[1991-12-28-WCW-Saturday Night] Interview: Dangerous Alliance

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Paul E. tells Sting he is sinking, and that he might as well go up North and sign a contract somewhere where the physical demands aren't as high. Ooh. Paul E. introduces his entire stable in one of the few times they were ever all together. Everyone except Rude (even Madusa) is in a tux. Paul E. sends out warnings to Dustin Rhodes, Ron Simmons, Barry Windham and Ricky Steamboat. Rick Rude has words for Steamboat. Paul E. reiterates that this is not over until he has a spot on the Board of Directors. Good segment.

[Kevin Ridge]

Dangerously suggests that Sting packs his bags and go north where the competition is easier. The whole Dangerous Alliance is ringside in tuxes except for Rude. Maybe he has a match up next but they all should have been wearing tuxes. Rude now focusing on Steamboat regarding him almost striking Madusa.

[PeteF3]

Dangerously takes a pre-Monday Night Wars shot at the competition and also takes a shot at Windham's inability to preserve "another organization" (flashes four fingers). Rude is now clearly being positioned as the centerpiece of the Dangerous Alliance, as he gets credit for re-injuring Sting and is the only other man to get mic time. He issues a warning to Ricky Steamboat over his near-striking of Madusa. This is Dusty booking at its best--the upper and mid-cards are falling into place and feuds and storylines are beginning to overlap without becoming excessively confusing.

[soup23]

Big time DA promo to end the year. Paul E wants a BOD seat and calls out a ton babyfaces they will be focusing on in the upcoming year. Rude being in a robe is distinguishing and he seems to go after Steamboat here for the first time. Promo ends with Rude being carried off on top of Eatons/Larry's Shoulders.

[...TG]

Paul E. has been on a roll, whipping out the pre-Vatican II funeral stuff. Fun part of these interviews is JR rolling his eyes and making faces behind Paul's back while he's ranting. Given how grumpy he is IRL, there's probably a good chance he's shooting .

[garretta]

If I didn't know better, I'd swear that JR's trying to bury Heyman singlehandedly. I know babyface announcers are supposed to show disgust for heel managers and their tactics, but there's a way to do it and a way not to do it. I've seen JR interact with heels both before and after this, and he was never this bad. He'd get in a heel's face occasionally as every announcer does, but he'd never make faces behind the guy's back as if to say, "Don't pay attention to this idiot, folks". If I'd been Dusty, I'd have either warned JR not to do that again or assigned Tony to be the exclusive interviewer of the DA.

 

Fortunately, Paul rises above JR's juvenile behavior to almost literally declare WCW dead and buried, last rites and all. Apparently Sting is hurt, and the rest of the faces are hereby served notice that they won't stop the DA, which in turn won't stop until Paul has a seat on the Board of Directors. Leaving aside the obvious question of what good it would do Heyman to have a seat on the board of a company that no longer exists, this is the best promo work he's done since his return to managing. There's a great combination of glee and menace almost oozing out of his pores, both over the supposed elimination of Sting and the upcoming eliminations of the other babyfaces.

 

The one thing I don't like is that Arn and Larry are superior promos to Heyman even at his best, and yet they're just standing there saying nothing whatsoever. To tell the truth, Arn's even better than Rude, and yet Rude's the only other guy who talks, and barely at that. Take a tip from less eloquent managers like Fuji once in a while, Paul, and just stand there looking inscrutable while your best talker (Arn) tells the world how it is, has been, and always will be.

 

The tux thing didn't bother me much; Medusa looked stupid in hers, and I think Rude's always going to be in a robe so he can take it off to show his body whenever the mood strikes, which it didn't in this case.

 

Paul got away with indirectly mentioning both the WWF and The Four Horsemen........or did he? Verbal asides like those may not have been the main reason why he was fired in the summer of '92, but they certainly didn't help his case to be retained.

[dawho5]

I liked this promo a lot. They get over the idea that the DA is going to run all of the babyfaces out after hurting Sting. Paul not wanting to stop until the WCW is dead sounds really cool. But who is going to sign the paychecks then?