World Championship Wrestling (Saturday Edition) January 26th 1991
World Championship Wrestling (Saturday Edition) 1/26/1991
CHAMPIONS:
NWA World Heavyweight Champion: Ric Flair (1/11/1991)
United States Champion: Lex Luger (12/16/1990)
Television Champion: Tom "Z-Man" Zenk (12/29/1990)*
Tag Team Champions: Doom (5/19/1990)
U.S. Tag Team Champions: The Steiner Brothers (8/24/1990)
-Ah yes, 1991
WCW! Where Jim Herd’s entire head had
managed to make its way completely up his ass.
We are two weeks removed from Flair regaining the NWA World Championship
from Sting at a house show in New Jersey, which was meant to draw a huge gate,
but the snowstorm brought it down to 5000 fans (which sadly still among the
best draws WCW had at the time). Sting
was sadly a scapegoat for bad business, and the company botching his title
reign with a terrible finish at Halloween Havoc, not to mention the Black
Scorpion which was mercifully done at this point. So they went back to the guy Herd was
constantly trying to fuck with in Ric Flair.
Cornette & The Midnight’s were gone, Ole had just completely lost
touch at this point, and the Black Scorpion pretty much sealed his fate and he
was demoted. Dusty would be back around
this time having just left the WWF after a year and a half run there, and he’d
be taking the book back again. SPOILER:
Things don’t get much better. But be
that as it may, talent is one thing WCW isn’t short of, and they have another
Clash of the Champions special coming up.
So let’s get to it.
Jim Ross is your
host. Later joined by Paul E.
Dangerously
Ricky
Morton vs. Rip Rogers
I love me the
Hustler, but Rogers looks like “when you order Adrian Street from Wish”. Morton could still go, but the shine was off
the star, as Gibson was hurt at the time, and Morton approaching a very ill-fated
heel turn. Starts off with a lock-up and
countered waist locks, and a series of reversed wrist locks. Morton gains control with a side headlock
take over, but Rogers reverses it into a head scissors. JR does a great job at hyping the Clash
during this match. A series of reversals
as Morton goes back to the headlock. Morton
smartly uses Rogers’ pig tails to toss him to the mat. Rogers however goes to work on the lower
back, and hits a powerslam for two. Morton
however tries to gain momentum with a sunset flip and only gets two as he
favors the back. Morton however ducks a
knee charge from Rogers in the corner, and gets the roll-up for three. Sad they couldn’t do more with Rogers in
WCW.
-Clip of
last week with Terry Taylor being interviewed by Paul E., but Taylor thinks
being in the ring with Morton is not what his career needs right now as he
seeks a TV Title shot.
-Paul E.
interviews Morton back in the present day, as Taylor calls out Dangerously for
stirring the pot, as the two shake hands going into their upcoming Clash
match. Which disgusts Paul E. Love Heyman.
Sid
Vicious vs. Greg Sawyer
Insert promo from
Sid threatening to put another man on a stretcher which was a good story they’d
been building with him, that would ultimately lead to a payoff with El Gigante
a few months after this. Yes, make your
jokes now, as I know you’re all thinking it.
Paul E joins commentary and puts Sid over really well, as JR alludes to
War Games coming up at Wrestle War ’91 but the match hasn’t been announced
yet. Anyway, powerbomb … thanks for
coming Greg. The Western Union replay
shows Sid planting the poor guy on his head, which would later befall Pillman
at War Games.
-Promo for
Wrestle War ’91, and a sweepstakes contest.
Show was actually quite good.
-Wrestling
Wrap-Up with Gordon Solie. As he hypes
up the main even for the Clash, as Scott Steiner will go up against Ric Flair
for the title. We get a clip of a
locker-room promo from Flair just shortly after he won back his title in New
Jersey, a great segment as the babyfaces are disgusted as they all leave the
locker-room shouting at Flair, as Wallstreet high fives Flair on his way out of
the locker-room and on his way to WWF.
Flair makes the questionable call of calling the name of the Steiner’s as
they walk by. Good build here as the
Steiner’s, especially Scott was getting the better of Flair and the
Horsemen. Also should point out the
Steiner’s were over HUGE at this point, and many believed Scott would get a
huge singles push out of this, but he didn’t as many felt the match wasn’t
great (it wasn’t bad actually), and Scott and others have even accused Flair of
sabotaging it. It went to a draw, and
there was no real payoff. Flair &
Steiner cut promos, and we also see clips of an 8-men tag with the Horsemen
taking on Sting, Pillman & The Steiner’s which ended in a schmoz last week
on the Main Event.
Tim
Horner vs. Sheik Ali Shikar
Paul E. stays on
commentary, as I really never got it with Horner, who was good enough for what
he was, but nothing stood out about him.
Paul E. hilariously mocks Missy Hyatt as usual, and also tries to bury
Dusty Rhodes who was returning at the Clash, to amusing results as Jim Ross
holds back his disdain. Anyway, the
action isn’t bad here, good back and forth but Shikar takes firm control until
Horner hits a sunset flip, but only gets two.
Paul E. is absolute gold as a chauvinist heel. Horner wins it with a nice bridge roll-up,
and keeps his shoulder up. Horner pretty
much stuck around until Smoky Mountain opened up and also had run with New
Japan.
-Missy Hyatt
interviews Michael Wallstreet & Alexandra York. York says according to her expert computer
technology, that Wallstreet will beat Tim Horner in less than 9 minutes and 37
seconds.
Michael
Wallstreet (w/Alexandra York) vs. Scott Allan
Alexandra York says
Allan will lose in less than 6 minutes.
That’s all she has to say. Thank
god. Anyway, Wallstreet makes relatively
short work of Allan, and wins with a Samoan Drop, which he calls The Stock
Crash. Sadly we never did get that EPIC
payoff between Wallstreet and Horner, as Rotunda was pretty much already done
with the company when this match aired!
He did a quick stint in Japan, and was in the WWF by April as
I.R.S.
Tag Team
Champions Doom (w/Teddy Long) vs. Mike Hart & Mike Samples
They were building
up to Doom’s split at this point, with Ron Simmons about to make a well timed
face turn. Simmons beats the piss out of
one of the poor goobers, and hits a nice snapmare followed by a legdrop. Simmons then rams the head of Samples into
the Butch’s foot, as he comes in. Butch
aggressively rams Samples’ face into the mat, and literally rubs in in. Butch gets tired of beating up Samples so he
throws him into his partner for a tag, and now it’s Hart’s turn to be
throttled. Butch delivers an underhook
suplex, and stomps away in the corner.
Ron comes in and hits a slam, and tags Butch back in the match. Reed hits consecutive back breakers, and ref
stops the match, but Reed piledrives the poor schlub anyway. Doom is so awesome! However, Ron tries to restrain Reed from continuing
the beatdown, but hilariously knocks out Samples as if to say “LET ME HANDLE
THIS!”. Man even towards their break-up
they were amazing.
-Paul E.
does a great job as he interviews Doom & Teddy, building up the dream match
against Sting & Lex Luger at the Clash.
Teddy of course brings the awesome, saying they’re ready to party it up
in Atlanta, but Ron brings them back down to earth, saying that they need to be
all business with Sting & Luger.
-Also at the
Clash there will be a wrestling hotline, which is being run by Gordon Solie and
Lance Russell. **sigh** two of the
all-time greats wasted in their roles.
But at the same time though, when you have Jim Ross as your lead play by
play guy, Bob Caudle still around, and had Tony Schiavone who still seemed to
give a shit at this point, I guess it’s not easy.
Flyin’
Brian Pillman vs. The Cajun Predator
Pillman is CRAZY
over here, and was on the verge of being a star, but you know … WCW and
all. Anyway, Pillman is a house of fire,
but calms things down a notch with a head scissor submission. The Predator tries to chop Pillman, but he
regrets that pretty quick as Pillman retaliates with his own. The Predator nearly takes control, but
Pillman’s missile dropkick connects, and he finishes with a slingshot
clothesline. Pillman really was ready
for the next level at this point, and Flair bless his heart was trying to make
Pillman like he made Sting a few years prior, but again … WCW! Amazing Pillman still had the decent run he
had despite the obstacles.
-WCW hotline
ad, where a semi memorable meme of Sting originated from. Also Missy Hyatt on a 900 number line would
take on a whole new meaning 10 years later.
The
(Not-So) Fabulous Freebirds vs. David Isley & John Faulkner
*sigh*Ok, love
Michael Hayes and the original Freebirds!
Love Gorgeous Jimmy Garvin! HATE
this version of the Freebirds, as it just seemed contrived and forced. Michael struts his stuff after he hits a drop
toe hold, as Paul E. & Ross argue about the Freebirds music careers in
hilarious fashion. JR: The only records
the Freebirds have are on file at the police station. I love shoot comments that aren’t supposed to
be shoot comments. Jimmy JAM (ugh even
that name makes me cringe) comes in to deliver a couple of slams, before Hayes
comes back in and hits a second rope forearm, and then lays in some punches but
only gets a two-count. Garvin back in,
and hits a knee drop to the head, and applies a sleeper hold. Hayes comes back in and stomps away, and hits
a knee to the gut, as Garvin comes back in nails the DDT for the win. Next.
U.S. Tag
Team Champion Scott Steiner vs. John Peterson.
Scott gonna kill
someone! And he’s off to a good start
nailing a hiptoss, as JR & Paul E. do a fantastic job building Steiner up
in a minute as a main event guy,better than any WWE commentator could do
throughout a whole match. Scott hits a
nice Steiner-line, and drops an elbow.
Scott is MADLY over here, as he perches Peterson on the top rope, and a
very beautiful belly to belly overhead suplex.
Frankensteiner … goodnight! Scott
was just on fire at this point, but again … WCW! But he still had many great days ahead. The Nintendo replay, shows more of Scott’s
greatness.
The Royal
Family vs. Keith Hart & Larry Santos
Nope, it’s NOT THAT
Keith Hart! Sorry to disappoint. I actually didn’t know The Royal’s were still
around at this point, as they are the team comprised of former Sheepherders
flag bearer Rip Morgan, and journeyman Jack Victory. Paul E: Did you know Santos is Spanish for
Stupid? JR: No. Morgan clubs away at Santos, as he and
Victory hit some cool double team spots, with Victory just LAUNCHING into a
jumping clothesline. Morgan back in, and
just YANKS Hart down and hits him with a good bodyslam, and finds different
ways to drop him on the mat. Victory
comes in, and continues the onslaught, while Rip is back in and obliterates
Hart even further. Victory comes back in
and works the arm over. Morgan continues
to beat on poor Keith, and drops successive elbows, and goes back to the
arm. Santos finally gets tagged in, but
it don’t’ work out to well for him as the Royal’s hit a double suplex, and get
the win. This was a fun squash, as
Victory & Morgan meshed well, but never really ascended anywhere. They’d actually stick around WCW until the
Summer, they had a brief run together in GWF as well as Smokey Mountain, but
Morgan ended up in Germany where he’d finish his career in 1993. Jack Victory would have a pretty good run as
Titan for CMLL in Mexico by 1992, and also had a run in ECW hanging out with
Steve Corino. He still works the odd
indy date.
-Paul E. interviews Sting & Luger as the
crowd loses their shit, at their mere presence.
Paul E. not so subtly tells Sting to face the hard-cam. Luger cuts an intense promo on Doom, while
Sting pretty much says Doom is losing focus going into their match at the
Clash. I will dare say at this point,
Luger was BETTER than Sting, and Sting is one of my all-time favorites, but it
was in 1992 I truly felt Sting became an elite wrestler. Luger however between 1988-91, was truly
something to behold, I mean he was having great matches with a seemingly washed
up Tommy Rich, and Dan Spivey for god sake!
Luger could GO at this time!
Sting could too, but it seemed like something was missing.
-Video
package of Paul E. and Missy Hyatt and the lead-up to their arm wrestling
match. Thanks to Paul this had intrigue,
but Missy was definitely miscast as a babyface.
Arn
Anderson & Barry Windham vs. Rick Ford & Carl Robertson
Heel tandem Arn
& Barry get a bigger babyface reaction than some of the babyfaces on the
roster at this time. Both are still part
of the Horsemen here. Anyway, one of the
goobers mocks Arn by even trying a headlock, and pays for it dearly, as he hits
a backdrop suplex, and beats the disrespect out of him. Barry comes in, and hits a nice suplex, and
has some fun beating the other goober. Barry
tosses him out of the ring quite hard, as Arn rubs his fac into the ringside
mat simply because he can and tosses the other one non saliently in the
ring. Windham hits a second rope suplex
for the win, as sadly these two are stuck feuding with the Renegade Warriors at
this point. Thankfully better days were
ahead for Arn, while Barry was still good for awhile, before becoming
unmotivated again by 1993.
-Cool
vignette filmed in black and white with Arn & Barry, making subtle jabs at
the WWF saying they lost their touch in the late 80’s, as they may have gotten
a little soft, which also makes sense since Arn just lost his TV title to the
Z-Man (because why not?), and they both say their resurgence is on the way in
1991! Great promos from both guys here,
and a well made vignette.
-Jim Ross is
back with more hype for the Clash, as we recap the Beautiful Bobby/Z-Man
feud. And we see Bobby the heel, get a
huge babyface pop attacking the Z-Man. We
get a fired up promo from the Z-Man, and says “Eaton’s gonna get a
beatin”. Ugh!
Beautiful
Bobby Eaton vs. Brett Wayne
JR kind of takes a
shot at Cornette by saying for years Eaton had a “manager who never let him get
a word in edge-wise” after Eaton cuts an insert promo. Wasn’t a bad promo either, but Eaton’s voice
sounded like a babyface! Wayne is indeed
the former Brett Wayne Sawyer, or just Brett Sawyer, known for his days in Portland
as well as Mid South/UWF. He and Eaton
start out with some nice chain wrestling, but Eaton takes full control with a
clothesline, and then claws away at the face of Wayne utilizing the five count
as Wayne rolls to the outside, and Eaton goes after him hitting a shot to the
jaw and taking the action back in the ring.
Bobby hits a couple of nice elbows, and hits an open fist out of the
ref’s view. Brilliant. Front face lock by Eaton, wears Wayne down. Wayne however fights out of it, and hits a back
bodrydrop, and starts a flurry, but runs into Eaton’s elbow. Alabama Jam finishes it. Thankfully WCW would smarten up and turn him
face shortly after this, but he’d be a heel again by 1992, but at least got a
decent run out of it being part of the Dangerous Alliance. Wayne was pretty much gone after this, and he
did some indy’s as well as some brief runs in Japan, but retired by 1998.
Renegade
Warriors vs. The State Patrol
Indeed the Warriors
are a new incarnation of Mark & Chris Youngblood (the latter sadly passed
away this past Summer), who were ok I guess, but even years after Jay’s death,
seemed to stand in his shadow. While the
State Patrol, (yeesh) was one of many incarnations of Sgt. Buddy Lee Parker. His
partner Lt. James Wright, played by Dale Veysey. These two would actually team on and off well
into the late 90’s in WCW! Wowsers. I’ll give Sarge credit, he sells big for
these two trying to make them look good.
Nothing to write home about here, as the Warriors win with double
tomahawk chops.
-Ross is
supposed to interview the Warriors, but Windham & Arn interrupt the
proceedings, as the Warriors say they don’t want to wait for the Clash, and
challenge the Horsemen now. Anyway, it
all ends in a brawl as the show ends.
Final
Thoughts:
WCW had
their issues, but they did a superb job building up the Clash, and much thanks
to Jim Ross & Paul E. for that. This
was a fun show that breezed by quick, and showed WCW had some good things going
for them (The Steiner’s, Flair, Sting, Luger, Pillman, Barry, Bobby & Arn). They did a great job building to Doom’s
impending split (which pretty much was it for Butch Reed as a top tier talent
though he would stick around well into 1992).
And while even though Scott Steiner and Pillman looked like two big
stars ready to hit the next level here on this show, that changed quickly. Steiner’s singles push was dead after the
Clash, and Pillman’s would be dead after Wrestle War. That being said, it didn’t hurt Scott in the
end, and Pillman still succeded in many ways over the next few years just to
spite the powers that be. Things were
about to get REALLY bad however, but as a stand alone show, it was good, and it
gave a glimmer of hope that WCW had shed the Black Scorpion nightmare and was ready
to move on.
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