Matches From 1989

[Loss]

The Rockers & Tito Santana v The Rougeaus & Rick Martel - Summerslam 1989

 

I don't know why I've never watched this match before. It may be the 1989 WWF MOTY, even topping Hogan/Savage at WM V and a lot of the Arn/Tully v Rockers tags I've seen. Martel is a fucking genius in this match, as he keeps taunting Tito Santana and running away, but all of the wrestlers involved here are so capable that the action is constant and fast-paced, regardless of what's going on. This match is wrestled in a *true* Southern style, perhaps more than any WWF match I've ever seen, with the heels constantly distracting the referee and cheating like mad, working two face-in-peril segments -- one on Jannetty and one on Tito. The Jersey crowd is amazing, and Tony Schiavone's commentary is so wonderfully optimistic in the WWF that I immediately fall in love with him, if only for 16 minutes. Shawn and Marty get to work all of their cool team spots, and Shawn _finally_ entering the ring for the second hot tag of the match gets an amazing pop. Best Rougeaus match ever. Best Martel match ever in the WWF. Probably a top three for Tito, a top five for Jannetty and a top 20 for HBK. Shawn is so much better in tag matches like this because they totally play to his strengths where he can bring on the energetic highspots and sell his ass off without having to make a contrived comeback. He can just defer the next part of the match to his partner and gladly move on. If not for two illegal men being involved in the finish, I'd probably rank this match much higher, but as it is, it's about ****.

 

Some of these old reviews are embarrassing, but whatever. -- Loss, 01/15

[Loss]

Barry Windham v Eddie Gilbert - NWA World Championship Wrestling 01/14/89

 

This may well be the best match of Windham's first heel run. The whole story of the match is that Gilbert by this time is more of a nuisance to the Horsemen than a threat. Windham isn't taking him as seriously as he should, and Gilbert ends up pushing him to the limit. The way this is laid out really does a lot to emphasize the difference between the US champ and other midcarders, because Windham dominates most of the match and it's considered a major surprise anytime Gilbert is able to string together some offense. Nearly 15 minutes in, when he finally creates an opening by attacking Barry's knee and putting him in a figure four, Flair rushes the ring and attacks Gilbert for the DQ. It's a shame Windham didn't get a title run around this time, because he's terrific here at making sure that you know he's above Gilbert, but still putting Gilbert over at the same time. Championship matches that play like that are usually very good.

[Loss]

Rick Steiner v Mike Rotunda - NWA World Championship Wrestling 01/14/89

 

Decent match that is put over the top by the stiffness from both guys. Rotunda has an amazing clothesline and Steiner bumps off of it really well. They hit each other hard with forearm shots and some ugly kicks. Good effort.

[Loss]

Ric Flair & Barry Windham v Ricky Steamboat & Eddie Gilbert - NWA World Championship Wrestling 01/22/89

 

Really super match. Steamboat shows up as Eddie Gilbert's surprise partner and Flair and Windham are suitably shocked and Steamboat has them on the defensive for most of the first 8 minutes or so. Gilbert comes in and does better against both guys than he has done at any point up until now, but ends up playing FIP, which he does really well in this match. Ric and Barry take turns working him over, with Windham missing an amazing elbow drop from the top rope that probably would have crushed him had it hit. Flair and Steamboat obviously have great wrestling exchanges, because they're Flair and Steamboat, so you see a lot of the standards, like the hard chops and Steamboat's roll-through out of the belly-to-back suplex, Flair bumping big off of Steamboat's offense and putting him over in the end. But Windham/Gilbert, while not quite in the same universe as a *rivalry* doesn't look out of place paired with the Flair/Steamboat feud at all. This really should have led to Windham/Gilbert at Chi-Town Rumble, because by this time, Eddie was getting momentum and they had good chemistry. Sadly, another Windham/Gilbert singles match didn't follow, because the progression of the feud with Eddie making a better showing every time (losing by pinfall, then having Flair run in for the DQ in the rematch) would have nicely culminated in Gilbert winning the US title in Chicago. Sometimes, established singles wrestlers working a tag is missing something as opposed to two established tag teams duking it out, but that's not the case here at all. Good booking with Steamboat not playing FIP and not really going on the defense at all, as they needed to get over his arrival. He may have played a slightly better FIP than Gilbert, but Gilbert did a great job at the role on his own and he wasn't challenging for the world title in a month. Only a couple of spots where it seems like whoever is in the ring is drawing a blank (Gilbert going back to the headlock was weird, but Barry quickly reigned him in, and Flair's flop was strange here because he did it for some pretty flimsy Gilbert offense), but the rest of this rocked.

[Loss]

Midnight Express v Original Midnight Express - NWA Main Event 01/22/89

 

Nice match that I think is just as good as the Starrcade match between the two teams. Whereas that match had both teams rushing the bell to put the beating on each other, this was more of a case of two teams working the standard tag spots and putting shine on the babyfaces for the first 10 minutes before the heels took over. The Midnights were obviously far better and more effective in a heel role than in a babyface role, but one thing they do well is work the same spots they usually fed to the Fantastics or Rock & Rolls in the first 10 minutes of a 20 minute match. Because Condrey is working opposite them, he's definitely on the same page they are on all the sequences. The best example of this is Eaton rolling out of the ring in the middle of a criss-cross sequence to chase Paul E. around the ring and scare the hell out of him. Condrey tries the same thing on Cornette a few seconds later and Eaton sneaks up on him and holds him so Cornette can land a punch. That's pure Memphis heel philosophy at work there, with the heel attempting to do the same showoff/upstage spot the babyface tried and failing. Eaton and Condrey are terrific here. I think Stan Lane loses something for me every time I see him, although he still has his moments and is far from even being an average tag wrestler. Where the match starts to flounder is when Lane plays FIP. Selling isn't really his strong point, as he was always far better at the flashier doubleteam offense and portraying the whole cool persona than he was being a sympathetic babyface. And Condrey is good, but Rose is portrayed as an equal member of the team, so we get lots of Randy Rose in the ring, and Randy Rose beating on Stan Lane in the build to the hot tag ... let's just say it left something to be desired. Still, the first 10 minutes of showboating and heel stooging make this worth seeing, and this is still a really good match. I'd say it belongs on a Midnight Express set if I was asked, but it's not among their elite matches.

[Loss]

Road Warriors & Paul Ellering v Steve Williams, Kevin Sullivan & Mike Rotunda - NWA World Championship Wrestling 02/11/89

 

This is WAY better than you'd expect it to be. Feels much more like an All Japan 6-man than anything else, even if it only goes about 8 minutes or so. Really intense, heated and incredibly stiff and fast-paced. They get over some of the pairings quite well -- specifically Animal/Doc -- and there's some really nice brawling outside. Mike Rotunda has a rep for being generic, but he's anything but generic here, throwing some wicked kicks and landing a vicious clothesline. Rotunda really has one of the best clotheslines ever. He also seems to be directing traffic for much of the match. Ellering is Ellering, and all he can do is a dropkick, but he's in and out quickly, and he does his one move well, so good for him. Animal plays FIP as the heels attempt to destroy his arm. Some really incredible arm work here, with Williams picking up the ringside steps and throwing them at his shoulder and then jumping off the apron onto Animal's arm while Kevin Sullivan holds him still. Everything you'd want from a US heavies six-man, barring maybe a little more time.

[Loss]

Ric Flair & Barry Windham v Sting & Michael Hayes - NWA Main Event 02/12/89

 

Pretty good match that follows the tag formula of the time pretty closely. Because it's so basic and doesn't really do anything we haven't seen plenty of other times, there's not really much to touch on here. It's better than the Arn/Tully v Sting/Windham match the year before because there's a better payoff to all the FIP stuff, even though Michael Hayes was not really at his best here. The main thing I got from this match was how much the booking and fresh opponents in 1989 saved Ric Flair from exile. Sting, Luger and Windham all emerged as superstars around him in the previous year, and Windham could have easily been programmed into his position and faced the other two for the next few years. Flair really needed a shot in the arm in a major way by this time, and it's obvious, just because Windham overshadows him here, not just as a performer, but even as a personality in some ways. Interesting to ponder how even the slightest changes in plan could have affected things for this group of guys long term.

[Loss]

Sting v Butch Reed - NWA Main Event 03/26/89

 

Major yawner. It's the Chi-Town Rumble match abbreviated, and neither match was anything all that special. Reed's injuries had really caught up to him by this time, although he did have a tag team revival the following year.

[Loss]

Midnight Express v Samoan Swat Team - NWA Main Event 03/26/89

 

I was surprised that this was better than the MX/OMX match earlier on. Not by much, but it's more about physical exchanges and wrestling in the first 10 minutes than it is putting over the babyface team, and the wrestling is pretty good. Samu and Bobby Eaton would have had a really good singles match, and their exchanges are really good in the tag environment. Of course, because they're Samoan, you can't hurt their heads. Stan Lane seems to have trouble remembering this, as he does the noggin knocker spot and they shrug it off and both headbutt Lane, but Lane then counters a double clothesline attempt with a double DDT, which the Samoans had no choice but to sell. Most of the Cornette/Paul E. antics from ringside are copied from the earlier MX/OMX match and pasted here, but it works in both contexts, so kudos. Good tag match.

[Loss]

Rick Steiner & Eddie Gilbert v Kevin Sullivan & Dan Spivey - NWA World Championship Wrestling 04/01/89

 

More standard tag stuff. All the tag matches follow pretty much the exact same formula around this time, so the only way to really stand out from the pack is to do something different, which this match really doesn't do. Yeah, it's a really solid tag match, which everyone was having at this stage, but it's nothing to watch a second time.

[Loss]

Sting v Mike Rotunda - NWA 03/31/89, Atlanta, GA

 

I'll just C & P what I wrote before about this match, since I watched it again, and my thoughts are still the same.

 

Ah, the first match on TBS to air from Center Stage! Crowd is rabid throughout, and for good reason, and this is an excellent match. Rotunda had the TV title for over a year at this point (not counting a brief Rick Steiner run), so they did everything they could here to create a big moment, containing both the blowoff for Rotunda as the long-reigning TV champ and Sting's first singles title win. Something like this really couldn't be duplicated today because title changes aren't as important and because no one as over as Sting would go nearly two years without even winning a belt. It also helped that Ricky Steamboat and Lex Luger, the top two singles champions, came out and stood in Sting's corner to ensure that the Varsity Club wouldn't interfere.

 

That sort of overbooking has swallowed matches whole in the past (think Flair/Sting at Bash '90), but here it worked, because the entire match was structured to foreshadow a title change and permanent end of a long run, and unlike Flair/Sting at the Bash, there was no 2-year plus build that seemed anti-climatic when all the focus was on all the antics at ringside. The focus never really leaves the ring here at all. This is like a better version of Rude/Warrior at Summerslam '89, since Sting is a better Warrior and Rotunda, when he was game, was as good as a motivated Rude. Rotunda's bumping is awesome, as he goes sailing to the floor when attempting a jumping lariat and even bumps off of a shoving match later on in the match, when Sting begins a pretty spirited comeback.

 

It's amazing to me how much heat they can get off of simple moves like a side headlock, just because of Sting's charisma and connection with the crowd. It's also pretty amazing how devastated the crowd was when Kevin Sullivan found a way to sneak past the babyfaces and interfere, making the crowd think they weren't going to see a title change at all. The kickout was a great moment, and even better was Rotunda actually attempting a variety of suplexes immediately after that and Sting kicking out of that as well. It was clear at that point that the cheating was no longer going to work. He had to outwrestle Sting if he wanted to win the match, and with Luger and Steamboat looming, there was no chance of getting himself DQ'd to retain. Once that reality sets in to the audience, the heat kicks into overdrive and Sting finally pulls off the win.

 

The wrestling is nothing breathtaking, but this is a textbook example of a match that accomplishes something decisive through basic stuff where the goal was to involve the crowd and foreshadow a title change. I can't even remember the last time a world title change got this kind of reception. Awesome match. I will pimp it to death when it comes time for the Crockett nominations at DVDVR.

[Loss]

Lex Luger v Kendall Windham - NWA World Championship Wrestling 04/08/89

 

Again, I can just copy and paste.

 

Good Lord, talk about a match way better than it has any right to be. Luger does a somersault from the apron into the ring to avoid a spear to the floor and Kendall takes a vicious bump to the outside. Yes, that sequence actually happened and Luger went to the air. The finish was also nice with Luger countering a top-rope lariat into a powerslam that looks it killed poor Kendall. One of the best competitive squashes I've ever seen.

 

I'll talk more about Luger as I go through more of these '89 matches, but I will say that I don't think the reputation he has is quite fair, as he did have a few good years of matches and storylines, and he was briefly a decent interview as well.

[Loss]

Bob Orton Jr v Shane Douglas - NWA World Championship Wrestling 04/08/89

 

Another pleasant surprise. Nice match, far better than Orton/Steamboat on the DVDVR set. This is more of a case of the surly veteran facing the younger, less jaded high flyer and the younger guy getting much further than would be expected. It starts out with Douglas trying to beat Orton at his own game by keeping him grounded and working the headlock, with announcers Ross and Hayes pointing out that he is thinking like a veteran. He's not really going for the kill though, and that seems to be what is keeping him from taking his game to the next level, which Hayes points out. Orton ends up fighting back, and Douglas keeps the dream alive for a few good nearfalls, but finally succumbs when he deviates from his game plan and tries a top rope move, but gets crotched to set up Orton's superplex. These two could have had a terrific feud -- certainly would have been better use of both guys than what they ended up doing the rest of the time.

[Loss]

Terry Funk v Eddy Guerrero - NWA World Championship Wrestling 05/27/89

 

This is cool to watch just to see Eddy at such an early stage of his career, and there's some good stuff in it from Funk, but Eddy is all tumbling and flips at this point. Part of that is probably just because the match wasn't about him and he wasn't going to be sticking around, but this isn't the "excellent match" it's been called at times. It's more of a cool match to watch, but I wouldn't even say it's a good representation of how good Eddy was at this stage of his career, because it's a throwaway TV match that wasn't designed to showcase him. WIN or EMLL footage from the same time period would probably paint a clearer picture.

[jdw]

Sting v Mike Rotunda - NWA 03/31/89, Atlanta, GA

I would be interested to see this contrasted with Steiner winning the title over Rotunda (full version since I think the version on the NWA-Crockett/Turner set is edited) and then Rotunda winning it back. Frankly, even a mini-comp of these three along with the later key TV Title matches of the year since this period was all about some younger wrestlers getting their first national singles titles - Steiner, Sting and Muta. There seemed to be so much promise there.

 

12/26/88 Mike Rotunda vs Rick Steiner (17:59) - Starrcade 88

01/14/89 Rick Steiner vs Mike Rotunda (9:28) - NWA Sat

02/20/89 Rick Steiner vs Mike Rotunda (16:21) - Chi-Town Rumble

03/29/89 Mike Rotunda vs Sting (16:31) - NWA Sat

07/23/89 Sting vs Great Muta (8:40) - Bash 89

09/01/89 Sting vs Great Muta (13:53) - Power Hour

10/13/89 Great Muta vs Eddie Gilbert (15:13) - Power Hour

11/25/89 Ric Flair vs Great Muta (15:26) - NWA Sat

01/02/90 Great Muta vs Arn Anderson (12:56) - Power Hour

 

I sort of toss in the Flair-Muta for the heck of it. One could add the Flair-Sting from Starcade as a comp. But that year period of younger stars holding the TV title sort of came to a close when Arn won it.

 

Anyway, those are some of the matches I'm looking forward to watching when I sink my teeth into the NWA Set.

 

 

John

[Loss]

Midnight Express v Butch Reed & The Raider - NWA World Championship Wrestling 06/03/89

 

The story here was that Bob Orton was originally Reed's partner, but was attacked by Dick Murdoch before the bell and thus taken out of the match, leaving Reed without a partner. Out comes new manager Teddy Long offering The Raider. The storyline never went anywhere again, but Cornette does use the term Peanuthead for the first time, so maybe there's some historical significance. It's obvious that while the Midnights are begrudgingly pushed to a certain level because they're too good not to be, they're also not given everything they deserve. A nice, competitive tag match with two guys that are at least established as names in their first big showing after coming back would have been cool, but instead, we get an extended, yet very fun squash. Reed barely tags in, and most of the time, it's Raider eating doubleteam offense from Eaton and Lane. They have tons of it and it's all awesome, so that hardly gets boring, but this is more of a showcase of what the Midnights had to offer than it was a good match.

[Loss]

Midnight Express v New Zealand Militia - NWA World Championship Wrestling 07/08/89

 

A good tag match carried entirely by the babyface side, and tag matches really are much better when the heels are the ones directing things, so this match, while fundamentally really good, feels like it's missing something. The Militia had a cool gimmick, but don't appear to have been much of a team. Against Eaton and Lane, they looked better than I saw them look against anyone else. Still, creating a makeshift tag team out of former Sheepherders flagbearers wasn't a horrid idea.

[Loss]

Steve Williams v Mike Rotunda - NWA World Championship Wrestling 08/12/89

 

Mike Rotunda is sometimes talked about as being "solid", but that's really selling him short. He had some runs throughout his career that didn't really produce much worth watching, but 1988-1989 NWA is a really good time period for him, and he deserves more credit than he gets. This is hyped as an amateur versus amateur feud, and they do a fairly good job working the match. They mostly stay on the mat. It's not a lot of busy matwork or even visually impressive matwork, but it's impressive and keeps the crowd involved, so it does what it can. Acceptable stuff.

[Loss]

Sting v Dick Slater - NWA World Championship Wrestling 08/26/89

 

I thought I'd like this one far more than I did, but I didn't care for it that much at all. Slater was probably still a little rusty at this point, as this was his first big match about a week after showing up in the NWA, so that may have been part of it. His timing just seems a little off most of the time, especially when Sting is setting up big heel transition spots for him like injuring his knee on the ropes and Slater not even really noticing. The Flair/Sting/Pillman v Funk/Muta/Slater post-match brawl is amazing, and the kick Muta gives Flair when he runs in will most likely be rewinded quite a few times the first time you see this, as it's just really impressive. Brian Pillman coming to the aid of the fallen Flair and Sting was tremendous booking, and it's unfortunate that the push he was getting around this time was cut short after the Luger feud ended.

[Loss]

Eddie Gilbert v Brian Pillman - NWA World Championship Wrestling 09/23/89

 

This match seemed to be an early step in building to a Gilbert heel turn and Pillman/Gilbert feud, but it wasn't to be. Decent match with some nice subtle heeling from Gilbert and some good parity spots from both guys. Sort of a primitive ROH 2002 match, which isn't quite my thing, but at least there was a logical reason for it to happen in the booking.

[Loss]

Rick & Scott Steiner v Fabulous Freebirds - NWA World Championship Wrestling 11/18/89 - taped 11/01

 

I'd love to know the politics behind this one, as Garvin is one uncooperative bastard when he's in there. Poor Hayes is left to carry his team, take most of the bumps, set up most of the spots, call the match *and* take the pinfall. As a one man show from him, it's surprisingly effective, considering he was seen as washed up at this point. Of course, he's limited physically, but his mind is still there, and he knows how to lay out a match really well. Garvin sells absolutely nothing for either guy. Hayes sets up Rick as FIP and builds to a Scott tag and Garvin immediately attacks him when he comes in and doesn't sell the tag at all. It's obvious he was upset about dropping the belts, as he didn't even do all the Freebirds gaga that normally came for them pre-match early on, just staring at the camera while Michael Hayes does it by himself. Lita must have studied this match to master her "I'm jobbing" face we'd see from her the past few years on WWE TV. Very good match almost entirely because of Hayes, and this time period and the way he's viewed may need to be looked at again, because the Luger match from Wrestle War earlier in the year is much better than people say, and he was the glue that held this one together.

[Loss]

Sting & Brian Pillman v New Zealand Militia - NWA Main Event 11/19/89

 

Not as good as the Midnights match, and way too long at nearly 15 minutes. 12 of that is Pillman and Sting clowning around. Avoid.

[Loss]

Ric Flair v The Great Muta - NWA World Championship Wrestling 11/25/89

 

This is a match that has gotten a rep for being disappointing through the years, but I thought it was terrific, and I'm not sure I understand what it's lacking. It's a pretty non-formula Flair match, as I can't say I've seen another match resembling this one from his prime years at all. It starts off with Muta totally outclassing Flair on the mat, holding him in the Indian deathlock for an especially long time and Flair balling and shaking his fists attempting to make the comeback. It's not a side of him you see often at all, but he's really good at it. The only signature spot of his he really hits in the match aside from his chops is the Flair flip ending in the double axehandle. The rest is all selling, and because he's a babyface, it's not the typical "Oh God!" selling you see from him either. Muta working him on the mat is the first near-half of the match, and the point is made pretty vividly that Flair can't hang with Muta here. Some would call it a case of Flair not knowing how to work with someone who could do these mat spots who was looking to tear this down, but that's not what this is at all, as Flair does what should be done with them and sells them extremely well. He limps for most of the match thereafter and sells his knee injury while making his comeback. The weakest part of this match is the set up to Flair's figure four, as it's not really there, but the big picture match layout if anything enhances that fact. The figure four here wasn't his attempt to win, it was a desperation attempt not to lose. He only created an opening for himself because he won a slugfest and got lucky. It's possible that I'm somehow justifying some of the stuff here that isn't all that good, and I'm willing to come back to it sometime, but I went into this not expecting to like it at all and ended up thinking it was a very good match.

[Loss]

Midnight Express v Dynamic Dudes - NWA World Championship Wrestling 12/02/89

 

Really nice match, again all because the Midnights could have a good match with pretty much anyone at this point. Poor Shane and Johnny try to do a lot of synchronized babyface spots, but one of them either botches the spot or messes up the timing on every attempt. Eaton drags Ace outside the ring and pretty much destroys him with a chairshot as tough love and once they get into FIP and the MX have reigned them in, this is a match that becomes pretty good for the time it got. I don't think there was another match between the two teams around this time, which is too bad, because I think the MX would have gotten more out of them eventually had they had a long series.

[Loss]

Rick & Scott Steiner v Cactus Jack & Rick Fargo - NWA World Championship Wrestling 12/16/89

 

This is Mick Foley's national television debut! The storyline was that he'd have a different partner every week, usually a jobber, who would be on the losing end of the deciding fall, and he would snap and destroy his partner after the match. That's what happens here, at least after they get going and Rick decides to stiff the fuck out of Jack early on for no real reason. It's interesting to see Scott doing a middle rope Angle slam, in 1989, which Jim Ross refers to as a Wolverine slam, interestingly enough. Mick sums this up better than I can in Have A Nice Day, but it's not really obvious from watching that he's hyperventilating, even though he said he was.