WCW Great American Bash 1990

 
F4W Board Groupwatch time! Goofy graphics for Flair and Sting here. Buddy Landell rocking the Dollar General knock-off of a Great Value Ric Flair robe. Pillman whips Landell into the corner and even by '90s, Landell is in washed up veteran mode at 29. Buddy catches him cleanly off a dive and drives him down before posing. Buddy counters a crossbody, but eats a crossbody off the top and loses. Fun-ish match.

BOAT CAPTAIN MIKE VS. THE IRON SHEIK. Oh my Jesus yes! "Iron Sheik wants to slow it down. IF HE CAN." Oh he can't do much - but he can do that. I like that seconds into this, Rotunda's already sweating like he's run a marathon.God, if Sheik's this bad with PEDs, imagine how bad he'd be without them. Ross calls Sheik's attack a "terrorist attack". Sheik gets a gutwrench and can muster a back suplex, but he can't do a fucking thing - AND THIS IS 1990. After seemingly 75 years, Mike wins with a backslide.

Harley talks to Gordon about facing Tommy Rich tonight. I like that like Heenan with  Hogan, even if they're both heels, Harley wants Flair to lose because he just hates him no matter what. He's in his King getup with the singlet. Now it's time for Furnas vs. Dutch Mantell here in yes, the undercard. Shockingly, these aren't getting the crowd too fired up. Dutch works a nice, easy Memphis match with him. DROPSAULT BY FURNAS in 1990. Doug eats a lariat for 2 but presses Dutch for the 2. I know you're shocked - but the first time Jim Ross saw Doug Furnas, he was playing football. Dutch gets a snap suplex for 2 and gets tossed on the ref at 2. Okay, the more you do that, the less it means. 
We get a fantastic view of Dutch's ass and hairy back as Ross says that this is a great camera shot. Belly to belly with a grapevine ends it for Furnas.

Gordon Solie is with Cornette and he puts over the whole card and puts a focus on his team's match without taking the focus away from the main event. Time for hour 17 of this Old Timers Show pacing undercard. Race and Rich are mid-ring and Race is in long shorts and looks like a female swimmer in 1933. Harley in this old man luchador singlet somehow makes him look even older - and he looks like a young 60 here. Race slowly takes a corner post. "No wasted motion" says Ross. Harley piledrives him and they just brawl on the ramp for a bit to fill time. They talk about Rich winning the title in 1981. 1981 to 1990 EVEN IN WCW feels like it was a trillion years ago here - and yet now, it would only be 2011, and WWE feels exactly the same. Bob says he's impressed by the pace of this as they suplex each other outside. Rich hits a crossbody off the top and Race reverses and IN 1990 HARLEY RACE WINS!

Paul E is with Mean Mark and Lex has a heck of a undertaking ahead of him. Heyman rants and Mark just rambles and grunts while tearing up a shirt. The Southern Boys come out to wonderfully generic music to a terrible ramp. Southern Boys are in rebel flag gear here and boy was that a stupid idea then and even worse to see now. "Why don't you sit down and wipe the ugly off your face!"
Jim Cornette was so great in his prime. Steve and Bobby are just tremendous together. Bobby sells for his punches wonderfully. Bobby throws some gorgeous corner punches both with a headlock and without.

KARATE BLACK BELT STAN LANE. Okay sure there, Jim. I'm sure Stan claimed to be a karate instructor to get some pussy though - I could buy that. I love Cornette just taking a bump on the floor because fuck it, why not, everyone else is getting thrown around. MX with a blind tag and then Stan tosses Tracy over the top while Corny distracts the ref. Stan with an inverted atomic into the Alabama Curse backbreaker! ALABAMA JAM HITS, but Bobby did too much and he can't follow up!

Now this is heat. Jesus! Rocket launcher hits and that only gets 2.5! Babyface do a switcheroo and only get 2. Lane kicks Tracy in the back of the head and Eaton gets a small package and the win. Good god the crowd is losing their shit for this. Just imagine a WWE crowd getting this excited about a match - let alone a "tag title match" now. Wow.

Goofy glam rock Freebirds are here with sequins, makeup, and lipstick with Jimmy's grey beard aging him a decade+.  Vader comes down looking like a badass to just massacre Z-Man and does.
"Jim Herd has got everything figured out! BWAHAHAHAA. Surprised the "faggot" chants haven't been muted here. The 'birds have an all-time bad look here. Freebirds stall and Scott finally hits a tilt a whirl. Garvin's grey beard is so distracting. I'm not sure if it's all grey hair or a mix of grey hair and glitter. "Michael is a bitch!" chants. Okay, that's a great one. Ross gets in some subtle gay-bashing towards the 'birds. Boy is JR's commentary towards the 'birds not aging well on a rewatch - especially in 2020. Garvin and Hayes are in about as body-concealing a getup as you can imagine and...they need something more body-concealing. Frankensteiner hits, but the ref is in the way of the shot. Heels cheat to try and win, but the Steiner do a better job cheating to win. Jimmy was on steroids and THIS IS AS GOOD AS HE COULD LOOK.

The Horsemen are here to face JYD, Orndorff, and El Gigante. Sid in a singlet is always such a weird look - dude has an all-time great body, and they cover it. El Gigante is the star here and JYD has eaten whatever catering the 'birds didn't eat. Arn does his best to make JYD seem decent out there and makes some great faces in the corner after being shoved. Barry works him over with a suplex to create movement without JYD having to move much. Paul tags in and is a house of fire instead of Gigante.  I guess they saw him move, and he isn't a matchbook under a heat lamp let alone a house of fire. Over the top rule is used for a DQ fuck finish.

Luger cuts a fired up babyface promo for his match and his best friend Sting...from the side, because WCW. Luger's theme and belt and whole presentation just make him seem like THE GUY.  They move glacially doing...things. Some punches. A few elbows. OLD SCHOOL to no reaction because Mean Mark is taker in black undies and this presentation is terrible. Torture rack, but Mark's foot hits the ref. Paul hits Lex in the ribs with the phone, but it gets 2 and Luger wins off a lariat. This was devoid of good things, but LUGER IS OVER.

Gordon interviews Sting before the biggest match of his career. He cuts a great babyface promo and the Rock and Rolls are out to face THE TEAM OF DOOM! What a great low-key moniker. Ross brings up that only five years ago the Express won the titles for the first time and they could win them now for the fifth time. WOW does it feel like a million years between '85 and '90 with WCW, and now that would only be 2015, which actually does feel a bit different with WWE because it is a largely different roster now. Ricky is SUCH A GREAT FACE IN PERIL! Ricky struggles to just get to his feet, then struggles TO GET UP FROM HIS FEET to a fully standing position. RICKY TAGS ROBERT! Even by wrestling physics standards, Reed getting kicked halfway across the ring off an enzuiguri from Robert and being launched into Long is a bit much. THE TEAM OF DOOM! has won.

Flair and Solie play off the '80s with a back and forth promo. This feels like a nice dovetail to Starrcade '83 with Gordon interviewing him in a giant event for the early '80s as a face and now Flair has become the villain in the early '90s. Jim Herd bullying Ole Anderson is just wrong. Flair is just so unselfish here. This is Sting's night and HE HAS MADE THIS POSSIBLE. While this is Sting's night, really, it's all a testament to how great Flair is because Flair got Sting to this level. It's Flair's magnum opus because he gave Sting the platform to shine and now, only TWO YEARS LATER mind you, they're primed to make Sting the man because Flair made him look so good on one night.

 Sting eats chops that have no effect, Flair eats a biel on the ramp and gets clotheslined around. Ross's call here is one of his best ever from start to finish. He tells the tale about this being the best of the '80s vs. the man of the '90s. This is probably Ross's best start to finish match call ever. Flair makes such a perfect foe for Flair - beyond their formula, at this time, you're trying to get across that Sting is YOUR champion and he's tough. So here's Fliar just CHOPPING THE EVERLOVING FUCK OUT OF HIS CHEST and you can see he's tough. He's taking these blows and yeah they're tough - you can hear them, but Sting is that much tougher.

Flair makes sure to use cheap tactics to work over the knees and gets the figure four, but to no avail. Flair chops him hard in the corner and just stares him down. Sinister Flair was the best. You may respect him - but you can't LIKE him, and there's a big difference. There's no way, within the context of this match, to actually like Ric Flair. EVEN IN HIS INTRO, he did nothing to make you like him or really even notice him beyond the robe. He plays it like he's beyond Sting - he's survived him before and he's better than he was two years ago because he's the champion and he only gets better with experience.

Sting gets the scorpion deathlock, but THE HORSEMEN COME DOWN. BUT THE DUDES DEFEND STING HERE. They don't interfere with Flair at all - they just prevent his allies from attacking Sting. It's simple booking, but even in a big-time match, the company avoided doing anything to devalue the finish. Flair chops him BUT STING ABSORBS IT. Flair avoids a corner knee and goes for the figure four, BUT HE COUNTERS INTO A SMALL PACKAGE AND WINS IT! 

Gordon interviews Sting, who says that his mouth is dry but Flair is the best World Champion ever. He's the champion tonight and only tonight - he has to fill his shoes.
I like that even in victory, Sting shows respect for Flair. Now a competent booker would end this version of the Horsemen here since they were just made to look bad, so what's there to lose, and you make Flair not a babyface - but someone who supports Sting from the sidelines and shows him respect. Basically you tell the Flair/Steamboat tweener story in '94 with them to some degree.