Ryan Navigates '90 - #3 (1/8 - 1/14)
Welcome to Funk's Grill! May I take your order?
Good day!
We don’t have anything going on from Monday to Thursday, so we have another American-centric weekend article. No WWF this go-round, but we do have plenty of NWA and USWA. However, we break up the ‘Murica with an All-Japan tag at the end.
FRIDAY, JANUARY 12th
NWA Power Hour
The Power Hour was the NWA’s Friday night show. During a normal week, NWA consumers would get this on Friday, Worldwide, Pro, and World Championship Wrestling on Saturday, and Main Event on Sunday, in addition to the Clash of the Champions specials and PPVs. NWA fans were EATING in those days.
We start off by visiting Funk’s Grill, which is Terry Funk’s backstage talk show segment. He plugs the NWA 900 Hotline by RAPPING. I would absolutely destroy my parent’s phone bill just to hear Terry dropping bars. He would have the BEST diss tracks.
His guest this week is Kevin Sullivan, who had attacked Norman the Lunatic last week on NWA Worldwide. Funk brings him out to explain why he assaulted Norman with his own painting, something he spent many hours on. Sullivan calls Norman AND Terry’s brother, Dory Funk, Jr., nitwits. They have a debate about compassion that starts off surprisingly civil for these guys, but does escalate in volume and tone.
Sullivan relates a story about his FAHTHA having him jump out of a tree as a kid, only to not catch him, then talks about how brutal and vicious Terry Funk had been throughout his career. Funk doesn’t dispute this, but he says he’s never kicked a dog or taken advantage of anyone who is helpless, nor has he destroyed the hard work of a simple fellow. Sullivan goes to respond, but Funk closes out the segment. Both guys are great on the mic, and they actually had about as effective a conversation about this kind of stuff that you could have on a wrestling show.
NWA World Television Championship: The Great Muta (c) vs. Arn Anderson - Muta was in his first (and only) reign as NWA TV champ, having beaten Sting for the vacated title in September 1989. Arn is looking for his then-second reign with that belt.
We get some grappling to start, with Arn getting a quick roll-up for two. That canvas is LOUD, and I love it. I’m a sucker for a heavily-mic’d ring. They battle over armbars and wristlocks, with Arn getting the upper hand. Buzz Sawyer and The Dragon Master come out to ringside to back up Muta, but Arn evades a spinkick and hits a big vertical suplex. Arn works a headlock, then goes after the arm like any good Anderson would do. However, Muta catches Anderson with a twisting heel kick to take over.
Muta nails his awesome elbowdrop, then tosses The Enforcer to the floor for more abuse.
Back in, Muta lands a flying chop and a handspring elbow in the corner, then applies the CATTLE MUTILATION.
Arn fights out with power and headbutts, but Muta hits a spinning back kick to cut off THAT comeback attempt. Muta pounds away in the corner, but Double A fights back with punches and a boot scrape. Muta halts that flurry with an eyerake, but Arn counters corner punches with an inverted atomic drop, then follows with a second one. Arn finally mounts a sustained comeback, hitting a hammerlock bodyslam. Arn applies a grounded abdominal stretch, but both guys tumble out of the ring.
Muta regains control on the floor, but Arn hits a spinebuster in the ring! Dragon Master distracts the ref, allowing Sawyer to club Arn from the top rope…but ANDERSON KICKS OUT OF THE PIN! Muta hits another spinning back kick and goes for the moonsault…which hits knees! Arn drills him with a DDT for the three and his second TV title!
***3/4 - This was another great TV match from the NWA. The crowd LOVED Arn here, as they should since he put in a great shift. I also liked the little touches, like Arn using heelish tactics (like the boot scrapes) despite being a babyface. Muta also busted out a lot of awesome offense, and the presence of the J-Tex guys at ringside actually added to the drama of the match instead of subtracting from it. The final few minutes or so were very exciting as a result.
Post-match, Jim Ross interviews Anderson, but Buzz Sawyer interrupts. He challenges Arn for the TV title NEXT WEEK, which is accepted. We’ll have that match in the next article!
SATURDAY, JANUARY 13th
USWA Championship Wrestling
Dave Brown throws it to clips of “Superstar” Bill Dundee vs. Billy Joe Travis from the Mid-South Coliseum. Travis takes a crazy bump off a Dundee clothesline, but the ref gets taken out, because Memphis. Travis grabs a guitar and El Kabongs Dundee for the pin. The little we saw featured tremendous bumping from Travis.
Dundee, carrying the remnants of the guitar, joins Brown and tells Travis that he knows NOTHING about wrestling and that he’s a FAUX TEXAN, having grown up in Kentucky! HE’S A GREAT BIG PHONY! Superstar then challenges Travis to a Guitar on a Pole match! Dundee claims to never have lost a “___ on a Pole” match. How very specific, though I guess they had a LOT of those in Memphis.
He promises to bash him repeatedly with the GEE-TAR in question.
Brown then throws it to Billy Joe Travis himself. He looks SO sleazy. It’s amazing.
He says he’ll bash Dundee over the head again with the guitar. Dundee retorts by saying he looks like a “big woman” in his garb, then promises to clobber him again.
We’re then gifted with a music video of Billy Travis set to Elvis Presley’s “Jailhouse Rock”. It’s basically him whacking Dundee on the head with a guitar while wearing one of Dundee’s banana-yellow Elvis jumpsuits. It’s fantastic.
We then get Billy Joe “strumming” his guitar with his back to the camera and singing “Love Me Tender”, then he does versions of “Hound Dog” and Cher’s “Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves”. All of them were sung and played VERY poorly, and it’s fucking hilarious.
Travis is playing this character to the absolute hilt, and I love it. I’m immediately a fan and can’t wait to dig deeper into this stuff.
Back to Dave Brown, as Jerry “The King” Lawler comes out with his Cleveland Browns getup and Zack Morris cellphone. Jerry has a totally legit, real conversation with Donald Trump (oh, geez), and the fans just have to sit there until he’s done. The cellphone is giving out feedback to REALLY piss everyone off.
Jerry finally wraps up the call and shows everyone the USWA Unified World Heavyweight Championship that he had won back from King Cobra on January 8th. Lawler then picks up the phone, and “converses” with Browns owner Art Modell. He then has another phone conversation, this time with Christie Brinkley. I dunno, she seems a bit beyond the age range he typically scouts.
Lawler calls Dirty White Boy and The Soultaker out as they are teaming up for a Mid-South Coliseum trios match against Chris Champion, Dirty Dutch Mantel, and Steve Austin.
Lawler rips on Dutch’s unkempt appearance (“I wanted to give him a great present he needed for Christmas, but I couldn’t wrap up a bathtub”) and rails on Chris Champion for kissing Dirty White Girl. Lawler than says that Steve Austin weighed “47 pounds before he got on steroids”. Soultaker and DWB rant against their opposition to bring this to a close. Lawler as an obnoxious dick is great entertainment.
The Soultaker would be Charles Wright, the future Papa Shango/Kama Mustafa/Godfather, very early in his career and VERY green.
Dave Brown now brings out Mantel, Champion (with his insane hair), and Austin for a chat.
Mantel faces Lawler, who is at the commentary desk, and threatens him. Lawler says he’ll knock Mantel senseless. Moments later, King Cobra comes out and offers Steve Austin $1000 to take his place in the six-man. It’s weird in retrospect to hear the fans pop for the idea of someone subbing in for Steve Austin, but he was very young and not really that over at this point in his career. Steve says he could use the money (probably because the USWA payoffs are lousy) and accepts the proposal!
Cobra cuts a much better promo here than the prior week, promising revenge against Lawler for taking his title. Lawler makes fun of how Cobra says “ask” and protests this decision to Eddie Marlin, but it falls on deaf ears.
To close out our somewhat extended look at Memphis this week, Jerry Lawler walks around ringside and insults fans, including small children. He calls one child “a poster child for birth control”.
There was a LOT of Jerry this week, but it was mostly amusing. We’re going to see a LOT more of the King throughout the year.
NWA World Championship Wrestling
We see Jim Cornette coming out for an edition of the Louisville Slugger, an in-ring talk show segment. His guest is NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair, and Corny asks him to remain civil despite the bullshittery he tried to pull in Flair’s recent match with Bobby Eaton.
Cornette asks Flair about Sting’s upcoming title match, accusing Flair of pulling strings to have ally Sting in the challenger role instead of the more antagonistic Lex Luger. Flair says it was because Sting won the Iron Man Challenge at Starrcade ‘89.
After a moment, Woman and Nitron come out to Jerry Lee Lewis’ “Great Balls of Fire”. Woman offers her assistance in the upcoming Sting match (and beyond), but Flair says that the Horsemen have to separate business from pleasure and feels she would be a distraction. He says she’s awesome, then leaves.
In 1990, Woman plans on ruling the wrestling world, but the only way to do that is to be with the Horsemen. Cornette hits on her, earning a disgusted rebuff.
Cactus Jack Manson vs. Lee Scott - Cactus, who was chiefly an enhancement talent at the time, had actually teamed with Scott the prior week in a losing effort, but attacked him after the bout. That was his deal: his partner would lose the match, and he’d beat the stuffing out of them afterward. We now have a match as a result.
Mickles looks fairly svelte at this point.
I don’t know a ton about Scott as he was mostly just an enhancement talent, but his dad, Levi Scott, apparently refereed for the McMahons in the 1970s.
Scott attacks Jack from behind before the bell, beating him from pillar to post as Kevin Sullivan on commentary puts over his guts. Jack ducks a crossbody block and baseball slide-dropkicks Scott out of the ring. Back in, Jack claws away at Scott’s face and pounds away. Jack gets two after a clothesline, then mauls Scott some more. Jack hits a legdrop onto the abdomen, but Scott gets an inside cradle for two! Scott mounts a comeback, but Jack tosses him to the floor and hits a clothesline off the apron. Jack rolls him in for the pin.
However, Jack continues assaulting Scott after the bell, culminating in a Cactus Elbow off the apron!
From this point forward, I’m not going to rate quickie squash matches as it’s not entirely fair, but this was pretty fun. Scott had a couple of decent hope spots, but Jack dominated en route to his first NWA win.
SUNDAY, JANUARY 14th
AJPW New Year Giant Series 1990, Night 10
Jumbo Tsuruta & Tiger Mask II vs. Revolution (Genichiro Tenryu & Samson Fuyuki) - Tiger Mask II would be, of course, Mitsuharu Misawa. He’s teaming with current AJPW ace Tsuruta. THAT dynamic will certainly change during the course of this year.
After some initial feeling out, Fuyuki comes out on top against Tiger and tags in Tenryu, who lights Misawa up with blistering chops. Fuyuki hits a top rope crossbody, but Tiger Mask soon hits a dropkick and tags in Tsuruta. Jumbo boots Fuyuki down and punishes his leg for daring to breathe the same oxygen as him. Tiger comes in and continues the assault on the knee, then lands a flying clothesline, but Tenryu comes in and just beats the crud out of him. Jumbo takes exception and gets his shots in on Tenryu until everything settles back down.
Fuyuki whiffs on a crossbody and rolls to the floor, allowing Tsuruta to further punish the knee via a kneebreaker on the guardrail. Back in, Misawa hits a kneebreaker as him and Tsuruta resume their leg-based gameplan.
After some more abuse, Fuyuki clocks Tiger with an enzuigiri and tags Tenryu back in. Tiger cuts him off at the pass and lands a dropkick, then fakes a dive to the floor…only to hit Tenryu with a slingshot dropkick! Tsuruta lands a baseball slide dropkick of his own to halt Tenryu’s return to the ring, then Mask suplexes him in for two. Tenryu withstands Tiger’s kicks and goes for a chop, but Tiger Mask persists with the kicks…until Tenryu goes after the mask!
Tenryu further punishes Tiger on the floor with a chair, then it’s more stiff chops before Fuyuki comes in for some labored offense, still feeling the effects of the knee attack earlier. Fuyuki continues going after the mask, and it looks like Tiger’s nose is busted. German Suplex from Fuyuki gets two, then Tenryu comes in for more chops! Tiger tries a comeback, but Tenryu puts a stop to that, allowing Revolution’s dominance to persist.
Tenryu hits his flying back elbow, but Tsuruta goes to town on him before he can attempt the pin. Tiger dropkicks to escape some Tenryu offense, and Jumbo tags back in! He overtakes Fuyuki, but Tenryu evades his lariat and catches his big knee. Jumbo tries to fight out, but Fuyuki clotheslines him down. Fuyuki hits another lariat for two on the ace, then applies a fisherman’s suplex for another near-fall. Jumbo and Tenryu trade hard blows until Tenryu lands an enzuigiri. Fuyuki looks for a powerbomb, but Jumbo escapes and tags in Tiger Mask.
TMII unloads with kicks and a back suplex, then lands a flying somersault onto Fuyuki. Tsuruta runs the ropes to build momentum, but Tenryu cuts that off, allowing Fuyuki to get a small package for two! Fuyuki hits a crossbody for another near-fall, then Tenryu comes in for an enzuigiri. Samson heads up, but Jumbo cuts him off with a kneebreaker. Tsuruta goes back after the leg, applying a single-leg crab. Tiger Mask goes to cut Tenryu off, but Tenryu denies him with a lariat!
He lariats Jumbo to try to break the hold, but Jumbo hangs on and further cinches it in! Fuyuki submits, giving Jumbo and Tiger Mask the win!
**** - This was a very heated, well-worked tag match with an interesting story. Revolution bullied the younger, smaller Tiger Mask, forcing Jumbo to be somewhat protective of his future rival. The interactions between Tsuruta and Tenryu were awesome, as was the selling throughout. Tenryu’s lariat causing Jumbo to sink the hold in deeper, forcing the submission, is a unique finish that you don’t see every day, and I really like how it played into the leg work that Fuyuki underwent earlier in the match.
After the match, Tenryu leaves his partner in the ring. After much encouragement from the crowd, Fuyuki shakes hands with Jumbo. Cracks forming with Revolution?
Now it's time for THE TUGBOAT TRIBUNE!
As always, the news comes courtesy of Dave Meltzer and the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
More on the Windham counterfeiting situation: Kendall Windham and Blackjack Mulligan were apparently part of a larger counterfeiting ring that was under federal investigation for nearly a year. In a sting operation (the law enforcement tactic, not Steve Borden getting surgery), Blackjack ended up delivering about $1 million in funny money to an undercover police officer, and the whole ring got busted as a result.
Both father and son are set to be charged with possession of counterfeit money.
In one hell of a development, rival promotions All Japan Pro-Wrestling and New Japan Pro-Wrestling decided to actually work together, exchanging popular gaijin talent to freshen each other’s shows up a bit. There were a few reasons for this:
The UWF shoot-style promotion was significantly outdrawing them both, so they felt that working together might help turn the tide back in their direction.
The WWF was booking the Tokyo Dome for a show in April, and they figured that a unified front would be best to prevent Vince McMahon from coming in and stomping them out.
Antonio Inoki, who had a somewhat antagonistic relationship with AJPW head honcho Giant Baba, was removed as New Japan president. New president Seiji Sakaguchi apparently got along better with Baba.
Bronko Nagurski, legendary football player and World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion (THE major wrestling title at the time, and the one that preceded the NWA World Heavyweight Championship), unfortunately passed away on January 7th at the age of 81.
The Equalizer (the future Dave/Evad Sullivan of WCW infamy) debuted in the Portland territory and was apparently not very good at this wrestling thing. Sadly, not much would change over the years.
NEXT TIME: We catch our first glimpse of shoot-style UWF! Plus, the Rockers tangle with the Powers of Pain, we have a major update on the WWF/PPV provider pissing match, and we get some action from USWA in Dallas!
Oh how I miss the NWA from that era and the watching the different stars around back then. There were always tons of compelling feuds and the live house shows were great and came around almost every month. Great piece to bring back memories for those of us fortunate to have watched this as it happened.
This is a sweet deal man. I never knew I needed to read anything like this!
I'm too young to have watched anything from any company in 1990. I've just kind of heard that the NWA was doing some great stuff nobody was watching. Forgive me if this is asking for a spoiler, but is there anything going on in this time period that a totally virgin (read: modern) wrestling fan absolutely needs to see?