WWE On Demand PPV Club: (Current: Great American Bash 1989)

[SirFozzie]

This thread is a spin off from the Pro Wrestling thread.. with WWE Network now serving up 30 odd years of wrestling history, it's time to look back.

The Rules (such as they are)

1. Someone nominates a PPV card to watch (preferably one more than 10 years old, or of historic significance)
2. Everybody watches the card and posts something about it in the thread.Usually, the deadline for watching is 1-2 weeks.
3. Someone ELSE nominates a PPV card to watch.

Nominations Log:

1. SirFozzie - Capital Combat '90 (The Return of Robocop)
2. BigDPW - Great American Bash '89
3. General Mike - Spring Stampede '94 (starts 3/10)
4. molson - WWF "The Wrestling Classic" (Starts Austin 3:16.. 3/16 that is)

[SirFozzie]

Featuring (with my notes in bold.)

The Road Warriors and Norman the Lunatic taking on Kevin Sullivan, Cactus Jack and Bam Bam Bigelow.

Ok, we need someone who can keep up with the Road Warriors, Kevin Sullivan, Cactus Jack and Bam Bam Bigelow in a brawl.. How about Norman The Lunatic? BRILLIANT!

Johnny Ace vs Mark Callous

I'm pretty sure Mark Callous is the only one still wrestling today... well if you count wrestling as appearing on Raw and stabbing people's hands with pens

The Samoan Swat Team vs Tommy Rich and Mike Rotunda

I hope like hell no one tried to headbutt a member of the SST, that's about as likely to work as powerbombing Kidman

Teddy Long vs Paul Ellering (Hair vs Hair)

Oh, with the Road Warriors and Doom out on the outside. Clusterfuck potential: Very High. Put me down for $10 on Teddy "Peanuthead" Long winning, playa.

The Midnight Express (Eaton/Lane) vs Tom Zenk and Brian Pillman

You may remember Brian Pillman as "Flyin Brian". You may NOT remember Tom Zenk as "Z-man"

The Rock and Roll Express vs The Freebirds in a "Corporate Punishment" match.

Otherwise known as a leather strap match. Because when you think of teams that would be improved by taking away 90% of their stooging and timewasting, or by neutering quick tags (or hot tags) and semi-aerial manuevers, it's the Freebirds and the Rock and Roll Express.

The Steiner Brothers (C) vs Doom -- WCW World Tag Title Match

Question, do Simmons and Reed get two appearance fees here?

Ric Flair (C) vs Lex Luger -- Steel Cage Match for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship

Flair has Woman with him. (Ok, honest aside.. who named Woman that? I can just see someone watching Animal (the Muppet, not the Wrestler.. although I would love to see Animal the Wrestler as a muppet) yelling "Woman! WOMAN! WOMAN! and figure that's a great name for a female valet)

edit: Oh, I forgot: Also appearing in some capacity... Sting, the Four Horsemen, and Robocop.

[molson]

You had me at Robocop.

[INDalltheway]

I'm in!

[SirFozzie]

While I'm waiting for WWE Network to get their shit together, here's a preview for you, the PPV promo:

NWA Capital Combat '90 Promo (Long Version) - YouTube

[General Mike]

Originally Posted by INDalltheway

I'm in!

Me too. Most of my watching will probably come on weekends tho.

[molson]

I like how the show is booked around Sting, who apparently is not scheduled for a match.

I probably watch it broken up over the next few days.

[stevew]

I was thinking that the greatest thing about the network is that you could just go back to like 86 and start watching PPV and if you didn't spoil yourself on Wiki you would have a ton of fun following the angles.

(Spoiler alert, Hogan always wins)

[SirFozzie]

Originally Posted by molson

I like how the show is booked around Sting, who apparently is not scheduled for a match.

I probably watch it broken up over the next few days.

Spoiler for pre Capital Combat events:

Spoiler

This was after Sting blew out his knee three months earlier attempting to climb a cage to get at the four horsemen (they had kicked him out of the Horsemen earlier the night of his injury for not giving up a title shot against Flair.

[Suicane75]

Yeah, this and the WrestleWar card a few weeks later were really stuck being placeholder shows till Sting could recover.

[IlliniCub]

The best part for me is listening to the Announcers trying to sell Robocop as being legit in a Kayfabe universe, absolutely hilarious.

[SirFozzie]

Yeah.. WRESTLING WHEN ITS REAL...

(please ignore the movie prop.. even though its TOTALLY realistic)

[SirFozzie]

actually, the main event and its result

was a direct result of Sting's injury. WCW wanted Flair to drop the belt to Luger since Sting wasn't going to be back for a couple more months, but Flair refused.. he had promised Sting he was going to drop the title to him, and he was going to hold onto the belt till Sting came back to take it from him (which he did in July of that year.

And as an aside, does Lex Luger have the record for weird cage match finishes.. there was this one, where he wins by DQ (and I'll get to a weird thought I had in a moment, and then there was the one in Florida Championship Wrestling.. where Bruiser Brody completely no-sold Luger (since Luger was leaving to go to the NWA/Mid-Atlantic Area, Luger refused to job, and the promoter apparently told Brody to no-sell Luger's offense and to (supposedly) rough him up.. Luger, visibly nervous and wanting NOTHING to do with an angry Brody, complained to the ref that Brody wasn't working with him, and then later pushed the ref to force the DQ and basically runs out of the cage to get away from Brody.



Now, to complete my weird thought from earlier. We all know the end to the Elimination Chamber pissed people off.. Can you imagine what would happen if WWE decided to torment Daniel Bryan fans even further than what happened.. Let's say, ref bump, Kane interferes, Bryan knocks him down, ducks an RKO and gets the win.. only to have the dreaded Dusty Finish happen and the ref declaring Bryan the winner.. by DQ.

THey would've had to call in the National Guard. But apparently, in 1990, having a main event cage match end in a DQ was apparently good business.

[SirFozzie]

We are LIVE (or we would be Live if this was May 19th, 1990) from the DC Armory.

Crowd does not look completely full.. call it about 90% full.

Oh god. Tony Schiavone. Nothing against him, but I so prefer Jim Ross. oh yay, Jim Ross and Bob Caudle at ringside. Saved.

And it's Armed Forces Day, so of course we have to have the national anthem. I can just imagine folks who bought this on PPV looking at each other and going.. "Um.. ok." Seems like filler.

They ask "Will this be the night that Lex Luger wins the World Championship?" All signs point to no.

First match is the ROAD WARRIORS (and Norman the Lunatic) vs Cactus Jack, Kevin Sullivan and Bam Bam Bigelow. Funny thing in the PPV promo, this was The Road Warriors (and Norman the Lunatic) versus "Three Tough Guys", and to be honest, I can't think of three tougher guys then those three. Was Meng wrestling then? And I know it seems like I'm dumping on Norman, and no disrespect to Mike Shaw (who passed away in 2010...) but when you're best known these days for the WrestleCrap gimmick of Bastion Booger.. you're not at the level of those other five guys.

After about 15 seconds of running the ropes with Animal doing leapfrogs (!) he hits a huge powerslam on Cactus Jack (who's already in his near-Berzerker like mumblings throughout the match). Animal tags out to Hawk, who hits a fairly stiff running clothesline on Jack, who tags out to Bigelow to check his jaw to make sure his teeth are still there.

One thing that you miss these days is with the cameraman no longer up on the apron, you miss the sheer impact of spots.. for example Norman does a running corner splash on Jack, and since the Camera man is right next to Jack, you "feel the impact".

Another neat spot making Bam Bam feel truly like the Beast from the East is he takes two running clotheslines from Animal, the second one making him flip over the top rope to the floor, but Bigelow lands on his feet, basically yelling at Animal..

Cactus Jack is still fairly newbie ish, and he's fairly obvious in calling for a spot where Bigelow whips him at Animal who's hung up in the ropes, only to see him duck and Cactus goes flying outside and takes.. let's just say he's a hell of a lot less graceful on his fall to the outside then Bigelow was a minute earlier.. and the VOD freezes at about the 11 minute mark. More tomorrow when I get a chance to watch it further.

[SirFozzie]

and... we're back.

Before everything froze last night, I mentioned that Jack took a pretty gnarly over the top rope bump.. He gets two more fairly gnarly bumps in about 15 seconds, a diving clothesline from the apron to the floor by Hawk, and then getting whipped into and over the steel railing into the crowd , wiping out a seat and nearly a fan or two. Mick Foley would surely learn from these experiences and only take safe bumps in the future.. (giggles)

It's hard to remember sometimes with an athletic FREAK Bam Bam Bigelow was in the old days, but not only was he agile enough to land on his feet outside the ring, but he's strong enough to suplex Norman (who's legitimately about 400 pounds). As the beat down goes on, it's obvious that Norman's here for one reason.. to play the face in peril for the unstoppable Road Warriors. Yes.. that's right.. Bastion Booger is playing Ricky Morton. Chew on that for a while.

And Cactus Jack with another crazy bump (doing a neckbreaker on Norman who's on the ropes which somersaults him out to the floor), and Jim Ross, a very prescient man, says something that will live a long time in the memory "Cactus Jack has no regard for his own body"

Annnnd the face in Peril section is over.. because Norman makes the tag, and if you think the Warriors are going to be selling much here, you're mistaken, because 30 seconds after that, Hawk hits the flying clothesline on Sullivan for the win.

Basically a semi-squash match (the only person who took any offense on the winning team was Norman, and you get the feeling he was put there solely to take the offense here.


Match 2:
A weird thing is that they go right from match to match, Sullivan hasn't yet left the ring and here comes Johnny Ace (otherwise known as John Laurinaitis).

Johnny Ace gets polite applause, but it's fairly obvious that he was not a fan favorite, the year before, Ace and Shane Douglas were put in a team called the Dynamic Dudes, who, in an attempt to show the youth they were hip, carried skateboards to the ring. Mick Foley said in his book that kids aren't stupid, if you carry skateboards to the ring, and its obvious you don't know how to skateboard, they're going to reject being pandered to. Needless to say, the tag team flopped.

And here's his opponent.. and let me just state for the record it's kinda weird to see the Undertaker (Mean Mark Callous) with a full head of RED hair here. And it's weird (and disturbing to boot) to see the Undertaker wearing assless chaps. But then again, that was "Generic Texas Wrestler outfit #12" probably.

They do some generic "Holy shit, this guy's big, how do I take him down" spots before a dropkick sends Mean Mark to the outside, and.. woah, FLYING JOHNNY ACE RIGHT INTO YOUR LIVING ROOM.. the camera gets the close up but not the best angle.. which makes it seem both less and more. I think that's because since they call a lot more spots "on the fly" so to speak, the director/producers don't have the best shot ready.

They mention how these are both up and coming rising stars. Caudle even goes so far as to say you'll see a lot more from Johnny Ace.. which is kinda funny as this would be Ace's last televised match for WCW, as he would wrestle in Japan full time until 2000.

They try to get the crowd into it with a sitting headlock, and the arm drops once, twice, but never the third time.. the crowd are not into this at all, and they announce that they'll be going to Gordon Solie in Sting and Robocop's locker room.

Wait. Robocop gets a spot in the lockerroom? Or even his own lockerroom?

So, after about 10 minutes of back and forth, Mean Mark hits the heart punch (which was his finisher at the time), and does a one man Old School Rope Walk with Ace down, and drops a big elbow on Ace, and that's enough to get a three count.

More later

[General Mike]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

THey would've had to call in the National Guard. But apparently, in 1990, having a main event cage match end in a DQ was apparently good business.

Nothing WCW did was good business, at least until 1996 or so.

I wish they had the Clash of the Champions shows on there.

[PilotMan]

Several thousand waiting outside to get in. LOL

Good opening match. Norman and the Road Warriors just doesn't have the ring to it though. Biggest thing here was the big bumps that Cactus Jack took like Foz said. Bigelow is just a beast.

Mark/Ace has no heat at all, but you can see the talent there in the ring. Ace is getting choked by Mark's manager, and the crowd doesn't care. They may just want to see it end right there. You just can't get over as a ginger.

I remember Sting getting hurt, but I don't remember any of the storylines that lead up to it. Robocop....might as well have Knight Rider show up too. Lol

was Robert Gibson doing sign language? Or just making it up as he was going along?

Captian Mike Rotunda? Can't see that being a great gimmick. The Somoans are actually doing a nice job of getting some heat for the match. Rotunda and Rich are good in ring workers and I remember Rich getting a pretty good push about 6 years prior to this. Guess that didn't have a lasting impact on his legacy. Fans are weary of this fight. SST are kept strong throughout while Rotunda takes a beating.

A hair match. Nice comedy. Where's Brutus? KIDDING!!

[INDalltheway]

I was so surprised to see Ace and Mark pop up in the second match. Mark was so athletic for his size, even more so than I remember in his early days as the Undertaker. I also loved seeing Mick Foley. He looked rigid (not sure if that's the word I want) when he was taking his bumps. Not at all the way he took them during the Attitude Era.

[SirFozzie]

With all the calls to put Sting in the Hall of Fame now that he's left TNA, some would say he's already in the Hall of Fame.. the Horsemen after all counted Sting as one of their members for some time.

[SirFozzie]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

Captian Mike Rotunda? Can't see that being a great gimmick.

Gotta give him props. He had some very diferent gimmicks

The US Express (little known fact: Hulk Hogan's "Real American" was originally the theme for the US Express of Barry Windham and Mike Rotunda)

The Varsity Club (man, what a collection of talent. Kevin Sullivan, Dr Death Steve Williams, Dan Spivey, Rick Steiner)..basically the jocks who "ran the school" and shoved everyone else into lockers.

Captain Mike Rotunda (featuring the most bizarre feud, with Rotunda's "Crew" (featuring Rotunda, Abdullah the Butcher (!!) and Norman the Lunatic (!!!)) fighting Kevin Sullivan's Slaughterhouse (Sullivan, Cactus Jack and Buzz Sawyer). Hopefully there's some footage from PPV's with them, because like, that is the most random pairing of teams ever.

And of course, one Irwin R Schyster..

[SirFozzie]

I just lost about six paragraphs of text (I was foolish and compsed this update in the text window, rather then in a notepad file for copying).. so here's the shorter version.

Robert Gibson nearly works blue.. "Freebirds, we're going to whip your as..(pause of a half second) behinds"

Then Ricky Morton apparently decides the Freebirds aren't any threat and talks about taking on the Steiners, Doom, or the Horsemen. He also gives a shout out to Lex Luger, who we're told, just left the hospital today after a Four Horsemen attack led to an infection. (I'd question how that happend, but that takes me to a scary place, and I'd rather not go there)

This crowd isn't even warmed up yet. They try to do a long Face In Peril section with Rotunda, and despite Rich trying to get the crowd in it by clapping for three minutes straight, the crowd is not into it at all. In these modern days, these bored fans would chant something smarky like "CM PUNK" "RANDY SAVAGE" or even "WE WANT PIZZA"

And the SST aren't above goig for the cheap heat either, hugging it out after a bit of friendly fire.. which is usually an easy crowd boo moment. Maybe this was a bit north of the NWA's usual stomping grounds, which means you don't get that usual southern style crowd heat.

Were they trying to do an incompetent ref angle, because there was numerous ref spots in this match (missing the tag twice in the face in peril angle, for example, and the end comes during a section where Rotunda and Rich are double teaming one of the SST, but despite letting the Samoans double team freely wearlier, the ref grabs Rotunda to send him out of the ring, while Rich puts one member of the SST in a sleeper hold, only to see the other jump off the top rope with a double axehandle, and that allows the SST to get the pin.

So, we're 54:30 and three matches in, and this is just.. well.. I have to use the words of CRZ, an old member of the Internet Wrestling Community:

I love Cheez-It Party Mix. I love the Cheez-Its. I love the Shuffles - the cheesy crackers in the shape of playing card suits. I love the indigestable Sesame logs. I love the Sourdough bits. And I love the rice puffs. But the problem is about half of the box of Cheez-It Party Mix is pretzels - butter sticks and reg'lar twists. The pretzels are the bits you put up with and pay for to get to the good stuff. Thus, my latest addition to the art of wrestling report critique: THIS MATCH IS THE PRETZELS!

This whole card so far is the Pretzels. Stuff you put up with.

[twothree]

WCW Capital Combat '90 - I have never watched this PPV.

Not much action from Hawk and Animal in the first match unless you count all the moves that should have gotten them DQ'ed. Nice performance by Cactus Jack and Bam Bam Bigelow. I liked the match but it seemed over way to fast.

I loved watching Mean Mark defeat Johnny Ace. It was neat to see Mean Mark uses moves and mannerisms that he would later use as the Undertaker. Mark's finishing Heart Punch reminded me of Stan Stasiak.

Little stingers used too much in that promo.

SST vs Tommy Rich and Mike Rotunda was a very good match, but it felt like it went a bit long.

The comedy match on the card (hair vs. hair) had good placement. Nice variety to the matches on this card overall. Whoever booked the order of the matches did a good job.

Nice stipulation by keeping Cornette in the cage in the U.S. tag title match. I found it unusual when the ref took down Cornette, but it worked to get him in the cage. A good match.

The Corporal Punishment match was O.K. Steiners versus Doom was good. And, the steel cage match was...strange.

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

This whole card so far is the Pretzels. Stuff you put up with.

For some reason I enjoyed the first five matches of the card quite a bit more than the last three matches.

[BigDPW]

I nominate GAB '89. I will be watching that one soon anyway and it is supposedly one of the best cards in history per multiple reviewers.

[Suicane75]

This was a weird time for WCW, I believe the sale was close to going down or had gone down at this point. They had a torrid 89 that culminated with what I consider a bizarre Starcade that featured a single and a tag tournament and stopped a lot of fueds dead in their tracks. Gone were Muta, Funk and Steamboat, replaced by silly gimmicks like Norman, Captain Mike and the like. A lot of the undercard booking was aimless on it's own while the top of the card was all set for Sting to take the title, only to be derailed by his knee injury which caused them to go through the Spring in almost complete placeholder mode. They did have a quality collection of fresh talent though, Pillman, Zenk, Mean Mark, The Steiners, Simmons and Reed repackaged as Doom. The problem is that they started doing a lot of silly WWF style gimmicks that didn't work, but the wrestling on top was still very solid. Trying to serve too many masters created this bizarre hybrid promotion that could go from insulting to awesome depending on the match.

Weird set as they have almost no Capital Combat themed stuff, it looks like it could be a generic WCW Saturday Night taping.

LOL at the Road Warriors coming down on bikes while Norman rides a trike, WCW not doing a good job at blending old school kick ass with new school silly. Bam Bam, Sullivan and Foley in theory are an awesome team and they really do their best here. Jack is a house of fire, bumping all over for the Warriors early and then when the heels get control of Norman it gets fun. Bigelow puts his power on display with a suplex and backdrop where he doesn't get much help. I've always heard Mike Shaw was a good worker in Calgary and he does a fine job selling here as the heels get some stuff in, but it's pretty damn short, and once he makes the hot tag it ends rather quick. I know that at some point Norman feuded with Sullivan but it's not mentioned during the match. Ok for what it was, the potential for a real kick ass big man match is here but the Warriors were sort of floundering at this point and didn't seem to have the desire to do much of anything. The announcing didn't help much as there was pretty much no reason given for this match even taking place to begin with.

Why the hell did they bill a big, bad ass looking Texan as being from Metropolis? WCW was all over the place at this time, Long and Mean Mark are just such a weird pairing. Ace breaks out a tope and a springboard cross body early. Mark doesn't do much while on offense but you do see glimpses of his athletic ability and the potential. Match sort of dies with Mark on offense and it goes on a bit too long but ends pretty quickly after Ace starts his comeback when Mark hits the Heart Punch and then a walking top rope elbow drop.

Sweet Louise, poor Gordon Solie doing a backstage bit outside Sting and Robocops locker room where he tries to put over how concerned Sting is concerned that the Horsemen might do something to all the little stingers is just bizarre. Are they going to start murdering children? You can hear various Robocop sound effects behind the door the whole time. This is WCW trying to out WWF the WWF and having zero understanding of how to do so.

Rock & Roll Express getting booed during their interview makes me kind of sad. Morton is such an awesome promo, he pretty much tries to promote the whole damn show in 90 seconds, putting over the tag title match and the main event.

Another example of aimless booking as Mike Rotunda is now a boat captain. Good lord. So Rotunda & Tommy Rich take on the SST and it's not like it's bad or anything, it's just that Rich & Rotunda are rather bland and the match has no meaning and very little heat. Rotunda spends way too much time trying to hike his tights up. Crowd finally got into it when Rotunda made the hot tag to Rich after getting beat on for about an hour. SST win with a double team behind the refs back.

Scott Steiner gives a horrendous promo.

Sweet jesus, Missy Hyatt, looking as gorgeous as ever and letting it all hang out, introduces the Long Vs Ellering hair match. She's so hot, but should not be anywhere near a microphone. If they had abortion clinics for cats, I imagine the sounds coming out of it would closely resemble Missys voice.

Ellering and Long have a silly little match that barely goes a minute.

Really, up till this point the announcers have done almost nothing to explain any of the feuds associated with the matches, if you're watching this with virgin eyes you'd have very little idea what's going in the promotion.

Pillman & Zenk Vs The Midnight Express is up next and it's every bit as good as you'd expect. Cornette gets put into a cage at ringside to keep him from interfering. This is for the US Tag Titles, but again, there's almost no mention of the battles these teams have had leading up to this one, it's annoying.

Pillman & Zenk work really crisply on their double team stuff and come off more as ass kickers than pretty boys. Great sequence where Pillman foils both Midnights for about 3 minutes with arm drags. Arm drags. What a different era it was. Midnights play such awesome keystone cops during the early minutes, bumping all over the place and looking the fools. It takes about 10 minutes but once The Midnights get control the crowd gets really into it, cheering the heels.

Eaton & Lane are just so awesome working as a team, they tag in and out, their double team stuff is sweet. They work over Pillman forever, and it's great. Surprised at the lack of comeback as once Zenk gets the hot tag he gets pinned pretty quick. Fun, fun match.

Jesus this Robocop stuff is so horrendous. Why the fuck did the Horsemen lock Sting in the cage if their goal is to beat him up? LOL. Man oh man. It's Wrestlecrap of the highest order. I felt bad for everyone involved in this.

JYD debuts to give an interview and straight up tells Jim Cornette that he just came from having intercourse with his mom, lol. This never went anywhere as JYD was inserted into the Horsemen angle fairly quickly, along with the about to arrive Paul Orndorf.

Rock & Roll Vs Freebirds was excellent. Freebirds music is dubbed in, and it's awful and goes on forever. I love how the R&R would always out heel the heels early, using fake switches and double teams and what not. It drug a bit when the Freebirds were in control because it was essentially just beating on Morton, not a lot of double team stuff or cheating. The finish was another one of those things you rarely see these days and has always been one of my favorite finishes, where the heel is going for a move on one guy and his partner comes in with the sunset flip or high cross to get the pin. Straps only came in to play a few times and those spots were pretty good so it didn't detract at all. I believe this set up R&R vs Doom for the belts at GAB, really the last push Morton & Gibson would have as a team on a national level.

Doug Furnas gives a competent interview. He was a pretty good lookin guy with a great body and he could work. Just boring as toast.

Sting comes out for an interview and they keep building up how Lex is hurt and shouldn't wrestle tonight. They spend the whole show building up that angle. So why not just beat him clean for ffs.

Doom Vs Steiners for the tag straps is up next. This is post masks and post Woman. They now have Teddy Long in their corner. I remember when Long did his heel turn and became a manager, I thought it was so random and expected him to be out of the business before long. 23 Years later and he's built himself a damn nice career.

JR is awesome here, running down not only Simons athletic credentials, but Reeds Junior College and NAIA background in football. This is when Rick was the crazy one and Scott was the voice of reason. It's like an alternate universe.

Scott is so awesome here, his big ass power moves seem so effortless. Steiners just beat the shit out of Doom for the first few minutes. In the ring, on the floor, everywhere. Rick even hits a piledriver, as a transition, lol. After getting the fuck beat of them, Doom finally gets control when Reed nails Scott with a knee and they IMMEDIATELY go to the double team stuff, they aint messing around here. So many lost arts on this show. I love how the minute Scott gets any offense in, Doom tags and the fresh guy stops him cold. The end of the heat spot kind of fell apart as I think Scott & Reed fucked it up 2 times in a row, but eventually Scott hit a bad looking frankensteiner, crowd popped big anyway. From there it turns into a brawl that's also disappointing and the finish looks funky as Rick just gets pulled backward off the 2nd rope and Simmons falls on him to win.

The last few minutes weren't real good but the rest of the match was pretty fun. Scott wasn't quite there yet, but what he could do given how little time he had in the business, was off the charts. The finish was a bit of a surprise at the time as I think the general feeling was that the Steiners were gonna hold those belts for a pretty good length of the time. Doom did have a good run though so in hindsight it was a pretty good move. Teddy Long is great on the post match interview.

After spending the whole show talking about Lugers injury, how he shouldn't be wrestling, all of that, Luger comes out not selling a thing and looking bored. Woman gets to stay in the cage which makes no sense, but the ref checks her and finds what appears to be a tampon stuffed up her glove. I mean an actual glove, on her arm.

It's actually a pretty good match, although rope breaks in a cage match? Come on. Anyhoo, they do what is probably close to their normal match that they'd likely done close to a couple hundred times at this point. The finish is all sorts of silly as Ole gets the cage up and Windham runs in for the DQ. It's funny, at the time I was wondering how they were gonna do a fuck finish in a cage match because either man winning clean didn't make sense. But I couldn't fathom a DQ in a cage match. Certainly not in the NWA. So Sting comes down, but the Horsemen have the numbers so then we get El Gigante lumbering down, looking as lost as a leg on a snake. Show ends with Flair cutting a coked out promo and then the heels and faces brawl.

Not a bad show, the tag matches in general were highlights for me as that was really the only part of the promotion clicking at this point. Everything else was getting pretty damn goofy and redundant as Luger had been chasing Flair for what seemed like forever at this point.

[Suicane75]

And I 2nd the nomination for GAB 89. Flair, Funk, Muta, Sting and one of the all time classic brawls. Gettin a bit of a chubby just thinking about it.

[lcjjdnh]

What ECW stuff is available? All the PPVs? Any of the TV episodes?

[General Mike]

Originally Posted by lcjjdnh

What ECW stuff is available? All the PPVs? Any of the TV episodes?

All the PPVs (New Jack matches are edited out, probably because of music issues). Some Hardcore TV (there were 4 episodes to start, but they are adding 2 or 3 new episodes a week it seems).

[General Mike]

Just started watching Capital Combat, so I'll edit this post as I advance through it.

First thing that jumps out to me is how small the ring looks. I know WCW used a smaller ring then WWF did, but it looked really small especially in the opener.

I saw a banner ad in the stands for the WCW Hotline. 1-900-909-9900, a phone number that will never be forgotten.

I'm surprised the Road Warriors went over in the opener considering they were out of WCW a few weeks later.

The Slam-O-Meter was lame.

You can definitely see why Undertaker became a huge star.

The SST vs Rich and Rotunda wasn't bad. I always liked Fatu as a worker.

2 Bald (or guys who eventually ended up bald) having a Hair vs Hair match. Laughablly bad.

Sid Vicious in a suit. Great.

I thought the Midnight Express vs Pillman and Zenk was really good. Too bad it was followed by one of the worst segments I've ever seen with Robocop waddling to the ring.

What language was Junk Yard Dog speaking?

Freebirds vs RnRs was another good tag match. How I long for the glory days of tag team wrestling.

Sting's promo sucked. He's much better now, but he was terrible then.

The Steiner Bros. were my favorite tag team as a youngster. Thought the piledriver Rick gave Simmons was particularly brutal. This was a good brawling style match.

Flair vs Luger - I wasn't a wrestling fan at this time, but Luger was one of my favorites when I did get in. This was a good match with a good finish that didn't make it look like Luger was a failure, especially the way Ross hyped it up on commentary. El Gigante's gladiator style costume was hilarious looking. I kind of expected Robocop to waddle out at the end of the show for the save.

[SirFozzie]

Ok, GAB '89 review starts Monday, taking reservations for the next one starting 3/10/14

And lcjjdnh: All the pay perviews are up, four ECW Hardcore TV (more gets added as they air on the network), mot sure about the Pre-PPV era taped events.

[General Mike]

I'm nominating Spring Stampede '94 for week 3

[lcjjdnh]

Thanks to both of you.

[molson]

For week 4 or whenever, I nominate the WWF Wrestling Classic from 1985. It was the first ever WWF PPV, and it's in a tournament format, so all of the matches are very short, but in that way it's a great little quick sampling of everything that was going on in that era. Except guys like the Dynamite Kid and Randy Savage were allowed to do stuff that nobody was doing on North American TV at the time.

[SirFozzie]

Updated. The Wrestling Classic starts 3/17 not 3/16, but I couldn't resist :0

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

Several thousand waiting outside to get in. LOL

Good opening match. Norman and the Road Warriors just doesn't have the ring to it though. Biggest thing here was the big bumps that Cactus Jack took like Foz said. Bigelow is just a beast.

Mark/Ace has no heat at all, but you can see the talent there in the ring. Ace is getting choked by Mark's manager, and the crowd doesn't care. They may just want to see it end right there. You just can't get over as a ginger.

I remember Sting getting hurt, but I don't remember any of the storylines that lead up to it. Robocop....might as well have Knight Rider show up too. Lol

was Robert Gibson doing sign language? Or just making it up as he was going along?

Captian Mike Rotunda? Can't see that being a great gimmick. The Somoans are actually doing a nice job of getting some heat for the match. Rotunda and Rich are good in ring workers and I remember Rich getting a pretty good push about 6 years prior to this. Guess that didn't have a lasting impact on his legacy. Fans are weary of this fight. SST are kept strong throughout while Rotunda takes a beating.

A hair match. Nice comedy. Where's Brutus? KIDDING!!

Really good match between Midnight Express and Zenk and Pillman. I remember Zenk from AWA. In this match he appears to be the master of the arm drag takedown. Pillman totally misses a sunset flip off the top rope, but Bobby Eaton goes down anyway. Pillman does an extended face in peril again along with some bad ref spots. The Express do some good work and Pillman's work is better than Rotunda imo. Zenk gets tagged in and Zenk takes a about 20% of the damage and gets blindsided and pinned. Zenk really made to look much weaker than Pillman here.

We see our first glimpse of Robocop! Wooohooo!

Robocop is funny.

Good use of the cage they just had Cornette in though. Love Kayfabe.

JYD!!!

Cornette is so great on the mic.

Rock N Roll Express in a strap match against Garvin and Hayes. It's a musical shootout!!! God this is so corny to watch today. The music still plays after the guys have done their dancing. They just walk around like "now what do we do?" Hayes does some great work and really plays the badass role well. These teams could really have had a nice long feud.

Doom v. The Steiners for the TT Title. I honestly don't remember Doom at all. I know Butch Reed and Ron Simmons I guess. This fight had a nice balance of offense. Both sides looks strong and all the guys did a nice job of selling and taking thier bumps. Damn Frankenstiener is an impressive move for Scott Stiener to pull off. Great finish to the fight, good build and a terrific finish.

Seems odd that Lugar finally makes his appearance just before the main event. You would have thought that it could have been built up a little bit better. Very little fanfare for a guy holding the US Title. Sweet jebus Flair is vintage in this. He sells it so well, flies around like nobody except Bobby Heenan. This crowd is buzzing! Finish in typical Horseman style. Good heat. Flair is so Flair at the end. WTF is El Gigante doing? Nothing! Why bother?!

[General Mike]

Just started watching GAB 89 on a mental health day. I'll edit this post as I proceed.

This show is subtitled "The Glory Days". Ain't that the truth?
2 rings!

"Presented in the most complete form possible due to original production technical difficulties". I guess the master tape got messed up.

2 ring battle royale to start. why are all these jobbers wearing/ carrying crowns? A lot of these guys are unrecognizable to me.
The skyscrapers won and split the money after Rotunda screwed Dr. Death in ring 2. Good setup for later in the car.

Flyin Brian vs Wild Bill Irwin - The Goon! I liked the way they used the 2nd ring to aid the finish.

Paul Heyman with hair!

The Dynamic Dudes. They;ve got neon caps and Frisbee. How ridiculous. Bob Caudle doesn't know how to throw a Frisbee. Why am I not shocked? The Skyscrapers! They used the 2nd ring for this match. That's weird. Crowd was super into Sid. This match was bowling shoe ugly.

There was a sign that said NWA is #1 WWF Stinks. WWF was blurred out. Make of that what you will.

Tuxedo Match between Paul E. Dangerously and Jim Cornette. So weird seeing Cornette as a face. Spotted Jason Hervey at ringside.

Steiner Brothers vs the Varsity Club - Missy Hyatt comes to the ring with the Steiners. She looked good at this time. Mike Rotunda is billed as Captain Mike Rotunda, but not the boat captain he'd be a year later. Good brawling style match. Finish was a bit clumsy looking, but I'm pretty sure Scott was a rookie at this time.

Sting vs Great Muta - Really good stuff. They did a double pin finish, and I think this lead to the title being held up.

Luger vs Steamboat - I don't know what was going on before this match as Luger wanted Steamboat to agree to waive the DQ rule, and he did, and then the match ended on a DQ. WTF? Good action while it lasted.

Love War Games. I wish WWE would do one of these matches. Awesome brawl. I wish they had shown some footage of what led up to the match tho.

Flair vs Funk - Awesome. Just awesome. Great match. Great postmatch brawl

[PurdueBrad]

Anybody watching this via an x-box 360 or 1 console? I'm intrigued and it's going to come down to whether or not it works well on the console apps.

[General Mike]

I use PS3 and it's ok for the most part. Had some issues with stuttering and stuff, but I figure that's more my comcast internet than anything. I have read that the 360 app has had a lot of issues tho.

[BigDPW]

Originally Posted by PurdueBrad

Anybody watching this via an x-box 360 or 1 console? I'm intrigued and it's going to come down to whether or not it works well on the console apps.

It is now working fine on 360. I don't think there is an app yet for XOne but I don't have one of those yet so you may want to confirm somewhere else.

I have not had any problems with 360 since monday and can fast forward and rewind at will without problems.

The one thing I will mention about 360 that irks me is that most of the WCW PPVs are not listed on there for some reason while they are available on my PC and IPad. You can get to the GAB PPVs though since WWE also promoted a few of those.

[BigDPW]

Great American Bash 89

I have never seen any PPVs dating back to this era. While I was young and remember seeing the NWA Saturday TV stuff that built to shows like this I never was able to watch any of it since we only had over the air channels and no cable back in the day (actually still no cable on my street – have to go with DirecTV).

Another thought I have is about the quality of the announcers on this show. They do an excellent job of telling the story and catching us up to speed on what has been going on. While announcers these days certainly do some of that hype videos are uses a lot more now to tell the back story and these guys (Ross and Caudle) didn't have that luxury. There is a real art to making the fans care about what is going on in the ring and watching this 25 years later having never seen any of the build to this show it is even more obvious how great a job they do with that.

Battle Royal: It was interesting to see Scott Hall in the match though he made little impact. I thought the ending was pretty interesting way to build the Skyscrapers. Teddy Long has always been annoying to me but he does his job being a heel manager very well.

“Wild” Bill Irwin v Pillman: Never heard of Wild Bill before watching this but I have now discovered him on some of the “old school” shows on WWE Network. This was a really short match that simply was to help build Pillman who sounds like he was new to NWA. I likes the use of the opposite ring to end the match.

Skyscapers v Dynamic Dudes: Man were the Dudes 80 cheesy/cool or what... Funny to see Johnny Ace from back in the day as I have never really seen him work. Hard to believe that is Shane Douglas too... Match was OK but seeing these guys from back then was pretty neat.

Cornette v Paul E: This match was surprisingly good for a manager vs manager match. I think both of these guys have better psychology than most legit wrestlers these days. I like the way the interview set up the history of Cornette's blown out knee and that was a thread throughout the match.

Steiner Bros v Varsity Club: I have always thought the Steiners were pretty cool. Interesting to note that this was Scott's PPV debut. It is also interesting knowing that these guys ended up all forming the varsity club faction together lately. Match was pretty good for a midcard tag match though.

Sting v Muta: This match was awesome. I really enjoyed seeing Muta and Sting's work from this era. Sting just looks and acts like he is untouchable. Muta is as athletic and hard working as they come. It is hard to believe that this match is the fourth match from the end of the show. This ending wasn't clean but did a good job of prolonging the feud without messing up Muta's undefeated streak. Not sure what the resolution was after the GAB but this match had me salivating for the rematch!

Lex Luger v Steamboat: Steamboat looked like he was going to fall off that apparatus during his entrance several times but hey they were trying to push the envelope on “cool” entrances so gotta give them credit for that. Plus who hasn't ever said to themselves “hey I wonder what a Kimodo dragon would look like in biker leathers.” Luger did a good job being the “I'm better than you and definitely too good for this stuff” heel with the promo and threatening to walk out. The match did a great job building heat and giving everybody a bit of what they wanted. Luger got to keep the title and continue the feud, Steamboats fans got to see him pound on Luger with a chair, and everyone saw a great match!

War Games: I have always enjoyed the old War Games matches. This one wasn't the best but it was better than some of the 90's ones and I enjoyed getting to see Dr. Death, The Freebirds, and the Samoan SWAT Team work since I have never seen much of their stuff. I am sure each of those folks have better matches out there but putting everything together for this War Games match just worked for my tastes. I thought the use of the cage roof was pretty cool for a few spots too.

Flair v Funk: I was a little bummed with the tone of Flair's promo prior to the match and was hoping he would get me more fired up about the match but alas he was pretty subdued, calculating, thoughtful, and left his whooooooooooo out! The match had a little bit of everything though. Flair doing his classic stuff. Both men taking a beating. The psychology of the neck injury was well played and gave the match an extra element that is often missing in today's main event scene. I was expecting a longer match than 18 minutes with these two but didn't feel like they left anything out in the time they had. The real highlight of this match though was the aftermath with Muta coming out and misting Flair with The Stinger coming to the rescue. And of course the show ended with the payoff of Flair talking into the mic at the announcers booth as fired up as ever wanting to kick Muta and Funks rears some more – WHOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Overall Thoughts:
The show did a great job of delivering in the ring and moving some feuds forward but still leaving us wanting to see what comes next. Sting and Muta both came out of this looking really good showing they could be main eventing someday. We got some classic Flair stuff and he delivered with Funk in the ring. The War Games lived up to the name and history (albeit only a few years of history at this point) despite not having the Horsemen or the SuperPowers involved.

It will be tough to beat this PPV from a in ring stand point particularly those last 4 matches.



I plan to go back and watch the other PPV I missed (Capital Combat) and I will let you know what I think when I get a chance to. Hopefully the WCW PPVs will be available on 360 soon.

[PurdueBrad]

Thanks guys, started my subscription. I really, really hope that WWE will put the WCW stuff on their soon.

Otherwise the quality is good but just not a deep selection yet.

[SirFozzie]

Yeah. Wargames matches had a feeling of.. hatred that the Elimination Chamber fails to bring

[PurdueBrad]

Due to the small console selection, thus far we've watched the most recent Hell in a Cell and the late 90's Rock Bottom PPV. The quality, given the older video of Rock Bottom, was really impressive.

[PilotMan]

I finally got done with it and it was worth it!

GAB 1989

Starts off right with the 2 ring Battle Royal. It's a wealth of mid card action! One of stipulations of the 2 ring set up is that the winner of 1 fights the winner of 2. It ends oddly with a tag team winning both and the manager saying they won't fight. The crowd boos and the wrestlers leave very unceremoniously. Just not the way that you'd want to start the show imo.

Irwin and Pillman have no real heat for the fight. I lover Irwin yelling, but the fact you can hear him so well speaks to how the fight is going over. Pillman gets a nice high impact against Irwin from the second ring for the finish. Oddly Irwin jumps up with his whip and celebrates chasing Pillman from the ring.

Paul Heyman, who was great in the AWA, makes his mark here promoting his fight with Cornette.

Dynamic Dudes. Frisbees. Take on Dan Spivey and Sid Viscious. The Skyscrapers already got over in the 2 ring Battle Royal, and the promo that was shown after. The crowd is chanting for Sid Viscious as Spivey stays in. Viscious gets in and the crowd pops. He obliges with a pose. Spivey gets booed when he comes back in. The Dynamic Dudes really don't really even appear in this fight. God, Sid sells nothing. He got decked and barely fliched. Spivey damn near misses the piledriver-like finish. Dudes looked horrible, hard to believe Shane Douglas goes on from there. Squash.

Manager v. Manager as Cornette and Paul E Dangerously go at it. Both guys love to work the crowd so it should be pretty entertaining. Dangerously starts working the wrong knee. That was nice. These guys are actually putting on a pretty good show. Both men were born for pro wrestling.

Steiners v. Varsity Club. Good action early in the Texas Tornado style. Both teams do awesome work and it finishes solid.

Sting takes on Muta for the TV Title. Sting was so over by this time and both guys are such good workers. Pretty quick match. Crowd continuously chants for Muta.

Lugar and Steamboat. Funky start with the stipulation. Steamboat comes out with some great work. Very good match, Steamboat is almost always good. Lugar started selling well but as it's gone on he really isn't selling as much. Lugar gets the win as the the Ricky gets DQed. I loved the finish that Steamboat swings that chair all up the aisle and fans are bailing out of the way. It was great.

Freebirds cut a great promo for War Games. Followed by a less than by the Midnight Express, Steve Williams and the Road Warriors. Tons of star power for the battle though.

So here we have War Games, a format that I have to admit that I'm unfamiliar with. Lots of good action in here. Too much to follow.

Funk comes out to nothing. No crowd noise, no pop, nothing. Flair clearly has the crowd. I love the bad camera angles and missed action. Love the crowd just getting silent after Funk hits the piledriver. JR is just awesome. He sets this whole thing up. Both guys are just busted open. This has great action between these legends. Gary Hart and Muta and Funk work Flair over. The crowd is calling for Sting. And here he comes! JR is NUTS!

That was a fantastic show.

[General Mike]

So is this dead, or what?

I'm still watching stuff and will put my general thoughts as I watch stuff here.

I picked Spring Stampede 94 to watch and I'm about to start to watch that but before that I watched SuperBrawl IV from February 1994. The first hour or so of that show was bad, and the most notable thing was Jimmy Garvin busting out the Stone Cold Stunner after a match with Johnny B Badd. If you skip to the last 4 matches, Arn vs Regal, Nasty Boys vs Cactus Jack and Maxx Payne, Rude, Austin and Orndorff vs Sting, Pillman and Rhodes and Vader vs Flair, it's a real good show and they set up Spring Stampede well.

[General Mike]

Spring Stampede 94

This was WCW's first show ever at the Rosemont Horizon as that was traditionally a WWF arena and still is used by WWE when they come to Chicago.

In the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, this got 91.7% thumbs up.

DDP vs Johnny B. Badd. The crowd didn't want to like this but they got into it as it was good action. Pretty incredible that Page was world champion 5 years later while Badd was out of the industry. Meltzer gave it **1/4.

Brian Pillman vs Lord Steven Regal for the TV title. This went to the time limit draw. That's something I miss about the time limit draw. Pillman would have been a much bigger star than he was if he came along 10 years later as his size wouldn't have been as big an issue as it was. **3/4 from Meltzer

Nasty Boys vs Cactus Jack and Maxx Payne - OMG this was intense. It wasn't a long match but it was a great street fight. Brutal weapon shots and a sick bump off the ramp to the floor by Jack. This was basically the end of the road for Maxx Payne in WCW. ****1/2 from Meltzer.

Great Muta vs Steve Austin - This was good, but the finish sucked as WCW had the lame over the top rope DQ rule. Crowd was into Muta and he busted out most of the big spots, except the moonsault, but did hit an awesome top rope frankensteiner. Meltzer gave it **3/4, but I'd give it at least 3.

Sting vs Rick Rude - They dubbed over both of these guys music I think in their entrances. Lame. Meltzer gave this ** and I agree with him. I know I've seen these guys have better matches then this. Finish was ok but it could have been better executed, but it would have been interesting to see what happened with Rude if he didn't have a career ending injury right after this match.

Bunkhouse Buck vs Dustin Rhodes - Pretty incredible that Dustin is still going strong 20 years later. Awesome brawl. I don't know if blade jobs are needed in wrestling, but it did add to this match. Rhodes when motivated is a great wrestler. **** from Meltzer

The Boss (Ray Traylor) vs Vader - Loved Vader at this time. One of the best monster heels ever. It was interesting to see him against a guy almost as big as him and who could match power with him. Traylor was doing his WWF gimmick at this time and WWF sent legal letters to WCW so they had to kill the gimmick at this time. Vader busted out the moonsault here which looked great and was a believable finish. Postmatch police brutality by Boss on Harley Race was good. Meltzer gave this ***1/2

Flair vs Steamboat - 2 of the best ever having a great match. Not as good as their matches from 1989 but still a really good 30+ minute main event. ****1/4 from Meltzer.

[PilotMan]

Spring Stampede '94

I am familiar with many of the names, but I can honeslty say, that this time period is during my dark period for pro wrestling. I was not following closely anything that was going on at this time.

Johnny B Badd. How can this guy be married to Rena? DDP still rocking the Diamonds from his AWA times. I'd like to see more of DDP's Diamond doll. Mero is a living caricature of a person. These guys put a nice opening fight on. The crowd really didn't care all that much. Heenen is great to listen to again.

Flyin Brian v. Lord Steven Regal for the TV Title. Regal is so good at getting the hate. I really liked seeing the techical grappling more from Regal. They have missed too many spots though. I think the crowd popped the most for this fight at the start. They seem to have lost interest. Pretty good match for the full 15 draw.

Falls count anywhere match with another team I saw in the AWA many years ago, the Nasty Boys. Hard to believe they are the top team. When I saw them I didn't think that much of them then. Maxx Payne and Cactus Jack team as the others. There is a looot of weight being thrown around. What a fight! Mick just flies all over the place. I really did enjoy reading his books. The crowd is really into this. Mick takes the shovel to the head after taking a 6 foot fall onto concrete on his back. Holy crap. That was incredible.

Great Muta takes on Stunning Steve Austin for the US Title. An untintentionally great male porn scene where Muta's ass is in the air and it looks like he it giving out a BJ to Austin as his head bobs up and down while stuck in a head scissors. Good for my ROFL part of the day. Love the guy talking into a recoder who asks Muta a question as he sits outside the ring next to the cage. Muta almost cracks his skull on the finisher. Then throws Austin over the top rope for the DQ but the announcer calls Sting over the top rope! Funny stuff in this one.

----

I'll try and get more later.

[PilotMan]

Well this deescalated quickly.

[Carman Bulldog]

I'm enjoying Legends of Wrestling more than anything else. It's my first time seeing any of those. I'm still waiting for the addition of Saturday Night's Main Event, some old Clash of the Champions and these old ECW shows to start showing Extreme as opposed to Eastern wrestling.

[General Mike]

Originally Posted by Carman Bulldog

these old ECW shows to start showing Extreme as opposed to Eastern wrestling.

Right around the corner, as the most recent episode of Hardcore TV on there is from July 25, 1994.

Shane Douglas threw the NWA Title in the garbage on August 27 , 1994.