The SmarK Rant for NWA Power Hour – 04.20.90
As if the date alone wasn’t enough to make you ask “What was Jim Herd smoking when he came up with this stuff”, this episode features the first commercial for ROBOCOP appearing with Sting at Capital Combat. Even though Sting wasn’t actually going to be ready to wrestle by that show so it’s kind of confusing as to what the point was.
Taped from Greenwood, MS. Where do they FIND these towns? Apparently the population is a little over 14,000 and the most notable thing about the Wikipedia entry is that it’s “Not to be confused with Greenville, MS”. Well that would be downright rude. Also this show looks like they’re filming in a literal high school gym.
Your hosts are Jim Ross & Gordon Solie
Mean Mark v. The Rockin’ Rebel & Terry Bronson
So the confusing life of Mean Mark continues as he’s back to being managed by Teddy Long again after going solo last week. Mark quickly hits both geeks with a heart punch and pins the Rebel at 0:37. So this brings PAUL DRAKE out from the locker room to save, YES THAT PAUL DRAKE, and even the combined forces of Paul Drake and his friend Rick Fargo can’t stop the path of rage of Mean Mark. Why would Jim Ross think anyone could possibly care about the names of the jobbers getting laid out by Mean Mark? Sheesh.
WRESTLING NEWS NETWORK! WITH GORDON SOLIE!
Gordon wants to stress that Sting will not be competing at the PPV and no one is advertising him as doing so, but Sting will be there and Robocop will be there to protect him and the little Stingers should Ole Anderson try anything. That’s a stretch even by their bizarre standards of “storyline”. Although Terry Funk will be refereeing the main event, with doesn’t involve Sting, and we can totally advertise that because it’s totally happening.
Rick Steiner v. Butch Reed
Carrying on from last week’s awesome tag title match. Big stall to start as Rick finds a “Peanuthead” sign at ringside to torment the heels, and then Reed protests on the apron until Rick slingshots him in and beats him down to start the match. Rick chases after Teddy and gets caught on the way back into the ring, and they have a discussion that leads to Rick deadlifting him with a german suplex for two. That was a pretty awkward series and the moral is “If Rick Steiner wants to suplex you, there’s not much you can do about it.” Rick steals Teddy’s hat and does some dancing, and then slams Reed for two before Reed tosses him to the floor and Long gets some shots on him. Well he DID steal the man’s hat. Reed runs Rick into the railing and slams him on the floor, and then he waits for Rick to get back in the ring and throws him over the top rope this time. Back in the ring, Rick tries a sunset flip, but Reed grabs the ropes and the ref kicks his hands away for two. Butch clotheslines him and drops a SOUP BONE on him. Rick fights back in the corner, but a blind charge hits boot and Reed hits him with him a double axehandle off the top. Reed drops an elbow for two and goes to a chinlock, but Rick powers out and makes the comeback with the Steinerline and powerslam. Rick puts him on the floor with a Cactus clothesline and they slug it out until the double countout at 12:00. This brings out Ron Simmons for the double-team, but Scott Steiner makes the save. Started a bit slow but it turned into a good match. ***
Bam Bam Bigelow and Oliver Humperdink join Jim Cornette, and they’re joining with Kevin Sullivan’s crew and opposing Abdullah the Butcher, I guess. Bigelow has weird sleeveless tights here and I barely remember him even being on TV in 1990. That can’t have lasted long and definitely fits in with the general air of chaos around the product at this point.
The Midnight Express v. Flyin’ Brian & The Z-Man
The babyfaces are the US tag team champs but this is non-title. So after teasing the MX joining the Horsemen a couple of weeks back, that has been dropped COLD. Bobby pretends to check his boot and then hits Brian with a cheapshot in a wonderfully understated bit, but Pillman hiptosses him out of the corner and takes him down with a flying headscissors and dropkick to the floor. Over to Zenk and he fends off the Midnights by himself, knocks their noggins together, and sets up Pillman for a missile dropkick to chase them out of the ring again. Back in, Pillman controls Eaton with slams, but Bobby ties up Brian’s arms and rakes his face. Pillman comes back with a flying bodypress and the champs hit Bobby with a double backdrop. And then Stan grabs Zenk from the apron, but accidentally backdrops a charging Eaton over the top rope in a FANTASTIC spot that sets up the champs for another double-team of Lane on top of that. These guys are like air-traffic controllers out there with the spots they have to call. Back in the ring, Lane gets worked over in the babyface corner. Lane necks Pillman on the top rope, but when he slingshots back in, Pillman chops him and he goes flying right back over the top again. This is like some high level extra credit pro wrestling shit here. Zenk gets the sleeper on Lane, but goes after Cornette and slugs him off the apron, and finally Stan gets the knee to the back to take over. Eaton drops Zenk on the railing and Lane hits him with a clothesline in the ring as the Express goes to work on Zenk. Drop toehold into an elbowdrop from Bobby, but Zenk fights back with a suplex on Eaton, so Stan cuts off the tag and suckers Pillman in to distract the ref. They double-team Z-Man for a bit, but Lane misses a blind charge and it’s hot tag Pillman as he dropkicks everything that moves. Brian goes up with a missile dropkick for two, but Bobby makes the save and everyone slugs it out. But Pillman springboards off the ropes and Lane waffles him with the tennis racket on the rebound and pins him at 12:00, setting up the title match at the PPV. Man they were just getting warmed up! I wanted another 10 minutes! ***1/2
Next week: Ron Simmons v. Scott Steiner!
This show is on quite the roll lately. And JR teases us with advertisement of a Rock N Rolls v. Midnights match on the Main Event this same week and I might have to check THAT out too. So yeah, whatever they were smoking on 4/20 must have been the good stuff.