Power Hour
Rants

The SmarK Rant for NWA Power Hour – 10.12.90

By Scott Keith on 22 April 2025

The SmarK Rant for NWA Power Hour – 10.12.90

Taped from Gainesville, GA, but in a twist from last week’s show where all the matches were recycled from NWA Pro, this week’s matches are all recycled from World Wide Wrestling with new commentary! Keeping us on our toes. Ole Anderson was STUPID LIKE A FOX. Anyway that’s why the Gauntlet stuff is all on hold for a month.

Your hosts are Jim Ross & Paul E. Dangerously

Terry Taylor v. Brian Carr

Carr looks like a roided version of Jerry Lynn and he’s got a decent look as a result. He takes Taylor down and grinds on a chinlock to start, and puts Taylor down with a sideslam for two. Terry makes the comeback and hits an atomic drop into a back suplex, and the FIVEARM finishes at 1:48. Carr had a cup of coffee in World Class but he looked terrible here. He did go on to be known as PIRANHA STEELE later on, which is an amazing wrestling name, so points for that.

Dirty Dutch Mantel v. Joe Barrett

Mantel beats on him with chops and gets all distracted because Brian Pillman is apparently at ringside scouting, which I’m assuming is a thing leftover from the World Wide tapings. Barrett gets a rollup for two thanks to Dutch being all distracted, but Dutch slugs him down while the announcers act like Pillman is sitting there with them, even though the camera never shows anyone because this is all done in post-production and no one is actually there. Wrestling is weird. Mantel with a kick to the gut and he tosses the geek while Paul gets his Missy joke of the week: “Did you see Missy driving around in a new Corvette this week? Must have been weird for her to be in the front side for once.” Mantel decides to try a springboard move like Pillman, but he trips and falls and the jobber gets two. But then Dutch finishes with the MX front suplex at 4:08. And of course we never see or hear from Brian Pillman in the match. Talk about a one-sided feud build.

WRESTLING NEWS NETWORK! WITH GORDON SOLIE!

Let us take you back to Gordon conducting an exclusive interview with the Black Scorpion, who hides in the darkness and makes Gordon do the interview blindfolded. This week’s clue: ASK STING ABOUT TULSA. I heard things are breaking loose there.

The Southern Boys v. The State Patrol

Steve gets a crossbody on Wright for two and Tracy comes in to work the arm, but the Patrol double-teams Steve for a bit before getting into some miscommunication. Also we learn that between the opening of the show and here, the advertised main event has changed from Arn Anderson v. Brad Armstrong for the TV title, to Arn Anderson v. Tim Horner for the TV title. Well that’s a downgrade. Back in the ring, the Patrol double-teams Tracy for a bit and Buddy cradles for two. Back to Armstrong and he runs wild as this crowd is deader than night 1 of Wrestlemania. The Boys clear the ring and then Parker tries coming off the top rope and slips on the way down, and Armstrong just pins Wright at 5:25. Really bad. State Patrol were solid workers but this just completely fell apart for whatever reason.

Meanwhile, Paul E interviews Lex Luger in advance of his title defense against Moondox Rex on the Main Event. Yes, it’s LEX v. REX. Sponsored by Chex.

The SST v. Rick Ford & Mark White

I’m shocked that the Samoans lasted this long after Samu’s departure. This is still the Fatu brothers acting as the SST, although Samu and Fatu reunited fairly soon after to jump to the WWF. They quickly finish with a double headbutt at 1:00.

Meanwhile, JR interviews Curtis and Lisa Sliwa, founders of the Guardian Angels. Interestingly, Lisa was last seen on a wrestling show in the WWF a few years before this, with Vince McMahon trying to make her into a Ronda Rousey style asskicking wrestler before she left to form the Angels. I have literally no idea why there was giving them TV time here, though. Basically their message is “vigilante justice is fine, actually.”

Meanwhile, Arn Anderson wins a squash and Doom hits the ring and destroys him, triggering a brawl with the Horsemen. Afterwards, Jim Cornette interviews Teddy Long and tries to negotiate a sale of his tape collection in a funny bit.

OH SHIT HERE COMES THE WCW TOP TEN!

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TOP TEN TAG TEAMS:

  1. The Steiner Brothers
  2. Ric Flair & Arn Anderson
  3. The Nasty Boys
  4. Rock N Roll Express
  5. Freebirds
  6. Midnight Express
  7. Southern Boys
  8. Mike Rotunda & Tim Horner
  9. Tom Zenk & Brian Pillman
  10. Master Blasters

TOP TEN:

  1. Lex Luger
  2. Sid Vicious
  3. Stan Hansen
  4. Ric Flair
  5. Arn Anderson
  6. Brian Pillman
  7. Terry Taylor
  8. JYD
  9. Buddy Landell (ironically fired the day of the taping and then rehired later in the day BECAUSE WCW)
  10. Barry Windham

World TV title: Arn Anderson v. Tim Horner

Seriously, I went back and listened to the opening of the show again to make sure I didn’t mishear and they were totally advertising this as Brad Armstrong, which means that they had to watch this show and record the voiceover from Jim Cornette and put it on TV with the wrong match announced. They trade hammerlocks and Horner slams him, prompting Arn to complain about hairpulling. Oh great, we’re in for a dull one. Also apparently one of the main events of the Omni this week is Sid Vicious v. Bobby Eaton in a taped fists match, although a quick check of the results reveals that Eaton no-showed it and Lex Luger faced Sid instead in a much more dull combination. Arn comes back and chokes Horner out on the ropes and puts the boots to him and then goes to a chinlock. It’s so weird but very on brand that they kept the TV title on Arn for an entire year without having any kind of plan for him when they had all those midcarders dying for something to do who could have used it. It should have been a no-brainer to put the belt on Pillman months before this and let him run wild with it. Arn holds a very long chinlock and hits a back suplex while JR suggests people have a Halloween Havoc party for the upcoming PPV. I won’t redo the show because I just did it recently, but I WILL use the full PPV version from Richard Land and fill in the missing matches from the home video version that I previously reviewed, so the rant can finally be the full show. Horner comes back with a sleeper and a sunset flip for two, and a cradle gets two. Crossbody out of the corner gets two, but he walks into the spinebuster and Arn pins him at 7:48 to retain in another snoozer. The tag team title feud with Doom was FAR more motivating for AA in the ring. *1/2

Meanwhile, JR interviews Diamond Jim Brady, who is apparently Paul E’s bodyguard hired by Paul’s father, and he cracks jokes about Paul’s lack of athletic prowess and how he always stiffs people on payments that he promised. I love shoot comments that aren’t supposed to be shoot comments.

Next week: No Power Hour as TBS starts messing with the schedule of the show, so we return with the 10/26 episode, which will be a redubbed version of the 10/13 episode of WCW Pro. Apparently things actually get back to normal sometime in November. Which is good because these recycled episodes are BAAAAAAAAD.