NWA Wrestlewar ’89: Music City Showdown (5.7.1989) Review

-Funny origin story for this PPV. Vince McMahon was charging an exorbitant fee to cable companies to carry Wrestlemania V, so they went to Ted Turner and asked him if his new wrestling company could do a PPV on the same date for a lower price. Turner agrees and the NWA starts making plans for WrestleWar ’89 on the same day (hence the name, I’m guessing) only to have Vince McMahon lower his price for Wrestlemania V. And then it turns out that was actually the cable companies’ end game all along and none of them had any intention of showing WrestleWar on the same day. So the Clash of the Champions special gets plugged into the date to save face and WrestleWar is rescheduled for a month later. And then because Vince McMahon is about helping yourself and not hurting the other guy, the WWF happens to schedule a house show the night before WrestleWar in the same venue, and all of the matches go incredibly long, so Turner’s crew is delayed in setting up for the event.

-This has been “That’s Our Vince!”

-It’s May 7, 1989.

-Your hosts are Jim Ross and Bob Caudle.

-We’re live in Nashville TN.

-The Oak Ridge Boys sing the national anthem.

THE GREAT MUTA (with Gary Hart) vs. DOUG GILBERT
-This was supposed to be Junkyard Dog, and it was even JYD on the opening graphic with Jim Ross announcing him, but JYD decided he’d rather be unemployed than do a job. JR explains “circumstances beyond our control” and sounds totally disgusted as he says it.

-Muta kicks Gilbert and hurls him out to the floor, sending him into the post and sending him back in. Gilbert comes to life with a bodypress and clotheslines Muta out to the floor. Muta comes back with the flippy-flippy elbow in the corner. Gilbert faceplants him to counter a backdrop. Muta catches him with a backbreaker and it looks like we’re about done as Eddie Gilbert shows up to cheer on his brother. Gilbert rolls out of the way of the moonsault, but Muta anticipates and lands on his feet. He dropkicks Gilbert to the floor and meets him out there with a tope. Back in, Muta does the backbreaker again, and this time the moonsault connects for three. Historic moment as JR calls the move by that name for the first time. 0 for 1.

-Lance Russell is backstage with Ric Flair, who has to style and profile like never before and promises to kiss the boots of the greatest wrestler alive today if he can’t beat Steamboat and win the belt back. In hindsight, this was 100% a babyface promo and Flair’s turn was is pretty apparent here.

RANGER ROSS vs. HACKSAW BUTCH REED
-Ross hiptosses Reed, who retreats into the corner. Ross London bridges him and applies a side headlock and there’s a fan in the front row smoking. Was that still a thing in 1989?

-Reed clotheslines Ranger Ross as Teddy Long heads down to ringside, dressed like Colonel Sanders if Colonel Sanders performed at the Apollo Theater. Teddy Long has a pad of paper and takes copious notes and brainstorms snarky remarks for his review on 411Mania as Reed slams Ross and drops a series of elbows. Chinlock by Butch Reed and the director’s already bored with this match and treating us to Crowd Shot Cavalcade. Chinlock continues as Teddy Long shows off his NWA Visitor Pass to prove that he can be at ringside. Giving somebody a visitor pass two weeks after they got fired absolutely sounds like something this company would do, too.

-Miscommunication before Ross goes for a hiptoss. Dropkicks send Reed to the floor. Ross does a really cool-looking leap over the top rope to brawl, but Reed fights him off and suplexes him back into the ring. Shoulderblock from the top rope finishes. Really one-sided considering the push Ross had been getting to this point, and these guys had some issues with chemistry in there. 0 for 2.

-Lance Russell is backstage with Lex Luger. Lance asks Luger to express his anger by drawing lines with his finger as he talks, and Lex draws four lines in the air, so he must be pretty angry.

BULLROPE MATCH: “Captain Redneck” DICK MURDOCH vs. BOB ORTON (with Gary Hart)
-Orton is wearing his wrestling gear and Murdoch is wearing jeans and cowboy boots. Lots of punching as the brawl goes to the floor. Orton tries to run away and Murdoch yanks the rope back, which causes Orton to hit the post. Back in the ring, Orton elbows Murdoch in the eye. He clocks Murdoch with the bell a few times. Murdoch fights back with shots to the gut and takes his boot off, whacking Orton over the head with the heel. Orton keeps fighting with boots of his own. Orton goes to the top, but Murdoch yanks him down and hogties him to get the three-count. This was a hardcore match being attempted by two guys who couldn’t really pull that off anymore. 0 for 3. Gary Hart and Bob Orton attack Murdoch and hang him over the top rope after the match, which is just the most vicious post-match beatdown we’ll probably see all day.

-Michael P.S. Hayes is ready for Lex Luger to put up or shut up.

DYNAMIC DUDES vs. SAMOAN SWAT TEAM (with Paul E. Dangerously)
-They’re in a BIG hurry to get these guys over if they’re already putting the Dudes in there with the SST.

-Johnny Ace starts with Fatu. Ace dodges a clothesline and faceplants him. Both members of the SST come into the ring, and Johnny shows he knows how tag team wrestling works by immediately putting one of them in an armbar while Shane just kinda grasps for something to do with the other Samoan. Really, watch this spot in the match. Why the fuck would you apply a resthold there?

-SST double-teams Ace and waffles him with a clothesline. Double chops as we go to more crowd shots. I’m delighted to say the NWA is only going to have this director for another four months or so. Samu throws a chop that “will test your hole card” according to JR. The SST wishbones Johnny while Shane protests. Fatu headbutts Johnny, but Johnny misses the dropkick and crashes. Samu heads back in, but accidentally punches his partner on a failed double team. Samoans keep cutting off the tag at the last possible second. Ridiculous spot where Johnny pretty much blocks himself from making the hot tag (he reaches out with one hand and then slaps it with his other hand).

-Boston crab as Paul E. grabs the mic and cuts a promo on Tennessee. Johnny Ace finally makes the hot tag inspite of his own efforts. Shane cleans house with dropkicks, but he gets clotheslined with extra mustard. Splash off the top by Fatu nearly ends it, but Johnny Ace makes the save. Fatu goes for a slam, but Ace dropkicks off the top rope so Shane lands on top for three. 0 for 4. I knew Ricky Morton, sir, and you sir are no Ricky Morton.

-Lance Russell welcomes Lou Thesz, Pat O’Connor, and Terry Funk, the panel of judges sitting at ringside, and everybody explains the criteria they’ll be using if the match goes to a draw.

U.S. TITLE: LEX LUGER (Champion) vs. MICHAEL P.S. HAYES (with Hiro Matsuda)
-Bodypress by Hayes gets an early one-count. Russian legsweep by Hayes as Teddy Long drifts back to ringside. Luger slaps Hayes and backdrops him, and the director quickly cuts to two fans having a conversation about their beverages and not even looking at the ring.

-Hayes rights back with punches and turnbuckle shots. Big clothesline by Hayes. Luger escapes from a DDT attempt and Hayes bangs his head on the mat. He stalls around on the floor for a bit. Back in, armbar by Luger. Hayes elbows out and tries for a sunset flip, but Luger blocks it with a punch and armdrags him. This director will not stop until every fan in the building has had a close-up tonight.

-Inverted atomic drop by Hayes is no-sold and Luger clotheslines him. Luger follows with a charge but Hayes ducks and Luger flies over the top and crashes. Hayes with a chinlock, but Luger won’t stay down. Hayes goes back to the chinlock. Luger gets free and rams him into the turnbuckle, but Hayes stops the comeback with a thumb to the eye. Attempted bulldog by Hayes, but Luger puts on the brakes and heaves him across the ring. Press slam by Luger. Another one. AND another one. Luger sets up for the torture rack, but Hayes slips out of his grip and DDTs him.

-Both men are out of gas. They get to their feet and the referee gets knocked down. Terry Gordy moseys to ringside wearing a pink polo shirt and a big-ass cowboy hat so JR is the only one in the building who seems to know he’s Terry Gordy. Hayes and Luger collide on a shoulderblock, and Gordy reaches in and shoves his partner forward so he lands on top of Luger for the win, so Hayes gets a marvelously hypocritcal victory after weeks of telling us he didn’t need the other Freebirds. 1 for 5. This didn’t suck! Both guys worked their asses off.

-Lance Russell is with Sting. No disrespect intended to Tony Schiavone who departed from the company earlier in the year, but did the NWA of 1989 have the most stacked announcer crew of all time? At one point, they had Jim Ross, Bob Caudle, Lance Russell, and Gordon Solie on the payroll.

TV TITLE: STING (Champion) vs. IRON SHEIK (with Rip Morgan)
-Sheik demands “former World champion” for his intro. He attacks Sting with the flagpole right away. Then chokes him with part of his entrance gear. And then the suspicious boots come into play, so Sheik is getting all the dirty tricks out of the way early. Sting starts fighting back with right hands and puts Sheik’s keffiyah over his face. I will never NOT think of Leslie Neilsen selling a towel in his face in the Naked Gun movies when I see a spot like that.

-Teddy Long comes to ringside one more time to take more notes. Stinger splash and the scorpion deathlock end this one quickly. 1 for 6.

-Ricky Steamboat returns the props to Ric Flair and pledges that regardless of the winner, he’ll shake Flair’s hand after the match.

WORLD TITLE: RICKY “The Dragon” STEAMBOAT (Champion) vs. RIC FLAIR
-Flair is escorted to the ring by 40 women, while Steamboat comes to the ring with his wife and son riding a pony. D’awwwwwww. Lou Thesz, Pat O’Connor, and Terry Funk are seated at a table at ringside to select the winner just in case it goes 60 minutes.

-Armdrag by Steamboat, and Flair immediately makes a hair-pull accusation to the referee while standing near the judges. Armdrags by Steamboat. They trade slaps and chops. Backdrop by Steamboat, and Flair slides out to the floor. Back in, they battle for a top wristlock. Steamboat gets Flair on his back, then armdrags him into an armbar. They trade hammerlocks and Steamboat gets the firm upper hand. Flair chops out, but Steamboat baseball slides through his legs and sweeps him by the ankles down to the mat again for another hammerlock.

-Flair backs him into the corner and the referee forces a break, and Flair just gives Steamboat a hard forearm. Chops traded again and Flair goes to the floor. JR and Bob Caudle have been keeping their own scorecards and declare Steamboat the winner at this point. Steamboat keeps working the arm as he appears to be planning for the double chicken wing again. Steamboat hits the ropes and charges, and Flair hiptosses him.

-Flair backs Steamboat into the corner and rams him as we hit the 15 minute mark. Preliminary report from the judges’ table: All three are leaning to Ricky Steamboat right now. It’s a fistfight now, but Steamboat goes back to what works for him and makes it a chop fight. Flair throws Steamboat through the ropes and Steamboat is like “Oh no you didn’t” and just goes right back into the ring. He whips Flair into a tree of woe. Flair gets free and sends Steamboat over the top, though Tommy Young waves it off and declares that it was momentum that did it. Fan frantically goes to the barricade and pushes at Steamboat, yelling “Get up! Get up!” Steamboat gets up and Flair knocks him over the barricade and chops away.

-Back in, Steamboat gets a second wind and then some, whipping Flair with force and clotheslining him on the apron. Back in, Steamboat cinches on the armbar. Flair sends Steamboat out to the floor and slingshots him back in. Chops and chokes by the Nature Boy. Back suplex gets two. Steamboat flies toward Flair and gets stungunned, but there’s an arm out of the ring and Tommy Young refuses to count. Flair tries to start an argument with Young while choking Steamboat.

-The match goes to the floor and Flair suplexes Steamboat. Judging update. The judging has swayed to Flair 2-1. Back in the ring, Steamboat rolls Flair up out of nowhere for two. Bodypress by Flair and both men tumble over the top and onto the floor. Both men make their way back in and Flair gets slammed off the top rope. Steamboat counters a back suplex and gets two. He plants Flair on the top for a superplex. Steamboat goes for a double chicken wing but Flair makes the ropes. Chop off the top by Steamboat. Steamboat goes for another one but Flair slumps toward the rope and Steamboat crashes to the floor.

-Steamboat appears to have an injured knee and he takes a bit getting back to the apron. Flair suplexes him back in and snaps the legs, setting up for the figure four. It’s locked on tight. Steamboat makes the ropes as we hit the 30 minute mark as JR assures us that nobody is posing to rock and roll music in this championship match. Chops and an enziguiri by Steamboat. He goes for a slam, but his knee buckles and Flair rolls him over for a cradle to get the three-count and reclaim the gold. 2 for 7 obviously, and actually, I’d rank them from top to bottom 2nd match, 1st match, 3rd match. Although at the same time, you obviously can’t say the other two were “worse.”

-And the post-match greatness. Steamboat’s a man of his word. He shakes Flair’s hand and gets the hell out of there and calls it a night. Flair cuts a totally gracious thank-you speech as the judges take off…except for Terry Funk.

-Terry steps in to give Flair a handshake, and JR kinda tries to blow him off and get him out of the ring. Terry jumps in and says that he would have voted for Flair if it went to a draw. And again JR is like “Okay, great, thanks” and tries to get him out of there. Terry gives him a big cheesy smile and asks for a title match, but Flair politely tells him he’s been off making movies the past few years and the NWA already has a top ten contenders list. So Terry tries to frame it as “just kidding” and gives Flair a handshake…and then a hard right and oh hell yeah, they;re going to the floor. Funk rams Flair into the barricade. And then off to the judges’ table for a piledriver, and the table doesn’t split in half like a sitcom prop, it stays solid and Flair is injured. But Funk’s not done, he unloads on Flair with a folding chair and picks a fight with a fan for good measure. Terry Funk tells us to look at that horse-toothed, banana-nosed jerk who tried to claim that Terry Funk wasn’t worthy of a match with him. This is even greater with the added context of the past few months of NWA TV, where they just brilliantly got us accustomed to Terry Funk, the nice smiling retired wrestler who sometimes pops up for PR. And in fact the company hid this from some of the boys, because Jim Cornette (who wasn’t booked tonight) stayed home and ordered the show on PPV and tells the story of marking out like crazy because he didn’t realize Terry was coming back full-time.

-Joe Pedicino is here with Nikita Koloff, who’s returning with no advance notice to guest-referee the next match.

WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE: MIKE ROTUNDA & “Dr. Death” STEVE WILLIAMS (with Kevin Sullivan) vs. ROAD WARRIORS (with Paul Ellering)
-Warriors clear the ring immediately. Koloff instantly takes a disliking to Sullivan and sends his ass back to the locker room. Animal clotheslines Williams around. Rotunda tags in and connects with a NICE dropkick. He heads to the top but gets caught for a powerslam. Everybody tags and Hark fights it out with Williams on the floor. Williams ducks a charge and Hawk clotheslines the post at full speed in a crazy-looking bump. Williams attacks the arm and brings him back into the ring. Double clothesline wipes out both men, so Rotunda tags in, but unfortunately so does Animal and he takes on both Varsity Clubbers.

-All four men end up in the ring. Animal ducks a charge and Rotunda flies out to the floor. Doomsday Device (and Williams is literally visibly WINCING at the bump looks to finish, but Dan Spivey and Kevin Sullivan head to the ring and attack Nikita on the floor. Nikita refuses to call for the bell though, but unfortunately, the outside referee does and it’s a cop-out DQ finish. Incredible energy while it lasted though. 3 for 8.

U.S. TAG TEAM TITLE: EDDIE GILBERT & RICK STEINER (Champions, with Missy Hyatt) vs. THE OTHER GUYS FROM THE VARSITY CLUB WHO WEREN’T IN THE LAST MATCH
-JR announces that the NWA has waived off the hair vs. hair stipulation originally announced for this match because the board of directors declared that “the guys should settle that on their own time.” I cannot think of a thinner veil for “someone balked at jobbing.”

-Brawl to start. Spivey takes Steiner to the floor and injures his shoulder with several rams into the post. So Gilbert is fighting this one alone/ He’s too distracted to even really get started as he keeps going to the floor to check on his partner. Varsity Club is tired of waiting and waiting and waiting and just attacks Gilbert on the floor, and Steiner forces himself to the apron to wait for his partner to tag. Boss Man slam by Spivey. False tag spot, but the referee quickly becomes just as preoccupied with Spivey. Sullivan starts to lift Gilbert for a piledriver, but Steiner clotheslines him with everything he’s got and Gilbert lands on top for three. 3 for 9. Sullivan goes after Missy Hyatt after the bell because he hasn’t beaten “terrorize the fair maiden” into the ground yet. I hope he shows up with a mysterious piece of paper next week.