FEBRUARY 9
1990
WCW Power Hour saw the announcement that Funk’s Grill would move to World Wide Wrestling and Jim Cornette’s Louisville Slugger interview segment would replace it. Cornette and Funk played nice to each other’s faces and threw insults when the other one was not around in a funny segment. Also on the show, to cover for Sting’s injury, Jim Ross announced that Sting had been attacked in a parking lot by the Four Horsemen, but that details were sketchy and they would have an update the next night on TBS. The show did a 2.4 rating.
1991
Jamie Dundee continued the build to his first heel turn on USWA television. He was the referee for a televised match where he was so incompetent that Eddie Marlin interrupted the match and was prepared to fire him. Jamie responded that Marlin could not fire him since he was hired by Max Andrews, which brought out the elder Dundee (Bill) to tell his son to just quit and go work at McDonald’s or something. Jamie responded that he lived in his own house and paid his own bills, and added that this was why his mother left Bill. Bill responded by whipping his son with a belt on television to the delight of the studio crowd in quite the surreal segment.
WWF Superstars aired an episode taped on January 7 in Huntsville, AL. The WWF continued moving away from exploitation of the Gulf War, as Sgt. Slaughter was a guest on the Brother Love Show and delivered a tremendous heel promo directed at Hulk Hogan. Also on the show, Gene Okerlund announced that the Randy Savage vs Ultimate Warrior match at WrestleMania VII would be career versus career.
World Championship Wrestling aired a show taped on January 21 from Atlanta’s Center Stage Theatre. Dusty Rhodes revealed in an interview conducted at The Omni with Gordon Solie that he was retiring from in-ring competition to make a full transition to commentary. They claimed during the interview that Dusty would have an official retirement tour over the summer during the Great American Bash tour, but that never came to pass. The show did a 2.5 rating.
1998
WCW Monday Nitro aired live in front of a sellout crowd in El Paso, TX. Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage had their first match against each other in nearly two years, as further dissension was teased among the NWO members. Goldberg also faced Steven Regal in one of his most memorable matches, as the two appeared to be on completely different pages and the prevailing thought at the time was that Regal was out to make Goldberg look bad; however, according to Regal, Goldberg apologized to him after the match for it not coming off well. In the main event. The Steiner Brothers defeated Scott Hall and Kevin Nash to win the WCW World Tag Team Titles. The show drew a 4.6 rating.
WWF Monday Night RAW aired a show taped on February 3 from Evansville, IN. The build to WrestleMania XIV continued, as Steve Austin hijacked the WWF World Title belt from Shawn Michaels’ bag and replaced it a foam belt, much to DX’s chagrin. We also saw highlights of a press conference at All Star Cafe in New York involving Steve Austin, Mike Tyson and DX, which was outstanding for building WrestleMania. The show drew a 3.2 rating, meaning it was trounced by Nitro on this night, but they were laying the groundwork for a successful future all the same.
