WCW WrestleWar 90'

WrestleWar 90': Wild Thing

Greensboro, North Carolina - February 1990

CHAMPIONSHIP RUNDOWN: Coming into the show, Ric Flair is the NWA World Heavyweight Champion, Lex Luger is the United States Champion, and Arn Anderson holds the TV Title. Z-Man and Pillman hold the US Tag Titles, while the World Tag Titles are around the waists of The Steiner Brothers.

COMMENTARY: Jim Ross and Terry Funk



Teddy Long is backstage with Gordon Solie gearing up for his streetfight with Paul Ellering and the Road Warriors. Long guarantees a couple of "big surprises" which means very little. According to Long, "Dangerous" Dan Spivey will not wrestle tonight but he will have a replacement. 

In the ring, The Dynamic Dudes take on Kevin Sullivan and Buzz Sawyer in the opening contest. The Dudes come out sans skateboards and frisbees. Johnny Ace and Sawyer start things off and Ace actually looks more than decent, connecting on a big dropkick and then a respectable crossbody to the floor. Failing to gain the advantage, Sullivan and Sawyer bicker a bit as the Dudes outsmart them at every turn. Douglas ends up on the floor and Sawyer hits him with a suplex on the arena floor, a good, classic heel way of flipping the momentum and taking control of the match. The heels control for the next few minutes, Sawyer eventually hitting a huge splash from the top to seal it. Surprising ending considering the Dudes seemed poised for a push when they debuted months earlier and Sawyer and Sullivan were kind of "just there" in the singles department. (2/5)

Norman the Lunatic is backstage with Missy Hyatt to speak before his brawl against Cactus Jack. Foley was thin in 90', still using the "Manson" last name, and a few years away from his bigger breakthrough years in WCW. JR hypes him well on commentary, but the focus (and rightfully so) is on Norman the Lunatic, one of the strangest babyface ideas in modern wrestling history. Jack tries to slam Norm into the corner but the Lunatic no sells him, impervious to Jack's basic offense. Norman applies a body lock and then hits his pancake splash in the corner. This would've probably been enough for the finish, but instead Norman tosses him into the opposite corner repeatedly and Foley takes a huge Flair bump over the corner and into the floor. Moments later, Foley takes an even more ludicrous bump, flying over the guardrail and onto the floor. Funk is very impressed on commentary, maybe even seeing future dollar signs? Jack survives the falls, though, and ends up in control, his sequence of offense not dissimilar to what we see out of Roman Reigns - drive-by dropkick and forearms included. I'm a Foley fan, but this match goes at least 2-3 minutes beyond what any Norman the Lunatic match. Foley's work keeps it from dipping too far low below average, but its still not worth your time. (2/5)

Backstage, Jim Cornette is with the Midnight Express to hype the next match - a showdown against The Rock n' Roll Express. As Cornette notes, these two teams have faced each other plenty of times in the past, but they never tire of duking it out (and fans never tire of seeing it). The match starts somewhat slowly, the teams obviously familiar enough not to fall into eachother's traps early on. Great early spot with Morton climbing up Eaton and hitting Lane with an axehandle off his shoulders. Between every big exchange, at least early on, the teams take breathers, but it works well to build tension and when the fists fly, the reactions prove the benefit of pacing rather than starting the match at its highest gear. The Express take control thanks to some out of the ring work by Lane and a tennis racket shot from Cornette - basic tag storytelling done right aided by the Midnight's impressive, inventive double-team combos. Morton takes the brunt of the damage, including getting dropped neck-first on the rail by Eaton. Great moment when Morton miraculously gets a pin attempt on Lane but the referee is distracted. Beautiful Bobby is a beast throughout - jawing at the crowd, punishing Morton with a great mix of uppercuts and suplexes, and expertly slowing down the match to draw more heat. Morton blocks the Rocket Launcher in order to tag in Gibson who comes in and cleans house. Super stiff racket shot to the back of the skull by Cornette when the ref wasn't looking - but only for two! In a flurry of movement, Gibson is able to cradle Lane while Morton takes out Eaton for two. Very, very good match and a great opportunity to witness a classic, textbook Midnights vs. The Rock n' Rollers encounter. I've seen some call this the MOTY for 1990 which tells me that I probably don't appreciate it as much as I probably should. Its a near-perfect match in that I don't know what else they could've done to wow me - but as I'm not heavily invested in the characters and have no real nostalgia for WCW in 1990, I'm not putting this onto my relatively thin list of all-time favorite matches. (4/5)

The Skyscrapers, "Mean" Mark Callous and a mystery man (it was 6'4'' Mike Enos) as well as Teddy Long take on The Road Warriors and Paul Ellering in a streetfight next. If you're looking for an ECW-level hardcore match, this one won't scratch the itch; its just punchin' and gruntin,' weapons-free, runs under 6 minutes, and features a lone high spot (Enos getting Doomsday Deviced). The post-match doesn't add or detract, though, from a storytelling perspective, WCW was wise enough to take the opportunity presented to transition the Road Warriors against Doom, who show up around minute 2 to watch the brawl and align themselves with Teddy Long. Inoffensive. (2/5)

The United States Tag Titles were up for grabs in the next match - defending champions "Z-Man" Tom Zenk and "Flyin'" Brian Pillman taking on The Fabulous Freebirds. A show with FIVE, FIVE, FIVE, FIVE, FIVE tag team matches is bound to suffer from some repetitiveness, especially if the teams involved opt to stick to a traditional formula and don't offer anything special to keep the fans engaged. This match suffers from card placement, but even if it had been slotted first (and the Dudes match had been left off the show entirely), this would've still been a bore of a match. I've had kind things to say about Michael Hayes' work as recently as his match against Luger on a show in 89', but even when he's on bump-machine mode (which he isn't in this match), Hayes (and his teammate Jimmie Garvin) are not captivating enough to warrant a 20+ minute spotlight. Similarly, Zenk and Pillman are energetic, flashy, and more than serviceable - but they don't both need face-in-peril stretches, especially when earlier in the show we got an all-time great face-in-peril segment from the King of the Southern Tag, Ricky Morton. (1.5/5)

The Steiner Brothers are mega-over and Rick Steiner curries even more support by wearing a "Sting's Revenge" signs on his singlet as he makes his way down the aisle. It is such a slight thing, but its also a subtly brilliant to make it even more clear how determined they are to take out their opponents, Ole and Arn, The Andersons. This match is for the NWA World Tag Team Championships, but it feels much more personal thanks to the stiff work of the Steiners and the way the Andersons try to take out Scott Steiner by consistently cutting the ring in half and targeting a specific limb. Unlike the previous bout, this one goes fairly long (15 minutes) but feels heated for its entirety, Arn Anderson putting on an absolutely awesome performance with both his sharp offense and over-the-top selling. The main event and the Rock n' Roll/Midnights matches get a lot of love from this show, but this match is no worse than very good with the biggest lags in the action coming only when Ole is in the ring. (3.5/5)

Main event time - Lex Luger challenging Ric Flair for the NWA World Championship. The story coming into this match is that Sting (who appears before the match on crutches) was set to challenge Flair but was injured by the Horsemen and Luger, being the United States Champion, was thus next in line for a title match. As the show is in Greensboro, Flair gets a fair amount of cheers and Luger, up to this point, had been established as a heel so the anti-Naitch crowd is only begrudgingly behind him when the match begins. As the match goes on, though, Luger is so dominant and charismatic (and Flair is so cowardly) that the crowd has no choice but to support the challenger. If ever there was a "quintessential" Ric Flair match this may be it. This is a Greatest Hits collection of Flairisms - the flop, the "Shut up, Fat Boy!," screaming in agony in a wristlock, the Woos, the dirty tactics, bullying the ref - it's all here in comparatively condensed form compared to his matches with Steamboat. There are a few hiccups here and there - Luger butchers a figure four attempt and there's a powerslam sequence they botch and then inorganically go back and redo immediately after - but the crowd is so hot that these slight flaws never really kill the momentum of the match. The final minutes are especially riveting, though, I can understand why certain critics will immediately poo-poo the non-finish, even if, in terms of character progression, it is an outstanding moment that, in retrospect, answers just about every question one could ever have as to why Sting would always trust Luger (even when Luger was doing outright heelish things like, y'know, joining the nWo in 98'). Dave Meltzer awarded this a rare 4.5 stars in The Observer, but I'm not willing to go quite that far. As mentioned earlier, there are hiccups and there is an abundance of non-selling throughout (some excusable, some less so). If this isn't a "must see," it is very close, like a "should see." (4/5)


Wrestle War 90' has too much filler to earn my recommendation. Of the 7 matches featured, 3 are good-to-great, one is okay, and the remaining three aren't worth your time. With a Kwang score of 2.71-out-of-5 and there being more than a couple fans who might not tally "get" the nostalgia appeal of the Rock n' Roll/Midnights or Ric Flair doing what are their quintessential match types, this is one of those shows that falls squarely in the category of...

FINAL RATING - High Risk Maneuver