The SmarK Rant for NWA Power Hour – 05.25.90
Taped from Indianapolis, IN
Your hosts are Jim Ross & Paul E. Dangerously
Tommy Rich v. The Green Shadow
Why the hell would someone’s shadow be green? That name doesn’t even make sense. Dangerously actually admits that he used to be associated with Rich before their relationship went south. Rich takes the Shadow down with a pair of armdrags, but the Shadow claims a mask pull. Apparently we’re getting an update from Gordon Solie about Capital Combat after this match, although Paul questions if Gordon will be able to remember all the details about the show. The Shadow works the arm, but Rich goes back to work on it himself while JR & Paul debate the true identity of the Green Shadow and JR accidentally calls him “The Green Lantern” before quickly correcting himself. You’re not owned by Time-Warner yet! The timelines are colliding! Rich keeps going for the mask like a complete dick. He should just wait until after the show and then check Cagematch on the internet. It was technically around in 1990. At the very least he could find a gopher server, I’m sure. DEEP INTERNET NERD CUT. Shadow gets a Boston crab while Paul accuses the Shadow of being David Letterman in disguise, but he uses the ropes and the ref catches him. And Rich finishes with the Thesz Press at 7:19.
Meanwhile, Brian Pillman does a promo about his upcoming main event against Bam Bam Bigelow, and he’s gonna take Bigelow in the “no class” section of Air Pillman. Well his promos certainly got better later on.
WRESTLING WRAP UP! WITH GORDON SOLIE!
BREAKING NEWS! At Capital Combat, Doom won the NWA World tag team titles, and the Midnight Express won the US title. Apparently Doom went on to be the longest reigning tag champs of all time, which is one of those “things I learned today” deals that I didn’t find out until recently. Also, let us to take you back to the main event, as the Luger-Flair cage match manages to end in a DQ with the Horsemen all running in and beating him up. And we get a promo from Ric Flair and his stupid ponytail, who warns Sting that if he continues messing in the Horsemen business, he’ll be getting it even worse than last time he got his knee wrecked.
Jim Ross announces that Clash XI is the next big show in June, which by the way features one of the all time shittiest main events ever in the form of Ric Flair defending against Junkyard Dog.
The Freebirds v. Scott Sandlain & Denny Cass
Although they are far too young to have encountered them or really even remember them, I feel like the Outrunners would be an interesting matchup against the Freebirds. Perhaps if we had some kind of time machine that would allow the Outrunners to be of an age where that could happen, although given that they just started in the business last year fresh out of high school, I don’t see how that’s possible. Cass tries to take Garvin down with mat wrestling and actually has a bit of an amateur battle with him, and gets a rollup for two. Not sure why this particular geek is getting offense on the Freebirds but good for him. Paul gets some QUALITY shade here, as he randomly points out that Jimmy Garvin is “by far the most successful member of the Garvin family”. Hayes holds a chinlock on Cass forever and Garvin comes in with a kneelift for two and works the arm. Over to Hayes again and he continues with the armbar while JR accuses the Freebirds of lying about actually making records. Over to Sandlain and Garvin hits him with a pretty nasty backdrop suplex and goes to another extended chinlock, and Hayes drops elbows on him and stops to moonwalk. Apparently Jon Bon Jovi wanted to hire Hayes for his next video according to Dangerously. Huge if true. His next video would have been ”Blaze of Glory”, so I don’t know if Hayes would have fit into the cowboy motif very well. I suspect that might have been a lie on Paul’s part. DDT in 10:00, next.
Jim Cornette joins us, with special guests Mean Mark and Teddy Long. But Long isn’t here to talk about the heart punch, he’s here to announce that he doesn’t have time to manage Mean Mark full time anymore, and he’s selling Mark’s contract to Paul E. Dangerously. So Paul joins us while a disgusted Cornette suggests that Long should check Paul’s credit rating and ask for cash in advance. Man, if they keep pushing Mark like this, he’ll be a good first challenger for Sting. Hopefully they’ve got him locked down in a long term contract because otherwise THAT would be embarrassing!
Bam Bam Bigelow v. Brian Pillman
Bigelow is another guy they could have used for a short-term challenger to Sting and just never did. His 1990 run didn’t last much longer anyway. So with Zenk and Pillman dropping the tag titles at Capital Combat, Pillman is back to midcard singles jobbing duty again, so lucky him. Pillman tries grabbing a headlock, but Bigelow tosses him into the corner, and Pillman fires away with punches to escape. Bigelow beats on him with CLUBBING FOREARMS and chokes him out on the ropes, and then Pillman tries a crossbody and Bigelow catches him and puts him down with an atomic drop before going back to the clubbing again. Blind charge misses and Pillman fights back again and slugs away in the corner, but Bigelow puts him down with another atomic drop and a kneedrop for two. Bigelow with a chinlock as he’s looked really lethargic in every appearance in 1990 that I’ve seen him thus far. Pillman fights back again and Bigelow drops him with a faceplant and that gets two, and it’s back to the chinlock. Bigelow runs Pillman into the turnbuckles to cut off another hope spot from Pillman. Pillman dodges a blind charge and comes back again with a dropkick and chops in the corner, but Bam Bam throws him over the top. Pillman skins the cat and comes off the top with a bodypress, but Bigelow throws him over the top for the DQ at 6:55. Man Pillman was trying here but Bigelow wasn’t doing anything. *1/2. And really, Bigelow did nothing for his entire run that year, basically just doing TV squashes and a few house shows until he left.
JR and Paul wrap things up and hype up the debut of Stan Hansen this weekend. Ugh, another episode that is not great, to say the least. Do I need to switch to the Main Event or something instead, I wonder? They were on a good run for much of the year but this Ole period is a drag thus far.