Loss

Midnight Express v Dynamic Dudes - NWA World Championship Wrestling 12/02/89 Really nice match, again all because the Midnights could have a good match with pretty much anyone at this point. Poor Shane and Johnny try to do a lot of synchronized babyface spots, but one of them either botches the spot or messes up the timing on every attempt. Eaton drags Ace outside the ring and pretty much destroys him with a chairshot as tough love and once they get into FIP and the MX have reigned them in, this is a match that becomes pretty good for the time it got. I don't think there was another match between the two teams around this time, which is too bad, because I think the MX would have gotten more out of them eventually had they had a long series.

Ric Flair v The Great Muta - NWA World Championship Wrestling 11/25/89 This is a match that has gotten a rep for being disappointing through the years, but I thought it was terrific, and I'm not sure I understand what it's lacking. It's a pretty non-formula Flair match, as I can't say I've seen another match resembling this one from his prime years at all. It starts off with Muta totally outclassing Flair on the mat, holding him in the Indian deathlock for an especially long time and Flair balling and shaking his fists attempting to make the comeback. It's not a side of him you see often at all, but he's really good at it. The only signature spot of his he really hits in the match aside from his chops is the Flair flip ending in the double axehandle. The rest is all selling, and because he's a babyface, it's not the typical "Oh God!" selling you see from him either. Muta working him on the mat is the first near-half of the match, and the point is made pretty vividly that Flair can't hang with Muta here. Some would call it a case of Flair not knowing how to work with someone who could do these mat spots who was looking to tear this down, but that's not what this is at all, as Flair does what should be done with them and sells them extremely well. He limps for most of the match thereafter and sells his knee injury while making his comeback. The weakest part of this match is the set up to Flair's figure four, as it's not really there, but the big picture match layout if anything enhances that fact. The figure four here wasn't his attempt to win, it was a desperation attempt not to lose. He only created an opening for himself because he won a slugfest and got lucky. It's possible that I'm somehow justifying some of the stuff here that isn't all that good, and I'm willing to come back to it sometime, but I went into this not expecting to like it at all and ended up thinking it was a very good match.

Sting & Brian Pillman v New Zealand Militia - NWA Main Event 11/19/89 Not as good as the Midnights match, and way too long at nearly 15 minutes. 12 of that is Pillman and Sting clowning around. Avoid.

Rick & Scott Steiner v Fabulous Freebirds - NWA World Championship Wrestling 11/18/89 - taped 11/01 I'd love to know the politics behind this one, as Garvin is one uncooperative bastard when he's in there. Poor Hayes is left to carry his team, take most of the bumps, set up most of the spots, call the match *and* take the pinfall. As a one man show from him, it's surprisingly effective, considering he was seen as washed up at this point. Of course, he's limited physically, but his mind is still there, and he knows how to lay out a match really well. Garvin sells absolutely nothing for either guy. Hayes sets up Rick as FIP and builds to a Scott tag and Garvin immediately attacks him when he comes in and doesn't sell the tag at all. It's obvious he was upset about dropping the belts, as he didn't even do all the Freebirds gaga that normally came for them pre-match early on, just staring at the camera while Michael Hayes does it by himself. Lita must have studied this match to master her "I'm jobbing" face we'd see from her the past few years on WWE TV. Very good match almost entirely because of Hayes, and this time period and the way he's viewed may need to be looked at again, because the Luger match from Wrestle War earlier in the year is much better than people say, and he was the glue that held this one together.

Eddie Gilbert v Brian Pillman - NWA World Championship Wrestling 09/23/89 This match seemed to be an early step in building to a Gilbert heel turn and Pillman/Gilbert feud, but it wasn't to be. Decent match with some nice subtle heeling from Gilbert and some good parity spots from both guys. Sort of a primitive ROH 2002 match, which isn't quite my thing, but at least there was a logical reason for it to happen in the booking.

Sting v Dick Slater - NWA World Championship Wrestling 08/26/89 I thought I'd like this one far more than I did, but I didn't care for it that much at all. Slater was probably still a little rusty at this point, as this was his first big match about a week after showing up in the NWA, so that may have been part of it. His timing just seems a little off most of the time, especially when Sting is setting up big heel transition spots for him like injuring his knee on the ropes and Slater not even really noticing. The Flair/Sting/Pillman v Funk/Muta/Slater post-match brawl is amazing, and the kick Muta gives Flair when he runs in will most likely be rewinded quite a few times the first time you see this, as it's just really impressive. Brian Pillman coming to the aid of the fallen Flair and Sting was tremendous booking, and it's unfortunate that the push he was getting around this time was cut short after the Luger feud ended.

Steve Williams v Mike Rotunda - NWA World Championship Wrestling 08/12/89 Mike Rotunda is sometimes talked about as being "solid", but that's really selling him short. He had some runs throughout his career that didn't really produce much worth watching, but 1988-1989 NWA is a really good time period for him, and he deserves more credit than he gets. This is hyped as an amateur versus amateur feud, and they do a fairly good job working the match. They mostly stay on the mat. It's not a lot of busy matwork or even visually impressive matwork, but it's impressive and keeps the crowd involved, so it does what it can. Acceptable stuff.

Midnight Express v New Zealand Militia - NWA World Championship Wrestling 07/08/89 A good tag match carried entirely by the babyface side, and tag matches really are much better when the heels are the ones directing things, so this match, while fundamentally really good, feels like it's missing something. The Militia had a cool gimmick, but don't appear to have been much of a team. Against Eaton and Lane, they looked better than I saw them look against anyone else. Still, creating a makeshift tag team out of former Sheepherders flagbearers wasn't a horrid idea.

Midnight Express v Butch Reed & The Raider - NWA World Championship Wrestling 06/03/89 The story here was that Bob Orton was originally Reed's partner, but was attacked by Dick Murdoch before the bell and thus taken out of the match, leaving Reed without a partner. Out comes new manager Teddy Long offering The Raider. The storyline never went anywhere again, but Cornette does use the term Peanuthead for the first time, so maybe there's some historical significance. It's obvious that while the Midnights are begrudgingly pushed to a certain level because they're too good not to be, they're also not given everything they deserve. A nice, competitive tag match with two guys that are at least established as names in their first big showing after coming back would have been cool, but instead, we get an extended, yet very fun squash. Reed barely tags in, and most of the time, it's Raider eating doubleteam offense from Eaton and Lane. They have tons of it and it's all awesome, so that hardly gets boring, but this is more of a showcase of what the Midnights had to offer than it was a good match.

From Meltzer today: Nash has been doing quite a few interviews for gay magazines and gay media lately for some reason.

Interesting notes. Thanks for posting. Poor Punk.

Ok, who the Hell is Hoback? Does this person post on a message board and if so, what is this person's name? I've been trying to figure this out for quite a while.

Someone mentioned something at one time about how Meltzer positioned El Dandy in his newsletter when he was at his peak. He wasn't a major fan of his, is that correct?

Ugh, tried and it doesn't seem to work. Sorry.

Well, if we're going to bump this, I'm go back and fix all the formatting issues that happened when the board was switched over.

The criticism was that Punk's matches look simulated.

Terry Funk v Eddy Guerrero - NWA World Championship Wrestling 05/27/89 This is cool to watch just to see Eddy at such an early stage of his career, and there's some good stuff in it from Funk, but Eddy is all tumbling and flips at this point. Part of that is probably just because the match wasn't about him and he wasn't going to be sticking around, but this isn't the "excellent match" it's been called at times. It's more of a cool match to watch, but I wouldn't even say it's a good representation of how good Eddy was at this stage of his career, because it's a throwaway TV match that wasn't designed to showcase him. WIN or EMLL footage from the same time period would probably paint a clearer picture.

Bob Orton Jr v Shane Douglas - NWA World Championship Wrestling 04/08/89 Another pleasant surprise. Nice match, far better than Orton/Steamboat on the DVDVR set. This is more of a case of the surly veteran facing the younger, less jaded high flyer and the younger guy getting much further than would be expected. It starts out with Douglas trying to beat Orton at his own game by keeping him grounded and working the headlock, with announcers Ross and Hayes pointing out that he is thinking like a veteran. He's not really going for the kill though, and that seems to be what is keeping him from taking his game to the next level, which Hayes points out. Orton ends up fighting back, and Douglas keeps the dream alive for a few good nearfalls, but finally succumbs when he deviates from his game plan and tries a top rope move, but gets crotched to set up Orton's superplex. These two could have had a terrific feud -- certainly would have been better use of both guys than what they ended up doing the rest of the time.

Lex Luger v Kendall Windham - NWA World Championship Wrestling 04/08/89 Again, I can just copy and paste. Good Lord, talk about a match way better than it has any right to be. Luger does a somersault from the apron into the ring to avoid a spear to the floor and Kendall takes a vicious bump to the outside. Yes, that sequence actually happened and Luger went to the air. The finish was also nice with Luger countering a top-rope lariat into a powerslam that looks it killed poor Kendall. One of the best competitive squashes I've ever seen. I'll talk more about Luger as I go through more of these '89 matches, but I will say that I don't think the reputation he has is quite fair, as he did have a few good years of matches and storylines, and he was briefly a decent interview as well.

Sting v Mike Rotunda - NWA 03/31/89, Atlanta, GA I'll just C & P what I wrote before about this match, since I watched it again, and my thoughts are still the same. Ah, the first match on TBS to air from Center Stage! Crowd is rabid throughout, and for good reason, and this is an excellent match. Rotunda had the TV title for over a year at this point (not counting a brief Rick Steiner run), so they did everything they could here to create a big moment, containing both the blowoff for Rotunda as the long-reigning TV champ and Sting's first singles title win. Something like this really couldn't be duplicated today because title changes aren't as important and because no one as over as Sting would go nearly two years without even winning a belt. It also helped that Ricky Steamboat and Lex Luger, the top two singles champions, came out and stood in Sting's corner to ensure that the Varsity Club wouldn't interfere. That sort of overbooking has swallowed matches whole in the past (think Flair/Sting at Bash '90), but here it worked, because the entire match was structured to foreshadow a title change and permanent end of a long run, and unlike Flair/Sting at the Bash, there was no 2-year plus build that seemed anti-climatic when all the focus was on all the antics at ringside. The focus never really leaves the ring here at all. This is like a better version of Rude/Warrior at Summerslam '89, since Sting is a better Warrior and Rotunda, when he was game, was as good as a motivated Rude. Rotunda's bumping is awesome, as he goes sailing to the floor when attempting a jumping lariat and even bumps off of a shoving match later on in the match, when Sting begins a pretty spirited comeback. It's amazing to me how much heat they can get off of simple moves like a side headlock, just because of Sting's charisma and connection with the crowd. It's also pretty amazing how devastated the crowd was when Kevin Sullivan found a way to sneak past the babyfaces and interfere, making the crowd think they weren't going to see a title change at all. The kickout was a great moment, and even better was Rotunda actually attempting a variety of suplexes immediately after that and Sting kicking out of that as well. It was clear at that point that the cheating was no longer going to work. He had to outwrestle Sting if he wanted to win the match, and with Luger and Steamboat looming, there was no chance of getting himself DQ'd to retain. Once that reality sets in to the audience, the heat kicks into overdrive and Sting finally pulls off the win. The wrestling is nothing breathtaking, but this is a textbook example of a match that accomplishes something decisive through basic stuff where the goal was to involve the crowd and foreshadow a title change. I can't even remember the last time a world title change got this kind of reception. Awesome match. I will pimp it to death when it comes time for the Crockett nominations at DVDVR.

Rick Steiner & Eddie Gilbert v Kevin Sullivan & Dan Spivey - NWA World Championship Wrestling 04/01/89 More standard tag stuff. All the tag matches follow pretty much the exact same formula around this time, so the only way to really stand out from the pack is to do something different, which this match really doesn't do. Yeah, it's a really solid tag match, which everyone was having at this stage, but it's nothing to watch a second time.

Midnight Express v Samoan Swat Team - NWA Main Event 03/26/89 I was surprised that this was better than the MX/OMX match earlier on. Not by much, but it's more about physical exchanges and wrestling in the first 10 minutes than it is putting over the babyface team, and the wrestling is pretty good. Samu and Bobby Eaton would have had a really good singles match, and their exchanges are really good in the tag environment. Of course, because they're Samoan, you can't hurt their heads. Stan Lane seems to have trouble remembering this, as he does the noggin knocker spot and they shrug it off and both headbutt Lane, but Lane then counters a double clothesline attempt with a double DDT, which the Samoans had no choice but to sell. Most of the Cornette/Paul E. antics from ringside are copied from the earlier MX/OMX match and pasted here, but it works in both contexts, so kudos. Good tag match.

Sting v Butch Reed - NWA Main Event 03/26/89 Major yawner. It's the Chi-Town Rumble match abbreviated, and neither match was anything all that special. Reed's injuries had really caught up to him by this time, although he did have a tag team revival the following year.

Ric Flair & Barry Windham v Sting & Michael Hayes - NWA Main Event 02/12/89 Pretty good match that follows the tag formula of the time pretty closely. Because it's so basic and doesn't really do anything we haven't seen plenty of other times, there's not really much to touch on here. It's better than the Arn/Tully v Sting/Windham match the year before because there's a better payoff to all the FIP stuff, even though Michael Hayes was not really at his best here. The main thing I got from this match was how much the booking and fresh opponents in 1989 saved Ric Flair from exile. Sting, Luger and Windham all emerged as superstars around him in the previous year, and Windham could have easily been programmed into his position and faced the other two for the next few years. Flair really needed a shot in the arm in a major way by this time, and it's obvious, just because Windham overshadows him here, not just as a performer, but even as a personality in some ways. Interesting to ponder how even the slightest changes in plan could have affected things for this group of guys long term.

Road Warriors & Paul Ellering v Steve Williams, Kevin Sullivan & Mike Rotunda - NWA World Championship Wrestling 02/11/89 This is WAY better than you'd expect it to be. Feels much more like an All Japan 6-man than anything else, even if it only goes about 8 minutes or so. Really intense, heated and incredibly stiff and fast-paced. They get over some of the pairings quite well -- specifically Animal/Doc -- and there's some really nice brawling outside. Mike Rotunda has a rep for being generic, but he's anything but generic here, throwing some wicked kicks and landing a vicious clothesline. Rotunda really has one of the best clotheslines ever. He also seems to be directing traffic for much of the match. Ellering is Ellering, and all he can do is a dropkick, but he's in and out quickly, and he does his one move well, so good for him. Animal plays FIP as the heels attempt to destroy his arm. Some really incredible arm work here, with Williams picking up the ringside steps and throwing them at his shoulder and then jumping off the apron onto Animal's arm while Kevin Sullivan holds him still. Everything you'd want from a US heavies six-man, barring maybe a little more time.