WCW Saturday Night (6.22.91) review 

 

June 22, 1991  

 

Bizarrely, I can’t find the listing for this show. Anywhere. So, I’m going to just review it and see what happens! Yes! It’s like finding unlabeled tape!  

 

I’m pretty sure this was recorded on June 17, 1991, at the Georgia Mountain Center. JR tells us this much. I also have a cagematch listing telling me Dick Slater wrestled Rick Steiner here and that’s on this show. Hosts are Jim Ross & Paul E Dangerously. Jim starts out by chastising Paul E for whacking Jason Hervey with his phone. Paul claims he “tripped”. He then shouts “WHAM” while smacking the phone into his hand. I don’t think he tripped.  

 

Steve Austin vs. Sam Houston 

SAM HOUSTON! He’s back! He’s here for a few months before going to Global and then a few jobs for WCW in 1993 and that’s about it. This is before Austin has won the TV belt. That was Austin’s WCW level. They wanted a guy who could knock out a bunch of 5-10 minute solid TV matches. Austin is green but he’s already very capable. Lady Blossom is a clear upgrade on Vivacious Veronica, whacking Sam in the head with her shoe. Austin promptly finishes with a clothesline. A clothesline. Poor Sam Houston. JR tells us Austin challenges Bobby Eaton in the Omni tomorrow night for the TV belt. Which is interesting because they’d already taped him winning the belt a few weeks ago in Alabama. *¾ 

 

Video Control gives us clips of the Sting-Koloff feud and Morton joining the York Foundation. 

 

Mr Hughes vs. Joey Maggs 

Ewwww, not a Curtis Hughes match. Ricky Morton is right there. Hughes wrestles in slacks, dress shoes, and sunglasses. Chokeslam finishes. Mr Hughes was so bad. He was rigid in his movements. Whenever anything went slightly wrong, he had no fluidity, so it went completely wrong.  

 

Tom Zenk vs. Randy Barber 

This was last week and we’re seeing it again because Z-Man is back after a six month absence. He tore his bicep at the end of 1990 and missed half a year with it. Randy Barber looks like Kyle Gas. Missile dropkick finishes.  

 

Zenk is one of those guys with a great body but no personality. His career was consistently ‘meh’. He’s supposed to be at his peak here, but he’ll be done in WCW in a few years and never caught on anywhere else. He retired in 1996 and died in his 50s of heart failure. His promo time is interrupted here by DDP and Scott Hall. DDP mouths off until Z-Man takes the bait and Hall takes his head off with a brutal looking clothesline from the side. This would lead to a PPV match at Great American Bash, which I don’t remember because I don’t remember Tom Zenk matches.  

 

Sting vs. Bob Cook 

I never understood the point of bringing out an A-List star to have them wrestle some schlub. Zenk’s match was because he’d been injured, Hughes is fairly new to WCW and so is Austin. They should just do Sting vs Koloff here and have it end in a schmoz after a few minutes. Scorpion Deathlock puts poor Bob away in about a minute. 

 

Video Control takes us off the ghost town! Black Bart is showing Dutch Mantell his quick draw skills, which he hopes will impress Stan Hansen. Spoiler: it won’t. “Don’t shoot him, you might miss”. This went from super cool to super stupid in about a week. Jim Herd just can’t help himself. Everything has to be for the LOLs. It goes on for ages too with them trying trick shots and accidentally shooting the sheriff’s hat off. Oh, it’s so painful. The skit is EIGHT MINUTES LONG. 

 

Video Control takes us back to ringside where JR interviews the Hardliners. Scott Steiner was supposed to be on this show, but he tore a triceps. “They’re not going to forfeit any belts” says Ross. The Steiners would forfeit the belts that week.  

 

Rick Steiner vs. Dick Slater 

The angle was supposed to be that Rick has an arm injury. Only Scott got a shoot arm injury. Dick Slater was washed by 1991, so this is, perhaps predictably, quite poor. Steiner clocks him with a nice Steinerline but Dick Murdoch runs in for the DQ, and they go after Rick’s arm again. Seeing as Scott has a legitimately bad injury, the save is made by Big Josh. No bears, sadly.  

 

El Gigante vs. JD Wolf 

Wolf is a jobber. He’s a pudgy little bald guy. He looks like Verne Gagne shrunk in the wash. Putting a total loser in with El Gigante means the big man doesn’t have to bump or anything. Claw finishes in a minute. El Gigante was an extraordinary looking guy, but he could not work at all. One Man Gang runs in to squash Gigante’s ribs and Kevin Sullivan starts going after his hair!  

 

The 411: 

A lot of shilling here for Great American Bash, including some match set ups. Hardliners-Steiners obviously never happened. Zenk-Hall and Gang-Gigante effectively kick off here. It’s nice to see the building blocks for the PPV. I am enjoying these shows. They’ve already ruined the Desperado’s unfortunately. The original look at the group was class.