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The first half of 1990 in WCW was filled with bad booking and goofy gimmicks. There was backstage infighting and booker Ole Anderson did not want to seem to give the young guys a chance. Yet, the year was still a good one.
Ric Flair and Lex Luger continued to have a great series of matches while the much maligned Capital Combat was a pretty good card. In the third part of his defense of 1990 WCW, Nathaniel examines the changing philosophy of the promotion and how things still were going well.
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Thank you for joining us on Leaving a Mark, where I fondly look back on the things that
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made me a wrestling fan my whole life. Have we got a big show for you tonight
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My name is Nathaniel Muir, and I'm the movie editor at AIPT. I'm also a long-time wrestling
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fan who knows his stuff, if you ask the right questions. This is the third part of my four-part
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look at 1990 WCW. After last week's show, we had been through half of the year. The first six
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months saw excellent matches and some great cards. Unfortunately, there are also goofy gimmicks and
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bad booking that was the product of backstage infighting. Ric Flair and Lex Luger had always
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had great chemistry, going back to their first series of matches in 1986 when Luger was still a
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rookie. When they met again in 1988, this was still the case. Ironically, those matches were also
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plagued by horrible finishes due to Flair's trouble with the booker. In this case, it was Dusty Rhodes
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The matches in 1990 proved to be the best ones yet. The Nature Boy had long since proven he was
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the best wrestler on the planet. Luger was really starting to come into his own during this time
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For some, this period is actually the best of the total package's career. This time also led to one
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of wrestling's strangest discoveries. It turned out that the brighter Luger's trunks were, the better
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his matches were. Doom was also emerging as one of the best tag teams in wrestling
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The night the Steiners unmasked Butch Reed and Ron Simmons was the best thing that could have
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happened to the team. Just like that, they were better. On the last episode, I talked about the
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awesome kayfabe reason for them having more pride in what they were doing. But the biggest news of
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the first half of the year by far involves Sting. Sting actually went down with a torn MCL, real life
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Similar to Steve Austin in 1997, Stinger did not let a real life injury stall his career
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He was still the focal point of WCW and he was still all over their television
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Fans could not wait for his return. So everything is set for the Great American Bash
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Sting seemed destined to win the NWA world title ever since his classic match against Flair at the
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first Clash of the Champions in 1988. In 1989, Sting just continued to raise his stock in the promotion
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This clash is one of the most infamous ever. There was yet another amazing tag team match
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This time it was between the Rock and Roll Express and the Midnight Express
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So they just added another page to that huge book of great midnight rock and roll matches
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Of course, as was par for the course in 1990 WCW, the match was overshadowed by awful booking decisions
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Luger beat the super over Sid Vicious in under 30 seconds. The only logical reason for this
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is WCW was setting up Vicious leaving the Horsemen. Otherwise it would make no sense
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And that would totally be unlike WCW. The main event saw Ric Flair defend the world title
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against an over the hill junk food dog. Wrestling experts, fans and scientists all agree that this
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is the worst match of the Nature Boy's career. The bash could not come soon enough. Here's some
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irony for you. It was subtitled New Revolution. Now on one hand, it makes complete sense. Sting's coming
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back from his injury and he's going to capture the world title and theoretically begin a new chapter
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in the history of WCW. On the other hand, Booker Ole Anderson pushed older talent harder than the
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up-and-comers. Harley Race, Tommy Rich, Dutch Mantell and Buddy Landell were all part of the undercard
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J.Y.D. and Paul Orndorff played big roles on the card also. The bash would be a defining moment
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for 1990 WCW. The card perfectly described the company at the time. The Midnight Express
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defeated the Southern Boys in front of a rabid Baltimore crowd. Baltimore absolutely loved Bobby
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and Stan and the match was a 20-minute classic that is still looked back on fondly. In the semi-main
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event, Doom continued their hot streak by beating the Rock and Roll Express in yet another great tag
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team match. This also marked the last time that Ricky and Robert would challenge for the NWA tag
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belts on a major card. These matches were also an example of how good and or important a match had
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to be to stand out in 1990 WCW. The U.S. tag team title match was a near five-star classic
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that had the benefit of a molten hot crowd. The world tag title match has huge historic significance
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as the Rock and Rolls were a major part of the NWA tag scene. For what seemed like the first time
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that year, the main event actually had a solid finish. Sting reversed a figure four and finally
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won the NWA world title from Flair. The fans were overjoyed and the show ended on a high note
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In what would be typical for 1990 WCW, however, the finish just did not resonate
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Sting was incredibly popular. There was this awesome visual at the end of the show
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and even fans who weren't the biggest fans of his were happy to see him win the big one
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You had a real-life feel-good story going on here. I remember hearing about the finish from a friend
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My very first question was how long was the match? When he told me it was about 15 minutes
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I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. See, the first major bout Sting and Flair had
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at the first clash went to a 45-minute draw. Earlier in the same year, Flair and Luger went
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at it for almost 40 minutes. So a 15-minute match just did not seem like the right end
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to Sting's two-year quest to win that world title. Now, in retrospect, it makes perfect sense
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Sting was coming off a serious knee injury, but back then it just left an empty feeling
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Sting and Flair, it should have been an all-time classic. Instead, they didn't even have one of
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the best matches of the year. That being said, WCW was ready to move into the future. They had
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a marketable babyface world champion, they had a popular US champion, and they had the best tag
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team in the world with the Steiners. This was also the real turning point in the history of the NWA
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The promotion, they were making real strides to compete with the WWF. The grittier, less
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family-friendly version of the company was becoming a thing of the past. WCW had already
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shown its hand in recent months by going a more entertainment-based route. All they needed to
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propel their new world champion into the stratosphere was the right opponent. Now, Ric Flair would seem
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the obvious choice, but he also represented the type of wrestler that the company did not want
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to be the center of their marketing. Plus, Booker Ole Anderson just didn't really care for him
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Lex Luger had just turned face at the beginning of the year. They would somehow have to make
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someone into a credible threat so Sting's reign could be taken seriously. And Ole did just that
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He literally made up a new heel to be Sting's next big challenger. Shortly after Sting won
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the world title, a mysterious opponent showed up on vignettes on television and began threatening
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Sting's life. Literally. On multiple occasions, this man said he would kill Sting. The character
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announced he was the Black Scorpion. He kept dropping clues to his identity, saying he knew
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Sting from the past, and he kept referencing 1986 and California. For fans who knew Sting's history
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this was very interesting stuff. The Stinger got into the wrestling scene through a group
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called Power Team USA. Their goal was to take over the wrestling world or something stupid like that
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This actually ended up happening in a sense. One of Sting's former partners in the group
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and the only other one to stay in the business was the future Ultimate Warrior who went on to
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become a legend. The two men wouldn't want to beat the torchbearers of the 1980s, Flair and Hulk
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Hogan, to win their first world titles. They also got their start in California in 1986
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Oh, as impossible as it sounded, the idea of the Warrior coming to WCW fascinated fans
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About a decade later, he would come to WCW and it would mortify them, but in 1990 it was very
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interesting stuff. And you know, even if it wasn't the Warrior, which I knew it probably wouldn't be
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I was still excited to see what WCW had planned. The first six months of the year had obviously
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taught me nothing. So with September came Clash of the Champions 12. The main event had Sting
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defending the NWA title against the Black Scorpion. I could not wait to see who was under the mask
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Unsurprisingly, the card had a number of tag team matches scheduled. The thing was
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none of them ended up being good. Sure, Kevin Nash made his in-ring debut
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and there was the oddity of seeing Flair challenge Luger for a title, but otherwise the card is
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forgettable. The best part was one cool idea that went nowhere. Brian Pillman introduced the Gauntlet
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series. The rules for this were on a Friday night on Power Hour, a wrestler would draw three random
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opponents and he would face the first one on Friday on Power Hour. If he won that match
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he would face the second one on Saturday night. And then if he won that match, he would face the
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third opponent on main event on Sunday. If that person won all three matches, they got $15,000
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If they lost at any time, the three opponents would split the $15,000 and get $5,000 each
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That's a really neat idea that someone absolutely has to resurrect today. The card itself was
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lackluster, but the show dangled that carrot in front of you of finding out who the Black Scorpion
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really was. The match was awful. See, Black Scorpion, he had to keep his moveset simple
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to prevent anyone from guessing who it really was. Finally, after a choke fest of a match
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Sting unmasked the Black Scorpion, revealing the Black Scorpion. He was wearing another mask
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underneath. The real Black Scorpion appeared on the ramp and menacingly, I guess, scowled at Sting
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Now on the final part of my defense of 1990 WCW, we are going to look at two pay-per-views
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This includes the Halloween Havoc hoax, a whole bunch of flying saucers
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and the reveal of the Black Scorpion. This series is just about over. If you like what you see
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please like and subscribe, and also help me out a little. If there's anything that you would like
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for me to cover, please leave it in the comments below. We will see you next week
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