[1990-08-31-NWA-Power Hour] Louisville Slugger: Sting & Black Scorpion

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Agreed that Cornette should have had a set for this show. Sting has no color in his facepaint, which is an odd look.

 

And then we get the yearbook debut of the BLACK SCORPION!

 

"STING." So hilariously bad.

[PeteF3]

WCW was still a lot more sports-oriented at this point than the other North American promotions. No one knows how big or little the Black Scorpion is or what his style is like. SO WHY THE FUCK HAS THIS GUY EARNED A TITLE SHOT??

 

This Clash apparently did a high rating. I always attributed it to genuine intrigue over the Scorpion's identity but now I seriously think Flair sold this show for his match with Luger, with the added possibility of Lex getting a decisive win in the series now that he was defending the title rather than challenging for it.

 

Sting's promo is pretty good. The Scorpion's, less so. "If you beat me...I'll tell you name. If I beat you...I GET COOOOKIES!" Or something like that.

[soup23]

Sting doesn't look really jacked at all here. Sting's promo isnt great but the shit with the Scorpion was awful.

[Kevin Ridge]

Sting doesn’t know who the Black Scorpion is or what is style is. So he will just be crazy himself.

 

Wow, first time seeing the Black Scorpion. Looking forward to see how this goes down.

[garretta]

Now I know why Ole hasn't been out with the Horsemen lately; it's so blatantly obvious that it's him doing the Scorpion voiceover that it's pitiful, even with voice distortion. He even uses his own pet phrases, such as "I'll tell you what". If Ole had been out cutting promos with the Hiorsemen as well as doing the Scorpion's voice, even the marks would have known it was him, which would have killed the angle absolutely dead.

 

Actually, that wouldn't have been a bad reveal, come to think of it, although it shouldn't have come this soon in any case. The clues could have been blown off as red herrings, the fake Scorpions as assassins paid by Ole to cripple Sting and make it easier for him to take the title. Eventually, though, he runs out of money and time, and is forced to reveal himself at Starrcade, where no one can believe that it's actually him, and that this is the way he's finally chosen to take his shot at the World title after all these years, in the twilight of his career. When push comes to shove, though, he has nothing left to give, and Sting wins with ease. It might actually work better if he did this completely on his own, with no Horsemen involvement (except, of course, to pick up his broken carcass after the final battle).

 

Would it have still been a bad match, maybe even an embarrassment? More than likely, since Ole was shot physically, or at least far from his peak. But it would have made a hell of a lot more sense than what we got. I wonder if he ever thought of something like this.

[GSR]

Jim Cornette is joined by Sting and he says that on Wednesday night at Clash of the Champions ‘Mountain Madness’, he’ll defend his World title against the Black Scorpion, a man who he’s never seen before and whose identity he doesn’t know. They heard a statement from the Scorpion last week that was very mysterious in itself, that said he knew Sting in 1986 and is someone from his past. Cornette asks Sting who this guy is and what is he going to do about this match on Wednesday night? Sting says he has no idea who it is. He knows a lot of different athletes from all over the world; he did in 1986. He knows a lot of different people, but doesn’t know who he is, who he could be, what his background is or even how to train for this match. He doesn’t know boxing, doesn’t know karate, he knows wrestling and he knows crazy, so that’s what he’ll be! Whatever it takes to get the job done he’s going to do, Horsemen or not he’s going to fight to the bitter end.

 

Taped Black Scorpion promo, and we just see a silhouette of him. He wonders if Sting has figured out who he is yet? He could tell him, but he wants him to be scared and to wonder. He tells Sting that if he beats him he’ll tell him his name, however if he beats him it won’t matter, because he’ll be in no shape to care. He’ll be waiting for him on September 5^th.

 

Sting’s face paint looked half-finished here! Were they trying to tease this was the Warrior by referencing that the Scorpion knew him back in 1986? I was wondering how I would view this angle, but between the mysterious silhouette, the voiceover and Sting not taking the Scorpion as a threat (laughing and joking in his interview with Cornette and not taking it seriously) it comes across as cartoony. There is a good angle in here somewhere (mysterious person from Sting’s past), but the execution is wrong on every level.

[dawho5]

I was wondering if it stood out to anyone how obvious it was that Ole was voicing the Black Scorpion. Anyway, kudos to Ole for more awful booking. Was his intent to dig the NWA into a massive hole they could never quite recover from? Because it seems like it worked.