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WCW has had a lot of strange years. 1990 has to be on of the strangest. The year is remembered for characters like the Black Scorpion and Robocop's appearance. It was also marred by bad booking and backstage turmoil.
As the year, draws to its close, Nathaniel talks about what was good about the year. There were some standout matches. It was also a pivotal time in the change from the old NWA to the new WCW.
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["The Star-Spangled Banner"
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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. My name is Nathaniel
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Muir and I'm the movie editor at AIPT. I'm also a longtime wrestling fan who knows his stuff
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if you ask the right questions. This is the final part of my four-part look at 1990 WCW
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So 1990 was three quarters over. Despite the failure of Clash of the Champions 12
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the company was doing well. Now when I say it was a failure, I mean that in the strictest sense
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The only people who thought the show was a bum were the losers who watched wrestling to see
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good matches and stories that made sense. Commercially, it was the most watched Clash
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since Clash 3. Overall, it's the third highest rated Clash of the Champions of all time
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Now fans were clearly interested in Sting as the World Heavyweight Champion
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They also wanted to know who the Black Scorpion was. With the second Hollowing
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Havoc card coming up, the main event was a no-brainer. Sting would defend the World
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Heavyweight title against Sid Vicious? This was another odd decision from Booker Oli Anderson
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With Starrcade a few months away, it was clear what the plan was. Starrcade had been the biggest
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event on the NWA's calendar since its inception in 1983. It was when the biggest storylines and
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feuds were resolved. So it did make sense that Sting and the Black Scorpion would have their
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big blowoff there. What didn't make sense was Sting against Sid. Sting obviously could not
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lose this match. Sid had really gotten over with the fans with the strange natural charisma that
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he had and that really awesome look. He absolutely could not afford to lose this match. In other words
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Oli had booked himself into a corner. Thankfully, he had the perfect solution
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Hollowing Havoc is another card from 1990 WCW that gets overlooked. It's typical of pretty much
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every card the promotion had that year. There were awesome tag team matches, there's important
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historic significance, and of course there's a main event finish that the fans absolutely hated
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The card was the last time the Midnight Express ever wrestled together on a pay-per-view
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Their match against Ricky Morton and Tommy Ridge is your standard midnight's fun. The majority of
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the match sees Morton get his ass kicked by Bobby and Stan before interference from the Southern
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Boys leads to a cheap finish. Now, the Midnight Express are my favorite tag team of all time
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Whether it was Bobby and Dennis or Bobby and Stan, I loved the team. 1990 was just further proof
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of how amazing they were. Card after card, they put on great matches
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There isn't a tag team today that is even close to the Midnight's League. It didn't matter what
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combination of the team it was. If they weren't holding some set of belts, they were constantly
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in the title picture. You can place any version of the Midnight Express in today's wrestling landscape
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and they would absolutely dominate. Another great match was a heel versus heel encounter
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that featured Ric Flair and Arn Anderson from the Four Horsemen challenging for Doom's world tag team titles. This was a great tag match that was all about
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youth and aggression against two Wiley veterans. Doom had absolutely dominated the tag scene since
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being unmasked. After convincing victories over the Steiners and the Rock and Roll Express
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Doom began making noise about being the baddest team around. This led to a conflict with the Four
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Horsemen. It was odd seeing Flair challenge for a tag title after so many years on top of the card
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but it had no negative impact on the match whatsoever. The only downside was the match
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ended in a lame double countout. This match also illustrates how much today's plug and play booking
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sucks. The Attitude Era was supposed to introduce characters that weren't good and they weren't evil
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but they were somewhere in between. This shades of gray booking was supposed to make the wrestlers
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more real. Because everyone knows a show about fake fighting should have realistic characters
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Now there really isn't anything wrong with having some wrestlers straddle the line between face and
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heel. I would even make the argument that you need a couple of those, but the roster it needs to have
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clearly defined good guys and bad guys. It's fiction. Fans need someone to cheer for and to
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root against. Otherwise you're left with matches where people say, who's supposed to be the bad
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one? It also makes the occasional heel versus heel matches that much more exciting. Fans just never
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saw those matches back then so it was a real treat. Great example. Even though no one ever
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talks about specific details from the match, everyone remembers when heel Jake Roberts
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took on heel Randy Savage on Saturday night's main event back in 1986. Now by far the match with the
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longest lasting significance was the Steiners defending the US tag titles against the Nasty
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Boys. This match is still talked about to this day. Primarily it is known as the match that proved
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without a shadow of a doubt that the Steiners were the best tag team in the world. This is also the
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bout in which they debuted the Doomsday Bulldog and they also did such a great job of making the
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Nasty's look good that Vince McMahon immediately hired them. The Nasty's were WWF tag champs within
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months. After leaving the WWF they would go on to WCW where they would win those tag team titles
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multiple times. In other words the Steiners made the Nasty Boys with this one match. It may not be
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talked about in the same light but the Steiners did for the Nasty's what Flair did for Sting
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in 1988. Before Halloween Havoc 90 the Nasty's were just a boring undercard team. 15 minutes later
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they were still a boring team but they were now the talk of the wrestling world
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The Steiners do not get enough credit for making the Nasty Boys career. Sting's title defense
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against Sid is also still talked about to this day just for slightly different reasons. It was a bad
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match that admittedly had a lot of heat. Near the end of the match Sid took off backstage and instead
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of taking the count out victory Sting chased him because when both men emerged Sting had gained
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about 30 pounds and grown three inches. At the time I thought the Black Scorpion had performed
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some sort of magic trick on him. Unfortunately the added mass did not equal more strength
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When Sting lifted Sid for a body slam he fell back and was pinned clean. The crowd popped huge
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until the real Sting showed up and it turned out that the Black Scorpion had nothing to do with
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this. Barry Windham had dressed up as a fake Sting to help his fellow horseman Sid win the world
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title. Thankfully the real Sting came out and rolled up Sting for the fluke pin to send the
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fans home not happy. By the way to this day Sid claims he was not in at all on this Halloween
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Havoc hoax. He thought he had actually pinned the real Sting and had no idea what happened after the
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fact. The rest of the card is pretty forgettable. There was another appearance by the Black Scorpion
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who gave a taste of his magician skills. Stan Hansen. He ended Lex Luger's 18 month long
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U.S. title reign. Here's a fun fact. Luger had held the title for so long he had actually turned
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twice over the course of the title reign. He won the belt as a face almost immediately turned heel
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then in early 1990 he turned face again bringing the entire thing full circle. At this point it
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was clear Ole was in over his head. Sting's title reign was being marred by horrible matches
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and the Black Scorpion was quickly becoming a fiasco of amazing proportions. This brings WCW
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to Clash of the Champions lucky number 13. In a great demonstration of time management
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the show managed to have 11 matches. The undercard saw only one match go longer than five minutes
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It didn't go six and one match was actually under two minutes. Not that the matches mattered
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The highlight of the clash was a magic show performed by the Black Scorpion. Scorpion's
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first trick was to grab someone from the audience and place a box on their head
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Thankfully the fan held the box in place and the scorpion proceeded to spin the fan's head
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around in a complete circle. As all the kids cheered the scorpion proceeded to lift the man
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and place him in a cage. The magic show continued as Scorpion then placed a curtain over the cage
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With a dramatic flourish he suddenly removed the curtain revealing the man had been replaced with
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a tiger. For his finale Scorpion theatrically performed a disappearing act that left Sting
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in terror. The kids happy and the audience laughing. Now this is the one part of 1990 WCW
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that is indefensible unless you're a fan of awful magic tricks. The year finally came to a close
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with one of the most depressing starrcades ever. The show had UFOs, the Pat O'Connor Memorial Tag
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Team Tournament, and the reveal of the Black Scorpion. It also all led to Ole Anderson losing
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his job. The problem was that after six months of mysterious clues, cute magic tricks, and threats
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they had no idea who would be the Scorpion. So they had no choice but to turn to the absolute
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last person they wanted to be the Scorpion. Once again Starrcade is remembered for an amazing
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tag team match. In a rematch from Hollowing Havoc, Doom defended their tag titles against the Four
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Horsemen. This time it was Arne and Barry Windham. The two teams battle in a bloody street fight
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that was by far the best match of the night. To the surprise of no one it ended in an unsatisfying
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no contest. On a side note it surprises me that Arne and Barry never won the tag titles
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Next to Tony Blanchard, Barry was easily Arne's best partner. As for Barry, he never had a better
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one. I know Barry teamed with Mike Rotundo as the U.S. Express to win two WWF tag belts
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but they just didn't have that same chemistry as Barry and Arne did. They were a natural fit and
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it never fails to surprise me that despite how well they worked together they were never given
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the big belts. The main event saw the Black Scorpion literally descend from the heavens in
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a flying saucer. He also proceeded to wrestle a generic match to prevent the audience from
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guessing who he really was. The match sucked. The Scorpion was unmasked as Ric Flair and
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Ole Anderson was fired right after the show went off the air
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That was the final part of my look at 1990 WCW. It was a year of good cards, better matches
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and really stupid decisions. Despite all the good that was done during the year
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and there was a lot of it, no one remembers any of it. It will forever be remembered
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as the year of the Black Scorpion and RoboCop. Next week is the epilogue to this series. We
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will explore why people seem to refuse to look at the good from 1990 WCW. If you like this series
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please like and subscribe. I can also use a little help. If there's anything from the world of old
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school wrestling that you would like for me to cover, please let me know in the comments below
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And we will see you next week
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