For those old School Wrestling fans who pine for the 90's this should be right up your street. I will be reviewing in full every WCW/NWA Pay Per View from the decade. Giving my thoughts on the best and worst of each event, and discussing the happenings within the promotion around the time. Its fair to say no other company the ups and downs of WCW during these ten years. Please leave your feedback and suggest anyway I can improve? Let's get this thing started!
WCW/NWA Wrestle War 1990: Wild Thing
Date: 25th February 1990
Setting: Greensboro, North Carolina
Attendance: 9,894
Commentary Team: Jim Ross and Terry Funk
Comments: "We've Herd Enough" read a sign at ringside directed at WCW head Jim Herd, signaling the growing unrest of the NWA/WCW fan base at the cartoonish direction the promotion was starting to take. Luckily on this night the fans got a steller night of action, with the companies top names delivering the goods.
In the headliner NWA Champion Ric Flair (still at the peak of his powers) delivered an fantastic performance producing a lively and super heated match against the limited Lex Luger. The count out finish featured top baby face hopeful Sting, which nicely kept his riverly with Flair building. Sting was originally supposed to get his shot at the Nature Boy on this night, but a knee injury at the previous Clash of the Champions card put paid to that plan.
Elsewhere there was an enjoyable US Tag Title bout with Champs The Z-Man and Flyin' Brian retaining against the Freebirds (Michael Hayes and Jimmy Garvin), a decent World Tag Team Title scrap between The Steiner Brothers and Ole and Arn Anderson (not real brothers), as well as another cracking match in the famous series involving The Rock'N'Roll and Midnight Express, during which manager Jim Cornette was on fine form at Ringside, his attics included a brilliant shadow boxing spot with the referee, which whipped the crowd into a frenzy!
The Road Warriors (Hawk and Animal) with manager Paul Ellering defeated The Sky Scrappers (Mark Callous and Masked Skyscrapper) with Teddy Long in a poor street fight. The opening two matches felt very much like filler bouts and offered little in the way of excitement. The Kevin Sullivan & Buzz Sawyer VS. The Dynamic Dudes (Shane Douglas and Johnny Ace) match never really clicked for me. The unorthodox madmen against the cheesy 90's pretty boys didn't make for an interesting match. Sawyer past his prime at this point didn't look great. Buzz who had greater success in World Class and Mid-South during the 1980's sadly lost his life as a result of a drug overdose two years later. This was his final appearance on major stage. Johnny Ace's most notable run in-ring would come in Japan later in the decade. More recently he played a role behind the scenes in the WWF/E as Head of Talent Relations. Shane Douglas's most famous run was in ECW in the late 90's. There will be more from him in future reviews. The faces looked very green here. Sawyer picked up the win with an awkward splash from the top on Ace. And Cactus Jack Manson (see what they did there!) put over Norman "the Lunatic" in a dated 1980's style brawl. The highlights came from Jack's effective bumps over the guard rail and his drop kick off the apron. Norman announced as being from "the State Hospital" was another example of Jim Herd's cartoonish vision for WCW. Worst of all the man behind the naff gimmick Michael Paul Shaw was clueless both personality wise and in ring. Shaw would play an even worse character in Bastion Booger during his brief WWF run (1993-94). I do recommend tracking down his match with Rick Martel during that spell though. Its a hoot!
Wrestle War 1990 Rundown (including match ratings)
1. Kevin Sullivan and Buzz Sawyer defeated The Dynamic Dudes at 10:15. **
2. Norman the "Lunatic" pinned Cactus Jack Manson at 09:33. *1/2
3. The Rock 'N' Roll Express (Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson) overcame the Midnight Express (Bobby Eaton and Stan Lane (W/Jim Cornette) at 19:31. ****
4. The Road Warriors (Hawk and Animal) (W/Paul Ellering) downed The Skyscrapers (Mark Callous & Mask Skyscraper) (W/Teddy Long) in a Chicago Street Fight at 04:59. **
5. Brian Pillman and Tom Zenk retained The U.S. Tag Titles against The Fabulous Freebirds (Jimmy Garvin and Michael Hayes) at 24:32. ***1/2
6. The Steiner Brothers retained the NWA World Tag Team Championship against Ole and Arn Anderson in 16:05. ***
7. Ric Flair (W/Woman) beat Lex Luger (W/Sting) via countout to retain the NWA World Title at 38:08. ****
Event Rating: 7.5/10
Coming up Next Time.... things get a little bit Hollywood as Robocop gets in on the action at Capital Combat 90!
