[1990-02-06-NWA-Clash of the Champions X] "I TRIED TO TELL YOU, I BOUGHT YOU SOME TIME"

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Well, here it is. Ole gets right to the point, kicking Sting out of the Horsemen. He says when Arn and Ole were brought into WCW, it was to get rid of Sting. They didn't expect Sting to help Flair, so they held off. Okay, that timeline is all wrong, but whatever. Then, at Starrcade '89, Flair waved him and Arn off when they were about to finish off Sting after he beat Flair. So they're telling him they will let him walk away if he backs out of the Flair match at Wrestle War. Flair is looking nowhere in particular during all of this. Flair finally decks Sting while the other Horsemen hold him and slaps him around, then delivers an awesome rant.

 

I TRIED TO TELL YOU. I BOUGHT YOU SOME TIME. NOW DO THE SMART THING. SMARTEN UP. GET OUT OF THIS BUSINESS. GET RID OF THIS CONTRACT. GET OUT OF MY LIFE.

 

As well done as this segment is, it was a terrible move.

[PeteF3]

Good promo from Ole and of course Flair but...yeah. This reeked of the NWO reformation after the Fingerpoke of Doom--a completely groanworthy move backwards instead of forwards.

[soup23]

I cant understand what the thought process was for this given the reactions Sting and Horseman as babyfaces were getting. I had always assumed it was flat but the TV matches have been white hot with crowd heat and this promo seems to come out of nowhere. This really may be one of the most baffling moves in WCW history and think of the ground that covers.

[Kevin Ridge]

Sheesh, this came way too fast. I know it was coming but it really wasn't played up enough on TV that Horsemen were not satisfied with Sting. Anyways, Ole does a pretty decent job explaining why Sting is getting booted out of the Horsemen. Seem like they might do the whole what will happen throughout the show as Ole gives Sting the option of just walking away but Horsemen put the boots to him immediately.

[Cox]

Why is Sting dressed as a pirate? We're a solid three and a half years before Jerry Seinfeld brings back pirate fashion.

 

This is a good angle, but man does it come out of nowhere. I kind of feel like Ole hogs up all the mic time and doesn't let Flair get his points across, which is a shame because Ole is kind of rambling and repeating himself a lot by the end. Good promo, good angle, but not the right thing at this time. Ole and Arn should have been heels for sure, but turning Flair was a mistake.

[JerryvonKramer]

I accidently posted in the wrong thread:

 

Thought Ole was really good in this segment. I do wonder if this booking makes Sting look like a bit of a loser or a chump though.

[BackToBionic]

This really makes no sense, especially in a retrospective sense like this.

[Laney]

This was executed well (besides Ole cutting a promo with his back to the hardcam). Didn't make much sense though since Sting had signed the contract well beforehand and there was no conflict among the Horsemen about that until now. Disappointing as the Horsemen face team was working out great. The main event of this show is now pointless.

[TravJ1979]

Best on Interviews for first Q of 1990: Ole, Ric, Arn, Lawler

[garretta]

I get why this had to happen the way it did; the Horsemen are supposed to be one unit who work to protect Flair's title, not challenge him for it. Okay, fine. Flair believes in his heart of hearts that bleached blondes with long flowing ring robes and cocky attitudes should always be booed and isn't comfortable doing that character as a babyface. Also fine. But why do it that night? Why not clean up the J-Tex feud, then do this on WCW the following Saturday? So it's two weeks before the event. So what? It's not like Sting's going to actually not wrestle Flair, so your main event wouldn't change. This wipes out the Stinger's knee injury, since there would be no cage for him to slip on. You could also keep Luger heel and build to a Sting-Luger World title program once Flair's rematches were done.

 

Instead, as Laney said above, you kill the big main event of this card, since the only thing anyone in Corpus Christi wants now is Sting to wipe out all six of its participants by himself, then you lose your pay-per-view main event due to Sting's freak injury and have to turn your former long-term top heel baby, which wouldn't be bad except that Flair's already definitively beaten him on pay-per-view a little over a year before, and you can't go for a shock title change since Flair flat-out refuses to put him over clean. Four days (in TV time) is all you would have had to wait, and everything could have come off as planned. Instead, the seeds were planted for the company's eventual marginalization, if not outright destruction. Who knows what a clean transition to Sting done at the prescribed time might have meant?

[Loss]

They probably wanted the biggest audience possible to see the turn. More people would be watching the Clash than the weekend shows.

[garretta]

That's a good point, Charles. But then why not blow off the J-Tex thing earlier? You can't do both in the same night, especially the way they did it. Maybe you do the turn as a shocker at the very end of the program, but that's the only way. I have to watch the match again, but as I remember it, not too many people gave a crap about it after the turn; they were too worried about what Sting was going to do.

 

Maybe Flair figured that since Muta and Dragon Master were going back to Japan it wouldn't really matter in the long run no matter what; after all, his main issue was with Terry Funk, and they'd settled that at Clash IX. But then, why hype the cage match so hard, to the exclusion of almost everything else, including (for the most part) a pay-per-view? Each possible answer leads to more questions.

[drew wardlaw]

Wait I think I confused the other Horsemen Clash promo with this one. I see Mr. VonKramer did too. Oh well, a really well done segment with the end result being the worst decision WCW could have made. I'm trying to find a link between this and the company going out of business in 2001.

[GSR]

Terry Funk is out there conducting an interview with the Four Horsemen. Ric Flair says that when they have an opportunity to get together on national television they always make a statement, and tonight once again THE Horseman are going to make a statement (hint, hint!). Ole tells Sting that he is the reason they are there tonight and he’s not going to be a Horseman any more. He says that when Ric originally called Arn and himself it was to get rid of Sting, but they didn’t count on him jumping in and helping Ric against Terry Funk so they backed off. A little later at the ‘Iron Man’ contest they were ready to get him again, but once again Ric waved them off. They never expected that Sting would become a Horseman, and he was a good Horseman, but when he signed the match to meet Ric Flair for the World Heavyweight title he did the one thing that they can never forget. When he signed that, he signed his death warrant. Ole says that he thought they should stop him there and then, but Ric said how he helped him the one time, so we let him live, but on one condition. That condition is Sting goes to the promoter and cancels the contract with Ric Flair. They’re going to spare his life and it’s only because of Ric Flair’s kindness. He’s got about two hours to decide what he’s going to do and to tell the promoters, Jim Ross, everyone, that he will be giving up that shot at the World title. Sting says ‘not a chance’ and when Ole turns his back, Sting grabs his jacket and the Horsemen immediately jump on him. Flair gets on the mic and tells Sting that he gave him a chance, now do the smart thing, smarten up, get out of this business, get rid of that contract and get out of their lives!

 

Excellent promo from Ole and this was really well done, although I can’t help but think that the attack on Sting and turn of the Horsemen was done waaaaaaaaaaay too soon.

[dawho5]

Puzzling stuff given the main event. People tuned in to see Sting in the main against J-Tex and now...this. Has there ever been any insider info on why exactly this had to happen?

[MikeCampbell]

Unless I'm remembering wrong, didn't Flair say that Sting wasn't interested in being in the Horsemen, and that's part of why it only lasted such a short time?

[cactus]

I don't know how this storyline with Sting and the Horseman plays out exactly, but I do know that Flair and Sting became huge rivals by the end of the year, so I was expecting a turn at some point, but doing it here came as a jarring surprise. Very rushed. Decent promo from everyone involved though.

[Badlittlekitten]

There's a lot to be said about this business wise, but as an isolated segment it's one of the best all year. Ole and Flair are tremendous and the Horseman feel like a real gang of hardnoses. Flair's "Get out of the business!" as he slaps Sting and tosses the mic is brilliant stuff.