the masks, and the Steiners needed a heel foil that could keep up with them in physicality. Really good stiff power match. ***3/4

Tony is with the newly crowned champs. Simmons says that like they said they would, they won the belts in a "good clean fight". Can't argue with that. They didn't cheat any more than any tag team when it all breaks down.

Steel Cage Match for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship: NWA United States Heavyweight Champion "The Total Package" Lex Luger def "Nature Boy" Ric Flair (c) (w/Woman) by DQ in 17:21- So the big story here, that commentary has been hyping ad nauseam all show, is Luger just got out "this very morning" from two weeks in the hospital with an infection connected to a knee injury that caused 103 degree fever and is wrestling against doctor's orders. Instead of a normal steel cage they're using the Thundercage structure built for Halloween Havoc '89, which has the basic look of WWF's blue bar cage but is the size of Hell in a Cell. Woman stays inside the cage. The ref wants to check Woman? Watch those hands. After much protesting from Flair he finally does and what do you know, she's got something hidden in her glove. Ref must have gotten an anonymous tip. JR drops "international object". I've mocked it a lot, but this is the time when Turner really was making them say it because "foreign object" was somehow offensive. The PC police is not a recent thing, social media just made it worse. Flair chops early and Luger angrily no sells. Flair goes out to think. Luger is super pissed at the start and wants to finish it early. Clothesline for an early near fall. Press slam. And another. Flair rolls out to recover. Chops in the corner from Flair with more no sells. Flair climbs the cage. Luger follows and Flair kicks his face into the cage. Back down, Flair whips Luger into the cage. Flair starts working on the knee. Luger no sells a delayed suplex. Mounted punches. Flair Flip. Flair goes across, gets off the top rope, but Luger hits him on the way down. Flair Flop! Flair rolls out again. He climbs the cage again and Luger follows. They go halfway up and Luger gives Flair multiple cage shots and Flair starts to bleed. Flair gets posted, and the camera stays on him while he clearly works his forehead to really get opened up. No blood rules mean nothing to The Man. Flair tries to come back but bounces off of Luger. Luger with a superplex! But his knee gives out on the way down. Pack up your Trapper Keepers kids, we're going to school. Classic Flair knee work leads to the figure four. Luger fights it until the ref catches Flair using the ropes. The Horsemen run down to ringside (Sid Vicious has joined the group) but can't get into the cage. Luger comes back. Knee's just fine now, thanks for asking. He gets a couple of close near falls. Sting comes out and tries to run the Horsemen off but they gang up on him. Then new WCW signee El Gigante comes out and scares the Horsemen off. He's really, really, really tall you see. Somehow Ole Anderson gets control of the cage and raises it up enough for Barry Windham to slide in. While all this has been going on Luger's gotten Flair in the Torture Rack. Windham attacks Luger to draw the DQ. The rest of the Horsemen get in the cage and beat Luger down. After a few minutes Sting gets in to make the save. Still good, but very underwhelming considering who was in there, mostly going through the motions before the screwy finish. Luger wasn't quite at '91 world title run non-motivation levels but it was closer to that than '89 Luger, and even Flair was only going at about 75% of his usual. All the "Luger just getting out of the hospital" hype was just prematch color and didn't go anywhere. ***1/4

Afterward a bloody Flair cuts a promo with Tony before Sting jumps him to set up their match at Great American Bash.

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- Two things were carrying WCW in this period: the Four Horsemen vs Sting, and the tag division. The tag division was holding up their end very nicely. This is probably the peak show of what might have been the deepest tag division any one company has had at any point in wrestling history. And Sting would be back for his delayed coronation at the next PPV.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: B+

Summerslam '90

Legacy Review

Summerslam '90

August 27, 1990 from The Spectrum in Philadelphia

Commentary: Vince McMahon and Roddy Piper

This was the first major WWF show to be billed as a "double main event". The Ultimate Warrior was WWF Champion, but Hulk Hogan was still the top draw.

Power & Glory (w/Slick) def The Rockers in 6:00- Shawn's coming into this match with a bum knee and needed some time off. He's walking noticeably gingerly to the ring. As soon as the Rockers get to ringside P&G Suzuki-Gun them. Herc hits Shawn's knee with his chain and he's doneski. Janetty manages to fight off both heels. Slick distracts the ref while P&G double team, and stays distracted while Janetty gets a small package on Roma. Shawn crawls up to the apron. Herc drags him off again, then Roma gives him another shot in the knee. Janetty turns a Herc slam attempt into another small package but Herc tagged on the way down. Or so the ref says at least. Janetty gets a powerslam on Roma, superkicks Herc off the apron, and hits a fist drop off the top rope. Herc recovers to save. It's only the first match and I'm already tired of the Vince/Piper commentary team. Not a good sign. As Janetty tries a roll up Herc kills him from the apron with a clothesline. P&G hit their superplex/big splash finisher and good night. The heels continue to beat on Shawn after while Janetty tries to cover Shawn's knee with his own body. Shawn does the stretcher job. Probably too long for what it was. For a 2 on 1 situation Janetty got a lot of offense in. He did his best to, as the saying goes, turn chicken shit into chicken salad. 3/4*

Perfect admits to Sean Mooney that he's taking this title match on short notice and maybe that would be a problem for normies but not him.

WWF Intercontinental Championship: "The Texas Tornado" Kerry Von Erich def Mr. Perfect (c) (w/Bobby Heenan) in 5:15- This was originally supposed to be Brutus Beefcake beating Perfect for the second straight PPV to finally win the IC belt they'd been teasing putting on him for over two years, but fate intervened once again, this time in the form of the infamous parasailing accident that broke his face. WWF newcomer Kerry von Erich was thrust into the spot instead. The most famous of the legendary Texas von Erich family, Tornado was a legend in the major Texas territory WCCW and was 6 years removed from a couple of weeks as NWA World Heavyweight Champion from one of Ric Flair's swings through the state. WWF brass obviously thought highly of him (and for some reason didn't seem to be 100% sold on Perfect yet), but his personal demons were already starting to take over. Cautious start. Perfect does a mega sell of Tornado's push out of the lockup. Perfect gets an armdrag and a hiptoss and doesn't seem to be taking Tornado very seriously, even getting Heenan to wipe his forehead with the towel like it's a jobber match. Tornado comes back and Perfect tries to do a 360 sell of a bodyslam, then gets clotheslined over the top and out. Perfect clotheslines out of an arm wringer and hits the neck snap. Sleeper! Tornado gets to the corner, starts to no sell and gives Perfect that slingshot into the post he loved to do so much. Claw, discus punch (with, of course, a Perfect 360 sell), and we have a new champion. Decent pop but not a mega one for the shock win. They didn't get enough time to really get anything going. Tornado's run would be less than spectacular thanks in large part to his continued mental/personal breakdown. Perfect would win the belt back in the fall and go on to one of the best IC title reigns of all time. *1/4

Mean Gene plants the seeds for the Sapphire intrigue that will dominate a good portion of the show. Perfect and Heenan storm in, blame the ref for the loss, and Heenan loses it on Okerlund. Perfect promises he'll be back.

Sensational Queen Sherri def Sapphire by forfeit- Sapphire no shows after multiple attempts. Fink and then Scary Sherri count her down to a forfeit. After their interactions in the WM 6 mixed tag match, I approve of this decision. I also would have approved of not booking the match in the first place. NR

Gene Mean is with Dusty Rhodes. Dusty has no idea where Sapphire is or where she's been getting all these mysterious expensive gifts from because that's not his bidness, that's Sapphire's bidness. Hmmmm, who is on the WWF roster with lots of money to burn and enjoys using it to mess with people's lives? It's a stumper.

The Warlord (w/Slick) def Tito Santana in 5:28- Santana put Warlord's former tag partner over at WM 6, now he's doing the same for him. While Santana works a headlock Warlord picks him up with one arm and tosses him across the ring. Santana hits a few dropkicks and Warlord powders. Thesz Press-like takedown from Santana. Warlord kicks out so hard Santana flies outside. Warlord follows and posts his back. Slick sneaks around. He's got a shoe off. Vince: "What's he going to do with a shoe?". Piper: "Chemical warfare.". First time commentary's had a good line all night. Warlord works the back. Slooooooooooooowly. Santana comes back and hits the flying tostada! Warlord gets a foot on the rope. A blocked monkey flip leads to Warlord planting Santana with a powerslam and we're done here. *1/4

Demolition takes time out from their promo on the Harts to call out the Legion of Doom as "second rate imposters". That's.....not the right way around.

2 Out Of 3 Falls Match for the WWF Tag Team Championship: The Hart Foundation def Demolition (c) 2-1 in 14:24- Two major things changed for Demolition after winning their record third tag titles at WM 6: they turned back heel, and Crush joined to make them a trio. Crush came on board because Ax was getting worn down by injuries and they wanted someone to potentially replace him, which ended up happening. Demolition started defending the titles under Freebird rules, and because they had always worn masks to the ring their opponents never knew which two guys they would face until the match started. Tonight it's Smash and Crush. Because of past shenanigans the contract for this match specifically stipulates only two Demos are allowed at ringside.

FIRST FALL- Bret and Smash start. Crush tries to sneak in but Anvil ambushes him and the Harts get the double team in. Quick Bret rollup for 2. Quick tag work on Smash's arm until he slams out of it and tags. Bret tries a crossbody but Crush catches him in midair and drops him. Crush kicks Anvil in the back of the head on a rope run. Anvil gets a big clothesline out of the corner and tags. Bret fights off both heels. The Demos are whipped into each other. Bret gets a Russian Leg Sweep on Smash for a long 2 count the crowd went for. On another cover Crush leg drops Bret in the back of the head. The Decapitation Device gives the Demos the first fall.

SECOND FALL- The Demos double team while Hebner gets Anvil out. Bret is face in peril until ducking a clothesline, hitting a diving clothesline of his own, and dragging Smash across the ring for the hot tag. Huge Anvil powerslam for 2. Hart Attack! Hebner visibly stalls counting to give Crush time to get in. He dives on Hebner to stop the count but draws a DQ.

THIRD FALL- Bret's outside recovering. While Anvil's with him Smash and Crush corner Hebner so he can't see Ax run to ringside and hide under the ring. The Harts hit their super cool Anvil powerslamming Bret onto the opponent double team move for 2. Smash rolls out and swaps out with Ax. Fresh Ax axes away and Hebner is clueless. Vince tries to make like Ax and Smash are impossible to tell apart, but come on. One has short hair and one has long hair, and that's just the start! Bret squeaks out of some near falls. Bret bump! Donnybrook! Crush and Anvil fight in the ring while Ax and Smash work over Bret outside. Smash stays out and Ax hides under the ring again. Bret takes a hot shot. The LOD come out and drag Ax from under the ring. Anvil hits Smash with the slingshot flying tackle and Bret rolls him up for the pin and the titles! Huge pop. There were a lot of moving parts and it got sloppy at times (not one of Hebner's best nights as traffic cop to be sure), but overall it worked. The Harts were supposed to only be transitional champions to the Rockers but the infamous broken rope match happened and they ended up carrying the belts all the way to the next WM. ***

Intermission time in the arena means promo time on TV. Promo for Wrestlemania 7 at the LA Coliseum. The LOD wanted Demolition's attention. Sadly this was another case of bad timing. Because of Crush taking over for Ax the potential dream feud would sizzle out quickly. Sherri teases more Sapphire developments. The Demos trash their locker room. Quake promises a double stretcher job.

Jake "The Snake" Roberts def Bad News Brown by DQ in 4:44- The Big Boss Man is your special guest referee, his first of two non-wrestling appearances tonight. As usual the heel is scared shitless of Damien. This time though, Brown brought some backup: Harlem sewer rats. At least in theory. There was one (hilariously awful) shot of one during the intermission promo run, other than that it's just a covered cage sitting at ringside everyone ignores. Even worse than Rowan's cage monster, if you can believe it. Boss Man is introduced last and the fighting's already started before he gets to the ring. Early DDT tease. Brown sets up early for the Ghetto Blaster but Roberts collapses. Brown with an arrogant one foot cover for 2. Brown and Boss Man trade some finger poking. Brawl on the outside. Brown gets a chair and gives Roberts a shot in the gut. Boss Man lets him off with a warning. Back in, Roberts gives Brown the ol' Spaceballs salute. That's not PG. Roberts dodges a fist drop off the second rope and rolls through his usuals. Brown backdrops another DDT attempt. He gets another chair and gives Roberts another gut shot and we have a DQ. Brown tries to leg drop Damien but Boss Man saves him. Brown jumps Boss Man from behind and beats him down until Roberts gets Damien out to play. Brown runs away. We never saw hair or whisker of any Harlem sewer rat. They weren't even mentioned once the match got going. Brown left the WWF shortly after this show and bounced around the indys with occasional tours of Japan the rest of his career. He's another guy I'd like to see in modern wrestling, I think he'd be a better fit today than he was in his time. 1/2*

Brother Love Show time, featuring the reintroduction of Sgt. Slaughter, returning after 5 years in the AWA, but as a heel. Slaughter's initial impetus for coming back as a heel was Nikolai Volkoff's face turn, saying the US had become "soft" and "weak" for allowing someone like him in. He also says that should war break out in the Middle East the "great general" Saddam "Hussan" (Slaughter's mispronunciation) would kick our boys' butts, foreshadowing where his character would go as the Persian Gulf situation escalated.

Mean Gene gets a glimpse of Sapphire as she sneaks into her dressing room. He vows to stand guard for 2000 years until the Pandorica....no wait, sorry. Until after the next match.

"Hacksaw" Jim Duggan and Nikolai Volkoff def The Orient Express (w/Mr. Fuji) in 3:22- They missed out by not calling Duggan and Volkoff's team Spirit of Glasnost. The faces croon God Bless America before the match. Once the cats have been scraped off the ceiling the Express attack. The faces turn it around and atomic drop the Express into each other and they bail. Outsmarted by Duggan and Volkoff. Might as well pack it in and go home now. Volkoff throws Tanaka around. Sato sneaks off the top rope into Volkoff's back and he goes comrade in peril until he dodges a Tanaka splash and tags. Duggan takes down both heels, kills Tanaka with the 3 point stance tackle, and good night. At least it was short. 1/4*

Okerlund is with Dusty outside Sapphire's dressing room. Dusty begs for her to come out until he has to go out for his match.

"Macho King" Randy Savage (w/Queen Sherri) def "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes in 2:15- Just a few years before this could have main evented almost any wrestling show in the world. Things change quick. Before the match starts Ted DiBiase calls out to Dusty from the promo stage and reveals HE BOUGHT SAPPHIRE. NO! Someone showering her with expensive gifts to humiliate Dusty, how could it be him?! The best part is the "bag full of money" is a cheap merch stand WWF duffel bag. Dusty runs out to the aisle to save Sapphire and Savage jumps him from behind. Double ax handle off the top. Sherri gets her mandatory shots in. Dusty comes back with Bionic Elbows. A dropkick sends Savage out. Savage uses Sherri as a shield, and she slips him the Loaded Purse of Excessive Weight +3. Savage nails Dusty with it and gets the 3. Thank God this feud is over. There's few, if any, legitimate dream feuds I can think of that disappointed more than this one did. This was the absolute low point of Savage's trudge through midcard hell in between his main event runs. He'd slowly start sliding up again after this. DUD

DiBiase and Sapphire blow Mooney off as they get in DiBiase's limo and get out of town. Dusty tries to chase them down.

Oh, and after having half the show booked around her, Sapphire left the company weeks after this because she didn't want to stop working with Dusty. Bang up job, guys.

SEMI-MAIN EVENT FEUD RECAP- Earthquake stormed through the lower ranks of WWF in the early part of '90, eventually turning his attention to Hulk Hogan. He attacked Hogan not long after WM 6 on an edition of the Brother Love Show, giving him multiple earthquake splashes and sending Hogan out, like so many jobbers before him, on a stretcher. Hogan didn't appear on TV for the next couple of months to sell the injuries (and, correct me if I'm wrong, to film Suburban Commando) and even teased retirement. I think they also wanted to give Warrior some space without Hogan to see how he'd do with the title (not so good). His friend Tugboat started a letter writing campaign to entice Hogan to come back. Summerslam is his big return match. Tugboat was supposed to be in Hogan's corner but Quake squashed him too (ironically they'd be a tag team a year later), so the Big Boss Man is taking his place.

Hulk Hogan (w/The Big Boss Man) def Earthquake (w/Jimmy Hart and Dino Bravo) by countout in 13:16- Big match circling and a tentative lockup. Quake pushes Hogan out. Hart celebrates like they just won the match. Earthquake hits a couple of shoulderblocks and *Hogan* powders. Didn't see that often. Hogan goes for an early slam and fails. He stops Quake's offense with a boot up int the corner. Even after clotheslines and punches Quake won't go down. After one more big punch Quake flops down on his ass. It's a start. Quake takes a walk. All four guys fight on the outside and continue donnybrooking in the ring. Hogan and Boss Man take down both heels with double big boots. Hebner does nothing. Bravo and Quake double slam Hogan. Quake gets a 2 count after an elbow drop. He goes to the top rope (damn!) and drops a fist on Hogan. Boston Crab. Hogan gets the rope. Bravo slams Hogan on the outside. Back in, Hogan dodges another big elbow and tries again for a slam, but Quake falls on top of him for 2. Bear hug. Hogan tears Hebner's shirt off. OK then. Then he punches his way out. Some shoulderblocks stagger Quake. Hogan tries a cross body, but Quake catches him and gives him the powerslam that's the setup for the big Quake splash. And here's the tremors. Quake hits the splash, but gets up and gloats. Quake splash 2! Hulk up. 3 punches, big boot, big man slam, legdrop....but Bravo is distracting Hebner. The match goes outside again. Hogan slams Quake on the table that was set up for Bad News Brown's sewer rats empty cage, but the table only falls down instead of breaking (I AM THE TABLE). Hogan gets back in and Quake is counted out. Quake attacks again. Boss Man fights him off with chair shots to the back. But not with a normal chair, it's some kind of metal stepstool that leaves massive welts on Quake's back. And even though it was only a countout win, and not even the main event, Hogan celebrates forever like normal. This match isn't near good, but it didn't have to be a lost cause either. There's potential. Quake was one of the better big men Hogan worked with. With some rejigging and rethinking it might have turned out decent. Or they could have just made it the traditional Summerslam tag match since Boss Man and Bravo were out there anyway. *

Another long promo run as the cage is set up. The NWA was already doing cage lowering at this point, why couldn't the WWF? Unless the blue bar cage was too heavy to do it. Anyway, Dusty digs deep and finds about 80% of a classic Dusty Rhodes promo lamenting Sapphire's betrayal. Hogan brags about earthquake proof buildings in the South Pole. Quake promises revenge. Heenan gives us the cage match rules disguised as a promo. Warrior snorts a lot.

Steel Cage Match for the WWF Championship: The Ultimate Warrior (c) def "Ravishing" Rick Rude (w/Bobby Heenan) in 10:05- Unusually for WWF in this era, it's pin or escape rules tonight. Rude breaks the PG boundary by dropping "Pennsylvania pissants" in his usual prematch routine. Warrior runs laps around the ring. Rude taunts him from the top of the cage, so Warrior goes to join him. As he climbs the bell rings. So, if he just dropped straight back down would he win? They fight on the top until Rude eats cage and falls down. Warrior hits an ax handle off the top rope. Pillar to post cage rammings for Rude and he's bleeding. Rude dodges a charge and Warrior flies into the cage. Rude tries to climb but Warrior makes the save. Now Warrior takes some cage shots and also gets busted open. It's still a no blood era in WWF, nice to see both guys with some color to sell the cage match. Slow slugfest. Rude tries to give Warrior the cheese grater spot, but it doesn't work nearly as well with the blue bar cage. Rude goes for the Rude Awakening. Warrior powers out. Rude gets his knees up on a big splash. The Rude Awakening hits! But Rude doesn't cover. Then he bypasses the door and starts climbing. He stops, turns around, and gives Warrior a fist drop off the top of the cage. Cool spot, but really dumb. He had the match won! Heenan: "What are you doing?". Rude climbs but stops AGAIN. He tries another fist drop off the top, but Warrior gives him a shot in the gut. Man, way to make Rude look like an idiot. Warrior crawls for the door but Heenan slams it in his face. *Now* Rude covers. Warrior kicks out. Rude tries for the door. Warrior and Heenan play tug of war with him. Warrior pulls Rude's tights down and it's a full moon tonight. He drags Rude and Heenan back in. Heenan super sells a punch and gets atomic dropped out the door. Heenan wins! Oh wait. Now that'd be a hell of a twist. Russorific, but fun. Rude hits a clothesline but Warrior starts warrioring up. Running clotheslines. Gorilla press. Warrior climbs up and strides over the top and out with zero drama, mocking Rude with a hip swivel on the way down. This is one of the worst Summerslam main events and major cage matches ever. It's hard to believe these same guys put on a near classic in the IC title match just the year before. Rude knew the shelf life of top heels in the WWF at the time and jumped ship a couple of months later, stopping in Japan for a while before heading to a tremendous legacy defining run in WCW. 1/2*

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- Yeah, this one sucks. I think it'd be down to either this show or WM 2 as the worst PPV of the early WWF PPV years. It's a very promo heavy show too, which really gives it a disjointed feel. To make matters worse, Vince and Piper are just a horrible combination on commentary.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: D

Wrestle War '90

Legacy Review

Wrestle War '90

February 25, 1990 from the former home arena of Jim Crockett Promotions, the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, NC

Commentary: Jim Ross and Terry Funk

I hope you like tag matches.

The opening video is infamous. One of the worst show openers ever. Funk has some Jesse Ventura-like earring action going on. Also, the ring posts have padding on them and advertising for Roos (KangaROOS shoes), which JR forces in mentioning about once a match. We're just over a year after the Turner buyout of Crockett and the WCW name is starting to supplant the NWA one.

JR takes us straight to Gordon Solie, who's with Teddy Long for some breaking news. Dan Spivey is "out with an injury" (left the promotion), so Long has hired another wrestler to take his place in the Skyscrapers tonight but doesn't say who it is. He also promises another surprise tonight.

Kevin Sullivan and Buzz Sawyer def The Dynamic Dudes in 10:15- Sawyer is one of those guys that was a borderline legend in midsize and smaller territories but never really caught on with the big national promotions (probably because if his rep, and rap sheet, are correct, he was a pain in the ass to work with). His match with Tommy Rich in The Last Battle of Atlanta was the stuff of whispered legend until WWE finally found the tape a few years ago. I'll get around to that one sometime. Sawyer and Ace start. Ace hits a monkey flip and dropkicks Sawyer out. Douglas follows up with a tope suidcida! Mini-donnybrook on the outside. The Dudes hit a double team that just knocks Sawyer into his own corner. Some stiff chops from Sullivan. Ace fights out of the heel corner. Sullivan and Sawyer have a disagreement with some slaps. JR: "Sawyer is one strange individual". And Sullivan makes him almost look normal. Sawyer does a huge lead in to a corner charge....and posts his shoulder. Sullivan leverages Douglas to the outside and Sawyer suplexes him on the floor then laughs about it after. Back in, huge Sawyer belly to belly for 2. Douglas tries to come back but eats a boot on a corner charge and Flair flops. Douglas and Sawyer trade chops. Douglas sneaks between his legs and gets the warmish tag. Dropkicks on both heels. Ace tries a flying headscissors, Sawyer says "screw that" completely no sells it, and hits him with a suplex. Sawyer then goes up top and hits an ugly looking big splash for the pin. Serviceable, mostly thanks to Sawyer. This was the Dudes' last major match. Ace was wrestling more for All Japan, and Douglas would leave for a short WWF stint after raising multiple stinks backstage over booking. **

Norman hits on Missy Hyatt. First he wants a hug. Then a kiss. Then....well, I guess he's read the dirt sheets.

Norman the Lunatic def Cactus Jack Manson in 9:33- Norman actually had a decent pedigree before coming into WCW, working as a monster heel in early '80s WWF and in Stampede. He started as a heel here, but turned face and became very much a precursor to Eugene. He's announced as from "the state hospital". He's....shockingly over. It was a simpler time. Jack, meanwhile, was in his initial "tryout" stint with WCW and had all kind of buzz from what passed as the paper version of the IWC in pre-internet days. He's also very svelte here. Hasn't built up his bump padding at all. Once Norman's thrown all his teddy bears into the crowd Jack ambushes him. Norman's got on one wrestling boot and one sneaker. Jack makes the cardinal mistake: you can't hurt Norman's head. Too many lobotomies. A headbutt sends Jack down. Jack's bumping like a champ. Avalanche from Norman. Jack does the Triple H flip in the corner! On the outside he charges Norman, but takes a backdrop over the guardrail and splats on the concrete! There's your Mick Foley bump. Norman gets posted. I just noticed one of the rafter banners is for the Hotline, and it's the same number as it will be in the days when Mean Gene is shilling the hell out of it. Norman lifts Jack up into an electric chair and plants him but misses a splash. Jack tries a piledriver but Norman counters. Jack turns it into a sunset flip attempt, but Norman sits on him and that gets 3. Way, way, way, wayyyyyyyyyyy too long for any match involving Norman. 1/2* for Foley's bumping

The Rock N Roll Express def The Midnight Express (w/Jim Cornette) in 19:31- There's a guy at ringside with a "We've HERD Enough" sign. If you think it's bad now just wait until mid-1991. Finally, the RNR and Midnights are having a proper PPV match (their only other one was a scaffold match at Starrcade '87). It's a few years later than it should have been, but we'll take it. Long introduces Cornette as "the man that stole Ivana from Donald Trump". Gibson and Lane start. A speed sequence ends with Gibson giving Lane a fist drop. Lane rolls out and Cornette fans him with the racket. Cornette starts jawing at ref Nick Patrick, gets on the apron, and they trade finger pokes, that Cornette sells! Cornette takes his jacket off, jumps in the ring, goes after Patrick and wants it to be ON LIKE DONKEY KONG. The RNR egg Patrick into it! Patrick says OK, untucks his shirt and jumps at Cornette. Cornette dives back, does a see saw in the ropes, falls out and bails. That was fun. Pointless, but fun. Morton atomic drops Lane into Eaton. As they're outside recovering Lane shoves Eaton onto the floor! Cornette makes peace. Lane gets some stiff slaps on Morton and tags, but Eaton runs right into an armdrag. Test of strength. Morton climbs up Eaton! Then he uses Eaton's shoulders to dive onto Lane! Then Gibson comes off the top rope onto Eaton! The heels bail again. That was awesome. Lane tries to hide in the ropes from Morton's punches, so Morton kicks him in the ass! Cornette grabs Morton's foot on a rope run. Morton chases, grabs Cornette's foot as he's trying to get into the ring and gets him stuck across the top rope, and Gibson gives him a shot. As Cornette's lying on the floor Lane gives him CPR! Hilarious. Mid match donnybrook! Eaton gets double clotheslined over and out. Gibson squeaks out of the heel corner. Lane gets a gut punch on Morton and throws him out. Morton blocks and Lane gets posted. Not sure how much that really hurts on this show, what with the ROOS padding on it and everything. Eaton and Morton slugfest. Morton hits a crossbody on Eaton but it's by the ropes and both guys tumble over and out. Lane sneaks over, slams Morton on the floor, and Morton is officially playing Ricky Morton. The Express start hitting their silk smooth double teams. Cornette gets a racket shot. Lane hits his karate kicks. Eaton with a .5 jackhammer style suplex for 2. Lane hits a powerslam, Gibson makes the save. Morton eats a guardrail drop as the ref is getting him out. Cornette punches Morton but that only seems to wake Morton up a little. Eaton gets posted but Morton can only get to about mid-ring. Lane covers him for 2. Morton gets a desperation sunset flip but Cornette is distracting Patrick. Morton slips out of a slam and tries to roll up Lane, but he blind tags Eaton, who hits a neckbreaker. Morton takes a huge face first drop into the top turnbuckle. This is classic stuff. I'll say it again, no one in wrestling history sold a beating like Ricky Morton could. Eaton goes up top but doesn't go for the Alabama Jam. Instead it's an elbow drop. Gibson saves again. The Express start working on Morton's shoulder. A triple reverse sequence ends with Eaton taking a Bret bump. He backs into Morton and they knock heads. But Morton still can't get the tag. The Express look to finish it with the Rocket Launcher, but Morton gets his knees up! He rolls away from Lane and gets the hot tag! Gibson rolls up Eaton but Lane makes the save. DONNYBROOK! As Gibson's running the ropes Cornette nails him in the back with the racket. Eaton covers....but Gibson kicks out! The Express go for a double flapjack. Morton dives in to knock Eaton out of position, then Gibson twists in midair and turns Lane over into a Paul Smackage! 3! This is two all time great teams, in the longest running tag feud of all time, taking full advantage of finally getting a match on a major company PPV and leaving it all in the ring. Another in the long list of RNR/Midnight classics. ****3/4

Chicago Street Fight: The Road Warriors def The New New Skyscrapers (w/Teddy Long) in 4:59- When Sid Vicious suffered an injury, WCW newcomer "Mean" Mark Callous (you might know him as some guy named the Undertaker) took his place. Now Spivey has packed his bags and left. To replace him for this match WCW plucked Mike Enos out of AWA (where ironically he was half of the tag champs there at the time), put a mask on him and threw him out there. Everyone's in street fight clothes. Before the match starts Ellering calls Long in and pops him with a punch. Not much to recap here, it's a Pier 6 brawl from start to finish with all four guys in the whole time. After a bit Doom, minus masks and plus tuxedos, wander down to ringside and Long joins them. The Roadies backdrop Callous out and he says the hell with this and walks. Doomsday Device on Masked Enos to finish it. Doom comes in and both teams brawl for almost as long as the actual match went on. This was the end of the Skyscrapers, and mostly just a device to transition into Doom as Long's new team. 3/4*

NWA United States Tag Team Championship: Flyin' Brian and "The Z-Man" Tom Zenk (c) def The Fabulous Freebirds in 24:32- This is a rematch of the tournament final for the revived titles. The Freebirds call a couple of women into the ring to take their jackets off, but the faces shoo them away and ambush the Freebirds. They try the jackets on and for some reason the sound guys play Badstreet USA while they do. Hayes does the usual strutting and moonwalking at the start. Zenk and Garvin have a spunky back and forth sequence. Pillman gets a crucifix for 2. Hayes fixes Garvin's hair. Pillman springs off the apron straight to the top rope, then hits a reverse crossbody for 2. Garvin gets Zenk in a headscissors and brags "He ain't going anywhere!" right before Zenk slips out of it. Pillman goes high octane for a bit. Garvin grabs a headlock, tags, and a Hayes gut shot kills Pillman's momentum. Hayes sleeper on Pillman. JR and Funk seem to be having a competition over who can name drop the most wrestlers from the '40s. Pillman tries a charge but eats the patented straight left hand from Hayes. Hayes goes high risk and hits a crossbody off the top, but Pillman reverses it for 2. Pillman and Garvin collide and Pillman finally tags out. Zenk locks Hayes in a sleeper. Garvin sneaks to the top rope and nails Zenk in the back of the neck. Hayes covers and Pillman makes the save. Slugfest on the floor. Pillman loses his temper and the heels swap without a tag. Zenk hits a powerslam but instead of trying to tag goes to drop an elbow and misses. Garvin suckers Pillman in to double team. Long 2 count on Zenk. Hayes hits a bulldog and Pillman makes another save. Zenk counters a backdrop attempt into a DDT and gets the hot tag. Dropkicks for everyone. Pillman hits a crossbody off the top to win. The Freebirds attack with DDTs after to get their heat back. It definitely went too long, but it was still good and told a solid story of the wily veteran heels versus the skilled determined babyfaces. ***

NWA World Tag Team Championship: The Steiner Brothers (c) def Arn and Ole Anderson in 16:05- Arn is in one of his many reigns as TV champ. Ole temporarily came out of retirement to replace Tully Blanchard, who WCW changed their mind on re-signing after his failed WWF drug test. Scott and Arn start. Arn pops Rick on the apron and grabs the rope to bail on a Scott clothesline. Rick retaliates by hitting him from behind on the floor. The first part of the match has the Andersons being cautious, followed by the Steiners taking control and clearing the ring out on donnybrooks. Arn tries a leapfrog, Rick catches him in midair and turns it into a powerslam. Arn tries going to the top rope. He sees Rick ready to counter him, screams, backs off and jumps down. Ole tries to work on Scott's arm. Scott fights out of the heel corner and Arn eats an inverted atomic drop with an amazing sell. Figure four on Arn! Ole and Rick run in again and it breaks down and resets again. Scott deadlifts Ole up into a suplex. Freakzilla. The Andersons manage to get Rick down in a double team in the corner. Rick and Ole have a slugfest on their knees, which Rick wins and he tags out. Scott elbows Arn out. He goes for a clothesline on the floor but Arn dodges and Scott nails the post. Target acquired and the Andersons go to work. Scott counters an Arn dive off the second rope. Frankensteiner! Both sides tag. Steinerlines! During the end match donnybrook Rick rolls Ole up into a Mr. Small Package for the 3. Damn good stuff from four stiff workers. It's amazing how great the Steiners were right out of the gate, and Ole held up well for a guy technically in retirement. ***1/2

MAIN EVENT FEUD RECAP- This was originally to be the culmination of the Sting/Horsemen betrayal angle, and Flair keeping his promise to Sting to drop the world title to him. Unfortunately, Sting suffered a legitimate knee injury at Clash X when the Horsemen kicked him out of the group. Luger was originally scheduled to defend the US title against Steve Williams. Instead he was quickly turned face (he and Sting were buddies) and put into the title shot against Flair. Everyone, I mean everyone from Jim Herd to head booker Ole Anderson on down, wanted Flair to still drop the title here and give Luger a run with it. Flair, however, was adamant that he keep his promise to Sting and refused to drop the belt until Sting was healthy enough to take it. This would be the first of many points of friction between Flair and Herd that would lead to Flair's eventual jump to WWF in mid-'91.

NWA World Heavyweight Championship: "Nature Boy" Ric Flair (c) (w/Woman) def NWA United States Heavyweight Champion "The Total Package" Lex Luger by countout in 38:08- Sting is introduced first and comes out on crutches. They do the whole "standoff during instructions" bit and I have to say, they do a good job giving this a big match feel even though it's been thrown together at the last second, and we got a ton of Flair/Luger in '88. Chain wrestling and shoving start. Luger outpowers Flair. Flair and Nick Patrick have some words and Patrick shoves Flair! If it had been Tommy Young Flair would have sold for him. A shoulderblock sends Flair walking outside. Back in he gives Luger a little Slick Ric. Luger gets whipped into the corner but charges out with a clothesline. Flair takes a long walk all the way to the entrance ramp. Luger chases him down, picks him up, and carries him back to the ring. Press slam. Flair begs off, suckers Luger into a kick, actually gets a shoulderblock on the bigger Luger, but then runs into another press slam. Luger threw him halfway across the ring on that one. JR gets the plane crash story in. Flair lays in the first chops of the match, which Luger no sells. Press slam 3. Bear hug. The ol' eye poke gets Flair out. Luger with mounted punches. Flair Flop! Flair dodges a charge and Luger flies over the top and out. Luger eats barricade. Flair hits a chop, throws Luger out again, then calls Woman up to the apron to distract Patrick while he gives out some more barricade punishment. Vintage Flair snap mare/running knees combos. He covers but Luger kicks out hard and Flair goes flying. More Luger no sells on chops and he punches back. Flair dodges a corner charge and Luger goes shoulder first into the top turnbuckle. Flair goes to work on it, putting on hammerlocks and getting added rope leverage. Luger gets a clothesline to turn momentum. Flair gets it back with an eye poke. Woman takes a shot. Luger tries to hulk up, but Patrick stops him punching and Flair uses the opening for a kick. Kneedrop on the hurt shoulder. Flair tries for rope assisted pins but Luger powers out. Getting desperate, Luger chokes Flair. Whip and Flair Flip! It looks like Flair might have legit slipped on the apron coming across and fell down. If it was an accident they covered very well for it. Back in, Luger locks in a sleeper. Flair fades but gets a foot on the bottom rope. Luger puts it on again but Flair quickly suplexes out. Flair tries to suplex Luger out of the ring but Luger reverses, then drags Flair to the corner and wraps his knee around the post. Luger tries to put a figure four on but does it all wrong and Flair gets away. It's not the Paradise Lock, how hard is it to figure out a figure four? Luger powerslam, long 2 count that the crowd bit big time on. Luger blocks a hiptoss and rolls over a backslide for another long 2. Flair successfully gets off the top rope with an ax handle. Twice! Flair hooks a sleeper on. Luger gets 2 arm drops then starts to power back. Flair pushes him face first into the corner and rolls him up for 2. Flair hits the kneebreaker. Get your #2 pencils sharpened kids, we're going to school! Classic Flair knee work followed by the figure four with rope leverage. Sting hobbles out and jaws with Flair. Luger uses the distraction to roll over into the ropes. Sting gets in Luger's face and pumps him up. In almost any era after this everyone would expect Sting to turn on Luger there. Luger hulks up and no sells more chops. Flair rolls out. Luger no sells a barricade shot. Press slam 4. Flair gets clotheslined over and out, then Luger suplexes him back in for a 2 count. Another powerslam. Luger calls for the Rack, but then covers Flair in a position where Woman can slap him (slightly contrived, that). Luger drags her onto the apron. Flair hits him with a running knee in the back that takes Patrick out. Flair Flip 2! He gets around and off the top rope, but Luger nails him with a clothesline on the way down. Cover, no ref. Superplex! No ref. The Andersons run in. Luger fights them off. Torture Rack! Flair is out and has no chance, he's not even moving. Patrick is stirring and asking Flair if he submits. Before he can or Patrick can call it, the Andersons attack Sting! Luger chooses his friend over the belt and goes out to save him. The Andersons wrap him up and get him counted out. Fantastic ending. The Horsemen beat Luger down a bit more until the Steiners run in to chase them off. Watch this match right after Luger's '88 matches with Flair and it's easy to see how much he grew during his US title run in '89. Great stuff, and even at nearly 40 minutes it never once felt like it was going too long or dragging. ****1/4

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- This was a tremendous recovery from the very disappointing Starrcade to close out '89. If you're looking for a show that showcases how great tag wrestling can be, this is one to go for. Two good tag matches, one Rock N Roll/Midnights classic, and topped off by your typical 4+ star Flair title defense.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: A-