Ryan Navigates '90 - #45 (6/16)
Snowman gets torched, Skandor Akbar is a moron, and John Tatum loses his mind!
Good day!
We follow up a rare Frantic Friday with a Saturday Special! This time, the WWF gives us some fun with the Macho King and the Model, but the day belongs to both USWA branches.
Memphis gives us further developments of the Jerry Lawler/Snowman, while Dallas brings us up to speed on the emerging Jeff Jarrett/Devastation Inc. feud and pours more gasoline on the Chris & Toni Adams vs. Austin & Jeanie fire. Also, John Tatum continues to be unspeakably awesome.
SATURDAY, JUNE 16th
WWF Superstars of Wrestling
COME BACK, HULK!
On The Brother Love Show, today’s guests are “Macho King” Randy Savage and Sensational Queen Sherri.
Brother Love brings up Miss Elizabeth, to which Savage says that she revealed herself as a “common woman”. She’s in the DANGER ZONE, and SHE CAN’T TOUCH THIS. See, another MC Hammer reference, like the Freebirds did the prior night! Seriously, Hammer had the world in his pocket, at least until it got repossessed.
I may as well start up an MC Hammer reference counter so we can keep track.
Knowing my luck, this will probably be the last Hammer mention that I’ll get, but who knows? I’m honestly floored that the WWF would reference something so timely.
Sherri then addresses Elizabeth, saying she caused HUMILIATION, so Sherri will bring upon her the WRATH of the Sensational Queen! She’s not finished with Sweet Sapphire, nor is the Macho King finished with Dusty Rhodes! Sherri growls that she’s not even close to being finished with Elizabeth.
Brother Love offers to be the royal couple’s guardian angel, whatever that entails, and Savage says that “sound’s UNBELIEVABLE”. Dusty Rhodes will kiss the royal foot of Sensational Queen Sherri! Love then asks if they can make Elizabeth kiss HIS foot. Oh, God. Savage hits him with the “OOOOOHHHHH YEEEAAAHHHHHHH” to cap off the segment.
Again, whoever wrote this angle seemed to really like feet. Again, I pretty much live for Savage and Sherri’s insane energy.
“The Model” Rick Martel tells us the secret of his success: before every match, he pumps up with ARROGANCE.
Today’s man in a classic can! The fragrance that overpowers, overwhelms, and pins down the competition! It’s Arrogance for Men!
‘Till we meet again…
Honestly, considering how ridiculous cologne ads tended to be at the time, they probably could have turned this into a real commercial and made a mint selling atomizers. Martel’s slightly-exaggerated Quebec accent really puts it over the top.
USWA Championship Wrestling (Memphis)
We open our Memphis coverage with clips of Jerry “The King” Lawler vs. The Snowman from the Mid-South Coliseum, with the USWA Unified World Heavyweight Championship up for grabs. As established in our previous Saturday Special, Kerry Von Erich is the special guest ref this time. Lawler also has a veritable entourage with him, as Downtown Bruno, Ronnie P. Gossett, and Reggie B. Fine lend their support ringside.
Like with their other matches, this one is fairly gritty and full of quasi-realistic punching and kicking. After Snowman (with “SNOWED IN” printed on his ass) gets taken down, we clip to him hammering away at the King in the corner.
The Man of Snow asserts his will until Lawler gets a good shot in and starts kicking him on the mat. Snowman comes back and pummels Lawler repeatedly in the corner until Kerry breaks it up. Bruno distracts Kerry by jingling his car keys (well, not so much the car keys part), allowing Lawler to torch Snowman with a fireball! Because Snowman is an Ice-type, Flamethrower is SUPER EFFECTIVE!
Lawler covers, and Kerry is super-reluctant to count the pin in favor of his longtime nemesis. After some acting that makes it look like he was glitching, Kerry finally counts the three. Awkward, ugly finish aside, the action looked intense again here.
Jerry Lawler then strolls out to the commentary station for a chat. Dave Brown brings up the special guest referee for their next Mid-South Coliseum title match (Leon Spinks, former heavyweight boxing champion who famously defeated Muhammad Ali), and Lawler says he doesn’t understand that decision.
He also doesn’t understand what Snowman says, then claims that neither does he. Lawler calls him a big musclehead as Snowman sits unamused in the crowd.
The King continues to run down Snowy’s intelligence, saying he’ll never be champion. After reviewing the slate of referees who handled their matches, Lawler claims that Snowman should be renamed “Crybaby” because he keeps complaining about the officiating.
Lawler accuses Eddie Marlin of being in cahoots with Snowman, always giving into his demands and allowing him to choose Spinks, a personal friend, as the ref this go-round. Jerry urges Snowman to tell Spinks that, no matter who the referee is, Snowman couldn’t beat Lawler if he had a knife and a gun (“which you probably do”, drawing a huge reaction from the crowd). Jesus, dude.
That infuriates Snowman, so he produces a hubcap. That prompts Lawler to tell everyone to check their cars.
Lawler says that if Spinks doesn’t count Snowman down on Monday, he’ll knock “what’s left of his teeth” down his throat. Lawler tells Snowman that, after he beats him on Monday, the world will see him as a chronic complainer and a no-talent bum, then informs him that it’s his LAST shot at the title.
Lawler then heads into the ring for…
Jerry “The King” Lawler vs. Rex King - The winner gets to keep the word “King” in their name. Lawler, who is dressed like a pack of highlighters, is occupied by the presence of the Snowman, so we get a bit of a stall to start.
Lawler finally engages the future Timothy Well, backing him into the corner for a punch, which Rex immediately answers with one of his own. We get exchanges of armwringers and punches as Rex is going tit-for-tat with Lawler in the early going. Eddie Marlin tells Snowman to cool it (pun intended), but Lawler continues to chirp at him while he’s working a toehold. We even get a picture-in-picture shot of Snowman looking unimpressed.
Lawler releases the hold after a kick to the gut, then continues to try to bait Snowman into coming in. Marlin halts Snowman from entering as Rex comes back with corner punches. However, Lawler hits an inverted atomic drop and continues battering away in between bouts of trying to piss off Snowman. The crowd wants Snowman to kick butt, and he’s finally had enough and gets him some of Lawler!
The brawl is on as Rex King sustains a TECHNICAL LOSS as a result. The referee, Rex, and Eddie Marlin, after much resistance, finally break up the melee. Marlin ends up losing his glasses in the process.
In case you forgot, we’ll have special referee Leon “Spinx” at the Mid-South Coliseum on Monday night!
The match itself was decently competitive for a bit, but immaterial to all the stuff surrounding it. The pull-apart brawl between Lawler and Snowman was more great physicality between the two, but the feud definitely seems to be morphing into more of a traditional pro-wrestling feud than the more shoot-like feel it initially had.
Lawler is clearly acting more heelish here, even reverting back to using race-related jabs at Snowman, who is becoming more of an adored, yet flawed, babyface. I made it clear during the more recent Horsemen stuff that I’m not normally a fan of racism in wrestling angles. I’m still not over the moon about it being used here, but it at least doesn’t feel as cheap or desperate as the stuff in the NWA.
Snowman had a legitimate groundswell of support from the Black community, so Lawler taking those shots felt like an attempt to further galvanize that fanbase rather than just a way to generate lazy heat. I enjoyed this storyline more in its earlier stages as the shoot-ish nature gave it a unique feel, but it’s still a very good feud with awesome brawling and spontaneity.
This is a public service announcement brought to you, in part, by Slim Shady by Jerry “The King” Lawler. He tells us that he’s broken many rules in wrestling, but there’s one rule he’ll never break: taking drugs.
Leave the poison alone!
It’s not often you get a heel delivering an anti-drug PSA, but given Lawler’s legendary status in Memphis and his abstinence from alcohol and narcotics, he was as good a choice as you can get for this kind of message.
Next, we get a music video for “Simply Irresistible” Jeff Jarrett, set to, naturally, “Simply Irresistible” by Robert Palmer.
As usual with these kinds of videos, it’s clips of Double J kicking ass, with many dropkicks and assorted white meat babyface offense. Among other footage, we see Jarrett and Bam Bam Bigelow beating up the Stud Stable, and the video concludes with Jarrett spanking Sylvia (Robert Fuller’s wife). Kind of an odd note to end on.
We pick it back up with a clip of “Superstar” Bill Dundee vs. “Dirty White Boy” Tony Anthony from the Mid-South Coliseum. Dundee locks in a sleeper, but Anthony kicks the ref, resulting in a TECHNICAL LOSS.
Dundee and Anthony fight it out after the bell until “Hollywood” John Tatum runs in and hits a California Kick (his version of a thrust kick/superkick).
Tatum and DWB pound the tar out of Dundee until Jeff Jarrett and Billy Joe Travis run in for the save. Dundee and Tatum’s Dallas feud has now officially bled into Memphis.
Dirty White Boy and Ronnie P. Gossett join Dave Brown at the desk, with DWB saying that we just saw what he thinks of Bill Dundee.
Before we hear more from Anthony, Brown throws it to a pre-tape from Dundee and Tessa. Nested promos! Superstar says that collecting the $10,000 bounty that Tatum placed on his head was probably harder for Dirty White Boy than he expected.
Dundee drops a LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING BROTHER before briefly talking about DWB and the footage we just saw. He then addresses John Tatum, saying he won’t ever forget what he’s done, and there’s no way that Tessa’s coming back to him.
Back to Tony Anthony, Dundee plugs a match for this coming Monday night, saying he’s wants DWB out of his life, and he’ll bash his brains in if needed. Dundee gives DWB credit for his wrestling skill, but he wants a FIGHT, and dares Anthony to collect the bounty on Monday night. Great little promo from Dundee here.
Back to DWB, who warns Dundee to keep Dirty White Girl’s name out of his mouth, then threatens to knock Tessa’s teeth down her throat if she interferes again. Lots of teeth getting knocked down throats via promos this week.
White Boy says there’s a lot he can do with $10,000, so he has ten thousand reasons to whup Bill Dundee at the Mid-South Coliseum. Yet another decent promo, this time from Anthony.
USWA Championship Sports (Dallas)
USWA Dallas starts off with a rather lengthy video recap of Jeff Jarrett’s beef with Devasation Inc. On June 9th, Double J met with Skandor Akbar, who put up a $5,000 bonus for whoever wants to sign with Devastation Inc. Akbar also said that if Jarrett signed with DevInc., he’d be the one man to beat Jerry Lawler for the USWA Unified World Heavyweight Championship.
Akbar backs up his statement by saying that Jarrett is one of the finest athlete’s he’s ever seen. Jarrett then says that if he’s going to bring the title to Akbar’s stable, that he should be worth more than five grand. The General agrees, doubling the offer to $10,000. Akbar writes up the check, but before he hands it over, he has one condition: Jarrett agrees to form a “dream” team with fellow Devastation Inc. member Jeff Gaylord. What kind of twisted dreams is Akbar having?
That is fine with Jarrett, and he takes the check. We then clip to later on that same episode, where Oops! All Jeffs takes on Billy Joe Travis and Terry Usher (no relation to the R&B singer). Gaylord does some posing between power moves on Usher while Jarrett cheers him on from the apron.
Travis sneaks in while Gaylord poses the house down and takes over with corner punches. Gaylord comes back with a press slam, then Jarrett encourages his partner to do a bunch more flexing. He directs Gaylord to do one final pose for him, so Gaylord obliges…only for Jarrett to punch him in the face! Heh, got his ass.
Jarrett hits a dropkick and a second-rope dropkick on his partner, resulting in Travis covering Gaylord for the win! Gaylord acting distraught over his dream partner turning on him is hilarious, like something Tommy Wiseau would do.
As this masterclass in theater is commencing, Jarrett grabs the mic at ringside and says he’s doesn’t like posers, Gaylord, or Akbar! Jarrett takes orders from no one!
As a side-note, bless his heart, but Jeff Gaylord may be one of the worst wrestlers I’ve seen in a good while. I’m also disappointed that we never got to see Terry Usher’s finisher, a running, spinning piledriver called “The Fall of The House of Usher”. I may have made that up.
Later from that same episode, Brickhouse Brown, Reggie B. Fine, and Sweet Daddy Falcone have it out about the $5,000, as Brown ended up pocketing $15,000 from Akbar. Reggie and Falcone don’t take kindly to that as they believe some of that fifteen grand should be theirs. Everything breaks down, resulting in Brickhouse Brown getting beat down by the other two.
Fine and Falcone hold Brown in place for Akbar to burn him with his lit cigar, but Jarrett runs down for the save!
More DevInc. members head to the ring, but Jarrett and Brown make a hasty escape. Kind of a weird face turn for Brown since he was kind of being a dick about the $15,000. The other fellas were rightfully pissed.
We’re still on June 9th, with Craig Johnson asking Akbar how long it would take to recoup the total $25,000 “investment” in Jarrett and Brown. Akbar asks John Brozell, who is right there, about what he was able to negotiate with Jarrett and Brown backstage. Brozell advises that Jarrett and Brown will each put up $5K, and if Akbar puts up $10,000, we’ll have a $20,000 winner take all tag match.
Akbar is annoyed because it’s all HIS money, but he begrudgingly accepts the match.
To finish off the segment, Craig Johnson announces that Brickhouse Brown won’t make the match due to the passing of his father. A bit of an unusual note to end on as you typically don’t hear about that kind of real-life stuff on-air, but it’s interesting to see a wrestling company being honest for once.
The angle isn’t really bad, per se, but I’m not as invested in it as the other big feuds going on. This is mostly because Devastation Inc. is full of ineffectual imbeciles, including Akbar himself.
EDITOR’S NOTE: So, I teased something about hot sauce in the “NEXT TIME” section of the previous article. However, the segment involving that actually takes place on 6/23 and not 6/16, so I’m going to write about it then.
Next, “Stunning” Steve Austin & Jeanie Clark join Craig for a chat.
Craig asks about another one-on-one match with “Gentleman” Chris Adams, but Austin questions his interviewing ability and goes off on his own tangent. Austin talks about the match from last night, falsely claiming he pinned Adams, so Chris wanted to end his career with a steel chair. Austin also talks about Jeanie beating Toni Adams with the kendo stick “to within an inch of her last breath”.
Austin was TOO GOOD for Adams’ school, then reiterates that he has two pairs of his boots and his dog, he’s having more fun than ever, and they’re on their way to the top! Jeanie then grabs the mic and tells us that, despite some cheating from the Adamseses, her and Austin came out on top.
Toni should be home taking care of the kids, then Jeanie calls her an unfit mother! Jeanie then tells Toni not to worry about replacing her torn dress because she doesn’t buy her dresses from K-Mart or Target like the rest of these ladies do.
Jeanie holds up a copy of the National Examiner tabloid as they did a brief insert about the USWA’s “Spouse Wars”. She remarks about how good she looks.
Jeanie then closes by asking Toni, “how are your ribs?”. The promos continue to deliver, especially from Jeanie’s end.
Next, Joe Pedicino tells us about Yet Another Wrestling Hotline, this one being interactive! Fans can leave messages for each other and for the wrestlers on The Wrestling Fan’s Hotline! That sounds like a terrible idea given what I’ve seen over the decades on message boards and social media.
Call every day to hear the following:
It’s $2.00 per minute for three minutes, which is pretty steep. Remember kids, get your parent’s permission before calling!
Could you imagine dumping $6 a day on this? If you called every day, that’s $2,190 a year. That's $5,358.53 in 2025 dollars for The Wrestling Fan’s Hotline…and THAT's if you only called this one hotline and not any of the other 8,000 wrestling hotlines from around this time in addition.
Percival Pringle III comes out, snatches the mic from Johnson, then goes on an unhinged rant about Fritz Von Erich’s “horsefaced son” Kerry, who had been carried out of the arena last night with a neck injury.
He then wishes Fritz a Happy Father’s Day before questioning why he lets his “moron” sons come down to the Sportatorium every week to get beaten by Matt Borne. John Brozell signed another match between Kerry and Borne for Friday night, which is fine with Percy.
Also, this coming Friday, if “Ponyboy” Chris Von Erich wants his first wrestling match, he can take on Percy Pringle! Purse took the liberty of having Chris’ first wrestling tights made, which are tiny. Because Chris is tiny.
This Friday night, Chris will be stretchered out, much like Kerry was. Percy says that it’s everyone’s fault, claiming that Fritz and Doris turned against him! Well, Percy’s going to return the favor! OK, this was a fairly entertaining promo from Pringle. He's found a solid niche as a lunatic.
We pick it up with “Hollywood” John Tatum working enhancement talent Todd Overbow. Overbow goes for a leaping corner charge but crotches himself after Tatum moves. Tatum apologizes and acts remorseful as he covers for the pin.
Tatum does the “oh, darn” routine after the bell and helps Overbow up for a hug…only to blast him with a California Kick! That knave!
Overbow collapses to the floor as a result. Some guy in the second row calls Hollywood a jerk, so an incensed Tatum PICKS UP THE JOBBER AND FUCKING HURLS HIM INTO THE CROWD! The absolute howl I let out could have rivaled Krakatoa in 1883.
A woman in the crowd tells John that he could have hurt someone, so he apologizes and scampers away into the night.
Tatum yeeting a jobber at a hostile fan may be one of the best things I’ve seen in years. Kudos to Overbow for taking that crazy bump, too. Just amazing stuff here.
NWA World Championship Wrestling
The Four Horsemen join Jim Ross on the interview platform. JR asks if they accept a challenge laid out by the Dudes With Attitude, to which Arn Anderson says the Horsemen are an island unto themselves, and any combination of the Horsemen can beat anyone in the world.
Barry Windham says they back away from NO ONE as Sid Vicious (STILL IN THE TUX!) massages his back. Barry then says that Junkyard Dog had to pick Paul Orndorff and Sting as partners because “you couldn’t get anyone from your own kind to help ya”. Oh, God. Windham says he’s going to have to do a hell of a lot better than that to topple the Horsemen. Jim Ross says that they’ll see you on Sunday night at 6:05!
Strangely, no comments from Ric Flair. This was your boilerplate 1990 Horsemen promo, complete with unnecessary racism.
International Championship Wrestling
We close out the Saturday Special with another Tony Atlas promo from ICW! Tony asks an unidentified future challenger where he got the AUDACITY to think he can wear the gold? He is not fit to carry Tony’s bags, tie his shoes, or wash his car!
Tony wouldn’t let this guy do maid service in his home or even come over to CUT HIS LAWN!
Yet another highly entertaining Tony Atlas promo. I, like many others, ponder what it would have been like if he came over to WCW as intended rather than Junkyard Dog. The promo battles with Ric Flair would have been fun.
THE TUGBOAT TRIBUNE
As always, the news comes courtesy of Dave Meltzer and the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
The AWA has canceled a St. Paul show set for 6/23, yet another discouraging sign for the company.
Sting and Lex Luger recently appeared on an episode of Sonya Live, a CNN talk show hosted by Sonya Friedman.
She absolutely cooked both guys, with Lex’s family life and steroid usage among the topics of discussion.
NEXT TIME: A double dose of Manami Toyota courtesy of the Japan Grand Prix tournament! Plus, Newborn UWF shoot-style action, minis action from Mexico, and more!
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