Where the Big Boys Play #59

[JerryvonKramer]

http://placetobenation.com/where-the-big-boys-play-59-1990-tv-and-end-of-year-awards/

 

 

Chad and Parv finish off the year that was 1990 in WCW with reviewing 10 tv matches throughout the year and doing the end of year awards.

 

On this show:

 

- [08:00] Reviewing ten matches televised from WCW throughout 1990.

Match listing is as follows:

Ric Flair vs. Bobby Eaton (Main Event 1/7/90)

Arn Anderson vs. The Great Muta (Power Hour 1/12/90)

Ric Flair, Arn Anderson & Sting vs. Buzz Sawyer, Dragon Master & Great Muta (Power Hour 1/26/90)

Rock & Roll Express vs. Ric Flair & Arn Anderson (Main Event 2/18/90)

Midnight Express vs. Brian Pillman & Tom Zenk (WCWSN 3/10/90)

Ric Flair vs. Ricky Morton (WWW 3/24/90)

Ric Flair vs. Lex Luger (WWW 5/5/90)

Rick & Scott Steiner vs. Midnight Express (WCWSN 10/13/90)

Ric Flair vs. Buddy Landell (Power Hour 11/23/90)

Arn Anderson vs. Tom Zenk (WCWSN 12/29/90)

 

- [01:22:40] End of show awards for the year of 1990 in WCW and discussion. Awards discussed are The Total Billy Graham Award for worst wrestler, Best Feud, Best Show, Worst Show, Best Tag Team, Best Face, Best Heel, Top 5 matches and Top 5 wrestlers (plus the Ric Flair Award for Best Wrestler)

 

The PWO-PTBN Podcast Network features great shows you can find right here at Place to Be Nation. By subscribing on iTunes or SoundCloud, you’ll have access to new episodes, bonus content, as well as a complete archive of: Where the Big Boys Play, Titans of Wrestling, Pro-Wrestling Super-Show, Good Will Wrestling, and Wrestling With the Past.

[cheapshot]

Awesome, can't wait to listen.

[RCS1988]

Good show. When you do Clash January 1991, Sid Vicious was originally supposed to face the Junkyard Dog at that January 1991 Clash, so make note of that when you do that show, because I'm sure Meltzer mentions why JYD didn't want to job to Sid Vicious.

[shoe]

A good show. A solid choice of matches.

[Loss]

I really enjoyed this show. I used to think there was no bigger fan of the Flair/Luger series than me, but I think I've been outdone. Should I check out that Worldwide match again? It seems crazy that I'd have that drastic a turnaround re-watching it, especially because these two have set such a high standard for their matches anyway, and also because that match is so short. But I've seen the light before when someone has made a case to me.

 

Also cool to hear all the Doom praise. Parv, I look forward to you getting into the week-to-week segments from the Horsemen feud and hearing your thoughts on the individual promos and television angles. The reason I couldn't go all the way there is because as entertaining as it was, I still feel like there was so much missed potential. I think sometimes I come across as someone who gets upset when my fantasy booking ideas aren't used in what I'm watching, but really I don't tend to think of fantasy booking ideas if something is hitting the mark. And Flair putting his hair up instead of the yacht to get the title shot at the Clash, along with a huge "RIC FLAIR IS MISSING - WHERE COULD HE BE?" campaign going into Starrcade, both seem like gimme angles that weren't pursued. I really did enjoy the way the heels kept out conniving each other though. Too often, heel vs heel feuds underwhelm, but in spite of my criticisms, this one didn't.

 

Also, do you think part of the reason for Sting not doing well on top is because the Flair/Luger feud, while only designed to be a placeholder feud, produced such great matches that got over so strong? I think there was a feeling at the time - at least I felt this way as a 10-year old fan - that fans wanted Lex as the guy, but the promotion wanted Sting as the guy. It sometimes seemed like Luger was excluded from big moments because they knew he would compete with Sting's spotlight. Not being part of the Bash '90 post-match celebration and the St. Louis crowd chanting Luger's name when Sting was trapped in the cage at Starrcade, despite tons of other babyfaces being right there, are two moments that stand out the most. On top of that, there was no reason in the world Luger couldn't beat Flair at the Clash to bring closure to that feud. I don't think that came from a place of not wanting Luger to have that moment as much as it did that Ole Anderson strikes me as someone who probably wasn't in tune with the landscape when he was taking over. Hell, every WCW booker had their own ideas of what the most important revenue streams were to the company and booked according to their instincts because no one was overseeing the ship and telling the booker, "Improve television ratings" or "Get houses up" or "PPV should be the number one priority". So I guess it shouldn't be a surprise that a two-year chase (three years if you count the planned blowoff at Bash '91) that happened during a company sale and multiple regime changes didn't have the conclusion it deserved.

 

Also, with regards to the television shows, it's probably another case of steering the ship, but initially, Main Event was created by Crockett in 1988 as a way to draw television ratings and nothing more. Their idea was to build their core business on Saturday nights and focus solely on drawing television ratings on Main Event. In fact, Crockett was even going to do incentive-based pay based on TV ratings when the show first launched, but his financial problems killed that. By the time Turner took over, it was just a show. Power Hour was conceived similarly, not so much with incentive pay based on ratings, but with the idea of being more of an action-packed show designed to draw ratings more than further storylines. 1990 was a pretty good year for Power Hour early on, but like everything else, it suffered under Ole's booking and was moved to Saturday mornings early in '91. The potential of that promotion with their talent roster and multi-network backing that was never achieved is probably something I'll never fully get over as a wrestling fan.

 

On a complete side note, I think the single best television concept of 1990 was the Run The Gauntlet idea. There were some problems in execution at times (Scott Steiner pinning Ric Flair to set up a final match against Arn Anderson that he could only win by DQ?), but the concept in general was an excellent one that could have really been cultivated into something special with time and more focus. I also think it synced the separate shows in a way that desperately needed to be done, and to me, if you watch a wrestler on Friday, you want to continue following their journey on Saturday, and then into Sunday as well. I always wished someone else would try it, but no one ever did.

[soup23]

I really enjoyed this show. I used to think there was no bigger fan of the Flair/Luger series than me, but I think I've been outdone. Should I check out that Worldwide match again? It seems crazy that I'd have that drastic a turnaround re-watching it, especially because these two have set such a high standard for their matches anyway, and also because that match is so short. But I've seen the light before when someone has made a case to me.

 

I would check out the match again. It is a really fun sprint. I think it helped watching it back at the end of the year since we just had endured some so so Flair stuff but they cut a really great pace for the time allotted.

 

Also cool to hear all the Doom praise. Parv, I look forward to you getting into the week-to-week segments from the Horsemen feud and hearing your thoughts on the individual promos and television angles. The reason I couldn't go all the way there is because as entertaining as it was, I still feel like there was so much missed potential. I think sometimes I come across as someone who gets upset when my fantasy booking ideas aren't used in what I'm watching, but really I don't tend to think of fantasy booking ideas if something is hitting the mark. And Flair putting his hair up instead of the yacht to get the title shot at the Clash, along with a huge "RIC FLAIR IS MISSING - WHERE COULD HE BE?" campaign going into Starrcade, both seem like gimme angles that weren't pursued. I really did enjoy the way the heels kept out conniving each other though. Too often, heel vs heel feuds underwhelm, but in spite of my criticisms, this one didn't.

 

Also, do you think part of the reason for Sting not doing well on top is because the Flair/Luger feud, while only designed to be a placeholder feud, produced such great matches that got over so strong? I think there was a feeling at the time - at least I felt this way as a 10-year old fan - that fans wanted Lex as the guy, but the promotion wanted Sting as the guy. It sometimes seemed like Luger was excluded from big moments because they knew he would compete with Sting's spotlight. Not being part of the Bash '90 post-match celebration and the St. Louis crowd chanting Luger's name when Sting was trapped in the cage at Starrcade, despite tons of other babyfaces being right there, are two moments that stand out the most. On top of that, there was no reason in the world Luger couldn't beat Flair at the Clash to bring closure to that feud. I don't think that came from a place of not wanting Luger to have that moment as much as it did that Ole Anderson strikes me as someone who probably wasn't in tune with the landscape when he was taking over. Hell, every WCW booker had their own ideas of what the most important revenue streams were to the company and booked according to their instincts because no one was overseeing the ship and telling the booker, "Improve television ratings" or "Get houses up" or "PPV should be the number one priority". So I guess it shouldn't be a surprise that a two-year chase (three years if you count the planned blowoff at Bash '91) that happened during a company sale and multiple regime changes didn't have the conclusion it deserved.

 

I do think the success of Flair/Luger hindered Sting/Flair. I think it is interesting in wrestling history because the fans are not adverse to Sting per say in a Batista vs. Bryan current day modern way, but there still is an underlying feeling that Luger was more ready and should have been given a shot and Sting was still young enough that his time would have still come.

 

Also, with regards to the television shows, it's probably another case of steering the ship, but initially, Main Event was created by Crockett in 1988 as a way to draw television ratings and nothing more. Their idea was to build their core business on Saturday nights and focus solely on drawing television ratings on Main Event. In fact, Crockett was even going to do incentive-based pay based on TV ratings when the show first launched, but his financial problems killed that. By the time Turner took over, it was just a show. Power Hour was conceived similarly, not so much with incentive pay based on ratings, but with the idea of being more of an action-packed show designed to draw ratings more than further storylines. 1990 was a pretty good year for Power Hour early on, but like everything else, it suffered under Ole's booking and was moved to Saturday mornings early in '91. The potential of that promotion with their talent roster and multi-network backing that was never achieved is probably something I'll never fully get over as a wrestling fan.

 

On a complete side note, I think the single best television concept of 1990 was the Run The Gauntlet idea. There were some problems in execution at times (Scott Steiner pinning Ric Flair to set up a final match against Arn Anderson that he could only win by DQ?), but the concept in general was an excellent one that could have really been cultivated into something special with time and more focus. I also think it synced the separate shows in a way that desperately needed to be done, and to me, if you watch a wrestler on Friday, you want to continue following their journey on Saturday, and then into Sunday as well. I always wished someone else would try it, but no one ever did.

 

This is really insane to me that this concept hasn't been picked up especially with the Network coming up. It really is an easy way to create intrigue and is a lot of fun to watch.