This Week in 90’s Wrestling: January 4th – 10th

JANUARY 6

1990
In a show that was never televised, New Japan ran Korakuen Hall. A fan in the stands recorded the action and the highlight of the card was an excellent ***3/4 tag match where Jushin Liger teamed with Masa Chono to take on Naoki Sano and Shinya Hashimoto in the traditional junior and heavyweight pairing versus another junior and heavyweight pairing.

On World Wide Wrestling, The Four Horsemen announced that Sting had joined the group in what we could only assume would be a harmonious and long-term union. Ric Flair faced Eddie Gilbert in a *** match at the end of the show, and Woman showed interest in Flair for the first time at ringside. Also, Norman the Lunatic presented Woman with a horrible painting of her, and she responded by slapping him. Norman took out his anger on her bodyguard Nitron until Kevin Sullivan hit the ring and broke the painting over Norman’s head. The most pathetic part of this angle was that Sullivan smeared red paint on Norman’s forehead in an attempt to give the same visual illusion that he was really bleeding.

The USWA began hyping a feud between Gary Young and Dustin Rhodes in the Memphis market, with each guy cutting a promo on the other. Aside from Dustin still employing his father’s “Duth-tay” voice at this stage of his career, his promo was not particularly noteworthy. However, Young responded by calling Dustin “an abortion that somehow survived”. Also on the show, Jerry Lawler, at the time a heel in Memphis, told the studio audience a story about the origins of King Cobra which managed to not only be racist, but provide equal opportunity racism to both African Americans and Hispanics. Lawler was an outstanding heel in 1989-1990 USWA; however, there was no babyface at his level that could go word for word and move for move with him, so the end result was a laundry list of limited workers whose flaws were even more spotlighted as the result of Lawler’s always sharp insults. Even then, Memphis fans felt a sense of loyalty to Lawler, and it was rare that he received heat that commensurated with his performance because of his history in the city. Thankfully, Lawler was turned babyface again five months later.

When Brutus Beefcake cut the hair of a defenseless jobber after defeating him with the sleeperhold on WWF Superstars, “The Model” Rick Martel showed up to make fun of Beefcake’s fashion sense. Beefcake, a bonafide psychopath, responded by chasing Martel away and cutting his beautiful rainwear to shreds. Only in the WWF could a guy who cuts the hair of others without provocation and then destroys the property of anyone who speaks out against him be a babyface.

1996
PG-13 won the USWA Tag Team Championship from Tommy Rich & Doug Gilbert in a short, but fun television studio match.

1997
The NWO attacked The Giant to close out WCW Monday Nitro, which aired live from Monroe, LA. Giant was ousted from the NWO the previous week when he insisted on a World Title shot against Hulk Hogan. While NWO members cracked jokes at the announce booth, Sting appeared and left a baseball bat in the ring for The Giant. Vincent came to the ring to get in a parting shot on a seemingly unconscious Giant, who revived and made his own save, clearing the ring of all the NWO-ites with the baseball bat. The show drew a 3.0 rating.

Monday Night RAW continued building to the upcoming Royal Rumble match between Shawn Michaels and Psycho Sid, where Michaels would aim to regain the WWF World Heavyweight Championship in his hometown of San Antonio, TX. Sid dropped a few gems in his promo, with my personal favorite being “You have to kick or be kickened.” Shawn Michaels, at the height of his obnoxious babyface behavior, responded by taking off a trench coat to reveal that he was shirtless. The show was headlined by a Bret Hart vs Vader main event with Michaels on color commentary. In lieu of building his match with Sid, Shawn decided to use his mic time to shoot on Bret not being as angelic as he presented himself to be on television without saying anything specific. He would save that for a later time. Meanwhile, Sid powerbombed Pete Lothario, the son of Shawn’s mentor Jose Lothario, through a table in the locker room in a flat angle. The show drew a 2.1 rating.

1998
FMW ran a Korakuen Hall show headlined by Mr. Gannosuke winning the Brass Knux title from Masato Tanaka in a ***1/4 “Double Tables” match.

In The “To Watch” Queue:
Genichiro Tenryu & Ashura Hara vs Takashi Ishikawa & Ricky Fuyuki (SWS 01/06/92)
Atsushi Onita vs Mr. Pogo (FMW 01/06/94)
Atsushi Onita, Tarzan Goto, Katsutoshi Niiyama, Mr. Gannosuke, Masato Tanaka & Gosaku Goshogawara vs Mr. Pogo, Hisakatsu Oya, The Gladiator, Hido, Mitsuhiro Matsunaga & Hideki Hosaka (FMW 01/06/95)
El Satanico vs Hector Garza (CMLL 01/06/95)
Bret Hart & Undertaker vs Owen Hart & Yokozuna (WWF House Show – New Haven, CT – 01/06/96)