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+