Ryan Navigates '90 - #14 (2/25 - 3/2)
Will "NWA WrestleWar '90: Wild Thing" make your heart sing?
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In a stark contrast from the more angle and promo-heavy Saturday articles, this mammoth edition is just PACKED with wrestling action. We’ll start with a couple of matches from the NWA WrestleWar ‘90 PPV, including one of the very best matches of the year. After a long absence, we finally get some more lucha in the Navigation, including the first appearances of EMLL and Gran Hamada's UWF. Plus, awesome Newborn UWF shoot-style graps, a new faction is born in the NWA, a taste of early Miracle Violence Connection, and Lawler and Valiant stall and shtick their way through a title clash in the Sportatorium.
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 25th
NWA WrestleWar ‘90: WILD THING
We kick things off with the newest version of the WrestleWar RAP! Basically, a bunch of wrestlers will get together to do THAT WILD THING.
The “Wild Thing”, of course, being wrestling. What else could it mean?
Kevin Sullivan & Buzz Sawyer defeated the Dynamic Dudes (Shane Douglas & Johnny Ace) after Buzz hits a flying splash on the future disgraced ex-Head of Talent Relations.
Norman the Lunatic pinned Cactus Jack Manson after a butt splash.
The Midnight Express (“Sweet” Stan Lane & “Beautiful” Bobby Eaton) vs. The Rock & Roll Express (Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson) - The Rock ‘N Rolls come out to the “Johnny B. Goode” knockoff that would later be used for Johnny B. Badd, or at least something that sounds like it. A fan in the front row has a “WE HAVE HERD ENOUGH” sign, expressing their distaste for WCW Executive Vice President Jim Herd.
Lane introduces Jim Cornette as the man “who stole Ivana away from Donald Trump”. Jim Ross on commentary: “Well, I didn’t even know he liked girls!”. You certainly won’t hear anything like THAT nowadays.
Robert and Stan open it up, with the guys exchanging armdrags, hiptosses, and shoulder tackles. Gibson counters a monkey flip with a fistdrop to send Lane to the floor, then Sweet Stan gets into a shoving match with referee Nick Patrick (and loses). Cornette blows a gasket, then looks to fight Patrick as if he were a young female Dairy Queen employee who was taking too long with his order.
Patrick intimidates Cornette out of the ring as the Greensboro crowd is loving this stuff. Ricky comes in and quickly evades Midnights offense, which leads to a mild row between Stan and Bobby on the floor. Back in, Lane lights Morton up with some fists, but Ricky quickly comes back with some armdrags on Eaton. Morton climbs up onto Eaton’s shoulders to escape a knucklelock and clubs Lane! That’s a cool spot.
Ricky literally kicks Stan’s ass out of the ring, but Corny soon grabs at Morton’s leg, which goes poorly for him. The Rock N’ Rolls ram the Midnights’ heads together, allowing Gibson to sock Cornette off the apron. Morton and Gibson continue their advantage with swift double-teams as nearly everything Eaton and Lane try are quickly rebuffed. Eaton and Morton exchange fists until Ricky crossbodies both of them out of the ring, allowing Lane to slam Ricky on the floor!
The Midnights finally have a sustained advantage, naturally beating the crap out of Ricky Morton. They hit a pretty sweet crossbody variant of the Broken Arrow, then Cornette gets a cheap shot with the tennis racket.
Lane and Eaton continue pounding away at Morton, including a nice powerslam from Stan and a snake eyes onto the guardrail from Bobby. Morton manages a sunset flip, but Cornette distracts the ref to prevent the pin count. Eaton gets a blind tag and hits a neckbreaker on Morton, who had Lane in a roll-up. Multiple comeback attempts are snuffed out by Eaton and Lane, then Bobby hits a divorce court (single-arm DDT) into a hammerlock to punish the arm.
Ricky fights out, but immediately runs into a throat chop from Lane. Morton continues to try to find openings, but the Midnights keep shutting the door. Eaton hits a flying elbowdrop, but Gibson breaks up the pin, then Lane (and Cornette) continue working the arm. Eaton again hits the divorce court/hammerlock combo until Ricky fights out. Bobby and Ricky’s heads collide, but Eaton quickly tags out to Lane, who catches Morton with a side slam. Rocket Launcher…but Ricky gets the knees up and IT’S HOT TAG ROBERT GIBSON!
He unloads on Eaton and Lane, but Lane breaks up a pinfall attempt. Gibson builds up a heads of steam, but Cornette blasts him with the tennis racket! Gibson kicks out of the pin! The Midnights try a double flapjack, but Gibson escapes, catches Lane with a pinning combination, and ekes out the win!
****1/4 - This was awesome, quintessential formula tag action from the masters of it. I love the mix of old-school southern-style layout and the athleticism of the wrestlers. Great early shine segment for the faces, excellent heel beatdown segment with tremendous offense from the Midnights, impeccable timing from everyone involved, great heat, and terrific selling from Morton. It’s still wild to me that the NWA wanted to phase out the Midnight Express.
The Road Warriors (Animal & Hawk) defeated The Skyscrapers (Mean Mark Callous & A Very Mysterious Skyscraper) in a Chicago Street Fight after a Doomsday Device on the masked fella.
As Dan Spivey left the NWA due to money issues, Mike Enos donned the hood as the masked Skyscraper in his place.
Flyin’ Brian & The Z-Man (c) defeated The Fabulous Freebirds (Michael “P.S.” Hayes & Jimmy Garvin) to retain the NWA United States Tag Team Championship after Pillman hits a flying bodypress on Jimmy Jam.
The Steiner Brothers (Rick & Scott) (c) defeated The Andersons (Ole & Arn) to retain the NWA World Tag Team Championship after Rick small packages Ole.
We get some promo time before the main event. Lex Luger tells Gordon Solie that he’s in the top physical condition of his life! Powerslam → The Rack! Powerslam → The Rack!
Terry Funk predicts that we will see one of the finest title matches of all time.
Ric Flair tells Gordon that he’s been the king of this sport for ten years, and you fear no man! Woman says that Luger better get his engine started!
NWA World Heavyweight Championship: Ric Flair (c) vs. Lex Luger - As thoroughly detailed in the course of this series, this was supposed to be Sting’s coming out party, but the unfortunate injury at Clash of the Champions X curtailed those plans. Thus, Lex Luger was promptly turned babyface and plugged into the challenger role. Luger was initially set to face “Dr. Death” Steve Williams on this show, but Doc had already left the company at that point, so the Total Package was REALLY available.
Luger is the current United States champion, but only the Ten Pounds of Gold is on the line tonight.
Gary Michael Cappetta gives Sting a fairly dramatic introduction, recounting the assault from the Horsemen.
Despite the relatively quick pivot from the intended Sting payoff, this match still has a tremendous big-fight feel.
Early on, Lex’s power prevents him from being overtaken when Flair tries to outwrestle him. For instance, Luger emphatically powers out of a top wristlock, so Flair argues with the ref that it was a hairpull. After Luger overwhelms Flair with his strength, Flair does get a quick advantage with a knee to the gut, but Lex comes back with a big clothesline to send Ric to the floor! Flair retreats up the aisle, so Luger picks him up and runs him back to the ring!
Flair tries a necksnap on the ropes, but Luger no-sells and backs Ric down with the power of the POSE…brought to you by ROOS!
Luger gorilla presses Flair to a big pop, and Flair again powders in an attempt to halt the Package’s momentum. Moments later, Flair does manage to shoulderblock Luger down, but after a reversal sequence, Flair again finds himself press-slammed, though Luger’s cover is unsuccessful as they’re in the ropes. Flair gets a couple of quick shots to the gut, but the chops have no effect on Lex! Luger again presses Flair over his head for a slam, then catches him in a bearhug to further attack the back.
Luger works a couple of pin attempts out of it, but Flair goes to the eyes to break it up. Luger quickly recovers and hits the corner punches, resulting in a Flair Flop. However, Flair ducks a clothesline attempt, sending Luger careening to the floor! Flair attacks the weakened Luger on the floor, with the chops actually working this time as the adrenaline’s died down. Flair drags him back in for a bit, but quickly tosses him back out for more punishment on the arena floor, including a massive chop…brought to you by ROOS!
Luger tries to re-enter the ring, but Flair keeps punching him off the apron. Lex finally manages to get back in, so Flair makes him pay with a couple of kneedrops…but Luger powers out of the pin! Lex fires back with some right hands, but Flair evades a corner charge, allowing his shoulder to hit the turnbuckle. Flair works the arm with a hammerlock while putting his feet on the ropes! Heels really need to cheat more in wrestling, and using the ropes is such an easy heat generator.
Flair continues assaulting the arm until Luger hits a short clothesline to create distance…but Flair comes back with a poke to the eye! Woman gets her shots in before Flair resumes the advantage with a hammerlock, and Luger goes to escape with a right hand, but Nick Patrick grabs his arm, allowing Flair to get a cheapshot in!
Flair again goes after the arm, hitting a nasty kneedrop onto it. Flair goes for some pin attempts (with feet on the ropes), but the Package perseveres. However, Luger snatches Flair by the throat and chokes him in the corner. Luger sends Flair up and over the turnbuckle, then powers through some chops! Flair rolls in and begs off, but Luger soon traps him in a sleeper. Luger gets a super-close near-fall out of it, but Flair gets his foot on the ropes. Luger reapplies the hold, but Flair back-suplexes out.
Flair tries to suplex Luger to the floor, but Luger reverses to one of his own, then wraps Flair’s leg around the ringpost. Lex continues his assault with a (bad) figure four, but Flair escapes and thumbs him in the eye. Flair rocks Luger with some chops, then hits a shoulderblock that knocks them both down. Flair goes for another one, but Luger counters this time into the powerslam! That was probably meant to happen the move prior.
Luger gets a REALLY close near-fall that the crowd bites on. Flair goes for chops, but Luger no-sells! Flair bails, so Luger follows, only to walk into a poke in the eye. Rude! Luger block a hiptoss and nearly wins the title after a backslide! Lex gets the corner punches, but Flair counters with a huge inverted atomic drop. Flair goes upstairs and hits a clubbing blow off the top, then another one for two.
Flair hits a butterfly suplex for another near-fall, then it’s his turn to apply the sleeper. Luger tries to power out, but Flair runs him into the corner and rolls him up for two. Flair hits a chop, so Luger answers back with a BEAST of a clothesline for two! Luger goes for the Elbowdrop That Doth Always Miss and, well, misses, so Flair capitalizes with a kneebreaker as Naitch starts to go to town on the leg. After some punishment, Flair locks in the Figure Four and immediately grabs for some ropes!
Flair gets a couple of near-falls out of it, but Sting hobbles out in support of Lex. Luger and Flair slap each other before Lex POWERS UP and rolls over! Flair rolls through, but they’re in the ropes (which Flair grabs and milks the ref’s five count). Sting grabs Lex by the hair and shouts words of encouragement in his exhausted face.
Sting slaps him, and Lex is FIRED UP! Luger withstands the chops and powers through a whip into the guardrail! Luger gets another press slam as the heat is off the charts at this point. Flair heads up, but Luger HURLS him off the top rope! Luger nails Flair with some clotheslines, including one to the floor! Luger suplexes Flair back in for a ridiculously close two, and we get another powerslam! Flair wriggles to the ropes to break up a pinfall, then Luger intercepts some Woman interference…but Flair knees a distracted Lex from behind (and bumps the ref)!
Luger beats Flair from pillar to post and clotheslines out of an attempted axehandle. Luger gets a visual pinfall, then hits a superplex for another three that was not to be. The Andersons run out, but Luger fights them both off! Lex secures the Torture Rack!
However, the Andersons surround the injured Sting! Lex releases the Rack to fend off the Andersons, but Luger gets counted out! Ric Flair retains!
The Horsemen assault Luger after the bell, but the Steiners run out to chase the heels away.
****1/2 - This was an incredible American main event-style match. They went over 38 minutes, but it really didn’t feel like it because it was so expertly paced. They told a hell of a story here, and there were multiple convincing near-falls. This was Flair working his formula to the hilt, with him bumping, selling, and cheating his ass off to make Luger look more powerful than Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, and the Incredible Hulk put together.
Some might chalk this match’s success up entirely to the Flair formula, but that would be doing Luger a tremendous unkindness. Lex was mostly dialed in here, hitting everything with snap and emphasis. Aside from a hiccup here and there, he put in a hell of a shift for such a long match and got a normally pro-Horsemen crowd mostly behind him.
It wasn’t perfect, though. That early bit of armwork was forgotten about, but it’s minor in the grand scheme of things. The bigger issue was the finish, which was a very unsatisfying way to pay off nearly 40 minutes of investment. Normally in wrestling, if a marquee matchup had to be changed the way this one was, the babyface would go over in the end in order for the fans to not feel cheated. However, it didn’t happen here, and there’s a couple of theories bouncing around as to why:
Flair himself said in his book, “To Be The Man…”, that he declined to put Luger over for the belt because he pledged to drop the NWA title to Sting, and he didn’t want to break his promise.
Per Dave Meltzer, Luger himself actually refused to take the title even though it was offered to him. It sounds a bit farfetched, but Meltzer theorized that Lex didn’t want to take the blame should business downturn with him on top. Nobody blames the number two guy. Plus, Ric Flair was in the process of resigning as head booker, or had done so already, so it’s possible that Luger wanted to wait for the fallout to clear first.
The NWA went with an inconclusive finish so that they can book Luger chasing Flair in rematches around the horn in order to juice house show business (which ended up happening).
Honestly, it’s probably a combination of those factors. To be fair, though, they weren’t going to pin Luger or submit him out of the gate. They also didn’t think Luger had enough in the tank to go 60 minutes, so a time-limit draw wasn’t exactly on the table, either. The count-out was a necessary evil, so I can at least understand why it had to take place. Also, having Lex rescue Sting makes him look more noble.
This one finished #8 in the Wrestling Observer’s Match of the Year vote. Right now, it’s second on my personal list after Jushin Liger vs. Naoki Sano. Two other NWA matches finished higher in that poll, so it’ll be interesting to see how well those other matches hold up.
WrestleWar ‘90 ended up garnering a 1.6 buyrate and 175,000 purchases. Considering that they had to completely shutter the Sting payoff on relatively short notice, this is a very respectable number.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 27th
UWF Road
Nobuhiko Takada vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara - We’re not letting off the grappling gas here, as we have some Newborn UWF shoot-style between two of its most celebrated practitioners.
Even the pre-game handshake is intense, alone telling more of a story than the entirety of a lot of wrestling matches.
Both fellas are tentative to start, with a lot of feeling out and tussling. For the first few minutes, both men stalemate, but the grappling is suitably physical and escalates in emotion. There’s also a lot of neat little touches here and there to ramp up the realism. Fujiwara gets the first advantage by taking Takada down, but Takada reverses out and SMACKS HIM IN THE HEAD. After they’re both back up, Fujiwara goes for a single-leg, but they both end up trapping each other in legbars. Fujiwara stands up out of it and goes for a leglock of his own, but they end up in the ropes.
They fight over a tie-up while Takada goes for some knees. A spinning back kick is easily evaded by Fujiwara, and we lock up again.
Takada manages to take Fujiwara down with a side headlock, but Fujiwara counters into one of his own as they continue to jockey for position. They end up countering each other’s counters until they both stand up again. That was pretty slick. Takada takes Fujiwara down with a legbar, but Fujiwara grabs an ankle lock to counter. Takada goes for his own leg hold and finally gets it! Fujiwara rolls towards the ropes, and both guys are stood back up.
Takada gets some glancing blows with kicks, then he lands a stiff one on Fujiwara’s leg. Takada gets fancy with some spinning kicks, but Fujiwara dodges them and catches the next kick with a single-leg crab attempt. Takada uses his first rope break to escape the hold.
Takada limps around as both guys lock up again, with Fujiwara blocking a hiptoss attempt and riding him around the mat. Back up, and Fujiwara backs Takada into the corner for short punches. Takada unleashes a flurry of kick variants that are initially parried by Fujiwara, but Takada penetrates the barrier and gets some really hard shots in. Takada cinches in a legbar, then releases in favor of a mounted armbar and some palm strikes. Takada locks in a jujigatame, but Fujiwara escapes and grabs a leglock for another rope break.
Takada lays in some palm strikes and kicks that Fujiwara gallantly blocks, then Fujiwara plays around by mocking Takada’s approach in order to get under his skin. He backs Takada into the corner and ROCKS HIS WORLD with a headbutt! That’s a knockdown on Takada, but he makes it up at 8. The crowd is REALLY getting into it, rooting for Fujiwara. Takada backs him into the corner again and unloads some kicks. That puts Fujiwara down for a spell, but he’s back up at 9. Fujiwara takes Takada down with a big back suplex and works at various arm holds until Takada escapes with the ropes. Takada’s down 2-1 in terms of falls.
Back up, Takada hits his own big suplex on Fujiwara, then locks in an armbar, but Fujiwara seeks refuge in the ropes. Fujiwara’s having issues with his shoes, but we’re good now. The guys grapple again, and Takada punishes Fujiwara with palm strikes that knock the sweat off him. Takada soon gets some knee strikes and another series of kicks as Fujiwara’s looking more and more outmatched here.
Takada sinks in a legbar, but Fujiwara counters into one of his own, and he CRANKS that sucker! Takada taps! The crowd goes BALLISTIC for Fujiwara’s win! Even Fujiwara can’t believe he pulled that one out.
Both guys show respect, and Fujiwara gets a big-ass trophy as a result.
****1/2 - It’s our third 4+ star match in a row! This is one of the better examples I’ve seen so far of this style of match as it was replete with hard-hitting strikes and compelling grappling. There was also some excellent storytelling here, with the older Fujiwara having to use wits and experience over the more physically impressive and dynamic Takada.
Fujiwara withstood the younger fighter's assault for the early part of the match, but his defenses started to erode, and Takada’s strikes were able to break through. However, Fujiwara withstood the onslaught and made Takada pay for going to the legbar well once too often.
Takada was really good here, but this was a lights-out performance from Fujiwara. By the end, the crowd was completely electric for him. That was probably the best performance I’ve seen from Fujiwara so far.
FRIDAY, MARCH 2nd
UWF New Found Glory ‘90, Night 2
We go from one UWF to a wildly different one, as we get our first glimpse of Gran Hamada’s lucha libre promotion. We're definitely keeping it eclectic this go-round.
I went into a bit of detail about Hamada in Part 15 of Ryan’s Dive into ‘95, but his influence on wrestling can be felt to this day. One of the earliest ways he spread his lucha-infused style is through this promotion. With its inaugural show happening on March 1st, 1990 (the matches we’re looking at are from the second show in the promotion’s history), Universal Pro-Wrestling was the first promotion in Japan to base its overall style around Mexican lucha libre.
Interestingly enough, The Great Sasuke, one of the all-time great junior wrestlers, had his first match on that March 1st show. More on him later.
Hamada formed the promotion with assistance from student Yoshihiro Asai (who, again, would go on to be Ultimo Dragon) and Hisatsune Shinma, an advertising specialist who was the son of Hamada’s former NJPW boss, Hisashi Shinma. Hamada’s UWF rostered a combination of Japanese rookies and Mexican stars.
Now, why did this company use the UWF initialism despite the name being “Universal Pro-Wrestling”? Well, this goes back to Hisashi Shinma, who has some history with the first iteration of what would become the shoot-style UWF promotion. He started the promotion in 1984 as a standard wrestling company with Hamada as their top junior star, but the original Tiger Mask (Satoru Sayama) managed to oust Shinma as owner, and the promotion was converted to the hyper-realistic style it was eventually known for.
Fast-forward a few years to the original Japan Women’s Pro-Wrestling (JWP) promotion, where Hamada was serving as a trainer and a referee. Hisashi Shinma was helping management transition the promotion from a purely female promotion to joint cards with men’s matches and a variety of styles, kind of like his original vision for the UWF. However, this led to internal strife and disagreement from some members of management and the women on the roster. That, combined with the company’s waning fortunes, led to the dissolution of the original JWP, which splintered into their own promotions (the newer JWP and the LLPW promotions).
As JWP closed its doors, Hamada and the junior Shinma decided to open their own promotion, and the UWF initialism likely was a reference to the elder Shinma’s original promotion.
This is actually a bit of an oversimplification of what happened, as the reality was apparently far more convoluted. Check out this string on the Pro Wrestling Only forums for more on the promotion’s origin story. That’s where I got a lot of the information I mentioned above.
As another fun fact, Atsushi Onita was also involved with the original JWP (presumably as a sales representative in order to pay off old debts) and ended up creating HIS own promotion as a result of the promotion’s closure, that being Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW).
The promotion would switch their name to Universal Lucha Libre in 1991 (while retaining the UWF initials), then to Federación Universal de Lucha Libre (FULL) in 1993. Unfortunately, the promotion’s fortunes would fade. Top stars, such as the aforementioned Great Sasuke, Jinsei Shinzaki, and TAKA Michinoku, would depart FULL to form Michinoku Pro. Ultimo Dragon would leave to join Genichiro Tenryu’s WAR promotion, and future NJPW bookers Gedo and Jado would leave to join various smaller promotions like FMW and W*ING before themselves settling in WAR.
FULL would continue operations until Hamada himself joined Michinoku Pro in 1995. There would be a brief revival of the promotion in 1998, but nothing beyond that.
So, yeah, Hamada’s UWF wasn’t the most well-known promotion, but it’s essentially a beta prototype for the kind of wrestling that Michinoku Pro and Dragon Gate would perfect.
This show appears to be filmed with one corner hardcam and no commentary. It’s kind of like a fancam, but not as shaky.
Negro Casas vs. Yoshihiro Asai - I’m not used to Casas with short hair.
The crowd chants for Asai as we get some rapid lucha to start, with Asai drawing first blood with a flying headscissors. Casas takes him to the mat and works a surfboard, but Asai flips to escape, and we get a high-speed parity sequence. Casas works a grounded knucklelock, which allows Asai to do some bridges.
Moments later, Casas heads up, but Asai dropkicks him to the floor. Casas wisely moves to avoid any potential dives, but he gets caught in a leg grapevine back in the ring. Asai knees him in the back, but misses a second one, allowing Casas to haul off on him with swift kicks. Casas takes over with a side headlock variant, but Asai counters with a headscissors, then works over the arm with various holds. Casas wriggles out, but Asai switches up to an assault on the leg. Moments later, Asai whiffs on a spinning heel kick, and Casas dodges another one and responds with a dropkick. However, Asai launches Casas out of the ring!
Asai goes for a dive, but Casas avoids it and comes back in with a crossbody block. Asai ejects him from the ring again, but still can’t get a dive off. Casas hits another dropkick, but Asai gets a single-leg crab that is quickly broken up in the ropes. Both guys slap the taste out of each others’ mouths, then Casas hits a corner dropkick. Asai dodges another one and plants Casas with a tombstone.
Casas dodges a top-rope move, but Asai finally gets a spinning heel kick for two. Casas comes back with a side slam for two, but Asai escapes a second one and spinning heel kicks the back of his head. Asai bounces Casas from the ring and FINALLY gets a dive, a flying pescado. Asai suplexes Casas back in and heads up, but Casas takes him down with an avalanche back suplex for a near-fall. A Casas butterfly suplex gets two, then he dispatches Asai and hits a plancha to the floor.
The fans will Asai back into the ring, and he catches Casas with a surprise victory roll for two. A quebrada and a straightjacket German Suplex secure the win for Asai.
*** - This was a pretty good athletic encounter, with both guys hitting some sweet moves, and the grappling was solid. Asai still had a lot of room to grow at this point, and there wasn’t much in the way of selling or anything beyond moves. Still some fun to be had, though.
Best 2 Out of 3 Falls: Perro Aguayo vs. Gran Hamada - Aguayo is an absolute legend in lucha libre, known for his legendary (and BLOODY; have you SEEN his forehead?) brawls and box-office dominance.
For longtime WWF fans, he showed up in the 1997 Royal Rumble undercard in a lucha trios match as part of The Fed’s brief partnership with Mexico’s AAA promotion.
PRIMERA CAIDA: Each man takes the other to the mat, but Aguayo claws at Hamada’s face while he’s prone to establish who the rudo is. Hamada catches him with a dropkick, but Aguayo comes back with a big boot. He makes a chinlock look vicious with dirty tactics and aggression. Aguayo pummels Hamada with strikes and works a crucifix hold. Back up, Hamada takes a big back body drop and a senton from Aguayo for two. We hit the floor for some brawling, as Aguayo batters Hamada with a row of chairs.
Aguayo continues the abuse on the outside, bashing Hamada with a table. Hamada staggers back in, looking to be busted open, and he eats a series of Aguayo boots. Hamada comes back with a dropkick and hits Aguayo with a pescado, then suplexes him back in for a near-fall. Hamada nails a rebound elbow, then lands on his feet out of a back body drop. However, Aguayo dodges a dropkick, causing Hamada to send the referee out of the ring in quite the bump. What’s with the ref bump? We haven’t gotten to USWA yet!
Hamada has Aguayo in a sleeper while the ref staggers back in. The referee forces a break and disqualifies Hamada, giving the first fall to Aguayo! Hamada is not happy, as he’s going after Aguayo during the rest period.
SEGUNDA CAIDA: They trade chops before Hamada puts Aguayo down with a headbutt. Back to the floor for more brawling, but with Hamada being the aggressor this time. Back in, Aguayo lands a dropkick and a scoop powerslam for two, then hits a prototype version of the FU/Attitude Adjustment. Once again, we fight it out on the floor with Aguayo clobbering away at Hamada with a non-identifiable weapon. Back in, Aguayo assaults his opponent with rapid-fire punches on the earlier cut.
Hamada takes a huge bump off a big boot, but continues kicking out of Aguayo’s pin attempts. Hamada fires back with a dropkick and a huge back suplex for two, but Aguayo cuts him off with a clothesline and an electric chair drop for a two-count. Hamada catches him with a victory roll, but Aguayo kicks out. Hamada again tries to fight back, but Aguayo catches a hurricanrana with a powerbomb, then spikes him with a piledriver.
Perro heads up and hits the double-stomp, earning the pin and taking the match two falls to nil.
Post-match, Aguayo continues attacking Hamada until a bunch of wrestlers put a stop to him.
***1/4 - I liked this one better than the first match as it had a bit more steak to it. I enjoy a good brawl, and Aguayo was an effective bad guy. For his part, Hamada hit some super-clean offense and timed his comebacks well. The weak disqualification in the first fall and a bit of meandering hurt this one a bit, though.
AJPW Excite Series 1990, Night 7
We now join the Miracle Violence Connection (“Dr. Death” Steve Williams & Terry Gordy) vs. Jumbo Tsuruta & Yoshiaki Yatsu in progress. This is in the very early stages of what would become an incredible gaijin team in Doc and Gordy. They teamed up a few times prior in 1987 for Bill Watts’ Universal Wrestling Federation (holy cow, MORE UWFs) and Jim Crockett Promotions, but this tour is their first one as a duo in Japan. Plus, “Miracle Violence Connection” is unmatched in terms of badass team names.
Gordy pastes Yatsu with a lariat, then continues clobbering away until Yatsu fights back with headbutts. Doc tags in and piledrives Yatsu for two, then clubs away at him on the floor as Tsuruta tries to intervene. Jumbo breaks up a chinlock, but Doc hammers Yatsu with a lariat before a drop toehold/elbow combo from the MVC gets two. Yatsu fires back with a BIG German on Gordy, but Doc breaks up the pin. Gordy hits a back suplex for two, but Yatsu fights off both guys and manages a tag to Jumbo! Jumping knees for Doc and Gordy!
Jumbo gets a gutwrench on Williams, but Gordy hits him with a dropkick. Tsuruta fights back with a Thesz press for two, then Yatsu tags in to keep up the advantage. Yatsu hits a beefy powerslam and a bulldog on Gordy before locking in a figure four variant that is broken up by Doc. Williams and Jumbo scrap for a bit before things settle back down a bit. Doc lariats Yatsu in the corner, allowing Gordy to hit a powerbomb for two! Yatsu rolls Doc up for a near-fall, but Williams hits the Oklahoma Stampede for three!
Seemed like a pretty fun, meaty match from what we got. The Miracle Violence Connection absolutely ruled; one of THE best teams of all-time. One thing that I’m REALLY looking forward to is getting more MVC in my wrestling diet, which I didn’t get at all in my 1995 series.
EMLL Super Viernes
Welcome to the Navigation, EMLL! Empresa Mexicana De La Lucha Libre was founded in 1933, underwent a name change to Consejo Mundial De Lucha Libre (CMLL) in 1991, and is still going strong as of 2024. It’s currently the oldest active wrestling promotion in the world.
For EMLL, all matches are Best 2 Out of 3 Falls unless otherwise noted.
Angel Azteca, El Dandy & El Texano vs. Fuerza Guerrera, Pierroth, Jr. & Jerry Estrada - WHO ARE YOU TO DOUBT EL DANDY?!?
El Texano, who is El Dandy’s cousin, had some international fame for his Los Cowboys team with Silver King, and as part of Misioneros de la Muerte with Negro Navarro and El Signo, helped popularize the 2-out-of-3 falls trios match as the staple lucha libre match type. Again, longtime WWF fans may remember Pierroth, Jr. (who wrestled simply as “Pierroth”), Guerrera, and Estrada from the AAA talent exchange from 1996-97.
PRIMERA CAIDA: Angel and Pierroth exchange nifty counters on the mat until they roll into the ropes. After a bit of posturing on the floor, Estrada and Dandy square off with Dandy getting the initial advantage. A common theme is Estrada avoiding contact with the tecnicos, particularly Texano. They exchange wristlocks and counter each others holds until Dandy gets a flying mare. Both guys try pins on each other, which are quickly escaped, then the rudos roll to the floor to slow things down a bit. Back in, Texano locks in a jujigatame, but Fuerza fights out into a bodyscissors.
Texano secures a prison lock, then him and Fuerza slap each other. After a moment, both guys are back up for more grappling. Fuerza armdrags Texano out, who goes right after Estrada. Back in, Azteca flies around and amdrags Pierroth in myriad ways to send him to the floor. Texano checks in and pastes Estrada with a chop, sending him to the floor. Dandy and Fuerza come in and armdrag each other out of the ring. They both run back in and Dandy hits Guerrera with a high knee and a quebradora.
Pierroth re-enters and runs the ropes…but the top rope BREAKS and he takes a nasty spill to the floor. Jesus, it’s always scary when that happens.
In the chaos, the technicos pin Fuerza to pick up the first fall. Everyone scraps on the floor to buy time for the ring crew and to tend to Pierroth (they make sure to distract everyone while the attendants unamsk him). Pierroth’s out of the rest of the match, but he’d thankfully be OK.
SEGUNDA CAIDA: It’s a bit of a stall session as Estrada paws at Texano. Fuerza and Azteca go at it, with Angel flying around like crazy to keep Guerrera at bay. Estrada comes in and dodges some of Azteca’s moves, but ends up falling victim to a back body drop to the apron. Angel blocks Estrada from rolling into the ring, and the latter just flops to the floor, Terry Funk-style. After a bit, the remaining rudos double-team Dandy in their corner until Texano tags back in.
Him and Estrada again trade blows, but Fuerza sends Texano to the floor for some Estrada abuse. Dandy comes in and takes a back body drop and an Alabama Slam from Fuerza, then Angel gets caught in a high-angle Boston crab from Estrada. The rudos win the fall, though I’m not entirely sure of how (maybe DQ, or someone was pinned off-camera?), and we get some infighting between the tecnicos that goes on for a while. Maybe it’s because Dandy and Texano wanted to fight the rudos two-on-two? It seemed like the ref wanted to make it 2-on-2 as well, but Azteca kept coming back in. I’m not entirely sure.
TERCERA CAIDA: Fuerza kicks and punches away at Texano before double-teaming Dandy with Estrada. Texano hits Estrada with an enzuigiri to break up a chicken wing before hitting him with a powerbomb. Texano misses a flip senton off the ropes, but he comes back with a quebradora on Estrada. Fuerza breaks it up, and we get Angel and Fuerza going at it, with Guerrera hitting at tilt-a-whirl powerslam to pin Azteca to put him out of the match. Texano hits Estrada with a nasty-looking tombstone, which is a DQ in Mexico. One of the refs counts the pin anyway.
However, the other ref does disqualify the technicos, giving the match to Guerrera, Pierroth, and Estrada.
**1/2 - This one was a mess, but I can’t entirely blame the wrestlers here. The discord was thanks largely to the incident with the top rope, which completely wrecked the dynamic and caused some of the intended storyline to be scrapped. This resulted in Estrada and Fuerza being in a sympathetic position, which simply does not work. Fuerza especially was put on this earth to be antagonistic and unlikeable. Plus, there were gaps in the action, and I was really lost on some of what was going on.
The action was mostly fine, though, with great bumping from Estrada and solid offense from the technico side. Plus, Fuerza’s heeling is always fun. Him refusing to run the ropes was a nice touch. I’ll also give them credit for trying to salvage some sort of storyline out of what they had to work with. The stuff with Azteca trying to continue the match despite everyone else wanting it to be 2-on-2 was kind of clever. I look forward to better matches from EMLL.
NWA Power Hour
This week on the Louisville Slugger, Jim Cornette introduces Kevin Sullivan, Buzz Sawyer & Cactus Jack Manson as his guests.
Corny asks about Sullivan guiding Jack’s career, but Jack’s career only goes in one direction. Jimbo gives up and speaks to Kevin instead. Sullivan introduces the trio as THE SLAUGHTERHOUSE. Buzz Sawyer goes nuts, raging against the fans and laughing maniacally. Sullivan says Buzz was NEVER PROVEN GUILTY, but it doesn’t matter of what. Sullivan says it doesn’t matter who you are, things get personal when you want to meet the Slaughterhouse.
This was great stuff from Sullivan and especially Buzz. It’s good to see him immediately slotted back into something after the J-Tex Corporation fizzled out, and an association with Sullivan just works. Foley still doesn’t feel natural at all, as if he lied on his resume in order to join the crazy guys. He’ll get better, though.
USWA (Dallas)
USWA Unified World Heavyweight Championship: Jerry “The King” Lawler (c) vs. Handsome Jimmy Valiant - OK, I haven’t gotten into this yet, but there’s been some really stupid stuff going on with the Unified title around this time. There were multiple instances of Jerry Lawler dropping the title to other wrestlers in Memphis (such as the Soultaker and King Cobra), but the title changes weren't recognized in the Texas USWA branch. As such, Lawler was often still treated as the reigning champion when he showed up in Dallas.
Valiant had actually won the title from Lawler at a Memphis show on February 26th, but that change also wasn’t recognized in Dallas. Hence, Lawler is defending the title here against what should be the current champion. I know they're probably trying to establish separate continuities for each branch, but this title shit really made the USWA look silly and bush-league.
Valiant's entrance is a hell of a deal, with him dancing with the Sporatorium faithful in the stands. It’s so damn festive!
Valiant kisses referee Tony Falk on the mouth when he’s showing him the belt. Get that poor ref a tetanus shot.
The bell rings, and the Boogie Woogie Man gyrates at Lawler. The King responds by demanding Valiant remove his head scarf. Valiant capitulates, but he does wipe it on his arse and offers it to Lawler, who recoils in disgust. Jerry hides behind the ref, so Valiant pinches Falk’s ass and smooches the cameraman like he’s Bugs Bunny. Skip Collins gets his own chyron to commemorate the occasion. OK, that’s pretty damn funny.
After much stalling, we finally tie up, with Valiant getting a right hand for a near-fall as USWA ROLLS ON…
…and we’re back with another lock-up, resulting in Lawler punching Jimmy down for a slow two-count. The King argues the official's cadence and gets rolled up by Valiant for a faster two-count. The crowd tells Jerry to go home as Lawler gets a wristlock, which Valiant punches out of. Lawler hides in the corner and teases an invisible foreign object. Valiant pleads with the ref to search him, but Lawler socks him with the object from behind! Lawler punches away, finally having the upper hand.
Lawler hits a flying fistdrop for two, then continues pounding away at the Handsome one…but Valiant blocks and rams Lawler’s head into the turnbuckle. However, Lawler again pantomimes the foreign object to put Valiant on his ass. Lawler continues with the right hands…but Valiant powers up! Valiant fires off his own punches, then cinches in a sleeper!
However, because this is the USWA, Lawler shoves Valiant into the referee. Lawler goes for a diving headbutt, which misses! Valiant covers for a visual pinfall, but the ref is still out! Lawler grabs a chain (or something like it) from his boot, clocks Jimmy with it, and gets the three to retain (well, in Dallas).
Post-match, Lawler goes to further attack Valiant, but Jimmy snags the chain and goes to town on The King as the show ends.
** - Even though the match was mostly gaga and goofy bullshit, I can’t give it a bad rating because at least some of it was entertaining. Plus, these guys are the masters of crowd psychology and getting so much out of so little.
Now it's time for THE TUGBOAT TRIBUNE!
As always, the news comes courtesy of Dave Meltzer and the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
As mentioned earlier, Ric Flair has resigned as the head of the NWA booking committee after seven months, despite cable ratings being way up.
The rest of the committee will soldier on until they determine Flair’s replacement.
After several weeks of obscurity, Barry Windham resurfaced in All-Japan Pro Wrestling. He’d work a couple of tours there before returning to the NWA.
In WWF news, Greg “The Hammer” Valentine is teaming with the Honky Tonk Man as “Rhythm & Blues”. He dyed his hair jet-black and everything! They’re set for a musical performance at WrestleMania VI.
The Powers of Pain have officially gone their separate ways, with Barbarian signing on with Bobby Heenan. Warlord is in limbo, but would eventually be paired with Slick.
Also, since it’s a new month, let’s look at wrestlers who were born in March of 1990:
March 6th - Demitrius Bronson, former NXT prospect who was signed in 2016 and released in 2018. Before that, he was an NFL running back with the Seattle Seahawks and Miami Dolphins.
March 7th - Chase Owens, Bullet Club member in NJPW and three-time former IWGP Tag Team Champion. Meh.
March 15th - Jordan Devlin, who currently wrestles in WWE as JD
McDon’tGoogleMeMcDonagh as part of The Judgment Day on the RAW brand.March 24th - Lacey Evans, former WWE women’s wrestler. The less said, the better.
NEXT TIME: It’s another Saturday special with SO MUCH JERRY LAWLER. Plus, more Hogan and Warrior nuttiness and ICW fun with Paul E., Tony Atlas, and DDP!
Catch up on the rest of Ryan Navigates ‘90
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