Jump to content
Pro Wrestling Only

[1990-12-16-NWA Starrcade '90] Sting vs Black Scorpion (Cage)


Loss

Recommended Posts

  • 3 months later...

This is an interesting match, if only to see Flair work nearly a half hour and try to work against every Ric Flair instinct. The end result is not a good match by any means, but I'm sure that was pretty difficult to pull off. As for the payoff, what a waste. I think it says it all about Sting that the crowd was chanting for Luger as soon as the Horsemen hit the ring. Sting only won here because he asked to at least win the blowoff of the feud before they shifted the title back to Flair, since the Black Scorpion program had bombed so horribly. What an embarrassing wrestling promotion. They are lucky they were in a great wrestling town, because Philly, for example, would have completely shit on all of this. This is pretty much the end of Ole Anderson's booking. In 1991, we have the return of Dusty Rhodes to that spot.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Alright, I'm putting this here and not in the general note or anywhere else.

 

What's the best possible reveal for the Black Scorpion? What could have they done to make it work?

 

I know who my choice would have been ultimately, but I'm curious what other people think.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Short answer: Eddie Gilbert.

 

The long answer involves a WarGames match with a new Horsemen of Barry/Sid/DOOM vs Flair/Arn/Sting/Luger at Wrestlewar, so we don't need to get into that.

 

but yeah, Eddie Gilbert. No way Turner couldn't offer him enough to do it, even if he was living out his dream by being heel Lawler vs Lawler, basically.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Alright, I'm putting this here and not in the general note or anywhere else.

 

What's the best possible reveal for the Black Scorpion? What could have they done to make it work?

 

I know who my choice would have been ultimately, but I'm curious what other people think.

I'll elaborate later: Rick Steamboat.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

And I went with Steamboat because:

 

- He was theoretically available, at least if the money was right.

 

- He would have that "holy shit" effect when unmasked.

 

- Motivation wouldn't be particularly difficult, even with Flair as a heel again. He tried to be a family man/role model and was booed for it, and was forgotten in favor of Flair and Sting.

 

Not saying there aren't significant drawbacks, but there are going to be significant drawbacks to just about any choice short of the Warrior himself. We don't really know how good Steamboat would have been as a heel, or how well he would draw in main events again. He has no real background with Sting as far back as '86, since he was entrenched in the WWF by then.

 

Gilbert has his own strengths and weaknesses. He does have the legitimate Sting connection and was a good enough talker to explain his way into having this bullshit make some semblance of sense. But, he's far from an instant main-event guy. Upon unmasking he would have to take a Roddy Piper-esque manager/background role, at least for awhile. The unmasking itself would probably come as an anticlimax--we'd have to wait for a post hoc explanation later whereas Steamboat would be an instant payoff. And when it comes down to it, I don't think the "legit 1986 connection" thing is all that important. That can be bullshitted around or have an explanation of a past friendship wholly made-up.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Gilbert has the personal connection, which is the trickiest part with this to me. I honestly would have ended the angle with the Starrcade match and had Sting crush him and go over huge. They'd had it as a focus for months by that point. But yeah, you could have transitioned Gilbert into a manager role and given him Hansen and the Master Blasters and run Hansen vs Sting.

 

My long version is a lot more elaborate and involves Gilbert getting beaten to a pulp only for Windham to switch places with him and win the match leading to a Horsemen schism.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

This is a lousy match in front of a mostly dead crowd (that had been jacked most of the night) that's only interesting for the novelty of seeing Flair work head scissors and cravats and not being able to throw chops or even take big bumps, lest he give away that trademark side bump of his. Even the postmatch Horsemen beatdown is tepid by their standards, including a tepid babyface save and an anticlimactic unmasking.

 

On one hand this is the worst "big card" main event of the year by a country mile, but on the other the fucking Scorpion saga is over. In my book that's a net result of a ***** MOTY that easily eclipses anything that El Dandy joker did in 1990.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This was just unbelievably bad for the main event of the year's biggest PPV. I mean, you have to give Ole credit for devising an angle that bored the crowd, cut the balls off the babyface champion and restricted the company's best big-event worker into a cardboard performer. On the other hand, I like all the fantasy booking scenarios in this thread.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As a kid watching this in 1990, and being an Apter mag reader I always thought it was a member of Power Team USA.

Yeah, certainly. Was there ever even the slightest chance that WCW believed they could get the Ultimate Warrior for this payoff? I mean, he was the WWF champion at this point, for god's sake.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Dick the Bruiser as referee. Special referees tend to suck. Multiple Black Scorpions make their way to the ring. Fans object with lights descends from the ceiling. Giant pod from outer space. The real Black Scorpion! Black Scorpion looks to have shrunk from his previous appearances. He begs off from Sting. He’s also wrestling a basic match. That snapmare looked familiar. Heyman tries to explain that this is the original Scorpion wrestling for first time. Pedestrian action at this point. Don’t even see the point of the cage right now. Scorpion uses it somewhat but it’s more of a background object. Black Scorpion randomly crotches himself on the ropes for a comedy spot. This match was crap. Hmm, why are the Horsemen in the ring attacking Sting? Jim Ross has great vision to be able to see that the Scorpion was Ric Flair as the camera angle at the time was real poor when he got unmasked. Just awful overall. Bad angle and a weak match to main event your big show.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Alright, I'm putting this here and not in the general note or anywhere else.

 

What's the best possible reveal for the Black Scorpion? What could have they done to make it work?

 

I know who my choice would have been ultimately, but I'm curious what other people think.

I'll elaborate later: Rick Steamboat.

 

THIS. I always thought there was a missed opportunity to turn him, because his bumping & selling could probably have translated into great stooging & heat for a face. Honestly the Eddie Gilbert thing would have meant 0 outside of the 'hardcore' fans of 1990.

 

But I know its off topic a bit but the best time to turn Steamboat heel would have been at Halloween Havoc '94 as 'The Masked Man'. Yeah yeah he was injured but let's pretend he goes home for a few months when Hulkster comes in & BAM he takes out Hogan in the cage & Flair wins the Unified WCW World strap. Flair, Steamboat, AA & let's say Austin reform the Ultimate Four Horsemen.

 

Starrcade '94 is Steamboat/Hogan for the shot @ Flair that night. Hogan defies the odds etc. I just think a Hogan/Steamer match could have been Hulks best bout of all times.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As a kid watching this in 1990, and being an Apter mag reader I always thought it was a member of Power Team USA.

Yeah, certainly. Was there ever even the slightest chance that WCW believed they could get the Ultimate Warrior for this payoff? I mean, he was the WWF champion at this point, for god's sake.

 

 

I never thought of Warrior. I was always thinking of the other 2 guys the Apter mags would touch on here and there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

Count me in as another one who thought it was the other two members of PowerTeam USA. I NEVER once, even remotely, snowballs chance in Hell thought for one second that it was the Ultimate Warrior. Never even occured to me. It sure SEEMED like Ole was implying it though.

 

I hope they didnt pay a lot for that spaceship. There's a sentence I dont write everyday.

 

Its obvious to the folks there at the old Kiel, as "whoo"s and chants of "Nature Boy" go up almost instantly. Flair tries his damndest to disguise himself but its just a lost cause. A for effort though. Tell me Flair wasnt a team player and I'll call "bullshit".

 

I kinda enjoyed Ross having a fit at the announcers desk, seemingly giving time cues, trying to alert everyone that time is rapidly running out and lets get this shit over with.

 

Dick the Bruiser grimmaces like he always did and pretty much stayed out of the way. Dick was my great grampas favorite wrestler. Gramps once (and Im not shitting here at all) stabbed a heel in the throat with his umbrella once. I think it was Ivan Koloff just from what Ive been able to piece together but not sure.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • GSR changed the title to [1990-12-16-NWA Starrcade '90] Sting vs Black Scorpion (Cage)

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...