[1991-06-08-WCW-Power Hour] Ric Flair & Arn Anderson vs Bobby Eaton & Big Josh

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Arn and Josh don't do much, as this is all about showcasing Flair and Eaton before the Clash. They look good, but not as good as they did in January of 1990.

[Childs]

Josh really didn't need to be there. But Eaton-Flair remains a terrific match-up that never got its moment in the sun.

[shoe]

A set up for the Flair/Eaton match at the Clash.

[PeteF3]

Josh and Arn do a shockingly heatless segment to start off--Borne was just so woefully miscast in this role. Then they tag out and don't get involved for the rest of the match until the finish, so Eaton and Flair can do their thing. Flair and Bobby throw great punches at each other and they tease an Eaton pinfall when he hits the Alabama Jam, but Arn breaks it up and eventually Eaton starts swinging around Josh's ax handle for the DQ. TM Dusty Rhodes Booking. This was a little disappointing considering how much of the focus was on Flair and Eaton--Flair's role seems to be increasingly marginalized, even as World Champion. The big jump is something that looks more and more like the correct and inevitable way to go.

 

The Atlanta Braves are now making their historic worst-to-first run, which JR and Paul E. plug and then use as an excuse to take some passive-aggressive sarcastic potshots at Skip Caray. I found that amusing.

[Kevin Ridge]

Yep, Josh was such a random partner in all this. Flair and Eaton had a good little stretch of action with them slugging it out. The 2 out of 3 falls for the clash match make it interesting.

[soup23]

Bad performance from Arn/Josh and a fairly lifeless tag overall. WCW is really starting to look bad. Flair vs. Eaton was still a fun match up but this didn't do a ton for me to have to turn into the Clash.

[garretta]

I liked this as a prelude to Flair/Eaton much better than the Pillman/Arn tag the following night, but I think they should have had Bobby pin Flair in one of the two matches to really set him up as a tough challenger. Their exchanges here are great, but they get spoiled when Arn introduces Borne's axhandle into the mix out of nowhere. Bobby has a flashback to his MX days and swings it around like he used to swing Corny's tennis racquet, leading to a lightning-fast DQ.

 

Even the announcers recognize this as a Flair/Eaton preview; JR specifically mentions twice that they refuse to tag Arn and Borne respectively, preferring to try to hurt rach other as much as they can before their big showdown. Almost lost in the shuffle is Arn's own rematch with Bobby later that evening on WCWSN. It's almost like they're trying to cram a year's worth of Eaton push into the space of forty-eight hours so more casual fans turning into the Clash won't say, "Why is one-half of the Midnight Express challenging Flair, and where's the guy with the racquet?"

 

Heyman's started sliding downhill in the booth ever since the Missy feud's been hot again, as he's almost required to take a shot at her at least once a match, much to JR's annoyance. He also throws in a reference to Chappaquiddick, of all things (although I seem to recall Ted Kennedy being involved in another DUI around this time), which annoys JR even more. By the way, was Skip Caray taking shots at WCW during Braves games? That might explain why JR and Paul went after him here, although they were careful not to go too far, being that the Braves were Turner's number one program at the time.

 

As a preview for Flair/Eaton, this was good. I expected a little more out of the last Horsemen teaming that we Yearbook followers will see for over two years, though.

[dawho5]

Fun stuff with Flair and Eaton. I thought Arn bringing the axe handle in and "accidentally" losing it to Bobby was actually pretty clever. Big Josh is such a bad gimmick.