The SmarK Rant for World Championship Wrestling – 01.21.89
By Scott Keith on February 7, 2020
The SmarK Rant for World Championship Wrestling – 01.21.89
Last week, Eddie Gilbert announced that he had a special tag team partner to face Ric Flair & Barry Windham in tonight’s main event! BUT WHO COULD IT BE?
Taped from Atlanta, GA
Your hosts are Jim Ross & Tony Schiavone
Eddie Gilbert joins us at the desk to start, and he’s pretty confident that everyone needs to call their friends and tell them to watch. Man, they better have a big payoff here.
Michael Hayes v. Russian Assassin #2
Assassin #2 works the arm to start, but Hayes dumps him and does some dancing. That’s like 75% of his moveset right there. Hayes works the arm while shaking his ass, but the dirty commie beats on him in the corner before missing a blind charge. Hayes just goes right back to that armbar again, but the Assassin rakes the eyes and tosses him to take over. Back in, #2 with a short clothesline for two. So now we get the evil communistic armbar from #2. So there’s this meme going around about how the same actress played Vasquez in Aliens, as well as the stepmom in Terminator 2, AND the Irish mom in Titanic. This of course is nothing next to Jack Victory, who has been American, New Zealander AND Russian. Truly a man of all countries and beliefs. The armbar drags on, but Hayes makes a comeback in the corner and Assassin takes him down and uses the ropes for two. Paul Jones celebrates like a moron, however, and Hayes rolls up Assassin for the real pin at 6:35. Real bad.
Butch Reed v. George South
Totally forgot about Reed’s run in early 89 here, as he’s managed by JJ Dillon but was decidedly not a Horsemen or associated with them. Reed with a couple of back elbows and a fistdrop and he chokes South out in the corner. Reed with a shoulderblock and he goes up and finishes with a flying clothesline at 2:14. Nice finish on that one.
Mike Rotunda is here and he owns Rick Steiner and will be regaining his TV Title very soon now. Meanwhile Kevin Sullivan rants and raves about the Road Warriors and how he was tied to the TREE OF WOE and so he doesn’t fear the Road Warriors. In fact, he’s going to reach down Hawk’s throat and pull out his heart. Well that turned dark in a hurry.
Mike Rotunda & Kevin Sullivan v. Gene Miller & Randy Hogan
The Varsity Club doubles on Hogan’s arm and pounds him down, as apparently this program is building to Williams, Rotunda & Sullivan v. The Road Warriors & Abdullah the Butcher. Well that sure sounds like quite the house show main event. I have no idea why they were doing the heel v. heel program so heavy, unless they had already run out of ideas for the Road Warriors as heels. The heels bring Miler in and work on his arm for a while. Rotunda with a forearm for two, but he picks up Miller and hammerlocks him on the mat. Sullivan hangs Miller in the Tree of Woe and drops knees on him, then double-stomps him and Rotunda finishes with a butterfly suplex at 4:15.
Last week, the two remaining Horsemen beat the hell out of Eddie Gilbert, who joins us here and promises that he’s got a man that can beat both Horsemen with both hands tied behind his back. I don’t know about that.
Ric Flair & Barry Windham v. Eddie Gilbert & “Mr. X”, aka RICKY THE DRAGON STEAMBOAT
Flair and Windham of course do not appreciate this development. Ricky takes Barry down with armdrags to start and slams him, then presses Flair into Windham and sends the Horsemen packing. Over to Flair and Steamboat overpowers him, but Flair throws a chop and Steamboat gives it right back to him. Steamboat with another press slam on Flair to send him out of the ring. Back in, Flair goes with the chops in the corner, but Steamboat gives it back and then backdrops Flair out of the corner. More chops and Flair runs away again. Back in, Steamboat brings Gilbert in and he throws down with Flair and follows with a flying headscissors. Over to Windham, who beats on Eddie in the corner, but Steamboat necks him on the top rope. Finally Windham gets a back suplex on Eddie to take over and Flair comes in and gets whipped to the corner for the Flair Flip. The heels discuss things again and it’s back to Flair in the ring, but Eddie takes him down with a drop toehold and follows with a figure-four. Flair rakes the eyes, but Eddie rolls him up for two. They hold Eddie in their corner and Windham powerslams him, but Gilberg gets a small package on him for two. Eddie fights back with a cross body for two, but they cut him off again and Windham tosses him. Back in, Windham gets the floatover suplex for two. Barry slugs away on him and hits an atomic drop, but Eddie rebounds with a lariat. Flair cuts that off with a butterfly suplex and drops a knee for two. Flair works the back and hits a backdrop suplex for two. JR selling Gilbert’s hope spots is amazing. Barry comes in with the lariat, but that only gets two. Windham with an atomic drop and he goes up to finish, but misses the flying elbow and BY GOD IT’S HOT TAG STEAMBOAT. Ricky destroys Flair with backdrops and chops Windham out of the ring, then rams Flair into the mat and gets a press slam to set up the flying bodypress for the pin at 15:10! Well I’d say he deserves a title shot for that. JR of course is amazing selling this development. Just a fantastic bit of tag team business. ****1/4
Back from the break and Gilbert and Steamboat go over the footage of the match while celebrating their win. And Steamboat now knows what he has to do: Cement his own legacy by winning the World heavyweight title from Ric Flair. And speaking of which, Flair bursts into the interview and he’s freaking out and so is Dillon. Steamboat points out that JJ has been talking for the last decade about how great Flair is, so he shouldn’t even have been worried about some mystery man. Flair of course does not laugh it off or play it cool, and he continues losing his mind because someone wants his belt and THEY’RE NOT GONNA GET IT, BY GOD!
Eddie Gilbert of course really got screwed in the whole deal, immediately disappearing from the main event scene and ending up a midcarder again.
Yeah this was pretty damn great. I might just plow through and redo Chi Town Rumble and WrestleWar next because they’re both long in need of a proper redo.
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