WWE: June 13th, 2006 ECW Review

WWE: Tuesday Night ECW Review

Tuesday, June 13^th, 2006 – Trenton, New Jersey – Some Arena That Either I Didn’t Hear Them Say or They Didn’t Announce – Welcome to a series of blogs on the first few episodes of WWE’s third brand, ECW! Granted this wasn’t the original Extreme Championship Wrestling, but I enjoyed the original airings of WWECW. So, wanting to give it another spin, I’ll be reviewing the first few episodes I recorded on VHS, and then dubbed onto DVD years later. Hope you guys enjoy the reviews!

The show started with Drowning Pool’s “Bodies” theme, along with ECW’s One Night Stand pay-per-view 48 hours prior, along with John Cena saying on Monday Night Raw the night before that he’ll show up on ECW, trying to gain retribution for losing the WWE title to RVD on Sunday night!

Segment One: Paul Heyman was welcomed by the “ECW” fans at Trenton, New Jersey, and by Justin Roberts, the ECW ring announcer. The fans love seeing Paul E. back and I can’t blame them. Joey Styles and Tazz are our announcers for the show, and a team I really enjoyed at the announce booth.

After Styles and Tazz did their opening speal, Heyman introduced the WWE Champion, who carried the spinner belt. Man, am I ever happy the spinner belt was ditched and the new WWE title debuted about a month ago.

Rob Van Dam thanked Paul and also thanked the fans for the cheers and support to their new champion. Van Dam mentioned that Cena claims he’d show up and wants him to “do the right thing” and help celebrate ECW’s debut on the SciFi network!

Heyman mentions that since RVD defeated Cena two nights before at ECW’s One Night Stand, Heyman wants to crown RVD as the NEW EXTREME CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION!

Paul asked RVD what he’ll do with the WWE title, and Rob responded by saying he’ll defend both titles. Moments after, Edge’s theme hit and he and Lita came to the ring. The crowd chanted “Thank You Edge!” because it was Edge that helped RVD win two nights before, defeating John Cena.

Edge shook RVD’s hand and said he’s looking forward to challenging him for the WWE title at Vengence, and got speared for believing Edge only wanted to shake hands. Edge and Lita tried to leave in the crowd but Cena showed up and tossed him back to the ringside area and the three men battled each other for a few minutes.

After the commercial break, Heyman was backstage with the ECW roster and told his roster that if the Raw roster wanted to show them what they were about, the ECW roster will show up on Monday Night Raw, on the USA Network, and show the Raw guys what they’re about! Yes!

Match One: the Zombie versus the Sandman

When the Zombie got into the ring, he went over to Justin Roberts and grabbed the mic and spoke “Zombie language,” grunting into the mic. Maybe 15 seconds into his grunts, the Sandman’s theme hit, and he came down through the crowd, with beer and the kendo stick in hand!

Before the bell rang, Sandman nailed the Zombie with the Kendo Stick, tagging with a pop from the crowd! The bell rang and the Sandman wen to town with the Kendo Stick when the Zombie was on the ground.

The Sandman picked him up and hit him with the White Russian Leg Sweep, pinned him, and scored the victory!

Winner: the Sandman!

For the first match, I am pleased that this lasted minutes, if that, and allowing the new ECW audience to see what the Sandman was all about. I have to give this match a * and ½ * rating, since it was super short, and we saw a Kendo Stick beating on a “dead dude!”

Segment Two: Kelly Kelly tells us all about what she’s about…that she’s all about taking her clothes off! The crowd popped huge for that statement! What horny teenage boys and young-20-somethings!

After the commercial break, we see a video package from ECW One Night Stand and we see the match Tazz and Jerry Lawler had. I guess you can say this was ECW’s second match.

Match Two: Tazz versus Jerry “the King” Lawler (from ECW One Night Stand 2006)

The crowd at the arena where the PPV took place was a “vintage ECW crowd,” cheering for Tazz and booing hugely when Lawler’s theme hit. To gain more heat, Lawler walked over to where Styles was sitting at and slapped him across the face, making sure the fans hated him. Another great clip to show the ECW fans what they were about.

Styles ran down to the ring and jumped Lawler. He didn’t get far, since Lawler was a trained wrestler and he wasn’t. Lawler threw him off of him and was about to hit the piledriver on Style, but Tazz grabbed Lawler and put him in the Tazzmission.

The King passed out to the Tazzmission and Tazz picked up the victory!

Winner: Tazz!

I have to give this match a * and ¾ * rating, because it was short, and told an awesome story. Like mentioned for the Sandman match, Lawler put over Tazz great, helping show the world what ECW was about and helped continue the rivalry that Lawler and ECW had back in the 90’s. If you don’t know what I’m referring to, find the ECW documentary and watch it. WWE’s “Rise and Fall of ECW” tells it perfectly on why Lawler didn’t like ECW at the time.

Match Three: Kurt Angle versus Justin Credible

The first thing that happened was when Credible entered the ring, he ran towards Angle and Angle hit the double leg take down onto Justin Credible and showed the fans what WWE “never allowed” him to do, and that’s be the “Wrestling Machine,” and show off his amateur moves.

Angle let Credible up and Credible got into Angle’s face, I guess telling him that Angle has nothing on him, and Angle responded with a headbutt, which Credible kneeled because of it, and Angle locked on a choke hold, which caused Credible to tap out.

Winner: Kurt Angle!

I have to give this match a * star rating, since it was all Angle, and seemed a lot like a squash match, which isn’t bad at all. Helps put Angle over as a Wrestling Machine and shows the WWE Universe the new style Angle was trying to put over.

Angle grabbed the mic said that it doesn’t matter what set of rules he faces Randy Orton because he’ll make Orton tap out at Vengeance and he’s the new face of ECW!

Segment Three: Paul Heyman’s backstage and asked us if we want to fell extreme. Heyman threw out all his plans and said that the main event would be a ten man Extreme Battle Royal and the winner would face John Cena at Vengeance. Great way to put over the winner of the Battle Royal.

Segment Four: Kelly Kelly’s Exposé. Yup, Kelly Kelly danced and tried to take her clothes off. What else can I say? Not much of a reaction, which I was surprised. Whatever.

Match Four: the Extreme Battle Royal!

Tommy Dream, Sabu, Al Snow, Stevie Richards, Road Kill, some guy who I don’t know and was never named, the FBI, Balls Mahoney, and the Big Show all participated in the Battle Royal. All this humanity in a hardcore Battle Royal, I’m excited! It’ll be hard to do a play-by-play for this match; I’ll mention some of the highlights.

Hands down, the Big Show was highlighted off and on throughout the battle royal. Makes me wonder on whom’ll get put over in this match. Hmm, interesting.

Road Kill and Tommy Dreamer both tried at individual times to take out the Big Show with weapons and they both didn’t get far. Well, the only time they went far was when the Big Show tossed them out of the ring. Good paycheck for them, I suppose.

Big Guido and the Big Show went at it and the Big Show almost eliminated Guido, until Guido held onto the Show and Sabu grabbed a chair and jumped and smacked the Show on the back, eliminated him!

Winner: Sabu!

I have to say that this match has to be a ** star match. The weapons helped to put this match and episode over. I am looking forward to future episodes, since I edited this down; ECW was only 45 minutes long, which I really enjoyed. If the WWE wants to keep all the shows that they currently have, I don’t know why they bump Raw down to two hours, Smackdown to an hour, and have the Main Event on Wednesday nights stay an hour, and have Saturday Morning Slam 30 minutes long, because that’d be an easy dose to put down for WWE.

But that’s my opinion. As a “debut episode,” I have to give this show a ** and a ¼ * rating, since it showcased some of the main stars on ECW and gave the new audience a taste of what’s to come. Like said, I really enjoyed the hour television format because it was easy to digest and forces the WWE to hit the main points rather fast. If you can, go out and find this episode.

January 21st 1989 World Championship Wrestling Saturday Night

1/21/89 NWA Saturday Night

Was this one a tough one to put together or what?! The 1989 Saturday Night set that I own does not include the January 21^st edition. After learning about the events of Saturday Night in 1989, I knew that I couldn’t just simply skip this episode as it is arguably the most important of the entire year. So I set out in finding at least the main event from the show. After some creative googling, I was able to scour the many reaches of internet video hosting sites and find the show on Myspace video, of all places. I will give the quick and dirty results for those of you who are wishing to be completists and follow the exploits of my main man Randy Hogan through the whole year.

Michael Hayes over Russian Assassin #2 in 6:34

Butch Reed (W/ JJ Dillon) over George South in 2:16

Mike Rotunda and Kevin Sullivan over Randy Hogan in Gene Miller in 4:09

What I could find begins with Ross and Schiavonne going over the night, including Michael Hayes taking on one of Paul Jones’ Russian Assassins, the debut of Butch Reed with JJ Dillon and the big tag team match between the Horsemen and Gilbert and his partner.

They are quickly joined by Eddie Gilbert to hype up the tag match later in the hour. Gilbert is only on for about 30 seconds, but does a fairly good (if not slightly overblown) job of being excited about his partner and lays in a good line about everyone calling their neighbors and telling them to turn on TBS if they aren’t already watching.

My clip now jumps to later in the show to the second Eddie Gilbert promo of the night. In this one, they show the beatdown of Gilbert that led to this match. Another short one as Eddie goes on to quote Flair’s famous line of “To be the man, you gotta beat the man” and goes on to say that his partner would be able to beat all three of them with one man tied behind his back. Then my clip goes to the match.

EDDIE GILBERT and MR. X vs. BARRY WINDHAM (US Champion) and RIC FLAIR (World Champion)

Coming back from the commercial, the three named participants are already in the ring awaiting the arrival of Gilbert’s mystery man. The theme made most famous by the 1990s Chicago Bulls plays and the mystery partner arrives, to be RICKY STEAMBOAT!! The announcers lose their stuffing as Steamboat comes out grinning and is visibly pumped for the match. The Horsemen are totally incredulous and don’t know what hit them.

Steamboat starts and is a house of fire, looking great with arm drags and shoulder tackles that chase Windham to the outside to regroup with Flair and Dillon. Flair comes in next, and Ricky is getting the best of him with chops, culminating with a big military press slam that sends Flair outside to regroup this time. This is such awesome booking. Steamboat is taking everything. Although Flair gets a few shots in here and there, Steamboat always gets the upper hand, even taking on both champions at once. Gilbert comes in against Flair and even he gains the upper hand with punches and a flying head scissors that sends Flair flopping into the corner for Windham. Windham finally gets the advantage with a huge back suplex to take over on Gilbert. However, they can keep Hot Stuff down for long, and he gets Flair locked in his own figure four leglock! Flair is able to escape and tags in Windham, who again takes over for a small glimpse. Despite brief respites, such as an awesome flying clothesline from Gilbert, the Horsemen are able to hold the heat for an extended amount of time. Steamboat is chomping at the bit to get in and take over on the champs. Flair is really taking over on Gilbert, who is doing a fantastic job of being the face in peril here. At around the 15:00 minute mark, Steamboat comes in totally on fire with a flying shoulderblock and other attacks on Flair. After getting the best of both Horsemen for about a minute, Steamboat finishes Flair off with a press slam and flying crossbody! The champion has been defeated!

Winner, 15:35: EDDIE GILBERT and RICKY STEAMBOAT (Flying Crossbody) **** This was awesome. A great match. Everybody looked fantastic in this match, especially Flair and Stemboat. A perfect job of making the fans want more from those two.

After the match, Steamboat and Gilbert get on the mic. They watch the tape of the match. Gibert is a little too high off the match invoking the Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and just slurring his way through his portion, but Dragon nails his part. He is subdued as normal, but comes across great when saying that he will take Flair’s title and do what he has yet to do in his career: win a world championship.

Flair and the Horsemen come out and Flair is in full Wildman mode which is great. Dillon writes off the match as being unprepared and as something will never go down in the record books.

Even without seeing the main event, I know that I can mark this down as a great one. When the whole show went an hour and this one match with the promos was almost 30, it was a one match show at its core. Steamboat looked great, Flair was a chicken shit, and Gilbert looked like someone who could be beaten and come back unharmed. Great all around

MVP: Steamboat. There is a lot of pressure that comes with making a huge debut like this, but he was great in all facets.

LVP: None. I’m sure I could’ve found one in the other parts, but everything in this portion was good.

Best Promo: There are a lot to choose from, but I’m going to go with Steamboat again, coming off the match. He came across great in this one.

Worst Promo: Although none were bad per se, I’ll say the first Gilbert promo for being a little too child-like, almost to a Duggan-esque level.

Fashion Statement of the Night: Gilbert was wearing a coral-pink sweatshirt that I believe was from Daytona Beach or a place such as that. Only a real man could pull this one off.

Hey! It’s 1989!: Since we only have a few more weeks of it this year, it’s Tony Schiavonne’s moustache. A work of art, that is.

That’s Racist: Is it a judo chop Jim? Karate? Maybe Kung-Fu? Aww, it’s all the same, right?

WWE WrestleMania XXIX Review and Opinion

WrestleMania 29 Review and Opinion

By Eric Darsie

Sunday, April 7^th, 2013 – East Rutherford, New Jersey – MetLife Stadium – 80, 676 people jam packed the MetLife Stadium, located on the outskirts of New York state, where the Undertaker continued his streak to 21 and 0, Alberto Del Rio retained his World Heavyweight Championship, Triple H came out of retirement to defeat Brock Lesnar in a No Holds Barred match to continue his couple-match-a-year career, and John Cena defeated the Rock to capture the WWE Championship for the record-setting eleventh time.

I had several old college buddies and a handful of co-workers head over to my place tonight for WWE WrestleMania XXIX and for a few of us; we made it an all-day event. Three of my co-workers and I got up early to head over to our local Godfather’s Pizza chain and had their lunch buffet, catching up since we normally don’t work next to one another and discuss the 29^th installment of Vince McMahon’s SuperBowl of wrestling. It didn’t dominate our conversation, which I enjoyed, since I’d be making it an all-day shindig anyway.

Came home and we all separated for a few hours and I listened to Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio, talking Saturday night’s WWE Hall of Fame and tonight’s pay-per-view. Enjoyed their Hall of Fame discussion, since Alvarez was there live, and was excited for their discussion on WrestleMania. Only thing they mentioned was, everything other than the Ryback/Mark Henry match remained the same. I scratched my head, knowing that Ryback had a lot of PPV loses under his belt, thinking that it’d make sense if Ryback won in regards to rebuild him for the future, if McMahon and the Creative Team wanted him to be the future of the company.

Knowing that you can easily find the results to Mania (to go to WWE’s official site, click here, which I used for this blog, or Wikipedia, which was the second site I used for this blog), I won’t talk much about the results of the event, rather, I’ll let you readers know about what I thought of the show.

As a whole, I thought it was decent, better than WrestleMania XXVII, but not as good as WrestleMania XXVIII. I say that in regards to the fans not seeming interested in the No Holds Barred or the WWE Championship matches, since they came after the Undertaker/CM Punk match. Once the DVD comes out, I’ll be re-watching the Lesnar/Helmsley match and the Rock/John Cena match, to see if it was coming directly after the emotional Streak versus Punk match.

Something that I was surprised at was the four billed main events were all consecutive for this year’s WrestleMania, since the last few years, that wasn’t the case. I figure that’s why the fans seemed a little down for the two matches that followed the Undertaker’s win, I feel that’s something needed for this year’s WrestleMania and future Mania’s, since filler matches, in my opinion, really don’t add anything to the show, other than taking time away from matches, or giving the fans a bathroom break, which I’m sure McMahon doesn’t want.

Several surprises came for my buddies when Fandango defeated Chris Jericho in 9:13. I mentioned that I learned through listening to the Wrestling Observer Radio that Jericho was back only through Mania, wanting to come back for short sprits over being gone for long periods of time. I, as with everyone in my living room, was happy for Jericho, to seem him back, and to see him put over the new-comer in Johnny Curtis.

Another surprise came when Mark Henry defeated the Ryback. I mentioned it a few paragraphs above, and I’ll write it again, I am surprised much-so that Henry went over Ryback, since the end of 2012 and the early weeks of 2013, it seemed that the Ryback was the future of the WWE and a future main-eventer of WrestleMania. Maybe he will be, have to wait to see, I suppose.

For the first time ever in WrestleMania history, the Rock and John Cena main-evented consecutive years. For me, the Rock and John Cena outshined last year’s match and both guys put on a better show this time around than last. How so?

The WWE Championship helped me keep interest in the match. Yes, Rock missing two Raw’s a few weeks back and Cena missing the first Raw the Rock missed, but I feel like tonight’s match was our “sorry for that” kind of receipt. Granted towards the end of their match, the crowd at my place and I felt it was too much when Cena kept going for the Attitude Adjustment and Rock countering and trying to Rock Bottom him.

The torch was passed tonight in the middle of MetLife Stadium after Cena reclaimed the WWE Championship when the Rock shook Cena’s hand and hugged him. Cena let the Rock take center-stage to soak up the fans’ appreciation for coming back, mouthing, “Thank you, I love you.” Even if the Rock is done wrestling, I do appreciate him coming back and having the tag match at Survivor Series 2010, last year and this year’s WrestleMania, and the Royal Rumble and Elimination Chamber from this year.

If the Rock is done with this run-through, thank you Rock for taking time out from Hollywood to compete a few more times.

To conclude, hands down, the Undertaker defeating CM Punk was the best match of the night. The World Heavyweight title defense was better than I imagined, so Del Rio and Swagger put on a great showing. The No Holds Barred match between Lesnar and Triple H wasn’t as fast paced as I expected, but hard-hitting, and I appreciate them putting their bodies on the line for our entertainment. Granted the fans live didn’t seem as into as the match last year, I enjoyed the WWE Championship match between current champion John Cena and former champ, the Rock.

Match results (and times, thanks to Wikipedia):

John Cena defeated the Rock – WWE Championship – 24:01

Triple H defeated Brock Lesnar – No Holds Barred – 24:00

Undertaker defeated CM Punk – 22:08

Alberto Del Rio defeated Jack Swagger – World Heavyweight Championship – 10:30

Fandango defeated Chris Jericho – 9:13

Team Hell No defeated Dolph Ziggler and Big E Langston – Tag Team Championship – 7:19

Mark Henry defeated Ryback – 8:03

The Shield defeated Randy Orton, Big Show, and Sheamus – 10:35

The Miz defeated Wade Barrett — Intercontinental Championship

January 14th, 1989 World Championship Wrestling Saturday Night

1/14/89 World Championship Wrestling Saturday Night

Barry Windham w/ James J Dillon vs. “Hot Stuff” Eddie Gilbert

Gilbert gets in Windham’s face. Windham takes over with punches and a suplex. Gilbert comes back with a really cool flying clothesline. Both of these guys are looking really good here at the beginning of 89. Windham takes back over, featuring a really nice headlock takeover. The crowd is super hot for this. Windham is hammering Gilbert with right hands and Gilbert is doing is goofy drunk selling, which I’m not a fan of. Ric Flair is out to look on with Dillon. Ross is just awesome, selling the fact that Flair is concerned over Gilbert taking the title from Windham. This match is a lot of back and forth punching, with Windham on the offensive, but Hot Stuff not giving up. At about 7:00 minutes, Windham throws Gilbert outside and appears to take over, but Gilbert fights back and has a short shine in the ring with a two-count off of an elbow drop. Windham is really good here in my opinion, everything he does is right on point, from the suplexes, to his heel demeanors when arguing with referee Teddy Long. Windham bites Gilbert, before setting Eddie up for his finisher, the superplex. Gilbert initially fights off, but Barry hits the move. However, he eschews the pin in favor of beating on Eddie some more. After Barry misses a knee drop, Gilbert hooks in a figure four leg lock, but can’t finish it, nicely selling the exhaustion. At the 12 minute mark, Flair can’t take anymore and enters the ring, causing a disqualification.

Winner: 13:00, EDDIE GILBERT (Disqualification) *** Very nice match, Windham looked good and so did Gilbert in this one

After the bell, the horsemen take over. Double-teaming on Gilbert in the ring with clotheslines and knee drops. After, JJ cuts a very nice promo, that while short, serves its purpose. He states that the reason for this was Gilbert being annoying and taking TV time, and now his name can be added to all the rest of the people the Horsemen have taken out.

Next is a Dusty Rhodes promo. He is a little all around the map here, as usual. He says he is the NWA and professional wrestling and gets around to saying that he is coming for Barry Windham because his paycheck comes every Wednesday (?) and he needs the US title. He also gets a slight dig in by saying that the 4 Horsemen are now, “Only two, only two” as Anderson and Blanchard had recently left for the WWF at the time.

Michael PS Hayes vs. Paul Lee

Hayes does a lot of strutting and dancing before the match and by the time of the lockup, is nearly out of breath. Lee is quite the character. His skin is nearly transparent and his bleached hair just adds to it. Steven Casey, from the metroplex, is out to watch the match. This match is obviously all Hayes here, doing what he wants. I like how Hayes is playing the character of being happy and a fan favorite, but very close to being unhinged and letting his heel form shine through. After no-selling a couple of Lee shots, Hayes hits the DDT for the W.

Winner: 4:00, MICHAEL HAYES (DDT) * Hayes relied way too much on a headlock in what should have been a showcase for him

Next is an interview with Hayes and his new tag team partner, the Junkyard Dog. JYD starts out very incomprehensibly talking about bones and that they’re going after the US tag titles held by “The Devil” and Steve Dr. Death Williams. Hayes takes over, and does a really nice job. My favorite line being, “Heaven don’t want us and Hell is afraid we’ll take over!” Hayes nicely got over the fact they’re coming after the Varsity Club and that even though Williams is a machine, machines can break and can’t adapt, so Hayes and JYD are coming after them. Weirdly though, he finishes by quoting “Bad to the Bone.” Strange.

Kevin Sullivan and Dr. Death vs. Randy Hogan and Mike Collins

I don’t like Kevin Sullivan. I hate his look, his terrible haircut (shaved sides mullet) and his association with the Varsity Club. Why is he even with these guys? The Varsity Club is in total control of this one. It’s a definite showcase for Dr. Death, as he throws around these guys left and right. Randy Hogan, obviously named for his blonde horseshoe haircut and handlebar moustache, looks like the Huckster from 1996 WWF, but despite his terrible look, does a good job selling Dr. Death’s moves. Sullivan takes over on “Mark Collins”, as JR calls him. Oops. Williams gets back in and finishes Collins off with the Oklahoma Stampede for the pin fall and squirts him with his water bottle before leaving the ring.

Winners: 4:00 KEVIN SULLIVAN AND DR. DEATH (Oklahoma Stampede) *1/4

After the match, the Varsity Club joins JR at the interview station. Sullivan speaks on 1989 being the year of the Varsity Club. He addresses the Road Warriors and states that they’re coming for them. Mike Rotunda gets on the mic and calls Rick Steiner a “kleptomaniac moron” and says Steiner stole his TV championship. He says he is a thief and doesn’t even know it and is going to get back what’s his. During the promo, Dr. Death kept walking in front of the camera like he wasn’t sure where he was or who was talking. What’s the deal there?

The Road Warriors w/ Paul Ellering vs. Dale Laparouse and Mike Jackson

The warriors come out hot, with Hawk getting Laparouse right away with a nice dropkick. After one shot from Animal, doomsday device and it’s over.

Winners: 1:00, THE ROAD WARRIORS (Doomsday Device) NR (too short)

After, the Road Warriors, the world tag team champions get an interview. Animal and Hawk address the Varsity Club and say they will snack on Sullivan, dine on Doc and do away with the challengers. Animal says he’s bringing in Tenryu from Japan for the 6 man championships. An ok promo on the whole, with LOD getting over their disdain for Sullivan and Death.

Next is another promo from the Horsemen, or what’s left of them. Windham and Flair both downplay their actions from earlier. Flair is awesome as usual, talking about how 1989 is the year of the Horsemen. Eddie Gilbert comes out and challenges the Horsemen to a match next week to a match with him and his partner. After some cajoling, Dillon commits to a match for the next week with Gilbert and anyone except Lex Luger. After Gilbert leaves, Flair gives respect to Gilbert for challenging them and being a man. This is something I always loved about Flair; he always gives it up to his opponents. Remember, if you call him a nobody and beat them, all you did was beat a nobody. Flair is a pro at that.

The Original Midnight Express vs. Trent Knight and Bob Emory

Dennis Condrey might be my favorite wrestler. He looks old; he’s got a gut, a mullet and wears the bandana wherever he goes. He’s just an old shitkicker and that’s what I love about him. The OMx control this match from pretty much beginning to end while Dangerously mugs, shouts and laughs at the camera for most of the match. I don’t like that the OMx don’t wear matching attire, they don’t look like a team to me. Dangerously: “You know who gave Dennis Condrey the nickname Loverboy? Jim Cornette’s mama. She had personal experience.” The Express finish it up with a combo of Condrey lifting up Randy Rose and slamming him down in a leg drop onto Knight for the victory. Paul E. calls this the Human Coughdrop. This was alright. As much as I love Condrey, he’s a little past his prime and Rose just doesn’t have a spot in this feud.

Winners: 4:00, THE ORIGINAL MIDNIGHT EXPRESS (Human Coughdrop) *1/2

After the match, Paul E. shows some footage of him hitting Cornette with the phone. He cuts a promo on Cornette, saying that he’s going to run him out of the NWA. “You think it’s over when I leave, I think it’s over when I spit on your career’s grave.” Some nice work there

Larry Zybysko and Al Perez w/ Gary Hart vs. George South and Curtis Thompson

Zybysko is the Western States Champion at the time. Abdullah the Butcher humorously keeps trying to come out and get involved, which I love. Perez is good and I don’t think he ever reached his full potential. George South looks like someone you’d meet at a truck stop or county fair. Perez finishes it off with the “Al-i-copter” airplane spin for the win.

Winners: 3:00. AL PEREZ AND LARRY ZYBYSKO (Al-i-copter) *3/4

After the match, Gary Hart is at the interview station for a promo. The story is that Hart won’t have his guys face Flair for the title because of his association with Flair and Dillon. Now he says that is off the table. This is all to set up a title match at a house show in Florida that is coming up. After that Zbysko says he’s going to be the champ in 1989. We’ll sure see about that.

Dick Murdoch vs. Eddie Sweat

Eddie Sweat, what a name. I wonder how he got that name. JR spends the first part of the match talking about Murdoch’s son who plays for the South Lake Carroll Dragons high school football team, who just went undefeated for 1989. Murdoch is just beating on the sweaty one, pulling up Eddie multiple times before finishing him with a terrible brainbuster.

Winner: 3:00, DICK MURDOCH (Brainbuster) ¾ *

Now, Ric Flair is with Missy Hyatt. Hyatt calls Ric sexier than Don Johnson and Sylvester Stallone combined. They talk about Flair’s match with Luger at Starrcade that just recently happened. Flair calls Luger the golden Adonis, but because he is not Ric Flair he will not face him ever again for the title. Flair was awesome here, in total Nature Boy mode.

Midnight Express vs. Keith Steinborn and Gary Royal

The Express start out hot with Keirn hitting sine fancy kicks and good-looking double-team moves. Bobby hits a real good-looking elbow drop on one of the jobbers. Keirn is a little off, missing slightly on a couple moves. Eaton comes back in and hits the Veg-o-matic to close the match.

Winner: 2:00, THE MIDNIGHT EXPRESS (Veg-o-matic) **

Cornette on for an interview. The story he’s telling is that these three are problem children, doing what they want. Cornette was very good here “The game ain’t over til I win.” Gold.

Main Event: Rick Steiner (World TV Champion) vs. Mike Rotunda w/ Kevin Sullivan

As both wrestlers come out, Steiner taunts Rotunda with his newly won TV title. Steiner then goes out and parties with the definition of 1989 (steps cut in hair, pseudo racquetball sunglasses, starter sweatsuit), before getting in the ring to square off. Rotunda starts off with the heat with a huge clothesline before Steiner comes back by throwing Mike out. Steiner caps off the shine by barking at Rotunda, of course. I have never been a huge fan of Rick Steiner; his character to me has always been something close to awful. But I do think that he looks awesome here. He might not be the best wrestler, but the crowd is super into him and that helps overcome that Rotunda is generally boring as usual. Oh gosh, now Steiner is talking to “Alex” aka a face painted on his hand. This is what I’m talking about. Rotunda throws a really nice dropkick at Steiner before slowing it down with some clubbing shots. Sullivan throws a “block of wood” “used for something” according Schiavonne, at Steiner to keep the edge. The crowd is so hot for this it’s crazy. Rotunda goes up-top, but is thrown off by Steiner before getting hit by a shoulder block. Sullivan starts to get involved, chops to the throat of Steiner. At the 9:00 mark, Dr. Death comes out and attacks Steiner to get the DQ.

Winner: 9:00 by DQ RICK STEINER *** It was a very good match, but all of that leading up to a junk finish just isn’t worth it for me.

The beat down is all three of the Varsity Club hitting a stuff piledriver on Steiner and leaving him lay. Sullivan tries to steal Steiner’s dog that he brings with him but is stopped by JYD and Hayes.

Lex Luger and Sting vs. Agent Steele and Bob Holiday

Another squash tag match, here at the end of the show. Steele (a masked man wearing yellow pants with red zigzags on them) and Holiday are on the receiving end of a lot of punishment, especially Luger, who is showing his frustration over Flair’s decision. Luger and Sting are still, even in ’89, a little rough around the edges, and Steele and Holiday aren’t quite good enough to pull out anything from Luger and Sting. In a vacuum, Luger and Sting are wrestling like heels; the jobbers don’t cheat or get an advantage in any way. Sting hits the splash, then locks in the Scorpion Deathlock for the victory

Winners: 5:00, LEX LUGER AND STING (Scorpion Deathlock) *1/4

Luger and Sting meet with Ross. Luger talks on Flair’s ruling. He says that the two best matches from 1988 were July 10^th at the Great American Bash and in December at Starrcade. He wants to replicate that with Flair in 1989. He throws it to Sting, who cuts an awful promo on Butch Reed while walking around and saying something about a dog-eat-dog world. A rough ending to the show.

Overall, a pretty good show. The two real matches were good enough to pull up the jobber matches and we got some good promos from Paul E, Cornette, and the Road Warriors.

MVP: Cornette. His promo was awesome and he did some good work during the Midnights’ squash.

LVP: Mike Jackson. The Thriller got clotheslined out of the ring before the bell sounded and didn’t enter again. A nice $30 day for Mr. Jackson

Best Promo: Cornette, as said, very nicely done, building up the upcoming feud ender with the Original Midnights.

Worst Promo: Sting. “Yeah, I know who he is. I know something else. 1988 vs. 1989, it’s a dog-eat dog world Rossy and I’m one who realizes that more than anyone (inaudible as walking away)

Fashion Statement of the night: Agent Steele. Black mask, yellow tights, red zigzags. Nuff said.

Hey, it’s 1989!: The aforementioned fan in the Alabama sweatsuit with the clear plastic glasses and steps in his hair.

That’s Racist (or homophobic): Nothing too much tonight, but there’s going to be some goodness (or badness) coming up in the next few weeks.