House Show Happenings 2 - Where The Big Boys Play!

[gmoney]

Interesting to see Dustin get bookings after Dusty has left for Florida. I assumed around that time he'd have gone as well. 

[air_raid]

MARCH 89

THE MAIN EVENTS
4th/5th in Tallahasee and Shreveport its Lex Luger vs Barry Windham for the UST and again 10th in Greenville before 11th in Greensboro (4600) the UST quite rightly plays second fiddle to Ricky Steamboat vs Ric Flair for the World title. Poor number for an 11 match card that also featured the telly title and The Stinger. After several days of TVs there's a double shot 18th, 5000 in the afternoon in Landover then approx. 5375 including comps in Philadelphia (the long-closed Convention Hall/Civic Center again) for Steamboat vs Flair - hey, near 10,000 paid to see WCW on the same day, that's a green shoot. The afternoon of Sunday 19th in Salisbury it's Sting & Luger vs Flair & Baz, then we push on with Dragon vs Nature Boy 20th-24th in Fayetteville, Columbia (SC), Franklin County High School in Rocky Mount, VI, Raleigh and Norfolk, before 25th in Charleston there's the very rare sight of Flair challenging for the United States title and losing to The Total Package. We return to Ricky vs Ric 26th in Columbus (OH), 27th in Chattanooga, 28th in Gainesville and 30th in Baltimore.

B Shows - The Midnight Express vs The Samoan Swat Team is top of the card 19th in Greenwood SC, 21st in Marion VA, probably some other shows inbetween lost to time and 23rd-25th in Harrisonburg, Amherst and Rockingham (a town in North Carolina, not the longtime residence of America's favourite murderer, OJ Simpson).

Fun fact - 2nd-8th The Dragon (along with the Road Warriors) has been working All Japan, including defending the Big Gold Belt last night at Budokan against Tiger Mask 2 - better known as UKFF fave Mitsuharu Musawa.

THE CARDS
Lex Luger vs Barry Windham for the United States title rolls on in those early month mains and third to last in Landover. 4th/5th (and Greenville) Sting vs Butch Reed is the only other repeat. Eddie Gilbert & Rick Steiner vs Steve Williams & Mike Rotunda for the US tag titles repeats in Shreveport and Greenville, both Greenville and Greensboro see The Samoan Swat Team vs The Midnight Express (George Scott getting his wish and starting to job the Midnights out), The Iron Sheik vs Steve Casey and Kendall Windham vs Vincent Young (time limit draw which also happened in Tallahassee). Our mid-month double shot kicks off new loops with Doc & Irwin challenging The Road Warriors for the big belts (repeating in Salisbury) and Steiner vs Kevin Sullivan plus The Stinger back with Reed on and off throughout weeks three and four. Samu & Fatu vs Lane & Eaton continues unabated on Flair undercards as well as B show mains, into week three the tag title moves to Hawk & Animal vs Dr Death & Dan Spivey to double count-outs and we start getting repeats of - here we go - The Great Muta vs Rip Rogers, plus in Chattanooga and Gainesville Beautiful Bobby does jobs for our man Jack Victory. Other repeats scattered around are Luger vs Dr Death for the UST in Greensboro and Baltimore, Steiner vs Rotunda non title in Shreveport (with that tag later) and TV title at stake in Greensboro, Charleston and Baltimore, Michael Hayes vs Joey Maggs on the 18th double shot and in Baltimore, and Dick Murdoch vs Abdullah The Butcher in Greensboro and Marion. We have a bit of late month B show consistency with Ivan Koloff vs Russian Assassin #2 (Victory again), Junkyard Dog vs Rip Morgan and more of Young vs Kendall.

VARIANTS
TALLAHASSEE - Ron Simmons vs Russian Assassin (Bob Blackburn, not Angel or Victory), Rotundo vs Hayes. SHREVEPORT - Hayes vs Assassin #2, JYD vs Spivey, Kendall vs Casey then later Casey & Manuel Villalobos lose to the Headshrinkers. GREENVILLE - Spivey vs Murdoch, JYD vs Reed, Sting vs Abby. GREENSBORO - Baz vs JYD, Spivey vs Simmons, Gilbert vs Sullivan. LANDOVER - Sting vs Kendall, Reed vs Murdoch, Gilbert vs Bob Bradley. PHILLY - Luger vs K. Windham, Gilbert vs B. Windham, Murdoch vs Bradley. SALISBURY - Steiner vs Reed (ouch), Gilbert vs Hayes, Murdoch vs Kendall and Bradley vs Maggs. RALEIGH - Gilbert vs Reed, Muta vs George South and Hayes vs Bradley. NORFOLK - Luger vs Sullivan for the UST. CHARLESTON - Gilbert vs Bradley. COLUMBUS - Luger vs Rotunda (only the UST at stake), Steiner vs Bradley, Gilbert vs Assassin #2. GREENWOOD - Simmons vs Kendall, Young vs Ranger Ross. MARION - Abby vs Murdoch, Ross vs South and - The Glamour Girls collide!! - Leilani Kai vs Judy Martin. HARRISONBURG - Ross vs Morgan, Simmons vs a Cruel Connection or the other. BALTIMORE - Roadies vs Samoans starts up, Muta squashes Casey, the Midnights job to Sully & Spivey, Gilbert rounds off his eclectic month with Kendall and - here's a treat - JYD beats Sheik by count-out in a match which I imagine was so slow it probably travelled back in time.

TVs
12th at the Omni (6800) Steamboat vs Flair goes on dark after the matches taped for various TV broadcasts. That's about all I could find but 30th at Center Stage they tape Sting winning the TV title from Rotunda.

DEPARTURES
Who saw this one working out long term, anyway? Abdullah The Butcher is told by the NWA they expect him to work April Clash of the Champions which clashes with a tour of Japan. They politely request he cancel it, he not so politely (I imagine) declines, and walks out. These are the last matches for now in WCW for Ivan Koloff - he resurfaces in Puerto Rico in June. Finally, Salisbury is the last date for Barry Windham. Despite a high profile feud with The Total Package, he’s going to chance his arm on a return to the WWF. You probably know how that goes.

Fuck it, it's not WCW but if you like your history, you'll like this.

 

Edited September 28, 2025 by air_raid

[air_raid]

APRIL 1989

THE MAIN EVENTS
Afternoon of Saturday 1st in Richmond though the Roadies are on last, Lex Luger vs Ric Flair for the UST is the big draw. 5th in Miami (<2000), incredibly, Flair challenges Sting for the TV title, Jacksonville and Norfolk seem lost to the sands of time, then 8th in New Haven (4200 for the first JCP/WCW show there, very much enemy territory) it's back to Ricky Steamboat turning back Slick Ric for the big one, 9th matinee in Charlotte it's again Flair losing to The Total Package. That's not fair to Flair. Later that evening in Atlanta on the first of three nights at Center Stage, some matches are taped for TV not including a main of Steamboat & Luger beating Flair & Michael Hayes in a practice run for 15th in Chicago where they tape it for Worldwide (Hayes pinning Luger), 14th in Milwaukee we've got Steamboat & Luger beating Flair & Hayes again, then its back to Steamboat vs Flair 20th in Memphis, 22nd in St Louis and afternoon of Sunday 23rd in Huntington before they shoot up to Columbus OH for another of Dragon & Package vs Flair & Hayes, repeating next night in Dayton. 28th in Roanoke The Dragon has a night off so it's Sting & Luger winning, back to Steamboat & Luger 29th in Baltimore, then 30th in Philadelphia - WTF? Steamboat defends against The Iron Sheik.

B shows - 5th in Hampton, 7th in Goose Creek and 8th in Gaffney (all SC) at least, there's The Midnight Express & Jim Cornette vs The Samoan Swat Team & Paul E Dangerously. Fun note - in the wake of George Scott losing his job in the wake of a disastrous turnout for Clash VI (5300 at the Louisiana Superdome - yes, which hosted a 70,000 WrestleMania)… the Midnights have suddenly started winning matches again. Imagine that.

THE CARDS
Lex Luger vs The Iron Sheik and Sting vs Kevin Sullivan kick off the month whenever the respective babyface isn't with the Nature Boy. Steve Williams & Mike Rotunda vs The Road Warriors for the tag belts is consistent early on, as is Hawk & Animal winning by count-out. Luger vs Michael Hayes for the UST kicks off in New Haven and rolls back around later for much of weeks 3 and 4, as does Dick Murdoch vs Bob Orton Jr. Mid-month both Milwaukee and Chicago (outside whats taped for telly) get the Roadies beating the Varsity Club in non-title no DQ matches (they'll be paired together for the rest of the month too), Stinger defending the TV title against Dan Spivey (another that runs and runs), split wins between Rick Steiner vs Butch Reed (returns in St Louis) and Orton vs Mike Justice, plus Shane Douglas vs George South (also multiple repeats) and let's be generous and include The Great Muta vs Bob Emory even if the one in Chicago gets used for TV. Weeks 3/4 Muta is often with South, there's also Steiner vs Spivey in Miami and Huntington, Muta vs Eddie Gilbert in Columbus and Phildelphia, The Samoan Swat Team vs Emory & Justice in Huntington and Columbus, Jack Victory vs Randy Rose in Gaffney and Memphis and Douglas vs Doug Gilbert without "The Raider" gimmick in Dayton and with it in Philly. Special mention to Sheik going 1-1 with Ranger Ross in Atlanta then Dayton ; in spite of a forthcoming crack at the WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE, Sheik loses to Ranger fucking Ross. LOLWCW.

VARIANTS
RICHMOND - Gilbert & Steiner vs Samoans for the US tag titles, Junkyard Dog vs Kendall Windham, Muta vs Bobby Eaton, Reed vs Stan Lane, Sheik vs Steve Casey, Hayes vs Brad Anderson. MIAMI - Gilbert vs Sullivan, Hayes vs JYD, Reed vs Murdoch, Muta vs Casey, Ross vs Rip Morgan, Tyree Pride vs David Heath (yes). NEW HAVEN - Steiner & Gilbert vs Sheik & Reed, JYD vs Morgan. In GAFFNEY at least if not the other B shows there's Murdoch vs Kendall, Vincent Young vs South and Ron Simmons vs The Raider. CHICAGO - Maximum Overdrive (The Silencer/Jeff Warner & The Hunter/Tim Hunt) vs The Tokoyo Bullets (Frankie DeFalco & Mark Gallo). MEMPHIS - Luger vs Kendall for the UST opens even though Lex is on with "P.S" later, Shane loses to Orton and later does a non finish with Reed, Gilbert beats Ken Wayne and there's Steiner vs Manuel Villalobos. ST LOUIS - Eddie beats Mike George and Douglas pins future Orient Expresser Akio Sato. HUNTINGTON - Here we go! There's the first of Sting vs Muta. COLUMBUS - The Gremlin drops Sheiky baby. DAYTON - Sting drops ex-TV champ Rotunda. PHILLY - Samu & Fatu beat JYD & Casey, Steiner beats Joey Maggs and Reed beats Emory.

TVs
2nd in New Orleans it's the aforementioned Clash, and while it's understandable that you want a big card to draw a house beyond the confines of what you can see on the televised portion, those dark matches going on AFTER a (famous and fantastic) 55 minute best-of-three between Steamboat and Flair was a strange decision. Those matches being Sting vs Morgan and Luger vs Victory, stranger still. Let's dwell briefly as well on The Road Warriors losing their final NWA/WCW tag title to the Varsity Club with a fast count from Teddy Long - this is going to spell the end of Long the ref and eventually lead to him managing. Muta squashing Casey is also widely credited to exposing the face-painted lad to the mainstream US audience. I digress. Next night at the Ocean Center there are some marquee dark matches - Luger vs Flair, Steamboat vs Rotunda and the Roadies vs Doc & Sully. Next night in Daytona Beach, what's taped for telly is followed again by Luger vs Flair and Dragon vs IRS plus Hawk & Animal vs Spivey & Williams and Hot Stuff & Dog Face again defend the US belts against the Headshrinkers. Other matches in Atlanta which aren't used for air are yet another of Muta vs Casey, Steiner vs Kendall, the Samoans beating The Midnight Express, Sullivan beating Gilbert by DQ and Simmons jobbing to Morgan. Worth mentioning among the stuff that airs is they're starting to feature Nancy Sullivan as "fan of Rick Steiner" and there's the debut of Tonga Kid (a/k/a Tama from The Islanders, who WCW will settle on "Samoan Savage" for a name). No other notes available from month end tapings.

DEPARTURES
No obvious noteworthy ones I spotted.

[air_raid]

MAY 89
Welcome to a month which I don't consider fair to Flair.

THE MAIN EVENTS
1st-5th we've only got part reports in Shreveport, Monroe, Vicksburg MS, Alexandria and Montgomery but given the repeat names and lack of Dragon/Flair it's fair to assume Lex Luger vs Michael Hayes for the US title goes on last. After a big break with the PPV and plenty of TVs, that's definitely our main 21st in Richmond, 25th in Charleston, 26th in Norfolk, 27th in Baltimore and 29th-31st in Milwaukee, Denver and Reno, billed as a "lights out" or "Badstreet" match depending, which both mean no DQ. 28th in Chicago Lex and P.S. are off so Ricky Steamboat vs Butch Reed (losers bracket from Mania IV!) goes on last. That's a big fall for Steamboat, and it won't be the last.
THE CARDS
Three feuds running regularly are Sting vs The Great Muta for the TV title, The Road Warriors vs Samoan Swat Team (to vicious no contests) and Ricky Steamboat vs Butch Reed now Steamer has dropped the ten pounds of gold back to Slick Ric. Week three has - WWF 93 vibes - Scott Steiner vs Mike Rotunda a couple of times before in the mountain states IRS starts losing to ex-partner Steve Williams (see below) and young Scotty fills in for Sting, losing to Muta. The Dynamic Dudes vs Jack Victory & The Raider is the only match to go down on all six reports, Denver and Reno both feature Reed vs Ranger Ross and Dick Murdoch vs Bill Irwin which also happened in Baltimore.
VARIANTS
In ALEXANDRIA Murdoch vs Bob Orton Jr seems to wrap in a Texas Death Match. RICHMOND - A rare night off for the Roadies has Fatu & Samu beat Scotty & Eddie Gilbert, Ross jobs to - look who it is - Terry Funk, plus Ron Simmons vs Steve Casey and Randy Rose vs Joey Maggs. CHARLESTON - Murdoch vs Trent Knight, Simmons vs Steiner and Reed vs Ross. BALTIMORE - Simmons vs Ross. Finally in CHICAGO - Ross beats one Tokyo Bullet (Gallo).

TVs
Sunday 7th in Nashville its WrestleWar - maybe 5200 wouldn't sound that bad a gate but Hogan and Piper will draw 9000 there for Starrcade 96 - imagine that difference between Flair and Steamboat in their prime, having one of the best matches of all time? FUCK, WCW caught fire in 96, didn't it? Either way, ticket sales were NO DOUBT hampered by the WWF running the same building the night before (and drawing 8000) - the WWF splitting the buying audience to hamper the opposition's PPV? SURELY NOT. They threw everything at it too - 11 matches including defences with Rick Rude vs the Warrior and Demolition vs The Twin Towers plus Savage vs The Barber and Jake the Snake vs Million Dollar Man on last, basically everyone but The Hulkster worked that show!! Bastards. Anyway, MASSIVE show featuring Hayes upset The Total Package for the UST, Stinger retain the TV title over The Iron Sheik, Dr Death & Rotunda losing the the Roadies by DQ when the Club attack ref Nikita Koloff (catalyst for them being stripped of the titles and Williams falling out with the rest of them) and of course, Flair win the belt back from the Dragon after which he'll be attacked by The Funker turning him full blown babyface and "injuring him." It wasn't fair. Weirdly, that doesn't close the show as the World and US tag title matches follow. Good job Junkyard Dog no-showed because I can't imagine the awful clash of styles he and Muta would have had - Keiji drops Doug Gilbert instead. Of note on the 9th taping at Center Stage, a 21 year old Eddy Guerrero does a job for Funk. Both 9th and 10th have Scotty Steiner wrestling as part of Hot Stuff International. 22nd, "Brushfork Armory" in Bluefield, West Virginia sounds as Hicksville as one can possibly imagine, Lex regains the UST in a match that airs the week after on The Main Event. Also of note, Reed beats a Keith Hart with a fantastic top rope shoulder block and JR jokingly notes that Keith isn't from Canada. Chortle.

DEPARTURE
After losing to Murdoch in a bullrope match at the PPV, Bob Orton Jr's appearance brawling backstage with Murdoch on 24th TVs leaving partner Butch Reed in the lurch (to air 3rd June), is his last before the company release him. A curiously short run, this is virtually the end for Cowboy Bob as a full time wrestler, he has a tryout in October for the WWF losing the The Million Dollar Man and has a last hurrah in New Zealand, and that's about it. Don't worry about Reed by the way, they've already started filming Teddy Long scouting big Ron, which of course is going to lead to the formation of Doom.

Big one coming up, mind. LOL, WCW.

[gmoney]

Weird to think of Bob Orton Jr having a tryout match. "We need to take a look at you, kid. Looks like you're carrying an injury with that cast."

[air_raid]

10 minutes ago, gmoney said:

Weird to think of Bob Orton Jr having a tryout match.

It is, but they've done it loads over the years despite, you'd think, already knowing what that wrestler had to offer. A late 97 tryout of Paul Roma (!) on a Raw taping comes to mind.

[TheScarlettChad]

Can't wait to get to Flair's departure. 

[gmoney]

20 minutes ago, air_raid said:

It is, but they've done it loads over the years despite, you'd think, already knowing what that wrestler had to offer. A late 97 tryout of Paul Roma (!) on a Raw taping comes to mind.

I suppose, but at least then he hadn't been in the company for a while. Orton was there about 7 months earlier! He probably still had stuff in his locker.

Edited March 5, 2025 by gmoney

[air_raid]

1 hour ago, gmoney said:

I suppose, but at least then he hadn't been in the company for a while. Orton was there about 7 months earlier! He probably still had stuff in his locker.

Unless the usual sources are wrong, about two years passed from his WWF sacking in late 87 to that lone match in 89 in Springfield. But the point stands in terms of knowing what you get.

[gmoney]

19 minutes ago, air_raid said:

Unless the usual sources are wrong, about two years passed from his WWF sacking in late 87 to that lone match in 89 in Springfield. But the point stands in terms of knowing what you get.

No, you're right, I thought it was 88 for some reason. Failing my tryout. 

[Chili]

Orton Jr was having an interesting time in this period because he was meant to be popping up in WWF early 1990 and if you look about you'll see up until around the mid 90's he was still absolutely bang up for doing good matches, but he physically looked a bit older so it probably played against him. Someone I've always thought was perfectly good then actually searched out some of his better work and realised he was very, very good. 

[air_raid]

JUNE 89
Hey yo. Or should I say ding dong? You aren't going to believe who turns up this month, at total opposite ends of their respective careers. Conversely, WCW can barely believe how many people don't turn up at the Silverdome. No Flair on the road this month? That's definitely not fair.

THE MAIN EVENTS
A swing through California has Lex Luger vs Michael Hayes again for the UST 1st in Oakland while the first of three in a row of Ricky Steamboat vs The Great Muta goes on last ; 2nd/3rd in Stockton and Fresno that one is underneath Dok losing to Steve Williams on last. 8th-10th we continue Luger vs Hayes rematches in Corpus Christi, Albuquerque and Saginaw, we're back to "Badstreet Matches" 11th at the Pontiac Silverdome and 12th in Chicago. 16th in Cleveland (1500) and 18th in St Louis (<2500) at least, we've got Luger vs Steamboat for the title - we're riding that one hard when we kick off The Great American Bash tour, 22nd-29th in Landover (4200), New Haven, Philly (4100), Pittsburgh (3500), Raleigh, Greenville and Salisbury. As you'll read below, if low gates wasn't WCW enough, they'll piss of those that turn up, so they probably will think twice about buying tickets again. 24th, I'm reluctant to call this a B show, there's a matinee with our old friends at Jaffa Mosque in Altoona before they head over to Philly - it's Steve Williams & The Midnight Express vs Terry Gordy, Hayes & Jimmy Garvin!
Real B shows - 16th/17th in Johnstown and Harrisonburg Rick Steiner vs Kevin Sullivan in a taped fist match tops short, crap cards.

THE CARDS
Nice consistency in Cali - The Road Warriors vs The Samoan Swat Team goes to a non-finish (repeats everywhere all month) and - here we go! - The Steiner Brothers vs Kevin Sullivan & Mike Rotunda repeats. There's also The Dynamic Dudes vs Jack Victory & The Raider, Butch Reed vs Ranger Ross and Dick Murdoch vs Bill Irwin - both those repeat in Chicago. In Pontiac and Chicago both, Scotty and Rotunda swap a pair of wins. The big cards mid-month have Sting vs Terry Funk second to last in Cleveland and last in St Louis, a new tag team title match in Michael Hayes & Jimmy Garvin vs Randy Rose & Scott Hall (not yet The Diamond Studd), Steve Williams drops Bill, MVC partner Terry Gordy beats Scotty, plus Brian Pillman beats Raider and the Dudes beat Victory & Rip Morgan (which both started in Saginaw). Meanwhile on the B shows, Norman The Lunatic (Bastion Booger) goes over Steve Casey in openers, presumably to make him look a threat to Eddie Gilbert second to last (DQ finish), there's The Midnight Express vs Doom, Murdoch beating Rotunda and Dan Spivey vs Ricky Santana.

What do they run on The Great American Bash tour? Apart from more of Hawk & Animal vs Samu & Fatu to various non-finishes, obviously? Well, there are 2-ring battle royals where the finish is usually (but not always) either Sting winning by ousting one Steiner or the other, co-winning when they go over together, or deciding to split the purse after each winning their ring. After the match, Funk attacks Sting and he does a stretcher job meaning Funk "wins by forfeit" instead of giving the paying fans the match advertised... LOLWCW. Gilbert vs The Great Muta is a "Dragon Chi match" which involves a kendo stick dangling above the ring ; but the finish is Muta by count-out when Gary Hart interferes. There's most commonly an incredible sounding Steiners/Freebirds/MVC Secret Wars battle of Doc/Scott/Rick vs Gordy/Hayes/Garvin and the Midnights vs Simmons & Al Greene which usually lasts only about a minute ; Greene being the relative nobody that will be Blade, the other "Master Blaster" along with Steel (Kevin Nash), and toward the end of WCW, The Dog. Early tour cards also include Rotunda & Spivey vs Hall & Pillman (what a duo!), Norman vs Casey, Irwin vs Joey Maggs and more of the Dudes vs the New Zealand Militia. It's split into singles of Rotunda vs Pillman in Raleigh and Greenville, and Spivey vs Hall in Greenville and Greensboro. Doc actually tags with the Midnights to turn back the three Freebirds by DQ in Greenville as well as that Mosque main event. There's a further juggle in Greensboro & Salisbury where Doc teams with the Roadies to go double count-out with Gordy and the Headshrinkers (OUCH) and the Steiners beat Simmons & Greene (which also happens in Greenville).

Let's talk about the that show at the Silverdome. Usual sites estimate the attendance around 900. No, I'm not missing a zero. Yes, THAT Silverdome, Mania 3 Silverdome. Meltzer had it as 878 in that weeks Observer. It gets worse - this is one of several "Fan Appreciation Days" they ran around the time and the tickets were only $5. Scott Keith summed it up best, writing in 2022 - "Who the hell thought that running the Pontiac Silverdome for a gate of $5000 was a good idea? That doesn’t even cover the cost of gas to drive everything out there!" Eddie Gilbert was seen joking with fans "Is this how it felt at WrestleMania?" I fucking bet the office weren't laughing.

VARIANTS
In Oakland Dr Death beats "Tony Garcia" who's actually Tony Garea! Having worked all of three matches in 1988 and last wrestling in January for the WWF (losing to a Conquistador) Tony is reaching the end of his gradual winding down, this is actually his penultimate match anywhere, ever. Albuquerque get old school Texas battle Murdoch vs Funk (Murdoch by DQ) going on last over the UST, it's Headshrinkers over Ace & Douglas, Rick Steiner over Casey, Irwin (Bill, not Rotunda) jobs for Pillman and Victory loses to Santana. Saginaw - Scotty beats Muta by DQ, the Dog-Faced Gremlin goes over Rotunda yet again, Reed pins Casey. At the Silverdome the thoroughly amused Eddie drops Sullivan in a taped fist match and The Dragon is back with Muta. Next night in Chicago Muta's back with The Stinger, Steamboat back with The Natural and Ross beats a Tokyo Bullet though I don't know which. In Altoona Pillman beats Santana and.. what a pair of tryouts we have here here making up the numbers. On top of repeats of Norman vs Casey, Gilbert vs Muta and the Sting/Funk match ACTUALLY HAPPENING, the Steiners fight Spivey and - FUCK YEAH, Sid Vicious, and the Dudes work The Ebony Experience, who you'll know better as Harlem Heat. In Pittsburgh Irwin beats Kurt Kauffman. Raleigh has Bobby Fulton get a cheque losing to Spivey and Norman beating Hall (how bizarre). Greensboro, Pillman beats Fulton and Lane & Eaton beat the tag champs by DQ. Finally in Salisbury, Pillman beats Victory, Hall pins Morgan and the Freebirds retain over Douglas & Ace. In fairness, they've been in form, so I'm not surprised they managed to "late 360 shove it to kickflip nosebone" their way to a title shot. If my Tony Hawk has come back to me correctly.

TVs
7th at Center Stage among the TV matches we have Ray Lloyd (Glacier) doing a job for Muta. 14th it's Clash VII and as well as Garvin returning to win the tag belts with Dok and The Total Package turning heel on Steamboat, we have Doug Gilbert jobbing to Ross as The Terrorist (really) and the debut of the truly woeful Ding Dongs gimmick. 15th tapings in Augusta feature the Samoans beating Rock Hard Rick (Mark Von Erich, no relation) and Mike Awesome - yes, that Mike Awesome as well as Ross beating Lee Scott, best remembered as Sid's victim in the best squash of all time. 21st back at Center Stage, Hard & Awesome lose to the Steiners. Buggered if I can find any dark matches.
NON TITLE WHINING
Tenuous but... Hayes & Garvin are the tag champs, but Garvin & Gordy lose by pin to the Midnights. Boo.

DEPARTURES
Just wait until next month. FUCK.

 

Edited March 13, 2025 by air_raid
Ready or not, here I come, you can't hide

[air_raid]

JULY 1989
They grind the boys so hard this month, I'm surprised they even got any TVs in the can. In personnel news, WCW pull a blunder this month so massive, I'm not sure why we don't talk about it more. Another month without the Worlds champion on the road. That's not fair to Flair.

THE MAIN EVENTS
The Great American Bash tour continues, and it's remarkable to me what a short-sighted attempted cash grab in Titan strongholds some of these shows were. It's still Lex Luger vs Ricky Steamboat for the US title 1st in Charlotte, 5th in Charleston, 8th at the Boston Garden (just 4800) - 9th in Providence is cancelled due to poor sales - 10th in Springfield (1000), 11th in Chicago (3000), 12th in Carbondale (1000), 14th in Memphis, 15th in Richmond, 20th-22nd in Lexington, Dayton and Philadelphia (3000), and post-PPV, 28th in Orlando. 2nd in Atlanta (6800 at the Omni will have disappointed), 13th in Jackson TN (1000) Lex and The Dragon get a break, The Road Warriors vs The Samoan Swat Team goes on last (1-1 on those nights), 16th-17th in World Class territory (Fort Worth and Lubbock) and 24th at Jaffa Mosque Sting vs Terry Funk probably shares top billing with Steve Williams & The Midnight Express vs Terry Gordy, Michael Hayes & Jimmy Garvin which goes on last, Stinger and Funker go on last 27th in Tallahassee atop Luger vs Tommy Rich, there's no confirmed main event Saturday 29th where they seem to have ran a St Petersburg and Tampa double shot but 30th in Miami (2800) Luger vs Rick Steiner goes on last.

THE CARDS
Sting vs Terry Funk actually happens this month, a clean finish does not. The Road Warriors vs The Samoan Swat Team is near every night with varying finishes. It's almost 50/50 Michael Hayes & Jimmy Garvin vs The Midnight Express for the tag title plus Terry Gordy vs Dick Murdoch, or Steve Williams/Lane/Eaton vs Gordy/Hayes/Garvin - Lane misses Orlando and Tampa so the aforementioned Tommy Rich tags with Doc and Eaton to beat The Freebirds. Eddie Gilbert vs The Great Muta in the Dragon Chi match continues with count-out finishes except in Philly we move to a Coal Miners Glove match where Muta pins Hot Stuff. The Steiner Brothers vs Kevin Sullivan & Mike Rotundo is common (sometimes elimination, sometimes Texas Tornado rules) and there's more of Norman The Lunatic vs Steve Casey and several repeats of Scott Hall vs Bill Irwin or Brian Pillman vs Irwin, and The Skyscrapers vs Johnny & Davey Rich (wrestling relatives to Tommy? Poundland Harts, aren't we) or beating Ranger Ross & Randy Rose. Rick does a few jobs for Muta or beats him by DQ where Eddie isn't around but is a winner against Sullivan (sometimes a streetfight) ; on those nights IRS beats Murdoch. Later in the month Rotundo is back with Scotty a few times too, and Big Poppa Pump also has to lose to Sully a few times. Bet he loved that, even then. The Dynamic Dudes vs Jack Victory & Rip Morgan continues, but it's not all bad news for the New Zealand Militia ; they're permitted a few wins over The Ding Dongs. Bet those were seven star classics. Hilariously in Lubbock, the Dongs are introduced instead as The Bell Brothers.

Winners of the nightly battle royal include Sting, Rick, Scott, Doc, Sid, Eddie, Sullivan, Rotundo (!) and unique to Dayton, Sid and Spivey split the purse. Oh... Ranger Ross wins it in Miami. WTF.

VARIANTS
In Atlanta there's DJ Peterson vs Trent Knight and two matches later the Scrapers drop Knight and George South. Transport issues in Chicago caused by bad weather robs the crowd of not just Gilbert and Scotty (hence Muta vs Rick) but the Midnights, so the Freebirds retain against Ross & Rose... fuck, surely Douglas & Ace were the better option there?? Samu misses a couple of dates - in Carbondale Hawk & Animal beat Fatu & Norman.. half a team from Survivors 93, right there! Unique to Memphis, Funk vs Gilbert actually goes on last, Stinger has a night off and Muta pins Rose. In Richmond, Funk drops a DQ to the Gremlin, Animal beats Rikishi in singles and Dean Douglas beats Victory. In Lubbock Shane does a job for Norman, the Roadies get a rest so Fatu & Samu beat Hall & Casey. The tag champs are off in Dayton so the Midnights beat the Militia and the Dudes are also off. In Philly Ron Simmons & Al Greene drop Hall & Joey Maggs and Norman pins Ross, plus atop Luger vs Steamboat the last match is a Badstreet Match 10-man where Doc, the Roadies & the Midnights beat the Freebirds and the Headshrinkers. Jaffa Mosque has some one offs again - Pillman pins Ricky Santana, there's Steiners vs Skyscrapers and Dudes vs The Ebony Experience. Finally in Miami, the Roadies are off again and a shuffle has the champs beat the Dudes, Gordy/Fatu/Samu beat Doc/Eaton/Rich and as well as winning the battle royal, Ross tags with Pillman to beat Morgan & Victory. What a night for the Ranger!

TVs
6th in Marietta I have to mention because I misread "Cobb County Convention Center" for "Correction Center" - blame the Big Boss Man. 18th tapings in Amarillo sell out, but that's because you only get 4000 inside the Civic Center. 1996 WWF jobber Alex Porteau does jobs for Norman and the Midnights, hometown hero Funk pins The Bad Guy and a dark main has Doc/Lane/Eaton beat Gordy/Hayes/Garvin - in Texas? Heaven forbid. 23rd is the Great American Bash PPV in Baltimore which mercifully sells out (12,500) which features many of the same matches from the road, Sting and Muta wrestling an inconclusive finish which will lead to the TV title being held up, Doc/Midnights/Roadies beating Freebirds/SST in War Games, and Ric Flair retaining the World title over Funk after which bedlam ensues featuring Muta and The Stinger.

DEPARTURE
It's widely circulated online that the PPV is the last match in this run for Ricky Steamboat, but it's a myth ; he works Lex in Orlando on 28th, and as far as I can tell, that's his real last match for WCW until the 90s. They cover for it on TV saying he's injured ; it's part truth, he needs foot surgery but not why he's gone. The Dragon has maintained his dignity over the years and said very little, except that he got into contract negotiations with Jim Herd, and they didn't go well. So, Jim Herd that just breathed life into The Ding Dongs, allows Ricky Steamboat to just walk away, after he's just wrestled three of the best matches in the history of wrestling on PPV. Jim Ross has recently summed it up nicely ;
"They didn’t want to pay him what he believed he was worth. And I believe that situation could have been rectified by communicating. God almighty, just communicate with these talents! It’s always us against them, and ‘Oh boy, we’ve got the budget.’ Bullshit. So somebody didn’t want Steamboat to be around, because he understood the business and he’s always gonna get over because he’s so damned good at what he does. So I thought that was a big mistake, I thought that was not a smart move on our behalf. Because any time you can get a Ricky Steamboat in your locker room and on your team, you do it."

 

[air_raid]

AUGUST 89
The World Heavyweight Champion is given the book this month! That's finally fair to Flair. Start your stopwatches now for how long before he turns himself heel. Spoilers ; it's not going to be as quick as you might expect, but nor is it particularly long.

THE MAIN EVENTS
3rd/4th in Little Rock and Kansas City after TVs Michael Hayes & Jimmy Garvin vs The Midnight Express for the tag titles goes on last, then finally its Ric Flair vs Terry Funk for all the marbles next night it St Louis and 6th at the Omni for the final stop of the The Great American Bash tour (7500 is an improvement), then again 11th in Pittsburgh, 12th at the Norfolk Scope (5000), 15th in Cleveland after TVs (3500), 18th in Greensboro (8500), 19th in Charlotte (6000), 20th in Chicago (3600), and 22nd-27th in Greenville (5000 sellout), at the Bluefield (WV) Rec Center, Raleigh (5000), Baltimore (4000), Philly (4500) and New Haven (3000).

THE CARDS
Lex Luger vs Rick Steiner is a new UST run and as above its Michael Hayes & Jimmy Garvin vs The Midnight Express for the tag titles plus battle royals with various winners. Early month cards also have The Skyscrapers vs Davey & Johnny Rich, Tommy Rich vs Bill Irwin, The Dynamic Dudes vs Ron Simmons & Al Greene, Norman The Lunatic vs Steve Casey and Jack Victory & Rip Morgan vs The Ding Dongs. Week 2, Luger's with Tommy Rich, we have Sting vs The Great Muta going to time limit draws, back to The Road Warriors vs The Samoan Swat Team (a cage match in Pittsburgh), Rick and Scott Steiner beating the New Zealand Militia, Brian Pillman beating Norman, Simmons dropping Curtis Thompson and the Ding Dongs beating (!) Greene & Lee Scott. Week 3 as well as repeats of Freebirds vs Midnights, Luger/Rich, Muta/Sting, Roadies/SST (cage match in Chicago), Steiners/Militia and Pillman/Norman, we add Steve Williams vs Mike Rotunda, Ding Dongs lose to Irwin & Greene and Simmons pins Brad Anderson. Freebirds vs Midnights is also the only confirmed match that happened 17th in Florence and 21st in Indianapolis, thereafter much of it's the same, Roadies vs Headshrinkers is in a cage more often than not. In Baltimore, Philly and New Haven we pivot to the Freebirds weaselling out against the Steiners, the Midnights are now losing to Sid & Spivey (our only confirmed match from 31st in Shreveport) and Green twice loses to Ranger Ross.

For brevity I'm going to start skipping "repeats in" because I don't think it's that important that you know EVERY date/town a match happened, just that it happened regularly, if that makes sense. I think we reached this point in about 1990 when I was doing the WWF when the B/C rosters were constantly overlapping with matches rather than whole crews getting their road schedules. Here it's just chopping and changing, usually by necessity. If Flair booked this month's house shows, he ran a tight ship.

VARIANTS
Kansas City sees Pillman vs Irwin, the Gremlin vs Kevin Sullivan in a taped fist match, Scotty vs Rotundo in a "suplex match" and - this is weird - after the Dudes beat Simmons and Greene and the Militia beat the Ding Dongs early in the card, Ace & Douglas beat Morgan & Victory in, seemingly, a "final" second to last to the tag title match. Shittest tournament ever? St Louis, Shane's missing so Johnny & Pillman beat Ron & Al, plus Williams/Hawk/Animal beat Samu/Datu/Terry Gordy. Unique to Atlanta on the final night of the tour - Norman beats Lee, the Militia beat Ross & Casey, Eddie Gilbert & Rick win a decisive Dragon Chi match over Sullivan & Muta and on last - WAR GAMES! Doc, the Midnights and LOD beat the Freebirds and the SST. In Pittsburgh Sid beats the Ranger then in Norfolk Vicious pins - HEY YO - Scott Hall. In Chicago the Ding Dongs beat Greene & Trent Knight, in Bluefield Luger isn't asked to work it so Rich pins Simmons and the Ding Dongs go over Greene and Irwin in separate singles matches. Raleigh Sting misses so Dr Death beats Muta by DQ. Baltimore see Eaton vs Spivey go to a double count-out in singles, in Philly Luger beats Doc which is supposed to be the start of a new run but Steve sustains a rib injury, Rich beats Phil Apollo and Irwin tags with Randy Rose to beat the Ding Dongs. Finally New Haven, Randy pins Greene in singles, Ross loses to Irwin and Norman pulls double duty, beating Apollo early before losing to Pillman as scheduled later.

TVs
1st in Baton Rouge we simply have to make reference to a chaotic Gilbert vs Muta no-DQ match for a variety of reasons - early in the match Muta sprays Missy Hyatt in the face with green mist (make your own joke), then for reasons only know to WCW Gilbert is allowed to pin the interfering Gary Hart to win the match, after which a disgruntled (understandably) Muta spits red mist at fellow interference runner Rich and green mist at Gilbert. Zero heat lost even after a match someone else had to lose for him! Bonus dark main here - Doc/Midnights go over Gordy/Hayes/Garvin. Nothing notable next night at Center Stage. 15th in Cleveland they get both Flair vs Funk and Luger vs Rich after tapings - by this point the Steiners are being accompanied by both Robin Greene (Woman) and Missy - bet "Freakzilla" loved that. Greenville on 22nd goes down as a TV taping because some squashes were filmed but it's still mostly a big card - Doc vs IRS, Freebirds vs Midnights for the belts, Roadies vs Samoans in a cage, Sting vs Muta and Flair vs Funk are all "dark matches."

DEPARTURES
August 26th in Philly is the last use of the abysmal Ding Dongs gimmick. Happy birthday to me, that one.

AND.... we're finally here!! It's the month the greatest squash match of all time aired.

 

[davertfnewman]

Had missed this thread - admittedly, I'd checked out of the WWF version after the era I'm interested in had passed. Will be fun to check this out pretty much to the end of the company.

Even though it's a month old, I find it an interesting story with Bob Orton, who muscled up substantially for a feud with former partner Muraco, who also trimmed some of the fat and had the veins like shoelaces to be "The Rock". Seemingly gets fired after an incident at an airport (confirmed?) and turns back up in the AWA doing the bodyguard/tag partner role with Adrian Adonis, which gives us those old hands against Shawn and Marty, then slims down into weathered veteran Bob for his WCW run and smaller companies. He pretty much looks the same (old) in 1989 against Murdoch as he does at the Night of Legends with Slater against Garvin and the Stomper.