NWA Clash of the Champions X – Texas Shootout (2.6.90) review 

 

February 6, 1990 

 

We’re in Corpus Christi, Texas. Hosts are Jim Ross and Jim Cornette. An excellent pairing, who hopefully won’t say anything racist on this show. WCW in 1990 was an experience. Coming off the thrilling, but not profitable, 1989 the company felt the need to make some changes. Executive VP Jim Herd, famously NOT a wrestling guy, got rid of George Scott, who had booked the company with such efficiency and excellence in 1989. He was replaced by a committee including both commentators on this show and NWA champion Ric Flair. Ole Anderson would take full control of the booking in 1990 and most of the year is on him, including the infamous failed Black Scorpion angle.  

 

Flair had been the main source of creativity for the company, and he wanted to turn back heel and fight Sting for the title. That’s all set for Wrestlewar. My head tells me that Sting was scheduled to win the belt at Wrestlewar but I can’t be sure, and he did eventually win the title in the summer. However, he got injured and fucked everything up for Wrestlewar. We’ll get to that later.  

 

Ringside reporter Terry Funk tells everyone to get their LITERAL guns out and aim them at the TV, getting somewhat carried away with the “Texas Shootout” gimmick. “Get them 38s and 22’s and point them at the TV, pardner, and if your guy doesn’t win then blow the fucking screen away. YEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAW*” 

 

*This dialogue might not have happened. He did say 38s and 22s though.  

 

Steve Williams vs. Samoan Savage 

Savage is part of the Samoan trios team with the Samoan Swat Team. He’s sticking around but Doc isn’t. He’s about to jump to All Japan and wouldn’t come back until a brief 1992 run under Bill Watts. They show a weird video of Doc being an actual paramedic, complete with him working the chest compressions. This match is pretty fun and energetic, considering it’s Doc’s last match in the company. Woman joins us at ringside and they’ve already given Nitron the boot. I’m assuming WCW wanted Tyler Mane to be a wrestler but found out he sucks.  

 

Apart from descending into boring rest holds, the match is decent 80% of the time. It does feel like an animated house show match though. Nothing matters, nothing really happens, and Doc wins clean inside ten minutes with a backslide. It feels like the kind of match they would have run a dozen times on other shows, but it was polished and tidy so hey, **½. I guess. 

 

We then get a rap about Wrestlewar and it sounds like Luger vs. Doc was originally supposed to be on that show. 1990 rap was really something. This is the only time, in the history of rap, that someone used the word “entomology”.  

 

Promo Time: Four Horsemen 

Terry Funk is the host for this interview segment. The Horsemen are Flair, Sting and the Andersons. Sting, with his goofy child-friendly facepaint, does not look like he belongs.  

Ole, big fuckin’ TV pro, stands with his back to the hard cam. Ole announces Sting is out of the Horsemen and tells him to shut the fuck up. Sting stares a hole in Flair, but Ole explains they’ve cut him some slack because Flair liked him, and Sting had their back. However, Sting asked for a title shot so he’s done. Ole drops the promoter’s name as “Jim Ross”, which is wild to hear on TV. Ole adds in that if Sting doesn’t bail on the title match, they’re going to kick his ass. Sting wants to get into it with Ole so Flair picks Ole’s side and sucker punches Sting. “I TRIED TO TELL YOU…DO THE SMART THING, GET OUT OF THIS BUSINESS” screams Flair. “THAT’S MY BELT”. I like how the reasoning for all this makes sense. Sting just had to go and fuck it up by not being loyal and coming after the man. It don’t work like that little Stinger. Great logical promo from Ole Anderson though and Flair, once he’d flipped his shit.  

 

Mod Squad vs. Flyin’ Brian & Z-Man 

The Mod Squad took their name, and gimmick, from the TV show of the same name that aired in the late 60s. They’re motorcycle cops, without motorcycles. They’re heels because ACAB. Across the ring, they’re hoping Pillman can carry Z-Man and impact the busy tag division. Pillman was such an obvious star that WCW’s booking of him never made sense. This match is an extended squash for the babyfaces, so comms chat about Sting instead.  

 

Pillman and Zenk play VERY babyface and it’s sickening to the point where the crowd boo them. Even in 1990, that shit didn’t fly. Not with the bulk of the crowd. Get them high pitched pops. WCW’s answer to the Rockers. The match degenerates into heat on Pillman and it gets sluggish. It’s smart to have Zenk on the hot tag because it minimises his ring time and he finishes with a high crossbody. They celebrate like cheerleaders. A deeply sickening turn of events. Was this the best of use of Brian Pillman? No, no, no.  

 

Cactus Jack Manson vs. Mil Mascaras 

GMC announces Foley as “Captain Jack Manson”, which isn’t great work from the world’s most dangerous announcer. Mascaras was a big star back in the 70s and early 80s but hasn’t been worth a shit for years at this point. Foley was not complementary about him in his autobiography. Mick takes a pure indies bump over a chair on the floor. His performance here is poor by his standards.  

 

Mil takes a horrible bump off a backbreaker and Foley, determined to show him HOW ITS FUCKING DONE takes a huge back bump off the apron onto the concrete. MY GAWD. Mick has only been on TV for a few months, and he’s already freaked me out TWICE. He was doing bumps no one else even considered. They could easily just count him out. He’s dead. Mil gets a high cross for the win moments later but just have Mick lay there and get counted out on the floor. It was a brutal bump. One of the most sickening I’ve seen. Awful match, five-star bump.  

 

Post Match: Foley goes after the band who were playing between matches. The big drummer comes after him and we get a brawl. JR calls him “Wolfe” but it’s JT Southern. Even WCW opted against a drummer turned wrestler and the angle was dropped. JT, ironically, returned in 1992 to feud with “Heavy Metal” Van Hammer. At first, I thought this guy was Van Hammer. A very similar gimmick.  

 

Falls Count Anywhere 

Kevin Sullivan vs. Norman  

Gordon Solie interviews Norman and he’s confused as to where a pinfall can occur. This is the first of many Sullivan FCA matches, which would become his staple. Norman has dropped his “the lunatic” and is dressed as a cowboy. GMC still announces him as “Norman the Lunatic” but after his Captain Jack call, I don’t trust him anymore. This starts out great as they both hurl themselves into the gimmick and I’m struggling to understand the match’s poor reputation.  

 

The work is snug, especially on the floor when they’re closer to the audience. The main issues stem from Norman’s lack of mobility and then Norman just stops working. Like he’s blown up and can’t move. The match heads to the back and the dreaded walk and brawl. The 90s was the walk and brawl decade. They get Gordon Solie to call the action backstage, which is criminal. Norman ends up pinning Sullivan in the women’s toilets, which is behind a closed door. You can’t have a hidden pinfall.  

Norman emerges from the bogs with the toilet seat and a roll of paper. Trophies of victory. This rapidly lost the initial steam of conflict and having a pinfall happen off camera is a no-no in my book.  

 

Promo Time: Lex Luger 

Terry Funk, who is now heel (I think), calls everyone cowards for not helping him earlier. What are you doing Terry? He brings Flexy Lexy out for a chat. Immaculate hair, perfect body, no brain included.  

Luger blames Sting for getting his ass kicked and claims he’s the guy who should be wrestling Flair. Luger’s promo starts to completely fall apart. “Lex Luger has only achieved one thing. There’s one thing I haven’t achieved”. Oh no. Terry Funk’s urge to cut him off and stop this is palpable. Lex has this look on his face because he knows he’s just shit the bed. The dude said “allocades” instead of accolades. How did he get a title shot after this?   

 

Skyscrapers vs. Roadwarriors 

Sid is out injured so they’ve subbed in this ginger guy as Spivey’s tag team partner. He’ll never amount to anything in this business. Look at this goober.  

Only another seven years until he has a decent match. Roadwarriors, NWA mainstays, are only a few major matches away from jumping to New York. A smart booker would have started jobbing them out here. It’s weird seeing Mean Mark, complete with tan lines from a sports bra, working here. He’s so unimpactful. It’s hard to see what the WWF saw in him. He looks like shit doing basic stuff like punches and stomps. The one thing he can do is the ropewalk, which is cool considering he’s 6’10” and Sid can barely stand without injuring himself.  

 

Mean Mark misses his save, with Spivey yelling “come on” at him in frustration. It’s fair to say he’s not very good yet*. Doomsday Device should finish but Mark comes in with a chair, which leads to Precious Paul Ellering punching Teddy Long out, the ref getting bumped and a shmoz finish. The piledriver on the chair misses the chair by a mile. Callous failing to understand how piledrivers work. Hopefully he’ll figure that one out sharpish. This non-finish would result in a street fight at the PPV.  

 

*I have some pretty controversial Undertaker opinions. He’s shit for the vast majority of his career, coasting by on spooky looks and the gimmick. When he was one of the main stars it was because the roster was paper thin. He has a couple of decent matches against all-timers like Bret, Foley and Shawn and doesn’t actually get ‘good’ at wrestling until around 2007, when he’s working a reduced schedule and can afford to throw himself into his matches with aplomb. In his later ‘one-off’ appearances he was an embarrassment. Hey, I’ve only got his entire career to re-watch. Yay, me.  

 

 

NWA World Tag Team Championship 

Steiner Brothers (c) vs. Doom  

Doom are without Woman now and are putting their masks up against the titles here. Not that there’s a single person out there who hasn’t figured ou that it’s Butch Reed and Ron Simmons. “Some say their identities are the worst kept secrets in wrestling” – JR. Cornette claims Doom want to be masked for intimidation purposes. If you ever wanted to see Scotty Steiner throw Ron Simmons around for shits and giggles, here we are.  

Even Butch Reed is out here bumping around. Which makes me wonder; is it actually him under the mask? To be fair, all of Butch’s good matches take place in the following year. Ron Simmons must have lit a fire under him. Scott takes a sensational beating including several bumps out of the ring, a bang on piledriver and being dropped on the rail. A spot that makes a ringside fan scream in surprise and horror. There’s the wrestling sweet spot. That was the squeal I made when Foley took that bump earlier.  

 

Frankensteiner allows the hot tag and the STEINERLIIIIIIIIINES start to fly. Butch gets his mask pulled off and is so dazed by this that Rick rolls him up for the win. DQ under lucha rules. *** under my ratings system. “We’re gonna be world champions for a long time” sayeth Scotty. Oddly enough Doom would end up having the longer tag title run in 1990. How about them apples? 

 

Video Control takes us backstage, to the Horsemen, as Ole Anderson demands Sting give up that title shot or HE’S DEAD. Ole had such a menacing presence.  

If you told me killed a bunch of people, I’d believe you. Ole died a few months back (in 2024, future readers) so they’ll never find the bodies. If you want to watch an actual murder, watch 1990 WCW as Ole murders their booking.  

 

Cage Match 

Great Muta, Dragon Master & Buzz Sawyer vs. Four Horsemen (Ric Flair, Ole & Arn Anderson) 

This is supposed to be the blow-off of the whole Flair & Sting vs. J-Tex feud but seeing as Sting got kicked out of the Horsemen the dynamic has changed. The Texas crowd is so mad at the Horsemen J-Tex end up defacto babyfaces. Muta gets a hell of a pop when he tags in and the handspring back elbow has the crowd unglued. Oh no, wait, it’s because Sting was running to the ring.  

 

Sadly, this is Muta’s last match in the company until Starrcade as he’s heading back to New Japan. It was an eventful year, but his departure is the end for this ragtag outfit called J-Tex. I feel bad for Buzz Sawyer, who is easily the MVP of this thing. He takes the best bumps by a country mile. Dragon Master eats the DDT off Arn, and he’s gone from the company too. Buzz would leave at the end of the month.  

 

Post Match: Ric Flair goes after Sting, and they brawl around up the ramp. So…what went wrong? This seemed all pretty hot shit right? The Horsemen are back as the big baddies, Sting is the underdog heading into his big PPV title shot. Well, Sting blew out his knee. His next match was in July. They had to turn Luger face for the title shot situation and then Sting won the belt in the summer anyway. Ole took charge of the booking after his spring retirement and his ideas were a disaster. The whole Black Scorpion thing alone effectively ruined WCW’s entire autumn and winter schedule.  

 

The 411: 

While the in-ring here isn’t up to much, it’s not a bad show. Not by 1990 standards, anyway. There’s plenty of memorable stuff like the Horsemen turning on Sting, Foley’s sick apron bump, the toilet seat pinfall, Mean Mark Callous making his big debut, Doom being unmasked etc. It’s not their fault that the Flair-Sting angle fell apart, although it’s worrying that it’s not the only thing that collapsed between now and a PPV that’s weeks away.  

 

NEXT: NJPW Super Fight in Dome! I finally track down a full New Japan show from 1990. Next for the NWA is Wrestlewar ‘90: Wild Thing.