wrestling / Video Reviews

World Championship Wrestling (3.18.1989) Review

May 15, 2019 | Posted by Adam Nedeff
World Championship Wrestling Jim Ross Ric Flair Image Credit: WCW
5.8
The 411 Rating
Community Grade
12345678910
Your Grade
Loading...
World Championship Wrestling (3.18.1989) Review  

-Originally aired March 18, 1989.

-Your hosts are JR and TA. Gary Hart and Hiro Matsuda enter with a new star they’ve brought from Japan awwwwwww yeah…It’s the Great Muta (or Mota, but hey, it’s the first week, typos happen when guys debut, ya know?) and promise that Japan will conquer the NWA.

“Hot Stuff” EDDIE GILBERT & RICK STEINER (US Tag Team Champions, with Missy Hyatt) vs. THE ENFORCER & MAX MCGIVER
-Enforcer applies a side headlock and elbows Gilbert. Corner charge misses and everybody tags. Steiner giggles like The Riddler while riding McGiver with a waistlock. McGiver is wearing tights that say “MADD MAX,” so his gimmick must be that he’s against drunk driving, to the extreme.

-Gilbert applies a hammerlock and tags Steiner back in. A belly to belly finishes.

-Sting is out here to cut a promo and if I didn’t know this was 1989, I would swear that he was aping Jim Carrey in “The Mask” with his 80s promos.

SAMOAN SWAT TEAM (with Paul E. Dangerously) vs. MIKE JUSTICE & RICK ALLEN

-Fatu gets clothesline and takes Justice’s head off with a clothesline. Everyone tags and Samu gives Allen a backbreaker. Fatu heads back in with a a powerslam and a DDT. Justice ends up in the nerve hold while Paul E. Dangerously drifts over to commentary to fart in Randy Rose’s general direction for not being able to hold onto a job. Samu plants Justice on the top rope and brings him down with a back suplex to finish.

Clash of the Champions: April 2. Hey, isn’t some other wrestling show happening that day?

-The Varsity Club is here with their accountant Chip Berman, who is acting as the guardian for Mike Rotunda’s $10,000 Jackpot Wad.

RANGER ROSS vs. LEE SCOTT

-JR whips out a Ronald Reagan impression while rattling off all of Ranger Ross’ accomplishments, but really, what holds a candle to him doing Jim Barnett week after week on his podcast?

-JR’s cousin, Ranger Ross, applies an armbar. Lee fights back with little brother-style helicopter punches to the punch. Ross comes back with dropkicks to send Scott to the floor. Back in, the combat kick (superkick) knocks Lee Scott cold, and Ranger Ross is going to the pay windah.

DANGER ZONE

-Paul E. welcomes Junkyard Dog. They do the Brother Love/Hogan bit where Paul E. keeps interrupting before JYD can answer his questions, and JYD gets fed up and leaves. I laughed ’til I stopped.

-Ranger Ross talks about his eight years in the military. America: Ross is in favor.

IRON SHEIK vs. DEWAYNE BRUCE

-Sheik sings the Iranian anthem and even the commentators acknowledge the obvious Ranger Ross feud that’s in the works. Sheik clotheslines Bruce and slams him down while TA busts on him for doing muscleman poses with an enormous gut. “He’s actually proud!”

-Bruce gets a knee right to the face and it looked painful. Camel clutch finishes.

STING vs. SNAKE BROWN

-Snake screams a promo and stalls to start. He pokes Sting in the eye, so either Sting was feeling really generous backstage or Snake is trying to launch himself here. Sting takes over with a test of strength and stomps on Brown’s fingers, and Snake goes to the floor and stalls. We pause for commercial and return. Stinger splash, and the scorpion deathlock finishes. Hot take: If Brown went into business for himself, I’m completely in favor of it. He didn’t try to give himself any offense at all in the match and sold his ass off for everything, and really, I wish more of the jobbers had given me at least a little character. It’s the reason I’m a mark for Iron Mike Sharpe’s WWF squashes. He gets his ass kicked week after week but at least he’s a clearly identifiable character. Snake Brown is a jobber, but by god I’ll remember him after this match.

-Ricky Steamboat is back from his tour of Japan, and they seem to be hedging their bets a lot with Steamboat because he hasn’t cut a promo in front of a crowd in a long-ass time now. He accepts Flair’s demand for a rematch, any time, anywhere.

TV TITLE PLUS $10,000: MIKE ROTUNDA (Champion, with the Varsity Club) vs. RICHARD STARTAIN

-Eddie Gilbert comes out, demanding to know why neither he nor Rick Steiner has been signed for a TV Title match since Rotunda got the title back. Because both of you have kinda cooled off, I think. Kevin Sullivan now has a whistle to blow intermittently during Varsity Club matches.

-Rotunda works the arm and switches to headscissors as JR breaks the big news that the TBS show is relocating to Center Stage Arena. There are 700 seats available, which means the NWA might break the AWA’s attendance record for 1989. Guillotine by Rotunda finishes, and the 10 grand is safe again.

-Ric Flair (in fairness, also cutting a promo without a crowd) is tired of hearing people say “That guy USED TO be the champion. Flair kinda takes the starch out of Steamboat’s promo by saying straight up that they already have a bunch of house show matches lined up in different cities. Or you could…you know, hype that dome show in a few weeks…

JUNKYARD DOG, STEVE CASEY, & DICK MURDOCH vs. THE RAIDER, CHANCE MYERS, & JOHN BREWER

-Everybody takes turns beating on the masked man. Myers, who looks like a genetics experiment involving the Mulkeys and Randy Hogan, shows some brains by backing Casey into the corner, but the jobbers aren’t able to capitalize, and Brewer ends up getting headbutted down by JYD for three.

-Eddie Gilbert accuses Paul E. of getting The Danger Zone segment by kissing George Scott’s ass.

“Dr. Death” STEVE WILLIAMS & DANGEROUS DAN SPIVEY (with the other guys) vs. JERRY PRICE & GREG BROWN

-Enziguiri by Spivey. Dr. Death comes in and gives Brown a suplex while JR suggests that fans bring their own whistles to counter Kevin Sullivan. And the fans who don’t bring whistles will never ever attend another show after that. Powerbomb by Spivey ends it.

GREAT MUTA (with Hiro Matsuda & Gary Hart) vs. COUGAR JAY

-Audible “ooooh” from the crowd when Muta takes his hood off. Muta kicks some field goals on Cougar Jay and flings him to the floor, with Cougar bumping like he’s getting a bonus for it. Muta meets him out there with a tope and brings him back in, and another big kick ends it. Muta just looks so different from everybody else in wrestling in 1989, and worked differently too. He’s a star right out of the chute.

HACKSAW BUTCH REED & RIP MORGAN vs. TONY SUBER & BOB EMERY

-We’ve seen so many tag matches that you’d swear we’re getting geared up for the Crockett Cup. Fun fact, there actually was initially a plan to do a Crockett Cup ’89 PPV, but then Turner bought the company and turned it into the Go Screw Yourself Cup and the tournament was never mentioned again.

-Rip Morgan stomps away at Emery. Suber tags in and whips Morgan back and forth, but Morgan clotheslines him down and drops a leg. Even weirder than ripping off Bruiser Brody less than a year after he died is JR’s hype for “The Superdome on April 2” after we already showed a promo for Clash of the Champions, and for some reason, he’s not tying the two together and making it clear that they’re the same thing. He’s treating the Superdome like it’s a house show.

-Bruiser Clone-y tags back in and gives Emery a belly-to-back suplex. Flying clothesline by Brody, and Reed heads to the top to finish Suber with the powerblock.

MICHAEL P.S. HAYES & LEX LUGER vs. WINDHAM BROTHERS (with Hiro Matsuda)
-From the Omni last weekend, and for old time’s sake, David Crockett returns to act as ring announcer. Windhams jaw with Luger, but Hayes insists on starting the match. Windhams stall for a while because they’d rather wrestle Luger, so Hayes concedes and tags Luger in to finally start.

-Barry catches Lex coming off the ropes for a backbreaker, but Luger totally no-sells and press slams Windham to retaliate. Windham stalls and Luger begins targeting Barry’s hand. Suddenly, Michael Hayes slips in the ring and gets on his knees behind Luger, allowing Kendall to come in and schoolboy him, and it’s a three-count for the Windhams.

-Michael Hayes heads over to JR and lays it out short and sweet. For two months, he kept getting cut off during his promo time and the wrong music kept getting played for his entrance during tag matches, so the hell with it, he took Hiro Matsuda’s money.

5.8
The final score: review Not So Good
The 411
Good pacing to this week's squash-o-rama, although the disjointed build to the Clash (in two weeks, mind you) was ridiculous.
legend