[1993-05-08-WCW-Saturday Night] Interview: Ole Anderson / Flair for the Gold: Arn Anderson

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

God Bless Ole Anderson, curmudgeonly, stuck-in-the-past bastard. Stars from the NWA and AWA will be at the Omni for Slamboree? He hints at a Four Horsemen reunion at Slamboree.

 

Arn does a promo about facing Windham at Slamboree and Barry Windham calls in, saying he's not coming on Flair for the Gold, despite being the scheduled guest. This is so overdone and Flair looks like a clown. He needed something to do in a big way.

[El-P]

Arn is decent there, but yeah, Flair is goofy as all hell here, and really, after not being his old self for most of his WWF stint, this kind of stuff does him no favour. So bad it's good stuff. In a way, this was really nWo Nightcap a few years before the fact (and I like Liz better than Fifi).

[Kevin Ridge]

They have more girls around for Flair and Arn. Having guests canceling on your show is not good for your image.

[PeteF3]

Stars from Europe, Japan, South America, and Australia! I will flip my lid if Martin Karadagian shows up at Slamboree. We may have to settle for a Horsemen reunion, so teases Ole. That was pretty fun.

 

The announcer says Flair's guest will be Barry Windham, but there's no sign of him. Oh, those WCW production values. Arn cuts a promo on Windham and then the party (?) starts. Fifi gives Flair a phone call, and it's Windham--oh, I see, he was supposed to be the guest but called to say he didn't want to share the stage with Arn. Flair comes off pretty pathetic begging Windham not to hang up, then wanting to kick the girls out because of it.

[WingedEagle]

Ole promo selling Slamboree with stars from AWA, NWA, South America, Australia and more. He mentions Mr. Wrestling II, Verne Gagne, Crusher and Thunderbolt Patterson. He finally teases the Four Horsemen appearing there. Flair & Arn are in tuxes on set with a bunch of ladies, where they talk about Arn vs. Windham at Slamboree before Windham cancels his appearance on set. They're pissed but pop bottles.

[soup23]

Horseman reunion at Slamboree, let me call my PPV provider. Arn vs. Barry seems like a fun feud for the NWA title. I still feel more forgiving of these than others but this wasnt as good as the vader one.

[garretta]

Nice promo by Ole for the legends. I liked the slight sneer in his voice when he said that he couldn't wait to see T-Bolt.

 

Seeing Ole put over the Horsemen when almost everyone now knows how much he hated being part of the group always cracks me up. I'll say one thing: You can't tell by watching him, which is a credit to his professionalism.

 

How on earth did they think guys like Verne and the Crusher would ger over in Atlanta, even as legends? They should have kept this reunion to guys from GCW and JCP, then done a second card later for the AWA guys in Minneapolis or Chicago.

 

As for AFFTG, ​the only thing I found remotely entertaining was Arn's mini-promo. The whole thing with Windham supposedly calling in was a total joke, and the reaction of both Flair and Arn was a thousand degrees off. It's almost like Flair's existing in his own little world that's only superficially about wrestling, and now he's got Arn trapped in that world too. This would have been a great opportunity for a money promo from Barry; while Arn's yacking it up with a bunch of bimbos and popping champagne with a has-been like Flair, he's been training and wrestling the hardest matches of his life, and Arn's wasting his one and only opportunity to ever be truly great because he's wasting his time as Flair's bootlicker, just like he did when he was a Horseman. How difficult could that be, Eric? Surely someone on your staff can think of such a simple premise. Or maybe not.

 

It's not the idea of a talk show that's so wrong for Flair, it's the execution of this ​particular ​show. As I said earlier, there had to be some way that Flair could retain his manhood until he was able to get back in the ring; hell, they could have even made an angle out of it, whether they actually mentioned the WWF or not. Simply say that for reasons beyond his control, Flair's unable to wrestle until such and such a date, and thus can't engage any of his guests in physical contact until he's cleared to wrestle. With that established, Flair can be himself in every way but physically, and feuds can be set up for his return. As it is, unless someone read the dirt sheets and knew that Flair was sitting out a non-compete, they'd be wondering why he's such a wimp all of a sudden, and that's not good for someone whom you at WCW want to be a major force upon his eventual return.

 

By the way, in the following week's segment with the Blonds, Flair calls himself a nine-time World champion. That means he's including his WWF reigns in with his NWA/WCW ones, and I'm shocked that either Eric or Vince are allowing it. If either one of them had had any objections to this, I would think that part of the segment would be edited out the way Corny disrespecting Jim Herd was.