The SmarK Rant for NWA Power Hour – 04.13.90

The SmarK Rant for NWA Power Hour – 04.13.90

Taped from Gainesville, GA

Your hosts are Jim Ross & Gordon Solie

The Samoan Swat Team v. Rick Ryder & Pat Rose

So the game of musical Samoans continues, as the Fatu brothers are now re-branded as the SST after weeks of being The Wild Samoans. Pat Rose grabs a headlock on the Savage and gets a crossbody for two, and it’s over to Rick Ryder, who does not look anything like you’d picture someone named Rick Ryder to look like. Fatu comes in with a shot to his throat and a rather vicious chokeslam that was more like throwing the guy across the ring, and the SST switches off and chokes him out. You’d think that if Tama was replacing Samu on a permanent basis, he’d just be Tama again or something better than “The Samoan Savage”. More dull double-teams from the Samoans on Ryder, and Fatu gets the samoan drop to set up the flying splash from Tama to finish at 5:00. Pretty dull squash as they just couldn’t figure out why they wanted to do with these guys. Tama still had a hell of a flying splash, though.

WRESTLING NEWS NETWORK! WITH GORDON SOLIE!

Breaking news: The next NWA PPV will be Capital Combat, featuring Ric Flair defending against Lex Luger in a cage match…with Terry Funk as the special referee? Not sure what happened with that. Oh also Gordon notes that Hulk Hogan dropped his World heavyweight title to the Ultimate Warrior recently. I’d like to hear more about this, but instead Solie wants to move on and talk about this guy Mean Mark, who is returning from the Orient with a new secret weapon. Is it the secret of controlling the powers of the undead?

Mean Mark Callous v. Tommy Rich

Wait, wasn’t this week supposed to have a rematch between Tommy Rich and Outlaw Deaton? That was LITERALLY the entire reason I was watching this episode! Jim Ross is aghast at Mean Mark resurrecting the heart punch after years of being banned. Really wrestlers don’t need any more stress on their hearts than they already have. Mark gets an armdrag, but misses an elbow and Rich goes to work on the arm himself. Callous reverses out and walks the ropes to take over, for two. Fascinating how he just did that as a move in WCW and it meant nothing, but Vince was smart enough to get him to make a huge deal out of it as Undertaker and suddenly it became this legendary highspot. Rich tries the Thesz Press, but Mark drops him on the top rope and gets two off that. And yes, the HEART PUNCH finishes at 3:12.

Sting and Ole Anderson have a face to face interview via satellite, as Ole navigates the technology like your grandfather trying to figure out that Zoom thing on his wife’s iPad. Ole levies all kinds of threats against Sting, who laughs off his tough guy bluster and promises to show up to Capital Combat. WITH A SURPRISE. Oh he’ll have a surprise all right.

NWA World tag team title: The Steiner Brothers v. Doom

So we get a rematch from the 3/30 episode, which looked like Doom had won the title before the decision got reversed on kind of a bullshit decision. And I should note that Jim Ross, earlier in the show, talked about how Doom got caught using an “International object”, so once again, no it wasn’t just a weird internet running joke about WCW, they really were mandated to say that by TBS. Teddy Long and Doom have MEGA heat from the redneck Georgia crowd here, can’t imagine why. Simmons beats on Scott in the corner to start, but Scott HURLS him across the ring with a release german and Doom has to regroup and grab chairs. Back in the ring, Ron beats on Scott, and Scott tries for the Frankensteiner and Ron blocks it and Scott kind of does an awkward headscisors instead. Something sure went awry there. Over to Reed, who slams Scott and directs us to the gun show. Pretty sure in Georgia there’s a gun show happening no matter which way you point. Scott gets his own slam and Rick also would like to know which way to the beach? Rick flattens them both with Steinerlines and chases them out of the ring again as Doom is having trouble getting out of first gear. Back in the ring, Reed tries to suplex Rick, and Rick gets his own and it’s back to Scott, who happily wallops Reed with clotheslines to take over again. Finally Reed pulls Scott’s hair from the apron and Reed just MURDERS him with a clothesline and Scott is your face in peril.

Neckbreaker puts Scott on the floor and Simmons puts the beats on Scott out there, smashing a chair into his head repeatedly so viciously I almost have to giggle at the wanton violence. When the FUCK did Doom suddenly get so good? Reed chokes him out on the ropes and follows with another clothesline and cuts off a blind charge with a boot. Simmons comes in and tries his own blind charge, but Scott blocks that, only for Reed to come off the top and cut off the hot tag with a clubbing forearm. So Scott gets a sunset flip for two on Reed, but Butch suplexes him for two. Ron comes in behind the ref’s back with a stuff piledriver for two and then just sends Scott FLYING over the top rope behind the ref’s back again, as they’re all just throwing bombs and taking huge bumps for each other and I’m HERE FOR IT. Back in the ring, Reed with a bulldog for two and he goes to a chinlock, but Scott fights out of that, so Simmons makes a blind tag and Scott desperately cradles him for one. Rick keeps distracting the ref inadvertently, as Doom hauls Scott back into their corner to beat on him some more, cutting off the ring in the process. Scott fights off Reed with an atomic drop, but Simmons heads him off at the pass again, but he goes up and Scott swats him down and it’s HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT tag Rick Steiner. Rick with a powerslam on both guys and the Steiners get a double clothesline, but now Scott causes the ref to be distracted and Reed uses an international object for the DQ at 17:50. Jim actually called it a “foreign object” but then corrected himself to “international object” instead. Man it’s a good thing Twitter wasn’t around in 1990. Finish was disappointing but this was a HOSS FIGHT, BABY. ****

Definitely worth tracking this one down, Doom was on quite the streak at this point and it’s no wonder the bookers pulled the trigger on them.