EVENT REVIEW: WCW Clash of the Champions XI - Costal Crush

June 13, 1990 Charleston, South Carolina

By the time WCW Clash of the Champions XI - Costal Crush came around, Sting was still out of action, recovering from the knee injury he'd suffered back at the tenth Clash event.

Still, as the company's top babyface, WCW eager to keep him around on screen, having him pop-up for promos in which he verbally sparred with The Four Horsemen.

Meanwhile, the man he would inevitably go on to dethrone for the World Heavyweight Championship, Nature Boy Ric Flair prepared to put his title on the line against Junkyard Dog.

While there was no doubting JYD's popularity, his inclusion in this match certainly felt like something of a stop-gap, a way to kill time until Sting could finally get his date with destiny.

Here's what went down when Costal Crush came to South Carolina.

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They’re Back (and better than ever)

Our show tonight began with a tour of Charleston, with a voice-over informing us that the last time WCW had scheduled a show here, Hurricane Hugo had prevented it.

Tonight, WCW was back, and sow too were the people of Charleston.

Heading live into the arena, a fresh-faced Tony Schiavone had questions for us:

Could Junkyard Dog dethrone Ric Flair to become the first black NWA champion?

Could The Steiners reclaim the world tag team titles from Doom? And would the Rock ‘n’ Roll Express be able to make history by capturing the US tag team champions?

We’d find out the answers to all of these questions tonight at Costal Crush, but first, we went to our announcers Jim Ross and Bob Caudle.

The duo hyped up tonight’s three big title matches along with other exciting moments such as an appearance by El Gigante and Lex Luger answering questions on the WCW hotline.

With that, it was down to ringside for our opening contest.

Wild-Eyed Southern Boys (Steve Armstrong & Tracy Smothers) vs. The Fabulous Freebirds (Michael ‘P.S’ Hayes & Jimmy ‘Jam’ Garvin)

Prior to the bell, Tracy Smothers & Steve Armstrong gave a pre-recorded promo in which they stood in front of a rebel flag and talked about how southern they were.

We then saw a clip of Michael ‘P.S’ Hayes strutting his stuff in front of a live band as he sang ‘Bad Street USA.’

The match finally got underway and proved to be a textbook opening contest - not so much a classic wrestling match, but the Freebirds heeling it up and the Wild-Eyed Southern Boys doing their plucky underdog routine to perfection.

It was a good combination that produced a fun match with lots of enjoyable back-and-forth action culminating in the Southern Boys picking up the upset victory thanks to Armstrong’s well-placed flying head butt to Jimmy Garvin’s kidneys. Your Winners: The Wild-Eyed Southern Boys

Before going to a commercial, we got a reminder that LEX LUGAR was going to be on the wrestling hotline.

Trust WCW to spell the name of one of their biggest stars wrong.

After the commercial, it was right on to our next match.

Bam Bam Bigelow (w/ Sir Oliver Humperdink) vs. ‘Wildfire’ Tommy Rich

This wasn’t much of a match at all.

Tommy Rich control in the early going and worked Bam Bam Bigelow’s arm for a bit then got him in the corner to drop ten punches on his noggin.

Bammer responded by choking Rich out until he got himself disqualified and that was that. Your Winner by DQ: Tommy Rich

Post-match, Bam Bam went nuts, beating Rich some more then storming about the ring yelling ‘ARGH! I’LL KILL EVERYBODY!’

To be fair, that was better than almost the entire match.

Another commercial break followed, after which we were told about the company’s next PPV, The Great American Bash.

Jim Ross informed us that none other than Big Van Vader would be debuting at that show, and this led us to a clip of the late, great Leon White making his entrance at a show in Japan wearing that absolute bad ass head gear that he used to wear.

Speaking of bad ass, we next went to Gary Michael Capetta.

Standing in the ring, GNC confirmed that Vader would be debuting at the Bash along with another man, the largest athlete in the world, El Gigante.

El Gigante Speaks (in Spanish)

The big man made his way to the ring as GMC read off some impressive stats about how big his feet were before informing us that Gigante would be teaming with Junkyard Dog and Paul Orndorff to take on The Four Horsemen at The Great American Bash.

Capetta then interviewed the newcomer in Spanish, informing us that the future Giant Gonzales was looking forward to making his debut and knew that WCW was the place to be.

Honestly, it says something when your hot, new star is outshined by your ring announcer.

The Samoan Swat Team (Fatu & The Savage) vs. Captain Mike & Z-Man

This was decent for what it was, but it was too short to be anything meaningful.

The Samoans dominated the match with some fast-but-hard offence, taking out Z-Man and leaving him prime for pinning.

Before they got the fall, however, Fatu and The Savage took to the ropes to pose.

With their backs turned, Zenk swapped places with Captain Mike who lay prone on the mat but then revealed he was playing possum and rolled up his opponent for the 1,2,3. Your Winners: Captain Mike & Z-Man

Yes, apparently, The Samoans were too stupid to realise that Rotunda and Zenk were not the same person even though they looked nothing alike.

Up next, we got a highlight package of Mean Mark, showing us that the big man was far more capable and athletic than his early portrayal of The Undertaker would have you believe.

Mean Mark (w/ Paul Heyman) vs. Flyin’ Brian Pillman

This was another fun-but-short match pitting Mark’s brute strength and aggressiveness against Brian Pillman’s fast-paced, high-flying offence.

It was good stuff for the most part, but everything felt really rushed in order to make it to the commercial break on time.

After getting his butt handed to him for a while, Pillman made a valiant, crowd-popping comeback only to have Mean Mark lift him up and drop him, throat-first on the top rope.

That was enough to end the whole match. Your Winner: Mean Mark

After the commercial break, Sting gave a backstage interview to Tony Schiavone.

The future Hall of Famer didn’t really say anything particularly noteworthy other than reminding us that he hated Ric Flair, but he spoke with an intensity and charisma that made it obvious why he would be a headline act for the rest of his career.

National Wrestling Alliance United States Tag Team Championship
NWA US Tag Team Champions The Midnight Express (Sweet Stan Lane & Beautiful Bobby Eaton w/ Jim Cornette) vs. The Rock & Roll Express (Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson)

The one thing you have to love about the Midnight Express and the Rock & Roll Express was that they must have wrestled each other a million times over and yet no two of their matches ever felt exactly the same.

Prior to the bell, both teams gave us pre-record promos in front of a green screen.

The green screen enabled WCW’s production team to present each promo as if they were stood in front of an old, slowly-chugging locomotive.

It was the least ‘express’-looking train in the world.

The match got underway and was great fun until Sweet Stan Lane got his team disqualified for roughing up Retro Pro Wrestling favourite Nick Patrick.Your Winners via Disqualification: The Rock & Roll Express (The Midnight Express retain the titles)

After a quick commercial break, it was onto our next match.

‘The World’s Strongest Man’ Doug Furnas vs. Barry Windham

Like most Clash bouts, this one didn’t last very long but it was at least entertaining.

Jim Ross spent most of the bout gushing over Doug Furnas’ athletic credentials and how well he did in high school football, but if he’d been paying attention to what was going on in the ring he would have called a fun, explosive big man match which ended when Barry Windham hit Furnas with a back suplex then used the ropes for leverage to score the three count. Your Winner: Barry Windham

The match was followed by multiple replays of Windham’s nefarious cheating ways.

Then, following another commercial break, a tuxedo-clad Sid Vicious gave us a green-screen promo in which he ranted about how much he was going to destroy Lex Luger.

Sid Vicious (w/ Ole Anderson) vs. Lex Luger

Not that Sid would actually get a chance to.

Luger, who was now a babyface again, stormed the ring and immediately clobbered Four Horsemen reps Sid and Ole Anderson.

He then clotheslined Sid and pinned him in about 30 seconds.

Seriously, what was the point of that? Your Winner: Lex Luger

Post-match, Jim Ross and Bob Caudle hyped the upcoming Great American Bash.

WCW World Heavyweight Tag Team Championship
WCW Tag Team Champions Doom (Ron Simmons & Butch Reed w/ Teddy Long) vs. The Steiner Brothers (Rick & Scott Steiner)

You know, I can’t believe I’ve never mentioned this before, but it’s funny how un-Doom-like Doom’s jazzy theme music was.

Anyway, this rematch from Capital Combat was a damn fine effort. It went twice as long as most Clash matches and saw Scott Steiner shine as an absolute superstar in the making.

Not that the rest of the competitors didn’t play their part.

All four delivered a decent match which may not seem like a classic today but was very entertaining in its own right.

The end came when Scott Steiner looked to have the match won with a top rope clothesline to Butch Reed, only for Ron Simmons to nail him with what Jim Ross later called -and I quote- “one of those world-famous international objects.”

That allowed Doom to retain their titles for our second cheap win in as many matches. Your Winners and Still Tag Team Champions: Doom

Out in the crowd, Junkyard Dog gave a lively interview to Tony Schiavone in which he promised that tonight was definitely going to be his night.

This was followed by a green screen promo in which Mr. Wonderful Paul Orndorff promised Arn Anderson that it was payback time.

Mr. Wonderful Paul Orndorff vs. WCW Television Champion Arn Anderson

Double A’s title wasn’t on the line here for this one, but Orndorff took it and strutted around the ring with it anyway.

Title or not, this was a solid effort.

Both men were talented performers and certainly didn’t disappoint on this occasion, giving us a decent old-school match with the crowds firmly on the side of Mr. Wonderful.

After a fun contest, Orndorff scored the three count with an inside cradle. Your Winner: Paul Orndorff

Before the main event, Tony Schiavone interviewed The Four Horsemen.

Ole Anderson ranted about how nobody would ever take the title away from Flair, while Flair himself cut his typical charismatic promo.

As well as hyping his match with JYD, Flair put over Arn Anderson almost beating Mr. Wonderful and Barry Windham “destroying” Doug Furnas, but curiously said nothing about Sid getting his ass handed to him in about 20 seconds by Lex Luger.

Finally, it was time for our feature attraction.

National Wrestling Alliance World Heavyweight Championship
NWA World Heavyweight Champion Nature Boy Ric Flair (w/ Ole Anderson) vs. Junkyard Dog

This was a short but fun main event that was played more for its entertainment value than as a straight-up technical masterpiece.

I doubt anyone ever really took Junkyard Dog seriously as a credible contender and he was never going to go toe-to-toe and hold-for-hold with the Nature Boy, but the crowds loved him anyway as he battered Flair from pillar to post.

Getting frustrated at not being able to get the better of his opponent, the champion grabbed a chair and waffled JYD with it while Ole Anderson distracted the official.

Dog no-sold the move, and when the cowardly heels realised they were running out of options, Ole ran in for the DQ. Your Winner via Disqualification: Junkyard Dog (Ric Flair retains)

Post-match, The Four Horsemen ran in to attack JYD but this brought out Sting, Luger, and Paul Orndorff to even the score.

El Gigante came out too, but he mainly stood around on the apron looking completely lost.

Sting Issues a Challenge

After a commercial break and an ad encouraging you to call or write in for information about “WCW Gift Items,” Jim Ross interviewed Rocky King who said something about people having no necks before making room for Sting.

Wearing a garish Lex Luger t-shirt, the company’s biggest babyface challenged Flair to put the title on the line at The Great American Bash 1990.

Flair didn’t say one way or the other whether he accepted the challenge, but he did return to the ring for a brawl with Sting.

The two continued to fight as the credits rolled, with Jim Ross urging us to call the WCW Hotline to hear how that fight turned out.

In other words, folks, we’re outta time!

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On the whole, Clash of the Champions 11 was a good show.

The main event was entertaining in its own way. JYD may have been limited from an in-ring standpoint (at least compared to Flair), but he and the champion made the most out of what they had to work with and the results were a lot of fun.

Elsewhere, most matches were reasonably good if you remember that this was really only a glorified TV show and thus don’t go into it expecting Pay Per View quality.

Doom vs. Steiners was this writer’s favourite, but overall this was a decent, watchable show.

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Other 1990 pro wrestling reviews: 

• WWF Royal Rumble 1990
• WCW Clash of the Champions X: Texas Shoot Out
• WCW Wrestlewar 1990
• WWF Wrestlemania XI
• WCW Capital Combat 1990
• WWF Summerslam 1990
• WWF Survivor Series 1990

Other Clash of the Champions Reviews:

• NWA Clash of the Champions 1 
• WCW Clash of the Champions X: Texas Shootout 

Be the first to catch the latest Retro Pro Wrestling reviews by following on Facebook or Twitter @RetroPWrestling. 

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PPV REVIEW: WCW Capital Combat 1990

May 19, 1990, D.C. Armory in Washington, D.C

There's only one thing anybody remembers about WCW Capital Combat 1990:

The appearance of Robocop.

Widely hailed as one of the most ridiculous things the company ever presented (which, for WCW, is saying something!), Robocop's much-maligned involvement at the event was done to tie in with the release of the Robocop 2 movie and pretty much overshadowed everything else that went down on the card. 

To be honest, that's a shame, because even though Capital Combat was never destined to go down in history as an all-time classic event, it certainly had more to offer than a goofy publicity stunt. 

Don't believe me?

Here's what went down when World Championship Wrestling came to Washington D.C.

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Capital Combat 1990 - The Return of Robocop

Tonight’s show opened with a short, animated video which showed a classified file being opened to reveal that it was full of press clippings about Sting’s injury, a flyer for tonight’s show, and randomly, a photograph of Rick Steiner.

After zooming into an also-animated shot of the Capitol building, we went live to the arena where a fresh-faced Tony Schiavone put in his first NWA/WCW appearance since -I think- Starrcade 1988.

Schiavone got things underway by hyping up tonight’s three title matches before sending it to a brass band for a rendition of the Star Spangled Banner in commemoration of Armed Forces Day.

Next, Big Tony introduced us to our play-by-play team of Jim Ross and Bob Caudle who also decided to tell us about the title matches while we waited for the matches to begin.

Kevin Sullivan, Bam Bam Bigelow, and Cactus Jack (w/ Sir Oliver Humperdink) vs. Norman The Lunatic and The Road Warriors (Hawk & Animal)

The Road Warriors came down riding pillion on some other dudes Harleys so Norman followed suit by riding a child’s scooter to the ring.

Honestly, this writer laughed way too hard at that.

In terms of stature, this seemed like a demotion for Hawk and Animal, but they made the most of it and so too did everyone else involved.

Moving at a much faster pace than you’d imagine given the participants, it was a fun, solid 10-or-so minute match with a lot of good action.

Not too surprisingly, the good guys won after Hawk nailed Kevin Sullivan with a top rope clothesline. Your Winners: Norman & The Road Warriors

The losers of the match hadn’t even left the ring when Johnny Ace’s music hit ready for the next match.

Johnny Ace vs. Mean Mark (w/ Theodore Long)

Before the action got underway, Jim Ross tried to sell us on just how mean Mean Mark really was by noting that his favourite signer was Ozzy Osborne.

“He bites the heads off bats, you know,” said Ross, almost proudly.

There was no biting in this one, but there was some fairly decent action.

Though the match probably went about five minutes longer than necessary and wasn’t very inspiring in places, it was nonetheless a good effort that saw Ozzy’s number one fan pick up the win thanks to a heart punch and an elbow from the middle of the top rope.

Your Winner: Mean Mark

Post-match, Ross and Caudle showed us that Mark’s impressive top rope elbow had scored an 8.2 on the Slam-O-Meter, which really was as cheesy as it sounds: an honest-to-goodness scale rating the impact of certain moves that looked like it came right from a Nickelodeon game show.

Sting is Concerned for the Little Stingers

Out in the back, Gordon Sollie hung around outside Sting’s locker room which was protected by two security guards, one of whom looked suspiciously like Big E.

Sollie basically recapped the story of Sting’s feud with The Four Horsemen, how he got kicked out of the group at Clash of the Champions X: Texas Shoot-Out and was subsequently injured.

This somehow led to Sting now being friends with fricken Robocop of all people and to Sollie telling us over and over again how concerned Sting was for his little Stingers.

Back in the arena, The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express ranted and raved about how good the NWA was and how they were going to quite literally whip some ass in the upcoming Corporal Punishment match.

While Ricky Morton tried to break Hulk Hogan’s record for the most uses of the word ‘brother,’ in a single promo, Robert Gibson made hand signals at the camera.

I've since been informed in the comments that this was Gibson speaking in sign language to his brother who was deaf, but I still like to think that what he was saying was “I’m stuck on a Robocop-themed PPV, send help.”

The Samoan Swat Team (Fatu & Tama) vs. Captain Mike Rotunda & ‘Wildfire’ Tommy Rich

At this point, Captain Mike Rotunda had gone full Sail Boat Captain and had teamed up with Tommy Rich in what seemed like an odd-pairing.

Speaking of Rotunda, did you know that he was a finalist in a punt-pass-kick competition when he was 9 years-old?

If you watched any NWA/early WCW you certainly did because Jim Ross mentioned it EVERY. SINGLE.TIME that Rotunda wrestled.

I’m telling you all this because it was far more interesting than anything that actually happened in the match.

The Samoans stalled for literally about three minutes as they kept trying to do their pre-match ritual only to be interrupted by Tommy Rich’s incessant whistling.

Honestly, I know he was the babyface but it made me really f**ng hate Wildfire. Just let them get the damn thing done so that the match could start!

Not that much of anything happened once it did.

Though it was competently performed, the match was bland, boring, in exciting and went on for far too long.

The SST won with a flash pin. Your Winners: The Samoan Swat Team

Somewhere in the arena, Tony Schiavone interviewed tag team champions The Steiner Brothers about their upcoming match with Doom.

Scott Steiner was either meeting Schiavone for the first time since the announcer had returned from the WWF or he just being Scott Steiner as he referred to him by the name “Tommy...Tony Savvany.”

He then proceeded to rant about how very few people were lining up to face The Steiners because of how tough they were.

For his part, Rick was still playing the ‘frustrated simpleton’ gimmick (at least I think it was a gimmick) as he spluttered his way through a few lines about how good of a team Doom were.

Sweepstakes Winners

Prior to the next match, Garry Michael Capetta introduced us to the winners of the Capital Combat sweepstakes contest.

He’d actually tried to do this earlier but got drowned out by theme music and we never actually got to see the winners on camera.

This time, we saw that the two winners were an older couple who were clearly a bit bemused about being pointed out and did their best to wave to the audience.

Bless ‘em, it was adorably cute.

Hair vs. Hair Match Precious Paul Ellering vs. Teddy ‘Sugar Ray’ Long

Missy Hyatt was the guest ring announcer for this one. I feel almost blasphemous saying anything negative about the beautiful Ms. Hyatt, but ring announcing was not her forte.

Sure, she was competent, but she was also kind of shrill.

Anyway, Teddy Long came down wearing boxing gloves, one of which was loaded.

After getting attacked from behind, Paul Ellering made a comeback, stripped Long of his gloves and whacked him around the noggin with the loaded one to win this short nothing match. Your Winner: Paul Ellering

Afterwards, they had a moustachioed gentleman in a sequin jacket named Jay Tapper out to do the haircutting.

JR had told us that Tapper was a ‘stylist to the stars’ and implied that he was famous, however a Google search for ‘Jay Tapper stylist’ only brings up his name in relation to this event, so he can’t have been all that famous.

With Long out cold, Tapper shaved like three little tufts off hair from the back of Long’s head so that it was visibily clear that ol’ Sugar Ray still had plenty left on his head.

This, therefore, wasn’t so much ‘Loser Loses Their Hair’ as it was ‘Loser Gets a Half-Hearted Trim.

The Four Horsemen are Fired Up

Up next, Tommy Savanny had words with the Four Horsemen who were all fired up apart from Sid Vicious, who just stood in the background wearing a tuxedo for no explainable reason.

Ole Anderson started by shouting about how the Horsemen would never let Ric Flair lose the title and the fact that Lex Luger fighting hurt was not as courageous as it was being made out to be.

Ric Flair promised that Luger would be a one-legged athlete for the rest of his life. At one point, Flair even insisted that Luger was half the man Nature Boy was, and you could almost see the cog’s working in Sid’s brain as he stored that line for a later date.

National Wrestling Alliance United States Tag Team Championship
NWA Tag Team Champions Flyin’ Brian & Z-Man vs. The Midnight Express (Sweet Stan Lane & Beautiful Bobby Eaton w/ Jim Cornette)

Jim Cornette must be locked in a cage. 

This was just a tremendous match.

With Jim Cornette locked in a cage at ringside, Stan Lane and Bobby Eaton locked horns went up against Flyin’ Brian and The Z-Man in about that was fast-paced (for the time) exciting and with nary a dull moment in sight.

It was one of those wonderful old-school matches where arm drags and dropkicks were to the audience what a 450 plancha is to today’s audience and it was all the more enjoyable for it.

After an adrenaline-charged match with lots of entertaining action, Sweet Stan kicked Z-Man in the back of the head, Beautiful Bobby rolled him up and new champions were crowned. Your Winners and New US Tag Team Champions: The Midnight Express

Afterwards, the camera lingered ominously on the empty cage before Jim Ross plugged July’s Great American Bash.

Robocop is Here

Out in the back, Gordon Sollie told us that Robocop was here and he was.

A bunch of official-looking Men in Black types rushed out of a room wearing suits and holding a finger to their ear the way official-looking Men in Black types usually do in films, all before the robotic police officer stepped out of the smoke and began walking forward.

At that point, however, there was chaos and confusion.

The screen turned to static and that was all we saw of Robocop....

...Except it wasn’t, because up next, Sting came out to much fanfare only to be slammed into the cage by Sid and The Anderson’s.

Coming to the rescue, Robocop spent eight years walking down the aisle and ripped the door off they cage.

The three Horsemen fled, Sting and his mechanical pal went backstage and that was it for Robocop’s big return.

Yo Mama

After GMC plugged the Great American Bash, Schiavone caught up with a returning Junkyard Dog.

JYD told us that he’d been all over the world competing in places like Japan and was now back home in the NWA.

Jim Cornette then arrived on the scene to brag about the Midnight Express’s big win.

“Where have you been while we were here winning titles?” asked Cornette, who clearly hadn’t heard anything JYD had just said.

In a brilliant response, Dog gave Cornette the exact address where he’d been, and, of course, Cornette recognised that address as his mother’s house.

Corporal Punishment Match
The Rock & Roll Express (Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson) vs. The Fabulous Freebirds (Michael ‘P.S’ Hayes & Jimmy Jam Garvin

You know, we’re approaching the two-hour point and so far Mean Mark/Johnny Ace has been the only singles match (if you forget about whatever Teddy/Precious Paul was supposed to be).

This one started with Ricky and Robert being pushed to the ring on a platform with a retro jukebox on it.

It was meant to say “LOOK! THEY’RE ROCK & ROLL!” but this was 1990, so what it really said was “LOOK! THESE GUYS ARE OLD!”

Even Jim Ross called the jukebox an antique which wasn’t exactly great for R&R’s image.

Meanwhile, Michael Hayes and Jimmy Garvin were supposed to be the heels but came to the ring and shot fireworks from their wrists which seemed like a very babyface thing to do.

The match got underway with a little confusion.

GMC and the announcers all seemed to think that this was a strap match, but really it was just that each time had a whip and could use it whenever they wanted.

I’ll say that again:

Whenever they wanted.

This would have been fine had the whips played a prominent role in the match but they got used about three times for all of 30 seconds at a time.

The match itself was fine, but it seemed really weird to have such a hyped-up stipulation attached to it and then barely use it.

The good guys won after a fairly standard battle. Your Winners: The Rock & Roll Express

Out somewhere in the arena, Tony Schiavone interviewed ‘The World’s Strongest Man’ Doug Furnas.

Rather than asking Furnas anything about himself, Savanny only wanted to know about Lex Luger.

Happy to oblige, Furnas said that Luger looked to be in great shape for someone who had spent two weeks in hospital and that the Total Package was ready to go.

Hyping the main event even further, Sting came out to tell Schiavone that he supported Luger’s decision to get back in the ring despite being hurt.

“If I was in Luger’s position I’d do the exact same thing,” Sting lied, ignoring the fact that he’d been hurt two months ago and was wandering around with nothing to do ever since.

National Wrestling Alliance World Tag Team Championship
NWA World Tag Team Champions The Steiner Brothers (Rick & Scott Steiner) vs. Doom (Butch Reed & Ron Simmons w/ Teddy Long)

Oh look, another tag match.

Before the action got underway, Rick Steiner ripped off Teddy Long’s bandana.

We were all supposed to laugh at him for getting his head shaved earlier but even though he had a visibly bald spot that had been there before anyway, he still clearly had plenty of hair left on his head.

This was another decent match - not as decent as the US tag team title match, I’ll give you that- but it was a commendable effort from both teams nonetheless.

If you like watching guys just knock the hell out of each other for a while, you’ll like this match.

After a solid effort, Butch Reed and Ron Simmons double-teamed Rick Steiner off the top rope and scored a surprising yet well-earned victory. Your Winners and New Tag Team Champions: Doom

Out in the entrance way, Doom gave a post-match celebratory promo to Tony Schiavone.

The actual content of said promo was fairly standard stuff, but it was the energy and enthusiasm which really made this such a good segment.

Reed, Simmons, and Long were ECSTATIC about winning the titles and it made it seem like a HUGE deal - something you just don’t see any more.

Steel Cage Match for the National Wrestling Alliance World Heavyweight Championship
NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair (w/ Woman) vs. NWA United States Champion Lex Luger

Defending champion Flair kind of had the advantage here as he already had the experience of competing in this cage. It was the same one used the time he tag teamed with Sting to face Great Muta and Terry Funk back at Halloween Havoc 1989.

The match was as solid as it always whenever Flair and Luger locked up, and it also ended with the same kind of screwy BS finish that occurred in just about all of their high-profile matches.

After a great match, Sid and The Andersons made their way to the ring but Sting came down to fight them off.

He wasn’t alone.

Backing him up, El Gigante made his WCW debut by waddling down to ringside and doing very little.

All the while, the cage had been lifted so Barry Windham snuck in and attacked Luger, resulting in a DQ. Your Winner via BS DQ: Lex Luger

Post match, Arn Anderson got in the ring and helped Flair and Windham attack Luger until Sting could make the save.

As he did so, El Gigante stood on the outside, doing nothing.

Eventually, Flair and his Horsemen fled and were stopped by Tony Schiavone for an interview.

Dripping with blood, his eyes and wide, Flair went absolutely demented as he continually screamed ‘WE’RE THE HORSEMEN!’

It was glorious, in a completely bat-sh*t-crazy insane way, but it was all over once Sting chased Flair down and beat him up to end the show.

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Capital Combat 1990 may only be remembered for the Robocop stuff and that’s perfectly understandable given how much it was hyped up... and how much it failed to deliver, but there was so much more going on that.

While this writer would have liked to have seen one less tag team match, it has to be said that the US tag team title match was excellent.

The opening six-man and the world tag team title matches were also decent and the main event was great up until the finish.

Not a must-see by any stretch then, but certainly not as bad as you may have heard.

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Other 1990 pro wrestling reviews: 

• WWF Royal Rumble 1990
• WCW Clash of the Champions X: Texas Shoot Out
• WCW Wrestlewar 1990
• WWF Wrestlemania XI
• WWF Summerslam 1990
• WWF Survivor Series 1990

Be the first to catch the latest Retro Pro Wrestling reviews by following on Facebook or Twitter @RetroPWrestling. 

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PPV REVIEW: WCW Wrestlewar 1990

February 25, 1990 

Greensboro Coliseum, Greensboro, North Carolina

Wrestlewar 1990 was supposed to be Sting's night. It was supposed to be the night WCW's hottest babyface went toe-to-toe with the company's biggest heel and long-time champion Nature Boy Ric Flair and finally claimed his place at the top of the mountain.

Indeed, the current AEW star had been on a roll, getting more over with audiences as each week went by and gathering momentum to such an intense degree that a world title victory over The Dirtiest Player in the Game seemed inevitable. 

Then, disaster struck. 

Just a few weeks earlier, Sting had blown his knee at Clash of Champions, forcing him out of action for the majority of the year.

In his place stepped US Champion Lex Luger for what promised to be another great match between the two.

Would Luger be able to do what his friend seemed so destined to do and topple Flair, or would The Nature Boy continue his reign at the top of the card?

Let's head down to Greensboro to find out.

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Hey Homeboy, Gather Round

We started tonight’s show with the same “Rapper” who voiced the Wrestlewar ‘90 ad back at Clash of the Champions 10.

As shots of various wrestlers popped up on the screen, the rapper got busy spittin’ lyrics about tonight’s show.

The “hey, homeboy” line above wasn’t me making fun, that’s genuinely how it started.

It was pretty funky, fresh, and fly.

...ok, that was me making fun.

Anyway, we crossed live into the arena where Jim Ross and co-host Terry Funk ran down tonight’s key matches.

“It’s going to be an event!” Said Funk, stating the obvious.

Dancing Teddy Long 

Cutting to the back, Gordon Sollie was standing by with a man he referred to as “Dancing Teddy Long.”

Long, however, insisted that he was actually Sugar Ray Long and would use his boxing prowess to beat up Paul Ellering later in the show.

Dancing Teddy also told us that “Daniel Dan Spivey” (Long’s actual words, not a typo) was injured and would be replaced by a mystery man for the upcoming Skyscrapers match.

That was pretty much the end of that team.

Kevin Sullivan & Buzz Sawyer vs. The Dynamic Dudes (Johnny Ace & Shane Douglas)

It’s amazing that The Dynamic Dudes were still kicking around, especially after that shambolic performance against the aforementioned Skyscrapers back at The Great American Bash 1989.

To be fair to Johnny Ace & Shane Douglas, they’d ditched the goofy skateboards that they clearly couldn’t ride and had stopped plucking unhappy kids out of the crowd, probably after realizing that no child wanted their photo taken with them.

Instead, the boys from the City of Sunshine marched headlong to the ring and engaged in what was actually a decent enough opening contest with Kevin Sullivan and Buzz Sawyer.

It wasn’t the longest match in the world, or the most exciting, but all four men were competent in what they were doing and delivered a passable match that saw Johnny and Shane lose to the more experienced team.

Your Winners: Kevin Sullivan & Buzz Sawyer 

Backstage, Norman the Lunatic tried his luck with Missy Hyatt, getting a hug and a peck on the cheek for luck and then asking for another kiss before Missy “heard the bell” ringing, meaning it was time for the next match.

This wasn’t much of anything, though I did start to wonder how far Norman would have pushed... "Well gee, Missy, I bet if you had sex with me I’d have some real good luck!

Cactus Jack Manson vs. Norman the Lunatic 

Jim Ross really didn’t like Cactus Jack Manson and spent almost the entire match calling him a dumb ass rather than calling the actual action. 

In JR’s defence, there wasn’t much action to call.

It was basically ramming each other’s heads into the turnbuckles and guard rail, do a bear hug, do a chin lock, do another chin lock and probably punch a bit.

This went on for almost ten minutes and was so mind-numbing that tedious that I had to stop watching Wrestlewar 90 altogether and come back to it another day.

Norman won somehow. Probably by making Cactus so bored he fell asleep and was thus easily pinned.

Your Winner: Norman the Lunatic 

Backstage, Jim Cornette reminded  (and all Gordon Sollieof us) that The Midnight Express and The Rock & Roll Express had fought each other countless times in the past but also promised that this time would definitely the end to their feud.

It was compelling stuff by Cornette who was always much better suited as a heel than the babyface he’d been the last time we saw him managing the Midnights back at the '89 Bash.

The Rock & Roll Express (Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson) vs. The Midnight Express (Beautiful Bobby Eaton & Sweet Stan Lane w/ Jim Cornette)

This may not have been a fresh match but it certainly didn’t seem dated.

In fact, I’d go so far as to say that it’s for exactly this type of match that the duos of Beautiful Bobby & Sweet Stan and Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson are regarded as some of the best teams in the history of pro wrestling.

This was a long, long match which at times felt like it was never going to end but which at others was utterly enthralling.

Part 1 gave us a solid back and forth match with some memorable moments including Cornette challenging Nick Patrick to a bout of fisticuffs and Morton breaking out of a test of strength by inexplicably walking up Eaton’s body and over his shoulders. 

Honestly, I’ve seen hundreds of PPVs and countless pro wrestling TV shows since I first started watching wrestling in 1992 and I don’t think I’ve seen that move before or since.

Part 2 then us the obligatory Morton beat down followed by the standard Gibson hot tag and a cluttered finish in which Gibson turned a back body drop into a roll up for the three.

Your Winners: The Rock & Roll Express 

Out in the back, Hawk and Animal pointed out their Sting armbands that they wore in support of their Brother in Paint and insisted that even though they were wearing the armbands to help them, they didn’t actually need any help in their upcoming Chicago Street Fight.

Hawk then shouted something about hospitals and Paul Ellering going to Hong Kong, all of which loosely translated to: “we are very strong and angry and are going to beat up our opponent.”

Chicago Street Fight
The Skyscrapers (Mean Mark Callous & The Masked Skyscraper w/ Teddy Long) vs. The Road Warriors (Hawk & Animal w/ Precious Paul Ellering)

With Dan Spivey on the outs with the company, Teddy Long had replaced him with a guy who looked like The Brooklyn Brawler wearing a Kendo Nagasaki mask.

Long might have announced the guy’s name because he took to the microphone as soon as his men hit the ring but he was immediately drowned out by the sounds of Iron Man and The Road Warriors riding pillion on two guys’ motorbikes...because nothing says tough guy like having someone else bring you to the ring on the back of their bike.

Anyway, I looked it up. The Masked Skyscraper was Mike Enos.

He and Mean Mark went up against Hawk & Animal in a match that was 80% punching, 15% kicking, and 5% Teddy Long hanging around outside the ring with the tuxedo-clad team of Doom.

It wasn’t very interesting.

It also wasn’t much of a street fight. Both teams spent the majority of the match in the ring and then went outside for what must have been the last 30 seconds.

Eventually, Mean Mark said ‘screw it’ and walked off, leaving his anonymous partner to eat the match-ending Doomsday Device.

Your Winners: The Road Warriors 

Afterwards, Ron Simmons and Butch Reed confronted The Roadies and got into a brawl with them that was way more exciting than the previous match.

Ross and Dunk then got us hyped for the fact the rest of the card was full of title matches, and with that it was back to ringside.

National Wrestling Alliance United States Tag Team Championship 
NWA US Tag Team Champions Flyin’ Brian & The Z-Man vs. The Fabulous Freebirds (Michael ‘P.S’ Hayes & Jimmy ‘Jam’ Garvin)

This started off as a fine tag team match with a lot of energy and some solid back-and-forth action.

Then The Z-Man spent about two months getting his ass kicked and it all got very boring. Michael Hayes and Jimmy Garvin did as little as possible for as long as possible to wear their opponent down, sucking the life out of the entire arena.

All the while, Jim Ross tried to convince us that Michael Hayes looked like Alice Cooper just because he’d decided to put a little eye makeup on.

Yeah, sorry Jim, I’m not buying it.

Eventually, Flyin’ Brian made the hot tag, and after a bit of sloppy-arsed nothingness in the ring, came flying off the top onto Jimmy Jam for the un, dos, tres.

Your Winners and Still US Tag Team Champions: Flyin’ Brian & The Z-Man

Afterwards, Alice Cooper and his buddy beat up on the champs. 

National Wrestling Alliance World Tag Team Championship 
NWA World Tag Team Champions The Steiner Brothers (Rick Steiner & Scott Steiner) vs. NWA TV Champion Arn Anderson & Ole Anderson

Rick Steiner carried a handwritten sign which said ‘STING’S REVENGE’ on it, but the Stinger had hurt himself getting down from the cage at Clash of the Champions, so I’m not sure who they were getting revenge against. 

The cage perhaps? 

For the record, this was the first time we’d seen Ole & Arn Anderson tagging together at a major event since Starrace 1986.

That aside, this was a good match with none of the lengthy beat-down sessions that plagued the last match.

It was solid, enjoyable, and came to an end with a win for The Steiners.

Sadly, JR had stopped trying to make us believe that wrestlers looked like various rock stars. I was quite looking forward to hearing how much Ole Anderson reminded him of Sebastian Bach.

Your Winners and Still Tag Team Champions: The Steiner Brothers

Post match, The Minnesota Wrecking Crew tried to beak Scott Steiner’s arm by having Ole leap off the top and hit it with his knee.

The Time for Talking is Over, So Let’s Talk About That

Out in the back, it was time for our competitors in tonight’s main event to give us their final comments.

Luger cut a sombre promo in which he vowed that being in the best shape of his life was bad for Ric Flair, and that he was tired of The Nature Boy telling him how to do his business.

As promos go, this one was OK, but let’s be honest:

Luger was always way, way better as a heel.

Offering a retort, the World heavyweight champion boasted that he feared no man and then asked his new accomplice, Woman, what she thought about The Total Package.

“Well, I think Lex Luger needs to get his engine running,” she said.

Flair claimed that this line said it all, but really it said nothing. What does that even mean?

National Wrestling Alliance World Heavyweight Championship 
NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair (w/ Woman) vs. NWA US Champion Lex Luger 

Prior to the bell, Sting hobbled to the ring on crutches and waved to the fans.

This proved to be the best match on the card by a billion miles.

A solid effort from start to finish, both men worked hard to ensure the match delivered everything you could want from Flair and Luger.

Was it as good as their outing at Great American Bash 1988? 

Possibly.

Luger was strong, powerful and determined, but Flair was crafty, cunning, and violent.

At one point, he had his opponent in a figure four and used the ropes for leverage so much that it promoted Sting to hobble back to ringside and cheer on the challenger.

Once Luger had broken free, the injured Sting gave him a motivating slap in the face and yelled “KICK HIS YOU KNOW WHAT!”

Yeah Sting, that’ll do it.

Luger did indeed kick Flair’s you-know-what. First, he nailed him with what JR called a “Lex Superplex” (surely a Superp-Lex would have worked?) and then put him in a torture rack, but Nick Patrick had taken a tumble and was busy napping in the corner, so none of it mattered.

In the end, The Anderson’s came out and first attacked Luger then went for Sting. The Total Package lept from the ring to save Stinger but spent so much time kicking Ole & Arn’s you-know-what that he got counted out.

Your Winner via countout and Still World Heavyweight Champion: Ric Flair 

When the dust had settled and the smoke had cleared, “Jimbo Diddley” Ross and “Tuxedo Terry” thanked us for watching and invited us to join us at the next PPV, “Armed and Dangerous.”

That, of course, would later be changed to Capital Combat.

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Wrestle War ‘90 was not a tremendous show.

The main event was excellent and worth watching in its own right, and the latest saga in the never-ending battle of the Expresses was very good stuff indeed.

Steiners/Andersons was also decent, but I think that’s just because it was a welcome change of pace after several boring matches.

That’s about all of this show had going for it.

There were only two singles matches, and one of them involved Norman the f’n Lunatic, so the less said about that the better.

The rest were tag team matches that were either too full of nothing (Skyscrapers/LOD, Dudes/Sullivan & Sawyer) or went far too long with far too little happening (Z-Man & Pillman vs. Alice Cooper & Co.).

Not a must see show then, but look up the main event, it was good stuff.

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Other 1990 pro wrestling reviews: 

• WWF Royal Rumble 1990
• WCW Clash of the Champions X: Texas Shoot Out
• WWF Wrestlemania XI
• WWF Summerslam 1990
• WWF Survivor Series 1990

Other Wrestlewar Reviews:

• Wrestlewar 1989: Music City Showdown

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