[1993-05-15-WCW-Saturday Night] Flair for the Gold: Hollywood Blonds

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

The production is just so awful. Stuff like this where everyone has so many lines that are being used to set up a match really shouldn't have crowd noise piped in to drown the wrestlers out, and there's so much of everyone talking over everyone else that some of the good lines get lost. Also gotta love WCW's camera angles, panning out to show the outer edges of the set and zooming in on the other cameramen.

[El-P]

Indeed. God awful production values. The piped crowd noise is unbearable and makes the thing even worse. At least nWo Nighcap was in front of the audience.

As far as Austin and Pillman goes, they looked like the future here. WCW is gonna work that passing of teh torch angle and in a matter of a few years, Austin will be WCW champion and the new big star of the company. Or not.

[Kevin Ridge]

Cracking up at Fifi using the feather duster near Missy’s privates. Arn has become Ed McMahon. Blonds take loads of shots as Flair and Arn being too old. Flair gets all angry and starts yelling that this is his show. A show that continues to make him look like a joke. Yes, production is awful.

[PeteF3]

I may have to turn in my man card for this but I don't see what's so great about Fifi. Flair continues to be enthusiastic, but God, Arn is about as miscast as anyone has ever been in or out of wrestling in this role. Missy Hyatt makes an appearance continuing whatever this thing is with her trying to track down Flair. We're about 3 weeks into this segment and this is the 3rd consecutive one to have Flair constantly browbeaten by his guest--or, in Missy's case, an uninvited one. All while Flair tries to laugh things off. Way to make Ric look like a total chump. Flair finally snaps this time, which leads to...nothing in particular. The Blonds had some good lines here but this was pretty awful.

[WingedEagle]

Missy Hyatt storms the set and is heated about something. Blonds are out saying great antiques on set, asking how much he paid for the statue of Arn, Pillman asks for Flair's autograph for his great grandmother. They're heeling it up great. Good job setting up heat between Flair/Arn and Blonds. Blonds walk as Flair takes off his coat and is ready to go.

[soup23]

I loved this. I thought it set up Flair's return to the ring in a great way showing the new generation prick heels essentially doing to Flair what he did to everyone else a decade earlier. They are inviting that fire of the champion back. This was done in a good way to me.

[garretta]

Austin and Pillman were absolutely on fire with the age cracks; it was one direct hit after another, and I'm sure there was more good stuff lost with the awful audio. In respone, Flair did.......absolutely nothing, at least until the Blonds were gone.

 

I don't have a problem with him not being able to wrestle yet, especially since it's not directly his fault, but I don't get the idea of making him a gladhanding good-time Charlie type. That may be part of who the real Richard Fliehr is, but it doesn't fit at all with the world champion persona Ric Flair has developed over the years. Yes, he likes his good times and his pretty ladies, but he doesn't allow himself to be punked out repeatedly by a couple of mere tag team wrestlers, or anyone else, for that matter. There had to be a way to keep Flair's persona strong without putting him into the ring until the time was right, but for whatever reason Bischoff chose not to find it. If all he was going to do until his contract with Vince ran out was stuff like this, he should have just sat at home and collected his money.

 

I thought Arn actually fit his role better than Ric did. He's supposed to be the Ace Orton of the segment, backing Flair's play the way Orton did Piper's. It's just a shame that he had no play to back. In fact, ​he ​w​as the one who took offense at the Blonds' remarks while Flair tried to laugh them off, especially those of his former Dangerous Alliance partner Austin. In fact, I would have liked to have seem a fight break out, with Austin and Pillman double-teaming Arn and Flair helpless to do anything about it. They could always say that he was protecting Fifi from injury by not getting involved himself. That may have been lame, but so was most of what we got.

 

What the hell was Missy's problem? Were they just having her pop up anywhere Flair went for no good reason whatsoever? I couldn't hear most of what she was going on about, and what I heard made no sense, especially making fun of Arn's sexual stamina. The more I've seen of her, the more of an absolute waste she's become. She lost all of her usefulness to this business the day she and Eddie Gilbert divorced.

 

Horsemen fan though I am, I liked hearing Austin and Pillman run them down, especially since the additions we'll see to the group at Slamboree (Ole and Roma) aren't likely to change their opinion or scare them much.

 

Line of the segment: Pillman asking for Flair's autograph for his "great-grandmother".

 

I'm just two segments into ​A Flair for the Gold​ (I haven't seen the one from 5/8 yet), and I'm almost wishing for the cinematic masterpiece that was ​The Bull Drop Inn. ​Almost.