The SmarK Rant for NWA Power Hour – 11.03.90

The SmarK Rant for NWA Power Hour – 11.03.90

REVIEWING UPDATE: I got a whole shitload of stuff done and ready for later posting during my vacation, including the remainder of 1992 Superstars up to April 18, plus more episodes of this show, plus a couple of episodes of Dynamite that I missed in 2024, so I’m good for content for a while. So now the next major ongoing retro project is going back to 1986 for WWF Championship Wrestling and a little show that Richard Land, my professional enabler, dangled in front of me and I couldn’t resist. I DID attempt some reviewing of Hulk Hogan’s Rock N Wrestling but it didn’t yield anything I considered usable and I just scrapped it. And also as a part of the 92 Superstars run, I’ll be doing a review of the March to Wrestlemania VIII special that I didn’t even know existed until today, and then also a long overdue redo of Wrestlemania 8 itself, given that the only review I have in the archives is from a very long time ago.

So that’s my day! How are you doing?

As for the Power Hour, the show’s on a new day, but with the same recycling of matches from other syndicated shows to save money!

Taped from Gainesville, GA. I believe we are once again taking these matches from the episode of World Wide Wrestling that aired the previous week.

Your hosts are Jim Ross & Paul E. Dangerously. We don’t even get a green screen introduction from the announcers as they assemble these shows as cheaply as humanly possible.

The Freebirds v. Dave Perry & Joe Defuria

Defuria manages to hit a hiptoss on Garvin while JR totally no-sells the “Little Richard Marley” nonsense and calls him Rocky King and a worthless roadie. Yeah, that’ll be the day when a roadie ever becomes a big star in wrestling! Over to Perry and Hayes slugs him down and tosses him for some punishment from Marley. Back to Defuria and he also gets tossed and worked over on the floor. Back in with a slam from PS and he slugs away to set up more shots from Garvin and another trip to the floor as this drags on. Back in for a chinlock from Garvin as they seem to be messing with the jobber for some reason, and then Hayes comes in with his own chinlock. Amazingly, they let Defuria have a comeback and tag Perry in, but then a double DDT finishes the jobbers at 6:30. A very needlessly extended squash match that went nowhere.

And then we actually do get a cut-in from the announcers, with a somewhat notable change now, as the “NWA” branding has been purged from the show here and the graphics now say “WCW” along with the microphone covers. However other instances still show “NWA”, and generally they just don’t refer to either name at all at this point and say generic things like “World heavyweight champion” to avoid it.

Meanwhile, Michael Hayes and Richard Marley, wearing gold lipstick like they’re in Fury Road or something, have words for Ricky Morton and Tommy Rich to build up THAT main event in any arena.

WRESTLING NEWS NETWORK! WITH GORDON SOLIE!

Gordon has some highlights from Halloween Havoc, and he throws to a pretaped segment with himself, who then throws to the Sting interview from Havoc where he’s confronted by the Black Scorpion. And the Scorpion makes a stagehand DISAPPEAR, just like fans during Sting’s title reign! Oh I think I already made that joke. Well it’s a replayed segment anyway. Then it’s back to Past Gordon, who throws to the Scott Steiner interview where the Nasties attack him while dressed as concession workers. Lots of duplicity on this PPV apparently. Past Gordon rates Halloween Havoc a FIFTEEN on a scale of 1-10. That’s like the math Turner used with Hogan’s contract.

Meanwhile, the Black Scorpion has some conditions for his eventual match with Sting: He wants it on national TV, in a cage, and he wants to be able to PERFORM MAGIC on the show. That’s some hardcore negotiation skills. Oh WCW, never change.

Meanwhile, Ric Flair and Arn Anderson want a rematch with Doom, although I presume they don’t need a contract rider where they get to perform magic on the show in order to make it happen.

Sid Vicious v. Mike Williams

I kind of love that they found the skinniest, lankiest jobber alive for Sid to smash here. Sid batters him in the corner, but misses a charge and then just clotheslines Williams anyway. Sid with the helicopter slam and he further puts the boots to him and then finishes with the powerbomb at 2:00.

The Steiner Brothers v.

Never mind they finish the guys with the elevated DDT at 0:30 before we even get a graphic with the names.

Meanwhile, Jim Cornette discusses his feud with the Southern Boys. Which is kind of weird because Lane and Cornette were gone right after Halloween Havoc, but I guess this was taped way in advance anyway. So we take you back to World Championship Wrestling and a match between the Midnights and Southern Boys from back in May, where the Boys upset them and apparently earned an award from Dennis Brent’s Wrestling Wrap Up magazine. So Cornette interrupts the award ceremony and rants about how it’s a conspiracy against him and they couldn’t “whip cream with an outboard motor”. So Steve pushes him over on his ass for the payoff. Cornette’s story about his final blowup with Ole Anderson and departure at this point is pretty funny stuff.

Tommy Rich & Ricky Morton v. Barry Horowitz & Dutch Mantel

So the Freebirds interrupt and brawl with the babyfaces before the match, and then run away like cowards. So Barry gets chased out of the ring, and Ricky takes him down with the armdrags in the ring. Over to Rich and he works the arm on Dutch until a cheapshot turns the tide. Tommy with a sunset flip for two on Dutch, but Tommy gets dumped to the floor and Horowitz gets some cheapshots out there before Ricky gets a hot (?) tag. Sleeper on Barry, but Dutch breaks it up and it’s BREAKING LOOSE IN TULSA, and a double dropkick finishes at 5:32. Rich and Morton as a team were not it.

Lex Luger v. Bob Emory

No entrances here, I’m assuming because this was taped when Lex was US champion and they needed to edit the belt out. Lex hits him with a hiptoss and adds a suplex, but tries a bearhug and Bob rakes the eyes to escape. Dangerously going on about how Lex has to beat top talent like “Emory, Barry Horowitz, Dutch Mantel…” in order to earn a rematch is great stuff. HUMAN TORTURE RACK finishes at 2:52.

Wow, hopefully Sting capitulates to the Scorpion’s demands so we can see that exciting World title match sometime!