The SmarK Rant for NWA Power Hour – 08.03.90

The SmarK Rant for NWA Power Hour – 08.03.90

Taped from Marietta, GA

Your host is Jim Ross

Tommy Rich v. Sgt. Buddy Lee Parker

Rich does an inset promo threatening Stan Hansen again, after already getting his ass kicked on World Championship Wrestling the previous week. Feels like a bad move. Rich works the arm, so Parker fires back with a headlock to really crank up the excitement here. JR manages to mix up Parker with James Earl Wright while Rich takes him down with a spinning toehold and Ross muses about how they should call it a “spinning leglock” instead. Can we PLEASE get this poor man a color commentator? So the big angle they’re focusing on is Tommy Rich finding Lex Luger in the parking lot last week, having been attacked by the Four Horsemen. But the Horsemen are apparently denying it and Luger is denying it was the Horsemen. But I don’t think it ever led to anything, aside from a one-off US title defense against Ric Flair at the next Clash that wasn’t really connected to any attacks. Parker gets a backbreaker and goes to a chinlock, but Tommy fights out of that and then misses a crossbody. But he comes back in with the Thesz Press to finish at 10:20. This match was almost one quarter of the total runtime of the show! ½*

The Samoan Swat Team v. Mark White & Lee Scott

Lee Scott was an S-tier jobber who turned into a mediocre referee, and he gets double-teamed by the SST and takes a big backdrop to start. Over to White and Fatu hits him with a samoan drop, and Tama finishes with the flying splash at 1:38. Crazy that this team has birthed most of the WWE upper card between them.

Sid Vicious v. Scotty Williams

Sid chokes the geek out on the ropes and blocks a sunset flip with the two handed choke. But then Lex Luger comes out to watch in his amazing puffy Zubaz pants, looking like an extra in an MC Hammer video, but Sid is focused and hits Williams with the helicopter slam and finishes with a powerbomb at 1:45.

Tim Horner gets promo time for some reason, chatting with Jim Ross about his main event against Bam Bam Bigelow tonight.

Brian Pillman & Tom Zenk v. Fred Avery & Joe Cazana

So yeah, the inexplicable re-push of Zenk & Pillman as a team continues here, after they were split up and moved into singles roles. Zenk hits Avery with a superkick, and Pillman puts Cazana on the top rope and then dropkicks him down. Meanwhile JR notes that they’re both real ladies’ men, but they’re also married family men. Look man, we’ve all heard the stories. Zenk with a bearhug into a Pillman dropkick, and then PIllman slingshots Zenk in with a splash to finish Cazana at 2:30. They were a GREAT babyface team and it’s a shame how they were wasted for most of the year after dropping the US tag titles.

Meanwhile, on World Championship Wrestling, Lex Luger gets attacked by the Four Horsemen, and then Jim Cornette interviews the Horsemen about the supposed attack and Flair pretty much says outright that they did it and they’ll do it again. I just don’t understand what the “mystery assailant” aspect of this angle was supposed to be about.

Bam Bam Bigelow v. Tim Horner

No really, this is the main event of the show. Bigelow goes after the arm to start, so Horner responds in kind. Bigelow pounds away but misses a blind charge, and Horner bails to think it over. I love that they built this one up by talking about Horner’s blinding speed and all he’s done is wristlocks for the first 5:00. Horner tries a sunset flip and dodge’s Bigelow’s butt splash counter before slugging on him in the corner. Bigelow misses another charge and Horner hits him with a missile dropkick and a flying shouderblock. But then Tim goes after Humperdink and Bigelow attacks from behind to take over. Bigelow with a suplex into a headbutt for two and he goes to a neck vice. This WCW run that everyone always forgets about has to be easily the worst period of his career. He was bored and aimless at this point, and really you can’t blame him. But to fair, you’d have to be some kind of genius booker to find a way to properly use a big tattooed monster who could do moonsaults. Is Ole supposed to be a MIRACLE worker? You just know Dusty would have been out there breaking balsa wood chairs on Bigelow’s head like there’s no tomorrow. Horner gets a quick comeback, but Bigelow puts him away with the headbutt at 10:20. ½*

And we finish with JR interviewing Gordon Solie, and Gordon is pretty sure that the Horsemen were behind the attack on Luger, DUH. So from what I can piece together from these interviews, the storyline was going to be the Four Horsemen taking out the Dudes with Attitudes one by one and then leading to a title match between Sting and Flair, which is of course not at all what happened over the summer.

A pretty crappy episode of the show overall.