The SmarK Rant for NWA Power Hour – 02.23.90

The SmarK Rant for NWA Power Hour – 02.23.90

My collection of this show appears to be missing the 02.16 episode for some reason. I can only assume the hour was too POWERFUL.

Taped from Rainesville, AL.

Your hosts are Jim Ross & Gordon Solie

Norman the Lunatic v. Hacksaw Higgins

Hey, we were just talking about Higgins on the old Mid-South shows recently. Higgins wins a lockup battle to start and stops to woo repeatedly like he’s Ric Flair or something, but Norman headbutts him and chases him to the floor. Back in, Norman puts the boots to him and puts him on the floor again while the announcers talk about all the wacky hijinks and shenanigans that Norman gets up to, like dressing up as Ranger Ross! Man, it just sounds even more hilarious when Gordon Solie tells it. Higgins cuts him off with a chinlock, and Norman fights out of that, but he misses a legdrop and Higgins goes back to the chinlock. Man, even a couple of months previous the Norman character was a pretty effective midcard heel, and now he’s just lost any bit of edge he used to have already. Norman comes back with a slam and goes up with a flying splash to finish at 4:51. Mike Shaw was completely miscast as a lovable babyface. Afterwards, the future tag champions of Cactus Jack and Kevin Sullivan lay out Norman and slam him on the floor for a Cactus elbow. Now THAT’S heel edge.

WRESTLING NEWS NETWORK! WITH GORDON SOLIE!

BREAKING NEWS: Sting has had surgery on his knee and will be out for at least six months, and now Lex Luger is taking Sting’s place in the title match against Flair on PPV. Gordon is pretty sure Luger can get it done, and he gives his other predictions for the show, but keep in mind that’s already a couple of ounces into a bottle of scotch by this time in the afternoon in case you’re basing your betting line on his thoughts.

The Freebirds v. Larry Santo & Paul Drake

So apparently the Freebirds are in the finals of the US tag title tournament against Pillman and Zenk, this weekend on Worldwide, and then they’re wrestling again on the PPV against each other. Soooooooo…why not just do the finals of the tournament at the PPV? Usual stalling from the Freebirds to start and they beat on Santo in the corner, but he comes back with a hiptoss on Garvin, thus messing up his hair. This enrages Hayes enough that he comes in and really puts a chinlocking on Santo but good! Don’t mess with PS. PS clearly stands for “rest hold”. Garvin comes in and backdrops Santo, but Drake gets a HOT TAG and Garvin casually kicks him in the face and we get some more strutting and stalling. Hayes drops an elbow on him, so Drake gets another HOT TAG to Santo this time and Garvin beats on him as well. Back to Drake, and he hides in the ropes to escape the DDT. What a babyface this dork is. Back to Garvin for another severe chinlocking, as “Jimmy Jam” is apparently a mnemonic device that stands for “Does a lot of chinlocks”. The Birds double-team Santo in their corner and Hayes chokes him out for no reason and then delivers another aggressive chinlocking, the likes of which this guy has never felt before, I’d bet. If there was a PWI 500 for chinlocks, Hayes would be a solid #143, I feel like. Then we’d learn that PWI stands for “Stalling and Chinlocks”. Finally Hayes finishes Drake with a DDT at 8:35, and of course DDT stands for “The Freebirds really suck”.

Meanwhile, on World Championship Wrestling, Lex Luger chats with Jim Cornette about his upcoming title match, but the Horsemen quickly interrupt and Ole tries to talk him out of taking the title match, lest anything happen to him like happened to his friend Sting. But then he gives Lex an hour to make up his mind and leaves in peace without attacking him. Lex is mostly amused by the whole thing and promises an answer by the end of the show. Later on in the program, the Horsemen are doing a promo of their own, but Lex interrupts them this time with his answer, which is apparently to punch all the Horsemen and chase them off. To be fair, that’s not really an ANSWER from a legal standpoint.

Doom v. The Road Warriors

Quite the main event for the Power Hour. Doom is freshly unmasked after the Clash, having revealed their super-secret identities of Butch Reed and Ron Simmons. Simmons tries attacking Animal to start, and gets shoulderblocked for his troubles. Over to Reed and he has a posedown with Hawk, but Hawk puts him down with an atomic drop and clothesline. Simmons comes in and Hawk puts him on the floor, and back in Animal gets a press slam on Reed to chase Doom to the floor again. Back in, Hawk drops a fist on Reed and the Warriors double-team him. But then Simmons pulls down the top rope and Animal bumps to the floor, allowing Doom to work him over out there and take over. Back in, Doom double-teams Animal for two and cuts off the ring to prevent the tag. Reed goes up with an elbowdrop for two and Animal fights back, but Simmons cuts him off with a chinlock while using the ropes. See, like I always say, if you’re going to do a chinlock, at least do SOMETHING to make it more interesting! Animal escapes that, so Doom hits him with a double suplex for two. Animal fights back again on Reed, but Butch powerslams him, and then misses a splash. So it’s hot tag Hawk and he hits Reed with the neckbreaker and a shoulderblock for two, and it’s BREAKING LOOSE IN TULSA. Hawk gets tossed and Doom tries to finish Animal, but Hawk comes in with a flying clothesline on Reed and pins him at 12:34. Just a solid hoss fight here, as somehow Doom immediately became an impressive percentage better by merely unmasking. ***

This one didn’t really do much to push the WrestleWar 90 PPV very hard, but then the promotion was in disarray thanks to the Sting injury so you can’t blame them too much.