wrestling / Video Reviews
World Championship Wrestling (6.3.1989) Review
Loading...-Originally aired June 3, 1989. They’re going to have a tough time getting a decent rating with all the fans waiting in line for No Holds Barred tonight.
-This episode is pretty obviously from a fan’s tape and not the master, but the quality is pretty decent.
-Your hosts are Jim Ross and Michael Hayes.
RANGER ROSS vs. RON SIMMONS
-Oh man, we get a match out of last week’s angle. Ross is pissed off and attacks Simmons right away. Dropkicks send Simmons to the floor, and Ross has no sense of sportsmanship this week, following him right out and ramming him into a barricade and a chair.
-Teddy Long shows up to watch the match as Ross suplexes Simmons back inside. Weird commentary as Ross is tearing into Simmons with illegal punches and JR says “This is like a Freebirds match!” And Hayes, disgusted, says, “Nobody like THAT could be a Freebird.” Well, okay then.
-Simmons takes a big bump into the post and straight out to the floor. Ross goes out again and Simmons is just getting murdered here. Back in, Ross punches him all over. Simmons whips him and finally looks like he might–nah, crashed on the corner charge. Ross just keeps on him until Teddy Long reaches in and passes something to Simmons, and a suspiciously hard right hand knocks Ranger Ross out cold for a three-count by Simmons. More of a story than a match, but fun to see Simmons get some comeuppance.
RICKY SANTANA vs. JOE CRUZ
-Been a while since we’ve seen Santana and this is touted as his big return to the NWA. Dropkick by Santana. They trade arm work. Cruz goes to the eyes and follows with a hiptoss, but he misses the elbow and Santana follows that by slamming him. Upper cut by Santana and he goes back to the arm as the commentators begin discussing the rumors that Ric Flair is retiring. He is declining all interviews, even with JR!
-Suplex by Santana and the crowd is chanting “Boring!” for a suplex. Damn. JR actually misses a beat on commentary, sounding like the “boring” chant is catching him off guard. Santana applies an armbar and switches to a hammerlock, so yeah, the show is back to two hours this week. Flying burrito by Santana connects to get the win. His name is Santana, he has a lightning bolt on his tights, and his finisher is a running elevated throw of his forearm. What a fresh new character.
-Also that’s the last time we’re seeing Ricky Santana.
-Crazy vignette for Flyin’ Brian’s debut, as we see him dressed like MacGyver and flying a helicopter around the city. He does airborne moves and this regime thought we needed a backstory to contextualize the nickname “Flyin’.” So there ya go, Flyin’ Brian, the wrestling helicopter pilot, debuting soon.
DICK MURDOCH vs. GEORGE SOUTH
-They lock up as Cowboy Bob Orton and Gary Hart head to ringside to confront JR about some negative comments he made at WrestleWar.
-Armdrag into an armbar by Murdoch as Orton taunts him for having “a lot of guts.” Elbows by Murdoch and Orton threatens to hang him again. Murdoch goes back to the arm but gets distracted by the sight of Orton just long enough for South to throw a forearm and take control. Doesn’t last long, as Murdoch puts him away with the brainbuster. And JR confirms that a bullrope match has been signed between Murdoch and Orton.
-Teddy Long has some video of Norman the Lunatic and says that Norman doesn’t want anyone to call him a lunatic, and also, do not boo Teddy Long. It’s another video of Norman, explaining that he just wants to be left alone, but suddenly he’s wearing face paint and promising to go from house to house in the middle of the night.
-We take a look at the NWA Top Ten and surprisingly, Terry Funk still isn’t there. Steamboat remains at #1.
RICKY “The Dragon” STEAMBOAT vs. TRENT KNIGHT
-Really odd. This is definitely a different TV taping, but for some reason JR is pretending this is the TBS show and we’re not acknowledging that Center Stage just suddenly quadrupled in size.
-Knight works the arm as Teddy Long comes to ringside to do some scouting. Steamboat comes to life with a hiptoss and a savate kick. He plants Knight on the top rope and superplexes him. Double chicken wing gets the submission. I do like the story they’ve got in that move. Steamboat never used it once in his life, and then he lucks into one of the biggest victories ever with it, so now he’s 100% devoted to using it and perfecting it.
-The Road Warriors got screwed out of the Tag Team Title tournament, but the good news is they met a team that can actually fight the way that they like to fight. They want to meet the SST.
SCOTT STEINER (with Rick Steiner & Missy Hyatt) vs. TRENT KNIGHT
-All right, it’s a Trent Knight double-header! Shy nerdy Steiner fangirl is in the crowd again and Scott’s so delighted that he tells his brother to let the fan reach out and touch him, and the two of them have a sweet moment as Rick is too shy to touch her and they take forever to make contact. D’awwwwww.
-Shoulderblock by Steiner sends Knight tumbling into the corner. He rams Knight into the corner upside-down, Rick-style, and follows with a shoulderbreaker for two. Running powerslam, but with Knight landing face-first, and the belly-to-belly finishes. Scott is really starting to break through at this point.
SAMOAN SWAT TEAM (with Paul E. Dangerously) vs. NATE RIVERS & JOE CAZANA
-Cazana gets knocked out to the floor while Rivers gets caught in the ring and chopped around. Hayes makes me laugh out loud, saying Rivers answers the question “What did Elvis look like two days after he died?” Cazana tags in and he’s impossible to recognize after seeing him as a Buddy Rose-style fat guy trying to be a pretty boy in SMW. DDT puts Cazana into position and the top rope splash by Fatu finishes. Paul E. lobs pineapples into the ring and we net a great bit of post-match shtick, with the SST using the jobbers’ faces to open the pineapples, and then snacking on them.
-JR is here and out comes Terry Funk, who promises everybody that he would deliver Ric Flair tonight. Funk demands respect for Flair because he had enough guts to show up tonight, and the crowd actually falls for this and stands up for an ovation, and out walks a skinny jobber in a blonde wig and a cheap robe. The chyron identifies him as “Rick Flaire” in a nice touch. Flair begins shaking when he looks directly at Funk and lets out a miserable, frightened sounding “Woo” when Terry demands it. He explains, with Terry’s help, that he has a bad back and he’s lost his guts. Funk says something about Flaire’s physique that gets bleeped (I’m not an expert lipreader but looks like he says “Ric Flair has AIDS”) and when the robe comes off, it reveals a huge streak of yellow paint across Flaire’s back.
-And here comes Sting. Rick Flaire gets out of there as Sting says Funk is an embarrassment to the NWA and he wants a match RIGHT NOW! Sting heads in and Funk does what he does best, making somebody look like a million damn dollars and still somehow being a main eventer when it’s all over. Seriously, not just anybody can pull that off but Funk always does. So the fight goes all over the ring and all over the floor and the jobber corps storm to ringside to break it up.
KEVIN SULLIVAN vs. TOM PITTNER
-Sullivan goes into the stands and screams in the Rick Steiner fan’s face, then rips up her sign, and the poor Woman is in tears.
-Sullivan sends Pittner out to the floor and rams him shoulder-first into the post while Hayes says that the fans can cheer and boo whoever they want, but they shouldn’t holler obscenities. Well, if fans swearing at the wrestlers bothers them so much, they can go right on Twitter and complain about it, Michael.
-Pittner ends up on the floor again and Sullivan just hoists up the ring steps and drops them. Back in, Pittner gets hung in the tree of woe and Sullivan rams into him, and the double stomp finishes. After the bell, he goes after the fan again and she cowers in terror.
GREAT MUTA (with Gary Hart) vs. STEVE CASEY
-Spin kick by Muta. He dumps Casey on the floor. Chop off the top by Muta, and he clamps on a nerve hold before Casey’s body hits the mat. And Muta turns that into a succession of nerve holds. Muta with a moonsault, but he changes it up on impact and makes it a knee to the ribs to finish.
WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE TOURNAMENT QUARTERFINAL: MIDNIGHT EXPRESS (with Jim Cornette) vs. HACKSAW BUTCH REED & COWBOY BOB ORTON
-Murdoch shows up before the Midnight Express has entered and attacks Orton, and they brawl on the floor. The brawl goes back to the locker room and Butch Reed is left all alone in the ring.
-But wait! Teddy Long shows up and tells Butch Reed that he can rustle up a partner, he just needs a few minutes. So we go to commercial and wait for a while.
WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE TOURNAMENT QUARTERFINAL: MIDNIGHT EXPRESS (with Jim Cornette) vs. HACKSAW BUTCH REED & THE RAIDER (with Teddy Long)
-Um…okay. That’s a weird payoff to this. Jim Cornette cuts a promo before the bell where he coins “peanut head” as an insult for Teddy Long. And the crowd immediately loves it and the building erupts in a thunderous “Peanut Head” chant.
-Midnights double-team Reed and they’re getting the hottest reaction anybody has had in Center Stage so far. Raider tags in and gets double-elbowed by the Express. Reed and Raider, or as the tabloid media calls them, Reeder, double-team Lane to take control. But then it’s hot tag Eaton. Flying elbow and the flapjack finish. Great touch by Tommy Young, as he got knocked over close to the end, but the Raiser was getting his ass kicked so bad that Tommy just stayed on the mat and waited for the pin that he was going to have to count anyway.
DYNAMIC DUDES vs. COUGAR JAY & BOB EMORY
-Double dropkicks clear the ring. Emory comes in and the arm gets worked over as JR talks about Sting attacking Funk earlier. Sting doesn’t like Ric Flair, but he cares about the prestige of the NWA and that’s why he was so disgusted by Funk. Double slingshot suplex finishes Cougar Jay.
