1.Steiners vs Rose, Fargo NR
2.Midnight Express vs Brady, Drake ES
3.Norman vs Cook ES
4.Pillman,Z-Man vs State Patrol **3/4
5.The Royal Family vs Santo, Regal ES
6.Skyscrapers vs Steele, Harris NR
7.Dynamic Dudes vs Cactus Jack, Scott ES
8.Dr. Death vs Higgins ES
9.Cactus Jack vs Rich **1/2
10.Samoan SWAT Team vs Italian Stallion, Chase NR
11.Four Horsemen vs Galaxians ES
Thoughts:
I've been putting together a playlist of 1990 WCW content on YouTube that can be found here. It's a work in progress. I will be watching and reviewing not just content from it, but also will be including reviews for matches/shows that I want to experience but aren't on YouTube.
Let's start with the first episode of NWA World Championship Wrestling Television of 1990.
Note that this episode has made me create a change to my rating system. NR will continue to represent anything that is less that 3-minutes. Normally, I'd give no more than two stars to extended squashes which, while longer than 180 seconds are still inherently squashes and thus not something that I feel deserve stars at all moving forward. So, if you see, "ES" next to a match listed, it represents "Extended Squash". It's just a fancy NR. Now, let's move forward...
The episode began with Teddy Long announcing that the Skyscrappers were moving on from Sid Vicious and adding a new member to replace him before leading into the first squash of the night, which saw the Steiners take out Rose and Fargo with ease.
Up next, the Midnight Express took down Brady and Drake and then Norman sat on Cook in extended squashes.
We also got a cool segment with Scott Steiner, Flair, and Gordon receiving their 1989 PWI Awards. Throughout the episode they spoke a few times to promote the first ppv of the year which features a six-man cagematch main event. I have about a month's worth of content to see before that gig.
My favorite part of the first half of the episode saw the team of Flyin Brian and Z-Man against the State Patrol. While borderline ES, it was still a solid encounter between the two teams and the winning side certainly looked like true stars. I am excited to see more of this duo as my 1990 viewing continues, for sure.
Next, a quick and an extended squash. The first introduced the Undertaker, as Mean Mark Callous, as the new Skyscraper alongside Spivey as the duo dominated. The second saw Shane Douglas and Johnny Ace take out Lee Scott and then Cactus Jack beat up his failure of a partner after the match. Entertaining to see so many stars in throwaway matches if nothing else.
The Rock 'n' Roll Express joined for a studio segment with JR to follow that up, putting themselves over to a strong crowd response and then a spirited challenge to Cactus from a kid asking to die came next.
Speaking of death, Hacksaw Higgins and Steve Williams worked a decent big man contest where Higgins got a tiny bit in before being splatted like a bug.
Luger joined JR for a chat. He put himself over while letting the fans know it was just a matter of time before he held the big gold belt!
Cactus Jack interjected himself into the preceding bout, but Tommy Rich pinned the young Foley after he had controlled most of the match. Alas, his rabid style simply wasn't enough to take down the bleach blonde talent. Flash pins are a pain in the ass, aren't they...
Hayes spoke with JR to put over the Freebirds. Pillman and Z-man as well as the RnR Express are targeted.
Brodie Chase and the Italian Stallion began at around the 73-minute mark and fell to The Headshrinkers around 90 seconds later. Rikishi looked so different here...
A Woman package sold her persona as well as her desire to "get" Flair. She'll need to make sure she takes a shot of penicillin.
Sting and Anderson, as the Four Horsemen, main evented against the Galaxians. Like most of the show, it was an ES. All 4 joined JR for a surprisingly good studio promo to promote the cagematch that was set for the following month.
While the show clearly focuses heavily on putting talent over by having them quickly beat enhancement talent, which I usually hate, for some reason I still had a fun time watching. Maybe it's the novelty of it. Maybe it's just a desire to see something "new" yet old, alongside the curiosity of watching pre-Nitro WCW. Either way, I'm going to keep rolling through the episodes for a while and I'd actually say this was a solid watch overall for what it was.
Overall Rating: 60/100%