NWA WrestleWar 1989 – Music City Showdown (5.7.89) review 

 

May 7, 1989 

 

So, it’s come to this; Flair-Steamboat III (sort of). Following the controversial finish at Clash VI, we need a rubber match. At Clash VI, Steamboat won a third fall where Flair’s foot was under the ropes. The undercard for this, and most first half of the year 1989 NWA shows, is awful. Sting vs Iron Sheik, Muta vs JYD, Butch Reed vs Ranger Ross, Lex Luger vs. Michael PS Hayes…it’s just a shit show. Anyway, let’s get on with it.  

 

We’re in Nashville, Tennessee at the Municipal Auditorium. It’s not the only PPV held in the arena in 1989, as the WWF also did their No Holds Barred: “The Match/The Movie” PPV there. Aside from SNME #15, the arena had been starved of major wrestling events. The next one is Starrcade 1994 and the venue hosted Starrcade three years running and was also the location for the first WWF In Your House PPV event. Hosts are Jim Ross and Bob Caudle.  

The Oakridge Boys sing the National Anthem. Ah yes, the country-gospel subgenre of music. A crime on the ears. Honestly though, I’ve heard worse and will do, because they’re “in concert” later tonight. Fuck off lads. Thankfully the concert footage has been removed from the Network version.  

They still advertise this match as happening, mere minutes before it isn’t happening.  

 

Great Muta vs. Doug Gilbert 

As you can see JYD didn’t make it. Doug is arguably most famous for cutting a shoot, in Memphis of all places, on Jerry Lawler about him raping kids. Honestly, if you’ve never seen that promo (cut in 1999) please do so. It’s one of the most unhinged, manic things you’ll ever see. The whole thing about Randy Hales smoking crack alone would have made it an all-timer but when he starts into Lawler, who he isn’t even wrestling, it goes completely off the reservation.  

 

JR says that “for reasons beyond their control” JYD isn’t here tonight. So, he no-showed the PPV and they fired him. Which would have been an ideal way to just get rid of him and stop him stinking up the ring but this is WCW so he was re-hired and stayed with the promotion until 1993!! Anyone with eyes could tell he was finished in 1989. The match here is nothing, just a showcase. Muta wins in about 3 minutes, and we move on. 

 

Great Muta was like this crazy out of control Lotus Esprit in the NWA, amongst a field of mack trucks. He does a moonsault and lands on his feet and everyone is like “oh, gosh”.  

 

Butch Reed vs. Ranger Ross 

NWA 1989 was the time of Ranger Ross, their patriotic response to WWF’s various military gimmicks (Sgt Slaughter, Corporal Kirchner etc).  

Ross had a lengthy military career before becoming a wrestler so it’s not just a gimmick like Sgt Slaughter. His big military high point was being involved in Grenada, so you know he’s a real winner! After his time in WCW, he robbed a bank! Astonishing that he’s not the only former WCW wrestler who robbed a bank. What a business this is.  

 

Butch Reed sucks so this isn’t good. Ross is very limited. Most of his offence is simple strikes and headlocks. He can, at least, bump and sell a bit. It’s difficult to get the crowd whipped up into a patriotic fervour when your hero is doing side headlocks though. Thaddeus Long, former WCW employee, is ringside studying the form. He is not thuggin’ nor is he buggin’.  

 

His notes on this match; “headlock, slam, headlock, ropes, headlock, headlock, headlock, headlzzzzz”. The match goes seven minutes and feels like 35:00. My personal highlight is Ross botching a hip toss. A HIP TOSS. Ross had potential but treating him like a jobber after all the fanfare here wasn’t ideal. I guess they thought he was too green, which he was, but he did have an X factor.  

 

Bullrope Match 

Dick Murdoch vs. Bob Orton 

If you’ve never seen the Murdoch & Adonis tags from the mid 80s then check those out. Murdoch is a guilty pleasure of mine. Big dudes who hit hard. That’s my shit. Especially if they look untidy. Orton looks finished here and indeed it was his last match in the big leagues, heading off to work for Herb Abrams after this. The match is just two old guys fumbling around and hoping for the best. It’s piss poor.  

 

With Piper coming back to the WWF, I’m surprised Vince didn’t just bring Orton back in. They re-hired Snuka, who was in far worse shape. The best action of this match comes from Murdoch just whacking Orton in the face with his boot. The thump sounds are satisfying. Murdoch wins by hogtying Orton so he can’t kick out of a pin. The slow-motion bumps and stuff were painful. It reminded me of the awful bloodfests of Strongbow and Valiant.  

 

Post Match: Orton hangs Murdoch using the rope and nearly kills him. Murdoch’s revenge? Nothing at all. Orton left the company. No idea why they felt the need to run a huge angle, intent at selling a future match, and then did nothing. 

 

Samoan Swat Team vs. Dynamic Dudes 

Heyman is already doing the “my name just happens to be” shtick.  

If you’re not familiar with the “Dynamic Dudes” they’re WCW’s attempt to capture the attention of young people by giving two guys, who can’t use them, skateboards. The Dudes are future sex-trafficker Johnny Ace and multiple time ECW world champion Shane Douglas. If you think the idea of either of them riding a skateboard is laughable, you’d be in the majority. 

 

Shane Douglas is a fascinating ‘big fish in small pond’ guy, who was a huge star in ECW but never made it in either big promotion for various reasons. This being the first of them. At least all this failure gives him ammo for five years of excellent anti-establishment promos in ECW.  

 

So, the match? Well, nobody gives a shit about the Dynamic Dudes because why would they? Horrible name, terrible gimmick, aimed at children without doing anything to actually appeal to them. Swat Team are not great at generating heat either, so nobody cares when Ace gets picked off for lengthy heat.  

 

I AM SO BORED. 

 

Hot tag is followed immediately by heat on Shane. Johnny dropkicks Douglas on top for a pinfall win in a very boring 11 minutes. Fatu kicked out but nobody cares about that either. This is, by far, the most bored I’ve been doing these flashbacks in ages.  

 

Backstage: Lance Russell gets words with the judges for the title match. Lou Thesz calls this the “most important match of the century”. Pat O’Conner (this is how it was spelled onscreen) adds in points about “who’s moving better” as a reason for points. Terry Funk is the final judge. FORESHADOWING.  

 

NWA United States Championship 

Lex Luger (c) vs. Michael PS Hayes 

Hayes is cornered by Hiro Matsuda. “Badstreet” is still the best music in the business at this point. This is the literal end of Hayes as a singles wrestler. I don’t recall him working a singles match, other than squashes, after this. I could not have guessed his age here. He’s only THIRTY! He aged in dog years. To be fair to Hayes, he doesn’t move too badly here. He’s prepared to bump around and try to get Luger over. Hayes does a fine job of selling how intimidated he is by Luger’s power. 

 

The crowd respond and this is the most awake they’ve been since Muta was doing flips in the opener. There’s not a lot going on. Hayes takes a few powders and Luger hits the odd power move to instigate it. The match is over though, so what they’re doing, while basic, is working. Luger’s lack of selling is brilliant. It fires the crowd right up. It’s similar to what WWF was doing with Warrior…only Luger can actually work. He takes an incredible bump here where he misses a high cross and goes over the top rope!  

 

Lex is underrated by a lot of people because they only saw his latter career WCW stuff where he didn’t care and just sucked. This would be a banger if it wasn’t for Hayes’ inability to do any offence. It’s all chinlocks and eye rakes. Which is fine in small doses but he’s not championship material. Luger pulls off a great comeback until Hayes hits the DDT out of nowhere. It’s a nice spot where he slips off Luger’s back on a Torture Rack attempt. The match gets horribly derailed by an awful ref bump and Terry Gordy just pushes Hayes on top of Luger in a dreadful finish. A shame, as the match was, by far, the best on the show beforehand. **¾ 

 

This was an odd decision all round. Hayes held the belt for two weeks and they put it quietly back on Luger. Hayes got moved back into the Freebirds and Matsuda just disappeared. Matsuda’s 1989 run is very confusing. He was brought in to manage the Horsemen after JJ Dillon jumped to the WWF, but they renamed it the Yamasaki Corporation. Like…what? Imagine bringing Muta in to manage DX and renaming it Fujiyoshida Inc? That’s basically what they did. WCW would be a treasure trove of stupidity and I’m looking forward to it.  

 

NWA TV Championship 

Sting (c) vs. Iron Sheik  

Is it WCW stupidity you were after? So, yeah, they hired Sheiky baby and had no idea what condition he was in. Something your eyes could have told you watching him in AWA. He was WASHED. What did they do? They shelved him for most of his 12-month deal and then, because WCW, they let it roll over for another year! Hahaha. Seeing as they were paying him, they put him on the house show circuit jobbing to midcarders.  

 

If that wasn’t funny enough, when his contract ran out the WWF hired him again and renamed him Colonel Mustafa in their Iraqi War exploitation booking. Fair play to Sheiky for rinsing the big leagues for every penny years after he was completely useless in the ring. This barely lasts two minutes before Sting finishes with the Scorpion Deathlock.  

 

NWA World Championship 

Ricky Steamboat (c) vs. Ric Flair  

This is Flair’s “last chance” after controversial circumstances in their two out of three falls match up. In reality, it’s Steamboat’s “last chance”. The very last night he could call himself a world champion. He never won another one. Flair comes to the ring with FOURTY women in his corner. Steamboat brings one, his wife. Ha, take that Flair! 1-0 Steamboat.  

We get a lot of shots of the ringside judges. FORESHADOWING. Terry Funk had just started wrestling again after his 1987 retirement. Yes, you read that correctly. I’m struggling to remember how many retirements Terry had because there were so many. I remember 1997 and 1999. He wrestled his last match in 2017.  

 

This match has a level of intensity and skill that’s country miles ahead of the rest of this card. The chops! Even basic stuff, like wristlocks, are designed to look like a fight. There’s nothing that looks like a rest hold. The guys are always working. After taking an early beating, Steamboat makes a point of working over Flair’s hand. His chopping hand. Neither Ross nor Caudle notice.  

I can only assume that’s not supposed to be so powerful, in terms of visuals, because Flair goes right back to chopping as soon as he can. Steamboat switches his focus to the left arm, in more conventional fashion, thus setting up the Chickenwing. It’s weird that Steamboat’s chickenwing ‘finish’ became so prevalent in 1989. I don’t recall him using it at all beforehand. 

 

The first judging period ends, and Steamboat has it won so far. I don’t think that’s how judging works in wrestling because we’re not using a rounds system but hey. I love how the match is structured. Steamboat dominates big chunks of it, unlike normal heel heat segments, and every time Flair tries to take shortcuts Steamboat comes right at him.  

When Steamboat does start to lose ground, the support he gets from ringside is beautiful to see. He draws incredible sympathy. There are old ladies in front row helping him back to his feet. You love to see it. The great thing about chops is how visceral they are. Steamboat does a wonderful job on his comebacks. He’s never down for too long and he’s so fired up. They lift the Flair corner bump/chop spot from the second match.  

 

I love how it’s all so neat and tidy and held together with logic. It really helps this doesn’t go massively long. Flair, in a lot of his great matches, tends to slow things down. The exception being when he wrestled Barry Windham, who could keep up. This match goes that hard. They beat the shit out of each other. If I’m being picky, the lengthy Steamboat arm work isn’t impactful on the outcome. Flair uses his arms extensively in his work in the second half of the match. 

 

Flair is a master of using his environment and he takes it outside for a suplex. A lot of the abuse from Flair is thanks to using the floor, which is ‘sort of’ cheating but isn’t. We go to the judges again and this time we get a 2-1 split vote for Flair, so Steamboat is ahead 4-2 on points. Just as we take that on board Flair hits a perfect crossbody to the floor. My word.  

 

This signals the start of an intense ending for the match. The spots start to feel bigger. The selling is more pronounced. There’s a great spot here where Steamboat goes up top and Flair, exhausted, falls into the ropes. Steamboat bumps to the floor and comes up with a bad wheel. This is key to the finish. Flair doesn’t so much earn the win here but rather he gets lucky and takes advantage. Which is a trait of his; exploiting stupid babyfaces big move ambitions.  

 

It’s almost over now, as Flair goes after the Figure Four, and for the first time in this series I’m sad. It’s been so much fun to watch, and this is the best match they had. There’s no more after this. I wish this had a better finish. Steamboat goes for a slam and Flair rolls through it for the pin. Steamboat’s bad leg giving out on him. If only they’d not done the Chickenwing finish already at Clash VI.  

I’m torn on the rating but this is their best match (in my opinion) so we’ll go full boat. *****. The post-match helps because it’s also fantastic. Flair’s interview is totally babyface as he puts over Steamboat, calling him the “greatest champion he’s ever faced”. Terry Funk jumps in there to put Flair over and Ross tries to dismiss him from the interview but he’s persistent and asks for a title shot.  

Flair explains to him that hanging around Hollywood for the past two years doesn’t qualify him for a title shot. Funk takes exception and sucker punches Flair. The crowd is incensed but this angle rules. They even have a table there for a reason because they used it for the judges. Logic, people! Flair eats a piledriver on the table, and not through it because they didn’t pre-cut it or anything. A wild-eyed Funk continues to rant while the champ lies unconscious under the table.  

It’s an elite angle and one that drew gangbusters with the freshly face-turned Flair having to fend off the manic Funk in very different, but also awesome, matches to the Steamboat ones.  

 

Backstage: it’s a change of pace as Nikita Koloff is interviewed ahead of his role as referee in the next match. Koloff had left the NWA in late 1988 to look after his wife, who was terminally ill. He returned to the ring for the AWA under a very light schedule before re-joining WCW in 1991. His wife passed away about a month after this appearance. Very sad.  

 

NWA World Tag Team Championship 

Varsity Club (Mike Rotunda & Steve Williams) (c) vs. Roadwarriors 

They know this is a rough spot to be in, so they go balls-out from the bell. Seeing Doc fight the Roadies is cool. Doc & Gordy in their prime vs. Roadwarriors would have been something. Doc gets his ass kicked here. He takes a bunch of big bumps from stiff Roadies shots. The match is a rollicking good time until the Varsity Club attack Koloff and draw the DQ.  

So, the Roadies win but don’t get the belts. Weird to hear “Ironman” on the Network. I had no idea they had rights to that. The belts got vacated after these shenanigans and the Freebirds won them. Doc turned face and the Varsity Club angle ended about a month later.  

 

NWA North American Tag Team Championship 

Rick Steiner & Eddie Gilbert (c) vs. Varsity Club (Dan Spivey & Kevin Sullivan) 

This is just a continuation of the chaos of the last match, only completely heatless because the participants are not as over. It settles down, unfortunately, with Rick getting his arm injured and the show just fizzles out. Same as these belts, which got dumped after this. Gilbert got lost in the midcard shuffle and Rick started tagging with his brother Scott. Gilbert is a weird one because he had a great mind for the business but was a middling talent. He’d end up as a booker for early ECW. Spivey would end up in the Skyscrapers with Sid Vicious! Lots of change during 1989.  

 

The 411: 

Naturally this is a one match card but there are decent matches that don’t make the spreadsheet for recommendations. Luger-Hayes is fascinating for a snapshot at this moment in time and a sign of Luger’s capacity to perform at a high level in singles. Muta was blowing people away in nothing matches. The Roadies had a cracking little five-minute chaotic tag here. There’s plenty to like but if we’re being serious; it’s all about Flair-Steamboat. This is my favourite match of theirs, which is a tricky thing to pick because they’re all different. I think this had a mix of intensity and execution that was just above the other two.